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Re-uploaded due to another stupid site error, sorry to those of you that have already read this chapter.

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"The way I see it, there's only three kinds of people in this world. Bad ones, ones you follow, and ones you need to protect."

(Amos Burton)

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CSV Iquitos, April 2nd, 8:26 AM, 2186

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Walking down the port side of Kira's ship, I inspected the breaching pods we had quickly fabricated and installed on this side of the ship. Normally there would have been crew quarters and storage here, but it all had to be stripped out to provide easy access to the pod launchers. It was now more akin to a long, slightly narrow hallway, leaving little to the imagination. This was done to hide the presence of the pods until the moment they were ready to be launched. Explosive bolts would blow off the outer hull plates, giving us a clear shot to launch before Cerberus was capable of retaliating.

While there had been some friction with the other Admirals when I informed them of our plan, enough of them agreed that this was too good of an opportunity to ignore that I could organize an offensive. My 3rd Fleet, formerly the Exploration Flotilla, would be attacking en masse alongside elements of the 2nd and 4th Fleets, including the Caprica, Ibycter, and half a dozen interdictor ships. We'd given them the codenamed "Dog Catchers."

The plan had remained largely the same. We would approach the system in the Iquitos, Kira guiding us in while the rest of us waited inside the breaching pods, ready to go at a moment's notice. When we were in position, we'd be fired at the station, making contact and breaching their internal defenses. Once we'd secured our breaching points, Lydia would access the station's security grid, causing as much havoc as possible as she searched for the location of the station's artificial intelligence.

We knew it was likely impossible to shut it down from a remote location, so we'd have to locate its source and either disable or destroy it to shut down the ADS surrounding the station. Once the ADS was down, I'd activate a beacon signalling for our fleet to jump in and secure the area. Once we ensured the station's routes of escape were cut off, we'd flood the station with Marines and finally wipe these bastards out.

As a contingency in case our mission was at risk of complete failure, we'd also be bringing along a special package. It was the nuclear device we had recovered from the Alliance probe months ago, retrofitted with a new arming and firing mechanism. It was about the size of a beer keg, and was loaded onto our pod where there was already very little space. It hadn't been my idea to bring such a dangerous piece of equipment with us, but I had been overruled and told to bring it anyway. It was a risk, sure, but I understood their rationalization. If we couldn't seize control of the station, it would be better to destroy it rather than risk any Cerberus leaders escaping.

I would personally make sure things didn't come to that. I wanted to be back on the Saint Luke as soon as this sordid business was over.

"You seem preoccupied, Admiral." Kira spoke from behind me, surprising me slightly. "You've already inspected them twice today, you really think a third is what'll make the difference come game time?"

"Ah, well… not much else to do around here." I replied, cracking a small smile as I turned to face her. "We both know the risks of this operation, yet all I can think about right now is my wife and little girl back on the Saint Luke."

"You have a daughter?" She questioned, a grin appearing on her face. "How old?"

"Ah, she's a little over a year and a half." I nodded, allowing myself a grin of my own. "She's starting to walk pretty good too. Soon, she'll be outrunning her dear old father."

"Hm. I've been… reevaluating a lot of things lately. My career, marriage… kids..." She spoke, getting me to raise an eyebrow. "As a father, would you say it's worth it?"

"Are you talking about marriage or kids?" I asked, getting an amused huff out of her.

"Both." She replied a second later, putting her hands on her hips.

"Considering you've got a guy like Dimitri swooning over you, I'm surprised you even have to ask that question." I shot down, crossing my arms. "I thought that was pretty clear already."

"I know, it's just…" She hesitated for a moment, uncertainty in her eyes. "It's been so long, and I haven't been the greatest, shining beacon of humanity the last few years. Could I be a good wife, let alone a good mother?"

"That's entirely up to you and Dimitri." I replied, an annoyed look flashing across her face. "That being said, it would be a shame to see two, perfectly compatible people fail to act on their feelings for each other."

"Heh, that's one way to say it." She said with some nerves, rubbing the back of her neck. "You're sure you're OK with me and my crew being part of this Confederation of yours?"

"I believe most people deserve a second chance. You're one of them." I nodded, smiling once again as I walked down the hallway with a smirk. "I'll see you again in a few hours."

I wasn't sure when it happened now that I thought about it, but I had become very aware of my… distinct feelings towards certain people. While I still believed there were more than enough irredeemable people out there in the world that, frankly, didn't deserve a second thought or an ounce of mercy, there were plenty of others that had simply made a mistake. Two years ago, I likely wouldn't have given Kira or any of her crew the benefit of a doubt, but I realized along the way that, deep down, most of us are just folk. We all needed a place to sleep, eat, and interact with one another, and I knew pushing everyone away wasn't the answer.

I had the benefit of knowing who my enemies were these days. Back when we were a single ship with nowhere to go, we deliberately sought out those, who in many ways, were just like us. Drifters, without a place to call home. Years after that day, we'd formed something special, and I guess deep down I subconsciously decided I wanted to share what we had with others. Prove to them we'd been building something unique, something better in our little corner of the galaxy.

That's why it was important that we gave people like Kira these chances to prove themselves, make up for their pasts. We needed to prove that we were doing the best we could with what little we had. The only way to truly do that was to confront those that would destroy our way of life head-on and put our money where our mouths were. No one else would fight our battles for us, this was our responsibility.

We would beat Cerberus this day, and we would beat the Reapers too.

…

CSV Iquitos, April 2nd, 11:24 AM, 2186

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Sitting inside one of the cramped boarding pods with Largos, Dimitri, Lydia, and four more marines, I stared long and hard at the battered nuclear device strapped to the floor in front of me, unable to shake the feeling of dread I sensed in its presence. It could kill all of us in an instant without us feeling a thing, leaving nothing but scorched, jagged scrap metal behind, but somehow that wasn't the worst part of it.

It was the implication that scared me the most. The idea that there were those in the Confederation that didn't believe this could be pulled off, and needed a "failsafe" of some kind. It didn't do much for my personal morale, but the others didn't need to know that.

"Sean, the Fleet is in position. We're ready to go as soon as you take down that defense grid." Mal radioed in, getting me to sigh deeply. "Good luck."

"Thanks Mal. I'll see you on the other side." I replied, switching channels back to Kira. "Alright Captain, everyone's ready. It's your show from here on out."

"Understood Admiral. Mission is a-go, people! Jumping in three… two… one!" She announced over both my comm and the ship-wide intercom as I tensed myself.

I felt some of the g-forces bleed through the inertial dampeners as they fought against the less-sophisticated Cerberus Gravity Drive, leaving me with a bit of a pit in my stomach. Luckily I didn't have to experience the sensation for long, because seconds later we dropped out of transit, all of us still in one piece.

Now all we could do was wait, and hope Kira could pull this off.

"Cronos Actual, this is Captain Kira Hyams of the Iquitos, requesting permission to enter restricted space, authorization code Twelve Niner Whiskey Delta Seven." She announced over the secured line I had tapped into. "We've suffered considerable damage and have taken casualties, requesting immediate aid and medical assistance."

There was a brief pause as nothing but static filled the air, leaving me and the others tense.

"Captain Kyra Hyams, proceed to sector coordinates and maintain holding pattern until inspection team arrives." A stilted, robotic voice replied, which must have been the station's A.I. "Failure to follow order will be met with containment and sterilization. Please confirm your understanding of these instructions."

"Orders received and understood, proceeding to coordinates." Kira quickly replied as the line was automatically cut from the station's end.

"Did you get all of that?" I asked Lydia, who quickly blinked her eyes.

"I did. That certainly sounded like an artificial construct." She nodded, staring into space for a moment. "Normally, I would have been able to trace the location of the transmission right to the source, but there's some sophisticated electronic warfare countermeasures in place. I can't risk accessing their network yet, or else they'll immediately discover we're not who we say we are."

"We need not wait much longer." Dimitri smirked, putting his Type IV exo helmet on with a sharp hiss. "Kira has accomplished hard part, now we must follow through."

"Don't count your chickens before they hatch. We're not there yet." I warned, not one for premature celebration as I turned back to Lydia. "Be ready to flood their network with garbage data and whatever other nasty surprises you've cooked up once we're inside."

"Got it." She smirked, looking quite pleased with herself.

From that point on, we sat in silence for what felt like ages, when in reality only a few minutes had passed. I continued to stare at the nuke strapped to the floor with apprehension, wondering if we'd even get to board the station at all. There was no denying the fact that these things weren't much more than containers with boosters attached to them, with skin barely thicker than the armor I was wearing.

As far as risk went, this was as high as you could go. This was something I wouldn't be able to stop thinking about until it was over.

"What's happening out there?" I asked, looking back to Lydia in an attempt to clear my head.

"There's a shuttle approaching the ship. We're still not in effective enough range to use the pods." She answered, doing nothing to alleviate my nerves. "We need to be at least another six-hundred meters closer to be launched effectively."

"Iquitos, this is Alpha-3 on approach. Please be ready to receive us." The comm immediately rang out, interrupting her explanation. "Admiral Ashe wishes to speak with you."

"Understood, Alpha-3. Tell the Admiral I'll be there waiting for him." Kira replied, keeping her cool surprisingly well as there was another small burst of static as she changed channels. "Once the shuttle is aboard, I'm going to move us within firing range as quickly as possible. I'll fire off our countermeasures, but once you've connected with the station you're on your own."

"Got it, just don't take any unnecessary risks and keep yourself alive. We know how to handle ourselves." I finished, the adrenaline beginning to pump through my bloodstream.

"Good luck. Try to keep Dimi out of trouble, I'd hate to pull his ass out of the fire again." She finished, cutting the line as Dimitri shook his head with an amused huff.

"That woman knows me too well." He mused, crossing his heavily-armored arms over his chest.

Before I could say anything else, I felt the faintest thump vibrate through the ship as a shuttle touched down below us in the hangar. Just as the vibration subsided, I felt the vessel immediately accelerate towards the station, the thumps of its GARDIAN arrays and disruptor tubes firing all at once. Seconds later, the explosive bolts blew off the outer hull plating as all our pods were launched at incredible speed towards the station. The trip only lasted seven or eight seconds, but the unsettling silence in those few moments truly terrified me. Sure I could hear the engines firing as the pods moved in unison with each other, but I knew there must have been a lot of firepower being exchanged around us out there.

Finally, there was a loud crashing noise as we slammed into the station, the plasma torches quickly burning their way into the station's surface to let us inside. We all stood up with our weapons at the ready, not knowing exactly what might be on the other side as the smoldering wall caved in, revealing a fairly large office with no one inside. We didn't take any chances, quickly hopping through the opening and scanning the area with thermals and Terahertz locators.

"Clear!" One of my marines shouted as I dropped down to the floor, thankful to finally be rid of that pod.

"Lydia, assessment." I quickly ordered, turning to face her as Dimitri disconnected the straps keeping the nuke on the floor, instead slinging it over his exo's shoulders and strapping it to himself.

"We're in luck, all five of our pods reached the station in one piece, and security still hasn't had time to deploy in full force." She reported, getting me to smirk slightly. "I might be able to access the station's network from this terminal. Go on, I'll be along in a minute."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" I questioned, knowing Dan would never want her to be left alone in a place like this.

"I can take care of myself. Secure the area, this shouldn't take long." She reassured, getting a quick nod from me as I put my finger to the side of my helmet.

"This is Blue Fox, all teams report status… report!" I ordered, only managing to get static in return. "Damn, sounds like they've turned on comm jammers."

"In that case, we must link up with them ourselves." Dimitri nodded as he and Largos stacked on the door.

The door led to a long hallway, brightly lit just like many other Cerberus facilities. There was no obvious activity yet, though gunfire could be heard farther down the hall.

"Come on, let's try to see what kind of damage we can do." I urged, running towards the gunfire with my team following closely behind.

"Priority Alert. Unauthorized lifeforms detected in West Quadrant, levels 12, 14, and 15. Execute containment procedure and report." The station's A.I. ordered out loud as we moved down the hallway, coming across a small balcony overlooking a small seating area below. Several of our men were pinned down by a squad of commandos, leaving them trapped by their entry point.

We wasted no time using our height advantage to mow down the relatively exposed commandos, making quick work of them with our Pulse Rifles. Before we could celebrate however, several LOKI mechs entered the room from our level, forcing us back into cover. Luckily, even these upgraded Cerberus models weren't very well armored, and went down with only a handful of shots each once we'd regained our bearings.

"You guys OK down there?!" I yelled, leaning over the balcony to look below.

"We're fine, sir! Thanks for the assist!" The Quarian sergeant answered, shooting me a thumbs up.

"Find the other teams and link up with us ahead. We're going to try and find out exactly where we are." I ordered, getting a quick salute as I turned back to my team. "Come on."

We entered the doorway where the mechs came from, checking for anyone hiding around the corner before moving any further. We were in another hallway, though bigger with small trees planted sequentially. Offices lined each side, with windows that allowed us to peer inside.

It looked as if several of these offices had been evacuated quite quickly, with papers and other items strewn everywhere. Before I had time to investigate further, several flying drones popped out of the walls, quickly firing and pinging several shots off my exo's kinetic barriers. Before I was even able to take cover, Largos fired a biotic blast at the drones, smashing them all into the walls as well as taking nearly all the leaves off one of the trees.

"Warning, high biotic potential detected. Engage countermeasure A-9. Contain." The A.I. announced as all the doors closed and magnetically sealed themselves, locking us in. "Attention security units, report status immediately."

"I'm really starting to hate that thing." I growled under my breath, quickly opening my omni-tool. "Come on Lydia, please tell me you're almost done…"

Unfortunately, we now had another problem. My mask flashed a warning that the atmosphere was quickly being vented from the hallway. While this wasn't a huge problem for us considering we were all wearing fully-sealed suits, it was a massive impediment on our progress and needed to be dealt with quickly if we wanted to pull this mission off.

"Sean, I suggest we plant explosive charge on door." Dimitri radioed over, our comms still good at this distance.

"That might blow out the whole compartment. We can't risk something like that." I denied, opening my omni-tool and attempting to find my own access point to enter their network.

Just as the trees began to freeze-dry from the lack of atmosphere, the holograms on the doors around us began to flicker before going out completely, air surging back into the room. The door behind us opened, revealing Lydia.

"Sorry I took so long, I just finished overriding the A.I. safeties in this section." She apologized as I felt a sense of relief.

"Honestly, you couldn't have come at a better time." I smiled, bumping the back of my fist against hers. "We have comms back yet?"

"In this section, at least. Our secured channels should still be intact." She nodded as I wasted no time switching back over to my comms.

"This is Blue Fox, all teams report status." I ordered once more, hoping my signal had gotten through this time.

"This is Rook 5, we've secured the area and have successfully linked up with the other teams." One of my squad leaders replied, bringing another deep sense of relief to my chest. "What are your orders, sir?"

Knowing Lydia would have a better idea of what to do, I motioned towards her, getting a quick flash of surprise from her as she held her hand up to her ear.

"Rooks 5, 3, and 2, proceed to their East Quadrant and look for a large power distribution conduit in their Administration level. Destroying that should cut a majority of the main power in this part of the station, including internal defense countermeasures. Rejoin Blue Fox at the A.I. Core once your objective is complete." She ordered quickly, still managing to surprise me with what she already knew about this station. "Rooks 4 and 1, proceed to the North Quadrant and look for their defense mainframe. Override its primary command lines with a subcommand I am sending you… now. This should give us control over all external defenses, whether the station's A.I. is active or not. Once you have access, open fire on any objects leaving the station."

"You heard the lady, those are your orders. Blue Fox out." I confirmed, knowing the squad leads only had a basic understanding of who she was.

As pings clicked out from each squad over my omni-tool, I understood what she was getting at. Not only would splitting up keep them off-balance, but each objective held significant importance. With the automated internal defenses out of the way, we'd be able to reach the A.I. core much more quickly, and taking over the external defenses would keep any Cerberus members from leaving. It was quite clever.

"Warning, malignant interface bypass detected. Optical core reprogramming detected. Network integrity compromised." The A.I. continued to list off as we moved on, Lydia opening a maintenance hatch that led to one of the sublevels. "Net-net-ne-n-n-network com-com-compro-o-o-omised."

"Sounds like the malformed packets I set up finally started to overwhelm her." Lydia mused as it struggled to speak over the intercom.

"Her?" One of my Marines questioned, sounding confused by the pronoun. "I thought it was just one of those pre-recorded deals."

"That's what her personality is supposed to be. The programmers and engineers that built her call her Enhanced Defense Intelligence, or E.D.I. for short." She further explained as we vaulted over several pipes in the cramped quarters of this level. "Best I can tell, she's a Quantum Blue Box-type A.I., but there's something… off about her."

"Care to elaborate?" I added, interested in what she had to say about the A.I.

"It's as if she's… stilted. Immature, young, almost like a child." She went on, beginning to sound sad and slightly remorseful. "Based on her responses to our invasion and her network presence, I doubt she's operating at even a quarter of her processing capability."

"But wouldn't an A.I. based on a Quantum Blue Box be capable of growing exponentially?" I questioned, remembering a conversation I had with Richard years ago on Aldrin Station shortly after Lydia had been "reborn" in his lab.

"Yes, though I expect Cerberus has her shackled to keep that from happening." She nodded as I checked our corners, following her as quickly as we could. "I admit, I feel… somewhat sorry for her."

"Sorry or not, she is keeping our ships from entering system." Dimitri pointed out, still managing to move quite easily despite the weight of the nuke he carried on his back.

"He's right, we need to focus on our objective." I agreed, finding the end of the maintenance area. Lydia bypassed the hatch above us, letting us climb back out.

At the top, I noticed we were in one of the labs. It appeared to involve avionics if the half-disassembled Cerberus fighter in the middle of the room was any indication. We didn't have time to stand around and read their notes however, because outside there were two squads of augmented Cerberus troops fortifying their positions in what appeared to be a large atrium or arboretum.

"Well, this is the quickest way to the A.I. core." Lydia shrugged, not doing any favors for me in terms of nerves. "If we can reach the other side, it'll put us right outside the core."

"Yeah, that's a bit of a tall order. We can't go out there without them seeing us." I shot back, not sure if we could take on two squads with just the eight of us. "Anyone have any ideas?"

"I could enter first, acting as a distraction and giving you time to move into the chamber." Largos suggested, worrying me slightly. "I would be protected by my abilities."

"I'm not sure if even you can handle that much firepower." I warned, wanting to come back with my whole squad intact. "Maybe if we-"

Before I could speak about my idea, all the lights around us suddenly went out, being replaced with red ones as emergency power kicked in.

"That was the main power! Rooks 5, 3, and 2 must have just taken it out!" Lydia nearly squealed, obviously quite excited that she had been right about the distribution conduit.

"That means they should be on their way, right?" Another one of my Marines spoke up, getting me to think about it for a moment.

"Yes, but that might take more time than I'm willing to waste." I mused, rubbing the underside of my mask as I looked back outside.

Much to my amazement, one of the squads was now leaving, heading in the direction of our squads in Administration. This was a fantastic turn of events that left the A.I. core almost completely exposed.

"Well, that evens the odds a bit." I grinned under my mask, checking my Pulse rifle to make sure it was still fully armed. "Largos, let's go with your plan."

He gave me one of those characteristic, slow nods as he often did, standing up with his staff at the ready. We opened the door, alerting the squad inside as he dashed inside with surprising speed, drawing their fire away from the door. We wasted no time running up to cover, shooting the troopers in the back as Largos reached two of them, slamming them against the wall with another biotic blast. I fired at their squad leader who wore slightly different armor than the others, pinging his shields but failing to pierce his armor before he got back to cover.

Dimitri barreled in despite the immense weight he was carrying, knocking one trooper to the ground as he unloaded his rifle into his helmet, turning it into swiss cheese. Lydia tossed one of our new plasma grenades at one hiding behind a large planter, instantly killing him in the explosion and lighting the plants around him on fire. The squad leader tried to reposition himself, but without any cover other than what he had already, I quickly flanked and gunned him down without a second thought. In only forty-seven seconds, all the gunfire had ceased and the dark, fire-lit atrium was quiet once more.

"Alright, we've got no time to waste. Let's get that A.I. offline." I ordered, running towards the door that led to the A.I. core.

A quick bypass later, the door opened revealing rows upon rows of computer servers, all chilled with a massive cooling system that appeared to be pumping pressurized liquid nitrogen through the server banks. It was incredibly cold in here, even with our suits on.

"Well Lydia… where do we begin?" I asked, looking to her as she stared into space for a second before immediately turning her head to the left.

"Over here is the main access point to the entire A.I. mainframe." She announced, running over to the console in question which lit the dark interior with a bright holographic orange.

She unhooked her suit's right glove, pulling several of those wires from before out of her wrist and plugging them directly into the console. She inhaled sharply as she did this, her eyes widening as she stared into space once more.

"Are you alright?" I asked, worried about her and any nasty surprises Cerberus may have hidden in the mainframe.

"Give me a moment… accessing the network… wow Sean, there's so much in here, so much raw information!" She went on, frightening me slightly with how enthusiastic she had suddenly become. "I wish you could see this the same way I do!"

"Let's just focus on taking "EDI" offline." I refocused, a sad look slipping onto her face.

"Right… accessing command subroutines for Enhanced Defense Intelligence… accessing…" She paused for a few moments before immediately hunching over in what appeared to be intense pain.

"Lydia! Lydia!" I yelled out at her with no response.

I attempted to grab the wires connecting her to the console, but she immediately grabbed my hand to prevent me from doing so. She squeezed hard enough that it felt like she might crush every bone in my hand.

"No!" She shouted, loosening her grip slightly. "I'm attempting to… separate her baseline programming from… the mainframe without damaging... her blue box. Don't you dare… disconnect me, or I'll… never forgive you!"

Reluctantly, I pulled my hand back as she continued convulsing against the console, struggling to stay standing. I looked at Dimitri, still unsure if there was anything I could do as Lydia completely fell to the floor, her wires popping out of the computer.

"Lydia? Are you still with us?" I asked in a lowered tone as she attempted to right herself on the floor.

"I'm fine." She nodded as I offered her my hand, which she accepted as I pulled her back to her feet. "I've successfully transferred EDI to a partition on my optical matrix. She's no longer in control of the station's systems."

With Lydia's confirmation, I pulled the beacon out of my pocket and activated it, sending out the all-clear signal to the Fleet.

"This is Blue Fox, the castle doors have fallen and the cavalry is on its way." I announced over the comm as I received pings from all my teams.

"I have question… where is this Illusive Man?" Dimitri asked in a grave tone, obviously just as curious as I was.

"He's not far from here, actually. Two corridors down through a large set of doors." Lydia answered, getting my adrenaline to spike again.

"In that case, maybe it's time we have a little talk with the owner of this establishment." I remarked, cracking my knuckles.

Leaving the A.I. Core, I was surprised to see this entire section appeared completely abandoned by those that had been working here. No researchers, administrators, or even augmented troopers lying in wait for us, nothing. At this point, they'd either be destroyed trying to leave the station, be killed trying to fight us off themselves, or they might even surrender to Confederation custody. At this point, I didn't give a rat's ass about any of them, I just wanted the man up top.

I opened the large set of doors, revealing a large, open room with a seamless reflective floor, the ceiling seemingly nowhere to be found. The star outside could be seen clearly straight ahead of us as our ships poured into the system, illuminating a single chair occupied by a sole man. He faced away from us, even though I was certain he must have heard us open the door.

It was The Illusive Man. He downed the last of his whiskey, finishing his cigarette as he listened to classical music. It was Mozart's Requiem in D Minor. A quick thermal scan of the room revealed nothing hidden in the large space, but I still wanted to air on the side of caution.

"Wait here." I ordered quietly, holding up my hand to them as I removed my mask and slowly walked toward him, prepared for anything. The air stunk of cigarette smoke, an unpleasant smell I hadn't experienced in years.

Silently, I knew something must have been up with him. He could have gone anywhere on this station, tried to leave at any time, but instead he chose to stay here. I balanced all those thoughts in my head as I reached the halfway point between my team and his chair.

"I prefer Dvorak myself. Not quite as dramatic and hard-hitting as Mozart, but my personal favorite." I critiqued out loud, getting him to turn his head just slightly enough to acknowledge he had heard me.

"Hm… I consider Dvorak to be a sub-par composer, but I suppose that could somewhat explain the many differences between us." He replied, standing up and turning towards me as he shut off the music. "I must admit, I never suspected Kira would resort to treachery as low as this, but I should have known better than to trust an idealist such as herself in the first place."

"You tend to make more friends when you tell them the truth." I argued, taking a few steps forward. "Have you ever considered doing that before?"

"The truth is useful when it works, but expecting it to improve every situation is an immensely naive point of view. Even you, as morally righteous as you are, have bent the truth to get your own way." He rebutted, sounding quite pleased with himself before frowning. "Don't patronize me, doctor. I've done more in thirty years than you can ever hope to accomplish your whole life."

"Big talk coming from someone who's just lost everything. You bet when you should have folded." I taunted, barely able to keep myself calm enough to talk in an inside voice. "The funniest part is that if you had just left us to our own devices, quit following and attacking us, we never would have done all this, brought all this down on your precious organization. You decided kicking the hornet's nest was better than leaving it be."

"That's hardly an apt analogy, but I admit, there were… missteps along the way. Even with all our efforts, you never did try to comprehend what we were doing, Michaels." He argued, taking a step forward as my adrenaline spiked. "Despite what you may think, everything I've done has been for-"

"-the betterment of humanity. Yeah, I've heard that argument before, and it somehow rings even more hollow now than it did back then." I finished for him, not willing to put up with his bullshit anymore. "You really have no idea what kind of damage you've caused, do you? How much pain, suffering, and death has resulted from your "betterment" of humanity?"

"I don't expect you to understand, not after everything you've done to jeopardize the survival of our species. Sacrifices must be made to evolve humanity, yet those such as yourself have become so weak that you'd bow to the control of those inferior to us." He said, finally expressing some noticeable anger towards me. "You could have been one of the best, Sean. You could have propelled humanity to heights never before seen by the galaxy, yet you decided letting yourself waste away, helping vagrants like the Quarians, was more important than helping your own people!"

"I don't need a lecture on morals from a mass murderer! You sit here, all cozy in your chair while you order the forceful implantation of colonists, the destruction of Alliance, human ships, and abduct children from their families to perform awful, inhumane experiments!" I yelled back in his face, suddenly seeing the image of that operating table on Pragia flash through my mind as I pulled out my Carnifex, aiming it square as his head. He stood completely still, unfazed by my escalation. "The idea of you, on the ground, with your head split open is becoming more appealing every second."

"I would think before you act, doctor. I know too much about the Reapers and their capabilities for you to risk killing me, you know that as well as I do." He said, sounding rather nonplussed about the gun pointed at his head as he took out another cigarette and lit it, taking a deep drag from it.

"You'd say anything to save your own skin, you snake." I growled, continuing to point the gun at his forehead as he walked even closer, getting within six feet of me.

"In the end, Dr. Michaels, it's your choice." He said with finality, staring daggers into my eyes with those cybernetic replacements of his. "Kill me, and you'll be throwing away the greatest asset left available to humanity and those "people" you call friends. Make your choice, but be prepared to live with the consequences."

It took me all of ten seconds to come to my decision.

"Heh, yeah... you're right. I might even sleep well at night too." I finished, pulling the trigger and blowing a hole straight through his skull. A dull look of surprise managed to slip onto his face for a split second as he fell backwards onto the floor, quickly pooling with his own blood. His lit cigarette was still stuck between his fingers, burning down to ash. Without a second thought, I leaned forward and spit on his corpse, feeling both satisfied and vindicated.

"That's for Jack Windham and all the others you've murdered, you son of a bitch." I finished, holstering my Carnifex as I walked over and sat down in his chair, watching our ships fly by outside the window.

"Well, I guess it is done." Dimitri remarked as he walked over, sounding quite tired as he took the nuke off his back and placed it on the reflective floor behind me

"Yeah… done for now." I nodded, feeling quite tired myself as I leaned to the side, holding up my head with my right arm as I watched the star's photosphere churn and occasionally eject matter directly into space.

We had finally accomplished what we once thought to be impossible. We defeated Cerberus.

We won.

…

A/N: Well, this was quite a fun chapter to write if you couldn't tell already. It was so fun in fact that it's longer than the normal chapters, which I usually try to keep to a certain length. I'm sure none of you are complaining about that, sure, but I just want you all to know this has been a long time in the making. The Illusive Man is finally gone after causing years of pain and hardship for Sean and his friends, and now all that's left is the Reapers. How will they fare against such an overwhelming threat? I guess you'll just have to wait and see.

Please leave a detailed review letting me know what you think, they're my lifeblood when it comes to writing. I appreciate all of you and the valuable insight you provide.