Chapter 15

A powerful biotic field burst forward around the perversion of Zaeed, which blew Shepard back past the squad. Tali sprinted to his aid while both Garrus and Thane tried desperately to pump enough bullets into the monster before it completed it's transformation. They failed, and Zaeed's living corpse grew twice in size, his eyes took on an empty neon blue colour and large, and abominable growths made out of eezo grew from his back, chest and arms. His hands were no more as the growths around them wrapped around them to turn into giant crab like claws. The dead mercenaries around him malformed into monsters of their own, albeit in a much more familiar form.

"Husks!" cried Thane, "we must retreat." No squad member was going to argue with that suggestion and they ran back out through the lab and onto the streets of Omega as they continued to fire at the monsters behind them. Much to the squad's surprise the husks were protected by a biotic barrier on par with that of a standard Collector and they were able to hurl relatively large solid objects at them to deal massive damage, although Shepard's quick reflexes allowed him to hurl the objects back to injure the biotic husks. When the squad finally had the space they needed they opened fire on the husks with automatic weapons, a biotic barrage and several tech attacks. The husks had been wiped out, but Zaeed was still charging the squad at full speed. His bloodlust had taken him over thoroughly; every cell in his body had been mutated by that strange technology and his own addiction to violence. There was nothing left of him except for the monster he left behind.

Shepard wasn't going to allow it to exist.

The assassin and the vigilante continued to overheat their thermal clips with their automatic weapons trying to bring down Zaeed's barrier while Tali tried to help whittle it down with her shotgun. The beast was completely focused on pummeling Shepard into the ground which gave the others some room to work with, while Shepard was using his biotics to enhance his agility to dodge all of his heavy strikes and counter attack with reave. There were times when Shepard tried to slow him down with a throw or singularity but Zaeed's mass was just too great to be reduced enough to be affected by such attempts and his barrier wasn't making it very easy for him, meaning more aggressive attacks like reave, warp and gunfire were his only effective methods of confrontation. The abomination tried to use its own biotics to hurl crates, cars and anything else commonly found on space stations at Shepard in an attempt to crush him from a distance but Shepard was able to reduce their mass enough for them to just float pass him harmlessly. When that failed Zaeed tried shooting him with giant orbs of corrupted biotic flames to burn him but Shepard put up a giant barrier to absorb the rippling fields. The erected barrier forced Shepard to plant his feet into the ground, which ended up being his downfall. After being distracted by so many projectiles Zaeed had been able to rush up right in front of him and grabbed him with a giant claw, lifting him up into the sky for the other members of the team to see.

Tali was horrified by the sight. She charged in and stuffed the barrel of her eviscerator into his spine and pulled the trigger again and again but Zaeed refused to loosen his grip. He just continued to smash Shepard into the ground with his physical might, with each strike causing a large biotic reaction dealt even more damage to Shepard. The first blast radius destroyed Tali's shield with one strike and the second blew her back a few paces. When she looked up Shepard was barely twitching his muscles. He was almost limp, and certainly felt defeated.

"Shepard!" Tali cried out horrifically. Nothing has ever horrified her so much. Even Thane just froze in shock. Garrus was enraged.

"Bastard!" Garrus roared, "I'm going to tear you apart for what you've done!" Nothing had ever destroyed Garrus's self-preservation instinct to this degree before. Even Tali was surprised to see him walk closer and closer to Zaeed as he popped thermal clip after thermal clip from his avenger to try and bring down that monster's barriers. A concussive shot destroyed the last of Zaeed's barriers, stunning him, while Garrus used his last thermal clip to chip away at the monster's armour. Thane pecked away at him with his Viper supplemented by warp to try and destroy the thing's armour further, while Tali knelt beside Shepard, holding him by the head in one arm and using her omni-tool to check his vital signs with the other.

"Shepard. Shepard. Please come back to me," Tali whispered as the tears flowed from her eyes. His vital signs were present but weak and the levo-amino medi-gel she was pumping into him was only doing a small amount to keep him alive. His breathing had returned but his heartbeat was continuing to wane, and Tali's eyes just kept filling up with tears.

"Shepard don't leave me here alone," Tali whispered again. Her throat was so clogged on her own fear and sorrow that she could barely talk properly. More medi-gel went into his system until she ran out.

"Shepard. Shepard. I love you. Don't die on me now. I can't live without you."