The landing onto Ilos is anything but smooth; we smack down hard just a few feet from what looks like an entrance.

More importantly, it's the entrance that Saren is walking through right in front of us.

Garrus guns it, flooring the Mako and rushing the doors with the intent to destroy Saren. It becomes clear in moments that we're not going to make it, not before what looks like very heavy doors close, and he has to change tactics. He slams on the break, and the tires squeal on the muddy ground under us.

"Garrus!" Tali shouts from the back. I barely hear her, my focus on Saren.

The bastard has the nerve to stop, just before the doors close, and watch us. I swear there's even a smirk on his face. The growl from Garrus, beside me, says that he sees it too. Just when I didn't think it was possible to want to kill Saren any more than I already do...

"Damn it," Garrus growls when the doors shut, just managing to avoid ramming us into it. "But, shit, that drop? Joker isn't the best pilot in the Alliance, he's the best pilot in the galaxy."

"We can never tell him that," Tali notes as we climb out of the Tank and approach the doors, now firmly sealed and seemingly impenetrable. "There's no way we're getting through these with brute force," the Quarian engineer tells us.

I frown at that. "Well, we need to find a way. We have to get inside this bunker before Saren finds the Conduit." We're racing time and Saren now; there's no option for failure.

"Saren found a way to open it," Garrus notes. "There must be some kind of security override. We just need to find it and get it running again."

I take a breath and turn around, looking at our other options. We've been dropped into some kind of Prothean compound, though I don't imagine that it was covered in vegetation when this was actually in use. It looks like the ruins of ancient worlds I learned were on Earth, crumbling structures and crawling vines everywhere. There's an odd dust floating in the air, but we can breathe well enough.

So, there's nothing left to do but kick some ass.

And we get a chance quickly, Geth Troopers stationed around every corner...almost like Saren wants to stop us. We take them out systematically, pushing forward at all times, and find a ramp that leads down into a lower level of the complex. Once we get rid of the Geth down here, we find more of the alien plants crawling up every structure and surface.

There are massive statues of aliens, beings unlike anything I've ever seen, sitting on regal chairs. They are a little creepy and a lot mysterious, but definitely impressive even in their broken-down state. "I feel like I'm walking over a grave," I confess.

"Is this what humans do with their dead?" Tali demands, her tone appalled.

"God, no. Well...I guess we do have monuments like this for some people. And...yeah, some dead humans get mausoleums which are kind of creepy like this."

"So, by 'God, no' you mean 'yes, this is what humans do with their dead'?" Garrus asks, eying me. "That is exceptionally weird. Makes me never want to go to Earth."

I laugh at that. "It's not like the planet is covered in graves. Besides, don't Turians bury their dead?"

"Yeah, but we just...bury them. There's no weird ceremony about it," Garrus notes, guiding us around a corner with his rifle. "We bury our dead to let their bodies rejoin Palaven; their spirits strengthen her, but their bodies decay, and that's it."

"On the Flotilla, the dead are essentially airlocked. But there is a ceremony beforehand that lasts for several days," Tali informs us. "And then...I don't know. I guess you go right back to normal."

I glance at the Quarian, remembering that she lost her mother to an illness that broke out on the Flotilla when Tali was young. I seriously doubt she was able to just go right back to normal after that. Garrus glances at her as well and seems to consider it.

We're all distracted when new Geth pop up and start shooting, their presence heavier on the lowest level even though it seems like there is nothing down here…except for more Geth. Finally, we push through and find an elevator that the last two Geth Destroyers are guarding.

"If that thing is operable, it means this place has its own generator," Tali tells us, hitting one of the Destroyers with an explosive override that sends it to its knees where I riddle it with enough bullets to finish the thing off.

Garrus has finished the other on his own. "That's good news for us; Saren's troops must have sealed the doors from here after he went inside. We'll have to figure out how to disengage the security lockdown if we ever want to get inside that bunker."

The elevator takes us down, moving a hell of a lot faster than any of us is used to. "Saren's already got a headstart," I remind them. "We have to go find him before he reaches the Conduit."

"Unless he's already found it, and then we're just walking into a trap," Tali says, cocking her head.

"Chance we have to take," Garrus rumbles, and I nod. There's not really any other option. Even if Saren's troops do have a trap set up for us, we have to march right on through it to find the Conduit and stop the Reapers. The best thing we can do is hurry so that Saren can't set up too elaborate a trap.

The elevator dumps us into what looks like a War Room, based on the layout and the number of very old and crumbling consoles. Before any of us can figure it out, we have to take on a new surge of Geth Prime, Destroyers, Snipers, and Troopers all hellbent on stopping us. Even if the fight is a challenge, it's a good sign that we're heading in the right direction.

"Alright, I brought the nerd squad for a reason," I tell the two smartest members of my team once all the Geth are down. "Can either of you figure out the security lockdown?"

"I'll race you," Tali teases him.

Garrus laughs. "Yeah, sure. Since I'm already done."

I spin toward and find a console does, in fact, seem to be powering up, but it's not the one he's standing in front of. "Did you do that?"

"No. Actually, I think it's responding to how close you are, Shepard."

I hate that thought, but the hologram that pops up prevents me from giving it any further thought. It's clearly damaged and degraded, the image just a whirling blur of lights and the voice speaking in broken words, but it's all clear enough for the warning to get across.

"Some kind of message, but I don't understand the language," Garrus says, his tone frustrated. I blink and frown at him, wondering if he's serious for a second.

"It's probably Prothean," Tali chimes in. "The recording must be fifty thousand years old. It's no wonder we can't understand it."

"I...understood it," I confess. My cheeks heat when they both turn to look at me. "It's all broken up, but I recognize some of the words. It's a warning against the Reaper invasion."

"Shepard, that's...incredible! The Cipher must have transferred an understanding of the Prothean language into your mind," Tali gushes. She laughs and adds, "Liara will be so jealous."

I can tell that Garrus is more nervous about this new development in my brain, but he chooses not to comment on it for now, and so do I.

"Well, it doesn't have anything useful to say. Just a lot of doomsday stuff and it's all too degraded to help. We should go."

We turn to go back the way we came, back to the Mako and the entrance that Saren took inside. The hologram behind us starts repeating, "cannot be stopped...cannot be stopped…" I take a moment to be grateful that Garrus and Tali can't understand the thing; I really don't need anyone else dealing with that particular morale blow.

The Mako is right where we left it, and none of the Geth have come back to create additional obstacles. Everything left between us and the Conduit is on the other side of these doors. They open and we're facing a tunnel that leads down...that's always ominous.

"Anyone else vote that we take the vehicle into the creepy underground bunker?" Garrus asks, evidently thinking along the same lines I am.

"Good idea. The firepower will come in handy," Tali chirps, climbing into the tank ahead of us. "I really should make one of you sit in this backseat, now that I know what happened."

"You don't know the half of it," Garrus teases. I smack his arm but can't help a smile, thoughts of that particular romp a personal favorite of my late night fantasies. I know that Garrus is still having the same thoughts I am when he looks me up and down quickly, his gaze blazing heat.

Garrus and Tali don't complain when I drive this time, taking us through a massive tunnel with running water. It's eerily empty, especially considering the fights we've had at every turn elsewhere. "I thought Saren would have set some kind of trap or ambush," I admit.

"Guess they were in too much of a hurry."

The Turian isn't that optimistic. "Or we just haven't run into it yet."

"Who doesn't love a three hundred pound ray of sunshine, Vakarian?" I tease him, accelerating through the tunnel. If there's a trap, I just want to get it over with. If Saren and the Geth are hurrying, then we need to be doing the same.

As we continue through the tunnel, it's hard not to notice all the circular containers sticking out from the walls. "What are all those things? Containers?"

"They look like stasis pods," Tali responds.

"Makes sense. The Protheans probably tried to keep themselves alive through cryogenic freezing. Something must have gone wrong, though. Those pods are dead, and so is anyone inside."

I shiver at Garrus' words. "God, so this place really is one big tomb. There must be hundreds of them."

"What was Saren expecting to find here?" Tali demands. "There's nothing but corpses."

We don't have time to think about that before I have to jerk the Mako to avoid a rocket, fired by a Geth at the end of the tunnel where it starts to slope downward steeply.

"On it," Garrus announces before I have to give him any orders, leaning through the window and taking shots at the Geth. We're outside the range for his shots, and with the way I have to keep dodging rockets, the shots are almost impossible to make, but they at least keep the Geth in cover until I get close enough for Tali to nail them with the Mako's rockets.

When they're gone, we continue through the tunnel where it takes a steep dive. Parts of the tunnel are overgrown with plants and alien vegetation, which only makes this place seem even older, ancient and completely abandoned. The plants are the only thing alive here.

The tunnel finally levels out, and for a moment, I think the water in the tunnel is from the ceiling to floor waterfall in front of us. Then I realize that it's not a waterfall; while it appears to be moving, it's a shield, though it's definitely not biotic.

But it definitely is impenetrable, as we discover after Tali blows a rocket at it and nothing happens.

I throw the Mako into reverse, prepared to find a different way through, only to find an identical shield blocking the tunnel in that direction as well. There's a hallway of sorts on our right, only big enough to walk through, and it's literally the only direction that we can go in.

"What is happening?" Tali demands.

"It's a trap," Garrus growls. "Saren must have set an ambush."

I shake my head. "I don't know. I get the feeling that Saren isn't behind this. That hallway is our only choice, so we might as well take it."

I can tell neither of them is pleased, and I don't love the idea either, but we may at least get some answers this way. We get out of the Mako, all of us armed and ready just in case, and head down the hallway. It's fairly short and ends in an elevator, which is powered up and takes us down.

"If this were some sort of automated trap, Saren would have triggered it," Tali notes as we travel. "So...what do you think this is?"

Her tone is nervous, and I can't really blame her. Any number of horrible things could be waiting for us when the elevator doors open, given everything we've faced and fought so far. I'm damn sure we can beat whatever it is, but I hope we can do it fast enough to stop Saren from reaching the Conduit.

"Don't get your hopes up about it being anything good. The only thing we can depend on right now is ourselves - on each other," Garrus warns her. Pragmatic, but not exactly optimistic. The mission and the stress of having to chase Saren this way is wearing on him, too.

I reach out and grasp his hand - the one not wrapped around his rifle - for a quick squeeze. I might not in front of other people on the crew, but Tali is close enough to both of us that I have no need to hide my feelings. Garrus returns the squeeze, and I feel him relax just a tiny bit.

The doors open and release into a room...sort of. It's actually just one platform that leads to one console - a sign that we're supposed to be right where we are, and someone directed us here very intentionally. This room is covered in overgrown foliage and shut-down pods on the walls as well, but we ignore that and head for the console, still keeping our weapons at the ready.

As we approach, the console flickers to life with a hologram that appears scrambled at best. I wonder if this one is just going to scream cryptic warnings as well, but the voice that comes on is calm and easy to understand, only a slight stutter showing the damage.

"You are not Prothean," it begins as if studying us. "But you are not machine, either. This eventuality was one of the many that were anticipated. This is why we sent our warning through the beacons."

"Looks like some kind of Prothean VI program. Pretty badly damaged." Garrus moves to the console, sidestepping the VI like he would a person, and quickly doing something on the keys. "It's legitimate," he assures me. "I don't think Saren has tampered with this."

"I do not sense the taint of indoctrination upon any of you, unlike the other that passed recently," the VI continues. Garrus turns back, and my gaze darts to him, catching the flash of pain at the confirmation that his former mentor is a slave to a machine. "Perhaps there is still hope."

Garrus rejoins us as Tali cocks her head at the VI. "What a minute. How come I can understand you? Why aren't you speaking the Prothean language?" she asks, evidently keeping her head on straight.

"I have been monitoring your communications since you arrived at this facility. I have translated my output into a format you can understand," he explains. "My name is Vigil. You are safe here for the moment. But that is likely to change. Soon, nowhere will be safe."

"Why did you bring us here?" I ask, still convinced that it set up those shields to force us in here. The VI doesn't deny it.

"You must break a cycle that has continued for millions of years. But to stop it, you must understand, or you will make the same mistakes as we did," Vigil tells us, his cool and mechanical tone at odds with his words. "The Citadel is the heart of your civilization and the seat of government. As it was with us, and as it has been with every civilization that came before us. But the Citadel is a trap."

I can hear a gasp leave Tali and Garrus shifts slightly beside me while my stomach flops, all of us concerned and disturbed.

"The station is actually an enormous mass relay," Vigil continues. "One that links to dark space, the empty voice beyond the galaxy's horizon. When the Citadel relay is activated, the Reapers will pour through. And all you know will be destroyed."

"Well, shit." It's really all I can think of to say at this moment.

"Hang on. I've worked at the Citadel for years. How come nobody ever noticed the Citadel was an inactive mass relay?" Garrus asks, crossing his arms almost like he feels indignant about it.

"The Reapers are careful to keep the greatest secrets of the Citadel hidden. That is why they created a species of seemingly benign organic caretakers."

Now it's my turn to gasp. "The Keepers? Those weird bug things that do nothing and bother no one are actually Reaper agents out to destroy us?"

"The Keepers maintain the station's most basic functions. They enable any species that discover the Citadel to use it without fully understanding the technology. Reliance on the Keepers ensures no other species will ever discover the Citadel's true nature. Not until the Relay is activated and the Reapers invade."

"How do the Reapers survive in dark space? And how do you know all of this if the Protheans were destroyed by the Reapers?"

"We have only theories. The researchers here came to believe the Reapers enter prolonged states of inactivity to conserve energy. This allows them to survive for the thousands and thousands of years it takes for organic civilization to rebuild itself. But in this state, they are vulnerable. By retreating beyond the edges of the galaxy, they ensure no one will accidentally discover them. They keep their existence unknown until the Citadel relay is activated."

Again, Vigil is completely calm. The three of us, however, are definitely feeling the reality of what he's telling us. "The Reapers could wipe out the Council and the entire Citadel fleet in a single surprise attack," I mutter, my brain whirling around the idea.

"That was our fate," Vigil note, his tone a little more resigned in a way now. "Our leaders were dead before we even realized we were under attack. The Reapers seized control of the Citadel and through it, the mass relays. Communication and transportation across our empire were crippled. Each star system was isolated, cut-off from the others. Easy prey for the Reaper fleets. Over the next decades, the Reapers systematically obliterated our people. World by world, system by system, they methodically wiped us out."

"It was that simple? Just...inevitable?" Garrus asks, his tone hollow. I know that he's recalling what Sovereign said to us back on Virmire, what felt like posturing at the time. If it's true...my mouth goes dry, and my brain doesn't seem willing to follow that line of thought.

"Their fleets advanced across every settled region of the galaxy. Some worlds were utterly destroyed. Others were conquered, their populations enslaved. These indoctrinated servants became sleeper agents under Reaper control. Taken in as refugees by other Protheans, they betrayed them to the machines. Within a few centuries, the Reapers had killed or enslaved every Prothean in the galaxy. They were relentless, brutal, and absolutely thorough."

Now I can't help but think Vigil sounds sad, though I know that might be a projection.

I take a breath. "You brought us in here because you wanted to tell us something. What do you want us to do?"

The VI answers quickly. "The Conduit is key. Before the Reapers attacked, we Protheans were on the cusp of unlocking the mysteries behind mass relay technology. Ilos was a top-secret facility. Here, researchers worked to create a small-scale version of a mass relay. One that linked directly to the Citadel, the hub of the relay network."

"The Conduit is not a weapon, it's a backdoor into the Citadel," Garrus notes.

Vigil explains that Ilos was spared only because records of the planet and the research facility on it were destroyed when the Reapers attacked the Citadel. The Protheans here went dark, went into stasis pods assuming they'd come out someday, and then died slowly when Vigil was forced to reserve energy. The Prothean scientists didn't fight directly, but after the Reapers left, they did find a way to cut the Keepers off from the Reapers.

Sovereign tried to signal the Citadel, to allow the Reapers in, and its signal was ignored. We'd already be dead if it wasn't for those few Protheans who studied in their final days.

I'll be damned if we have to go out the same way.

"So, Saren is going to use the Conduit to bypass all the Citadel's external defenses."

Vigil's hologram blinks at me. "Correct. And once inside, he can transfer control of the station to Sovereign. Sovereign will override the Citadel's system and manually open the relay. And the cycle of extinction will begin again."

"The hell it will," I snap. "How can we stop them?"

"There is a data file in my console. Take a copy when you go. When you reach the Citadel's master control unit, upload it to the station. This will corrupt the Citadel's security protocols and give you temporary control over the station. It might give you a chance against Sovereign."

I'll swear that Vigil sounds excited now.

"Wait, where's the Citadels' master control unit?" Tali asks. "I've never heard anything like that."

"The Presidium tower," Garrus answers for Vigil. "Besides, we could probably just follow Saren there. But I don't understand why Sovereign needs all the secrecy. Why not just attack the Citadel?"

"Sovereign is not invincible," Vigil announces, the first time he's said something even remotely positive. "Revealing its true nature would have united the forces of every organic species against it. Even a Reaper couldn't stand such odds. But the Reapers are patient. They will not rush into the unknown. Sovereign could have been planning this for centuries, moving deliberately, gathering allies. Saren is the most visible pawn of the Reapers, but I doubt he was the first or is the only. Now Sovereign has grown bold, whether from confidence or desperation, I cannot say. But it is determined to reopen the portal into dark space."

"After losing the Keepers to the remaining Protheans, Sovereign must have realized organic species were difficult to control," Garrus muses. "Explains why he approached the Geth."

I nod, grateful that the mystery of the Geth working with Saren and the purpose of the beacons have been solved. Of course, it solves none of our issues and only leaves us with more problems. Plus, I still get headaches and nightmares from those damn beacons.

I shake all that off. "Saren's got enough of a lead. Grab that data file, and let's go."

"The one you call Saren has not reached the Conduit," Vigil informs us. "Not yet. There is still hope if you hurry."

I thank the VI even though it seems silly to thank something that is just a computer and just doing its job, but I do it anyway and then lead Garrus and Tali into the elevator.

As heavy as the weight of all this seemed just a few moments ago, it's increased dramatically now. All of this just got much heavier, somehow much worse than just the idea of a race of sentient machines coming after us. Now it's a nearly unbeatable fleet of those machines that systematically wiped out an entire empire, a whole species, with no qualms or pause.

"It's tragic," Tali muses, her voice soft. "For all their great achievements, the Protheans lost everything. Just like my people. Even their last plan failed."

"Your people aren't gone yet, Tali, and neither are mine," Garrus informs her, his voice hard and firm but not mean - just resolved. "I've got no intention of ending up like them."

I nod, definitely on the Turian's side for this one. We aren't done yet, and I am not quitting.

We get back in the Mako, the shields gone, and then I floor it. The Geth are well-fortified here, down through a trench run that leads us along the flow of the water and deep into the archives. There are even Colossus trying to block our path, and we expend a lot of the Mako's firepower to get through.

The very end of the path dips down sharply, like a roller coaster, and from the top, we have one hell of a view. The Conduit waits, very much like a small mass relay and spinning rapidly.

"There it is," Tali breathes. "It's incredible."

"We don't have time to admire the view. We have to get through that relay, and these Geth aren't going to make it easy on us." Garrus is taking a look down the slope with his rifle scope, so I'm inclined to trust his estimate of how hard the battle facing us will be.

"It's active. That could mean Sovereign and the Geth are attacking the Citadel right now - and they have no idea that it's coming."

Exactly when I'm preparing to beat myself up for not doing enough to prepare them, for not doing enough to get us here, Garrus puts his hand on my shoulder. "It's not for lack of trying on your part, Shepard. We're playing catch up now because you've been stonewalled every step of the way."

"You're right," I reply, relieved and ever grateful that he's around. "But we still have to save them now."

We close up the tank, no more firing or defense. There's only one thing to do now, and I do it with Mako's gas pedal pressed all the way to the floor. We need through that damn relay, and we have not a second to lose.

Geth fire on us from all directions, getting in a few hard hits that force me to jerk the Mako back on track. "Shepard!" Tali screams with a particularly hard blast.

"I know!"

The relay is closing, the Geth preventing access now that Saren is through. If we don't get through with enough time, we'll be trapped...and I don't like to think about what would happen if we were to get stuck in a mass relay jump.

"Shepard!" Garrus shouts, gripping the dashboard and glancing over at me.

"I know!" I shout back, seconds left when I gun the Mako right up the edge of the tunnel and hit the thrusters. We soar through the relay and get launched right back into our seats, the force so hard that it knocks the wind out of us.

I don't have time to catch my breath before the Mako is launched back out. The Presidium flies by us in a blur before the Mako slams down on its roof and skids, jerking us around violently. I manage to gather my senses after a beat, catching Garrus pull his hand back from where he'd reached out to make some effort at protecting me.

I don't have time to think about that. I'll thank him later when we've survived all this. For now, I need to get out of this tank before the smoke from the engine chokes us.

"Just think: I used to believe that nothing exciting would ever happen on the Citadel."

Tali groans, obviously not amused by my joke. Shepard has to try and cover up her laugh with a cough, her green eyes glittering at me playfully. None of us has a lot of time to dwell on it, though, what with all the Geth firing at us and the race to stop a full-scale invasion.

Saren must have brought half the damn remaining Geth with him here. That or they regenerate a hell of a lot faster than we thought because the fight feels like it's never going to stop. C-Sec is doing their damndest to keep the Geth on hold and doing a nice job of it, especially with having to wrangle a panicked civilian population, and it lets us maintain course right to the Presidium.

Blasting the rest of the Geth out of our way, we approach the platform where so recently the Council tried to convince us that Sovereign wasn't a threat. I wonder if they at least considered how stupid they sounded when they had to evacuate...that is unless Saren and the Geth killed them already.

Saren has a console open, and a smug smile on his face when he turns away from it does not make me feel confident in any way, but we need to take him down before anything else can happen. Saren gives off a blue aura from the cybernetics he allowed Sovereign to implant in him. He turns my stomach, the sight of someone I once trusted glowing like a machine-run freak.

He throws a grenade, and we all dive into cover. Shepards ends up at the low wall before the stairs, the glass above her long-since shattered. I use a chunk of debris that gives me a solid angle on a shot, and Tali is near enough to keep watch in case more Geth show up from behind us.

Saren, finally doing something that seems familiar, goes on a rant. It sickens me to hear him talk about letting Sovereign implant him, that he really believes he's stronger now.

"Sovereign hasn't won yet," Shepard shouts to Saren. "I can stop it from taking control of the station. We can prevent the invasion from ever happening."

I line up a clear shot at Saren's head, my heart thumping painfully at having such a familiar face in my crosshairs. This is bigger than him, bigger than us. Besides, he's out to kill Shepard, and I'm never going to let that happen.

Then, she eyes me and waves off the shot. I balk at her, but Shepard just raises her eyebrows, the expression on her face very clearly meant to convey trust me.

Easy ask. I nod and keep my rifle prepared for when she gives the command.

"We can't stop it," Saren responds. "Not forever. You saw the visions, you saw what happened to the Protheans. The Reapers are too powerful. I will not let my people - "

I see red. "Your people?" I demand startling Shepard with my very uncharacteristic interruption. "You let a machine implant you, you shot a friend in the back. You are not Turian - you have no people, you barefaced son of a bitch."

Saren startles even more violently than Shepard did, pausing in his tirade for the first time.

Shepard takes the opening for what it is and calls to him, "There must be some part of you that still realizes this is wrong. You have to fight this, Saren!"

I'm not surprised that even now, even here, when Saren has already completed his part in Sovereign's mission to take the Citadel, Shepard is trying to save him. She wants him to redeem himself, to acknowledge what he's done wrong, and then fix it.

Saren would already have a bullet in his head if I were in charge. I'll never be as good as she is.

"Maybe…maybe you're right," Saren admits softly. "I don't...I don't want to be like this. This...monster." He pauses and then turns his gaze on me. "Pup…"

"You don't get to call me that," I snap, barely controlling my trigger finger or my voice. How fucking dare he. Shepard flashes me a look full of concern, but we really don't have time to focus on my feelings right now.

Saren makes a keening noise in his subtones, the sound registering an emotion full of regret and sorrow and pain. It makes me ache even as it makes me angrier. I can't afford to believe that my mentor and friend is still in there somewhere, not now. It hurts too damn much.

"Maybe there is still a chance for - ARGH!" His words cut off in a pained scream, and Saren doubles over in pain, Sovereign clearly trying to force his control on him. "The implants!" he shrieks, grabbing his head.

He looks like the pain is horrible, and I stand on instinct, driven to try and protect someone who has done the same for me dozens of times.

"Sovereign is...too strong. I'm sorry. It's too late for me."

"You can still redeem yourself, Saren," Shepard pleads, rolling out of cover and getting to her feet as well. I keep my crosshairs trained on him now, just to be safe. He knows that I can make the shot, and I know that if anyone can get through to him, it's Shepard.

Maybe there is hope for him after all. For us.

"Fight with us, Saren!" she urges him.

Saren groans and tucks his pistol up under his chin, cold sweeping through me violently and threatening to choke me while my hands tremble around my rifle for the first time in my life. "Saren!" My voice breaks on his name. "Wait!"

"I'm sorry, Pup," he breathes, closing his eyes.

"Don't do this!"

"Thank you, Shepard."

"Saren, no!"

A bang echoes, the loudest gunshot I've ever heard, and blue blood with a familiar scent erupts and splatters on the console and window behind him. Saren collapses, and he falls, crashing through the glass floor of the Presidium.

Shepard and I start running at the same time, Tali close on our heels. We reach the edge and stare down at his lifeless body, my heart aching with every pump. I'm flooded with memories of the Saren I used to know, the one who taught me to stand up to my father and who was totally smitten with his girl, the one who couldn't wait to be a dad.

That Saren died before I ever knew he was gone. This one died broken and guilty. I lost him twice.

"Are you OK?" Tali asks kindly, resting her hand on my forearm. Shepard turns to look up at me, green eyes piercing right through me.

"I wanted him dead...but I didn't want him to go like this," I admit. Even now, part of me is pissed that I didn't have the opportunity to shoot him. He may have tried to redeem himself at the end, but this is not justice.

Shepard rests her hand on my chest for a moment and then gathers herself. I nod so that she knows I'm OK, that I know we need to move on. She gets to the console and uploads the data from Vigil; in moments, we watch the controls shift. Sovereign is still attached to the Citadel, and we need to destroy him before he finds another way to take control.

"I've got control of all the systems," Shepard confirms.

"See if you can open a communications channel," Tali urges her.

Shepard does, and a voice breaks over almost immediately, recognizable as an Asari. "...the Destiny Ascension...main drives offline...kinetic barriers down 40%," she says in a broken message that makes her sound immensely far away. "The Council is on board. I repeat, the Council is on board."

We don't have any chance to react to that before a more familiar voice comes over the comms. "Normandy to the Citadel. Normandy to the Citadel. Please tell me that's you, Commander."

"I'm here, Joker," she responds.

"We caught that distress call, Commander. I'm sitting here in the Andura sector with the entire Arcturus fleet. We can save the Ascension. Just unlock the relays around the Citadel, and we'll send the cavalry in."

I can see the stress wash over Shepard's features instantly, all of us well aware of what the options here really are. And I can understand why it's such a big dilemma. "You're going to have to sacrifice human lives if you want to save the Council, Shepard," I note. "And it's not like they've done a lot to deserve that from you."

"Maybe, but this is bigger than humanity," Tali chimes in. "Sovereign is a threat to every organic species in the galaxy."

"Yeah, exactly. Can we afford to throw away potential reinforcements against Sovereign to save the Council?" Tali stares at me for a bit, considering that. She apparently doesn't come to a final decision before turning back to Shepard.

"What's the order, Commander? Come in now to save the Ascension, or hold back?" Joker asks.

"God, we just know this is going to bite me in the ass either way, huh?" Shepard signs, glancing up at me. I rest my hand on her shoulder, wishing I could take a burden from her for about the hundredth time. She doesn't need it though; she's stronger than anyone. "I'm opening the relays now, Joker. Bring the Alliance in and save the Ascension."

It's not the choice I would have made, but that's not to say I think it's the wrong one. If there is anyone whose judgment I trust, it's Shepard.

We hear Admiral Hackett give the order to the Alliance as the massive arms to the space station start to spread open. It's up to the fleet now, and Shepard glances back down at Saren's body. "You wanna make sure he's dead, big guy?"

"You read my mind," I admit, stepping past her to drop through the shattered floor and into the garden where Saren's body lies waiting. I need to make sure it's over.

I need it to be over.

I kneel beside Saren's still and lifeless body, still unsure of what I need...of what Nihlus would want me to do. I grasp his cowl and pull Saren into my arms. Again, memories flood me: all the lessons, all the hours we spent together in friendship, everything he did for me when I was craving affection from my father. I allow myself a moment of sorrow at the loss and nudge his forehead with mine. There's something weirdly soothing about his plates being too cool...a finality to it.

I lay him back on the ground and stand before I use my pistol to send a round through Saren's face, looking into dead eyes exactly the way that I promised I would. His head moves with the force, but his body otherwise remains totally limp before I stand and turn away.

"Keelah, Garrus!" Tali screams, her voice in a panic like nothing I've ever heard before. She's pointing behind me, and I whirl around to be greeted by something even my nightmares have never managed to think up.

Saren's body is no longer still, though it's definitely still dead. I watch as it contorts and twists with flashes of red electricity until it's stripped down to just a skeleton, misshapen and horrifying.

"For shit's sake, Garrus, get cover!" Shepard's body slams into mine for once, tackling me right to the ground just as a blast of red electricity flies over our heads.

"I am Sovereign," the thing bellows. "This station is mine."

Shepard raises her assault rifle to shoot at him without getting off of me, and I wrap my arms around her, rolling both of us into cover. "Guess we're not done yet, huh kid?"

"I get my vacation when this is over, Vakarian," the redhead informs me, managing to smile while the embodied version of our would-be enslaver shoots at us. "Get that damn rifle out, and let's go."

"Your vacation is in my apartment," I remind her. "I'm not sure it's worth all this...but maybe the rifle will make up for it." I laugh at the shock that flashes across her face and then roll her off of me unceremoniously. "Shepard, quit laying down on the job. I want my vacation."

Our victory is marked by smoldering remains. On my back, dazed and with a hellish pain surging through my arm, I make a note to bitch at Joker for this. Sure, he gave Sovereign the final shot to destroy the damn thing, but he also sent a chunk of the Reaper through the window and onto the Presidium. Actually, it kind of feels like a chunk of the window fell on me.

Yeah, never letting him live this one down.

I can hear shouting, sirens, and metal creaking, and something that sounds like a drill breaking through rock. A voice is calling my name, and it takes me a moment to realize that it's Anderson. He's calling for Garrus and Tali, too, along with other voices.

I can't remember where they landed or if they were near me when the explosion rocked the Presidium. Even now, I can't tell exactly where I am. There's a thick dust cloud around me that I can feel clogging my nose and throat when I try to take a breath. I try to move and realize that the pain in my arm is because it's trapped under a beam, which seems lucky since the beam is attached to a jagged piece of metal that would have sliced my arm right off.

Everything else is free, chunks of rock and metal and glass surrounding me in what feels too much like a cage for me to want to dwell on it. If I can get the beam off my arm, I can get out. Or I could just wait here for the rescuers that I can hear at work to find me. The heavy, exhausting pain resting in every joint and bone in my body makes that second option feel really tempting.

"Shepard! Elle, damn it, answer me!"

Garrus. Relief washes over me, knowing that he made it, but it's quickly followed by guilt at the pain and fear in his voice. I can't lie here while he suffers.

The beam is heavy, but the metal it's attached to is off-balance, so I manage to lift it fairly easily and just far enough to get my arm out from under it. The shoulder is probably dislocated - again, the same damn arm that was bashed out of the socket on Therum - but the rest of me is moveable enough.

"Shepard!" Garrus' voice is getting more panicked so I hurry to get on my feet. When I can see the extent of the destruction around us, I want nothing more than to get into his arms.

I shout back but can barely hear myself, and I have to climb over a piece of what looks like it used to be the ceiling to start making my way out. It's a minefield, every inch of what used to be the pristine and beautiful Presidium Tower all but destroyed now. I count our blessings that the command center wasn't in a civilian part of the Citadel.

"Come on, kid," I hear Garrus growl, not yelling anymore, so he must be nearby, and I follow the sound, ducking under a large piece of jagged glass carefully. "Spirits, don't take her from me."

My heart all but stalls at the soft prayer, and I kick into another gear, finally climbing up a piece of concrete that's become a ramp. Garrus is standing six feet away, and I can still hear him gasp, looking up at me with relief all over his face. I can see Anderson behind him and Tali leaning on a Turian C-Sec officer for support, all of them safe.

It hits me there, staring at the utter destruction of the Presidium, that we did it. We stopped Saren, we killed a Reaper, and we bought ourselves some serious time on the invasion that might destroy our entire galaxy. We did this, my team.

And I couldn't have done a damn bit of it without the gorgeous, blue-eyed Turian now limping his way toward me with desperation in his gaze that I recognize and feel on a visceral level.

Everything around us, all the noise and chaos and the knowledge that our fight is only beginning, fades into the background as I make my way over the last of the debris. I don't stop when I get close, and neither does Garrus, reaching for me on the last step and yanking me up against him. I wrap my uninjured arm around his neck and push up onto my toes as Garrus' hand presses firmly against my back, and he lowers his head.

A rush of warmth floods me when our foreheads meet, and I close my eyes to absorb it, the intense sensation that at least for right now and right here - with him - we'll be OK.

"Shepard," he murmurs, his breath gusting over my face and sending a chill down my spine.

I can hear it, the words he doesn't say. I can feel it in every touch, everything he does for me. That's enough.

"I know, Garrus. Me, too."

*****Author's Note*****

We're not done yet! Stay tuned next week for the conclusion to Elle & Garrus's ME1 storyline...

...and I might even drop the prologue to the next phase of their story. Hint: It's not ME2 quite yet.