This is going to be a bit harder than I thought.

Shepard inspected the courtyard from an open window with the extra sniper that Lortelle was carrying. Even though he knew what the place looked like given the camera feeds from the control center below, being here now in person to see their opposition proved worrying at best.

But at least now many of the enemy ships above had dispersed, perhaps to give chase on the sniper squads, giving Shepard a somewhat clear sky. He could only presume that the squads must have taken the ships up in guerilla warfare, and were keeping them occupied until he could give the call for a full distraction.

"What do we do, sir?" Tracks asked, also inspecting the courtyard with his sniper. It was littered with plenty of Rogues.

"I don't know," Shepard admitted. There were a lot of enemies for just three people to try to take down. Sure, he could take more than twice of them on any day if he could still run and had Tali and Garrus on his team. Not that Tracks and Lortelle weren't good fighters, but he didn't have the same bond with them as he did with the others.

Something about rescuing the victims from being brainwashed reminded Shepard of everything he learned from the past four years, one being that the loyalty and friendship with others is what gets you through the toughest missions. Anything less and you'll end up dead and alone, either from betrayal or from teammate hesitation.

The Collector base and watching his clone fall to his death back on the Citadel taught him that.

But if there's something else that he learned back then, it's that loyalty does not come freely. Same with trust. If he was going to make it through this fight, then he needed Tracks and Lortelle to stay close, and that meant initiating confidence in them. Sure, they were unbelievably neutral, but throughout the mission, he couldn't help but feel lucky to have them by his side.

"What do you think, Tracks? How should we approach this?"

"I don't know, sir. I just shoot when you tell me to," he answered with a slight yawn to his voice.

Shepard paused. He was going to need to rethink this. He wasn't going to get anywhere by asking the less important questions. Perhaps he had to try something a little deeper. With a sigh, he tried again.

"You have anyone important that's been affected by these guys?" He asked, gesturing to the Rogue soldiers in front of them.

The last thing Shepard wanted was to get personal. He didn't know how the marksman would react to a question like that. But right now, there was no other way to gain trust without getting personal. No way other than by showing kindness and sacrificing your time or your life to help them in a time of need, and Shepard wasn't just going to wait around until the marksman started getting shot at.

"Other than the prisoners, then no, sir. Just doing my job," the marksman replied, his voice unwavering and lacking any hint of hiding anything.

Shepard sighed again. He was starting to wonder why he even bothered. Something happened to them for sure that made them this way, but there were things that even he couldn't fix.

"Well, I just wanted to let you know that I meant what I said on the elevator," He continued. "You guys are good teammates, so if you need help, you guys better yell for it. I don't want to bury any friends today."

Tracks head shifted for a moment, visibly thinking on what he said. Shepard didn't know if he managed to get through to him, but it was a start, and anything was better than nothing.

"That goes to you, too, Lortelle. I want you guys alive," he called to the heavy soldier who had been listening patiently, extending the same offering of camaraderie to him.

"Yes...sir," the heavy replied, a little less immediate.

Shepard readjusted himself in his seat for the quiet moment that passed afterward.

The fireteam couldn't quite get an angle on the assassin, P4, or the pod he was guarding. Both were protected by support arches on one side from the courtyard to the tower. But what they did manage to get an angle on was the big box covered in a black tarp that was escorted by the troopers from earlier. It was sitting on the other side of the tower entrance.

The "boss's Ultimatum," they called it.

Once he saw it, he knew it was one of the things that was going to make killing P4 a little tricky. Because what he once thought before was a component to the Life Emulator, it was now something that looked a fair bit more sinister.

Shepard didn't know what was in the box, and frankly, he was scared to find out. With coming from a terrorist organization like the Rogue Faction, and with how ruthless their assassin leader is...whatever was in that box could be anyone's guess. But the idea of what it could be frightened the hell out of him. Which made getting Tali and Garrus out that much more important.

Needless to say, he had to guess that the tarp-covered box was one big bomb.

So killing P4 being a little tricky was actually a major understatement. Because now the assassin had every advantage.

No matter how Shepard sliced it, all he could see was a lose-lose situation. If the box was a bomb, going after it would likely end with the assassin holding a gun to Garrus, and on the flip side, going after Garrus meant the assassin would have a trigger hold on the bomb.

The predicament also brought something else to Shepard's attention. The entrance to the courtyard was clear, and the formation of the enemy combatants made an empty path in between themselves and lead to the tower's front steps.

It was clear now what P4 wanted. A chance for the Assassin to give the Savior of the Galaxy some kind of dramatic choice.

Why would it be anything different? Shepard thought to himself irritably. Still, I doubt they wouldn't just shoot me on sight.

"We're going to need to thin the herd around that, 'Ultimatum,'" Shepard said, pointing out the box to his team. "Whatever it is, it can't be good."

His team acknowledged the statement with a nod, planting their weapons close to their shoulders and waiting for the next word. It didn't matter how ready they were, so far there was no resolution to this puzzle. As of right now, they were in way over their heads.

We need to cut through all of them quickly.

"How many grenades do we have?" Shepard asked, counting the amount he strapped on earlier. The usual six.

"I have eight, sir," Lortelle answered.

"I have quite a few but in clusters, sir," Tracks replied.

That's enough to take down the two Atlas mechs and then some at least, hopefully.

He sighed and rolled his tongue in his mouth in thought. If they could hold out, they might be able to whittle down their numbers to become bearable. But there was still the problem of Garrus and the Ultimatum. There were too many variables to handle.

It frustrated him to no end, and they couldn't wait around all day to come up with a plan. His jaw was clenched, and after a few moments, he sighed in defeat.

"Screw it," he hissed. "Fine. We're winging it a bit. Lortelle, take the center position above the entrance and just cover me and Tracks. Tracks is going to take the far side and try to keep people away from the Ultimatum. I'm going to move to the other side and get an angle on the Assassin. We're going to box them in a triangle."

He had already begun to wheel himself away. "Try to focus your grenades only on the mechs," he continued. "And make sure to cover each other. We'll go on my signal."

"Yes, sir."

With a barebones version of the plan set into action, Shepard rolled away from the others and headed to his position in the buildings, his squad following his lead and going to their own in the opposite direction.

He cursed his lack of speed when he could see Lortelle's shadowy figure dip behind windows on the other side of the courtyard, already almost at his position, which was much farther away and he had more weight to carry.

"In position, sir," he heard Tracks say over the comms, which Shepard was absolutely grateful to have back. A few seconds later and Lortelle's voice crackled and had said the same.

"Hold on," Shepard said as he strained his arms to pass the next several yards to get to his position. "Let me get an angle."

Once there, Shepard raised the sniper once more and peered through the scope behind the support arch, looking for the man who has made his life a frustrating hell in the past couple of days. He found him, doing the same thing he saw him doing about fifteen minutes ago, strutting himself in front of the pod that carried Garrus.

"Alright, get ready to fire when I do, and fire like hell," Shepard called over the comms.

"Will do, sir."

Shepard pursed his lips as he laid his crosshairs over the head of the assassin. His trigger finger itched, and his neck brushed with nervousness. He was getting wary. He refocused on P4.

Okay, time to go asshole. One, two...wait, what?

The timing couldn't have been any worse as the armored kidnapper suddenly ducked away from the pod and around the support arch, leaving Shepard's sight.

Dammit, get back here!

His neck hairs raised again, and he was becoming increasingly aware of how lonely it seemed up in the buildings. He lifted his hand to his communicator to raise Tracks and Lortelle.

But something in his mind instantly told his arm not to do that, and instead duck down and throw it around behind him in a wide swing. Shepard thought he might have gone paranoid, but that thought immediately dispersed when his hand met armor that was not his own, and a loud shot sounded afterward.

"Gah!" Sounded the distorted female voice of a newly revealed Nemesis, who clearly did not expect the human-quarian hybrid to dodge her shot and punch her in the side.

I knew something was wrong.

The hybrid's mind did not even take a moment to process his next actions, nor the sudden amount of gunfire sounding from the courtyard as he summoned the orange omni-blade on top of his forearm. An instant reflex sent that blade under and behind his chair, and straight into the surprise attacker's stomach.

The Nemesis made another short sound of pain, but Shepard was deafened to it by the bullets ripping just outside, which was now increased in volume ten times over by the return fire of the Rogues. He ripped his blade from the attacker who fell over, dead, and refocused his attention on the sudden commotion coming from outside.

What the hell just happened?

"Sir! Are you alright?!" Tracks voice echoed grunt came over the comms.

"What the hell's going on? Why are they firing?"

"Wasn't that first shot yours, sir?" Lortelle asked. "Gah! Sonofa-!"

Shepard remembered the shot that came from the Nemesis and cursed under his breath. He grabbed the sniper and focused once more through its scope. Every soldier and machine was firing upon Tracks's and Lortelle's position, chewing through metal and cement. They couldn't even manage to get a couple of their own shots out.

Everything had already just fallen apart.

Dammit!

Shepard didn't waste time to try to ease off the pressure of his fireteam as he sent his sniper shots off into the horde of soldiers, causing them to fire at him instead. It was barely enough to allow his fireteam to finally return gunshots while he ducked behind cover.

"The target is still active! Anyone got eyes on him?" Shepard hissed as his cover sounded like it was going to snap underneath the hail of bullets.

"Can't get a clear look, sir!" Tracks responded, a sniper shot echoed over his comms. "There's too many!"

A large meaty echo sounded from the courtyard, and noises of pure destruction rippled from the distance. Minor crumbling could be heard following it.

"Sir, Atlases are active!" Lortelle grunted.

"Are you alright?"

"Holding up, sir! Room is starting to cave in!"

"Tracks! Let's take the pressure off of him! Use your grenades!"

"Will do, sir!" Tracks confirmed.

Shepard took one of the grenades from his hip stole a short glance over his cover of the building to find the Atlas firing upon Lortelle. It was near the dead center of the courtyard now, and adjacent to it came a cluster of biotic grenades from the other side of the tower's entrance.

They landed a direct hit right on the Atlas's right arm, exploding but barely scratching it. Black scorch marks and minor shield fracturing was all the damage that was all that was dealt underneath the cloud of smoke. The same couldn't be said for the surrounding soldiers, however.

Shepard threw the grenade in his hand but had to quickly duck back behind cover. He couldn't see how much damage was caused when it went off.

"Shield's almost down on that one! A little bit more help here!" Lortelle shouted.

Screw it.

Shepard dropped the sniper and switched to the advanced Mattock, twisting it around to poke above his cover and blindly firing it into the direction of the Atlas. He was met with more return fire from the other Atlas that forced him to pull back the gun.

"Shield's down!" Lortelle confirmed.

"Now give it all you got!" Shepard commanded as he lobbed another grenade from behind cover, with his fireteam following. He could barely hear their words of agreement as the explosions shook the ground.

"Shepard! You got Dragoons incoming on your position from the door!" Lortelle shouted.

Great.

He rolled from his cover and away from the entrance, inputting a new thermal clip into the Mattock and modding the ammo to become incendiary.

"I'll take them, keep focusing on the Atlases!"

"Yes, sir!"

Just as Lortelle had said, Shepard could hear heavy footsteps coming for the door. He hoisted the Mattock into his shoulder and aimed at the entrance. He took a deep breath, clicking something in his mind as the doors opened.

The Dragoons rushed in with their hands extended, igniting their biotic lashes into dangerous whips.

For a split second, Shepard wondered why they were moving so slow, but he didn't complain as he sent a flurry of energized shots into the heads of the Dragoons.

Surprisingly, some of them managed to survive due to their heavily armored helmets taking the brunt of the force. These Dragoons simply fell over, knocked out stone cold while the others lost their heads or had their minds cooked within their helmets.

"First Atlas down!" Lortelle called nonchalantly, which reminded Shepard of the main task at hand. Strolling back to the sight of the broken Atlas relieved Shepard of some of the pressure in his mind.

Just a little bit longer.

The remaining Atlas had taken up its partner's previous position in the center of the courtyard, which was now becoming littered with Rogue bodies. Another dull echo sounded as the Atlas fired it's main cannon, hitting the base of Lortelle's position and causing the part of the building to collapse in on the entrance to the courtyard.

"Lortelle!"

"I'm fine, sir," Lortelle responded with a heavy grunt. "Just fell through the floor but I'm alright."

"Stay low! Tracks and I got this one!"

"Will do, sir."

Shepard took his third grenade and chucked it at the Atlas, ordering his marksman to do the same. Like before, the Atlas took minimal damage but caught many of the foot soldiers in the explosion. It wasn't long before another wave retaliated, this time they were phantoms, and Tracks was their target.

"Tracks!"

"I see them." An echoing sniper shot followed his words.

"Lortelle, help him out!"

"Yes, sir." His machine-gun fire ripped from his position underneath the collapsed section of the building.

"Thanks!" Tracks said to Lortelle over another piercing sniper shot.

Shepard kept firing on the last Atlas, going through too many thermal clips for his liking. He would have to start picking up the hornet submachine guns off of the dead Dragoons soon if he didn't find a way to end the fight fast. He needed to find P4.

Shepard threw his next grenade at the Atlas, damaging it even further. But still, it kept its focus on Lortelle's gunfire from underneath the rubble. It sent a cannon shot in his direction.

It was almost slow motion as the pieces of wood and rock flew in every direction, and to Shepard's horror, off to the side of the explosion spat out his heavy teammate's bulky frame of armor, now on fire.

"Lortelle!"

His returning grunt sent a rush of relief down through the hybrid, and he immediately tapped on his omni-tool to signal for medi-gel to be dispensed through the big man's suit systems. He watched optimistically as the heavy jerked his arms in reaction to the magical healing goo.

But his relief was short-lived as a loud whir of noise came from overhead. It was a shuttle, and the doors opened to reveal two more Atlas mechs.

Oh, you gotta be—

"Ah, hell," Lortelle gasped over the comm. "Shepard..."

The hybrid remained in shocked silence. His empty will kept him firing on the Atlas still on the ground until it finally broke down and could no longer function.

"We aren't going to win this."

No! We just have to think of something!

"That is, unless...if I get an angle...no, it's..."

"You got an idea?" Tracks asked.

"Yeah...

"...but you won't like it...cover me, guys."

The tone of voice echoed in his head, and Shepard looked on worriedly as Lortelle slowly, shakily, raised himself to his feet, and dropped his weapon once the shuttles touched down. The heavy looked back up at him, raised his arm...and saluted.

"Lortelle, just what exactly are you think—?"

The big man didn't even wait to let him finish as he tried to sprint out in the open, heading straight for the two mechs.

What? No!

"Lortelle!"

"I know what you said. I'm sorry, sir...I...good luck."

Shepard knew right then that there was nothing he could do, and he hated it. His fingers started going numb from firing at the soldiers and Atlases to distract them so the massive soldier could reach his target. Either that, or it was going numb from the sudden rush of hopelessness.

Shepard knew what he was going to do, but the disbelief still made his heart drop to the floor when he saw the heavy arm the remaining grenades strapped to him and pull off the belt that they were attached to. Now all he could do was watch.

Lortelle slid underneath the mechs that were disembarking the shuttles, getting an angle of the indoors, and swung the grenades inside. With a sweeping turn, he ducked back from where he came and limped away as fast as he could.

But it still wasn't enough. An unseen burst of fire had hit him in the chest, breaking his shields and staggering him further. There was no more time, and Lortelle seemed to know that.

He turned at the last second, extending his arms and embracing the glorious fireball that had replaced the entire center of the courtyard.

Even Shepard had to duck behind to cover to avoid his mask from getting scorched. Even then the blazing heat could be felt from behind the wall, and it warmed up his chair from underneath him.

His thoughts went blank for as long as the explosion continued to make noise. He could imagine the black cloud of ash rising into the air. A part of him wishes it wouldn't end.

Nonetheless, eventually, a haunting quiet drowned it all out, save for the unseen flames making flickering noises on the other side of the cover.

He sighed. He didn't even want to look.

Why?! Finally echoed in his head, feeding the ringing in his ears.

The thought dragged him out, forcing him to slowly lift his gaze over to the courtyard, taking in a quick sweep of Lortelle's handiwork before happening on Tracks, who was now visible and standing tall on the other side.

Flames licked the debris that scattered the area. The ground was charred alongside the melting metal of the Atlas mechs and Rogue armor. The air was coated in a thick black. The kind that you could wave your arm in the air and it would become painted with dozens of little grainy particles.

No words cracked over the comms. Just a stunned silence that was unbelievably loud.

His jaws clenched.

God, DAMN IT!

He kept himself contained as he rolled past the door of the building and down a ramp into the courtyard, but his cheeks grew sore from his unintentional biting. His mind raced in between the dead bodies of Rogue soldiers that were just barely out of the blast's radius so they weren't incinerated completely.

His eyes closed and he made deep breaths. The enemy is down at least...Thank you, Lortelle.

He would need to raise Jana to begin the distraction. If P4 was here, it was highly unlikely he survived the blast. Not that it mattered if he was alive now, anyway, he has barely any ground troops to defend him at the moment. He would've scurried away to hide.

Like all assassins.

"Sir," came Tracks's voice.

Shepard threw him a glance. "How are you holding up, Tracks?"

He heard the marksman sigh through gritted teeth. "Shield's got...fried. But I'm...alright."

Shepard nodded slowly, and was dragged away from his thoughts when he saw Tracks pointed up the steps towards the pod under the tower support arch.

Garrus!

"Hey, uh, Shepard. Good lu—"

His sentence was cut short after a loud BANG! And a gaping hole appeared in the center of his helmet. He made no reaction as he dropped to the ground like a ragdoll, blood gushing out to mix with the ash.

Time blurred in between his shout for Tracks and his immediate move to a defensive position. There was a large piece of the shuttle that made for perfect cover from whoever fired from the entrance to the tower.

"Ah, Shepard! The one and only, here, in my presence!" Came a voice, sickeningly elegant and gentlemanlike, but hatred still leaked through his teeth. "It seems even though we both lost our manpower, we were meant to meet in this situation."

"And what the hell kind of situation is that, P4?!" Shepard threw at him, just as, if not more, heated.

The Assassin gave a curious chuckle, and slowly came to a hearty laugh as be began to understand.

"So you do know me? Heh, well then, Shepard," he hissed. "Before your little standoff with my men, we were willing to give you a choice. Now that the dust has settled, it seems the choice still stands."

"Like I give a damn!"

"Oh, I think you should," sang P4. Shepard could see him out the corners of his eyes, his hands extended upwards to the box and the pod.

"Either you die, or your ugly turian friend and your," he paused to give a disgusted scoff, "precious suit-rat."

Tali! The bomb!

"You do realize you're an option as well?" He said coolly, trying to keep the stress out of his voice.

"Me? Please, you're the one stuck in a wheel–"

Shepard saw his chance and twisted his seat around the chunk of shuttle, aimed his Mattock at P4's extended limbs, and fired. The shots shredded through his shields, but didn't seem to make any mortal wounds.

"Gah! You ass–!"

Shepard interrupted once more with another shot, this time hitting him in the thigh, but still didn't pierce his armor. The Assassin grunted in pain and sought cover.

"Oh, well this got fun!" P4 remarked sarcastically.

"What? Getting your ass handed to you by a cripple?"

The Assassin responded with gunfire of his own, landing the hits on the broken shuttle. "Cowardice sure is a disability, isn't it?" P4 snarled, firing a few more shots.

"I'm sure we can find a treatment plan for you," Shepard answered with snark and hatred.

The Assassin growled and pounded the shuttle with more fire.

"Why don't we use that Emulator of yours? Maybe we can teach you how to shoot sitting targets!"

"Shut up!" His words were followed by an even longer chain of gunshots hitting Shepard's cover.

Thanks to the tech in his helmet's audio receivers, Shepard was able to hear the Assassin switch out thermal clips and twisted himself around to get an eye on his opponent's cover, which was one of the support arches in front of the pod.

This one is for Lortelle.

Shepard took his second to the last grenade from his hip and waited patiently, timing his move.

He waited for the click and hiss of P4's insertion of a thermal clip into his weapon and its escaping heat. He activated the grenade, holding it for a moment.

"I'm going to kill that little quarian bitch after I'm done with...you?!"

The Assassin moved out of cover at the wrong moment, just as Shepard hoped. The grenade hit the side of the support arch and bounced to the tower entrance, which in turn bounced the grenade again and fell mere feet away from its target.

"Oh, shit!"

P4 maneuvered himself to put the arch between himself and the grenade. He only partially succeeded.

The blast launched the Assassin backward, throwing the gun out of his grip. His body flew down the other side of the entrance steps towards the building that Shepard took cover in during the battle with the Atlases. He laid there unmoving.

But still alive.

The ragged pained gasps emitted from the suit of armor, and Shepard put his arms to work to move his wheels throughout the debris and bodies towards it.

He stopped only a couple of inches from the Assassin. He stared down at his helmet. It was unique to the other ex Cerberus gear the Rogues had. It was rather flat-faced, with holes to make it look similar to that of an old medieval knight helmet.

Though it was red and black like the other Rogues, this one also had white markings that crowned the top, signifying leadership status.

It didn't matter anymore. This man was the reason why he was having such a horrible time these past few weeks. With ordering attacks on him and Tali and putting everyone he cared about in danger. It would be a pleasure to put him down.

He pulled the pistol from underneath his seat and prepared an execution.

"Where's Tali?!"

"Get the hell away from me!" The Assassin gasped. His leg whipped around and kicked the pistol from his hands. Before Shepard could react, the Assassin also used a hand to destabilize his seat and used the same leg to topple him over.

An agonizing ripping feeling was sent through Shepard's stomach as he fell to the floor. The searing fire scorched through his veins. Shepard couldn't tell if it was even worse than when it got shot.

"Screw this! I'm out of here!" The Assassin said, propping himself on one leg. Slowly, he made his limping escape from the courtyard.

The pistol was yards away, too far from Shepard's reach. Despite the disadvantage, his hatred for the Assassin made him yell out to the coward.

"Get back here! Why are you running?!"

P4 didn't respond as he ducked from view, leaving Shepard to lay there in pain.

Dammit!

Shepard felt around the ground to explore his movement options, which were limited due to his stomach feeling like it was about to split him apart.

I need to move!

He made to dispense medi-gel, noting that it wouldn't do too much to relieve all the pain. But then he realized.

Painkillers.

He switched his dispensing capsules to the painkillers and injected himself. How ironic it seemed that the little painful pinches near his abdomen were the things he needed to relieve the pressure enough for him to move.

It took a few seconds for him to feel the wash of numbness through his torso, which was a strange feeling of detachment for his arms and legs when he propped himself up in his knees. As happy as he was to move on his own two feet again, this wasn't the time to celebrate, he needed to find that damned assassin.

"Shepard!"

The familiar internal rumbled echo of a voice stopped him in his tracks.

"Garrus!"

He picked up his feet and bolted in there other direction back up the steps towards the pod. Sure enough, just barely through the thin screen of ice, Shepard could see the face of his old Turian brother.

"Now, how do I get you out of this thing?"

"Shepard!" Garrus shouted, clearly upset.

A loud beeping noise pierced the courtyard walls and echoed all around, causing Shepard to cover his audio receivers. He glanced around to see where it came from.

It was coming from the large black box.

Oh, shit.

"Hold on! I'm going to get you out of there!" Shepard reassured, and ran off to tend to the box. He had gotten far enough without blowing up, he wasn't about to do that now.

I want to go home.

He grabbed two fistfuls of the tarp and ripped it off.

But there was no bomb underneath.

But what he found instead was still enough to blow him away.

It was Tali.

"Tal!"

She sat there in a glass box, her knees pulled to her chest and her hooded helmet bent over. The sudden light caused her to look up. Shepard took the quick moment to look her over. She didn't seem hurt, perfectly fine, in fact. Just fearful.

That fear only got worse when she saw him.

"GET AWAY! LEAVE ME ALONE!" She screamed, scrambling on the floor away from him and against the other side of the glass.

Her words erupted a flurry of shock through him. "Tali? It's me! I'm going to get you out of there! Just hold on!"

"NO! Leave me you–you–you...m-monster!"

"What are you talking about?" He asked, failing to keep a bit of a shaking fear from rattling his voice.

Shepard knew about what might have happened to her, but he willed himself to disbelieve. Still, deep down, he knew that Assassin wouldn't have let him win.

"Shepard!"

He twisted around, surprised yet happy to see Garrus on his hands and knees in front of his pod.

"Garrus!" He beckoned, "Please, come help me get her out of here! She needs help!"

"The only help she needs," Garrus began to gasp quietly, "is to stay away from you." His three-fingered hand grasped a predator pistol and raised it up into a sinister aim.

The image burned into his mind, and his hopes were getting shot down.

"No!"

This can't be happening!

"Garrus," he pleaded, rising to his knees and raising a cautionary hand, "whatever you remember, forget that for just this moment, it's not real, come and help me get Tali out of this...cage."

Garrus blinked. "You must be really stupid if you think you're going to fool me that easily."

"I'm not who you think I am! Just help me get Tali out and I can explain everything."

"No! I've had enough of your explanations! I trusted you!" The turian hissed and made to pull the trigger.

"Stop!"

Shepard mustered all his strength in his legs to move towards Garrus, but not before the turian could let off two rounds from the pistol, both landing somewhere on his torso and nearly breaking his shields. It nearly stunned him to a stop, simply because it was Garrus, his best friend.

He shoved his hands up, pushing the pistol into the air where a few more gunshots were sounded.

"I don't know what you're talking about, but we need to get out of here!"

Garrus gave a frustrated grunt. He was much bigger, but Shepard was clever. With a swift move, he raised one hand over the other and tried to twist the pistol out of Garrus's three-fingered grip, moving the other hand lower to block any incoming kicks or punches.

Garrus did neither but was still clever in his own right. With his own swift move, he curled his arm around and got a hold of his torso. Shepard assumed he was going to be pushed away and made to break his grip. He succeeded.

Click.

Garrus smiled. Not a sinister one, but more somber and sad.

"I'm sorry," his mandibles clicked, "maybe now you can finally find peace."

"What?"

Struggling with both arms now to keep the pistol away, Shepard warily kept eye contact with his best friend, wondering what was going on. It was only then when Garrus lifted up his hand that had gripped his torso, revealing a grenade. The last grenade that Shepard had on his side.

"No! Stop!"

Garrus threw him back with the grenade, and everything went white.

Erngh!

Shepard felt his shields break and his body fly back. His shoulder armor grazed along with the steps when he had finally hit the ground. His ears rang viciously and took the forefront of the beeping noise, which now felt like a dull thud in his skull that was continuously throbbing and getting faster. He still couldn't feel his torso, but his limbs ached like hell.

He squeezed the white from his eyes. He found himself somehow face-planted on the ground. The beeping was getting ever faster and giving him an even worse headache. His head lifted up slowly. He could see the tall frame of Garrus through the blurriness, wobbling on his feet. Shepard blinked, his vision clearing up.

The beeping finally stopped, but instead became a continuous blare of noise. Shepard looked over and saw Tali's chamber begin to sink into the ground. A sickly gaseous substance began filling it up at the same time.

"Tali...no," Shepard grunted, reaching for her.

Garrus grunted, and Shepard looked to see him falling to his hands and knees. Shepard blinked again.

Garrus disappeared.

"The hell?"

Shepard struggled to keep the black waves from consuming his consciousness. The aches and pains were getting to him. Which was unusual. Some kind of liquid felt like it was leaking out of him.

Suit breach?

It was possible. But he couldn't keep his attention to that. Tali was sinking further into the floor, her hands banging on the glass, the gas still emitting from underneath her.

Tali!

Shepard struggled to crawl forward in his confused haze. The silhouette of his quarian fiancée giving him strength.

Yet it wasn't enough. The closer he got, the more it seemingly sunk faster. Once there, his hand came down on the chamber but instead met the floor where it was a second prior. The blaring noise disappeared.

He failed.

A new noise rang in his head this time. It was the sound of shuttle engines. His heavily vignetted vision looked up, expecting to see troops dropping down, ready to finish the job. Instead, the shuttle set down in the middle of the courtyard. The doors opened, and out came a squad of soldiers and a woman in a doctor's uniform.

Jana?

He didn't understand how she was in the middle of hostile territory so fast, but he was grateful either way. Realizing he had assistance, sleep became much more apparent.

"Shepard!" Jana called out, her soldiers racing to him.

The hybrid made one request before being consumed by the vignette.

"Tali..."

He fell asleep.


Shepard reawoke suddenly on his hands and knees. Cold, freezing, shivering. He had no idea how he got in this position. But his reawakening was sudden and clear. His vision had finally dropped the cloudiness around the edges, washing away in the shapes of black triangles and hexagons.

It was rather dark around him, and empty. But this wasn't like some of the dreams that he vaguely remembered. A flash like a pinprick made him wonder if he was still back on the backwater ocean world looking for the Leviathan.

A sudden dry, harsh light told him otherwise.

He looked up to where the light came from and saw a window with a few shadowy figures. His eyes tried to refocus, but it almost felt as if his visor was fogged up again. He gave a couple of test blinks.

Whatever was going on, it didn't feel friendly.

"Shepard? Are you feeling alright?" Came a friendly voice, loud over an intercom in the room he was in. He recognized Jana.

"Wha...Wha's going on?" He slurred slightly. His head shook slightly in an effort to clear it. Upon a small glance around, he noticed that he was back on Jana's ship in the hangar bay-like room that held the massive galaxy map.

"Careful, you're just waking up after a long...nap," Jana answered cautiously.

Shepard dropped his head, remembering the past events through closed eyes.

"What happened?" He asked simply, clearly and solemnly. Disappointment in himself flowed through his mind like daggers. Tali was on his mind, but he tried not to think about her, he hoped she was alright. The image of her shadowed hands planting against the glass was enough to be waking nightmares for the rest of his life, and right now he needed to be strong...like a soldier.

"Well," Jana started, looking to pick her words in the right way. "After that large explosion that you set off in the–"

"Lortelle set that off," Shepard interrupted bitterly, not forgetting his other failure. "He saved us...me."

"Yes, well," Jana began again. "After Lortelle caused that explosion in the tower, many ships began retreating off-world, and others were taken over by prisoners. I believe there was a woman that you rescued along with your mission that aided in that."

"I remember."

"Since there was hardly a reason for a distraction, that and you not calling for one, we assumed you were still in trouble and came looking for you. We were lucky that we found you when we did. You were bleeding heavily."

"Garrus?" Shepeard asked.

"I'm sorry?"

"Garrus, he was there...did you find him?"

"We did. He's resting now," Jana answered slowly. There was a wariness in her voice, like there was something she was trying to hide. Shepard saw through it. He already knew.

"Is there a way you can...restore his memories?" The question was oddly simple, clear, straight to the point. The hollowness that Shepard felt deep within his chest made the words resonate, adding to the acoustics of the wide room. It was sweet as a violin, teetering on a heartbreaking wail.

"We can try," Jana whispered loudly.

"And Tali?" Shepard swallowed his tears, forcing them down to his stomach where they couldn't reach his eyes. They burned like acid, it made him want to throw up. "Did you do as I asked, did you find her?"

A click of a tongue sounded over the intercom. Jana had opened her mouth but said nothing. Instead what came out was a sigh.

"Bring her in."

For a gleaming moment, there was hope in Shepard's chest. Hope that she was still alive. But given from Jana's reluctance to answer, Shepard could only guess that she was not in a good condition. He could guess from the way that she reacted to him that she was in a state similar to Garrus.

It's okay, Tali. I'll...I'll fix you. I'll fix you and Garrus somehow, we can be together again. Both of you will remember me...for who I really am...I'm not a monster.

A hiss from beneath him made him jump to his feet. The smooth floor had surprisingly cracked in one spot, revealing a hole in the ground between two panels. White smoke billowed from it, enveloping his boots. Shepard peered over the edge, something dark was emerging from the dark depths below, slowly, and once Shepard realized what he was looking at...

...his heart vaporized.

He wanted to fall over backward and crawl away from the sight and huddle himself into a dark corner, but his feet were rock solid.

A table lifted into view, with a mass hidden by a white sheet.

"Tal?" He choked.

Shepard's speaker-light started flickering rapidly as his breath became short and shallow, coming in and out and high speeds. Despite everything in him telling him to run away, his hand disobeyed his mind and reached out, resting on top of the mass.

Shepard couldn't help but notice that it felt abnormal, unshapen, sharp. Nowhere near the smooth delicateness of Tali. It made him even more scared. Again, every action was going against his will.

His hands grasped an edge of the white sheet between two fingers. He wanted to see his Tali once more, but not like this, not in eternal sleep.

What am I doing...please...stop...

"Shepard...I'm sorry...we failed."

Shepard was met with a sight that was infinitely worse than eternal sleep. He knew right then and there that he no longer wanted to be alive.

It didn't even look like a quarian was laying on the table before him, but some other species that Shepard knew all too well. The mix between rotting gray flesh and machinery made up the entire being. A husk. But at the same time, not.

This husk was different. It had a suit that sagged, belts that splayed out. A scorched mask that had a crack in its glass. And Tali's hood wrappings ripped and tattered around its head.

I did so much worse than just fail.

Shepard immediately saw red, black, and blue, and the blood-curdling scream he let out afterward was enough to make anyone scared for their lives.