Chapter 3 Questions, faith, bombs and a bad trip.

Shepard

"This is why you don't let people take off on their own!" She was pissed, Carolus had taken off a few minutes' prior, seemingly kicking the Geth hornets' nest in the process, to make things worse the Geth had done something to the colonists, impaling them on some sort of spikes and what they became… She didn't want to think about it as she put down another one of the former colonists down.

"Shepard I think that's the last of them." Kaidan said as he made his way towards her. "Carolus didn't even stop to take these guys. Do you think they got him?" He asked, flipping over one of the former colonists. She looked around, there was a lot of damage and dead civilians but she couldn't pinpoint any that looked armoured enough to be Carolus. Civilians never stood a chance. She thought to herself feeling a rising level of anger of what had happened on this once peaceful colony, much like her own childhood. The thoughts of her stolen childhood on Mindoir came to mind, the horrors she had witnessed, the screams, knowing those will never leave her no matter how much times passes.

"At least it's over for them now." She sighed as she beckoned the others to follow her towards the spaceport. They passed a few housing blocks as they made their way to the spaceport, perhaps a few people managed to seek shelter, but it was hard to think the Geth would let anyone escape, their systemic approach to their attack from the disabling of communication to the ambush of the colonies defence forces made escape seem unlikely, and she had other priorities right now. After a short walk the spaceport came into full view, signs of battle were evident.

"More flaming wreckage." Ashley muttered. "It used to be such a lively place." Shepard looked over and saw what seemed to be another dead civilian, but something was different about this one.

"Oh no." Kaidan said as he picked up his pace to pass Shepard. "Commander, its Nihlus." His tone clearly one of remorse. As she made her way over to the fallen Spectre feelings of remorse were far from her mind. While the Geth had been putting up a fight she hadn't felt like she had been pushed yet, in fact the mission seemed almost routine despite the loss of Jenkins, soldiers die she had learned to accept this from her service Akuze she knew death could come for any soldier at any time in many ways she had already come to accept her life wouldn't have happy ending where she would have grown old, death on a battlefield somewhere was what she had accepted. The feelings that were gnawing at her where how did the Geth manage to kill a highly respected and skilled Spectre? As Kaidan looked over the second fallen member of the ground team and Ashley walked the perimeter she saw something familiar.

"Is that Carolus's pistol?" She asked Kaidan pointing to the pistol lying on the ground not a couple of meters from the body.

"I am not sure Commander, I didn't get a good look at his equipment given the fighting, but it doesn't look like any sidearm I have ever seen." He replied reaching over to it and tossing it at her. Shepard looked over the weapon, it certainly was strange, it was at least a good one third longer than her sidearm yet somehow felt no heavier than her own.

"It must pack a big punch judging from the size of it." She spoke not really directing the statement at anyone. "If his pistol is here he couldn't have gotten far."

"Commander, the weapon that was used to kill Nihlus was not Geth by design, the wounds are not consistent with what we have seen so far. I don't want to jump to any conclusions but." He stopped seemingly contemplating what to add.

"Spit it out Lieutenant." She ordered she wasn't interested in half statements at this point, enough people had died today and with Carolus's disappearing act she was not in the mood for Kaidan's beating around the bush.

"Well I am not a doctor but the wounds are consistent with larger calibre pistol rounds, like the one you are currently holding." His voice trailed off towards the end, clearly not liking where his train of thought was heading. "We told him Nihlus was here, we told him he was alone." He looked around clearly distressed, rubbing the sides of his temples the day's events were catching up to him his L2's seemingly causing him problems. "We knew nothing about him, he came from out of nowhere according to the Gunnery Chief, fully armed and equipped. Perhaps he was a trap." She thought about that for a moment but before she could respond Ashley got her attention.

"Commander over here, its Carolus!"

Carolus

"Get up." The voice was not so much a voice more of a thought, I ignore it what would be the point. "Get up." Again the voice calls again I ignore its directions. Why should I? This isn't a dream the pain throughout my body had convinced me of this, no dream no matter how horrid or twisted resulted in this level of pain. How I was on Eden Prime or even in this universe was beyond me and how the hell did Saren know who I was? I don't even know who I am.

Carolus is supposedly my name, but it has no connection to me. A person's name is supposed to invoke emotions and memories a name is a powerful thing. Those who go down in history past down great deeds or terrors that should or couldn't ever be forgotten, but along with their deeds of valour or horror are their names.

"Latin" A different voice this time a calmer one almost delicate. Carolus? Latin? What is it or they trying to say? Carolus I remember it's has a Latinisation…. Charles, was that my name? Charles…. still no connection. Rex means king Charles King, was that my name? For the first time since I awoke I felt a connection, Charles King, Charles King. I repeat the name it fills me with emotions, pride and anger being the most overpowering. Charles King it felt nice to feel at home.

"Get up" The first voice said again this time more clearly and with a hint of demand in its tone. I opened my eyes, and was greeted with quite the sight Kaidan and Ashley where standing over me weapons in hand, I looked to my side and was greeted by the deep red eyes of Commander Shepard.

"Commander we have to stop meeting like this." I said trying to sit myself up, to my surprise the pain was minimal. Her face was difficult to read I could see concern but something else was more prevalent anger. "Oh, you must be pissed that I took off by myself huh." She looked at me and tossed me my pistol, I fumbled the catch but before I could look over it in detail she brought her first into the side of my head.

"Don't you ever take off like that while under my command." She said slowly shaking the wrist of the hand she hit me with. I looked over at the others who seemed tense. Nihlus the thought hit me like a train.

"Shepard, I am so sorry, I tried to help him. There was another Turian, I couldn't stop him." I was choking on my words I knew what was coming and I did what? I just walked up to them gun in hand, what was I doing?

"Another Turian? We can talk about it later." She replied offering a hand up. "We have to get a move on we still haven't found our objective we can come back for his body later." She added as she hoisted me off the ground. I gave my pistol the once over and followed the others.

Almost instantly we rounded to corner and were under fire from Geth while Kaidan and Ashley began putting rounds towards the Geth Shepard began work on her Omni-tool, the Geth furthest from us shields failed and I drew my pistol and began firing, my movements were smooth as I advanced towards the group of Geth generating a barrier around myself while firing as often as I could without overheating the weapon. Shepard was working away at their shields and weapons with tech attacks making the clean-up for the rest of us relatively straight forwards. The first group fell without much a fight but I knew that fight up the walkway to mobile platform would be quite a struggle. As we made our way down towards the walkway the world once again opened up into a blaze of fire.

"Shit how many of those guys are on that one walkway Jesus." I shouted as I signalled the others behind me to take cover behind the railing. "We have to get past them, it seems to be the only way forwards." Shepard stuck her head over the railing and just as quickly she brought it back down.

"They are really dug in down there." Shepard said. If this was the game I would just run across to the walkway and kill them with bug bites after dealing with the destroyer that would kamikaze towards me, finding myself in the situation I had played through a hundred times regardless of my experience in the matter I felt horribly unprepared.

Stop worrying…

The hell? I thought to myself has my HUD began flashing the message.

We got this.

As the message faded so did my body.

"Carolus?" I heard Ashley's voice come over my Omni-Tool.

"Yea so apparently I have a tactical clock, so I am going to go over towards the robots that want to kill us now and get you guys an opening."

"Carolus I swear if you leave us here I will kill you." I was unsure if Shepard was kidding or serious, and I really didn't want to find out.

As I made my way over to the walkway the only thoughts running through my head where, any second now this is going to wear off and they are going to waste me, Was Shepard kidding? And who the hell send those messages to my HUD who are they? I quickened the pace and took cover behind some metal behind the last group of Geth.

"Shepard get ready to do whatever it is you do best." No sooner had I said that I fired at the rear of the Geth. The panic was immediate most of the Geth turned to face the new incoming fire while I saw the others run into better positions and pick off a few others. As I continued to provide support from the rear I saw the destroyer begin charging towards me.

"Of course it came after me!" I yelled to myself as I got out from my latest piece of cover at that moment I felt power gathering in my free hand. I still have no idea how this works but I am not complaining, I thought to myself as I threw my arm forwards a large blue ball of blue energy shot from my hand and slammed into the destroyers left leg taking it clean off, it fell to the ground with a loud thud and its shotgun landed at my feet, the white liquid began flowing onto the floor as it resumed its advanced by slowly clawing its way towards me. It was a sad sight the rest of the world seemed to fade from sight all I could see was this sad thing, it must know that I could now finish it at my leisure it doesn't even have a gun anymore, why does it persist? What is the point? My thoughts were cut short as a few shots got a tad to close and snapped me back into the world.

I grabbed the shotgun the destroyer had dropped at my feet as it had fallen forwards and I pumped a few rounds into it before ducking behind cover once more. A few moments passed where I would roll from cover to cover slowly making my way towards the others taking the remaining Geth out along the way. Sandwiched between myself and the trained soldiers was too much for the Geth and after the last few Geth fell to the ground with a satisfying thud the group was reunited.

"Nice to see you didn't just take off." Kaidan added with the faintest hint of venom in his voice. I ignored him and just turned back towards the platform and began walking towards it.

"I've got enough to worry about." I let out with a sigh as I left them behind. I was convinced at this point that this wasn't some sort of dream, I was here as to how I was here I didn't have the time to worry about given what was currently going on, between the Geth and Saren knowing who I was I wasn't particularly feeling like I thought I would if I ever found myself here. I had always thought to be here and fight alongside Shepard and the Normandy crew would be an amazing experience, hell knows why I thought getting shot at every other second would be fun.

"Carl." The voice snapped me out of my brooding, just for once I would like to be able to finish a line of thought in this universe.

"Carl?" I asked in response as Shepard jogged her way up to me.

"Yea, I think it is a bit easier than Carolus." She said letting out a faint smile. I didn't really mind it seeing as how Carolus still didn't feel right.

"How about Charles? I kind of prefer that I think anyway." I returned the smile even if it was somewhat forced I felt I should at least try to seem less troubled around her.

"Charles It suits you, well better than Carolus no offence." She replied gently slapping me on the back. "Ignore Kaidan it has been a rough day. Let's go get this day over with and then we can have a little nice chat about what happened, I promise I won't judge you until I hear you out just don't take off again on your own." She paused for a moment. "That's how we lose people."

"Thanks." I said knowing full well how her day was going to end with one hell of a headache. We spend the rest of the time in silence exchanging the odd look as we waited for Ashley and Kaidan. The two marines were talking amongst themselves I could probably have listened in but I had my own thoughts to worry about, once the team was ready we set off from the platform towards what I knew would be one mad dash against time, but before that with the death of the dock worker I had to drop Saren's name. Without the dockworkers testimony I shuddered to think what events would fail to play out, Garrus's investigation of Saren for one and that was kind of a thing I want to happen.

"Shepard, while we have a moment with us all here, I need to tell you something." I decided this needed to happen now, if I was to die in the fire fight I knew was about to happen Saren would get away scot free.

"I am listening Charles" she said as she signalled the other two to do the same. Ashley seemed keen quickly following Shepard's signal while Kaidan's sudden glare at my direction felt quite a bit more intimidating.

"When I took off earlier, I managed to meet Nihlus." I took a short breath before continuing feeling a growing level of guilt brewing within me. "There was a second Turian, Nihlus called him Saren, they were talking they seemed to get along, I let my guard down." The others eyes were watching my movements carefully trying to determine if what I was saying was true I imagined. "I turned away for a second just a moment but." I stopped again the guilt of my complete incompetence to do anything to prevent Nihlus's death. "Saren grabbed my pistol from my hand and used it to Kill Nihlus. I didn't know what was happening before I could react he jumped me my pistol must have overheated so he set himself on me. I fought him as well as I could but I never had a chance, I don't know why me let me live but if something were to happen to me."

"Nothing is going to happen to you." Shepard spoke up, Ashley followed

"I've seen enough people die today. Not one more." Her conviction was clear, it was reassuring. Kaidan said nothing seemingly contemplating what I had just said, while for the most part I just told a lie I was confident in my ability to sell the tale, besides even if he doesn't buy it I only need to get the ball on the right track.

"That's the thing about platitudes they get old pretty quick once you've seen the galaxy." I replied with a small smile. "Anyway, just so you know this Saren is one nasty SOB." As I finished the platform arrived at its destination my HUD began blaring all kinds of warnings about the bombs I knew where scattered about.

"Shepard seems the Geth have deployed explosives nearby they are set to detonate in a few minutes!" I bellowed as I drew my pistol and ran towards where my radar said the first was located.

"Bastards must be trying to destroy evidence." Kaidan added as he rushed over to me. "How did you know there where bombs so quickly?" He added as he crouched next to the explosive.

"I have an implant that scans for threats, how I found Ashley earlier, it located the Geth." Kaidan's shocked look was somewhat expected I mean sure people have radar in this game, hell Radar isn't exactly Sci-Fi level technology but perhaps having it implanted into your body was somewhat shocking. "No I have no idea how it works so don't ask." I quickly added as he snapped out of his shock and set about disarming the bomb.

"For Geth the firewalls on these are pretty slack." Kaidan said as Ashley and Shepard caught up.

"How many of these do you think there are?" Shepard asked as Geth began appearing and opening fire on our clustered group.

"Don't know about you guys but how about we don't have this conversation huddled around the large explosive." Ashley quipped as we all ducked for various pieces of cover.

"Probably a good idea." I replied as my HUD began flooding me with information.

Enemy Contacts fifteen Geth units detected. Three more explosive devices detected.

Neural Network running at emergency levels.

ALERT Bio-Tech implants at 30% analysing….

Complete Implants are substituting organic function due to high level of tissue damage.

Advise caution. In other words, try not to get shot.

The last part cut me off, this HUD gets more and more confusing every time it says anything.

"My systems estimate the Geth at fifteen units and three more bombs to disarm." Shepard nodded a reply before popping up and firing a burst from her assault rifle at some of the Geth.

"We can't sit here and get bogged in a fire fight we have to get to those explosives." Shepard ordered as she took down a Geth with a tech attack. "Charles can you get behind them again or at least draw some of them away from the three of us while we work our way towards the next one?" Without responding my clock activated and I ran towards the Geth. There wasn't much in the way of cover that could reliably cover all my flanks so I settled on nearest support beam between the two largest groups of Geth, while the others fired sporadically at the Geth I hatched a down right ridiculous plan.

"What am I thinking, this is a terrible plan." I muttered to myself knowing my options were limited, I pulled the shotgun I had taken from the destroyer earlier and held it in my left arm while I wielded my pistol in my right arm and prepared myself for what was surely going to be a cluster fuck of bullets. I had no idea how strong I was but I was fairly certain I could at least fire both weapons without blowing my arms out of their sockets maybe not accurately but I just needed to cause a distraction. I ran towards the nearest Geth and placed my still cloaked shotgun to its head and pulled the trigger while firing my pistol towards the group closest to Shepard and the others. To my surprise the kick on the shotgun didn't completely ruin my arm and shoulder as the round seemingly evaporated the Geth's head. Its friends were quick to react and quickly began switching their fire from the others to me. Okay stage one get their attention now would be a really good time to develop a stage two.

This was the way I played Mass Effect, get close and murder everything, usually I played Sentinel and I had Tech-Armour to absorb the damage and I took barrier as an extra ability to absorb even more damage. Seeing as I seemed to have only barrier I watched as the Geth's fire quickly started draining my defences. I didn't have time to look back and see how the others were doing I could hear the gun fire but I had no idea if my mad dash into no man's land was really paying diffidence. I kept firing away ducking behind half cover as Geth from both my front and rear began focusing on me. I had taken a few of them out with a combination of reckless gun slinging, but the continual fire of the shotgun one handed was beginning to really take a strain on my body I could no longer feel my left arm, I was just pulling the trigger on impulse rather than conscious thought. I quickly began to re-evaluate my situation I couldn't keep taking fire from two directions like this, I needed to get to cover, and just like that another bad idea entered my head. I ducked behind the nearest support beam to stop the fire from one side and limit the other, but I couldn't stay here as the Geth would simply advance towards me and I would have nowhere to go, I fired a few more rounds from my pistol before placing both my weapons away and then I ran towards one of the containers lining the walkway I quickly used my biotics to help me jump on top of it and then I jumped again reaching towards the cables that crossed the walkways and surrounding structures.

As I crashed against the duel cables I quickly hooked under my armpits on the cables and lowered myself onto my hands and began monkey swinging my way towards the other side. Not having feeling in my left arm made it quite nerve racking but at least I was no longer sandwiched between two Geth squads. I was just hanging in the open like an idiot. After a few nervous moments of swinging my way along the cables while feeling Geth rounds impact on my back I finally managed to jump down to the opposite walkway from where I had started with a satisfying crash. A quick check of my HUD revealed just how close I had come to death, my biotic barrier had failed and my shields how dropped to less than 10%. I crawled my way behind the nearest container and radioed Shepard.

"Please tell me you guys can handle the rest." My one arm I could still feel was sore beyond words and my breathing was irregular as I began to gather myself after my moments of madness.

"Charles, when I said could you maybe distract them I didn't mean for you to literally stand in the middle of a Geth family reunion firing from the hip like a god damn action hero." I let out a sigh as Shepard's clearly upset rant continued. "And for the love of all that is holy why did you think swinging like Tarzan across metal cables like a sitting duck was your best method of escape!"

"So I will take that as a yes you can handle the rest?" I responded while watching my shields recharge and assessing the ridiculous amount of messages my HUD was displaying. It seemed my tactical clock had a rather large cool down once used, even now it was still recharging but I had noticed that it didn't seem to have a time limit on its cloaking effects, I would have to test that later.

A few moments more passed while I recovered from my ordeal before my radio went off again.

"Alright Carolus you can come out from hiding now." Kaidan's voice was annoyingly patronising.

"Does that mean I won the hide and seek championships? "I quipped back walking out from behind my container rotating my left shoulder as I tried to get it to wake up.

"Yes Charles you are hide and seek champion but we are the treasure hunt champions." Shepard's added as I made my way over to them. They had cleared out the lower level where the beacon was and were proudly standing in front of it, the bodies of dead husks and Geth were everywhere, in the game there was maybe ten maximum enemies in this whole zone yet judging from the body count we had fought through at least twice that number maybe even three times to get here. The thought that this reality had more enemies by those kinds of numbers made me uneasy this was the first mission in the game and I barely made it through, well that might be because of a serious of bad decision, reckless heroics and moments of zombie like status yep that's what I will blame it on.

As I approached the group I found Shepard radioing the Normandy of pick up and I made sure to keep my distance from the beacon as I really didn't want to set it off. It might be a good idea to trigger it and imbed myself with the Normandy crew however given my performance over the past few hours maybe that was a bad idea, perhaps I could just find a calm quiet part of the galaxy and relax? Find a nice Asari live a normal life for the next few years and then. I stopped myself there how could I even suggest doing such a thing with what I know how could I justify sitting on my ass while billions of people die billions of people I might just might be able to save. Is that the sort of person I am? A coward who only thinks of himself? Even if it is who I was before I woke up here it is not what I want to be now.

Beacon Detected, activating data mine.

Before I could react the beacon lit up in a green sort of glow before my armour started doing the same.

"That can't be good." Before anyone could react I was violently ripped into the air in front of the beacon. The pain was unbelievable I found myself screaming and shaking uncontrollably.

Stop fighting it.

Let it come.

Stop being such a bitch.

Three voices, three different voices were talking to me, but not from the crew from inside my head. I felt a hand grab onto me, I managed to turn my head enough to see Shepard trying to pull me down only for her to get dragged up as well. Before I could do anything else images began flooding my mind, the warning. I understood it I could see it all the Reapers destroying everything the death, pain and suffering right in front of me as if I was there in the thick of it. Brave soldiers fight and dying, mothers and their children being taken, but then something else. A human child in a building on fire her family dead around her the corpse of her mother covering the child as Batarian's laughed, and then they find her, she screams at them throwing punches and kicks at her family's butchers but it's useless she is young, powerless but then one of the Batarian's heads explode a man I don't see him well he kills them all I couldn't quite make it out the images not quite taking focus. He says something to her, something I couldn't make out. The man leaves and the girl goes back to hiding under her lifeless mother. She holds back the tears not wanting to be found. She is alone again. Then I feel myself getting pulled backwards I find myself flying through the air back on Eden Prime I crash against the floor and Shepard lands to my side unconscious. I scramble to my feet Kaidan and Ashley screaming at us, I can't make out what they are saying. I manage to utter a reply.

"It's nothing, it's nothing, it's nothing." Each time slightly weaker than the last as I stumble forwards a few steps before the darkness claims me.

) About time we fixed the network, keeping this idiot alive was almost impossible. (

(It seems he doesn't recall anything before the crash, we will have to see if the memories are still in the network, if they are lost this could be problematic.)

*I'll run the sweeps you two can answer any questions he has, just try not to be on hard on him we still need his co-operation. *

Hey there one and all Lord Castor here. This one took a bit longer due to falling on exams, however I am now exam free and with nothing else to do I will be working on the new chapters.

The second reason these take so long is simple, grammar and spell checking, I now have a small group of three or so people to do this for me, so shouldn't take as long from now on. I can't bring myself to publish a new chapter without an outside party checking it, I am just not confident in my skills and I don't want people to try and read through it if it isn't up to scratch.

And lastly I have made a twitter account just to post updates of chapter progress and you guys can ask questions and review there if you want. I promise to at least look at your concerns :P You can find the link to the twitter account on my fanfic profile!

Cya next time.