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Sean's POV

The Citadel

"I really HATE these elevators." I remarked as we accelerated up the Presidium Tower. Outside, there was debris flying around everywhere, and the Wards were dotted with pinpoints of light, which I'm guessing were explosions from the battles raging all over the Citadel.

"I think we all agree." Tali chimed in, agreeing with me.

"Isn't there some way to make this thing go-"

Then the elevator suddenly stopped, stopping me from talking and knocking me into Wrex, who just stared at me.

"Sorry, Wrex." I apologized, patting his shoulder. He just nodded in response.

"Saren's disabled the elevators." Shepard proclaimed, putting on her helmet. "Everyone put your helmets on, we're going outside."

After everyone had secured their helmets, Shepard stood back and shot straight through the glass. The air was immediately sucked out of the elevator as the glass blew out and hung in space, suspended. We all floated to the surface of the tower, our magnetic boots securing us firmly there.

For the next few minutes, we fought through waves of Geth as we made our way up the tower. More elevators came up the other shafts and dispensed more Geth as we went, but we carved our way through them.

We worked our way to the section where we have to use the turrets against the Geth dropship.

"Geth dropship!" Tali yelled in the comm. "We can use those turrets to take-"

I took out my BFG and fired an overcharged BFG round at it while she was talking, turning it into a flaming wreck.

"-it out." Tali finished, slowly turning to look at me. I gave her a thumbs up.

"Like a boss." I remarked, watching the green cloud where the dropship once was dissipate and fade away.

After destroying the dropship, we fought up the tower farther, decimating any Geth in our way. Eventually, we reached another shaft, but instead of Geth there was a Krogan Battlemaster waiting for us.

Since there was so much adrenaline flowing through me beforehand, and I had been itching to use the knife since I took it off that last Battlemaster, I decided to do something really stupid.

"He's miiiiine!" I yelled, leaping forward with my knife in hand. The Krogan, who must not have expected someone to come at him with a knife, was completely unprepared for me when I collided with him, knocking him off the ground.

We both hung in the air as we tried to get a hold of something. I did first, using my feet to push myself at him. I connected, stabbing him in the abdomen with my knife. Even with the jet of air coming from the puncture, I couldn't tell if the Krogan was in pain. I could tell he was pissed, though. He grabbed me by the back of the helmet, slamming me headfirst into a wall a few times. I managed to escape his grip, which amazed even me since I was as dizzy as a motherfucker, and attempted to stab him again.

He caught me and managed to land several PAINFUL punches to my chest, knocking the air out of me and the knife out of my hand. I evaded him for a few seconds, then I then did something I had never done before, doing a back flip in zero gravity and landing behind the Krogan. I seized one of the air tubes connected to his helmet, pulling on it with all my might.

The jet of air coming from the tube was enough to tell me that the battle was over as he grabbed at his throat, unable to breath. Shortly later, blood could be seen coming from the end connected to his helmet as his body went limp and floated away.

"Sean! What the hell were you thinking?" Shepard yelled, running down the hall where I had fought the Battlemaster . "You could have been killed!"

"Sorry." I replied causally, retrieving my knife which miraculously hadn't flown into deep space. "It was the heat of the moment."

"Nevermind." Shepard gruffly replied. "We need to get going."

"Yes ma'am." I responded, slapping the knife back in its sheath with a silent clack.

We entered the emergency exit, squeezing inside and pressurizing the chamber. The door revealed a small maintenance hallway, with a smooth, shiny plate on the other side. Wrex busted it open, revealing we were in the Council chambers, next to the elevator.

We went past the broken fountain and the burning trees, going up the stairs to find a few more Geth waiting for us. We easily dispatched them and ran up the second set of stairs just to see Saren jump off the platform. Shepard stood there for a second, pistol raised, until Saren reemerged on his floating platform, tossing a grenade directly at us.

We all dived out of the way before it went off, landing behind cover.

"I was afraid you wouldn't make it in time, Shepard." Saren said casually from his platform, holstering his pistol.

"In time for what?" Shepard replied, chancing a look from behind her cover.

"The final confrontation. I think we both expected it would end like this." Saren answered, folding his arms. "You've lost. You know that, don't you? In a few minutes, Sovereign will have full control of all the Citadel's systems. The relay will open. The Reapers will return."

"I've still got a few tricks up my sleeve." Shepard replied confidently.

"You survived our encounter on Virmire, but I've changed since then. Improved. Sovereign has...upgraded me." Saren said, pointing at Shepard.

"You let Sovereign implant you? Are you insane?" Shepard questioned, looking out of cover again.

"I guess I should thank you, Shepard. After Virmire, I couldn't stop thinking about what you said, about Sovereign manipulating me. About indoctrination." Saren explained, ignoring what Shepard had said. "The doubts began to eat away at me. Sovereign sensed my hesitation. I was implanted to strengthen my resolve."

"Now my doubts are gone, I believe in Sovereign completely. I understand that the Reapers need organics. Join us and Sovereign will find a place for you, too." Saren offered with cool resolve.

"Sovereign's controlling you through your implants! Don't you see that?" Shepard asked, trying to get Saren to see reason.

"The relationship is symbiotic. Organic and machine intertwined, a union of flesh and steel. The strengths of both, the weaknesses of neither." Saren continued, still ignoring Shepard's reasoning. "I am a vision of the future, Shepard. The evolution of all organic life. This is our destiny. Join Sovereign and experience a true rebirth!"

"Sovereign hasn't won yet. I can stop it from taking control of the station! Step aside and the invasion will never happen!" Shepard tried explaining.

"We can't stop it! Not forever. You saw the visions. You saw what happened to the Protheans. The Reapers are too powerful." Saren said, sounding slightly more agitated.

"Some part of you must still realize this is wrong. You can fight this!" Shepard reasoned.

"Maybe you're right. Maybe there is still a chance for..." Saren finally said, when he started trembling and groaning in pain.

"The implants...Sovereign is too strong. I'm sorry. It's too late for me." Saren said weakly, still shaking.

"It's not over yet! You can still redeem yourself!" Shepard said, standing up from her cover.

"Goodbye Shepard. Thank you." Saren thanked, putting his pistol to his head and pulling the trigger. His brains flew out of his skull as he fell off his platform, plummeting through the glass and landing in the garden below with a sickening thud.

"Damn." I commented, walking over to the edge to look at Saren's remains. "That's a shitty way to go."

Shepard inserted the OSD she had received from Vigil, giving her control of the Citadel's systems.

"Vigil's data file worked. We have control." Shepard said, entering a few commands into the console.

"Commander! Commander, are you picking this up?" Joker crackled through the comm.

"Loud and clear, Joker." Shepard replied.

"Commander, I'm here with the entire Arcturus Fleet! We're ready to attack Sovereign as soon as you open the arms." Joker said with some excitement.

I didn't pay that much attention to Shepard after that. I was more focused on Saren's body, watching it studiously. He was going to come back, but I couldn't risk warning the others without drawing suspicion to myself. Shepard chose to save the Council, giving me a job afterwards.

"Sean. Make sure he's dead." Shepard told me. I nervously jumped down into the garden, carefully walking over to where Saren now laid.

I took my Plasma Cutter, putting another round into his head. His head shot to the side slightly.

"He's dead." I said, scooting slowly away from the corpse.

Shortly afterwards, there was a loud, deathly roar, followed by red light that started emanating from his corpse. It burned away his flesh, disintegrating his armor and burning him down to the bone until there was nothing left except charred bones, glowing with a red light. Saren, now Sovereign, fired a shockwave at me before I could get off a shot.

The resulting shockwave destroyed the platform, causing the others to fall into the garden. Thomas and Allen, who knew what was going to happen, were still on the upper platform. There were the first ones to fire on Sovereign.

Everyone quickly regained their composure, concentrating their fire on Saren's reanimated corpse as it literally started bouncing off the walls.

"Sean, use your BFG!" Shepard yelled, attempting to use stasis on Sovereign.

"I can't!" I yelled, inserting another heatsink into my Force Gun. "He's moving too fast for me to get a lock!"

At first, Sovereign concentrated mostly on Shepard, launching weird red energy balls at her and attempting to get close and strike her with the large claws it had. Once it figured out it couldn't do either of those things, it decided to test out everyone else.

It finally looked at me, suddenly freezing in place afterwards. It then charged at me, shaking off all the firepower I was putting in it as it ran like a bat out of hell. When it got close enough, it leapt on me, seizing me by the throat like Saren had on Virmire.

"You have an annoying tendency to stay alive, Prothean." It said, clutching my throat harder. Its grip was so hot, it burned. "You and your people are gone, irrelevant. There's no point in trying to save your successors."

"We...will fight, and...we will kick your all-mighty asses!" I yelled defiantly, taking out a grenade and arming it. "Starting with you!"

Sovereign gave me the Reaper equivalent of a shocked expression, as I shoved the grenade in his mouth and pushed him off. He landed on the ground, quickly regaining his composure and letting out a loud roar as he leapt at me once more , attempting to kill me in the blast.

I held up my arm to shield myself as the grenade went off, then darkness overtook me.

Tali's POV

The Citadel

"SEAN!" I yelled in horror as the grenade detonated, blowing Sovereign to pieces and Sean off his feet. He slammed into a wall, falling limp and silent.

I rushed over to Sean, not even noticing the remains of Sovereign turning to ash. I could already tell he was in bad shape.

The most noticeable was his arm, which was twisted in an unnatural position and bleeding in several places. His armor was peppered with shrapnel, blood coming out of several of the holes.

"Sean! Can you hear me!" I shouted, taking off his helmet. His face was bruised and there was blood coming out of his mouth. "Someone help me take off his chestplate!"

Wrex came over and yanked off Sean's chestplate, revealing several pieces of shrapnel that were sticking out of his chest. I applied Medi-gel to his arm and chest, just as a loud smash could be heard above me. Huge pieces of Sovereign rained though the window, as Shepard shouted for everyone to run. All Wrex and I could do was attempt to cover Sean as the bits of the Reaper rained around us.

About thirty minutes later, the Emergency Crews finally found us. We barely missed a piece that landed over us, protecting us from all the other bits that came though.

"Keelah, you found us!" I said, relieved that help was finally here. "Quickly, he needs help!"

"Out of the way!" An asari paramedic said, pushing her way through the two men who found us. She crouched over Sean, scanning his vitals.

"This isn't good. We need to get him to a hospital quick, or he won't survive." She said, applying more Medi-gel and signaling two more paramedics who had a stretcher ready. They lifted Sean on, carrying him out of the wreckage and into a transport that was docked with the Tower. I grabbed Sean's helmet and followed the paramedics.

We were the last ones they found, so everyone else was already in the shuttle. I was thankful to see no one had been killed. Shepard's arm was broken and Allen and Thomas both had burns, but otherwise everyone else was fine. The paramedics were hooking more medical equipment up to Sean to keep him alive, pulling out the shrapnel and applying even more Medi-gel as the shuttle took off from the Tower.

We were taken to an Alliance medical frigate where we were all examined and treated for minor injuries. The entire place was filled with people who had been attacked, their conditions all varied. Shepard had her arm treated and put in a sling and Allen and Thomas were both treated for their burns. Sean was sent to the ICU. They were nice enough to let me wait outside the room while they operated on him. Shepard eventually found me, walking over and sitting down to me.

"Are you alright, Tali?" She asked, putting her hand on my shoulder.

"I'm scared, Shepard." I said, holding in my sadness as I stared at Sean's helmet. "I'm scared he won't make it."

"Be strong. Tali. Be like him." Shepard reassured. "He will make it."

Suddenly, a doctor came out of the operating room, clutching a datapad in his hands.

"Commander, can I speak with you?" The doctor asked quickly.

"What you tell me, I want my friend to hear too." Shepard said, patting my shoulder.

"Sure. Please, follow me." The doctor said, leading us to a empty conference room. Once we were inside, we sat down.

"Your friend was in really bad shape when we got him here, Commander." The doctor said, shaking his head. "His arm was completely destroyed and shrapnel penetrated his chest cavity in several places. His lung was pierced and so were several of his arteries. Also, he received a minor concussion and several of his ribs shattered when he impacted with the wall."

"Is he going to make it?" Shepard asked with a deadpanned expression.

"We are removing what's left of his arm. There is no way we can save it now. We have given him a cloned lung and we are using cybernetics to repair the damaged arteries around his heart." The doctor explained, reading off the datapad. "He regained conscious long enough for us to explain everything. He asked if he could have a new cybernetic arm. We agreed, and said he would pay for the highest quality one we have."

"He always did like the idea of cybernetics." I said, staring down at the floor. "I just hope he gets though this alright."

"You're lucky you got him here when you did. A few more minutes, and he would have been a goner." The doctor added. "We'll keep him here until he's stable."

"About how long will that take?" Shepard asked curiously.

"About a week." He replied.

"A week?" I asked, looking up.

"It could take less than that, honestly. Your friend's body accepted the implants better than any patient I have ever seen." The doctor commented, looking at the datapad once more. "If it keeps going this way, he could be out in one week."

"That's great!" I said happily, standing up and shaking his hand. "Thank you!"

"You're welcome." He replied, nodding. "Oh, and Commander? Captain Anderson wanted to speak with you in the Communication Room on Deck 3 when you get a chance."

"I'll be right there." She replied, briskly walking out of the room.

"You can go see him now, If you like." The doctor said to me, putting a hand on my shoulder. "Just make it brief. He's going to be put under soon for the operation."

He led me back to the room, leading me inside to Sean. He was laying there quietly, hooked up to an IV drip. The stub where his arm used to be had been slathered in Medi-gel, and he had a large purple bruise on his head.

"H-hi, Tali." He said weakly, rubbing his forehead. "I'll have to remember to put padding inside my helmet when I get out of here."

"Forget about the helmet." I said, looking down at it. "I'm more worried about you."

"Yeah, sorry about that back there. I wasn't really thinking about what I was doing." He apologized. "I'm guessing Sovereign went boom?"

"Yes, it went boom." I said curtly. "And sent you flying into a wall in the process."

"Yeah, I can tell." Sean said, running his hand over his chest and wincing. "At least we stopped him."

"Ma'am, we're about to start." A doctor said.

"Worry about yourself for now." I said, putting my hand on his. "Good luck."

"You give me too much credit." He joked, smiling. "Bye Tali."

Allen's POV

Medical Frigate SSV Nomad

We were sitting in one of the rooms, waiting. We were treated by several Systems Alliance doctors for the burns Thomas and I suffered after we were hit dead in the chest by one of his energy waves. It was painful, but our armor absorbed the bulk of the blast. The only problem was that our armor was now melted and fused together.

"I hope Sean's OK." I said, rubbing the burns on my chest.

"Yeah." Thomas replied, staring up at the ceiling. "But there's still something I don't understand."

"What's that?" I asked.

"We avoided getting trapped on the Citadel by the Council and made it to Ilos much earlier than in the game." He said in a questioning tone.

"Yeah, so?" I inquired.

"So…how did everything end up happening like it did in the game? We didn't change anything!" He asked, looking over at me.

"I…don't know." I said, being at a loss for words. "Now that you mention it…that is kinda weird."

"Are we like…unable to change anything?" Thomas asked, running his hands though his hair.

"I don't know. We were down there for a long time before we landed in that crypt. Perhaps all our extra time was wasted looking for the damn thing." I said, holding my arms. "Well, it worked out in the end. That's all that matters."

"I guess." Thomas replied.

We sat around in silence for a little while longer, when Sean's Omni-tool started beeping.

"Huh?" I said, getting out of bed and taking the Omni-tool off his gauntlet. I opened it, checking the messages.

"What is it?" Thomas asked.

"It's a message." I said, reading it out loud. "TacoWrath, the vacation on the Five Arms has been a blast! The only bad thing that happened was three dogs attacked us, but that's about it. We've decided to visit the Terminus Systems next. Please respond with new Omni-tool ID and get Choco_Dude_48 and Alanator117 to change theirs as well. There's some sort of new glitch with the old ones. –AsianMayhem94."

"Wait, isn't that Weigman's AOL address?" Thomas asked, raising his eyebrows.

"I get it." I said, rubbing my chin. "He's using our usernames to disguise who we are. Five arms must be the Citadel, and three dogs must mean Cerberus."

"So that means Cerberus attacked John, Sydney, and Weigman and they've fled to the Terminus." Thomas came to. "Why?"

"I don't know, but it's obvious they're trying real hard not to get themselves noticed." I commented. "I guess when Sean recovers we've got to get our ID's changed, and contact him with our usernames instead of our actual names."

"And make it look like a response to that message." Thomas added.

"Exactly." I agreed, rubbing the stubble that was forming on my chin.

"Well, come on. We should get some rest." Thomas said, walking back to his bed.

"Alright." I said, putting Sean's Omni-tool back in place and getting back in bed.

The moment Thomas's head hit the pillow he was out. Not me, though. A terrible thought surged through my mind as I realized something.

Shepard was going to die in one month.

Sean's POV

Medical Frigate SSV Nomad

Six Days Later

I let out a loud yawn as I opened my eyes, leaning forward and stretching. My left arm felt almost like my old one, except it was made of metal and gleaned in the light projected from the bedside lamp. The surgery had gone off without a hitch, and I was feeling better that I had ever felt before. The doctor had described the arm I was wearing as a top-of-the-line combat chassis, built to withstand extreme punishment. It had a built in stun gun, OSD and Omni-tool, which made me real happy.

Everyone on the team had given me a visit over the last few days. Shepard and Ash were glad to see I was OK, Garrus dropped by with a bottle of Tupari, Liara and Allen both visited at the same time, catching me off guard. Thomas came and commented on how cool my new arm was, and Wrex retold the battle inside the Council Chambers in graphic fashion, even describing the sound of me colliding with the wall.

But no one was happier to see me alive and well than Tali. She had given me a full on hug the moment I was in range, which I gladly returned. She spent a few hours with me, as we talked about numerous things. After Allen and Thomas told me about the message we had received from Weigman, I got her help to encode our Omni-tools with new ID's and have our security software upgraded.

Today was the day they were releasing me. I opened my Omni-tool and checked for messages. Seeing there were none, I got out of bed to stretch my legs. My ribs were healed now, so I could move without having sharp pains in my chest now. The new lung they had given me felt good, too. When they had me running the day before, I had gone faster and longer than ever before. The bruise on my forehead had now turned a sickly shade of yellow.

Despite all of this, the best thing that has happened so far occurred while I was under. The Prothean had taken the time to teach me new abilities during my downtime. He taught me how to manipulate the eezo in my body to generate a singularity capable of sucking foes into another dimension. They, of course, would not survive the trip. He also taught me how to manipulate the light around myself to appear invisible, which sounded extremely useful.

I looked at the clock, seeing it was 7:00. I slipped out of my covers, touching down on the cold floor and walking over to Tali, who had fallen asleep in the same room while visiting last night.

"Rise and shine, Tali." I said, lightly shaking her shoulder.

"Oh…good morning, Sean." Tali replied, leaning up. "What time is it?"

"It's 7:00. There releasing me in one hour." I replied, sitting down next to her.

"Well, shouldn't you be getting ready?" She asked, looking at the corner where my stuff was.

"Nah, it only takes me a few minutes to put my armor on." I replied, picking up my chestplate.

"But your armor is peppered with holes." Tali said, walking over and putting her hands on the chestplate too. "Is it a good idea to still be wearing it?"

"I'm going to get it repaired, don't worry." I responded, picking up the ruined left arm piece, which was covered in dried blood and barely holding together. "Looks like I don't need this anymore. I'll just configure my armor so it seals around my shoulder."

"What are you three going to do next?" Tali asked, sitting on my bed.

"Well… Saren's gone, and the galaxy is saved. Now that we don't have to worry about Saren trying to kill us, we now have to worry about Cerberus." I said, looking out the window at space.

"Why does Cerberus want you three?" Tali asked, looking at me.

"I don't know, but apparently they've attacked some of our other friends. There were staying here on the Citadel, when Cerberus tried to kidnap them. They were forced to flee to the Terminus Systems. We plan on going out and finding them today." I recalled from the message Weigman had sent us. "But enough about us, what do you plan on doing?"

"I plan on returning to the Migrant Fleet in a few days." She said thoughtfully, pulling out the OSD we had found in the Traverse. "Do you think this is a good gift to bring back to the Fleet?"

"I think it's a great gift." I said, hugging her shoulder. "Your people did create the Geth, after all. They would love the chance to learn more about them."

"You really think so?" She asked again, sounding as if she wasn't sure.

"Be more confident, Tali. It's a good gift." I said, pulling her in closer.

"Thank you, Sean." She said quietly.

"You're welcome, Tali." I replied as we both stared out at the stars. Looking at the stars, I realized there were going to be two years before Mass Effect 2 started. I knew the path before us was dark and there were going to be hardships in the future, but I wanted to savor this moment for as long as I possibly could.

Ending Song: /watch?v=_J9GWsF_BAo (Fits Sean situation near the end. :D)

A/N: And that folks, is the end of Mass Effect 1. It's going to be two years before we see Shepard and the Normandy again, and the gang has Cerberus on their tail. Strange things will happen, people will be met and fought, and our friends are right in the middle of it all. Stay tuned for the adventures that await.