Nate slowly opened his eyes. He felt ringing in his ears. His eyes were hazy and he felt like he had been banged against the head with a baseball bat, with the difference being that he had been in reality just fallen about 500 meters from the sky.

He turned his head. The Asari was dead. Her head was a blue gory mess and pieces of her were lying all around the place. "Shit!" he thought, "Gotta get up." He slowly started raising to his feet. Suddenly a sharp pain ran trough his foot and he collapsed on the ground. The bone was broken. His head was still ringing. There was blood slowly flowing out of his foot.

He decided to stay still as his omnitool was not working for some reason. Well, falling from that height must have shattered it's processor.

Some time later he awakened to the sound of a voice coming trough a sound filter. "Are you okay? You have to wake! Please!" It was that Quarian Shepard had had with her. Nate opened his eyes and first looked down. The bleeding had stopped. Automatic medigel injection! Of course! His head was clearer, but his foot was still broken.

"What? What happened?" he asked.

"You have to come quick. It's the Collectors. Shepard! Shepard's… dead!" she was sobbing.

"What about Thane? Liara?"

"I don't know. Th-They just appeared out of nowhere! They blew up the cabs! They came with the Shadow Broker mercenaries! And the cops… they did nothing to stop them. It was like they were controlled by something," the Quarian said, obviously trying to fight the overwhelming hopelessness.

"We have to go. Now!" Nate shouted and tried to get up. It was painful. Then an idea flashed into his mind. He flared up his biotics and created a field to support his broken leg. They moved to a cab stand and hired one to the docking bay. Nate relaxed a bit, but still stayed alert for impending threats. The cab zipped quickly trough the traffic. The Normandy was in sight.

"Almost there!"

"How are we going to explain?"

"We're just goi-" He was cut off short as a huge, colossal figure appeared in the distance. A second later the Normandy was no more. It had exploded into pieces from a red death ray.

"Oh keelah… it's the Reapers. It's over. This is the end. We have failed," sat the Quarian deeper into her seat.

"We need to get offworld. I MIGHT have an idea," Nate said, "We're going to need an extranet terminal." He opened his omnitool map and noted one just over 20 meters ahead of them. They commanded the taxi to stop and moved as quickly as the leg allowed to the terminal. Time to make use of Liara's intel. He proceeded to use a password to access Cerberus communications.

"Requesting the Illusive man, urgent. It doesn't matter who I am, just get him on the line."

The terminal beeped a few times and then opened up a direct link to the Illusive man.

"Nate Halls. I expect critical information. I am not even going to ask how you got access to our communications. What's the problem?" he tossed his cigarette into the bin.

"The Reapers are here! Everyone in Shepard's crew is dead. I think. We need access to project Change."

"Change? You are a sneaky one. Or was it Liara T'Soni that told you? Very well. It's not completely ready yet, but should be functional." He lit another cigarette, "I already know about the Reapers being here though. It appears our worst fears have come true. I thought we had time to warn Shepard and have her destroy the relay the Reapers came trough, but it's too late for that. I give you authorization. Make it count. This is humanity's last chance. I'm sending you the coordinates. It's a half an hour ride from Nos Astra." The Illusive man cut the communication.

"We got to go. You'll see for yourself when we get there."

They hitched yet another ride. Nate opened his mouth: "So, what's your name anyway?"

"Tali'Zorah nar Rayya vas Neema. But, I think you can call me just Tali, considering it's the end of the world." She let out a nervous chuckle.

"You have arrived at your destination," announced a VI. A lone cargo ship floated in space, obviously cloaked using the same techonolgy as the Normandy.

"Nate Halls and Tali'Zorah requesting permission to dock. Situation is critical."

"Permission granted. We don't have much time left if what we've heard is true. Hurry. We'll send someone to meet you," a Cerberus operative said.

A very formal-looking young man arrived to greet them. He waved for them to follow and started jogging forward. Nate shrieked with pain. He decided to use his biotic powers to the limit and started hovering forward. After less than a minute of walking and floating they arrived. An oval shaped portal was in one of the walls with a terminal right next to it. It wasn't the prettiest invention.

"I assume you know what is going to happen. This device modifies the flow of time by crossing light speed. Basically it means that you can try to get Shepard ready for it. You'll remember everything you have done and know, as far as our test subjects have indicated. Two and-a-half years back I presume?" he asked.

Nate nodded. He took a peek at the obviously interested Quarian who was close to asking about the different parts of the device.

"It's ready," a man said, „Step trough. Nothing bad has happened before, don't worry. Though obviously the previous test subjects were animals and we sent them backwards only a few days."

Tali slowly stepped toward it, Nate close behind. She paused for a second and walked in. The Assassin followed her. An endless blackness greeted them.

A/N: Was it too much? Was it okay? Should I delete this chapter and continue like it seemed before? I'd appreciate some feedback.