Chapter 12!


Nicolas activated the radio sync function on his omnitool and grabbed Jacob's left arm. The Cerberus agent tried to pull away but Nicolas' prosthetic squeezed hard, servos humming, immobilizing Jacob for the time the program required to patch into the squad's radio.

Baker could hear the darker man cursing under the crackling of his own helmet's radio as he walked towards the main building where Garrus awaited after letting go. A salarian voice crackled through the open channel, its tone level but the pronunciation quick, like the message had been sped up, "Shepard. In need of assistance. Now."

The human's eyes went wide as he recognized the background buzzing coming from the other side of the radio. He'd forgotten the Suns had recently bought a gunship, of course they would use it against Archangel! Testing his synthetic muscles, he readied himself to sprint, giving the building's map a quick once-over. His legs audibly whirred as the new servos he'd installed settled in. The other two humans had trouble keeping up with Nicolas' pace as they dashed back towards the balcony where Archangel and the salarian awaited.

Taking the main building's stairs in threes, Baker could see the gunship hovering outside the second floor. Random pieces of junk, spent thermal clips and broken decorations were spread everywhere and rolled around as the ship's hovering motors spewed hot streams of air into the house, wreaking havoc on everything that wasn't bolted down. He spotted the salarian that had talked over the radio. He was concentrated, working on something on the floor, but whatever it was, it was covered behind a sofa.

Running over, Baker's fears had been confirmed. Garrus had been shot. Hal's signature crackle came to Nicolas' helmet as he sprinted over, "let the doctor take care of Garrus! He's stable but we need to get rid of the gunship ASAP."

The human didn't need to be told anything else as he crouched beside the doctor, kicking thermal clips towards himself. A wave of satisfaction washed over him as his assault rifle whirred after being expanded; Hal was working his magic again. Taking aim as Shepard and Jacob entered the room, the air was filled with the sound of his rifle's slow and heavy tut-tut-tut.

The squad of four concentrated their fire on the gunship, its front lighting up as the tungsten slugs made impact and superheated into white sparks. At first it seemed like the ship wouldn't be too much trouble, but a low pitched humming made the squad think again. Shepard pulled Jacob behind cover as she shouted to the rest who still were trying to figure out where the hum was coming from, "the gunship's about to fire! GET DOWN!"

The room was immediately filled with the deafening roar of the gunship's miniguns. Baker remembered vids of old cruise ships on earth's oceans as the guns blared like their horns, shaking his insides as heavy tungsten slugs shredded the furniture and turned the walls to dust. Molten slugs pooled around the structural pillars, now barren of concrete as synthetic foam from the furniture floated in the air and the air itself shone with streams of superheated metal flying by at relativistic speeds.

Finally, the gunship ceased fire to cool down, letting the dust settle. The squad was about to return fire when Shepard shouted, "This is when we get going, people! Grab Garrus and head for the basement!" Jacob and Nicolas ran up to the prone turian and Baker picked him up, assisted by the Cerberus operative's biotics. As they exited the room tailed by Mordin, Shepard reached behind her back and grabbed the grenade launcher, "I'll take care of the gunship."

The ship's weapons started humming again as the miniguns' barrels dimmed from bright red to jet black when a well-aimed rocket hit the cracked cockpit. Smoke billowed from the ship as the miniguns stopped spinning, and as the smoke cleared, a batarian in Blue Suns armour appeared in the cockpit, coughing and waving his arms to blow the smoke away. Racking her grenade launcher, a large hard-plastic shell was expelled smoking as a high pitched beep signalled the launcher was ready to fire once more. A mischievous smile crept across her lips when she saw the batarian's surprised face as she pulled the trigger.

Nicolas' stomach knotted up when he noticed the body bags in the house's common area. Ten corpses had been placed in line down the middle of the room. The bags were clean and small objects had been placed on top, covering the zippers. One of them seemed to be vacant from where the body's hip should've been downwards, and the cleanliness of everything suddenly had a much more important meaning. Garrus had lovingly put those bodies there.

Hate for Sidonis started bubbling within Nicolas but he shook it off quickly as Hal talked into his translator, "The gunship has been destroyed, but that surely means we'll be getting another wave of mercs from the bridge. They know Garrus is down."

Baker's suit was muted automatically as he spoke, "So should I stop and defend or keep going for the basement?"

"I've only detected activity in the security shutters of the utility corridor where you came in from and the bridge on this floor. The garage seems to have been abandoned, so I would recommend going there."

"If they're only covering flanks, then the middle is a minefield, Hal," Nicolas uttered as the group huddled at the stairs to go down. Mordin stood at the front, sweeping the way forward as Nicolas walked backwards, led by Jacob who was still using his biotics to aid with Garrus' weight.

Hal waited for a moment before talking again as Shepard re-joined the squad and descended the stairs with Mordin, "That's a good point, but we don't have any options. I'll tell Shepard we have to be careful and cover our tracks."

Baker noticed how Shepard's demeanour relaxed a touch when Hal left his own translator to enter hers. She was silent for a moment and soon she used hand signs to signal the group towards the basement's garage. The place was deserted save for the corpses that Shepard and Jacob had left there earlier. A stolen rapid-transit car sat at the far corner of the garage, bullet holes had riddled the doors and cracked the windows. Mordin tested the door's handle but the opening mechanism had been damaged by a stray bullet, so Shepard pushed the salarian aside before elbowing the cracked glass. It gave immediately and she was able to pull the door open as Nicolas yanked the back door open, placing Garrus in the cargo compartment. The squad piled in and Hal took over the controls, making them zoom out and into the nearest traffic highway.

Shepard took the lead as the rest tailed her down Omega's docks towards the Normandy. She made out the boots of a turian close to the Normandy's blast door and drew her gun as Nicolas passed a glowing Garrus to Jacob. He sped up and squeezed Shepard's shoulder before producing a grenade from a thigh pouch. Setting it to "Breach", he scurried silently towards the turian, rounding the airlock's corner and sticking the charge on its chest before the alien could react. A startled spirits was all the alien could mutter as its handgun was wrenched out of his hand by Nicolas' synthetic arm and stuck under his right mandible.

"I don't have time for this, Grizz," Nicolas growled as he pulled Aria's bodyguard away from the airlock, letting the squad in without interruptions.

"You broke Omega's one rule, Jerris. Aria wants blood. If I don't get it for her, someone else will," Grizz raised his hands above his head, his eyes wide and his mandibles trembling as his tone made it clear he didn't want to die.

Nicolas hummed to himself, pressing the handgun into the soft flesh under Grizz's mandible. He opened his omnitool when he heard the Normandy's airlock close with the squad inside, activating the camera function. Pointing it at himself, and making sure that Grizz was in frame, he spoke with a bored voice, "Stop chasing me Aria. I broke your rule and believe me, I'm prepared to fuck you over as many times as necessary. This is my warning to you: let this go before things get-"

Nicolas twisted the gun and pulled the trigger. Grizz's mandible fell to the ground as the turian stumbled back, clutching at his face and screaming in pain. Making sure he was still in frame, Nicolas activated the breach charge, showing clearly how Aria's bodyguard exploded into a cloud of blue guts and blood. When the body parts stopped falling from the ceiling, Nicolas finished talking to the camera, "blown out of proportion."

With that, he sent the video to everyone he knew that worked for Aria and walked towards the Normandy's airlock. The smell of ozone and cleanliness stung his nose as the decontamination process started. The antiseptic mist coated his hair as he took his helmet off. He raised his hand to swipe over his head, letting the droplets wet his hair as the blast-door opened to a dark haired woman.

"Archangel is being cared for. You can leave now."

Nicolas tilted his head to the side, perplexed, "Leave? Lady, I'm here to talk to your boss."

The woman frowned but a feminine voice came from the ship's speakers before she could get another word out, "The commander wants to talk with Mr. Baker. She is waiting at the mess hall."

Raising his eyebrows mockingly at the woman, Baker walked by towards the CIC. He heard a voice he vaguely recognized from behind him, in the cockpit, but he ignored it as he made his way down towards the stairs that would lead to the mess hall. The edges of his vision blurred as he walked briskly towards the Galaxy map. The different size of the Normandy was lost on him, as well as the difference in doors behind the commander's platform. Opening the door on the port side, he was surprised to see Jacob cleaning his equipment on a workbench.

"Where are the stairs?" Nicolas' eyes were drooping as the adrenaline started leaving his body and he slurred his words. Jacob looked around the room perplexed before chuckling.

"This is the SR-2, man. We have service chutes that are technically stairs, but you can get down to the Crew deck with the elevator outside."

Wordlessly, Baker backed out of the armoury, back to the CIC. His heart felt sluggish and heavy and his mind tried to race despite the failing bloodflow as he entered the elevator.

She can't be real. She's a clone. She's a robot.

Nicolas shook his head violently as the elevator doors closed. He smacked the side of his head trying to shut up the voice inside as images of the Normandy blowing up played on the inside of his eyelids. The elevator started descending.

The Normandy blew up. Shepard is dead. Chakwas drugged you.

Using his prosthetic arm, Nicolas put pressure on the bruise on the side of his head he'd gotten from that time Garrus had to save him. The voice failed to shut up as he slid down the elevator's wall. He cupped his hands around his ears, gnashing his teeth as the voice started shouting.

GET OUT OF HERE! SHE WAS TAKEN BY THE COLLECTORS! SHEPARD IS DEAD! SHEPARD IS-

"Nicolas?"

Baker let out a startled moan when he felt the squeeze of a hand on his shoulder. He jumped out of its grasp with a start as his eyes dashed across Jane's face, trying to find a place to focus. The commander made a worried face before turning around to face a human further down into the mess hall, "Karin, please..."

Nicolas looked at the approaching human and slowly he started recognizing the grey hair, the stress lines around the mouth and the gloved uniform. A simple thought conquered his mind:

Fuck no.

Like lightning, he pulled his handgun out of his thigh holster, pointing it at the two people in front of him, making them raise their hands. Shepard started glowing blue. A crackling came to his translator as his finger tightened around the trigger.

"Nicolas, drop the gun. Calm down. Let Chakwas take a look at you. You're in bad shape. Calm down, man, calm down."

Hal's voice brought back a sense of familiarity to the human. The voice in his head seemed to be more easily interrupted as his attention was more taken by the outside world. He noticed the teary eyes of the commander and the wide-eyed concern in Chakwas' face. Looking over her shoulder, he could see the windows into the medbay and remembered Garrus as he saw Mordin dashing around inside.

Hal's tone became soothing as the voice in his mind shut up, "Put the gun down, Nicolas."

Chakwas whispered to Shepard, "I don't want him taking up too much space in the medbay while Dr. Solus is working," She stole a glance at Nicolas, who had let his arm slump to the floor, letting go of the pistol, "I'm sure he just needs rest. I can give him a checkup in the crew quarters and then I should help with Mr. Vakarian."

Shepard pursed her lips and gave a long look at Nicolas. His eyelids were fluttering, surely Hal was talking to him, calming him down. She turned to face Chakwas, "Let's take him up to my floor, I don't want him in the crew quarters."

Chakwas nodded as she stood to press the button that would lead up. She frowned at the exhausted kid, the bruise on the side of his head looked like he hit his head hard. The state he was in clearly showed he wasn't stable. It had been two years but it seemed likely that he never fully recovered. His eyes were bloodshot and his pupils were dilated, maybe he was on drugs or he was abusing epinephrine. It was weird how his arm didn't tremble despite being on the edge of passing out-

"Level one, Captain's Quarters," came a feminine voice from the elevator's speakers.

Jane pulled Nicolas' arm over her shoulder as Chakwas did the same. Shepard could faintly hear Hal in Nicolas' translator as they carried him into her room. His eyes were half closed, but they lazily wandered between the two of them. She didn't know if it was suspicion, disbelief or hate in his stare, but it made a knot form in her stomach. His eyes didn't leave her as they sat him on her bed.

Chakwas adressed Nicolas using a calm, level tone, "I need you without your armour to examine you, Baker."

Nicolas nodded and used his prosthetic arm to begin unclasping the plates on his right side. When he was done, he tried to do the same on his left side, but his right arm was too weak. Shepard undid the clasps on his top as Chakwas helped with the legs. The armour's second layer scratched like Velcro as it peeled off Nicolas' skin. The first layer came off with it, having been weakened by the bullet holes, shrapnel and blood. Chakwas observed with pause at the wounds that were being revealed. The newest ones were infected from the inside, judging by the pale blueish colour permeating through the skin and the green medigel residue. Many old ones had scarred hypertrophically, the red tendrils and circles dotting his chest and back. The arm prosthetic explained how his hand didn't shake, and the connection with his shoulder looked dirty but healthy, once she examined him, he'd have to take a shower.

She knelt in front of Baker and his face changed from neutral to slight anger, or annoyance. She frowned and pursed her lips, as she went over the things she had to look into before going downstairs. Nicolas' lips were bruised and bleeding, but they also looked chapped. His face was pale compared to his shoulders, so he was probably on a low pressure, surely dehydrated.

Without taking her eyes off him, Karin addressed Shepard, "Commander, could you get Mr. Baker a glass of water?"

Without a word, she left for the bathroom. Chakwas then took his right arm and touched the omnitool wristband. An app downloaded his vital signs and his medication history. Her eyebrows were raised in surprise as she read the log, he really tortured his body. She made a mental note to keep him off alcohol at least during the beginning of the mission or his liver would fall off as she shone a light on his eyes and tested the wounds, asking him when it hurt to determine the depth of the infection.

Jane zoned out as the glass filled, a hand unconsciously drifting to the scars on her face. What happened to him during the two years she was dead? When she felt the water overflowing from the glass to her fingers, she cursed quietly and walked back to the two. Karin received the glass and produced a small tube of pills from her pocket and showed it to Nicolas, "These are hydrating pills. They will replenish your electrolytes and stop that headache you're probably having. I am going to take a quick blood sample, if that's alright with you," Nicolas nodded before Karin got a small vial with a strange cap, which she pressed against his skin, drawing a small blob of blood. She tucked the vial into her pocket before continuing. "Now I will go down and check the blood to see if you have anything. I'll also get antibiotics for your infected wounds, which I'll send with someone who isn't occupied. In the meantime, I'd recommend you take one rehydrating pill with the water and take a shower."

With that, Dr. Chakwas stood up and nodded at Jane before leaving. The silence that ensued was palpable. Nicolas used his prosthetic arm to guide the glass to his mouth and he took small sips as Shepard looked him over. He had more scars than she did, it seemed, since his had healed so badly. It was impossible to find words to say, he was so different, so alien. The prosthetic on his arm and his scars were the least of it anyway, what really bothered her were his eyes. They were glassy and bloodshot, and his pupils were dilated to the point there was little of his irises to see. He looked like a drug addict with his wounds, his dirty hair and his twitchy stare. She could tell he wasn't happy to see her. Chakwas seemed to understand since the moment he had a breakdown in the elevator, knowing how to talk to him, but she couldn't even begin to talk.

"Do I have something on my face?"

Jane was startled by Nicolas' gravelly voice, like he'd been screaming his throat off the day before. She shook her head, trying not to meet Baker's eerie stare.

"You look like you've seen better days..." she answered, trying to hide the concern from her tone.

"I have."

Shepard half expected Nicolas to add something else, but the silence had already become uncomfortable for her when she realized nothing more was coming from him. Her eyes wandered to the door, but she didn't want to leave on this note, "How're you feeling?"

Nicolas huffed and chewed for a bit before spitting a piece of tooth into his hand, "A lot better actually. Feeling ready for that shower."

Without another word, he scooted to the other side of the bed and got up, taking the half finished glass with him. The tell-tale crackle of Hal's presence came to Shepard, "He knows about the antidepressants."

Jane shook her head, "It was for his own good. He had to be ok during the mission so he would be able to fend for himself."

"Maybe you should talk about it. He didn't take your death well, and a it's been a long time. Working in Omega hasn't bene good for him either."

She processed that for a bit until she heard the shower turn on inside the bathroom and a knock came to the door. Opening it remotely, Miranda came in with a fresh set of clothes under a tray of warm dinner and a plastic tube with the antibiotics. With a quick nod, she left everything on the desk and turned for the door but she looked over her shoulder before leaving, addressing the commander, "Is he going to come with us to Purgatory?"

"Yes, I think so."

"Should I write up a contract?"

Shepard closed her eyes, a throbbing headache starting. Right now, that was one too many things to have in mind, "I don't know, Miranda. Can we just leave that for tomorrow?"

"I understand," the operative was surprisingly good at hiding her annoyance, Shepard thought as the woman walked out the door, her heels clacking on the floor like she were wearing heavy armour.

"You were saying, Hal?" Jane asked, pushing her fingers lightly against her eyelids.

"I'm just saying he's been through a lot. He's coming down from an adrenaline high, and he's been abusing Sand for a little over six months, so it might be better if you leave him at the Citadel at a rehab centre."

Jane shook her head, "I think I need him here, even if it's not on the ground team at the beginning. What we're doing here is important and he can help."

"Commander, the team you're assembling is already big enough. Nicolas doesn't need this."

Shepard squeezed her hands into fists, anger bubbling in her stomach, "If I want to have the best chance of succeeding I can't have him in some rehab halfway across the galaxy. We can help him here."

Hal's tone became annoyed and snappy, "Maybe you're trying to help yourself more than Nicolas."

"Don't act like you know shit about what's good for him if you let him get into Sand, who-"

"Woah, woah, woah!"

Shepard whirled around to see Nicolas walking from the bathroom door to the desk, grabbing fresh underwear from under the tray, "Whatever you and Hal are on about, can it be when I'm not in the room?"

"H-how did you know?" Jane blinked, her face blank.

"You're not one to talk to yourself, and now that Hal's making a habit of jumping omnitools, it was an easy guess."

Shepard looked as he used his prosthetic hand to grab the antibiotic container and deftly unscrew the cap before taking a pill. He looked a lot better after the shower. His stubble was a couple of days old, and his scars were still there, but the clean seams between his prosthetics and the absence of medigel residue made it easier to not notice the infected wounds.

He sat on the opposite side of the bed silently, looking at his knees, running his tongue along his teeth behind closed lips, thinking of what to say. He opened his mouth before hesitating and then muttering, "I'm not hungry, in case you want the dinner."

Jane looked over her shoulder at Nicolas, looking at the scars on his back, "I'm not hungry either," she paused for a moment, "look, Nicolas-"

"Please, not today, Commander."

"Jane..." Shepard corrected sadly.

"Jane, I'm tired. I want to go to sleep. Where are we going from here?"

"Purgatory. We're picking up a squad member. We should be there in two days. Hopefully Garrus will have healed up by then."

Nicolas pulled the sheets back and got in, curling up on the edge, "Purgatory? How would prison staff help you with whatever you're doing?"

"We're picking up an inmate, and don't you know what we're up to?"

Baker turned over to face Jane, "I don't, but we have the whole of tomorrow for you to tell me," his real arm came out from under the covers to pat on her side of the bed, "I'm pretty sure I'm not contagious, are you going to sleep on the couch?"

"Are you ok with me being here?"

"Your bed, your ship, Jane. Good night."


So that was the end of Life itself is will to power.

There's gonna be a little pause before I post the next part of Nicolas' story. I hope you liked this one enough to be able to wait for what comes up. It's going to be exciting to write with a lot more characters in play, but for the same reason, I have to be extra careful with writing everything well. The next post will be a preview of the next part with it's name so it's easy to find. Until then, thank you so much for reading! I enjoyed this second part so much because I had total creative liberty and I was able to get all the ugly I thought the mass effect universe lacked on text. I get that the darker tone might have been off-putting, but I'm sorry, I couldn't have it any other way.

Thank you again for reading, and I hope you enjoyed Nicolas' adventure as much as I liked writing it.