This planet is hell. The sheer number of geth that are swarming this planet is mind boggling. The only time we could rest has been just before we open the gate to move on to the next area. This breeding facility must be very important to the slippery bastard if he's committing this many resources to it.

"Commander, I think that's the salarians camp just ahead," Tali

"Thanks, Tali, everyone prepare to exit," I instructed.

"There aren't that many of them there, Commander."

"Given what we've just gone through, I think it's a miracle that they're even alive."

I had all hands-on deck for this mission, given the chances of Saren making an appearance. Buying Krogan slaves to provide more bodies for this research facility is a ballsy move. But why Krogan?

"I'm Captain Kirrahe, in command of Company A, Third Infiltration Regiment, Salarian Special Tasks Group," said the salarian. "You and your crew have just landed in the middle of a hot zone. Every AA gun within twenty kilometres has been alerted to your presence. Take off and your ship becomes flinders."

"We took out one set of AA guns on the way in. We can go out the same way."

"Not now that the enemy is on the alert. They'll fill the gap in their coverage within the next 25 minutes. There's nothing we can do until the Council sends the reinforcements we requested."

"Hmm. We are the reinforcements," Rylee interjected.

"What? You're all they sent? I told the Council to send a fleet."

"The transmission was crap. We were sent to investigate."

"That is a repetition of our task. I lost half my men investigating this place."

"Saren seems to value this place, considering how many geth are here.?"

"That's understandable since this is Saren's base of operations," said Kirrahe.

Good, I can finally meet the bastard face to face. After all of this pussyfooting, I'm glad I can finally have a straight up one on one fight. Let's see what he can do without his Ship following him around.

"He's built some sort of research facility here," Kirrahe continued. "It's crawling with geth and extremely well-fortified. Normally we would need a whole fleet to reduce this place. We'll have to consider alternative plans."

"Is he here? Have you seen him? His flagship, Sovereign?" I demanded.

"No. If he is here, he's staying out of sight. Even so, his geth are everywhere and we've intercepted communications referring to him. This is his facility, there's no doubt about that."

"I already know that he's cloning Krogan here, how many are we going to be dealing with?" I stated.

"Cloning, no he's not cloning Krogan. He's breeding them," he revealed.

This immediately caught the interest of Liara, Garrus and the last person who should have heard that. Urdnot Wrex

"He's doing what?" Garrus said.

Cloning a Krogan is one thing, it's relatively easy to do nowadays. But to be able to enable them to breed again, that's galaxy shattering news.

"How is that possible?" Wrex demanded, after barging his way through the salarians into our conversation.

Kirrahe didn't quite flinch, but his stance did become slightly tense. "He appears to have discovered a cure for the genophage."

Garrus frowned. "The geth are bad enough. A krogan army, loyal to Saren . . . he'd be almost impossible to defeat."

"Obviously the Turians and the Salarians would want to destroy the genophage cure."

"Wrex, this isn't just about our people, this is…"

"This has everything to do with my people Garrus!"

"We must see that this facility and its secrets are destroyed."

"Destroyed?" objected Wrex. "I don't think so. My people are dying. If Saren has a cure, it can save us."

Kirrahe opted to carry on speaking to me. "If that cure leaves this planet, the krogan become unstoppable. We salarians uplifted the krogan and turned them loose on the galaxy once. We can't make that mistake again."

Wrex pushed forward, looming over Kirrahe, "My people are not a mistake."

"Wrex, now isn't the time" said Rylee quietly.

Wrex gave me a look that was cold even for him, but I didn't budge, he instead walked over to a stretch of sand before firing shots into the ocean with his shotgun.

"Is he going to be a problem?" Kirrahe asked.

"You worry about your men, I'll worry about mine," I instructed before heading over to Wrex.

Before I could leave I felt a hand on my shoulder and unsurprisingly it was Liara. She didn't have to say anything for me to know exactly what she was thinking. She was telling me to be careful.

It probably isn't the smartest thing in the world to approach a Krogan who's angrily firing shotgun rounds into the ocean. But if I don't then Wrex might end up killing the Salarians.

"This isn't right, Anderson. If there's a cure for the genophage, we can't destroy it."

"Calm down Wrex, Saren is the threat here. We both know that."

"The line between friend and foe is getting real blurry from where I stand. Help me out here, Anderson," Wrex said menacingly.

"If we let Saren do whatever he's planning here, you won't be around to reap the benefits of a genophage cure."

"That's a risk we should be willing to take."

"The Reapers will return and destroy all of us. Nothing is worth that risk. Believe me Wrex if you had these visions too, then you would know exactly how I'm feeling."

"Listen Nate, you have done more for me than anyone in my family ever has. But I need a damn good reason to go through with this."

"Saren is the real enemy, Wrex! Can't you see that. Don't you remember why we came here in the first place."

"Anderson, when we first arrived, I thought Saren was just cloning the Krogan, but now I find out he's curing the genophage and you want to stop him. Seems to me that you're my real enemy Anderson," Wrex roared before aiming his shot gun directly at me. The moment he reached back, I instinctively grabbed my own and we had a face off

I glanced up and I saw Garrus and Rylee, both with their guns aimed at Wrex. This is going to get bloody, very quickly if I don't diffuse the situation.

"Nate, answer me honestly. If humans had suffered the genophage, and Saren was providing a cure. Wouldn't you want to let him find the cure?"

"Yes, I would want to, Wrex."

"Then you know what I have to do."

"But I know a little bit about slavery and subjugation. Saren doesn't give a shit about the Krogan people or how they've suffered because of the genophage. He is looking for an army and he will treat these 'Krogan' like disposables. Because deep down you know these aren't your people. They are instruments of Saren, that can't be allowed to live."

"I've been loyal to you so far. You've shown sound judgement lately. Maybe I can trust you. But if I'm going to follow you into this, I have got to know that we're doing it for the right reasons," he said whilst nearly lowering his weapon; Rylee and Garrus mirrored his action.

"I think so," I said. "They are tools of Saren and the reapers. Do you want that for your people?"

Wrex stared at me, one hand opening and closing near the stock of his shotgun.

Rylee eased her weapon upward, still not quite pointing it at the krogan, but very close. I followed suit, calling up a biotic surge, light and electrical charge beginning to encapsulate my entire body. The moment he raises his weapon I'll hit him with a biotic charge.

"No," said Wrex finally. "We were the Council's tools once. To thank us for saving them from the rachni, they neutered us all. I doubt Saren will even be that generous."

"Wrex, I promise you that I will do everything within my power to help the krogan people. I will try and cure the genophage."

The krogan relaxed and nodded. "All right, Nate. You've made your point. I don't like this, but I trust you enough to follow your lead. But when we find Saren . . . I want his head."

I offered my hand out to him and he shook it with vigour. "Tell Vakarian and Shepard they can lower their weapons. And tell T'Soni she can relax. You aren't dying today," he grunted before stomping over to the Mako.

I looked up again and saw Rylee and Garrus holstering their guns. But Liara was someone I hadn't spotted earlier. When Wrex turned around she put her hands down and let out a huge sigh of relief.

I got lucky here. I should have let Rylee handle this one, she's the diplomatic one and she's closer to Wrex. But all's well that ends well. Now it's back to the mission at hand.

I spent the next 10 minutes with Rylee, Kirrahe, Kaidan and Garrus discussing how we could go about destroying an entire facility with limited resources. We were lacking any sort of conventional bomb and any guidance system to deliver it, so whatever we could do would have to involve placing it the bomb at the right location.

"We can sacrifice our ship's drive and convert the core into a twenty-kiloton ordnance," said the salarian. "More than enough to destroy this facility. The problem is delivering it."

"We don't have the manpower to outlast Saren's entire Geth army. We'd be slaughtered."

"That's correct," said Kirrahe. "We will need to place the bomb at the right location, by hand. This means we will have to infiltrate the facility on foot, pacify its ground forces, and disable its AA guns before we can bring your ship in with the bomb."

"Shit I forgot about the AA guns. Who's going to take them down?" Garrus inquired

"I will divide my men into two teams and strike the front of the facility. Our objective will be the AA guns. While we have their attention, you and a 'shadow' team can infiltrate in the back."

"That's not a bad plan, but your men are going to get slaughtered by Geth."

The crazy bastard was smiling. "We're tougher than we look, Commander. It's true, though, I don't expect many of us are going to make it out alive." That smile quickly dissipated.

"That makes what I'm going to ask even more difficult. I need two of your men, 1 to accompany each team to accompany me, to coordinate my teams with yours."

Shit.

"You would need people who know Alliance communications protocols," observed Shepard. "I volunteer," she declared

"Lieutenant, the Commander is going to need you by his side going into battle, I'll accompany one of the teams," Ashley volunteered.

"Not so fast, Lieutenant. You're the better combat engineer. The commander will need you to arm and place the nuke. I'll go with the salarians," Kaidan argued.

"That's not your call to make."

"It's neither of your calls so shut up!" I shouted. "I get it, you're both willing to sacrifice yourselves for the mission, but I'd rather you both survive. Rylee you're with me, you're going to arm the bomb, Kaidan and Ashley go with the Salarians." I decided.

"What!" Rylee exclaimed

"Kaidan is more experienced and he knows Alliance protocol better than you, he's also right about the fact you're the better engineer so we need you to arm the bomb. Now get ready to move out. We move in 5 minutes." I asserted.

"Once the bomb is set up we'll rendezvous with your ship and get off this planet," Kirrahe suggested.

But before I left the tent I went up to Kirrahe and said "They had better come out of this alive."

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

I must give Saren credit, when he wants something guarded, then he goes all out. Stalkers, hunters, snipers, primes he made sure there were geth of all kinds for me to kill, and I'm exhausted. Part of that is our fault considering we disabled the alarms so Kaidan and Ashley's teams wouldn't deal with as much resistance, but damn near at the cost of my leg, if Wrex hadn't killed the Krogan berserker.

We even made sure the geth flyers weren't a problem at the cost of Tali's recon drone being destroyed so we won't be able to plan as effectively.

And then there was the captured Salarians that were speaking like schizophrenics. They spoke as if someone was whispering in their ears, telling them to act crazy. Rylee wanted to release them but I managed to convince her about how dangerous it would be. They were clearly unstable and for all we knew they may have fallen to Saren's influence. I made the choice to leave them there to die. A choice Rylee was clearly very pissed off at.

We entered the next room and the first thing we heard was "Don't shoot, please!" an asari dressed in a lab coat, her hands in plain view, clearly a scientist. "I just want to get out of here before it's too late."

"We're not going to hurt you unless you open fire first," said Rylee whilst glaring at me. "So far you're the first person who hasn't done that. Who are you?"

"Rana Thanoptis, neurospecialist. Saren hired me to work in the lab . . . but this job isn't worth dying over, or worse. Sooner or later the indoctrination is going to get me too!"

"What are you doing out here?" I asked.

"Are you the ones working on a Genophage cure?" Wrex demanded.

Thanoptis shook her head emphatically. "None of us are, not on this level. We're studying the effect of proximity to Sovereign on organic minds. At least that's what I deduced after I was here for a while. Saren kept us all in the dark as much as possible."

"You helped him and you did not even know why?" I asked.

"After I got here, I discovered I didn't have the option of negotiating. This position is a lot more permanent than I expected." She looked over to the door leading out of the room. Wrex shot at the door causing her to look back at us.

"She's clearly useless to us Commander, let me kill her."

"NO! Please don't! I can help you, though. This is Saren's personal office. That door behind me is his private lab space. Nobody knows what he does in there . . . but I can get you in."

Thanoptis went to the door, used her omni-tool to hack the lock. While she was thus engaged, Wrex approached her with his shotgun aimed at her back in case she tried to escape.

"See?" said the scientist, wheedling. "Full access. All Saren's private files. Are we good? Can I go?"

"In a minute," Shepard answered. "Tell me about your research first. What exactly were you studying here?"

"It's that dreadnaught, Sovereign. It emits some kind of signal or energy field. Undetectable, but it's there. I've seen the effects, measured them. Saren uses it to influence his followers. To control them."

"That's was happened to the Salarians in the cells isn't it. You exposed them to Sovereign," I pointed out.

"That's correct… Saren said we needed more subjects so he captured the soldiers."

"They acted strangely and they complained about a voice constantly in their ears. Is that what happens when your exposed to Sovereign?" Liara questioned.

"Direct exposure to the signal eventually renders you a willing slave," she continued, "but there's collateral damage too. The subject becomes increasingly unable to think independently. Complete mindlessness, like those salarian test subjects on the first floor. It happens to everyone here eventually. My first test subject was the man I replaced. Now I just want to get out of here before it happens to me."

"That's what Won meant when he said at the behest of his ship… Saren's been indoctrinated," I concluded.

"You're right the signal doesn't come from Saren, it comes from the ship. It makes people obey him, but I don't think he controls it." A haunted expression came into her eyes. "I think . . . I think he's frightened it might be affecting him. Indoctrination is subtle. By the time the effects become noticeable, it's already too late."

This whole place seriously pisses me off. He's subjugated the Krogan he's bred, he's managed to use good soldiers as cannon fodder and test dummies. Just like they tried with me… and she's the one who carried out his bidding.

"I'm blowing this place sky high, you can either be a part of the fireworks or you can watch from afar, your choice," I growled before taking the flash drive with all the information she'd just extracted.

"What? You can't – but I'll never," she complained, before I gave her a look that would give the most hardened of soldiers pause. "aaah!"

"Tali get everything you possibly can out of the computer, I don't care how insignificant. See if you can get access to anything else through that computer," I ordered. "Wrex, Rylee stay and guard her, Liara and Garrus let's look through Saren's office."

We walked across the walkway towards Saren's office. For some reason, I actually had the picture of a typical office like those on the Presidium, but that was naïve. Instead it was an empty room, with an upper platform and a giant spire at the end.

"Commander, I think that's a Prothean beacon," Liara gasped.

I inspected the spire and felt an air of familiarity. This is definitely a beacon. If Saren already had a beacon why would he need to go to Eden Prime… unless.

"This is the missing other half…" I whispered.

"Saren's had this the entire time?" Garrus wondered out loud.

"He went to Eden Prime because this beacon has an incomplete vision… he's had the whole vision since the invasion and the Cipher… so what's holding him back. He has to have found the Conduit by now."

"Maybe this beacon has the Conduit's location on it."

"Well there's only one way to find out, here goes nothing," I uttered, as I approached the 2nd beacon.

This time I didn't struggle as it pulled me in. The images were just as broken as they were before, the only difference being that I could make out some of the words that people were screaming. They were pleads for help and screams of vengeance as their city burned. But the focus was more on these machine constructs. They were monstrous, gigantic, terrifying. They flooded the skies and darkened the worlds they descended. Slaughtering everything in sight, destroying worlds.

If there was one emotion I could feel encapsulated this memory, it would be fear. The dread that was coursing through the Protheans veins was palpable, these machines were the Harbingers of their destruction and they knew it. They were inescapable and their deaths were imminent. They feared the Reapers with every fibre of their beings.

I dropped to the ground with a resounding thud, thankful that I was still conscious this time. This isn't the kind of mission that I can afford to not be at 100% for.

"Are you okay Nate?" Garrus asked.

"I'm alright, now let's get back to the others."

We returned to the platform above, ready to continue our mission when we were interrupted by a robotic voice. It was deep, and emotionless.

"You are not Saren," the voice said.

On instinct, we all turned around with our weapons drawn only to see a red hologram. It was huge and it easily took up most the room, "What is that? Some kind of VI interface?" Garrus asked.

I shook my head, approaching the hologram cautiously. "No, this is that warship that Saren brought to Eden Prime," I answered. "Wrex, Tali, Rylee get your asses over here ASAP." I ordered.

"Tali's almost done, we'll be there in a minute," Rylee replied.

"I don't think we have much time left. Get out of there."

"Rudimentary creatures of blood and flesh. You touch my mind, fumbling in ignorance, incapable of understanding."

"So you're the overgrown squid that Saren likes to take for a joyride," I mocked.

"Your words are hollow, spoken being a creature of flesh and blood. Your insults mean nothing human. You have seen what is on the beacon, you know the power we possess."

"What did you see Commander?" Garrus wondered.

"More death and destruction, I'm going to need more time to process the images," this isn't the time to tell them… can't let my fear show.

"It does not matter whether you process the Protheans message. For you will all soon perish."

Wrex, Tali and Rylee ran into the room, ready to fire, but soon holstered their guns upon seeing the hologram.

"Shit so that's Sovereign?" Wrex said.

I haven't felt fear like this in a long time, if you exclude the beacon experience. This fear wasn't because I was experiencing someone else's terror. This is fear born of knowing exactly what the reapers are capable of, and after that vision, I know one thing for certain.

Sovereign is a Reaper.

"There is a realm of existence so far beyond your own that you cannot even imagine it. I am beyond your comprehension. I am Sovereign."

"Sovereign isn't just a piece of Reaper technology, a derelict Saren found to use as his flagship," said Shepard slowly. "It's . . . an actual Reaper."

"Reaper? A label created by the Protheans to give voice to their destruction. In the end, what you choose to call us is irrelevant. We simply are."

"How is that possible?" I asked. "The Protheans were wiped out fifty thousand years ago. The cycle of extinctions goes back for millions of years at least."

"Organic life is nothing but a genetic mutation. An accident. Your lives are measured in years and decades. You wither and die. We are eternal: the pinnacle of evolution and existence. Before us, you are nothing. Your extinction is inevitable. We are the end of everything."

Rylee shook her head, her jaw set in determination. "I don't know how you defeated the Protheans, but you won't defeat us. There's an entire galaxy of races, united and ready to face you."

We can't even convince the Council that the Reapers exist. This galaxy won't unite for shit.

"Confidence born of ignorance. The cycle cannot be broken."

"Cycle? What cycle?" asked Wrex.

"The pattern has repeated itself more times than you can fathom. Organic civilizations evolve, rise, advance . . . and at the apex of their glory, they are extinguished. The Protheans were not the first. They did not create the Citadel. They did not forge the mass relays. They merely found them, the legacy of my kind, as many others have found them across the eons."

"How long has this been going on?" I asked.

"Since before any of your suns burned in space. The galaxy has rotated many times about its hub since the cycle began. It will not end until the last stars have guttered into darkness."

"Goddess. Billions of years?" Liara gasped

"I don't understand. Why would you construct the mass relays, then leave them for someone else to find?" Garrus inquired.

"Like all those who came before, your civilization is based on the technology of the mass relays: our technology. By using it, your society commits itself to develop along the paths we desire. In this way we impose order on the chaos of organic evolution. You exist because we allow it. You will end because we demand it."

"They're harvesting us," I whispered, shaking in horror. "Letting us advance to a certain level, then taking what they need and destroying the rest. We're just expendables to them, we're the loose ends they need to tie up."

Even if we were to fight the Reapers, there's no way we could win. They're too powerful. They took everything that the Protheans had and all it did was piss them off. What chance do we have against a force like that?

My dread must have been picked up on by Liara, since she placed a steadying hand on my shoulder, but continued to face Sovereign. "Where are the rest of the Reapers? Are you the last of your kind?"

"We are legion. The time of our return is at hand. Our numbers will darken the sky of every world. You cannot escape your doom."

"Where did you come from? Who built you?"

"We have no beginning. We will have no end. We are infinite. A billion years after your civilization has been eradicated and forgotten, we will endure."

"Why?" demanded Shepard, stepping forward until she was face-to-face with the hologram. "What do you want from us? What could you possibly have to gain?"

"My kind transcends your very understanding. We are each a nation, independent, free of all weakness. You cannot even grasp the nature of our existence. We want nothing from you. We need nothing from you. You are merely dust in a cosmic wind, caught up in our eternal purpose."

"You're not even alive," Rylee said. "Not really. Just a machine. . . and machines can be broken!"

"Your words are as empty as your future. I am the vanguard of your destruction. This exchange is over."

As soon as the transmission was over, I received a message from joker that Sovereign had just made a beeline towards Virmire and it was only 20 minutes out. We must hurry. If I'm going to get Kaidan and Kirrahe safely off the planet we need to get our asses in gear.

We fought through another army of geth in between us and the control for the AA guns on our side. We managed to destroy all of them with relative ease, in comparison to the other battles we had gone through today. The drop off location was clear, which enabled Joker to land the Normandy.

Ashley and a few of the salarians that Dr Chakwas had patched up helped Rylee carry the bomb off the Normandy. The thing was huge, and with what little I know about nuclear physics, even I could tell it could destroy this entire facility.

As soon as the bomb was off the ship, Joker went to Ashley and Kirrahe's agreed rendezvous point.

"Bomb is in position, Commander. We're all set here . . ."

"Commander, can you read me?" Kaidan said into my earpiece.

"The nuke is almost ready, get your ass over here now!"

"No can do, Nate. We've got a new wave of geth, pinning us down on the AA tower. We're taking heavy casualties. We'll never make it to the rendezvous point in time."

"Shit!"

"Nate, arming this nuke is going to take a couple of minutes. Get Kaidan and come back here."

I didn't have time to think this through so I went with Rylee's suggestion and took the whole squad with me. If we're going to rescue Kaidan from the army of geth, it's going to take everything we've got and more, so I left Rylee with a few Alliance personnel just in case.

As soon as we reached the path to the AA Tower, we encountered heavy geth resistance. At this point we were all exhausted but we knew we had to carry on. I used my biotic charge for what felt like the millionth time, to destroy the geth, and used my shotgun to clear the one side of the path, with assistance from Garrus' sniper. Liara and Wrex handled the other side.

We raced upstairs to the AA Tower when a Geth dropship flew right over us and towards Rylee's location.

"Nate, there's geth pouring out all over the bomb site," Rylee yelled.

"Can you hold them off?" it wasn't a question, so much as a hope.

"There's too many. I don't think I can hold out until you get here." she shouted "I'm activating the bomb."

"Are you crazy. What the fuck are you thinking?" I demanded.

"I'm just making sure this bomb goes off, no matter what." She declared. "It's done, Nate. Go get Kaidan and get the hell out of here."

"Like hell he's going to do that. Go get Rylee, I have Salarians backing me up," Kaidan pleaded.

"You won't make it if Nate doesn't get to you."

"And you will definitely die if he doesn't get to you and fast."

"Quiet this is my decision!"

Every second I wait here, one of them could die. I can't spend too much time thinking this through. God I wish I could slow down time to a crawl so I could weigh out my decision. Or even better, slow it down so that I could save them both…

Shit.

One of them is going to die today and there's nothing I can do about it. Just like Akuze.

Shit that's 2 seconds. I can only waste at best another 5 on this decision.

Come on brain think.

Which one of them has to die?

Which one gets to live?

Which one gets survivors guilt?

Which one sees their family again?

Which one survives?

I know who I'm going to save. Neither one of them is going to be happy about my decision.

"Joker, head to the bombsite, get us out of here," I gritted through my teeth.

"Nate, NO! Head to-"

"Rylee please. It's been an honour serving with you. All of you."

"Kaidan…I."

"It's alright Nate. Goodbye."

Those were the last words I heard from Kaidan Alenko, before he cut the transmission from his suit. We didn't have time to think about my decision.

"Follow me!" I ordered before using my biotic charge to head straight to the entrance. I need to reach Rylee before the Geth get to her. I just hope I'm not too late. When the gate opened, one of my worst fears had come to fruition.

Saren Arterius was holding Rylee in the air, by her head ready to crush it with his biotics, whilst his army of geth just stand there and watch.

"You're going to DIE!" I roared before starting my long-awaited fight with Saren was about to get underway…

When my over usage of my biotic amp finally caught up to me. My head was screaming with pain and I collapsed to my knees. The pain quickly spread throughout my body and I found myself mostly paralysed. That's what I get for removing the limiter on my amp. I guess they put it there for a reason, other than being a pain in the ass when I'm in a tight spot.

My pain distracted Saren long enough for Rylee to poke him in the eye and find cover near me.

"Nate, are you alright?"

I was in too much pain to even speak so I shook my head, and even that took a lot of effort. Never doing this again. I can't let a situation where I'm dragging my team backwards happen again. Hopefully this is temporary.

"This has been an impressive diversion, Anderson. My geth were utterly convinced the salarians were the real threat. Of course, it's all for nothing. I can't let you disrupt what I've accomplished here. You can't possibly understand what's really at stake."

Shepard ducked back behind our cover, glancing at me, worried Saren might approach while I'm vulnerable. "So make me understand," she called back. "What could possibly justify what you've done?"

"Ask your Commander, he's seen the vision from the beacons. Him of all people should understand what the Reapers are capable of. They cannot be stopped. There's no point in revolt. If we cling to petty ideals and visions of freedom, we will simply die. Every last one of us, like insects in the heart of a star. The Protheans reached heights our civilizations can only dream of. They tried to fight, and the Reapers utterly destroyed them. Trillions dead. But what if they had bowed before the inevitable, found a way to reach a compromise with the Reapers? They might still be alive today. Isn't submission preferable to the extinction of all life everywhere?"

"Saren, you're a fool if you think the Reapers have any interest in letting us live. We're nothing to them."

Saren appeared amused at Rylee's response, as if she had told him a joke. "Now you see why I never brought this to the Council. We organics are driven by emotion instead of logic. We deny the truth even when our very lives are at stake. We will fight even when we know we cannot win. But if we work with the Reapers – if we make ourselves useful to them – think how many lives might be saved! Once I understood this, I became Sovereign's partner, its agent in the wider galaxy. I was aware of the dangers. I had hoped this facility could protect me."

I found the will to ignore the pain I was feeling and shouted. "You sound like a little bitch. You're afraid that Daddy's going to come back and whip you into submission."

"I've studied the effects of indoctrination. The more control Sovereign imposes, the less capable the subject becomes. That is my saving grace. Sovereign needs me to find the Conduit. My mind is still my own… for now. The transformation from ally to servant is subtle, I will not allow it to happen to me."

"It's happened already!" shouted Rylee. "You're already indoctrinated and you don't even know it. You're already under its power!"

"No! Sovereign needs me!" he roared defiantly "If I can find the Conduit, I've been promised a reprieve from the inevitable. That's my only hope."

"It's not your only hope. Together we can stop Sovereign. We don't have to submit to the Reapers. We can find a way to beat them!" Rylee pleaded. No… she can't be trying to get him to join our side could she, even after all he's done.

"I no longer believe that, Shepard. I've seen the vision of the beacons. I've spoken to Sovereign at length. I've done the same research you and your allies have done. The Reapers are too powerful. The only hope of survival is to join them. To submit to them, if need be."

Rylee stood and stormed up to confront Saren directly. "You're a coward!" she spat

"What?"

"You were a Spectre. You were sworn to defend the galaxy. Then you broke that vow to save yourself."

"I'm not doing this for myself! Don't you see? Sovereign will succeed. The Reapers will return. It is inevitable. This is the only way any of us can survive!" Saren shook his head in disgust.

"LIVE ON YOUR KNEEES OR DIE ON YOUR FEET!" Rylee shouted. Those were the choices that Rylee offered Saren. Very powerful words to consider.

Saren looked at her with contempt at first. But then something happened, I'm not too good at reading Turian facial expressions, but I could swear his face softened. He looked confused and befuddled, whether at her bravery or her brazenness.

Is she getting through to him?

After a few seconds of confusion, his face contorted and he began to shake his head vehemently, "You…you would undo my work. You would lead the galaxy into pointless rebellion. You would doom our civilization to complete annihilation. For that you must die!"

"NO!" I yelled and tried to get out of my cover. But I couldn't move my body. Fuck my amp!

All I could do was watch as Rylee dispensed rounds into Saren's chest and watch in horror as they bounced off. What kind of armour did Sovereign hook Saren up with?

Saren biotically threw Rylee into a rock, causing a sickening impact. He then proceeded to throw her into another one. And another one. And another one. Each time the screams got just a little quieter. Until you couldn't hear a peep from her.

No, she can't be dead, not her. Anyone but Rylee. She's the Alliance's best hope for the future. She is Hannah's only remaining child. She's too important to the crew. She is my closest friend. She can't be gone.

Now both her and Kaidan are going to die…all because of my decision to save Rylee.

Saren picked her up again, only this time it was by her head. He built up biotic power into his other hand, ready to crush her skull with one punch. Just to make sure she was dead.

I don't care how much pain you're in body. Just move! Get your ass in gear and stop this lunatic before he kills your best friend. Now get up. But for all my effort I received no reward. I just couldn't move from my position.

The sound of a sniper round filled the air and it forced Saren to drop Rylee's lifeless body to the ground. When I looked it up it was Garrus, "Get away from her, you sick bastard!" My squad had finally caught up to me.

Wrex charged at Saren immediately but quickly found the geth had become active again, forcing him to find cover. Saren went to his glider and he evacuated the area, leaving us to deal with his geth.

To make matters worse, the alarm for the bomb, just went off. "SHIT!"

So we have 2 minutes before the bomb goes off. We need to get out of here. I managed to get some control over my arms again and tapped my headpiece.

"Joker get your ass here pronto, I don't care if it's crawling with Geth. Wrex grab Rylee, and the second the Normandy arrives I want you to make a beeline for the ship and…"

Before I could finish giving my order I saw a grenade land a few meters away from me and realised I'm screwed. So, I did the only thing I knew I could do, I pressed my shield generator and hoped it would be up quick enough to protect me from the blast.

And then there was…

Nothing.