Chapter 13

Ashley and Shepard dove to cover as bullets peppered the air where they had just been standing. "Kaidan! Garrus!" Shepard shouted into her earpiece as she peered around the corner and popped off a few rounds. "Williams and I have been cornered by Cerberus troops. Are you able to assist?"

"Ashley?" Garrus questioned. "What's she doing off the ship?"

Shepard brought up a biotic barrier, wincing as the metal wall beside her head dented from bullet impacts. "We'll discuss it later! Can you assist?"

"On our way, Commander," Kaidan said. "Hang tight."

"We can't stay here," Shepard said to Ashley over her shoulder, firing off a few more rounds. "We're trapped unless we make a break for it." She gestured at the door that led outside.

Ashley nodded. "I'm right behind you."

Shepard pulled a flashbang grenade from her hip and armed it. She popped around the corner, heaving a warp toward one of the Cerberus commandos in cover, tossing the flashbang grenade in after it. Under the cover of the explosion and the ensuing flash, Shepard and Ashley dashed toward the door. They set their backs to the frame as bullets sprayed past them. Outside, nothing seemed to have changed. Rubble still burned and overhead, fighters screamed toward the Reaper.

Ashley readied her sidearm and glanced at Shepard. "Reapers and now Cerberus? Skipper, maybe I'm being too obvious, but this stinks."

Shepard nodded. "First you and now Cerberus troops just happen to find me on a world being attacked by Reapers? They knew about this. They wanted me to be here."

A grim expression crossed Ashley's face. "Which means they also wanted me here." She leaned around the corner, letting off a few shots. "Bastards. Soon as we get back to the Normandy, I'm letting that salarian cut my head open and scoop the rest of Cerberus out of me. I feel… dirty."

Shepard knew how she felt. When she'd found out that it was Cerberus who brought her back, she'd wanted to vomit. Shepard leaned around the corner and shot several rounds into one of the commandos; the inferno rounds piercing his shields. The trooper went down with a scream; Shepard ducked back against her wall, ejecting a heat sink.

"Shepard, are you alright?" Kaidan's voice came over her earpiece. "Can you hold your position?"

"We're still outnumbered, but we're okay for now. What's going on?" she asked, watching as Ashley shot off a few rounds at the incoming Cerberus troops.

"Garrus and I took care of the husks and were on our way to your position to assist when a group of civilians came out of nowhere—they'd just dug themselves out of some rubble." Kaidan's voice sounded strained. "Shepard, they have children and injured with them."

"Don't worry about us, Kaidan," Shepard said. "We're in a better position now to hold them off than we were before. Escort the civilians to the spaceport and get back to us as soon as you can."

"Roger that, Commander," replied Kaidan. "And, uh, Shepard? Be careful."

"You too," she said softly, and closed the channel. "Ash, we're on our own for now. Kaidan and Garrus are helping some civilians."

Ash grunted. "You and me against superior forces? Just like old times, Skipper."

"We need to draw them away from the cannon," Shepard decided, gesturing to the surrounding area. "I don't want to risk our shooting blowing the panels apart again. EDI, how long until the cannon can fire?"

"Approximately twenty minutes."

"Would even Cerberus sabotage a weapon used against the Reapers?" Ashley glanced over at her.

"I don't think so. I hope not. We have enough problems as it is without Cerberus helping the Reapers as well." Shepard readied herself. "We'll run over there—" She gestured at a faint path through the rubble. "I came that way; there should be space for cover from the commandos and it'll be far enough away from the cannon. You go first. I'll follow and cover your back. Ready?"

Ashley nodded. "On your mark."

Shepard waited for a break in the shooting from the commandos in the building then activated her biotic barrier. "Go!" She shouted, leaping in front of the entrance. The Cerberus commandos inside ducked, apparently expecting another grenade, giving Ashley ample time to high-tail it away from the anti-aircraft battery to the relative safety of the rubble. Shepard followed a moment later, feeling the ping of a few bullets, but her shields held steady. In fact it was rather strange… why weren't they following?

A heavy thump vibrated the ground under her feet as she ran, and she stumbled. Ashley called out in alarm as the whir of gears and a low electronic voice grumbled through the air: "Target acquired."

"Skipper! Stay away!" Ashley shouted over their channel. "They dropped a YMIR mech!"

"Ash!" Shepard sprinted toward Ashley's suit transponder, unclipping the arc projector from her back. She arrived just in time to see the giant mech pepper Ashley with bullets and her armored body collapsed to the ground. Shepard fired the arc projector. The current arced over the mech, making it shudder, but she didn't give it time to recover, firing again and again until her HUD showed that the thing's shields were fried. She unclipped her shotgun, unloading round after round of armor-piercing bullets into the mech's thick armor. Its round head swung her direction, but one more round and it fell over, servos whining in protest. The lights on its head blinked, then faded out.

Shepard raced to where Ashley was slumped over. When she saw blood pouring from multiple wounds in Ashley's armor, she felt her breath stop in her throat.

Ash looked up at her, a smile trembling on her mouth. "Just… like old times, Skipper."

"Don't talk; don't move," Shepard ordered, yanking her tube of medi-gel open and plugging the first bloody hole in Ashley's armor. The clear medi-gel turned cloudy as it sealed the wound.

"Kaidan! Garrus! Ashley's been hit! I need you here, now!" She shouted into her earpiece. This was her fault—she shouldn't have ordered Ashley to run to an unknown location. Shepard had the superior armor—she should have scouted it out, she should have—

"Hey, now. I didn't come back from the dead just so you could blame yourself all over again." Ashley's eyes were bright with pain, but the hand she put on Shepard's arm was steady. Shepard realized she must have been speaking out loud and shook her head.

Shepard met her eyes. "I just got you back, Ash. You're not leaving again."

"S'what happens to us all, Skipper," Ashley's words were slurred. "You an' me? We came back. Not natural. But I figure, if God let us come back, there's gotta be something left for us to do."

"Then you can't die on me here," Shepard said fiercely, still smearing medi-gel on Ashley's wounds. "You haven't done anything but lay around. There's something left you have to do."

Ashley laughed and winced in pain.

"And what about me, huh? What's my purpose?" Shepard spoke randomly, just trying to keep Ashley talking and not dying.

"That's an easy one." Ashley stiffened in pain as Shepard sealed another bullet hole. "Yours is to save the galaxy and make ridiculously good-looking babies with Alenko. Mine? Well, maybe… maybe it was just to remind you not to sweat the small stuff." Ashley caught Shepard's eye again. "You gotta let it go, Skipper. It was three years and two lifetimes ago."

"Do you..." Shepard cleared her throat. "What do you remember about Virmire?"

"I remember telling you to get your ass out of there." Ashley smiled weakly. "Looks like you obeyed orders."

"What else do you remember? After that, I mean."

"A bullet going through my shields then… nothing. That was the shockwave I guess."

"And…" Shepard swallowed. "And after that?"

Ashley looked at her, silent for a moment. "I was with my dad," she said softly. "On a rolling field of the greenest grass you can imagine… under a swift sunrise. It was like when you scrub down your sidearm that's been encrusted with all kinds of muck, and the grime suddenly washes away, revealing black steel beneath. The slime of the world just… dissolved and everything was right."

Shepard inhaled sharply. "You remember that?"

Ashley's eyes went distant behind her helmet. "It feels more like a dream now… but yeah, I remember it."

"I don't remember anything," Shepard said, swiping the back of her wrist over her forehead. "It felt like waking up after a bad dream. One minute I'm flying through the void, the Normandy exploding behind me, the next I'm opening my eyes in a medical bay. It wasn't even until I'd finally found someone to talk to in that station that I realized what had happened and how much time had passed."

Ashley's eyes met hers again. "It's there, Skipper," she said hoarsely. "I'll save a spot for you on the beach."

"Ash! Don't you dare—" Shepard squeezed Ashley's hand, blood and medi-gel smeared over her fingers. "Don't you leave me."

"This how I would rather go, Skipper. Rather than lying in a hospital somewhere."