Tali. I had screwed up... everything. I got in the way of Shepard going off to find Tali, Garrus, Wrex, the whole lot. And all the rest of the things that were supposed to happen in the Citadel.

I didn't even think about it. I hit the stims on my suit and took off at full speed, clipping the weapons to the armor as I went. The chemicals revved me up to a million rpms, and my head felt like a thousand different ideas were trying to rip my brain apart. I held the guns in place with trembling hands, having trouble making the magclip put them where they were supposed to, and just ran like a bat out of hell.

No fucking way. She's alive, I thought as I ran. Less than two miles to the markets, and the clinic. That was the place to start, there was no way she was still at the back alley. If the clinic had no clues, I could run from there to Chora's den. Saren's got no reason to kill her now. She's going to be fine.

I was supposed to make the run in eight minutes, and Ash had chewed me up for doing it in over twelve. Thanks to the wonders of modern stims, I had made it in just over ten minutes, only I was out of breath, in pain, and my hands were trembling so much I could hardly grab my gun. I took a left once I rushed up the stairs to the market, and found the sign pointing at the clinic. At least I hoped I had found the right clinic, or I'd probably make an ass of myself and give someone a freaking heart attack.

Stopping in front of the door I tried to calm my breathing down, took the shotgun in my hands and, pointing down but ready to aim it, I hit the door.

It opened with a low hiss, to reveal a small room not unlike the clinic found in the game. A lobby, with a counter, and some beds and medical equipment behind, with pulled back curtains around them. There was a medigel dispenser to the left, which looked just like the one aboard the Normandy.

I could make all these observations because I didn't have to start shooting at anyone. The place was completely deserted. I still kept my grip on the gun, and my brain on hair trigger in case anything jumped at me – I've played enough games to know how it works – but nothing. I made my way slowly to the counter, keeping my eyes peeled.

The blood was the first thing I saw, before I saw the body. Blue blood, a large pool. The smell had been bothering me for a while, but I couldn't tell that it was the smell of turian blood. Then, I saw the owner.

The visor, the armor, it was unmistakable.

"Garrus!" I shouted, coming quickly to kneel next to him.

To my infinite relief, he was alive, but barely breathing. I fired up the omni-tool, and found the medical app – standard Alliance issue, if you must know – and the VI showed me the scan, and how he was in seriously bad shape. Three holes, loss of blood... I followed the instructions and filled them up as best I could with medi-gel, which seemed to wake him up.

He grunted something I couldn't understand. Oh great, no translator.

"Look, I don't have a clue what you're saying. Just stay here, okay? I'll send help."

I was about to stand up, but he grabbed my arm, forcing me close. He grunted something else, but I just shook my head and pulled myself free. Not that he put much of a fight. I fired up a message to C-sec and took off again, leaving a trail of blue footprints as I ran towards Chora's Den. All the while cursing to myself for having to leave Garrus behind. In fact, it was the stims that let me do that. Had I had a clear head, I would have probably just frozen in place, and waited for C-sec to arrive.

Instead, I ran.

God fucking dammit! I can't fucking believe this!

Finding the small alley next to Chora's Den was easy, specially because I ran right through it. The place was a mess, there were bullet holes, remains of explosions, and even a pool of acid that had eaten through the ground, with two keepers apparently drinking it.

The smell was pretty damn disgusting.

More important than any of that was the fact that Tali was gone. No body left there, they probably kidnapped her. That was good – relatively – as it meant she was still alive. If she was anywhere in the Citadel, then I had to find her. And I knew exactly who was going to tell me.

Chora's Den was supposed to have been assaulted by Shepard, in-game at least. So I was expecting it to be standing, and I was already trying to figure out how exactly I was going to get my ass into Fist's office. However, I had forgotten one important detail. The Shadow Broker had put a hit on Fist. And the one who had been sent to collect was a certain krogan.

I heard Wrex's bellows before I even heard his gun, and it wasn't because his enormous shotgun was nice and quiet. He was obviously having a grand old time in there, and the shouts of Fist's thugs let me know they weren't. I got to the entrance, remembered Ashley's very first lesson – keep your damn head down! – and peeked. Wrex and the krogan bouncer were going at it, and another one of Fist's guards was getting out of cover aiming at them.

My shotgun was up to my shoulder before I knew it, but then I froze. That was an actual person there, not a geth – which, even though I knew what I knew about Legion, was easier to think of in the abstract – or a holographic target. Did I really have it in me to-

*KA-BLAMMO!*

Yeah, my gun went off as soon as the guy saw me and turned to aim at me. Or maybe he was just turning to have a better look. I didn't really know. Regardless, his shields flared hard, and I pumped the shotgun and fired again (if you're wondering why pump a mass effect-propelled shotgun, it's to open the vents for forceful cooling; now you know). The second shot went through and I saw a splatter of blood behind him as he went down.

I would have started thinking about it, but that had gotten the attention of the few of Fist's men that remained. The last hours of torture – I mean, training – and the stims took over, and I moved in, shooting targets and moving from cover to cover, trying to follow every bit of advice Ash had given me. Luckily for me, Fist must have been one cheap bastard, because the guards he had hired were almost as useless in real combat as I was. Just a bunch of thugs without real training. At least most of them.

Maybe not the turians. Damn turians. Wait, that sounded racist. Well, specieist. I just mean I was jealous of how they all had military training, because it'd have been handy as hell for me.

"Wrex! I'm here for Fist! Don't kill him yet, I need information!"

A blast from a shotgun forced me to go in deeper into the bar, looking for cover. Chora's Den was actually almost exactly like what it looked like in the games, so there wasn't an awful lot of places to hide. Round bar in the middle with a holographic platform above, small tables scattered along the walls. But that worked both ways; the thugs didn't have much cover either, and my gear turned out to be much better than the cheap crap the guards were wearing. Apparently, even if you're guarding a small-time crime boss, the gear you can get as a poorly paid civilian doesn't compare to the military grade stuff one can get from the Alliance and a turian shopkeeper with connections to the Spectres.

That freaking shopkeeper.

Meanwhile, Wrex was bellowing something, which really didn't do me any good.

"Oh, and I don't have a translator Wrex! So if you can shout in English that'd be grand!"

Yeah, I really know how to make a first impression. By then the guards were down to two, hiding at the very back of the room, and both Wrex and I were coming for them from opposite ends of the bar. Wrex aimed his shotgun at me as soon as he saw me, and idiot me, instead of taking cover or anything, just dropped my shotgun and raised my hands. Not like a monkey, shooting them over my head. Just, you know, in front of my face. I didn't want to get shot in the face. I like my face lead-free.

"Wait, wait! I'm not with them! I told you, I'm here for Fist!"

"Out of my way pyjak," Wrex said, and he sounded just like he did in the games. Yeah, that was my favourite voice, I remembered it well. Only, it was a lot better when it didn't come from a HUGE krogan aiming his equally enormous shotgun at me. "Fist is mine. Start running and I may let you live."

"Hey, knock yourself out, he's all yours. I just need a minute with him."

"You have a death wish?"

"No, but I have to find Tali." I lowered my hands slightly, to be able to look at him. And regretted immediately, because he had gotten closer, and was completely ignoring the two remaining guards, who were trying to pelt him with mass accelerated rounds.

Distractedly, he aimed the shotgun with one hand to the side, and let loose several volleys in the general direction of the guards. There were shouts, and then groans, but he never stopped looking at me.

"I said run," Wrex insisted, aiming the shotgun at me again.

Problem. At this point, if what I knew of Wrex was right, I was probably going to get shot, specially if I showed weakness and ran. Unless I managed to somewhat convince him that I was on his side, or that I was useful to him. Moreover, he was a krogan. So yeah, no chance I'd live if I backed down; I had some minute chance if I didn't.

I love my life.

"I'm not running." Was my voice always this high pitched? Shit. Wait, brainwave! "I need Fist. I have to find that quarian before Saren."

Wrex had a history with Saren, didn't he? I saw that my hands were trembling, half because I was tired, half because I was about to crap my pants, half because of the overuse of stims, half because I was too nervous to do proper maths.

"Hmph. And how do you know who I am?"

"Well..." Think fast, think fast! "Let's see. The quarian was here to make a deal with the Shadow Broker, Saren's men got to her instead, now a massive krogan with a very distinctive scar is here... Let's put two and two together."

Reading that, it sounds pretty awesome, doesn't it? Trust me, if you had heard how it had come out, you wouldn't be impressed at all. That is, assuming you're impressed now. Anyway, lucky for me, it seemed to do the trick with Wrex. He's probably used to people turning into a blubbering mess when talking to him.

Did I mention the huge shotgun? Because that's all I could see, and it was moving, back and forth.

Wait a minute.

"You go in first," Wrex finally said. Yep, he was gesturing at me with the gun.

I tried not to look too relieved when I picked up my shotgun, and walked on ahead towards the last two guards. They had gotten into cover behind a bar table which, unlike in the games, was not bulletproof. Wrex's shotgun had done a real number of them.

All I did was take their guns, which really was enough given how they were twitching, and clipped them to the back of my armor. Piece of crap assault rifles, but hey, now they were unarmed and I had free guns. I got to the side of the door, opened it, and found... nothing.

Huh. I didn't expect that.

I was still careful as I made my way in, checking every corner and possible cover. I was exceedingly paranoid, and not in the mood for any surprises, despite the fact that I was in quite a hurry. We got to the last door, where I knew Fist was.

"Okay," I said, turning to Wrex. He was looking at me with what appeared to be an amused grin on his face. "Fist's got a couple of turrets in his office, if we rush him we may get to him before he activates them."

Wrex started laughing at that, a deep and not particularly loud rumble. "After you, pyjak. Show old Wrex here how it's done."

You know what? I was pretty sure he was having a laugh at my expense, but on the other hand, my sense of survival was stronger than my sense of outrage, so I didn't complain. Because I like making up senses, sue me.

"All right, here we go."

I took a moment to get another hit of stims, which put me at five for the day, and way over the recommended limit. The effect was immediate, and my heart suddenly leapt in my chest. The first moment had my hands trembling something fierce, but I gripped the shotgun harder and the trembling subdued.

"A little liquid courage?" Wrex said, and he didn't sound impressed at all.

"I've had a long day," I retorted, annoyed. Oh yeah, side effect, suddenly – and stupidly – I wasn't as intimidated by Wrex. "They're the only thing keeping me on my feet. Come on!"

I hit the door release, and rushed in as fast as I could.

"Do I have to do everyth-"

I didn't even let Fist finish. I was unloading on him as soon as I saw him, the shotgun hitting his arm and side repeatedly even as he had started up his omni-tool. Unfortunately, activating the turrets didn't seem to need much fiddling, so they popped out while I was halfway through my rush.

Stupidity, stims, or pure dumb luck saved me. Instead of stopping and trying to get into cover, which would have likely ended up with me being torn to ribbons, I pushed on, going straight for Fist.

I think he looked surprised. The turrets tracked me and started shooting, and I felt the impacts on my shields something fierce. They lasted enough, breaking as I crashed on the very confused Fist. Fortunately, I wasn't alone, and Wrex made short work of the first turret while I scrambled to get to my knees and put my shotgun on Fist's face. And Fist between me and the other turret.

"STOP THEM!" I shouted, Holy crap, I didn't even realize I could shout like that. Go stims. Twenty-second century chemistry rocks. "RIGHT NOW!"

"Okay, okay, let me-"

The second turret exploded even before Fist could open his omni-tool, and a grinning Wrex walked in, hissing shotgun in his hands and a toothy grin on his face.

"No need for that," he said, and started laughing when Fist looked at him like he was about to soil his pants. "Does it hurt pyjak?" he said, addressing me.

I didn't know what he was talking about until he gestured at my left arm. There was a hole in the armor, and some blood.

"No," I deadpanned, and turned to Fist. "Where is Tali?"

"W-Who?"

"TALI! The quarian you double crossed, you useless piece of shit! Where is she!"

"I-I don't know! I swear! I-"

"There you go," Wrex said, levelling his gun at Fist. "He doesn't know. Get out of the way."

"AAAAH! I swear! I-I don't know!"

"Bullshit!" I shouted, shoving my gun to his face. As in, digging in his cheek with the barrel. He shouted, and I heard a hissing sound as the overheated metal touched his skin. "You sold her out to Saren! Where did they take her!"

"I- I don't know! B-But I know Saren has a private dock!"

"WHERE?"

"I-In the lower docks in this ward! It's... um... wait..." He reached for his omni-tool, only to have Wrex walk in closer and shove the oversized shotgun into his face, and me press mine deeper into his cheek, which made him look real funny.

And have a small little accident, if the smell was anything to go by.

"Don't do anything stupid," I deadpanned.

"N-No, not... at... no! I just want to..." Very slowly, he brought up his omni-tool, and typed a few commands. A message appeared. "Here! Dock 216, on level 137."

"Thanks," I said in a low voice. I stood up and started to walk out, but Wrex stopped me.

"Where are you going? Going to kill Saren's men all by yourself?"

Good point.

"Not exactly," I said, and brought my omni-tool up. A few clicks later, and Ashley was on the line.

"Roy? Where the hell are you? You're late!"

"Ash! Listen, I-"

*KA-BLAMMO!*

That was Wrex. Fist didn't make a sound as he died, and I didn't think of turning back to look. No need, really.

"What the hell was that?" Ashley shouted. "Where are you?"

"Listen! Saren's kidnapped a quarian that has some info on him, we have to stop them! Dock 216 on level 137, tell Shepard and hurry up!"

"What? Roy, if you're-"

"Dammit Ash! Hurry!"

I closed the link and looked up to see Wrex looking at me.

"Shepard?"

"Yeah. We're after Saren, if you want to stick around."

Wrex's rumbling laugh wasn't unexpected, but his reply was. Well, sort of.

"And why would I want to work with you, weakling?"

"Me?" I said, genuinely surprised. "No reason, but wait till you meet the commander. Come on!"

I was still feeling pretty hyper, thanks to the wonders of stims, and the medical interface seemed to have done its job with my arm, because it really didn't hurt at all. I checked my shotgun, and took off towards the exit.

Only to run into half a dozen people aiming their guns at me.

Yeah, I had totally forgotten about those assholes. Whoopsie.

"Kill him!"

I skidded to a stop, scrambled back, all while my shields were being depleted at an alarming rate. The first layer broke while I was still pedalling back, and the second one as I dove past the corner into cover. I felt impacts on my back, and one of them cracked something on my right shoulder blade. The jolt of pain hurt worse than the freaking shocks I got during training, but at least it was short lived. I managed not to scream in pain, and after a few seconds the pain started to dull away as the medi-gel kicked in.

It also made the world stop spinning in front of my eyes. Medi-gel is freaking awesome.

"Shit. Son of a-"

"Hah! Gotcha!"

I looked up, and saw that one of the fucking thugs had made his way to me. He levelled his assault rifle at me, just as I was trying to scramble to grab my shotgun, and the awful realization that I wasn't going to make it hit me like a ton of bricks. If it weren't for the stims, I'm sure my heart would have sped up in fear. As it was, it was already going at a million revs a minute, so hey.

The moment broke with an enormous report, and a splash of blood getting all over me as the guy simply disappeared from view, thrown out of the back room. A second shot followed, and I saw Wrex casually walking in and unloading.

"You sure you're with Shepard, pyjak?" he said, not even giving me a glance.

"Yeah," I muttered. "At least for now."

Fuck my life.

My shoulder still hurt when I moved my arm, and worse still, it felt like something rasping against my shoulderblade, which made me feel slightly dizzy. I knew medi-gel was dulling it all, so I decided to go for it while I could.

After the shields recharged.

It didn't take too long for them to do so, but by the time I Was out, Wrex had done a number on the thugs. There were only two left.

*KA-BLAMMO*

Make that one left. I raised my own shotgun, and the last thug simply dropped his gun and raised his hands.

"Get the hell out of here," I said, gesturing with my shotgun towards the door.

He looked at Wrex, at me, nodded vigorously, and rushed out. I saw out of the corner of my eye how Wrex trailed him with his shotgun, but luckily he didn't shoot.

"Hmph, pointless. Would've been easier to kill 'im."

"Eh, violence solves more problems than anything else, but not everything," I replied, bastardizing the quote slightly. To be honest, I was shocked that Wrex was doing anything I suggested, but I got the feeling he was just amused at my antics. I hoped it was because he wanted to meet Shepard, which at least would give me a bit of leeway.

I rushed out of Chora's Den, making a beeline for the rapid transport terminal. I called one, jumped in, and then nearly fell on my face when Wrex jumped in behind me, and the whole thing tilted like it was going to flip.

"Bloody hell!" I shouted, barely managing to avoid faceplanting Wrex's hump.

The shuttle bounced off the ground, stabilized and, thankfully, although it was tilting rather noticeably, it stayed up.

"What are you waiting for?" Wrex said. "You're the one who was in a hurry."

" Dock 216 on level 137!" I – needlessly – shouted, and immediately the door to the shuttle closed, and took off at the same infernal speed I was never going to get accustomed to.

The worst part is that, this time, the freaking shuttle was tilted, and apparently Avina didn't give a flying headcrab about it. Instead of skimming the obstacles, we were banging against them as we flew. We hit other shuttles, scraped against buildings, knocked antennas down, and all the while, Wrex was laughing like a supervillain.

I was screaming my head out, calling the stupid VI every freaking name in the book. And a few I just made up on the spot.

As usual, the trip was short, even though it felt like it was never going to end – or it was going to, together with my life – and soon we were rolling through what looked like rows and rows of small docks, several of them with private ships of various designs I couldn't recognize.

"Jump," Wrex suddenly said.

"What?"

He raised his shotgun, blew the door open, and looked at me.

"Rocket," he deadpanned, and jumped out. Just in time to unblock the view of the front window, where I could see a glowing thing rapidly approaching from the front.

I scrambled to my feet as fast as I could which, given how the shuttle was rocking after losing about a million pounds worth of krogan, wasn't particularly fast, and jumped out of the transport without even looking at where I was going to land. Almost as soon as I did, the rocket hit the shuttle, and a large explosion engulfed it. My shields blared like crazy, as I lost the first layer almost instantly, but the second layer seemed to hold.

That was all the time I had in the crazy ride, because I just put my hands behind the back of my head, curled up as best as I could, and landed at an angle on the hard floor, rolling like crazy for an eternity and a half.

If you're thinking it hurt like being an ice cube put in a blender to prepare a margarita, there's something really weird about you. But it did hurt, a lot, and when I finally crashed on a wall, I felt a definite crunch on my side, which was about all I had the presence of mind to notice.

I didn't even know what the hell had happened, or where I was, or why my entire body hurt like I was on fire. It wasn't until the medi-gel, sweet, sweet medi-gel, kicked in that I started to get my bearings back. I was dimly aware of a distant beeping, which turned out to be an alert from my suit.

MEDI-GEL RESERVES DEPLETED

Fuck.

I groaned as I got to my feet, only to get knocked down by a couple of bullets hitting my newly recharged shields.

Double fuck!

Crawling to better cover, groaning as every move hurt, I managed to prop myself behind a heavy cargo crate. I leaned out of cover very quickly, and jumped back even as bullets pelted my position.

There were LOADS of targets. At least a dozen turians and salarians mixed up. I scrambled to the opposite end of the crate, and none too fast as a thick round exploded through the metal, shooting shrapnel left and right, and off my shields.

One layer down, and I hadn't even gotten out of cover.

"Fucking hell," I muttered, finally patting myself down and finding my shotgun. I grabbed a large piece of debris, threw it to the side, and aimed out of cover from the other, already searching a target.

The distraction only worked for a moment, but it was enough. I zeroed on a close salarian right in front of me, unloaded a couple of shots that downed him – although I didn't see any blood, may have been just his shields – and was already looking for my second target. Which turned out to be a turian that was sprinting at me at full speed.

Let me tell you something right now. Turians are fucking fast!

More shots landed around me, although luckily the turian rushing me was covering some of the angle. I fired two more shots, ignoring the beeping of my barrier as it neared depletion, but he wasn't stopping, only slowing down.

He only stopped when a carnage shot from Wrex hit him square on the head, making it explode in a shower of gore and blood. Blue blood.

Bloody hell.

Another shot cracked through my barrier and dented the plate on my shoulder, forcing me back in cover. I could hear the screams coming from Saren's men – if they were indeed Saren's men, and not a bunch of idiots who happened to pick a fight with none other than Urdnot Wrex – but I couldn't understand a thing they were saying.

"You still alive, pyjak?" I heard Wrex shout.

"No!" I replied. Bad idea, I had to dig down and roll out of the way as more shots shredded the still standing side of the crate. I was fast running out of places to hide, because they were chewing through both ends of the crate.

Goddammit! The fucking crates were supposed to be bulletproof!

All the swearing in the world couldn't make up for the fact that my cover was getting shredded, and I was still waiting for my shields to recharge. A harder shot blew up what was left of the crate, barely missing me as I was laying down on the ground.

Then, my shields finally started recharging.

"About time! Some cover Wrex!" I shouted, scrambling to my feet even as I ran towards the next bit of cover. A thick vertical structural beam in between docks.

Whether I was lucky or Wrex actually gave me some cover, I didn't know. It was absolute chaos, and for what I could tell, the krogan's shotgun hadn't stopped firing ever since the fight started. Several rounds hit my shields, but I managed to stay on my feet and get behind the beam.

I couldn't just keep hiding, so as soon as I was there, I made a show of peeking around the opposite end of the beam, then quickly turn and start shooting from the end I got into.

The target rich environment was a little less rich. I followed where Wrex was shooting easily enough, and added my own gun's ordinance to his. This time, I managed to draw blood, and one of the turians went down hard.

As in down the dock, and into space. Well, empty space below, not space-space.

Damn, I better watch my step.

A bullet brought me back to the present, and forced me into cover. Dammit, newbie mistake again, getting distracted by something shiny. I took a deep breath and went out to shoot again, only for a sniper shot to knock me on my ass. And punch through two layers of shields, to end up embedded into one of the ceramic plates on my chest.

Fuck my life! Get up, get up!

I scrambled up, bullets falling around me as I tried to get back in cover, until suddenly I saw the head of one of the turians snap to the side as half of it was blown off.

"Booyah!" I heard through the comms.

"… Shepard?"

"How many times do we have to tell you to keep your head down?" was her answer, punctuated by another sniper rifle shot.

The familiar staccato of the alliance assault rifles immediately filled the air, with Ash and Kaidan following close. Wrex chose that moment to let out a bestial roar, and charge straight towards a clump of mercs. It was like watching a bowling competition, with pins falling left and right – and down the dock to certain doom, after Wrex punched them right through the guardrails. I clipped the shotgun to my back, unholstered my pistol, and started adding my shots to the mess. Couldn't risk the spread of the shotgun with friendlies so close.

By the time Nihlus popped out of nowhere on the opposite side of the dock, the mercs were down to only four turians, and they fought to their deaths. Mostly because Wrex was the one to catch up to them first.

Damn, these people are good.

"You can come out now Roy," Shepard called, once the shooting was over. She was standing with Wrex and Nihlus surveying the remains of the battle, but turned to me and waved me on. Could be me, but it looked like she wasn't happy at all.

"Wasn't hiding," I muttered, loud enough that the comms picked it up. I stood up on weak, trembling legs, and started walking slowly towards them. I was in so much pain I could hardly walk straight.

"Well... you should," Shepard replied.

I didn't get what she meant until Ash, out of nowhere, appeared right in front of me. She didn't even give me a warning before she punched me right on the face.

Let me tell you, that woman had a hell of a right hook. I dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

"You complete bleeding IDIOT!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. "What the HELL were you thinking? Blow your bloody brains out yourself if you want to die so badly!"

Between the punch and the thorough beating I had gotten, the receding effects of the medi-gel and the stims, and the punch that Ash had just delivered (wait, did I mention that already?), I found that the ground was an excellent place to be. I looked up at Ash as she kept giving me a verbal beating – to complement the physical one nicely – without really listening to what she was saying. Didn't have to, I've heard it all before.

Finally, apparently tired of raging at me with little effect, she revved up for punching me again. I flinched, waiting for the impact, until she called me.

"Roy," she said, and somehow her voice seemed softer than before.

When I looked up, I saw she was simply offering me a hand, and the angry scowl on her face was mostly gone. She looked surprised, more than anything. I was trying, but failing, to connect the dots, but gave up quickly.

Huh, whatever.

I took the offered hand, and she pulled me up to my feet. She then pulled me towards herself, holding me steady with my arm around her shoulders.

"You're a mess," she said. Was that concern I was hearing? Unlikely, I probably was just tired.

"Sorry," I muttered. "I'll try harder next time."

"There better not bloody be a next time," she retorted as we made our way towards Shepard.

"… 'kay."

I didn't know about stim withdrawal at the time, but I was already starting to feel it. Tiredness and confusion, it was going to be followed by sweats and chills, and a whole lot of throwing up; but at the time I just felt like taking a nap.

As we walked, the rest of the group were going through the fallen mercs; stripping them off valuables or looking for information, I couldn't quite tell.

"Roy," Shepard greeted once Ash and I got there. She turned around, her majorly pissed off face on, but it seemed to freeze when she laid eyes on me.

"That bad?" I said.

"Worse," she deadpanned.

"Thanks for the rescue anyway," I replied. "Did you find Tali?"

"Who?"

The thought that I had probably screwed up something passed through, but I wasn't in the best state of mind to notice.

"The quarian. Tali... Uh... vas Rayya I think it was?" I wasn't actually pretending, I really couldn't remember her whole freaking name.

"He's not-"

"Commander," Alenko called from inside the transport. "You better get here."

Shepard took off at a brisk pace without even finishing, and I stumbled after her, Ash having let go of me to go help the others search the dead. I managed to stumble into the shuttle too, without losing my footing, but what I saw inside froze me right on the spot.

It was my first time seeing a quarian – outside the game that is. Tali was sprawled on the ground, with Alenko fussing over her, and there was violet blood all over her suit. Given the splash of blood on a nearby crate, I figured that was where they had been transporting her. Shepard was talking on her omni-tool, but I was very actively ignoring her.

"Is she..." I said.

"She's alive," Alenko replied. "For now at least, she-"

That's all I heard. Alenko went on to describe the extent of her wounds, but I just wasn't hearing. I fell back a couple of inches until my back hit the wall, then simply slid down to a sitting position on the floor.

Thank you. Whoever's watching over her. Thank you.

Author's notes: Haha! It was awesome to read the reviews and see how many people had completely forgotten about Tali, Garrus, Wrex, and the whole lot. It worked! \o/

So luck of lucks - which Roy seems to have an awful lot of - everyone made it through. So far.

And yeah, genemods. Somehow everyone's forgetting to tell Roy about them *whistles innocently*

Archer83, nothing like the dawn of realization! :D

Mizuki00, hah! Did you only realize at the end too, like Roy? :D And I appreciate all reviews, no need to apologize because I thank you for it!

In our next episode! Will all the wounded recover? What's Shepard going to do about this sudden turn of events? Will Roy get breakfast? Tune in to My Effect: Convergence to find out! Thanks everyone for all the great reviews, they really make my day! =)