*ILOS*
"Liara, get the lead out!" Shepard shouted back over his shoulder without recognizing his frivolous use of another Idiom.
The timid Asari's voice reluctantly carried back after a moment's delay. "B-But Shepard, all of this knowledge about the Protheans…"
"I'll get you an OSD at the gift shop, now move your ass or we're leaving you here!"
He thought they would have to do just that as he, Tali, and Wrex bounded into the lift leading away from the Prothean VI they had just spoken to. Just as he turned, he caught the Asari half-heartedly tearing herself away from the flickering display to trudge after them. In any other situation, he would have thought of some way to make it up to her, but current circumstances had driven any such thoughts from his mind. His target was almost literally within striking distance, and was poised to unleash the full might of the Reapers on the galaxy.
A good deal of the questions he'd had after speaking to one such Reaper on Virmire had been answered on Ilos by the Prothean VI, Vigil. The Reaper, Sovereign was one of possibly millions that invaded the Milky Way every 50,000 years to cleanse it of all advanced, organic life. Their means of returning from the depths of dark space was none other than the Mass Relays, and the Citadel which the entire galaxy erroneously believed to be the work of the Protheans. That 50,000 year cycle had gone on for countless millennia, and was now primed to begin again with the help of a delusional Turian megalomaniac.
Kraven resisted the urge to tap his foot impatiently while Liara distractedly trotted into the lift to join them. They'd made excellent time crushing the Geth roadblocks Saren had left behind to impede their progress, but were still at least two steps behind him. Stopping to shoot the breeze with a particularly chatty VI had slowed them down even more than the Geth had, meaning they were falling even further behind. With all of the urgency of a comatose sloth, the lift began to cycle upward on its way back to where they had left the Mako, and the rest of the team. He would have started to pull his own hair out at their agonizingly slow progress if he didn't intentionally keep it cut extremely short.
"Keelah, can't this thing go any faster?" Tali griped, sharing the Commander's dismay.
"Would it help if I got out and pushed?" Wrex deadpanned.
Shepard gave him an intensely thoughtful stare for a moment. "… It might."
Before he could come up with a plan to add some Krogan muscle to the equation, the elevator finally reached its destination in the gigantic, Prothean cryo hall. Without even waiting for the door to cycle open, all four squad members piled out and into the waiting transport.
"We're in, step on it!" The Commander yelled up to the cockpit as the Mako's side hatch swung closed.
The cabin lapsed into an uneasy silence apart from the droning roar of the Mako's powerful engine, and occasional creak from its flexing suspension. The usual, easy banter that would have pervaded the cramped compartment was conspicuously absent as everyone mentally prepared themselves for what was coming. The final stand they'd been working tirelessly towards since meeting one another on the Citadel many months before looming large before them.
As Garrus deftly steered their unruly vehicle around branching tree roots, pulverized stone pavers, and smoldering Geth they grew ever closer to the core of the facility. Though no one mentioned it, they were all aware of the throbbing hum that grew ever louder the further they went. With each passing second, the booming thunder increased in intensity like the heartbeat of some colossal titan. Then, after passing the silent ranks of thousands of empty Prothean sarcophagi, they finally crested the precipice of an enormous drainage canal to see the conduit in all its intimidating glory.
The Turian's foot subconsciously lifted from the pedal before stomping back down with renewed vigor. "Smoke 'em if you got 'em."
Plasma artillery from a battery of Geth Colossi exploded all around the speeding vehicle as it rocketed off a berm and into the Conduit's scintillating beam of blinding light.
*CITADEL*
Fires flickered amidst wrecked pathways and smoldering bulkheads. All of the vibrant greens of the Presidium's plant life was replaced by ashy gray and angry black. Bodies littered the streets in various stages of disassembly, scattered amongst a disproportionately small number of Geth parts. Distant cries could still be heard as AI troopers methodically swept every inch of the station, and mercilessly terminated holdouts. The station's VI, Avina, was characteristically high spirited in her dismal assessment of the situation. Even sounding chipper when relating how many civilian casualties had been sustained. Her programmed enthusiasm earned her a single shotgun slug to the ol' holographic projector.
Although pointless, the act of vandalism proved to be exceedingly cathartic for all present given the terrifying state of the Citadel. It also helped to refocus the team's hatred of the enemy they were there to face. Saren had a great deal to answer for, and every single crew member of the Normandy was committed to seeing he did just that. The burning fire of retribution was tempered somewhat by the lack of lift access to the Council Tower. None of the ground team had trained extensively in zero-G environments so scaling the outside of the tower using mag boots would not have been their first choice. Even without considering the fact that a gargantuan, purple squid-demon was precariously perched atop their destination.
That coupled with waves of Geth defenders did little to deter the Normandy's lethal ground squad. Even being reinforced by several cloned Krogan battle masters, Saren's forces proved to be little more than fancy speed bumps to the determined squad. Best of all, at least in the Commander's mind, there seemed to be no sign of the Geth's creepy little Leapers. It was a straight up slugfest to the finish which was exactly what he would have wished for. They were in a hurry to stop whatever was happening in the tower from completing, so sneaking through cover just wasn't an option anyway. He would have liked to have the security of the Prothean sword as backup, but beggars couldn't be choosers.
Throughout the entire trek up the side of the tower, Kraven had kept one eye on the monster waiting above them trying in vain to formulate some kind of strategy for dealing with it. As his team breached an airlock to enter the tower once more, he was disappointed to admit that he'd come up with a load of bupkus. The damn thing was the size of a skyscraper for pete's sake. As they entered the Council Chamber's atrium, his mind continued to race searching for some kind of inspiration. Nothing viable occurred to him apart from maybe shoving high explosive into its giant robotic equivalent of a corn hole and watching the fireworks display. That line of thought proved to be counterproductive as a comical image of a nuke being shot up the Reaper's "ass" kept replaying through his head, and chasing away any logical thoughts of what to actually do about it.
He couldn't help the unconscious smile curling the corners of his mouth at the mental picture that seemed even funnier every time he thought about it. Without knowing what ran through his head, one would have simply assumed that he especially enjoyed turning cyclopian robots into scrap. Which was also somewhat true as he barked a sharp laugh upon shooting off one such robot's flashlight heads, and watching it scramble around blindly for a moment before exploding in a spray of yellowish fluid. Once the last of its compatriots had hit the deck, Shepard signaled his squad to discreetly take up positions around the Councilor's podium while he boldly walked up the stairs in plain view.
As he cleared the last few steps, his Turian target's back came into view. He chambered a round into his sidearm and raised his arm to point squarely at the compromised Spectre's scaly head. "Knock knock, asshole." His finger tightened around the trigger without waiting for a reply.
Unfortunately, Saren was aware of the intruder's presence and already started to move with unnatural speed before Shepard's weapon fired. He spun angrily and raised his own weapon to vomit death back in Kraven's direction, forcing the Commander to jump to the side and seek cover behind the staircase's guard rails. "I'm surprised it took you so long to get here." Saren snarled, priming a plasma blast in his left palm.
"Well you know, killing all your guys is slow work." Shepard sneered before stealing a quick glance past his protection. "You're looking particularly awful today. New haircut?"
Saren's baleful eyes flared electric blue. "Sovereign recognized my misgivings about ascension so I was implanted with stronger augmentations to strengthen my resolve. You're seeing the gifts the Reaper's wish to bestow upon our galaxy."
"Gifts, huh? Is there even any Turian left in there or is it all just Reaper puppet?"
Saren snorted derisively. "I wouldn't expect someone like you to comprehend. I represent the next stage of intelligent evolution in the galaxy. While your fetid corpse rots in the ground I will be ascending to virtual god hood."
"Is that what it told you to make you feel better? That you totally weren't some gullible tool that was going to be thrown aside once your usefulness was expended? Because in the scope of an entire galaxy, a single Turian is just SO incredibly valuable." Shepard laughed bitterly.
The cobalt fire in Saren's eyes dimmed ever so slightly. "You're wrong. I've already proven my worth. Sovereign's augmentations only reaffirm that I am an asset to maintain!"
The Commander shook his head in genuine sadness at his adversary's feeble logic. "You're nothing more than a slave, and when you started to question your situation you were brought back under control. You've known from the very beginning that you were being manipulated, but some part of you just didn't want to believe it. Now look at you. You're an abomination, and once the Reapers get here, your body is going to be thrown in the same pit with mine whether you beat me or not."
The roiling orb of superheated gas forming in Saren's left palm dissipated as he raised his augmented hands to stare unbelieving at their alien shape. The glow behind his eyes winked out entirely leaving only the hollow shell of his cybernetic visage to twist in disgust and horror. "I… I tried… To break free… He was… Is… Too strong…"
Kraven stared directly into the former Spectre's lifeless eyes to seize the opportunity he believed he saw. "There's only one way to escape, Saren… If you don't do it I'll do it for you."
The malformed Turian eyed the pistol in his monstrous right hand for several moments as sparking lights flickered across the cybernetics embedded in his flesh like some unseen war raged within. At long last, his now blazing eyes returned to the Commander's. "Thank you Shepard." With visible effort, he raised the muzzle of his weapon to his right temple and pulled the trigger.
Bits of metal and half-liquified gray matter exploded out the other side of his head as every light scattered across his body winked out. His limp form slowly toppled from the Councilor's podium before crashing through the glass floor below and into the arboretum beneath the Council Chamber. Every member of the Normady's ground team breathed a heavy sigh of relief as they vacated their hiding places to walk up to their Commander.
"Woulda been faster to just kill him." Wrex observed.
"You didn't fight him on Virmire. Guy was a freak of nature even before getting more Reaper upgrades." Shepard answered truthfully with a shrug. "You probably would have been scooping what was left of me into a plastic bag if it had come to blows."
"Woulda been a pretty good fight up until that point, though…" The Krogan trailed off.
"Anyway." Ashley interjected, bringing focus back to their current situation. "What are we going to do about that monster outside?"
"First things first, we'd better shut down the conduit." Garrus advised.
Shepard nodded agreement and headed for the console where Saren had been standing, being careful not to fall through the hole in the glass floor. "Good idea. Then maybe we can work on getting the station's arms open. See if anyone outside has a gun big enough to deal with our unwelcome guest. Wrex, you Kaidan, and Liara head down and make sure Saren isn't going to get back up."
As the assigned trio gingerly made their way down to the ex-Spectre's corpse, the rest of the team gathered around Shepard and the console in front of him. For a few heartbeats, he stood with his hand hovering over the interface before turning to Tali. "Um… Maybe you'd better do it. I'll probably start a self-destruct sequence or something." He was only half kidding as visions of a rampaging Rachni Queen skittering across Noveria floated through his head.
Tali nodded and obliged as Garrus chuckled to himself. "Might still have killed Sovereign."
Ashley speared him with a venomous look. "No one said anything about this being a suicide mission."
"Well since our Quarian prodigy is here, now it won't be." Kraven chuckled with Garrus.
"Got it." Tali practically sang as her fingers danced over the keyboard. The Commander's embellishment of her capabilities was enough to make her blush. "I've severed the connection with Sovereign, cut power to the conduit, reengaged the mass relays, and started the wards' opening cycle."
They all jumped as a single shot rang out below and behind them. "Yup. He's dead." Wrex pronounced before a flurry of signals flooded through the growing gap in the Citadel's arms.
Most were general distress calls from damage sustained battling the Geth fleet outside, but one stood out above the rest. "This is the Asari Dreadnaught Destiny Ascension. We have sustained heavy damage and are incapable of FTL. Requesting immediate assistance from any functional ships in the area. The Council is on board. Repeat, the Council is on board!"
As the distress call looped back, Joker's voice broke in over the com. "Commander? That you?"
"We read you Joker, what's going on out there?"
"Pretty much a big shit show, Commander. The Citadel Defense Fleet is getting their asses handed to them. How's it going down there?"
Shepard gritted his teeth. "Aced the puppet but still got an angry squid-beast having its way with our tower."
"Phrasing." Joker quipped through a stifled laugh.
"Oh for crying out loud. We need some way to kill this thing before it goes bananas and rips apart the station."
The line was quiet for a few moments. "… Well, I've got Admiral Hackett on the line. Since the relays are back up, he can jump in with the fifth fleet when you say the word. Except if we go straight for Sovereign the Destiny Ascension is probably going down."
Shepard contemplated for a second. "Can't I have my cake and eat it too?"
"No dice, Shepard. The Destiny is already listing pretty badly."
The Commander looked for input from his companions as he imagined the Council vaporizing in a titanic explosion. Despite the almost giddy feeling that picture inspired in his guts, he knew he should seek additional, less biased perspective.
Garrus defiantly folded his arms. "Doesn't seem like a problem to me."
That was 1 for letting the bastards fry.
"Me either." Ashley added.
That was 2.
"Is that… Legal? To just let them die?" Tali asked tentatively.
2 for fireworks. 1 undecided.
"Shepard, you could not possibly!" Liara shouted from below.
1 killjoy.
"I agree. We can't just leave them high and dry." Kaidan concurred.
2 enemies of fun.
Wrex was the last to weigh in. Kraven's heart started to beat faster as he assumed what the Krogan's position would be. The words ordering Joker to contact the Admiral and tell him to send Sovereign straight to hell were already starting to form on his lips when Wrex finally spoke.
"Humans don't have the best rep here as it is. Letting the Ascension go down seems like a bad idea, but it's your call Shepard."
Kraven could have kicked the Krogan square in the quad as all of the pressure he had thought to avoid came crashing down on his shoulders. "What's it going to be, Commander? We don't have a lot of time here." Joker asked quickly.
Kraven desperately tried to validate his desire to see the Council blasted into vaporized blood mist out in space, but couldn't escape the fact that thousands of innocent Asari would have to go down with them. In the end, he knew the right choice to make even though the irrational side of his psyche was going berserk that his conscience had won. "Tell Hackett to help the Ascension, and then deal with Sovereign."
"Aye aye." It was impossible to discern any indication from the pilot's acknowledgment whether he approved or not.
Shepard never imagined that making the choice that would save the most lives would also feel the worst to make. Had Udina been aboard he might have decided differently. The relieved Asari Captain's voice responding to Joker's declaration of incoming support felt pretty good, all things considered. Sovereign still awaited its impending demise like some warped spider lurking on its web but, all in all, Shepard was confident in calling the mission a success. Until he heard the shouts, and tortured scream from below.
"Shit, he's moving!" Kaidan hollered, backing away from the writhing Turian corpse.
Wrex's shotgun boomed an echoing report, but the undead Spectre continued to scream and convulse as wicked looking mechanisms contorted his body. The team above the arboretum jumped through the hole in the glass ceiling just in time to see a now angrily glowing Saren Husk uncoil himself like a diabolical snake. Nearly all semblance of the organic he had once been was utterly swept away leaving a biomechanical horror behind.
His blazing sanguine eyes, the same bloody color as the deadly energy emitted by Sovereign, locked onto Shepard's as inarticulate noises escaped from the void where his lower jaw used to be. With blinding speed, he dropped down on all fours in preparation to spring. Garrus was the first to react.
"Move!" He shouted barreling into the Commander from the side to push the Commander out of the way.
Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Sovereign's Avatar leapt forward toward Shepard. At the same instant, Garrus impacted his shoulder to send him sprawling out of harm's way. There was a sickening crack, and a pulpy cough as the abomination solidly connected with the former C-Sec agent's chestplate. Armor pulverized into flaking dust from the force of the blow as Garrus was hurtled backward. With a second, agonizing crunch he hit the wall a dozen yards away and crumpled to the ground.
The creature didn't stop to gloat over its handiwork as it was already whirling to reacquire its original target. Hundreds of rounds rained down upon it from every direction, although it appeared not to care as its Reaper-fueled shields shrugged off the damage. In an instant, it again locked onto Shepard who was only just scrambling back to his feet.
"Look out!" Liara called as the beast raised its open palm to loose a burning ball of plasma.
This time, the Commander was more prepared. Although he deftly juked to the side, the proximity of the blast racing past him was enough to make his skin feel like millions of ants had gotten into his suit. Unfriendly, angry, stinging ants. He clenched his teeth and steadied his aim, sending a stream of rifle bullets at his nemesis' face. He might as well have thrown marbles for all the good it did. The monster didn't so much as flinch as it bounded forward on artificially elongated legs to seize his weapon by the barrel. In the blink of an eye, it had wrenched the gun from his hands and crushed it in an iron grip before clamping its other hand around his windpipe and lifting him off the ground.
His vision began to narrow as the flow of blood to his brain started to constrict, but he could plainly hear Wrex's bellowing roar to his left. Just as the last vestiges of his sight darkened, he felt a jarring impact and was thrown clear. His stomach lurched and his head spun as he fought to stay conscious while tumbling to the ground. He tried to regain his bearings but could barely hear what was going on around him. Everything sounded like he was listening to a half whispered conversation through a door and a pillow. Painfully, gradually, his world started to swim back into focus.
Garrus was either knocked out or dead slumped against the wall. Wrex, who had apparently tackled the supercharged Husk, was some distance away trying to regain his feet after being tossed aside like a bean bag. Liara, Ashley, and Kaidan were all trying to weave around trees and boulders to keep distance between them and the creature who had shifted focus solely from Shepard to his compatriots. Tali was nowhere to be seen.
With great effort, Shepard shook his head to clear it. Although this only served to start a steady throbbing pain behind his eyes as he got to his feet. He reached back for another firearm but his hand came away empty. He frantically looked about trying to find where his weapons might have ended up, but failed to see them through the dense carpet of foliage at his feet. Desperate shouts from his teammates signaled that his time to search had already run out.
"Guess we do this the hard way." He growled to himself a little less enthusiastically than usual. Partly because his throat felt like an elephant had stepped on it, but mostly because he'd been on the receiving end of Saren's hand-to-hand capabilities when he was still mostly Turian. Now that he was Sovereign incarnate, Shepard was not relishing the idea of getting beaten to a pulp in close combat.
Just as he fired up his newly installed biotic amps for a glorious one way ticket to pain town, he heard Tali hollering above him. "Commander! Here!" He saw her lift something up and then drop it down through the glass ceiling she was standing on.
This proved to be somewhat of a mistake as the panel she was standing on shattered, along with the one she'd dropped the object through, leaving her to awkwardly tumble to the lush, viridian ground. The Saren puppet glanced back at what had caused the commotion, but its attention was brought back around by a powerful, combination warp field splashing across its shields. Both Liara and Kaidan ducked behind cover to give their amps time to cool before unleashing another joint biotic storm.
As the Husk leapt to the side to get a better vantage against its aggressors, Shepard capitalized on its distraction. He sprinted to where Tali scrambled upright to see what she had thought so important to leave the battle to get. His eyes lit up with giddy fire as he recognized the sleek contours of his favorite weapon. He reached out a hand to help his friend up before pouncing on his prize and hefting it aloft like a kid with a giant lollipop.
"Tali, I could kiss you." He croaked through a partially crushed larynx without thinking.
"Promise?" She half whispered.
"Huh?" He asked distractedly.
"Nothing. Go do what you do best." She responded somewhat sheepishly.
"Yes, ma'am." Biotic fire lit around his body before seeming to be drawn into the heavy blade.
With both him and his sword bathed in a brilliant, azure glow he channeled his inner rage into a titanic, biotic charge. In milliseconds, the combined mass of his body and weapon were catapulted forward with terrifying speed straight at the back of his unsuspecting foe. Just as he impacted his target he swung the sword upward in a diagonal cut meant to cleave the monster vertically in half. Except somehow it had sensed him coming and had started to dodge out of the way. Fortunately, his strike still connected. Unfortunately, it only managed to separate the puppet's arm from its body. Even the collateral from the blade's explosive properties was limited to impotently battering against the thing's prodigious shields.
Shepard wasn't used to having to swing his sword twice at the same target. That made him angry. With zero hesitation, he bounded forward again intent on smashing the Saren-Husk's head in. With lighting reflexes, the beast twisted aside before leaping up out of his reach to stick to the wall a few yards away. Just like how the Geth Leapers that he'd witnessed countless times did. His hatred of the creepy little bastards, and the uncanny similarity in robot Saren's movements, made him even more pissed off. In order to keep Saren in striking distance, he surged forward to slam his shoulder into the wall beneath his prey in an attempt to dislodge it.
Just as he hit the wall plates, the monster dropped from its perch, twisted in the air, and brought its dagger-like claws down to rake across Shepard's back. His armor might as well have been tissue paper as it did next to nothing to keep the bladed digits from reaching his flesh. He roared in outrage and whipped his sword around in a lateral strike, but missed again. The unlucky Chollu tree his blade hit instead exploded into a shower of fragrant-smelling splinters as the cobalt fire around the Commander started to shift from an icy blue to gory red.
His vision started to tunnel until Saren was the only thing he could see or hear. Blood pounded in his ears like infuriating drums as the limiters placed on his amps overloaded. Unfettered biotic energy fountained from his body into his weapon as he lost himself in his rage. His subconscious was aware that he had started moving again, but his waking mind was utterly smothered in a sea of red.
To those watching, the Commander had suddenly become a terrifying engine of complete destruction. Up until that point the Reaper's marionette had been capable of literally running circles around the lot of them, almost moving faster than the eye could follow. However in that instant, the tables were dramatically turned as a scarlet-wreathed Shepard matched and then surpassed Saren's physics-defying speed. It was nearly impossible to discern what was actually happening as the Sovereign Avatar desperately tried to maintain distance from the berserk Human with a giant cleaver. It was a losing battle as each time it came within reach, Shepard managed to land a glancing blow.
At last the avatar's shields were completely depleted and most of its inner structure was badly damaged. In a last ditch effort to neutralize the maniacal organic, it leapt from the ceiling to the ground before scrabbling forward on all fours, or in this case threes, like a disgusting insect. In the last dozen feet it sprang with its remaining claw outstretched to skewer the Human through the heart. It was a final, desperate act to end a losing battle, but failed to pay off as Shepard easily ducked underneath before bringing his blade up with all his might. The cutting edge met brief resistance as it bit into the mechanical skeleton's midsection before busting free in a brilliant explosion.
As both halves of the creature messily tumbled into the war torn garden, the energy animating them dissipated. Both pieces vaporized like acrid smoke leaving nothing but a cloud of fluttering ashes to mark their passing. The tower shook as a gargantuan, robotic groan reverberated down through the structure in sympathy with the avatar's demise. The crew of the Normandy would have breathed a collective sigh of relief knowing their part in the fight was over if not for the fact that the Commander was still very much on the warpath.
In the past, once the immediate threat was dealt with, he would either gradually come down or, in extreme cases, go completely comatose. Whether due to the fact that he'd sustained more time under the sword's berserker effects, or the fact that an immense target was right outside was anyone's guess. Regardless, he was in the process of locating a means to ascend to meet the adversary outside. It would have been almost comical to watch as he mindlessly cast about looking for a way to escape except that he was still burning an angry red which was taxing his still healing body to its limits.
Tali, Ashley, and Kaidan all attempted to talk him down. "It's ok, Shepard. Saren's dead, and the fleets will deal with Sovereign. It's over." Kaidan tried to calmly explain as he walked toward his Commander.
"You did good, Skipper. Just put that thing down and chill out for a minute." Ashley added.
He didn't even appear to have heard them, or if he did he was doing a good job ignoring them. Tali crept closer as he stood angrily staring at the shattered glass ceiling above. She reached out a shaking hand to grasp his wrist but jumped back with an unintentional squeak as he crouched down before rocketing himself out the ragged hole.
"Shit! We need to get up there before he hurts himself." Kaidan growled looking for the door that would lead them out of the arboretum.
"Or makes it outside!" Wrex concurred wiping a stream of blood from his snout.
Once they'd located the exit, Wrex and Liara hurried to help a battered, but barely conscious, Garrus back to his feet. The Krogan practically dragged the punch-drunk Turian toward the door just as a massive crash rocked the tower. Everyone was knocked to the deck by the earthquake impact as enormous pieces of what had once been the Reaper Sovereign cartwheeled into the Council Chamber above.
"SHEPARD!" Tali screamed past the deafening roar of metal pulverizing metal and glass.
Rubble and debris rained down upon them from the tortured structure as it began to buckle under the tremendous forces from the collision. Though it seemed to go on forever, the catastrophic crash was over in a handful of heartbeats before everything became deathly quiet. Energy-based atmospheric barriers winked into place around the gaping rents in the Tower's structure to keep the air contained within from decompressing out into space. For nearly an hour, the only signs of life were small fires flickering in the smoke-filled chamber, and chunks of metal and masonry settling.
Eventually the surreal peacefulness was broken by the frantic calls of rescuers outside the chamber. Floodlights started to shine through gaps in the wreckage as C-Sec officers accompanied by none other than Captain Anderson worked to clear away obstructions in search of survivors. For nearly thirty minutes they meticulously pulled away the rubble before finally being rewarded with a glimpse of movement.
Anderson strained to yank aside a warped, steel girder to allow himself access to the pocket inside. He let out an unconscious sigh as his light played across the dust, and soot covered denizens within. They were all alive and, except for the Turian, seemed none the worse for wear.
He crouched down next to the huddled Quarian girl. "Rest easy. You've all had a busy day." He looked about at the haunted looks her companions gave him before a cold pit formed in his stomach. "Where's the Commander?"
The Quarian clutched her knees tighter to her chest and morosely shook her head refusing to voice what they all knew. Anderson stared blankly off into the twisted mass of destruction as a pang of grief squeezed his heart. He waved his C-Sec escort forward to help the Normandy's crew while he coaxed Tali to her feet. With one last, forlorn look back at where the hero of the Citadel met his end the Quarian reluctantly allowed herself to be led away.
Despite everything, Anderson cast a glance backwards as if to assure himself that no living person could have survived the devastation, but as he did he noticed a small slab of concrete shift. He halted to get a better look as he could have sworn he saw something moving through a gap in the rubble. His mouth reflexively twisted up into a heartfelt grin as he caught a flash of N7 stripes on a piece of battered armor.
"Sh… Shepard?" Tali whispered hesitantly, not allowing herself to believe what she was seeing.
Wrex let out a hearty belly laugh as Garrus slowly shook his head in disbelief.
"Skipper!" Ashley hollered jubilantly as the man himself, looking like hammered shit, struggled over a mound of wreckage with one arm held awkwardly against his side, and the other dragging his favorite toy.
Commander Kraven Matthew Shepard beamed proudly with a blood-stained grin as he rejoined his friends. "The one and only."