A quick warning: this chapter is going to get a bit disturbing in parts.

"Shepard, I don't like this."

She didn't look up. Instead she continued to wind the bandages around her forearm. Once she finished that, she grabbed the compression sleeve she had laid out and tugged it up over her arm, suppressing a cringe for Garrus' benefit.

"I'm fine," Shepard said.

"Don't bullshit me," he grumbled. "I know that hurt."

"It didn't."

"Your breath hitched."

She sent him an unamused look. "What would you have me do?"

He leaned on the bathroom counter. "Ideally, I would tell you to go to the Citadel like a good, wounded human and let the Alliance handle it." She raised a brow at him. "But, I know you don't even consider that an option. So, instead, I'd suggest that you let me lead a team into Grissom. Between me, Liara, and Vega, we could take care of anything." He took her arm, smoothing the fabric of the sleeve and running his fingerpad down the raised line where her stitches were. "Jack wouldn't want you to hurt yourself."

Shepard snorted. "Jack's probably going to call me a pussy for needing stitches in the first place."

Garrus tried to stop himself from laughing. "Yes, yes she will."

Liara had insisted on coming along and Vega had offered his assistance as well, so they were suited up and ready when Garrus and Shepard entered the CIC. As they approached the cockpit, Joker was pulling up scans of the area around Grissom Academy.

"And there's the folks who answered the distress call," he muttered. "Cerberus cruiser, like we thought, and at least a dozen fighters on blockade duty." He glanced back at Shepard as she hovered behind his chair. "Too many for us in a straight-up fight. They must want this place bad."

"Of course they do," Shepard snapped. "One of their longest-running human experiments is in there, and she's raising a group of kids to be as tough as her. I'm sure the Illusive Man's having a field day with this..."

"Receiving incoming transmission," EDI said suddenly.

"Let's hear it."

EDI called up the comm line. [SSV Normandy, this is Kahlee Sanders, director of Grissom Academy. We need immediate assistance. Cerberus is attacking the facility. They're after my students.]

"This is Commander Shepard. We're blocked on a direct approach."

[I know,] Sanders said. [Alliance tried to send in reinforcements from Elysium, but they had no idea what they were walking into and were shot down. After they knew they'd been discovered, Cerberus took control of the docking bays and locked them down.]

Shepard glanced down at EDI, frowning. The Elysium soldiers had gone after receiving a distress call from EDI. Shepard wondered if Cerberus would have been less diligent if the Normandy had gone in first and alone.

"Any alternatives?" the commander asked.

[There's an auxiliary cargo port I could probably open,] Sanders replied.

Shepard ran over possible options in her head. "All right. We'll come in by shuttle and get everyone out of there." She motioned for her squad to hit the elevators. "Somebody let Cortez know what's going on." Liara nodded and she and Vega moved ahead. Garrus remained, intending to stick close to Shepard. "Joker, can you give me a diversion?"

He turned with a smirk. "Boy, can I!"

Shepard nodded and whirled out of the cockpit. She and Garrus rounded the CIC, pausing only briefly when Tacita stopped them at the galaxy map. Hurriedly, she said, "Shepard, you're taking a big risk, here."

Garrus chuckled, "Already tried that one on her. It didn't work."

Tacita hung her head. "Just be careful."

"Oh, we will," Shepard said. "You be careful, too. Joker's about to switch gears and send Cerberus' heads spinning. You might want to be buckled in when he does."

"I'll keep that in mind," she said, waving them off as they boarded the elevator.

Once the shuttle dropped, Joker steered straight in front of the line of Cerberus fighters. They locked on to the Normandy and pursued as it sped away from the academy, leaving the cargo bay doors wide open.

Shepard watched the fighters tear off into space through the shuttle window. "Every single one of them went after him... They're not the brightest lights on the tree, are they?"

"I'm assuming that means they aren't very smart?" Garrus questioned, the reference lost on him. "In any case, I'm not sure that I'm too comfortable with Joker taking my parents along on his joyride."

Shepard assured, "You know Joker won't get caught."

"That's true," Garrus replied. "Of course, I'd almost feel sorry for any Cerberus soldier stupid enough to board that ship."

"You know Wrex hasn't had a good fight in a while," she agreed. "He'd probably enjoy being part of that welcoming party." She turned back to Cortez and he landed in the cargo bay. "Cortez, hang tight. We'll be back."

She led the squad out into the area, pistol raised. They pushed deeper into station, coming into an open hallway. The walls were spattered with an unsettling amount of blood, but no bodies or soldiers were in sight.

Shepard toggled her comm. "Sanders, do you read? We're in."

[Commander,] Sanders pleaded over the comm, [I'm locked in a server room around the corner. Cerberus troops are trying to get in.]

"We're on it."

As they neared the end of the hall, a man's voice could be heard through the door. "Get ready! I've almost got the door."

Shepard stepped to the side of the door. "Liara, throw up a singularity."

The asari nodded and popped up a biotic vortex the second the door slid open. The Cerberus operatives on the other side screamed as they were yanked off their feet and left dangling in the air to be picked off by the squad's bullets.

Once they were sure all the soldiers were down and out, the squad marched down the hallway and came to a stop in front of the server room door. It had been pried open nearly half a foot, and Shepard could see Kahlee Sanders' blonde head peeking out from under a desk.

"Sanders, we're clear," Shepard called. "It's me."

Sanders crept up from her hiding spot and keyed the doors fully open. "Commander," she said, "thank you. I wasn't expecting you to be the one coming to help us, but I'm glad. Admiral Anderson always said you were the best. And, with Cerberus coming for my students, I needed the best."

"How many of you are still here?" Shepard asked.

"Fewer than twenty," Sanders replied. "Most of the students went home when word of the Reaper invasion spread. But, as you know, a few volunteered to stay. Most of our biotic students did, and some others stayed behind to prototype tech for the Alliance."

"Where are they now?"

"Scattered throughout the station," Sanders said, tacking away at a comm console. "Hang on. I've been trying to get communications working."

The line pinged through and a man's voice echoed in the server room. [This is Froeberg! There are students trapped in Orion Hall! Cerberus has us boxed in. They're closing fast!]

"Damn it," Sanders swore.

"Orion Hall?" Shepard repeated.

Sanders pointed to the entrance of the server room. "Back out the door and down the hallway. I can get the door open."

"I'll bring them back here and we'll make a run for the shuttle," Shepard ordered, jogging into the hall with her squad close on her flank.

"Thank you, Commander," Sanders called. "I'll stay put. With luck, I can regain control of some of our systems."

The squad assumed formation and stepped through the door as Sanders worked the controls. They came out into a hallway with glass walls that gave a view to an adjacent hall. Through the glass, Shepard caught sight of a screaming teenage boy being dragged by a Cerberus centurion into another room. Her breath caught at the sight, but she plowed ahead through doors as Sanders opened them.

In the next room they entered, another boy, no older than sixteen or seventeen, who was holding a biotic barrier up around himself. Cerberus troops surrounded him. "Reiley Bellarmine," a centurion barked, "drop the barrier, now."

Another said, "We aren't going to hurt you, kid. The file says we need you alive."

The boy held his ground, so the first snarled, "But your sister? She's optional. You give us trouble, we'll find her."

"N-no," the boy pleaded. "Leave her.. alone..."

Garrus lifted his rifle and took out one of the men and Vega was quick to silence the other. With the soldiers taken care of, Shepard came forward and kneeled beside the boy. "You okay?"

He groaned and let down his barrier, slumping in exhaustion. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Keep low and head to the server room," Shepard said. "Sanders will be waiting there until we can get shuttles ready."

"Yes, ma'am," the boy, Reiley, said, "but my sister, Seanne, is still out here somewhere, too. Please, don't let them hurt her."

"We'll find her," Shepard said. "Just get yourself to safety."

Cerberus had hijacked the intercoms and were spilling out announcements over the entire station. The messages promised that Cerberus had no intentions of harming anyone and that their reputation was the fault of Alliance propaganda.

They'd heard the same announcement replayed several times by the time they found Seanne. She was curled in a corner, trying to squeeze herself under a bench to avoid detection. When Shepard neared, the girl shrieked and covered her face as though she were expecting an attack.

"Seanne?" Shepard said, lowering her weapon.

"Who are you?" she whimpered.

"I'm Commander Shepard, with the Alliance. Are you Seanne?"

"Yes," she said. When she uncurled, Shepard could see a wet crimson patch on her side.

"You're injured," Shepard said, motioning for Liara to come forward and administer Medi-Gel to the girl. It formed a temporary seal and numbed the pain slightly.

Seanne stood, with help from Liara, and said, "My brother..."

"We found him near the server room," Shepard said. "He should be with Kahlee Sanders now."

"Is the path clear?" Seanne asked. "Is it safe to go there?"

"It is if you can make it."

"I'll be okay. You said the server room?"

Shepard nodded and the girl hobbled off to find her brother. Garrus shook his head at the girl's moxy. "What is it with you humans?"

Shepard flexed her arm, squinting an eye in a sort of wink and gritting her teeth. "What can I say, we're hard to kill."

Finally, as they neared Orion Hall, Sanders was able to override the Cerberus announcement over the intercom. Instead, her voice filtered over the speakers. [Students, if you can hear me, this is Kahlee Sanders. I am still alive and help is coming.]

Shepard made that promise a reality, stepping up beside a large door. [Shepard,] Sanders called, [I just got an emergency message from the students in Orion Hall. Cerberus has broken through from another side.]

"We're there, Sanders, just get this door open!" Shepard yelled. All those students had gathered in one place, and Shepard felt sure that Jack was with them.

The door whooshed open and the squad rushed in just as an Atlas Mech stomped in from an open gate and towered over one of the students. Another young man in Grissom's red uniform ran forward, dropping and sliding in front of his classmate. When he stood he let out a nova blast strong enough to rival one of Shepard's that knocked the student and the mech both back, effectively putting a safe distance between the two.

When the mech recovered from recoil, the nova-student was preparing a shockwave, but Shepard nailed the mech's cockpit with a shot from her pistol to distract the driver. When the operative turned the mech, Shepard ordered, "Get to cover!"

The student dropped his biotics and ran up a set of stairs to a balcony where his classmates were hiding. "Everyone, get back!" he called. "Let them handle this!"

Shepard took cover and Garrus fell in right beside her. When she popped up again to take a shot at the mech, he hissed and leapt up to combine his fire with hers. They sank into cover again and she barked, "What was that?"

"It was one of those mechs that nearly killed you," Garrus said, leaning up and nailing the cockpit glass. It shattered, allowing Vega to take the kill shot.

"Scared?" Shepard teased.

"You have no idea," he muttered, scanning the area and seeing that it was clear.

Shepard mounted the cover and turned back to him, her face inches from his. "Ask me how I feel about gunships."

He took a quick breath, letting the statement sink in as she turned and stepped up to the clearing under the balcony. Gunships... the thing that nearly ended him. Was she as terrified of them as he now was of Atlases?

The nova-student was descending the stairs, breathing heavily when Shepard approached. "Thanks," he gasped. "Cerberus hasn't given us time to catch our breath. I tried to set up a defensive perimeter, but..." He wheezed and wiped sweat from his brow. "I... I don't know how much longer we could've held out." The other students were gathering around him, each of them looking even more drained than him.

"Don't sell yourself short, man," Vega said, coming forward and clapping a hand on the boy's shoulder. "You did better than most."

"We're here to get you off the station," Shepard assured. "I'm Commander Shepard."

A girl with a ponytail moved up beside the boy and he introduced her. "This is Ensign Rodriguez and I'm Ensign Prangley."

Shepard smiled. "Those are a couple of names I've heard before." Her expression drooped when the students returned nothing but frowns. The girl, Rodriguez, looked as though she were ready to cry and Prangley took a deep breath that shook with something other than exhaustion. "You guys have done a great job holding out in here, but where's your commander?"

Prangley didn't seem to know what to say. "Our commander was... well, I guess... I'm in charge now, ma'am."

Garrus' armor creaked audibly as he flinched and Shepard almost choked. "What?" The students said nothing, so Shepard barked, "What happened to Jack?"

"She led us all here because it was the most defensible place on the station," Prangley murmured. "She went back out to find some others who were scattered around the station, but... she didn't come back, ma'am."

Shepard shivered. "So, she's out there somewhere?"

"I don't know," Prangley said.

Garrus came up and laid his hand on Shepard's shoulder, willing her to clear her head. "Okay... okay. It'll be all right. We're going to get you out of here."

"Yeah," Prangley said. "We need a bit to recharge, though. They've been after us for so long. We've burned close to a thousand calories, and..." He hung his head, though whether is was from weakness or sadness, Shepard couldn't tell.

She stepped up and grabbed the boy's shoulder. "It's okay. How long do you need?"

"I... I don't know," he said. "I don't..."

"Hey," Shepard said. "Go get everyone together and check each other's amps. Do you have protein bars or anything?"

"Yeah, just haven't had time to... nnn." He blinked, laying his forehead in his palm.

"Go on," Shepard said. "We'll wait for you."

Prangley nodded slowly and ascended the stairs, speaking to his classmates. "Okay, guys, grab a quick bite and check your amps for damage. We move in five."

Rodriguez hung back and took a timid step up to Shepard. "Commander, I was wondering..."

"What's wrong?" Shepard said, keeping her tone as even as possible. She wanted nothing more than to streak out of Orion Hall and go looking for Jack, but she knew that the students needed to rest, lest they overextend themselves.

"Do you ever forget the first time you kill someone?" Rodriguez asked, her eyes glistening. "Because today was mine... and I... Miss Nought always talked about it like it wasn't a big deal, but..."

Shepard's brows furrowed and she stepped forward, pulling the girl into a hug. Rodriguez slumped, pressing her head into the commander's shoulder and her breath hitched as she tried not to cry. Shepard brought a hand up, the bad one, no less, and cupped the back of the girl's head. "It's okay. You did what you had to to keep yourself and your friends safe."

"Does it ever get... easier?" Rodriguez asked weakly.

"It might," Shepard said, "but do you really want it to?"

Rodriguez pulled back slowly, her eyes deep, brown, and wet. "No... no, I don't."

"That's your choice," Shepard said. "You can let it haunt you or you can let it drive you... or, you can just accept that some things have to be done and move forward."

"What do you do?"

"I'm not proud of some of the things I've had to do in my life," Shepard said, "but I've always moved forward with purpose and that has allowed me to live with few regrets."

"What about Miss Nought?" Rodriguez murmured. "You knew her very well. What did she do?"

"You can ask her that when we find her," Shepard insisted, her teeth nearly chattering with anxiety as Rodriguez nodded and flew up the stairs to join her classmates.

Vega had grown quiet and Liara was muttering a prayer to the Goddess. Garrus grabbed Shepard by the shoulders again. "She'll be okay," he assured. "Cerberus wouldn't stand a chance against her."

"You know what she told me once?" Shepard whispered. "She said the worst things that ever happened to her only happened because too many people came at her at once. She never had someone to cover her back, so people would overwhelm her by coming in from all sides." Her shoulders trembled under Garrus' hands. "She said that's what she liked about you and me. That she could go out with us and she didn't have to worry about someone sneaking up on her because we were watching out for her. She said... we were the only ones she ever trusted to keep her safe..."

"Shepard, she's alive and we'll find her," Garrus soothed.

"Cerberus has proven that there are things worse than death," Shepard said simply. She didn't have to elaborate.

"It's only been a day since Cerberus attacked," he said. "We will find her and she will be okay."

Shepard turned and glanced up at him. "I hope you're right."

[Cortez to extraction team.] Shepard jolted as her shuttle pilot's voice crackled in her ear. [The Cerberus cruiser is coming back.]

Shepard moved away from Garrus and cupped a hand over her ear. "How long have we got?"

[Two minutes tops, Commander,] he replied. [After that, there's no way we'll get past them.]

Shepard turned, her eyes wandering up to the balcony where the students were eagerly munching on high-calorie rations and rubbing the backs of their necks to soothe their overworked biotic ports. It would take more than two minutes for them to recover, let alone escape, and that didn't factor in time to look for Jack or any other stray students. "Get out of here and back to the Normandy," Shepard ordered. "We'll find another way off the station."

[Roger that. Good luck, ma'am.]

Shepard immediately transferred comm signals. "Shepard to Sanders. The students are safe, but the shuttle's a no-go."

[Understood,] Sanders replied. [I might know a way off the station, but I need station-wide camera access. Can you disable the Cerberus security override? It's routed through Orion Hall, so it should be nearby.]

Liara nodded and began scanning the room for Cerberus tech that might be broadcasting. Shepard said, "How does camera access get us off the station?"

[We need to reach the Cerberus shuttles. The cruiser won't auto-target friendly ships, which gives us a fighting chance to escape. I need to see which parts of the station can be navigated through.]

"We'll be turning this place upside down anyway," Shepard said. "We have to find any students that were left outside and we have to find Jack."

"I've turned off the Cerberus signal!" Liara shouted from the other side of the room. In her hands, she held a small laptop whose screen was dimming as it shut down.

[Got it,] Sanders called. She hesitated, then said, [Shepard, this isn't what you're going to want to hear... but there are only two students left outside... alive. Three bodies and two living.]

"And Jack?" Shepard urged.

[She's nowhere,] Sanders said. To emphasize, she said, [Dead or alive. I'm not seeing her on any cameras.]

Garrus muttered, "You know if she was still on the station, she'd be making as much noise as possible."

"God... dammit," Shepard growled, clenching her teeth. "Sanders, what's next?"

[The fastest way is through the Atrium but Cerberus has sealed the doors. You'll need to disable the magnetic locks. The override should be directly above the door.]

Shepard sprinted up to the balcony and found a panel that controlled the locks. She switched on the override. "Got it."

[You should be able to force the door open now. I'll get to the shuttles ahead of you and get a pair ready to fly.]

"Roger that." Shepard turned to the students. "You all good to go? We need to move."

"We'll do our best, Commander," Prangley said.

They made their way down to the doors, which were standing open only a few inches. Shepard eyed the door, then her injured arm. "Yeah... Garrus, make this happen."

He stepped forward and cranked the door open, saving Shepard the strain on her arm. While he made a wide enough entrance, Shepard turned to the students and said, "Everyone be ready. We'll go in first and draw their fire."

"Commander," Prangley said, "it might be best if we follow along from the second level. You can take point while we hit them from above."

Garrus nodded at Shepard, "I like it. Keeps them safer."

"Right," Shepard agreed. "Liara, go with them." The asari ran up to join the students and Shepard addressed them again. "Just time your shots and stay safe. If you get in a bind, Liara will be there to help you, so stick close to her."

"Right," Prangley said.

The students Omni-tools suddenly lit up, causing them to pause. An accented voice blurted, [Students of Grissom Academy, the station is sealed. The Alliance soldiers cannot save you. All they can do is get you killed. Surrender peacefully, and you will be reunited with your teacher and transferred to a Cerberus sanctuary.]

"Don't listen to him," Prangley said. "He's just messing with our heads."

Shepard grew still, though Garrus felt sure that he was the only one who noticed. That Cerberus agent had made a grave mistake in mentioning Jack, and Garrus could tell that Shepard was already formulating a plan to go rescue her somehow.

[Damn it,] Sanders hissed over the comm, [they're messaging everyone. Students, switch your Omni-tools to privacy mode so they can't track you.]

The students obeyed, but Rodriguez wrung her hands anxiously. "What if... what if they're not lying?"

Shepard barked, "Rodriguez, they are not planning to take you anywhere safe. Don't let them get to you."

Prangley nudged her. "Commander Shepard isn't going to let anything happen to us."

"Yeah," Rodriguez said. "Yeah, okay."

Shepard nodded and slipped through the doors. "Let's go."

They found the remaining two students on the way to the shuttles, disabling a barrier they had set up for protection and directing them to the second level where Liara and Jack's students were. The last remaining rooms between them and the shuttles were crawling with Cerberus troops, but they held out and manged to make it to the shuttle bay, where Sanders and the Bellarmine siblings were waiting.

[Hurry, Commander!] Sanders said. Shepard could see her mouth moving, but the sound only came over the comm. [The Normandy circled back and pulled the cruiser out of position. We have to leave now!]

Shepard hung back, waiting for the students to descend the stairs and run into the shuttle port. Garrus and Liara moved ahead to help Sanders get the shuttles unlocked. Sanders threw the shuttle doors open, allowing the students to file in. Prangley was the last to run through the doors to the shuttle bay, gasping as the entrance closed and locked behind him.

"Wait," he said. "Where's Rodriguez?"

Shepard peered through the glass into the room they'd just come from, jolting as she saw the girl running towards them, a group of centurions hot on her heels. Prangley attacked the door, trying to get it open, but couldn't override the locks. Rodriguez ducked as the Cerberus soldiers fired at her and was barely able to escape by sliding in a fashion very reminiscent of how Jack had when they found her at the prison ship, Purgatory. She rolled into cover and tucked into a fetal position.

"Oh god," Prangley shouted, banging his fist against the glass. "God, no, Maria!"

Shepard snarled, hauling her assault rifle off her back. Against better judgement and knowing it was going to hurt, she raised the rifle and rammed it against the glass with as much force as she could muster, cringing as spiderweb cracks formed. "Prangley, hit it with a shockwave!"

He shakily threw his hands up, aiming at the weak point in the glass, and the window shattered like rain around Shepard. She caught the Cerberus troops in her line of sight and, using her traditional move, charged into the center of their group and blasted out her barriers to execute them. Sure that they were down, she joined Prangley, who was half carrying Rodriguez to the shuttle.

Garrus met her at the shuttle doors, hauling the kids up and stepping out to help Shepard. "I really wish you would cut those techniques out of your arsenal."

"But they're so fun," Shepard muttered, shaking her arm to try to nullify the shockwave of pain.

When she didn't immediately board the shuttle, Garrus glanced over to the other Cerberus craft. The students had all fit in one, so the second had been unnecessary. He tsked at Shepard, realizing exactly what she planned to do. "We're taking that shuttle, aren't we?"

"I'm not mentioning it to Liara and Vega, because I know it's crazy, and I'm not dragging you along with me, either," she said quietly. "There isn't a we in this."

"No, I think there's a we somewhere in storming the Cerberus base using the return coordinates in their own shuttle."

"Well," she said, smirking, "there's at least a Shepard and a Vakarian somewhere in all that."

He returned the smirk and keyed the controls to the first shuttle, closing up the students and cutting off Liara before she had the chance to protest. They turned and leapt into the second shuttle before anyone could tell them otherwise.

The Normandy picked up the shuttle with the students and a none-too-happy Liara shot out into the shuttle bay and immediately zoomed up to the CIC. She moved quickly past Tacita, who was still hanging by the galaxy map, and didn't speak as she stormed up to the cockpit.

"Joker, get a lock on Shepard's signal and follow her," Liara ordered, her usually calm tone cracking.

"Where's she going?" Joker muttered, altering the coordinates.

Curiosity pulled Tacita up to the cockpit, and when she got close Liara said, "She and Garrus are planning on flying headlong into whatever Cerberus base those shuttles had programmed in."

"What?" Tacita gasped.

Liara turned to her with an apologetic look. "By the time we got there, Cerberus had taken Jack from the station. They're going to try to get her back."

The station was completely unguarded when Shepard and Garrus arrived, and they leapt out of the shuttles with their guns blazing. One engineer tried frantically to connect to her comm and warn the rest of the station, but Shepard burst forward and crushed her throat with a biotic vice grip. Garrus kept his attention on his own targets, letting Shepard take out her rage on the soldiers. They'd been fool enough to take one of the most important people in Shepard's life. The Illusive Man would be lucky if she didn't tear his organization to shreds from the inside out.

Once they cleared the hangar out, they pushed on, meeting with similar resistance further in. Many of the operatives were out of armor, comfortable, and they met a quick end before the pair continued on. By Garrus' estimate, they were nearly halfway through the station before anyone actually managed to spread the word that they were there, and a loud siren announced their arrival into the next large room.

Honing her rage into something surprisingly productive, Shepard blanketed herself and Garrus with a barrier that deflected the bullets that poured on them front all directions. While the Cerberus troops tried to take down the barrier, Garrus nearly leisurely picked them off with his rifle, suddenly having a fearful appreciation for Shepard's barriers.

At the rate they were going, straight in and not even giving two shits about taking cover or being subtle, they would be through the whole place in under and hour. It was a short time to rip through a place, but a daunting duration for someone to hold a barrier. Garrus doubted that even an asari Matriarch would be able to keep a viable shield that long.

When they broke into an empty room, Shepard dropped the barrier for a moment and panted heavily. Garrus boosted their shields to make up for the sudden loss, not wanting to be caught off guard should someone stumble in on them.

"I've never seen you like this," he said, not looking at her, instead keeping careful watch.

"I hope you never have to again," she admitted.

"How are you even holding that barrier?" Garrus said in awe. "Nothing has even put a dent in it this whole time."

"The truth?" Shepard asked and he nodded. "My body is screaming out in pain because I'm to the point now that it feels like every part of me is breaking." She hugged herself, her armor whining in protest, and squeezed her shoulderpads to dispel the ache. "But, I know that this pain is nothing compared to what I'll feel if Jack doesn't leave this place with us."

"I wish I had biotic powers so I could pick up some of the slack," Garrus said. "Because my shields wouldn't hold a candle to what you're doing."

"No, it's okay," Shepard said. "Cerberus wanted a human biotic, they're damn well going to get one." She stood and motioned for them to move on. "C'mon, she has to be here somewhere."

After rushing through another room filled with opponents, they finally came to a room where they met no opposition. Despite the sirens sounding throughout the rest of the station, they did not ring out in this room, and cots with drawn curtains on each side lined both walls. Everything in the room was eerily white and it reflected the bright fluorescent lights.

From the far end of the room, a voice could be heard. "You really should have run, Subject Zero."

Shepard bristled and they ran forward, past the lines of empty cots. When they reached the edge of the room they found nothing but more vacant beds and a speaker in the ceiling blasting out the conversation they had heard.

[My name... is Jack!]

Shepard felt her stomach tighten. A different room... they were in a different room broadcasting the signal. Garrus scanned the back wall with his Omni-tool, finding a hidden door as the speaker called out again.

[We're going to learn a great deal from you and those students you were training.] The man again. And, this time, they could hear Jack gasping in the background. [Some of you may even survive.]

[Fuck you!] Jack screamed as Shepard and Garrus hacked the locks on the door and broke through into another empty room that looked like an infirmary.

"No," Shepard cried. "Where are they?" She and Garrus skirted the edge of the room, looking for another hidden door.

[Once those shuttles get here, I think we'll move the children into this room so they can watch the process. How does that sound?]

[Fuck... you! I'll tear you apart!]

Shepard got a hit on a side wall, disengaging the shielding mechanism over the next hidden door. Garrus was quickly by her side, running an override.

[That's funny,] the man said with a laugh. [I was just thinking the same thing.]

They barged into the room just as Jack let out a blood-curdling scream. In this new room, the curtains around the cots were not pristine white and surgical tools were laid out at the end of every bed. In the middle of one of the rows of beds, a man in a lab coat was standing in a hunched position and Jack's cries rang around him.

Shepard prepared a charge and Garrus pointed to a nearby pack of surgical tools, a silent warning to be cautious. If the doctor had a scalpel in hand, which he likely did, a misplaced charge could do more harm than good. Shepard nodded and aimed her charge accordingly, surging up behind the doctor and catching his hands, gloved and slick with blood, as he whirled around. She cracked his wrists in a flaring blue grip, causing his scalpel to clatter on the floor, and she threw him to the center of the room. Garrus' gun was instantly on him, readying a headshot.

The doctor craned his head wildly. "You won't take me!" he yelled. "You won't win against Cerberus and you won't take me!" He clenched his teeth together, crunching the cyanide capsule that came standard in Cerberus agents. Before Garrus even had the chance to fire, the man fell to the floor, dead, but he took a shot anyway, just to make sure the doctor stayed dead.

Shepard exhaled shakily and turned back to the table, holding back the urge to vomit.

Naked and strapped down, Jack stared up at her, her mascara running with her tears. Her voice cracked as she spoke."Sh-shepard?"

The doctor had made cuts into Jack's stomach, pulled the skin back, and had begun to slice into the muscle layer before they'd stopped him, and Shepard tried not to look at the wound. But, she felt a similar pang of nausea when she realized that there was a line of sutures under Jack's ears that disappeared to the back of her neck. They'd tampered with her biotic ports, and Shepard was willing to be it involved Reaper tech somehow.

"Shep, oh god, I knew you'd come," Jack whimpered, makeup-tinged tears spilling down her cheeks until they ran clear.

Shepard set to work releasing Jack's restraints as Garrus came up by her side and experienced his own shock at the sight of their friend. Even though her entire body was covered in those elaborate tattoos, it couldn't draw his attention from the cuts in her abdomen. With her arms free, Jack's hands flew to the open skin, and Garrus actually had to cringe away when she put the tissue in its proper place.

"Jack, don't-" Shepard gasped.

"It's okay," she hissed. "Didn't get the chance to cut deep. Just find me some bandages."

Shepard was in no position to argue. Jack's scars were proof enough that this wasn't her first encounter of the horrific medical sort. In fact, Shepard felt pretty sure that the doctor had cut into existing scars, meaning she'd had nearly this exact thing done before. If she said it was okay, Shepard had to trust that she knew what she was talking about. As Shepard moved to the leg restraints, Garrus found a cart full of medical supplies and procured several rolls of gauze and bandages.

Jack's eyes squinted in exhaustion, and when her legs were free she made a weak attempt to sit up. She relaxed back with a groan, unable to rise. Shepard scolded, "Don't try to move. I'll patch you up. Garrus, keep an eye on the door."

"Right," he murmured, swiveling around. He held his assault rifle in one taloned hand and lifted his Omni-tool on the other, scanning the room quickly to make sure there were no other entrances into the room he needed to be aware of.

Behind him, Shepard moved Jack as gently as possible to dress the incision. She ripped a sheet off a neighboring cot, rolled it up and placed it under Jack's hips, raising her just high enough to allow room to slide a hand under her back. She then took a roll of gauze and spun it out, folding it into a pad and placing in over the incision to hold it down. Jack's blood-soaked hands came up to hold the pad while Shepard readied the spool of bandages.

"Shepard, I'm getting readings from outside," Garrus warned. "Cerberus, ten... no twelve of them. They're closing in."

"Don't let them in that door," Shepard ordered. She wrapped the bandage around Jack's midsection, slipping it under her spine, bringing it up on the other side, then pulling it taut over the gauze patch.

"My students..." Jack whined, trying to distract herself. "Did they get any of them? Are they safe?"

"They didn't manage to bring any of them here," Shepard said. "We would've seen them on the way in. By now, they'll have made it to the Normandy." Shepard didn't want to divulge that some of the kids had died in the Academy before they ever got there. No reason to make Jack panic.

"Good, but..." Her breath hitched when Shepard wrapped the bandage. "God, they can't see me like this. Rodriguez gets nightmares from shitty movies, if she sees this-"

"It'll be okay," Shepard cut. "We're going to get you out of here, and we'll handle the kids later." Jack flinched with every pass of the bandage, digging her hands into the mattress and gritting her teeth. After several layers had been placed, Shepard stepped away. "Okay, now the tricky part... Garrus, I don't know if I can carry her."

"Try it," he said. "I'm in better condition to fight."

"Wait, what?" Jack gasped, struggling to keep her eyes open.

Shepard said, "I wore out my biotics. I'm barely holding myself up."

Jack readied a response. "Pussy."

Shepard gave a weak smile and took the sheet from under Jack, shaking it out and wrapping it around the tattooed woman's bare body. "I knew you'd say that."

Jack sat up, using Shepard for leverage, and tucked the sheet around herself. Shepard gathered the last of her strength, scooping the young biotic up, and god, she barely weighed anything. Shepard cradled her with much less effort than she'd expected, careful not to hold her in a way that made her bend too much at the stomach. Shepard nodded at Garrus, signaling that she was okay, and he marched up to the door.

They froze when a hologram surged up from the floor and danced in front of them, blocking the door. Shepard growled as the holo-form of the Illusive Man raised a cigarette and took a drag.

[Shepard,] he greeted. [Somehow I just knew you would be the one causing all this noise.]

"Go to hell," Shepard snarled, subconsciously tightening her grip on Jack's trembling frame.

[You're making a mistake here,] the Illusive Man said. [Humanity has the chance to rise up and achieve a greatness we've only dared to dream about before now.]

"Take it and shove it," Shepard roared. "What you're doing here is sick, and there's nothing in this universe that can justify it."

[I wouldn't expect you to have the vision for it,] he sneered.

"Maybe your vision would be clearer if I plucked those goddamn synthetic eyes from your head and crammed them down your throat."

[You're beginning to sound like Subject Zero,] he quipped. [It's very unbecoming, Commander.]

"Say what you want," Shepard snapped. "You've crossed the line and harmed someone I love. I tried to let you quietly disappear into the darkness, but consider this a declaration of war. I will find you and I will end you."

[I look forward to seeing you try,] he challenged, ending the transmission.

Shepard shook off her anger and turned to Garrus. "You said there were Cerberus troops out there. How close were they?"

"They're probably in the first infirmary," Garrus said.

"Do or die. Let's move," Shepard said with a nod, sticking near Garrus as he keyed the door open and charged out.

The Normandy arrived at the station in short time, and Liara was ready and waiting to board a shuttle when a Cerberus vehicle hovered out of the station's hangar. Joker took readings from the enemy shuttle and yelled, [It's them! I'm opening the hangar.]

Liara sprinted to the hangar door to intercept them. Vega stood at the other side of the door and Garrus' parents and Kahlee Sanders hung back by the elevators. As the hangar bay opened out to space, a transmission came over from the shuttle, and, much to the Vakarians' relief, it was Garrus' voice that boomed over the comm. [Normandy? Come in.]

[We read,] Joker replied.

[Where are the Grissom students?] Garrus asked urgently.

Sanders answered, "They're gathered on the crew deck."

[Get them out of there,] Garrus barked. [We're bringing Jack straight up to the Med Bay, and none of them need to see her in the state she's in.]

"We can't just move a dozen worried kids away from the place their teacher will be," Sanders said. "They won't cooperate."

[See anyone there with blue facepaint, Sanders?] Garrus barked. Tacita and Aetius jolted beside her. [Tell them they're on crowd control and that we better not run into any of those kids when we board.]

Sanders turned towards the Vakarians, but they had already hailed the elevator. She reluctantly followed them in to offer assistance, and they ascended to draw the students to another part of the ship. By the time the shuttle had landed, the students had been corralled, with as much difficulty as had been expected, into the CIC.

It was Shepard who stumbled out of the shuttle first, her limbs trembling from overuse. Liara was instantly beside her, offering her shoulder to lean on. Shepard grabbed Laira without argument as Garrus stepped out, carrying Jack as cautiously as possible. She looked terribly small compared to him and she almost wept as she curled into a fetal position in his arms.

Chakwas and Mordin, expecting the worst, had already prepped a table with supplies when they arrived upstairs. Garrus laid her out on the bed, stepping back to stand beside Victus, who was dutifully posted by Tarquin's side. The young, injured turian leaned up curiously, trying to get a glimpse of the small human they'd just brought in, and he felt his blood run icy cold when they peeled the sheet down to her blood-soaked bandaging. Tarquin turned his head then, unable to keep his eyes on her.

"Jack, we're going to patch you up. You'll be okay," Chakwas said, keying in a control that drew a shield over the Med Bay window and blocked visual access to the mess.

Mordin quickly removed the sheet to assess the damage, humming and replacing it to keep her covered. He didn't want to remove the bandages Shepard placed without knowing what he would find under them. "Abdominal injury. Result of battle?"

"They were operating on her when we got there," Shepard said quickly.

"Incision?" Mordin clarified. "Superficial?"

"Doesn't fuckin' matter," Jack whimpered. "My head, they stuck something in my head that's fucking with my ports."

"Cerberus' MO is Reaper tech, Mordin," Shepard said. Jack's hand inched to the edge of the bed, and Shepard took it, clenching her fingers reassuringly. "Indoctrinate their troops and heighten their abilities at the same time."

"If they've tampered with her ports," Chakwas concluded, "we'll have to replace them. That's... dangerous."

"Had it done before," Jack snapped. "Just get it. The fuck. Out of my head."

Chakwas recoiled back and turned to prepare a dosage of anesthetic. "We'll remove the port system, but we won't be able to move forward from there. We don't have to equipment needed to install a new system, and your body might not tolerate it even if we did."

"That's fine," Shepard said. "Just make sure you remove whatever Cerberus put in her. We can deal with the rest once we're sure she's not at risk of being indoctrinated."

"Yes, Commander," Chakwas said, bringing a syringe up and tapping the air from it.

Jack gripped Shepard's hand until her knuckles went white. "Hey."

"Hey, yourself," Shepard whispered.

"Don't leave me," Jack pleaded, her eyes glazing over from the throbbing pain in her stomach.

Shepard brought the tattooed hand up and rested her brow against the "death" lettering. "I'm not going anywhere."

Chakwas injected the sedative into Jack's elbow and the biotic's eyes flickered sleepily. "Good... thank... tha..."

The drug hit her system fast, and her head slumped as she dropped from consciousness. Chakwas regarded the rest of the room with a stern look. "I'm going to have to ask the rest of you to step out for a while."

Eve quickly rose from her cot in the corner and shuffled out into the mess. Victus nodded and helped Tarquin up. The young turian moved stiffly but they, too, exited. Shepard sent Garrus a look, giving him permission to go or stay if he wished, but she had no intention of leaving. Garrus backed up and took a seat on one of the empty cots, laying his hands in his lap to signal that he wasn't going anywhere either.

Chakwas and Mordin nodded at one another, content to let the two stay, and they set to work.

Jack, baby, come here. I love you so much. Why am I so mean to characters? T^T

I wish that you could see the Grissom students personalities more, even with Jack around. Most of their dialogue comes straight from a playthrough in which Jack died in ME2. Prangley is forced to be a leader and Rodriguez actually asks Shepard if she'll forget the first person she kills. They are such rich characters... it's sad that we don't really get to see that and have Jack alive, too.

Also, I don't know that Rodriguez's first name has ever been said, but I'll be calling her Maria unless I hear otherwise. Maria Rodriguez and Jason Prangley (his name is canon). I think those two are adorbs.