Author's Note:

As I said here is what I wanted to say in my last author's note. When I started writing chapter 1, I wanted to change some dialogue and introduce some things about Tarius. As shown at the beginning of the chapter, I thought it would be interesting to say that Anderson didn't want Shepard to be the first spectre at first because he was the butcher of Torfan. I also wanted to show one of those connections to his real life as a sith lord, hence the fact that he felt like he had felt ultimate power before. This also began my tributes to other things that I will let you try to figure out. Expect more connections and tributes/shout outs. Now here's chapter 2.

Chapter 2:

Shepard had just reached the cargo bay when his shields reached full strength. It wasn't suprising that they took so long to activate since he had modded them to go beyond even their usual awesome state. Shepard wore very powerful colossus X armor that he had modded to withstand the power of his biotics. It was even more important when he got angry because his biotics become unstable and would overload regular shields and armor (he realized this when his first armor he got back in boot camp melted during a combat simulation), they've never figured out why it happens only that his body gets very hot and the armor holds all the heat in causing the heat to build up. Luckily his colossus X armor had a special filtration/coolant system that allowed the heat to escape and with the mods he had added since he pryed it from the cold dead body of the batarian forces leader on Torfan it was even better. His shotgun was a very powerful weapon that he got after his father's death. Before he got it, his father had used it thousands of times, and before that the spectre who gave it to his father had used it. Perhaps that's why he was willing to observe him for the spectres. Out of respect for his father saving his life.

He noticed Nihlus staring at him, "What?"

"I was just thinking that, for how much you look like your father, you don't act much like him."

This made Shepard very angry, "What do you know about him?!" He screamed at Nihlus. Everyone turned to look at them.

"I know that he was a young man barely more than a teen who picked up my shotgun and saved my ass from hundreds of slavers." At this point Nihlus had been shouting. Bringing his voice to barely more than a whisper."And I also know that he had a son who showed just as much strength as him." He then turned to get his weapons and stopped after taking one step, "And it's unfortunate that his son doesn't have as much restraint." He then walked away and started inspecting his weapons.

Shepard had had his biotics flaring through the entire conversation. He finally let them go and realized his suit was really hot and that he had forgotten to active the filtration system. He activated it and started inspecting his pistol.

"Are you all right commander?" Anderson asked behind him.

"He's right, my father had more restraint. Why didn't you put him forward while he was alive?"

"You know that we would have if he were alive." Anderson replied.

He then walked with Shepard to Jenkins and Kaiden.

"Your team's the muscle in this operation commander. Go in hard and head straight for the beacon."

"Approaching first drop point." Joker said over the loud speaker.

Jenkins turned and saw Nihlus with his weapons, ready to go. "Nihlus you're coming with us?" He asked.

"I move faster on my own." He replied and ran and jumped out to the ground.

"Are you sure we can trust him?" Shepard asked Anderson.

"You know that better than any of us." He replied. "The missions yours now Shepard." He said as they reached the second drop point.

Shepard and his team went to the open doors and looked down.

"So, do we wait for him to land or—" Before Jenkins could finish his sentence Shepard jumped out and slammed to the ground with his biotics smashing a nice hole in the ground. "Well that's not fair, i don't have biotics."

Kaiden realizing he's not going to jump, walks around Jenkins and uses his biotics to lightly float down to the ground. Meanwhile, Jenkins now has to make a decision. Stay on the ship, or jump. "Come on. Nihlus jumped. They jumped. You can jump." He told himself. Taking a few steps back he started to run and... "Nope! You can't do it." He stopped just short of the edge and turned around. He shook a little but kept his balance. "Well that was close." Standing there staring at him, was Anderson. "What?" He said as he took a step forward and slipped on some of the coolant that ran through Shepards suit to help it cool down. He held his balance for a few more seconds, and then fell out of the ship. He screamed the whole way down and continued even after he hit the ground.

A woman stood at the top of a hill overlooking a lot of geth. She heard the screaming even from half a mile away. She made a decision to check it out once she finished with the machines. Turning back to them, she pulled her shotgun out and shot the one that had been about to hit her. She then charged the others thinking 1 down 49 to go.

Shepard was the one who got Jenkins to shut up. He smacked him in the head and told him to stand up. "Ow. I think I broke... everything."

"Shut up Jenkins. You just alerted the entire colony to our presence. That includes our enemies."

"Right... sir"

"You seem fine." Kaiden had run a scan during the conversation. "You didn't break any bones but you will have quite a few bruises. Kind of like when you asked to see my biotics."

"Great, those lasted for weeks, but at least they were worth it."

Having heard enough, Shepard moved forward and as he had suspected, they followed. He didn't go very far before they got sidetracked again. Kaiden started to talk to Jenkins about a creature that floated nearby. "It's just a gasbag." Jenkins said, "They're harmless." Already pushed pretty far the voice told him to kill the soldier but instead he decided he would shoot the gasbag. It exploded and Kaiden reacted "Damn!"

"Lets keep moving." Shepard said, "We need to keep our guard up, or else, the fucktard might become a team killing fucktard."

Before either one could respond, Shepard moved forward. When they got to an open area, Shepard put his fist up for them to stop. He observed the area for a few seconds and then sent Jenkins forward. Jenkins moved forward and was almost immediantly shot by enemy drones. They then turned to Shepard and Kaiden, immediately causing Shepard and Kaiden to spring into action. Kaiden let loose an overload and then a sabatoge and then fired at the one he used them on. Shepard immediately began firing his shotgun with his incendiary rounds. He took a few shots before he finally hit the thing. Annoyed, he put his shotgun back on the magnetic clip removed his helmet, which was obstructing his view, and using his biotics to help him, threw his helmet at the last drone. It hit dead on making it explode. The last thing it saw was Shepards eyes glowing redder than ever before and then returning to their usual brown. The last thing it heard was Shepard yelling a yell that made Jenkins's scream look like a whisper.

She heard the yell as she killed the last geth. She immediately knew that she should hurry. Williams was in that direction with the 212. She started to worry what might happen if they ran into this madman. She thought it would probably be worse than anything the geth would do to them. She hurried to her modified motorcycle, an antique in some people's eyes, but her baby in her eyes. Getting on her motorcycle she started it up and started towards where the yell had come from.

Kaiden walked up to Jenkins's body and checked his pulse. "They tore right through his shields. He never stood a chance."

Shepard was surprised to discover that he actually felt bad about Jenkins's death. But they still had a mission to complete. "We can't help him and we have a mission to finish. Come on, lets keep moving."

"Yes sir." Kaiden responded.

They continued on their way. They hadn't gone fifty feet before they ran into another patrol of drones.

She was almost there when one of the spikes the geth were using on the colonists went down. She would have ignored it if she hadn't seen movement immediately after that from the same spot. So instead, she stopped to look around. She didn't see any enemies but something had her on edge, she just couldn't figure out what. She stood there for about 10 seconds before she realized what had put her on edge. The spikes... they had been full when she went through here earlier. But now... now they were empty and down. She immediately pulled out her shotgun and got ready for anything. She sat at the ready for a few seconds and when nothing showed up, she got ready to leave. That was when a husk jumped at her from out of nowhere. It knocked her over and sent her sprawling. "Big mistake." She said, and went to grab her shotgun off of it's magnetic clip only to realize that she hadn't put it back. Looking around quickly, she found it... ten feet from her and on the other side of the husk. To make matters worse some more husks were coming out of there hiding spots to attack her. "Shit," was all she could think to say.

Shepard and Kaiden were just finishing off the last of the drones when she got knocked over by the husk. They then moved on to a clearing where they saw a woman running from some more drones. The woman was wearing phoenix armor and was lucky that she was because her shields were protecting her very well. Unlike Jenkins she was getting shot and surviving. She got hit in the shoulder and stumbled. She used it to her advantage though. She turned around as she fell and pulled her pistol out and shot the drones making them explode. When she had finished doing that she noticed the machines doing something with one of the colonists. She looked like she was going to try and help for a moment but then a spike shot up through the colonist and, realizing she couldn't help him now, she got up and ran to cover behind a rock.

The woman was still fighting husks when this happened but at least she had biotics or else they would have killed her immediately. She had been fighting with both her fists and biotics the whole time and hadn't even needed to pull out her pistol yet. She finally reached her shotgun and shot the husk that almost got her. From there it was quite easy for her because her shotgun made short work of them. Once they were all dead she observed the damage to her motorcycle. "Damn it." She said after seeing that they had beat it up good and she wasn't going to be riding it anytime soon. Annoyed but not forgetting why she came this way she hid her motorcycle to come back for it later and moved on.

During this time Shepard and Kaiden began to help the woman fight the machines that had impaled the colonist. Kaiden released an overload and Shepard shot them with his shotgun. The first one exploded in fire and scrap metal but the second one didn't want to die so Shepard put his shotgun away and charged it. He hit it with a full biotic punch that made it's head explode. He then turned to the woman they had found. "What's your name?" he asked her.

"Gunnery chief Ashley Williams of the 212. You in charge here sir?"

"No shit Sherlock. You figure that out all by yourself?"

She went to respond but before she could he put his hand up and shook his head. "I didn't actually want an answer. Now give me a status report."

"Oh man. We were out on patrol when the attack hit. We tryed to get to the beacon and they boxed us in. I've been fighting for my life ever since."

"Do you have any clue what we're fighting? Because i have no clue at all and i've fought some crazy things."

"I think they're geth."

"What?! The geth haven't been seen beyond veil for years, what are they doing here?" Kaiden said.

"If I had to guess, I'd have to say that they're here for the beacon." She said.

"Well no shit. Come on Kaiden, lets get moving."

"Wait sir, let me come with you."

"No."

"Come on commander. She might be able to help us."

"Since when is this a democracy. I'm pretty sure that i'm in charge."

"I'll follow your orders sir. Just let me help you." Ashley said.

"Fine. I guess this a democracy now." Shepard said before moving on.

"Don't let it get to you. He's always like that. He's had a crappy life." Kaiden told Ashley.

"He's always like that?" Ashley asked.

"Yeah. He grows on you though." Kaiden replied, "Come on."

Shepard was a little ahead of them when they ran into more geth. They began fighting and killed all but one geth when that geth was tackled to the ground by a soldier in completely black armor with two knifes which they used to decapitated the geth unit. The soldier stood up and picked up the geth's head. "Geth 0, me 61." The soldier said.

"Shit." was all Shepard was able to say before the soldier looked at him and even through the N7 breather helmet you could see the look in her eyes. She walked towards him and removed her helmet as she went to reveal a beautiful woman with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a scar that went over her right eye all the way down through her lips and ended at her chin. It was the scar she had recieved on their first mission together.

"Hey," Shepard said, "How have you been Texas?"

"Wait, your the famous Texas?" Kaiden asked.

It didn't matter. It was as if he wasn't there. "You son of a bitch! It's been five years and all you can say is hey?!" She responded. She then took the last three steps required to close the distance and punched him as hard as she could without using her biotics. "No goodbye! No I'm going to this place and no contact! We may have broken up but that's no reason to become an asshole!"

"Wait you two used to date?" Ashley asked, but again it was like they were invisible.

"That's not my falt! I've been busy the last 5 years!" Shepard's eyes were still brown but there was a red glow around them.

"Don't give me those eyes with that red glow!" She snapped.

Suddenly his eyes stopped glowing and he had a look of surprise on his face. "They were glowing?"

"Look Tarius, I know why your eyes do that. So, I also know that if you didn't notice that then there's something wrong." She said.

"Look, we need to find the beacon. We'll talk later." Shepard said.

"I'll help you." Texas said.

"Why would you help us?" Shepard asked.

"Because i want to, and because your beacon's not here like it should be." Texas replied.

Shepard realized that she was right. "Fine. Then lets get going."

Before they continued on their way, Texas threw her helmet to the side and clipped the head of the geth to her back next to her assault rifle, on the magnetic clip that was normally used for a sniper which she didn't use. She then turned to see that the others were staring at her. "What? Am I not allowed to keep a trophy?"

Kaiden opened his mouth but she interupted him, "Don't answer that."

"It'd probably be bad for your health if you did lieutenant." Shepard said.

"I think he still remembers the time i kicked his ass." Texas said.

Suddenly, Kaiden looked even more worried than before. This made Shepard burst out laughing along with Ashley and Texas. Kaiden's face changed to one of confusion, he was the only one who didn't know Texas and therefore, didn't know what was so funny. "What?" He said, "What's so funny?"

"The fact that you think I'd kick your ass. I just have to pull rank with you." She barely got the sentence through before she burst out laughing some more.

"Texas here is a lieutenant commander." Shepard said.

"Oh!" Kaiden said.

"You always out of the loop LT?" Ashley asked him.

"Not always." Kaiden replied.

"But when you are, it's usually something important isn't it." Ashley replied.

"Apparently."

"If you're done flirting may we move on?"

"We weren't flirting." They said at the same time. Both of their faces turning red.

"Uh huh." Shepard said, "Lets keep moving."

They started moving up a hill to the camp for the scientists that were studying the beacon. "Shepard," Nihlus spoke up over the comm, "I see a space port ahead. I'm going to check it out. Meet you there."

Shepard ignored the comm and continued walking to the top of the hill and stopped because Texas had stopped. "What is it?" He asked her. She didn't answer. He turned and looked where she was staring. What he saw was more of the spikes from earlier only, the people on them... weren't people anymore.

"What the hell did they do to the colonists?" Shepard asked.

"I don't know but a bunch of those jumped me earlier." Texas said.

"How did they—" Kaiden never finished what he was saying, because at that moment one of the spikes descended and the thing on it got off it and began heading toward them. Texas immediately wipped out her shotgun and shot it in the face. "Those things attacked me earlier."

"Well get ready because there's still two more." Kaiden said.

"Not for long." Shepard said before walking up to the descending spikes and putting his fist through one of their heads with his biotics and throwing the other one straight up with his biotics. "There, all taken care of."

"Not that subtle, but I like it." Texas said.

"Look the camps destroyed." Kaiden was staring at the destroyed camp.

"Not all of it. Look at that building." Ashley was pointing at one of the buildings nearby, "The lock on the door's engaged."

"I got this." Texas said. She then walked up to the door, looked it up and down and then backed up.

"Do you not—" before Kaiden could finish asking his question, she charged the door with a full biotic punch and sent it flying in the building. Almost immediately someone inside yelled "Please don't kill us!"

The group entered the building to find two scientists. A woman, probably in her thirties, and a man, probably in his forties, who didn't seem quite all there. Shepard was immediately annoyed, figuring that these two wouldn't be able to help him. "Close the door, before they come back." Yep, he was off his nutter.

"That might be a problem." Shepard said.

"Thank god! The alliance is here!" The woman said, "Ignore my assistant."

Shepard decided to make this quick. "What happened to the beacon?" He said.

"Wait a moment." Ashley interrupted. "You're Dr. Warren, the scientist in charge of the excavation."

"Yes I am, and the beacon was moved to the spaceport the earlier today."

"Agents of the destroyers, bringers of darkness, heralds of our extinction!" The assistant said.

"Shut up Manuel." Dr. Warren said.

Shepard was on his last nerve. "What's wrong with your assistant?" He asked.

"Manuel is a genius, but he's always been a bit... unstable. Madness and genius are two sides of the same coin."

"Is it madness to see the future? To see the destruction rushing towards us? To see there's no hope? No! I am not mad! I'm the only sane one left!" Dr. Warren had been shaking her head by the end and she now turned back to Shepard and the others.

"I gave him an extra dose of his meds after the attack."

Shepard immediately thought he had a better idea. "Say good night Manuel."

"You cannot silence the truth. My voice must be heard!" Shepard's biotics launched Manuel all the way to the back wall knocking him out cold. Manuel then fell onto the top bunk of the bunkbed at the back of the room.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Dr. Warren asked.

"That might have been a little extreme commander." Kaiden said.

"It was only a matter of time before he did something crazy and dangerous." Shepard replied. "Besides, he's fine." At that moment, the top bunk collapsed onto the bottom bunk with Manuel still on it, causing Manuel to fall on the floor. "At least I think he's all right."

"Perhaps we should get moving." Texas said.

"Perhaps you're right." Shepard responded.

"Yes, maybe it's for the best. At least the meds should kick in before he wakes up." Dr. Warren said.

After she said this they moved on. As they started to come around a corner they caught their first glimpse of the top of the spaceport. Hanging above it was the ship from the video. Once they saw the ship they all stopped dead in their tracks.

Nihlus hadn't stopped when he saw the ship. So, he got to the spaceport way ahead of them. The first thing he noticed when he came out of cover was the turian standing there and looking around. "Saren?"

The other turian turned around, "Nihlus."

"What are you doing here Saren? This isn't your mission." Nihlus didn't know that Saren wasn't supposed to be able to participate in this mission.

Saren took advantage of that fact, "The council thought you could use some help."

"I didn't expect to find the geth here. The situation's bad."

"Don't worry." Saren said as he pointed his pistol at the back of Nihlus's head. "I have it under control." He then pulled the trigger.

They heard the shot and that was what pulled them out of their stupor. "We should get moving." Shepard said.

They then moved forward only to be attacked immediately by more geth and husks. After killing them they put their weapons away, realizing that they were safe for the moment. As they walked by a building Shepard noticed people staring at them from inside. The voice wanted to kill them for being cowards, but he decided not to and instead flipped them off. "Was that really necessary commander?" Kaiden asked.

"If that was the compromise, then yes." Texas said.

"Compromise?" Kaiden asked.

"It's his choice whether he tells you or not." Texas responded.

Before Kaiden could respond, Shepard started running. Kaiden and the others ran to catch up and what they found surprised them. "Commander, it's Nihlus." Kaiden said.

Immediately, Shepard wipped around and said "I noticed asshole! It's Nihlus and he's dead! The man my father fought so hard to protect is dead! And it's because I couldn't protect him!" Shepard's biotics began to flare with his anger. "He's dead and it's all because I couldn't save him! Me! Apparently, I'm not as good as you dad! No! No! No! I'll never be as great as you! Lt colonel Shepard!" Shepard was now ranting at the sky and only Texas noticed he had stopped saying dad. "Was this what you wanted! A failure! Huh! Was this what you wanted Shepard!" Shepard's eyes were glowing bright red and absolutely no brown remained. This was when Texas realized he wasn't going to stop without help. Shepard continued ranting at the sky and didn't notice her walk up to him.

"Shepard stop." She said it firmly but, he didn't stop. He continued to rant and as he did things began to float and others were getting crushed. She still tryed to stop him anyway. "Shepard!" This time she showed anger towards him. The objects that had been lifted began to spin cutting Shepard and Texas off from Ashley and Kaiden. "Listen to me!" She screamed. The spinning objects were beginning to pull her back from him. Yet, he still wouldn't stop. She had finally had enough. "Tarius! Look at me you son of a bitch!" This caused him to look and she saw that his eyes were'nt just glowing red. They were engulfed in red. There were no eyes in those sockets, no Shepard, no Tarius. There was only evil. It was then that she realized she was floating. It was then that the thing in front of her spoke.

"Who are you to face my wrath?" It said in a deep voice.

She ignored it. "Tarius, I know your in there. Now come out!" The eyes flickered but still the being held control. "This is the same thing you've fought for years Tarius! You can beat it!" This time his eyes flickered longer and he regained a little control.

"I... can't. He's... to... strong."

"You're wrong." She responded.

He then started fighting harder than ever. "You're just a voice." Tarius said.

"You know that's not true." The voice responded.

"You may be right. But i'm more powerful." Tarius responded. The entire time, his biotics had turned a bright red color.

"You're wrong but the time may come when you are. Until that time though, your body is mine."

"No... it's... not!" Tarius screamed and released everything with a burst of his biotics launching it everywhere. Tarius then fell to the ground from floating and while he was starting to recover, the voice spoke up.

"You have weakness. And as long as you have weakness, I will be stronger than you." It then faded to the back of his mind.

"What the hell was that?! Commander are you all right?" Kaiden said.

"Fine." Shepard replied. "Better than i've been in years." The voice, for the first time in five years, was silent.

"I thought you didn't like Nihlus." Kaiden said.

"I didn't. But i respected him. And i didn't want to be the cause of his death. Not after my father caused his survival." Shepard stared at the turian's dead body.

Ashley was staring at some crates nearby. She suddenly saw movement and fired her assault rifle at it. "Hey! Stop! Stop! Stop! I'm human!" Ashley immediately stopped firing and watched as a man started out from behind the crates.

"Is that how they say hello where you come from?" He said.

"What are you doing here?" Shepard asked.

"I could ask you the same thing." The man responded.

"But you're not gonna." Ashley replied still not lowering her rifle.

"Easy chief." Shepard said. "We're all human here."

Ashley gave him a look that showed how much she thought he had changed but she relaxed and put her rifle away.

"Now, tell us what happened here." Shepard told the man.

"Well that ship came down and shortly after the attack started it started screaming bloody murder." The man told them.

"Why weren't you killed?" Ashley asked.

"I survived because i hid behind the crates." He replied.

"How come no one else hid behind the crates?" Kaiden asked.

"They didn't have time to hide behind them." The man paused as if hesitating. "I was already behind the crates when the attack began."

"What were you doing behind the crates?" Shepard asked.

"Sometimes I need forty winks to make it through my shift." He said, obviously afraid he was going to be in trouble.

"You survived because you were lazy!" Ashley yelled at him.

"Calm down soldier." Shepard told her, "What's your problem?"

"I just don't like lazy sons of bitches like him." She replied.

"Well calm down. If he hadn't hidden he'd be dead." Shepard then turned back to the man. "Did you see what happened to our friend?"

"The turian?" He asked. "The other turian shot him."

"Other turian."

"Yeah. Saren! Your friend said his name was Saren. I think he knew him. Your friend let his guard down. Then Saren killed him. Shot him right in the back of the head."

"One last thing. What happened to the beacon?"

"That. That was moved to the other spaceport. You can get there using the tram."

"That's all we need. Why don't you go hide for a little longer?"

"Yeah that sounds like a good idea. I'll hide until it's safe."

He then went off to hide somewhere. Shepard then turned to face the others. "We should keep moving."

They then started toward the tram until they ran into more geth. The fighting was intense but over quickly. The group moved on until they reached the tram where they discovered heavy resistance.

Saren hadn't wanted to do it. But he had had no choice. He couldn't have Nihlus telling the council that he wasn't really following a lead in the Armstrong cluster. Technically he was going to, since he had heard of geth there that didn't worship Sovereign and wanted to know what they were doing there. He was getting annoyed of the number of unknowns thrown at him. Especially, Shepard. This human had come from out of nowhere. Suddenly he might become a spectre and cause oh so many problems. Yet if he could somehow stop that from happening... of course he had just inherited the files for the mission, and control on Shepard's future. "This... could get interesting." Saren said before shooting the dock worker in front of him in the face.

Shepard and the others were just reaching the front of the tram when Saren shot the dock worker. "OK. So when we reach the other end of the tram, there's bound to be a bunch of geth there so be ready."

"Yes, sir." Kaiden and ashley said at the same time.

"I'll cover your rear." Texas said.

"No. We might need your help." Shepard said.

"You'll be fine. Besides, others might show up behind you. We can't have them sneaking up on you."

"Texas."

"I'll be fine. Now go! Here come some geth."

Shepard finally hit the button and got the tram moving. As the tram pulled away, Texas engaged the geth.

Saren saw all of this from a security terminal. "Dammit!" He said, what should I do, he kept thinking. After he was done using it the beacon was being set to blow up but he felt that, that wouldn't stop Shepard. He finally decided to just blow the whole colony. "Set the charges. Leave no evidence we were here." The charges were a last resort for a worst case scenario. So, the geth knew they were important. Saren then approached the beacon. It activated, and lifted him into the air.

Just after Saren had left, Shepard and the others arrived. As the tram pulled to a stop, they saw a geth on the platform next to the tram setting a bomb. Shepard stepped off the tram and used his biotics to throw the geth over the railing of the platform with it's large drop. He then approached the bomb and crouched down to look at it. "I can deal with this and any other bombs around, but I'll need time." He said.

Both Ashley and Kaiden were looking at him with surprise at the change in him. He never noticed because he was already working on the bomb. "Just cover me."

He then finished dealing with the bomb and started up the ramp. Once they reached the top of the ramp, they were immediately shot at by the geth who had noticed them. They moved across the bridge shooting as they went. Shepard reached the next bomb and as Ashley and Kaiden covered him, he deactivated it and same with the next one. It was with the final one that problems arose. First the geth fought harder for the final one than for the others and then when they finally got to it another problem arose. "Uh oh." Shepard said.

"Uh oh. What's uh oh?" Kaiden said.

"I don't have enough time to deal with this one." Shepard said.

"How much time is left?" Ashley asked.

"30 seconds." Shepard replied, "Kaiden. Can you do it in that amount of time?"

"Not unless you have a better idea than run away." Kaiden replied.

"Great. I'm gonna try something but i don't know if it will work." Shepard said, "I suggest you stand back."

They did more than stand back, they got behind cover and plugged their ears. "Thanks for the vote of confidence." Shepard said before turning back to the bomb. He disconnected the trigger and started to look for the red wire. He was having trouble finding it when he realized it had 10 seconds left. "Oh, fuck it!" He said and then grabbed hold of all the wires and yanked. They didn't budge. He yanked again. Nothing. 5 seconds. One last chance. He yanked. Nothing. 2 seconds. He did the first thing he could think of and threw a biotic field over it. 1 second. He tensed, ready to hold the explosion in and... nothing. He opened his eyes to see that the clock had stopped at 1 second. He was immediately confused. He dropped the field and approached the bomb. He saw what had done it. The red wire was hanging out of the bomb along with a few others. He let out the breath he had been holding and told Ashley and Kaiden that it was safe. They came out and looked at his handy work.

"Are you sure it's safe?" Kaiden said.

"I find your lack of faith disturbing." Shepard said.

"Star wars. Really?" Ashley said.

"Still a classic." Shepard said, "Now come on." They started toward a ramp that lead down to the beacon.

Saren was aboard Sovereign once again, believing Eden Prime to be destroyed and Shepard dealt with. Believing both of these to be true he was feeling very confident and decided to speak to the geth troops. More out of boredom than a need for a morale boost. He went before the geth onboard and activated the comm to the other ships. "I know we have lost many on this mission. We must remember though that they gave their... well their platforms for us to have a major victory and we got it. For, Eden Prime was a major victory, it has brought us one step closer to finding the conduit."

"And one step closer to the return of the reapers." an asari said, emerging from the shadows behind Saren.

"Ah, yes. Your gods will return, and they will make you stronger, and better than ever." Saren said, though he knew it wasn't true. Saren knew the geth were little more than tools and he knew what Sovereign really thought of the geth. "Now i must plan our next move. Until then prepare." He then deactived the comm and motioned for two geth to follow him.

During this time Shepard and his team had moved down the ramp. Before they had descended, Shepard had gotten a brilliant idea. So when they reached the bottom of the platform, the few geth standing there were very surprised to see Shepard holding the bomb with his biotics walking toward them. Since there were so few geth, they weren't too bright, and therefore, couldn't tell that the bomb was deactivated. They immediately started to back up, whereas the husks started running at them. Kaiden and Ashley had no problem dispatching of them. Finally, the geth reached the railing and Shepard launched the bomb at them knocking them off the edge.

"You always did prefer to get creative." Texas said coming up behind them, "There weren't many to hold off but i couldn't keep them from taking your turian friend's body."

"That's to bad. I had hoped to give him a proper burial. Like my father would have wanted him to have." Shepard responded.

"Well lets check on the beacon." Texas said.

"Yes that seems like a good idea." Shepard said.

They approached the beacon and found it was activated. Texas took shepard to the side to speak with him.

"I know that you haven't been yourself since Torfan. So what happened to bring you back out?" Texas asked him.

"I can't be sure, but i think it has something to do with the promise I made to my father just before he died." Shepard said.

While they were talking Kaiden and Ashley were talking. "Wow, an actual working piece of Prothean technology. Amazing!" Kaiden said.

"It wasn't doing anything like that when they dug it up." Ashley responded.

Kaiden walked away radioing for Joker since Shepard was busy. Ashley continued to observe the beacon getting a little closer to it. Suddenly, it grabbed her and lifted her into the air.

Texas saw this from the other side of Shepard and ran to help her only to discover that she wasn't strong enough to throw her. Shepard saw this and started toward them knowing that he wouldn't be strong enough to move them both... not without help. So he did the last thing he ever thought he would do. He asked the voice for help.

"Why am i not suprised?" It responded. But it leant him the strength he needed.

He approached them and grabbing both of them, tossed them away from the beacon. But he was immediately picked up by the beacon. Almost immediately, images began to flash through his brain. Images of death and destruction. And to make matters worse, he could hear something too. Not part of the vision, but something far worse. He could hear the voice and it was doing something it had never done before. The voice was screaming in pain. The two combined was excrutiating and he was glad they didn't last too long. After a few seconds the vision was over and then the beacon blew up. Shepard's last thought was, I'm dying! I'm dying. I'm dyi—

Author's Note:

Thank you for reading this chapter of Tarius's story. I hope the next chapter will come quicker but i won't make any promises. In this chapter I brought in a character from the list who was connected to his past. I also added a few things i thought would be interesting or funny. In this chapter you got to learn a few facts and you learned just how bad this voice has affected Tarius and how much it has changed him. You also learned about Tarius's father. I hope to bring more of his past to light later. But for now, I hope you are enjoying the story so far and that it will successfully indoctri— I mean, that you will fall in love with this story and follow it. Please leave comments and constructive criticism.