Shepard stood astounded as the image of the Illusive Man ranted about harnessing the power of the Reapers. He was clearly insane if he thought he could control them.
Liara tapped frantically at the console trying to retrieve the data on the Prothean device. "The Data. It's not here!" she shouted at Shepard. "It's being erased!"
The Illusive Man's parting words faded with his holographic image. "Don't interfere with my plans Shepard. I won't warn you again."
"Damn it!" Erynn cursed "How is he doing it?"
Liara was still tapping at the console. "It's local, someone's uploading the information."
"Hey!" Kaiden yelled from across the room, pointing his rifle at the woman who was accessing another console hidden in an alcove. "Step away from the console, Now!"
The woman lashed out with a lightning fast kick to Kaiden's chest, smashing the data console with a fist before fleeing out of an airlock.
Shepard and Kaiden were close behind, running full tilt across the roof of the facility when a Cerberus shuttle flew into view.
"She's getting away!" Erynn yelled as the woman leapt on to the shuttle. "Damn it, James…Normandy…Anybody?"
"I got this one!" James yelled over comms as he rammed the Kodiak into the side of the Cerberus shuttle, causing it to crash back onto the roof with a fiery explosion knocking them all to the ground.
Shepard struggled to her feet and Kaiden was helping a limping Liara towards the Kodiak when the woman emerged from the wreckage of the shuttle. Kaiden fired his pistol at her, but she rushed him with her inhuman speed, snatching his weapon out of his hand and lifting him from the ground with no effort.
Dr. Eva Core' tapped at her comms and asked "Orders?"
The Illusive Man paused for only a moment before responding. "Finish him"
Before anyone could intervene, she slammed Kaiden into the side of the shuttle and released his body to crumple lifelessly to the ground. Turning, she charged at Shepard, taking nearly a full clip of pistol fire before falling to the deck.
"Grab that thing and bring it with us." Shepard ordered James as she ran towards Kaiden.
"Shepard we've got Reaper signatures in orbit!" Joker yelled over comms as the Normandy pulled alongside. Erynn hoisted Kaiden onto her shoulders and ran to join the others on the shuttle bay ramp.
Anderson stood there, covering their retreat with a rifle, and afterwards followed the team into sickbay.
Erynn laid Kaiden down on one of the treatment beds and stood over him for a moment of shocked silence before she was snapped back to reality by Liara.
"The Citadel is our best chance Shepard." She urged "We can find help there."
"Get us to the Citadel Joker."
"Roger that."
Erynn gave Kaiden's shoulder a gentle squeeze before she turned away. Seeing the body of Dr. Eva Core' on the opposite bed, she added to Liara. "See what your and EDI can learn from that thing."
Anderson watched the exchange silently, but as Erynn walked by to leave he touched her arm, indicating with an inclination of his head that he wanted to talk. She followed him to the Port Observation room where he made sure the door closed behind them.
"Jesus Shepard" he breathed, as he looked over her scorched armor and blood smeared face. "Are you ok?"
Erynn heard the emotion in his voice and it was all she could do to bite her lip and keep herself from breaking down. He had obviously intended for her to have this opportunity to decompress, but she couldn't let the Admiral see her cry, even though she wanted nothing more than to collapse into his arms.
Wait, What? Where did that come from Erynn? Shepard asked herself as she set her helmet down on the desk and began to unbuckle her arm and shoulder guards. She didn't look back at Anderson while she did this, still trying to choke back tears.
"I think so" she answered, turning her arms over and flexing her joints, finding more than a few bruises but no apparently broken bones. "I'm just worried about Kaiden."
Anderson nodded at her back, wondering if that worry extended beyond comradery and into a deeper relationship. He had known that Shepard and Alenko had been close before the events on Horizon, but it was his understanding that they had never been overtly involved with each other. Despite this he couldn't help feeling a cold shiver of…what?... jealousy?... when he had seen the emotion in her eyes as she brought Kaiden onto the ship. He had found though that those thoughts were secondary to horror he had felt while listening to the mission audio over comms. Anderson was sure he had left the impression of his fingers in the console from clutching it nervously. He had already decided that she wasn't leaving him behind on the next mission. He couldn't take the thought of not being there to protect her again.
"Admiral?"
Her voice brough him back to reality, and he realized that she had asked him to help her remove her armor chest piece.
"Oh…yeah…of course Shepard."
She still had her back to him and he pulled the rear plate free as she removed the front. Her black, formfitting jumpsuit underneath was soaked in sweat and caked with dust from the Martian atmosphere. She turned to face him and he felt compelled to swipe the dark hair back from her face, as he had done after their escape from Earth, but he tightened his grip on the armor plate instead and suggested that she might like a shower before they arrived at the Citadel.
"I'll take your armor down to the hangar bay and have Vega look it over for damage."
"Thank you, Admiral," Erynn said, sitting on the couch to remove her N7 greaves. She handed them to him and stood as he turned to leave.
"I'll see you when we've docked." The hatch closed leaving Erynn to wonder why her heart was beating faster now than it ever had on Mars.