Everything smelled like death. The acrid stench of smoke burned her nostrils as she took in the carnage spread out before her. It had become a bloodbath and she could still feel the tremors of the last fight rattling her bones. She had taken a bullet to the shoulder, but nothing that would hinder her too much. If she could breathe, she could fight. At least, that was something she had been trying to tell herself for the last several weeks.

Even breathing was getting difficult those days and she leaned against the side of the crashed shuttle, clutching her side and watching the others pull themselves from the wreckage. It was by the grace of the goddess that so many of them had survived impact, but there were still fewer emerging than she would have liked. Hopefully the rest of Hammer team had made it in one piece. She should have gone with the ground team to help clear out the pockets of reapers among the city ruins, but her orders had been given and she had followed them, Alliance military or not.

In fact, she had had no military training at all, but fighting for one's life tended to make that a moot point. As long as she could handle a gun, that was all anyone cared about. The reminder that she wasn't even supposed to be there rang loud and clear as she stumbled along behind the others, trying to match their pace as they made for the Forward Operating Base.

The ground beneath her feet shook with each strike of the Reaper towering above them and she crouched and lifted her arm to shield herself from flying debris as a building nearby was blasted to pieces. "Move! Move! Move!" The frantic command carried down the line and she didn't need to be told twice to get herself moving double-time.

They raced through the streets; weaving between roadblocks and leaping over fallen comrades. It felt wrong to leave them behind but there was no other choice. There was nothing more they could do to help the dead, but plenty they could still do to help the living. That was her motivation as she dodge a volley of gunfire from somewhere above on the left and pushed herself forward despite the pain. She could see the lights up ahead and she grit her teeth and pushed harder, willing her legs to move faster and her arms to pump harder.

Collapsing once she broke through the barricade was all she could do to keep from sobbing, and what was left of her squad rushed into the compound behind her, each of them smeared with blood and sweat. They doubled over on themselves and each other, and she wiped a gloved hand across her forehead before slumping over. She didn't trust her legs to support her weight but she couldn't deny the hand that extended towards her.

He was her saving grace and she blinked up at him, searching his dirt streaked face for strength. His expression was grim and she exhaled as she reached out to accept his hand and help pull herself to her feet. Swaying, his arm gave her additional support and she leaned into him, grateful for the assistance and the proximity.

"Glad to see you're in one piece," she said, closing her eyes as her head found a resting place on his shoulder.

"I could say the same about you," the rumbling cadence of his voice made the last several hours feel like a long forgotten nightmare, but the thunder of guns remained a constant hum in the backgroun that she couldn't ignore. "You're hurt." He was pulling away to examine her bleeding shoulder and she opened her eyes with a frown.

"It's superficial," she assured him. "Nothing that I can't handle."

He raised both eyebrows and studied her for a moment before shaking his head and letting out a quiet laugh. "You really are something else," he said, turning to make his way deeper into the makeshift compound. She followed half a step behind him, watching him expectantly from her peripheral. "I remember when you first came to the Normandy. I didn't think you'd last a week, and now you're taking bullets and fighting Reapers. I don't even know who you are anymore, Shepard." He stopped and turned to face her, nearly causing her to collide with him.

"You're just like her," he went on, his voice softening. "You know she's proud of you, right?"

She hesitated and looked away from him. "Kaidan..." She trailed off and chewed on the inside of her bottom lip. "There are things I didn't tell you... Things that I haven't told anyone. But this... Do you remember what I said when the Normandy found me? That we were testing out a mass relay?" She waited for him to nod in acknowledgement before continuing. "I never told you why we were testing out the relay..."

"What does that have to do with anything? What are you saying...?"

"I'm saying that I'm sorry, Kaidan. But there's something I have to do."