As the platform ascended towards the central chamber, another descended from a tunnel towards them, silhouettes astride it. "Enemies incoming!" Thane declared. A hail of fire let them know that they had been spotted.

The rapid punching of Shepard's viper sniper rifle led the reply, throwing the first backwards off the platform for a long fall below. Thane warped the barrier of another and Jax seized the opportunity, punching a few assault rifle rounds through hole in the barrier Thane had torn. The Collector shuddered, unable to repair the barrier before the damage was sustained as it crumpled to the floor slowly, hands against its abdomen. Another platform emerged, followed by another. There was a sense of desperation to these attacks, the Collectors had seemingly given up planned assaults and were sending every soldier left in as soon as they could arrive. The two platforms docked at either side, trying to squeeze the group back but there weren't enough of them to effectively suppress the three of them, Thane's own sniper rifle creating casualties from range as Shepard advanced, mowing down seemingly every challenger, Jax's support rather meagre by comparison. Then they heard that voice.

Assuming Control…

Jax turned and watched as the Collector dying from gutshot began to convulse, its body slowly overridden with light. It poured into the wound and repaired it, the Collector hovering with its limbs stretched in a silent scream as what was left of its essence was burned away. Harbinger, or at least a shadow of his power in the flesh. Shepard rounded on it but the Harbinger released a burst of energy from the Collector's body, instantly shattering her shields. Shepard realised her predicament as she dived into a cover, a missile of light narrowly missing her head. Jax lobbed a smoke grenade, giving her cover as he launched a concussive round into Harbinger's back. It barely scratched Harbinger's barrier but it succeeded in drawing his attention. Jax's eyes widened as he realised how bad that was as Harbinger threw another missile of light, slamming into Jax. The force took him his feet, the assault rifle was torn from his grasp as Jax slid over the edge of the platform, grabbing on with his artificial hand, its enhanced strength saving him from certain death. Jax risked a look down as the assault rifle flew downwards, spinning wildly before smashing against the floor of the chamber far below. Jax reached back up with his other hand and pulled himself up to see over the edge. Harbinger was bearing down on him, incomprehensible power through eyes of blazing yellow bore into him. Harbinger seemed to take Jax's hand into account, seemingly recognising it as alien from his flesh. "Your form is fragile" he spoke in contempt, clearly viewing his own as superior. "It's pointless to resist."

Jax's human hand shot to the holster on his hip. "We're only human" he replied, a perfect summary of his endless resistance against insurmountable odds, and squeezed the trigger.

Harbinger's corporeal form was blown to pieces in a massively violent explosion. Jax looked at his pistol in shock, only for the ashes where Harbinger had stood to disperse and reveal Shepard with a grenade launcher. That makes more sense Jax thought. Jax couldn't recall ever having seen her use her heavy weapon, preferring to conserve ammunition and sell the extra power cells she had come across for credits. He reholstered his pistol and reached up with his hand only to have it grabbed by another, Shepard pulling him back over the threshold, a small pile of ashes behind her. Unstoppable Jax thought to himself as he regained his feet again. Shepard discarded the empty grenade launcher and grabbed A Collector beam weapon, there was no telling when they might need it. Thane was impassive as Shepard led them to a rear platform with an active console and activated it, letting them float forwards, following the pipes that were now thick enough to fly a shuttle through with ease.

"This is it" Shepard declared, "all the tubes lead to this spot. EDI, what can you tell us? What are they doing?"

"The tubes are feeding into some kind of superstructure" EDI told them, "it is emitting both organic and non-organic energy signatures."

Jax looked ahead, a narrowing mouth obscured the majority of the superstructure but there appeared to be some sort of tail hanging down into view. As they grew closer, the tail grew larger and higher.

"Given these readings," EDI surmised, "it must be massive."

The platform entered the platform, all obscurities falling away to reveal the form in front of them. Jax's mouth fell open in shock, in speechlessness, his mind both comprehended this image and instantly denied it as impossible.

"Shepard" EDI spoke, even her voice seemed to have a tone of hesitancy and disbelief. "If my calculations are correct, the superstructure… is a Reaper."

"Not just any Reaper" Shepard said, stepping past Jax. "A Human Reaper."

Jax stared upon its half-formed metal shell, lidless eyes and gumless teeth gave it a tortured, insane smile. The tubes descended into the ceiling into its arms, drawing them up sharply like an image of crucifixion sustained to the point of inflicting madness. Jagged beams wrapped around its torso like artificial ribs, a stagnant engine held inside. Four eyes instead of two added to the twisted nature of the image, this was a perversion of every natural process, a damned, dark final insult to everyone that had been slaughtered so far to create this monster. As the platform arrived in front of the Reaper and connected it to others, they fell under its gaze, its shadow, everything about this was unnerving.

"It appears that the Collectors have processed tens of thousands of humans" EDI spoke, "significantly more would be required to complete the Reaper."

"This 'thing' is an abomination" Shepard said bitterly. "How do we destroy it?"

"The tubes injecting the fluid are a weak structural link" EDI assessed, "destroying them should cause the supports to collapse and the Reaper to fall." Immediately as EDI finished, the tubes resealed themselves behind protective barriers, very clearly locked down. They would not be opening again.

The hum of an engine interrupted their discussion. "Give us a minute EDI", Shepard said, checking the rounds left in her clip as a platform laden with Collectors came into view. "We've got to take care of some old friends first." Jax was cycling through modes on a grenade when Shepard grabbed his shoulder. "No" she told him. "We'll take care of the Collectors, you figure out how to destroy those tubes."

Jax nodded as Shepard and Thane departed to hold back the last line of Collector defences. He examined what he had left in his arsenal. Two grenades, a small line of det-cord for a quick fuse for enough plastic explosive to break through a door. Not a whole do play with when the objective is four different cylinders suspended in the centre of the room with no accessibility for close quarters. Jax pursed his lips, running through all the possible methods in his mind for how he could destroy the tubes, looking for one that fit within the limitations of his depleted arsenal. A million different possibilities sprung to mind and were nearly all of them dismissed as quickly. He didn't have enough resources to take each tube down individually, Jax reasoned, therefore he needed maximum impact, something to destroy multiple tubes in single shots. Splash damage, but an ordinary frag wasn't going to cut it, Jax needed something that was going to be able to blast through the outer shells. Jax removed his two grenades and removed the outer shells, revealing their components. He removed the trigger mechanism for the moment, disarming the explosive as he divvied up the remainder of his explosive, amplifying the potential destructive power to new levels, remodelling the grenades into improvised bombs. But that wasn't going to be sufficient on its own. Jax removed his pistol and stared at it for a moment, half an idea in his mind. He shook his head, dismissing it until his eyes fell on Thane. "Thane!" Jax yelled at the assassin, "I need your rifle!"

Thane, in a gesture of trust that almost baffled Jax, nodded, tossing his rifle to Jax as he rolled over cover, drawing his submachine gun and disposing of two Collectors in a seemingly effortless, beautiful lethal manoeuvre. Jax caught it and checked the shot count; one round left. He drew back on the slide and ejected the bullet, catching it and laying it down. He ejected the thermal clip out of his pistol, pushed it into the sniper rifle and repeated, popping each shot and loading a new one into the chamber. Jax collected half of the bullets and wrapped them around the first bomb, tying them onto it using half of the det-cord. The second bomb was quickly set up, it seemed as well assembled as Frankenstein's monster made by rabid drunken vorcha but it was ready. The only thing was the trigger mechanism wasn't going to run a proper circuit, and Jax couldn't risk this failing. He looked at Shepard advance on a Collector, her Revenant ripping a Collector to pieces as she advanced mercilessly on it, her gun blazing fire with incendiary ammo. Perfect. "Shepard!" Jax yelled, winding up as she turned to look at him. "Target practice!" He yelled, lobbing the bomb with all his strength as it went sailing up in the air.

Shepard narrowed her eyes as she stared down the barrel, exhaled softly and squeezed the trigger.

A massive fireball erupted in between the tubes, armour piercing sniper rounds ringing as they shot everywhere, including one into Thane's biotic barrier. The two tubes on the Reaper's right side were shredded like crêpe paper, fluid and fragments raining down as they were torn apart by the explosive and penetrating power. The Reaper sagged lower but the other two tubes barely held on, keeping the strain. It would make it even more violent when it snapped.

Thane blasted a Collector away from Shepard as she took aim at the next bomb, Jax's throw again perfectly weighted. The left tubes were ripped apart even more effectively, metal and organic matter falling torrentially from the sky as tubes shot apart, a tense rope snapped. The Reaper sagged suddenly, losing its last supports. Its head dropped, bowing in submission to Shepard before the last tether snapped and it dropped from sight, its outstretched hand sinking like a last gasp at survival. Shepard and Thane peered over the edge after it; it was lost. "What exactly was that?" Shepard asked Jax.

Jax grinned. "An armour piercing oversized frag grenade, more like a nail bomb. Albeit one messier than a krogan after shotgunning three turian drinks."

Thane's eyes glittered with pride. "Ingenuity in improvisation, you adapted and overcame."

Jax nodded his thanks as Shepard keyed into her radio. "Shepard to Ground Team!" She called, "status report!"

"Jack here" came a voice over a scream of gunfire. She sounded almost bored in her glee of mass murder. "I'm tagging them as they come but feel free to call for an exit any time?"

"Head for the Normandy!" Shepard confirmed, expanding the channel. "Joker, prep the engines. We're about to overload this place and blow it sky high."

"Roger that Commander" Joker acknowledged. Jax had already located the power core from the central chamber and had exposed it when Joker's voice came back into comms. "Ah Commander, I've got an incoming signal from the Illusive Man, he's patching it through."

Thane opened his omnitool to receive the signal and a life size illusion of the man appeared amongst them. "Shepard" he spoke, his eyes glittering with triumph. "You've done the impossible."

"I was part of a team" Shepard replied, unwilling to be credited alone. "Some of them gave their lives for this mission."

"I know. Their sacrifices will not be forgotten" the Illusive Man assured her, though his tone did not betray any grief. "You did what you had to do and you acquired the Collector Base." His tone shifted into something more malignant. "I'm looking at the schematics EDI uploaded. A timed radiation pulse would kill the remaining Collectors, but leave the machinery and technology intact for us."

There Shepard realised. It wasn't solely triumph making his eyes glow beyond the cybernetic enhancement, it was greed.

"This is our chance Shepard" The Illusive Man continued, unperturbed, "they were building a Reaper. That knowledge, that framework, can save us."

"They liquefied people" Shepard rebuffed, disgusted. "Turned them into something horrible. We have to destroy this base."

"Don't be short-sighted" he admonished her. "Our best chance against the Reapers is to turn their own resources against them" he insisted. "They were working directly with the Collectors, who knows what information is buried there? This base is a gift; we can't just destroy it."

Part of Shepard wanted to query him further, but that was a long rabbit hole of darkness beckoning, and she was never going to bow to that path. She could understand the Illusive Man's cold ruthless logic, but that didn't mean she agreed with it. Sometimes the heart knew better than the head. "No matter what technology we might find" Shepard told him, "it's not worth it."

"Shepard" the Illusive Man protested, "you died fighting for what you believed; I brought you back so you could keep fighting. Some would say what we did was going too far but look what you've accomplished. I didn't discard you because I knew your value; don't be so quick to discard this facility, the potential."

Shepard bowed her head. The Illusive Man was strategic, cunning, ruthless and coldly brilliant; he would have made an incredible ally against the Reapers but he was wrong about one thing. Victory at any cost was no true victory. The Illusive Man would transform humanity into the shell the Collectors had become from the Protheans instantly if he knew it guaranteed their survival, but there was more to victory than survival. It disappointed, disheartened her even to say her next few words but she knew this was where their paths would forever diverge, she had to remain true to herself, fight for a true victory. "We'll fight and win without it" she told the image, "I won't let fear compromise who I am."

She looked at Jax. "Do you have what I need?" She asked.

Jax grinned. "I saved the best for last" he told her, handing her a disc. It was a small charge but the resulting explosive train it would set off would be seen across a galaxy. "What's a fireworks show without a proper finale?"

"Shepard, think about what's at stake!" The Illusive Man shouted, his voice rising as he realised all his power and wealth commanded no loyalty, and it didn't shape the galaxy the way she could. Shepard couldn't remember if she'd ever heard him lose his nerve like this, to experience powerlessness. "About what everything Cerberus has done for you! You'll-"

He was cut off as Thane shut off his omnitool with a wave of his hand. Jax didn't bother hiding his smirk as Shepard fixed the charge and activated the timer. "Let's move" she ordered, standing up as the core sunk back into the ground. "We've got ten minutes before the reactor overloads and blows this whole station apart." The world suddenly shook with the sound of screaming metal, a screech inhumane and agonised. Massive beams of metal rose up before them before hooking around, securing itself into the conjoined platform, then the head followed. Three glowing red eyes stared out of a malformed, malevolent face of the Reaper larva, and they hated. There was a moment's pause followed by a single syllable from Jax.

"Shit."

"Weak points!" Shepard called out as her targeting computer struggled to make sense of what stood before them. She fired a flaming concussive shit and was rewarded with a flinch of pain in response. "Target the eyes!"

A precise blow from Thane quickly drove the Reaper into leaning away and what Jax lacked in precision from Thane, he made up for with multiple shots, more than a few finding their mark. Spurts of light and fluid vomited from the spread of shots across the eye socket that had two abominable eyes glaring back.

The Reaper was driven further back, hiding before re-emerging with a red light glowing from its mouth. "Get down!" Shepard yelled as the trio ducked behind cover from annihilation. They all raised with fire blasting, whittling away at every facet they could expose, trying to demolish something that devastated the entire planet of Klendagon with little more than small arms fire. Jax was wondering how in the hell they were going to manage it when Shepard switched to another weapon, her Collector beam. Shepard stood, planted her feet, and unleashed a beam of brilliant yellow. The sound was grating against Jax's ears, but widened his eyes as he watched the line of fire literally beginning drilling a hole through the Reaper's head. The Reaper brought a furious hand down, ripping a platform in front of them apart but it was no use, even a Reaper was no immovable object against the unstoppable force of Shepard as it just stuttered for a moment, then vomited a wave of fire with a screaming of melting metal and failing systems. Flames exploded out of its eye sockets as it reached forward in a desperate last gasp attempt to thwart the trio. The platforms split, the floors sloping off in different angles as the Reaper slammed into them before sliding down to a final death. Jax was catapulted through the air as the platform fell from underneath him, landing on his back and sliding away out of control, towards the edge the Reaper had disappeared over.

"Jax!" Shepard yelled, diving after him.

Jax rolled onto his front, reaching out for Shepard but he had gained a dangerously long head start on her. Shepard was gaining but precariously slowly. Jax dug his artificial fingers into the platform, creating a horrific squealing sound of metal sliding against metal, trying to slow himself through sheer friction. Shepard reached out and Jax snatched desperately at her fingers, sliding right through them as he careened towards the edge. Shit Jax thought for what had to be the umpteenth but final time as he flew off the edge.

Shepard yelled as she dove her hand straight after him and clasped onto something firm, holding on with all her might as the platform began to right itself. She dared a look over to see Jax swinging below, his real hand clasped firmly within hers. Beneath him, the Reaper tumbled towards darkness before lighting up the entire station with a mighty explosion, the shockwave throwing the world back into chaos as the platforms were thrown awry, launching Shepard and Jax back onto the platform. The platform began to gain control of itself in a barely controlled escape as it careened wildly, Thane even managed to make it to his knees before Shepard's eyes widened. A platform behind him was spinning wildly out of control, and heading straight for them. "Incoming!" She screamed as the platform smashed into them, the world fell out from beneath them and everything went black.

"Shepard?" Joker radioed again. "Thane, Jax, anyone?" He tried again, a dead line of static their mute response. "What do we do?" He asked, turning to Garrus standing over his shoulder, face and armour covered bloody in fallen collector. His hand was held close to his body, an explosion or bullet rendering it useless at this moment.

"Anything on scanners?" Garrus asked, knowing the answer.

Joker was glum. "Nothing. No comm signals, life signs, not a trace out there."

"It is possible that my external sensors have suffered permanent damage from the explosion of the Collector Vessel," EDI surmised, "making me unable to detect Shepard and her squad. I have only managed to reactivate and maintain our most vital systems imperative to escape."

Garrus' face was grim. "If I were human, I'd be going back out there in a heartbeat" he told Joker. "But the Turian in me knows the facts; we have too many injured, we barely made it back as it is. Shepard has to get back to us." He looked at the timer of the charge synced to all of them. "Before it's too late."

"What?" A voice demanded from behind him. Garrus turned to see Kelly. "We can't abandon them," she said in a voice that was half-demanding, half-pleading. "They're our crew, they came back for us and now we have to go back for them!" When Garrus remained unmoved, she tried to dart past him to the airlock door. "We can't leave them!" She insisted, trying to activate it, "we have to help them!"

"Kelly!" Garrus called, pulling her away from the door. He vastly overpowered her, leaving her to do naught but hold him and sob. "I want to go back out there" Garrus told her, "I promise I do. But I have an obligation to protect every single soul on this crew and opening that door now with no idea of what's out there, I'd be risking all of their lives and to do that would be a disservice and betrayal to them, and to Shepard."

"But we can't leave them!" Kelly insisted, reduced to pleading. She realised what had been a binding restriction from Garrus' arms was now a soothing embrace.

"I will wait as long as we can" Garrus promised. "Do not make the mistake of thinking you're the only one in love with someone out there."

Kelly looked up and saw the pain in his eye, not just from the fight, but from the impending choice he would have to make. Garrus turned to Joker. "Try her again!" He ordered.

Shepard was the first to awaken, pain flooding through her as her body woke to the sensation of being crushed. She struggled as she flattened her hands underneath her against the ground and pushed, every muscle screaming at her but she couldn't stop, not now. She freed her head and dropped the metal plate back down with a crash. She was still in the base, it seemed they had been thrown back onto the ground of the Collector Base, at least where she was seemed familiar. Shepard looked around, spying Thane's body overturned. She rushed to him and turned him over, his open black eyes stared. A moment later, Shepard turned to look around for Jax, his body was equally as limp, lying pinned under a piece of metal.

"Do you copy?" Joker's voice was starting to get hoarse but he kept trying, she had to be alive, they were too close to fall now. "Commander!" Joker tried again. "Come on Shepard, don't leave me hanging, do you copy?" He looked at the countdown on the charge, there were two minutes remaining on what had been ten. The window for a safe escape, or any escape at all was closing, and it was narrowly thin.

"I'm here Joker" she responded, relief lighting up his chest like a bonfire exploding into life. "Did the ground team make it?"

"All survivors on board, we're just waiting for you" Joker reported, Garrus gripping his seat with fervour. "What's your ETA?" Joker asking as suddenly the signal went dark. "Commander!" He called, trying to boost the strength.

"What's the matter?" Garrus asked, "get her back!"

"I'm trying!" Joker replied, diagnosing the problem. "Something on the other side is blocking the signal, we can't get through." He looked up at his Turian commander. "We got through to her though, that's enough for her to have our location, she'll be coming. Now it's a question of time."

"And Jax?" Kelly asked. "Is he okay?"

Joker and Garrus both looked at each other, realising she hadn't mentioned her team at all.

Shepard heard the swarm before she saw it, twisting and writhing into a black mass. At least that explained why the communications were so sketchy; the main swarm chamber had been opened. She turned and ran; her only option, her omnitool directing her to where the Normandy's last point had been from their radio contact. As the swarm rushed after her, a more threatening presence rose to light.

Human, you've changed nothing Harbinger bode as Shepard raised her pistol and fired off two shots, flying fruitlessly through the mass. Your species has the attention of those infinitely your greater.

Shepard's feet pounded down the path, seemingly no Collectors left to stop her, every last drop of blood, sweat, energy and effort being driven into every step, the thought of the explosion a jagged threat at her back.

That what you know as 'Reapers' are your salvation, not your destruction Harbinger declared, his voice impossibly sure, every word pure truth.

Shepard rounded a corner into a group of Collector drones, one raising a blaster. Shepard didn't bother to stop to fight, instead taking another corner and keeping her sprint, to stop now was to court death. She heard the hail of gunfire at her back, and hoped her shields and armour would hold. She entered the open chamber saw a beautiful sight, the shimmering silver shadow of the Normandy, waiting for her. An explosion went off to her left as she charged, her heart hammering in her chest and ringing in her ears, on the eclipse of her triumph. Shepard climbed the hill, sometimes using her hands to push upwards towards salvation as the Normandy rose to greet her.

"It's Shepard!" Joker yelled, his voice a mixture of excitement and fear. His expression of triumph died as he saw the amount of Collectors pouring out after her, about to swarm her. "She's not going to make it" he realised.

"She needs covering fire!" Garrus yelled.

"The locker!" Joker yelled. Every Cerberus ship had an assault rifle stored on the bridge, even Cerberus' pilots were expected to fight. Joker with his bones however, had never even picked one up before. Garrus ripped open the locker and tried to grab at the assault. Joker heard a yell of pain and a clatter, Garrus' hand was unable to hold the rifle, Joker realised, their best shot was unable to shoot. Garrus gritted his teeth and tried to reach for the rifle again in a second attempt but another hand reached it first as Joker hobbled past and out into the airlock, the door closing behind him.

The light poured onto Joker as the exterior airlock door opened, revealing the Collector base before his eyes without the protection of the viewport. Without knowing much of what he was doing, Joker aimed the gun from his hip, unable to mount the stock of the gun his shoulder for fear of fractures from the recoil. He pulled the trigger as he turned, sending bullets in a wave, trying to scatter the Collectors from the armoured individual at their centre. An explosion of green erupted from one Collector as it fell, struck down by his fire. Thane was the first to appear in his view, his green skin in bright contrast to the muddied walls of the station as he flashed past Joker to the safety of the airlock. The station was seemingly falling apart, beams of steel hurtled past at seemingly every point as Joker kept firing, praying there was always another shot left in the clip as he paused briefly for another body. A beam fell down, smashing into the platforms at the Normandy's side, leaving a chasm between it and Shepard. Joker looked at the fall, it was certain death. Shepard didn't even hesitate.

Joker looked up as she launched, taking off from a full sprint as she flew through the air towards him. Joker's heart stopped, lodged in his throat as Shepard began to fall short, but then she slammed into the side, scrabbling for a hold. The Collectors lined up, trying to bring her down but Thane pushed his barrier out as he pulled her up and into safety, EDI slamming the exterior airlock door and taking them into safe harbour. The next issue however, was there was a tsunami about to crash. "Detonation in ten, nine, eight…"

"Yeah, I get the gist of it EDI!" Joker yelled, discarding the rifle and rushing to the cockpit. "Hold on!"

The Collectors could only watch as the Normandy lifted off and blasted away, a silver streak piercing the eclipsed sun as it reeled away. Joker brought the Normandy out of the base in front of a small burst of fire, the station's systems in total free fall and disarray. Shepard watched as Joker brought the Normandy around to make a jump towards the Omega 4 Relay as the first massive explosive rocked the station. This was it she realised, the end. Even if they had died now, this mission had succeeded. Her heart swelled in chorus as Joker pushed farther, leaving the station erupting with flames behind them.

Inside the station, the possessed Collector General scuttled about the systems, desperately holding onto to its lost war, systems being overridden with warnings in a deluge. "You have failed" Harbinger declared through its conduit, so long robbed of free will. "We will find another way."

And we will be here to stop you Shepard replied her thoughts, forever defiant.

"Releasing control" Harbinger finally resigned, the Collector General reaching out, pleading its master to stay. After fifty thousand years of domination, of subjugation, of a voice directing its thoughts and a will directing its limbs, the Collector General did not know how to continue, how to deal with this new feeling. The Collector General felt free, and alone. A rush of heat and the roar of an explosion slowly drew its attention, and then the Collector General felt no more.

The station completely disappeared into a massive eruption of white. Soulless derelicts that had been adrift for centuries were faded shadows as they were obliterated by the rush of the explosion, blasting outward in a wave of destruction, the Normandy's engines escalating as a sole escapee ahead of the flames in pursuit. The light alone was intense, it was near the ignition of a sun, a beacon of light for a new chapter of this galaxy as fifty thousand years of dominion and slavery was immolated into nothingness. Joker was a being of pure ice, complete stillness as every warning screamed at him, the Normandy guided to perfection under his command. The ship slowed, steadying, before jumping to FTL, closing another story as the flames were left to eat at nothing but their void.

Shepard finally allowed herself to exhale the breath she hadn't realised she was holding as her heartbeat began to deescalate. Kelly unbuckled herself from her emergency seat at her post and began the long walk up towards the cockpit. As she reached the steps, Thane passed her, limping slightly, clutching at his wounds. He was an assassin, unrivalled, and to see him this injured, her feet felt like lead taking each step forwards. Garrus past her next, Shepard took her thankful hand off of Joker's shoulder to follow him, only to stop as she saw Kelly.

Kelly's words froze in her throat in fear. "Jax…"

"Kelly" came her reply, as a familiar pyromaniac stepped out of the airlock chamber hidden from her view.

"Jax!" Kelly repeated, virtually throwing himself into his arms as he wrapped her in his loving embrace.

She held with all her strength until she finally elicited a pained grunt. "You're kind of hurting me now" he managed, slightly strained.

"Shit" she burst, quickly releasing him. He was bruised, burned, exhausted, but he was alive and with her, he was smiling. "I should probably see Chakwas about… everything."

"There's quite a line" Kelly told him, taking his arm in both support and affection. "But I'll wait with you for as long as it takes."