A/N: I had to do some tremendous worldsmithing before I could move any further in the story; this is going to get complicated, and I don't want to have to contradict myself too much.

Shepard was back in hell. Mindoir, to be precise.

This time was different though; it really was Sheol; the dusty plane of endings, unlike the first time she appeared here, half mad with paradox, hemorrhaging essence and disoriented from her stumble through time. She was also an adult now, instead of the child she was then. Plus, knowing she was dead really cinched it.

She walked through the rubbled houses and corpses towards where the batarian camp lay.

A turian stood before her, his face covered in complex patterns, blood over tattoos.

"Nihlus." Shepard greeted the dead Spectre.

"Shepard." Nihlus Kryik nodded at her. His face was a ruin; in life Saren had shot him in the back of the head, and the upper right half of Nihlus's face was gone.

They stood there a moment. Nihlus was studying Shepard, and Shepard waited for him to finish.

"I watched you stop Saren. I am proud of you, Shepard." Nihlus's ruined face grinned, mandibles flaring. "You are a true Spectre, and defeated the best of us. I'm glad I could teach you; you are not only my student, but my peer and I hope I have discharged my duty to you now." He nodded to the center of the batarian defense, where slavers were strewn about, each shot in the head. The remnants of the Prothian Beacon from Eden Prime lay besides their corpses. "It's safe; I have kept it from falling to the hands of your foes."

Shepard quirked an eye at Nihlus. "Why didn't you place it with the Alliance?"

Nihlus's remaining eye was steady as he stared at Shepard. "We both know why you don't trust them. Besides, I had help." He gestures at a lone batarian slaver creeping around the edge of the camp. Two slim arms emerge from underneath the rubble behind the batarian, and a knife flashes. The slaver goes down with a gurgle, and his twitching corpse is slowly pulled into the shadows. A few moments later, a child slides out, and creeps over to Shepard and Nihlus. She is thin. Her hair is lanky, and covered with batarian blood. Large green eyes peer at the two Spectres. She hides several bloody knives behind her back.

Shepard kneels and hugs the girl. Shepard looks up at Nihlus. "Did you two get introduced to each other?"

Nihlus shakes his head. "She is very effective at running and hiding, and I never wanted to get close enough to grab her to keep her still long enough to talk to her." He points at the kitchen knives the child carries. "Those things are sharper than they have a right to be."

"Why yes, they are." Shepard pulls the exact same knife the girl has from behind her back. She examines the basic looking knife. The girl lifts her knife up so Shepard can compare the two. "I keep them very sharp." Shepard and the girl both smile. Their grins are the same. They both put their knives away, somewhere behind them, and Shepard pulls the girl in close. "Thank you." she whispers to her younger self. As they hug, they meld together, leaving only Shepard behind.

She stands, and extends her hand to Nihlus. "Hi. I'm Janice. Jan for short. People call me the Shepard of Death, and the name stuck." Nihlus looks at her, then reaches out and shakes her hand.

"Nice to meet you, Jan. I wonder how the Alliance got your name wrong." Nihlus cocks his head to the side, and stares behind Shepard. "Janice. There's someone behind you. I never knew humans could have wings. Or be on fire and still live. Is that some kind of metal? Her tears, I mean."

Shepard's smile grows wider. Behind her, her avatar strides out of her shadow, wings of fire raised to the sky. "She's here to help me fulfill my half of our bargain." A blood covered hand reaches out and rests on Shepard's shoulder. The smell of burning lead fills the air. Wings made of fire encircle Shepard. Shepard turns, and takes her avatar's other hand in both of hers. Blood drips down the angel's arms, continuous, appearing from no wounds. Shepard lifts the angel's fingers to her own face and starts to draw patterns in blood, matching Nihlus's markings. She turns, and faces Nihlus. Her avatar stands directly behind her, red hands on both of Shepard's shoulders. Wings rise behind them, and fire leaps into the sky.

Shepard places her hands on Nihlus's shoulders, and leans her face in, against his. "From protégé to mentor. The chain unbroken. Guide the protégé to the mentor. Follow wisdom, and the offering of knowledge. Know the past. Guide the present. Show the future." She turns Nihlus around, and keeps her hands on his shoulders. "Reveal the mentor!" Fire blazes from her avatar, up, around, though, into Shepard. "Show the teacher!" Though her, Nihlus. "The path appears. Open the way!" Fire spreads out in front of him, forming a window in the air, forged of light, heat, and will. In the window, they could see a figure. It was pressed in darkness, stretched on a rack of its own sins.

The waves of fire increased. "Reach in, and pull him out." Shepard yelled at Nihlus. Nihlus pushed his clawed hands through the window of fire. Ice instantly formed on Nihlus's arms as his hands entered the darkness. Nihlus's talons clenched on the figure, and slowly Nihlus, Shepard, and the angel of fire stepped back. Another step, and Saren Arterius fell to the ground in front of them. The fires flickered and dimmed slowly.

Shepard and Nihlus knelt beside Saren. He was twitching slightly, boneless. The only thing giving him shape was his skin. His left arm and shoulder was gone, and looking inside the hole, most of his insides were also missing. His empty eyes gazed blindly. "Who…who's there?" His voice was quiet and wavering. His mandibles barely moved.

Shepard took his hand, and gently placed it around her neck. She squeezed his hand like she was trying to break his grip. "Shz…Shepard?" he whispered.

A sad smile. "How many other people do you dangle off cliffs?"

Nihlus took his other hand. "I'm also here, Saren."

"Why…what did you do to save me?"

Shepard shrugged. "Nihlus bargained with me, and I made an oath to try to save you." Her hands moved over Saren's body, poking and pulling at the spaces where his cybernetic implants were when he was alive. "I found your soul in the outer dark where it was consigned, and we pulled you into hell."

"...Hell?"

"Well yeah, we're all dead, after all."

"..Then you failed, Shepard? The reapers have consumed everything?" His entire body deflates, horrified. "It was all for nothing, then?"

Shepard and Nihlus lift Saren up, draping his arms over their shoulders. Carefully they start walking towards the Beacon. "Don't worry, Saren. We destroyed Sovereign. They couldn't activate the Citadel." Shepard laughs. "And I haven't failed yet either; just because I'm dead doesn't mean I am going to stay dead. After all, I've died before."

Nihlus was nodding along as Shepard spoke, but stopped in surprise. "You died before, Shepard?"

Shepard shrugged. "I don't mean to make light of it; dying is serious, important. But if you know what you're doing, death is not the end. I first died when I was 7; a man held me underwater until I drowned." She smiled. "I met my big sisters then, and they showed me how to come back. Besides, even if it's the end of your life, you still go forward into your next one."

They reached the Beacon. The top was gone, and only the bottom half remained. It was quiescent, a jagged stump of black. Shepard and Nihlus gently lay Saren against the Beacon.

"I can't go forward, Shepard." Saren said. "I can already feel my sins start to press down again. I offered myself to Sovereign, and even in death, I can't escape his grasp. He owns me, now."

Shepard knelt, and started to trace markings on Saren's bare face. "Saren. Trust me. I have changed fate before. You don't have to end up in the darkness. Besides, I stole you from Sovereign in the end, and I can release you."

"Even if you let me go, it doesn't stop him from finding me again. My reprieve is only temporary."

Shepard frowned. "Saren. Right now you can only see the inevitable. But it doesn't have to be that way. Nihlus will guide you. And even though you are correct that you, as Saren, cannot be redeemed, that doesn't mean that it will always be this way. Life is a wheel, going from birth to death, then back around again. You can make it up on the next turn." She smiles. "I did." She stood, and stepped back. "We didn't go to these lengths to set you up for failure. I tried to save you when you were alive, and it worked – in the end, you stopped Sovereign from winning as much as I. I admire you, Saren. You were the best of us. I respect you. You are the mentor of my mentor, and my wisdom comes from you. I won't let your sacrifice be in vain. You will be redeemed, and through you, Nihlus. And thusly, me; the chain of learning is unbroken and goes both ways. As above, so below." She gestured to Nihlus to stand next to Saren. "All you need to do is believe in yourself, and in us."

"What's the plan, Shepard?" Nihlus asked. He stepped next to Saren, and examined the Beacon. "What can the Beacon do to help us? Isn't it broken?"

Shepard pointed at the Prothean Beacon. "This is a symbol, a message for the living after its makers have died. It resonates with death and life. The fact that it's now destroyed is even better; as it itself is now dead. A dead message for the living from the dead. It can be a powerful tool - with it, I will send the both of you forward to rebirth. Doing this will cause a push, and a push back – I can use that to bring myself back through the Shroud and live again. Sometimes only through death can we bring about new life. And sometimes we need to die so we can purge ourselves in fire and begin anew."

She clapped her hands together, and wings of fire rose behind her. Tears of lead poured from her eyes, burning their way down the flesh of her face, and down her body. Shepard shouted a wordless cry. For an instant, the Beacon, Saren, Nihlus, and Shepard were fire, blazing white and yellow and blue. Then all was ashes. Dust. Only the empty dead remained.