Hello, my readers! Busy days, busy days. As always, review, follow, favorite, message me, whatever. I appreciate the feedback truly. Especially when I'm dealing with a case of extreme writers block, which may have guessed given my absence (very sorry about that, but Virmire sucks to write!). Hugs and kisses, from me, and here's chapter 12.

Ridley POV

"If I see one more geth, I will explode." Shepard said, earning a smile from me and a curious look from Liara.

"I doubt you will be so distraught that you will explode, Shepard." Liara said curiously.

Shepard took his attention away from the hallway to cast a glance at Liara and said, "It's an expression. You know, kinda like the 'not to be mentioned conversation' we had."

Liara blushed a deep blue, which I took as an asari embarrassed expression. I suddenly grew a little alarmed, and if I'm truthful, a little jealous. Had he? He wouldn't.

"Did I miss something?" I asked calmly, and Shepard turned to me with a reassuring smile and an expression of gleefulness, while Liara looked horrified and positively humiliated.

"No." "A little bit." They both said at the same time, and my curiosity was stoked.

"What kind of a conversation was this?" I said with a growing grin.

"An extremely embarrassing one." Liara replied, looking increasingly harried. "Can we please return to the mission now? This is not an appropriate discussion for the task at hand."

"All right," I said, determined to get the details when we returned to the Normandy.

"Fine." Shepard said, but whispered to me, "Killjoy."

I repressed my girlish giggle only just. I soon had to let go of the conversation however, when two geth aim their guns at us. But, in true Shepard fashion, he aimed his gun and hurled a biotic throw at one and a marksman move on another. I followed in suit, finishing the thrown geth with a headshot.

Once we had finished with the geth guards, Shepard hacked the door and we went through to be faced with an asari scientist. I raised my hand cannon and lined up my shot.

"Don't shoot! Please!" The asari exclaimed.

"Who are you?" Shepard asked while simultaneously signaling me to lower my gun.

"My name is Rana Thanoptis. Please, I didn't do anything!"

"Well, Miss Thanoptis, I find that hard to believe, since you are standing in Saren's office." Shepard replied, cool and calm.

"I…" She cast her eyes down, looking like a scolded child as she did so. "I never asked to stay on with this job! I thought that it would be different! But, everything just fell apart. I thought Saren was doing good work, helping the krogan, now I see that he's insane! I've known for some time, but I couldn't get out of this job, he'd kill me! Or worse, he'd turn me into one of those things!"

Shepard considered her, narrowing his eyes slightly. But I saw the truth in her eyes. She was a collaborator, but she was a victim too.

"John," I said quietly, "she's telling the truth."

He turned to look at me with slight suspicion before his rational mind shut down and his romantic side came out. He looked at me with a slight hint of the unnamed emotion from before, and took my word.

"You can go," he spoke firmly, "under one condition."

Rana looked something like beggar and said, "Anything."

"Make sure I never find you in a situation like this again. I may be less kind then." He said with an equally hard and kind look.

Rana looked overjoyed, "Yes. I'll be going now. Thank you!"

She ran from the room, leaving us to proceed through the easily bypassed locked door. When we entered, we came upon a ramp, and there, in the middle of its oval trek upwards, stood a beacon, undamaged and standing tall.

I looked around and saw Liara's awestruck expression, and Shepard's determined one. He moved towards the thing, sure steps echoing through the small enclave. Liara snapped briefly out of her reverie, and said, "Shepard, you shouldn't. That much mental stress again so soon… you could die."

He stopped on his path and spoke plainly, "I have to. There's no choice, I have to know."

He began his slow walk, and I felt a pang of fear and concern strike through my heart, as if a slash. I followed his movements, considering restraining him. No, I told myself, he needs to do this. He needs to understand more of the message about the Reapers. I took a deep breath to calm my racing heart, and stepped towards him, speaking softly, "Shepard. I know you have to do this, but just, try not to die, if possible."

He stopped his steady movement once more, and looked at me with assurance, "Why would I leave when I haven't figured you out yet?" He said with amusement.

He turned back around and worked on the controls of the beacon. Suddenly, his body was thrown into the air, and went sickly rigid. It took no more than a few seconds for the information from the beacon to be uploaded into his brain.

He fell to the earth, and quickly regained his ground, shaking his head vigorously as if to banish the fog from his mind.

"Shepard, are you all right?" Liara asked almost as soon as he stood up.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just a headache." He said, returning to our course up the ramp.

We were met at the top by a menacingly glowing interface, red and looking familiar. I racked my brain for an answer as to why the strange figure looks familiar and realize that it's Saren's ship.

"Shepard," I said, reaching out to take his hand instinctively, but drawing back once I remembered Liara was standing only a foot away.

He didn't turn, but spoke while looking at the projection, "What?"

"I have a bad feeling about this."

Suddenly, a deep, mechanical voice entered the room, coming from the interface, "You are not Saren."

Liara looked at the projection curiously, "What is this, a VI?"

"Rudimentary creatures of flesh and blood. You know nothing. You walk among my thoughts, but cannot comprehend them, and instead fumble. "

I realized quickly that this wasn't a VI at all. Not even close. "Shepard… this isn't a VI."

"You are blind to existences beyond your own, so far above that you cannot even comprehend it. I am Soveriegn!" The voice speaks, but no mouth moves.

"You're an actual Reaper, aren't you? Saren didn't find a ship! He found an actual Reaper!" Shepard spoke, voicing the thoughts of everyone in the dark room.

"Reaper? An inconsequential term labeled to us by the Protheans to give voice to their destruction. In the end, they all perished. What you call is irrelevant. We simply are."

Liara spoke to the pretentious being, "The Protheans vanished 50,000 years ago! You could not have been there! That's impossible!"

"Organics are nothing more than genetic mutation, a fault in the evolution of life. Your lives are measured in years, decades. You whither and die. We are eternal, the pinnacle of evolution. Next to us, you are nothing. Your extinction is inevitable. We are the end of everything." The cold voice spoke, calmly putting to shame our entire way of life.

Shepard looked enraged, "The entire galaxy is united and ready to face you."

"Confidence born of ignorance. The cycle will not be broken."

I spoke up, "Cycle, what cycle?"

"The pattern is endlessly repetitive. Organic civilizations rise up, evolve, but at their apex of glory, they are extinguished. The Protheans were not the first, nor did they create the Citadel or the Mass Relays. They merely discovered them, the legacy of my kind."

"Why would construct them, but leave them behind for someone else?" Shepard asked, wanting to understand the strange and genocidal being before us.

"By using our technology, you follow the path we desire as you evolve. We bring order to the chaos of evolution of organics. You exist because we let you. You will die because we demand it."

"We will not, we will not let you harvest us. The cycle ends now!" Shepard said through gritted teeth.

"My kind is more than you can even understand. You will never stop us. You will submit. You have no choice. I am the vanguard of your destruction. This exchange is over." The voice signed off to a loud explosion the right.

Joker's voice broke in over the noise, "Shepard! We got trouble!"

Shepard's hand went to his earpiece, "What is it Joker? What happened?"

Joker spoke frantically, "The ship, Sovereign? I dunno what you did, but it just made a turn that would have torn most ships in half! It's coming your way- and fast! Whatever your doing, make it quick!"

Shepard casted a glance back at us, and I spoke, "Console's disabled. Orders?"

Shepard took a look around, his eyes filled with disgust. "Let's blow this place to hell."

Liara grew a hard look as well, and sai, "Seconded."

Joker's voice came again, "All right, Commander, we'll meet you there.

After fighting through mountains of geth, we made our way to the drop point. Just as we arrived, the bomb was being unloaded. Once it was in place, Ashley reported to Shepard.

"Bomb ready to go, sir."

Just as she finished her sentence, a static transmission came through, "Shepard!"

"Kaidan?" asked Shepard.

"Yeah, we're taking heavy casualties. We can't hold on for much longer! Kirrahe's dead!"

Shepard spoke quickly, "Joker, get them out of there!"

"Negative," came Kaidan's voice, "it's too hot!"

"To the AA tower!" yelled Shepard.

We fought through a lot of geth, making our way to the elevator as fast as we could, feeling the pressure to save the lives of so many. As soon as we arrived at the top, we saw a geth dropship come in.

"Oh no. Reinforcements." said Liara.

The radio came to life with Kaidan's voice, "Ashley, we just spotted a geth dropship headed to your location."

"It's already here. They're pouring out all over the bomb site."

Shepard chimed in, "How bad is it, can you hold them off?"

Ashley spoke gravely, "There's too many. We won't make it. I have to activate the bomb."

Shepard harshly spoke, "Williams, are you insane?"

"This bomb has to go off, no matter what. It's already done, Commander. Get Alenko and get out of here!"

Kaidan yelled, "No! We can handle ourselves. Get Ashley and get out."

Shepard paced back and forth, looking distraught. You can only save one, I thought. I reached out a hand and interlaced my fingers with his. He looked at me, at first with hard eyes, but then let them melt into a terrified green. I spoke softly, as I would to a child, or a spooked animal, "There's no right answer, Shepard." He looked at me with pain and sorrow for the choice he had to make.

"Alenko, radio Joker and tell him to meet us at your location." He said, strong and sure.

"Yes-s, Commander, I…" said Kaidan brokenly.

"It's the right choice, LT. You know it." said Ashley.

"Ash, I had to make a choice." said Shepard mournfully.

"I know."

Those were the last words I heard from Ash's lips. I assumed they were her last, and that she went out fighting. But in the hours after her death, I only thought of the blast, and the dome of fire on the planet afterwards. Whatever my pain was, I knew that Shepard was suffering tenfold. In the days after her death, his eyes were vacant. And there was nothing I could do. I started worrying that we would neer be the same again.