Disclaimer: Mass Effect and the canon characters are owned by Bioware. Any custom character and plot changes are my own.

Thessia

POV: Marcus Garvil

Sriphina led me out of the alleyway the same direction we had entered. I kept an eye out in case of any trouble, as I was well aware of the dangers. We walked for several minutes across the pathways in silence, the Asari Spectre deep in concentration. I was staying a few steps away as we walked, in case she suddenly stopped again. It turned out to be a valid precaution, as she did so again without warning. We were standing in front of a hotel, of all things. I raised an eyebrow at Sriphina, but she ignored me as she inspected the building, her face furrowed.

A moment later, she glanced to me. "This is it. Stay close and don't say anything. I'd bet anything we'll be watched while we're inside." Her voice carried determination and gave no hint of wiggle room. I nodded, trusting in her ability to know what she was doing. The other spectre didn't respond further, instead deciding to open the door and walk inside.

I sighed to myself and followed close behind her. Some of the Asari in the lounge stared at me as we passed, including several in what looked like a card game. I turned away and focused on the receptionist desk on the far side of the room. The receptionist gave me a surprised glance, but smoothed her gaze when we reached her desk.

"What can I do for you two?" she asked sweetly, giving us a fake smile. I had a feeling she knew that we were spectres. I folded my arms, suspicious.

Sriphina showed none of my suspicions, instead keeping her firm demeanor as she placed both her hands on the counter. "We need to inspect the building," she began, voice as firm as her face.

The receptionist glanced around before responding. "I'm afraid I can't let you do that without a permit." She sounded visibly afraid, making my suspicions only rise further.

Sriphina didn't look fazed. "We're council spectres on an important investigation. We're inspecting the building."

The receptionist looked down towards the floor. I had a feeling this had happened before, and didn't end very well. "All right, go ahead," she finally responded, this time in a soft voice. She turned away, visibly attempting to keep us out of her vision. Sriphina paid her no more mind, instead motioning me to follow with her head and walking towards the first floor hallway. I followed and looked at the various doors, curious where the hidden entrance would be.

Sriphina turned at the end of the hallway and hung a right into what looked like a back lounge. It was empty and looked like it was rarely used. I continued following the asari through the room as I looked around. She stopped at the bathroom door in the back and opened it without hesitation. I stopped for a moment before continuing, stopping myself from sighing. Who places an entrance in a damn bathroom? I thought to myself. I couldn't stop myself from thinking that I was being led into a woman's bathroom, which made my cheeks flush in embarrassment.

Sriphina walked to the other end of the large bathroom and to the last stall. She pulled the door open and took the one step needed to reach the back. She pressed her hand to the wall several tiles above the toilet, activating her biotics in the process. I watched for a moment, then noticed the back of the stall begin to move. I put my hand to my forehead in disbelief. The wall moved back a few feet, then stopped in place. Sriphina turned around back to me.

"This is it, Marcus. I don't know what we'll find on the other side of this passage. Be ready."

I nodded in response, causing her to turn again and step past the toilet to the passage beyond. I sighed and followed Sriphina into the passage, allowing the back wall to slide back into place. I raised my arm and activated my biotics, joining Sriphina's own biotic powered light. The walls were cracked and beginning to smell, causing my nose to wrinkle. We walked down the passage for several minutes, encountering nothing of note the entire way through. My heart began to beat faster from trepidation as we walked, although Sriphina retained her normal calm guise.

We finally reached what appeared to be a stairway blocked off by a horizontal wooden block. Sriphina stopped and gazed up at it, inspecting for any obvious way to open it. I stepped up and pressed against it gently, causing it to raise slightly. Sriphina immediately picked up on it, walking up to the other side and testing it there. The result was the same as mine. Grinning, she activated her biotics, sending a blast that blew the block straight off the hinges connecting it to the floor.

I shook my head in disbelief, disappointed at the other spectre's lack of discretion. Sriphina ignored me and walked up the now open stairway. I followed closely, biotics still at the ready. The room was empty of anyone but the two of us, but I had a feeling that wouldn't last long. I looked around, inspecting the inside of the warehouse. We were in a small section of it, a fairly empty room except for a few scattered footlockers and the wooden block on the far end. I noticed with a sigh that the block had dented the wall, meaning they weren't reinforced as most things in the city were.

Shaking my head, I turned my attention to the footlockers. Sriphina and I spent several minutes going through them, mainly due to the fact that neither of us were especially skilled in opening locks. We found nothing particularly special, which wasn't a surprise to me. If the Gray Rose had any suspicion of the secret entrance being compromised, they would likely not be careless enough to leave any important information in the first room of the warehouse.

We walked to the door on the far end of the room, preparing ourselves for what lay on the other side. I drew my assault rifle as my companion drew a shotgun. She slowly reached towards the door's opening mechanism, giving me a firm look. I nodded, causing her to open the door and swing around to aim at anyone on the other side.

She wasn't disappointed. She shot immediately, causing an asari on the other side to scream in pain. I sent a biotic blast through the door, hitting another asari and throwing her across the large room. There were four left, two of which were sending biotic flares at us. I erected a barrier as Sriphina kept shooting, allowing her to easily dispatch of them.

We walked into the room, being careful in case the terrorists weren't alone. I knelt down at the closest asari and activated her omni-tool, checking the memory banks for anything of use.

"Nothing on her," I told Sriphina a few moments later, dropping the dead asari's arm and standing back up. "The memory on her omni-tool's blank." It would be safe to assume the rest were no different. Sriphina merely responded with an absent nod as he continued exploring throughout the large room. I looked up and noticed that there were several tiers of storage. Some of the various racks had containers, although most were completely empty.

I shivered as we continued walking. I had a very bad feeling about this place. This was obviously still used by the Gray Rose, although we had only seen four sisters attack us up to this point. Sriphina stopped and pointed to a door near the far corner of the room, to which I nodded. I activated my biotics and kept them on standby, not trusting this situation for a moment. We took up spots on each side of the door, Sriphina again taking the task of opening the door. She immediately vaulted into the open when the door opened, although there were no Gray Rose agents on the other side. She slowly walked into the room, which was a dead end except for various terminals.

I had only taken a single step when I heard the wall spark where my head had just been a second before. I turned and noticed a sniper on one of the upper levels, lining up another shot. I vaulted into the room and used my biotics to force the door shut.

"They're here," I told Sriphina as I activated my biotics to keep the door shut. "I won't be able to keep the door closed for long.

Sriphina glanced at me and nodded between fiddling around with the terminal. She grabbed a data disc from her armor and placed it in the terminal, furiously pressing more commands. "This terminal is a data mine," she told me with a victorious smile. "There's no telling what this information can contain."

I flinched as the asari began probing the locking mechanism. I was a strong biotic for a human, but I couldn't handle several asari for long.

Sriphina walked up to me and linked her own biotics to mine. I felt the pressure on my own biotics lower, although the biotic power forced against our own increased.

"Delay them as long as possible," Sriphina ordered me. I assumed the data was automatically being transferred to the disc. I held back some of my biotic power, as I was already beginning to feel the familiar throb of stress on my nerves. Sriphina gritted her teeth with the effort of keeping the barrier up in front of the lock, but otherwise showed no signs of breaking.

Our one advantage was the fact that the Gray Rose members couldn't simply go into an all out assault against the door. If they tried, most likely the door would simply be unusable and we'd be trapped inside with all their information. The other likely possibility was the door caving in and breaking off straight to the other side of the wall, destroying the information. They had to be precise in how they opened the door, which gave us time. I wasn't sure how long we held; all I knew was that I had to hold out until the information finished downloading to the OSD.

"It has to be nearly done by now," Sriphina said to me in a strained voice in what seemed like hours later.

"How much damn data are you getting?" I asked in response, focused on concentrating my biotics on the door. The throbbing in my nerves intensified, causing me to wince every time the throbbing began.

"It's a gold mine," Sriphina responded with excitement, although her voice was still strained. "If we get out of here with that data, we could be busy for months just going through it all. If it's all encrypted, it could take even longer."

I gave her a confused look. "Whatever they're planning, they might be able to do it if we're wasting our time analyzing data that might not even be relevant."

Sriphina rolled her eyes at me in response. "Do you have any better ideas? We have no idea what they want to do, and for all we know this could be our only way of finding out."

I sighed. "Good point. Let's focus on getting out of here,"I finalized, focusing on holding on to the barrier. I soon had to stop my biotics, causing the throbbing in my nerves to start dissipating. Sriphina grunted a few times, but soon enough faltered as well, stumbling to the ground and panting heavily.

The door opened and several asari entered the room, each of them giving us looks of contempt and disgust. They each raised their assault rifles, causing me to begin to panic as more asari began entering the room. Sriphina was still panting heavily on the other side of the room, so I thought quickly.

The next thing that happened was nothing I consciously thought of doing, but it was what I did. I suddenly appeared in the middle of the group, causing me to be confused for a moment. I felt my nerves throb violently once, then I noticed every Gray Rose member knocked out cold in various parts of both the room we were in and the outside one.

It took me a few moments to gather my bearings, but I was interrupted by a severe numbness over my entire body. I fell over roughly, unable to breathe. Slowly, the numbness went away, but the replacement wasn't much better. My nerves flared violently enough to make tears form in my eyes, my empty lungs attempt to make me scream, and my arms to slightly shake from the shock.

I slowly began to breathe again as the throbbing slowly ebbed, and soon enough Sriphina limped up to me and held out an arm. I shook my head and waited a moment, then grabbed it when I felt I had enough energy to be able to hold myself up. Tears were streaking down my face from the pain, but I was able to breathe deeply again.

Sriphina gave me a strange look. "I haven't seen anyone do what you just did," she stated to me in awe. I shook my head to clear my head, then turned to her.

"What did I do?" I asked her in confusion. "All I remember is suddenly moving and then everyone was on the ground."

Sriphina's returning stare was devoid of any emotion. I wasn't sure I liked that look.

"You turned into biotic energy and moved to one of the Gray Rose members," the Asari Spectre responded, her voice thick with disbelief and shock. "You faltered a moment, then you surrounded yourself with biotic energy and sent it out in a wave."

It was my turn to stare blankly. I wasn't convinced that was what happened, but it fit what I remembered perfectly.

"Sriphina," I whispered, looking down at the ground. "It was instinctual. I don't think I can replicate it."

She shook her head again, then reached into her armor and took out a disc. "Hopefully, you won't have to. The data finished downloading to the disc when they broke through the door. Luckily, your antics and the bodies didn't destroy it."

I scratched my head awkwardly. I was beginning to feel a little embarrassed about how she said the last sentence. "Yeah, good to see this trip wasn't a waste."

She smiled at me in reassurance. My responding look was confused, but I was beginning to understand her. I had just proven why I was a spectre to her. She was beginning to trust me.

As she began limping back towards the tunnel, I began smiling as well.

Maybe she's not so bad to be around after all.

One Hour Later, Sriphina's Safe House

POV: Marcus Garvil

The trip back to the hideout was relatively uneventful. Sriphina's limp was nothing more than a numb leg, so she regained control of it shortly after we left the hideout. The throbbing in my nerves began becoming tolerable afterwords, so we were able to finish the return trip without any difficulties.

Sriphina immediately went through the only closed door in the living room as soon as we arrived. I followed her in, marveling at what was inside. Various equipment and terminals were strewn throughout, which I assumed was her work area when she did her spectre missions. I shook my head in disbelief at the sheer amount of high tech equipment in the room as Sriphina took the disc and placed it in the drives of one of the far side terminals.

I walked up to behind her and leaned over her shoulder, trying to see what was going on. The asari pressed a few commands, then crossed her arms as a program began cycling through the data. My breath was taken away when I found out just how much was on this disc. If it hadn't been encrypted, we still would've had to take over a month to be able to read it all.

"You really found the jackpot," I told her, impressed. The grin on her face widened at my words.

"This is the first real lead I've had on the Gray Rose's activities ever since I've been tracking them. All I've had so far was cargo shipments, low level personnel, and useless data caches."

I raised an eyebrow at her excitement. I'd probably be just as excited if I was tailing the same group for several decades, but she simply sounded obsessed at this point. I stood there watching the screen as it began decrypting the first message. It took a few minutes, but soon enough a message showed up on the screen.

The Council is weak and cannot retaliate. Prepare our agent and make sure she gets in position before they can rebuild. We will never get a better chance.

I crossed my arms as I read, dread filling my body the farther I got.

Sriphina simply grinned malevolently. "So the Council's report was correct. They're up to something related to the aftermath of the Battle of the Citadel. This is our key to stopping it."

I wasn't so sure. This data would take a long time to decrypt fully, and there was no way most of it was related. It looked like we had happened upon a database of information, and we would probably find something relating to all their plans. Even if we eventually found out what they were trying to do, it might end up being months too late.

If we're lucky, I thought to myself. We can find some way to delay it while we figure out what it is.

I looked down towards the ground, then suddenly conjured up another thought. They said 'before they can rebuild.' Hopefully that means it won't be possible for months yet.

We have a chance.

Three Weeks Later, Normandy SR1

POV: Commander John Shepard

I sat in the mess hall, eating my midday meal. I trusted my crew to be able to handle the searching without me, so I simply leaned back and relaxed. I had given myself very little time to do so the past week, so I grinned at myself as I rested.

It feels good to be able to stop for a moment and catch my breath, I thought to myself with my eyes closed. This job isn't going to get interesting. The Geth has stopped being aggressive weeks ago, ever since we stopped Saren at the Citadel.

I opened my eyes slowly and took another bite of the pasta. Ever since the Battle of the Citadel, the Alliance had made sure to stock the Normandy up with better quality food. Now I didn't cringe when it was meal time, which was one of the best perks of being a hero.

I stood up and brought my disposable plate to the garbage disposal next to the ration cabinet, then stretched in contentment.

I leaned against the wall next to my locker, staring at it wistfully. The job might have been stressful, I thought with sadness, but I'd gladly do it again to have my team back.

My eyes drew down to the floor, having a flashback to where I sat against it, having given up all hope. Marcus had walked up to me and gave me the hope I needed to follow the mission through.

I wonder what he's doing right now, I thought to myself in wonder. I'd kill to have his spot. Spectres aren't often given boring jobs like these.

I turned away and leaned my back against the wall, deep in my thoughts. I had decided to leave in order to find a way to stop the reapers, but it hadn't sunk in until I left just how directionless I was. I was given an official order by the Council when I left to find any remaining geth and terminate them, but there was no challenge or point in doing it. Any geth we found ended up posing very little of a fight. After Sovereign's demise, they stopped posing any sort of resistance.

Our current operation was to investigate the location where a few ships went missing, but I wasn't sure it was anything but slavers or mercenaries simply wanting easy prey. Either way, it was our job to find out what was causing the disappearances.

I pushed myself from the wall and decided to head up to the cockpit, but I was stopped when one of the ensigns in the CIC went over the intercom.

"Commander, unknown ship is intercepting-"

Static.

Then a crash.

I gasped and immediately ran straight to the end of the mess hall where the emergency terminal was located. I activated it and pressed the code to the wall safe. Immediately afterwards, my second set of N7 armor appeared to one side. I hastily put it on the bottom half, then wrote the distress signal's code before continuing my dressing. I felt a gust of wind against my back as I fastened my helmet, signaling the rapid loss of life support to this section of the ship. I took a deep breath, then heard footsteps behind me.

"Commander," a female voice said behind me in panic. I glanced around to see Liara's face, giving me a look that matched her voice.

I pressed the last command on the terminal, then deactivated it and turned around. "Distress signal is launched. Get everyone to the escape pods."

Liara shook her head defiantly. "No, Commander. Joker's staying with the ship, and so am I."

I sighed inwardly to herself and stepped forward, grabbing her arm. "I'm giving you an order, Liara. Get your ass to an escape pod."

She pulled her arm away. "Garrus is herding everyone to the escape pods. I'm staying until every one of them is through."

I stamped my foot down, then turned and grabbed her shoulders. I winced when another crash rocked the ship, nearly causing me to lose my balance.

"I love you Liara," I began, my tone a lot more tender than my previous actions. "You're going to the escape pods so you can get your ass off this ship before it explodes, while I go up to the cockpit and haul Joker's crippled ass out of here. Understand?"

Liara shook for a moment, then looked down in guilt and nodded. Tears formed in her eyes, but I only barely noticed as I turned around.

"Get going, Liara. You're not going down with the ship. That's an order." I stated the last sentence again, much more firmly this time. Liara sniffled and ran past me, giving in to my words. I smiled softly to myself and followed, arms ahead of my face.

As I reached the table, it caved in, making my ears ring. I walked quickly up the stairs towards the CIC, hearing the creak of bending metal behind me. I glanced back to see the bottom of the stairs completely destroyed, metal poking in every direction and obviously making it impossible to walk over it. I took a deep breath to calm my nerves as I exited on the top of the stairs.

Immediately, I noticed that the roof of the CIC was completely missing. I began walking around the ruined galaxy map with a sinking feeling in my heart.

My ship, I thought to myself, the shock beginning to wear off as the reality began setting in. My ship is gone.

I noticed the cockpit had a barrier, and I continued walking towards it as the ruined CIC left my vision. I shook my head as more of the reality set in, but I otherwise ignored it and continued.

As soon as I passed the barrier, I began running towards the pilot's chair where Joker was sitting. He had placed an oxygen mask on, but otherwise showed no sign of preparing for the lost life support of the ship.

I placed my hand on his shoulder to let him know of my presence. "It's time to go, Joker."

Joker shook his head in disbelief. "No," he began, panic and dismay accenting his voice. "I can still save her, Commander."

I couldn't help but admire his loyalty to the ship. I felt for him, but there were more important things. "She's gone, Joker. You shouldn't go down with the ship."

Joker pressed a few more commands, then stopped and slowly placed his arms on the armrests. "Yeah, you're right Commander." His voice displayed defeat, which made me feel even worse.

I grabbed his arm and began lifting. "Ow, watch the arm!" he protested, but I ignored it and pulled him out of the seat.

I stopped when I noticed the unknown ship appear through the small part of the hole we could see from the cockpit. A moment later, it was gone from our view. The front of the ship was spinning, albeit slowly. "Oh no, it's coming around for another attack!" Joker said, panic beginning to creep into his voice. I double timed it towards the emergency escape pod in the cockpit, forcing it open and pushing Joker inside.

I placed one foot in the escape pod when the ship attacked again. A large orange beam penetrated the other side of the cockpit, where the copilot usually sat. I slammed into the wall with the blast, stunning me for a moment.

"Commander!" I heard Joker say as stars floated in front of my eyes. I blinked and saw enough to notice I was near the entrance of the cockpit. The beam had ended, but I realized I likely wouldn't have the time to be able to return to the escape pod.

"Go, Joker. Save yourself!" I screamed at him, waving him off as he stared at me in an extreme mixture of shock and guilt. He gave me one last wistful look before closing the escape pod, activating the protocol to release it from the ship.

I smiled. From what I had seen of the escape pods as I passed the mess hall, it looked like most of the pods were launched. The best case scenario was that nearly everyone escaped.

At the cost of my life, I thought to myself, waiting for the end. I made sure my crew escaped.

I began laughing, remembering a short adage from humanity's history. "The captain is the last man to leave a sinking ship." This couldn't have been more true in the current situation.

Finally, the beam reappeared in the cockpit, causing an explosion that threw me back into the CIC. I landed roughly on the remains of the galaxy map, which changed my momentum and threw me away from the remains of the Normandy. I looked down in dismay as I noticed just how badly the Normandy was damaged. The back half of the ship was completely gone, and several large pieces of debris was floating around the ship.

Wait, I thought to myself in confusion. Isn't it getting harder to breathe?

I gasped when I realized that it was. I grabbed the oxygen pipe with both hands to find the leak, but it was fruitless. I ran my hands across it to find where the air was escaping from, but soon enough the last bit of air exited my lungs. My body flared with panic as my lungs attempted to fill with air, but it didn't take long for that to numb.

I closed my eyes as my limbs became too difficult to move. So this is how it ends, I thought to myself with what little thought I had left.

I love you, Liara.