John Shepard looked out across at his combat team with pride. They were all holed up in the communications room for a 'team meeting' but it was just a way for Shepard to get his comrades together. However proud he was however, John Shepard was not in any way stupid. For the past two days he'd seen Morinth and Jacob avoiding Jack and Andy like the plague, and he'd been immensely confused until he confronted the latter after talking to the former proved fruitless. The two biotics had shrugged and told Shepard that their two comrades were scared shitless of them. Shepard hadn't gotten quite why until they showed him the video feed of the battle, and he had to admit that after seeing it even he was a little uncomfortable at the power the two people in front of him held.

He told them so, and they just grinned and shrugged. "We're comfortable with who were are John, and we know that no matter what we'll have each other as well as Izzy and Ellie as companions. If you think about it Izzy and Ellie are actually scarier; both of them could cripple the entire galaxy in less than two minutes, whereas our biotics are limited to, by my calculations, destroying things like the Citadel.

John hadn't bothered to tell the couple that that really wasn't all that comforting, but he had found that the comment both stood true and eased him back into the way he normally acted with them. He supposed it was different for Morinth and Jacob who had actually been there and physically felt the power Andy and Jack diffused, but he was still slightly disappointed. What made him the most proud however, was the fact that everybody was still alive. Not one Normandy crew member had died, and that was saying something.

He was distraught at the civilian casualties, he would never be so heartless as to forget the fifty billion that had been killed in the first Reaper wave, but he was still happy none of the fallen had been his crew. Garrus had taken some shrapnel to the face, but Chakwas had corrected with cybernetics and the Turian was actually rather stoaked with the new eye he had; allowing him almost unmatched abilities in regards magnification and alternate types of vision. He especially liked the heat-vision. Thankfully he hadn't disappeared for three days like he had with the sniper rifle, because if he had then everybody would have been very disturbed.

"Well I called you all here to tell you that the system is immediately clear of Reapers - at least that's what our scans tell us. Unfortunately our comrades in arms haven't been as lucks as we have. The Salarian Fleets report forty percent losses; Turian fifty; Asari seventy," everybody looked to a rather distraught Liara at this statistic, and Shepard walked over and sat down to bring her into a comforting one-armed hug. Nobody commented on it; it had gotten to the point where affection was actively sought out as people knew that they could die on this mission, and nobody wanted to die alone. "The human fleets report thirty percent losses. We're down by a lot, but we're winning."

Andy winced, and Shepard saw the minute action. His attention was immediately riveted on his Executive Officer, and Andy sighed when he saw the look on Shepard's face. Everybody else turned their attention to Andy when they heard the sudden expulsion of breath, and people started getting very worried when the saw they almost defeated look on his face. "We killed how many Reapers Shepard?"

"We've got reports of two hundred."

"Right," Andy said with another sigh, "two hundred. Otrere last visited Dark Space three cycles ago. When he was last there the Reaper Fleet numbered five thousand."

Dead, unbreakable silence.

Horror was on everybody's faces, and Andy looked around looking pained. "I only realized after this battle just how hopeless our current tactics are. Sure we're doing well for ourselves. We're doing better than any other race before us in fact, but the fact remains that we lost twenty percent of our total forces in this attack. That's one wave. Of two hundred. For them to exhaust their entire fleet it'd take twenty five waves of the same size - and that's using Otrere's old figure. Each cycle generally produces five hundred more Reapers, so that means that their fleet's at around six thousand three hundred strong. That's thirty one waves total to kill them all of." The helplessness of the entire situation started to sink in to everybody present, and Andy looked tiredly around before letting out an explosive breath and shaking his head sounding almost distraught. "God fucking DAMNIT! Only two fucking hundred of the fucks?"

Jack tentatively rubbed his back trying to comfort him, but even her face was a mask of worry. She'd never seen her fiancé so distraught before in her entire life, and it terrified her. He was her hope, and without that she felt like she'd collapse back in on herself and become the person she once was. She hated that person. She never wanted to be like that ever again. "There's got to be something, right?" she asked quietly so that only he could hear, and he seemed to sag as he nodded. Jack could feel the terror in her chest intensify, because the sagging wasn't one of relief - it was one of resignation.

Andy slowly raised his head and looked at everybody in the room; his eyes seeming almost dead. People recoiled from the expression in shock, and Andy buried his head in his hands before nodding. "There is something I can do. I hoped it wouldn't come to this - God I hoped so, so much."

Shepard stared at his friend with fear in his eyes. "Andy..."

Andy just shook his head at Shepard and raised his eyes to meet the man who at one time had just been a game character to him. He memorized everything about him; the way his hair was mussed in a very un-Commander-like way; the exact shade of green his eyes were; the way he stood leaning forwards slightly with worry. He was his friend. He was like a brother, and he'd gotten so used to having him around that what he was planning made his heart clench. He looked to Tali and Kar who were staring at him with wide eyes, and the latter was shaking his head while muttering the word "No," under his breath.

Kar had barged in on Andy at one point when he was planning for this very scenario, but he'd only gotten a glimpse of the strategic blueprints before Andy had swiped them away and greeted him as if nothing was the matter. Now it all started making sense in a way it had never made sense before, and Kar didn't like it. Tali looked terrified at the way Andy was acting; her silvery eyes actually dulled slightly with fear. Liara, still leaning against Shepard, looked as resigned as Andy did. She had always guessed that Andy had a contingency plan and that it likely wouldn't end well for him. The way he was acting at that moment confirmed her long-held suspicions and made her feel as if somebody had just torn her heart out of her chest. While Andy and Jack had at first just been workmates she had slowly become closer to them until she thought of them as the brother and sister she'd never had.

Certainly Jack she considered an annoying sister, but a sister all the same.

Thane and Garrus had the same look on their faces, albeit adapted for their species. They both knew that sacrifice was the only reason Andy would be so completely sullen, but they were soldiers and understood the harsh realities of life. Garrus was internally distraught, but he knew that Andy just seeing the despair on everybody else's faces was causing him more pain, and so strove to stay stoic - even if inside his stomach sunk. Both Andy and Jack had become close friends of his. Without Andy pushing him to be more social he'd never have come out of the funk he'd been in until he'd hunted down Sidonis, and he knew that that path was a dark one. He thought of Andy and Jack, as most of the close-knit Combat Crew did, as his brother and sister. They were funny, easy to talk to, and completely calm under pressure. He would trust them with his life without a flicker of hesitation. He held them in the same regard he held Shepard, and earning such respect from Garrus was not an easy achievement.

Miranda looked as if she was about to burst into tears, and Andy quickly winced and looked away - he was close to tears himself and looking at her for too long would break the hold he had over his emotions. Joker looked saddened beyond all belief, but gave Andy a deeply respectful nod of complete and utter veneration. Andy sent the red-haired pilot a warm, thankful smile, and got a tip of the cap in return. Ellie and Izzy knew his plans, and gave him dual, firm nods. The message was clear; he wasn't doing this alone.

He felt both pride and despair at their choice, but he couldn't sway them. He knew that. Then came the hardest person to look at. He looked at the young woman sat right beside him, and winced at the determined but saddened expression on her face. "You're not leaving without me," she muttered as she grabbed his head and pulled his forehead to hers; staring him dead in the eye. "If you leave me here and go off alone I will commit suicide. And this time I won't fail. We live together and die together - till death do us part. I am coming with you to do whatever it is you have to do. I will be beside you every step of the way."

A tear rolled unbidden from his eye, and she reached up and swiped it off his cheek. "Andy, there's got to be another way," a strangled, hopeful plead came from opposite, and Andrew turned his head to Shepard before shaking his head sharply. "I know of no other way. This is the best chance we have."

"And you'll die? How is that the best chance we've got? Look at what you've done for us so far!"

"I can't take you any further," Andy replied firmly, his resolve sharpening as he felt Jack's fingers curl around his own, "I can only do this. It must be done immediately - before the Reapers send another wave to fight here."

"But surely-"

"Now, Shepard," Andy interrupted with a small glare, and the man was about to complain again when he saw the utter pain behind the confirmation of his decision in Andy's eyes. His mouth snapped shut when he realized just how hard this decision was for one of his best friends and gave a defeated sigh himself before nodding.

"John! How can you give in like that?" Miranda yelled, and Andy physically blanched at the sound of utter sadness in her voice.

"Because he must," Samara finally interjected, "because Andy has a Code just like I have. He is bound by his morality; by his promises to keep you all safe; the galaxy from destruction. All of your attempts to keep him here are simply making him hurt more." Miranda turned to Andy and jerked back when she saw Jack hugging him to her breast and whispering down into his ear sweet nothings in an attempt to calm him down. Contrary to what Jack would have done mere months ago she didn't blow out at Miranda and glare for making her fiancé upset.

She understood her pain of losing a friend - only she wouldn't be losing anything. She would be going with him; standing by his side as he made his sacrifice and complete it alongside him without remorse or fear. She would never be separated from Andy; she knew that deep in her heart. It was the only thing keeping her anywhere near calm at that moment.

There was a silence, permeated only by a low, inaudible conversation between Andy and Jack, and everybody's eyes were fixed on the pair. Jack's voice rose a couple of times with incredulity and shock, but still their words remained private, despite the fact that every single person witnessing the talk wanted to know just what the hell was going on. Jacob and Morinth stared at the couple, conflicted, though the latter was releasing her fear and hostility towards the two biotics far faster than Jacob. She knew what it felt like to be hated and feared because of what she could do, and after thinking about it for a couple of seconds she found herself herself ashamed of her actions over the past few days - and immensely saddened.

She knew why the two were so withdrawn in their talking, so clearly struggling with their emotions despite others watching, and felt guilt settle quite firmly in her gut. She could have had more time with the man that had saved her life, and whom she thought of as a brother; could have had more time joking around with the laid-back Jack whom she considered one of her best girlfriends - in a purely platonic manner of course, and yet she had swindled that priceless time away doing unto them as others had once done unto her.

Finally Jack and Andy nodded against each other's foreheads, and the former took in a deep breath before breaking away and leaning forwards in his chair; his expression firm and unwavering - filled with confidence and surety. "Okay, we're going to need a drop ship with one of the Big Mummas installed into it." He saw Joker about to protest but waved his hand airily. "Thresholds and safety regulations are not a problem; Jack and I'll be able to control the resultant pressure." Joker closed his mouth, nodded, and quickly begun tapping on his Omni-tool to see the task done immediately by those down on the engineering deck. Andy walked over to him and sat down, still making sure not to look at Miranda who looked tearful, and begun murmuring in low tones instructions for the mechanics.

Jack looked to Shepard, and the Commander gave her his full attention, as did most of the room. "The Mass Relays are unneeded now with the wormhole technology we have. You need to evacuate all systems where they are, and then blow them the fuck up."

Liara jumped to her feet in shock, her eyes wide. "But the home worlds-"

"It's either that or more death, squiddie." The young Asari was too shocked to even react to her most hated nickname, even if Jack meant it to be affectionate. "The galaxy can be moved around a bit; planets that were previously uninhabitable are easily colonized with the current technology. Destroy every single relay except the Omega Four. Then assemble every single ship remaining around it; weapons charged and ready. The Reapers will be planning on sending another wave of equal size, and so there'll be about two hundred prepared to mobilize. Andy and I won't have time to stop them, and we'll want to conserve all the energy we have for what we have to do. You'll get another two hundred Reapers, but with them coming through at a single point you shouldn't have too much trouble."

Andy re-joined Jack and nodded as he heard the last of the conversation. "Right; they'll be bunched up," he continued, "and ready to be blown out of the sky. The reason for this is because Jack and I are going to detonate the Reaper Station; their central hub. Since they're all attached to it, save the next wave, and docking and release procedures are carefully ingrained within their systems we should be able to take out those docked, which will hopefully be all except the two hundred ready to attack again. As soon as we appear on their scanners those ships are going to scramble in both a bid for survival, and to win the war by making one last stand against the Milky Way - just as we are. They'll come through, and Jack, Ellie, Izzy, and I will take out the rest."

"And you'll die."

Andy looked across at Jacob and nodded. "Yes, and we'll die. Their Citadel, and I call it that because it looks like the Citadel, is huge. Likely twenty times as large as the one here. Jack and I might be able to crush the Citadel with our biotics, but it would be impossible to do the same to theirs. We will have to corrupt their energy systems with our energy, and try and hijack it before inducing an overload. With our power and theirs combined it'll be like a super-bomb. Nothing will be left, and everything will be atomized."

Jacob didn't know what to say to that. Even though he was a soldier he knew he wouldn't be able to so easily talk about sacrificing himself as Andy was. It was all he needed, that last little push, for his fear of them to drop away. They were talking about dying to save him, as well as everybody else in the Galaxy. He sent Andy a small nod, and then the same to Jack and both gave a small, almost imperceptible smile back. Shepard looked up from his Omni-tool and nodded at Jack's raised eyebrow. "Evacuation has begun. Faith and Daniel have been listening in, so they're co-ordinating everything for the best chances. Apparently," he looked down to his display, "twenty three cruiser-class military vessels will be deployed - one to each Relay. The moment the system is evacuated they'll fire."

Andy nodded once in acknowledgement and then turned to Joker. "Two hours," the red-head informed him, "even with the Nano-tech helping out. It's a huge undertaking getting a core that big into such a small ship."

Andy chuckled, though only the tiniest trace of humour was present. "Understandable. Well then... Jack and I need to go and get ready." He stood and everybody realized from the tone in his voice and the way he was moving precisely what he meant. His last hours were up, and he wanted to spend them with the love of his life. Despite Morinth and Jacob wanting to apologise they knew that it was, in part, a selfish thing to do; wanting to get the guilt of their chests and resolved. They decided completely independent of each other that they would not deprive their friends; their family in all but blood, of their last living hours together. Nobody made to stop them, and Andy guided Jack out of the room; his arm around her waist and the young woman leaning into his side.

Word spread within mere minutes that the most influential, powerful, and knowledgeable founders of the New Age were preparing for a suicide mission to stop the Reaper threat, and the entire crew found themselves in a state of not knowing what to do. The only people that were moving around were those working on modifying the Kodiak Drop Ship, the rest were in small groups staring silently at points on walls and floors as they thought long and hard about just what this meant, and what they were going to do.

The Combat Team was not exempt from this and had gathered in the Mess; all sitting at the same table with complete silence. Everybody wanted to stalk into the biotics' room and tell them that they weren't doing it, but they knew that that course of action would have one of two possible outcomes. They would be firmly rejected, and if they decided to push it then they would be forcefully removed. The firmness in Andy and Jack's eyes when they left the meeting room told them precisely just how set on their course of action they were. Ellie and Izzy had shed their physical bodies in favour of dedicating all their processing power to deciding whether or not they wished to make a back-up copy of themselves on the Normandy systems in case they didn't return.

An hour later they finally decided to not do so; their backups would never be them, and there was no way they were going to let their two creators and friends go alone on their mission. Inside the bedroom Jack was curled up against Andy on the bed; both clad only in their underwear. It was through silent agreement that sex wasn't needed, and that the only joining intimate enough was complete biotic synchronisation. Waves of black and blue energy shimmered over the surface of their skin, bridging onto their partner where their skin touched. Their immersion was complete; more intense than even an Asari mind-meld. For the time they held their energies in sync they were one; completely unshielded from the other. Their thoughts; their dreams; their fears; everything was bared completely open to their lover. Nothing was sacred.

Slowly the energy died down until it seemed to sink into their skin and disappear, and their eyes opened at the same time. Jack turned around so she could see Andy, and found him smiling warmly down at her. "If I knew you were into that then I would've done it for you!"

He laughed lightly with a small blush and shrugged. "There's no need, especially now. I have all I want right here, and I'll have it the moment we die as well."

Her teasing smile softened and she kissed his collarbone. "It's nearly time."

"I know."

They were silent for several minutes, until Jack finally asked the question that had been bugging her ever since he had told her the plan. "What happens after?" He looked down at her, his left eyebrow raised, and she huffed with frustration. "I mean after we die. Is there anything afterwards? Are we going to still be together? Is there a heaven and hell? What's going to happen?"

Andy's brow relaxed and he wrapped his arm tighter around her as he looked at the ceiling above them. "I don't know. To be honest I don't care, just so long as I'm with you in some way. And if there is a heaven, or a hell, and I don't find you waiting for me then I'll tell whichever one I end up in to fuck off and go to the other one."

She grinned up at him, "Right, so you'll tell the man at the Pearly Gates to fuck off and join me in hell?"

Andy shrugged with a grin down at her, "Always been a bit of a rebel. Telling heaven to go screw itself probably doesn't happen too often. 'Sides, if I had to hazard a guess we'd both go to hell if it exists. Maybe we can fuck up some demons."

She laughed throatily, her genuine laugh, and shuffled around for a moment before sitting up and swinging her legs off the side of the bed; looking over her bare shoulder to peer at him; a warm smile on her blood-red lips. "Lucy won't know what the fuck hit him. We can stage a coup."

Andy chuckled as he stepped into his morphic armour, which quickly established itself over his body. "The Biotic Duo take Hell... has a nice ring to it. I get to run the ninth circle though."

"I bags the seventh!"

He laughed again and walked around to hug her, moving from foot to foot in a sort of slow dance. "Whatever, just so long as I get to come home to you each day."

Her joking ceased and a calm smile spread over her face. "Yeah."

They swayed to inaudible music for what felt like hours but in reality was only minutes until Andy's Omni-tool beeped, and he peered down at the message interface that popped up. "Ship's ready."

She nodded and took a deep breath, and reluctantly extracted herself from his arms, but quickly grabbed his hand to compensate for the lack of contact. He grinned before taking a deep breath himself, and the pair walked out of their room for the final time. It felt almost ethereal; as if it wasn't truly happening. A small crowd awaited them outside their doors, and both Jack and Andy gave small smiles and nods of thanks and friendship to those that patted them on the back and wished them luck and farewell.

They entered the elevator in silence, and travelled down to the Cargo Bay. When the doors open they discovered where the majority of the crew were. All murmuring stopped the moment they appeared, and Andy shifted uncomfortably before walking out hand-in-hand with his finance. Sad smiles followed them as the crowd parted to allow them passage, and small murmurs of thanks and appreciation followed their progress. Kelly Chambers stepped out and gave both of them a hug as they passed and so too did the cleaner whose daughter Andy had saved. Finally they reached the Drop Ship and found their closes friends waiting with smiles - even if they were defeated and saddened.

Andy squeezed Jack's hand before breaking away and making his way towards the still-distraught Miranda, and the young biotic smiled when she saw her fiancé hug the ex-Cerberus cheerleader. She herself made her way over to Samara, and the Justicar smiled before embracing her and whispering how proud she was to call her friend. The couple made their way around their small non-blood family until both reached Shepard simultaneously.

The Saviour of the Citadel; Defeater of Saren; first Human Spectre, stared at them both with a wavering expression; torn between almost breaking into tears and making their last moments happy. He finally settled on the latter, and a small smile twitched at his lips. He hugged them both at the same time, and the couple looked at each other over their friend's shoulders with matching smiles as they hugged him back. "I know nothing is going to stop you two from going," he said as he pulled away with a subtle sniff, "so I'll just say this: no matter where you are, no matter what you do, no matter when... you'll always have a brother in me - a family in us." He motioned around to everybody, and Andy smiled while Jack lowered her head with a blush and a small sniff.

"And the same applies to you," Andy returned with a firm nod and smile, "brother in arms and all but blood."

"I would do the whole blood-brother thing, but then Garrus'd want in and we all know how badly that'd end."

Garrus snorted with laughter, and Jack lifted her head and smirked at the Turian she'd come to love as a brother - teasing very much included. Slowly smiles faded and Andy looked down at his wrist where the time was displayed. "It's time."

The entire room that had been filled with low murmurs silenced, and Andy looked around at everybody with a small smile before turning to Jack and holding out his hand. She smiled and took it, but a moment later stopped what they were doing when two forms walked through the crowd towards them. Izzy's vibrant red hair stood out among the crowd as her and Ellie approached hand in hand, and they stopped just short of the pair before smiling. "We're coming with you."

Andy nodded and didn't try to dissuade them in the slightest. He knew that they would have thought it over for the equivalent time of years due to their massive processing power, and if they had come to this decision then anything he said wouldn't change what they had settled upon. "I have trained one of the Shuttle AIs to take over my responsibilities on the Normandy," Ellie informed Shepard with a small smile, and then turned to Joker before walking up to him and pulling him into a firm hug. "For the love of the Goddess, Jeff, please don't do anything I wouldn't."

Joker grinned as she pulled away, and forced himself to pout. "No fair, that means I'll just have to pilot the ship and go all philosophical!"

There were some muted laughs from around the crowded bay, and the two AIs made the rounds saying goodbye to the Combat Crew before leaving their artificial bodies which quickly reverted to two solid rods as they took their places fully on Andy and Jack's Omni-tools. Andy and Jack checked the uploads and downloads they had been making, synchronizing all data they had in their private servers with their Omni-tools, and then lowered their arms before intertwining their fingers and smiling at each other, and then out at the Normandy Crew. "It's been a pleasure folks," Andy muttered sadly but with appreciation in his eyes, and murmurs of reciprocation were returned. They were just about to turn around and step into the shuttle when both their Omni-tools beeped, and they peered downwards; their eyebrows rising when they saw a whole list of requested connections.

"We wanted you to carry something of us with you," Liara said quietly, but in such a way that her voice carried all throughout the hanger, "we all put together pictures, messages, favourite songs... things to remember us by - so that you know that we are with you to the very end. Most people also wrote letters or recorded messages for you - we hope it will keep you busy while you travel into Dark Space."

Jack looked a little tearful, no small feat, while Andy beamed a watery smile at them all before bowing slightly at the waist. "Until we see each other next then," he said calmly, "wherever that may be." Another round of embraces followed, including for both Jack and Andy very tight ones and whispered apologies and good-lucks from Morinth and Jacob.

Andy knew that his resolve was wearing thin and so nodded sharply to himself before pulling himself into the shuttle and then, with one last look out at the members of his family in all but blood, he closed the hatch. Both biotics sat down on the comfortable leather chairs, side-by-side, their fingers clasped together. They felt the slight weight increase as the shuttle lifted, and then nothing as it accelerated out into space through the airlock. Silence permeated the cabin as they rocketed through space and the only sounds that broke it was their slow breathing and the small thump as they entered a wormhole in front of them.

"Three years ago," Jack broke out, "I couldn't have believed what I would be right now, what I would be doing either in fact."

"I don't think I could either," Andy shot back, and she grinned a little.

"I am a happily married, extremely powerful, and content biotic. I have friends, family, a life, hope... and now I am about to sacrifice my life in order to save the entire Galaxy. Two years ago I would have killed anybody that said something like that - let alone insinuate I'd be the one doing it."

Andy didn't respond because he didn't need to. Their melding mere minutes ago lingered fresh in each other's minds, and she knew what his response would be to what she was saying. Somehow saying what she had aloud however, made her thoughts more solid. "We are coming up to the Omega-4 rely," came the voice of Ellie who was temporarily piloting the shuttle, and Andy nodded before snapping himself into the safety harness, making sure that Jack was securely locked in as he did so. Andy knew the authorization codes off by heart; Otrere's memories had allowed him that, and he transferred the IFF marker onto the shuttle's on-board transmitter.

He looked out the window at the approaching relay; its alpha energy swirling a deep red , and he realized that this was what Shepard had seen in the game. He was glad his brother hadn't had to experience it in real life; it was daunting. He watched as a tendril of the energy snapped into being; tethering their ship inescapably to its course, and Andy gritted his teeth before closing his eyes and focussing on the energies he and Jack were sharing across the touching skin of their hands. The jolt that followed would have snapped any normal spine in half with the force, and the doors buckled inwards with the pressure of sudden acceleration.

They could literally feel the saturating energy carrying them to where the Reapers resided; it almost consumed their minds several times; the indoctrination pushing in on them, but their power was too much for it to break through and they held steady; their brows beaded with sweat, their faces creased with effort, but holding all the same.

They travelled for hours, which was truly saying something considering the extra energy their enlarged power core was putting into the task, until with a gut-wrenching pull they emerged on the other side; a place where no organic had ever before seen. Both opened their eyes, and then passed a film of biotics across them as the four supernovas held in suspended animation tried to burn into their retina. Andy pushed a protective film across the ship as well to stop it from getting damaged from the intense pressures and heat, and they stared out upon the Reaper stronghold.

It hung in space like a glittering gem, and yet the waves of malicious power and the thousands of Reapers ships docked within and on it; latched on like leeches, turned the entire spectacle into a macabre construct that reeked of death and destruction. The four supernovas, in the very beginning stages of exploding, expelled the heat of a hundred Sols and their fiery eruptions were halted mid-detonation, creating a fence-like wall of fire around the Reaper Station.

And they were heading right towards it.

Both looked out of the window; their hearts thumping like rabbits' in their chests, and their hands clenched almost painfully together. Seeing what they were supposed to destroy right in front of them was nothing like talking about it. Just as they were about to land on the surface of the huge structure; the outer layer as black as obsidian, Jack gasped as she looked out the opposite window.

The Reapers that were prepared for the next wave of attack had unclamped themselves from their home and had begun moving towards the glowing red orb of energy contained within the Reaper Relay. While seeing such a sight made both of them fear for their friends on the opposite end of the relay they could also feel the fear radiating outwards from the huge Reaper construct. With a loud thump their own docking clamps attached to the inside of one of the huge arms, and Ellie immediately jumped to Jack's Omni-tool for safety's sake.

There was no time to waste - every second increased the risk that more Reapers would detach and head toward the relay, and they couldn't afford to risk the lives of their friends and family.

The door hissed open partially before freezing, and Andy had to kick it off to escape; the material too bent out of shape to open itself. Jack followed, her eyes glowing gold through her mask, and black energy licking across her body to protect her from the harsh environment they had just stepped into.

And then they ran.

Any closer to the core of the huge citadel was a death-sentence for the shuttle, even with its advanced Nano-protections, and so using huge bursts of energy the pair charged across the smooth surfaces lining each of the arms' edges. They managed to get half-way to the thrumming central point of the construct before they were attacked, and both had to leap out of the way of a huge, atomizing beam of yellow plasma.

When Andy peered around his cover to see just what in the Milky Way had attacked them he knew immediately what it was. The mutated creature almost made him gag, and such a thing was almost impossible to achieve. Chunks of flesh hung from the glowing ribcage of the abomination, and the entire creature towered at least twenty times Andy's own height. The little flesh it still retained was yellowed with toxic decay and infection, and venom dripped from the gaping maw and terrifying fangs that sat within its small head.

"What the FUCK is that thing Andy?"

The beast let out a harrowing scream fuelled by potent yellow energy, and both lovers ducked down as a lethal shockwave blasted past their position. "It's a Butcher," he yelled over the sound of the mind-numbing shrieks of fury, "at least that's what it translates to. They were used by the Protheans in their meat works. Hence why they're such big strong fuckers!"

Another wave of energy burst past their position and Andy popped out right after it passed, clenching his fist and reducing the creature to a splatter of gore on the spotless surface of the huge ship. Several more poured out of seemingly nowhere and Jack jumped up beside Andy before swiping her hand violently across the group and beginning to run once more. Andy sprinted to catch up, and found his fiancé grinning sadistically as she cut through swathes of horrifying abominations and reduced them to nothing.

As they moved slowly closer and closer to the center of the huge construct the enemies only increased and became more powerful. It was when they were merely minutes away from their goal that they met their hardest opponent. Andy heard his morphic armour issue an alert and he looked hurriedly down at his feet, only to find silver creeping up his legs. "Fuck!" With a powerful blast he fried the mysterious liquid, and his suit absorbed what was left - parsing the information through to Izzy and Ellie.

"Nanotechnology," the latter revealed after a moment, "not quite at the level of ours, but dangerous all the same."

"Goddamn it Andy I thought you said that they didn't use it!" Jack yelled angrily across to her lover, and Andy shook his head - before his eyes caught sight of something slowly approaching.

Preceded by a puddle of silver.

"Shit," he muttered as the features begun to make themselves clear, "they have Heliodroids?" He looked at the synthetic and reaperized construction of the eons-old piece of technology and turned to Jack seriously. "We need to get rid of this thing as fast as we can, before more come. One will be hard enough."

"Hard, Andy I doubt-"

She cut herself off when he threw a massive wave of dark energy at the thing, and dropped her jaw when she saw the being simply step through it completely unharmed. "The only reason it can do that is by locking into the energy lines of this entire station," he explained as he junctioned his biotics into his muscles, "and its only its small size that makes it feasible... but it's doing it. We go in hard and fast Jack, physical blows only to make sure we don't waste any more energy than we have to, okay?"

She nodded firmly and blasted forwards; a blur of dark blue rippling behind her as she collapsed the space-time continuum and at the very same time Andy burst forwards as well - intent on ending the existence of the creature in front of him. The ancient Heliodroid, however, was not an easy target like their other opponents. Their biotic attacks, despite the fact that they could crush entire cities with them, were simply waved aside by the being.

Jack punched and kicked furiously in an attempt to injure the droid, but it was all for naught, and she yelled in pain when a thick shard of nanobots jabbed right into her arm before beginning to spread inside her very body. The seconds it took her to isolate the invading presence and eject it was enough for the indoctrinated AI to kick her off her feet and send her sailing down the ship - in an almost comically powerful manner. Andy wasn't laughing though. He forced his energy into his brain to speed up his reaction times and thought processes, and the battle evolved into one even more dangerous; one based on pure strategy and timing.

Andy finally managed to short the bionic construction out for a mere millisecond by forcing his biotic energy into its systems, and that was enough for him to gain complete control. He could feel the entire network of circuitry inside the Heliodroid, and because he knew what he was looking for it only took a moment for him to isolate the self-destruction code and activate it. He dove for cover, tackling the charging Jack along with him, and not a moment too soon.

A wave of searing heat and light washed over their position behind a dark black panel as their opponent fell to its own defences, and Andy peered over the top after a moment before cursing and dragging Jack up. When she saw at least ten more Heliodroids she cursed angrily as well, but immediately followed her fiancé when he used his biotic charge to blast through their ranks; speeding towards the center of the huge space station and paying no heed to the defences activating in their wake.

Despite the massive drain on biotics that such charges used it was nothing to the unleashed pair. The only reason they weren't using wormholes was because of the massive amounts of Reaper energy resonating around them; to try and manipulate the space-time continuum in such a way with unknown and wild variables would be a very foolhardy idea. They travelled for nearly ten minutes using their biotics; the shockwaves behind them washing visibly against the sides of the arm of the citadel-like station they were running down, but had to slow when they came to the huge, cavernous clearing at the very base of the Reaper Station.

Where the Citadel simply had a hollow ring to allow for it to be a relay, the Reaper Station's base was solid ground, and covered in trophies. It looked like a macabre graveyard; filled with relics of past, annihilated races. To Andy it seemed almost ironic; creatures so certain that organic life was a blight and a danger exhibited such things as trophies of their conquests.

"They're coming," Jack warned, and Andy looked over his shoulder to see a swarm of abominations a mere couple of minutes back from their position. Looking across at all the other arms he saw the same thing, only in far greater number, and he pulled Jack forcefully forwards onto the graveyard. They sprinted to the center, and over the noise of the roars of the monsters converging on them Jack yelled out, "What are we doing?"

"To the centre!" he yelled back, "And then we crush this place! If we contaminate the lay-lines with our power then we should be able to detonate this place!"

An almost unhinged laugh reached his ears in reply, and he looked to Jack. Her eyes were wide and tears were streaming out of them, and her smile was anguished. "Why did it have to be us? I wanted to live with you!"

He jerked to a halt and grabbed her around the waist, and she found herself looking right into his electric-blue eyes, his expression deadly serious. "No matter what, no matter what happens and where we end up, I am with you. I remember somebody once saying 'without you heaven would be hell, and with you even hell would be heaven'. I think that. We're together for an eternity Jack. We'll still get to live together, even if it's a different type of living."

He wiped the tears off her cheeks with the pad of his thumb and she smiled wetly up at him before nodding and then crashing her lips to his. Her desperation was contagious, and as she held herself as close to him as possible he reciprocated. Despite the saltiness from her tears he furiously memorized her taste, and could feel her own tongue tangling with his in an attempt to get the same.

However much both of them wanted to continue their last kiss and firm embrace it had to end. The Reaper's monsters were getting too close, and they could little afford facing an army of Heliodroids if they still wanted energy to do what they came to do. Andy moved to unravel his arms from his fiancé, but found himself pulled back against her instead. "If we're doing this," she all but growled up at him, "I want to hold you. I don't care if because of that my fucking skin melts off; if I die, it's in your arms and with you in mine."

He smiled down at her and nodded before tightening his arms around her, and she sighed contentedly before closing her eyes and resting her cheek on his chest; the armour there hard at first, but softening when it recognized her DNA; thinning until she could hear the furious thundering of his heart. "You ready for this?"

She nodded, and he could feel her hot breath burn against his chest. "Yeah. I love you."

He smiled down at her and pecked the top of her scalp before resting his chin there and closing his eyes as well. "I love you too, always Jack."

And then he began. The Reapers that were watching looked in fear, and for many of them such an emotion was completely new. Waves of golden energy flowed off of Andy, and soon after as Jack's biotics synchronised with his her body as well. The waves were so intense; so powerful and all-encompassing that it rippled across the entire graveyard; lighting it up a golden glow. As soon as the ripples reached the outer edges however, every single being, monstrous or otherwise, bore witness to hundreds of thousands of tendrils rising from the layer of energy; thickening and writhing with pure power and a restlessness that made all of the Reapers still docked reroute all processing power to fulfilling the requirements to leave their moorings. For once their need for synthetic perfection was the bane of their existence.

After nearly an entire minute, just as the abominations reached the edge of the base of the station, without any warning whatsoever, the vines of biotics rose; poised, and then stabbed into the ground. The results were instantaneous. The entire station shook as the energy pathways were compromised and corrupted, and both biotics groaned with the effort of keeping up the flow of their energies into that of the Reaper Station. Sweat rolled off them like rivers, only to be assimilated by their slowly deteriorating morphic armour. The air around them was so saturated with their energies that the first abomination to cross the threshold onto the graveyard was simultaneously flayed and burned alive. The Reapers latched onto the arms of the station screeched in agony as more and more of the corrupted energy was fed into them, slowly poisoning their means of life and forcing their systems to malfunction.

And in the middle of it all were the two biotics, still clutching each other furiously as they sweated, cried, and yelled in pain and effort. Both could feel their reserves dwindling for the first time in their entire existences as unleashed biotics, and in comparison to the exhaustion they experienced when they were simply normal biotics it was a hundred times worse. It felt like their very insides were boiling, and black encroached on their minds as their bodies were slowly damaged by the unfathomable amounts of power they were forcing out of themselves.

It was at the very moment that their power was at the precipice of taking over that it happened. Their biotics slowed to a halt, finally reaching an equilibrium with the Reaper's dark energy, and Andy cracked open his eyes; bloody tears clouding his vision until he blinked them away. The dark red energy that had covered the gaps between the armour of the station was now tinted a muddy gold, but the systems weren't his or Jack's; their biotics had failed them. Just one, tiny little push more and they would have had the 'immortal' machines; just one, little bit more of pure energy into the network underneath their feet and it would set off a chain reaction of destruction - but he had nothing left, only just able to sustain what they had accomplished already. "No," he croaked out in complete and utter frustration, "no this can't be for nothing!"

He could feel Jack shaking against him, with mixed parts effort and sobs, and his eyes jerked around in their sockets in an attempt to find anything, anything at all that would help them give that last little bit of a boost. Relics of ages and empires past shone back at him through the golden haze, and nothing caught his eye until he saw a stone pillar nearly three times as tall as he was peeking out from behind the statue of the Krosak King.

With the amount of time he'd poured over a pillar identical to that in his memories, or rather the Illusive Man's, it was no wonder he found his gaze stuck on it. In reality the Prothean beacon looked far more majestic and mysterious than it had in the memories of the man who had brought him to this universe. It was almost metallic-looking; a deep blue colour with light green, luminescent markings that covered it.

Andy stumbled towards it, and Jack, not expecting the movement, collapsed onto the ground with a cry. With his eyes burning and his body complaining Andy leaned down and hauled her back to her feet before dragging her with him, and she hugged his arm to her chest as she forced herself to continue providing energy into the energy matrix of the station. She looked up through tired, red-rimmed eyes when he jerked to a stop after nearly two minutes of agonizing shuffling, and sucked in a sharp breath when she beheld the artefact in front of them.

It towered over their heads; an obelisk of immense power both could tell, and Andy pulled her back into his arms before sinking to the ground. His back rested against the hard surface of the Prothean relic, and he held Jack's head against his chest. Within their biotic envelope the roars of fury from the abominations and the screeches of pain from the Reapers were silenced, and he gasped as a new wave of pain ran through his body. "T-the beacon," he managed to grind out between his teeth, "I-if I activate it..." She nodded with understanding into his chest, whimpering with pain, and he leaned down to press a kiss to her forehead; a single, bloody tear falling from his cheek onto her scalp. "I love you. I'll never leave you."

He vaguely heard her sob and say, "I love you too Andy, I'll be with you," as he redirected a small packet of energy into the stone behind him, and then all either of them knew was the presence of the other and pure, untainted energy pouring into them in an overwhelming flood. Their skin begun smoking as the heat of the emissions tried to denature their very cells, and their morphic armour begun charring and deteriorating even faster. Andy felt a tug on his navel, as if somebody had strapped something around his spine and was pulling, and he opened his eyes - his vision immediately assaulted with a blinding light that he could only just see through. A small, peaceful smile crossed his bloody lips when he saw the entire station pulse that perfect gold, and then with a huge crashing sensation, a deafening rushing in his ears, a sense of falling, and a scream tearing itself from his throat Andrew White's world went black, and he knew no more.