Chapter 36

Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect or any of its characters. Those belong to Bioware and EA.

Thanks Everyone!

I was running down the street as fast as I could... I felt confused.. I was back home... back to my old life.. I remember this... This was the night that I asked Sarah out on a date.. too bad her boyfriend didn't like that... so now I'm currently running for my life trying to get away from her boyfriend and his friends... That's when I stumble as I near the steps to the alley way...

…..

…...

…...

I open my eyes and look around.. I'm laying in my bed with the cover pulled up around me...

~what the hell?~

I move to sit up when a voice stops me. "You shouldn't do that.. you bumped your head pretty hard"

I turn towards the voice and my eyes widen... "Mom.. but how?" I gasp.

She smiles down kindly at me.. "Shhhh child.. everything will be ok."

I start to relax when I hear a knock at the door... "Come in." My mom says.

And if I thought things were strange they were getting stranger as Miranda walked through the door.

"What the?" I said sitting up in the bed much to the scolding of my mother.

She frowned but before she could respond my mom beat her to it.

"Eric! Is that anyway to talk to your girlfriend?" My mom said looking at me.

I closed my eyes tight. ~This can't be happening~

I opened my eyes and I found myself standing on a hill overlooking London.

My eyes widened in horror as I saw the reapers systematically destroying the city.

"Dear god no" I yelled but my scream did nothing to stop the situation.

I heard a roar and looked up as several hundred gunships and warplanes flying overhead.

I heard a voice yell over the loud speaker of one of the gunships. "Come on people.. we can do this.. we have to do this.. were the last of the military in the area.. we can drive them back"

I looked on in horror as several of the reapers raised the tentacle like arms and with four blasts utterly annihilated the resistance force.

I fell to my knees as the weight of what was happening hit me.

"You see Human... nothing you can do will stop us"

I looked to see a smaller form of Harbinger hovering in front of me.

I got to my feet and stared Harbinger down.

"Your wrong... Were the first.. the first to beat your little doomsday clock. So you know what that tells me?" I said referring to the Citadel.

It stared at me unmoving.

"It means that were capable of kicking your ass! No Scratch that not Capable We will kick your ass's. And when were done well tow your scrap heaps to the sun and celebrate as you burn slowly for eternity in the fiery pits that is hell for your kind"I said.

It sat motionless before I felt a pull to my left.

I stumbled a little and tried to stand when I was jerked violently to the left.

I stumbled as I neared the edge of a cliff face. ~Where the hell did that come from~

Suddenly I was jerked hard and I fell over the cliff. As I plummeted to the bottom my thoughts drifted to my family...

…..

…...

…...

"Eric! Wake up" Miranda yelled as I bolted upright in the bed screaming.

I felt myself drenched in a cold sweat and I was breathing heavily.

"Another nightmare?" She asked handing me a towel from the nightstand.

I nodded.

I felt a shifting next to me as Arisa rolled over and yawned.

"Nightmares again?" She asked also. I nodded as she sat up.

There was a cry from down the hallway.

"Arianna must have woken up" Miranda said getting up.

"Are you sure you don't want me to get her?" I asked moving to get up but she shook her head.

"No I got this.. I rather enjoy it you might say." She said smiling as she headed out of the room.

Celestia was asleep in one of the other rooms. She normally would have gotten up to check on Arianna but at our insistence we wanted to take the burden since she had already done so much we thought she could use a break.

Arisa leaned back on the pillows as the covers slid off of her swollen stomach .

Arisa was 8 months pregnant now.. and it was showing as she was having a very hard time at this point in the pregnancy.

I sighed as I thought back to the events of these past months since we defeated the collectors.

Thane had decided to spend his last few months with his son Kolyat and from what I hear their mutual cooperation had slowly started to mend the bonds between them... though the last communication we received from them last week didn't look good. Thane apparently collapsed during a walk in the gardens with Koylat. Our prayers were with the Assassin.

Most of the rest of the crew with exception of Samara decided to stay on with Shepard to fight the Reapers. Samara had explained to us that she must leave to attend to her Justicar duties but she also stated that if Shepard ever called she would come.

After the Normandy limped out of the Omega 4 relay she was in bad shape. The tech's on board did what they could but she needed a space dock to be fully repaired. Thankfully our connections with Liara got us a great deal on a space dock on Illium..

Shepard's first concern was Cerberus since they would obviously be looking for us now.

While the Normandy was repaired Mordin and I began to decipher the map that I had gotten from the Collector base.

It took us about a week and a half to get it decrypted but we now had the location of hopefully the former Reaper homeworld.

Since then the Normandy has been undergoing repairs and for the last month has been doing some test runs to make sure she's back in fighting shape.

Suddenly I was broke out of my train of thoughts as the vid screen near the bed started to beep. I hit the green button and Shepard's image appeared.

"Hello Eric I hope I didn't wake you at this late hour." Shepard said smiling while drinking some coffee.

I chuckled "For you it's probably 8am or something" She chuckled at my response.

Her eyes shifted as she noticed Arisa beside me. "Wow girl your going to pop any time now" Shepard said.

Arisa chuckled "Thank you Shepard.. I certainly feel like that for sure"

Shepard turned back to me. "I called because I wanted to let you know what was happening." She said turning serious.

I shifted to see her better "Go ahead" I said as Arisa placed her arms on mine and listened as well. I heard foot steps and Miranda came back in.

"She ok?" I asked.

"Yeah.. I rocked her some and she fell back asleep." She said as she slid into bed on the other side of me and listened in.

"I recently received a coded communication from Admiral Hackett. As a personal favor he wasn't me to do a special ops rescue mission. This is a very serious. Apparently this Dr. Amanda Kenson has evidence of the reaper invasion" She paused as our eyes widened taking this all in.

"But apparently she's been arrested and taken to a security center on terrorism charges." Shepard said letting out a breath.

I placed my hand to my chin in thought "What can we do to help?" I asked.

"Nothing at the moment I just wanted you to be aware of the situation." Shepard said.

I nodded "Good luck Shepard.. and be careful.. you know how trouble follows you wherever you go." I said chuckling at the last part.

She said her goodbyes and the channel was closed.

"This is big.. if she has actual evidence that the council will have no choice but to prepare for the Reapers" Miranda said laying down next to us.

Arisa and I both nodded.

I stretched back onto the bed. I was starting to get sleepy again. Thankfully the effects of the nightmare has worn off. As I was drifting off into sleep the vid screen started to beep again.

I sighed and leaned over Miranda who had passed out sitting up. I chuckled inwardly as I hit the button. I was thinking it would be Shepard again but this time the face was non other than Garrus.

I was about to make one of my usually smartass remarks but the look on his face froze me cold.

"What's wrong?" I asked leaning farther over Miranda waking her up in the process.

He looked down for a moment before looking up at me "Thane has died... I am sorry.. I've been working with Kolyat and Liara to set up funeral arrangements. Now I will leave you be... I must inform Shepard as I'm sure she'll want to know.. goodbye Eric.. I will call you to inform you when the funeral will take place." He said as the vid screen winked off.

I sat still to stunned to move let alone breath.

~Thane~

~Thane was dead!~

A/N: I just wanted to say I think this is the first time someone has actually died in my story. And for those Thane fans I am sorry but do not lose hope as things happen that surprises everyone. And do not think this is going to spiral down into me killing off the characters because it's not. With the events in the second game we all knew he was dying. I just chose to end his story in my own way. I hope you all enjoy and till next time.