Shepard stood there staring at Finch's body until he heard Vega's voice over his comm., "Captain, do you read me? Come in Captain, are you okay?"

Shepard tapped his ear, "Vega….I….I'm fine. Finch….Finch is dead."

"What happened sir?"

"I had just recaptured him on the first floor and we were about to get out through a window when an alarm went off. Next thing I know a steel door came down and sliced Finch in half when he was climbing out the window."

"Dios mío (My god)."

"What's going on Vega?"

"From what I remember when I was briefed on the palace's security, the steel doors are part of the lockdown procedures but I can't figure out why they would be going off now."

"So we're trapped in here?"

"Well, normally yes."

"Normally?"

"Normally all the doors and window are supposed to be sealed when lockdown is initiated but I just stepped out of the audience chamber and it looks some of the windows are still open. How about you? Are there still some windows open downstairs?"

Shepard checked the other windows in the room he was in and saw that all of them were sealed. He then ran out into the hallway and headed one door down the hall. A quick peek inside revealed that the windows inside were still open.

"Yeah it looks like the lockdown only sealed this room too," he said to Vega over the comm., "the other windows on this floor appear to still be open."

"Ok," Vega replied, "it will probably be a while before the rescue teams can get another ramp set up at one of the other upstairs windows. I'll head down and get out the first open window I find. You should probably do the same."

"Sounds like a plan. Be careful and I'll see you outside."

"Aye-aye sir, Vega out."

As soon as Vega signed off, Shepard raced inside the room with the open window. He got halfway across the room when he heard a now familiar sound. Shortly after he heard it, large steel doors came down and sealed all the windows in the room. Shepard quickly retreated out of the room and ran into the next one down the hall. This time he was barely able to get inside the room before the windows locked down. He tried a few more rooms but it soon became apparent now that all the rooms were locking down before he could get to them.

"Dammit!" Shepard cursed.

Time was running out for Shepard. Eventually he was either going to run out of oxygen or the palace would become completely engulfed by the flames and him with it. He needed to find a way out and fast. He tapped his ear and began putting through a call to Ashley. He figured that she and everyone else in the operations center could come up with a better escape plan than he could and much quicker.

(CRACK!)

Shepard was so focused on putting through the call that he didn't notice the ceiling directly above him was starting to crack. When the crack became big enough, a large chunk of the ceiling broke loose and began to fall towards him.

"What the hell is going on in there?"

Outside the palace, Ashley had burst into the operations center after hearing news from the rescue crews. They had reported that the last of the hostages had been safely evacuated. Unfortunately before Vega could join them, all the room's windows were sealed by large steel doors effectively trapping Vega inside. With no way of knowing where Vega was, the rescue crews had no idea where to set up a new escape ramp.

Worse still, a group of soldiers stationed along the perimeter of the palace reported seeing Shepard and Finch in one of the first floor windows. Shepard was escorting Finch out the window when a steel door came down and sliced Finch in half. With the room completely sealed, the only thing the soldiers could see was the half of Finch that fell out the window. No word from Shepard or Vega had been heard since and now Ashley was getting worried. Despite all the hostages being safely out of the palace, the crisis was not quite over yet.

"I don't know Commander," one of the technicians in the operation center replied, "the palace is going into lockdown."

"Who ordered the lockdown?"

"As far as we can tell nobody ordered it. The doors just started closing by themselves."

Sure enough when Ashley looked at the tech's screen, she could see a three dimensional map of the palace. Several windows were flashing red to indicate that they were locked down. The only thing Ashley couldn't understand was why it was only certain windows that were closed. A lockdown wouldn't be much use if it didn't seal up the whole palace at once. Something wasn't adding up. But the time to figure it out wasn't then. First Ashley needed to focus on getting Shepard and Vega out of the palace.

Then the technician's screen began flashing and an alarm sounded. Suddenly more windows began to flash red. When the screen finally stopped flashing, all the windows on the first floor were colored red indicating they were all sealed. Also all the exterior windows on the second floor were sealed. With those windows closed, setting up a new escape ramp was now out of the question. The situation for Shepard and Vega had gotten worse.

"Can't we override the lockdown?" Ashley asked.

"I'm working on it now Commander," another technician replied, "once I enter the passcode I will be able to….what the hell?"

"What's wrong?" Ashley asked concerned.

"I don't know. I entered the correct code but it didn't work."

"Try again."

Ashley watched as the tech entered the code again and then two more times after that. Each time ended with the same result. The computer would process the code for a few seconds. Then it would just stop. There was no code rejected message of any kind. It just stopped processing the code.

"No good Commander. The computer won't take the code. It's almost like something or someone is stopping the code from being fully processed."

"Dammit," Ashley said as she slammed a fist on the table near the computer. If they couldn't get the doors open there was a very good chance that Shepard and Vega would be trapped in the palace and at the mercy of the flames and smoke. She quickly ran through ideas for alternate options but shot down each one. Even if the fire wasn't already making it risky, with the doors closed they could not send in a rescue team. They could try to break or cut through the steel doors but that would take time, time Shepard and Vega didn't have. After shooting down her latest idea, it was then that Ashley noticed that her minor outburst had attracted the attention of everyone in the operations center.

"ALL RIGHT EVERYONE LISTEN UP!" she said loud enough for everyone to hear. "We have two of our own trapped inside the palace and they are running out of time. We need to find a way to get them out before they burn along with the palace. LET'S BRING OUR PEOPLE HOME!"

While everyone went to work, Ashley quickly stepped out of the operations center to get away from the others. She may have been able to give her orders with the leadership and authority the situation called for but once she was outside and by herself, the first tear began to appear in her eyes. She wanted to believe that the combined intellectual power of everyone in the operations center would be able to figure some way to get Shepard and Vega out safely but she knew there wasn't much any of them could do in what little time they still had. There was only one thing that was keeping her hopeful for a happy ending. It was the fact that she knew her husband well. Shepard had always come back to her in the past and if anyone could find a way out of an impossible situation, it was him.

Ashley stood outside the operations center for what felt like hours when she heard a voice calling her, "Commander come quick, we have a call from Captain Shepard coming in on the comm."

"LOCO WATCH OUT!"

Shepard had just gotten his call through to the operations center and was waiting for Ashley to speak when he heard a voice call him. Before Shepard could see who it was, he was shoved out of the way just before a large piece of the ceiling landed on top of him. The piece proceeded all the way down to floor and made a loud smash when it impacted. Shepard slowly got up from the floor and saw Vega next to him getting up as well.

"Thanks for the save Vega," he said.

"Anytime," Vega replied, "I guess we can add crumbling palace to our list of things that can kill us in here."

"Looks like. I've checked every room I've come across but all the windows get locked down before I even have a chance to enter."

"I was having a similar problem before I found you. There are still a few rooms we haven't checked yet but I'll bet we'll have the same results."

"Skipper, do you read me?" Come on skipper answer me."

Ashley's voice in his ear reminded Shepard of the call he was in the middle of before Vega saved him, "I read you Williams. Vega and I are fine."

Shepard could hear Ashley breathe a sigh of relief, "it's good to hear your voice skipper. You had me worried for a while."

"Not my intention. Vega and I are on the first floor trying to find a way out but every window we come across is locked down."

"I know. I'm in the operations center and we got the confirmation a short while ago that the entire first floor has been sealed. One of our technicians is trying to override the lockdown commands but something keeps kicking him out. Shepard those steel doors are practically impregnable. Unless we get them open I don't know how we can get you two out of there."

"Well we can't wait out the lockdown. We'll run out of oxygen soon or get burned alive once the fire consumes the rest of the palace. There's got to be a way out of here."

"Williams," said Vega, "you said the entire first floor was sealed. Is the second floor sealed as well?"

"What are you thinking Vega?" asked Shepard.

"I still have some extra rope that we didn't use to fast-rope into the ballroom. I know we can't wait for an escape slide to be set up but we can at least use the rope to climb down. Of course that will only work if not all the windows are sealed."

Suddenly Shepard and Vega heard Ashley cheer over the comm., "That's great to hear Vega. I was going to say the second floor was no good because all the exterior windows were sealed so we couldn't set up escape ramps even if we had time. But the windows that overlook the interior courtyard are still open. If you still have some rope, you can climb out one of the windows and I'll have a shuttle land in the courtyard waiting to extract you.

Vega smiled, "I have a better idea. There's a balcony right outside the green drawing room. The shuttle could hover by the balcony and Shepard and I won't even need the rope."

Shepard nodded, "I like it. Williams get a shuttle in the air. Vega and I will head up to the balcony and rendezvous with the shuttle there."

"Aye-aye skipper, when you meet the shuttle I'll be on board waiting for you."

"Copy that. See you soon, Shepard out."

After signing off, Shepard and Vega backtracked out the stairwell to head back to the second floor. By the now the fires were almost completely consuming every room. The heat was almost suffocating. It was so hot that Shepard and Vega had to adjust the temperature regulators on theirs suits to cool down. Hopefully if their plan worked they wouldn't be burning hot much longer.

The trek upstairs proved more difficult than the trip they made coming down due to how much the fire had spread since Shepard and Vega used it to go down to the first floor. They also had to be watching their heads as the fire was causing more sections of the ceiling to collapse. When they reached the second floor they headed for the throne room. Along the way they checked each room to for any window that led to the exterior of the palace that might have still been open. Unfortunately it proved hopeless as they realized that Ashley was right. None of the windows they checked were open.

Deciding not to check windows anymore, they focused on getting to the throne room. When they reached it, they were relieved to see that it still had not caught fire. Their relief was short lived. When they glanced into the adjacent green drawing room, they froze in horror when they saw what awaited them. The fire had now consumed the entire room. It made sense as it was where one of the initial explosions that started the fire was located. Suddenly, over the sounds of the crackling flames, Shepard and Vega heard a shuttle entering the courtyard. Ashley and the escape shuttle had arrived.

"I don't think we have much of a choice Loco," said Vega, "that window is our best chance of getting out of here."

Upon reviewing their options, Shepard realized that Vega was right. They were going to have to run through the flames to get to the window. As long as they made it out onto the balcony, they would be able to put out any parts of their body that caught fire quickly. First they needed to open the window. Shepard turned to Vega and pointed at the center window. Vega nodded that he understood what Shepard wanted and pulled out his shotgun. He primed it with a carnage round, aimed and fired. The shell shattered the window and the shards rained down onto the floor. They took a few quick breaths and when Shepard counted to three, they charged into the drawing room.

The fires started burning them as soon as they took their first step inside. It was taking every ounce of their willpower to tune out the pain and focus on the window. Unfortunately they were so focused on running to the window that they didn't realize that a familiar alarm had started going off. Shepard was the first one to reach the window. He was hopping over the ledge when a hatch opened at the top of the window and the large steel door began to make its descent. Just when Shepard made it out and before Vega could attempt to climb out, the door had reached the bottom of its drop, sealing the window.

A large part of Shepard's armor was on fire so he hit the ground as soon as he was on the balcony. He rolled around on the ground in an attempt to put the fires out. As soon as the last flame was extinguished, Shepard looked himself over and saw that the fire had not been able to burn through his armor. Relieved that he made it out unscathed, he turned around hoping to see Vega right behind him but was only greeted by the large steel door that had sealed the window.

"Vega?" he called out.

"AAAAHHHHHHH!"

An almost blood-curdling scream came from the other side of the door. Vega was still inside the drawing room and was no doubt completely ablaze by now. Shepard ran to the window and feverishly tried to get the steel door to open. It was a hopeless task but hearing Vega's screams was causing him not to think straight. When he finally realized that the door wasn't opening, he started banging on it with his rifle butt.

Ashley, who was on board the shuttle waiting for them, saw what had happened and jumped onto the balcony. She ran towards Shepard who had suddenly stopped banging on the door. Shepard was now putting his ear against the door. Ashley listened herself and realized what had made Shepard stopped banging on the door. Through the steel door, she could hear Vega was trying to say something. From where she was, she couldn't make out what Vega said. She could tell however that Shepard did. Shepard stepped away from the window looking slightly confused at what he heard but then his face tensed with anger.

"Son of a bitch," Ashley could hear Shepard say softly to himself. Ashley was about to ask him about it when she realized that there was no longer any sound of life coming from inside the palace. In fact the only sound that could be heard was the crackling sound of the flames. Ashley saw that Shepard's look of anger turned to into one of someone whose heart had sunk after hearing some bad news. Ashley was about to grab Shepard by the arm and guide him to the shuttle when suddenly he started banging on the door with his rifle again.

"VEGA!" he shouted, "VEGA TALK TO ME! COME ON VEGA SAY SOMETHING! JAMES!"

As Shepard continued banging on the door, Ashley stood where she was with her head bowed. A tear started to fall down her face. Eventually she composed herself enough to grab Shepard and pull him away. Unfortunately Shepard was not making it easy for her.

"NO ASHLEY!" he shouted. "LET GO OF ME! VEGA'S STILL IN THERE! WE HAVE TO HELP HIM!"

"THERE'S NOTHING WE CAN DO!" Ashley said as she struggled to keep Shepard moving. "He's gone."

"NO HE'S NOT! WE CAN STILL HELP HIM!"

"MARK STOP!"

Shepard stopped struggling. Hearing Ashley call him by his first name surprised him. Normally in the field she would call him "Shepard" or "skipper." His eyes followed her as she came around from behind him and stood face to face with him. He noticed tears falling down her face. Then Ashley reached up and placed a hand on Shepard's cheek.

"I'm sorry Mark," she said almost sobbing, "he's gone."

Shepard bowed his head. He knew that Ashley was right. He pulled Ashley towards him and they embraced. Once they were in each other's arms, Shepard heard Ashley sob. They just stood there crying for a minute when the shuttle pilot called out saying that they had to clear the palace grounds so that the firefighting crews could get to work. The interruption was enough to snap Shepard out his sadness and his face was again tense with anger. He broke away from Ashley and headed towards the shuttle. Ashley followed close behind him.

"Get the operations center on the comm.," Shepard called out to the shuttle pilot.

"Yes sir," the pilot replied.

"What's wrong skipper?" Ashley asked.

"Vega said something to me before he died," answered Shepard, "he said that Ambassador Rosila didn't have any bodyguards with him. Yuless lied to us."