Some damnable noise was beeping in the background.

Shepard groaned as his eyes opened a crack, soft blue light impacting gently but making him wince nonetheless. He stared up at the ceiling, watching the stars slowly fly by the skylight and eventually mustered the strength to tilt his head up a tiny bit.

The fish in the tank were still swimming amicably, their mindset purely on when their next meal was going to arrive. The automated feeder took care of that for him, Shepard didn't have time to look after them. He still had trouble looking after himself sometimes. He grumbled as the blanket crumpled underneath him as he laid there, the incessant sound still seeping into his head.

The beeping was coming from his desk, the console to be specific. A hail. More than likely that if someone was hailing him and if it was coming to him directly in his cabin, then it must be urgent. But who would call in the middle of the night, technically speaking? It had been almost three weeks since he had a call from anyone that provided him with any worthwhile information and since then, his entire fleet had been resigned to scraping the far corners of the Terminus for any clues about the Collectors. Ever since Horizon, they had hit a brick wall. No sightings to report. Not even a hint about another missing colony, which was kind of a good sign by itself but counter-productive in the fact that no new leads were being produced.

Shepard's left arm was pinned but he didn't need to guess how that had happened during the night. In fact, most of his left side was underneath something…someone to be exact. Tali quietly whimpered as she too began to wake. Her arms had been thrown over his head, as both of them had fallen asleep wrapped in each other. Tali's whole body was up against him, pressed into him more like, as her affection and heat circulated throughout their forms. Her left leg was positioned over his, a desperate maneuver as she had strived for more contact, more touches, more of anything she could possibly think of.

Tali had been like this for the past couple weeks, not that he could blame her. She was absolutely besotted. The woman had never been in a serious relationship before, or any kind of friendship that revolved around romantic feelings in general. To see her stumble over her own words in the beginning was simply adorable, she had absolutely no experience with this sort of thing. It wasn't an achievement that Shepard himself could match but he was enjoying himself nonetheless as he guided her through unfamiliar territory, showering her with attention and all the time she could ever ask for.

When they were with company, the two did their best to keep their relationship on the down-low. It didn't matter that everyone on the ship knew about them, but they felt that it would be more professional if they wouldn't shamelessly flirt in front of random people, even friends. Shepard had suggested this to Tali, a fact that she agreed with immensely. On the other hand, whenever they had some time alone in his cabin (sometimes in the elevator if they couldn't wait), it would always be her that would attack him mercilessly, jumping at him and clinging to him as if she were about to fall off a cliff, causing him to sweep her up in a fierce hug, laughing at the same time. Their evenings would usually be spent lying on the bed or on the couch, trapped in an embrace, saying soft words to assure the other or sometimes saying nothing at all and just enjoying the company one brought to the other.

Once the cat was out of the bag, there was no more hiding to Shepard that the quarian was madly in love with him. It was not like it was that well hidden to begin with but now that they had nothing to conceal from the other, he felt he could breathe a little easier at not having to control the monster within him that had been clamoring for release.

If anything, her relief was more apparent. Tali had become so smitten with the commander that her desperation to give him her heart throbbed with such intensity that some days it had actually hurt and left her breathless. At first, whenever they were alone for the first few days, she was unable to stop shaking until Shepard would hold her hands to keep them from twisting in a knot in her nervousness. Now, she no longer felt huge pangs within her at the sight of Shepard but still got the occasional notion to rip off her mask and just kiss him, throwing aside all ramifications in the process. Of course, she hadn't become that desperate yet but that new hunger was growing within her until it would start to gnaw at her again. Time was not on her side.

Both of their conflicting emotions had been quelled once Shepard and Tali had begun to get used to the idea of them being together. Shepard had still wondered if he was doing the right thing. Had this truly been his path all along? The thought of a ruined, cybernetic organism finding true happiness in the end? It seemed unfathomable from his point of view. If anything, the prospect should have scared Tali away.

She, ironically, would have none of it. Tali could only see Shepard in front of her (once she had properly accepted the ludicrous idea of him in that stupid body) and not a freak of nature, no matter how hard the truth hit her in the face. Just the idea that it really was him, even though he was surrounded by all that metal, was enough to overcome any prejudices she had toward the very concept, exhibiting a newfound maturity on her part. A maturity that Shepard would be eternally grateful for, he reflected.

The logistical problems of a human dating a quarian were negligible as they simply ignored any future problems this would present. The different chirality between their bodies was glossed over to the point where it became a mental footnote. It would mean that they would need to be a little more cautious when Tali was ready to show her face (completely and on her own terms) but they were fully prepared for that inevitability, whenever it might arise. The both of them just chose not to address it at the moment. Personally, Tali was unconcerned of what would happen ten years down the line, for she was more focused on what was happening now.

As was he, holding onto the slim quarian as she gradually woke from her sleep, hearing her soft sighs as her breath deepened and her arms started to caress his skin. He smiled, the soft flesh curving upwards. Yes, now was a good moment to focus on.

Except that the goddamn beeping in the corner was in the middle of ruining it for him.

Frustrated at how unceremoniously he'd been roused, Shepard slowly ducked under Tali's arms as she instinctively curled up, not having her human to hold on to any longer. He sat on the edge of the bed and glanced back toward her as she feebly stirred. If he could see her in a situation such as this and have his heart melt at the sight of her (which it was currently in the process of doing), then he may have made the right choice after all.

The thought gave him new life as he walked up the small steps, yawning. He sat down in front of the console and hit the "accept" button and watched as the holoscreen flared in front of his cabinet. Shepard immediately sat up as he saw Admiral Hackett's grim face stretched before him, hands behind his back as he regarded the commander.

"Shepard," the admiral began, not wasting any time with small talk, "We've received some information over here at Arcturus and I wanted to contact you immediately."

"What about?" Although Shepard's voice was quiet, he could still see the quarian on his bed from the corner of his eye sleepily sit up, attracted by the noise, her back arching as she yawned.

"Just an hour ago, we received a coded message from a turian patrol in the Han system. They claim to have encountered the Collector ship in the area and set upon it."

"And?" Shepard pressed cautiously.

"The patrol was destroyed but they managed to relay that they had disabled the ship, rendering it a sitting duck."

Shepard brought a hand to his chin, "The turians must have had some luck on their side. It's hard to imagine that they could be capable of taking on a ship that size and doing that much damage at all."

Hackett did not look convinced, "So they claim."

"You have reservations?" Shepard asked.

"When we received the message," Hackett cleared his throat, "We immediately set our analysts on it to confirm its authenticity."

"You found something, didn't you?"

The admiral nodded, "Turian military messages contain two levels of encryption. One primary and one secondary. The secondary encryption was corrupted to the point where it set off our virus alerts. We had to quarantine soon after."

Shepard blinked, "So the message was faked."

"My thoughts exactly, commander. However, the coordinates in the message provided did correspond from the location the message was sent so there is some truth to it."

"Those little bastards. The Collectors set a trap for us." Shepard was torn between the outright audacity of the bugs and to the desperation that they had exhibited by sending the message out in the first place. A clever ploy, if it had worked.

"That looks like the case," Hackett agreed, "I don't know how you want to proceed from here, Shepard, but I don't really see the overall outcome changing either way."

"Neither do I, admiral. I'm going to pay them a little visit regardless, but they don't know that they lost the advantage." He laughed at his newfound fortune, "They no longer have the element of surprise and I think I can use that against them."

Hackett gave a small smile, "If you think a detour to the Collector ship is a necessary option, then I would advise extreme caution. Be on your guard and look to disable it further in any way that you can. I would recommend that removing their engines would be key in halting any further attacks on any more colonies."

"Got it, then. I'll set disabling the ship any way I can as the primary objective and I'll look to finding any of the missing colonists if they are still aboard." His face brightened as another idea popped up, "Also, I think it would be a good idea if I find any information in their network that gives us a clue to where their main base resides. There's got to be a record on board that ship."

"Sounds like a solid strategy. It may give us a clue to wherever that Omega 4 relay leads to. Just make sure you have an escape plan ready if things go south."

"I plan on taking this one as carefully as I can, admiral," Shepard stood up and saluted. "You'll be hearing from me later today."

"I wish you luck, commander."

As the holoscreen winked out, Shepard could hear a faint shuffling noise behind him. He didn't bother to turn around in his seat, soon feeling two slender arms snake around him and the warm surface of Tali's helmet nuzzle the side of his head.

"It looks like we have another job to do," Tali sighed.

Shepard turned his chair around, causing Tali to back up and sit on top of his desk, pushing aside a spare datapad to make room for her. She gripped the edges as she looked at him anxiously. It wasn't hard to tell that something was on her mind. "You're worried," he noted.

She timidly nodded, "Aren't you?"

He grasped for words as he could only shrug, "Not about myself, no."

"You're concerned about me, right?" She hopped off the desk as she reached for his hand, "Why?"

He stood and obliged her, "Because…I have someone to lose now. I'm worried that something might happen to you."

"Are you still remembering what happened on the Rayya?" When he nodded she continued, "That was why you didn't ask me to come with you on Horizon, right?"

Her insight was well founded and accurate. Intelligence was clearly a virtue that Tali had in spades and it impressed Shepard to no end how she could analyze a situation and come up with an unequivocally correct solution. "It…I just…" Shepard sighed, frustrated, "I thought I was going to lose you that day. I had put myself through hell to find you and for the longest time…I thought that my efforts were going to be in vain. I was frightened…so scared that you would die and…and I thought I never would get the opportunity to tell you how I truly felt about you…"

"But that didn't happen," Tali placed a hand flat on his chest, just over where the muted responses from his heart reverberated. "I'm with you now."

"But I can't protect you," he grimaced. "Not completely. That was why I didn't want you to follow me to Horizon. I didn't know what the Collectors were capable of, if I wouldn't be able to stop them, or if I would be put in a situation where I would have to watch you succumb to a deadly infection, or if-"

"Stop," Tali begged, placing a finger on his lips. "Please stop, John. Nothing has changed for you to be concerned about me like this. I've been with you on countless missions before, why should this one be any different?"

"It's because I have you now," Shepard indicated as he held her. "That's what's changed."

"And that's why I'm coming with you."

Shepard blinked, startled, "No, Tali, you're not. There is-"

Tali vehemently shook her head, "I'm not even going to hear you try to talk me out of this one, you bosh'tet. I walked into this wanting to be by your side for the whole thing and that's where I'll be. You may not worry about yourself because you're a little more hard-headed than the rest of us but that doesn't mean that I don't. And someone needs to worry about you if you can't even be bothered."

It irked Shepard to no end that she had thrown his own logic in his face. The feeling soon passed, however, with a glowing pride at how much more confident she now was. She had a protective instinct towards him, a clear indication at how much he meant to her. But were his own notions of keeping Tali safe the right choices or merely selfish ones? With Tali acting as a moderator, nothing was ever clearly cut-and-dried. He still had to get used to ideas filtering by her before he could act appropriately. They still had a lot to learn.

Shepard sat down, face locked in a pondering expression but mind already made up, "All right, Tali." He held up a finger as she visibly relaxed, "But, you stay with me at all times. I've let the Collectors take me once, I will not let them take anyone else. And if that means that I have to stay behind so that you can escape, that is what I'll do."

"No, John…you can't-"

"I can and I will. I have a duty to my crew…and a duty to you…that means that I have to make sure that no one gets hurt whatever the cost."

"If you even think of leaving me alone-"

"That is not my intention," Shepard asserted. "If I have something to lose that means that you now have something to lose as well. I don't think that I could ever leave you willingly, to be honest. Not after all that's happened."

"You better be telling the truth, you bastard," Tali weakly hit him in the chest.

"Trust me, Miss Zorah," Shepard assured, "It is next to impossible to lie to you."

"Damn, that ship is big," Joker frowned. "And they wanted us to think that a simple turian patrol took it out?"

The Collector ship sat dead ahead, lifeless and dark. The odd design certainly belonged to the enigmatic race, metal and rock fused together in an odd blend of the bizarre. The front of the ship, normally bathed in yellow light, was black as it appeared that all systems had indeed been powered down, as expected.

"Looks like intel was right for once," Joker continued as he scrolled through various screens, "It certainly appears like it was disabled, that's for sure. Even their shields are down."

"Except for the fact that there aren't any blast marks scorching the hull," Shepard noted dryly, standing behind the pilot.

"It's like they took us for complete idiots, commander."

"Then we have a chance to make them pay dearly for their mistake." He opened a channel to the ships traveling alongside them, "Bergensen, this is Normandy. Arm all torpedoes and target the engines of the craft. Position yourself accordingly and await my mark. Pompeii, find the weapons systems and work to shut those down when I give the order. Antietam, you work on the life support systems. Amarillo and Titan, you hold fast and fire at will once two of the corresponding systems are destroyed unless notified otherwise."

All five craft reported their acknowledgment and Shepard summarily closed the channel, glancing at Joker. "It pays to be prepared," he shrugged. "We've got our contingency in place."

"No complaints here."

Ten minutes later, the shuttle departed the confines of the sleek vessel as it headed for the looming monstrosity out in front. It seemed that the Kodiak was more like a speck of sand compared to the size of the Collector ship. There was a docking area of sorts so the shuttle was set down there, surrounded by the cavernous rock that defined the entire ship.

Garrus and Kaidan were put on guard duty, their last resort of backup, while Liara and Tali followed Shepard into to the depths of the dank maze. Condensation coated the walls of the ship, pouring off the rock as the sounds of gurgling water rushed around them. Enormous pipes ran up and down the length of the ship, containing god-knows-what. Mercury dripped in a pool over by the corner, slow ripples widening from each drop as it expanded.

Everyone in the group was fitted with a fully sealed suit (Tali, characteristically, did not need to change) that prevented them from breathing in the atmosphere of the Collector ship. Although scans did report that the air was indeed breathable, for some species at least. The air was actually a toxic combination of nitrogen and methane, therefore a suit breach for anyone in would be a disaster in here.

They started to ascend a steep incline, trying not to lose their footing on the slippery rock. Liara looked all around the hallway, fascinated. Tali shivered in disgust at the very thought of being here. Shepard continued on, determinedly and unfazed.

Something in the corner caught his eye and he walked over to discern it before it registered in his mind. He quickly turned away, shutting his eyes closed as he quietly swore to himself, hate and rage fluttering.

Liara and Tali caught up, the latter putting a hand on his shoulder to relax him while Liara's eyes were wide. "Bodies?" she asked out loud, looking at the pile of rotting corpses that the Collectors had carelessly disregarded. By the looks of things, they had been there a while. Whatever flesh was exposed was rotting and grey, ragged muscle torn away from bone as the liquefied portions coagulated at the bottom of the pile.

"It doesn't make any sense," Tali said, eyes wide. "Why would the Collectors just leave humans here to rot? Why kill them?"

"Experimentation," Shepard guessed through clenched teeth. "Torture, sport. It doesn't matter." He turned around as he looked down on the poor souls that had never made it out of this place. "We can't do anything for them now, but we can make their tormentors pay."

"This brutality," Liara whispered, "This slaughter. What could possibly be worth it?"

The asari's questions were not answered as the group slowly trudged away from the pile. They never looked back.

SLAM

The three of them halted as the door slid shut in front of them, blocking the way ahead. They had found themselves in the middle of a crossroads, with two doors in the room not including the way they had come in. The door on the right was closed so they naturally headed towards the one on the left until it slammed in their faces. Because there were no other ways to traverse, they were essentially, for the moment, stuck.

"This is rather inconvenient," Tali muttered as she engaged her omni-tool, trying to interface with the door directly. "I can try to hack the door but the protocol it uses is rather ancient. It will take me time to get through."

"How much time?" Shepard asked.

Tali frowned, "An hour…at least."

"That's too long," Shepard sighed, "We don't have an hour until the Collectors get wise and figure out we're here."

"I know, John," she snapped, "But it's the only safe option we have."

The way she put her sentence gave Shepard pause, "The only safe option?"

Tali hung her head, "The only other way that I know of that would get us through the door quickly would be…" She took a breath, "Would be to reactivate the AI on board the Normandy and set it to work."

"EDI?" Shepard breathed. "You're absolutely certain?"

"No, I'm not absolutely certain," she admitted. "But I don't see that we have any other choice. I wouldn't even recommend doing this if I had the slightest inkling that there would be another way."

"Have you even finished modifying its code? Making sure the AI is safe to use, I mean?"

"Not completely. I already altered the information packets last week so that it corresponds to your commands but I am still in the process of filtering out any spyware embedded in the firewalls. There's no telling that it won't relay any information back to Cerberus but… It…I would have to guess that it's eighty-five percent complete, but that's the best I've got."

Shepard glanced at the impenetrable obstacle, the flat surface mocking him. The hiss of steam from the pipes next to him filtered through his helmet and he sighed. "Eighty-five percent will have to do. If I get the slightest indication that the AI won't work out, we shut it down and abort the mission. Agreed?"

"You won't get any argument from me," Liara nodded.

"Me either," Tali added.

Shepard then opened his own omni-tool as he typed in an order to the men belowdecks. Right after, he spoke to the pilot of the Normandy, prepared for the man's less than calm reaction, "Joker? Just giving you a heads up that the AI on board will be reactivated shortly. Do you copy?"

"WHAT?" the man's cry was so loud that even Liara and Tali were startled by it. "Are you insane, Shepard? You're going to let the fucking HAL 9000 take over my ship?"

The man's paranoia could be so enraging sometimes, even if it was slightly deserved, "The AI does not have control over the Normandy's systems, Joker, and it is fully incapable of killing anyone on board unless it politely suggests to you that you walk out of the airlock. We just need it to perform remote hacks and get us some valuable intel behind enemy lines."

"Opening a channel now, sir," a trooper from the AI core now hailed, interrupting the conversation.

Joker had overheard that exchange, "Oh, great. Now I have to contend with the sex toy bobbing up and down on my display. Hey, Shepard, maybe when this is over, you can-"

A blinking dot on his tool was indicating that someone from the Normandy was requesting a private hail. Joker was still practically screaming over the mic and not providing anything useful to the conversation so he just cut him off, mentally wincing at what the man's reaction would be like afterward, when he acknowledged the caller as the smooth voice greeted him.

"Hello, Commander Shepard."

"Hello, EDI," he proceeded cautiously. He didn't really have that much experience with AIs before so he thought that conversing with the same level of courtesy would put the both of them on equal terms and not tip a potentially volatile situation.

Tali was shifting nervously beside him, not that he could blame her. Tali carried an immense distrust for any synthetic intelligence. She even hated having to work with a VI, for that matter. It didn't take a genius to know that quarian and synthetic animosity was cultivated from when the geth ousted their creators from their homeworld three centuries ago. It was a conflict as deep and fractured as the one between the krogan and the turians, so rooted in a lack of faith that any hope of resolution was considered utter madness.

"Is there a problem that I might offer assistance to?" The AI was rather apathetic to the fact that it had been so rudely shut down weeks ago. It certainly wasn't the most organic of reactions to forgive and forget so easily.

Shepard decided to cut to the chase and not waste any more time. "We need to get this door open," he told it, a part of him wondering if the AI would know which door he was talking about. It might be monitoring the tracking devices in their armor and using their mounted cams to get a layout of the area. AIs were quite advanced as they interfaced with every conceivable detail in their environment.

"Certainly. Rerouting access through firewall 1433 and interfacing with node 329 now." A few seconds passed before a green icon popped up signaling that the door was unlocked and it soon opened, enabling them to leave.

"Goddess," Liara gasped. "That was certainly quick."

Tali was stunned, "Even I have to admit, I'm impressed."

"Thanks, EDI," Shepard replied, still a little disconcerted at thanking an artificial intelligence but holding to the niceties all the same.

"I am always here to assist," the AI replied with a hint of cheer in its voice.

They were traveling deeper and deeper now, encountering no more locked doors in their way. Their pistols were out but they were pointed down at the ground. All of them were on edge but they had not seen any enemies in a while for them to be fully on guard. Their adrenaline was starting to die down, even though they were continuing to get hopelessly lost in a nest of angry bugs.

A ray of artificial light cast a bright spot on the ground in front of them. Shepard moved underneath it and let his visor adjust to the illumination as it darkened, enabling him to see better. Behind him, he heard quiet sounds of awe from Liara and Tali as they caught sight of the view beyond.

The hole they peered up at led to a huge cavern. The wall that they could see in the distance looked like it ran the length of the ship. What was odd about this is that the wall was covered with some strange pods, and from what Shepard could see with his zoomed in optics, those were the same pods that he saw on Tali's surveillance video and the ones on Horizon. They were the pods that transported the colonists away.

"Oh my god," Shepard said in wonderment. "There must be hundreds of thousands of them."

"They can fit this many in here?" Liara's hand came to where her mouth was, despite her helmet blocking it.

"But we still don't know why," Tali said. "What could they possibly do with so many humans?"

The sight of the hollow momentarily took Shepard's attention away to the point where he didn't notice that EDI was hailing him again. He answered it but set the protocol to automatically allow the AI to speak. It was rare that AIs wasted anyone's time with useless information, anyway.

"Shepard, I have run a scan of the ship and I detect no life signs in any of the pods."

He blinked, "So all of them are empty?"

"Only a third appear to be occupied, however. It is likely that when the ship lost power, the humans inside perished."

That made no sense to any of them. Shepard was incredulous, "So why would they go to all the trouble of collecting all these colonists if they're just going to discard them like toys? The risks of this 'trap' seem to outweigh the reward by quite a sizable margin, in my opinion."

Tali nudged his arm, "It means that we won't be putting any innocents in harm's way when we have to destroy the place."

"Tali'Zorah is correct," EDI concurred. "However, there remains insufficient data for a more thorough analysis. My sensors indicate that there is an accessible console roughly one hundred meters ahead. If you allow me to interface directly, I may be able to manifest the true intentions of the Collectors and possibly glean additional information."

"It's as good a plan as any," Shepard agreed. "We will be there momentarily."

For once, momentarily was not an exaggeration on Shepard's part as they managed to reach the room in question in less than a minute. The dusty air at this point had coated their suits in a thin layer, as had the computer console that they had in their sights. Green icons flowed from screens hovering over it, a mass of pipes lay tangled beyond. This was clearly an important section of the ship based on the general layout but what was odd about the entire setup was the object that was positioned to the left of the console.

On the slab, the Collector laid perfectly still, its four eyes staring straight up. The torso had been eviscerated, but it didn't look like it had been torn open. Rather, it appeared to be a surgical cut, the organs carefully pushed aside as if it were a specimen for dissection. Yellow fluid stained the table below. There were no additional instruments around to suggest that any form of painkillers had been used on the alien. It was hard to determine whether it had died from shock or blood loss and neither option was weighted of much importance in Shepard's mind.

Liara lightly pushed him aside to try and decipher the results, "This is rather strange. It appears as if they were experimenting on one of their own. I can't make out the data, though."

"EDI," Shepard said into the comm, "Can you make any sense of this?"

"Patch me in, Shepard, and I'll see what I can do."

Shepard used the hardpoints to set up a bridge between the Collector vessel and the Normandy. Next to him, Tali opened up her own omni-tool as she carefully monitored the connection.

"I've got the line secured," she told Shepard. "I'll be able to prevent detection by remotely closing firewalls as long as EDI is in the system."

"Good thinking," Shepard was impressed by her ingenuity to the task at hand.

"I've analyzed the data, Shepard," EDI's calm voice announced two seconds later. "It appears that the Collectors were using this subject to compare their own genetic code between humans, their samples most likely obtained from the ones you saw earlier in the ship."

"Anything of note?"

"Yes. The Collectors have a quad-strand DNA structure, as opposed to humans who are dual-strand."

"Quad-strand?" Shepard was confused. "All the other species in this galaxy are dual-strand. What exactly is the significance of this?"

"The genetic and physical implications are unknown, but there is only one species that has been confirmed to have a quad-strand structure based on historical records."

"And whom might that be?"

"The Protheans."

Shepard stepped back from the dead Collector, as did Liara and Tali, "You mean to tell me that this…thing, this is a Prothean?"

"Not entirely. The structure is similar but based on samples recovered from ancient ruins, the Collector DNA shows signs of extensive genetic rewrite. This type of modification is similar from the DNA recovered from husks on Eden Prime which signifies that the Reapers were the ones who altered them in the first place."

"Then the Collectors are just puppets!" Tali proclaimed. "Just like the geth when they were following Saren!"

"The absence of three chromosomes and the elimination of various 'junk' sequences found in the genetic code are traits of this genetic rewrite. There is no question that these Protheans had been repurposed fifty thousand years ago."

"Indoctrination," Shepard realized. "We're talking about the last of the Protheans here."

The ghosts of the past seemed linger all around them in the dusty, steamy air as the data mine continued. Tali occasionally fiddled with her tool as red detection attempts flared up on her screen. As quickly as they came, she shut them out as EDI continued to probe for additional information.

"I have also determined the location of the Collector base," EDI announced after a minute.

Shepard clapped his hands together, "Let's hear it."

EDI did not oblige him audibly. Rather, she opened up a representation of the galaxy map on his omni-tool. Shepard glanced curiously at it until she placed a beacon where the data had pointed her. But something was off, the results didn't make sense in the slightest.

"Is…" Liara tilted her head, "Is that supposed to be accurate?"

The waypoint did not waver. Its position at the center of the galaxy was fixed and certain. "EDI," Shepard tried to clarify, "Are you saying that their base is located in the galactic core?"

"The position of the base is absolute, Shepard," the AI acknowledged. "It is apparent that the Omega 4 relay leads to the core which explains why no ship has ever returned in the first place."

Shepard was getting more and more used to the ease at which this AI was handling the electronic analysis. Perhaps he could make a case for it to stay after all. "So how do the Collectors come and go as they please?"

"Their ship appears to use an advanced patch on their IFF that prevents the ship from drifting several thousand kilometers off course, which could lead it into a potential 'dead zone.' Obtaining the IFF and copying it to our drives would enable us to access the relay itself without any inherent danger."

"Then let's make obtaining that IFF our top priority at the moment. We've come this far without any hassle so a little longer couldn't hurt. Where is it located?"

"Shepard!" Tali's voice called from within the tangle of pipes beyond, "You're not going to believe this."

Her voice sounded excited which meant that it must be important. He ducked underneath a jutting pipe and jogged over to where Tali was pointing. A display sat in the middle where a bunch of tubes intersected. Nestled just underneath a valve, was a tiny chip with several wires sticking into it. It was a dull grey but there was a single solitary green light slowly warming on and off as it oscillated.

The Collector ship's IFF.

"I don't believe it," was all he could say. "Can you remove it?"

"Not that easily," she mused. "All of the wires here are tapped to the point where any hack to disable them would alert the whole ship. If I tried to deactivate each node one at a time it would take too long and we would lose valuable escape time."

"Damn it," Shepard growled. "Is there any other way?"

"I think, maybe something a bit cruder." Before he had a chance to ask what that meant, her hand shot out and grasped around the tiny chip. As quickly as she extended it, she yanked her arm back and the IFF came with it, sparks trailing as the wires around it snapped. An alarm promptly sounded moments later, a high pitched wailing that seemed to echo from all around them. Tali simply shrugged and shoved the chip into a pocket as Shepard sighed.

"Could you at least have warned me before you were going to do that?"

"Um…right, sorry." She did sound rather contrite.

"Nothing we can do about it now." The both of them scampered back to where Liara was still peering at the dissected Collector. Upon seeing Shepard and Tali emerge from the pipes, she opened her mouth to ask a question but Shepard incessantly waved for her to get back to the shuttle. The console brightened as an influx of power surged through it. Any screens that had been previously dark were now lit again. The ship had finally detected its intruders.

"Garrus?" Shepard rapidly spoke, "We're coming in now and the nest has been stirred. Acknowledge."

"Roger that, Shepard," the turian transmitted, "We're already seeing movement here. Husks, a lot of them."

A chatter of assault rifle fire took over the comm as Garrus and Kaidan were undoubtedly fighting back. There was little time. They needed to get back to the shuttle now.

"Shepard?" Joker's voice floated through, "The Collector ship is powering up now. You might want to, um…do something before they space us again."

"I'm well aware of that, Joker," Shepard snapped. "You'll be wanting to watch what's going to happen next." He then switched the channel to the three ships in position, "Bergensen, Pompeii, and Antietam, you may fire at will. Once your targets have been destroyed maneuver to where the Amarillo and the Titan are stationed and wait for my command."

All three ships blinked their acknowledgements and the ship shuddered five seconds later from the impacts of torpedoes on its hull. The vibrating deck was not debilitating their movement in any way but they still hustled as remaining on a crumbling ship is not really a lifelong goal for someone relatively sane.

"Engines destroyed," EDI coolly reported.

"Hot damn," Garrus snarled victoriously. "No more pillaging for these bastards."

They hustled through the pathways that had been previously traversed, relying on the mini-map in Shepard's HUD to lead them to safety. The three of them reached the room with the three doors but there were two Collectors standing in the middle of the way they came out. Tali was the first to react, unhooking her pistol and firing twice. The two shots were perfect hits, the taller Collector fell with two holes in its throat, gurgling blood before she stamped on its face.

The other Collector seemed to have a hard time determining who to fire upon and was still in the process of deciding when Liara fixed him with a biotic hold. With a wave of her hand, the alien shot up to the ceiling and its head impacted hard. Gravity took over as it fell to the ground, more harsh snaps sounding out as its head leaked brain matter from several huge cracks in its carapace.

"Weapon systems destroyed," EDI announced. That must mean that the Pompeii was now joining the rest of the fleet while the Antietam was still carrying on.

Joker was beside himself, "Fuckers can't move or shoot anymore. Payback's a bitch, you assholes!"

"Shepard!" Liara called from the other side of the doorway, "Come on!"

He moved to oblige but at the last second, the great door slid shut so fast that he couldn't even consider jumping to clear it. He skidded to a halt and furiously punched the surface. He winced as the impact shot up his arm. Not even a dent was left behind. It would take hours for him to get through on brute strength alone and all that one punch did was bruise his fingers. He would have to consider scraping them down to the metal skeleton if he continued down that avenue.

"John!" Tali yelled over the omni-link, "John, are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," he breathed.

"Can- can you find a way out?"

He frantically smoothed a hand over the door, "Not this way at least."

"No, no, no!" she cried, "There has to be another way!"

"Relax, Tali. I'm not giving up just yet."

"You're damn right you're not! I'll-"

"Shepard," EDI carefully interrupted, "The door on the other side of the room leads to a passageway that connects to the main hall. I will be able to override the lock on that door but not this one."

"Then that's where I'll go," he started back as he spoke again to Tali, "You heard EDI, I'm on my way. Don't worry."

"I have to, John. Remember?"

Shepard grinned, despite the rumbling of the ship, "Then it's a good thing that I have you around. Wait by the shuttle and I'll join you in five minutes."

"Just…" she began, "You better be right out."

…better be right out.

There was something queer about her last statement but he had no time to dwell on it now. His primary concern was actually making it out of this place. The door on the other side was starting to slide open and he hurried perhaps a bit too close to the threshold for him to properly react to what was waiting on the other side.

"Shepard!"

The enhanced Collector roared as it threw itself upon him once the doors had fully opened. Shepard fell on his back and the alien started to pummel him mercilessly on the head as he helplessly rebounded on the ground. The Collector had not properly pinned him which meant that Shepard was able to produce his pistol and shoot off the Collector's left arm, the limb became ash as it made contact with the ground.

"You may feel pain but we feel nothing!"

"Then this won't hurt a bit," Shepard muttered as he fired a bullet between the Collector's four eyes. It gave a tiny chirp before its legs collapsed from underneath it, lower body starting to crumble apart before his very eyes.

"Life support destroyed," EDI's voice reached him once more, "All ships maneuvering to attack positions."

The last system that had been destroyed had a fortunate effect on the enemy populace. Shepard sprinted past several encampments as the Collectors began to choke as the atmosphere seeped away. It was no big deal for the human, he was encased in a vacuum sealed suit, as were his organs to begin with. Some of the aliens started vomiting as they gasped for air but found none before collapsing on the ground. Shepard used the opportunity to knock them aside as he pressed on.

He ran around the corner and caught himself before his foot slipped over the edge. The slope in front of him led several stories down, too steep to climb up from the other side. There had been no other passageways in the previous rooms, this was the only way to the shuttle. However, inhabiting the bottom of the incline was a rather large mass of husks, apparently unaffected by the lack of relative atmosphere. These things could survive the cold of space for hours if it came to it.

Shepard had no time to debate the merits of what he was about to do. He sighed as he placed his pistol in one and his submachine gun in another. Dual crosshairs now appeared in his vision as they corresponded to the guns in his palms. "Nothing ventured," he grumbled and jumped, sliding down towards the end.

The husks heard the crumbling of rock above and they hissed and growled as they saw the armored human slide their way. Shepard was already at work as he depressed the triggers like a madman but his bullets continued to hit rotted flesh each time. Limbs and brains splattered the hallway as Shepard still slid as the husks scrambled to meet him. Heads popped like water balloons as the bullets chewed into cranial cavities. Reaching the terminus of the slide, he leaped and his feet plowed into the last husk, sending it to the ground for him to land on it shortly thereafter. His boots sank through its chest with a pulpy squish, the deliquesced organs lapping at his feet from within, staining them an even darker shade of black.

"Victories do not come without consequences. You know this."

Shepard viewed two more Collectors approach him from the end of the hallway, to the left of where he just descended. One was the ravaged form of Harbinger while the other had a protective barrier shimmering around it, forestalling its exposure to the lack of atmosphere on the ship.

He couldn't think of anything more witty to say, so he just pointed the two guns at the demon and fired. Bits of flesh flew as the avatar shrieked, unable to stand up to the barrage. As it started to fall, Shepard felt a flare of pain hit him on the head as the impact suddenly knocked him over. Fire soon spread throughout his leg, causing him to grunt in agony as the final Collector's beam rifle passed over his body.

He raised his weapons but to his horror, they both clicked open. He'd run out of usable heat sinks. He tossed his pistol to the side as he scrambled around his vest for a new one, fingers fumbling, but the Collector, sensing an opportunity, began to rush him. Its weapon was held high over its head as it prepared to bring it down for a sickening blow. It might not kill him, he reasoned, but he didn't really care for getting mauled either way.

In any case, the Collector's desperate charge was rudely interrupted when a loud bang came from behind Shepard and its head flew off its shoulders, spraying dark blood everywhere. Its hands came up briefly as its nerve endings flickered in confusion, as if it was trying to determine where its missing head had gone. This moment was not to last as it fell to the floor with a thud and the stump of its head leaked blood all over Shepard's boots. He backed up until he felt a hand on his shoulder move around his neck in an awkward hug.

He gave a brief laugh, "I thought I told you to wait by the shuttle." He got to his feet steadily as he shook the excess fluid off himself.

"And I thought you said you were going to only take five minutes," Tali retorted as she hefted her smoking shotgun, anxious yet relieved at the same time.

"So I was held up," he defended glibly as they headed to the shuttle which was parked around the next corner. "I made it, didn't I?"

"Eventually," she persisted as they climbed inside, the craft already starting to move away from the cursed vessel. "But I still haven't heard a 'thank you,' you know."

"Oh?" Shepard said mockingly as he pulled off his helmet, "And what exactly am I thanking you for, Miss Zorah?"

"How about, 'Thank you for saving my life, Tali?'"

Shepard shrugged, "If you want to compare the amount of times we've saved each other then I'd have to point out that you owe me a fair bit of those yourself."

"Oh, don't worry," she added mischievously, "I can make those up in full to you later." This caused Garrus to snort as he tried to hide his bark of laughter. Failing completely, he resorted to covering his mouth with his hands while he shook uncontrollably. Tali and Shepard merely ignored him.

"In that case, thank you for saving my life, Tali."

"You're welcome, John," she responded in a falsely sweet tone, taking out the IFF and toying with it in her hands.

Kaidan and Liara looked at each other and summarily rolled their eyes. That darn commander of theirs…

Once the Kodiak had cleared the surrounding space of the Collector ship, all of the ships in Shepard's fleet, plus the Normandy, immediately fired upon the center of its hull. Tiny explosions materialized as holes were punched into it. Gas hissed from thousands of breaches and crystallized in the unfathomably cold temperatures. Gouts of flame whooshed briefly and extinguished as the atmosphere was sucked away from them.

Large pieces tumbled as the ship began to break apart, rock and metal becoming nothing but debris. Torpedoes continued to burst the ship apart. Parts of the hull were shredded, rocky formations splintered and fractured, and plasma sizzled as electricity seared through it.

With a final blue rush, the Normandy unveiled its parting gift: the Thanix cannon. Built by the turian military's secret black labs, the Thanix used technology from Sovereign to propel a molten alloy of liquid iron, uranium, and tungsten forward at a significant fraction of the speed of light. Ordinarily, the Thanix has the capability to pierce even the strongest of shields but today it was being fired upon a crippled vessel dead in the water.

The cannon's effects were devastating. The ship seemed to bend as the enormous force of the alloy slammed into it. Heat and flame exploded out of both ends as the ship broke in half, spiraling out of control in the deepness of space. Light flared for a brief moment and died as the ship burst apart into a million pieces. Its fuel tanks had ignited. The residual effects were too far out for Shepard's crew to feel but they gazed determinedly upon the scene with a vengeful smugness.

The Collectors had just learned the hard way what happened when you messed with Commander Shepard.

A/N: Great news! If my outline is accurate then this chapter signifies the halfway point of the entire trilogy (commentary included). Shows how far we've come at the moment.

Also, more good news, if I can get my affairs in order tomorrow, you might be seeing the next chapter then!