Hades
It's the vicious stings of pain throughout her body that force Commander Shepard to open her eyes. She moans as she tries to make sense of her surroundings. It's dark except for a red light that fills the space. Her eyes begin to adjust and she can make out more details. She's in some kind of corridor. There are bodies piled up along the metal walls. Human. Dead. She closes her eyes for a moment. Is this hell? Am I dead too? This couldn't be the-
"Shepard?" A man's voice in her head catches her off guard and she wonders if she isn't still dreaming, if this isn't just another nightmare. But then she hears the voice again, repeating her name.
"Shepard?" It's coming from her earpiece.
She inhales sharply before pulling herself up from the floor and onto her knees. The dizziness stuns her and she stops moving all together until she regains her balance. Where am I? Is this really... the Citadel? The thought makes her shiver.
Regaining more of her senses now, the Commander recognizes the taste of her blood in her mouth. She can hear movement to her right and sees a keeper at a small terminal of some kind. The strange, silent insect-like being seemingly oblivious to the heaps of corpses lining the corridor.
"Anderson, you up here too?" Shepard asks, her voice hoarse and pained. The fierce stinging in her side makes her wince as she stands and tries to steady herself.
"Yeah, but we didn't come out in the same place… least I don't think we did," Admiral Anderson replies. "What's your surrounding look like?"
Shepard's armor is covered in dirt and blood. Much of it hers. She groans loudly as she forces her body to step forward and turns her head to take in more details of her location. Every muscle in her body seems to scream at her in violent protest and the pain makes her vision blur. She sways on unsteady legs.
"You ok?" Anderson asks, concerned.
"I feel like death. But I'm moving," she replies as she takes a step forward, looking around.
The keeper off to her right looks at her almost curiously before returning to typing away at its terminal on the edge of the corridor. She keeps moving. Each step sends more ache through her body. Shepard tries to shut it out, choosing to focus on Anderson's voice. She grips her upper left arm with her right hand then instantly regrets it, the touch just reigniting the stabbing pain, making it worse.
"It's dark. There's human remains scattered," Shepard relays to the Admiral.
"Sounds familiar. I'm in a dark hallway… reminds me of your description of the collector base."
She sees a pistol on the ground in front of her and slowly bends to pick it up. She turns the weapon in her hand and examines it. An M-6 Carnifex. Full thermal clip. It feels heavier than she remembers a Carnifex is supposed to feel. The blood and grime on the grip is sticky and she feels it pressing into the slick blood covering her own hand.
"Makes sense," Shepard continues.
"You think they're making a reaper here?" Anderson asks.
"Sure. They round them up on Earth, then send the people up here to be processed." Shepard's mind flashes back to the human reaper she fought at the collector base with Tali and Garrus by her side. The same one the Illusive Man tried to rebuild at the Cerberus HQ. She scowls at the thought of the Cerberus leader.
"Goddamn abomination," Anderson responds with sharp disdain. "I'm going to keep moving. The sooner we blow these bastards back to hell, the better."
Commander Shepard looks around again. At the bodies. At the area behind her. There's a device that looks like a delivery point or something associated with the beam. That must be how I got up here. Anderson must've come through one of those at another point on the Citadel. I hope we're close.
She turns back to the path in front of her. Another keeper up ahead ignores her completely as it tugs a man's body out of the walkway and into the pile on the left of the corridor. They don't care about the bodies. They just want to get them out of their way. The thought, as morose as it is, makes her feel a little relieved that she wouldn't have to waste rounds on taking out attacking keepers.
"The tubes don't go on forever… but where the hell are we?" Anderson asks.
"Yeah. This doesn't look like any part of the Citadel I've been to." Shepard winces again. It's taxing to speak and walk at the same time, but she wants to reach Anderson as quickly as possible. Her ribs feel bruised and the wound to her side is slowly oozing with each movement.
Commander Shepard looks more closely at the lifeless bodies against the walls. Most are bloodied, mangled. Some of the faces are frozen in expressions of horror.
"Whoa!" She hears the Admiral call out in alarm.
"Anderson? What's going on?" Shepard's pulse starts to race as she pushes forward.
"One of the walls here just realigned itself. The place is shifting. Changing."
She continues to head towards the metal doors up ahead at the end of the corridor, struggling to move faster.
"There's a chasm here... and more hallways like the one I was in."
"I think I'm near an exit," Shepard announces when she reaches the door. They open automatically, revealing bright white lights. Her eyes sting as the glare blinds her for a moment. She squints and shields her eyes with her right hand, still gripping the pistol tightly, as she keeps walking forward.
Stepping out of the doorway and coming into a wide hall, she sees more dead scattered in piles on the ground. Dark crimson stains the floor in large pools. To her left, more bodies on a metal grate floor. To her right, a dead end. Metal slabs are moving along a deep gap just like Anderson described a moment ago. Bolts of electricity flash along the plates before they shift. Shepard keeps going straight ahead along a lowered pathway that crosses the chasm. A steep incline continues on the other side, but it also blocks her view of what awaits beyond.
"I see something up ahead. Might be a way to cross over," Anderson says.
"Don't get too far ahead of me," she responds as she continues to limp along the pathway.
"Where do you think you're at?"
"I think I just found that chasm you were talking about."
"Hold on. I see something. A control panel maybe. I'm just going to go on ahead and-"
The Admiral's voice cuts out with a loud roar of static, causing Shepard's chest to fill with panic.
"Anderson! What's going on? Speak to me!" she calls out to him through the comm link.
No response.
"Damn it!" The Commander races on as fast as she can, her heart continuing to pound quickly in her chest as she climbs the walkway.
She sees a bright light up ahead as she makes her way over the edge of the incline. It blinds her and she instinctively squints her eyes, taking a moment to adjust. She can make out a tall figure against the bright glow.
It's him. He's here!
"Anderson!" Shepard cries out to him, her voice full of relief.
He's at some kind of control panel. Red light is cast about the circular room. There are windows beyond the panel and she can see the wards, the closed arms of the Citadel. This is the Citadel Tower. She remembers looking out on to the wards like this before. It was when Sovereign attacked. The reaper attaching itself to this very structure.
Anderson begins to turn from the panel, staggering around to face her. His movements are stiff and strange, a look of fear on his face.
"Shepard," Anderson says to her. His voice strained. "I can't..."
Anderson! Something's wrong. Could the reapers be doing this? Before she can move forward towards her mentor, she hears footsteps to her right. And then a voice that freezes her in her tracks.
"I underestimated you, Shepard." It's him. The Illusive Man.
All her frantic worry turns to an intense fury. The Commander tries to turn towards him and lift her gun but something is stopping her. Something is forcing her to stand there as he walks around her and over to the control panel and Anderson. Her vision darkens for a moment and she struggles to keep her balance. There's an overwhelming pressure on her temples. Her head is throbbing. A blur of pain, panic, and confusion envelops her.
"What... have...," she struggles to form the words.
"I warned you," the Illusive Man replies smugly. "Control is the means to survival. Control of the reapers... and of you if necessary." He smirks at her at that last part.
He looks grotesque, barely even recognizable as human anymore. His skin beginning to disintegrate in places, revealing small glimpses of the synthetic systems that are replacing his organic ones. Cables and blue fiber optics visible through the areas of missing tissue. His eyes glow even more powerfully now, matching the blue glow of the synthetic material. Of the reaper material.
Anderson groans in pain and Shepard turns her attention to him. He's trying to fight this. Whatever the reapers or the Illusive Man is doing to them, he's fighting it.
"They're controlling you," Anderson says to the Illusive Man, causing the Cerberus leader to turn towards him.
"I don't think so, Admiral," he replies with a smirk.
"Controlling me is a lot different than controlling a reaper," Shepard says to him.
"Have a little faith," the Illusive Man says, beginning to walk around them. Like a shark circling wounded prey.
"When humanity discovered the mass relays...," he begins to explain to his captive audience. "When we learned there was more to the galaxy than we imagined, there were some who thought the relays should be destroyed. They were scared of what we might find. Terrified of what we might let in."
Shepard's mind races as she analyzes the situation, trying to find some way to get her and Anderson out of this and stop the Illusive Man. If I can just keep him talking, maybe I can get him to let his guard down...
"But look at what humanity has achieved," he continues triumphantly. "Since that discovery, we've advanced more than the past 10,000 years combined. And the reapers will do the same for us again. A thousand fold."
Shepard's vision begins to darken again as another wave of pressure crashes down on her. She moves her left hand to her head and tries to steady herself. Suddenly she's aware of her right arm moving upwards. Her grip on the pistol tightens and her index finger tenses over the trigger.
"But only if we can harness their ability to control it." The Illusive Man's cold gaze is focused upon her.
What's happening? Her body straightens and her right arm lifts the gun, pointing it directly at Anderson. What is this? Why can't I stop this?
The Commander tries to turn away from Anderson, to point the pistol at the sneering Illusive Man. But she can't. She grits her teeth and groans in frustration.
"Bullshit. We destroy them or they destroy us!" Anderson counters forcefully, his movements still stiff as he tries to fight against the hold on him.
"And waste this opportunity? Never!" The Illusive Man is adamant, still circling them.
"You're playing with things you don't understand. With power you shouldn't be able to use!" Shepard asserts, still unable to put her arm down.
The Illusive Man stops and turns to look at her, indignation apparent on his face. "I don't believe that. If we can control it, why shouldn't it be ours?"
"Because we're not ready."
"No, this is the way humanity must evolve." He brings his hand to his chin thoughtfully.
"There's always another way," Anderson says, sensing the same thing Shepard does. He makes eye contact with the Commander.
"I've dedicated my life to understanding the reapers, and I know with certainty, the Crucible will allow me to control them," the Illusive Man declares, looking back and forth between Anderson and Shepard.
She has to keep pressing him. "And then what?"
"Look at the power they wield! Look at what they can do!" He shouts, raising his right hand to form a fist. Bright blue energy begins to emanate from him. Her vision becomes darker again and she tries to fight it, to keep it at bay. Her efforts fail and she feels her index finger press down on the trigger. Shepard looks at Anderson, fear in her eyes.
No! Anderson!
The sound of the shot takes her breath way. The Admiral groans and doubles over in pain. His left arm moving up to the bleeding wound.
Commander Shepard wants to scream out in rage, but fights the emotion, pushes it down, shaking her head with a short exhale. No, you've gotta keep him talking. Keep your cool. He still has the upper hand here.
"I see what they did to you," she says to him, unable to hide the venom in her tone.
The Illusive Man turns sharply towards her.
"I took what I wanted from them. Made it my own. This isn't about me or you!" He stands in the center of the room, arms outstretched. "This is about things so much bigger than all of us!"
"He's wrong! Don't listen to him," Anderson says to her. She makes a silent plea to him to hang on, to stay strong. She'd find a way to get them out of this.
"And who will you listen to, Shepard?" The Illusive Man walks over to Anderson and she tenses, afraid of what he'll do to him. "An old soldier stuck in his ways? Only able to see the world down the barrel of a gun? And what if he's wrong? What if controlling the reapers is the answer?"
Shepard is repulsed by him more than ever. He's delusional. She narrows her eyes at him. "If we destroy the reapers, this ends now. But if you can't control them-"
"But I can!" he yells, stalking closer with rage.
"Are you willing to bet humanity's existence on it?" She knows he's trying to justify this.
He shakes his head in agitation and Shepard holds her breath.
"I know this will work!" He's pacing now.
"You can't, can you? They won't let you do it."
The Illusive Man glares at her furiously. "NO!" he shouts. "I'm in control. No one is telling me what to do!"
Anderson shakes his head. "Listen to yourself! You're indoctrinated!" The Admiral's accusation further enrages the Illusive Man.
"NO! NO! The two of you so self-righteous!" His voice bellows with wrath. "Do you think power like this comes easy? There are sacrifices!"
"You sacrifice too much!" Shepard screams back at him.
The Illusive Man begins to pace again. She can tell he's questioning his own motives now, but would he be able to see what the reapers were doing to him?
"Shepard... I... I only wanted to protect humanity," he says with sheer distress overtaking his once confident tone. "The Crucible can control them. I know it can! I just..."
"It's not too late. Let us go. We'll do the rest," she pleads.
He pauses, shaking his head. "I... I can't do that, Commander."
"Of course you can't," Anderson states. "They own you now."
The Illusive Man moves over to Anderson and stands behind him. He grabs the soldier's sidearm from the holster.
Shepard's pulse quickens. Damn it! This can't be happening. I won't let him do this!
"You. You'd undo everything I've accomplished." The Illusive Man grips the gun and walks a few steps over from Anderson. "I won't let that happen."
"Because of you, humanity is already undone," the Commander says to him with disdain.
"That's not true!"
"They have the Citadel! They got us fighting each other instead of fighting them!" Shepard yells back, her blood boiling now. After everything. After every battle. Every obstacle. It comes down to this despot. They could lose the entire galaxy all because of him.
The Illusive Man shakes his head. "I just need to-"
"You've done exactly what the reapers wanted! You're still doing it because they control you!" Shepard gasps softly as she feels some of the pressure holding her in place ease a bit and she turns the pistol slightly towards him, ready to pull the trigger.
"I... they're too strong!" He's overwhelmed by the confusion and turns away from her.
"You're stronger! Don't let them win! You can fight this!" I'm breaking though to him. Maybe there's still a chance...
"I tried, Shepard." He holds the pistol up and looks at it. Shepard flashes back to Saren. The situation so similar. And the location. It wasn't far from this spot that she confronted the rogue spectre. The Commander knows what he'll do next.
The Illusive Man brings the muzzle to his temple and pulls the trigger. The shot echoes through the room as his body falls to ground.
Commander Shepard exhales as she feels the pressure on her dissipate. She can move again. She limps over to Anderson, giving a glance to the Illusive Man's still body. The Admiral collapses to the ground as well. She rushes to him, but he waves her off and points to the control panel.
"Shepard, you have to get the arms open."
She goes to the panel and enters the commands. The arms slowly shift back and outwards, revealing the galactic fleet and the reapers battling in the distance near Earth. Some soft static comes though her earpiece before she hears another familiar voice.
"This is it everyone. The arms are opening. Move the Crucible into place." It's Admiral Hackett. She lets a small smile form on her lips looking up at humanity's homeworld. This would all be over soon. The reapers would be destroyed.
Shepard hears Anderson moan and she turns to see the wounded man sitting up. She limps back towards the Admiral and collapses to the ground at his left.
"Commander," he says to her with a slight nod, his eyes gazing out at the view of Earth.
"We did it." Shepard sighs quietly and turns to him, a pang in her chest. He looks so weak. She could lose him here and now and there would be nothing she could do about it. She stares out at Earth too.
"Yes. We did. It's… quite a view."
She closes her eyes and forces a chuckle, trying to hide the sadness. "Best seats in the house."
"God… feels like years since I just sat down." The exhaustion in Anderson's voice makes her eyes burn.
"I think you earned a rest," she says, looking over to him. Shepard's tired too. She thinks maybe if they can just sit here together for a few minutes they could regain some strength. It's wishful thinking.
He closes his eyes and moans as his head slumps forward. The naive and hopeful thoughts she held just a second ago escape her in that instant.
"Stay with me," she begs him. "We're almost through this."
His eyes open again and he looks at her, nodding. "You did good, child. You did good. I'm proud of you."
"Thank you, sir," Shepard replies softly. She watches as the Admiral's eyes close and his head slumps down again.
"Anderson?" She whispers his name, but he's gone. The Commander shuts her eyes for a moment and takes a deep breath, letting the tears fall where they will.
Her left hand covering the wound on her torso is wet and she glances down, pulling the hand away. It's covered with blood and she can feel more continue to seep slowly down the side of her armor. The exhaustion overcomes her. She feels ready to give in.
"Shepard, do you copy? Shepard? Can you hear me?" Is that Admiral Hackett? She groans trying to focus on the voice through the haze of pain and exhaustion. She hears him call her name again through the comm link.
"I- what do you need to me to do?" she asks as she struggles to get up. Shepard breathes heavily, the pain surging through her with each movement. Her arms and hands, covered with blood, slip on the cold metal floor as she tries to push herself up. She crashes back to the ground with a gasp.
"Nothing's happening," Hackett continues through the static. "... Crucible's not firing... something on your end."
Shepard crawls over to the control panel. There's more noise through the comm link now and she can't make out his voice anymore. She pulls herself up on the terminal, looking at the controls.
"I can't... I don't see how to..." Her voice trembles and she can't seem to form the words as the panel starts to blur in front of her. She mashes the control pad desperately with her hands before sliding off the panel and falling back to ground. The Commander's eyes close and the static in the comm link fades to silence.
Author's Notes:
Thank you so much for the fave alerts and the kind reviews! :)
Poor Anderson! That "I'm proud of you" scene always makes me misty-eyed. :'(
There's some interesting things coming up and though I originally planned to wrap this up in about 8 chapters, it will end up being a bit longer.
Chapter 6: A Shot in the Dark will be up in a few minutes.