Chapter 48

The elevator doors slid open to the Normandy's cargo bay. Aria's eyes widdened. Shepard fired into her chest. Aria stumbled backward in the cargo bay. Her barrier dimmed as Shepard stepped out and firing again and again. Aria flung a hand at her, and Shepard slammed sideways into a shuttle. She pushed back to her feet still firing her pistol. The desk of consoles in front of the elevator was the closest cover, and Aria dove around them. Sparks danced up from the glass screens from the Shepard's bullets.

A commando smashed into Shepard with a glowing Omni-blade. Shepard grabbed the commando's wrist and pressed her the barrel of her pistol to the commando's temple. Blood sprayed in Shepard's face from the shot, and she shoved the commando's body away.

"Close the bay's ramp!" Aria yelled to her commandoes up by the ramp.

Aria threw a biotic pulse at Shepard and edged to the elevator. She hit the open button, and fired her pistol at Shepard. Shepard ducked and spun to her feet with her pistol out. She lowered her aim from Aria's chest. Aria flinched as the elevator's button burst into a spray of shattered glass. Shepard fired again and the light went out in the elevator. Aria growled looking over her shoulder at the dead elevator.

A bullet skipped off Shepard's hip from behind. Commandoes were firing at her from the cargo bay ramp. Shepard slipped around the shuttle for cover.

"To the ladders," Aria yelled at two of the commandoes who were rushing in from the cargo bay's ramp.

An explosion boomed through the cargo bay from somewhere on the ramp. Shepard slid around the shuttle and glimpsed Grunt through the shield wall. He held another grenade, timing it, before lobbing it at the shield. It exploded mid throw right as it connected with the shield. The commandoes staggered back a step and the explosion echoed around the bay.

Aria joined the front line of commandoes at the ramp. She slammed a wave of energy down at the encroaching soldiers, and they flew back. Grunt toppled out of sight, and Aria threw out another burst of energy to clear the ramp again. Another wave of soldiers rushed over the fallen, but Aria kept them scattered from the ramp.

Aria had to know she'd be coming through Shepard to retake the cockpit. Close the hatch, fine, but Aria wasn't getting her commandos to the bridge without a fight. Aria must have been thinking the same thing from her creased expression as she looked back at Shepard. The hangar bay's ramp whined to life. Aria directed more commandos to fall back and target Shepard. But it was what she did next that made Shepard's heart rate spike.

Aria drew one of the commandos to her side and waved up at the FTL propulsion cells outside the hangar doorway. They smolder blue a light blue, active but not charging. Shepard ducked under an attacker's Omni-blade as she saw the commando Aria had talked to rush to a panel beside the hangar doors. Her Omni-Tool lit up the corner of the bay as she bent over a panel in the floor. The FTL cells flared outside the hangar doors. Aria smiled at the commando working on the panel and gave her a nod.

Shepard biotically threw the commando attacking her with the Omni-blade and shot her in the chest. She ducked from a spray of bullets and took cover behind a crate. Half a dozen commandos were left – Aria was getting low.

She frowned back at Aria and the commando working on the panel. Cortez had said something on their way past the Sol relay and Jump Zero, when the cargo bay was packed to bursting - something about the engineers not being able to access the FTL's system panel. As the FLT cells brightened to either side of the door, flames enlarging, it hit her - the system was overloading. Shepard gaped. Aria was suicidal, either get away or everyone died with her. Aria must be afraid of being pursued up to the cockpit. She knew this would leave Shepard toying with the panel to stop the overload. The commando left the panel with a grin and came back to Aria's side. The hangar door with the ramp starting to rise, and the commandoes retreated into the bay.

Shepard broke cover and launched herself at the open panel in the floor. She wasn't good at control panels. She didn't even have her own Omni-Tool – damn, Aria! Shepard fired at Aria and the commandos as she turned course to the closing hatch door. A few shots followed her. She covered herself with a shield and shot back dropping one of them.

She strained on her toes and peered over the rising ramp door. She caught sight of Tali hunching by the nuke with her finger flying over the screen on her Omni-Tool. Miranda slumped against the warhead holding a dim, blue shield over the nuke. Kaidan was hunched next to Tali, but as if feeling something, turned and met her eye. Shepard pointed up at the FTL cells building in intensity and at the corner inside the Normandy's cargo bay. Kaidan tore to his feet and surged toward the Normandy.

Shepard held back the wave of commandoes charging into her shield. One took Shepard's bullet in the neck. She drove them back as the ramp tilted upward. Armored fingers caught the edge, glowing blue. A shadow passed overhead as Kaidan pulled himself up. He slid down the ramp and clashed to the floor. Shepard threw a pulse of energy out at the commandoes as they rushed at him.

"Up to the bridge!" Aria yelled from across the bay.

The commandoes drew back. Shepard met Kaidan's eye and flicked her hand at the open floor panel then turned and charged after them. Kaidan slid across the floor to the open panel and raised the Omni-Tool on his arm.

Aria skipped backward firing at Shepard. She paused, and she followed Kaidan with her eyes. She grinned and raised a glowing hand at the cargo bay's ceiling. Metal groaned and shifted, then it tore. Shepard turned.

"No!"

Kaidan threw up a biotic shield as metal rained down on top of him. Shepard reached out with glowing hands and caught a bulkhead. It left her open, and Aria hit her with a bolt of energy. Shepard stumbled but kept her focus and tipped the bulkhead to the side letting it slid against the moving pile of debris. Shepard dodged another flash of energy from Aria, and more metal panels tore from the ceiling and rained down on the mound of beams and siding. Shepard raced to pile of metal and skidded up against it.

"Kaidan!"

"I'm fine." Layers of metal muffled his voice. "I can hold my shield and still do this. Go."

Aria was motioning the commandoes she had left to the cargo bay's ladder. Shepard bolted toward and fired her gun. Aria dodged to the other side of the bay and looped around the shuttle. Shepard swung around to catch her the other direction, but Aria had stopped on the other side.

The building whine of the overloading FTL system died into a hum. Aria hissed from her hiding spot at the end of the shuttle. The overload had stopped. The FTL cells wouldn't flare until the pilot actually jumped the ship to FTL.

Shepard sneaked along the side of the shuttle and spun around the back corner with her gun. Aria ducked the shot. Her Omni-Tool's screen glowed as if in the middle of something, and Aria gave a smug smile. She slid around the corner for cover.

"Read about this shuttle type after your last run-in, Shepard. Quaint features."

Shepard rounded the corner. Her bullet grazed Aria's barrier, and she hit Shepard with a biotic throw. Shepard flashed her barrier just in time. She only stumbled back a few steps. Aria turned and raced to the ladder on the other side of the bay with Shepard on her heels. Aria's shield bubbled out behind her absorbed Shepard's shots. Aria panted, still holding the shield, and grabbed the ladder rungs.

"Shepard," she said over her shoulder. "You remember your Achille's heel?"

"What?" Shepard slammed into the ladder below her as Aria scurried up the rungs.

A commando stood overhead waiting for Aria and fired down at Shepard.

Aria paused on the top rung. "That shuttle's drive is charging. I keep breaking things. Take some time turning it off, I think."

Shepard's frown deepened, and her gun clicked. She threw it aside. Aria took the commando's hand and lifted herself up. Shepard started up the ladder.

"You decide, Shepard. Stop me or save your Achille's heel," Aria said and slammed the ladder's hatch shut.

Shepard froze as the words repeated in her head. She looked over her shoulder. The side of the shuttle blinked with a row of red dashes. One dash turned green. She heard Cortez's voice in her head.

"The warm up on these types. Pretty damn easy to overload. Then it'll just take off."

Shepard's eyes followed the path the shuttle would take. Kaidan. Her grip loosened, and she slipped. She grappled at the rungs and steadied herself. Kaidan was trapped under the mound of metal right in the shuttle's path. Even if he wasn't in the direct path, the shuttle accelerating into the bulkhead would kill anyone in the bay.

The hatch was sealed above her. All the ladders and winding passageways, climbing up floor by floor, Aria and the commandoes would reach the bridge. With her commando pilot in the cockpit, within minutes the ship would jump to FTL.

Shepard looked between the hatch overhead and the mound of metal scraps down in the bay. Her heart hammered in her chest. There was time to fight her way up Aria's trail and stop her jumping to FTL, or time to stop the shuttle and save Kaidan, not both. Her eyes lingered on the stack of metal, and she forced out a ragged breath. Shepard turned back to the ladder with a strangled sob and grabbed the next rung.

Each rung, she pulled herself across razor blades. Her joints stiffened as she reached the top. She grabbed the handle to the hatch. She paused. Chest pounding, she squeezed her eyes shut and rested her forehead against the cool of the ladder.

He was her weakness, as she'd worried all along. This was it then. She would never see him again. Losing her weakness, it's what she'd wanted by pushing him away. But staring into the reality, she knew – losing him wasn't going to make her strong all the way through, it was going to hollow her. She could see him again in her mind – glowing blue, looking up at her from the floor of the loading bay; her, steading herself on the Normandy's loading deck, blue cord in hand. Her eyes flashed open.

She dropped from the ladder and staggered as her feet hit the floor. She raced to the elevator, blood rushing. She didn't have much time. Glowing blue, she pulled the doors apart and burst inside. She threw open the top hatch with a biotic field. The elevator shaft telescoped into darkness overhead.

Shepard scrambled to the shuttle. The shuttle's back panel blinked with a cracked screen. Shepard turned on the Omni-Tool she'd taken from the merc. She wasn't a good tech even on her best days with her own Omni-Tool, but his had to work. She didn't have enough time to move the metal off Kaidan and evacuate the bay before the shuttle exploded.

Her chest pulsed as she linked with the shuttle. The program flicked up. She needed to bypass the activation keys and shut the drive down. A fourth blinking light on the side of the shuttle turned green. It was over halfway already. Shepard's fingers flew over the buttons. The screen turned red - access denied. Shepard tried again. Denied again. Another light turned green, two left. Shepard took gulping breaths through her mouth as she tried again. Denied.

"Damnit!" Shepard slammed her fist on the shuttle.

She was a bull in a china shop. If only she could solve this with her fist, not her tech skills. Her back straightened. On the side of the shuttle, the second-to-last light turned green. Shepard fell to her knees and threw off the shuttle's back panel cover. Shepard's fingers moved away from the danger icon on a red tube and over the hoses and circuitry connections. She tore out the first hose she touched. Nothing happened. The dashes still glowed overhead. She tore out another hose and another. She slammed her fists against the circuits. It didn't matter. She tore out everything. The shuttle hummed and shuddered, but the last red light was still blinking.

Shepard's fingers hovered over the danger icon. She ripped out the red tubbing. White gas burst out in plume into her face. It smelled like eezo. The shuttle's humming wound down as gas hissed out and fogged the air. The lighted dashmarks on the side of the shuttle went dark.

Shepard leaped up. She tore down the cargo bay to the imposing metal pile. She flared blue and tore at the bulkhead she'd rested down earlier. Grunting, she picked through the heavier beams and slid them aside. Her blood rushed. Aria was probably almost to the CIC. Shepard turned aside metal slabs and brushed away cluttered scrap pieces. It felt like it was taking forever. She slid off a piece of the ceiling's bulkhead. Blue shimmered in the gap between two sheets of metal beneath it. Shepard's breathing quickened, and she grabbed another bulky beam and shoved it off with a flare of blue across her skin. Debris shifted over the entire mound. Shepard stood back as it broke apart. Metal clattered to the floor. Blue welled out beneath it, pushing everything aside, and Kaidan stumbled out.

"Kaidan."

Shepard snatched his wrist as he was still gaining balance. Kaidan lurched after her in a stumble as she yanked him toward the elevator. His pace picked up, and she dropped his wrist. Pumping her arms and with both feet off the ground, she skid into the elevator.

"Shepard! What's going on?"

He toppled in behind her. Shepard ripped the blue cord out of her belt pocket and pressed it to his chest.

"Think you can do that knot-tying trick again?"

XXX

The elevator shaft brightened as Shepard reached out with a glowing hand. Keeping firm hold of the cord, she pulsed her biotic field to expand the space between the CIC's elevator doors and jimmy them apart. The doors cracked, and voiced echoed into the shaft. She couldn't make out the words. It was too soft and distant. Shepard clenched her teeth and pushed the doors apart enough to work her way through. She spilled out on her hands and knees in front of the galaxy map.

The volume rose on her right as voices mixed with a sudden click of footsteps. Aria and her two commandoes must have just come up the ladder by the war room. Shepard rolled to the side and hunkered beside the galaxy map. She held Kaidan's pistol against her shoulder and peeked over the bank of consoles. Joker and Liara still lay where Shepard had left them. Jack's body lay crumpled in the corner. Shepard bit her lip and tore her eyes away and focused on the war room's doorway. The door slid open.

"You, wait for Shepard," Aria's voice said. "Allis up to the cockpit."

"Aria, I've never flown a warship. Take off's going to be more complicated than I—"

"Just do it," Aria said coolly.

Aria came out of the war room with one of the commandoes. Shepard's eyes narrowed on the commando. She ducked back down and slipped along the galaxy map toward the gangway as the commando crossed the CIC. Aria's feet tapped further into the CIC. Her footsteps stopped by the elevator.

"Why is this—"

Shepard leapt to her feet and opened fired on the commando. The first shot drove the commando to her palms on the gangway. The next shots only shied off her barrier as it spread across her skin. Shepard rushed at her. Aria came flying around the side of the galaxy map and stopped in her way. The burst of energy between them threw them both back a step. It knocked Shepard's pistol spinning across the CIC floor. Shepard's eyes lasered on the commando behind Aria. She needed to kill the pilot, but she going to have to get through Aria.

Shepard lunged at her. They tumbled back against the gangway stairs. Shepard rolled on top of her and punched her in the face. Aria's hand fumbled for beside them. A gunshot echoed and pain exploded in Shepard's side. She crumpled, and Aria threw her over as she scrambled to her feet. Shepard checked her side. It was only a flesh wound, just skimmed her side. She grit her teeth against the pain, longing for her stolen Omni-Tool's medigel, and clawed to her knees.

Aria kicked her in the side. Shepard gave a sharp cry but rolled forward into her. Aria tumbled over top of her and hit the floor . Shepard struggled to tear Aria's pistol from her locked knuckles. They glowed blue straining against her to control it.

Something moved behind Shepard. She released the gun in time to dip low and avoid the commando's kick. She must have been the one Aria left in the war room. Shepard pulled the commando's feet out from under her. The commando slammed her head on the grated floor, and her fingers opened in shock. Shepard tore her gun away from her and shot her in the head. Two shots pointblank easily broke through her barrier.

The ship vibrated under Shepard's knees. The pilot had crawled her way up to the cockpit leaving a dribbling trail of blood. Shepard tore to her feet clutching the commando's pistol.

Aria slammed into her from behind. Shepard sprawled forward. Aria's boot ground into her back crushing her into the floor. A spent heat clip dropped by Shepard's face, and she heard the sound of Aria snapping in a new one. Shepard's fingers tightened on her pistol. She flared her barrier. Aria stumbling back, and Shepard rolled over, raised the gun … click. A dead clip.

Aria grinned. "Guess we both needed a change out. "She kicked the pistol out of Shepard's grasp, straddled her, and pressed her pistol into Shepard's forehead. "Your famous barrier skills stand up to point blank?" The barrel dug into her skin. Skin contact. Barrier. Aria pulled the trigger.

Aria roared and toppled backward in a flash of blue. Shepard's barrier wrapping Aria together with the pistol died away. The backfire must've hurt like hell. Shepard pushed up to her feet.

Aria scrambled over to the gangway stairs and threw up a flickering shieldwall. She swayed to her feet with blood dripped down her lips and off her chip. Shepard staggered back from shieldwall, feeling the biotic strain, and steadied her against the CIC's galaxy map consoles. She panted and narrowed her eyes looking through the filmy field at Aria.

"Hurry up," Aria yelled over her shoulder at the pilot.

The ship shuddered as engine systems warmed up.

"You pushed yourself too hard," Shepard said pointing at her.

"You can hardly stand."

"I'm not bleeding." Shepard touched the skin under her nose and held her clean finger out to Aria.

Aria looked back over her shoulder at the pilot. Lights lining the gangway flashed for takeoff, and Shepard's heart pulsed. She stood away from the CIC consoles. Aria turned back and met her eye.

"Chasing me up here, Shepard - how pragmatic. You took my advice."

Static crackled through the air. The ship's hum heightened, and Aria grinned at Shepard.

"I think we'll be taking this fight to the sky."

All the lights went out, and they dropped into darkness. Emergency lights flickered on as a warning bell sounded overhead. The hum of the engine died away. Shepard stepped up to Aria's shield wall. Aria cursed and swung her head to the pilot.

"What the hell was that?"

"That's my Achille's heel." Shepard smashed into Aria's shield and drove her back until it broke

"Something happened in engineering," the pilot said and stood.

"Shoot her," Aria ordered and scrambled away from Shepard.

"Don't bother," Shepard said to the commando. "Aria's lost. What do you want to happen to you?"

The commando looked down the barrel of her gun at Shepard. She chewed her lip then dropped her arms to her side. Almost to the cockpit, Aria cursed at her and turned left and ducked in next to the doors to the airlock. Shepard sighed picking up her biotic cuffs from earlier off the CIC's floor. She started down the gangway. The seal to the airlock hissed open and light spilt onto the gangway in front of the cockpit. Shepard shot forward with a groan. She slung the biotic cuffs at the pilot and spun to face open airlock doors. Aria was gone.

"Put those on," Shepard said. "Come over here. Hurry."

The commando snatched the cuffs off the floor, and Shepard fastened her to a beam on the gangway. Shepard checked them and then darted to the open door. The loading deck stood just on the other side, empty. The blue cord she'd used earlier caught her eye. It was still tied to the overhead beam, but the other side had been cut. Liara probably hadn't wanted tag-alongs. The cut cord dangled down the good length of the ship. Shepard gazed below. Aria released the end of the blue cord and landed firmly on her feet. She looked up with a wan smile and then bolted away.

Shepard grabbed the cord and leapt off. The cord wasn't long enough to reach the docking bay floor, but if Aria had done it, so could she. Shepard slid down the rope until she came to the end. The crumpled footbridge leaning against the Normandy made the landing much closer than the floor. Still, it was a drop of a few stories. Shepard clenched her jaw and let go. She hit the bridge. Her legs buckled, and she grasped at the broken railing bitting off a scream. She'd give anything for medigel's cooling numbness to cover the pain in her right leg. She slid off the crumbling remains of the bridge and dropped onto the docking bay floor. The jolt up her leg sent her falling to her knees, and she didn't hold back the roar of pain.

Shepard pushed down the pain and stumbled to her feet. Aria was halfway across the almost-empty docking bay, and Shepard lurched after her in a stumbling run. The door to the hallway flashed with gunfire and a group of soldiers were struggling to move over a beam blocking the doorway. Aria didn't turn toward them and the exit to the hallway. Shepard frowned as she veered toward three figures huddled around the warhead. Shepard pushed forward harder tripping over her leg.

Garrus's attention snapped to Aria, and he aimed his rifle at her. She dodged his shot. Miranda lifted her head. She lay slumped on the floor against the warhead holding a faded biotic shield. She staggered to her feet and putting a second hand out to hold the shield. Still working on the bomb, Tali darted a look over her shoulder and then stood. She put herself between the bomb and Aria.

Aria slammed into Miranda's shield and crumpled her to the floor. Garrus smashed the butt of his rifle into Aria shoulder. She faltered as Tali followed it with an electric current shooting from her Omni-Tool. Aria roared, and redoubled her energy. Her body burned like a blue flame, and she hammered an explosion of biotic energy into Tali. She sailed backward, but Garrus caught her around the shoulders before she hit the bomb. Aria rapid-fired her pistol breaking Garrus shield. He let Tali drop to the floor and swung his rifle at Aria. She ducked and flung him across the floor in a biotic flash. Aria leveled her pistol at the bomb.

Shepard tore Aria backward by the shoulder, and the shot fired into the wall behind the warhead. Shepard threw her to the floor next to the bomb and kicked her pistol away. Aria's eyes had a glassiness and her head lolled to the side. She was probably struggling to stay conscious from biotic fatigue. Shepard put her boot on Aria's chest and held out her empty hand. Tali stumbled to her feet, grabbing her pistol off the floor, and put it in Shepard's hand. Aria gazed at the warhead. Her droopy eyes widened. Shepard wrapped both hands around the gun and aimed. Aria met Shepard's eye and grinned. Shepard fired.