The bruises on Shepard's ribs and arms from the earlier fall felt non-existent as she triumphantly strode into the interior of the Normandy. With the familiar hum of the starship's engines in her ears and the not-quite-perfect artificial gravity tugging at her limbs, she could almost forget that the human homeworld was currently being razed to the ground by the Reapers. The Normandy was hers again, and she felt nigh-invulnerable. Her mission was as important as ever, and she would see it to completion - there was no room for failure.

"What the hell's going on?" Alliance marine James Vega demanded. "Where's Anderson? Where are we going?"

"We're leaving. Anderson wants us to go to the Citadel. Get help for the fight."

"Bullshit! Anderson would never order us to leave, not now!"

She tore her eyes away from the console to burn them onto the Alliance soldier. She understood the feeling of helplessness, but she wasn't about to let him throw his life away fighting an enemy that had them beat conventionally. "I don't like this any more than you do, Vega, but we don't have a choice here. You've seen what the Reapers are capable of. I watched one take down an Alliance dreadnought in minutes before my eyes. An Alliance dreadnought. So unless you have a fleet of ships in your back pocket ready to go, we need the Council's help, or this war is already over."

"Forget it," he snarled, "Drop me off someplace, right now, because I'm not leaving."

"Like hell you aren't!" she said, snapping. "You don't want to go? I get it. But this isn't a democracy. I've been reinstated as Commander of this ship and what I say goes. We are going to the Citadel. You want out? You can catch a ride back from there."

Vega felt the point of her words and backed off. He had never seen the Commander in anger, and he wasn't about to make enemies with a superior officer while aboard their own ship.

"Commander!" the voice on the ship's loudspeaker blared.

"Joker. Damn good to hear your voice again. You saved our asses down there."

"No need to award me any medals or anything, Shepard," said the helmsman, unable to resist cracking a joke, "I've got so many I'm having trouble walking. Oh yeah, and I also have an emergency transmission from Fleet Admiral Hackett for you."

"Patch it through."

"Aye Aye."

The transmission flickered to life on the bay console, heavily static affecting the quality of the video. Despite the video distortion, the Admiral's face seemed to have aged immeasurably since she last saw him. "Shepard!... Heavy losses... force was overwhelming... no way we can defeat them conventionally," buzzed the image.

"Anderson's ordered me to the Citadel to talk to the Council."

"First I need you... Alliance outpost on Mars … before we lose control of Sol system."

Hackett's voice skipped like a bad record. "..Researching the Prothean archives with Dr. Liara T'soni... may have found a way to defeat the Reapers... may be the only way."

Shepard wasn't the only one surprised to hear the Asari doctor's name. Kaidan also looked visibly jostled by the news. "Yes, Sir!" she said, saluting.

Hackett nodded on-screen, and the video transmission was cut.

"Joker, set a course for the Mars archives."

"Mars? Roger that."

"This is loco!" cut in Vega. "Why Mars?"

"What does Liara think she's found over there?" added Kaidan. "More Prothean relics? She still getting herself stuck in abandoned ruins?"

"I don't know what they've found," Shepard answered to the pair of them. "But if it helps us win this war, it's worth a detour. And just for the record, Kaidan," she stated sharply, "Liara's been through a lot the last couple of years; I'd doubt you'd recognize her."

Shepard turned to Arius, who had patiently remained silent. A clearance badge was still affixed to his top, which explained how he had managed to already be aboard one of System Alliance's top assets. "What did Liara find, Arius?"

Kaidan and James both looked curious at the other party, who had yet to announce his presence or occupation. Shepard's unsurprised reaction now, however, had made it clear to both of them that the man was somehow already in the know.

"How much do you know about the Prothean archives?" Arius asked them.

"I know that it's on Mars," Vega responded. "That's about it."

"Well," Kaiden added, "years ago humanity discovered Prothean ruins just under the surface. The technology that we found pushed humanity forward two hundred years."

"Both of you are correct," he said, nodding. "A prospecting team of humans in the year 2148 unearthed subterranean Prothean ruins on the red planet. The structure was a former observation and biosciences station, set up to receive and process data from Earth as the Protheans studied early humans."

"The Protheans were studying early humans? Why?" Vega asked.

"The Protheans studied several races during their time, nearly all the current major races. I'm sure the Protheans saw potential in early humans."

"What does this have to do with what Dr. T'Soni's found?"

"I'm getting there," he responded, holding up a hand to quell the impatient soldier. "The Prothean ruins that humanity discovered contained, although partially fragmented from years of storage, a data cache," he said while flashing Shepard a deliberate look, "which was eventually decoded and shared, accelerating human sciences by roughly two hundred years."

"We already know that, so what?"

"So..." Arius revealed, "What if I told you that a second base has been located deeper underground? A second base that, for all intents, required the Protheans to have higher security clearances to access than the first? If the first base contained simple Prothean tech that pushed humanity forward two hundred years, what could the top-secret second base contain?"

"A way to beat the Reapers?" Shepard offered.

"Perhaps," he answered with a hopeful sigh. "But at this point, you know as much as I do. We shall all see soon enough."

"And how do you know all of this?" Kaidan asked, curious about the stranger. He hadn't recalled seeing the man's face before, and the Alliance had not briefed him. The Normandy had just been removed from its Alliance shipyard on Earth, so only Alliance personnel could have been on-board. They had also just been briefed by an Alliance Admiral, the biotic thought to himself, one of the few Alliance officers with enough clearance who could be privy to such information. "The Alliance had obviously been keeping this discovery under wraps." he deduced. "I can't imagine that this is common knowledge."

Arius shook his head. "It's not. Dr. T'Soni has spearheaded the excavation, but she needed help with the Prothean translations and technology. As you know, the galaxy is in a perilous situation, and the Alliance wanted to fully extract the Prothean artifacts before announcing their findings to the rest of the council races. This decision was made for security reasons."

"Wait, Liara T'Soni - one of the galaxy's foremost Prothean researchers, needed your help?" Kaidan asked suspiciously. The biotic felt like something was being hidden about this newcomer, and he didn't like it. The man looked human, he reasoned, and without the looks of old age wearing him down - Prothean research required decades of study.

"This find has far-reaching consequences with little time for a proper excavation, Major Alenko. Dr. T'Soni was contacted by the Alliance to act as a lead researcher, and she contacted me for some additional help."

"You have the necessary clearance?" the Alliance Major pushed.

"I do," Arius stated, flicking the tag pinned to his shirt, unfazed.

The biotic narrowed his eyes at the ID, unsatisfied. "So, Arius Farren, you're a Prothean researcher? You look more like a soldier to me," The biotic commented, drawing on the apparent fit stature of the unknown man.

"When required," Arius answered calmly.

"What are you doing here on Earth? Why aren't you on Mars?" the biotic pushed, growing frustrated. "The Normandy, even?"

"I..."

"Enough, Kaidan," Shepard interjected, interrupting him before he could give an explanation. "He's aboard because I wanted him aboard. End of story."

There was a lingering silence where Kaidan glared at Arius distrustfully, aware that something was amiss. Kaidan was very perceptive, Arius thought to himself.

Shepard broke the standoff. "Hey," she commanded to the three of them, "Grab your gear. We'll be at Mars in minutes. Proper introductions will come later," she announced sternly, making sure that she got the point across to Arius. He nodded back at her, understanding.

.

The four of them were sitting in the shuttle, racing toward the red planet that had captivated the human race for so long. For years, Mars had been the primary goal of humankind, the frontier of early space travel. Putting a man on the moon had been something, but a man on Mars, that was something else. To land an earthling on Earth's nearest planetary neighbour and have them safely return home was one of the first steps on the long road to exploring the rest of the galaxy. Arius remembered so many humans that held that dream, and he remembered so many of them staring wistfully at the planet, waiting for the day it would yield before their dreams become a reality.

The day the Prothean archives were declared as successfully decoded had been a day of celebration for all of humanity, yet their joy and wonder paled in comparison to the relief and exaltation that he himself held for the species; Mars was supposed to have been a stepping stone for humanity. Instead, it was a high-powered cannon that blasted them across the cosmos.

The station had been an observational outpost for the Protheans, and it had been stocked with standard supplies. The data he had left on the abandoned facility on that fateful day all those years ago had been even more precious. Knowledge in the form of instructions, explanations and schematics enabled the humans to assimilate and engineer their own drives that much quicker, and within a short time, they were exploring again in the old-fashioned sense.

The being once known as The Wanderer, clad in his armour, stood staring at the planet's surface on the screen in front of him. Since Earth's prehistoric times, this would be the first time he would step foot on the planet. All the data he had helped Liara translate, including Prothean text and security systems, had been done remotely from elsewhere around the galaxy. He hadn't had the time to stay on Mars for the duration of the dig.

"I've been trying to reach Mars on secure channels," Joker relayed to them over the comm, "No one's answering."

"Any sign of Reaper activity?" Shepard asked as she leaned over Vega's shoulder to look at the holo interface at the shuttle controls.

"Negative."

"EDI?"

"The base appears to be online. It's possible the inhabitants were evacuated." The AI answered her.

"We'll know soon enough. Be ready, Joker... just in case." The last time she had left Joker alone on the Normandy, the Collectors had abducted nearly every soul on board.

"Roger that. Normandy out." The comm clicked shut.

Shepard used the handrail to steady herself as she made her way to the back of the shuttle to where Arius was standing. Kaidan sat to the left of him, stealing occasional glances at his non-standard armour. She approached the both of them wordlessly, turning to observe the screen that they were looking at.

"A second base, huh?" she muttered to Arius, looking at the enlarged image that was displayed on the screen. "Were you aware...?" she asked in a somewhat hushed tone.

"No, I wasn't," he said to her, just as hushed. "After the war started, we were cut off. The possibility of indoctrination became a problem; if those in the know were to ever fall under Reaper influence, all their plans would be rendered asunder."

"Any idea what's in there?"

"I have some ideas, but they're not concrete. Right now, your guess is as good as mine."

The shuttle bumped and shook as James Vega landed, the blue and white metal frame resting on the red Martian soil. "Still no contact from the base, but we've got a massive storm headed our way," Vega announced, looking over the stats on screen.

"How long till it hits?"

"Half an hour tops. After that, we're gonna have difficulty keeping up comms with the Normandy."

"Understood. Let's make this as quick as we can."

The shuttle door opened. A wall of red sand hundreds of feet high rolled toward them in the distance, swallowing up the landscape as it passed. The group was again reminded of their minuscule size compared to everything else that was trying to kill them.

"Damn... that's a huge storm." James Vega announced, looking out toward the horizon. "Looks a lot bigger in person."

"Come on, Lieutenant. It's not that bad." Kaidan responded, ever the hopeful one.

"Doesn't mean it can't kill us," James said as he double-checked the seals on his suit, making sure they were tight. Martian dust storms were no joke. "Still, I'm more worried about the war back on Earth... or the fact that nobody here is reporting in."

"The facility may have gone dark to escape Reaper detection," Arius suggested as the team walked toward the edge of the Martian crater that held the facility. The station reached down into the dark abyss below them, continuing deep into the red earth. Secrets, even to him, had lain buried there for thousands of years.

"I'm afraid that's not the only reason," Shepard added, motioning to a collapsed form in the red soil. "We have a body."

Tensions surged high in the group. Although the pressure of their mission already amounted to astronomical proportions, the discovery of dead bodies in a facility gone dark served only to amplify the sinking feeling of facing dismal odds.

Kaidan crouched down next to the body to identify it. With a swipe of his omni-tool, he got the information he needed from the soldiers' IFF.

"Alliance. Sergeant Reeves. Doesn't look like he put up a fight."

"Something's not right here," Vega announced, broadcasting the words that everyone else had been thinking. "If the Reapers haven't arrived yet, who did this?"

Concerned, Arius moved the body over, revealing a bloody slit on the neck seal under the Alliance-issued helmet. He inspected the wound and noted the clean separation that had travelled deep enough to cut the flesh beneath. It was fresh.

"A blade did this," he deduced. "It seems we are not the only ones here for Dr. T'Soni. We should make haste."

There were no other words to be said. They all broke into a jog, heading straight for the facility entrance. Their already critical mission timeline had just been cut shorter. They imagined all manners of otherworldly Reaper assassins as their target, yet what beheld them when they rounded the rocky corner would defy their expectations.

Five combat-suited persons stood around a lone Alliance soldier, their white suits contrasting with the red soil and blue Alliance-issued colours at their feet. One of the unknown white-clad soldiers stood wiping a long, razor-thin blade, evident that it had recently been used. Three more stood around, watching the last of their members level a rifle toward the head of the kneeling Alliance soldier. The white soldier fired its weapon execution-style into the kneeling soldier's helmet, instantly snuffing out the Alliance soldier's life. The sound of the scene: both that of the shot and the sound of the body falling forward into the dirt, simply didn't arrive at their ears despite their proximity; the atmosphere of Mars was too thin to allow sound to travel far. So instead, they watched the execution in a kind of haze, like witnessing a firefight in the middle of the vacuum of space. It was almost surreal to earth-bound creatures that were used to having their world defined by a sense as powerful as sound.

"Holy shit. They're executing them!" James Vega managed to croak, breaking the haze.

Shepard didn't need any further confirmation before ordering everyone to engage. Thankfully, the white-suited force hadn't seen them approach and was immediately assailed by the combined fire of the squad. The group advanced up the hill, taking cover behind large, red rocks and unloaded munition crates. Their position was adjacent to the entrance to the facility, and in the clearing where they hunkered down were transport vehicles, undoubtedly the ones used by the white soldiers.

"Shepard." Vega radioed. "You're not going to like this. Look who owns the transports."

Shepard had known who owned the white soldiers even before she saw the emblem secured to the side of the vehicles. Who else in the galaxy used an all-human military force with shady purpose and lethal execution? Why, Cerberus, of course!

"It doesn't look like they came in force." Vega radioed, "There should be more if they were here to take over the place."

Shepard counted only three transports. "I only count a few vehicles."

"They must have had help. From the inside. You'd need a lot more men and firepower to take this place otherwise."

"Let's tip the odds in our favour, then."

The team opened fire simultaneously from their different angles upon the clearing, engaging the few remaining soldiers that remained outside the facility. The ones who were quick enough to hide behind a crate or transport lived no longer. Shots stemming from the team's rifles clipped the thinner corners of the transport plating, passing right through and hitting the body behind it. Fire from Vega's heavier assault rifle passed through the lightly armoured transport exhaust and penetrated the back of the last Cerberus soldier's neck.

The group advanced into the facility's loading bay, and Shepard activated the door controls, sealing the room. While she pushed the right buttons to pump the room with air, Kaidan marched up to her, demanding an explanation.

"I need a straight answer, Shepard."

Surprised, she turned her head to face him, not understanding his request. "About what?"

"Do you know anything about this? What is Cerberus doing here?"

Shepard turned her entire body toward him, his questions plucking sensitive strings within her. His pointed skepticism made her suddenly recall his betrayal of trust from Horizon, and within seconds she struggled to mask her fury. "And what makes you think I know what they're up to?"

"You worked for them. How am I supposed to believe you've cut all ties?"

Kaidan's accusation cut into her deeply, and it took some control to keep her voice steady. "I used them to take down the Collectors, Kaidan. That's it."

"They rebuilt you from scratch. They gave you a ship, resources..."

"Let me be absolutely clear." She repeated. "I've had no contact with Cerberus since I disabled the Collector base. And I have no idea why they're here now or what they want. Got it?"

James Vega stepped in, weary of the sudden hostility that arose. The group had enough problems to worry about without this completely time-inappropriate squabble - things like getting killed, Martian sandstorms, and Reapers. "Commander Shepard has been under constant surveillance since coming back to Earth," James interjected, defending her. "No way they've communicated since."

The Alliance major softened, then sighed. "Sorry, Shepard." He said, shamed from his doubt. "I just..."

"I shouldn't have to explain myself to you, Kaidan. Please, trust me."

"I do. It's just that..."

The sound of muffled gunfire cut their conversation short, and the group immediately hunkered down behind a transport shuttle within the facility. Surveying the space around them, they found that they were alone though the sounds of gunfire and fumbling steps on thin sheet metal grew progressively louder.

"The sounds are coming from the ventilation shaft up above," Arius judged. "Multiple bodies. And from the location… it's probable someone is being chased."

True to his word, a blue and white form dropped from the shaft, followed by two Cerberus soldiers. The form jumped over some parked fuel cells then turned to throw a biotic singularity toward the mouth of the shaft, trapping the two mercenaries in its gravity. The asari biotic then un-holstered her heavy pistol and shot the floating forms while they flailed helplessly in the air. When the bodies dropped to the ground, the asari walked over and calmly shot each one twice in the head. James Vega immediately raised his rifle and started to move forward to engage the new threat when Shepard jumped up and pushed the muzzle of his rifle toward the floor.

"Easy there, Lieutenant," Shepard warned Vega. "She's with us."

Startled by the new voices, Liara T'Soni raised her pistol but lowered it as soon as she recognized the Commander. A smile lit up the asari's face. "Shepard! Thank the goddess, you're alive!"

Without hesitation, the two embraced. "It's good to see you too, Liara," Shepard said, squeezing her friend hard. Trusted friends were always in short supply.

"I was so worried when the reports came in," the asari doctor admitted. "I'm… sorry about Earth."

"Yeah. It was difficult to leave." Shepard still saw the afterimage of the Alliance dreadnaught's blinding explosion when she closed her eyes.

"I'm sorry. But…why'd you come here?"

"Hackett ordered us to come. Said you'd know what was going on."

The asari nodded and motioned them to move closer to large station windows. "I do."

"Oh, Hallelujah. Some answers, finally." James Vega declared.

"Maybe." The asari admitted, not wanting to raise the group's hopes too high. "I've discovered plans for a Prothean device. One that could wipe out the Reapers."

The words Shepard heard were too good to be true. "Here? On Mars?"

"In the Prothean Archives, yes."

"We've known about the Archives for decades. Why now?"

"Process of elimination, mixed with a little desperation. The Protheans built the archives as digital data vaults, and several physical storage mediums make up what we know as the Archives. We discovered a special vault located deeper down in the Martian crust, using different security protocols than those originally decoded from the main Archive. These new security protocols required a deeper understanding of Prothean security measures, and it took time to get through them. When you destroyed the Alpha Relay, you bought us some time. But then you were under investigation. I knew I had to do something. Hackett knew it, too. He contacted me, asking if I would use my resources as the Shadow Broker to find a way to stop the Reapers. My search led me here. Hackett got me access to the Archives and kept me updated on your status. I meant to come to see you, but time was against us. We've only just recently deciphered the data, even with Arius' help."

"Considering the circumstances… I think I can forgive you."

"You're too kind. In any case, my work paid off. The Archives are full of data. An overwhelming amount. I think I found what we need."

"I guess I'll believe it when I see it," Shepard said. "Where do we find this weapon?"

"It's not a weapon… not yet. They're plans for a device. A blueprint."

"Well, it's more than we had a minute ago. How do we get it?"

"The Archives are just across the tramway. Assuming Cerberus hasn't locked it down."

"What are they after?" Kaidan asked, "Why would they be here?"

"They want what I'm here for… what we're all here for," the asari answered.

"But why?"

"The Protheans came close to defeating the Reapers. They had plans to destroy them but ran out of time."

"So anything powerful enough to destroy the Reapers..." Kaidan began.

"… Just might be something Cerberus is interested in. Shit," Shepard completed. "So it's a race to the Archives then."

The crash of metal was heard then, coming from the adjourning room. The Cerberus troops were on the move.

"We've got company."

"Bring it on," Vega exclaimed, pumped to engage the enemy and hoisting up his weapon.

"Not this time, James," Shepard ordered. She had other plans for the marine. The group had more than enough muscle, and she wanted to make sure the dust storm didn't kill them when they needed to leave.

"What?" he repeated to her, incredulous.

"Get back to the shuttle. If Cerberus beats us to the Archives, I need you covering exits."

"But..."

"Now, lieutenant," she repeated, ignoring the barbed look he was giving her.

James Vega went back toward the elevator without another word.

"Alright, team, let's remind these chumps about what happens when they catch the misfortune of standing in our way."

A rough hole burned through the metal blast doors, a torch throwing sparks and bright light over the room. The metal of the door gave way, and Cerberus troops stepped through from the smoke.

.

"Liara, how exactly did Cerberus come to know of what was discovered here?" Arius asked as he bent down to inspect the weapon of a deceased Cerberus soldier. Unimpressed, he returned the weapon to the dead man's clutches. If ancient beliefs were to be trusted, this dead man would need his weapon in the afterlife. He was unsure of how effective a rifle would be while fighting the armies of the underworld.

"Not sure. One minute we were getting reports of the Reaper invasion… the next, there was chaos. Didn't even realize it was Cerberus at first."

"Could they be working with the Reapers?" Kaidan asked.

"Doubtful, but I suppose anything's possible," Liara answered as she sat down on a vacant seat in the security booth. She tried a few commands into the console at her fingertips, then swore.

"Damn it! Security's been tamped with. I can't seem to unlock the live feeds, but I can review footage from the time around when the attack started. Let me see what I can dig up."

The asari played around with the controls of the security archive and recorded footage cycled around the holo-screens around the booth.

"Besides knowing what was being unearthed here, this is a secure station," Shepard mentioned. "How did Cerberus get in?"

"How did the Greeks finally breach the walls of Troy?" Arius offered, motioning his head toward the footage cycling on-screen, directing their attention. A human woman quickly darted to and fro in front of the security cameras, accessing many consoles around the base. She was the only one to do so and seemed in a hurry.

"Hey. Who's the woman in the vid?" Kaidan noticed. "Could she be a mole for Cerberus?"

"That's Dr. Eva Coré. She got here about a week ago, so I'm not certain. Any luck with the pedway, Shepard?"

"No. It's locked out."

"All right. Looks like there's construction nearby. We can get out on the roof. We can find a way around from there."

.

"This airlock shouldn't be open."

The team entered the facility again through an airlock left entirely open to the Martian atmosphere. No torch marks were found on the door, and no forced entry were apparent.

"It doesn't look forced."

"No, you have to override security protocols," the doctor said. "The entire room's been depressurized. Lights are also out."

As they advanced into the dark chamber, Shepard found bodies on the floor, asphyxiated from the lack of atmosphere in the room. She also discovered a fallen datapad containing correspondence from one researcher to another. One station's personnel had been complaining about how Dr. Eva pilfered their personal files.

Kaidan flipped one of the frozen bodies over. Liara bent down to check the cause of death. "Someone vented the air from this room while they were still here. Looks like they died trying to claw their way out. This is brutal even by Cerberus standards. What do the feeds show?"

"Our security protocols just kicked in. Everything's been locked down," said the security guard on the screen. "Doctor, I'll get you a report as soon as..." Dr. Eva raised her pistol and shot each security guard once in the head, then rushed to the console and began furiously typing away. While the emergency sirens activated and wailed away, the airlocks shielding the room from the Martian atmosphere opened, and all personnel within clawed at their throats as they suffocated.

While the footage played, the shock on Liara's face was genuine. Her mouth hung open as the screens cast their dim, red light over the booth's interior.

"I guess we know how Cerberus got in," Shepard remarked dryly. "We've confirmed our Trojan horse."

Liara was stunned. She had been the head researcher for the dig, partly responsible for hiring the traitorous doctor in the first place. She was responsible for letting a wolf into their midst, and the blood of many innocents was now on her hands. "I should've realized it when I met her. I was just so focused on finding a way to stop the Reapers."

"Hey there," Shepard said. "Stopping the Reapers is the only thing we should be focused on. It's not your fault."

"But what if we're wrong? What if there's no way to stop them? What if these are our last days, and we spend them scurrying around trying to solve a problem we can't fix?"

"Woah, let's take a breath. I'll tell you what we're going to do, Liara. We are going to get our data, then we're going to neutralize this , preferably as brutally as possible. After that, we'll work together to find a way to fix this."

"And even if we can't, and we die?"

"Well... if it comes to that, at least we can do that together too," she said dryly.

"I don't know how you do it, Shepard," Liara said, slightly amused, shaking her head. "You've always stayed focused, even in the worst situations."

"When there's so much at stake, I just think about what I'd lose if I failed."

"That's a terrible burden."

"That's why you guys are here. Makes it a little lighter."

"I believe you. Or I believe that you believe. Maybe that's enough." The asari entered a command onto one of the security terminals. "Okay. Door's open. We can get to the labs and tram station through there."

"Good. Let's move."

.

Although the senses of sight or sound are not as vital to survival as the sense of smell, no one can deny the power it holds. Memory is strongly tied to smell, and a whiff of a scent can instantly recall previous instances of its encounter. Arius immediately identified the smell when they pushed through the shielded Cerberus Centurion group and entered the artifact examination area. He wrinkled his nose in disgust.

"What's that smell?" Kaidan asked, aware of the pungent smell in the air around them.

"They just activated the decontamination protocols..." Liara reported, noting the activated emergency consoles flashing around the windows of the examination room. "...With the staff still inside."

There was little remaining of the staff when they entered the examination room. The charred corpses were still smoking, the bodies' water content flash-boiled by the decontamination procedure.

"Christ, who does that?" Shepard swore. "Cerberus was always bad, but this… this isn't like them. What the hell happened?"

"One can only guess." Liara shrugged. "This is where they studied the various relics unearthed here."

"What did they find?"

"More than I can describe in a short conversation. There are vaults filled with Prothean data troves that have never been studied."

Poking around, Arius found a datapad on one of the examination tables. The pad held personal notes of scientist S. Esparza. It read:

We haven't been able to decipher much–if any–of the language yet, but the visual documentation gives us some idea as to what they were studying. Namely, us. They seemed particularly interested in early humanity's evolutionary process, judging by the way they organized their files and highlighted specific occurrences. It seems a bit fantastic to write this, but everything indicates that they seemed to be trying to chart the curve of humanity's intellectual progression.

How right you were, Arius agreed sadly as he looked down at the smoking corpse at his feet. What a shame.

Liara gave an audible sigh. "And they only just scratched the surface."

.

The group was bunched in the auto-turret control station, the final security checkpoint just above the tram station that would take them to the Archives. They had been beaten to the tram by Dr. Eva and her Cerberus accomplices narrowly and were just a handful of minutes behind them, effectively transforming the station they sat in into a dead end.

Liara had managed to access footage from a security camera farther down the line, and they watched with silence as it captured the tram on its way to the Archives carrying Dr. Eva Coré and a handful of Cerberus troops.

"Set up a perimeter. No one else comes across."

"We still have teams on the other side, doctor..."

"No one! And shut down those cameras!"

The last thing shown on the screens was Dr. Eva levelling a pistol directly at the camera and blowing it to smithereens. The video feed then promptly died.

"Looks like they've made it to the Archives," Shepard announced. "And it looks like they won't be sending a tram anytime soon. Can you override it, Liara?"

"No. The Archives are on a separate network. We're completely locked out."

"No, not completely. " Kaidan suggested, an idea occurring to him. "What if we could find a short-range transmitter—helmet-to-helmet?"

"And?"

"And then we convince them that we're with them and the Alliance forces have been taken care of."

"Worth a shot." Shepard agreed, "Let's see if we can find anything on those troops we just put down."

The squad rifled through some of the bodies they had recently passed.

"Commander! I found something." the major yelled, flagging them over.

"What you got?"

"He's got a transmitter in his helmet. If I can just..."

Kaidan wrangled the helmet of the dead Cerberus soldier with both hands, trying to pry the faceplate away to access the transmitter within. The plate came away after a strong tug, but the face he uncovered caused him to reel in horror. Blue-white, dead eyes stared up at him. "Oh, god. He looks like a husk."

As surprised as Shepard was to see a husk in a Cerberus combat suit, she wasn't terribly surprised. It was no secret that the Illusive man had always used pretty unorthodox and messed-up methods.

"Yeah, not quite," she remarked. "But they've definitely done something to him. Arius, take a look."

Curious, Arius crouched down to look at the body that rested under the Cerberus armour. The features he saw were definitely husk-like, but the body had not come close to becoming a fully-fledged one: the skin was still a human shade of pale white, and heavy bruising, caused by human blood seeping into the dermal tissues, was present around the dead man's eyes and lips. The eyes themselves shone blue-white, a common feature of a husk, but it appeared to be the only obvious husk trait.

An organics central nervous system is the first to be converted when undergoing a husk transformation. Brain, spinal column, eyes, and nerve endings are the first mutated, but he had never seen a husk at this early stage of transformation ever be capable of more than a twitch or an incoherent screech. A barrage of questions filled his mind, each without an answer but each leading to a question even more important than the previous: Was the Illusive man doing this to his own troops or was he doing this to innocent humans, indoctrinating them into Cerberus troops? Knowing his past and what he stood for, what would bring the Illusive man to do such a thing? Is he already in a state of indoctrination? And the most important question of all: If the Illusive man had discovered a way to control the husks... could they do the same? An army of husks turned on their creators would be utter chaos and just what they needed as cannon fodder against the Reapers. He switched profiles on his omni-tool, booting up a copy of medical diagnostic software. He scanned the Cerberus body, hoping the data would be useful later. "It seems Cerberus has found a way to engineer their own version of Husks."

"Engineered? By Cerberus? They claim to stand for humanity, and they do this to their own people. That could have been you, Shepard." Kaidan said, pointing to the corpse. "For all I knew, that's what Cerberus had done to you."

There was a split second, Arius would later recall, when several of Shepard's emotions rolled across her face, one after the other. First surprise, then anger, then a mask of iron indifference born from her training. Whatever positive feelings she may have still held for Kaidan at the beginning of the mission were getting ground down by his repeated misgivings.

"I don't have the time or the energy to convince you to follow me." she snapped.

"I'm with you, Commander. I just wanted you to know why I-"

She didn't give him a chance to respond. "Come on. Let's see if we can get them to send that tram over," she commanded to the group, eager to advance. She brought the receiver up to her mouth.

"Hello. This is Delta Team. Anybody here?"

"Where the hell have you been?" replied the Cerberus soldier at the other end, sounding pissed.

"Never mind. What's your status? We're at the tram station, waiting for extraction. All hostiles terminated."

"Roger that. Echo Team will ride over and secure the station." The channel abruptly closed.

"Think they bought it?"

"If they didn't, they'll figure it out soon enough. We can flank them from over there," she advised them, pointing to the cover present near the dock on the level below them. "Get yourselves ready."

Arius jumped down to the dock level and scuttled over to a barrier close to the tram dock doors, looking out through the station windows to watch the Martian world outside. Across the chasm, he could see a tram being driven toward them via the track linking the station and the Archive, suspending the tram occupants hundreds of meters above the Martian surface. A bomb placed anywhere on the track could send the entire gondola crashing down toward the Martian surface. He hoped the enemy didn't think of doing the same thing.

While he watched the tram travel toward them, Kaidan joined him behind the barrier.

"Hey, Arius," Kaidan asked as he crouched down beside him. "Is your kinetic shield module malfunctioning? I've noticed your suit's barrier system hasn't been regenerating."

"No, it's not a malfunction," he answered. "I don't have one."

Arius could easily see the confusion on the man's face. An active combatant in a war without a kinetic barrier was unheard of and completely stupid from any point of view.

"Why not? You'll get yourself killed!"

"It's out of necessity, Major. I can't use them."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"This."

Arius extended his armoured hand till it hovered over the humans' back where Alliance-issued kinetic barrier modules were installed. The barrier module now within the proximity of Arius' ethereal field, Kaidan's kinetic shields immediately flickered in and out around the suit, unable to stabilize. Within seconds his shields outright failed, faulting from excess interference. Satisfied with the demonstration, he withdrew his hand, and the module hummed to life again, regenerating Kaidan's kinetic barrier.

"How in the world..."

"It's complicated," Arius answered. "Don't worry about it now; the tram's about to dock."

.

"We're here."

Past the last set of large blast doors beheld the Mars Prothean Archives. The circular room was impressive in itself had it not hosted alien-looking monolithic blocks of various sizes, ranging anywhere from 6 to 20 meters tall, clustered in the middle of the space. Surrounding the blocks was a hazy, green-tinted fog, and an occasional spark of light would jump from the large blocks into the cloud chamber it was surrounded by. A blue strip of fluorescence marked each block in a strange pattern, emerging at the top and making its way down the artifact's side till it disappeared below the erected walkway they stood on.

"Prothean data shards," Arius informed them, recognizing their design. "Came in sizes ranging from as tall as a building to as small as a credit chit. Built to last forever. No moving parts. Impressive data density."

Shepard gave the signal for Kaidan to make a sweep of the room while the rest of the group headed toward the console at the foot of the protective glass surrounding the monoliths. Liara typed on the holographic keys of the console, looking for the data they had risked their lives for.

"Shepard," addressed a smooth-sounding voice from behind them, so close and sudden that Liara spun around holding her Carnifex, ready to lodge a bullet into its owner. Standing before them in full holographic resplendence was a man they all thoroughly despised. He wore his familiar suit, had a lit cigarette dangling from his fingers, and regarded them informally.

"Illusive man?"

"Fascinating race, the Protheans," his blue hologram answered, oblivious to the disdain thrown toward him. "They left all this for us to discover, but we've squandered it. The Alliance has known about the Archives for more than thirty years, and what have they done with it?"

Shepard had enough exposure to his veiled idealistic discourse to know his rationalizations were usually full of shit.

"Get on with it. What do you want?" she asked impatiently.

"What I've always wanted," he answered, looking up toward the Prothean data troves. "The data in these artifacts hold the key to solving the Reaper threat."

"I've seen your solution – your people have turned into monsters."

"Hardly. They're being improved."

"Improved? Mutating humans as the Reapers do is an improvement?"

"That's what separates us, Shepard: where you see a means to destroy, I see a way to control – to dominate and harness the Reaper's power. Imagine how strong humanity would be if we controlled them."

"Woah Woah Woah, Earth is under siege, and you're hatching a scheme to control the Reapers? Are you nuts?"

"You've always been... short-sighted. Your destruction of the Collector base proved that."

"The Collector base was an abomination. Hundreds of thousands of humans were murdered there."

"You are not the first with such dreams, Illusive man," Arius calmly interrupted. "The footsteps you follow have only ever led toward the grave. Make no mistake, many have come before you, and many more will come after you if you do not devote yourself to their complete eradication. The Reapers are a race designed to control, built by hands far more advanced than the Protheans."

The Illusive man regarded them both with displeasure before shrugging his shoulders. "This isn't your fight any longer. You can't defeat the Reapers, even with the Prothean data," he told them, bringing his cigarette up to his lips.

"Work with me, then. Give me control of your resources, and I'll stop them," Shepard pleaded.

Then, a queer thing happened. The Illusive man stopped right before he inhaled his cigarette, critically regarding Shepard with his unsettling eyes as if he had never before thought of her request and pondered if it was a viable option. After a brief moment of contemplation, the cigarette resumed its ascent to his lips. The Illusive man inhaled deeply, and wisps of smoke passed out from the smouldering end of the cigarette. "You'd do better than most, Shepard... but the odds aren't in your favour. More importantly, I don't want the Reapers destroyed. We can dominate them, use their power, harness their very essence to bring humanity to the apex of evolution."

"You've gone too far. The Reapers will kill us all if we don't stop fighting each other."

"Your vision is pathetically limited. I don't expect you to understand, Shepard, and I'm certainly not looking for your approval," he said in a subtle mocking tone. "You were a tool, an agent with a singular purpose, and in spite of our differences, you were relatively successful. And as for you," he said, addressing Arius, "I've begun to regret handing you over to Shepard so casually. We could have done incredible things for the human race – isn't that want you've always wanted?"

Arius shook his head. "Your vision for humanity sacrifices its soul for more power. I have seen many deal with their demons in the same way, time and time again - do not go so far in your sacrifices that you become the monsters you are fighting against. You may not see the end of your dream, Illusive man, but I have lived it. You will lose the war even if you win the battle. I did."

"The war–"

Arius had not yet finished. Although none could see his face behind his dark helmet, his eyes and voice took on that peculiar look and tone that compelled the listener to attention as he hinted at a close secret worthy of incalculable value. "I have seen you fight valiantly for your species, Jack Harper. Would you wish for your comrades to have died in vain?"

The quanta of time that followed the Arius' words were quiet in decibel but loud with thought as everyone reeled, not least of all the Illusive man, whose cool exterior faltered as he was aghast into sharp silence. One of the galaxies' closest guarded secrets had just been laid bare without incident, and the act of uttering that specific piece of information allowed all parties listening to understand two things: the Illusive man was not quite as Illusive as everyone thought him out to be, and that by association, Commander Eden Shepard was now possibly the most powerful person between all of them. The untraceable Cerberus network and the legendary Shadow Broker network, far beyond the powers of even the best professional galactic agencies, were now momentarily trumped. With the exception of Cerberus, Shepard had two of the best information networks in the galaxy by her side.

The Illusive man burned his cybernetic eyes into Arius, daring him to continue unravelling the thread of truth he had revealed. The last time the Illusive man had assumed that name was during the First Contact War before Cerberus had been thought. There were very few living who were privy to that information. The silence drew itself out, waiting for the exchange to officially end. Someone was going to be cutting the call, and he wanted the Illusive man to back down.

"Just because you've uncovered a name doesn't mean you've changed anything," the Cerberus leader told them, quick to revert to his cool self. "Both of you lack the conviction to do what must be done for humanity's continued evolution, and like the rest of the relics in this place," he said, taking a hurried drag of his cigarette, "both of your times are over."

Shepard had heard enough. "Enough talk. Liara, cut it."

"Don't interfere with my plans," the Illusive man threatened, staring accusingly at them, "I won't warn you again."

"Duly noted. Go to hell."

"Shepard!" Liara yelled, frantically trying commands on the Archive console. "The data. It's being erased!"

With that revelation, the Illusive man's hologram smirked, turned, then disappeared.

"Damn it. How's he doing it, Liara?"

"It's local," Liara determined. "Someone's uploading the information then wiping it from the system."

"Dr. Eva Coré still stands unaccounted for," Arius stated. "It must be her. We need to find her, now."

Just as the team started to move, Kaidan cried out over the comm, then a grunt was heard as he was presumably hit with or by something. The glowing strips that ran along the monoliths all faded as they were cut off from the power. A second later, a woman rushed out from a console booth and hurried straight for the exit. The team was on her immediately.

"That's Dr. Eva Coré; she has the data!" Kaidan shouted to them.

While Shepard and Liara raised their weapons to fire, Arius raised his pistol in automatic reflex and fired three shots, each perfectly in line with the doctor's fleeing form. Each shot found its mark, yet each sputtered uselessly against a powerful kinetic barrier. Strangely enough, the doctor was not wearing a combat suit. Where had she gotten the energy reserves to power that powerful of a barrier without a noticeably bulky cell pack, he did not know.

Shepard and Liara opened fire simultaneously, their own shots stopping short as well. The doctor fled through the exit, not showing any signs of slowing her impressive pace.

"Stay close!" Shepard ordered. "We can't lose her!"

Arius was hot in pursuit even before the order was given. Shepard ran close to him, also an impressive runner. Liara and Kaidan trailed behind, ready to engage when they got a chance. It was a good thing they did. As they raced through and over the station, they dodged grenades, Cerberus troops and Martian sand just to keep up.

"Shepard," Arius informed her, his breathing sounding forced, "I do not believe doctor Eva is entirely human. She has not fumbled her footing once and maintains a speed that even I am finding difficult to easily overcome. I just watched her clear ten feet in a vertical jump."

"Noted. James, do you read me? Cerberus has the data. Radio the Normandy. Get them down here now!"

Arius jumped half the length of the ladder leading toward the station's roof in a single bound, catching the doctor just as she gained a footing at the top. Within reach, and knowing weapons fire were useless against her powerful shields, he impacted the doctor's back with a closed fist, sending the body tumbling along the length of the roof. It was a glancing shot, not direct enough to break her spine but enough to throw her off balance and skid her body as her momentum was brought to a halt by her tumble. There was no blood on the roof where she had fallen, and when she turned toward him, he saw the glint of metal beneath her torn, artificial skin. His suspicions were confirmed.

While he deliberated on how to proceed, a Cerberus shuttle appeared on the other end of the platform and opened. Dr. Eva Coré, already bounding back into action, jumped on and started speeding away. The warrior was too far to run and catch it.

"Damn it!" Shepard yelled, just behind them, "James? Normandy? Anybody?"

Up in the sky, another shuttle rapidly entered view, speeding straight toward the departing Cerberus one.

"I got this one!" whopped James Vega, over the comm. "Besa mi culo, puto!"

Seeing what would happen, Shepard tackled Kaidan out of the way, and Arius threw his heavier armoured bulk in front of Liara's lightly armoured body to shield her from the incoming collision. The two shuttles slammed together in the air with an almighty crash, hitting the platform and throwing fire and hot metal everywhere. The Cerberus shuttle sat and burned.

Shepard got up and assessed the damages. Liara and the Wanderer were in the worst shape after getting hit with a metal bar tossed toward them by the explosion. His body had taken the brunt of the force, but her leg had been struck. He himself was doubled over, catching the breath that had been forced out of him from the impact.

Vega landed the shuttle unceremoniously and hopped out, suffering minimal damage from the impact.

"Normandy's en route. They'll be here soon," he reported, looking off to the side to see Kaidan helping a limping Liara toward the shuttle.

"Good. We still need the data," Shepard said, looking at the burning wreckage of the shuttle, intent on recovering the doctor's body and omni-tool from the flames. "Do we have a fire suppressor on board I can use?"

The door of the burning shuttle flew off its damaged hinges, tossed away like a child might toss away a toy. Against all expectations, a figure got up from within the burning shuttle and appeared on the platform amid the fire that raged on, seemingly undisturbed. The team immediately saw why: the doctor's uniform and artificial skin had melted away, revealing the blackened metallic frame underneath.

The machine that was Dr. Eva Coré streaked toward them to attack.

Kaidan, who was the closest, let go of Liara and raised his sub-machine gun, firing at point-blank range. He hit the machine several times, but, unable to feel pain, it did not slow. The robot quickly bridged the distance, grabbing his helmet one-handed and lifting him into the air.

"Put him down!" Shepard demanded.

The smoking robot calmly brought a hand to one ear while the other kept Kaidan dangling helplessly in the air.

"Orders?" it enquired to a superior over a comm.

There was no doubt in the minds present as to who the robot took orders from. It was the Illusive man, and although they all desperately wished for the Cerberus leader to show mercy, they knew he had nothing to lose from killing Kaidan.

They were right; he didn't. The robot swung Kaidan around in the air, cracking his helmet repeatedly into the burning hull of the shuttle behind them.

Shepard could not believe her eyes. "No!" she yelled, levelling her own pistol and firing shot after shot as it dropped Kaidan's limp form and instead ran for her.

The four shots she had left in her pistol hit the mechanic doctor in the head and chest three times, penetrating through the body of metal and hitting hardware vital to its function. The running, blackened form sparked and then collapsed just before reaching her.

There was no time to lose.

"Grab that thing. Bring it with us," she yelled to them, rushing to pick up Kaidan. He was unresponsive, and his helmet had cracked in several places. She threw him onto her back, moving him away from the burning shuttle.

"Shepard, we got Reaper signatures in orbit," Joker's voice relayed, their connection to the Normandy finally restored.

"Get us out of here, Joker."

As the Normandy swooped down to accept them, the team could see the black, unholy abominations settle on the red Martian soil far in the distance.

She couldn't wait to leave this place.