A/N: Well what's that? About two weeks? That seems a pretty good standard; I'll try to keep to putting out a chapter every two weeks at least. But here we are Ilos and the battle of the Citadel, this is not the final chapter, there will be one more after this. Then book two will begin after I go back and edit the first few chapters of this one.

Warning: The end of this chapter has a few scenes that are quite gory, so you have been warned.

I am almost to 50 reviews! That's like elevendy seven times more than I thought this would ever get you guys are the best!

Chapter 16: The End of the Beginning

Door.

…

"Do we have enough ordinance to get through that?" Kaidan asks, staring at the massive door Saren just escaped through.

"Probably." I reply hand on my chin an action that is somewhat difficult while wearing a helmet… "What the hell, lets blow it up, Garrus give me a hand here?"

"Yeah, how much do you think we'll need?"

"Dunno, let's just put on a bunch and see what happens."

"You do know what you're doing right?" Kaidan asks skeptically.

"He knows his explosives, come on we have to hold off the Geth." Shepard says.

"Whatever you say Commander." Kaidan says slowly walking away.

Shepard walks over to me, he just stands next to me arms crossed looking at the door. "Knock hard"

I smirk under my helmet. "Aye aye boss."

"I'll give em' wiff of me own Scottish brimstone!" I shout to no one in particular with a Scottish accent.

Garrus just looks at me weird for a second, but then he just shakes his head and pulls out a duffle bag full of demo charges.

"So uh how should we do this?" Garrus asks holding a charge.

"I figure we stick a bunch on here in an arc big enough for the Mako to get through, and see what happens."

He shrugs and starts putting charges on the door.

-POV Shepard-

"How many of these guys are there?" Tom shouts from his position a few yards up behind a collapsed pillar.

"A lot just keep firing." I shout back.

"Armature! Use a rocket!"

Tali pops up from behind cover, bringing the RPG to bear in one fluid motion.

SHOOONK!

The armature takes the rocket right in the chest, it staggers and collapses, smoking to the ground.

"What's that four now?" Tali asks reloading the launcher.

"Five" Kaidan replies. "Good thing we stocked up."

I see a Geth prime come out from around a corner.

Screw that.

SHOOONK!

"Nice shot Shepard!" Tom shouts enthusiastically.

Then Jon and Garrus run out and duck behind cover.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!" Jon shouts before slamming a button on his Omni tool.

- POV Knight-

BOOOOOOOM!

A massive explosion rocks the area, and I can hear chunks of debris impacting the Mako with metallic THUNKs. I look back around the barrier. Whoa hole, right in the door there is a perfect hole blasted through the door where Garrus and I placed the charges, a hole the Mako should fit through.

"Did it work?" Shepard shouts over his shoulder still engaging the Geth.

"Yeah, we should be able to get through, but damn that door is tough." I reply with some awe.

"Alright, we need to go." He says motioning to the abundant Geth in the area.

Strange I don't recall this many from the game.

"Let's leave em' a present and run." He turns to me with a smirk.

"Everyone fall back!" Shepard shouts to the rest of the squad.

As people move back through the gap, Garrus and I drop several demo charges. We then quickly jump into the Mako and Shepard guns the engine. He then charges the Mako forward through the barely large enough hole we made, there is the telltale sound of rending metal, and outside light suddenly illuminates the interior of the Mako.

"What happened?" Shepard shouts from the cockpit.

"We lost the turret!" I reply.

The Mako's entire turret is simply gone, and the elevated gunner's position now opens to the top of the Mako. I climb up into the gunner's position, the top half of my body outside the Mako.

"So now we have no way to defend ourselves?" Kaidan asks rhetorically.

"I wouldn't say that." I return calmly, shouldering the RPG.

"Geth up ahead." Shepard says.

I aim down the sights of the launcher aiming for the middle of the cluster.

"Steady… steady… NOW!"

SHOOONK!

The rocket flies slightly to the right of where I was aiming but succeeds in clearing the Geth from our path. Shepard keeps driving the Mako forward, we don't encounter any more Geth before we reach the force field.

"I don't like the look of this Commander." Garrus says as we step out of the Mako.

"Shepard cues his radio. "Jon?"

I bring my hand up to my radio. "Nah, this should be here, take the elevator over there."

He nods. "Tali, liara, Kaidan, you're with me. Knight, Garrus, Tom, stay with the Mako."

"Aye aye boss."

With that Shepard and his group get into the elevator and head down. I take a few moments to check over my equipment. Tom gets back in the Mako and comes out the gunner's seat a moment later. He sets the bipod for his Revenant down facing back down the tunnel.

I take a deep breath looking down the tunnel as well, this place feels ominous, heavy, like we're disturbing a graveyard. And essentially we are the final resting place of the last living members of the Prothean race. It's a strange feeling.

"What are all these things on the walls?" Garrus asks quietly.

"Stasis pods of some sort."

"Since no one came out to greet us I'll assume they're empty."

"50,000 years is a long time to be in stasis."

"Can't outlive em', can't hide from em', can't fight em'… how are we supposed to defeat them?" Garrus looks to me mandibles drooping slightly at the insurmountable odds stacked against us.

"We try, it's all we can do, we give it our all, and put our trust in Shepard." I say shrugging.

"And what if that's not enough?"

"Then we die fighting, with the reapers, it's as simple as that." I reply quietly. "But I'm sure we can beat them, nothing is invincible, nothing lasts forever, we'll find away, life always has."

"I wish I had your optimism Jon." He replies shaking his head.

"I don't like being sad, doesn't fit with my unique personality." I say putting a hand on my chest and bowing a little.

"Oh, you're unique alright." He replies sarcastically.

"Hey I take pride in m-"

"Hey guys! We got something coming." Tom suddenly bursts in from his position in the Mako.

Garrus and I instantly move into cover on the walls and pull out snipers. I crouch down and put the scope up to my eye. Sure enough I see several Geth troopers coming up over the rise.

"Ready when you are Jon." Garrus says over the radio.

"Light em' up."

We each fire our rifle at the same time, and two Geth simultaneously become a head shorter. The rest of them quickly scramble for cover and start returning fire, but it quickly becomes apparent who has the advantage, while Garrus and I peg any Geth that sticks out of cover, Tom is firing his Revenant relentlessly, pinning them down. It just becomes a waiting game for Garrus and I to get them all, it takes a little more than five minutes before all of the Geth are eliminated.

"Nice shooting." I say walking back over to the Mako.

"You too, and good covering fire Tom."

"Thanks, you two are scary good." He replies while shoveling a not inconsiderate pile of used thermal clips off the top of the Mako, where they land in the shallow water hissing.

Just about then the kinetic barrier barring the path shuts off, and a few moments later the elevator arrives with Shepard and CO.

"Saddle up, we've gotta move." Shepard says quickly striding over to the Mako.

Everyone piles into the Mako, and Shepard takes off down the tunnel. I quickly buckle myself into the seat, so I don't get thrown about like a ragdoll. We take a sharp turn and I can feel the G force pulling me to the side, then the tires grip and we go flying forward again. There's no way to see out of the Mako from in the back, and I'm really wishing there was right now. The Mako suddenly rocks to the side and the world tilts at a 45 degree angle, then we slam back down. You know what I take that back I don't want to know what's going on outside. It doesn't take long for us to reach our destination.

"There is the Conduit!" Kaidan points out from the passenger's seat.

The Mako leaps forward and we pick up speed flying down a slope, I can hear rounds pinging off the shields and the characteristic thump of siege pulses landing all around us.

Then WHAM.

There's not really any travel time during an FTL jump, just a sudden feeling of weightlessness and then an abrupt stop. It's the same in the Mako but then we crash onto the Citadel, the Mako was not made for FTL travel after all.

I gingerly climb out of the Mako's belly hatch, and jump to the ground next to Shepard and Kaidan. The Citadel is a mess, fires burning everywhere, bodies strewn about, and the distant sound of gunfire. It's horrible.

"You ok Jon?" Shepard asks.

"Yeah, I'll be fine, bit of a rough landing."

Everyone else climbs out of the Mako, and just as we're about to move out the radio crackles to life.

"Shepard is that you?"

"Wrex?" Shepard asks activating his mic.

"HAHA, I knew you wouldn't miss all the fun." Yeah that's Wrex all right.

"Where are you Wrex? What's the situation?"

"I'm at the C-sec academy with a bunch of officers and some civies, we're trying to hold off the Geth, but it's rough Shepard."

"Tom, do you know how to get to the academy from here?"

"Of course." He puts his hand up to his mic. "I'm on my way Wrex." He starts to jog off but I stop him.

"It's not safe to go alone, take this." I say handing him my RPG and a satchel of rockets.

He slings the launcher and ammo over his shoulder. "Thanks Jon, stay safe."

"You too" I quickly jog back over to Shepard.

Garrus is on top of the upside down Mako taking things from someone inside, he tosses me an ammo belt. I catch it and unclip the nearly empty one I had on and replace it with the full one. Then he tosses me a canteen, I almost don't catch it but after an impromptu juggling round I get a hold of it. I take my helmet off and take a long pull from the canteen.

The canteens we bought are full of a revitalizing drink meant for long battle engagements, similar to a stim, but it's not as quick, and also has less of a crash afterwards. I cap the canteen and put my helmet back on, and grab a few more supplies.

"Everyone ready?" Shepard asks.

We all give an affirmative.

"Alright lets go."

We move off and pile into the elevator for the council chambers. It goes about halfway up and then stops.

"Helmets on everyone." Shep says pulling out his pistol.

I double check the seals on my helmet, all good. Shepard pulls the trigger, and the glass shatters soundlessly, the vacuum of space eliminating sound. We step out onto the side of the tower, held to the ground via magnetic boots, but the rest of my body strangely weightless. I grip my Widow a bit tighter and follow Shepard down the corridor, the sound of my breathing overtly loud in my helmet.

The first firefight is strange, trying to put the crosshairs on the target is strange when you're 40kg gun is suddenly weightless. I don't mess around trying to get a headshot, and just try to hit the enemies. I get the hang of it after a short time, Garrus seems to be faring better his impeccable accuracy not wavering for a second. Although he's probably trained in zero-G before.

The corridor fights are over quickly, where there are only a few Geth, our squad of six people cuts them down quickly, having two Biotics is very helpful as well. The larger firefights however are a bit more challenging, there are a lot of Geth here, and Kaidan, and Liara's Biotics are somewhat less effective at long range.

We continue pressing up the tower, against an army of Geth. We're most of the way up the tower when a drop ship shows up. Everyone gets into cover and starts engaging the Geth pouring out of the ship.

"We need to hack these defense turrets!" Shepard says over the radio.

Tali starts hacking the closest turret, so I set my sights on one a bit farther away. "Cover me!"

I sprint out into the open running for the cover of the turrets mount. Running through a battlefield with no sound is extremely disconcerting, I can feel the heat from a few rounds, and I can see some whipping past me, but I can't hear anything, it's just strange.

I get to the turret after what seems like an eternity, taking a moment to catch my breath before getting to work on the turret, it has next to no security, I guess no one ever expected someone to walk up the side of the tower to hack them, makes my job easier though.

The panel flashes green and the turret begins firing. "I got it!"

"LOOK OUT!" Someone shouts over the radio.

Wha- OH SHIT ROCKET! I dive to the side, a sound battle instinct, but I'm in zero-G so I now find myself floating away. The rocket flies past me and explodes a few feet behind me, floating as I am, I am smashed into the turret mount from the force of the rockets explosion. My right shoulder takes the brunt of the impact, and I can feel the overlapping armor plates on my shoulder bending out of shape as my shoulder erupts with pain, but then I bounce off the turret back into the air, broken bits of armor trailing in my wake.

"JON!" I hear Tali shout over the radio.

"Liara, grab him!" Shepard orders quickly.

I feel a strange sensation envelope my body, and I start drifting back towards the tower surface. My boots connect with a dull thunk, and Liara releases her Biotics. The drop ship and Geth are gone, so I take a moment to assess the damage, the armor appears to have taken the brunt of the damage, the three overlapping pieces of armor that protect my shoulder have shattered or come loose.

Tali is the first to make it to me. "Jon, are you alright? That looked bad, are you ok" She continues to worriedly assail me with questions, before I garb her by the shoulders, and hold her still.

"Tali, I'm alright." I keep looking straight into her faceplate. She nods after a second.

"Sorry, I just, that looked, I was worried…" She says wringing her hands, and dropping her gaze to the ground.

"It's alright, it's nice to be worried over."

Shepard and the others have gotten over to us by this point.

"You're ok?" Shepard asks.

I roll my shoulder experimentally… OW! I rub my injured shoulder through the armor.

"It hurts like hell, but nothings broken." I reply.

"Can you shoot?"

"I'll stick with my pistol for now." I say pulling said weapon from its holster.

"Alright let's keep moving."

My shoulder feels like it's on fire, an application of medi-gel helps keep it bearable, but I'm not going to be firing the Widow any time soon. But then this is it isn't it? We arrive at the council chambers and make our way inside through a maintenance airlock. The council chambers are a mess, dead bodies, burning debris, and bullet holes litter the once beautiful area.

There are about six Geth with Saren, four troopers, and two snipers. They engage us as we approach. I slide into cover behind a planter, and wait a few moments then pop out and fire a few rounds from my Phalanx. Each shot sends a jolt of pain through my shoulder, but I just grit my teeth and keep firing. The few Geth there, are no match for us, and Saren growls angrily at their weakness.

Shepard moves up the stairs but quickly jumps away when Saren throws a grenade. Shepard and Saren begin their conversation, but I don't hear much of it because I'm nursing my shoulder. Damn this hurts.

BANG

I look up to see Saren slip sideways of his hover thing, and fall through the glass into the garden below. I get up and make my way towards Shepard. He goes to the open control panel and puts Vigil's program into the Citadel's mainframe. The ground shakes as the arms begin opening.

"Anyone this is the Destiny Ascension! We are under heavy fire, the council is onboard!"

"Shepard, we got that SOS, I'm sitting here with the entire Arcturus fleet just open the relays and we'll swoop in." Jokers voice comes over the com.

He doesn't even hesitate. "Relays are open Joker."

"Roger that Commander."

He steps back and looks out the window. "Make sure he's dead."

I jump down into the garden pit with Garrus. I walk over to where Saren's body is and pull out a demo charge.

"Is that necessary?" Garrus asks from behind me.

I turn and look at him. "Yeah" I reply dead serious.

He nods. I turn back to Saren, he starts glowing red. "Oh shit!"

Soverighn's takeover of Sarens body is much quicker in real life, there is no exaggerated transformation, the flesh dissolves in a red glow, and he lets out a burst of energy that knocks me off my feet, and collapses the platform Shepard, and the rest of the squad were standing on.

I start getting back to my feet, but Soverighn is right on me. I dive away narrowly avoiding being shiskebabed, but I don't avoid the grab. He clamps a talon around my right bicep and pulls me off my feet. He swings me around in a circle, and brings me around in an upswing, supposedly to smash me onto the ground but he doesn't get the chance.

My shoulder screams in pain, but everything is going in slow motion, as he swings me up through the air I watch with morbid fascination as the weakened shoulder armor comes apart, followed by a wet ripping sound, like tearing a wet cloth, then a final sickening wet pop, and I'm flying through the air up and out of the garden pit. I hit the ground and slide into a pillar.

I can see a red trail following along the ground where I slid, that's not good. I look to my right shoulder, my entire right arm was ripped out at the socket, red tatters of flesh hang limply, and a steady flow of crimson blood pours out, that is not good. I rip off my helmet with my remaining hand, and apply medi-gel. This isn't working, the wound is too serious, I need something else. I begin frantically looking around, but all that's close by is one of the dead Geth snipers.

Maybe I'm too crazy for my own good, but I've got no better ideas. Let's do this.

-POV Shepard-

Damnit! I watch helplessly as Jon's arm is ripped off and he goes flying out of the pit. Soverighn, flings the arm away in distaste, and focuses his attention on me.

"You're gunna pay for that asshole!" I charge forward firing my assault rifle.

-POV Knight-

I've finished relieving the Geth of it's right arm, using the knife in my left hand was extremely difficult, and cutting through the Geth's thick tissue took much longer than I would have liked, the medi-gel is probably the only reason I haven't bled out already. I pick up the Geths arm and bring it towards my shoulder, as it comes in contact electricity arcs from me to the arm, my next thoughts are completely blocked out by the wave of pain. I double over, and shut my eyes, I don't know how long it lasts, it feels like an eternity before I'm swallowed by darkness.

…

I wake up floating in darkness. "Where am I? what happened, I… I can't remember…"

A form emerges from the dark a featureless body clad in dark armor, it has blue code flowing across it and around it, but its entire right shoulder and chest have broken pieces of code, glowing an angry red. I move towards it and start fixing the broken code. I don't rightly know what I'm doing, it's more like I feel what to do. As sections of code align they return to their icy blue color, and as more is repaired I begin to remember. The final piece of code aligns, and I remember, the head of the figures snaps up to look me right in the face, two ice blue circular eyes, a cackling jack-o-lantern mouth, crossed by three parallel scars.

My eyes fly open and I jolt up into a sitting position, I grimace in pain from the sudden movement and grip my right shoulder… waitaminute. I look over to my right shoulder and find that the Geth arm is fused into the previously empty socket. At this point I determine I'm not in immediate danger of dying and look around, large pieces of black metal are embedded into the chamber, preventing me from seeing more than ten feet in any direction. I'm stuck in a small clearing, so I decide that moving can come later after I've better assessed my injuries. I pull off the top of my armor to better examine my shoulder, strips of synthetic 'flesh' trace from the wound out to the middle of my chest, the skin is red and irritated wherever it connects to its synthetic counterpart.

I flex my right hand experimentally, the Geth arm responds exactly as my flesh and blood one did, but causes me to grit my teeth in pain. Too soon to be moving that, but it does move, I have successfully incorporated a synthetic arm into my body… Tali is gunna freak. That thought makes me laugh, I pull a roll of bandage out of a pocket in my armor and begin wrapping my shoulder in it.

After that is finished I lean back against the pillar and just breathe for a few minutes. That was way to close, I could have died right there, I suppose the only reason I didn't is because I'm resonant with tech, this wouldn't have worked if I wasn't would it? I ponder this a few moments, gently flexing my new hand. No it probably wouldn't have. I'm a goddamn lucky bastard.

I should probably get moving, make sure everyone is alright. I slowly get to my feet, it doesn't hurt to move my arm so much anymore. I put my shirt back on and grab my helmet and the remnants of my chest piece, then I start climbing over pieces of debris towards where the garden pit was. The going is slow as my adrenaline starts to wear off, and I begin to realize just how drained I really am. I stop and lean up against a piece of metal to catch my breath.

"Jon?" I look up to see Shepard halfway over a piece of debris.

"Shepard, hah, oh it's good to see you." I say walking over to him and helping him over the obstacle.

"That's new." He says pointing to my arm.

"Desperate times, call for desperate measures I suppose, I would have bled out I it hadn't worked." I say lifting my arm and flexing my hand.

"I don't suppose you have a logical explanation for that?"

"Uh, no, not a logical one."

"Then we should cover it up, don't want your secret getting out."

"Yeah, I guess I hadn't thought about that."

We fashion a sling of sorts out of bandage and pieces of my undershirt that conceals my new arm. I can explain what happened to the squad later, but this should hide it for now.

"I, I would ask more but I'm too tired right now, let's just get out of here." He says slowly moving over to the next pile of debris blocking our path.

"You're the boss." I reply following after him.

We meet up with the rest of the squad, a short while later. Everyone has new scars but nothing serious, besides me. C-sec officers are there with medics, but as no-one has life threatening injuries, Shepard waves them off to help civilians. He gets a C-sec shuttle to take us back to the Normandy. When we get back Chakwas immediately corrals everyone to the med-bay. Of course she immediately picks up that I have the most severe injury.

"What happened Jon?" She asks concern edging into her voice.

"Uh, big nasty thing grabbed me and tossed me around a bit, but it's nothing to worry about."

"I think I'll be the judge of that, now let me-"

"Doctor, his arm will be alright, trust me." Shepard says looking Chakwas in the eye.

She turns back to me and gives me a curious look. I smile sheepishly, she leaves to attend someone else, but that's not the end of that. I look to Shepard and give him a look that says, 'thanks for pulling my ass out of the fire', he returns with a nod and a smile. I have several other injuries of course but it's just the usual bumps, scrapes, and bruises. Everyone else turned out much the same, although shepard's forearm had a small fracture, and Tali had a small suit puncture, nothing life threatening.

I leave the med-bay some time later, and get some food. After that I begin heading down to my room for some sleep, glorious sleep. When I enter the room Garrus is just getting in bed as well. I give him a tired smile.

"We did it"

"That we did, now I'm going to pass out for a while." And he does he's asleep the moment his head hits the pillow.

I do the same thing after climbing up into my bunk.

I wake up about ten hours later, getting out of bed is painful, my entire body rebels at the idea of movement, but my stomach is growling so I slowly make my way down to the mess hall. Garrus is slumped on the table, apparently asleep. Tali is holding her head in her hands barely awake, and Shepard is nursing a cup of coffee. Tali and Shep both look up as I come in, Shepard gives me a tired smile, and I can tell Tali is doing the same. I grab some food from the vendatron, and sit next to Tali across from Garrus and Shep.

"Morning" I say opening my package.

"Morning? It's almost noon." Tali replies.

"mehr, close enough."

Shepard and Tali chuckle at my wisecrack.

"When you're done we should all have a talk." Shepard says more seriously.

I stop in my attempt to open the package one handed. "Yeah, probably should, your quarters?"

Tali snatches my food opens it and hands it back. "Thanks"

"Yeah, my quarters will be private enough."

I dig into my food, slower than I would have liked still only using my left hand. "So how are you guys feeling?"

"I'm a little sick, but not too bad." Tali replies with a sniffle.

"Sore" Is all Shepard replies.

I eat for a while. "How's Liara?"

"She's alright, still sleeping in her room." Shepard replies.

"Kaidan?"

"Same, Ash is still at the hospital on the Citadel, Tom is sleeping at a C-sec aid station, and Wrex is helping with relief efforts." Shep says taking a swig of his coffee.

I nod, well then everyone made it out ok. Small miracle that, I finish eating the rest of my food in comfortable silence. I toss my stuff in the trash.

"Alright, I'm ready, shall we wake sleeping beauty?"

"I got him" Shepard says. He nudges Garrus. "Come on wake up buddy."

"Nehyfihsdfjk…" Garrus mumbles incoherently.

Shepard shakes him a little harder. "Garrus"

He suddenly sits bolt upright. "I'M AWAKE! Whoa" He topples over backwards in his chair.

Shepard helps him up while Tali and I try to suppress our laughter. He glares at us once he gets back on his feet.

"Come on sunshine, we've got stuff to talk about." Shepard says patting him on the shoulder.

We head to Shepard's quarters, Tali and I sit down on the couch, Garrus sits backwards on the desk chair, resting his arms on the back, and Shepard sits down on his bed.

"Ok, so Jon, show them your arm?" Shepard says.

I nod, and start pulling the sling off, as I begin unraveling the bandages Garrus speaks up.

"I'm certain I saw your arm disconnect when Saren grabbed you."

"Yeah, me too." Tali says softly.

"Well that's because it did." I say pulling away the last of the bandages.

They both gasp.

"Is that… a Geth arm?" Garrus asks incredulously.

"Yes"

"How,.. what? …" Tali stammers.

"I don't really know why I did it, but when I landed outside the garden pit, medi-gel wasn't enough to stop the bleeding, the only other thing around was a dead Geth sniper."

"So you just thought 'I'll take his arm?'" Garrus says mandibles splayed in disbelief.

"Pretty much, like I said, I don't really know what prompted me to do it, but I did and it worked." As I say this I raise my arm flexing my hand.

"It's fully functional?" Shepard asks.

"As far as I can tell, I'll have to get used to having three fingers, but it doesn't really feel any different."

"How can you feel it at all?" Tali says.

I just shrug. "It's weird, I don't 'feel' things like I do with my organic hand, but I can still tell I'm touching things, I can still 'feel' heat, cold, smooth, rough, ect…"

"So is this just something you jury rigged or is this a resonant thing?" Shepard asks.

"Definitely a resonant thing, attaching it I got shocked like when I interacted with tech but times a million."

"So you couldn't re-create this for someone else?" Shepard says.

"No, why-" My eyes widen. "Ash"

He nods.

"No, it's definitely on a much deeper level than simply being a prosthetic." I reply solemnly. "I wish I could help Ash, but I can't"

He nods. "Alright, well we're officially off combat operations for now, get some rest everyone, you've earned it."

"Aye, aye boss."

A/N: Well there you go, What'cha think?

-Knight out