IT SEEMED TO MOVE. One moment the …Something… was one way and in that same seeming moment it was another, the sound of its motion like the grinding of ice over glass. There was a large thumping boom from behind the far wall and then a rolling wall of orange and blue rushed it, crashed into it and enveloped the area in a nuclear fury. A series of secondary explosions came after it. The Inquisitoria closest to it bore the brunt. They vanished in the pulse of light that flared just the instant before the fireball struck. When the light and fury faded, the vast chamber was empty or nearly so.

Jack shook her dazed head in an attempt to clear her vision, lungs feeling seared and crispy, skin feeling like it was burning. Being shielded by the Keeper tunnel had blunted the main blast. Next to her groaned a groggy Murtock, his hair singed, one side of his face ruddy from the heat of the explosion. Jack looked around for her companions and finding none but Murtock, she staggered up using the wall for support. A quick survey of the immediate area confirmed her growing fear – no one else but she and Murtock in the tunnels.

"Shepard!" she called with silence her reply.

"What the hell was that?" Murtock had pulled himself to his feet, counting his blessings. "Felt like a fusion blast!"

Smoke billowed past the open door, flint and ozone stink rolling with it. Jack resisted the urge to find a direction and bolt, she had to think, not react blindly. Her mind skittered around the possibilities of a missing Shepard and the others, focused on immediate concerns. Her armor alerted her to immediate radiation concerns, although from a fusion blast it would dissipate quickly enough. She wasn't sure what had happened, although she had a good idea. Vnkar went straight to the top of her 'to kill' shitlist.

"We can't stay here, Jackie," Murtock coughed from behind her. He grunted and rubbed the side of his armor, a rather deep dent in a side plate on his ribs. Another close call.

"Look for the others," she told him, her voice more calm than her insides. If the War and Shepard had taught her anything, it was that you did what you had to first and dealt with aftermaths when you could.

"I was in the middle of 'em, kid." He pointed to the dent, grimacing at the pain the motion engendered. He bet he had a bruise under there the size of his head and hoped ribs were unbroken.

"Yeah, and Shepard must have been carryin' me." She informed him, voice cool. "Look for them." She pointed down the tunnel. "You go that way. I'll go this way and then we'll come back here and look out there." She pointed to the smoky exit. "Go. Now."

"You're not thinkin' straight," Murtock shook his head. "I told you, I was in middle of 'em. They're gone." Her eyes went hard at that, a look he knew well.

"Do what you're told." Her voice had an edge now, turning to head down the tunnel. "Or I'll…!"

Murtock would never find out. A huge red figure stepped from the billowing smoke, paused for only an instant and leveled one of those deadly energy pistols directly at Jack. Murtock gave it only two beats and launched himself at the Inquisitor in a head-on tackle. The shot went wide and struck the wall near her head, whipping her around. Both men vanished into the smoke.

"Murtock!" Jack shouted as she bolted after them, only to skid to a stop as she reached the thick smoke. A body crashed near her, the Inquisitor staggering back followed almost instantly by a furious and furiously yelling Murtock in another tackle, not giving the Knight a second to get his bearings. Once again they tumbled into the smoke before Jack could draw a bead. A shot sizzled from the haze striking the floor a metre from her. She heard Murtock yell and then he and the Knight rolled into view, both locked together. A backhanded blow from the Knight sent Murtock staggering. Murtock spat and came right back but the Knight caught him with a solid punch that rocked the younger man and sent him to the floor. Jack drove a biotic ram into the Knight and sent him back into the smoke with pained grunt, an electric shock flaring along her spine as she did. Not good. Somewhere one of the syncs in her armor had shorted or an eezo-sink was malfunctioning. On the floor she heard Murtock spit and groan. She crossed to him and hauled him to his feet.

"Nice job, dumbass."

"It worked, didn't it?"

"Debatable," she found a small smile for him.

"Whatever," he shook his head. Some things never changed. "Let's get a move on."

As Murtock said it, the Knight stepped back from the smoke and hit him with one smooth motion, sending him crashing into Jack and knocking them down. A dirty fighter since he was six, Murtock rolled with the blow and kicked out to connect with the Knight's knee and stagger him. The Knight backed up a few steps and came right back but by then Murtock was on his feet and another swift kick dropped the knight to his knees and a brutal knee to the head from Murtock laid him out.

"Fuck's sake!" Murtock panted. "They don't know when to stay down!" He leapt back in surprise at the bolt of energy that speared past him and killed the Knight with a precise hit to the head. He wheeled to see Jack lowering one of her purloined pistols.

"Kill them and keep killing them," she remembered, face grim and her guts roiling. If Shepard were dead, she'd kill everything from here back to the Milkiway, starting with Vnkar and working her way up. She looked up at Murtock who was suddenly running at her, to grab and spin her away… just as the blast from the other Inquisitor hit where she'd been. He materialized from the smoke, his armor cracked and sparking, pistol tracking to her. A biotic shield and her barriers barely halted the shot he sent her way, one of the amp-syncs in her armor sparked and blew, sending electric pain through her body. Her return fire went wide of its intended mark and seemed to splash off him and he took another step, staggered and abruptly vanished in a welter of blue and red as his armor detonated. Jack felt something hot and wet hit her, her vision blurry from pain as the amp-syncs in her armor continued to short out.

"Mur…tock…!" she called. Jack could see him dimly and watched as he stirred. She heard him curse loudly and his voice faltered.

"Jack…! I… ain't good…" Even as he said it, another red figure loomed from the smoke between them. It glanced at Murtock and turned its attention to Jack, clearly taking her for the greater threat. She attempted a biotic attack but it seemed to flow around him without touching, even as pain lanced through her for the attempt.

"I am prepared for your witchfire," the Knight told her with scorn. With two quick steps he reached her, one hand batting her pistol away, the other grabbing her by the throat. She gagged as he lifted her from the deck. "You've done well," he told her. "But now you die."

Behind them, Murtock coughed. He was dead and he knew it. The shot had come in sideways and burned a fist-sized tunnel through his guts. Every movement was a pain-flecked hell, his vision filmed over with a black-red haze. He saw her struggle in the remorseless grip of the Knight. He was not her Murtock and she was not his Jack. Feeling it wasn't being it but he felt it nonetheless. She loved another but she had cared about him once, in her way, and that was enough for him. If he went to the pit today he would not go alone. It took all his strength. He felt like he lifted a million tons with one hand but he stood. Wrapping air and tongue around his agony he shaped it into words.

"Hey, fucker! We ain't done yet!"

The Knight simply turned, pistol in hand, not releasing his prey who yet kicked futilely against his armor-augmented strength. He casually levelled the pistol at the dying man, even while admiring his resilience. The Knight would be benevolent and end the creature's misery as his finger put first pressure on the trigger. A shot rang out. Jack fell from the dead Inquisitor's grip, a hole punched cleanly through his chest just under his collarbone.

"We are now," Shepard intoned, stepping from the thinning smoke, lowering his rifle. Behind him, Grunt appeared behind him and crossed to Murtock. Shepard slung his rifle and immediately bent to Jack. She choked, coughed and gasped. Her throat was turning red from the bruising grip of the now-dead Inquisitor. She looked up, eyes wide.

"Sorry I'm late," he told her. She weakly punched at him. Shepard looked to Grunt who shook his head. Shepard helped Jack to her feet. She was rubbing her throat.

"That's three times today," she said hoarsely. "Murtock…"

"Not good," Shepard told her and he followed her as she staggered to her fallen once-lover. Murtock was gasping shallowly, his eyelids fluttering. The huge hole in his abdomen did not bleed. Gut shot. A slow and painful death.

"Jack…" Murtock wheezed.

"I don't think medigel can…" Shepard began.

"I know. Go away." Jack turned a baleful glare to them. "Both of you."

"Jack… you sure about this?" Shepard asked her softly. She was looking into the smoke.

"Yes. Go away."

Murtock seemed to gain some strength from her voice and his eyes opened. He looked past her to Shepard and smiled a weak smile.

"Shep…ard… three times… beat that, motherfu…" he coughed violently, blood welling out of his mouth. He weakly spat it away.

Shepard motioned to Grunt, who stepped away. He looked down at Murtock.

"Thank you," he told the man, meaning it. Shepard stepped with Grunt back into the smoke.

Silence fell.

"Fuckin' dumbass," she told him finally.

"You're …welcome," he said, voice ghosting between his lips. "You'll do …it, yeah?

"Yeah." Jack pulled her pistol.

He closed his eyes and seemed satisfied.

"Good." Pain made his voice harsh. "I hope …your Murtock did you some good, way back when." His breath rushed out of him in a gush. "We did …the best …we could." Another gasp. "Don't …worry, kid," he told her. "I don't think I was ever …really here, anyways. Can't love a ghost."

Jack bent over him and kissed him softly for a good while. When she sat back up he had a smile on his face.

"You were here," she informed him quietly. "And I did. Once."

Shepard and Grunt waited in the smoke. It was thinning rapidly. A single shot sounded and a moment later Jack appeared from the haze. She walked straight to Shepard, wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his chest. He simply held her, knew her too well to try and offer empty words or shallow condolences. Somewhere behind them a large set of turbines kicked in and the smoke swirled away. The huge figure was nowhere to be seen. A dozen metres away they spied Javik and Mulholland. Grunt nodded at Shepard and stomped off to meet them.

"I'll kill him," came muffled from his chest.

Shepard saw who she meant emerge from a vent at the end of the chamber, two small silver drones bobbing behind him.

"You don't know he did it."

Vnkar dropped lightly to the deck and surveyed the area and seemed satisfied with himself. Shepard saw him nod when he saw the small group and start toward them.

"Of course he did it." She told him, holding him tighter.

"I think we need him yet."

"Never, ever trust anything he says."

"Never."

Jack stepped back and her eyes were deadly serious.

"When the time comes." She said in no uncertain tones, "he's mine."

"When the time comes," Shepard nodded. "I won't stop you."

"I WONDER IF I SHOULDN'T BELIEVE IN ANGELS," Vnkar said in lieu of greetings. "You all survive the damndest things."

"Not all of us," Shepard informed him. Vnkar shook his head.

"The Inquisitoria don't count."

"Murtock, you bastard!" Jack shouted at him. "Benjamin Hamilton Murtock!"

Shepard stepped in front of her and she punched him in the back in frustration as he passed. He knew she was restrained only by her faith in him.

"I didn't kill him," Vnkar was unmoved in the face of her anger, as if he didn't understand it.

"That reactor blew on its own? You may as well have!" Grunt abruptly hoisted the turian off the floor and Vnkar merely stared at the krogan as if this sort of thing happened to him every day.

At Grunt's elbow Shepard crossed his arms, a dubious look on his face.

"You keep risking our lives for your agenda. I'm finding it almost impossible to find a viable reason to take you anywhere."

"You need me. My knowledge…"

"…is the only reason you're alive." Shepard finished for him. "From now on, if you so much as sneeze without clearing it with me first, you'll live just long enough to deeply regret it." A nod had Grunt drop him. Vnkar banged an elbow painfully on the floor and pulled himself cautiously to his feet as Grunt and Shepard stepped away.

"You survived. The Inquisitors are gone and we can leave. This is an important distinction. That's a win!" The turian protested, rubbing his elbow with a pained look on his face. "I'm sorry about any dead but I can't control everything."

"The ship." Shepard told him with a cold succinctness. Vnkar looked at each in turn and seemed to be trying to gauge their temper. After a slight shrug he pointed to his left.

"That way. There's a working small tram system that runs straight to it."

"You first." Grunt jammed a shotgun in Vnkar's back. "Just to make sure you don't try anymore diversions."

"This is unnecessary," Vnkar protested but led the way, his drones following behind him.

"You are sure about this …creature, Commandah?" Javik sounded highly skeptical.

"No. Compared to anything else I've done in the last few years, he's not particularly high on my 'worry' list, despite what he's done." Shepard glanced down at the silent biotic at his side. "He'll be watched."

"Can we trust anything he says about these ships?" Javik followed up, his skepticism not assuaged.

"He wants off this station to the point of mania – as evidenced." Shepard felt Jack reach for his pinkie finger. He extended it and she hooked hers around it. "I think we can trust that mania, as far as that goes."

"As you say, Commandah." Javik lapsed into silence. Mulholland drew up parallel to Shepard and Jack.

"You should know that Murtock was a kind of …doppleganger, built from memories, borrowed from other places." Mulholland told them quietly. "He wasn't any more 'real' than I am."

"He was," Shepard told her. Jack squeezed his finger. "And you are."

"Not worried about the existentialist ramifications, huh?" she asked, trying to keep it light. "No need to, really." She shook her head. "About a light year from this station is a slaved Relay, a kind of 'Omni' Relay. It points at all the others. It hasn't been active in a very long time but it functions. It will send you to the closest Relay to it."

"Good." Shepard felt relieved. "I didn't really want to spend a month trying to get back to the Galaxy."

"The odds are you'll be able to extrapolate back to the Omni-relay but I'd advise against making it common knowledge. Neither that Relay nor this station were built by the Reapers. Just a friendly word of warning." Mulholland added.

"I understand. I'm in no rush to come back here, believe me." Shepard assured her.

Vnkar led the way to a control dock overlooking the moored ships. In the middle of the five they could see sat a huge Prothean vessel, all curves and hollows, elegant and sleek like a dolphin – or a shark. Javik made a noise behind them and his face reflected his awe as he gazed down at it.

"A Verjucia-class Negator!" He exclaimed. "A warship, Commandah. No mere explorer craft."

"Trust me not to interfere with any budding love affair, Javik. You want it, of course."

"I do. If it is operable."

"They all work," Vnkar reiterated. "These five are in the best shape on this arm."

"What's that one?" Grunt asked, pointing to a ship that looked like a huge gun. Shepard followed his finger and nodded to himself. Yes, that should do nicely.

Vnkar shook his head.

"No idea. Nice lines, though." He sniffed. "Its AI says it's fully stocked and functioning."

"Good. The rest of us will take that one."

"Commandah?"

Jack leaned on Shepard's back as his omnitool lit up, feeling achy and tired to her bones.

"Javik, do you remember when Firs'ehcô showed us the Mryth'dehl Vaults? I took the liberty of scanning that map it threw up." He aimed the omnitool at the Prothean. "Figured you might want it."

Javik's omnitool flared to life and Shepard sent him the map. Javik was as elated as Shepard had ever seen him.

"With this, I have a real chance. Yet, I would not abandon you, Commandah."

"I appreciate that, Javik. I think this is where we part, though. Something is beginning – or had already begun. You've more than earned your chance to find your people. Especially now that it appears they may have actually survived. We have other work to do."

"Indeed, Commandah." Javik nodded. "If you think it is best."

"I think you'd be better served. We saw what one Prothean could do. Imagine how we'd benefit from thousands of them."

Javik could only agree. This could very well be his best chance but hopefully not his only one.

"Good fortune, Commandah. We will meet again."

"Of that I have no doubt. Good luck."

Javik nodded, almost a bow and turned to the 'Negator'. He was onboard with alacrity and the ship powering up shortly afterward. Shepard blamed him not a bit for his haste.

"Are we fuckin' done?" Jack's voice was more weary than angry. "I just want off this goddamn station."

"We're done," Shepard told her. "Let's get the hell out of here."

THE LIGHT HAD BEEN COLD. The Captain's armor sensors had registered it as a solid object that had infused every cell in her body, extracted every kind of information she contained and then returned her to her former state.

To say she felt strange would have been an understatement. Her armor sensors insisted she had 'anomalies' but her bioscan told her she was as she ever was, barring assorted combat injuries. Her shell was damaged but functional and repairable. For a long moment the Inquisitoria Captain lay where she'd landed and considered all she'd seen and experienced and what she'd lost. She opened her eyes to the thud of booted feet approaching.

"Captain. Are you functional?" The Knight asked and she recognized him from his voice. Her pilot. Was it good fortune or something else?

"I am." She told him as she climbed to her feet. "Report."

"You and I are the only ones to remain. I can scan none of our brethren, no bodies or shell signals. What scans I could take indicate we are alone in this section. The Red Hand reports a large vessel departing the Pivot. It reports it is unable to pursue or retrieve us for at least several hours."

"Immaterial. They cannot go far enough in that time to elude us." She contemplated the space the great being had previously occupied. "We will pursue when our vessel is able."

"This way to the docking bays, Captain." He indicated a door across from them. She waved him on and fell in behind. Many forces seemed to be in play and she did not pretend to understand any of it. She wondered if she should have regarded such ignorance as fortunate and then decided it didn't matter. No force but herself sustained by the Echoing Faith and the Will of the Beloved would guide her now.

They could run all they wished.

She would follow. The Knight slowed.

"Captain. Do we know to where the prey will flee?"

"We do. That sea of stars is their only recourse."

"We have no charts, Captain. No way of knowing how far. To Fold blind…"

"I was blind once," She told him. "The Voice of the Beloved opened my eyes." Yes, she thought. I am seeing many things, now.

"As It Was. As It Is. As It Shall Be." He answered.

"Then how can we be blind?"

"We will find the way." He told her, setting off with renewed purpose to his step. They entered into the expanse of the docking area. In the distance across the Deep Dark, she could see a pool of light.

We are the way, she thought, staring at the Galaxy before them, so far away. Run, she told those fleeing ships. Run. It has never mattered and it never will.

The Captain crossed her arms, focused on those faraway stars, cold fury in her veins, righteous indignation in her heart. She drew a deep breath and centred herself.

We are inevitable.