Her team needed her. The Eden Prime mission was quickly turning into a nightmare; just an absolute clusterfuck. She had already lost one man, a good soldier who had family at home, and she wasn't planning on letting anything happen to Alenko, or now this Williams.

But she had a problem. Once they rounded the top of the last steps to the spaceport platform, she noticed a body that was bigger than either the Geth or the destroyed humanoid forms of the Husks that had been coming at them since they made groundfall.

How was she supposed to handle this? She didn't even realize… that she could feel this. Right now of all times, in the middle of a shitstorm of a mission, she felt like a trap door had opened up beneath her feet.

There was a turian body on the ground with a conspicuous bullet wound in the back of his head. She didn't… she couldn't… she couldn't turn him over, she didn't want to see if the face she had kissed just this morning in a back hallway on the Normandy was ruined by a vicious exit wound. But there was so much blood; the ground was blue all around him.

She had a strange feeling that Williams was speaking though, and forced herself to focus; there were still threats.

Geth everywhere.

Stay in the present.

But she needed to check his pulse; maybe he was still breathing, maybe they could apply some medi-gel and call for an evac. Although the objective was priority, so any request would be denied. But there was so much blood…

She was alone, and he was alone. This was it for him. That one last crooked smirk as he left her with one last nip on her cheek was really the last. That exciting future he carried with him just disappeared. Like that.

She heard shuffling from behind a set of crates and raised her pistol. It was just a dockworker, so she turned away, back to where Nihlus was collapsed. One of her team could deal with him.

Her ears were ringing. Where did the ground underneath her feet go?

"Commander?"

Who did this?

"Commander?"

Who did this to him?

"Commander Shepard?" Alenko was touching her shoulder. She grabbed his hand and twisted it behind his back and wrenched it up—hard. Too hard. The biotic yelped. She released him.

"Don't touch me." She hissed.

The dock worker was staring at her slack jawed. His eyes were sunken and he looked a little high. He was probably sleeping of some sort of stim withdrawal.

"You. Who shot the turian? It's a pistol wound, medium caliber. You wouldn't happen to have a handgun on you, would you?" She didn't quite connect that she was accusing a civilian of having murdered a Spectre, but she really just wanted to push him, so she stepped into the man's space.

"No! No, no, no way. It was another fucking turian!" It seemed to work. She needed to know what this man knew.

"What was his name?"

"Uh… look lady, I don't remember… I mean…" He stuttered with a shrug. She didn't buy it for a second.

"What was his fucking name?" She hissed. Luckily the man was fairly short and she could stare him in the eye.

"S—Saren! Something like Saren!"

"Good."

Bastard. Luckily, one thing would come out okay. If her mission was to bring Saren in anyways, she would do it however the fuck the deemed best. And she was coming up with some ideas right now.

"Move out." She sent Alenko and Williams ahead towards the spaceport, and looked back at Nihlus. His body.

"I guess this is it." She whispered.

She heard weapons fire and moved to back up her team. She was suddenly glad that her helmet covered most of her face; she had no doubt that her cheeks were red again. She sniffed back tears she didn't realize she had shed and pulled out her rifle.