Chapter 9
"I want a diamond formation. Not to close to each other; we don't need a stray grenade to kill all of us. I want Davin on point, with Garrus on our flank." Tali heard Shepard say, and they all said "Yes Commander." But Davin, who nodded and went to the front, nothing but his pistol out. Miranda went next to Tali, and as they were going through the docks at a slow jog, Miranda whispered "Usually Shepard takes point. Why is he letting someone with only a pistol lead?"
Tali smiled, remembering that Miranda didn't know Davin yet. "You'll see." Was all she said, and Miranda grunted. They went through the entrance to the ship, being swallowed up by the big dreadnought. The second door opened, and Tali saw 3 humans sitting down, weapons in hand. They all sprang up when they saw the group, and before Tali could react, she heard 3 quick shots from Davin in succession, and all of them fell, dead. Tali smiled as she heard Miranda gasp; she learned why Davin was on point. There was something different about him, Tali was sure of it. But now wasn't the time to bug him about it; they had plenty of time to talk after Ultimate was dead.
They quickly passed the dead enemies and moved towards a consol, where Shepard signaled for them to stop. "Miranda, search that console. It would help if we could get a map of the place, even better if you could find Ultimate's general location. Everyone else, form a circle around her; I don't care if his entire army comes here, I want no bullets to disturb her." They nodded and moved, this time Tali was right next to Davin. She looked over at him. His eyes held no humor like usual; they almost glowed, as if on fire. Davin noticed her, smiled a small smile, and then went back to waiting for enemies.
Tali was about to say something when she heard a sound. She turned to see a door to an elevator open, and enemies pour out, eyes glowing purple. "Enemies on our left!" She yelled. She also heard someone yell "On the right as well" before Davin turned and fired 5 times, dropping 5 enemies. Then the air exploded with bullets.
Tali fired her shotgun, hitting one enemy and taking half of his face off before ducking behind a bench. She waited there until she saw Jack reload both her guns out of the corner of her eye. Tali sprang up, firing her shotgun again and hitting one in the knees. His legs came off completely, and he fell to the ground, making no noise and staring at her. It was so creepy she felt herself shiver, and she shot again, taking his head off before ducking behind cover again, hearing bullets ping off of the metal.
She was going to pop up again when she heard no more shots. She peeked out of cover, and saw they were all dead. She stood up and looked around just as Shepard yelled, "Report! Is everyone ok?" She saw everyone nod. The only injury was Garrus, who had a bullet nick his face and she heard Ashley joke that now both sides of his face were screwed up.
"Found him!" Miranda yelled, making them all turn towards her. She pressed a few buttons, and all of their omni-tools lit up, showing a map of the ship with a red dot in what looked like the lounge.
"Good job as always Miranda." Shepard said, making her smile. "Let's go." She heard Davin said, and they all nodded in agreement. They all went towards an elevator and stuffed themselves in there. As it was going down, Garrus said "This is a horrible position. If we get attacked in here, we are screwed."
She got a little edgy, realizing he was right, but Liara said, "Don't worry; I'll throw up a barrier when the door opens, allowing everyone to leave safely."
"I'll help, just in case there is too many of them." Miranda said, and Tali felt a little safer; as safe as she could, since she never really liked elevators. They arrived at their floor, and both Miranda and Liara threw up a barrier.
But when the doors opened, they saw no one; the room was completely empty. Tali instantly got a sinking feeling in her stomach; something wasn't right. Ultimate had to know they were in his ship by now; there were cameras everywhere, added after he took the ship. She didn't like the look of this at all, but before she could say anything, Shepard, Davin, Garrus, and Grunt pushed their way out of the elevators to the front, as if daring someone to come out.
Nothing happened, and slowly everyone else came out of the elevator. "Am I the only one getting a bad feeling about this?" Tali said, feeling nervous, as if she was being watched. She saw almost all of them nod. Davin was looking around, and Shepard was moving towards the only door she saw in the room. She looked around the room, trying to see anything out of the ordinary. Why did she have this horrible feeling?
She got her answer. The instant Shepard touched the door, a loud alarm went off, and she heard a bang, turning to see that the elevator doors had closed. She then heard a loud click, and assumed that it came from the door in front of them locking.
The only exits to the room had just locked. They were trapped.
They quickly formed a circle, making sure they could see in every direction. She was feeling scared now; they walked blindly into a trap. For awhile nothing happened, and then a very familiar voice came out of no where.
"I applaud you, Shepard; you are one stubborn man. To resist my control then bring the Alliance fleet here. Very brave. But it seems your luck has finally run out. Honestly, I expected a little bit more of a challenge. Instead, you come in here only with your small group, thinking to kill me by your lonesome." Ultimate's voice hit their ears. She looked around, trying to find the source of the voice and failing.
"If you want to kill me so badly, I'll give you the chance." Ultimate said, and without any warning they were all slammed to the ground; it was Ultimate's favorite trick, somehow increasing gravity and making it impossible to move. She hit the ground hard, feeling her lip split on impact. She struggled to move, but it was useless; she felt as if the dreadnought itself was on top of her. This was worse than last time.
Out of the corner of her eye, she finally found Ultimate; He was floating above them. She didn't know he could do that, but he apparently could as he slowly drifted down towards them, 1 hand curled into a fist at his thigh. That's when she noticed it; he did the same thing last time. He has to have 1 hand down, as if he is literally pushing them.
She struggled again, doubling her efforts from last time, and actually succeeded in moving a bit. But she saw Ultimate push his hands lower and the weight increased, until it was getting almost impossible to breath. She was just beginning to lose hope when she saw Davin get up onto is knees. She was confused at first, and then she remembered that he had bionic legs. He slowly raised to one knee, using only the power form his legs. Ultimate turned to him as he rose to his feet. "I see, you have artificial legs. You are the one that gave me problems last time; jumping around like an animal you call a rabbit. This is a saying you should know; the nail that sticks up the most is the first one to get hammered." With that, Ultimate pushed his other hand down. She felt nothing more, but she saw Davin go back down to one knee; He looked like his shoulders would snap any minute. For a second she thought he was going to die, but he surprised everyone by slowly, but surely, getting back up. His face forming a scowl, eyes looking like blue fire, he stepped forward one step. Pain started to show in his face; he wouldn't last much longer.
Turns out he didn't have to. She saw his legs glow a fierce blue like his eyes, and with a roar of victory he did something she did not see coming. He ran forward, legs powering up beyond what she had seen before, and kicked Shepard.
Shepard flew, and after he went about 5, she could see the gravity get lighter. The instant Shepard hit the ground, he rolled, getting to his feet and firing at Ultimate. Ultimate lifted his hand to alter the course of the bullets, and the weight was lifted. She coughed, finally able to breathe again and got to her feet. She saw everyone else had done the same, all glaring at Ultimate.
She saw Davin, barely a blur, rush forward and hit Ultimate's barrier as if he had not just been under all that gravity 5 seconds ago. His sword, which she didn't even see him draw, hit the barrier, and she saw it literally saw it bend as if made of rubber. She thought it was going to break, but at the last second it pushed back out, sending Davin flying. They all went to move, but Ultimate floated straight up. He flung his hand towards Davin, and Davin stopped right before he hit the ground.
"I have grown tired of you." Ultimate said, seething. "You die first." then he flew towards the ceiling, taking Davin with him. She saw a section of the ceiling open, and the both went through it, the section closing behind them.
They all stood there, shocked at what just happened. Shepard was the first to snap out of it. "Edi, get over there and open that door. Davin can't beat Ultimate by himself; if we don't hurry, he will die."
Davin felt the air rush out of him as he was thrown to the ground. He slowly got up, wheezing as he tried to get air back into his lungs. Ultimate just stood there, grinning. "What's wrong, not so full of energy anymore?"
Davin looked at him, feeling no emotion. He had gone into the state he used to go to before he lost his legs, back when he felt no emotion as he killed his enemies. He breathed in, and let it out slowly, calming himself instantly. He then knelt down, feeling along his leg until he found it; a dial that controls how fast electricity moves through his legs. It was pretty simple; turn the dial up, more electricity goes through at a faster rate, his legs move faster. The numbers went up to 10, for 10,000 volts of electricity. He had it at 6, and when he was being forced down by Ultimate, he turned it to 7. By himself as he is now, Ultimate would kill him too quickly. He had least had to hold him off until the others got there. So he did what he promised Vara he would never do.
He turned it all the way to 10.
The instant he did, his artificial legs started humming like an engine ready to show off. He allowed himself a small smile and had only one thought. Vara, please forgive me for breaking my promise.
He moved. He had had surgery to make his eyes process images at a faster rate, but he moved so fast everything was a blur to him; in a second he was behind Ultimate, who was just turning to look behind him. Davin moved again, ending up on Ultimate's right. It was incredible how fast he was moving, but it came at a cost; His body wasn't made for such speed, and his body was already aching from moving just twice. But he had to at least try. He heard gunfire and yelling from the room over and smiled. Good, they were almost here. He took a breath just as Ultimate realized he wasn't behind him and charged.
"Edi, please tell me you're almost done!" Shepard yelled, firing his rifle and taking down an enemy. They were all at the door, waiting for Edi to get past the lock, when a bunch of sections of the walls moved, dropping soldiers all around them, and everything turned into chaos. They formed a protective circle around Edi, but with no cover and limited ammo, it wasn't looking good for them. To make matters worse, not all of these ones were human; there were Asari and Turians mixed in with them, eyes glowing that evil purple. The Asari were using their barriers as like his team was, and the Turians were attacking fiercely, keeping them pinned. His biotic users, Miranda, Liara, and Samara were getting tired. They wouldn't last much longer.
"Almost there Commander." Edi said, cool headed as always, working away. Shepard turned back to see a soldier shoot at him. It bounced off the barrier, and then the enemy got hit into the chest and collapsed. He heard Tali cheer, and reminded himself not to piss her off. He fired at them, but they had retreated behind their barriers, and his bullets bounced off harmlessly. It was annoying to fight an enemy who used the same strategy as themselves, and it didn't help that they were outnumbered. Then Shepard thought of an idea.
"Garrus, James, and Grunt; Concentrate your fire on one barrier." Shepard yelled, pulling a grenade out. They all obeyed, firing at 1 Asari's barrier endlessly, until finally it broke. The instant it did, Shepard tossed the grenade, and heard his whole team cheer as it blew up and killed at least 10 of them.
"Alright, everyone but James and Tali, keep repeating that. James and Tali, you two take down any enemies that try to exit the shields and come at us from the sides." They all nodded and obeyed. He picked Tali and James only because Tali was on the right and James was on the left, so they could easily guard their sides. Using this strategy, they quickly turned the tables on their enemies, and by the time Edi unlocked the door, all of their enemies lay dead. Panting, Shepard stayed on alert until he was sure no one else was going to come out of the walls, and relaxed.
"Alright, let's go help Davin out." He said, hoping Davin was still alive. He was a tough bastard, but he couldn't take Ultimate alone. They all rushed through the door, and down the hallway connecting the 2 rooms. Just as they got to the door on the opposite side, they heard a loud thump against the wall. Shepard quickly opened the door and they ran through.
The thump had come from Davin, who was just now getting back on too one knee. He looked fucked up; he had a nasty gash on his head that was bleeding straight into his eye, temporarily blinding him in one eye. His left arm hung lifeless next to his body; it looked broken and their was a gash in his armor there, bleeding almost as badly as the gash on his head.
Ultimate looked almost unscathed, but they noticed a long cut across his chest; Davin had managed to actually wound him by himself; Shepard was buying the kid a drink after this. It wasn't deep enough to be mortal, but if Ultimate felt pain at all he was definitely feeling it.
Ultimate turned his head towards them, scowling. He obviously wasn't happy that all of them were alive. "You continue to defy all logic John Shepard. Outnumbered greatly, you somehow managed to escape with no injuries or causalities. I see why Cerberus saw you as a threat. I am growing weary of your presence."
Shepard smiled. "Good, means I'm doing my job right." He turned to Davin. "Will you live?"
Davin turned his head towards Sheppard and nodded, smiling. "Yes, but I only have enough energy for 1 more shot. Next time I hit him, it will be a lot deeper and more mortal than that one is." He paused for a moment, catching his breath, than continued. "Can you create an opening?"
Shepard nodded with no hesitation, and then turned back to Ultimate, glaring at him.
It was time to finish this.
"Everyone, charge!" Shepard yelled, and they all roared in agreement, running at Ultimate like a rabid pack of wolves. Ultimate waved his hand, and Shepard saw Tali and Miranda thrown backwards. Shepard sprinted even faster, knowing he had the only thing that could destroy Ultimate's barrier; his shock gloves, the weapon Ultimate unthinkingly gave to Shepard to be able to take Davin and Liara down quickly. He didn't know at the time that Shepard already knew his barriers weakness.
Just as Shepard was reaching his fist back to deliver the blow, Ultimate turned and pushed his arm straight at Shepard, fingers together as if his arm was a sword. Not only was Shepard thrown back, he felt pain shoot across his chest. He landed hard, feeling the air leave his lungs. He coughed, trying to regain his breath while standing up. He put a hand to his chest and when he looked at it, it was covered in his blood. Apparently Ultimate learned a new trick; it was like he stabbed at Shepard with a sword. If it wasn't for his combat armor, Shepard was sure he'd be dead. It also explained what happened to Davin's arm.
Shepard finally got back to his feet, thinking. It was clear Ultimate wasn't going to let him close enough to hit his barrier. Shepard had to hit his barrier with electricity, without getting up close and personal, but how…
It came to him suddenly, and he wouldn't have been surprised if a light bulb appeared over his head. He looked around until he found Edi, shooting at Ultimate from a distance. "Edi, get over here!" He yelled, seeing Edi turn and run towards him. Her eyes grew wide when she got close to him, seeing his blood.
"You are injured, commander. You need too-"
"No time!" Shepard said, taking the shocking brass knuckles off of his fingers and handing them to Edi. Then he handed Edi his assault rifle. "Can you make the bullets I shoot form this gun electrified with these shock knuckles?"
Edi stared at the gun for a few seconds, and then nodded. He would have cheered under better circumstances. He ran off, and saw things weren't good. James was slumped against the wall, hopefully just knocked out. Miranda was on the ground, clutching her leg, which was cut just like Shepard chest. Tali was just getting up, looking dazed with half of her face swelling up, while Liara was on the ground, hopefully knocked out as well.
He saw Ultimate holding Grunt in mid air, Grunt cussing and kicking to no avail. With a roar to get Ultimate's attention, Shepard ran straight at him. He turned, saw Shepard, and tried to do his stabbing trick. Shepard was ready for it this time, and lunged out of the way, staying on his feet. Just as he got to the barrier, Ultimate let go of Grunt and, using both hands, pushed at Shepard.
Shepard flew back twice as far this time, feeling as if he got hit in the chest by a car. He hit the wall hard, his head snapping back and bouncing off of the wall as well, making pain burst at the back of his skull and his vision go black around the edges. He slid down and hit the ground, almost blacking out completely. He could feel blood slowly traveling down his neck, tickling him. He could feel the pain in his neck in chest. He could feel his arms wobble as he pushed himself up, but none of it stopped him. He stumbled towards Edi, who saw him and threw him his new and improved gun.
He caught it, not even bothering to look at it; he trusted Edi to know what she was doing. He aimed dead center at Ultimate, who was walking towards his group to finish them, and whistled. The instant Ultimate started to turn, he pulled the trigger.
His gun lit up, electricity shooting out of the barrel of his gun along with the bullets. They all hit the barrier directly, and Ultimate watched in horror as it shorted his barrier, causing it to disappear.
"NOW DAVIN!" Shepard roared. Ultimate's eye grew wide, knowing he had completely forgot about Davin, and whipped around, just in time to see a blur shoot towards him. It was too fast too see it, but Shepard did see a lot of blood fly, Davin stop and collapse, and Ultimate take a few steps before collapse himself.
Shepard slowly walked over to where Ultimate had fallen, panting and leaving a trail of blood drops behind him. He pushed Ultimate over, and saw that he was still breathing. Shepard looked down and saw Davin's damage; His hip was gaping open, and Shepard could actually see his spine sticking out, along with some internal organs and the tubes that ran throughout Ultimate's body. He won't survive long like this.
Ultimate opened his eye and looked dead at Shepard, his eyes cold and empty. "Against all odds, you still defeated me. I did not think it was possible." Then Ultimate laughed, leading into him coughing up blood and Shepard's blood running cold.
"What the fuck is so funny about your intestines spilling out of your body?" Shepard asked, knowing that he wouldn't like the answer. Ultimate looked at him again, blood now running out of his mouth. "It is funny because you think by defeating me, this is over. Know this, savior of the galaxy; your time is up." And Ultimate started laughing again, and he didn't stop laughing until Shepard put a bullet in his head, ending him once and for all.
Shepard turned around, sighing and hoping that Ultimate was just trying to screw with him. He saw Tali kneeling over Miranda, trying to help her with her leg. Grunt and Garrus had just woken James up, while Jacob was holding Liara, who it seemed was out for the count. He saw Davin, slumped against a wall and struggling to raise a cigarette to his mouth. Shepard blinked; not knowing Davin even smoked, and walked over there. Davin had just gotten it into his mouth when Shepard arrived, and was failing at using a lighter. Shepard took it from him and pressed the button, the flame bursting from the tip. Davin grunted his thanks and lit his cigarette, breathing it in slowly and releasing it the same way. "I promised Vara I would never smoke again." Davin said, and then laughed. "I also promised her not to use my legs at full capacity. She is going to kick my ass when I finally die."
Shepard chuckled along with him. "You did good Davin. I can say that I'm glad I spared you back on Omega; you're a badass, and have earned my respect."
Davin gaped at him, Shepard being glad to see the emotion back in Davin's eyes. Davin then smiled. "Coming from you, that means a lot. Thank you Commander."
"Aww, isn't that sweet." A voice boomed. Shepard turned, feeling his stomach turn; Ultimate just had to be telling the truth.
A giant TV screen was up on the wall that Shepard hadn't noticed before. On it was a person he had never seen before; he looked like a criminal from a cartoon, with a pointed goatee and a scar that crossed his eye, paired with an eye patch to perfect the image.
The villain smiled. "Oh, how rude of me; I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Samwell Gibson; one of you should know me well."
He heard a gasp behind him. Shepard turned to see it came from Davin, who was now glaring at Samwell. "Who is he Davin?" Shepard asked.
"He was 1 of the 3 leaders of the mercenary group The Golden Roses. I was sent along with 6,000 other soldiers to eliminate them; they had grown bold and been attacking anything to do with aliens. He is more anti-alien then Cerberus was." Davin answered, still glaring at Samwell, who was grinning. "You are supposed to be dead. What do you want?"
Samwell shook his head, going 'tsk tsk' while he did. "You poor fool, Davin. I did not die that fateful day. You should have made sure they took care of me; your freak of a wife would still be alive today if you had."
Shepard literally saw Davin grow pale, and felt his own blood go cold at what the man was saying. "W-what the fuck is that supposed to mean." Davin said, barely able to get it out.
Samwell laughed, increasing Shepard's dislike of him. "What do you think I mean? Who do you think was leading Cerberus right to you? Who do you think set Derrick up as a mole in the Alliance Navy? Who do you think wanted your wife's research?" Samwell smiled even wider. "Who do you think told Derrick exactly where to find your wife? Whose officer do you think killed her nice and slow? Me. I told them, and it was my soldier that cut her multiple times until she fucking bled to death!"
Davin was shaking now; with anger or grief Shepard couldn't tell. Probably both. She heard Tali gasp and cover her mouth, looking at Davin with pity. Shepard glared at this thing calling itself a human. "What do you want, bastard?"
Samwell turned his attention to Shepard, still smiling. "Ah, Commander Shepard. Savior of the galaxy multiple times, the killer of Cerberus, the Reaper exterminator. You have, without realizing it, been a thorn in my side just as much as Davin Kecker; always doing the right thing, stopping my people, you have been a problem for far to long." He laughed, a sound like sandpaper being scratched against metal. "Well, I've got good news; I am now the new general of the Alliance Navy!"
Shepard scoffed. "If you are going to come up with a lie, at least do better than that; there's no way in hell you would be chosen at general. No admiral would allow it."
Shepard saw Samwell smile, and actually started to feel fear. "Normally, no. But as it turns out, Derrick's father, Hansel Grimer, is a good friend of mine, and convinced all of the Admirals but 1 to agree. So it looks like I am telling the truth." He smiled straight at Shepard, knowing he had the advantage here. "And my first order is to capture Commander John Shepard for treason, along with his little friends."
Shepard froze, trying to not believe the words he just heard. But he heard a door behind him open, and Alliance soldiers stormed in, aiming their guns at him and his friends. He glared at Samwell, who waved before the TV shut off.
The Alliance soldier quickly formed a half circle around them, and 1 stepped, obviously the one leading here. "Commander Sheppard," He started. "Just lay down your weapons and surrender peacefully; we will get this all figured out."
Shepard didn't respond, his mind freezing up on him. How could this happen? They had just killed Ultimate. Was this the plan all along? He turned towards his friends, in this mess because of him. "Guys? What do we do? Do we go over quietly and hope we don't get executed for treason we didn't do? Or do we resist the Alliance Navy, and become outlaws?"
No one answered at first. He felt his heart drop; they looked defeated. But Davin proved him wrong, forcing himself to his feet, his left arm waving back and forth. He stood straight up and looked Shepard straight in the eye, saying, "I am not going to turn myself over for treason I did not commit. Even if you guys do, I will fight to my last breath. A bastard like Samwell isn't going to force me to submit."
Shepard nodded, and noticed the Alliance soldiers fidgeting nervously; they knew who he was, and how dangerous he is.
"I'm with you Commander Shepard, now and forever." Tali said, walking over to him and smiling. "No matter what you choose. But I have to agree with Davin; I don't want to get killed for a treason I didn't do."
Shepard smiled at her, placing his hand on her shoulder and squeezing. As long as she was with him, he would do just fine. "I'm with you too, Commander." James said, also walking over to them. Garrus came up next, looking at Shepard and saying, "You should already know I have your back, Shepard, no matter what stupid choice you make next." One after the other, they all got up and stood next to him, saying the same thing. It brought a tear to his eyes, seeing all of his friends basically say they would defy the entire Alliance military for him.
The captain of the Alliance soldiers didn't look happy with this new development. "Hey, don't do anything rash now Commander Shepard. I would really hate to have to shoot you."
They all turned towards him, making him actually take a step back. He heard Davin laugh and walk past Shepard, whispering, "Ill do the honors." as he passed by. "Hey guys," He started. "Let's all just relax a bit and-"He whipped his pistol out as fast as a snake and fired in mid sentence, hitting the Captain in the leg. The Captain fell, and Davin fired 2 more times, hitting 2 more soldiers in the legs, before Shepard and everyone else moved. Shepard ran up on the nearest soldier to him. The soldier fired, but Shepard ducked underneath the gun, grabbing the gun and lifting it up. He kneed the soldier in the gut, making him double over, and then grabbed his head and kneed him in the face, knocking him out cold. Shepard turned just in time to see Tali hip toss a soldier over her, the soldier hitting the ground hard then being hit in the face with Garrus's gun, knocking him out. All of the soldiers were either unconscious or in to much pain to move.
Shepard walked over to Davin and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'm glad you didn't shoot to kill; I was worried for a second." Davin smiled. "Hey, they are just following orders. Would be messed up to kill them for it."
Shepard nodded and turned to Edi. "Tell Joker to get down here. I never want to see this place again." She nodded, and they all made their way to the docking area, not knowing what was in store for them, but knowing they would face it head on.
