Disclaimer: Bioware owns Mass Effect and its characters. Only the OC's and changes in the plot are my own.

POV Garvil

We decided to wait in the briefing room, knowing that Shepard would probably like to talk to us before we leave on our first mission. I leaned forward, the nervousness still not going away. I look around at the men and women who I would fight with for the duration of this assignment. Kaidan Alenko was a biotic like myself, but knew a few things about tech as well. He looked to be not much older than me, maybe only a few years. He had a kind, but firm face as he returned my stare. Next in line was Ashley Williams. I had the idea from her actions in Udina's Office that she was a xenophobe. She confirmed my suspicions when I noticed her give grim looks to Garrus, Wrex, and Tali. She noticed me looking at her, and I gave her my most authoritative stare. She brought her gaze to the floor in front of her in response.

Garrus was the last person on the opposite row. He wore the blue armor typical of Turian C-Sec agents. His eyes betrayed him, as he had the gaze of a man who could bare your soul and study it for weaknesses. Maybe that was why he was an investigator. Wrex sat across from Garrus, on the far side of me. From what I had heard in my studies, he was a typical Krogan. He was still in his blood red armor, his skin pale yellow with various black stripes cutting through the right part of his face. His blood red eyes were piercing daggers through Garrus, which sent chills down my spine. I had heard of the krogans and their history with the rachni, the turians, and the salarians, but somehow I had never thought that a krogan would be so angry centuries later.

Tali was sitting in the chair next to me. Her suit was dark, a mixed pattern of black and purple with a hood that stood out over the rest. I resolved to ask about it later, if I got the chance. I turned back towards the door, waiting for Shepard.

Suddenly, the intercom came on. "This is your new commanding officer, Commander Shepard. We have an important job to do, find Saren and bring him to justice. We alone know the truth, the price of what will happen if we fail. Saren is powerful, with many formidable allies, but I trust in every single one of you, and know you will do your jobs are your fullest capacity. Let's kick some ass, crew."

I leaned back, smiling. My confidence spiked after the motivational speech, and I felt the air became less hostile overall. Shepard walked into the room, clearly not surprised to see all of us gathered around. I knew he was probably going to summon us all here either way.

Shepard stood in front of the terminal, facing us. "Since you all are going to be the people doing the actual missions with me, I'd like to go into a little more detail about the locations we've found." He turned and typed on the terminal. On the large screen above the terminal, a planet that had what looked to be a bunch of ruins appeared. "This is Feros. What we know about this planet is that it was a major Prothean planet. A human colony was formed there several years ago, and it looks like the Geth are there in force. A colony sent a distress beacon several weeks ago, but it was subtle enough that the Alliance couldn't spot it. The only reason we know about it at all is a small task force sent by the citadel to this system."

Ashley interjected with, "Why would the council want to keep tabs on this system?"

Shepard responded, "I don't know, Ashley. The council don't provide me with this kind of information. The colony, by what the council has told me, is not likely to last much longer. If the colony gets wiped out, we might lose the opportunity to figure out why the Geth are attacking this colony in particular." The screen blanked and Shepard typed on the terminal again. This time a white planet appeared.

"This is Noveria," Shepard began. "Geth sightings have been more subtle here. From what we have been able to tell, only one facility has been under attack, with all entrances vehemently defended. There's one more hitch with this assignment." Another clicks on the console, and a large facility appeared with a highlighted path. The path was dangerously jagged. "This facility is a hub where many major companies and several smaller ones dealing in illegalities take part in. They don't like spectres, so I wouldn't expect them to simply let us go where we need to go without some persuasion." Wrex laughed and punched his left hand into his right palm. He looked excited at the thought of "persuasion".

Shepard gave him a quick glance, but looked back at the whole of us afterwards. "There's one other thing. Matriarch Benezia has been sighted at this facility, so I doubt the geth aren't linked to her. We don't know how long we have until Benezia leaves, so it might be better to get this out of the way sooner than later."

The screen went blank again. Finally, a picture of four different systems appeared. "Dr. Liara T'soni is in one of these systems. We have no guaranteed fix on her location, but what we do know is that she is a scientist. She has been researching about the prothean's demise for decades. If we find a planet that has prothean ruins, chances are good she's nearby. If we know about her, we can bet Saren does too. Unlike the colonists on Feros, she's only one woman. If they go after her, she won't be able to hold out for long. The only problem is that it might take weeks to find the correct planet." The screen went blank and Shepard leaned against the terminal. "Any opinions on where we go first?"

Ashley again interjected first. "There's no guarantee that there's anything on Feros worth finding, and this Liara chick might be indoctrinated. Noveria's the most direct path."

Kaidan responded next. "Dr. Tsoni's an expert on the protheans. She might be able to shed light on this reaper theory we have. Going after Benezia might only bring pointless revenge, and Feros might simply be a colony that never was going to survive.

"Kaidan," Garrus started when Kaidan finished, "There are innocents on Feros that need your help. You're doing this to protect the weak. Would you be able to forgive yourself if you let them die?" Kaidan stared at Garrus for a minute, then leaned back in thought.

Shepard sighed. "You all make good points. We'll head to the Artemis Tau cluster for now and see what we find. If she turns out to be an ally, then her information on Benezia could help on Noveria. Since Asari are natural biotics, she might be able to help us fight back the Geth on Feros."

He turned around and activated the terminal again, this time to send a transmission. "Joker, send us through the relays to the Artemis Tau cluster. We'll begin our search there."

"Aye aye, captain," Joker responded before cutting the transmission.

Shepard turned around and faced us again. "Any questions?" Everyone shook their head. "Dismissed."

I stood up and stretched, then left the room and headed down towards the armory in the cargo bay. I took out my armor and polished it delicately, saddened that I had not done so in weeks. I was joined shortly after by Wrex. He looked at me in that menacing gaze I had come to expect from him. I shivered again. I took out my shotgun and began to clean it. I jumped slightly when I heard him talk, I hadn't expected it to sound the way it did. "So. You're a biotic, eh?"

I turned to him and saw him adjusting the barrel of his own shotgun, his gaze still on my face. "Yeah, you could say that." I didn't want to speak for too long. This krogan spelled trouble. He laughed, deeper and without a hint of amusement this time.

His voice pierced my soul. "Biotics aren't the only thing a warrior should rely on. Just because you're a hotshot among humans doesn't mean you're a warrior." He raised his hand, which was glowing blue with his own biotics. He had made his point. Throwing his shotgun back into his locker roughly, he walked away from me. I didn't move for several moments, but I decided to save my assault rifle for later and started riding the elevator up. Garrus had been messing around with the mako's terminal, but he stopped and joined me on the elevator as I activated the button to go up to the CIC.

Garrus' voice was much less menacing than Wrex's was. "I don't think we've met properly, Garvil. Garrus Vakarian, ex-C-Sec investigator." I shook his hand warmly. I had heard about the First Contact War; I had assumed that tensions between humans and turians were universal. I was glad to see that this was not the case. Shepard probably had a big part in this.

"Nice to meet you Garrus," I started. "As you obviously know already, my name is Marcus Garvil. Biotic and Alliance Military." Garrus' mandibles twitched, but he didn't respond right away.

The door opened before he continued our conversation. "I heard about you even before I met you, Garvil. If the council meets with someone, chances are I've heard of them." I groaned inside. Was there anyone in the galaxy that hadn't heard of me? "Anyone the council takes it upon themselves to see is extraordinary. I remember when I was asked to see the council..."

We had walked down the stairs towards the mess hall at this point. "You were summoned to see the council?" I asked, genuinely curious. "Weren't you a C-Sec investigator?"

Garrus laughed warmly. "I was considered to be a spectre. I eventually was turned down, which is fine with me. I wanted to be part of C-Sec originally because my father was. Eventually, I stayed when I saw just how nasty people can be down in the wards. Whew, some of the things I've seen would make a Krogan hurl." He hesitated, then put a claw over his face. "Well, probably not. But you get what I mean."

I nodded and sat in one of the chairs. Garrus took the seat across from me. "I'll tell you more about it later. I'd like to hear about you, Garvil."

I held up my hand at that. "Please, Garrus. Call me Marcus." The turian nodded, so I continued. "I was born the son of one of the most influential men on Earth. I joined the military against his wishes when I was discovered to be a biotic." I shook my head before continuing. "It took me three years of learning how to control it before I was cleared to begin fighting for the Alliance. Soon after, I was invited to join the N7 program." Garrus gave me a blank look. I knew the turian had seen the symbol on Shepard's armor, but didn't know what it actually meant. I cleared the confusion with, "The N7 program is the most intense training program humanity has. You are forced to lead people almost constantly, with very few sleep or lunch breaks for weeks. Afterwards, you go from station to station, planet to planet, learning the various skills needed to get out of any situation. It's a program very people go through until the end."

Garrus looked impressed, and I guessed that he had a new respect for Shepard. "The final test is to do something extraordinary what what you have learned, so that you show the entire Alliance that your training wasn't wasted. Only then do you earn the N7 marking. I recieved it only a week ago. Shepard got it after the Skyllian Blitz something like five years ago now."

Garrus leaned back in the chair, exhaling sharply. "That sounds even more grueling than what I went though. Every male turian has to join the military when they hit age fifteen. We're the military section of the council, so we have to make sure we have the recruits to keep the peace." He looked at the ceiling, as if lost in thought. "Every turian has the choice of retiring honorably once they hit forty. If they wish to remain in service, they have the choice of leaving service until they hit sixty. At that point, they are forcibly retired." I was taken aback, unknowing that turians had such a severe way of keeping their military strong.

"If you don't mind me asking," I responded, "How old are you?"

"Twenty five this coming month. I've been part of C-Sec for the past six years, part of their investigative team for four. To be honest, I'm glad I'm here instead of continuing my work. I was getting sick of all the bullshit protocols we had to follow to do our jobs. It would be much easier if we were given more leeway to make people talk or track people down."

I put my elbows on the table and rubbed my hands together. "The rules are there for a reason, Garrus."

He groaned softly. "Some rules are there to keep me from doing my job."

At that moment, none other than Commander Shepard walked down the stairs and noticed us. He strolled to where we sat and took the seat next to me. "I'm glad you two are getting along, Garrus, Marcus. Say, Garrus. This ship is designed partly by turians. How do you feel about the ship?"

Garrus laughed warmly and stood up. "This ship is amazing, Shepard. I have never seen anything like it. I can tell distinctly what is turian design, but I'm impressed with the changes humans have added to the design. It's a genius piece of work. I'm saddened we didn't think of them before."

Shepard smiled and looked at me. "How you settling in, Marcus? Anyone giving you trouble?"

I stood up after Garrus and gave Shepard a small smile. "No, I'm doing fine, Commander. I've got some things to do, I'll see you later."

Garrus sat back down as I left, leaving them to their conversation. I decided to visit Joker, the pilot. I walked across a holo vision of the Normandy and walked up to the cockpit. A man with the craziest beard I've ever seen and a cap giving a similar impression turned his chair around when he heard me approach.

His voice was soothing and sarcastic. "So you're the man Anderson was talking about. Listen, I'm not one to get too involved with the business of anyone who has the ability to kill me without using their hands. Especially if they can do it without blinking."

I face palmed and gave myself a second before responding. "I'm not going to kill the man who's supposed to fly the ship. I'm not that stupid."

He laughed. "I'm not one to take chances in person, either. We're hitting the Artemis Tau cluster in one hour. Tell Shepard when you see him. He still needs to designate which system we're exploring first." With that, he turned around and started fiddling with the controls again. I laughed softly to myself and walked back to the elevator. Now was as good a time as any to make sure my weapon mods were up to date.

A week later, we were doing an FTL flight to the second system in the Artemis Tau Cluster. Sparta had no planets with prothean ruins, so we decided to investigate Knossos next. With nothing better to do, I decided to go down and talk to Tali. She was the only alien I had yet to talk to, which wasn't difficult considering how much time she spent down at the drive core. She was standing next to a terminal, lost in her work, as usual. I walked behind her and said to her softly, "Hey Tali. Have time to talk?"

She jumped and turn around more quickly than I would have expected. "Oh, Garvil. Don't sneak up on me like that."

I shrugged an apology. "Don't tell me you haven't done much of anything not involving the core."

She looked towards the ground a moment, then started to pace. "I feel at home here. Quarians aren't very popular in the galaxy right now, Garvil. I'm simply used to having to stay out of everyone's way. Anyway, there must be a reason you're talking to me. What's up?"

I crossed my arms. "I was simply curious about your people, Tali. What's it like in the fleet?"

She seemed happy to respond. Apparently many people weren't interested in the quarian's culture. "We're a nomadic species. We were kicked off our home world 300 years ago by the Geth. We've been moving across the galaxy ever since, waiting for the best time to take our home world back."

"What's it like moving as a fleet?"

"Our culture is nomadic. We take what we can in order to continue our own existence. Without a place to call home, we haven't had a choice to. Our fleet holds sixteen million quarians, and it takes a lot of resources to maintain that amount of people as we move. It has made us less popular with the other races, as if creating the geth wasn't enough. Most inhabitants of a system panic when it becomes known that we're going to stop there for supplies. Most often we're met with passive hostility, and sometimes they prepare a large sum of gifts for us just so we won't enter their system and drain their resources. I'm ashamed that we let it get this far."

I nodded in sympathy. "What's your government like?"

"There are two bodies of government that keep everything running in the fleet. The Conclave has representatives from every ship, and they decide things like policing, our current course, and other things. The other group is the Admiralty Board, which oversees the Conclave. It consists of five quarians. They have a great influence in the Conclave's decisions, and they also are the ones in charge of deciding the result of the worst offenses. I'm talking about things like treason, mutiny, sabotage, you know. My father is a member of the Admiralty Board. The Admiralty Board has the decision to override the Conclave's decision at any time, but they must all resign their posts afterwards. This is to prevent the Admiralty Board from gaining too much power in this system. It's worked well for us; out of the three centuries we've been aboard the fleet, the Conclave has only been overridden four times."

I raised an eyebrow. "Your father is part of the admiralty board?

"Tell me more about your pilgrimage."

"It's a rite of passage every quarian must go through to reach adulthood. We leave our childhood ship when we reach a certain age, and explore the stars in order to bring back something of value to the fleet. When we find something, we can present the gift to any ship except for our childhood ship. This is to keep genetic diversity in the fleet. The captain of that ship can choose to deny the gift, but that rarely happens. Any captain is happy to increase the size of their crew; it proves they're able to provide for more quarians. Because my father is on the Admiralty Board, I'm expected to bring back something truly incredible. If I bring back something substandard, it would shame my father."

"I see," I responded. "Thank you for telling me about this, Tali."

She nodded. "Thanks for stopping by." After that quick goodbye, she turned around again and continued her work on the drive core.

I shrugged and nodded at Engineer Adams before walking back and towards the elevator. Wrex gave me another menacing glare, but Garrus and Ashley were rather friendly in the way they greeted me as I passed by. I nodded to them in kind and closed the elevator door. I walked out of the elevator on the CIC level to meet Shepard hovering over the galaxy map. Shepard turned at the elevator opened and smiled at me. Walking down the small ramp, he patted me on the shoulder. "Marcus. We found a planet in the Knossus system with prothean ruins on the surface. We're going to be there in one hour. Tell Tali to get ready, then do the same yourself. We're going down."

I groaned. "I just came from there, and now I have to take this piece of junk again?" I motioned towards the elevator.

He chuckled in response. "Are you complaining, soldier?"

I grumbled and turned back towards the elevator. I had always hated this thing, especially with how ridiculously slow it was. I knew the reason had something to do with the drive core malfunctioning, but the specifics were way beyond me. I walked back towards the back of the cargo hold to where Tali was.

I turned the corner and leaned against it, saying loudly, "Tali. We're touching down in an hour. You're on the ground team with Shepard and me; go ahead and prepare."

She turned to me and nodded, then left the controls to Adams. She walked past me and towards her storage locker. I looked after her, shaking my head at her paradoxical personality. She was talkative when pressured to, but rarely spoke otherwise. It was confusing to me. I followed and grabbed my armor, strapping my two weapons of choice to the back before joining Tali on the elevator. I felt Wrex's cold eyes on my back the entire time and I shivered. I could never get used to that gaze. Tali already had her suit on, so she only had to equip her weapons. She didn't look any less patient, although I wasn't sure I could tell the difference underneath the suit.

"You excited?" I asked her, since she didn't give much of an indication of what she felt about being on the first ground team mission.

She sighed and took a few moments to collect her thoughts. "I wasn't sure if I was going to ever leave the ship on this mission. I assumed Shepard brought me on only because he couldn't really say no. I'm not sure what to think about being wrong."

I laughed and patted her on the shoulder. "He's not like that. I can tell just from the few times I've talked to him. Just because you're a quarian, doesn't mean everyone hates you. I heard you mention something about showing what you could do in an alley? If that's true, then you're not here out of charity."

She stared at the floor for a moment. "I... I know. Thank you Marcus. I'm just not used to anyone outside of the fleet treating me as anything but a leech or a scavenger."

I put my hand on her shoulder again. "I have an idea on what that feels like. I've been labelled an outcast for most of my life. My schools because of my father owning a giant corporation, my biotics school because of my natural strength, the N7 program because I am a biotic, and the various crews on ships I served on because I was expected to be perfect at my job."

I was cut off when she dragged me into a hug. I was surprised for a moment, but hugged her back anyway. I knew I had alleviated something in her mind, but I felt strangely calmer as well, as if sharing my experiences had somehow made them less important. My next thought was that this was incredibly awkward, but I guessed it was to be expected from a woman who had little experience outside her own people.

The door opened and we released each other. Shepard turned and motioned us towards the briefing room. We followed and sat down in our usual spots. Shepard activated the terminal and a hot planet with pockets of lava showed up. "This is Therum. We're going to step down in the Mako and investigate the various ruins nearby to see if we can find Dr. T'Soni. We're not close enough to do any specific scans of the surface, so we'll have to wait until we're on the surface to get any leads. I'm not expecting any resistance once we touch down, but we have to be prepared for anything. Tali, have you been getting acquainted with the Mako?" She nodded confidently. Shepard nodded in response. "I'll drive. Garvil, you man the guns. If there's any resistance and we end up taking damage, you're in charge of repairs, Tali."

Tali nodded and I saluted. Shepard saluted back, then started walking towards the elevator. I groaned audibly again, which earned me a sharp look from Shepard. I swallowed and entered the elevator after the other two. Forcing down a sigh, I leaned into the corner and waited.

"Commander. There's a high energy signature a few klicks to the east from your position. The readings are far too high to be normal from an average ruin, so you might have found your girl." Joker's voice echoed through the relatively cramped space of the Mako. Shepard was in the driver's compartment, nearly concealed from view due to the back location of the turret. Tali was sitting in one of the two empty seats on either side between me and the driver compartment. She seemed to be at home in the cramped conditions. I was apprehensive again, as I wasn't used to being this cramped inside a vehicle. We started moving along the only path on the planet.

"Nothing yet, Commander," I said to Shepard.

"Stay alert. You never know what could be here."

We continued along for several minutes, slowly moving through to avoid driving directly off a cliff and into a lava lake. I stayed vigilant in looking for hostiles, but none appeared. Suddenly, I felt the Mako shift slightly and the shield meter inside the ship began to drain. I tightened my grip on the turret controls and looked around for the source. "The bridge, Marcus!" Shepard told me. I turned towards the bridge and saw the two geth on the edge, firing rockets. I fired an explosive round of my own and the two of them exploded, the rocket launchers creating a chain reaction. We moved slowly towards the bridge, making sure we weren't surprised again by geth rockets. The rest of the bridge was empty, but now we were getting close to the source of the energy Joker was talking about. I had a moment of foreboding, but pushed it away as we encountered a large geth machine. A single explosive shot didn't even take out its shields, and we barely dodged the blue missile it shot back, even though it moved incredibly slowly.

I pounded it with my machine gun, and finally it stumbled over its own legs, causing minor explosions across the hull before collapsing to one side. I allowed myself a sigh of relief, but stayed alert to the path ahead. We traveled like this for fifteen minutes, but soon encountered a wall where the only way across was on foot. We stepped out of the Mako carefully, making sure our temperature controls were set to a normal temperature. Carefully, we traveled through the wall and discovered the facility we came here to find. The geth had fortified it with rocket troopers and snipers. Shepard took out his sniper rifle, and I grabbed my assault rifle. Tali simply grabbed her pistol and activated her omni-tool. We snuck behind a single rock, and Shepard motioned for me to move up. As I slid towards the next rock, one of the sniper's light bulb heads suddenly exploded, the momentum shifting towards the edge. This action alerted the rest of the geth units, and they began slowly marching towards where we were hidden. I poked my head out and shot off a trooper's head as well, but had to return to cover as a rocket whizzed by my head.

I heard a zap within the geth force, and peeked out to find a combat drone. I smiled and sent a biotic shockwave through the distracted troopers, knocking most of them over. I mowed them down as Shepard took out another sniper, and suddenly only the rocket trooper was left. Shepard couldn't get a good shot, but I had an idea. I ran out of cover and sprinted towards the tower the geth was on top of, ignoring Shepard's shouts for me to stop. I reached the tower after only a single rocket aimed in my path only barely affecting my biotic barrier. I climbed the stairs quickly, aware that I'd be targeted as soon as I showed myself. Throwing up a barrier, I sprinted up the last flight of stairs and met a rocket straight in the face. The barrier broke by the blast, but I was unhurt. I grabbed the geth before it could shoot again, and it began speaking in that garbled mess they communicate with. Without any hesitation, I threw it off the tower, watching over the side as the various parts cracked under the weight of the fall. I watched with my assault rifle ready in case the geth moved, but it didn't. I went back down the tower and met Tali and Shepard at the bottom. Shepard was annoyed that I'd disobey an order. I nodded when he told me to never do it again, and we passed into the next valley.

It was quiet. There was a giant wall of what appeared to be the last remaining section of an ancient building. Crates of unknown origin and contents were littered throughout the landscape, and an entrance to a deep part of the ruins was visible nearby. We had just started moving when we noticed a geth stalker. It dropped from the small bit of ceiling attached to the ancient wall, then scaled it. I was confused by this, but then I saw a giant version of the armature we saw in the mako drop from the atmosphere. We immediately dropped behind one of the nearby boxes.

"How are we going to destroy this thing?" I asked Shepard as various troopers began to filter from the other side of the clearing.

"Take out the troopers first so we don't get flanked. Afterwards, we can take potshots at the armature until we can take it out," he responded. He ducked out from behind cover and took out a trooper with his sniper rifle. Winking at me, he took out his assault rifle and began to pound at the geth forces.

I used biotic pull on one of the troopers and stomped its face into the ground. The resulting shock hurt, but it was bearable and didn't set off any biotic field. We methodically took out every minor geth unit before finally turning towards the colossus, which had been pinning us to our location the entire time. It took over ten minutes to finally take the thing out, due to its intensely strong shields. We stood over the wreckage after our victory and sighed with relief. We walked towards the entrance to the ruins and checked in with Joker.

"Stay on standby. We've had heavy geth resistance and we don't know what's down here. We might need a quick evac."

"Aye aye, Commander."

We walked down the long corridor and into a huge room. I had never seen a prothean ruin before, and it looked more advanced than anything I had ever seen. The only way down from where we were was an elevator, which malfunctioned shortly after we started it on its course. We jumped several feet down to a broken section of floor, which showed that the lower levels of this place were very worn down.

"Hey! Is anyone there?"

We heard the voice behind one of the many barriers on one side of the vertical corridor. We rushed towards the source and saw an Asari behind the barrier, trapped in some sort of stasis pod.

"You there! I need help! I activated the ruin's security system when I heard geth inside, but I must have triggered something I shouldn't. Can you help me?"

Shepard walked up to the barrier and looked beyond. "Every way to the other side is blocked by a barrier. I'm not sure we'll be able to."

The asari pleaded, "Try to find a way around. I can't deactivate the barriers from here while I'm inside this bubble, and I'm sure the geth will be searching for a way as well. They've been searching for a way to me for a while now. I'm not sure how much time as passed."

Shepard held a hand up to stop her. "We'll find a way, just give us a little time."

The asari nodded, so we turned towards the bottom of the shaft a level down. A few scattered geth troopers were around, including one messing with a terminal. Shepard took care of that one, and we cleaned up the rest with few problems. Tali walked up towards the terminal the geth had been messing with.

"This is the controls for this mining laser. We could use it to drill a hole underneath the ruins."

I folded my arms. "It could also collapse the whole thing on top of our heads."

Shepard sighed. "It's our only way across to Dr. T'Soni. Do it."

Tali nodded, then activated a few more buttons. I jumped out of my skin as the laser turned on, and put my hands to my ears on reflex, even though the helmet got in the way of it doing anything. Shepard was doing the same thing, although I suspected Tali had braced for it since she was the one that activated it.

Shepard walked up to the giant hole where the a wall used to be, then motioned us over. On the other side of the low dip was what appeared to be a very strange and large circular elevator. Tali messed with a set of controls near the middle of the platform, and soon we started moving. We went up a single floor, and Shepard walked to the console next to the stasised asari.

"How did you get to this side? Did it have anything to do with the huge crash I heard just now?" She asked.

I walked up to her as she fell, the stasis pod vanishing. Her boots made a loud thud against the metal, and I held out my hand. She grabbed it and I helped her stand. She was beautiful, more so than any asari I had seen before. "Yeah, that was us. A giant mining laser below us created a giant hole for us to crawl through."

She nodded and walked towards the elevator we walked in from. She activated the controls and we started to move up, just as slowly as in the Normandy.

She turned to Shepard again. "You've come to take me from this place? Be careful, I don't think we've seen the last of the geth. There was a krogan with them as well."

Shepard nodded and grabbed his assault rifle. I did the same. Tali brought out her pistol, as usual. Shepard turned to us, all while stating, "Stay vigilant. We're probably not out of this yet."

Suddenly, the entire ruins shook. I lost my balance and landed on my butt. Tali, did the same, although Shepard and Liara kept their balance, barely. Liara looked around. Shepard continued with, "What was that?"

Liara stepped forward towards the location we had entered the elevator from. Suddenly, she stopped and quickly turned towards us in fear. "The mining laser. It must have triggered a seismic event! The ruins are going to collapse!"

Shepard swore to himself, but only I was close enough to hear it. He activated his omni-tool and turned on the transmitter. "Joker. We need immediate evac. Lock in on my signal and get here double time, mister."

Joker responded immediately. "Yes, commander. ETA three minutes."

The elevator took only another minute to reach the top. The one entrance from here was blocked by a barrier, but we had a more pressing concern in front of us. The krogan Liara had mentioned stood right in front of it, shotgun in his arms and a devilish glare in his eyes.

He laughed evilly. I was starting to wonder if I'd ever meet a krogan that wouldn't send chills down my spine. "I thank you for finding the asari for us. Hand her to us and you can go free. Or don't, that would be more fun." He chuckled to himself and raised his shotgun.

Shepard took a step forward and raised his fist at the krogan. "Over my dead body. You want her? Get through us first."

The krogan laughed again and several geth appeared from the sides of the doorway. I grabbed Liara and dragged her to one of the sides, depositing her behind one of the sets of wires on the elevator. "Shield yourself, don't let him get close," I told her. She nodded and activated a barrier. I peeked from the side and saw two geth shock troopers approach. I switched out my assault rifle for a shotgun and used biotic pull on the first. It took more work than simply pulling a regular trooper, but it was well within my abilities. I pumped 2 shotgun blasts into its light bulb face, which was enough to make it explode. The second appeared on the other side and spoke what I assumed was a taunt in its garbled nonsense. I used biotic throw and used my assault rifle to blast it from afar. It overheated before the shock trooper died, so I thought fast on my feet and sprinted up to it when it was just standing up. When I reached it, I activated my omni-tool's blade and shoved it into the geth's chest. The geth started shaking uncontrollably while speaking more of its own language, and I rolled away just in time for the explosion simply to graze my barriers.

I looked across the elevator. Shepard was finishing the last of the geth, and Tali was attempting to back away from the krogan. I gasped and substituted my assault rifle for my shotgun when the krogan roared and charged her. He hit her square on the chest and she went flying, hitting the wall on the other side. She slumped over, stunned. Shepard noticed and ran straight to her. I stared at her slumped against the wall for a second, and all I could think of was-

...

I saw Wellings last gaze as he stared into my eyes. His plead was for the pain to end. In what felt like hours, his eyes closed and he slumped down on the desk.

...

The scientist laughed as I turned around at the sound of machinery. I saw hidden turrets in the potted plants sitting in each corner. I thought fast and ran forward, activating my blade and digging it deep into the laughing man. His laugh stopped, followed by a scream...

I snapped out of my fantasy to realize that the krogan, not the head scientist, was in front of me, screaming. What was even more incredible to me was that I was screaming as well. My senses came back to me, followed by fire everywhere in my body. I sensed my arm was against the krogan's warm armor, blood coating it as my omni-blade dug into him. Next, I felt all my biotic power being rushed into the krogan through the omni-blade, his own rebelling against my power. Finally, I felt nothing.

POV Shepard

I rushed to Tali and grabbed her shoulders. She looked up slowly at me, and I hugged her as I looked towards the krogan laughing as he began to stalk towards us. Where's Marcus?

I looked around and saw Marcus, staring at us in horror. As if in slow motion, I saw his entire body glow blue as he turned towards the krogan, and suddenly he was at the krogan's side. Still in slow motion, I saw the omni-tool's blade appear in Marcus' hand as it dug deep into the krogan's side. Both of them started screaming as the biotic power began growing more and more intense.

Suddenly, it was over. The krogan collapsed, his eyes burned out from the biotic power. Marcus stood for only a second, apparently unaware as of what just happened, then collapsed on top of the other body. Liara yelped from behind one of the sets of wires and ran towards Marcus. I offered my hand to Tali and she took it, obviously stable enough to begin walking. I nodded to her and sprinted to Marcus. He was out cold. I grabbed him and put him over my shoulder as a large rock crashed into the elevator. I nearly fell backwards with the weight of Marcus on me, but the elevator remained stable long enough for us to head towards the only entrance. The barrier phased out of existence and we sprinted through. Liara was first, since she knew the layout of the place. I motioned Tali to follow, and I brought up the rear.

We ran for a full minute before reaching the tube corridor we had entered on our way to finding Liara. We sprinted across it, and I felt my lungs beginning to hurt from the overuse. I saw the Normandy below as we exited the ruins. We slowed down as we followed the ramp down, and I nearly fell to my knees from Marcus' weight as we walked the last few steps to the airlock.

Tali helped me carry Marcus down to the medical bay. Doctor Selwyn immediately jumped up from her console at the sight of him and prepared the terminal for one of the beds. We gently dropped him onto the bed, and Selwyn began running tests. Tali began shaking, so I grabbed her in a hug to calm her down. Selwyn looked at the monitor in alarm when the first test results came back, then turned to us and said, "Leave the room please. I have to work quickly."

I nodded and helped Tali out of the room. I helped her to one of the chairs on the table and sat next to her, still keeping my arm around her in sympathy. Liara sat down across from her, looking just as grave as I assumed Tali was.

"Is he..." Liara said to me.

"We don't know," I responded. I couldn't see her clearly. What I saw had shaken me. I had seen people driven by rage, but nothing like this.

The rest of the crew appeared shortly after. I explained what happened and the reason Marcus was in the medical bay. Everyone returned a shocked look except for Wrex, who appeared... proud?

Soon after, my omni-tool glowed. Selwyn was summoning me to the medical bay. I opened the doors and she looked at me with sad eyes. "He has to see a hospital. I don't think he's going to die, but I can't tell for sure what the damage will be until he gets medical attention from an actual hospital. The types of injuries he has is not what I have the supplies for."

I nodded, then activated my omni-tool again. "Joker, we're going to the Citadel. Take the fastest route, we might not have much time."

Joker responded back through my omni-tool. "Sure thing Commander. It will severely drain our fuel, but I think I can get us there in a few hours."

"Thank you Joker," I responded, then returned to the mess hall. I wasn't sure I would be able to sleep at all tonight.

A/N: I haven't forgotten about Chakwas. There's a reason she's not on the ship.

EDIT: Miscellaneous errors fixed