Red dust billowed in front of them as Shepard, James, and Garrus stepped off the Kodiak, now fully armored and equipped. The ground underfoot was fine and gritty, leaving their bootprints firmly imprinted upon it. The stagnant air that their helmets refiltered prevented asphyxiation by breathing in the unhealthy atmosphere of Mars itself. All scans in the past had proven to be accurate, there was no way that this planet could support life in its current state.

The archives lay directly ahead, a series of circular buildings positioned on tall columns a quarter of a mile above a deep canyon. Red dirt flecked the sides, staining it a rusty color. The metal surface had previously been white at one point. The cosmetic changes were unavoidable, Mars was not a planet well-suited for color diversity. It was either red, red, or red with this place.

Miles beyond, an enormous line of clouds towered high above the horizon. The dust storm rolled and undulated, lightning occasionally sparking out from the mess as the flying particulates rubbed against one another to create static. Dust storms like this were commonplace on Mars, some even larger than this one. They weren't particularly harmful, if you were safely inside a structure, that is. The storms tended to interfere with radio communications and the pelting debris kicked up from the fierce wind could tear a man to shreds, regardless of the fact if they were wearing armor or not.

Acknowledging the danger, the Kodiak's pilot, a former fighter jockey named Cortez, pulled back the yoke and the craft surged upward to where the Normandy was patiently hovering overhead in the low atmosphere. No sense in risking their only shuttle if there was the slightest chance that it could become grounded.

They had been deposited by the installation's solar farm so they battled the raging winds as they made their way over to the path that would lead them to the entrance. After they trudged along for a couple minutes, they noticed a low profile positioned in the center of the path. It looked like a body.

Shepard ran to the form and rolled the man over. It was an Alliance marine, a sergeant. There was a small hole on the left side of his helmet but if he turned the head over, that tiny hole had created a massive exit wound, shattering his skull and tearing the plastic off the side of his helmet, revealing a mushy red mass underneath. Shepard gently set the body down, appropriating the man's rifle as he looked to James and Garrus for input.

"It looks like he was executed," Garrus pointed at the entry wound. "Notice the burn marks on the left side? A gun was pressed to his head when he was shot."

"Agreed," Shepard grimaced, taking his dog tag. "But who would go out of their way to take out an Alliance archive guard? This corpse is too clean, too precise for the Reapers."

Suddenly, a deep boom filtered through their helmets, causing them to turn their heads down the path in alarm. The sound echoed through the canyon, creating no illusions that the noise had been a figment of anyone's imagination.

"Pistol report," James noted. "Close by, too."

The young marine had been aggrieved when he had learned that the Normandy wasn't staying and fighting on Earth, following Anderson's example. He had been so incensed that he had almost jumped out the airlock in an effort to help with the resistance on Earth before Shepard verbally restrained him. Shepard was also infuriated at the invasion of his home but he let that drive his efforts in the present. James was upset, naturally, but the commander needed for him to hone that same fire that burned in the marine in order to focus his resolve. Shepard, in truth, liked the man too much to see him bail out now and he wanted to use that untapped potential against the Reapers for a good while longer. He needed every able-bodied man he could get his hands on at this point.

So far, his instincts had been on track. James was a good enough soldier to adapt to Shepard's rather loose command style instantly. He was tight in formation, checked his corners impeccably, and as proved right now, was quite observant. Thank you, Admiral Anderson.

Shepard slowly unhooked his sniper rifle from his back slot as they moved along the canyon path. It looked like it opened up just a few meters ahead and there was a barricade they could crouch behind once they got there. The three of them did just that and slowly peeked around it as they looked on the scene below.

In front of the entrance to the archives, three trucks were parked. They did not carry any Alliance insignia which, considering the luck they've had in the past, was to be expected, but a few of their inhabitants were conveniently situated outside and alert. There were five soldiers total, but only one was wearing the armor of an Alliance marine. He was down on his knees, head bent, arms over his head. The traditional position of submission.

The other four were all similarly garbed in a uniform that Shepard would have liked to have never seen again: the white and black accented armor of Cerberus. One of the standing figures casually strolled over to the man, brought his pistol up, and put a bullet through the back of the man's head. Blood burst and the soldier collapsed on the ground, death mercifully taking him instantly before the atmosphere could suffocate him.

James quietly swore behind him as the soldiers down below laughed at the offhand slaughter. Shepard heard their jubilation moments before his rifle was over the barricade and pointed at the nearest hoodlum. Hopefully they enjoyed that last laugh. Once the shooter's head was firmly in the crosshairs, he pulled the trigger and the man toppled over, now missing his head.

The remaining troopers yelled out in shock before the blood had finished falling to the ground but stuttered in place. That gave Shepard just enough time for his quick reflexes to instantly put another one in his sights. Another squeeze, another headless corpse.

James and Garrus were now firing behind the barricade, spraying the last two troopers with deadly fire. One man was puckered from several holes in his body and another wheezed as a shot to the neck gushed blood all over the dusty ground, soaking it and staining it red.

Shepard lowered his eyes as he ejected his spent clip, jamming a new one in place before he holstered the rifle, grabbing his submachine gun to replace it. He walked over to the marine on the ground and retrieved his dog tag as well. No sense in simply leaving him here completely.

They knocked the dirt from their boots on the ramp and hastily brushed off the reddish silt that had accumulated from spending only fifteen minutes outside. James hit the door access and with a groan, the room was sealed from the outside world. A hiss of air signified that the room had begun to pressurize and a tiny beep came later. Atmospheric conditions normal. All three of them summarily removed and stowed their helmets, no longer breathing in the musty, stale air of their coverings but the dusty, metallic air of the installation.

James growled as he cracked his neck, "Son of a bitch, how did Cerberus get access to this facility? Why the fuck are they even here in the first place?"

"Probably the same reason why we're here as well," Garrus drawled. "It's not like this location is classified to individual militaries anyway. They're here for the information."

Shepard shook his head, "If the Illusive Man wants to get himself involved in my business, I'll be happy to take the fight to him once again. But to attack while the Reapers are invading, it seems like very poor timing on his part."

"Or very good timing," Garrus mused. "He might have known of the upcoming invasion on Earth beforehand and used it as a distraction so that he could take this place easily."

"You think so?"

"We can't discount the possibility of him being indoctrinated. There were only three trucks out there, not enough men to take this facility."

"There might have been someone on the inside, Cerberus is well known for their use of sleeper agents after all."

The floor now rocked as it started to rise, gears on all corners of the platform strained and sparked as the overhead door opened to a staging area. A few maintenance vehicles and crates were positioned around the place. Tools lay scattered all over the floor and clanged when Garrus trod on a hammer.

"Still," Garrus rubbed his foot, "Cerberus attacking when there's a war on? That doesn't really equate to anything short of madness."

"The Illusive Man has never been a very rational individual." Shepard held up his hand so that Garrus could see and flexed it a few times, "Case in point."

A rattling noise came from overhead and all three of them trained their weapons above, looking to see if there were any foes hiding within the room. The noise was getting louder and Shepard was able to pinpoint, based on the increase in tone frequency, that it was coming from the large, grey air vent that curved over the second story of the room. There seemed to be many people inhabiting the vent at the moment because a stream of several loud noises (of what had to be knees scraping on the bottom of the thin metal) followed by cursing in multiple voices were now being broadcast clearly to the three men. They kept their weapons situated at the vent covering at the end because that was the only way anyone would get out from there.

A spark and a shot rang out, causing the three of them to instinctively duck. Shepard, slowly rising back up, saw that there was a hole in the bottom of the vent, the path of a bullet. So, it seemed like somebody was being chased in there and that their pursuers clearly weren't too happy with them, hence the weapons discharge.

"Don't shoot the first one to come out," Shepard said clearly. He wanted to err on the side of caution, just in case.

"Roger that, commander," James said.

"Got it, Shepard." Garrus acknowledged.

Seconds later, the grate was kicked out and clanged as it hit the floor. A slim, white-suited form followed the falling covering but Shepard instantly knew that they weren't an enemy. As soon as the first sliver of a white helmet covering a profusely swearing individual appeared from the duct itself, all bets were off. Continuous fire erupted from all three of their rifles, causing the duct to become pockmarked with the impact of bullets. Screams rang out briefly before ending in a gurgle. There was no more obnoxious banging around, all was quiet now. Blood dripped from the holes, puddling at the floor below as the former prey stood and dusted herself off briefly before turning to the group and giving a warm smile.

"Shepard," Liara glowed. "You certainly do have a knack for getting me out of tight spaces every once in a while."

The asari moved in for a friendly hug to which Shepard obliged, relieved to see a familiar face, "It's a habit that comes naturally to me, I guess."

She broke off for a second before smiling at Garrus and giving a friendly wave. To James she turned and held out her hand in greeting, "Doctor Liara T'Soni. I take it you must be Lieutenant Vega. Shepard's told me a lot about you."

"Is that so?" the marine raised an eyebrow slyly.

She laughed, "Don't worry, all of it was positive. He did seem to think that you had a bit of a reckless streak but was an exceptional soldier overall."

"Come on, Liara," Shepard laughed, putting a hand on her shoulder. "If you're going to blurt out everything I say to you in our conversations alone I'm just going to have to stop talking to you altogether."

Liara smirked, "Sorry, Shepard."

Vega held a hand to his chin as he pondered in thought, "I knew I recognized you from somewhere, doctor. I met a protege of yours once back when I was stationed on Horizon. I don't know if you remember Treeya?"

"I do," Liara nodded. "She was a good friend."

"'Was?'" Vega asked, concerned.

"Oh, that's not what I meant," Liara clarified, noting Vega's worried look. "Only that I haven't spoken to her in some time. Last I heard she was back on Illium, working with asari intelligence."

Vega breathed out, "That's good to hear. I liked her a lot."

Shepard gestured up to the still bleeding bodies crumpled in the duct above, "Seemed like you've pissed off some people in your spare time, Liara. Why were they trying to get you?"

She shrugged, "The same reason why they were trying to get everyone here, I suppose. Cerberus must have found out the research we were doing here and are here to steal it."

"What kind of research are we talking about here, exactly?"

Liara crossed her arms as she got a far-away look in her eyes, looking out the window at the red rocks beyond, "We only decoded this a few days ago, but it seemed that Admiral Hackett's hunches were right. The Protheans did have a solution to stop the Reapers all those years ago."

"What?"

"Yes, we found a blueprint embedded in the archives for some kind of superweapon, one that emits large amounts of energy designed for stopping the Reapers."

"Designed?" Shepard was skeptical. "You mean that the Protheans had the ability to stop the Reapers before but they never used it? How come?"

"I have my suspicions, but the best guess that I can hazard is that they never completed it before it was too late. When we reported our findings, someone must have noticed the importance of the information and contacted Cerberus. They were here before we even knew what was going on."

Shepard surreptitiously glanced around, just in case, "How many did you see? Did Cerberus managed to capture everyone here?"

"I only saw a few squads and...and they weren't taking prisoners."

Shepard blinked as the memory of him of ripping out a man's throat as he lay latched on a medical slab suddenly didn't seem quite so monstrous anymore. Nor did the thought of him planting a fist through a biotic woman's head as she lay stunned on the ground. "I'm…I'm so sorry, Liara."

"I am too," she tilted her head sadly. "I had made many friends here. The notion that Cerberus would even…" Liara shook her head, "With you here though, we can make a push to the archive and see if we can retrieve that data before they can."

"How?" James piped up, gesturing to the closed blast doors next to them. "The security system's locked us out of the tramway and we don't have the controls to bring the tram over to our station in the first place."

"I'll take care of the tram," Garrus volunteered as he moved over to the ladder on the far side of the bay. "One of the troopers probably has the control protocol on their omni-tool. Liara, if you wouldn't mind doing one of those swirly purple things to bring one of those bastards down from the duct, that would be great."

Liara playfully rolled her eyes, "Not a problem, Garrus." She shot azure energy from her fingertips as one of the soldiers perched precariously on the edge of the duct was caught in the vortex and toppled down to the ground at Garrus' feet. The turian winced as the snapping of bone sounded as the cadaver hit the deck, but knelt to look for the tram controls after a few seconds.

"Security station's just over here," James gestured as all three of them headed over to the small room. Inside, they found the body of the chief on duty, slumped at his desk with a hole in the back of his head. Another execution.

Shepard examined the body closely before turning to Liara, "Can we get a visual record on what happened here?"

She grabbed a spare chair and started typing at the console, "I believe so. One moment."

A screen to her left popped up as she selected the video file timestamped an hour ago, the second most recent file. Double clicking on it, the video player started up and after a sea of static, an image appeared in front of the trio.

Projected before them, the chief was typing dutifully away on his console, oblivious to the danger about to occur. Shepard squinted as he scanned the image for clues, anything of note that would be of use later. He got his answer within moments. A woman dressed in a scientist's uniform soon entered the frame and began conversing with the chief, who seemed to relax in her presence as if he knew her. As he turned back to the console, most likely in response from the query she produced, they saw her pluck a pistol from her back and shoot the chief in the head without warning, his body sagging over.

Soon after, the woman leaned over the body to quickly open the bay doors, allowing the Cerberus troops through. A second later, she spotted the camera in the corner that had captured all the action and fired a bullet into it, distorting the picture permanently.

Shepard straightened up from the warped image, frowning, "Recognize her, Liara?"

"Yes," Liara mumbled. "Her name is Dr. Eva Core. She only arrived about a week ago, though."

"Guess they didn't waste any time in putting the agent to work," James sighed as the image was reversed back to the slim woman holding the gun.

"I never paid her much mind. I was too focused on my work to let anything distract me."

"It's not your fault," Shepard assured. "You couldn't have known."

"Could I? That woman operated under my nose for a week and I didn't have the slightest clue about it. It's as if I've suddenly become blind to everything around me, focusing on everything except the details that I thought were important."

"Got another recording here," James motioned as he moved the cursor over the final file. There was no time for Liara to fall into despair now, it turned out. He double clicked and the next series of images popped up.

The numbers in the corner of the video indicated that what was on the screen took place forty five minutes ago. Dr. Core was walking along a hallway but she was not alone this time. A black figure was escorting her as they stopped in the middle as they seemed to be arguing, based on their raised voices.

This other person was different. He was tall and big, encompassed within a set of bulky, black armor. The helmet emitted a aquamarine light from the optics and his voice was raspy, as if he had possessed a perpetual cough his whole life. He was armored to the teeth, guns of all shapes and sizes were racked on his back, a knife was positioned on an arm sheath, and the actual armor itself looked like it was hydraulically powered, allowing for superhuman strength.

"-have reported in by now," the figure was saying. "You delayed this operation long enough that the Illusive Man has grown restless. He wants to see the results of this operation now."

"And he will have his results," Core assured. "I think you're just exerting your typical ego over me. You are just looking for a reason to personally step in so you can make me look bad. I know how it's done, so-"

The figure stepped forward into her personal space, causing Core to shrink back, "Do not try my patience, doctor. You will find that my distrust of others has been well placed as I have had to put my faith in people other than me before. Each time, I have been disappointed." The man towered over her by at least half a foot, but she managed not to back down any more than she already had. "Word of advice, doctor, not many people who have slighted me in the past have had good career longevity. It's a pattern that I would hate to see repeated once more, especially to someone like you."

Core seethed, "If you think that you can threaten me for one moment, think again. I hold the Illusive Man's complete trust and-"

"I hold his trust as well. Did you not consider the fact that I also speak with his authority? You have a long career ahead of you doctor." The helmet tilted down, a gesture that implied a knowing secret, "Don't end up like Leng and fuck it all up."

The doctor opened her mouth to respond before the armored figure's omni-tool buzzed. He glanced down at it for a second before raising it up and answering with an annoyed, "What?"

"Sir," a trooper's voice broke through, "We've detected an incoming shuttle. Registered to the Alliance ship Normandy."

The man laughed, a wheeze coming through the helmet as he closed the comm, "I'll be damned. He did show after all." He turned back to the woman, "I'll leave this in your hands, doctor. I trust you can make a simple pick-up without my help."

"Oh, running away from a fight?" Core said slyly. "Too afraid to face Shepard on your own?"

"I am afraid of no one," the man said dangerously, "Least of all, Shepard. It just isn't the proper time." He jabbed at her chest for emphasis, "He and I will meet eventually but this place will soon be swarmed by Reapers if we delay any further. Unless you would like to be held up until they arrive, in which case things could get rather...interesting. So, I hope that little incentive will encourage you to pick up the pace. That being said, I'll see you back on the ship."

The video ended just as the figure stalked off the frame, away from a white-faced Core. Shepard frowned as he watched the screen disappear. Liara eyed him accordingly.

"I didn't recognize that one, the man talking to Core."

"Neither did I," Shepard shrugged, "Although he seemed to be interested in me personally. But I guess that's to be expected. Cerberus already lost two top agents from to my involvement, it makes sense that the third one is a little more cautious this time around."

"What?" Liara cocked her head, "You think that this man is a replacement?"

"Has to be. He was the one giving the orders and he said he spoke with the Illusive Man's voice. Evidently he doesn't want to make the same mistakes his predecessors made based on his cautious tone." Shepard scratched his cheek, "I guess I might want to watch out for this one, it looks like."

James was fiddling with another console in the meantime, finding the appropriate switch and flipping it. "Tram access enabled," he announced. "Now, if Garrus can-"

"Hey, Shepard!" Garrus coincidentally yelled from the balcony, looking agitated. "You better get up here right away!"

All three of them in the security station looked at one another before leaving, Liara deactivating and erasing their browsing history before running out the door to catch up. They climbed up the steps to where Garrus was, kneeling by the dead Cerberus trooper. Shepard stopped in place and stood, expecting the turian to speak but he simply extended a finger, pointing at the dead man's face.

Shepard walked over and stopped, blinking in surprise. Liara and James now crowded around, the latter letting out a curse in Spanish when he saw what Garrus had indicated.

The man's face was covered in glowing blue circuitry. Lines ran across his flesh, raising the skin underneath. His eyes were glowing bright blue, the flesh around it already turning a dead grey.

Garrus' tone was grave, "Looks like a husk, doesn't he?"

"Yeah," Shepard sighed. "He does."

Liara covered her mouth, "Goddess, why would the Illusive Man do this?"

Shepard gave the body a light kick, "Just another way for him to exert control over his forces, I guess. Perhaps I should be thankful that they never got that far with me." His body seemed more apparent now to him than ever. He clenched his fingers, hearing the metal straining from his force. He consciously stretched his neck, feeling the miniscule grate of metal on metal as his artificial spine bent to the commands of his nervous system.

James looked horrified, "How could Cerberus get their hands on Reaper tech anyway? Last I heard, we didn't even have the capability to do this on our own."

Garrus' head rose, "The Collector base."

"Exactly," Shepard turned to the turian. "They must have salvaged whatever was left after we destroyed it and gained the knowledge to make his own private army of husks."

"Makes me think we should have used a bigger explosive."

"Too right, Garrus."

They left the body there as they descended the staircase. Garrus had managed to call the tram over prior to his discovery and it had only now just arrived. Everyone was rather disturbed at the situation brewing between the Reapers and Cerberus. To them, it looked like the Illusive Man had gotten a little too close to the enemy. But he was never their friend in the first place.

The four of them inserted themselves into the tram, donning their helmets, and stood in silence as it noiselessly sped off. Their comms were picking up mindless and random chatter from Cerberus troopers, apparently no one realized that Shepard had been in the facility for about an hour now. They just needed to get to the actual archives in order to sort this whole ordeal out.

The car decelerated a minute later, alerting its occupants to ready their weapons in case there were enemies at the gates. And indeed there were, six in fact. One heavily armored Centurion, two riot-shield toting Guardians, and three standard troopers in all. Difficult for one person? Possibly. For the four of them? Cakewalk.

The door to the tram quietly opened and Shepard came sprinting out, faster than the troops could initially perceive. His pistol was out in the blink of an eye and it blossomed with flame. The armor-piercing bullet careened into the head of the Centurion before he could even throw up his shield, causing his brains to paint the wall behind him. He fell before everyone else even knew they were under attack.

A Guardian peered out from his shield, doing a double-take and shouting in surprise, "Holy shit, that's- ugh!"

Garrus had poked out from the tram at this time and had aimed his rifle at the guardian, not at the exposed bit of head, but through the tiny slot reserved for the soldier's eyes. The turian gave a victory growl when the man's chest exploded as his heart was pierced, exemplary marksmanship not realistically doing his ego any favors.

Liara waved her arm and a soldier cried out as he was helplessly sucked around a dark vortex, the singularity trapping him in its gravity well. Almost lazily, she drew her submachine gun and fired two rounds into the man's chest, putting him down for good.

The last Guardian had turned to face the oncoming Shepard as he smashed another trooper away with a powerful blow, breaking the man's ribs and puncturing his lungs. The Guardian braced for a powerful impact when he started jerking as bullets impacted with his sides. Not knowing who his killer was, he fell as his shield toppled over him. Approaching from his flank, James Vega smirked as his assault rifle gave a faint wisp from the brief attack.

They were now free to access the archives. Giving a brief moment to crack the automated security lock, the four of them jogged inside to prevent any more distractions from popping up in the brief seconds they could potentially lose.

The chamber was awash in a greenish glow as tall metal pillars, faint lines traced about them, threw their light everywhere as they glowed from within a cylindrical glass casing. Liara had told Shepard what they were earlier: Prothean data towers. As tall as a two-story building, these columns had the potential to contain millennia of untapped information. It was here that humanity learned many of the galaxy's secrets, giving the species the will and the knowledge to rise up and join the galactic community as a fellow ally. To be uplifted to their full potential they could never realize to begin with.

Due to Council restrictions, it was deemed that all Prothean artifacts that divulged any information be shared throughout the galaxy. No one species was to withhold any knowledge whatsoever, as doing so would give an unfair technological advantage over the less fortuitous inhabitants of the Milky Way. Humanity had already been punished once before for refusing to give up knowledge of artifacts in the past so it made sense that an asari like Liara T'Soni had been granted unrestricted access to the human-controlled facility in the present, as it technically was a neutral zone and all artifacts are classified as publically accessible.

James and Garrus started to sweep the chamber in opposite direction, taking one side of the circular room to meet up in the middle while Liara and Shepard headed for the central console. As the asari began typing and searching for the data she had bookmarked, there was a faint winking noise as the hologram of Prothean text behind them fizzed and altered its image. He turned around, curious, as the indecipherable letters morphed into the form of a human male. One that Shepard did not particularly care to see on his ever growing list.

The Illusive Man.

He sighed openly as Liara whirled as well, "What the hell do you want?"

"As courteous as always, Shepard," the man scowled.

At that, Shepard gave a small shrug and allowed a tiny smile, "What can I say? I'm not a very nice guy."

"Your bravado is meaningless. I know what it is you seek."

"Oh, congratulations," Shepard said sarcastically, causing Liara to blurt out a laugh alongside him, "As it happens, I too also know what I'm looking for. What a marvelous coincidence."

He was taking great pleasure as the hologram across from him smoldered, "You came looking for a way to stop the Reapers. A way to destroy them."

"Don't tell me our objectives are one and the same for once?"

"Hardly. Your ambitions and goals are...admirable, but crude in scope. Whereas you would leave destruction in your wake, I search for a cleaner, more elegant solution. A way to control the Reapers and their power."

"Much like your lackeys here?" Shepard jerked a thumb back towards the corridor. Liara was now back at the console, desperately searching for the now hard-to-find data, "Turning them into husks as a proof of concept? You would sacrifice your own kind for your own petty ambitions?"

The Illusive Man gave a cruel smile as he took a drag from his cigarette, "Brave words, Shepard. But as usual, you miss the point."

"I truly doubt I'll ever see your point."

"You say that now, my troopers' improvements merely strengthen their resolve, giving us the knowledge in the process of how to access Reaper technology. But what if the data in these archives, data that we could have accessed for decades, could unlock the key to controlling the Reapers themselves? Think of all the lives we could save, Shepard. Together, you and I, we could stop Earth from burning as we speak if we work together to control them."

Shepard narrowed his eyes, "You talk of Earth burning and yet you plot to undermine humanity at every turn by using the Reapers to further your own ends. How many others will you turn into someone like me, like your soldiers, for your own blind aspirations? Only by destroying them will we truly save everyone and many more in the future by letting the Reapers burn."

The Illusive Man laughed, "Your lack of imagination is astounding, Shepard. You would let the greatest technological gift known to the entire galaxy go to waste in your so-called quest for justice? That's what separates me from you, Shepard. I am willing to do anything and everything to ensure the survival of the human race. If that includes letting the Reapers stay intact, then so be it."

Shepard made sure to roll his eyes noticeably, "Then you're deluded. I've seen firsthand what the Reapers can do and so have you. The fact that you don't want them destroyed is outright insanity. If you won't lend me your support, fine. But stay out of my way. We don't need you in this fight."

The cigarette came back to the Illusive Man's mouth, "But you, Shepard. You've needed us from the very beginning." The man smirked briefly before continuing, "I now extend to you a counteroffer, if you will continue to interfere with my plans, on your head be it, but consider yourself warned that severe repercussions will be impacted not only on you, but on that wretched quarian that you've somehow become attached to. I might just have to send my newest asset her way, if you and I understand each other perfectly."

Shepard's mouth dropped a half inch as his head immediately was brought to boil, staring at this smug man in his expensive suit. His jaw shook as he struggled to control his urge to rip out the hologram projector in the middle of the floor, for he was so furious. How dare he even bring her up. How dare he threaten her life. How dare he….

Through clenched teeth, Shepard muttered, "Go fuck yourself." Liara immediately got the hint and disconnected the conversation, the last image was of the Illusive Man with a greedy smile on his face. That damnable man had the last laugh this round, but next time would be different.

The asari turned back to him with a worried look on her face, "Shepard, I couldn't find the data on the drives."

"What? They already got to it?"

"I'm not sure," she looked frantic. "I don't know if-"

"Hey!" James yelled from a corner of the room, "Step away from that console!"

Shepard and Liara glanced over to see Vega pointing his gun at a small kiosk near the Prothean drives. He had adopted a cautious stance as he slowly moved forward, wary of the person inside. Shepard was about to start jogging over when he saw a flurry of fists and feet plant the marine squarely on his back with a grunt. Seconds later, he saw a slim form bolt out of the kiosk, towards the exit.

Dr. Eva Core.

"Oh, nice one Jimmy!" Garrus shouted scornfully across the room.

"Shut up!" Vega yelled, furious that he had been disarmed in front of Shepard. "She grabbed the data and destroyed the local copy!"

The data. Shepard boosted off of a foot and immediately plunged after her. She saw him give chase and somehow managed to increase her speed, running impossibly fast. As fast as he could.

She whirled for a moment and waved her omni-tool, closing the door to the archives and locking it. He didn't even stop for a moment, lifting a foot and smashing through the door so hard that the locks burst out of the frame. Hopping over the twisted metal, he saw Core turn the corner into the maintenance area and he relentlessly pursued.

Pipes and valves jutted out at every turn. He had to position his body frequently so that he wouldn't hit anything and slow his velocity. Regardless, his shoulder nicked a small pipe, dislodging it, and sending steam floating through the air.

He ran out into the Mars atmosphere, feeling the tug of the wind at his frame. Shepard heard a clanging sound to his left and looked up. Core was only finishing clambering up a ladder that led to a landing zone. He cursed and jumped over to the ladder, engaging his comm at the same time.

"Cortez, we need you on an intercept course, copy?" Just static came through. The approaching dust storm was already interfering with communications. "Cortez, do you read?" Still nothing.

To his horror as he reached the top, there was already a shuttle waiting on the landing pad, painted in Cerberus white, not Alliance blue. Shepard grabbed his pistol and fired a few shots at the fleeing doctor but they merely impacted on her shields, splashing harmlessly away. He roared as she jumped into the craft and it wasted no time in taking off, too early for Shepard to manually bring it down by leaping on it.

As he helplessly watched the Kodiak fly away, a large shadow dropped over him, encasing him in darkness. He spun around in shock, expecting the large form of a Reaper to be towering over him, their nightmare staring them in the face. But he blinked once as a smile soon appeared on his face.

The Normandy's forward cannons burst once and the escaping Kodiak jerked as its port engine was caught in the blast. Now without proper forward propulsion, it spun around in the air a few times, the pilot wrestling for control of the craft but it was a hopeless cause. With a mighty crash, the Kodiak hit the deck of the pad hard and skidded forward several feet, immediately bursting into flames.

As this went on, the Normandy set itself down on the overhanging loading ramp, opening the cargo bay doors as it docked. Its duty done, the engines sat idling as it waited for its crew to board after they had finished their business on the red planet.

Shepard did not wince as he heard the pilot's screams in the Kodiak from being burned alive, striding forward and giving an unseen salute to the pilot sitting above him at the moment. "Thank you, Joker," he muttered as Liara, Garrus, and James now joined him on the platform.

He walked over to the raging conflagration and peered inside to see if he could spot Dr. Core's body. Burned or no, she still had the data and he needed to make sure it was intact. Before he could rip off the door for access, someone inside did that for him as he felt the frame press into him, flinging him backward as the whole door was displaced from a powerful kick.

Sitting up off the ground, he grumbled as he pushed the hatch off of him but froze after he did so. What was walking from the remnants of the shuttle was not Dr. Core, nor was it human. Its body was comprised of a greyish material, it walked perfectly straight, and it wore a glowing red visor that doubled as a head-up display. The orange eyes surrounding grey irises blinked slowly as its remaining flesh and clothes sloughed off her from the intense heat. Liara gasped and Garrus winced but Shepard instantly knew.

Core was a cyborg, the same as him.

The metal woman looked at Shepard on the ground and then to his squadmates. Determining that the group was the bigger threat, she started to lunge at them but Shepard had anticipated this outcome, only a couple of feet away for him to properly react.

"Oh no you don't!" he growled as he sprung to his feet and tackled Core in midair. Together, they fell to the ground where Core squirmed in his grip. Her legs thumped his sides but enhancements or no enhancements, it would be a tall order to even make him let up on her now.

Her expression went unchanged as she frantically swung a fist into the side of his helmet, causing his head to snap back. It didn't cause the seal to break and he recovered quickly enough for him to catch her next attempted blow as she drew her hand back for another attack. Core's eyes widened as she was completely pinned as she lay on the ground, Shepard atop her with her hand clamped tightly in his grip. He grinned underneath his helmet as he slowly moved her arm away from her body, both of them straining against the other. With his other hand, he grabbed his pistol and placed it firmly in the center of the cyborg's chest, ready to snuff out its synthetic spark.

"Shepard," EDI's voice came to him just as he was about to pull the trigger.

"What is it, EDI?" he shouted, Core was still struggling to not be shot underneath him as the barrel was still pressed against its chest.

"That unit is a fully mobile gynoid that could contain vital information on Cerberus. Destroy it and you could lose a potentially valuable resource."

The commander placed his pistol back into his holster as he fought the thrashing limbs coming from Core, getting frustrated enough to punch it in the face several times in a vain attempt to stun it. That only bruised his hand, causing him to wince, "So what do you suggest we do?" His patience was wearing a little thin right about now. If he wasn't to shoot it, then what did EDI have in mind, exactly?

"Hack into its processes, bring down the firewalls and I can commence remote authority."

There was no time to debate it. He motioned to Liara and she rushed over, careful not to get in range of the thing's arms as she brought up her hacking application, following EDI's guidelines to the letter. Shepard had to keep the thing restrained so that it wouldn't kill anyone or put them in the hospital before EDI achieved whatever goal she had in mind. The nodes that had been brought up on Liara's screen were cleverly hidden within its inner workings, but she was able to match them up in fifteen seconds, creating a bypass shunt that allowed her to access the thing's inner code. Finding the errant process, she substituted the necessary crack and the icon closed. Public access granted.

"Now, EDI!" Liara yelled and Core instantaneously seized, all limbs stretching out as wide as possible. Her face became slack-jawed, motors straining as various commands cycled through, the processor unsure of which order to follow. Two seconds later, the cyborg relaxed, its limbs carefully lowered to the ground as its visor turned a cool shade of blue.

"Hello, Shepard," EDI's voice came through, but not from anyone's comm. Shepard looked down, startled as what had been Eva Core smiled up at him.

"EDI?" he asked, completely confused, not ceasing his grip on the machine.

It nodded. "Yes," came her voice, perfectly clear.

Startled, Shepard jumped off as the grey unit sat up, dusting itself all over before standing before all of them. It smiled, giving off a warm and friendly exterior. It was bizarre to Shepard, to say the least. It had only been shooting at them moments ago.

"I…" he struggled stupidly, "I guess it worked, huh?"

The unit lifted its arms as the head examined them, curious about its new body, "Exactly as anticipated. I calculate an increase in unit productivity by twenty three percent with the addition of this unit. Acquisition of Prothean data confirmed."

He was about to ask for specifics when a bolt of lightning cracked down a few miles away, the noise rumbling throughout the dusty canyons. Everyone sans EDI started looking around nervously at the towering storm cloud. At its current rate, it would hit within ten minutes. It was time to leave.

He looked back to his crew and motioned for them to get on board the Normandy. Relieved, they hurried along as Shepard turned to EDI's avatar. "We can discuss this later. Also, we need to figure out a way to break this to Joker gently. I'm not entirely too certain on what his reaction is going to be like."

"I would not be too worried, commander," EDI assured as she strode up the ramp. "Based on Mr. Moreau's extranet searches, I would warrant that his reaction to this form would be less hostile than our initial encounter."

"You'll have to forgive me if I'm not completely convinced by that."

Three hours later, he had to concede the fact that EDI's initial hypothesis was right on the mark. Apart from a jump from Joker at the sight of EDI's new body, he did seem to become a lot more accommodating to the AI once her new form sat down in the copilot's seat next to him. The pilot did not even give a word of protest (most likely due to him being so flabbergasted that he couldn't mouth a coherent word for a minute) so Shepard, smirking as he did so, left the two to their own devices.

Once the Normandy had left Mars' atmosphere, the ship had immediately plotted a course for the Charon relay, desperate to escape the system that was slowly becoming infested with Reapers. It would mean that most of the people on board would be going further from their home, but it was the only option possible at this point.

Now, as promised, he stood before Admiral Hackett as he presented his findings to the man. The elder man's attitude was still discouraged over the loss of Earth but he still kept his steely exterior intact as he listened to both Shepard and Liara give a complete rundown of what happened on Mars.

It was not good news for Hackett. He stroked his goatee as he sighed, "So this...Dr. Core was the one who let Cerberus in and a synthetic organism to boot?"

"That's correct, admiral," Shepard confirmed, consciously noting the hypocrisy of the situation. "The Illusive Man also contacted us in the archives. He basically stated that he would stop all our attempts to destroy the Reaper forces so that his own personal agenda goes untarnished."

"Whatever for?"

Shepard shrugged, "He just said he wants to control the Reapers in order to obtain their technology and that the information contained in the archives provides the clue to doing just that."

Hackett just shook his head in disbelief, "We don't even know if we can destroy them, so how does he figure that they can even be controlled in the first place?"

Liara now stepped in, "Apparently, he thinks that the Prothean device listed in the data provides the clue to do so."

This was the first mention of any content of the archives at all to Hackett or Shepard. "Device?" Hackett questioned. "What device?"

Liara opened her omni-tool and a greenish blueprint of a complicated looking structure burst out, surrounded by glowing Prothean text. "It's known as the 'Crucible,'" she explained. "A device capable of emitting unquantifiable levels of energy devoted to destroying the Reapers."

"Sounds a little too good to be true. How come the Protheans never used it?"

"They never managed to complete it," Liara scanned the text. "They seemed to be missing a critical component called the 'Catalyst.' All I'm seeing here is that the Crucible was designed for the purposes of destroying the Reapers, not controlling them."

"Then the Illusive Man is fighting a hopeless cause," Hackett mused. "We might have to consider the fact that he has been indoctrinated by the Reapers as evidenced by his erratic behavior and from the partial husks you encountered back on Mars. I'll also need you to forward the data to me, Dr. T'Soni, so that we can begin construction. It's not the firmest lead we've ever had before but it's something that we can at least try to use."

Liara nodded, "I'll do that at once, admiral. But I must point out, when we were on the archives, Dr. Core had been uploading the data off-planet before we interrupted her."

"And you think some of this data managed to reach the Illusive Man?"

"We can't discount that possibility as we don't have a way of knowing what has been copied. We can only hope that the information that Cerberus got is too vague for them to make any sense of it."

"Hope is all we really have left, doctor," Hackett sighed. To Shepard he spoke, "I'm assuming that you did take the necessary precautions when bringing the synthetic on board the Normandy?"

Shepard nodded, "EDI went through a full systems scan and Liara provided backup. It's as clean as can be, sir." Hackett had been made aware about the Normandy's AI addition when it had been grounded in Vancouver. Per his orders and from a recommendation by Shepard, he turned a blind eye to the illegal intelligence and simply signed off on it as a VI for the overhaul crew. As long as it didn't draw attention to itself or upload a random virus, Hackett had seen no problem in letting the AI remain on board.

Hackett crossed his arms behind his back, "Very well, then. As long as you're careful, commander. On the other hand, I do have some important news for you."

"What about?"

"I got in touch with Udina a few hours ago. Seems that with the invasion and all, the Council races will be convening a summit in two days time in the Annos Basin. I was selected to go as humanity's representative but seeing as things are tied up where I'm at and now I have this Crucible business to oversee, I humbly requested that you go in my stead."

It was a carefully worded order, one that Shepard had no chance of refusing, let alone voicing his displeasure for politicians in general. "I...I copy, sir."

"Among you will be the salarian dalatrass, the turian primarch, the asari's representative, and a krogan clan leader."

Shepard arched an eyebrow, "The krogan? Do you think it wise putting them in a room with the salarians and turians?"

"They're just going to have to get over themselves. This war is bigger than any one species combined and everyone is going to have to work together in order to survive."

"I understand you perfectly, admiral," Shepard rubbed his jaw. "I'm just wondering if they will."

"They better," Hackett gave a simple shrug, "Or this war will be over very shortly." The man turned to the side as if someone was talking to him off screen. Nodding at the unseen individual, Hackett spoke quickly, "I better get back to it then, commander. Keep me informed on the situation. Hackett out."

"Yes-" the hologram shut down before Shepard had a chance to finish, "...sir." Liara crossed her arms as she looked at him expectantly. Leaning on the console for a bit, he turned to her as she stood there patiently, "Liara, go tell Joker to set a course for the Annos Basin if you would be so kind."

It was perhaps not what she wanted to talk about but apparently it could wait as she gave a curt nod before departing, leaving Shepard alone in the comm room. He sighed as he was granted a moment's peace, leaning against the smooth wall of the room, opening his omni-tool. He filtered past all the work orders and spam in his messages tab, looking for anything in his personal folder. He double-checked, then triple-checked to see if he had missed anything.

He needn't have bothered. It had only been two days but he thought he would have received a response at this point. His mailbox was empty, Tali hadn't replied to his original message yet.

Shepard sat down in the room, pondering the reasons that would prevent Tali from talking to him. Lack of a extranet connection? Under specific orders for no contact? ….Dead? The few answers that he did manage to come up with did not assuage him in the least.

That, indeed, was a troublesome prospect.

A/N: In favor of moving the story along so that I don't end up novelizing the entire ME3 storyline, I will be making the next chapter a little more-widespread in terms of actual content covered.

The reason for this is because it is not really a section of the story that I consider to be the most important concerning all the characters that I've focused on thus far, and that I haven't found many ways to alter the plot in those particular areas.

Rest assured, once I get past that hump, things will start to get interesting.