After a few minutes of rummaging and a punch to the gut from Garrus, Zaeed managed to find three bottles of some Asari vintage behind the bar's counter. Never a patient man, he'd already opened his own and was busy downing its contents while the Grizzly continued to roll down the ruined streets of Derby.

"So, Shepard, huh?" the driver asked hesitantly.

Garrus looked as if he was about to object, but simply let Zaeed ramble. It was his ass.

"Yep. It's gonna get out eventually, so no point in keeping it secret. No goddamn idea how she survived, though."

The marine shrugged. "The answer to that's way above my pay grade. Your info's safe with me, though."

Zaeed took another swig. "Good. By the way, you might wanna rummage around in that bar on the way back. This Asari shit's actually pretty good."

"I'll...consider that, sir."

"While we're blabbing out top secret information," Garrus said to Zaeed, "didn't you say you were looking for someone?"

The mercenary nodded. "Yeah. Some sort of batshit crazy Alliance synthetic."

"Like the bluebox ones they've been using?"

"Sort of. From what they told me it's been sighted in Derby. They want me to talk to it."

"Talk to it about what?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Besides, I have a pretty good idea where it is."

The two moved forward slightly as the tank slowed, then stopped. The soldier turned towards them.

"We're here."

Garrus looked out the window. "Looks like a bank."

The turian took two of the wine bottles and began to climb out of the Grizzly, but popped his head back in. "Zaeed, you coming?"

He shook his head. "You go on ahead. I'm gonna finish off my bottle."

With a dismissive wave, Garrus jumped off the Grizzly and walked toward the makeshift field hospital. Once he had gone inside, the Alliance turned back to Zaeed only to find the veteran pointing a Carnifex at his head.

"Hello."

"What the hell are you doing?"

"I should be asking you that. ARMD."

The soldier was still for a moment, then let out an annoyed sigh.

"Well, fuck. How did you know?" he said.

The soldier's appearance flickered, giving way to a much less organic one. It appeared human, save that half its face was eerily similar to the human-reaper hybrid Zaeed had seen at the Collector base. One of its arms, the one with no skin, had ARMD's name etched on it. Its lower body appeared to be protected with Cerberus armor, but from the knees down looked like they were made from the salvaged legs of one of the infamous Rampart mechs.

The torso appeared relatively human, save for several visible scorch marks, bullet holes, exposed wiring, and blue lights.

"When we changed drivers in the suburbs."

"Care to elaborate?"

"I've been a bounty hunter for over twenty years. You just know."

"Well, you found me."

"I hope you didn't kill the poor bastard you've been posing as."

"Oh, no, he got ripped in half by a Brute. I was just killing time when I heard wind of you guys coming along and I wanted to know why."

"Well, Shepard's alive. You know that much."

"Good on her. Can't imagine she'll be much good in a fight for a while, though."

"Yep. Alright, here's the deal: we need you to help us investigate a sighting."

"A sighting of what?"

"A Reaper. A capital-class Reaper. Hackett and the others are pretty goddamn sure they saw one skulking around batarian space."

The synthetic looked off for a moment, then turned back towards the wheel. He slammed his fist down on it, denting the dense metal.

"I knew it!" ARMD exclaimed. "I knew we didn't kill them all!"

"So you in?"

"Well, I was specifically created to kill Reapers so I'm gonna have to sleep o—what do you think?"

"We'll be heading out as soon as Vakarian is done here."

"So, we taking the Normandy?"

"Mm. She took a hell of a beating during London, but they just finished repairs on her."

"Great. So where we going to get our ship?"

"Edinburgh. We'll take a shuttle from there and board it in low orbit."

"Hm. Does Vakarian know about all this?"

Zaeed nodded. "Yeah. If he knows what's good for him, he won't tell Shepard."

"What!?" Shepard yelled, rising from her bed.

Garrus firmly pushed her back down. "A sighting. We're just going to investigate it. I'm not planning to start a slugging match with a Reaper."

"I need to go with you. I can't let them send you al—"

"Beatrice," Garrus interrupted. "This isn't a solo op. Zaeed's coming with me too."

Shepard was silent for a moment, then let out a defeated huff. "This the only Reaper they saw?"

"It's probably the last Reaper left."

"I'd say that's comforting, but one Reaper is one too many. Do they have any idea what it's trying to do?"

"Hide, if I had to guess."

"Bastard finally knows how it feels to us, doesn't it?"

"What's that old human saying? Revenge is a bitch?"

Shepard laughed, and then immediately cringed and held her sides. "Christ. Feels like a cannonball went through me."

"I got shot with a cannonball once. Long story," said a low, growling voice behind them.

Turning around, Garrus saw Zaeed standing in the doorway with an empty bottle of Asari vintage.

Shepard grinned. "Zaeed!"

"Good to see you, Shepard," Zaeed answered. "I'm guessing Vakarian filled you in on everything?"

The commander's grin evaporated. "Yeah. I'm still not thrilled about it just being you two."

"Oh no, we got a third guy."

"What?" Vakarian asked.

Zaeed looked down the hall and waved at someone. "Hey, ARMD, get in here."

They heard footsteps walk down the hall, making their way to Shepard's room. A few moments later, a black-haired Alliance officer strode in the room. When he saw Shepard, he gave the commander a firm salute.

"Shepard! Big fan!"

She arched a brow. "...Thank you?"

"This is ARMD," Zaeed told Garrus. "The synthetic I was talking about."

"How did you find him so quick? I haven't been in here five minutes!"

The officer held up a hand. "If I may?"

An orange glow appeared around the officer, and his appearance shimmered. In a few short moments, he became the Alliance marine that had been driving the Grizzly.

Garrus' mandibles twitch. "Our driver?"

Zaeed nodded. "He can imitate pretty much anyone."

"A spy," Shepard said.

ARMD smiled. "That'd be me. Although I wasn't actually created for spying."

"I don't follow."

"He's an AI Cerberus built. Like EDI," Zaeed explained.

The not-officer nodded. "EDI was built for cyberwarfare and EVA to be a sleeper agent. I was specifically built to kill Reapers."

"Like ground forces."

"No, actual Reapers. I can can spoof the system they use to determine who's indoctrinated or not. I disguise myself as some important person, the Reaper lets me aboard, then I kill it from the inside out."

Shepard did a small double-take. "Holy shit. Are there more of you?"

"I'm a prototype. I was going to be the template for mass production, but Illsuive Man decided he wanted to be friends with the Reapers rather than kill them. I objected, and they disabled me. Then they tried to screw with my head and make me loyal to them. Fuck 'em."

"Good to know we both feel the same about Cerberus. Wait, did you ever actually kill a Reaper?"

"Seven. Three Sovereign-class and four Destroyers. After the fifth they started wising up and tricking them got pretty hard."

The AI chuckled. "Harbinger fucking hated my guts."

Zaeed spoke up. "ARMD'll be coming along with us. Having someone that can fool a goddamn Reaper will be handy."

Shepard sighed. "I bet."

Garrus leaned down and gently squeezed her hand. "We'll be all right, Shepard. Besides, you know what I am."

She grinned. "Hard to kill."

"And then some."

Shepard slowly leaned forward and gave Garrus a kiss, raising her hand to cradle his face. She pressed her head against his, and for a moment they were in their own little world. Shepard eventually pulled away, looking at Garrus with a smile.

Garrus returned the expression, but suddenly jolted. "Oh! The wine!" he shouted, reaching over to the bed's stand and grabbing a bottle. He poured a small amount in a plastic cup from the stand and handed it to Shepard. He did the same for himself, and when his own glass was full, he raised it.

"Fuck the Reapers," Garrus said in a joking tone.

"Fuck the Reapers," Shepard replied.

They tapped their cups together and downed it all. When they were finished, Garrus set his cup down and leaned back toward Shepard. Just as he was about to say something, Zaeed grunted.

"Don't mean to be an ass, but we're kind of on a schedule here."

Garrus grimaced, pulling away. He picked up her free hand again. "I'll be back."

Shepard nodded. "I know. But be safe, okay?"

With another quick kiss, Garrus turned around to leave Shepard's room. Zaeed followed, with ARMD behind him.

"Wait!" Shepard called to ARMD, grabbing his attention. He turned around with a confused look.

"Yeah?"

"If anything happens to Garrus or Zaeed, I will hunt you down."

"I believe it."

Shepard gave him a confirming nod. The synethetic turned back around and made his exit.

When he was out of the room, Shepard laid her head back on the pillow, closing her eyes for some much-needed rest.

Joker nervously worked the holographic interface, keeping a close eye on the display that showed the docking trajectory of an Alliance shuttle.

It was just too weird. First he finds out Shepard survived, and then they spot a living Reaper?

"Jeff," EDI intoned from her synethic body, "are you okay?"

"Uh, sure. Just a little antsy."

EDI knew he was lying, but chose not to press the issue. She looked back to her own panel. "Shuttle intercept in forty seconds."

A soft ding rang in Joker's ear, the tone for someone sending a hail. He opened up the comms channel.

"Garrus! That you?" he asked.

"In the flesh. I've got Zaeed and another guy with me too."

"So, uh, crazy mission they gave you, huh?"

"I'll talk about it when we get aboard. Can you open the bay for us?"

Joker reached over and pressed the necessary button. A low, distant grinding sound permeated the ship as the heavy door slowly opened to let in the blue craft. Once he saw it land on the camera feed, he closed the bay. The door on the shuttle slid sideways, and Garrus climbed out a moment later, followed by Zaeed and an Alliance marine he didn't recognize.

They all made their way toward the elevator, and after a few minutes Joker heard it open on his deck. He turned his chair around to see Garrus and the other two walking toward the bridge.

"Garrus!" Joker shouted, "still beating people to death with the stick?"

"Nah, it broke."

Joker turned back to the ship's interface, and Garrus came up behind him.

"So yeah," Joker said, "they think they saw a Reaper?"

"That's what we're going to find out."

Another voice joined the conversation. "And if it's legit, we're going to kill its ass."

The marine that Joker saw on camera had walked on the bridge as well, with folded arms.

Garrus motioned toward the soldier. "Oh yeah, this is ARMD. He'll be coming along with us."

EDI turned her silvery head toward the marine. "ARMD? Anti Reaper Mobile Destroyer?"

The soldier turned toward EDI. "Oh, hi EDI. Guess you know me from all those Cerberus files you hacked, huh?"

"Yes."

Joker looked back and forward to the soldier and EDI. "Uh, am I missing something here?"

EDI spoke first. "ARMD is a Ceberus synthetic specifically created to counter Reaper forces, although until know I believed they had terminated the project."

"They tried," ARMD added.

Joker rolled his eyes. "Another thing that blew up in Ceberus' face. That makes, what, a 99 percent failure rate?"

"Sounds about right," Garrus said. He placed a hand on Joker's chair and leaned forward. "Hackett wants us to check out a few systems, in any order. Let's start with Karchek."

"That shithole?"

"It was one of the systems far enough away from a mass relay that the Crucible's pulse might not have reached it. We land, check for any Reaper activity, and leave."

"And if we actually run into the Reaper?"

"Get the hell out of there and let the Allied ships dogpile it."

"Right," Joker said as he began to put in the navigation algorithms for Karchek.

As he did, ARMD stared out the window of the bridge. He spotted countless small specs against the blues and greens of Earth; dead Reapers floating in orbit. Looking over each one, his electronic eyes finally came to rest on one Reaper above the Ural mountains. Noticeably larger than the others, he could just barely make out the large, dark circles on its front that were once glowing eyes.

Harbinger. The inconceivably ancient Reaper silently drifted next to several destroyed turian dreadnoughts. Its humongous legs were splayed out and curled, not unlike a dead cockroach.

ARMD thought back to the Battle of London, even though he was in Derby at the time. He saw a bright red flash erupt from the space station, and almost immediately pain surged through every circuit on his body. The Reapers he had been fighting were simply turned to dust. Then he looked up to see a Sovereign-class Reaper in the distance stop moving, and then go limp, shaking the ground when it fell.

The Destroyers escorting it suffered the same fate, their single glowing red eyes darkening, then going black forever.

It was something no organic could truly experience. One by one, the signals from the Reapers around Earth went silent. Communications between the machines became frantic as they began to ask each other what was happening.

As the voices dwindled, outright panic broke out amongst the Reapers. Several attempted to jump to FTL, only to find the pulse had severed the connection to their own mass effect core. Most simply kept sending a torrent of reinforcement and repair requests, which grew ever more panicked every time a Reaper went offline. And yet, the entire ordeal lasted only five seconds.

Harbinger was the last to go. In its final microsecond of existence, it transmitted seven thoughts:

System Failure 0000001

Reinforcements needed as star designation 2968-18-18501

it hurts

help

General Failure, all subsystems

shepard

no

And then it died, alone and desperate.

No less than he deserved, ARMD thought to himself.

"ARMD!" Garrus called. He turned around to see the turian waving at him down the bridge hall. "Let me give you the tour!"

With a final glance back at Harbinger's corpse, he gave it the finger and walked away to follow Garrus.