Time for Chapter 4, yippee! Hopefully someone is feeling the suspense, what happened to Shepard!? Wasn't I supposed to stay with his POV? Well, hopefully in this chapter you'll get your fill of Shepard again, and your anticipation for the battle will be satisfied! And, I'm not really sure if I have to say this in every chapter, but Mass Effect is owned by Bioware, I own nothing, but thanks for reading my story!

Ch. 4: The Illusive Man

Citadel

Commander Shepard

Shepard and his team were all hidden behind some fallen debris, using the debris as cover from the Illusive Man and his deadly ATLAS Mechs. Shepard, being the one to always quickly adapt to new battle situations, formulated a plan in his head and gave his orders to his team.

"Liara, Kaidan, Javik, and James, take the left two ATLAS Mechs; Jacob, Zaeed, Samara, and Jack take the right two. Anderson and I will deal with the Illusive Man."

Shepard's team split up the way Shepard commanded. Shepard felt uneasy about fighting the Illusive Man, given his ATLAS Mech seemed to be covered in Reaper tech, but he had to kill him to get to the arm controls.

He looked at Anderson and said, "You're wounded, so stay back and provide covering fire, but don't take any risks, that's my job."

Anderson smirked and pulled out his assault rifle. "Alright Shepard, I've got your back. Be careful son."

Shepard pulled out his own assault rifle and sent a Warp attack at TIM's Mech. His shields seemed unfazed, and the Mech didn't slow its advance.

'This might be harder than I thought' Shepard thought as he readied himself for a biotic charge.

He unleashed his charge directly at TIM's Mech, and the Mech grinded back with the sound of metal rubbing metal. TIM fired a rocket at Shepard, and Shepard dived left, narrowly dodging it. TIM then fired the Mech's main gun, and the shot impacted Shepard's shields. His shields crashed immediately, but luckily Shepard had recharged another charge and hit TIM's Mech again. A crack, although rather small, appeared on the Mech's faceshield.

"You cannot stop humanity's destiny, Shepard! You're a traitor to us all!" The Illusive Man glared at him. "You killed almost half of our fleet, forced us to lick the boots of the Council like animals! You would allow our potential to be caged, to be unused! I won't allow that to happen!"

"No, I'd rather use our potential for the good of all, and not just ourselves!" Shepard yelled as he slammed a biotic fist into TIM's Mech before falling off it.

The Illusive Man roared. "Stop this Shepard, you can't just destroy what you don't understand!"

"What is it I don't understand!? The Reapers harvest us to create new Reapers, it's that simple! Unless we stop them now, this nightmare will go on forever and destroy everything!" Shepard used another charge and grabbed a handle on the Mech's faceplate. Shepard raised another biotic fist and slammed it into the Mech's faceplate, thickening the crack and causing the crack to spread.

"You're wrong; the Reapers are just waiting for us to take control!" The Illusive Man cried. "Humanity can control them, it is our destiny!"

"No, you're wrong!" Shepard raised his fist and let out a powerful Nova attack, cracking the shield further and crashing the Mech's shields.

"ENOUGH!" The Illusive Man yelled as he slammed his fist on a mid-sized button on the middle of his control console. The odd Reaper tech started to glow brightly, and Shepard was quickly lifted into a blue bubble which looked like a Prothean security device, much like the device Liara was trapped in on Therum. The other Cerberus ATLAS Mechs had been defeated, and all of Shepard's team watched in horror as Shepard was captured.

"Put your weapons down or I will squeeze the life out of your 'beloved' Commander." TIM said calmly with an evil smirk. Why he hadn't used this device before now was a mystery, maybe it needed charging, but in any case Shepard was now trapped with no way of moving. He couldn't move or use his biotics, he could only talk.

'Can talking get me out of another horrible situation? I mean, I did stop the Quarians from killing the Geth by talking right?' He mused.

"Stop this Illusive Man, you know you're wrong!" Shepard looked the Illusive Man right in the eye.

The Illusive Man frowned. "No, you're wrong Shepard. I've dedicated my life to understanding the Reapers, and I know with certainty the Crucible will allow me to control them."

"And then what?" Shepard asked.

"Look out a window, Shepard, look at the power they wield!" The Illusive Man motioned towards the great space battle outside. "Look at what they can do! They can give humanity the future we so desperately deserve!"

"I see what they did to you." Shepard motioned towards the Illusive Man's Reaper tech 'upgrades'

The Illusive Man glared at Shepard. "I took what I wanted from them, made it my own. This isn't about me or you! This is about things so much bigger than all of us!"

"Like humanities existence?" Shepard glared back. "What if you're wrong, would you be willing to bet humanities existence on whether or not you can control them?"

The Illusive Man began to get flustered, and began shaking his head. "I… know it will work, it has too."

Shepard smirked. "You can't see it can you, they won't let you."

The Illusive Man roared with anger. "No, I'm in control! No one is telling me what to do! Do think power like this comes easy!? There are sacrifices!"

Shepard looked at him solemnly. "You've sacrificed too much."

The Illusive Man looked away from Shepard. "No, I only wanted to protect humanity… The Crucible can control them, I know it can, I just…"

Shepard continued to stare at him solemnly. "It's not too late, let me go and we can end this today."

The Illusive Man shook his head, and looked Shepard in the eye again. "I… I can't do that Commander."

Anderson yelled over his cover. "Of course you can't, they own you now!"

The Illusive Man frowned darkly, and turned his weapon towards Shepard. "You… you'd undo everything I've accomplished. I won't let that happen! Humanity would be undone!"

Shepard calmly replied. "Because of you, humanity is already undone."

The Illusive Man growled. "That's not true!"

"Look around you!" Shepard began. "They have the Citadel! They've got us fighting each other instead of fighting them!"

"I… I just need to…" The Illusive Man turned away again, clearly flustered.

"You've done exactly what the Reapers wanted. You're still doing it because they control you." Shepard explained.

"I…" The Illusive Man hit the release button for the security bubble. Shepard landed on the ground while the Illusive Man continued to struggle inside of his Mech. "… They're too strong!"

Shepard shook his head. "You're stronger! Don't let them win, don't let them control you! You need to let me save humanity!"

The Illusive Man looked at Shepard one last time. "I tried, Shepard… Thank you." He said as he lifted a pistol to his head and fired. The Mech fell to the floor and remained there, dormant and unmoving.

'Wow, major déjà vu.' Shepard thought as he walked to the central control panel. He pressed a few buttons he remembered pressing almost 3 years ago, and the Citadel arms began to open. As he waited for the arms to slowly open, he watched his team come up to him. They had time now, so he just had to ask.

"So, how did my elite team of specially-trained badasses get captured by Indoctrinated Timmy?" Shepard crossed his arms with a smirk.

Zaeed just gave him a slight glare and spoke up. "We got orders from you, you guddamn bastard. We all got on a shuttle and some knock-out gas hit us and obviously knocked us out. I'd guess the Reapers wanted you to get up here, otherwise why the hell would they waste their time with us?"

"You actually believed the orders he sent?" Shepard asked. "What'd they say?"

"They said 'I need to know you guys will make it out of here alive', you know, that goddamn savior crap you do all the time." Zaeed explained.

Jack spoke up, "Yeah, it had major pussy vibes… I mean, it sounded like something you would say."

Shepard just looked at his team and smirked. "Well, we saved the galaxy a third time and all we can talk about is how much of a nice guy I am." He shook his head with a small smile, then said, "Alright team, go back to the keeper tunnels and get those civilians out of those Collector pods. I'll stay here with Anderson and tend to his wounds. Get as many civilians as you can out of those pods, I don't know how much time they have left, even if the Crucible works." His team saluted him and went to the tunnels to release as many civilians as possible.

The Crucible

Admiral Steven Hackett

Admiral Hackett couldn't believe his eyes. The Citadel arms had opened, and the Crucible was nearly docked to the Presidium. The war would be won today, and everyone could look forward to a wonderful future without the threat of the Reapers. The Crucible then touched the Presidium, and the sound of several magnetic clamps could be heard clicking into the Citadel.

Author's end-note: Well, what a battle that was. I tried not to drag the battle with Timmy; made it short, sweet, and to the point, but hey it was a battle! Everything seems so rainbows and sunshine now, doesn't it? I guess I'll be making a happy ending after all. Anyway, as usual please rate, follow, review, give me cookies, or whatever, and I hope to see you next chapter to see what will happen next!