I'm back! Yeah, sorry for the long delay. I'm a bad person, I know. Had so many things to do, and mostly it was my job sucking the life out of me by... well, sucking. Shitty job, ugh. Anyway, I finally completed this thing! Since you waited so long for this chapter, I'll save all I have to say for later! Enjoy the chapter!
We drop down into the elevator through the hatch and the door automatically opens before us, revealing the Council chambers. Or what's left of them. As they are now, I don't see any meetings being held here anytime soon.
The trees are on fire, all the lights are off, leaving the flames as the only source of light, casting an orange glow over the entire large chamber. On the farthest side, a bright light is coming through the large window, being the only source of light not depending on a power source.
We file out into the room, weapons ready for action. I remember clearly that there were geth here but... it's too silent. They might be hiding, or something. Carefully, but as fast as possible, we move further into the room and rise up the first set of stairs. Still, no geth. They should be here but, well, they're not. Weird. Maybe we killed them all in our grand assault? They might've went to reinforce the defenses... either way, why am I complaining? Less problems for us!
Seeing that nothing was trying to stop us, we increase our speed. We reach the second set of stairs without incident, and then reach the final one, and still, there's no sign of anyone. No sign of Saren too. We run up the final set of stairs and I just manage to catch a glimpse of something dropping down. Oh! There's Saren! And if I remember correctly...
Before I can finish that line of thought, a humming noise interrupts me and Saren rises up on his weird hover-board thing and tosses something at us. Oh yeah! A grenade! I jump to the side and out of the way without wasting time. I land out in the open, more feeling than seeing the explosion, and I quickly scramble behind some cover, one of the podium's rails.
"I was afraid you wouldn't make it in time, Shepard," Saren remarks conversationally.
"I'm sorry, the elevators leave much to be desired," Shepard replies in kind. "now let's end this!"
"You've lost, you know that, don't you?" Saren continues, not impressed at all at her witty shot at the elevator speed. "In a few minutes, Sovereign will have full control over the Citadel's systems. The relay will open. The Reapers will return."
"I've still got a few trick up my sleeve," Shepard shoots back from her not-that-hidden location. I have to wonder why Saren is not tossing another grenade at her. It's not like that rail will protect her that much.
"You survived our encounter on Virmire. But I've changed since then. Improved. Sovereign has... upgraded me."
"You let Sovereign implant you?!" Shepard asks incredulously and voices the same thing that crosses my mind at the moment. "Are you out of your fucking mind?!"
"I suppose I should thank you, Shepard. After Virmire, I couldn't stop thinking about what you said. About Sovereign manipulating me. About indoctrination... doubts began to eat away at me. Sovereign sensed my hesitation and I was implanted to strengthen my resolve," he clenches a fist at that last word, and the slight hesitation that was in his voice as he explained the implants vanished. "Now, my doubts are gone -"
"And that's exactly what he did, moron!" I yell out before I could stop and immediately wince soon after, since Saren turned his attention to me. Oh, damn! I should've kept my mouth shut. I was hoping Shepard would make him shoot himself or something, but his stupidity is just... impossible to handle. "Don't you see? He's already controlling you through your implants!"
"The relationship is symbiotic!" Saren counters. "Organic and machine intertwined, a union and flesh and steel. The strengths of both, the weaknesses of neither!" he turns back to Shepard. "I am the vision of the future, Shepard. The evolution of all organic life. This is our destiny. Join Sovereign and experience true rebirth!"
Yeah, as if she needs Sovereign to experience a rebirth... damn, that's something I don't want to think about at the moment. "The future? You're just giving up and letting him kill us all! There's no future for any of us if the Reapers get here! Where's your goddamn turian pride?!"
Saren actually flinches at that. Yeah, for a turian, that's pretty much an unfair blow, but I don't care. I've learned a lot about turians in all the time I hanged out with Joe. Turians are essentially warriors, and they're very proud of it, and they take the whole thing seriously. Turians simply do not surrender. That's a fact. Against hostilities, even the civilians will pick up their weapon to fight, women, children and old. They simply never surrender willingly, and that is a universal fact. A turian that surrenders is a coward, and doesn't deserve to be considered a person, because he's an insult to the whole race.
Shepard simply takes advantage of his moment of weakness. "Sovereign hasn't won yet! I can stop it from taking control of the station! Step aside and the invasion will never happen!"
"We can't stop it!" Saren snaps. "Not forever! You saw the visions! You saw what happened to the Protheans! The Reapers are too powerful!"
"Some part of you must still realize this is wrong! You can fight this!" she yells heatedly.
Saren looks down in thought, conflicting ideas basically warring in his head. "Maybe you're right... maybe, there's a chance –Ugh!" in an instant he freezes, his body tenses and a pain-filled growl escapes him as he grabs hold of his head. He thrashes around for a moment before he stops and looks at Shepard. "The implants..." he growls out in pain. "Sovereign is too strong... I'm sorry, it's too late for me."
Shepard stands up at that and faces Saren, out in the open. "It's not over yet! You can still redeem yourself!"
Saren looks at her for a long moment, his platform slowly rising higher and away from her, until he chuckles. A humorless chuckle. Full of bitterness and defeat. I know what's coming... and I'm honestly unable to feel joy at that. "Goodbye Shepard," Saren says quietly, but loud enough for everyone to hear. "Thank you."
And with one swift movement, he raises his pistol to his jaw and pulls the trigger.
Shepard flinches at the sudden end of Saren and silently watches his body topple off his flying platform and drops through the glass into the garden below the podium. She stands like this, frozen in place for a couple of seconds before she shakes it off and moves over to the Citadel controls. We silently follow after her. I honestly have nothing to say at what happened. She activates her omni-tool and uploads Vigil's program. "It worked! I've got control over the station," she announces, though her voice is slightly subdued.
"Quick, open the station's arms. Maybe the fleet can take Sovereign down," Tali says urgently.
Shepard nods and goes back to her omni-tool. At first, the only thing that's heard is static but she fiddles with for a few seconds until until a voice breaks through the static. "... the Destiny Ascension. Main drives offline. Kinetic barriers down 40%. The Council is on board. I repeat, the Council is on board!"
Shepard then switches channels and a very familiar voice is heard. "Normandy to the Citadel! Normandy to the Citadel! Please tell me it's you, Commander!"
"I'm here Joker!"
"We caught that distress call, Commander. I'm sitting here in the Andura sector with the entire Arcturus fleet. We can save the Ascension! Just unlock the relays around the Citadel and we'll send the cavalry in."
"Are you sure about this Shepard? The Council haven't been very helpful to you" Wrex rumbles.
"Not to mention the human casualties if you send them in now..." Tali adds.
"This is bigger than humanity! Sovereign is a threat to every organic being in the galaxy!" Liara interrupts, looking scandalized at the thought of sacrificing the Council.
"Exactly. That's why you can't just waste fresh reinforcement," Wrex counters.
"But... it's the Council! We can't just let them die!" Garrus points out.
Shepard looks conflicted at all this as she looks at everyone and weighs their suggestions. And then, she looks at me, the only one who hasn't said a thing. Everyone else looks at me too, as if I'm the deciding voice in this argument. Aw, shit. I... I don't want responsibility for this! I have no idea what to say. This isnt the game, where you can shrug it off and wonder what'll change in the sequel. "Just... do what you think is right," I finally say.
"What's the order Commander? Do we save the Ascension, or do we hold back?"
Shepard's silent for a long moment. Then she visibly steels herself and looks out of the window. "Opening the relays now, Joker. We need to save the Ascension. No matter the cost."
Wrex grumbles something in reply, probably not pleased about he decision. And I hear Tali mutter something along the lines of "I hope you know what you're doing..."
With the decision made, Shepard steps over to the edge and glances at Saren's body. "Make sure he's dead," she finally says, giving me a glance.
Oh, that's up to me, I guess. Wrex wordlessly volunteers and follows me as I step off the podium and jump down through the now shattered glass. I land with a grunt and slowly approach Saren's body.
I'm... not going to lie and say that I don't hate Saren. Because I do. For many things. For beating me senseless. For beating everyone senseless. For everyone he killed. For Kaidan. Mostly for Ashley. But I just can't... I can't be angry at him. It's weird like that. Usually hatred is accompanied by anger, but not in this case. I hate him, but I can't bring myself to be angry at the moment. If anything... I feel sorry for him. Sorry, that for all the things he tried to accomplish, he's done nothing good. Sorry that once he realized what he's done, and that he can stop it... it was too late.
And now, he's lying in the ground in front of me, in a puddle of his own blood, I can also feel a small bit of pity. Saren Arterius was one of the greatest Spectres of the galaxy. Somehow... I believe that he deserved better than what happened to him. Without much enthusiasm, I pull out my pistol and aim it at Saren's head, and pull the trigger once. For some reason, it feels right to do this. Wrex calmly tells Shepard that he's dead.
"This was for Ashley..." I mutter under my breath.
Saren Arterius is dead.
The thing we'll be facing in a minute is just a shell, with nothing of the once-great Spectre left in it.
Speaking of the devil, that red spark that shot across Saren's body really doesn't look good. Another spark shot out. Then another, quickly followed by a dozen more. Awwww, shit! The station starts to shake violently. Then... Saren's body starts screaming as whatever skin remained on him started burning. Oh, hell no! I open fire, hoping that maybe that'll solve the problem. Sadly, it does nothing and Saren – no, Sovereign – unleashes a bright red shockwave that knocks me back. A ruckus from behind me, quickly followed by strong vibrations tell me that the podium where everyone was standing has just collapsed.
Saren's body stands up, thrashing violently as it slowly... changed. Claws grew sharper and longer. Skin and organic matter disintegrated. Within seconds the thing that was once Saren finished his transformation turns to us, red electrical sparks dancing around his body, and a ball of bright red energy inside of his ribcage. Without any need for an order, everyone raises their weapons.
And then he jumps.
In the blink of an eye, he clears the distance to us and lands in front of Liara, who barely manages to raise her rifle by that moment. With one movement, he backhands her across the chest and sends her flying into the wall.
This all happened so fast that no one even registered the fact that we haven't even shot a single time at him. We just stand in place, and look at him in awe and horror. I glance at collapsed form of Liara, who hasn't moved after she hit the wall. I'm not sure who was the first who shook off the shock, but a moment later, rounds started flying all over the place. But Saren, or Sovereign, Or SoveSaren or whatever, already jumped away like a demented cybernetic grasshopper and his voice, a distorted, broken version of it, was heard throughout the room.
"I am Sovereign! And this station is MINE."
Holy crap! I switch my pistol in favor of my rifle and start shooting. I'm pretty sure I'm not hitting anything because that shit's fucking impossible! One moment he's there in front of me, then he's on the ceiling and then he's strafing us while crawling in a very disturbing manner.
After several moments of missing, I finally manage to land a few hits on him when he pauses in place to shoot a bright orb or red energy at Wrex. Not that it did anything to him. His shields barely even shimmered at the impact of the rounds. It got his attention though. He turns his glare at me and a second later, my rifle literally explodes in my hand with a bright flash of sparks!
I bit down the scream of pain as the charred remains of my weapon fall down to the floor. When it exploded, apparently some parts of it flew right into my hands, because they sting! And judging by how they look from the glance I took, they're bleeding too.
What the fuck was that!? Since when was he able to blow up weapons?! This is worse than the cooldown bug!
Fuck it, I'm taking my shotgun. I jump back into the fray. I don't see Garrus, which worries me greatly, but I don't have time for this. I just keep shooting. That's the only thing I can do. My hands sting, but that's almost like a background feeling for me. If anything, I'm dizzy from turning around in place trying to pinpoint the bastard, or running away when he lands too close to me.
It keeps going like this until he lands in front of Shepard, his arm rearing back for a blow, that his shields finally took enough. He has his back turned to me, so I have the advantage. The shotgun blast makes him move a step and interrupts his attack, allowing Shepard to get some distance from him. I pull the trigger again and this time the shower of sparks that shoot out from his back when the rounds connect with him again. And again, and then some more!
It doesn't do much damage to him, but it certainly pisses him off, judging by the ominous way he slowly turns to look at me. Oh, fuck. Ohh... shit. He jumps over at me. Oh, fuuuck! I shoot him again, this time in the face, but he just shrugs it off! A glowing red orb of energy gathers where his mouth should be and it quickly shoots it at me. I'm too close to him. I can't dodge. So I do the only thing I can do. I hold my arms in front of me, shotgun first and let them take most of the damage instead of anything important.
The next thing I know is a lot, a lot of pain. And I'm unable to see anything too, because once the bright ball hits me, it erupts into blinding light. It's almost as if someone's clawing off the skin on my arms, and then shoves knives into every spot there is. As if my arms are on fire. And I'm pretty sure they are. Once the light fades, I can see that my arms are on fire!
And through my burning arms, I can still see Saren, his arm like a dark blur, shooting out to him me. The next thing's on fire is my face. I can't even scream at this point. From the way my arms fly out, I'm pretty sure I'm flying and spinning. I can hear someone yelling my name and then I hit something and then... everything just fades.
The first thing I hear is gunshots. So... I'm pretty sure the battle is still going on. I'm feeling... tired. Maybe I should just go to sleep... an explosion shakes off that idea, though I must note that the sound is... dimmed. As if I'm underwater. Ugh, can't sleep while this is happening. Eeehhh, I don't feel so good. I open my eyes and immediately regret it. My vision is hazy, and something is definitely wrong with it. I roll over and by sheer miracles manage to get myself to a sitting position. My dizziness gets worse. I want to puke my guts out. My whole head feels... numb, as if it's dead weight. My visor is cracked for some reason. Ugh, I can't see anything like this. I reach for my head and pull off my helmet.
And what a bad idea it is. Pain immediately flares in my head once I pull off the helmet and bile rises up my throat and pours out of my mouth. I finally catch my breath after a few hacking coughs and I spit out the taste out of my mouth, and then I realize just how fucked up my physical state is. First of all, there's blood in the vomit. Then, while my vision is still blurry and hazy, I can't really fully see. More accurately, the right side of my vision is missing. Slowly, with a shaking hand, I touch that side of my face and immediately hiss in pain and flinch at the wave of nausea it produces. I look back at the hand to see it completely coated in blood.
Speaking of my hands... how the hell are they still working? Almost up to the shoulders they look to be... almost charred. The armor is gone, melted, and I can easily see the red of meat and blood between the black that used to be the skin. How the hell I'm not dying from pain anyway? The most I feel is some kind of pressure in my head, and I honestly can't really feel my arms that well.
Back to the matter of my damaged face, I look at the helmet I dropped to the floor and turn it around, so I could see the front of it. First thing I can think of: Ouch. There are a couple of wide gashes on it, one of them going through where the right eye is supposed to be. Ah. That explains why I can't see.
…
Fuck.
I look at the battle – or try to – and see the blurry shape that I assume is Shepard (there's some red on the head, and Shepard has red hair) shooting the glowing thingy that is Saren. The big shape is Wrex, no mistake about it, and... where is everyone else? There were other too... Garrus and Tali... thinking makes my head hurt. I reach out to my hip and manage to feel my pistol there.
I'm not out of the fight just yet.
I grab it, and stand up. Or try to. I end up falling to the floor, my head erupting with another crippling wave of pain. Once it fades I try to stand up again, this time more slowly, I finally manage to stand on my feet.
Saren slaps away Wrex, who tries to charge him, and focuses on Shepard, who resorts to her shotgun. Probably blew up her rifle or something, or whatever. She blasts him one step away from her, but that doesn't stop him. His back is turned to me again. "Hey Saren!" I yell out and pull the trigger. Well, I try to yell it, but the thing that comes out of my mouth sounds more like "Hesaren!"
The first shot doesn't even come close to hitting him. I don't think I'm even aiming at him. I don't think I'm capable of aiming at the moment, so I just shoot at his general direction. Each step I take towards him makes me want to drop down and sleep, or vomit. Or both at the same time. With each step, my aim only gets worse and with each shot I find it more difficult to even hold the pistol up. By some stupid luck, or a miracle, one of the wide shots lands right on the side of his head. He freezes and looks at me. Oh yeah, I'm still alive. "Hey! Christmas tree!" I yell again, not caring how slurred my speech is.
Saren turns to face me, but then something blue jumps on it, and tackles it away from me. I assume it's Garrus, because he's the only one wearing blue. Or maybe it's Liara? Probably Garrus. I can't see Liara doing a flying tackle. Saren pushes Garrus away but then a female roar is heard, and both mine and Saren's attention is turned over to Shepard, who charges at the distracted Saren with biotics wildly flaring around her first. Saren spins around to stop Shepard but he's too late. She already cleared the distance and slams the biotic punch in a brutal uppercut into his remaining jaw. His head snaps back, hard enough that the back oh his head slammed against his back, and used her free hand, which held the shotgun, to shove the weapon right into his rib cage, where the glowing thing was. Saren's head snapped back to look at her with a mechanical roar, but Shepard simply pulls the trigger.
There's a small explosion that blows Shepard back, but the glowing thing is gone now, and Saren clumsily steps back a couple of times, wildly flinging his arms this way and that way until he stumbles and drops to the floor, where he slowly disintegrates into ashes.
I blink blearily at the bright lights and suddenly find it very hard to stand. I let the pistol drop to the floor and turn to look at everyone else. Or try to. When it turn my head I lose my balance and start falling down. Thankfully, I only start falling. Someone catches me and keeps my upright and the red color I see tells me it's Shepard. Or maybe it's just my blood. It is all over the place after all. She places herself under my shoulder to keep me standing and I allow myself to slightly lean on her, because standing makes things hurt. I look at her, and she looks back at me. Yeah, this isn't good, judging by the wide-eyed and horror-filled look she's giving me. She finally tears her eyes away from me and looks at the others. "Pick them up! See if they're okay!" she barks out, her loud voice making my ears ring.
Then, a mighty explosion rocks the station and a shadow blocks all the light. Shepard turns to look at the window and her eyes widen to impossible proportions. I do the same and I see something black, which can only be the pieces of Sovereign, flying over to our location.
Immediately, Shepard starts pulling me along with her as fast as she can. "Go!" She yells and I spot Wrex helping a dazed-looking Tali. I assume Garrus is doing the same with Liara. Shepard's pulling me faster and faster, but it's not working. I can't run. I can't even stand. I'm slowing her down. So I do the only thing I can do at the moment. I grab her hand and remove it and then use all the strength I have to push her forward. This sends her hurtling forward and without anything to brace me I fall down to the floor. Maybe now I'll get some sleep...
"Alex!" I hear her panicked scream. I don't really care at the moment. I'm too tired...
The deafening sound of something big crashing into the place is the last thing I hear.
Yeeeeeep! You guessed it! Next chapter is the LAST ONE! By the gods, I can't believe it. I actually got close to finishing this in such a short time. I honestly had no idea at first how long it'll take me, but damn. 1 year is short in my books. Anyway, next chapter is the last one! I'll try finishing it sooner than possible, but with these holidays in Russia, it's difficult because I'm constantly WORKING during holidays. Fucking job... Anyway, I'll complete it once I complete it. Be patient, at least a little. Won't take me over a month, that's for sure. Maximum of two weeks.
Note: Changed that annoying typo. Just EVERYONE had to comment on it. No. Saren dying did NOT change his gender.
Oh! And because I'm pretty sure that 60% of the reader DON'T read the AN's..
I TURN ON ABSOLUTE CAPS MODE SO YOU WILL SEE IT! READ THIS READ THIS READ THIS READ THIS READ THIS! READ THE THING BELOW THIS ONE!
YES. FOR THE 137TH TIME, I WILL BE MAKING A SEQUEL! AS I SAID IN THE LAST CHAPTER'S AN'S, AND THE AN'S IN THE CHAPTER BEFORE THE ALST ONE, YES, I WILL BE WRITING A SEQUEL. STOP ASKING ME THIS QUESTION. WHY DOESN'T ANYONE READ MY AN'S ANYWAY? THIS IS ABSURD. I HOPE YOU CAN READ THIS. I REPEAT, THERE WILL BE A SEQUEL!
Ah, now that I got this out of my system, I'll go play some LoL, lose because of a retarded team, drink some Pepsi and enjoy some cookies. Thanks for reading this story! I'm very glad you enjoy it! Your reviews and words always inspire me to write this as fast as I can! So, thank you again! Next chapter is the last one! Wooohoo! until next time, Delvaro out!
