Mass Effect: The Faithful Departed
Shepard:
The cool blue water rippled as our feet dipped into the Presidium Lake.
Ash and I had taken our shoes off and were side by side near at the edge of the lake, overlooking commuters and businessmen going about their lives. I'm pretty sure we were't allowed to do this, but I really didn't care and neither did Ash, who was beaming beside me. We sat, her left arm draped over my shoulder for an eternity, imbibing the breathtaking view before us. I was enjoying the opportunity to finally get some peace and quiet after two years of my life being fucking psychotic, with geth and reapers attacking to Citadel, then Collectors abducting humans.
It was good that the galaxy would stay saved for five whole minutes, even if our friends were worried and scrambling to search for answers in places they didn't want to be.
I never wanted to leave my spot by the side of the lake. It was so peaceful here and quiet, unlike the Wards surrounding the Presidium. I was beginning to understand why the politicians didn't want this peace disturbed more than they wanted to help other people. Messing a moment like this up should be a capital offense.
If it were, Anderson would be thrown in the stockade, because he cleared his throat from behind us, getting our attention. He looked like a stern father who didn't think highly of two kids together by the lake at a time like this.
"Shepard, I want you to know that we are close to locating the Illusive Man. You two should come inside, there's plenty of space there."
He turned and walked, unimpressed at our display of affection.
Ash and I turned to each other and shrugged before getting onto our feet. We slid our boots back on and followed Anderson back up the stairs. He kept a brisk pace, braking for nothing and no one; more specifically, not letting Ash and I have time to savor the moment. But we were still smiling.
For the first time in my life, I really didn't care what Anderson thought.
We passed the reception desk, and I noted the lack of a young woman peering over the edge, waiting to greet us. In fact, the room was totally empty, cushioned chairs vacant and no maintenance workers in sight. It was an unusual sight here on the Presidium
Warning bells went off in my head as we passed into the short hallway to the elevator. Something was wrong. I could just feel it in my gut.
I grabbed Ash by the shoulder and pulled my weapon from the waist band of my civilian cargos. It was comforting to know that I had a pistol in my hand, the smooth grip tucked firmly into my palm.
She followed suit, pulling back the bolt on her Predator in advance.
"Captain!" I shouted at Anderson, desperate to warn him.
Suddenly, a flash bang grenade detonated right in front of us. When I say right in front, I mean right fucking in front of me. Saying that it was two meters away would be generous.
I hated these things. The flash burning white hot in my eye sockets and the boom reverberating in my ear drums, it was impossible to recover from in time once you were hit with one.
On instinct, I let go of Ash and dived back the way I had come, trying to break up the attackers' field of fire on the narrow hallway, anticipating the fire that would come next. I had learned that from Ellyson, only in many more words.
The gun was knocked from my hand and a sharp kick landed in my kidney in the same instant. I fell to the floor, as taking yet another kidney shot form a Cerberus Agent in a few short days was too much to take.
I couldn't see, the white lights were still dancing in front of my eyes. I heard struggling in front of me. Whoever it was had already moved on to Ash and Anderson.
I hauled myself up, using the wall as support. God, did that hurt! I couldn't see six inches in front of my face, so there was no way I would find my weapon in time.
I threw myself in the direction of the scuffling, trying to give them some time.
I smacked into somebody, sending the two of us to the floor. I landed on top of him with a thud, pinning his right arm down on the floor. I hope it wasn't Anderson.
It sure wasn't Anderson, as a blade danced in front of me, the hot air of the swing only a centimeter from my face.
I jumped backward, getting out before he could take another swing. I staggered for a moment, trying to regain my balance after getting "flashed" at close range.
My vision cleared suddenly, with my attacker coming into view. It was Petrenko.
Somehow he had survived being tossed out of the transport on Elysium and had come back for more.
Only Petrenko had changed. Where his right cheek had been, there was now a metal jaw and several prosthetic moving parts, hideously disappearing behind the bulging flesh that remained on his face. He was holding a buoy knife, wearing his closest approximation of a grin.
"Did you miss me, soldier-man?"
What happened next was unbelievable.
He jumped at me, only instead of landing in front of me, he sailed over my head, slashing downward in an arc as he did.
I felt a searing pain in my shoulder as his buoy knife clipped it, drawing blood.
Before I could recover, he threw a kick at my stomach, sending me backward across the floor. Lights and stars did laps in front of me as I came to a halt ten feet away.
He was impossibly strong. And he was fast. Cerberus had made him better in every way, and there was no way I could take him without a weapon.
I looked up to see him grinning with his horribly deformed face looking at me on the floor, as if disappointed.
"Oh, I'm gonna enjoy this, John-boy" his heavily accented monotone echoed in my still-ringing ears. I turned to see Ash and Anderson down on the floor, not moving. There was a large crimson spatter on the wall to match the unmoving pair of bodies lying on the ground.
No. It couldn't be.
She hadn't deserved this. Ash came back to rescue me. She shouldn't be the one to pay the price for my freedom. When I had met her, she was so young and eager to fight for what she believed in, even though what she was fighting for had never believed in her.
Petrenko stepped toward me, gaining momentum as he held the buoy knife in front of him, spinning it around and around to intimidate me.
I wasn't scared anymore. He might be enhanced in every way, but I wasn't going to stop until one of us was dead.
I ran directly at him at full speed, ignoring his knife as it arced all around me. Ash hadn't been intimidated by him and neither was I.
He finally swung, the bloodstained knife coming at me from an upward angle, trying to hit me in the throat.
He might have been impossibly fast, but I had already dropped down and aiming for his stomach.
My full weight slammed into his gut, taking the two us to the ground. Petrenko might have been tough, but he didn't weigh any more than he did three days ago.
I brought a right hook into his jaw, snapping his head sideways. He didn't even blink, he just turned his head back so that he was facing me, his metal teeth with blood seeping through the cracks of the chrome metal brackets, and threw the same punch I had hit him with.
His fist struck my cheek like a dumptruck, throwing me from a kneeling position to my feet in the same instant.
He jumped onto his feet, unphazed by my attack. His cold blue eyes were like arctic ice as they saw right through me. He was panting, and it sounded oddly like the Human Reaper I had killed.
That was the moment when I finally understood it. He was a machine now, not a man. His body looked vaguely human, with four limbs and apposable thumbs. But on the inside he was all clockwork, like a cyborg creature that you see in Sci-Fi movies, holding no place in his world or the world of machines. He was an outcast if he survived this.
Revenge was the only thing he had left to enjoy in this world.
He lunged again, only this time there was no way to avoid it.
Petrenko threw me into the wall, the glass frame of a human painting shattering behind me as I hit it with a bone jarring crash. I opened my eyes in time to see him stabbing at my chest with the knife.
I threw both of my arms down in an X, trying to block his strike.
His forearm split the two of mine, leaving me wide open for another hit. There was no time to move, no time to try and block his next hit.
I did the only thing I could, grabbing Petrenko by the front of his gray shirt and bringing my forehead crashing into his nose.
His head was bucked backward by my sudden hit, as his nose was the only part of him not reinforced by muscle and bone enhancements.
Before he could react, I deflected his blade with my right hand, the force of his stab burying the knife in the sheet metal behind me.
My left arm connected with his jaw, right where he had the mechanical parts exposed. It hurt like hell as my hand hit nothing but metal and plastic, crunching the alloy holding his face together.
He screamed in pain, sounding like a Collector drone with a mechanical twang to his voice.
My left hand was bleeding, I could feel the dark red blood seeping in between my fingers, forming a pool in the center of my fist. But he had been hurt more, so I hit him again with the same hand.
I hit him again and again and again, sending chips of expensive prosthetic clattering across the floor with spurts of blood and spit as he reeled backward, unable to control the hurt.
Suddenly he struck me again, sending me back into the wall. I fell to my knees as he stood over me, blood pouring from his busted jaw, pieces hanging loose from their brackets.
He was about to strike, but a series of shots thundered in the hallway. Petrenko was thrown sideways, away from the elevator to Anderson's office.
I looked in the direction of the gunfire.
Liara and Dignam stood in the hallway, pistols raised.
Petrenko's boots squeaked as he slid backward across the tiled floor, struggling to gain purchase. A second later he stopped, with four holes in his chest.
But he was still standing and ready for more. My god, what had Cerberus done to him?
Before they could fire again, Petrenko ran directly at a wall, kicking off of it at the last second, propelling himself to the opposite wall, where he performed the same maneuver, launching his body away from the shooters.
Liara and Dignam fired several times, none of the bullets hitting Petrenko, who had moved at lightspeed out of the line of fire.
"God damn hamster!" Dignam shouted. "Come here you little rascal!" he started running after Petrenko with Liara in tow.
I looked on the floor for a weapon, finding a pistol lying next to Ashley. It was hers. It didn't feel right to take it.
No time to get fussy. I barreled after them, running through the waiting area and down two flights of stairs in pursuit.
I could see Liara's jacket trailing behind her, a white streak as she ran out of the building. Dignam's holster formed a brown X across his back, providing me with someone to follow until I regained a visual on Petrenko.
I burst outside, waving my handgun to ward off nosy onlookers and pedestrians. They were thick in front of me, gathered from the lure of an emergency that could spice up their boring lives. However, they soon cleared as they realized that they were about to become part of the emergency, with a deformed madmen was being pursued by an asari, a cop, and a dead Spectre all at once.
A C-Sec officer pulled out his service sidearm. He was a turian, and probably had never had to use it before.
"Stop!" he shouted at Petrenko.
Before he could take his safety off, Petrenko had jumped onto a pillar and vaulted around the turian and pressed his knife against his throat. He didn't slid the young turian's neck, but he rather held the officer between himself and us. This was turning into a standoff.
He snatched up the turian's gun as if he were taking it from a child, aiming it at me while holding him firmly in place with his blade.
He was as crazy as ever, blood still pouring from his mouth as he screamed at me.
"COME ON SHEPARD! SHOOT ME NOW, SOLDIER MAN!" his metallic voice echoed throughout the Presidium, taunting me.
I had a choice: Shoot him and risk hitting the Turian, or try to talk him down.
I weighed the options.
I had no doubt in my mind that he would be able to move before I pulled the trigger with his fast reflexes.
It would be equally impossible to stop him using words. He had nothing to lose, and if there is one thing I have learned; you can never reason with somebody who has nothing to lose, somebody who has no future or cause left to fight for. Petrenko wanted to die right here, but not before he killed me.
And he wanted it to happen in front of everyone.
"Petrenko! Put him down!" I shouted. "This is between me and you!"
"What's the matter? Your moral code getting in the way? You know what you need to do!" he was laughing as he said it, knowing I had too much heart to pull the trigger.
"That's the difference between people like you and Dignam and people like me and the Illusive Man. People like us do what needs doing when it needs to happen. You people try to prove that you're better like that somehow matters!" he motioned around with his gun, pointing to the fracas around the Presidium, indicating that he wasn't afraid to do whatever he needed to.
"Petrenko! If you touch that officer, I'll kill you!" Dignam shouted. Dignam must have felt some connection to the hostage, because they were both cops caught up in something that they should have never gotten involved in.
Liara caught my eye by forming a ball of biotic energy behind her back. We exchanged glances. I knew what she was going to do.
It was going to be fast and dangerous, and I really hoped Dignam would catch on in time.
Suddenly, she threw a ball of blue energy at Petrenko and his hostage. Instinctively, he put the hostage farther in front of himself, but that was a mistake.
The dark energy arced left and hit the wall behind where they were standing. Waves of blue energy erupted from the wall she had hit with a thunderous pop.
Petrenko was tossed in our direction, taking the full force of the impact and protecting his hostage in the same instant.
He flew forward, facedown, and slid right at me. He screamed in surprise as he came to a halt at my feet. And I mean right at my feet, too. He couldn't have been more than twelve inches away from the front of my boot.
Suddenly he was down in front of me, and I had the weapon this time.
He just froze there for a couple of seconds, not sure of what to do.
Then he grabbed his knife and looked up, his eyes burning red as he was about to lunge. When he looked at me, I saw nothing in his eyes. I saw only the look of a broken man. Petrenko was at the end and he knew it. He reared back and prepared to jump at me.
I lowered my gun and shot him through the eye, silencing the madman forever.
Ashley:
The single gunshot rang in my ears.
My eyes snapped open, seeing the off white of the human embassy ceiling upon waking up. The last thing I remembered was the flash of white and a boot slamming into my forehead.
I sat up and looked around, seeing that the once well-decorated hallway full of bullet holes and several busted picture frames struggling to cling to the walls.
Someone had thrown a serious party in here.
I heard a moan behind me.
"Anderson!"
"Oh my god!" I shouted. I kneeled over my former CO. His dress jacket was stained deep red from top to bottom. He had been stabbed several times by whoever had attacked us, the wounds going from his stomach all the way up to his shoulders.
Then I remembered Petrenko ambushing us on our way upstairs. He was the attacker. But he was gone, and I had to help Anderson.
I pressed both of my hands against his chest, providing pressure for his wounds. His shirt and jacket were in tatters from the slashes and quick strikes by the Russian agent.
It wasn't the quick and clean type of stabbing you see in movies, it was bloody and frightening. With bullet wounds you had a pretty good idea of how bad it was judging by where it hit, but you could never tell with blades. The only way to find out how bad it was is by trying to stop the bleeding yourself, and even then it looked bleak.
"Someone help!" I shouted. I could barely contain the spurts of blood coming out of him as it was, and if I left to go get help he would be done for. He was trying to talk, the blood welling in his throat and choking out his speech as he did.
"Don't speak, Captain. Save your strength," I whispered to him. I had never seen anyone lose this much blood and live to talk about it before, not in all my years as a marine. Anderson was a fighter, so that had to mean something. But he was old, and worn out from a military career and a political job, so he had probably had about all he could take.
Suddenly, the elevator reopened.
I looked up in time to see Udina running toward me, a medical kit in hand. He looked terrified.
He kneeled down next to me and handed me the kit, not trusting his lack of skills at a time like this.
He was a lifesaver, arriving just in time to save Anderson.
I administered medigel to his wounds, being careful not to overdose and send him into shock. I wrapped the bandages around his body, using up almost the entire role to cover up his stab wounds, the wrappings getting damp and sticky in my hands. I lifted my head to shout at Udina to call for help, but he already was running out of the building, yelling for a doctor.
I had no idea how long I had my hands pressed against Anderson to try and stop the bleeding, but it seemed like an eternity before Liara ran up and began to provide professional aid for him. I had no idea that she was this type of doctor, but I wasn't going to question the blessing either. She knew exactly what to do, too. For the first time in her life, she didn't hesitate or stop and ask questions. She just did what she needed to do.
Eventually, we moved Anderson to a hospital on the Presidium. It was a hospital made for white collar people who brought home white collar paychecks, judging by the service Anderson was given by a team of doctors. Even with all that in his favor, I was still worried about him. My clothes were soaked with blood, and that was just a portion of the amount he had lost from Petrenko's blade.
I sat in a plastic chair outside of the room, soaked in red and totally out of control. I had no idea what was happening anymore, but it had to stop, soon.
Suddenly, a pile of fresh fatigues landed in my lap. I looked up to see Shepard standing there with a hollow look on his face.
"You should get changed, Ash."
"I want to know how he is first," I was on my feet, desperate for an answer.
"Liara just checked in with the doctors. And... he may not survive the night."
I hung my head. "No, that can't be right." I couldn't believe it. Anderson was made of steel. He was a legend in the Alliance, and legends weren't supposed to die off of the battlefield in some hallway at the hands of a terrorist. They were supposed to die in glory, or retire in old age and raise kids of their own.
David Anderson wasn't meant to die like this.
"I'm sorry Ash, but there's nothing we can do."
That was the moment I ran off to the bathroom and locked myself inside, unable to face reality. I don't know how long I sat in the corner, afraid to step outside, but it must have been a long time before my trance was broken by a knock on the door.
"Yeah, I'm in here."
"It's Dignam. Are you okay? Shepard's looking all over for you."
For once his voice didn't carry a sarcastic undertone or have a facetious remark waiting around the corner for me to walk into.
"Yeah, I'm coming. Tell him I'll be there in five."
"Sure thing chief," he answered before walking away.
I sighed. It was time to get back to work.
I made my way to Anderson's room, clad in fresh Alliance fatigues with my pistol clipped into my belt, ready for action.
The three of them were waiting outside. Shepard and Liara were speaking in hushed voices, hunched over in their chairs. Dignam stood back against the wall, favoring his left leg as he leaned back.
"Ash, come closer." Shepard spoke in a grave and urgent tone. "I believe that we have found the Illusive Man."
At that, my eyes nearly burst out of their sockets in surprise. What had taken the Alliance over twenty years had taken Liara only a couple of hours to accomplish.
"When are we going in?"
"Immediately. He will change the location of the base within six hours, after he has heard of Petrenko's death," Liara explained. It always frustrated me how she seemed to know everything light years before the rest of us did. Then again, she had spent eighty years of her unnaturally long life in libraries and classrooms.
That kind of torture would have killed me.
"All right, fellas. Lets bounce," I said as Shepard led us out the front doors. I felt bad leaving Anderson here, but staying and worrying myself sick wouldn't help any him out any either.
I donned my combat armor in the cramped elevator, feeling the plates snap into place and the kinetic barriers hum to life.
It suddenly occurred to me that this was the first fight with Cerberus agents I would actually have my full compliment.
Shepard and Liara also put their armor on, struggling in the tight space. Shepard was slow because he was sore and Liara because she hadn't done it in a while.
Dignam powered up his kinetics and unsnapped his holster, keeping his outfit as is.
"Are you sure you're ready to do this?"
My question was directed at Dignam, who had been turned into Swiss cheeze the day before, but it applied to everyone.
Liara's biotics were good, but she was probably out of practice. And Shepard had gotten the tar beat out of him by Cerberus, but then again so had I.
"I'll be just fine, sweet pea."
First-rate Boston asshole.
"Really? Because last time you kind of got your ass kicked."
"I'm good, sister."
"Are you sure?" Liara asked. "Who are you, anyway?"
"I'm the guy who does the investigating around here, T'Soni. You must be that other guy."
I ignored him. "Sergeant Dignam, our SIU escort, apparently."
"I'll be fine, Chief Williams," Liara spoke in her dreamy voice.
"So what have you been up to anyway, T'Soni?" I asked the question casually, trying not to pry. I remembered her losing her mother on Noveria. It seemed like a lifetime ago, but the past does have its way of haunting us now and again.
"I have been doing quite well for myself, thank you. It is an honor to be fighting with you and Shepard again."
Shepard spoke up. "Yeah... She just got a new job, too."
"Where?"
"I... Inherited the position of the Shadow Broker."
"You what?" I demanded. Liara? A Shadow Broker? I didn't see that one coming.
"I'm not even gonna ask," Dignam said from his corner of the elevator.
"So what are you going to do once this is over, Chief?" she asked, her deep blue eyes were lit up with curiosity.
"I'm going with Shepard and his new crew. We're going after the Reapers again. You interested?" I didn't care for Liara when I served with her, but she had grown on me somehow. Now I kinda liked her.
Not that I would ever admit that under anything less than pain of death.
"No. It has been decided that I will remain at the base, providing information as you go."
"She'll be a great help once the war begins," Shepard added.
Then he turned to Dignam. "So what are you gonna do?"
Suddenly he started laughing hysterically, all of his smug detachment disappearing in an instant.
"What's so funny?" Shepard asked, a smile playing at his lips. When Shepard smiled he looked like a goofball, but that made me love it even more.
"I think I'm just gonna drive off into the sunset, Shepard. Thank you." He sighed.
"What about your job?" I asked.
"Well, I was given the choice of returning to the SIU immediately or losing my job, so there you have it."
He said it so nonchalantly that it was scary.
"Wait, Sidereaux fired you for helping us?"
"Yup. I told him to go have intercourse with himself after he said that the mission wasn't worth dying over. So I think losing my job is set in stone."
The elevator ride was just finishing. I racked my Avenger and clipped it across my back, feeling the metal collapse and fit snugly into a crook in my armor.
Showtime.
Shepard:
Soon after our ride we boarded an Alliance shuttle stashed in a warehouse in the wards.
It was a thing of beauty, with active camouflage armor plating and a virtually invisible energy signature.
If the Normandy had a kid, this thing would be it.
The four of us boarded the shuttle and took up seats in the cramped troop compartment.
Ash and I were likethis close together, with Liara sitting in the pilot's chair and Dignam in the corner, only a few feet away despite his squirming to get some distance between us and him.
"We're almost there," Liara's daydreamy voice chirped over the loudspeaker.
"Why did she use that?" Ash asked. "She could have just leaned back a little and whispered and we would have heard her in this tin can."
I laughed. That was exactly what I needed right now.
Everyone was strangely silent. And nobody had to ask why.
I had lead my whole team through the Collector Base and gotten out alive, but this scared me more than anything.
I knew for a fact that the Illusive Man was smarter than the Collectors, at least when it came to security measures. He had been putting up new layers of protection and training more men for years, preparing for a time exactly like this one: A bunch of fools thinking that we have a chance at taking him down once and for all.
"We're at the base now, "Liara whispered, her delicate hands coaxing the stealth ship closer to the looming Observatory ahead.
Finally. The Illusive Man loved being close to stars for some reason. Maybe they reminded him of himself: Zapping anything that got too close and always looming in the distance. He was an old man, and he would eventually die out in a blaze of glory just like the stars he constantly gazed upon.
He would die alright.
The Pack-Of-Chewing-Gum-Of-A-Shuttle slid up to an empty airlock and clicked into place, providing us with a fast and stealthy entrance.
"Okay, how do we get past security without the Man venting the airlocks on us?" Ash asked. "His personal quarters are separate from the rest of it, I'll bet. That might be his first move."
"He would kill his own men to save himself. Guaranteed," Dignam said. Funny. I'd have to ask him how he knew so much about Cerberus someday.
"Well at least we'll die fighting, huh?" Ash joked, her eyes twinkling with life.
"Oh yeah, that's comforting," Liara rolled her eyes." I might have some surprises for him. Compliments of the Shadow Broker."
She leapt to the computer and began frantically tapping keys. Text boxes and lines of code flashed in front of me as I watched, but even watching her do it couldn't help me understand what she was doing.
Finally, she smacked the Enter key in satisfaction, finishing her hack.
"Security has been handled," she announced, grabbing her Tempest and flicking the safety off.
"Get some!" Ash shouted in excitement, pulling out her rifle.
We exited through the narrow airlock into a wide hallway beyond.
The whole place was spotless, not a speck of dust was anywhere to be found. All surfaces were like mirrors, casting our own images back at us as we proceded deeper into the station.
My Avenger was raised, sweeping across the corridor as we moved silently to the end of hallway, where two identical paths veered off in opposite directions.
"I'll take Ash and cover left," I whispered. Dignam and Liara nodded in agreement, starting off in the other direction.
"If you come under fire, then get back to the shuttle and cover the exit. Give us five minutes, and if we're not there before then, leave. Just leave."
"You know I ain't leaving without you, but I'll just go with it. I really don't have the energy for an argument, Shepard."
Dignam flashed his sly grin before disappearing with Liara.
Ash and I picked up the pace and came to another intersection. Three symmetrical hallways in three separate directions.
We exchanged glances, trying to decide which way to go. Just as we were about to agree on a route, heavy footsteps thundered in the hallway.
Cerberus guards. Four of them approaching fast, still unaware of our presence. The Illusive man must have rolling patrols going through his domain all day every day.
Paranoid bastard.
That was about to change.
I looked down the sights of my rifle, prepared to catch them with a burst of gunfire as they rounded the corner. Ash did the same.
After they rounded the corner, Cerberus uniforms spotless and rifles cradles in their hands, we opened fire.
I sprayed indiscriminately in their direction, knowing that every one of my bullets would catch them. Their formation was too tight for close quarters combat like this.
Suckers.
Their steely glances and squarely set jaws disappeared as they realized that we had them.
The gunshots were deafening in the corridor, bullets flying at the quartet of thugs.
They were literally ripped apart before any of them could get a shot off, splashes of red erupting from every part of their bodies. They did a terrifying dance as they stumbled and fell into a heap of bodies in front of us.
"We have to hurry!" I shouted.
Ash and I began running down the hallway, forcing our battered bodies to cooperate for just a few more minutes.
We rounded a corner. A woman in a tight skirt stood there, looking terrified. She was pretty and well built, which was probably why she was on the station in the first place.
I hesitated, keeping my finger on the trigger. She didn't have a weapon, so I wasn't sure if it was necessary to kill her.
Then Ash fired, dropping the young woman to the floor.
I glared at her, not believing what she had done. Ash pointed back to the body.
I looked back, seeing a cut down Katana shotgun in the woman's left hand, safety off and ready to fire. She must have been about to draw it and kill me. How had I missed that?
I nodded thanks and continued running.
I heard gunfire reverberating at the other end of the station with a burst of biotic energy.
A second later, an explosion rocked the Observatory, throwing Ash and I off of our feet and onto the floor, hard.
I tasted blood. I spat out red, emptying my mouth of the foul taste.
Liara must have overloaded something important, because the Observatory began to move.
Literally, the station began to fall one way. A stabalizer must have been knocked out.
We hit the wall of the corridor, falling flat on our backs as we did.
What the hell did they destroy? Whatever it may have been, the station was seriously crippled from losing it.
Then the gravity shifted again, dropping the two of us on what used to be the ceiling.
I felt the air rush from my lungs as I hit.
"This shit is getting old!" Ash grunted, rising to her feet. "Let's go, Skipper."
She offered a hand and we ran across the ceiling, avoiding the lights jutting out from under our feet. This was a messed up situation.
We continued the direction we had been going, passing a guard with his head buried in the remains of a data terminal. Sparks of electricity shot out around him, continuing to fry his already-dead body.
Two more burly Agents were lying on their backs in the middle of our path, necks twisted at impossible angles.
I tried not to look at the disturbing sight we leaped over them in our quest to find the Illusive Man.
We came to a door, solid sheet metal with a single access panel in the centre.
I looked around the edges of the door. It wasn't opening up without anything less than the Normandy's main gun.
Ashley slammed her Avenger against the door. "God damn it! We were so close!" she shouted, her spark of life dying in an instant.
"We haven't come this far to stop now! There must be a way around!" I shouted, but I knew she was right.
"There is no way around! The Man has locked himself inside, and I doubt he forgot to turn all of the locks on!"
Suddenly, the station lurched again.
I curled into a ball, prepared to fall back to the floor. And I did.
This time I was ready for it, tucking and rolling as I hit the ground and rising to my feet in one motion. Ash was already on her feet and ready to run by the time I had gotten my bearings.
Then the alarm system went apeshit, literally.
Warning bells screeched and flashing red strobe lights came to life in the same instant.
When I looked back at the door, it was unlocked. The control panel glowed a bright green in the flashing red backdrop.
No way. Not in heaven or hell could our luck be that good.
I didn't hesitate. I smacked the panel and charged inside, Ash right on my heels.
Inside the mastermind's liar didn't hold many surprises for me. I had already seen most of it through our holochats.
A single chair sat in the middle, empty. Beside it was an advanced console, now dormant, and an ashtray with the butt of the last cigarette still smoking. The bright blue star dominated the massive window at the end of the room, casting a blue light to contrast the red.
The door suddenly closed behind us, leaving Ash and I in the middle of the open, the sun our only way of seeing what lie ahead.
I looked back and forth, my rifle moving with my sight. I knew he was still in here.
Suddenly I heard a loud pop from behind me. I dived for cover before spinning around to face the monster.
But all I saw was Ashley Williams crumpling to the floor.
I ignored my instinct to run and hide and grabbed her before she hit the ground, holding her in my arms one last time.
Her warmth was just beginning to fade, her sweet scent lingering as her eyes began to close for eternity.
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" I screamed, tears flowing down my cheeks now. No, this wasn't how it was supposed to happen. This wasn't how she was meant to go. She was supposed to retire a decorated soldier with a family, not for me. Never for anything but herself.
The Illusive Man stepped out of the shadows, holding a high powered pistol in his right hand.
"She was a good choice, Shepard. You two were made for each other, but it was never meant to last."
His words echoed in my head. He was a million miles away, his words were whispers prying at my thoughts.
"Shepard, I have felt a lot of emotions in my lifetime. Many feelings, both depressing and incredible. Poor Ashley-"
"Don't you speak her name!" I shouted, refusing to let go of Ash. "You can't feel anything! You don't have a heart." I didn't have the energy to grab my pistol. I didn't have the energy to do anything but watch Ashley's life fade away in my arms.
"Many feelings," he continued. "But no emotion has left me feeling quite so dead on the inside as being in love." He spat the words out like poison at me, keeping his Phalanx at his side.
Suddenly Ash moved.
The Illusive Man couldn't see it, but I saw her move. I swear to god that her arm twitched.
She squeezed my hand ever so gently before letting it fall onto her pistol, looking as if she had gone limp.
I saw her take the safety off.
I set her down and rose up, looking my devil in the eye. I started walking.
"Stop walking!" he ordered.
"Illusive Man..." I started to say something.
"Don't say that name!" his hard expression had warped into one of pure madness. He now hung onto his Phalanx like it was his lifeline, white knuckles curling around the grip and bony fingers millimeters away from pulling the trigger.
"MY NAME IS JACK HARPER! And I will save more lives than you ever did!" His madness had reached its climax, his bright blue eyes now glowed a deep red before me.
Just then, Ashley grabbed her pistol off of her belt and brought it to bear from her prone position on the floor.
He couldn't believe it. The woman he had just killed was about to return the favor.
When he hesitated, we raised our Predators, seeing the Illusive Man's ghostly figure in our crosshairs for the first and last time.
Both guns sounded in the same instant.
Two jets of red exploded from the Illusive Man's chest, tearing through his suit and the flesh and organs below.
He fell to the ground, a dead man.
Jack Harper was finally gone.
Immediately, I ran over to Ash and helped her to her feet.
"Are you okay? Where did it hit you?" I asked frantically, realizing that her recovery might not be perminant.
"I'm okay, John. I think it deflected off of the Mantis across my back," she spoke sluggishly, jarred from being hit point blank by the most powerful sidearm in existance.
"Don't scare me like that, Ash. I thought I lost you there."
"Don't worry about me. I'm not going anywhere," she smiled sweetly for me, her eyes glowing with the passion that I had fallen in love with.
Then we kissed. Deeply.
I had never enjoyed anything more in my entire life, and I think I'm speaking for both of us.
We would be together until the very end, no matter how tragic or devastating it may be.
When we finally parted, Liara and Dignam had found their way to the room, looking exhausted.
Liara's labcoat and boots were charred with energy burns and Dignam's outfit was torn in several places, his shoulder holster hanging onto his left arm by a thread. But they were both smiling.
We were all smiling now.
Liara returned to her base as the new Shadow Broker, confident in her ability to provide us with key information in the war ahead. Ash even told her that she was sorry for all of the grief she caused Liara all those years ago.
I don't even think Liara remembered.
Dignam returned to Elysium right at sundown, fulfilling his promise to "drive off into the sunset." He told us that he would get the SIU ready for the upcoming struggle, whether they liked it or not. He also told us that we could call him Max if we ever saw each other again.
Ashley and I returned to the Normandy to resume the good fight, to continue the race against time to prepare for the Reapers.
We would hold onto each other forever, no matter what happened.