Mass Effect: Dimensional Rift

by Bundlejumper

I thought breaking up with my girlfriend was the worst thing that would happen to me that day… goes to show how much my luck sucks. Hurled into a world of blood and war, a decision was made for me and I found myself fighting a war that wasn't my own... and then I was sent off again… to another world and war I didn't wish to fight. Self-Insert covering ME-1. Starts in Warframe.

18. Chapter 18 -The End-

Approaching Ilos.
Aboard the Normandy

The tension in the air was thick; all the merriment from the past few hours had ebbed away. Now everyone was waiting, watching and hoping… Ilos was in sight, and it would not be more than a minute before they had geth contact.

Everyone was on highest alert, for some of the crew it was the first time they had ever seen some of the ground team act like this. Wrex seemed almost twitchy; he was standing around the Mako with this odd glint in his eyes. Kaidan was sitting by his workbench, but wasn't actually doing any work.

Ashley and Liara were down in the armory as well; both were looking over their armor and weapons. Garrus and Tali had remained down in engineering, but those that passed by would note the dangerous expression on Garrus face.

Finally there was Echo, he had remained with Shepard and they were both currently standing behind Joker. Though there was this odd thing about him, he usually felt unapproachable by many but now? Now they all feared for their lives when they looked at him, like he was always right about to turn on all of them.

"You are scaring the crew" said Shepard with a smile

"Just keeping them on their toes" replied Marc, though with a notably smaller smile

"No, no you are scaring them… myself included" muttered Joker from the pilot seat

Shepard chuckled at Marc's sour expression, though she quickly forced her focus back out towards Ilos. The geth were visible now, but the question remained if they would discover them. They had their stealth drive engaged, but that wouldn't help much if they just looked out the windows… did geth ships have windows?

"We should be fine as long as they don't make visual contact" stated Joker

"Just take us in Joker, get us as close to him as you can" replied Shepard

With a nod Joker began leading them in. As they broke through the skies they suddenly realized something, this place didn't exactly have a lot of areas to land.

"Commander, the nearest landing site is 2 klicks away, there is no way we can get close enough" said Pressley from the side

"There has to be somewhere closer" grumbled Ashley from the side

"There is nowhere closer, I have looked!" replied Pressley hotly

"Drop us in the Mako" ordered Echo

"That's impossible, you would need at least 50 meters of clear terrain, the most I can find near Saren is twenty" argued Pressley

Shepard was rubbing her eyes tiredly, they hadn't even landed on Ilos and they were already facing these problems.

"I can do it" announced Joker

"Don't be foolish Monroe, there is no way to make that drop" stated Pressley

"I can do it" repeated Joker

Echo walked forward and placed his hand on Joker's shoulder

"Let's see the Alliance best flying" he said before turning and walking down towards the Mako, leaving a smiling and nodding Joker behind

"Commander?!" argued Pressley

"He's right, Pressley. I know you can do it Joker, drop us right on top of that Turian bastard" stated Shepard before turning and following Echo

Pressley muttered something and then returned to his console. Joker steeled himself further, he did not intend to mess this up… too much was riding on him for this, no more jokes.

Down in the hangar the entire ground team had assembled, no one was being left behind for this. Everyone was tense but they couldn't board the Mako, not just yet at least.

Garrus popped his head out from under the Mako, a spot of oil staining his left fringe.

"Alright I've adjusted the suspension, we should be able to take the impact now, but no high flying stunts with the jets. Once they have absorbed the initial impact… well they won't be good for much else" he stated as he stood up and accepted the cloth from Tali

"Is everyone ready for this?" asked Shepard

"This is not going to be easy…" muttered Liara

"No one ever said it was, but we have stood against worse odds and come out of even worse situations. We'll come out of this as well" replied Shepard with a smile

"Once we are planet side we need to be ready for anything, Saren knows we are coming so odds are good that we will be facing more than a few geth" announced Echo

"As Echo said. I want the team to move in formation, Echo and Wrex I want you two at the front for this" the two nodded "Liara and Kaidan I need you to two in the middle where you can provide Biotic support to both ends of the formation" the two Biotics nodded in confirmation

"Garrus you will be making up the rear with me, and finally Tali, I want you to remain between Liara and Kaidan. From there you can dish out any sort of disruption towards the geth in both ends" the last two nodded in consent as well

"Approaching the drop Shepard, get ready" announced Joker of the com

"Everyone in" ordered Shepard

The entire team crammed themselves into the Mako, it was quite the tight fit but everyone would be needed for this. Shepard of course took the driver's seat once more, with Echo taking up his seat next to her as the Navigator, Garrus jumped into the gun and everyone else sat with weapons out.

"Drop in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…"

There was a dead silence inside the Mako as they dropped, everyone was holding their breath and preparing for the chance that they had to come bursting out of the Mako.

Down on the planet Saren was already moving into the bunker, though quickly looking behind he saw the Normandy flying towards them and a strange smile spread across his face.

'Good, good, we are on schedule' he thought as he directed two geth to hurry up through the closing gate.

The gate slammed shut just as the Mako slammed into the ground, causing the entire ground team to let out a silent curse.

"God fucking damnit!" Well… all but Shepard at least.

"Calm down Shepard, let's go investigate" stated Echo

The team carefully filed out of the Mako and looked over the gate; it was shut tighter than a politician's ass when being asked for funds.

"There has to be a manual override somewhere" suggested Liara

"Okay everyone, into formation!" yelled Shepard

The team quickly stepped into formation and began advancing away from the door, though they didn't make it much past the Mako before Echo turned and yelled "geth!" and got behind the large plant life for cover.

Everyone quickly followed and a short firefight ensued. With the combined Biotics of Liara, Kaidan and Wrex the group of geth hiding behind the natural cover of Ilos, were soon brought out and were floating around. Easy pickings for Garrus and Shepard, whom were both sporting Snipers for this mission.

"They are here in force, that could leave one wondering how many are going to attack the Citadel" mused Ashley

"None if we can help it" replied Shepard

The group fell back into formation and continued their advance. Occasionally they had to throw themselves to sides, as the geth seemed to have set up various chokepoints throughout the entire area. After another group was finally taken care of, the group found themselves in front of an elevator.

"This probably leads to the Command center, hopefully we can unlock the gate from here" stated Liara

"*Sigh* Everyone be ready… two thousand geth incoming" mumbled Echo in annoyance

A relaxed chuckle ran through the group, it took the edge off the tension, which was only good.

The elevator doors opened and slowly the team moved out, at first there was nothing and then a little certain something flew past Garrus' head, almost knocking him over.

"Rocket Launcher!" roared Wrex

Liara just barely managed to throw up a barrier in front of them, intercepting the next missile that came flying.

"I see Krogan!" yelled Ashley

"Now would be a good time to change, Echo!" yelled Kaidan as he began support Liara's barrier with his own

Echo ran every Warframe he had through his head, trying to determine which would be best suited for the rest of the fighting. They were going to need something that could suck up a lot of bullets, he really only had one Warframe available that fit those criteria.

"Engage Warframe: Rhino" ordered Echo

The plates on the Alpha-Frame shifted and turned, soon the Neutral form had bled away and in its place stood the Rhino. Now the team had never seen the Rhino, and they were all quietly thinking the same thing… huge.

"Well… Shepard did say that Wrex and Echo should make up the frontline…" joked Garrus

"Wrex, with me" ordered Echo as he moved to the edge of the barrier

Wrex went up and stood beside him, with his shotgun drawn and at the ready. Echo himself withdrew his Tigris and waited for a short second.

"Drop the barrier" he ordered

Liara and Kaidan released their hold on the barrier, finally being able to rest slightly. Echo and Wrex charged out into the fray, dodging rockets and rifle fire as they moved.

With the combined might of the Rhino's toughness and Wrex's biotics, the two frontline soldiers had soon paved a way for the rest of the team.

As the rest of the team slowly advanced forward, Echo and Wrex did their best to hold the line where they stood. However, that took a turn for the worse as Echo looked to the back of the geth…

"Oh shit… PRIME!" roared Echo at the top of his lungs as he dived for cover

The large geth began blasting moments later, its heavy assault rifle drilling through the aged stones of the ruins. Soon enough Echo would be without cover, if someone did not blow that damn geth apart.

"Garrus, Tali, Overload!" yelled Shepard as she lined up a shot

The two techs quickly got their omni-tools running; they gave a nod to one another as their charges were ready. With a combined yell of "Firing!" they unleashed their Overloads on the geth Prime, utterly obliterating its shields.

With a loud *Bang* Shepard placed a bullet right through the flashlight of the large geth, sending it crashing to the ground, luckily it landed on top of a smaller geth standing in front of it.

"Two with one bullet, nice shot!" yelled Echo as he stood up and began returning fire

"It's all in the squeeze!" yelled Shepard back as she switched over to her assault rifle and joined the front

The fight continued with geth seemingly pouring out of nowhere, Echo had been forced to switch over to the Assault Rifle he had acquired on Virmire or risk running out of ammo for the Tigris.

Garrus managed to drop a few geth with some well-placed shots, and some help in form of Tali nailing Overloads left and right. Kaidan and Liara were almost out of energy, they had been throwing up Barriers left and right to protect the team whenever the geth seemed to get reinforcements.

Thankfully the number of geth finally began diminishing, and remained down. Eventually the fight ended with Wrex blowing apart the final Krogan with one well-placed shotgun blast.

Liara then sunk to the ground with a sigh; Ashley was at her side instantly.

"Thank the Goddess that is over…" she mumbled

Kaidan could only nod in agreement, as he pulled out a protein bar and began eating; he too slumped to the ground and leaned against a still intact rock.

"Anyone detect any geth nearby?" asked Shepard

Echo looked around carefully, Eva wasn't picking anything up and he himself couldn't see anything.

"I think we are clear for now, the rest must have retreated to protect the bunker" he stated

"Thank god… Liara, Kaidan, you two rest for now, Ash you stay with them. The rest of us will go ahead and see if we can unlock the bunker" stated Shepard

A chorus of confirmation sounded and soon most of the team was heading up into the building, hoping to find the controls so they could finally get into that bunker.

Once up there everyone began looking over the consoles, none of them seemed to work with the exception of one. Thankfully that turned out to be the security control, and with Shepard's understanding of Prothean they managed to unlock the bunker's security.

"Let's get out of here, Saren already has enough of a head start" stated Garrus

Everyone turned to leave, but right before they could one of the consoles flared to life and what looked like a scrambled hologram appeared and began speaking gibberish… well at least to everyone but Shepard.

"—too late [static]… unable to [static]… invading fleets [static]… no escape [static]"

Everyone looked on in curiosity, they realized that it was Prothean it was speaking so of course they didn't understand it, but they hoped Shepard did.

"It is some kind of warning… a warning against the Reaper invasion" said Shepard

"A little late someone heard it…" mumbled Garrus

"… [static] –ot safe… [static] seek refuge… [static] –side the archives… [static]…" continued the Hologram

"Anything useful, Shepard?" asked Echo

"—alled Reapers… [static] the Citadel… [static] overwhelmed… [static] only hope… [static]… act of desperation… [static] the Conduit… [static] all is lost… [static]" continued the Hologram

"It's something about the Conduit… but it is way too broken up for me to make out anything useful, let's go people we don't have time to waste on figuring this out" stated Shepard as she began leading the team back down to the rest.

"We ready to go?" asked Shepard once they had reached Liara, Ash and Kaidan

"We should be fine for a while, let's just hope there isn't a fight like that again within the next ten minutes" said Kaidan

"Noted, let's get back topside people" ordered Shepard

Everyone filed into the elevator and rode it back up, once they reached the top everyone was thankful that there wasn't a geth ambush waiting for them. So they had clear passage to the Mako and to their delight the bunker opened.

"Okay everyone in the Mako, we don't have a moment to waste" ordered Shepard as she herself climbed into the vehicle

Everyone boarded and soon they were moving down through the bunker. Everyone was watching awe at the walls, they were lined with what Liara through was stasis pods but she wasn't sure… though she was quite taken in by it all and had to be gently reminded by Ashley that they were here for Saren.

"What's on your mind?" asked Shepard as she saw how Echo was looking

"Something just feels off, I don't know what it is but I keep having this sense that something is wrong… just ignore it, I'm probably just getting paranoid" replied Echo

"No, no you aren't… I feel it too, I just hope we are wrong" added Shepard

Silence befell the Mako once more as they continued through this endless hall; they encountered a very minor battalion of geth that didn't last long against the Mako's cannon. Shepard and Echo both saw the wall of light off in the distance, though only Echo knew what the reason behind it was.

As the Mako rolled up to the wall of light, another one sprung to life behind them, trapping them between the two.

"Shit, Saren must have set up an Ambush!" yelled Wrex as he began making his way out of the Mako

Echo jumped out of the passenger window and moved to stop Wrex, before he began shooting randomly.

"It's not Saren… look around Wrex, there isn't a geth in sight… I think it's something else" stated Echo

Wrex nodded in confirmation and looked around; sure enough, there was no geth in sight.

Everyone else filed out of the Mako and looked around, there didn't seem to be a control panel or anything of the sort relating to the two Walls of light.

Echo was looking for the entrance to the elevator he knew was here, but it was surprisingly hard to find behind all these vines growing everywhere. Though he finally found it when he pushed a large vine out of the way, revealing the entrance to the elevator.

"Shepard, I found an elevator!" he yelled out

Shepard came over and gave it a look; this was much smaller than the other one so she wouldn't be able to bring the entire team down there.

"Echo, Liara, you two are with me. Let's go see what is down there, everyone else be on your guard" ordered Shepard

The three then stepped into the elevator and began heading down. It was quite silent in the elevator; they all felt the same sense of foreboding, though they didn't know how to voice it.

Once they stepped off there wasn't much to see, only the pathway leading forward slightly to a terminal. They approached and sure enough another hologram sprung to life, this one looked just as mashed up as the other.

"You are not Prothean, but you are not Machine either. This eventuality was one of many that were anticipated. This is why we sent our warning through the beacons" said the Hologram

"It seems like a VI program, but how could it still be functioning after all this time?" mused Liara

"I do not sense the taint of Indoctrination upon you, unlike the other who passed through recently. Perhaps there is still hope" continued the Hologram

"This is incredible, a functioning Prothean VI and I can understand it!" exclaimed Liara excitedly

"I have been monitoring your communications since you arrived at this facility. I have translated my output into a format you can understand. My name is Vigil; you are safe here, for the moment. That is likely to change… soon nowhere will be safe" said Vigil

Echo stepped forward and stared at the broken up image, he had hoped that Vigil would have enough power to take on the physical image of Prothean.

"Are you an Artificial Intelligence program, or simply a VI?" he asked

"I am an advanced non-organic analysis system with personality imprints from Ksad Ishan, chief overseer of the Ilos research facility. It is a pleasure to meet you, Light-Bringer" stated Vigil

Shepard and Liara looked a little confused at Echo; they didn't recognize the name that Vigil called him by.

"So you are like Honor, I take it? Capable of sensing what lies hidden in my DNA?" asked Echo

"Yes. You have met Honor, that is good. Then the message is delivered and hope yet remains" replied Vigil

"Echo, care to fill us in?" asked Shepard

"Remember back on Feros, I fell into the ruins below the towers. Down there I encountered a Prothean Beacon, this didn't contain a warning but rather a message for someone like me" replied Echo

Shepard caught on to what he meant by "someone like me" and figured it had to do with the dimensional traveling, so she quietly nodded and didn't dig any further as he didn't wish to risk Liara figuring it out.

"Why did you bring me here, Vigil?" asked Shepard

"I brought you here so that you could break the cycle, a cycle that has continued for millions of years. But to stop it, you must first understand or you will make the same mistakes we did. The Citadel is the heart of your civilization and the heart of your government, as it was with us. Just like with every civilization that came before us.

But the station is a trap; it is actually an enormous Mass Relay. One that links to dark space, the empty void beyond the galaxy's horizon, when the Citadel Relay is activated, the Reapers will pour through and all you know will be destroyed" responded Vigil

"Oh no… if Saren manages to active it… then the Reapers will wipe out the entire Citadel Fleet in a single surprise attack" said Shepard in alarm

"Correct. That was our fate; our leaders were destroyed before we knew what had happened. Then the Reapers seized control of the Citadel and through it, the mass relays. They crippled the communication and transportation across our empire. Each stay system was isolated, cut off from the others… easy prey for the Reaper fleets. Over the next decade the Reapers systematically obliterated our people. World by world, system by system, they methodically wiped us out" continued Vigil

"How come no one noticed that the Citadel was a huge inactivated relay?" asked Liara

"The Reapers are careful to guard their greatest secret, which is why they created a race of seemingly benign organics to maintain it. The Keepers maintain the stations most basic functions, and in turn allow any new races that discover it to use it without fully understanding its true capabilities. With the races reliance on the Keepers no one will discover the Citadel's true purpose until it is too late, and the Reapers invade" answered Vigil

"Shit… we need to get to the Citadel, we can't let this happen again" said Shepard

"But how did they manage to overwhelm your entire empire without some sort of warning going out? You said they cut off your communications but there must have been something you could do, from my research I understood that your empire spanned almost the entire galaxy?" asked Liara

"Through the Citadel the Reapers had access to all our records, maps, and census data. Information is power and the Reapers knew everything about us. 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 for the Reapers. Taken in as refuges 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." Replied Vigil

"But… then where did they go afterwards? Did they retreat to dark space?" asked Shepard

"Yes, but not until they had stripped our worlds bare. Their indoctrinated servants took everything, resources, technology… nothing was left behind. Then they departed for Dark space and sealed the Citadel Relay behind them. All evidence of the Reaper invasion had been wiped away. Only their indoctrinated servants slaves were left behind, abandoned. Mindless husks no longer capable of independent thought, the indoctrinated starved and soon died from exposure. The genocide of the Protheans were complete" responded Vigil

Shepard was shaking her head, this was simply too much. She was a damn soldier not some savior of the galaxy, and yet that seemed to be exactly what Vigil was trying to turn her into.

She looked over at Echo and even through the mask she saw his displeasure, as if the news was even more frustrating to him than her.

Of course Liara looked a mixture of excited and worried. She had been studying the Protheans her entire life, so talking to a VI like this must be terribly exciting but that didn't change what they were told, so of course she too would become extremely worried.

"Thoughts?" tried Shepard

"I'm too old for this shit" grumbled Echo

"Incredible… we just learned the true end to the Prothean race" said Liara

"Vigil… *sigh* You said you brought Shepard down here for a reason, what do you want her to do?" asked Echo

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

"Incredible, you created a backdoor into the Citadel itself" muttered Liara

"We severed all communication with the outside and our facility went dark. The Personnel retreated underground into the archives. To conserve resources, everyone was put into cryogenic stasis. I was programmed to monitor the facility and wake the staff when the danger had passed. But the genocide of an entire species is a long, slow process. Years passed, decades, centuries, the Reapers persisted. And my energy reserves were dwindling" continued Vigil

"You hid from them… a sensible choice given your circumstances" interjected Echo

"Bullshit, they should have fought" grumbled Shepard

"How? We were but a few hundred against the might of an entire invasion fleet. We had only one hope, and that was to remain undetected. I began disabling the life support of none-essential personnel. First support staff, then security. One by one, their pods were disabled to conserve energy. Eventually only the stasis pods with the top scientist remained active. Even these were in danger of failing when the Reapers retreated back through the Citadel relay." continued Vigil

"B-But there was hundreds of stasis pods out there! You just shut them down? You killed them?" mumbled Liara

"I found no joy in their deaths. But this outcome was not completely unforeseen. My actions were a result of a contingency programming entered on my creation" continued Vigil

"You did what was necessary to ensure you could complete your programming, Honor was the same, as he had rerouted power from plenty of other things to remain active" said Echo

"Thank you Light-Bringer. I saved key personnel. When the Reapers retreated, the top researches were still alive. My actions are the only reason any hope remains. When the researchers awoke they realized that the Prothean race was doomed, they were too few to sustain a population. Yet they vowed to find some way to stop the Reapers from returning. A way to break the cycle, and they knew the Keepers were the key" said Vigil

"But wait… the Keepers are under the Reapers control, aren't they?" asked Liara

"The Keepers are under the control of the Citadel itself. Before each invasion the Reapers send a signal through the Keepers, compelling them to activate the relay. The researches, after decades of feverish study, discovered a way to alternate this signal. So by using the Conduit they went to the Citadel and altered the signal. So this time when Sovereign sent the signal, the keepers ignored it and so the Reapers are trapped in dark space" replied Vigil

"And of course Saren can use the Conduit to bypass all the Citadel's defenses… great" grumbled Shepard

"Correct. Once inside, Saren can transfer control of the station to Sovereign. Sovereign will then override the Citadel's systems and manually open the Relay. And so the cycle of extension will begin again" said Vigil

"Then we stop them. No way are we letting that happen, not again" stated Echo

"Good. 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. It will corrupt the Citadel's security protocols and give you temporary control over the station. It might give you the chance you need against Sovereign" replied Vigil

"Citadel master control unit? Where is it located, because I have never heard of it" stated Liara in confusion

"I cannot tell you. Follow Saren through the Conduit, he will lead you to your destination" stated Vigil before he began shimmering

"You did well in holding out this long, Vigil… go join your Prothean brothers and may you find peace in your final rest" stated Echo as he knelt down in front of the dying hologram

"Light-Bringer, I hope you see your home once more… and thank you" with those words Vigil's hologram vanished and the console spit out a small data-disk containing the file they needed

"What the hell was that about?" asked Shepard as Echo retrieved the data-disk

"Giving the last rites to a warrior who completed his task, and paid with his life for it" replied Echo in a quiet tone as he handed her the data-disk and walked towards the elevator

"*sigh* Saren has enough of a head start… let's go get him before this goes completely sour" grumbled Shepard as she and Liara stepped into the elevator as well.

The elevator ride was taken in silence. Once they reached the top everyone was there to greet them, of course everyone wanted to know what was happening but they were only told to get in the Mako. Shepard would brief them later, but right now they needed to get Saren.

The Mako was barreling down the bunker, there wasn't an end in sight but they had passed a few more geth on the way her. Something was definently wrong, there was far too few geth here so that could only mean that the majority of the Army was already attacking the Citadel… they just hoped they weren't too late.

"Holy shit! What the hell is that?!" yelled Garrus as they turned a corner

"that" would be one of the largest geth Colossus that they had ever seen, this thing was at least double the height of the Mako… probably double the firepower as well, but better not tell Garrus that.

"Ignore it" ordered Echo

"Are you insane!?" yelled Garrus

"It's large, but slow, it won't be able to stop us from passing and try looking over there, it isn't even standing in the way" replied Echo as he pointed towards the large opening, opposite of the Colossus

"Oh… that's true" mumbled Shepard as she hit the gas and turned towards the opening.

As they barreled past the Colossus, Garrus was looking back using the cannon, a confused expression on his face. He ducked out slightly from the cannon and looked towards Echo.

"So… what do you think that Colossus was about?" he asked

"*Shrug* Who knows, I tend to just ignore any sound reason behind enemies being out of place, when it benefits me that they somehow got their orders screwed up" replied Echo

"Amen to that" said Kaidan/Ashley/Shepard together

They kept going until they saw something off in the distance, it looked like a miniature relay.

"Guess that is the Conduit" said Shepard

"Yep, floor it. From the look of things it is closing soon, wouldn't want to miss it" joked Echo

The Mako was almost flying when the hit the last downward slope towards the Conduit, even more so when they saw the four colossi waiting for them at the bottom.

Gritting her teeth, Shepard pushed the Mako further than she ever had before and almost forced it to go faster.

They managed to dodge the initial shots but the next set would be from a much closer range, they would need some kind of speed boost the make it to the Conduit in time.

"Garrus, fire the cannon backwards!" yelled Shepard

Garrus understood immediately and turned the cannon tower around and began firing as fast as he could. The violent recoil propelled the Mako forward; thankfully it seemed to be enough because they were only a few feet from the Conduit now… just a little further.

"I hope you all have strong stomachs…" muttered Echo just a second before they hit the Conduit.

"What do you mean by…"

And with a pop they were gone.

The Citadel, somewhere in the Presidium

A few geth were patrolling this destroyed area, they were looking for potential survivors though the odds were low. The Conduit was humming right behind them; the large receiver for the small relay had been cleverly hidden inside a statue on the Presidium.

One of them looked over towards the large machine, just in time to see it begin spinning wildly. A moment later the geth had its flashlight head completely smashed as a Mako decided it would make an excellent parking spot.

The Mako rolled a few times as it crash landed on the sidewalk of the Presidium, the trip through the Conduit hadn't been a pleasant one.

"Urgh… anyone got the number on that Cruiser that hit me?" mumbled Garrus as he got his bearings

"Damage report…" grumbled Shepard from the driver's seat

"Shit… we're good back here Shepard" called Ashley for herself and Liara

"I feel like hurling but aside from that… I'm peachy" announced Kaidan

"Bah… I'm fine" said Wrex

"No suit breeches so I'm good" stated Tali

"Aside from my bruised pride, everything is good" finished Garrus

"Echo?" asked Shepard

"… I really am getting too old for this shit" was his response as he released the seatbelt that kept him hanging upside down

The Mako had toppled over so getting out of it became a bit of challenge, and a bit of a joke as the team watched Wrex trying to squeeze his large body through the squeezed hatch.

"Well… looking up I think it's quite clear where we need to go" joked Garrus as he pointed upwards toward Sovereign hanging on the Citadel Tower

"We should be able to take the elevator, though we won't all be able to squeeze in there…" said Ashley

"Some of us are going to have to take the long way around, fighting up through the tower" stated Shepard

Echo heard a small ping inside his helmet, signaling an incoming transmission. He stepped off to the side so he was out of earshot before picking it up.

"Echo responding" he said

"It's Karick, shit really hit the fan my friend. Most of my team has been in combat since that hulking squid appeared, please tell me you are going to fix this?" came Karick's voice

"We're working on it, in a few moments we will begin ascending the tower to deal with Saren. I suggest meeting up with us here if you can" said Echo

"Already on my way, most of my team seemed to think we could fix everything from there anyway. Once we meet up I have something to tell you about our missing object" replied Karick

"Am I going to like what I hear?"

"Don't know, I guess it all depends on whatever we are all alive by then. My team will split up once we hit the tower, more chance of finding you guys. Karick out"

The com went dead and Echo made his way back to the team, managing to catch Shepard standing off to the side with Ashley and Liara.

"I take it a decision was made?" he asked

"Ash and Liara are going with me in the elevator; the rest of you will be fighting through the tower. If we can we will open some passages along the way but don't count on it" responded Shepard

"Good, I just talked with Karick. He is bringing his entire team for the fight; they are splitting up when they hit the Tower. So everyone needs to be prepared for a sudden set of reinforcements" said Echo

"Okay everyone, the first team to reach the Chambers will make contact with the rest. No one goes off to play hero and try and take down Saren, we can't risk this going wrong now" ordered Shepard

Nods were seen all around as Shepard, Liara and Ashley made their way into the elevator and began their ascend towards the chambers.

"Let's move out everyone, we don't have a second to waste" said Kaidan

The remaining assault team fell into line and began moving forward, the walk towards the top of the Citadel tower is a long one…

Assault Time, ascending the Tower

The first set of stairs weren't so bad, the second didn't really matter either… the third set was mildly annoying, the fourth set isn't there anymore, the fifth set led to swearing… right now the team would be on the

"Sixth bloody set of stairs! Holy fucking hell, who designed this royal piece of shit to only have on elevator?!" yelled Echo in frustration though he well knew the answer, his anger simply clouded the answer

"How have we passed through six floors and not seen a single geth yet?" asked Tali

A few grumbles came from the others as they stepped out on the next floor, only to have to dive back onto the staircase because of three rockets flying over their heads.

"Happy now?" mumbled Garrus as he drew his sniper

"Yeah, yeah, just start shooting Vakarian…" grumbled Tali as she charged up an Overload

"Auch… Vakarian huh? Seems you have been demoted Garrus" joked Echo as he withdrew a grenade and hurled it into the room ahead.

"I'll win back some points later, just keep firing" replied Garrus as he popped out and took down a geth

The fight was over rather quickly, it wasn't much more than the first three Rocket geth and then a handful of regular geth, not exactly something that was difficult to deal with for the now rather experienced team.

"Let's keep moving" stated Echo

A sound registered in everyone's ears and they turned towards one of the doors in the room, only to see a geth Rocket Trooper that had just fired a rocket… towards the ceiling.

*BOOM*

The explosion shook the room as the ceiling began caving in on itself.

"Shit! Dive!" yelled Kaidan

The entire team split and dived in different directions, all hoping to avoid the blast. A good set of reflexes on everyone allowed them to escape without any serious harm, some of them got a few bruises as they landed in soft spots… but hey they had gotten used to that by now.

"Everyone good?" called out Echo

"We're good back here! Just one problem!" yelled Garrus

The problem was obvious; the amount of rubble that had fallen was a bit more excessive than one would first have thought. No way, where they making a path through this quick enough, Echo looked around and saw Tali next to him, which meant that Kaidan, Wrex and Garrus were on the other side of the rubble.

"You three keep going! Me and Tali will find another way, we can't waste any time!" yelled Echo over the rubble

"Okay, we'll meet you at the rendezvous point!" yelled Kaidan

Moment later the sound of their retreating footsteps could be heard, Echo then turned towards Tali.

"You okay there?" he asked

"I'm fine, let's get moving" she replied

With Echo and Tali

"So I take it we are equally incapable of navigating the Citadel tower?" asked Echo with a little humor as he began looking around their side of the rubble

"I spent most of my time down in the wards, so… yeah I don't have a lot of experience navigating the tower either" replied Tali as she began her own investigation

"Hmm… I don't suppose you learned something down in the Wards that could help?" tried Echo as he investigated something that looked like a ventilation shaft

Tali stopped and looked thoughtful beneath her mask, she had heard of a few hidden passages that was used inside the tower… but it was not exactly hard information when you had learned it from a random group of ward-rats.

"Well… there were rumors of some old passages hidden inside the tower, but I'm not sure just how accurate that information is" replied Tali as she walked over and looked into the shaft Echo was investigating

Echo stepped aside and ripped off the remainder of the cover on the shaft "Look's like it wasn't rumors, though I would think "hidden passages" is a rather extravagant word for the Keepers walkways"

Looking inside the passageway, Tali saw that indeed it was nothing more than the Keepers walkways. Which of course meant that they were only large enough to fit in a Keeper, so a rather large person like Echo wouldn't exactly fit in there.

Thankfully some of the passageway seemed to have been expanded, perhaps to fit some more Keepers or simply because someone else decided that these passages were, indeed, a good way of sneaking around the Citadel tower.

"Do you think these will take us upwards?" asked Tali as she crawled a little further into the passageway

"Given that the Keepers manage to pop out at every level of the Citadel, then yes I think at some point this passageway is forced to take us somewhere upwards. Or at least somewhere that will give us another way up" replied Echo as he began following her inside the passageway

The two then crawled through the Keeper's passageways. They discovered something interesting in there though, most of the Keepers had apparently retreated into these passageways when the attack began. Getting past them was not that difficult, like usual the Keepers did not put up a fight if you just gently pushed them aside.

"Shit…" mumbled Echo

"What?" asked Tali

"I need to contact Shepard" stated Echo

Echo quickly brought up his omni-tool and called Shepard.

"Shepard responding" came Shepard's voice

"Shepard, It's Echo. We have a problem and the group got separated, I'm with Tali and we are making our way up through the tower, Garrus, Kaidan and Wrex are using a different path" informed Echo

"Fuck… are you all okay?" asked Shepard

"We are all fine, we will see you at the top" said Echo

"See you there, just be careful. Shepard Out" stated Shepard as she turned off the com.

Echo nodded to Tali after he closed his omni-tool and they continued on their way through the tunnels.

When they finally came across another grate they were not sure whatever they had actually ascended the tower, or made their way further down. The Keeper's tunnels seemed to twist and turn in every available direction; it did not help much that one more than one occasion both Echo and Tali felt like they were lost.

Echo kicked in the grate and crawled out first, with a quick look around he ensured that there was not any geth within a safe distance.

"We're good, no geth in sight" he announced as he stood up and cracked his back

Tali came out a moment later and did the same; though she was quite a bit smaller than Echo, it did not change the fact that having your body hunched over leave you with severe back pains.

"Did we make it further up? Or have we somehow gotten further down?" asked Tali

"From the look of it I would say we managed to get a little closer to the top, but for all I know we have found the hidden basement of the Citadel tower" replied Echo

"The Citadel tower has a basement?" asked Tali now quite confused

"Bad joke, don't mind it. Let's see if we can find our way upwards" replied Echo with a headshake

A bit of searching did leave them with a viable path up, in the form of a set of stairs. Following them, they began hearing sounds of gunfire; the sound of geth rifles was unmistakable.

They quickened the pace and hoped they could get there in time, and help whoever was currently under fire from the geth. However, as they approached the sounds, Echo suddenly slammed the brakes and grabbed Tali around the waist, almost making the poor girl fall.

"What are you doing?!" yelled Tali angrily once she had regained her footing

"Stopping you from losing your head" replied Echo coldly

"What?" said Tali confused as she tried to look around the corner they had stopped at

Echo stopped her again, if only because he did not want to enter that room right now. He had slowly gotten used to the fact that Karick was here in this dimension with him, what he was still not used to was the overwhelming amount of fear that his presence commanded.

Because that was who was around the corner, Karick, and from the flow of his presence… well he was certainly having a go at those geth and Echo was quite sure that all the gunfire he was hearing, was coming from geth madly trying to hit his old friend… and failing miserably.

"Stay right here until I tell you otherwise Tali, as of this moment I cannot guarantee your safety"

With Kaidan, Garrus and Wrex after the roof fell

They were all staring at the rubble, all of them knew that Echo and Tali would find their way but none of them liked the idea of splitting the team. It was after all bad enough that they had been forced to split with Shepard, Ashley and Liara earlier.

"Let's go, there is without a doubt more geth waiting up ahead. We wouldn't want to disappoint them by being late" joked Kaidan as he began heading for the stairs.

"So how far are we from the top of the tower?" asked Garrus

"My best guess is that we are roughly twenty floors away, but with any luck we should be able to find the emergency elevator somewhere on one of the floors" replied Kaidan

Wrex did not say anything and just followed behind; he was just waiting for a group of geth to come busting out of the walls. Some might say that the events of Noveria left a bit of an impression on him, Krogan battlemaster or not, it is still a rather terrifying thing to witness large tentacle bugs come bursting out of the walls and vents.

The group made their way up the floors, they did not encounter any geth on the first few but that quickly changed when they hit somewhere around the sixth floor.

"Does that sound like gunfire to you?" asked Garrus

"Sounds like a geth rifle, but what the hell do they have to shoot at in here? Isn't the entire tower evacuated by now?" added Kaidan

"Well let's stop standing around and talking about it! There are things to kill!" yelled Wrex as he charged towards the sound of geth

Garrus and Kaidan where right behind him with their own weapons drawn, they could not pass down a chance to help someone that might be stuck in the tower.

The group busted through a door into a wall of gunfire, from what they could see it was the geth currently engaged in a firefight with a set of C-Sec officers… they were not winning.

Of course, the sound of the door opening caught the attention of everyone in the room, which meant that the team suddenly had both C-Sec and geth weaponry pointed in their general direction.

"Spirits, Vakarian you choose the best moments to show up!" yelled one of the C-Sec officers when he recognized Garrus face

Garrus did not have time to reply, the first set of bullets flying over his head rather prevented that.

Wrex was the first to react, by charging straight into the group of geth with his shotgun firing and his biotics flaring. Kaidan right behind him, his omni-tool already loading a small overload and his other hand was forming a biotic throw.

By the time Wrex reached his first geth, Garrus had steadied himself for his first shot and sent it flying, nailing a geth right in the throat and sending it ground in a heap.

The C-Sec group rejoined the fight with renewed morale, seeing a Krogan battlemaster charging into the fray could make anyone ready for a fight, especially when that Krogan is on your side.

With the help of the C-Sec group, the team brought down the geth quickly and efficiently. There really was not time to do anything half-assed right now; Saren was getting closer and closer to giving control of the station to Sovereign.

"You came just in time Garrus" stated the same C-Sec officer as before

Garrus walked over and shook hands with the four C-Sec officers that had been hunkered down, they looked to be in bad shape but Garrus was not seeing any bodies so he took that as a positive sign.

"Well you know me Aralak, showing up right in the last moments is what I do" replied Garrus cheekily

"*Snort* Right of course, it has absolutely nothing to do with you being chronically late for every important meeting that has ever happened in C-Sec that didn't involve a large case briefing" said another Turian that approached

"Yeah, yeah, stow it Mettik. What are you four doing in the Citadel Tower anyway? I thought an evacuation order had been sent out?" asked Garrus in mild confusion

"Well not all of us can race around the galaxy with a Spectre, some of us actually had to stay behind and do actual police work… just so happens we didn't get out of the tower before the geth found us" replied the Turian called Mettik

"Well you survived, that is what matters in the end" breathed Garrus in relief

"That wont last much longer if we don't get the heck out of here" muttered Aralak

"Do you have a way out?" asked Kaidan from his position guarding the door

"Is the way you came from safe?" asked one of the two remaining C-Sec agents

"Safe, yes. Usable, no. The roof collapsed back there and we didn't have time to remove the rubble" replied Kaidan

"Damn… we need to find another way then… any ideas?" asked the same C-Sec agent

The last C-Sec agent, a female Turian, paced a little before she seemingly got an idea

"Got it! On the next floor there is an old emergency exit, its use was discontinued when we found out that some of the doors didn't actually seal on lockdown, which means that we should be able to use them to get down to the lowest level safely" she announced

"Let's go then, you have to get out of here and we have a Turian to catch" announced Garrus

The entire group advanced to the next floor with their guns at the ready, though to everyone's surprise there was no geth yet again… It was getting a little worrying, that they only encountered geth every so often.

It took a few minutes of searching but eventually the female Turian announced, "Found it!" and with a little luck it was indeed open and was leading down towards the lower floors.

"Alright you four get out of here, don't let your guard down until you are within a safe-zone… what few that remain of them" stated Garrus as she held open the door to the emergency pathway

"Thank you Garrus, now go kick that bastards ass" said the female Turian as she entered

The other three gave the same goodbye and encouragement for the future beating of Saren.

"Shit has anyone remembered to contact Shepard?" asked Kaidan suddenly

"No we didn't… shit… better get it done" said Garrus as he brought up his omni-tool

"Shepard Responding" came Shepard's voice

"Garrus here. Shepard the group ended up splitting after an accident, we are all fine and are making our way up through the tower" informed Garrus

"I know. Echo called a minute ago, you just stay safe and we will see you at the top" replied Shepard

"Understood Shepard. Garrus out" said Garrus and closed the com

The three then kept going upwards, though they only managed two more floors, before a geth came, literally, flying past them and smacked into the wall.

"What was that?" asked Kaidan in surprise

"Flying geth?" joked Garrus, though his face showed his surprise

The group entered the floor and heard a loud booming laughter, followed by more sounds of geth smashing into walls or getting thrown around.

"*Chuckle* I know that laughter, it seems Echo's reinforcements are here" stated Wrex as he entered the room without reservation

Inside the room, Boris was currently in the process of enjoying himself. Throwing geth around was a wonderful pass time, he truly wished that his master had told him about this much sooner. When he noticed someone new enter the room his face lit up in a joyous smile.

"Wrex my friend! Are you here to partake in this glorious smashing of machines!?" yelled Boris at the top of his lungs as he threw another geth

Kaidan and Garrus were both looking between Boris and Wrex, a sigh then escaped both of them as Wrex laughed loudly and walked over to shake hands with the large man.

"Garrus, Kaidan, allow me to introduce to you, Boris!" exclaimed Wrex

With Shepard, Ashley and Liara after the entered the elevator

There was a silence inside the elevator; all three women were ready for anything once those doors opened again. Though they hoped, they would at least get to some cover before all of hell broke loose.

"*Phew* Okay you two… Liara I want you to stay behind us at all times, lay down as much Biotic support as you can and if you see your chance, you take it. Ash, I need you to keep right in front of Liara as much as possible, you will provide the bulk of the defense and I will ensure that any geth coming from the sides will be getting picked off" stated Shepard

"Roger Ma'am" replied Ashley

"Understood, Shepard" replied Liara

Shepard nodded and returned to staring out into the closed arms of the Citadel, right behind them were the entirety of their fleets waiting for the smallest opening… but if they didn't stop Saren and get those arms open, then they would never get that small opening.

*KRRRRRR* the elevator released a sound before grinding to a halt.

"Damn, Saren must have cut the power to the elevator…" stated Shepard as she began looking around

"What are we going to do then?" asked Liara

Shepard smiled a dangerous smile "Helmets on you two, we are going outside"

Ashley quickly put on her helmet and Liara followed, they knew their Commander was insane enough to try this. Moments later Shepard kicked out the glass between them and the outside of the Citadel tower. Shepard took a careful step that let her body adjust to the new gravitational pull.

Liara and Ashley followed her moments later, and then they were ready to make their way towards the top of the tower. Though when they caught sight of sovereign sitting there atop the tower, Ashley only had one thing to say

"Damn…"

"My thoughts exactly, Ashley" added Shepard

"Well let's get going… not much point in waiting around here" mumbled Ashley

Just before they could leave, Shepard's omni-tool began vibrating, indicating an incoming call.

"Shepard responding" answered Shepard

"Shepard, It's Echo. We have a problem and the group got separated, I'm with Tali and we are making our way up through the tower, Garrus, Kaidan and Wrex are using a different path" informed Echo

"Fuck… are you all okay?" asked Shepard

"We are all fine, we will see you at the top" replied Echo

"See you there, just be careful. Shepard Out" stated Shepard as she turned off the com.

Shepard shook her head and sighed, she then turned towards Liara and Ashley.

"The other's were split up because of an accident, they should be fine but I guess we are going to be waiting a little once we reach the top" informed Shepard

"They are all okay, right?" asked Liara

"Echo said they were all fine, but I expect a call from Garrus any moment now" replied Shepard

And just then her omni-tool began vibrating once again, she turned and gave Liara a small grin

"Shepard Responding" answered Shepard

"Garrus here. Shepard the group ended up splitting after an accident, we are all fine and are making our way up through the tower" informed Garrus

"I know. Echo called a minute ago, you just stay safe and we will see you at the top" replied Shepard

"Understood Shepard. Garrus out" said Garrus and closed the com

Shepard shook her head in amusement, but at least they knew the entire team was okay.

The three pushed forward along the outside of the tower. They kept looking inside to see if they could spot geth or other potentially threats. They walked along a set of windows, looking inside but seeing nothing, until Shepard thought she saw something out of the corner of her eye.

"Watch out!" yelled Shepard just as the windows exploded outwards, sending glass shards flying towards them.

The group dived behind some of the pillars protruding from the tower. They barely managed to get behind one, before the shards flew by their heads.

"That was a little too close…" muttered Shepard

Ashley popped her head out and saw a few geth exiting the newly created hole in the glass.

"Liara, we need a singularity" she called

Liara nodded and began glowing blue; she then popped up and threw her hand forward. The air in the middle of the geth began sucking in on itself until a small black ball popped into existence, and began pulling everything in its surroundings towards it.

Shepard and Ashley popped up a second later and began firing on the geth. They managed to take down three before some of the geth got away from the singularity, and began returning fire.

"Get down!" yelled Liara as she grabbed Ashley by the neck of her armor and dragged her down into cover, just in time for a rocket to propel over their heads

"Shit… thanks, Li" said Ashley as she looked after the rocket

"Just do not let it happen again" replied Liara as she quickly popped out of cover and pulled the geth with the rocket launcher towards them with a Biotic Pull.

Shepard took it down with a sniper shot "She's right Ashley, now is not the time to be unfocused"

Ashley removed a grenade from her side and tossed it "I know, sorry Shepard. Get down"

They all crouched down behind the cover as the grenade exploded; shaking some of the tower as a few pieces was blown off by the explosion. They popped up and it seemed that the grenade had taken care of the last few geth, so they were clear to proceed once again.

They kept advancing up the tower; the presence of Sovereign looming over their heads wasn't exactly a welcome distraction.

They continued up the tower and came to a corner that would lead them to the outer parts of the tower, it was also there that the defense turrets were located, and so there was a chance for them to acquire some help.

Shepard stuck her head around the corner… and promptly pulled it back just as a hail of geth assault rifle fire flew by her head.

"geth?" asked Ashley with a teasing tone

"No the ice cream man, why don't you go ask him for some?" asked Shepard in return

"You two are acting like children…" muttered Liara as she turned the corner, glowing bright blue.

Throwing out both her hands, Liara glowed golden for a glimpse of second, before two large singularities appeared and began pulling everything apart. Liara then withdrew the small sub-machine gun that Ashley had modified for her, and shot down the two closest geth to her before she returned behind cover once again.

"There, was that so difficult?" she asked in her own teasing tone

Shepard and Ashley stared at each other for a moment, and then they both went around the corner and took out the remaining geth before they dropped from the singularities.

Shepard changed the frequency on her helmet to the private one between her and Ashley

"Did you know she could do that?" asked Shepard

"Well… she told me about the whole golden biotics thing, but she didn't tell me she could do it at will" replied Ashley

"Hmm… better marry that girl before someone come and steal her" teased Shepard before turning the channel back to a public one

"Screw you ma'am" muttered Ashley

As the three women advanced, they didn't get much further than a few meters, before the sound of fighting sounded off in the distance, accompanied by the sound of metal being sliced?

Their careful walk turned into a sprint as they rushed towards the sounds. As they entered the large area holding the defense turrets they saw two things; First there was the geth Dropship hovering over them, then there was the woman in black and blood-red armor currently in the process of flying between the geth with two small swords in her hands.

With Echo and Tali as they find Karick

Tali was slightly scared, she had never heard Echo be that firm when ordering someone around. It didn't help when he suddenly says that he can't guarantee her safety, just what was around the corner?

"Echo, what is in there?" she asked

"The only man in the world I am truly afraid off, also my best friend and closest confidant" replied Echo as he stood still for a moment

"Engage: Neutral Mode" ordered Echo

The alpha frame began turning and twisting, slowly the heavy bulky form of the Rhino vanished and left the natural black and red neutral mode in its place.

"Why are you changing back?" asked Tali in her confusion

"Because anything else won't work for what is coming up" replied Echo as he breathed deeply and entered the room

As soon as his foot was inside the door, he used it to blast of and he began running towards Karick at full speed. He barely managed to dodge the large scythe that came for his head. Echo spun around so he was standing behind Karick and grabbed his old friend under the armpits and held him in place.

"Karick! Snap out of it!" yelled Echo

Karick was struggling against his hold, and he was about to break free. Then he suddenly seemed to calm down and slumped in Echo's arms. Echo then lowered him to the ground so he was sitting, thankfully he was supporting his own weight with his hand.

"*Phew* I really let myself go there, didn't it?" asked Karick

"You tried to take my head off" deadpanned Echo

"Ahh… well you are used to it by now" replied Karick as he stood up and stretched "What about the Quarian that is hiding out there?"

Echo looked over towards Tali and nodded "You can come out Tali"

Tali stepped out from her hiding place and approached the two, she had never actually met Karick and was quite surprised how alike the two looked when they stood side by side with their armors on. If it wasn't for Echo wearing a distinctly more "armor" looking frame, against Karick's more organic armor, then she wouldn't have been able to tell the difference.

"It's good that you are here my friend, what is the situation around the tower?" asked Echo

"We arrived shortly after we were done speaking, we split up to cover more ground. I made my way here, from what I can understand with Boris he has found three of your companions, the Krogan, Turian and Human. I haven't heard from the twins yet, but I suspect they are messing around with the geth somewhere. Marie is somewhere on the outside of the tower, trying to find a way to turn the defense turrets on the tower against the ships dropping down geth" replied Karick

"That means Wrex, Garrus and Kaidan got their reinforcements. Shepard, Liara and Ashley will probably meet up with Marie, unless she is on the completely opposite side of the tower" summed up Echo

"Correct. Now there was the information about our missing object, we found it... or we think we did" stated Karick

"How so?" asked Echo

"Well… supposedly there should be an object atop the Citadel Tower that supplies energy to the main controls of the station, from my investigation it would seem that this object is the one we are looking for" replied Karick

"I see… so we are looking at a 50/50 chance that this is the object, that is better odds than we have had this entire time… all there is left is to get up there and see for ourselves I guess" said Echo with a shrug

"Do you know a way to the top of the tower from here?" asked Tali towards Karick

"There is a few stairs at the end of some of the corridors, I haven't found any faster way towards the top but I assume they will do" replied Karick

"They will have to do. What do you know of the geth on the upper levels?" asked Echo

"They are getting denser the closer we are getting to the top, the last report I got from Marie said that multiple drop ships had landed geth close to the highest level of the tower. Boris has encountered increasingly larger groups the higher he went as well, I can only guess that it is the same story with the twins" replied Karick

"If their numbers only increase as we approach the top… what are we going to do, Echo? We can't take on that many geth on our own" said Tali

Echo looked pensive. There was no doubt that the three of them would have a hard time fighting against so large groups of geth… but Karick and him would have no such problem, not if they both returned to their old selves for a while.

"*Sigh* You are thinking of doing it, aren't you Marc?" asked Karick as he shook his head

"Can you think of a better alternative?" rebutted Echo as he rubbed the top of his helmet

"Alternative to what?" asked Tali

Both Tenno turned to stare at Tali; they were debating internally whatever it was worth exposing her to this. Echo knew what effect it had on people, witnessing him and Karick going all out; it had never been a good result with the battle-hardened Tenno. So how would someone as innocent as Tali react?

"We have to do it my friend… I don't like it, but we have to" stated Karick

"Fuck… *Sigh* Okay Tali, listen up" stated Echo, making Tali perk up "I am going to ask you to do something… I need you to hold whatever you see next a secret, I need you to never tell anyone about what you are about to witness, not even Shepard"

"But why not?" asked Tali

"Because little one, when Marc and I give everything we have… we stop caring for what is around us, everyone is an enemy and no one is meant to survive. We need you to remain in the background, ready to somehow snap us out of it if something is going wrong" replied Karick

"But… if you are truly that strong, then how am I meant to stop you?" continued Tali

"Open your omni-tool" asked Echo

Tali did as asked and opened her omni-tool. Echo then opened his own and began writing something on it, before he pointed it towards Tali's own omni-tool. Moments later Tali received a message with something attached; when she opened it, her omni-tool flashed as a new program was installed.

"Charge that program, then if we seem to not slow down, unleash it and it will knock me and Karick out momentarily" stated Echo

"You gave her the master control to your armor? Do you trust her that much, old friend?" asked Karick

"I do. Your master control is in there as well, Karick" stated Echo

"How did you get it? No wait… when did you get it?" asked Karick in disbelief

"154 years ago, the only time I managed to knock you out in a fight" replied Echo with another shrug

"*Sigh* Little one, I must ask that you only use that program as a last way out. I must also ask that when today is over, that you delete the program and everything associated with it" ordered Karick

Tali looked at him for a second, then she began typing on her omni-tool and it gave a small flash.

"There, I have installed a fail-safe in the program. I can use it once, but then it will delete itself and every trace of it on my omni-tool. If it isn't used within 24 hours, it also erases" stated Tali

Karick seemed surprised for a moment, then nodded his head in thanks. Echo wasn't surprised by the gesture, Tali was always the type to do something like that but it only cemented his reason for giving Tali the codes.

"Alright… ready my old friend?" asked Karick

"Once we hit the next floor… no mercy…" stated Echo

"No surrender…" continued Karick

"No Survivors" the said in unison

Tali felt a child run down her spine as they spoke… their words had sounded so, so… hollow… like there was no life in them at all.

So it was with careful steps that she remained behind both of them all the way up to the next floor. Right before they opened the doors, she saw Echo put away his rifle and draw his Nikana and then she saw Karick draw the Scythe from his back.

They crossed their weapons and seemed to be praying for a moment. Then they looked up and opened the door to a hail of geth rifle fire.

Tali threw herself to the ground on the stairs to avoid the shots. When she looked up she only caught a glimpse, it was just for a second but she could have sworn that there only stood one person, then he was gone.

The sound of metal hitting the ground mixed with the sound of rifles going off. Tali slowly crawled up to the edge of the stairs and looked into the room, what she saw made her eyes widened in surprise.

Echo and Karick were flying between the geth. When one landed the other seemed to vanish only to appear a moment later, with their blade going through another geth. It was a horrifying thing to witness… there was a total lack of sound from the two Tenno, the only sound that reached Tali's ears was the sound of metal hitting the ground.

She kept on watching in fascination as these two monsters continued their onslaught. If one geth somehow managed to get into a good firing position, the two would move as one to avoid the weapon fire or dodge a rocket.

When the last geth dropped to the ground the two did not stop, they faced towards the stairs and continued making their way up the tower. Tali followed behind them, but she kept a distance. She suddenly realized why Echo had held her back when they first found Karick… if she had walked into the room while Karick was acting like this… she would be dead before she even knew it.

When they reached the last floor before the top, Tali felt her omni-tool vibrate, as a call was incoming.

"Tali here" she answered

"Tali, its Shepard. We reached the top, where are you and why is Echo not answering his com?" asked Shepard over the com

"We are one floor away… Echo is currently, unavailable. Sorry Shepard, but he made me promise not to tell anyone" replied Tali in an apologetic tone

"It's okay Tali, I've gotten used to his secrets. Garrus said they were inbound in a few minutes as well, when we are all here we are taking down Saren. Shepard out" stated Shepard before closing down the com link

Tali closed down her omni-tool and followed the two into the next room. What she saw when she entered made her back up a little, there was a geth here the size of an armature.

What happened next though made Tali realize just how close she had actually been to dying. When Echo and Karick saw the large geth it was like they shared a laugh. They both took off running towards the large geth and then just for a second they stopped.

They both set off from the ground, Karick jumped upwards and almost seemed like he was flying as he jumped towards the large geth. Echo had taken off and was currently running towards the large geth's legs.

Karick began spinning in the air, then a small glint of metal appeared and suddenly his Scythe seemed to fly out of his body as he threw it towards the geth. It drilled itself into the large geth's flashlight.

As the Scythe hit Echo reached the legs of the large geth, he spun around once with his Nikana almost vanishing due to the speed as he cut the legs away under the geth. The Nikana then swung upwards and Echo drilled it into the crotch area of the geth before kicking the handle, sending the blade flying through the geth.

Karick had landed atop the large geth's shoulders and grabbed the Nikana as it shot out of the head of the geth. He then jumped off the back of the geth; he spun around in the air and used the momentum to take off the head of the large geth, before landing on the wall behind it and seemingly sliding down.

Tali was standing there with her mouth agape, she had just witnessed it herself and she had a hard time believing it. Taking down a geth that size with a sword and a scythe, that was insanity!

When Karick and Echo's gaze fell upon her, she almost activated the program but stopped herself. Echo was walking towards her calmly with his helmet disengaging to reveal his sweaty face.

"Tali it's okay, we are okay. That last geth snapped us out of it" said Echo

Karick came up behind him, his own helmet having disengaged into his suit.

"It is okay little one, we couldn't defeat such a large enemy while acting like bloodthirsty beasts. So our more rational sides took over" added Karick with a smile

Tali was shaking madly, she had a really hard time accepting what she had just seen. None the less she nodded and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Let's get moving then, Shepard is waiting for us by the council chambers" said Tali

The two nodded and turned around with tired smiles on their faces. They hadn't gotten to fight together like that in many years, it was a great feeling for both men… to once more have their brother stand by their side as the took down hordes of enemies.

There was nothing on the last staircase and once the three reached the final floor, where the council chambers were located, they looked over and saw Shepard, Liara, Ashley and Marie standing there waiting for them.

With Garrus, Kaidan and Wrex after they met Boris

"It is good to meet the friends of Wrex! Are you friends of the scary man in armor as well!?" asked Boris in his loud tone

"Scary man in armor? You must mean Echo" deadpanned Kaidan as he shook his head

"Yes, Echo! The scary man in armor that is friends with my master!" exclaimed Boris

"We are friends with him yes, and I take it you are the reinforcements he spoke of?" asked Garrus

"Indeed, I am here to assist you to the top of the tower! And smash as many geth along the way as I can! Hahahaha!" exclaimed Boris before laughing

Garrus and Kaidan looked at each other for a moment, then Garrus made the intergalactic sign of insanity by swirling a finger in a circular motion next to his head. Kaidan could only nod in agreement.

"So what do you know of the floors ahead, meat-head?" asked Wrex with humor

"There is geth ahead, that is all I know!" yelled Boris

"Then I guess we are fighting our way forward. I take it you are a close quarter specialist, Boris?" asked Kaidan

"Yes I am proficient with my fists indeed!" replied Boris excitedly

Wrex laughed as he led Boris forward towards the stairs leading up to the next floor. Garrus and Kaidan were right behind him, sharing quite a few meaningful glances

Garrus leaned in a little closer and muttered "I think his fists is the only thing he is proficient with" just loud enough for Kaidan to hear

Kaidan snorted before muttering "That and perhaps how to break walls with his head" in response, making Garrus snort in amusement.

They hit the next floor with guns blazing. Boris and Wrex hard charged in together, smashing the first few geth they encountered and then gunned down the next few. Kaidan and Garrus moved in behind them and took care of the auxiliary groups standing off to the sides. All in all, those four together made for quite the destructive team.

They had taken down another floor when Kaidan stopped them to ask Boris about something.

"Boris do you know what is going on in the rest of the tower?" he asked

"According to my teammates then they have made contact with your other friends! They are fighting their way towards the top, smashing many geth along the way!" replied Boris hotly

"Good, so everyone has received reinforcements. I don't suppose you know a quicker way towards the top?" asked Garrus

"Sadly I do not! I split from my team when we arrived, and I have been fighting ever since!" exclaimed Boris

"Of course…" muttered Garrus

"Let's just keep going, maybe we'll get lucky and find something" stated Kaidan

With a round of nods they continued onwards. The following floors were nothing but more geth. Boris displayed his imminence strength by constantly tossing the geth around and even knocking a geth Juggernaut on its mechanical ass at one points.

They were roughly five floors out when Garrus' omni-tool pinged to announce an incoming call.

"Garrus here" he answered

"Garrus, It's Shepard. We are at the council chambers now, we cleared out the geth and there is a clear path to Saren. How far out are you?" asked Shepard over the com

"From my memory we should be about six-five floors away, we should be there soon if we keep progressing like we are now. What about Echo and Tali?" asked Garrus

"I am contacting them next, but if they received reinforcements like the us then I think they aren't too far out" replied Shepard

"Same thing here, we got a big guy called Boris and he is making short work of the geth. I suspect we will see each other in five-ten minutes Shepard" stated Garrus

"Understood, we will be waiting for you. Shepard out" said Shepard before cutting the com

Garrus turned towards the others to find them staring at him expectantly.

"Good news, Garrus?" asked Wrex

"Shepard and her team arrived at the Council Chambers. They have cleared the geth and we have a path to Saren, they are just waiting for us to arrive" replied Garrus

"What about Echo and Tali?" asked Kaidan

"She was calling them next, but like Shepard told me, if they have gotten reinforcements like us then they should be fine" answered Garrus

"Ah yes! I think my Master went looking for the scary man in the armor!" exclaimed Boris

"Then I guess we shouldn't stand around here and waste time, let's get moving" suggested Kaidan

The uncanny group continued their push forward. The next few floors seemed to have a denser concentration of geth, thankfully it seemed to let up in tact with the sight of a burning geth dropship falling down the side of the Tower.

Arriving at the final floor before the top they noticed all the geth was seemingly waiting for them, give that once they opened the door they had roughly a seconds worth of reaction time to duck right back out of the room… before a hail of geth rifle fire flew over their heads.

"Any plans?" asked Garrus from his new position on the floor

"Wrex how much can your barrier take?" asked Kaidan

"If I push everything into it… a lot, why?" asked Wrex in return

"If you provide the cover, then Boris can move in behind you and disturb their ranks. Enough for me and Garrus to pick off enough of them to allow us to advance into the room ourselves" answered Kaidan

"Sounds like a plan" added Garrus

"Alright let's do it" responded Wrex

Wrex breathed in slowly before a purple hue spread across his body. He pushed everything he had into the barrier and hoped it would hold, there is much Krogan regeneration could do but even that had its limits.

"Let us go, Wrex!" yelled Boris

Wrex charged forward with a roar. Boris followed him closely and the geth were tearing into Wrex's barrier, if it hadn't been for his many years of experience he would probably have fallen by now.

When they reached the first line of geth, Wrex released a fierce roar as he overloaded the Barrier making it explode and knocking a few geth off their feet. Wrex used this chance to pull out his shotgun and take down as many of the fallen geth as possible.

Boris had split from Wrex once they had hit the first line, he had jumped straight for the second line of geth and began tearing into them. He grabbed one by the leg and flung it into two of its allies before turning on another and smashing his hand into its chest, causing a large dent to appear and the geth to drop to the ground lifeless.

Garrus was busy dropping what geth he could get within his sights, most of them were standing off to the sides trying to flank the two beasts that had just smashed through their center column.

Kaidan was lying down suppression fire for Garrus between his shots, while also providing support to Wrex and Boris with his biotics, not that either of the two actually needed it since it seemed like they were slowly growing impervious to bullets.

The last of the geth dropped to the ground and all four men shared a sigh of relief, it was over and now they could advance up top to meet up with Shepard and the others.

"Just Saren left…" growled Wrex as they approached the last set of stairs

"He is going to pay…" continued Garrus with a visible scowl

"Let's kick his ass" finished Kaidan as they reached the stairs and began their ascend

They made their way up the stairs quickly and found themselves standing near the Council Chambers, they could see Shepard standing and talking with Echo off in the distance, the rest of the team standing around them.

With Shepard, Liara and Ashley moments after seeing Marie

Shepard, Ashely and Liara were all staring in wonder as the woman was jumping between the geth. She was taking them down with almost surgical precision and did not waste any time on any of the geth once she was sure they were dead.

She sliced off their heads, cut a vital power cord or simply disabled them with a heavy overload, and then moved on the next geth in the line. It was incredible for Shepard especially to witness as she had trained with Marc in the art of the blade for a while now, and she recognized some of the woman's movements as the same she had been taught.

"Who is she?" asked Ashley

"Our reinforcement I would guess" answered Shepard

They continued to look on until the woman had dispatched the final few of the geth. When the woman noticed her company she quickly made her way over to the group and bowed quickly.

"You must be Commander Shepard" she stated

"Yeah that would be me, I take it you are from Karick's team?" asked Shepard

"That is correct, my name is Marie" replied Marie

"You certainly know your way around a blade, I take it Karick trained you?" continued Shepard

"Correct again, my master has been teaching me the art of the blade for the past three years" replied Marie with a small smile

"Did he try and kill you as well, when he handed you your first blade?" inquired Shepard

Marie shook her head, and Shepard could have sworn she looked sad for a moment.

"No, my master didn't feel I was ready for such a test so he asked me to pick up the blades myself. Thus freeing him of the oath to try and strike me down" replied Marie

"Consider yourself lucky, Echo didn't exactly give me much warning" muttered Shepard

"You are a practitioner of the blade as well?" asked Marie with interest

"*Nod* Echo has been teaching me for a while now, I don't know if I'm any good but I like to think I'm not completely horrible" replied Shepard with a grin

"Shepard, we are kind of on a schedule here" interrupted Ashley

"Yeah you're right. Marie what can you tell us about the situation?" asked Shepard towards Marie

"I split from my team as soon as we reached the tower, I have been fighting around the entire outside of the tower. Turning on the various defense turrets to help take down all those geth dropships we keep seeing… speaking of which, there comes another one!" yelled Marie as she prepared for a fight

There was an inactive turret right next to the four women, Shepard smashed the button and turned it on. It began firing towards the geth dropship instantly, but it wasn't exactly doing a lot of damage but it would take down the ship eventually.

"We need more firepower!" yelled Ashley as she saw the first few geth exit the dropship.

Marie looked over to the side and saw another turret, though this one was inactive.

"I can hack the turret over there, I just need you to cover me while I get it going" she stated

"Go, we will cover you" ordered Shepard

Marie nodded but before taking off she withdrew a long katana in its scabbard from her back and handed it to Shepard.

"Here, make use of it" she stated before turning and running over the turret

Shepard placed the scabbard on her back, thankfully it had magnetic clamps in it so she could attach it like any other weapon… would have been a pain to carry around that is for sure.

The three women took cover as the first few bullets raced by them. Liara of course wasted no time in throwing her biotics around, managing to stop the geth's advance with a few well-placed singularities. Ashley was firing as she moved between cover, she wanted to get closer to Marie so she could provide better cover fire for their hacker.

Shepard was using her sniper to pick off any geth she could, but it was proving difficult as more and more of them began putting up those annoying energy shields.

"Okay I got the turret running!" yelled Marie as she drew her two smaller blades and charged towards the geth

The three other women watched in amazement as Marie charged down the path. She slammed into the first geth she met along the way and drove her two blades through its chest; she then lifted the entire geth and used it as a shield for approaching the remaining geth.

Shepard heard Ashley mutter a curse as another energy shield sprung into life, if they didn't cut down the amount of geth soon, they wouldn't be able to get any shots through.

"I told you to make use of that blade, Shepard! So show me what you have learnt!" yelled Marie as she took down another geth

Shepard breathed deeply before nodding to herself, replacing the sniper with the blade Marie gave her. She looked over at Liara and nodded.

"I'll keep them back with my biotics while you approach" said Liara

With a nod Shepard took off.

'Control your breathing. Slow and steady breaths, you will be useless if you hyperventilate' Echo's words were ringing through her mind as she charged.

When the first geth was within her range, Shepard drew the blade and sliced through the air. The geth dropped to the round, now lacking its torso. Continuing onwards, Shepard's eyes were only focused on the next geth. Like Echo had taught her, don't ever focus on everything, pick a target and kill it.

Ashley was having a rather hard time bringing down all those energy barriers, but when she finally did manage to break one without overheating her weapon she did drop a geth or two before a new barrier sprung in its place.

Liara was doing her best to keep the geth off their feet with her biotics, but she was reaching her limit. The stunt with the golden biotics earlier pulled a great deal of her power, she would need to rest soon or she would collapse

A loud explosion sounded over their heads, and four sets of eyes looked upwards to see the Geth Dropship slowly falling off to the side and seemingly becoming one big ball of fire.

"Okay let's clear these guys out and get moving!" yelled Shepard as she drove he blade through another geth

Liara was at her limit so she slumped down and leaned against the wall, she knew that they could handle the last few geth but she needed to relax for a moment.

Ashley began advancing towards the geth, now that they didn't have the threat of the dropship she could finally approach with a little more assurance.

Marie and Shepard were keeping themselves busy, being right in the middle of everything meant that they were dodging shots left and right. The two passed one another for barely a moment, but it was enough for Shepard to grab onto Marie's arm and spin her around and then send her flying towards another geth.

Once Ashley joined them down at the geth's position there really wasn't much more fighting left to do. With Ashley's added firepower the remaining geth dropped like flies and the team could breathe a breath of relief.

"Where's Liara?" asked Shepard as she looked around for their blue teammate

Ashley's head snapped towards the place Liara had taken cover, when she didn't respond Ashley began running faster than she had ever done before.

She rounded the raised piece of wall and saw Liara sitting leaning against the wall, breathing a few heavy breaths and looking quite tired.

"Good grief, Li… don't do that!" exclaimed Ashley as she leaned down and hugged her

"What did I do?" asked Liara with a tired voice

"Nothing Liara, you just gave Ash a heart attack when we couldn't see you" responded Shepard as she came around herself

"Oh… sorry Ash" mumbled Liara as she was released from the hug

"It's okay… you just scared me a little" replied Ashley with a smile

"Enough with the mushy moment, how about we get moving?" interjected Marie as she joined the three

"You're right. Keep to the back as before Liara, but don't overdo it. We need you" stated Shepard

Liara nodded and rose to her feet with a little help from Ashley. Then they continued their path towards the top of the tower. They encountered two Krogan who were blocking their path, they didn't manage to do any damage as Marie displayed her raw speed by crossing her blades through the skull of the first Krogan, and then she jumped over to the other and jammed a grenade down his throat.

"That's… gruesome" muttered Ashley as she saw the Krogan explode

"It's efficient" said Marie with a shrug

The group turned a corner and found themselves staring down a large open area with turrets pointing the wrong direction, towards then.

"Back around!" yelled Shepard just in time to see the first few heavy shots of the turret slam into the wall

"Okay we need a plan for this" stated Ashley

"Let me approach, you just provide cover fire for me and I will shut down the turrets" stated Marie

"Can you do that without getting caught?" asked Shepard

"I'm a stealth specialist before anything else, you just keep their attention on you and I will be fine" replied Marie

"Okay let's get this going… alert us as soon as turret is down so we can advacnce" ordered Shepard

"Understood. See you on the other side" stated Marie before she melded together with the shadows

Shepard, Ashley and Liara all entered the large are and immediately took cover in one of the trenches that were on the outside of the Citadel Tower. The geth began firing instantly and tried to keep them away from the turrets.

Shepard and Ashley were popping in and out of cover while taking shots at the geth. They were at least succeeding in keeping their attention, though the occasional sound of metal being sliced let them know that Marie was there as well.

Liara took a deep breath and popped up before landing a singularity quite a bit above all of them, she then dropped back down to cover and pulled out her sub-machine gun.

"It might not draw them towards it, but that singularity will be attracting their bullets. It should give us a little more room to maneuver" she said

Shepard nodded and then quickly dived out of cover to throw a grenade, before going right back behind cover to avoid the incoming rocket.

"Those damn Rocket Troopers are becoming a pain in my ass!" yelled Shepard angrily

"How do you think I feel right now? First turret disabled, advance!" said Marie over the com

The three quickly advanced forward past the first turret, but remained out of the second turret's range. They weren't going to risk it.

They kept up their suppression fire, seemingly there couldn't be that many geth left because they weren't getting that much return fire currently.

Though that changed when they finally realized it was because the geth had seen Marie, and were heading directly for her instead.

"Shit! Marie you have incoming!" yelled Shepard as she vaulted over her cover and began racing towards the second turret

"I don't have incoming! They are here!" yelled Marie in return over the com

Ashley and Liara had started moments later than Shepard. So when they arrived over where Marie was getting attacked, all they managed to see was Shepard and Marie dancing around one another like a whirlwind of steel.

Shaking themselves out of their stupor, Ashley and Liara joined the fight. Though Liara held back on the biotics as she still wasn't back to full power just yet, but her sub-machine gun certainly worked to kill geth as well.

The last of the geth dropped and Marie quickly disabled the cannon, and then dropped to the ground while leaning against the turret base.

"Okay I think we need to have a talk about what "keeping their attention" means, because clearly you didn't understand" joked Marie tiredly

"How about we just assault the last cannon together? Not risk this happening again?" suggested Shepard

"*Yawn* Sounds like a plan, I could definitely do without another surprise like that" replied Marie

Jumping up on one of the ledges, Shepard looked over the last stretch leading towards the last turret. It wasn't that heavily defended, perhaps they had managed to thin out the number of geth a little

"Okay it seems we have moderately free passage towards the last turret, but I think we need to sprint there to close the distance as fast as possible… wouldn't want to risk getting caught in an ambush" suggested Shepard

"Let me run point, if there is an ambush I have a better chance of getting out of it again" said Marie

"I will make up the rear, Liara you keep in front of me. That we have decent protection all around, if that is okay with you, Shepard" suggested Ashley

"It's better than no plan at all, let's do it" said Shepard with a sharp nod

They all lined up and prepared to run. Marie was the first to take off and Shepard followed closely behind, a moment later Liara and Ashley were hot on their heels.

With Marie running point the turret of course aimed for her first, but her superior reflexes allowed her to dodge the turret's shots and since everyone else was running behind her they just stayed there and avoided the shots with her.

When they hit the base of the final turret they saw four geth standing ready. They were quickly dispatched when Liara threw a singularity in the middle of them, and Ashley overheated her gun as she shot all of them down.

Marie quickly disabled the turret and checked around to ensure that there were no more geth around, when she was sure she returned to the group.

"We are clear" announced Marie

"Good, let's keep going. We should be close now" stated Shepard as she led them forward

And sure enough a little further ahead the found a hatch. Once they got it open and jumped through they were all quite happy to find that they were standing by the elevator exit to the Council Chambers.

"Finally…" breathed Ashley

"Agreed… now we just need to clear the geth here as well…" muttered Liara in a tired tone

"Look at the bright side; no turrets" added Marie and a semi-cheery tone

"Great… *sigh* let's get it done, we don't know when the others will get here" said Shepard

The three others just nodded their heads tiredly, everyone was getting rather low on energy but they couldn't exactly afford to just bunk down and go to sleep.

They approached the staircase leading to the upper part of the Council Area, only to be met by four geth raining gunfire down on them.

Liara reacted instantly and managed to take down two of them with a well-placed biotic push, sending one of the geth hurling into the one behind it.

The other two were taken down with a well-placed sniper shot from Shepard, and a thrown knife going through its flashlight by Marie.

They hit the upper platform and took cover behind some of the benches. The ensuing firefight between them and the eight geth guarding the entrance to the council chambers were a short one.

Shepard and Ashley had both had enough and were unloading everything they had onto the geth. Marie had even foregone her swords and was using a small pistol that had been hanging, unused, at her side.

Liara took care of the last geth but lifting it into the air with her biotics and sending it slamming into the ground, crushing the entire upper part of it.

"We're clear, all that is left is Saren" announced Shepard

"Call the others and find out how far out they are, if we wait much longer it might end up being too late" added Ashley

With a nod Shepard opened up her omni-tool and called Garrus, it took a moment before he answered.

"Garrus here" answered Garrus

"Garrus, It's Shepard. We are at the council chambers now, we cleared out the geth and there is a clear path to Saren. How far out are you?" asked Shepard over the com

"From my memory we should be about six-five floors away, we should be there soon if we keep progressing like we are now. What about Echo and Tali?" asked Garrus

"I am contacting them next, but if they received reinforcements like the us then I think they aren't too far out" replied Shepard

"Same thing here, we got a big guy called Boris and he is making short work of the geth. I suspect we will see each other in five-ten minutes Shepard" stated Garrus

"Understood, we will be waiting for you. Shepard out" said Shepard before cutting the com

"So they got that big lug, Boris huh?" asked Marie from the side

"It would seem so, is he special?" asked Shepard

"Define 'special'" joked Marie

Shepard shook her head in amusement as she called up Echo. Only he didn't answer. She tried again, but with the same result. Growing a little worried, Shepard called up Tali.

"Tali here" answered Tali

"Tali, its Shepard. We reached the top, where are you and why is Echo not answering his com?" asked Shepard

"We are one floor away… Echo is currently, unavailable. Sorry Shepard, but he made me promise not to tell anyone" replied Tali in an apologetic tone

"It's okay Tali, I've gotten used to his secrets. Garrus said they were inbound in a few minutes as well, when we are all here we are taking down Saren. Shepard out" stated Shepard before closing down the com link

Once more there was some secret he didn't want to tell her, she had indeed grown used to it but she still wished he would tell her these things. Perhaps he would tell her once they had dealt with Saren, but she needed to focus on this for now.

"Echo and Tali should be here soon, and Garrus, Kaidan and Wrex shouldn't be that long out either" announced Shepard to the others

"If you will excuse me, I think I need to sit down for a moment" stated Liara as she stepped over and sat down on a bench, Ashley joined her moments later.

Shepard and Marie joined them, though chose to stay standing. They led a small conversation that primarily centered on Marie and her time with Karick, as Shepard was quite fascinated by him. Anyone that Echo thinks that highly of had to be someone unique.

Liara's eyes widened ever so slightly as she noticed Echo and Tali came walking up through a set of stairs at the side of the platform.

"They are here" she announced

They all turned and looked as Tali was leading them forward, and Echo and Karick were walking behind her with sweat practically washing off them.

"You look… tired" deadpanned Shepard

"Giant geth… large amounts of work… jumping… I'm too old for this…" mumbled Echo as he hugged Shepard

"What my old friend is attempting to say is; we needed to do something that neither of us like to do, so that we could take down the geth we encountered. We ended up meeting a quite large geth that required us to go all out for us to beat. Hence why we are sweating and are tired… Hello Marie" added Karick as he walked over and gave Marie a quick hug, surprising the younger woman.

"Master!" exclaimed Marie in surprise

A low chuckle came from Echo as he looked upon his old friend… ohh the ribbing Karick was going to face, when this was all over

"Not a word, Marc" stated Karick as he stood upright once more

"Of course not. Wouldn't dream of it" mused Echo with a wide grin

A small laugh passed through the group as they stood and waited. Conversations slowly returned to the group until Shepard tapped Echo on the shoulder and pointed behind him. He turned around just a Garrus, Wrex, Kaidan and Boris stepped up from the stairs and looked none the worse for wear.

"You made it" stated Shepard

"It wasn't a problem, and I see everyone else is already here" stated Garrus with a grin

Echo pulled Karick to the side as Shepard caught up with the other group. He needed to speak with his friend for a moment.

"I need you to take your team back down the tower" began Echo

"Why? You are about to face Saren in there, and you want me to leave?" asked Karick in confusion

"This is their mission, they need to complete it. I also need you to go through the tower for others that might be stuck, because once we have dealt with Saren in there… the entire top part of the tower is coming down on our heads" finished Echo

"Are you going to survive it?"

"I can't promise that, but I can assure you that I will do my best to ensure we all come out of this alive"

"*Sigh* very well my friend, I will trust you"

"Thank you"

They returned to the group just as Shepard was preparing to take them all in to face Saren.

"We are leaving" announced Karick

"What?!" yelled Marie

"We are going down through the tower, we are going to look for survivors. This is your mission Shepard, see it through" stated Karick

"We will get him, you go ensure that everyone have gotten out safely. Thank you for your help" replied Shepard

Karick nodded and snapped his fingers, Boris and Marie fell in line instantly.

"Let's go find those two idiots… they are probably still fighting something, if not each other" stated Karick in a tired tone as he began leading them away from the team.

"Catch you later, Karick" called Echo after them

Karick just raised his fist in the air in a shared gesture between the two Tenno.

Shepard took a deep breath as she stepped forward and stood before her team.

"Okay everyone, this is it. The grand finale, after this there is nothing else. Let's go bring him down" stated Shepard

Everyone nodded and fell in line behind Shepard as she led them inside the Council Chambers, where they saw Saren standing on his floating platform.

"Shepard… I was afraid you were going to be late" stated Saren as he saw them approach

"Late for what?" returned Shepard angrily

"Why our final showdown… though I will admit I find myself in a bit of a bind" replied Saren with amusement before his gaze fell upon Echo "Mr. Echo, it is good to see you again. I must admit that after our meeting I began doubting everything…"

"You fucking idiot" announced Echo as he rubbed his eyes

"I see you figured it out already…" began Saren

"You let Sovereign implant you didn't you?" stated Echo

"What? You have seen what Sovereign can do to peoples minds, and then you let him implant you?! Are you completely insane?!" yelled Shepard in surprise

"I was doubting my cause, so Sovereign helped me overcome it. Now I have no doubt in the Reaper's master plan… though there is one thing Sovereign didn't count on" stated Saren

"What could that possibly be?" asked Shepard in disbelief

"That I am no one's puppet" growled Saren dangerously as his biomechanical eyes flashed red for the barest of seconds

Saren seemed to struggle with himself for a second, then his eyes returned to their electric blue. He seemed to press a few buttons on his biomechanical arm, and a compartment opened on the upper part of it.

Saren pulled out a small vial with some purple glowing liquid inside, he looked at it sadly before turning his gaze upon Echo once more.

"I must thank you again Mr. Echo, you returned to me the research and I completed the cure… now I must ask you for one final favor…" said Saren before he threw the vial at Echo, who caught it and looked it over "Bring that to Palavan, find my sister and give it to her… she is all that I have left"

Echo looked over the small vail, it did indeed look like some form of medicine. Of course he was going to have Eva run it through some tests to ensure it wasn't anything dangerous.

"You have my word, Saren that I will bring this to her sister. What is her name?" asked Echo

Saren looked distraught for a moment, then his gaze fell on Garrus and then a whole new level of sadness entered his gaze as he looked at the younger Turian.

"This… this was not the way I wished to let you know, Garrus" Saren then turned his gaze back on Echo "Her name… is Vitelana Vakarian" stated Saren

A stunned silence filled the room, even Echo stood with a surprised look on his face. Though no one was more surprised than Garrus.

"Y-You… no… no you have to be lying… mom wouldn't have kept that hidden from us!" yelled Garrus in denial

"She didn't tell you on my wish. I was scared that when I became Spectre that some of the scum I put away would wish to get back at me, and to do that they would go after my family… I couldn't risk my only sister getting hurt because of me. So I changed my name and cut all ties with her… or I tried" replied Saren sadly

A small light seemed to go off inside Garrus head, as if a memory came to the forefront of his mind.

"You are him… the uncle that kept sending me and Sol presents, mother always said that you simply didn't wish to return to Palavan and so you just send the presents… I still have the toy gun you gave me" stated Garrus as he suddenly looked conflicted

"Your sixth birthday if I remember correctly… your mother was furious with me because of it. *Sigh* I am so proud of you Garrus, you became every part the honorable Turian that we hoped you would become… give your mother and sister my best regards, and tell them I'm sorry" Saren then drew his gun and placed it beneath his head

"I can't hold Sovereign back any longer. Thank you for everything Mr. Echo… Shepard… you are a great Spectre, do good. Do not fall to the corruption of the council… Goodbye" with those words Saren pressed the trigger

His dead body dropped from the platform and shattered the glass underneath the council stands. His body landed in the small garden below and lay there, lifeless.

Tali moved over and embraced Garrus as tears slowly began falling from the Turian.

Everyone stood in stunned silence… This was not how they expected this to end. Saren, in the end, gave his life for what was right, his last moments was spent being a true Spectre.

"Shepard… we need to open the arms of the Citadel" stated Echo in a dead tone

Shepard nodded and approached the holo-screen that was floating. Below it stood a small console, atop of that console sat a small circular device.

Shepard pointed her omni-tool towards the screen for a moment, her omni-tool then flared green for a moment.

"I have control of the station" she announced

"Open the arms. Maybe the Fleet can take care of Sovereign before he regains control of the station" stated Ashley

"Try an open a communications channel as well, maybe someone needs help" added Liara

Shepard opened the communications channel first.

"… the Destiny Ascension. Main drives offline. Kinetic Barriers at 40%. The Council aboard, I repeat, the Council is on board." Came the sound of an Asari over the new com channel

"Normandy to the Citadel, Normandy to the Citadel. Please tell me that it's you, Commander" came Joker's voice over the com

"I'm here Joker, what's happening?" replied Shepard

"It's good to hear your voice Commander. 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 in the cavalry in" responded Joker

"You can't waste human lives on saving the Council, they are not worth it!" yelled Kaidan

"This goes way beyond on just humanity, Sovereign and the Reapers are a threat to every organic species in the galaxy!" countered Liara

"Both of you shut up" ordered Echo as he stepped up next to Shepard "Sarah, look at me. The Council might be full of it, but if we do not save them then mankind will never recover. The other races will never trust you again, it's not worth it" stated Echo

"*Sigh* I wish you weren't right, because I am really tempted to just fuck them and get Sovereign" replied Shepard before she pulled up her omni-tool

"I'm opening the Relays, Joker, go save the Ascension" ordered Shepard

"Understood Shepard, one Destiny Ascension rescue, coming right up!" replied Joker

"You did the right thing, Shepard" added Echo

"I know…" muttered Shepard as she opened the arms to the Citadel.

Everyone stood and watched as the arms of the Citadel slowly spread apart once more. When they were open enough, everyone cheered as the Normandy came flying through, closely followed by most of the Alliance Fleet.

Echo looked away and inspected the small console, and the orb on top of it. When he grabbed the orb he had to take a sharp breath… this was definitely it, this was what he was looking for.

"Go make sure he is dead…" ordered Shepard behind him

Echo turned and watched as a few of the team made their way down towards the garden, Garrus wasn't joining them. They all looked on as they approached the body and shot it once through the head… knowing that Sovereign could still take control, Echo jumped down and looked at the body for a moment.

"I'm sorry, Garrus" said Echo as he looked up towards his friend, before drawing his Nikana and quickly separating the head from the body

Once they had all made their way back up to the group, Echo explained himself.

"I needed to make sure that he was really did, we have no idea what the Reapers are truly capable of… so I was just making sure" he explained to Garrus

"I get it… thank you. I don't know if I could handle seeing him come back" replied Garrus with a smile

All of them turned and looked out the large window, Sovereign had release his hold on the tower and was floating helplessly. It was an incredible sight to witness as the entire Alliance Fleet unloaded their arsenal and blew Sovereign to high hell.

'One down… thousands to go…' thought Echo angrily as he saw the various parts of Sovereign fly around… and then one of them began heading in their direction

"Oh shit, watch out!" roared Echo as he ran over and tacked Shepard to the ground just as the large claw smashed through the window.

Everything went to hell as the claw smashed through pillars and floors. Rubble flew everywhere and the screams and yells of the team could be heard as some of them was squeezed under rubble.

Those of the team that managed to remain conscious couldn't tell how much time passed before the first yells came. They tried to yell back but no one had the air to do so, all they could hear were the muffled sounds of the others and the sound of Liara crying while screaming Ashley's name.

Echo himself had been knocked out and woke just in time to have a flashlight shone in his face.

"*Groan* I'm alive… fuck…" he growled as he sat up and looked at the human that had found him

Anderson was right behind him. When Anderson spotted Echo he quickly walked over and helped him to stand up

"Where are the others, where is Shepard?" asked Anderson

Echo focused for a moment before he began pointing in different directions, slowly.

"Ashley and Liara are over there, they need medical assistance. Garrus is over there and seems okay. Kaidan is in the rubble behind me. Wrex is okay and is coming over here… Shepard is… I can't feel her…" said Echo in a robotic tone

Everyone else was dug out as quickly as possible and soon everyone was sitting in front of the large rubble, all receiving medical care.

Ashley had been the worst of all of them, her left leg had been utterly crushed by a piece of falling debris. She wasn't going to lose it, but she was certainly going to be using crutches for a few weeks for the medi-gel to work its magic.

"Still no sign of Shepard?" asked Anderson as he came back from speaking with a few privates

"No, they still haven't found her" replied Kaidan with a sigh

Everyone was looking down, the loss of their Commander would be too much. But they were all feeling with Echo, some of them knew that he had lost a wife and to think he had lost another important person to him.

Then he looked up and a weird expression came to his face. From Echo's perspective he had suddenly felt a small presence, it was very minor but it was growing rapidly. When it suddenly exploded into a light double a bright as Shepard's had been in the past… well Echo could only laugh

"What is so funny, Echo?" asked Garrus

"She's fine… of course she is" he responded.

When they looked like they were going to ask a question he simply lifted his hand and stopped them, then he pointed behind him to the rubble.

They all turned and looked, then they saw it. Shepard stepped over the rubble and just for a moment, everyone who was there had no trouble believing that this woman could save the entirety of the galaxy… that she was going to bring down the Reapers.

"Good god, Shepard! Don't scare us like that!" exclaimed Ashley with a pained smile

"Sorry everyone, it took a little to dig myself out of the rubble" joked Shepard as she walked towards Anderson only for him to engulf her in a hug

"It's good to see you again Sarah… you really scared me there" said Anderson

"Sorry David, I won't do it again" replied Sarah with a grin

Everyone greeted Shepard in their own way and gave their congratulations. They had beaten Saren and everything was looking up, now they just needed to rebuild for a time.

Everyone was having a good time celebrating with whomever was close by, but eventually the world went on and Shepard was called upon with Anderson and Udina to come see the Council. They met them at a bridge in the Presidium, the three Councilors looked quite happy.

"Ambassador, Captain, Shepard. We have gathered here to recognize the enormous contributions of the Alliance forces in the war against Sovereign and the geth" said Tevos

"Many humans lost their lives in the battle to save the Citadel, brave and courageous soldiers who willingly gave their lives so that we, the Council, might live" continued Valern

"There is no greater sacrifice, and we share your grief over the tragic loss of so many noble men and women" added Sparatus

"The Council also owes you a great personal debt, Commander. One we can never repay. You saved not just our lives, but the lives of billions from Sovereign and the Reapers" said Tevos

"Commander Shepard, your heroic and selfless actions serve as a symbol of everything that humanity and the Alliance stands for" continued Valern

"And though we cannot bring back those valiant soldiers who gave their lives to save ours, we can honor their memories through our actions" added Sparatus

"Humanity has shown that it is ready to stand as a defender and protector of the galaxy. You have proved that you are worthy to join our ranks and serve besides us on the citadel Council" finished Tevos

"Councilor, on behalf of humanity and the Alliance, we thank you for this prestigious honor and humbly accept" said Udina

"Of course we will need a list of potential candidates to fill humanity's seat on the Council" said Valern

"Given all that has happened I am sure that your recommendation will carry a great deal of weight, Commander. Do you support any particular candidate?" asked Tevos

Shepard looked thoughtful for a moment, but it was all for show. She knew who they needed on the council, and it certainly wasn't Udina.

"We need someone with courage to stand up for what he believes in, someone like Captain Anderson" replied Shepard with a smile

"Him? You must be joking Shepard, Anderson prefers to let his fist do the talking" grumbled Udina

"Only with you Ambassador" replied Anderson with a cheeky grin

"*Sigh* Are you completely sure about this, Commander? The Captain is a soldier, not a politician" tried Udina

"We have too many politicians on the Citadel, it's time for someone with a new perspective and Anderson is perfect for that job" replied Shepard

"I think it is an inspired choice, and we would welcome him with open arms… that is if he chooses to accept?" Tevos directed the question towards Anderson

"I'm honored Councilor, as Humanity's representative I will do everything in my power to help the Council rebuild" replied Anderson

"Sovereign's defeat marks the beginning of a new era, both for humanity and the Council" declared Sparatus with pride

"You might think so, but the Reapers are still coming… thousands of ships. Whatever you will actually believe me is of little matter, I will find a way to stop them. If the council will have me excused" replied Shepard before turning and walking way, leaving a surprised Council behind.

Shepard found her way back to her team, they were all waiting down in the park. Everyone was laughing and smiling over their defeat of Sovereign… no one was celebrating Saren's death out of respect for Garrus.

"Shepard!" cheered Wrex

"So it's done… can we have a bit of downtime now, Commander?" joked Kaidan from his position beneath a tree

"I think we all deserved a bit of a break, lord knows I could do with a shower" joked Shepard in return making everyone chuckle

"Well… not everything…" said Ashley in a weird tone as she turned towards Liara

Everyone looked on in curiosity and surprise as Ashley went down on one knee with a pained expression on her face, before a smile replaced it.

"Liara toady I tried something that I never wish to try again, I thought I might have lost you forever. When the council chamber collapsed I feared the worst… it turned out that I was the one getting hurt, but it made me realize something… I never wish to go a day longer without you and I won't put this off… Liara T'Soni, will you marry me?" asked Ashley with barely contained happy tears stinging at her eyes

A collective breath was drawn by everyone as they looked towards Liara for her reaction.

Tears appeared in Liara's eyes almost instantly, she tackled Ashley to the ground with a loud "Yes!" before the two locked their lips to the sound of everyone cheering and clapping loudly

Marc and Sarah were standing off the side, clapping politely.

"You reprimanded her once, once, for her Xenophobia and look what happened" joked Sarah

"They are good for each other… Eric is going to kill me though" replied Marc with a large grin

"He will have to go through me first though Mr. *********" stated Sarah

"Is that a proposal, Ms. Shepard?" joked Marc

"No, not yet at least… though I would hurry if I were you, or I might lose my patience" replied Sarah with a smile before the two met in a loving kiss

---

Everything slowed down after that. Celebrating Liara and Ashley's engagement came before everything else, then came the more somber stuff as the crew had come to the same realization, they were going to split up.

Well some of them were. Ashley and Liara chose to stay aboard the Normandy with Shepard, they would get married at later date but for now they would follow their Commander.

Garrus was the same, he didn't feel ready to return to C-Sec yet… so he would join along for the ride as well, citing that Marc would go insane without him around to have a proper "guy talk" with from time to time.

Kaidan would be staying aboard the Normandy as well, he had gotten used to the crew and still cared for Shepard so he didn't see a reason to leave. Add that Marc and him were finally getting along, there really wasn't any reason to leave.

Wrex announced his intention of leaving for Tuchanka, he had this grand plan for reuniting the Krogan clans and prepare for the cure to the Genophage, though that little detail was only known between him and Marc.

Tali was going to leave for the Flotilla, she had her pilgrimage gift and felt that she had seen enough of the Galaxy for now. But she did promise Garrus to find some time to see him, perhaps the Normandy could swing by the Flotilla so the two could see each other.

Then there was Echo. Of course he was staying with Shepard, he had nothing else to do and wouldn't risk leaving her behind. Though he did talk about his plans for going to Palavan at his first chance, both to meet Garrus family but also to cure his mother… just like he had promised Saren.

In the end everything was slowly going ahead, life couldn't be halted and everyone would move on. But such is the way of everything and one can only make sure that when your time comes, you have a lot of good memories to show for it.

---

Somewhere in the Galaxy, on a planet hidden from everyone.

A woman was sitting by a small lake; she sat with her feet dipped into the water and was enjoying the cold sensation when her eyes suddenly popped open and she looked towards the sky.

"Oh my… Sovereign is dead, and a whole day early. That's my Orokan! Perhaps that means I get to see him sooner than I anticipated… ohh I do hope he brings that girlfriend of his, I do so miss the sound of children laughing"

The strange woman stood up and stretched her arms above her head, as a nice breeze blew through the trees as if singing a song. She then walked over to a small hut and went inside; she would be having guests soon!

-The End-