(HK)

I was still lying in the same position as before. I wasn't sure how long I'd been here, but it probably had only been about a day, if even that; yet, at the same time, it felt like I had been here for weeks. This felt a lot longer than my brief capture by Nyxeris did. I thought that was bad.

This... this was ten times worse.

Harbinger was a lot harsher and rarely granted a reprieve this time around; I didn't know why. Maybe it was because he didn't have two of the 'psychics' captured this time, and one of the three was already dead. Maybe it was because time was of the essence now; I wasn't sure if the Reapers could fear or not. In fact, fear was an emotion, so I knew they didn't. But somehow, I couldn't help but wonder if they knew that if they didn't get something out of me, then they would be toast. Abby would have probably had something to say about that, if she were here.

The circumstances, overall, were a lot worse for me; I'd prefer the old base over this one. The atmosphere was disgusting. Or maybe it was just my own frame of mind; maybe it was because I knew the crew was gradually being turned into Reaper goo, and a human Reaper was being constructed not too far from here.

So many questions were floating around in my brain. How was the crew, anyway? In the game, they would only begin to die if Shepard stopped somewhere on the way, but now, we were in real time, so I didn't know how that affected matters. Another reoccurring question had been about Shepard herself, and the rest of the ground crew back on the Normandy… where were they? Were they coming?

Oh, they were. I knew they were. I had to keep the faith.

Harbinger was putting me through the wringer, and all I could do was pray to the Lord Himself that I got out of this okay. I could feel his indoctrination starting to seep into my brain and I couldn't let him get to me. I just couldn't, but it was so hard to resist. Harder than I'd ever imagined, and I gradually felt myself gravitating more and more to his side. His point of view.

But I couldn't do it; I couldn't. We had to stop the Reapers, and I sure was not going to join them or help them.

The fact that Harbinger had Sarah's face didn't help; I'd almost gotten lured in when he used her persona, after all. The Reapers had a huge bag of tricks without that, no doubt, but when I began to think that Sarah was still here, that's when he really got to me. It made me feel so stupid. Sarah was dead and I knew that; I knew that he was just using her body for his own benefit. Yet somehow, he still lured me in.

And ever since then, it'd been so hard to fight some of the contradicting thoughts in my head. So very, extremely hard. I was determined, though; Harbinger had not broken me yet.

This had been such a long, tiring journey; I wondered how long we had been here in this universe. I'd lost track of time at this point, and I used to be great with time. But all of this had required me to focus on honing in other skills.

I had to wonder if I'd ever be back home, in my old life; Abby and I had discussed before that we sort of knew what our lives was or would be like if we were still back there, and I could still feel that. Yet it seemed so vague; I was still physically here, living here, in a fictional universe turned reality.

I had seen so much throughout all of this; so much I shouldn't have seen. At the same time, I had made so many friends and companions that would last me a lifetime. Shepard, Mordin, Jacob, Miranda, Garrus, Samara, so many more...were real people now. Real people that I'd come to love.

And Jack. Oh, Jack...I still didn't even know what to think about all of that, but I knew that I did feel something for her, something so different. And, truth be told, I missed her. At this moment in time, under all of this pressure, I missed her.

And I missed Abby; how was Abby doing? Now she was the only one left of the three of us on the Normandy, and that had to be hard. Abby had to be strong far too much during the course of her life; now, she had to be stronger than ever. I felt bad for her, like I almost left her there, even if I didn't have a choice. She was likely struggling, and I wish I could be there to help her.

But I knew one of my best friends; Abby was strong, and she would get through this. We had other friends, other good friends, on the Normandy that would support her.

I just hoped she was making it alright, but I had to trust that she was.

Then there was Sarah; Sarah, why couldn't Harbinger let you rest in peace? It was insulting, and it infuriated me; it's like she was being defiled even after death. I felt bad for Sarah; she should not have died. Even though I had been angry with her on more than one occasion, Sarah had endured as much of a hard time as anyone on the Normandy. She had went through her own problems and they were no better than any other problems that anyone had encountered; I knew that she was scared, and rightfully so. Now, I knew it far better than I had before.

I never wanted to leave her to perish; I never meant to do that. I hoped that she knew that. Despite all of her flaws, despite everything she did, Sarah was still one of my very best friends.

And she had deserved to live.

She had been killed in an awful way, and Harbinger was using her to torment me. Even though I knew this, and it was stupid for me to realize it now, the Reapers were truly callous.

It was odd, though; even though I didn't see Sarah standing there, the Sarah I knew...I almost felt like she was still in there, somehow. Like...something with Harbinger was a little off at times.

But then again, it may have been me imagining things; I was a hopeful one. I'd always wondered if the Protheans were still deep down inside the Collectors, too.

However, still, it almost felt like something was different.

Just then, as if to confirm that notion, the husk did something that seemed a little... "off" somehow. Harbinger seemed to be about to speak, as if getting ready to deliver another one of his taunts, when he suddenly faltered. The glow in the husk's eyes dimmed and flickered, like a light bulb that was about to die but fought to stay lit for as long as it could.

"Impossible," Harbinger's deep voice said. "This unit seems to be fighting for control. Irrelevant; this unit will do our bidding."

Whatever was happening, it seemed to go on for at least a full minute. The bright glow surrounding Sarah's body brightened and dimmed at times, and there were moments where the husk sagged a bit as though something internal was going on.

All of a sudden something happened; I heard a terrible sound like electricity coursing, and then something burned out. I could smell the stench of smoke and burned circuitry and wires, and I could see smoke rising from some areas of Sarah's body, as though the control centers had been burned out from overuse... or conflict.

The husk then collapsed on the ground in a heap.

I looked on, stunned and confused; at first, I didn't really know what to think, but my mind was swarming with questions. Did he say that the "unit" was fighting for control? Technically, there was no unit; Sarah was dead, it wasn't if he suddenly possessed her. She was dead and in the Med-Bay for some time. We saw her corpse. There were no life signs.

And I had never seen anything like that happen in either one of the games, or anything in any of the other media out there. Harbinger had left Collectors out of his own will before, or when they were killed by one of the crew, but neither of these had happened like this. Harbinger had no intentions of leaving, obviously, and Sarah's body hadn't been physically harmed by anyone.

I continued to stare at the motionless remnants of Sarah's body. What in the world happened?

A few moments later, the door opened and then several Collectors came inside. One of them was glowing brightly and standing taller than the others, obviously under Harbinger's direct control. This particular Collector looked around carefully as Harbinger used the creature's eyes to survey the area.

I saw the glowing Collector stoop down to look at the dead husk that lay on the floor. Harbinger reached out and touched the smoldering remains, and then nudged it as if trying to see if there was any life left in it.

Finally Harbinger rose, and then turned to regard me. "That husk is useless to me now," he said in his deep, booming voice.

"What happened, Harbinger? Can't keep as much control over a dead woman as you'd like to?" I spat. I had enough of playing games with this Reaper; if he wanted to torture me, so be it, but I'd be sure to tell him off in the process.

"I am uncertain what happened with that unit," Harbinger allowed, aiming a digit indicatively in the direction of Sarah's limp form. He then dropped his hand, as if it really didn't matter. "I sensed a conflict, a final struggle... and then nothing. It is irrelevant; I will proceed without that worthless form." He then moved closer to me, taking up a position beside me.

Again, I was confused. A conflict? Final struggle? Sarah was dead; there was no way...I didn't know. And maybe I didn't want to know. But whatever it was, I was glad that Harbinger was through inhabiting one of my best friend's bodies.

"The only worthless form in this room is you," I muttered underneath my breath.

All of a sudden, the door opened again-but this time I heard the definite sounds of weapons firing. The Collectors sprang into action, but I could tell they were taken by surprise. I heard Zaeed and Jack shouting, and I caught a glimpse of Abby bringing up the rear.

I was so happy I could've cried. The cavalry was here! I would live through this!

Jack was the first to charge in, using her biotics to throw several Collectors to the wall. She used her gun to fire at another, and Abby and Zaeed came in right after her, looking determined and unstoppable; all of them had come here to rescue me. They'd taken a detour for me. That meant a lot.

"A small annoyance," Harbinger said, already starting his attacks on the trio. However, it was no use for the possessed Collector; Jack looked angry enough to dart right through him, and Abby looked deranged enough to kill him with a look. Zaeed looked similar, but then again, he always did.

Jack let out a scream of fury before firing rapidly at Harbinger; Abby and Zaeed did the same. Within seconds, he was down for the count.

"This is not over," Harbinger vowed as the Collector's body disintegrated.

"Thank goodness you all are here!" I exclaimed with pure joy, staring at all three of them.

At that instant, it was a race between Jack and Abby over who could get to me first. Jack won partially by tripping up Abby with a flicker of biotic power-not much, just enough to cause her to stumble; Zaeed ended up catching her arm to prevent her from falling-and then Jack was practically on top of me.

The biotic woman removed the straps that were holding me down and then she leaned over me. "You okay?" she asked. Her voice cracked, as though whatever she was feeling was threatening to break through to the surface.

I was half-distracted by Abby's near-fall, but there was a lot going through my head. "I think so. Nothing they did to me was too bad, they just...they've been interrogating me, as you can tell," I told her. "They possessed Sarah's body."

"Come on, get up," Jack told me firmly, helping me into a sitting position. "Think you can stand, or do I have to put you over my shoulder?" Her tone was tense and her eyes were narrowed. Again, I had the impression that whatever she was feeling was getting ready to break through... any second.

"I can stand. Like I said, nothing they did to me was too bad," I said as I slowly got up. I looked at Abby and Zaeed, and smiled. I knew Abby would come for me; she told me she would. Abby was probably the person I trusted most to fulfill her promises, aside from God. "Thank you. All of you."

Abby rushed forward, as if ready to throw her arms around me in a hug, but she didn't get the chance. She was quickly intercepted by Jack, who ignored her protest, and then the biotic woman whirled to face me again.

Jack put her hands on my shoulders and shoved me against the wall. It didn't really hurt much, but it was enough to make my teeth rattle. Her face contorted into an expression of anger, and I could see the hurt in her eyes... along with something else. Fear, maybe?

"You knew, all along you fucking KNEW," she hissed at me through clenched teeth. "Don't you EVER do that to me again! Do you know how much I... I..." It sounded like she was almost going to say 'worried', or something like that, but her voice cracked and she didn't finish her sentence.

Instead she said, "Next time you know something is going to happen to you, you WARN me about it, you got that?" She shook me by the shoulders, emphasizing her words.

"Jack, I'm sorry, I really am," I said. I supposed that I hadn't thought too much about how Jack would be hurt by it, although it had crossed my mind a few times; I'd just been thinking about, well, getting captured and then being interrogated. "But I didn't know for too long that I was going to be the one captured; we thought it was Sarah. After she died, we sort of thought it'd be no one. Then I got food poisoning and...well, you know. But I am very, very sorry. Just...thank you, for rescuing me."

She just looked at me for a long moment, and then she snarled, "I'm not letting you out of my sight again, not until we're out of here at least." Then she initiated a lip lock with me.

Zaeed grunted. "Yeesh, get a room, you two," he remarked.

Abby merely smiled, and she looked a lot happier than I'd seen her in a long time – the dirt could not diffuse the glow that came to her face when we locked glances. She came up to me and rubbed my hair fondly, like apparent would do to a misbehaving child.

"Told you so," she said.


(Abby)

He was tired, worn-out, and broken, but he was alive and he could walk, and that was all I really needed from him at the time. We would have time to talk later, after the mission, and I would tell him everything – how worried I was, how scared, how nerve-wracking it was to do it all of myself. And because he was HK, he would listen, and he would make me feel better, and then we'd go down and get something to eat in the mess hall and everything would be okay.

Later. We'd have to talk later.

I caught Jack's eye and quickly looked away. I had a feeling we'd be talking later, too.

EDI was able to successfully guide everybody through the next set of obstacles and everybody had managed to rendezvous on the other side. It was EDI's turn to guide us back now, and I knew Joker had his link open because I could hear him breathing in the background when it got too quiet. Harbinger wasn't too happy with our escape and he'd made it known, but the problem was that all of the Collectors were too busy engaging Shepard and her troop about two klicks away from us. The Collectors may have had some of the most advanced technology in the galaxy, but their inner security systems were pretty much garbage. I supposed that's the kind of flaw you got when you worked off of a hive mind network.

I kept my eyes on HK the entire time. We had him in the middle of us – Jack and Zaeed in front, me taking up the rear. We mirrored our pace with his. He was going slower than usual – no crap – and seemed a lot shakier, but he was still moving. It's amazing what the threat of death can do to motivate a person.

Meanwhile, I was starting to get a headache. It was the type of headache that started at the very back of your head and then crept around the side of your skull to rest solely on your temples. It throbbed, too, like it had a heartbeat of its own. It wasn't like a normal headache, either, or a migraine.

It felt… synthetic.

It was a strange feeling, and I would've never recognized it if I hadn't joined minds with Samara. I could tell somebody was slowly trying to worm their way into my head, and I knew exactly who it was. Samara's touch had been brisk a cool, like a waterfall on a clear sunny day – this touch was heavier. It felt like a hand trying to grip my head.

And sometimes, when it got too quiet on our quick scurry back, I could almost hear a high-pitched whine.

Finally, I had to say something. "Does anybody else have… a headache?" I asked over the comm system.

"Yes," Samara and Shepard replied simultaneously.

"I thought it was just me," Garrus stated.

"Nothing up here," Joker said nervously. "You guys won't turn into husks, will you? Because, really –"

"We need to finish up quickly," Shepard said.

"Agreed," Samara said. "The quicker the better. I have not felt right since entering this place."

HK looked back and locked eyes with me. We needed to get out of here soon.

We were able to find a roundabout route, but that's where we started to hit enemy contact again. Jack began conserving her biotic strength and resorted to tripping others as they ran with a little nudge instead of the impressive displays she'd cooked up before. We advanced slowly, and the next thing I knew more guns had joined the fight. Grunt's laugh sounded like music to my ears.

Grunt and Garrus gave us the cover fire we needed to escape the scrap, and as we crossed the thresh-hold a large door I hadn't even noticed closed behind us. I spied Tali and Legion working at one of the interfaces.

Alone – for now.

I felt like I could breathe again for one quick second. There's no other relief like being among friends. Jack had her arms around HK, supporting him, and Shepard immediately came over and gave him a quick once-over with her omni-tool. He didn't look good – he looked sick, very sick. Cancer-sick, almost.

"We're glad to have you back," Shepard said.

"Yeah," HK said fervently. There really wasn't much more you could say.

Once the Commander was satisfied that everybody was present and good to go, she got right back to business. "Joker," she said, speaking into her communicator, "Are you at the rendezvous point?"

Joker's voice blared, "I'm here, Commander. Chakwas and the rest of the crew just showed up."

And then EDI chimed in, "Tali's group just arrived, Shepard. No causalities." Despite the mechanical, feminine monotone of the AI's voice, I thought I detected a trace of relief. I closed my eyes briefly, knowing that if only Sarah had survived this long she would have been there with them.

No, I immediately corrected myself. She would have been in HK's place. And we would have rescued her there, like we said we would.

Shepard nodded, as if silently acknowledging that everything was going good so far. She wasn't one to display radical emotions during a mission as serious as this – she very much kept her eye on the prize – but I could tell, perhaps because I just knew her well enough, that she was pleased. HK's rescue took a heavy weight off of our shoulders.

I was really concerned about that high-pitched whine, though. Though we left it unspoken, it kept us from getting too compliant, too lenient.

"Excellent," Miranda said. She was standing beside Shepard, looking straight at the Commander. "Now let's make it count. EDI," she addressed the AI. "What is the next step?"

Shepard folded her arms as EDI spoke, and I caught her already eyeing me for confirmation. "There should be some nearby platforms that will take you to the main control console. From there you can overload the system and destroy the base," EDI said.

I nodded.

"Commander," Joker interjected, "you've got a problem. Hostiles are massing just outside the door. Won't be long 'till they burst through. You need to move quick."

"Have everybody stay here and guard the door," I told her, reinforcing what I'd told her before when we had discussed all of the details of the suicide mission.

That was when HK spoke up. His face was pale and his voice sounded raspy, but he managed to speak. "What about Mordin?" he asked.

I stared at him, and then I understood. Oh, shit... how could I have forgotten?

"Mordin?" Shepard questioned, her cool eyes darting between HK and me for a moment.

"Mordin," I said, looking over at him. "It was the same deal with Tali – Mordin's more vulnerable here than the rest of us, Commander. If we keep people like Grunt and Zaeed here, he'd be okay, but… for this one, we need to take our strongest players with us if we're going to conquer."

Shepard's eyes flickered. "Shit."

To my surprise Mordin spoke up, clearing his throat. "Every sentient being dies eventually," he said matter-of-factly. "Knew the risks when I came aboard the Normandy. Never planned to live much longer anyway. Older than I should be, Shepard; only have a few years left." He raised his rifle indicatively and placed a fresh ammo clip inside of it. "Have accepted the possibility of death before."

"Mordin knows his limits," Jacob said. "He'll give us his all."

Thane looked thoughtful, as if he were looking at a kindred spirit. "It can be better to choose how you will go out than to wait for the end of your life to come and claim you," he said.

Miranda pursed her lips. "So we have a dilemma. Shame we didn't think about this ahead of time."

"Shut the fuck up, cheerleader," Jack snapped. "They got us this far and we're okay. Didn't you all come here knowing you could die, or are you all a bunch of pussies?"

"I've always planned on making it out alive," Zaeed said. "Send the salarian back to the ship if he might bite the dust."

"No," Mordin snapped. "I will stay here," he said adamantly.

"Thankfully, I made the choice back on the ship," Shepard said, raising one hand for silence. "If we send somebody back now, they're more likely to be picked off on the way back than they would be here. Otherwise, HK would be on his way back with Mordin now. It sucks, but the safest place for all of us is with each other. Fight like I know you can and we'll make it through this alive."

"Very well," Miranda said. "So who are you taking with you to the main control room?"

"I'm going," I said, adamant.

To my surprise, nobody said a word – they just looked at Shepard. I didn't back down, and I knew Shepard wouldn't press the point.

"Shepard-Commander, the Collectors are attempting to bypass my door hacks," Legion stated. "Failing that, we believe they will resort to brute force."

"I've earned the right to see this through," I said.

Shepard didn't look happy about it. "Fine." She looked away from me and her eyes scanned the small crowd of people. I could tell that she was analyzing everyone, no doubt picking out who would be the best shooters and biotics to stay behind; no doubt she wanted to give HK and Mordin the best chance to survive.

"I'm coming with you," Zaeed said, stepping forward.

Shepard raised an eyebrow. "Very well," Shepard said with a sigh. She then glanced around warily, as if to silently ask, any more volunteers? None seemed forthcoming. "Jacob," she said.

Jacob nodded and joined us at the head of the group.

As I eyed the remaining group below us, I strongly felt that Shepard had made the right move in letting Zaeed and Jacob come along. They were both military guys and had worked with Shepard the longest on training me. I knew what to expect from them, and they knew what parts of their fighting style they'd have to modify to suit me.

Grunt looked like he was more than ready for the fight of his life—he seemed to be glowing slightly with anticipation. Thane took up a position near Mordin and the two of them exchanged a knowing look; they now had something in common, at least in a way. Samara stood next to Kasumi; the two of them were standing near HK, who seemed to have Jack attached to him. Judging from the way Jack looked, I doubted anyone could pry her away from him until all of this was over and HK was out of danger. Legion simply stood over there at the terminal, his weapon in one arm and a three-fingered mechanical hand working on the holographic interface to keep the Collectors out.

A moment passed. I noticed Thane clasping his hands together as he silently gazed downward, praying.

I'd once done a research paper on psychopaths. They were supposed to have no empathy for others and shallow emotions. They were perpetual liars and got enjoyment out of doing rash or reckless things. They also responded to stress differently – if a normal person was accosted in the street by a man with a gun, they may shake or urinate themselves. If the same thing happened to a psychopath, they would laugh in their face.

And then I came to a wonderful conclusion:

We were all psychopaths, in a way.

I had to tell HK later. I'd finally figured out what was wrong with us.

"We're ready," Jacob said calmly.

We're psychopaths, I thought happily.

Shepard nodded. "Then let's do this," she said simply. She sighed and looked at us all, rubbing a smudge on her armored forearm. "The Collectors, the Reapers… they aren't a threat to us," she stated. "They're a threat to everything—everyone. Those are the lives we're fighting for. That is the scale. It's been a long journey, and nobody is coming out of this without scars. We've already lost one, and there's no reason we won't lose any more. Things happen, and we've been lucky so far. But we can't afford to slip up, we can't afford to be any less aware of our surroundings than if we didn't know what would happen. It's a trap we've slipped into before. But it all comes down to this moment: we win or lose it all together. Make me proud. Make yourselves proud. Fight like I know you can."

Shepard seemed to falter slightly with her speech. The rumblings on the other side of the door were steadily getting louder.

"And it's been an honor," she said, "living with each and every one of you."

The way she said that last sentence sent a chill up my spine that had nothing to do with the hot, cloying temperature. Her words went beyond the sharing of mere facilities – in my mind, I could see us all sitting on Five, watching a movie to celebrate my birthday. Not fighting for our lives but merely enjoying our lives together. I couldn't exactly see us all growing old together, but the sense of friendship and camaraderie… I liked that.

It had truly been an honor.

"Well said, Commander," Miranda said.

Shepard crossed over to the controls and opened up the interface with a swipe of her omni-tool. The platform jerked beneath my feet as it detached from the outcropping. I stumbled a little, unsteady, and I looked back at the others, suddenly fearful. Most had already turned towards the door, taking their positions, but others continued to watch us. Garrus raised one hand to his temple in a sad, lonesome salute.

With that, we set off. I tried to look one last time at HK, but Jack had his attention as she applied some medi-gel to a wound on his arm.

I got the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that I'd never see him again. I hoped that I was wrong.


It didn't really hit me until we were in the air – this platform? It was vulnerable to the extreme. There was some cover, yes, but when we were surrounded… and then the Reaper would come down on us…

I didn't like this. Not one bit. And if we fell…

You couldn't reload.

I didn't like this at all.

Shepard was steering – I didn't know how she knew where we were supposed to go, but I trusted her. I wasn't going to offer to fly this one. Not this time, at least. We were rising steadily into the air and had floated through a large, spherical opening. I could feel it vibrating under my boots. I could see more of the tubes running along the sides of the wall. There were so many, I didn't even know where to begin. Shepard was following them.

I could hear the sound of distant gunfire behind us; I didn't dare open up my channel to listen into the battle, despite how much I wanted to know what was going on. It would only prove to be a distraction now – if somebody fell (Don't let it be HK, I thought fervently) then I knew I could lose focus. And right now, I needed to focus.

I was terrified for my life. I was shaking, it felt like I couldn't breathe, and I was very glad I'd gone to the bathroom before jumping the Relay. I knew I wasn't the only one in the throes of an intense fight-or-flight reaction, either—in the light of the control panel I could tell that her face was flushed and covered in sweat. Before a fight, Jacob's eyes always dilated and Zaeed's breathing always slowed down, as if he were trying not to pant in front of everybody else.

I tried breathing, but all I could think about was the sense of impending doom coming our way.

And the ringing in the back of my head was getting louder.

"Is anybody else running low on ammo?" Jacob asked in a low voice.

"Yeah," Zaeed said.

"Mmmmhmm."

"Just making sure I'm not the only one." As he spoke, a biotic barrier rippled into existence and shimmered in front of him before fading into an invisible thread between him and the rest of the world.

"Jacob," Shepard said softly, "how were your lessons with Samara going?"

"Pretty good," Jacob asked.

I frowned. What lessons?

"Jacob's been practicing with Samara since our run-in with Morinth," Shepard said, catching my confused look.

"Practicing what?" I asked curiously.

Jacob didn't answer.

"What?" I pressed.

"Contact," Zaeed breathed. His quick ears had picked up what I could not – the sound of another platform, heading our way. "Shepard –"

But Shepard already knew where his mind was going. She had our platform hug the wall and stopped it there before retreating behind cover. The control panel was a position that was way too exposed.

The opposing platform came in from the right bearing three Collectors, any of whom could turn into Harbinger at this very moment. We opened fire, but you could definitely sense the edge of worry belying our every choice. There was no ammo we could possibly use or pick up at the moment, so we were down to what reserves we had, and biotics didn't last forever.

Shepard and Jacob were opting out of the straightforward, Jack-like approach. Though I was confident Shepard at least could have lifted all three with her mind, thrown them over the edge, and been done with it, she was being more crafty. As I watched, the muzzle of an enemy gun swung around and shot the other guy in the foot. As the injured Collector backpedaled, Jacob placed more pressure on his upper body and sent him crashing to the ground with a light shove, gripping the trigger firmly and spreading an arc of fire vertically up the air. It caught his attacker in the face, and he was down for the fight.

Zaeed simply sniped the other one.

Another platform came. Jacob and Shepard worked mostly the same throughout each of them, relying on sneaky, underhanded tricks to conserve their energy. I stayed as close to Shepard as possible just as Zaeed stuck with Jacob. It was all a part of the plan – the guys with the guns stick with the guys with the brains, after all. There had to be a sort of poetic irony in there somewhere.

The platforms were connecting with ours, though, boxing us in. Zaeed shouted, "Advance!" and then we were running to the next ring of cover on the platform in front of us. A moment I will probably never forget as long as I lived –

Zaeed strayed too close to the edge. No warning at all, and then Harbinger flew from the underside like a bat out of hell, his wings breaking off and disintegrating under the stress his possession exacted on the poor Collector's body. Just as his feet hit the ground, Zaeed turned around and punched him right in the face like a bouncer and then kicked him over the edge, a feral gleam in his eye.

"Old bastard's still got it," Jacob laughed.

And then Jacob made a mistake that almost got him killed. I could see it happen, and that made it worse. A scion had joined the party and was advancing steadily with no thought of self-preservation at all. We could've taken it out, but a particle beam from the other end of the platform was keeping up pinned down. Jacob was the closest, and he was the one taking the hardest hits from the scion.

In the game, if you stayed in cover during the Shockwave you would be okay. But that was just developers trying to look for an easy escape for the inexperienced player – no, physics actually played a role here. A shockwave didn't stop just because you huddle next to a metal wall. Shockwaves generally didn't stop at all.

Shepard and Jacob were biotics, so they had protection Zaeed and I simply didn't have. As the scion struck, the two of them worked as a team to deflect the blast. If they hadn't, we all would have toppled off of the edge and the galaxy could kiss itself goodbye. This had the adverse effect of draining their energy, because they couldn't turn to the particle beam guy and take him out since he was too far away. I ended up laying on the ground and peeking out from the bottom edge of cover with my sniper rifle to get a good look, but there was just not a good shot I could take from there without hitting the barriers.

So Jacob had an idea. And Jacob didn't tell us the idea.

I couldn't shoot and I couldn't run. Zaeed had taken out one of his grenades, but he couldn't stand up to throw one. I had a vague recollection of Jacob standing up and charging the scion when he got too close, despite a scream from Shepard. He rammed into the scion like a fullback and sent it over the edge with a blast of biotic energy that I could feel even from my position.

Like a marionette whose strings had been cut, Jacob collapsed just as the Collector with the particle beam shot at him. He rolled off the side of the platform and dangled there from his hands in the most precarious position you could imagine.

I had the presence of mind to turn and snipe down the Collector while his attention was diverted. "Jacob!" Shepard shouted, jumping over cover.

Jacob had pulled himself up to his elbows, and then managed to lift the rest of his body back on to the platform. He grabbed his gun.

"Don't you ever do that again," Commander Shepard barked. "If I see you rush in like that again, you're in deep shit, Taylor, do you understand me?"

"Yeah – sorry, Commander," he said, getting to his feet. "Won't happen again."

"See that it doesn't," Shepard said coldly.

There seemed to be a lull in the combat for now. We used that time to hastily pick up dropped ammo from our kills.

"I was just thinking about the holes in your visions," Shepard said suddenly. "Not the ignorant holes, either."

"I'm sorry?" I panted.

"People who know they can't die won't treat it seriously," she said simply. "They get cocky. Or they twist the future to meet their own ends. Better to go with a game plan that's already been tried-and-tested than try and change it. I don't know how this happened, or where your visions came from," she went on slowly, "but whatever force is behind this... I think it knows what it is doing." I paused. It wasn't like Shepard to get sappy like this, especially at a time like now. "Ashley believed that there is a God," she said slowly. "And I know that Thane believes in several. Me? I'm not sure what to believe. But I strongly feel that some force greater than anything I know-something greater than the Reapers-brought the three of you here to make sure everything turned out alright.

"Abby," she went on, and for a moment I almost thought she was going to pull me into a hug, "you and HK are so young, and yet you understood this better than most of us did at times. And Sarah..." Shepard looked away for a moment.

Jacob finished the unspoken thought for her. "She could have easily spilled the beans at any time," he mused aloud. "She could have done anything to save her own skin."

"Instead, she pointed a gun at Kasumi and went bat-shit crazy on Tuchanka," Zaeed said.

"But she never said more than she should have," Shepard said. "She had some very bad choices, but she never sold us out or told us too much. She never betrayed what she, HK... and you Abby," she said, looking straight into my eyes, "were sent here to do." In her own way, she sounded proud of Sarah as well.

I wasn't really sure of what to say here. "She'd appreciate that."

"This is it; the tubes seem to be leading to that spot," Zaeed said, pointing with one bloodied finger. "EDI, what can you tell us?"

Shepard hit the console. "All of the tubes you see are feeding into an advanced super-structure. It is emitting both organic and non-organic energy signatures. I believe the device they are building… is a Reaper."

"Yes," I said.

The spine was the first thing that came into view, hanging from the skull like a limp mechanical snake. The Reaper was held up by four large, heavy-duty supports filled with an orange, bubbling fluid. The tubes formed a confluence there and veered off in to smaller tubes that connected themselves to various parts of the Reaper's body – underneath steel-blue ribs that measured longer than a football field, into the nasal cavities on a skull-like face, into arms that hung limp, and even smaller ones connected into the base of the spine like some horrible, macabre experiment.

It was so big.

My headache was getting worse – it felt like two knives were being driven into the base of my skull, bringing with them a ringing that made my eyes water. Just being this close to the Reaper was enough to bring me to one knee.

"A human Reaper," Shepard breathed.

"Precisely," EDI's voice confirmed.

There were various platforms connected around a circular base from which I could only suppose the Collector's worked. Our platform slid easily between the fittings like a puzzle piece.

"The Collectors must have processed tens of thousands of humans," EDI continued. "Significantly more will be required to complete the Reaper."

"It's an abomination," Shepard whispered. "We can't let this continue."

"Shoot the tubes with the orange coloring," I said, pointing. "The four of them. They're weak structural levers—if we bring that down, we bring the Reaper down, but that's only one half of the fight."

"And the Collectors just left their Reaper here to go find us?" Shepard asked. "I don't buy it."

"You shouldn't," Jacob said, bringing his sidearm up so fast that his arm became a blur. He fired, and the shot connected with a large Collector head poking out from its perch on top of one of the large tubes. I hadn't even noticed that.

There were Collectors here. They were everywhere, it seemed, crawling along the tubes and down the Reaper's spine like some bizarre mockery of rock-climbing.

And they were all looking at us.

I swore loudly and ducked behind cover, but there was no need. The Collectors were merely workers, and after a while they stopped watching us and continued their assignment like a bunch of busy bees. The fighters had to know soon, then, and after we destroyed the fighters I felt that the workers would become violent as well.

"There must be two-hundred of them," Zaeed said, his assault rifle up and already pressed into his shoulder.

"And there are only four of us," I muttered. "Crap."

"Reinforcements are inbound," EDI informed us.


(HK)

The fight was brutal, more so than I had imagined; in the game, you never really saw much of the battle while Shepard fought the human Reaper, but this time, I got to see everything. Collectors were pouring in through the door like water, and it was up to this small team to stop them.

This small team of experts, I reminded myself. It really showcased how talented all of them were; they'd been through hell, yet they could still fight off the Collector drones like it was nothing. People were wearing themselves out, but they kept going.

And so did I; I may have been strapped on a table for a day or so, but I wasn't going to let that stop me from doing my part. I was behind most of the others with Mordin and Jack; I felt guilty that we'd forgotten about Mordin, and I hoped that he didn't take it personally. There was so much else to cover, his part just slipped into the background. Ironically, the same thing happened when I played Mass Effect 2 for the first time.

But this wasn't a game anymore; I couldn't play through my game again and save him. This time, we just had one chance to make sure Mordin survived.

He was impressive, though; he was undeterred by the fact that we told him that dying was a possibility, and even for a scientist, he was fighting hard. I'd never seen him this charged up – he looked almost irritable.

Jack was still sticking close to me, making sure that I was alright; it touched me. She really did care about me. I was not totally sure where we stood, but I knew that she cared enough about me to march all the way here and rescue me. Few would do that, aside from Abby, Sarah, and Shepard. And I knew I cared about her, in my own way.

We kept pounding at the Collectors; they were trying their hardest, but in the end, we were better. I took out a few on my own, despite the state I was in; Harbinger had been brutal on me, but I could still stand. I could still move. I could still fight.

Garrus and Miranda were coordinating the left and right sides respectively. They actually worked pretty well together, though I supposed that you'd have to in this situation. There was just enough cover along the ground and walls that we could successfully stagger ourselves along the back. We'd only run into trouble if a group of Collectors came in from where Shepard just left, but I had a feeling that she was doing her part to keep them occupied.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Thane snipe down a Collector with a particle beam aimed at Grunt as the krogan turned around and used his shotgun to blast a wide berth to the drell's left. At one point Grunt even used his shotgun like a baseball bat to swing aside a charging husk.

Kasumi had been using her stealth attack to pick off Harbingers mid-change, but after a particularly nasty engagement that involved her using a flashbang to free herself from the clutches of Abominations she stayed further back and picked them off from a distance. When Garrus questioned her health, she mentioned that she'd gotten hit and that she didn't know how bad it was. She slapped omni-gel on it, but we couldn't afford to give her medical attention. I noticed that after that, Samara stayed closer to her than she had been.

"Alert: Another wave appears to be approaching," Legion's mechanical voice warned us. Somehow he had more or less become the watchdog who let everyone know when a new wave was coming in. That actually seemed to be more helpful than not, considering everyone was mostly focused on defending themselves and taking down the current wave.

Miranda lifted an arm and sent a blast of biotic energy into a pair of Collectors who were getting too close for comfort. Mordin and I took down a third and a fourth. The latter was still smoking when it hit the ground.

Jack gritted her teeth and stood tall, and then she began to glow. After a moment, a huge burst of energy seemed to ripple across her form and shoot off of her arms as if her hands had become the nozzle point on a deadly weapon. This was one of the few times I'd actually seen a Singularity formed. It was like a powerful orb of energy that picked up at least six Collectors and drew them towards the center of the orb, holding them there, helpless, until she finally released it from exhaustion.

Jack let out a heavy breath and permitted herself to fall to her haunches, panting. Obviously that had taken a lot out of her and it had been difficult to maintain.

"That was very impressive," Samara remarked. It seemed that we had a moment to breath; the Collectors had relented for the moment. "I have never seen a human biotic quite so powerful."

"I doubt I could have maintained such a powerful Singularity for so long," Miranda commented. Maybe she was jealous, or maybe she was trying to foster some kind of neutral ground with Jack.

Jack huffed, and then pushed herself to her feet. "Well precious, I guess they skipped out on enhancing your biotics when they made your perfect little genes," she sneered.

And that was when I noticed that somehow, during the fight... Jack's skimpy top had fallen off.

I stared for a few split seconds, jaw hanging wide open. "I..." I stopped, before quickly snapping back into action. We had a fight to handle, so it wasn't exactly a time to have another awkward HK/Jack moment.

Besides...strangely enough, I'd gotten used to her...well, sudden movements, even if this one actually wasn't her fault.

"Well," I said with a deep breath. "If you want to fight naked, so be it. Whatever is better for you."

"Well, if we're all going to die," Kasumi quipped, "I guess we all may need one last look anywho."

"I don't understand why you never put on any armor, or at least a decent shirt," Miranda snapped in disgust.

"Dress code schmess code," Jack jeered. "I was only on a Cerberus ship because you people busted me out of prison and Shepard agreed to give me information. I can dress however I fucking want to."

"Alert," Legion interjected, stopping any further commentary or debate in its tracks, "another wave is coming, and this one appears larger than previous waves. We detect at least two dozen Collectors closely followed by three scions and approximately fifteen husks."

Oh boy.

"Well, there's no time to waste," Garrus remarked, as we all returned to our cover positions.

"Commander Shepard has just made contact with the Reaper," EDI reported. "Hopefully, this will help your chances of survival."

"Won't help hers," Garrus muttered. "Keep us in the loop, EDI."

"Come on, we can do it; let's tear them apart," I said.

I looked around, curious as to how everyone was holding up; we all were tired, but we were all doing fairly well. Mainly, I focused on Mordin; he was panting, holding a stitch in his side. A few bullets had gotten through his shields to graze his arms, but he seemed like he was holding up.

He can't die. He just can't.

The Collectors arrived and the battle began once again; gunfire erupted, and I fired a few rounds of shots without even bothering to take cover. Husks and Collectors fell like wildfire, but there were still so many. Far more than before. Samara let off some impressive biotic waves from time to time, and Mordin Incinerated a few, but they were still pouring in.

"Keep going," Garrus shouted above the madness, as he took out another Collector with as much precision as ever. He seemed to be the one trying to keep morale up in Shepard's place. He'd learned from her well. "We can do this, damn it!"

He was right. We could do this.

More poured in, as Legion had warned us, but we were undeterred. "Hello, dead people," Jack panted, before sending out a strong shockwave that knocked a few of them back several feet.

Grunt seemed to be a magnet for husk attacks. "GRAAAAHHHH!" He screamed as he ran through another round of husks, ripping them to shreds once again. His shotgun worked in rhythm, and I could hear his gut-shaking laugh as they fell at his feet.

"Assuming direct control," a voice that I knew all too well announced, and one of the Collectors turned into Harbinger, as per usual. Harbinger began with his usual taunts, while trying to take us down with his typical powers.

But, we wouldn't let him win. Thane began to throw a few of his own own attacks at the possessed Collector, which obviously weakened it. After that, Thane put a few bullets its into its chest. He had such intense, impressive focus.

"This is useless," Harbinger said, as he continued to pound into us. "While you continue on in your pathetic fight, we are tearing your leader apart; Shepard will be stopped. Submit to us now and spare yourselves."

"Not a chance!" Miranda shouted, before throwing out her own impressive biotic attack on Harbinger; it pierced through his barriers like jelly and twisted his chest in such a way that even I felt pain watching that. This was what finally killed the beast. I didn't know if Miranda was trying to show herself up, or was doing it out of loyalty to Shepard; potentially both.

She wasn't so petty anymore. She'd grown a lot. We all had.

The Collectors kept coming, but so did our bullets. I glanced over to see Kasumi vanish. "Now you see me," she said as she disappeared. Seconds later, she appeared in between two Collectors and sliced them both across the neck with her electrically-charged omni-tool before disappearing yet again.

Everyone was truly at their best right now.

I looked over at Mordin again; he looked a lot more tired and drug down than he had when the Collectors first arrived. He had also been doing his best, but it was taking it's toll on him; I almost thought I saw a few trails of blood, and I heard his shields get taken down several times during the battle. He was still alive, still fighting.

He fired continuously at one Collector, and once it fell, he quickly Incinerated another.

"Taken care of!" he shouted triumphantly.

However, despite Mordin's top-notch fighting, I could still tell that he was wearing down, and fast. Could he take much more of this?

"Mordin," I yelled, taking a break from my own attacks. I was beginning to feel tired and worn down myself. "Are you alright?"

"Yes. Doing fine. Recommend focusing on battle!" Mordin yelled back.

I sighed, and turned to face forward, before firing at another Collector. I quickly reloaded my gun and took out a few more, before zooming downwards as several bullets flew my way.

Thankfully, they missed.

"Shields down," Mordin announced.

Again, I glanced over to see a few bullets hit Mordin, and I heard him groan in pain. He stayed standing, and kept fighting, but every second that went by, he was slowly getting worse.

I couldn't let him die. I refused to come this far and let anyone on this crew die.

"Jack," I said, quickly looking over at her as she tossed another wave of biotics at the Collectors. My mind was working fast, and I couldn't believe what I was thinking, but I was already determined. "We need to speak. Now."

She looked sharply in my direction, gritting her teeth as she aimed her pistol and shot a husk right between the eyes. She was much better at biotics than with a weapon most of the time, but she was obviously skilled. And she had to do something else whenever her biotics needed to recharge. "What?" she snapped distractedly.

"We don't have much time. This has to be quick, but I can't do this without speaking to you first," I told her. This may sound random to her, but I didn't care. "Mordin's going to die within minutes, I'm sure, if we don't do something. If I don't do something."

Now Jack turned and glared at me. She glanced around, and then she ducked into cover beside me. "What are you saying?" she demanded. "Don't tell me you're going to do something stupid on me. Not when... I..." Her voice actually cracked and her face twisted for a moment as she struggled to keep herself composed. She was so used to being tough, to not letting anyone see her more sensitive side... her heart.

"Don't do anything stupid," she finally said. Her voice was a couple of octaves softer than it usually was. "HK... I was worried sick about you after you were... taken by those fucking bastards."

It did hurt me to see her this way; she had poured so much into rescuing me. Jack had. The woman that once seemed like she had no heart. "Jack, I know...and I can't tell you how much I appreciate that. I...care about you like no other," I admitted to her, as odd as it sounded. "I love everyone in different ways. But my relationship with you is definitely...unique. I need you to know that first and foremost. I'm sorry for how I've treated you at times, but in the end...I truly do care about you."

I saw something in her eyes. A gleam of moisture gathering in the corners of her eyelids-she swiped the tears away in an impatient brush of her hand. "Fuck you," she hissed, and then gripped me in a firm hug.

I gripped her back, for a few seconds, but I knew time was of the essence. However, as ridiculous as it may seem, as cliché...there was something I had to do. I pulled back, slightly, before pulling Jack into a kiss, and I threw almost everything I had, almost all the love and passion I had, into that kiss. It was like some stupid romance movie...but in the end, it was true.

Jack seemed to savor the moment as much as I did. In a strange way, those precious few seconds seemed to last for an eternity as time slowed down around us... and yet the insistent sounds of gunfire and shouts made me all-too-aware that time was slipping by, and we couldn't stay like this forever.

When our lips finally parted, Jack breathed heavily and whispered something into my ear.

"HK... I love you." She placed a hand on the back of my neck and I felt her pressing her cheek against mine.

"I...love you too," I told her as we both pulled back. I glanced at Mordin; he was getting hit hard. There was barely any time left. I looked back at her. "Do me a few favors, and...don't hate Abby or anything. She's one of my best friends, and is a great person if you get to know her yourself. And...defeat the Reapers for me."

I looked again at Mordin; the salarian was refusing to back down, and continued to shoot down Collectors, but they refused to stop hammering him. I didn't know if they knew that he was close to going down, but they were determined to make him go down. Everyone else was still focused on taking down their own targets.

"Up high!" Miranda shouted. Collectors were beginning to take flight around the battlefield, trying to get behind our perimeter.

"And one last thing," I told her, looking back at her. My nerves were welling up, but I had to do this. "I'm going to intercept the next bullets for Mordin; take that chance to get him down before they have a chance to regroup."

"No you DON'T." Jack gripped me firmly by the shoulders. "You already put me through hell once, and I made sure I got you back." She gritted her teeth; her face was contorted with anger, but there was something else in her eyes. Sadness... even fear. She was scared. Afraid to lose me.

"If I have to put you in a fucking stasis field to keep you safe I'll do it!" she threatened.

I looked at her, with the most sympathy in my eyes. I hated this. "Jack, we don't have time for this," I told her, the desperation starting to show in my eyes. "I appreciate everything you've done, and I'm not throwing that away. I never would. But if there's one goal we always had, or one goal that I always had, it was that everyone survived. Mordin's not going to die, and neither are you. I care too much about all of you to let that happen. Fight for me; do this for me," I begged. I pleaded. "Shepard and the crew need you more now than they need me."

Jack's face twisted with a mixture of emotions-anger, grief, indecision. Then she scowled, and turned away from me. She rushed in Mordin's general direction, casting one final look over her shoulder at me before she focused on where she was going.

However, she was delayed; she was quickly overrun by another wave of husks. She roared a battle cry and dealt with them swiftly, but not quickly enough. A deadly Collector with a particle beam weapon was advancing on Mordin, and the salarian didn't look like he was going to last much longer. I knew I needed to do something, now.

A Scion's tore a path through the carnage – Mordin was knocked out of cover. Instead of scrambling to his feet, he lay there, unmoving. The stillness of his body spoke volumes.

And somehow, I knew it was all going to come down to this, ever since I realized how close to death Mordin was.

Now, there truly was no time to waste.

Without a second, fearful and hesitant thought, I took a huge leap, probably the most important leap of my life, and charged at a rapid pace to the area between Mordin and the Collector assassin. Arriving at just the right time, I suddenly felt the particle beam go straight through me amongst the rest of the chaos.

I let out a scream; it felt worse than any of the torture methods that Harbinger had ever inflicted on me, or any other gunshot wound that I'd ever taken. Or maybe it was just because I'd been so torn down already.

Yet, strangely, I almost felt...peaceful. I knew this was the right thing to do.

The pain only got worse; the Collector wasn't letting up. I felt the particle beam penetrate my skin, destroying any sort of outer layer in the process; the light was blinding me, but I could feel blood coming out. I could feel my organs getting crushed by this beam. I yelled out again. After all of the torture, all of the fighting, I couldn't take much more.

It continued for what felt like seconds longer until suddenly it stopped. I collapsed to the ground, unable to stand any longer; everything was a blur, but I could tell that someone had taken the Collector assassin down. I could still hear fighting, but it was dying out ever so slightly.

"HK'S DOWN!" somebody shouted.

The world was swirling around me, and I felt awful; I could barely breathe. It was finally hitting me: I was in the last moments of my life. I could vaguely see several people rushing to my side.

"KEEP THE PERIMETER!" Garrus was shouting.

"Mordin," I managed to cough out. "Is... he alive?"

"He's alive," I heard a voice say. It sounded like Miranda. "Thanks to you."

"HK..." Jack said. I could vaguely see her leaning over me. "Don't you die on me!" Did I see

tears streaking down her face?

"Doesn't look good," Mordin said. I could see him leaning over me on the other side, blood crusting the side of his face, which was bruised darkly. "Injury severe... fatal." He sucked in a breath through his nostrils. "Won't live much longer," he analyzed bluntly.

"No, just shut up and do something!" Jack snapped.

"Applying medi-gel now," Mordin supplied. "Won't do much good. I do not have access to replacement organs or emergency life-support out here. Surprised he's still conscious."

"Mordin, you need to take care of yourself," I told him between heavy breaths. "You were injured enough."

"Foolish move," Mordin said. "Shouldn't have done that. I'm old. Told you I was prepared to die. You were young, had life ahead of you."

I shook my head, just barely. "It wasn't foolish, it was...right."

"Joker," Miranda's voice said. She must have patched into the comm; I still heard fighting, but not too much. "HK down, is there any safe route you can give us back to the ship?"

"Not sure what's going on with Shepard right now; I think she's got enough going on as it is," Joker said hurriedly. "Come on HK, man, you can't die. I don't know if Abs could take that!"

Even Joker sounded slightly upset. It touched me, even in my fragile state. "Abby is strong; tell her that she... meant a lot to me. She can go forward and do better."

Tali's voice came through the comm. Apparently she was in the cockpit with Joker and EDI. "Damn it, don't give up!"

"I'm not giving up, Tali," I assured her. "I'm just...doing what I needed to do. Maybe it's how this was meant to end for me."

I felt myself getting weaker; I felt the world fading more and more. I looked at Jack, the best I could. "Jack...I'm sorry."

She said nothing for a few long seconds. Finally she embraced me, and then supported my head with one hand as she looked into my eyes. She was getting my blood all over her bare chest but she didn't seem to care. "You mean a lot to me," she said. "Just... thank you, for showing me that there are... are some good people out there." She shut her mouth and her lower lip trembled.

"You mean a lot to me, too," I told her honestly, trying to smile. "Thank you for showing me...a lot of things. More than you know."

"You'll be missed, HK. More than you know," Miranda admitted, and I could even hear sadness in her voice. It meant a lot to me.

"Thank you. All of you. I'll miss all of you," I said, coughing again. I could feel myself falling apart. I looked at Jack again. "Like I said...defeat the Reapers for me."

"Kalihira," Thane's voice whispered through the comm, "goddess of oceans and the afterlife... I beg you to embrace HK's soul as he leaves his body and accept him as he joins Sarah and every other soul who has departed from their flesh." He paused briefly. "For surely," he continued, "he and Sarah are two profits of the gods."

"That is a very touching sentiment," Kasumi said, her voice low and thick with emotion. "Garrus, I'm going to circle around and take out that sniper. Cover me."

"Affirmative."

"I said the same prayer over Sarah's body after her passing," Thane admitted.

"Thank you, Thane. I...truly do appreciate it," I said honestly. It was very kind, and meant a lot to me.

I felt myself continuing to fade out of the world; I was still in pain, but it was starting to go away as I started to go away. I didn't bother to fight it; I simply laid back, in Jack's arms, and let it take me.

Dear Heavenly Father, I thought to myself. Now it was time to talk to my own God. I...hope I did you right. I hope I brought glory to you in the best way possible; I've had a long life, full of mistakes, but I've tried my best to serve you. You died for me on a cross; now I'm dying for someone else. Save me, forgive me of my sins...I love you. Thank you for giving me so much. I'm happy to join you and Sarah now.

That, above all else, was the most important thing I needed to do. Again, I laid back, as I felt myself drift away; my life was flashing through my eyes. Memories of my friends at school. Memories of my family at our old house; me and my sisters playing. My mother taking so many pictures of us. Us moving into our new house... my memories with my grandmother. My memories with my father. My memories with all of my friends... my memories at Church, my memories of praising God. My memories of loving Him and others. My memories of all the chaos online, both good and bad... all the fun. All the best things. All of my memories of this universe. All the fun and good things with my friends in this universe. Yes, it had been a good life.

With all of that thought and said, the pain started to get greater, but I ignored it; slowly, but surely, I felt myself finally drift into the light.