Illium

Explaining to Miranda how it was Kasumi who had tracked me down while Miranda had been tearing her hair out trying to find the elusive thief was amusing. Fortunately, after initial disbelief and annoyance, Miranda was able to see the funny side of it and welcomed Kasumi to the crew warmly before taking her on the traditional tour of my ship. I ventured to the bridge and saw my favourite pilot and Garrus who was taking a break from pottering around in the forward battery, and both of whom seemed to find the story of how Kasumi joined us hilarious,

"So, someone actually got the jump on the great Commander Gardner?"

"People get the jump on him all the time," Garrus joked, "usually they just end up with a bullet in the brain instead of being invited into the Normandy club."

"After that I'm glad that we didn't leave without her," I said, "her talents could come in very handy. Especially… you know… being able to go invisible."

Joker chuckled,

"Man, I could get up to some trouble if I could do that."

"Yeah," Garrus said thoughtfully, "give me that active camo suit and my rifle and I'd be unstoppable."

"Not what I meant Garrus," Joker told him with a grin.

"Just don't let the dream distract you from your job Joker; we're going to Illium," I said.

"An Asari world?" Joker said happily, "I'm definitely going to ask Kasumi for that invisibility suit now!"

Dealing with the politics of the universe had left me feeling exhausted, as usual, and I retreated to my room for some drastically needed R&R. Sleep was cruelly absent, as if seeing Anderson and the beautiful and tranquil Presidium as it had been before Saren's attack had taken my mind back to those horrifying days of Sovereign. I was on Elysium, running from foxhole to foxhole with Private Dawson's machine gun and gunning down dozens of Batarian attackers at a time, then I was warped into the vision from the Prothean beacon, surging around the galaxy and watching hundreds of worlds burning to nothingness.

I saw the fleeting images of thousands of citizens fleeing through the streets of a city while the Reapers turned it into rubble all around them, tears and terror everywhere I looked. Then, for one immeasurable moment I thought I saw something. I focused my mind as hard as I could, and the pain in my head built up so much I wanted to scream but I saw the image again; among the crowds of fleeing Prothean civilians I saw soldiers fighting amongst them, defending their people. Then I saw what the blurry Prothean figures were fighting against. Their eerie, cold yellow eyes shone out through the brown and red murk, then it was as if every pair of eyes suddenly turned to me and I heard the deafening screams of billions ring out in the cold, dark void: Collectors.

I shot upright and grasped around me, hoping to find anything to hold onto and get a grip on my surroundings. Slowly my eyes opened and I peered from my bed at the rest of my cabin. The fish in the tank were lazily dancing from one side to the other, not a care in the world. My computer was blinking as usual to tell me that I had received an e-mail, many of them. Everything was as it normally was. Then I saw her standing there at the door, her glowing eyes looking at me with pity and her hands fidgeting as she wondered whether to come over,

"Tali," I called to her. However, I realised that I was still mostly undressed and I swiftly threw on my shirt and trousers again before asking her down,

"How are you settling back in?"

Tali was looking at me curiously, obviously having been unsettled when she saw me thrashing in my sleep,

"I'm ok," she said, "I'm missing the old faces from the old Normandy; Engineer Adams, Ashley, Liara and Wrex. But I'm loving the new ship, and that drive core is amazing! Never thought I'd have a nice thing to say about Cerberus but they can build a ship."

The Quarian that I still loved approached me and touched me on the arm,

"What about you?" she asked, "still having the nightmares after all this time?"

I broke eye-contact with her and moved over to the fish tank, the slow motion of them swimming around had a calming effect on me at times, but not this time,

"Still… always," I said darkly, "they're never far away."

I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the tank; my eyes and scars were glowing hotter than ever and I felt my clothes sticking to the sweat on my body,

"Don't worry about me, Tali," I turned back to her, "I've learned to cope with them. To be honest, these bloody scars bother me more than the nightmares. They're just not healing."

It was a complete lie, but as always I had to appear strong and capable to those that followed me, those that I cared about.

Tali ran a finger along the scar running from my left ear and along the top of my cheek-bone, and I just wanted to take her hand and never let go, but she told me,

"They will in time. But with cybernetics too much stress can cause them to heal slower, and you're under a lot of stress."

"Yeah," I laughed grimly, "the lives of millions resting on me… again. How do I keep finding myself in this situation? And why do I keep having to do it alone?"

"You're not alone Scott… ever," Tali grazed my cheek and I took her hand in mine, "I'm with you, Garrus is with you, your sister is with you. There are many who believe in you and will follow you to the end."

"But it's never enough," I said, "if the Council would just open their eyes, I could have armies and fleets behind me to help deal with this, but again they've ignored me and thousands of lives will be lost because of it…"

"You can't save everyone," Tali calmed me, "no matter how hard you try. You're the best hope for the galaxy, but sometimes I think you forget that you're still just a man; one, single man. You've had the responsibility of a god thrust upon you, but you stepped up anyway. We'll beat the Collectors, together."

Whether she wanted me to or not, I hugged her tightly, and was happy when I felt her tighten her arms around me as well.

"Thanks Tali, you make me believe again, you know that?" I smiled at her, "What was it you originally came up here for anyway?"

"Oh… right," she came back to the present, "I have some news for you: Liara is on Illium."

"Really? What's she doing there? The Illusive Man told me that she was working for the Shadow Broker now."

Tali was sceptical but did not have any information to rebuke the Illusive Man's claim,

"Well, I don't know about that but I know she's working as an Information Broker, and I believe she's working for herself rather than the Shadow Broker. Not that there's any way I could actually know that."

"Well," I smiled, still with my arms around Tali, "we'll ask her when we get there. You, Garrus and I should go ashore and see an old friend together."

"Sounds great," she said happily. I freed her from my arms and she placed a hand over my heart, feeling it beat for her,

"I should go," she said to me, her bright eyes lighting up my life, "but remember what I said; take the time to relax and shake off the stress. And remember that you are anything but alone!"

Feeling revitalised after speaking with Tali again, I washed up and reported to the bridge as Joker brought the Normandy in for its approach to the planet of Illium. The capital city of Nos Astra was a phenomenon that I had only ever heard about, never seen for myself. An entire third of the planet, which was only a fraction larger than Earth, was under the jurisdiction of the city, to be at the centre and look around it would seem as if the city would not end. A population of billions rather than millions was under the care of the government and the city had a reputation as an industrial, cultural and economic power-house.

However, Illium itself sat right on the border with the Terminus Systems, and many, many illegal items, weapons, drugs and other materials found their way to the planet and further on into Citadel Space. As a Human there was another issue that I had with the ways of Illium; Slavery. "Indentured Servants" could be bought and traded, and though it was apparently well regulated and the servants supposedly cared for, there were many horror stories to be told about what happened behind closed doors.

To a blue-ish purple evening sky, I stepped off of the Normandy with Tali and Garrus by my side. Miranda said that she had a personal errand to attend to and ventured off quickly on her own and most of my crew and ground team took the opportunity to go ashore and enjoy themselves. I happy for them to do so, as long as they did not get drunk and remained within easy reach of the Normandy in case we needed to go in haste. Jack made a passing comment that Illium was just Omega in disguise, and Garrus backed her up by describing how, if you fell off the grid somehow in this vast city, you were a goner. We were approached by a pretty young Asari with flecks of white across her face and star-lit eyes,

"Welcome to Nos Astra, Commander Gardner," she said with a high and excitable voice, "I'm here to inform you that all docking and administration fees have been paid and taken care of by a close friend of yours."

"Liara T'Soni?" I asked.

"Yes Sir. She said to tell you that she's hoping to see you at the Nos Astra Trading Port; her office is located there and it's not far. There's also a large number of shops and lounges in the vicinity. Is there anything else you would like to know?"

"That's fine, thank you," I looked at Tali and Garrus, "let's go see our old friend."

Members of the crew slowly peeled off from our group and went their own ways towards whatever took their fancy. Grunt and Zaeed went to the nearest gun store and had a good look around while Jack hit the first bar she saw,

"I'm on shore leave," was her excuse, mocking the military way of life at every opportunity she got. Miranda disappeared without anyone seeing her, but I kept the fact that she had a personal errand of the secret kind from everyone else. Jacob stopped to look at the awe-striking views across the city and invited Kasumi to join him as the newest member of the team. Kasumi was a very pleasant and cheery woman who had fitted right in with the crew, but I noticed through watching her interact with everyone that she never revealed anything about herself; not one solitary detail.

Sophie indulged in her favourite hobby of shopping, a love she had retained from before she was a Marine, and Mordin was the only one of us that had stayed on the Normandy to work, always work. Liara's office looked out over the main trading floor and the outer wall was all glass. I saw an Asari in a video call with a Human, probably a customer, but was a little put off when I noticed that the Human looked rather worried and anxious. That could not be gentle, kind-hearted Liara's doing, surely.

"…Have you ever faced an Asari Commando unit before?" were the first words I heard upon entering Liara's office, "few Humans have," the insidious Asari voice finished. The Human on the other end of the call squirmed a little and the young Asari who stood with her back to me hit home with the killer blow,

"I will get the payment, or I'll flay you alive with my mind!"

The Human ended the call and I stepped towards this unfamiliar Asari,

"That's some pretty damning stuff Liara; not sure I like hearing it from you."

Liara turned around and when her large blue eyes settled on me the dark side of her seemed to vanish in a split second,

"Scott! I hoped you'd come! It's so good to see you. I didn't know I would be seeing Garrus and Tali as well, this is a nice surprise."

After a round of friendly hugs, I said,

"Good to see you too Liara, glad to see you're doing well. You gonna tell me what that was all about? Because that's not the Liara I remember."

"Oh that?" she seemed nervous, "I just need to make sure that he'll pay what he owes me. I… wouldn't actually do it…"

"Uh huh," I grinned, "so what's new?"

As it turned out; Liara had made a name for herself as an Information Broker and had done very well. However, when Garrus made a joke about her being bigger than the Shadow Broker I saw a glint of fire light up in her eyes behind the fake smile and laugh.

"Some bad blood between you and the Broker Liara?" I asked carefully. Liara turned away and looked out over the trading floor below, seemingly trapped in some dark memory,

"I… can only trust the three of you with information like this, but I've been working to track down the Shadow Broker for almost two years now."

"Why?" Garrus asked. Liara's eyes fixed on me,

"Did Cerberus ever tell you how they ended up with your body?"

I shook my head.

"I gave you to them," Liara said in a way that told me she had never told anybody this before, but had been burning to all the same.

"I searched for you after… after the Collector attack, but the Shadow Broker reached you first and was going to strike a deal with the Collectors. A friend, Feron, helped me save you from him and make contact with Cerberus. I gave Cerberus your body… because they told me that they could bring you back. I had no choice, there was nowhere else I could turn. I'm sorry."

My Asari friend was working herself up into a frenzied state, trembling before me as if expecting me to pass judgement on her for some hellish crime.

"Liara," I said softly, "you've got nothing to be sorry for. I still don't trust Cerberus, despite what they've done for me, but no one else could have brought me back. Thank you."

My thanking her took the weight of the world off of her shoulders and the relief on her face was as plain as day,

"I'm so glad to hear you say that, Scott. I thought you'd… hate me. I knew that Cerberus would use you for their own needs, but I still handed you over to them anyway."

"They are using me," I told her, "but this is a cause I have reason to believe in. The Collectors have to be stopped."

"Yes, I know," Liara said casually as if my mission was common street knowledge, "They're behind the abductions in the Terminus Systems, but they encountered a bit of resistance on Horizon, I hear."

"Oh yeah they did," Garrus said proudly.

"Wish I could have been there to help those poor people," Tali added.

"You'd be talking differently if you were actually there," I told her truthfully.

Liara sat down behind her desk and looked at a photo of a young looking Drell.

"Is that Feron?" I asked. Liara nodded and when she spoke her voice broke a little at the start,

"Yes. He was the one who helped me recover you. We were both almost captured by the Shadow Broker's private military."

"You were close to Feron?" I asked. Liara, still gazing at the picture, smiled,

"It's funny; he betrayed me more than once, double dealing for both Cerberus and the Shadow Broker. But when we were trapped and surrounded, he sacrificed himself to allow me to escape. I've spent the last two years plotting revenge. I just need to find the Shadow Broker."

There was a moment of pause as Liara held her fury back.

"Are you ok?" Tali asked her Asari friend.

"Yes," Liara answered affirmatively, her watery blue eyes looked straight into mine "over two years ago I lost two dear friends; Scott and Feron. And now I have you back. If there's any way that I can help you, you only have to ask."

I laughed when I realised that there was obviously nothing that Liara did not know about my mission,

"I guess you know I'm here on business?"

"You never were one for taking time off," Liara smiled back.

"I'm here to find two people. A Drell named Thane Krios and an Asari Justicar called Samara. Do you have anything on either of them?"

"I think that's a silly question, Scott," Tali quipped with what I could tell was a cheeky smile behind the helmet.

Liara tapped away on her terminal and came up with the relevant data,

"Thane Krios, the assassin, has been here for some years on a series of contracts. He is currently after an Asari business woman, and tyrant, called Nassana Dantius. She is an extremely intelligent, ruthless and paranoid individual and Thane has been waiting for an opportunity to get her. Interestingly he doesn't seem to be taking payment for the hit."

"A career assassin taking a contract for free?" Garrus sounded understandably doubtful, "there's more to it than that, Commander."

"Yes, but if there is I don't have any information to help you, I'm afraid," Liara said while scrolling through Thane's profile, "but I can tell you that he recently contacted a woman at the transport office; ask for Tala when you get there and she might be able to point you in the right direction."

"As for Samara," Liara flicked over to my next potential recruit, "she registered with Tracking Officer Dara at the Security Terminal before travelling to another part of town which has a drastically deteriorating crime rate. It is rare for Justicars to leave Asari Space so I could say that she could be tracking a particular individual. The area of Illium where she has gone to has a lot of problems with a faction of the Eclipse gang called the Eclipse Sisters; they are very violent and notorious for drug-running and people-smuggling."

I had what I needed and felt that it was time to go,

"Thanks for everything Liara, and it was really good to see you again. I'll give you my e-mail so we can keep in touch," she received my address eagerly. "And whatever happens with the Shadow Broker, remember not to let it become an obsession. I remember you were quite the tireless worker."

I tried to keep it as light-hearted as possible, but I was genuinely a little concerned about Liara's campaign of hate against the Broker, her eyes lit up with pure anger any time he or Feron had been mentioned. Tali, Garrus and I bid fond farewells to her and as we went to the railing and looked out over the sprawling city, we discussed what the next step was.

"We find the Tracking Officer and the transport dock worker and see what they know about their respective contacts," I told my Turian and Quarian friends, "It sounds like we'll have time to find Thane later, but Samara is heading into a dangerous area from what Liara told us. She might know how to handle herself, but you never know."

As it turned out, I was right about Samara getting herself involved in a dangerous situation, but I had been wrong about Thane. When we spoke to the slightly worried Asari girl, she told us that a Drell, who had gone under a fictitious name, had contacted her looking for information about the Dantius Towers; the seat of Nassana's empire and where she had locked herself away since she had found out about the contract on her head.

"I used to work for her," Tala explained, "I ran her security until I started to hear about people disappearing. I complained to her and got the sack, after all the good I had done for her. The Drell wanted to know all the details about Nassana's Mercs and the defences of the towers. Her loss, If I still worked for her I might have been good enough to stop him."

"You're no fan of Nassana I take it," I said to her, "you told the Drell everything?"

"Every little detail," Tala replied with a menacing grin, "Nassana deserves what's coming to her."

The Asari looked me up and down and then to Garrus and Tali,

"What's your interest in the assassin? You going to try and stop him?"

"I'm gonna make sure he doesn't die; Nassana isn't my concern," I told her.

"Then you'll need to move fast," Tala said with sudden urgency, "he's moving on the towers tonight. Nassana's secured herself in the penthouse of Tower 1; Tower 2 is still under construction but if he's smart then the assassin will go up that one and cross the bridge over to Tower 1."

"Thanks," I said to Tala and turned to Tali and Garrus, "we get the rest of the team and we go as soon as we can."

"You might not make it in time to reach him," Tala said, "I can take you right now."

"Why would you help?" Tali asked.

"Nassana is a heartless monster who has crushed so many lives in her rise to power she should be tried as a mass murderer. The galaxy will be a better place without her, trust me."

Garrus gave me a look that said that we should not waste the offer while it was there, so I agreed to go with Tala.

Garrus, Tali and I were going to handle this ourselves now so I radioed the rest of the team.

"Normandy ground team; I've got a lead on Thane Krios and I'm following it up with Garrus and Tali. Miranda, gather the rest of the squad and follow up on the information I'm sending you to get Samara; the Asari Justicar."

"Sir," Jacob's voice came over the radio, "Miranda isn't reporting in, I can't raise her."

"What's happened? Have you heard from her at all?"

"Negative Sir."

I tried to figure out what could have happened to her. Miranda had gone off on her own on that personal errand, the details of which were unknown to me and the rest of the team did not even know about. There was nothing for it, I had to stay on task,

"Jacob, you take the lead. Samara went to the Xari district after a criminal, be ready for encounters with Eclipse Mercs. You know the details of the mission; convince her to join us."

"I'll get it done Commander. Jacob out."

Garrus, Tali and I had collected our weapons and armour from the Normandy. From there Tala raced her car through the traffic as if she were a fighter pilot with an enemy on her tail, weaving and darting in and out of the way of other cars and lorries. When we were less than a mile from the Dantius Towers, she shot off at high speed down some back streets,

"I'll be able to drop you at the front doors of the second tower, any higher and the Mercs'll shoot us out of the sky with rockets."

"Any last-minute details about the tower I should know?" I asked.

"The elevators are still out of order and there are no automated defences installed yet. So shoot anything that moves."

"Aren't there civilians in the tower? Workers?"

"Yeah," she said, uninterested. Her hate for Nassana was overshadowing any concern for the innocents that would be involved, but I said to Tali and Garrus,

"Watch your fire in the tower, we can't put the workers in harms way. If and when we find Thane, we need to get him on our side, whether or not he's reached Nassana."

"He won't abandon his contract," Garrus said.

"Then we help him," I replied.

We leapt out of Tala's car and moved quickly up to the doors. They were large, strong and transparent. From within I heard gunshots and panicked shouts.

"The Mercs must have found Thane," Tali said worriedly.

"If they have, he's not quite living up to his dossier," I said, "blast the doors down; we might not have much time."

Tali hacked the doors and we moved in formation inside the tower. Just then more shots and shouts were heard and from the far end of the corridor two figures ran out, their arms flailing as they ran in terror. A squad of Eclipse Mercs appeared behind them and fired down the hall at the fleeing Salarians, catching one through the back of the head and the other through the back. Both of the workers went down and the Mercs closed in to finish off the injured one, but were rudely interrupted as one of their men received a bullet through the brain from my Mattock. The brief fire fight ended when Tali flanked around the last Merc's cover and took him out with her shotgun.

Together we checked the Salarians; one had been killed outright, but the other was still breathing when we reached him. Blood was draining out of him at an alarming rate, but the three of us patched him up with what was available to us and gave the poor worker a healthy dose of medi-gel.

"Why were they after you?" I asked him when he seemed to come to his senses and realise that we were not a threat.

"We're just night-workers," he wheezed, "they gave us no warning to get out."

"But why would you need to "get out" in the first place? Aren't you building this place?"

"Nassana runs us hard, but she's been acting even stranger lately," he sucked in as much air as he could, clutching at the exit wound on his chest, "tonight the building went into lockdown a few hours ago and the Mercs just started shooting everyone! We were trying to sneak out, but the Mercs are everywhere."

"Have you seen anyone else in the Tower; he's a Drell, not a Merc."

With his face screwed up from the pain, the Salarian tried to think back over the past few hours, but he eventually shook his head and said nothing.

"Ok, here's another pack of medi-gel, hopefully it'll keep you going. Get out of here," I told the scared civilian. As the Salarian stood he put a hand on my shoulder and leaned in close enough for me to hear his quiet voice,

"Please; there are more workers in the Tower. Help them if you can."

"I'll do what I can," I promised him, "now go."

Our battle up the second Dantius Tower was fast, intense and fraught with dangers other than bullets and explosives. There were entire sections of floor missing, walls were incomplete and often I found myself looking back down to the ground fifty metres below us, then a hundred metres, then two hundred. The Eclipse Mercs put up a fierce resistance and I began to wish that I had the whole team with me; in my mind I could just imagine Grunt charging forward and throwing one of the damn Mercs from the building and watching them smash into a red mush on the streets far below us, or Jack doing the same with her biotics.

We moved systematically from cover to cover, room to room and floor to floor. The three of us had fought together longer than with anyone else on the Normandy, we had defeated Saren and his Geth together. We knew how each other thought and fought. Without even having to communicate Garrus would know when a particular target needed to be dealt with, Tali would know when to slip away to the side and ambush the enemy with her close-range combat skills or hack a particular system to aid our progress or hamper the enemy's. The Mercs were well equipped, but were undisciplined, uncoordinated and poorly led.

Then we encountered a Krogan Bounty Hunter. He was a huge specimen of his species and wore powered armour. The Mercs at his flank put up a wall of fire and forced us into cover. The windows behind us were torn to pieces and soon the whole floor was exposed to the high winds and cold temperatures outside. The Krogan bent over into a full-on shoulder charge and rammed the stack of girders behind which Garrus and I were sheltering. The entire mound of solid metal shook violently and Garrus and I were thrown back with it. I fired straight at the Krogan's head but his shields deflected the shots with apparent ease. Even a blast from Tali's shotgun barely caused a distraction to the bounty hunter.

I backed away, firing at the Mercs and scoring a hit on one of them as her helmet was split in two by one of my bullets. Garrus railed away at the Krogan and finally succeeded in drawing his attention away from me, but instead of going for my Turian friend he turned on Tali, who was much closer to him. With a roar he charged forward, firing his shotgun as he went and eventually reached the shocked Quarian, lifting her off of the ground by her arm. The Krogan's shotgun was raised level with Tali's stomach, but I sprinted into the bounty hunter's side with all my might and threw him off balance. He still kept a hold of Tali as he swung at me with his free hand, and just as his fist came screaming straight towards my face, I armed my Omni blade and scythed the Krogan's hand clean off.

The Krogan was only enraged by the severing of his hand and for my efforts I got the full force of his enormous foot to the gut. As I crumbled to the ground the Krogan turned his head towards Tali, still in his clutches, and wiped the blood from his stump down her helmet. Garrus was stuck trying to keep the Mercs pinned while throwing the odd shot at the bounty hunter, but the Krogan rushed towards the edge of the floor and dangled Tali over the edge, a drop of over two hundred metres below her. With all my speed I charged after him, drawing my Widow rifle and readying my Omni blade.

I ran over to the left side of the Krogan and struck my blade straight into his stomach, trying to push him back as I went and get Tali away from the edge. However, the enemy grinned menacingly and before I could do anything, he let go of Tali. I watched in horror as Tali disappeared with a scream out of sight into the darkness of the night. My Omni blade was thrust up through the bottom of the Krogan's jaw, blood spilling out of him and onto my hand and arm, then I backed off and put two rounds from my Widow rifle through his skull.

Before the bounty hunter's body had even hit the floor, I was hanging over the edge trying to see Tali. She was several metres down and clinging for dear life onto some of the scaffolding, being blown around violently by the high winds.

"Tali hold on!" I shouted to her, "I'm coming."

Garrus was covering my back with his precision marksmanship, and the death of the Krogan and half of their squad had made the Mercs reluctant to keep fighting. I lowered myself down onto the scaffolding and stood stock still as the whole structure shook and vibrated as it was assaulted by the wind. Step by step, never taking my eyes off of the woman I loved, I scaled my way down to her and managed to grab both of her hands and pull her up,

"Tali, I'm here. I'm here," I said as she threw herself into my body.

"I can't see," she whimpered and I wiped the Krogan's blood off as best I could, but we had to move.

"Come on; I'll lead you up."

Every step was chosen with utmost care and Tali's grip on my hand had never been firmer, and every shudder that we felt had her close right into me, for protection and comfort.

"Tali," I said when we were back at our level again, "I'm going to lift you up and you pull yourself up as quickly as you can," the scaffolding shook fiercely beneath us.

"I can't see," she repeated, "we'll fall."

"I need you to trust me," I implored, and she nodded slowly.

When I carefully lifted her up to where she could reach the floor, Garrus was waiting to help her. She made it first time and while she scrambled up, I aided her by pushing her by the soles of her feet. When she was clear I climbed up onto the railing of the scaffolding, desperately trying not to look down behind me, and prepared to jump up. A gust of wind hit me and the scaffolding that I was standing on trembled from the strain, my foot slipped and I had to make the jump using the power of just one leg as the support structure below me gave way and tumbled down into the lit-up streets far below. One hand barely managed to get a grip on the concrete flooring of the Tower, my fingers slipping one by one. Then Tali's hand grabbed me,

"Scott! I've got you," she reached out with her other for me to take hold of, and with her aid I managed to get safely up over the edge and back on solid ground again. Garrus had cleaned up Tali's visor and now all three of us were back in the fight, quickly overwhelming the few remaining Mercs. We moved towards the stairs to go up to the next level of fun and games when Tali took my hand,

"Thank you for coming for me," her eyes glittered in that familiar way that I adored.

"Thank you for returning the favour," I said sincerely.

To our surprise, the next few floors were abandoned, but showed clear signs that Mercs had been there only a short time before.

"Maybe Thane's closing in on Nassana and she's pulling back her defences," Tali said.

"That sounds about right," I agreed. All the way up the tower we had occasionally encountered small groups of workers who had been hiding and then, upon seeing us kill the dreaded Mercs, came out and were told by us to head down to the ground floor and get out while the lower floors were still clear. This time I heard whispering voices come from a locked cupboard and when we investigated, we were met at gunpoint by a Salarian, shaking from head to toe,

"Get back! Get back!" he yelled at us, and I noticed a dead mercenary on the ground just behind him.

"Hey," I said calmly, "we're here to help." When I took a step forward the gun was forced in my face again and his shrieking voice pleaded,

"Don't come any closer; I will use it… please don't make me use it."

I stood my ground and spoke softly to the panic-stricken man,

"I'm on your side; we've already saved about twenty of your colleagues, they're heading to the ground floor now. We've cleared the lower floors so it should be safe for you."

The Salarian's hands tensed and for a moment I thought he was going to fire, but before I made to grab my Mattock the pistol lowered and the stressed Salarian fainted.

Another Salarian who had been hiding came out and tended to who we found out was his brother on the floor,

"Are you the ones who shot the Merc?" he asked us, his voice only a little less shaky than his brother's.

I checked the Merc over, taking note of the clean hole through his head,

"Not him. Did you see who did?" I asked, suspecting that Thane was responsible.

"No, he was just yelling at us and hitting us to try and get us to move; then his head just exploded."

"A clean, surgical kill with no collateral damage," Garrus said to me, "sounds like the work of a professional assassin."

"Then we're catching up," I said.

"Assassin?" the Salarian said, "he must be here for Nassana. If you find your friend, tell him to aim for her head, because she doesn't have a heart."

The scathing remark made me consider letting Thane complete his contract before we found him. Nassana was not a beloved woman and it would obviously be considered a favour by many to let her die.

Once we had resuscitated the fainted Salarian, we sent them on their way to safety and freedom from the nightmare which they had found themselves in. We proceeded up through more and more empty floors. Then the final obstacle lay before us; the bridge over to Tower 1 and Nassana's fortified penthouse. We risked the scaffolding again and edged our way around the side of the building to reconnoitre the defences on the bridge from the darkest location. The Mercs had four lines of barricades, kill zones set up with heavy machine guns and snipers on the far side.

I told Garrus to hold his position and ready his sniper rifle, and with a wry smile he agreed. Garrus and I, exalted and master snipers both, were in a sniper's paradise. Garrus was set up and I ordered Tali to remain with him while I scaled my way further around and up another floor to see right along the bridge. Between my firing position and that of Garrus; there was nowhere for the Mercs to hide.

"On my shot," I informed my two squad-mates over the comm, "wipe out all targets of opportunity. Prioritise heavy weapons teams and snipers then engage everything else. When the enemy's numbers have been sufficiently depleted, we move in and force our way through them."

The Eclipse snipers at the far end of the bridge, enclosed in sangers, were highly vigilant, but using the darkness and the mess of the construction site of Tower 2 we had evaded detection. The first tremendous boom of my Widow rifle made the Mercs shit themselves, and the echo seemed to travel right the way across the city like a crack of thunder. Their Captain took the full force of the shot straight to his chest and the woman next to him was showered in his ichor. Garrus sniped her straight afterwards while I honed in on one of the snipers who was furiously looking around for us. While he was scoping out Garrus' approximate position I sent a shot through the side of his chest and he went down.

Garrus, with his lighter calibre rifle, began sniping off those Eclipse at the nearest end of the bridge and worked his way towards the centre while I destroyed the resistance at the far end and began to work my way back. Mercs were firing blindly at the tower where we were, but to no avail. Almost every time that one popped up to take a shot they would be shot down without mercy. It was while I was reloading, after having shot down a brave Merc on the stairs as he ran for one of the machine guns, that I thought I spotted a shadowy figure above the bridge on Tower 1. As I focused my scope on where I thought I had seen the shade it disappeared as if by magic; one second a man shaped being was staring at me with deep, thoughtful eyes full of memory and sadness, and when I blinked there was nothing there, as if I had seen a ghost.

As a result of the barrage of sniper fire laid down by Garrus and I, the Mercs broke formation and ran for the penthouse, losing almost all of their men in the process as we shot them in their exposed backs. One after the other fell dead on the bridge, one even fell of the edge after I hit her in the left shoulder and sent her sprawling off to her right side and falling into nothingness. When they reached the door to the penthouse at the far end, it served only to bottle-neck and concentrate her forces in a single area; it became a killing ground. The bodies piled up at the door and even as some of the Mercs ran up the corridor inside either Garrus or myself would be able to pick them off.

Eventually, there came a point where there was no need for us to remain static and I told Garrus and Tali to advance. They were almost at the other end of the bridge when I jumped down and sprinted across to link up with them, they knew the cost would be high if the Mercs decided to counter attack and retook their positions. Once up the stairs at the far end, and past the thirty or more corpses that were scattered on the bridge and heaped all together at the door, Tali gunned down a couple of Asari Mercs who were rushing back out to try and retrieve a fallen comrade. We pressed the attack and forced our way through the door and into the lavishly decorated corridor; stained by the red, green and purple blood of the Eclipse Mercs who we had taken out before. Their bodies still remained where they had fallen in the bright gold and royal blue coloured hallway, making for a grim and tragic scene. One of soldiers dying for the greed and prosperity of one, single malevolent business-woman.

We reached the door to Nassana's dwelling and stopped,

"We don't know what we're going to find in there," I told Garrus and Tali, "but watch your fire in case Thane has already beaten us there."

In my mind I tried to visualise the mysterious figure who I had seen on the side of the tower, gazing at our battle below him while he slinked past them like a black cat hunting its prey in the dead of night. He had to be in or near the penthouse by now; I half expected to open the door to Nassana's home and find everyone in there already dead. I was almost right.

I opened the door and Garrus and I threw in a couple of flashbang grenades. After the duo of explosions, we entered, rifles raised, and prepared to engage the surviving Mercs. However, even as the door swung open, I saw shadow drop from the ventilation shaft above where four Mercenaries and an exquisitely dressed Asari, Nassana no doubt, stood. In the blink of an eye two of the Mercs were dead, both with their necks snapped, and a third had his wind pipe crushed with a precisely aimed punch. As the fourth turned the assailant whipped out a pistol and shot her through the head, leaving only Nassana on her own.

The business tyrant rounded on the assassin with a pistol raised, but as if in a dance the Drell whirled around in a smooth pirouette. Next thing Nassana knew, his pistol was forced into her gut. A single shot rang out and the life of Nassana Dantius was ended. Her killer laid her body gently, almost tenderly, down on the floor, her arms folded across her chest. The Drell closed his eyes and clasped his hands together. From his mouth I could hear faint words being spoken, but they made no sense to me. However, as Garrus, Tali and I ventured towards him, still in awe of his exciting entrance, I kept a respectable silence; Thane Krios was in prayer.

I gave Thane some time, but still the infamous Drell assassin kept his hands together and his head bowed in prayer. I talked softly at first, but had to raise my voice a little before he acknowledged me,

"Thane," I said, "I was hoping to talk to you."

"My apologies; but prayers for the wicked cannot be forsaken," he answered in a slow, confident and throaty voice.

"You really think she deserves it?" Garrus said as he indicated towards Nassana's lifeless body. Thane shook his head and turned away from us, looking out over the lit-up city,

"Not for her. The prayers are for me. The measure of an individual cannot be measured by actions alone. Take you for example," Thane turned back and looked at me, "all this destruction and chaos. But are you as evil and cold-hearted as your actions indicate?"

"I only kill those who try to kill me," I said back.

"Indeed. I saw you and your companions wreak havoc on those mercenaries on the bridge. One could almost assume that you were simply killing them because you could, because perhaps you enjoyed it."

"They were between me and my objective," I told him. "And there was not a second where I enjoyed what I was doing. It just had to be done."

"Spoken like a soldier," Thane said to himself, "but I know that you are so much more than a simple soldier, Commander Gardner. If one such as yourself has come looking for me then there must be an important reason."

"We're going after the Collectors, have you heard of them?" I asked the Drell.

"Only their reputation, I have never encountered their kind before."

"They're abducting hundreds of thousands of innocent people in the Terminus Systems; we're going to stop them."

Thane stood still for a moment with his eyes closed and repeated some of what I had said to him,

"Hundreds of thousands," he said a few times before turning to me, "then I shall be honoured to join you."

"As easily as that?" Garrus asked, still confused about an assassin who did jobs for no fee.

"I'm dying," Thane announced, but he said it in a way that told me that he had already made his peace with it, "I'm trying to make the galaxy a brighter, better place before I die."

"I… I'm sorry. I hadn't heard about that," I said.

"Is there anything we can do for you?" Tali asked.

"The issue is being attended to," Thane replied calmly, "and it won't affect anyone else; you need not worry."

Thane held out a hand, which I promptly shook,

"I will join you Commander Gardner; no charge."

We left the Dantius Towers and the destruction we had wrought behind and summoned a taxi to take us back to the trading port. In the Eternity Lounge, a bar which stayed open all day and all night, we took a seat. The four of us looked a strange bunch; a Human, Turian and Quarian all armed and armoured with blood spatters here and there sitting with a Drell who, while armed, sat in absolute peace in a state of meditation. I radioed Jacob to see what the situation was with finding Samara.

"Samara's with us on the Normandy, Commander. She's agreed to join us, but she's still adamant that she needs to find the fugitive that she's hunting; and now she wants your help to catch her," Jacob told me.

As it turned out Jacob and the rest of the team, minus Miranda who still had not checked in, had followed Samara into an Eclipse base that she was assaulting by herself. When Samara cast away the dead Merc leader, Kasumi offered to slip even deeper into the base and discovered what Samara had wanted to know. Kasumi had found a shipping roster and that told Samara that her fugitive had been smuggled off world to Omega a few days ago. Jacob had succeeded in convincing her to join us on our seemingly impossible mission, but had had to strike a deal in the process to help the Justicar hunt the criminal down, and kill her.

Satisfied that we had found another two reputed warriors for the team, I decided it was time to leave Illium. But first I tried to raise Miranda again,

"Miranda come in. Miranda, this Commander Gardner, come in. If you can hear this then report to the Normandy immediately. Once we're all on board and aweigh report to my cabin for a debrief. If you're not there when we are then you'll be left behind."

Her absence during this stage of our mission was now really bothering me and to me it seemed that she was shirking her duties and responsibilities. Her conduct was unbecoming of the woman who was supposedly second-in-command of the Normandy. This personal errand, I decided, had better be something really important or she was looking at demotion. I figured that either Garrus or Jacob would make a perfectly good second-in-command anyway.

On the way back to the Normandy we stopped in to say goodbye to Liara again and thanked her for all her help, and hoped that we would see her again after she rejected my offer to come with us,

"I can't Scott. I need to work, I need to find the Broker and finish him," she said with fire.

"Well, I see I can't convince you," I joked with my old friend, "Good luck Liara, and be safe. You're in a dangerous profession."

"Not half as dangerous as running around the galaxy with a certain Commander," she quipped back with a smile.

Once I was back home on the Normandy, I assembled the ground team, including the new arrivals, in the comm room. I walked in with Garrus, Tali and Thane, all of us still dressed as we had been in the Dantius Towers, and I was surprised to see Miranda standing among the team as if nothing was out of the ordinary. I introduced myself to Samara, a striking individual dressed in a suit of armour that fitted the Justicar description of religious warrior. I gladly welcomed her,

"Thanks for joining Samara. We need the best for this mission and, from what I've read, you're definitely one of the best."

"Your words humble me," she said in a very static and controlled way, "the injustices carried out by the Collectors cannot be ignored."

"I understand that you want my help tracking down your fugitive?" I asked her.

"If you would grant me this, I shall swear myself to your cause. Only upon my death or completion of the mission can this oath be broken."

"Then you'll have my help," I told her, "as long as you understand that any information involving the Collectors has to be the priority."

"Of course, Commander."

"Then welcome to the Normandy. You'll find it can be quite the adventure."

"You could say that again," Tali joked and I threw her a quick smile.

I brought Samara and Thane up to speed on what we were setting out to achieve; the utter destruction of the Collectors and an end to the abductions of the Human colonists. Our tale of what had happened on Horizon put the desperation of the situation into perspective for our new arrivals, and the shock factor definitely worked in my favour as it drew them even more towards our cause. Everyone on the team was introduced and there were a few short tales about past experiences. The stories about fighting Saren, Sovereign and the Geth always seemed to impress the new crew members of the Normandy SR2, and earned Garrus and Tali more respect than they already had before.

Next, I told the team that I believed that we now had what I would call a full complement for our squad. An abundance of biotic abilities, combat abilities, tech skills and infiltration and stealth skills was present in our team and I felt that to add any more to the team would become more of a hindrance than a help. Miranda and Jacob were in agreement and the whole team went to eat together, but I held Miranda back before she left,

"Not you. We have things to discuss," I told her.

"What's going on, Miranda?" I asked her when everyone else was gone, "I needed you to carry out a task in relation to the mission and you let me down. You're the last person I thought I would have to reprimand! What was this personal errand that was so important?"

"It was my sister," Miranda said, catching me off guard.

"Sister?" I quizzed, "I thought your father created you in a lab."

"He did, but after I escaped, he simply created another daughter; a replacement. She's my twin, genetically, created from the exact same DNA as I was. She's almost 19 now. When I found out that my father had created her, I broke into the lab and rescued her from him when she was just a baby. I gave her to a family and I've been keeping an eye on her all of her life, without impacting it in any way."

"So she's here on Illium?" I asked, "she doesn't know you?"

"She's here. But as for knowing who I am? No," Miranda sounded sad at admitting it, "but it's not about me. It's about what's best for Orianna. Before we reached Illium I found a report through Cerberus Intelligence channels that my father may have found my sister and sent Mercs after her and the family. I had to stop them, and now Cerberus is moving them to another location, secretly. Somewhere they'll be safe."

I stood and looked at Miranda for a while, seeing more and more of her Human side as she spoke; spilling her heart out to me. Hearing what she had been through to protect her sister, her family, made me think of my own family and the lengths I would go to protect them; including not letting them know I was alive in case I died again and hurt them deeply for a second time.

Eventually, instead of giving her the debriefing that I had originally planned; telling her that the mission came before everything else and how there was no excuse for what she had done, I decided that there was no need.

"Miranda, why didn't you tell me?" I said, "I would have helped."

"This was something I needed to do myself. I… I didn't think you would have the time," she said back.

"Well, this time I wouldn't have, given the circumstances. But you're a member of my crew and a friend; and I look after my friends."

Miranda stayed silent, but I saw that she was appreciative of what I had said,

"Your sister's definitely safe now?" I finished.

"Yes, thanks. She and the family are being moved to another colony on the grounds that her "father's" work is having him promoted to another branch of the company."

"Good. And you're alright?"

The Australian beauty nodded,

"I had a little scare, but I'm fine now. Thank you Comm… Scott. I promise I won't do anything to hamper the mission again. I have to admit," she paused and smiled, "I'm not used to having friends. As you're meaning it anyway."

"Get used to it," I told her, "the Normandy ground team isn't just a squad or a group of strangers with a similar goal; it's a family. It needs to be with what we've been through in the past and what we're about to go through in the not-too-far future. Remember that."

"I will, Commander," Miranda replied warmly, "but if I may; is that why you wanted Tali back on the Normandy again?"

I had to be truthful with the new, opened up Miranda so as not to throw her trust back in her face,

"I want Tali back on the team, back in my life, because I love her. Things are different for her, given the time difference over what's happened the last two years. But having her around makes me fight harder, believe in what I'm doing more and want to succeed in greater ways than I would normally. I remember times during our campaign against Saren that I could lie with her and dream of having a normal life; a home, a family, in any way that we could. But when Cerberus awakened me and turned me loose, I didn't have her around anymore; and my dreams contained only visions of fighting for the rest of my life, death and destruction following me around until the day I lay down and life left me. I don't want that. Tali… Tali gives me hope that every battle that I fight and survive, every enemy I kill and all the struggles that life has lined up for me will be worth it in later years. I can dare to hope that I can finally sit down and enjoy my life for me and for her, if she would have me of course."

Miranda looked at me with a newly found fascination, never expecting to hear all of that from one such as myself,

"Wow… I never knew your feelings for her were that strong."

I smiled and nodded, feeling that I had made my point clearly enough. Miranda moved to leave the comm room, but just before exiting she turned back to me and said,

"If it means anything coming from me, Scott; I don't think you'll have to wait long for Tali to come back to you. You're all she talks about. I might roll my eyes at that kind of thing but… it's kind of cute actually."

I laughed, but what she had said meant everything to me,

"Thanks, Miranda," I said from the bottom of my heart, "now go catch up with the rest of the family, I'm sure Grunt'll be on his second portion by now; there won't be anything left for you."