Hey guys, I'm back. Sorry for not updating, but I've been busy with school and other stuff. But I didn't forget about you guys, I was working on this chapter whenever I had the chance. There is some Liara and Shepard romance in this chapter. But more importantly there is Shepard being the awesome Bad Ass that he is. Also I may do a squeal of this story depending on where I go with it. And for the love of god, REVIEW, I cannot tell you guys how frustrating it is when I don't get reviews. Thanks to all of you who already have, and for those of you who did not, DO SO! Again I would like to thank Secrean Beta for allowing to use a detail from his own story.

Anyway. Enjoy!

Chapter 3: To Hell and Back

They all landed on their hands and knees, they were all a bit disoriented. Garrus felt like he was about to vomit, or worse. But he shook it off and get to his feet, he still had to get Shepard out of here. He looked around and didn't recognize where they were. There was no sign of the Banshee they saw earlier, or any other Reaper forces for that matter. But then they heard the ear piercing scream, the one that made you wish someone would shoot you. The Banshee must've found Shepard, and they had to act fast. Garrus was about to say something, when Liara rushed past him, charging towards the screams. "Move out!" Garrus shouted.
Liara ran into a large group of husks but quickly took them out, nothing her biotic couldn't handle. She knew that the others were behind her, but she didn't care. The only thing she cared about was finding Shepard, her love. She refused to loose him again, the thought was unacceptable to her. She failed to notice that a husk snuck up behind her, but the sound of Tali's shot-gun soon took care of it. Tali caught up to the asari she considered a sister, her thoughts were on Shepard as well. She thought of the Commander as an older brother, and she wasn't going to let anything happen to her family.

They all heard the Banshee's screams, along with the sound gun fire. A full-auto and a semi-auto, Shepard was still alive. Liara charged into the room, all reason had left her by this point, and she failed to hear Garrus shouting at her. The first thing she was when she entered the room, was a Banshee's brains being blasted out. The Banshee fell onto a pile of Banshee and Husk corpse's. Synthetic-blood was oozing all over the floor, Liara almost gaged. But then she heard the sound of a thermal clip being ejected. She turned a saw Shepard, he looked like hell. Whatever was left of his armor, was covered in blood, and he looked exhausted, as though he hadn't slept in days. She had never seen him so broken, she felt like she was going to cry. The others soon caught up with her, every-single one of them gasped when they saw Shepard. He looked up, and smiled, "Wh-what kept you," he laughed, then slumped to the ground. They heard the shrieks indicating that more Banshee's were on the way. Garrus spoke up, "Vega, Kiadin, Jack! Keep those bastards off us!" They nodded, and went over to the entrance and unleashed hell on the Reaper forces. Garrus activated his omni-tool, "Tali, give me a hand on this," he ordered, "I'm not going to be able to broadcast the signal galaxy wide by myself." She nodded, and typed furiously at her omni-tool. "Liara," he stopped, she was still gazing at Shepard with disbelief, "You make sure he's alright." He spoke softly, as far as he knew, Liara had no knowledge in the medical field, but he knew that having her around would help Shepard more than some pain killers.

Liara hurried over to Shepard and embraced him, silently crying, and whispered, "I love you." He grinned and returned her embrace, "I love you to, Liara." He whispered softly. Everything felt right, to him, as far as Shepard was concerned he didn't have anything to worry about. He felt the stress of this brutal war, slowly fade away and being replaced with the warmth that Liara was giving off. But he was also extremely tired, not even Liara could fix that, but he fought the exhaustion, determined to stay awake and enjoy his love's company. "At least we'll have a great story," as he spoke it was obvious that he was in pain, "For all those blue little children." He weakly smiled, and she cried and laughed. No matter how long she knew him, Shepard would always surprise her. "Yes," she whispered, "I suppose we will." He grinned, and closed his eyes, he could no longer fight the exhaustion. He need to rest his eyes, for a minute. Liara seemed to panic a bit, she tried to keep him awake, but he passed out.

Liara nearly had a heart attack, until she saw that Shepard's chest was slowly rising and falling. She let out a huge sigh of relief. He was just out cold, he would be fine. She hoped. She looked over to Tali and Garrus, who were still working furiously on the communication relays. To an untrained eye, it would have looked like they were getting no where. But they were, Garrus and Tali had managed to boost the signal, and the strength of the relays, they were just uploading the signal to every relay one at a time. Finally the the holographic screen, lit up green. Garrus smiled, it was kind of scared Liara, Tali was probably smiling as well, it was hard to tell with her environment suit. "The signal is being broadcast galaxy wide," Garrus shouted in joy, under a different circumstance, Liara would have smiled, hearing the turian rebel being as excited as a young child. But she smiled for a different reason, they now had the Reapers on the run. She didn't if Reapers knew or understood fear, but she was pretty sure they'd be feeling something similar to it. Suddenly there was a huge explosion. It came from the direction that Kiadin, James, and Jack had gone. They all feared the worst, but their fears were laid to rest, once they heard a familiar laugh echo throughout the entrance.

"TAKE THAT YOU SON'S OF BITCHS!" James Vega shouted. He had used a Carnage blast on a large group of Reaper forces, after he had set them on fire. Resulting in a massive explosion, and wiping out any other Reaper forces they missed. He turned to Kiadin, who was shacking his head chuckling, he turned to Jack, who was grinning while eyeing him up. He laughed some more, not because he thought it was funny, but because he just felt like laughing for real. With a war of this scale, he didn't have the heart to really laugh, and he only gave fake laughs, to keep everyone else spirits up. But he was truly happy, and it felt good to have genuine laugh. They waited, expecting more ground troops to be storming the room at any second. But nothing came. They hurried back to the room they had left Garrus, Tali, Liara, and Shepard.

Once the squad regrouped, they all agreed that they needed an extraction. . Garrus activated his comm, "This Garrus Vakarian," he simply stated, "We made it to the Citadel and have sent out the Reaper interference signal galaxy wide. We can't go back the way we came, I'm requesting an evac from anyone who can manage to send a medical team. Please respond." He held his breath, hoping someone would answer. Finally, a response came. "This Admiral Hannah Shepard," everyone went wide eyed, "I'll send an evac team, but I need your location." Garrus nodded, and activated the transmitter on his omni-tool. "Coordinates uploaded," he announced. "Received, sit tight evac team is on it's way with medics'. How many injured?" "One," Garrus glanced over to Shepard, "And the Commander is in pretty bad shape." "Understood."

Hopefully you guys will like this chapter. If not let me know, because I don't mind changing it. The next chapter will involve some family tension, beyond that I'm telling you nothing else. REVIEW!