I'm Nobody

by free man writer

He didn't have anything when he was born. Just a name and number. But over time, what he had grew. He, with his friends began to understand that there was more to their existence then just their name and number. They will prove that they were meant to be real. To exist. To become something more than just a Nobody. Co-written and created with Jebest4781. Fem Shepard. Now on Ao3.

21. The Corrupted

WE ARE HERE!

We've reached the end of Mass Effect 1!

Oh this was a marathon of a string of chapters with us getting to the end of the first part of the ME trilogy in record time.

This is what happens when two guys are so synchronized with one another to the point where we just launch these chapters out like no tomorrow.

Thank you all for reading this wild ride.

Rate Read and Review and as Always Have Nice Day.

I'm Nobody Chapter 21: The Corrupted.

Joker grunted, pivoting his ship in an arching swing that quite literally smacked a Gummi Heartless with the back end of the Normandy.

Stitch flew by him, pursuing several enemy fighters and gunning them all down after a few seconds before pulling off a sweeping turn around to go after more ships that appeared on his radar.

Della was flying rings around the Normandy for the most part, covering the larger ships blind spots and areas that were wide open to attack. By this point she had lost count of how many enemy fighters she had taken out.

They had just kept on coming.

Whilst the two smaller fighters kept their focus on the basic enemy ship, the Normandy alternated between assisting other Citadel ships and firing at the giant Astrowarrior Gummi Heartless that was wreaking havoc upon the defense fleet.

It was either destroying ships by firing at them, charging right through them or grabbing them and crushing the unfortunate ship in its claw hand.

Joker had been trying to get in a proper shot to take the big bastard out but it did these sudden jerking shifts to the side that made him miss multiple opportunities to shoot him down. The big bastard was durable as all hell as well from what Joker had managed to see.

Many ships had attempted to shoot it down with nothing but scorch marks being left upon the Heartless' body.

The only ships that were able to inflict noticeable damage upon the large Heartless were those of Stitch and Della's.

Joker figured that the Normandy would be able to inflict the kill shot, especially after its multitude of Gummi upgrades.

If he could just get the damn thing locked on.

Knowing this, Joker contacted Stitch and Della.

"Guys, I need you two to do something for me." Joker said.

"What is it?" Della asked, swerving around a Turian cruiser while shooting down more Heartless.

"That big bastard is decimating the Defense Fleet." Joker said. "Get his attention and get it in front of the Normandy. We need to take it out."

"Copy that." Della said with Stitch letting out a growl of acknowledgement as both pilots turned their ships around gunned for the Heartless Astrowarrior.

Stitch took the lead, firing several missiles that had been installed in his ship earlier with him targeting the cannon arm in particular.

This proved to be quite the attention grabber as the Heartless was firing upon a Turian ship itself before Stitch flew by. The missiles struck the cannon arm, with a very visible stagger that had the head of the Heartless snap itself in the direction of the small red ship that was joined by the Spear of Selene.

Its eyes shifted from the usual sinister yellow that all Heartless have to a malicious red that began flying after the duo.

The Astrowarrior barreled after them, crashing through friend and foe alike.

It tried to fire at them but its arm was too damaged with sparks coming out forcing it to chase after them instead. The Heartless was dead set on getting to them, slowly gaining on them with it reaching out with its claw arm.

Just as it got close to them, the two ships made sharp ninety degree turns upwards.

The Heartless looked up at them both, getting ready to pursue after them when…

*VVVDDDZZZZZZ*

The Astrowarrior jolted back with a beam going right through its chest. A moment later, the Heartless faded away with a glowing Heart being released soon after.

"Whew." Joker said, leaning back in his seat in satisfaction. "Okay, the bastard is down."

"What of the rest?" Della asked.

Joker was about to respond when he noticed something appearing nearby the Mass Relay.

"Oh… fuck…"

Flying on in with a contingent of Geth and Heartless ships was the Reaper, Sovereign.

"Hope Hackett arrives with the fleet soon, cause this is now gonna get worse."

Over in the Destiny Ascension, a pair of Asari were trying to comprehend what was going on.

"Activate the defenses! Seal the station!" Ordered the ship's commander.

"The arms aren't moving! System not responding!" Reported the ship's navigator.

The commander of the Destiny Ascension gritted her teeth as she had to make a hard decision now. "Abandon the Citadel! Evacuate the Council!"

The navigator compiled as she radioed into the station. "Citadel control! Citadel control! Do you copy?"

The request fell upon Death's ears as the occupants of Citadel Control were slain.

Walking away from the recently made corpse, Saren Arterius barked out an order to the nearby Geth and Heartless present in the one room.

"Spare no one. Nothing must get in the way of the plan."

His words were mainly towards the Heartless that followed him. The Geth seemed to know Saren's plans before he had the chance to voice them.

Then again, they probably received their orders from Sovereign at this point, who could communicate with synthetics far faster than the former Spectre could, even with the upgrades he'd received.

Saren gazed at the mechanical arms he now possessed; a gift Sovereign bestowed to him after what happened back on Virmire.

From what he was informed, he had been out for quite a while once he got to safer grounds to avoid the blast that destroyed his base of operations. As he was out, the Reaper took the liberty in… upgrading him.

Saren had to thank that little blue furred monstrosity for this upgrade of his.

Sovereign had seen his organic weakness and gave him this opportunity in order to improve himself.

Now he knew that everything he did was for the greater good of the galaxy. Anyone who fought against him had to die. Anyone who joined him once this plan was fulfilled but was too weak to withstand the indoctrination was a necessary sacrifice.

Soon enough, he felt Sovereign brush against his mind once more, reminding him of his purpose, the goal of this invasion on the Citadel.

Pushing his thoughts aside, Saren went out to resume his task at hand.

The end was high and nothing would stop him from finishing what he started.

-Scene Cut-

Inside of the Citadel, chaos ensued.

The attack was sudden as it was savage. There was hardly a warning for the arrival of the Geth/Heartless invasion as they descended onto the station.

While most of the enemy forces came from the nearby Mass Relay beside the Citadel station, another force came from the most unlikely of places.

The surprise attack threw many off guard with many people losing their lives as the Geth and Heartless didn't discriminate targets.

Civilians were being evacuated as fast as possible whilst C-Sec and other military groups stationed on the Citadel fought off the Geth, Reaper Husks and Heartless.

Over in the Presidium, nearby the Relay Monument, a guard of several Geth, Heartless and Husks idly stood by in order to find anything and take them out accordingly. And the only sound in the background that could be heard was that of gunfire and explosions in the distance.

Of course that all changed when the Relay Monument spiked in activity, alerting the nearby guard detail.

Coming up to it for an inspection, they were soon greeted with a Mako being shot out like a cannonball, striking down the guard and colliding against a nearby wall.

The Mako slumped down in a loud groan.

Right by the vehicle, a Corridor of Darkness opened up.

Once stepping out, the three black coat wearing Nobodies came out and instantly saw the wreckage of the Mako.

"Whoa." Axel remarked. "Rough landing."

Roxas and Xion were running over to the Mako, seeing Shepard crawl out through the vehicle's side with Liara and Wrex right behind her. A moment later, the rest of the crew came out with some needing a little help and a moments breather after such a crazy ride.

"Urgh." Tali had one hand on her stomach while being supported by Roxas.

In an instant, she quickly pried off her faceplate and puked out her stomach's contents.

"Hey, it's alright." Roxas said gently, doing his best to hold her up. Even patting her back to help out to some degree.

"Keelah." Tali wiped her mouth and pulled out a Potion and chugged it down.

Placing her mask back on, she gave Roxas an appreciative smile, leaning slightly on him as thanks before two turned to face the others who were almost recovered in their entirety.

"Everyone alright?" Shepard groaned out.

"I'm breathing, if that's what you're asking." Said Ashley, slumped down on the floor with her back against one of the Mako's wheels.

"Keelah, that was…" Tali drawled out as she tried not to throw up once again.

"What the hell did you drive us through, Shepard?" Garrus asked as he tried to collect himself.

"If I don't shoot Saren, I'm gonna feel like that jump was all for nothing." Wrex grumbled out.

"I… I think I'm here." Kaidan said deliriously.

"The next time we're about to go through a Mass Relay like that," Shepard groaned out, "remind me of today so that I can reconsider. If not, then give me a good punch and/or slap across the face."

"I'll be sure to hold you to that, Skipper." Said Ashley.

Axel couldn't help but chuckle to himself at the sight of them all.

"Ah~ it's nice to have instantaneous teleportation with no negative repercussions." Axel boasted with a sly grin getting Kaidan to openly flip him off.

"Goddess." Liara was resting her hands on her knees, breathing in heavily to regain herself. "Did we make it?"

"Seems like it." Axel said, looking around.

"Any idea where we came out of?" Ashley asked, shakily rising to her feet.

"We're in the Presidium." Roxas answered, making the others blink in surprise.

"And by the Relay Monument." Garrus recognized the area a moment later.

Looking over, they saw that the gyroscope of the Relay Monument was actually spinning with the same white light they saw back on Ilos. In mere seconds, the gyroscope slowed down and finally stopped moving.

"Is this the receiving end of the Conduit?" Liara questioned the obvious thing right now.

"Should've known it was fishy." Kaidan commented. "Kept hearing this faint sound from it, but people thought I was hearing something else."

"At least we know something quite interesting about it."

"This place is falling apart." Ashley pointed out, having regained her bearings now.

Axel looked over and saw incoming enemies though he didn't pay them much mind as he flicked his hand in their direction.

A moment later, they were engulfed in flames and burned away into ashes.

"Ok, that headache is taken care of for the moment." Axel remarked. "Shepard, what's the game plan here?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Shepard groaned, rubbing her head. "We find Saren and take him down. Then rest for about a month."

"That sounds lovely." Axel mocked, hands on his hips. "Now why don't you really tell us the plan."

The glaring deadpan he received would have instilled a great deal of fear in their soul. But Axel didn't have a heart. So he had no wherewithal to consider fear.

"They hit the Citadel hard." Kaidan stated, looking around at the ravaged presidium. "How long has Saren been here?"

"No clue." Garrus said, taking a moment to gaze around himself. "It could've been a while ago."

"Damn, just this amount of chaos under so little time…" Ashley murmured, slightly disturbed yet also disappointed that they didn't reach Saren in time.

Looking around, Garrus grew worried. Pulling out his Omni-tool, he went to check on something.

"This is Detective Vakarian, calling for Executor Pallin or any C-Sec personnel. Does anyone copy." Said the Turian. "This is Detective Vakarian, please respond."

After some seconds which seemed like hours to Garrus, someone responded.

"Glad to hear a friendly voice."

Garrus released a chuckle. "Good to hear you as well, Chellick."

"Likewise." Said Chellick as he spoke over the sound of gunfire. "Where the hell have you been, Vakarian? Heard the Normandy took off some time ago, even though it was grounded."

"Long story, Chellick." Garrus replied. "What's the situation?"

"What's it look like? We got Geth on our asses along with these robotic zombies and odd dark creatures running amok." A different C-sec officer on the other end said snappishly.

"Jeez, testy." Axel commented.

"Who was that?" Tali asked.

"Oh, that would be Bailey."

Garrus blinked in surprise. "Bailey? He's alive?"

"Of course I'm alive. Been holding out here the longest if you were wondering." Came Bailey's response.

"Sorry, I'm just surprised, that's all."

"Don't sweat it, I'm surprised myself." Bailey said easily. "I don't mean to be rude here, but if you're here then that means you're with Commander Shepard, correct?"

"I am. What's wrong?" Shepard asked into the comm line.

"We're overrun with these bastards. We need to retake C-Sec HQ and restore order on the station. If we lose it, then it'll be extremely hard to retake the Citadel." Bailey stated in an exasperated voice. "And some that'll be the first to go will no doubt end up being the civilian shelters."

"So would you kindly come over here and help? It would be very much appreciative." Chellick said, tone conveying exhaustion.

The team paused, thinking over the request after a moment.

"It's gonna be hard to break off and go after C-Sec now with whatever's happening now." Liara said though she appeared regretful in saying this.

"We can't stop finding Saren and help them out." Wrex noted.

"You heard what they said, C-Sec needs help." Garrus implored.

"We can't exactly split the team up." Shepard countered. "Saren has to be stopped here and now. We all need to be there for that together. Whatever Saren throws at us, we have to face it together."

"Then what do we do?" Ashley asked. "They sound like they're getting torn to shreds across the Citadel."

"Well if it's help that they want…"

Bringing his fingers to his lips, Axel let out a loud whistle.

In mere moments, a large contingent of Assassin Nobodies appeared.

"Oh, great idea!"

Now while Roxas didn't do something fancy, like whistling, he focused a bit more when waving his hand.

Not long after, a sizable garrison of Samurai appeared alongside the Assassins.

"Okay, listen up." Axel spoke towards the lesser Nobodies. "This station is under attack. I want you all to take out the Geth present here along with the Heartless."

Roxas spoke next. "First place you guys need to take care of is Citadel Security. Take care of the enemy forces attacking there before going out to take care of whatever else is here."

"Make sure you focus on giving the C-Sec guys some breathing room." Axel added.

"They need to make sure they can evacuate any nearby civilians." Roxas said. "Help any you see along the way."

With the orders given, all of the lesser Nobodies vacated the area to complete their tasks.

"Thanks guys." Garrus sighed out. "Wouldn't know what to do if-"

Axel interrupted him by patting his back. "Hey, don't sweat it man."

All the Turian could do was give the two Nobodies a thankful nod. From there, he sent a quick message to Chellick on what to expect on their reinforcements.

"So… Did that Vigil VI tell you guys where this master control thing was located?" Roxas questioned.

"If we knew, would we be standing around here like a bunch of idiots?" Axel asked.

Wrex merely rolled his eyes. "You are a bunch of idiots."

"Wrex, that's hurtful." Xion said with a frown.

"No, I'm telling the truth." Wrex stated with his arms crossed.

"Well who's the bigger idiot?" Axel retorted. "The idiots or the idiot following the idiots."

Wrex only scoffed, pointing upwards. "Think about it. What's the one place on the Citadel that is its own thing, both easily accessible and defendable, and has a view of the rest of the damn station itself?"

The Krogan's words seeped into their minds and made them start to think it over.

Before long, a couple of faces were met with their palms.

"Of course it would be the damn Council Chamber." Kaidan groaned out.

"That's right." Wrex said like it was the most oblivious thing there ever was.

"How the hell did you know it was there of all places?" Ash asked incredulously.

"It just made the most sense to me." Wrex answered shortly.

"It could've been a number of places." Liara rebuked.

"Really? Name one." Wrex challenged, tone flat.

Mouths opened and closed on themselves a couple of times, only for nothing to really come out.

"That's what I thought."

"Then how about we stop standing around here and get to the Council Chamber, pronto." Shepard stated.

It took a few minutes to find an elevator that was still functional, given that there were no stairs that would've reached the Council Chambers in time.

Piling in, they waited for the doors to close before the elevator car took them up the Tower.

"Oh now it wants to move fast." Axel couldn't help but comment on the speed of the elevator only for it to jolt to a sudden stop.

"And there's the silver lining." Ash dryly said, unamused by their predicament.

Roxas looked out of the nearby window, eyes widening slightly.

"Oh no."

"What is it, Roxas?"

All Roxas did was point towards the outside, having everyone look over.

They saw what made No. XIII rather uneasy.

Sovereign was here and he was coming to the Tower.

"Never seen anything like that." Liara muttered

"Join the club." Wrex stated.

"I'd join, except I've already seen it on Eden Prime." Said Shepard.

"Same here." Kaidan said.

"It was one hell of a disturbing sight." Ashley added in. "We just looked up after hearing this loud as hell foghorn of a sound and there it was. I'd never seen something that… big before."

"It's gotta be the size of a capital ship." Tali said with a nervous tone.

"I can't imagine what it must've been like. And to think that's what's controlling Saren…" Garrus said.

"We have to get to the Tower and stop Saren immediately." Shepard said.

"How?" Liara said, looking to the Commander. "None of us can teleport like Roxas, Axel and Xion."

"And I sure as hell rather not send them out to fight on their own for this one." Shepard stated.

"Then what can we do?"

"We can't just go out there and walk up the Citadel Tower, we forgot our helmets back on the Normandy." Kaidan pointed out.

There was a brief pause when suddenly, Roxas gasped aloud.

"Yes we can!" Roxas said excitedly, shoving his hand into his pocket and pulling out…

"Oxy-Chee- Oh right!" Shepard said with a beaming grin. "Thank you Della."

Quickly, the Normandy team took some gum out from the box that Roxas held save for Tali whose helmet works well enough in a vacuum as is.

"Will this really work?" Liara asked, tentatively inspecting the piece of gum in her hands.

"It will." Roxas said in complete confidence, throwing the gum into his mouth. "Oh, minty flavored."

A moment later, a shiver went up and down Roxas' spine as the gums' effect seeped in.

"Come Liara, by this point, anything that they think should work, usually does." Shepard pointed out, popping her strip of gum into her mouth and experiencing the same sensation Roxas went through a second later.

Xion soon pondered a little bit. "Wonder if there's Sea-Salt-"

"I swear, you are addicted to that flavor."

"We need to get you onto other stuff, kid."

"Oh and you all don't eat it every other day?" Xion shot back, receiving no response from the others. "Thought so."

Shepard pulled out her pistol and turned off the safety. "Okay, step back people."

"I swear if we die because of this gum not working, I'm haunting Della from the afterlife." Said Kaidan.

"I'll join you." Came Wrex's response.

Firing off a few rounds into the glass, the surface shattered into hundreds of pieces. The shards ballooned out away from the elevator car as they spun into the vacuumed space before them all.

The oxygen from the elevator car was soon absent, making everyone hold their breaths.

After several seconds passed on by, nearly everyone didn't feel themselves rasping for air.

"...Holy spirits this gum actually works." Garrus exclaimed as he kept chewing the oxy-chew..

"Never gonna give Della shit about this gum ever again." Williams declared, breathing in and out in relief.

"Did you think otherwise when you first met her?"

Ashley soon had a twitch in her eye, recounting what happened on their first contact back on Luna.

"Yes, of course I still did! She was a talking, walking duck breathing in outer space!" Ashley vehemently stated. "We were already dealing with crazy shit by that point, meeting Della was just the next threshold."

"Not to mention actually hearing her in the vacuum of space where sound is supposed to be absent, without a helmet." Garrus added.

"There are so many questions that I have I can't even keep track of them all." Liara said airily.

"Be sure to save them for later." Shepard said. "It'll probably keep us busy after today."

Hopping out of the elevator, almost everyone activated the magnets on their footwear in order to stand upright against the Citadel Tower.

As for the Nobody trio… they just stood there with no problems at all.

The others saw this and they just stared, their minds momentarily failing to wrap themselves around the casualness of these three just… standing there without a problem or need of the technology they need.

"What?" Roxas asked, obviously noticing their stares.

"Just…"

"What?"

"Nothing… it's nothing." Shepard shook her head. "Why do I even bother by this point."

As they began moving up the tower, they encountered Geth and Heartless along the way with some husks sprinkled in.

The crew fought them off with ease and a sense of urgency as they needed to get to the damn Citadel tower.

However, as they fought on, Ashley watched as Axel torched a Heartless with a thought entering her mind about their current predicament.

"Wait… Axel… we're in a vacuum." The Chief stated.

"Yes." Axel said, sending a wave of fire that melted Geth down in their entirety.

"How are you producing fire?" She asked.

"What now?" Axel asked, looking over to her, catching one of his chakrams he had thrown without looking.

"How are you making fire come out in space?" Ash asked with an emphasis on her last word.

It took a few seconds but No. VIII managed to connect the dots and answered her query with a question of her own.

"Aren't you chewing gum that lets us breathe and speak in space clearly? Why is me producing fire in space that important to you?"

"Doesn't fire still need air?"

"Does magic still not mean anything to you?" Axel rhetorically asked.

"Laws of physics can be thrown out of the airlock with magic." Roxas said with a nod.

"Doubt it." Tali muttered.

"Can we stop arguing and just move forward already?"

"Okay, for those without helmets, be extra careful on enemy fire. There's no head protection this time around."

Affirming nods were given as the group moved on forward. Their present objective now was to find a way inside of the Tower and they can only find it by moving up.

Traversing alongside an elevator shaft, the group saw another car come in and crash some distance away. When the glass shards ballooned out of there, a number of Geth came pouring out of the broken car and went on the offensive.

There wasn't that many Geth that appeared, who quickly threw up their hexagonal shields with their weapons silently barking at them.

However, their numbers appeared to grow when some Wizard Heartless appeared, soon casting Blizzard, Fire and Thunder spells at their location.

"Huh, honestly get to hear an actual silent gun in my non-existent life." Said Axel as he ducked for cover with the others.

"Remember, we're in the vacuum of space where no breathable air is available for us to hear from." Tali lectured the Nobody.

"And yet we can hear each other." Xion pointed out.

"Might be because of this gum providing oxygen for us." Theorized Roxas.

"We can think about theoretical discussions on this gum later," Shepard said to them.

With that said, the group went into action.

Roxas was the first to cast Thundara on the synthetics before Xion followed right after with her own. With them immobilized, almost short circuiting, Kaidan and Liara fired a Biotic Lift to knock them into the air. It was there that the others quickly picked their targets and shot the airborne Geth down.

However, with the Wizards present, they needed a more personal touch; more so when they absorbed the magics and biotics aimed at them.

Rushing in, Axel and Shepard had to quickly evade the Gravity spells aimed their way. Doing their best to maneuver around them, the two redheads reared back their chakrams and Omni-blade respectively and went to town on them.

When they were taken care of, the group quickly moved along and took care of any stray Geth and Heartless that would come their way.

Yet by covering a lot of ground rather quickly, Murphy seemed wanting to throw a wrench in their progression.

Despite not hearing anything approaching them, the team saw a Krogan warlord bum-rushing them with a couple of Defender and Wyvern Heartless and Geth Troopers and Destroyers backing him up.

Shields flared around the three humans in the group, more so with Wrex who charged in to meet the enemy Krogan head on. The three Nobodies ran after to back up their ally as the others fired at the Geth from the distance. As the two Krogan met in combat, the two Keybearers maneuvered around the Defenders and started hacking on their exposed backsides. Axel propelled himself into the air with his flames and cleaved his way through the airborne Heartless before reducing them to cinders.

By the time the rest were finished, Wrex had already used his gravity hammer to send his combatant flying after smashing the helmet into pieces. The enemy Krogan drifted off into the vacuum of space as he suffocated to death.

With them clear for the time being, they were momentarily ambushed when they came into an open area with a number of Citadel turrets seen a good distance away.

Caught off guard by the assault with their shields flaring, Ashley and Tali were quick in using their shotguns to take care of the nearby Geth with their weapons silently barking in rapid succession. Liara helped clear the space with a quick Biotic Warp with both Kaidan and Shepard performing a combined Throw. Garrus readied his sniper rifle and fired off a couple of rounds to finish them off.

With the sudden assault taken care of, the ground team looked onward and took note of the present situation.

In the distance, they saw a couple of Geth dropships depositing a number of Geth. Normally the enemy ships would be shot down by the nearby turrets, but since they were offline, it wasn't happening anytime soon.

"Those dropships are gonna be a damn problem if we let them stick around." Ash pointed out, shooting down a Geth Trooper.

"There's turrets nearby." Tali murmured, quickly getting an idea. "Cover me. I can get the defensive turrets up and running and they can target the Geth dropship."

"Roxas."

"On it." Roxas said, already running by Tali with the two of them running towards the closest defense turret that was currently turned off.

"Kaidan." Shepard called out to him with him getting the silent message. "Xion, would you mind?"

"I've got you covered."

With Kaidan and Xion diving towards the nearest turret, Tali and Roxas had to rush towards the other. The others momentarily had to cover on the latter pairing before focusing their attention at the incoming attackers.

Xion had to rebound and block the incoming fire directed at her and Kaidan's position. Even momentarily breaking away to cleave through some Shadows and Neoshadows bum rushing them. When he gave the brief report that he was finished, they heard their one turret flare to life and fire off round after round at one of the nearby dropships.

Heading off to rejoin the others, Xion momentarily saw Roxas having to quickly fend off the Geth and Heartless strolling their way. He had casted Graviga when a large number came in at once, flattening and crushing the opposition.

When the second turret was activated, Xion soon got an idea.

"Kaidan."

"Yeah, Xion?"

"Can you pull off a Singularity?"

"I'm not all that great on it, but I can try." Admitted the Alliance Lieutenant. "Why? You got something in mind?"

"I do."

"I'll need Liara's help though, but get ready for whatever you have in mind."

Xion nodded as she momentarily covered Kaidan, who ran off to briefly chat with Liara.

Momentarily jumping in here and there, Xion cleaved through Geth and Heartless alike as the two turrets were firing upon the Geth dropships. And from her vision, she saw Roxas and Tali working on the final turret in the vicinity.

When she put her attention back onto the rest of the forces before them, she saw a biotic anomaly overhead with a number of enemy fighters being pulled in.

"Xion." Kaidan called out, struggling on the combined biotic attack he and Liara were holding. "Whatever you got, do it now!"

Nodding, Xion concentrated magic into her Keyblade. Rushing forward, she leaped into the air and jammed her weapon into the biotic attack. Unleashing a powerful blast of Gravity into the mix, the anomaly started to shift and darken. More and more enemies were drawn in as a result.

Seeing things be at its apex, Xion used all her might to bring the combined Gravity/Biotic attack down to the metallic ground.

The moment it struck down, a large shockwave went out, crushing every Geth and Heartless there was in the area and destroying them.

When the space dust settled, there was a large indent in the middle of the battlefield.

"Spirits." Garrus muttered out.

"Goddess." Liara rasped out, feeling rather drained on what was performed.

Kaidan chuckled a little on the display. In mere seconds, he felt his amp flare up. Clenching his head, he released a hiss-like yell.

"Kaidan, are you alright?"

"Yeah… I think so." Kaidan said, breathing heavily.

"Here." Xion said, pulling out a Hi-Potion and Hi-Ether for him.

He gave her a strained smile of appreciation as he took the items out of her hands. "Thanks."

Chugging the concoction down rather quickly, he felt the pain go away, only if so much.

He can still feel the amp flare tingle at the back of his head, but he knew he'll have to keep watch of his biotics for a while until Chakwas could give him a proper checkup once this was all over.

With all three defense turrets up and running, maximum damage was delivered onto the enemy dropships.

While Geth were still coming out of the dropship, they were now being harried by the defense turrets that eventually destroyed them in their entirety.

The remaining Geth on the ground were quickly swept aside as all ten of them fought them off with intense urgency.

They needed to get to Saren now and they were running out of time.

Moving onto the next area, once momentarily facing off a couple of Krogan and Heartless, they were once again in another open area.

They would've moved forward a whole lot faster… if it wasn't for the fact that the turrets nearby were now controlled by the Geth… and were aimed right at them.

Scattering, the group had to do their best to get to the controlled turrets and get them back onto their side.

Garrus took the position in the back with Kaidan as they were firing off at the enemies from afar. Tali, Ashley and Wrex were going in to slowly progress forward and mow down the incoming Geth and Heartless. Shepard and Liara had to stay relatively in the middle as support on both parties.

As for the three Nobodies, they were spread out to render aid.

Axel looked intently at one of the Geth turrets on the far side of the area and dangled one of his Chakrams in his fingers.

Shepard, close to him with Liara, saw him crouch down and before she could ask what he was doing Axel had jumped high into the air.

He flung his chakram with all his might towards the far end of the area and disappeared in a flurry of flames.

Reappearing right over where his Chakram ended up and clasped his two weapons together, falling to the ground while flames surrounded his tools.

"BURN!"

Slamming down hard upon the Geth turret that was the furthest from the team, a pillar of fire erupted from beneath the stationed weapon and completely incinerated it.

Axel's display and taking out of the turrets was enough for some of the Geth, Heartless and Krogan to turn back around and realize one of their enemies had literally teleported behind enemy lines. A good portion of the ones that were distracted were quickly gunned down as the battle raged on.

With the turrets slowly being taken back one by one, Roxas had to rush on ahead to help pave a way for his small team of shotgun wielders. Casting the occasional Thunder spells on top of Blizzard, things were getting a little easier.

He did have to leap into the air to bat away some incoming rockets every so often so Tali can properly perform her hacking skills.

When everything settled down for the time being, Roxas' group had to hold the line for everyone else to reach the hatch they found for them all to enter the Citadel Tower.

Xion was running forward with Garrus and Kaidan supporting her from their own positions, the former being the long range gunner whilst the latter kept up with Xion overall.

"Kaidan."

Without being prompted, Kaidan surrounded Xion in a Biotic field and launched her forward.

Feeling a familiar sensation she had pulled off earlier, sharp winds began surrounding her Keyblade as she drew closer to the nearest turret.

Upon reaching it, Xion sliced through the cannon, destroying the Geth turret and landed on the ground in the middle of a cluster of enemies.

Thankfully, with Roxas having taken care of the turret nearby, Shepard and Liara rushed over to assist Xion with Kaidan joining in a moment later.

Once again, Kaidan hissed in pain, but this time only a little. Seeing this, Xion quickly performed Cura on him, easing the pain he felt in his head. Giving her a thankful nod, they went on ahead to meet up with the others.

By the time everyone met back up, Wrex managed to open the hatch.

Before venturing in, Shepard gave them all a brief look as each of them gave out a nod of agreement.

Without further delay, they hopped right in and closed the hatch behind them.

Next thing they knew, they were near the Council Chambers with the warning sirens and lights blaring all over the place.

"We're close." Shepard said aloud, the team all but sprinting towards the council meeting chambers.

Having no time to unlock the doorway to their final destination, Roxas and Xion rushed forward with their Keyblades poised at the ready. In an instant, they cleaved their way through the doorway, letting the group rush into the burning Council chambers.

Bullets soon flew towards them as they were met with Geth left and right.

Liara and Kaidan threw up barriers with the rest firing at the Geth and whatever Heartless had appeared alongside them.

Seeing the Geth and Heartless defensive forces stationed at the catwalks above, the two Keybearers broke off from the others and ran up the walls. In their respective sides of the chamber, the pair were quick to carve up their opponents.

Looking at what happened, Ashley couldn't help but chuckle.

"Something funny?" Asked Axel.

"Sorry, something I remembered a while back after we first met Roxas."

"That being?"

"Where he and Xion are at now." Pointed out the Gunnery chief. "Dismissed his claim that the defensive forces up there wouldn't be taken care of all that easily."

"I remember that." Kaidan noted. "Seems you've been proven wrong."

"That I have."

As the group drew close to the main atrium, they were suddenly assailed with multiple explosions.

The group all went for cover as they turned towards just who it was that sent those explosives in their direction.

None other than Saren with the Turian Spectre atop a levitating platform high above them.

"Wow, that just screams final video game boss." Axel couldn't help but comment.

The Spectre gazed upon them all until he spotted who he was looking for.

Around him, Wyverns and Air Soldiers hovered by him in the air.

"I was afraid you wouldn't make it in time, Shepard." Saren began.

"Sorry if I kept you waiting! My entire team and I had to kill a bunch of your sorry excuse of an army to get here." Shepard yelled, turning her gaze away from the Heartless and towards the rogue Spectre. "Why even wait for me?"

"The final confrontation," he replied. "I think we've expected it would end like this." Saren paused, looking down at them with an unreadable expression. "You've lost; you know that, don't you? In a few minutes, Sovereign will have complete control of all the Citadel's systems. The relay will open. The Reapers will return."

"Sorry, I can't hear you over my impeccable sleight of hand, what was that?" Shepard retorted.

"Your jests mean nothing." Replied Saren. "I see you survived our encounter on Virmire. Sadly, I wish that blue furball of a monstrosity was here so I may pay back what he did to me."

"What, your arms?" Axel chortled. "They fit you far better now, you maniacal douchebag."

"I was hoping for that abomination to be present here and now." Saren snarled.

"What, so he could do it again?" Tali shouted with a smirk beneath her helmet.

"Though I do suppose I should thank you lot; you in particular, Shepard." Saren had his hovering platform inching closer to the N7 marine. "After Virmire, I couldn't stop thinking about what you said. About Sovereign manipulating me. About… indoctrination. And even your reasoning that I might not have been the first. The doubt began to eat away at me. And Sovereign sensed my… hesitation."

"And what the hell did he do?"

"He implanted to strengthen my resolve." Came Saren's answer. "Now my doubts are gone. I believe in Sovereign completely. I understand that the Reapers need organics. Join us and Sovereign will find a place for you all."

"Sovereign's controlling you through whatever he implanted in you!" Roxas replied loudly. "Don't think your destiny is to be controlled by that Reaper."

"This is what is meant to be." Saren preached now. "Synthetic and Organic, a symbiotic relationship where both benefit. The strength of both with neither of their weaknesses."

"You're not gonna win you know?" Axel said aloud over all the noise in a casual manner. "We met with your master. Told us how this cycle is different and all and we're to blame."

"Nothing more than a miscalculation." Saren waved off. "The Reapers are coming and there's nothing any of you can do about it. You saw the visions Shepard. You know what's coming. They cannot be stopped!"

"And your solution is to help them do their job?" Roxas gritted out. "You don't understand anything. You think what you're doing will resolve anything?"

"They will see the value-"

"SHUT UP!" Xion yelled out. "You're just a puppet now! You're lying to yourself."

Liara quickly added on. "You know just as well as everyone else here that it's not gonna work that way. These Reapers have some purpose we don't fully understand quite yet, but whatever it is, it's not gonna be the benefit of every organic life there is!"

"Did you not hear Axel earlier?" Tali spoke up. "We spoke to Sovereign on Virmire! He and his kind can't be convinced to stop whatever they're doing in the first place."

Roxas picked things up from there. "Sovereign knows that and you're hopelessly naive if you don't think that somewhere deep down that it's true. It's using your hope against you, Saren! It's going to use you to do it's dirty work before casting you aside like a broken tool!"

"And do you think that giant cuttlefish outside, hooking onto this station like a parasite is gonna honor your agreement? Wake the fuck up and see that you're being played!" Axel bellowed out. "Take it from people who know it all too well."

"Dammit Saren." Shepard shouted. "You were once a Spectre, just like me. Are you really going to let the Reapers, let Sovereign control you? You're not some holy savior or a warrior but a slave, a tool. Once you've served your purpose, the Reapers would just indoctrinate and kill you."

"No… No! I will… but… the implants…" Saren's voice immediately shifted into one that was becoming a tone of terrified realization. "I… I can't! I can't! The implants are already there. There's nothing that can be-"

"There's always a way!" Shepard declared, rising out from her hiding spot and looked at the former Spectre dead in his eyes.

His eyes had changed but she saw it.

That single spark of resistance, of what was once Saren was still there.

And that was all that was needed.

"Think about it, Saren!" Shepard pleaded. "You know what the right thing to do is! Step aside and we can stop this once and for all. It'll buy us time to figure out how to stop them once and for all."

Saren gazed at the human Spectre before giving her the Turian equivalent of a smile.

"Leave it to a human to save my ass in the end." Saren said, raising his gun up to his head. "Thank you, Shepard."

*BANG*

As Saren's body fell to the ground, the rest of the team sprang into action, fighting off the Heartless that charged back at them.

Everyone utilized either magic, their biotics or their enhanced weaponry to take out the Heartless in rapid succession until they were all clear.

With the platform now secure…

"Holy shit." Wrex muttered out. "I thought we were gonna have to go through hell to reach the master control console."

"Speaking of…"

Rushing over to the console, Shepard's Omni-tool flared to life. Pulling the data file she got from Ilos, she had things connected to the master console system.

"Vigil's data file worked; I've got control of all systems." Shepard declared.

For how long, however, she didn't want to see as she has other matters to consider.

"Quick, open the station's arms, maybe the fleet can take sovereign down before he regains control of the station." Liara said.

"See if you can open a communications channel." Kaidan followed shortly after.

"Destiny ascension, main drives offline, kinetic barriers down 40%. The council is on board, I repeat the council is on board." was the first thing the team heard.

A moment later, a more familiar voice was heard with the group having relieved smiles appear on their faces.

"Normandy to the Citadel, Normandy to the Citadel. Please tell me that's you, Commander."

"You expecting someone else?" Shepard asked rhetorically.

"No one else, really." Joker said as he momentarily grunted on the other end. "Look, I called in the cavalry and the entire Arcturus fleet is sitting over in the Andura sector, waiting for the relays to be unlocked. They can then help save the Ascension."

"You can't sacrifice human lives to save the Council. What have they ever done for us?" Came Ashley's opening argument.

Kaidan gave his counterargument. "This is bigger than humanity. Sovereign's a threat to every organic species in the galaxy."

"Exactly, we can't throw away reinforcements trying to save the Council. We have to hold them back until Sovereign's exposed." Ash countered.

"But this is the Council we're talking about." Liara stated. "If we let them die, how will that reflect on all of us, not just Shepard."

"I'm not the biggest fan of those stiffs." Garrus said. "But… I'm not sure."

"You already know my opinion on them." Wrex growled.

"And I ain't gettin' involved in politics." Axel spoke up.

"Guys, wait! We've still got Della, Stitch and Joker out there." Tali pointed out with everyone staring at the Quarian blankly.

"...Oh…"

"Joker, you hear all that?"

"Loud and clear, Commander."

"When I get the arms opened up, attack Sovereign with what you three have on ya. And radio the fleet to save the Ascension."

"Will do, Normandy out."

Quickly typing away, Shepard had things finally unlocked.

With the Citadel opened back up, the Normandy with her two supporting ships flew past the Ascension and gunned it straight for the large Reaper atop the Tower.

As they did so, the Alliance Fleet appeared moments later, instantly firing upon the Geth and Gummi Heartless forces that surrounded the Ascension.

"Save the Destiny Ascension." Hackett ordered the fleet.

Over in the Ascension, the ship's navigator and commander let out sighs of utter relief.

"Finally, reinforcements are here."

"It's the Alliance! Thank the goddess!"

Over in the Spear of Seline, Della quickly eyed the Reaper ship still attached to the Citadel Tower.

"Okay, boys, time to get to work." She said, activating her ship's thrusters to shoot towards their new target.

Stitch's cackle could be heard over the comms as Joker merely smirked as they trailed behind the Gummi-ship before they opened fire on the giant synthetic.

As the group watched all this, Shepard glanced down below at the body of Saren. It hadn't moved from its spot

"Make sure he's dead." Shepard ordered.

"Why? You saw the bullet going through his head." Roxas naively pointed out.

"We really need to get you to see a number of zombie flicks when this is done." Ashley said to him. "When in doubt, double tap."

Axel, Wrex, Kaidan and Liara went down below with Wrex getting the satisfaction of shooting the fallen Spectre several times in the head.

"I think you missed." Axel stated.

"Yeah, just once more to be sure." Wrex said, shooting at least half a dozen more times.

"...And his head is basically mush by now."

Yet, as they prepared to walk away…

*CHHHZZZZ*

*CRRAAAAA*

*RUMBLE*

Suddenly, the Citadel tower began to shake.

-Insert Kingdom Hearts II: The Corrupted-

Red lightning bolts from the walls around them struck the Turian corpse with shadow figures moving in to join them.

The body twitched and convulsed with a red and black field surrounding Saren as he slowly stood back up.

His head reformed with blood red eyes and what sounded like screams of agony as his body appeared to expand, contort and grow.

When the electricity and darkness reached its apex, an explosion went off, sending those down below flying back and hitting the walls nearby.

The explosion also dislodged the platform Shepard stoon on, having it fall over as it deposited everyone else down below. They rolled to a stop before roughly getting back up.

There they saw what now became of Saren Arterius.

Like what they saw back in Noveria with what became of Matriarch Benezia, Saren became a hybrid of a Heartless with synthetics added into the mix. With the shadowy wisps rolling off its form with blue, purple and red circuitry combing off parts of its body.

"I am Sovereign! And this station is Mine!"

Around Saren-no Sovereign, Nova-Shadows appeared and they too had dark shadowy wisps wafting off from their bodies as the Normandy team faced them.

"...I think you didn't kill him well enough." Axel quipped.

"I'll be sure to do so properly." Wrex said, pulling out his gravity hammer.

Sovereign's head twitched about until it landed on one of the Normandy crew in particular.

In an instant it sprung forward, Sovereign grabbing Roxas by the throat and leaping away from the group.

"ROXAS!" several of the team cried out.

"Look out." Axel shouted, throwing up a wall of fire around them as the Nova-shadows pounced.

The Heartless were repelled by the flames yet they once more attacked with several of them managing to punch their way through.

Liara instinctively caught one in a stasis with Wrex pushing one back.

Kaidan got one right on top of him yet Garrus and Xion were quick to tackle it off and the latter plunged her Keyblade through the Heartless' head, ending it.

"We've gotta get to Roxas." Tali said aloud.

"I'll get him." Shepard shouted, running forward and leaping through the fire.

With Roxas, the boy was struggling as the Reaper possessed corpse held him aloft by his neck.

In the mind of the Reaper, it knew which one of these individuals truly posed a threat to the cycle. That human Shepard has seen and knows too much of what is to come.

Therefore, her elimination is paramount.

And yet…

Something else…

Something outside what makes the Reaper what it is was dictating that this boy was just as great a threat to the Cycle as was Shepard.

In order to continue on with their task, both of these individuals must perish.

"Let Go!" Roxas yelled out, swinging his Keyblade and smacking Sovereign's arm off.

"You are an unknown variable. For that, you will die and your body will be studied."

"In your dreams!" Roxas yelled out, jumping away as it took a swipe at him with a cloud of darkness following in his wake.

The Nobody's eyes widened, realizing just how much of the Heartless had influenced Saren as well.

Sovereign was already pursuing him, leaping about with the greatest of ease and incredible speeds.

Roxas grit his teeth, rolling under a leg kick only for his midsection to be grabbed and he was flung in the air.

Instinctively, Roxas performed an aerial recovery and just in time to counter swing at a pouncing Sovereign. He struck the Reaper/Heartless in the head and quickly glided away.

He didn't get far as he felt a hand wrap around his ankle and pull him down.

Thankfully, help arrived.

"Back off!"

Roxas turned to see Shepard sprinting towards them with her Biotics active and fired a lift at Sovereign.

The Reaper floated up into the air yet the limbs suddenly stretched out and embedded themselves into the ground. That did little in deterring Shepard as she fired rapidly at the Reaper-Heartless with her Biotic-Burst rifle.

Each round left a visible mark upon Sovereign yet they kept healing themselves up a moment later.

Letting out an animalistic roar, Sovereign slammed into the ground with it cracking apart and multiple craggily formations of darkness shooting out in the direction of Shepard.

In an instant, Jane threw up a Biotic barrier that absorbed most of the blows until unfortunately, it overwhelmed her. She flew back, landing hard on the ground but was quick to stand back up again.

She managed to see Sovereign jumping right for her yet Roxas was quick to appear next to the Reaper-Heartless, landing a direct blow to its chest.

Sovereign fell to the ground, Shepard running over to Roxas.

"Come on, we gotta lead him back to the others and take him out together."

Roxas only nodded, the two breaking into a run as Sovereign was back on his feet. Shifting its vision over to the duo, he placed himself down on all fours and jumped forth.

Using the surrounding environment, Sovereign jumped about, gaining on the retreating duo.

Getting in close, Sovereign tackled both Roxas and Shepard down to the ground.

"Hey asshole." came a sudden growl.

Sovereign looked up in time to see a gravity hammer swing right at its face. The force sent the Reaper flying back and sprawling onto the floor.

Pushing herself up, Shepard saw the armored hand of one Urdnot Wrex with her grabbing it and being lifted up to her feet.

Roxas was assisted by Tali, who had also joined Wrex.

"Where are the others?" Shepard asked straight away.

"They're taking care of those crazy strong Heartless." Wrex answered. "Axel sent the two of us ahead to back you both up. Once they're done with them, they'll head over here."

"I'm constantly transmitting our location to them." Tali said. "If anything, Garrus' visor will lead them to us."

"Good to know." Shepard said as the four of them turned to face Sovereign that was on all fours with darkness beginning to exude in greater quantities off his body.

"Alright then." Shepard's gun whirred with energy. "Let's take this bastard down.

Tali's Omni-Tool was glowing with power with Roxas beginning to radiate light whilst the edge of Wrex's hammer crackled with energy.

The opposing sides stood adjacent to one another until they felt the rumble of the naval battle going on outside, with them now running at one another.

Back outside of the Citadel, the combined might of the Normandy, the Spear of Seline, Stitch's cruiser, the Alliance Fleet and what remained of the Citadel fleet put all their attention on Sovereign now.

At first there was no progress done on the assault, that is until the ships piloted by Della, Stitch and Joker were making headway on damaging the Reaper. From the mixture of missiles, lasers and plasma armaments the three ships had on them was able to pierce through the highly effective shield the Reaper presently had, but only for a very small window of time.

It did retaliate as it's red hot lasers shot out and cleaved through other ships left and right. And while the three mentioned ships had to maneuver around the blasts, they kept going at it while momentarily assisting the others.

"Sovereign is too strong! We have to pull back!" Cried out an Alliance Commander.

Della, however, was having none of that. "Oh heck no! We can't back out now! This is our only chance!"

"I agree." Hackett said over the chatter. "Take that monster down, no matter what the cost!"

The Alliance fleet continued their attack, firing everything they had at the imposing ship.

Back within the Citadel itself, in the Council Chambers, another battle raged on.

"BURN!"

Axel roared out, unleashing his Chakrams that became spheres of fire that smashed into two Nova-Shadows, burning them away.

These Heartless were proving to be extremely formidable as they relentlessly attacked them.

Had it not been for Kaidan and Liara assisting them via Biotics and the amount of experience they had all accumulated in these past months now, they would have been decimated a lot sooner.

Garrus over with Xion were taking out a Nova-Shadow together, destroying it in a combined volley of energy beams and Blizzaga spells.

Ashley, Kaidan and Liara were fighting several around them, the Biotic users ensnaring them and forcing them into a cluster.

Once they were mashed up against one another, Ashley pulled two disks off her gun.

"Thank you, Mosh." Ashley proclaimed as she threw the disks forward at the cluster of Heartless.

The two disks snapped open, the circular case opening out into four pieces.

They both hovered on opposite ends of the cluster of Heartless and they began to glow until a domed barrier formed around the grouped up Nova-Shadows.

A moment later, the barrier appeared to have the surface of literal molten lava.

"What the hell?" Kaidan gaped.

The lava dome subsided with nothing but shadowy wisps travelling upwards to indicate the destruction of the Heartless.

"What in the Goddesses name was that?" Liara asked in complete astonishment.

"I didn't think he'd make something like that." Ashley said in equal shock, the two disks returning to attack themselves back to her gun though they appeared to have lost their color. "When Mosh said my gun was upgraded, I didn't think this was what he meant."

"That was… too fucking cool." Kaidan remarked with both ladies only nodding in agreement.

"Hey!"

The trio looked over to the other trio with them that were waiting for them expectantly.

"Are you guys coming?" Axel asked, casually spinning a chakram around his finger.

"Right, right, sorry about that." Ash said and the six of them quickly got back up from the lower level.

"Hang on." Garrus tapped on his visor and he immediately saw the directions they needed to go to find the others. "This way."

They began sprinting at full speeds, the Citadel shaking every now and then.

"Uh guys…" Xion spoke up nervously, looking up momentarily.

The group noticed this and craned their heads up in Xion's direction with many of their eyes widening.

"What the hell is that supposed to be?" Ash asked aloud.

Up on one of the walls were several globs that were purplish-black in appearance and they were slightly pulsing with small shadows spreading out from them.

"That's from the Heartless." Xion said.

"Why is it here then?" Liara asked.

"Must be Sare, er, Sovereign." Axel said. "He was using them, remember?"

"And what does that mean for us and the Citadel?" Garrus inquired, adjusting himself so the others can follow him in the proper direction.

"It means… that if we don't take out Saren soon, the Citadel will be swallowed up by the Heartless." Xion said in realization.

"Can they do that?" Kaidan asked fearfully.

"They've swallowed entire Worlds before." Axel pointed out. "This space station would just be an appetizer."

"We take out Sovereign, we can save the Citadel." Xion assured. "We just need to find Roxas and the others."

"Then where the hell are they?"

Ash's question was answered when Wrex landed on the ground with a loud grunt and noticeable crack on the ground beneath him.

"Ow." Was all the Krogan Battlemaster let out as he slowly sat up.

Blinking, Xion immediately cast a Cura upon the aged warrior who nodded at her in thanks.

"Wrex?" Liara said. "Where's Shepard and the others?"

Liara's own question was answered with the Reaper-Heartless corpse landing with Roxas atop him, smacking his Keyblade over his head.

The Reaper-Heartless shrieked out and in an instant, two hands that were pitch black sprouted out underneath its original arms and grabbed Roxas. It hefted him up and threw him away, Sovereign rising up to his feet before its eyes snapped in front of the group before him.

"Oh that's not good."

"Open fire!"

Xion was quick to fire off a Blizzaga at the Heartless-Reaper, halting it in its tracks. Granted, it started to break free, but at least Xion bought the others some time to act.

While making sure they got the others out of the way and into safety, the rest unleashed a volley of bullets and biotic attacks at their opponent.

Sovereign shrieked out, folding and crossing his arms into his own body. Darkness appeared around him and was promptly sucked in before he threw his head and arms out, unleashing a dark electric shockwave that sent the Normandy team flying back.

The Reaper-Heartless corpse jolted forward, looking behind him to see Tali holding up her Omni-Tool having fired her Omni-Bolts at him.

It turned towards her, ready to attack when he was ensnared in a Biotic lift from Commander Shepard, running toward him.

Growling, his new pair of arms stretched out and jabbed themselves into the ground, pulling himself back down.

"Oh now that's just cheating."

Sovereign prepared itself to attack once more, but Roxas appeared in front of him and bashed his Keyblade across his face.

It flinched violently yet remained rooted on the spot. The Reaper-Heartless grabbed Roxas.

"Oh not agaAAAAAA-"

The poor boy was thrown right into Tali, the two tumbling down to the ground.

Sovereign moved forward when suddenly, Axel zipped around in front of him and threw his fire laced Chakrams at him.

"Get back!"

Sovereign stumbled back when it was once again enshrouded in a Biotic field, this one being from both Kaidan and Liara.

Together, they pulled the Reaper-Heartless towards them and halfway to them, Wrex smashed his gravity hammer straight down into the ground with a small crater forming.

Ashley quickly followed that powerful strike with multiple inferno rounds when a shadowy fist burst out from the fire, hitting her right in the gut.

She doubled over, clutching her stomach with Wrex raising his hammer up to deliver another hit only for him to come face to face with Sovereign.

It grabbed him by the face and smashed him into the ground.

"Bastard." Kaidan yelled, shooting at the corpse that turned its head towards him.

Mustering what biotics he utilized, the Alliance lieutenant quickly compacted it all into his available hand. Just when Sovereign got in close, Kaidan decked the Heartless-Reaper across its face.

Moments after, a large explosion went off as their opponent was sailing back and crashed into the far off wall and remained there.

"Holy hell, that was-"

Whatever was said next was halted as Kaidan collapsed onto the ground as he held his head. This time he yelled rather loudly with tears streaming down his cheeks from the utter pain he was experiencing.

"Kaidan!" Xion cried out in worry with the Lieutenant looking up in time to see Sovereign prying itself out of the wall and quickly standing over him.

The Reaper-Heartless reeled its fists back, ready to end the Lieutenant when No. XIV tackled him Keyblade first.

She brought him to the ground but Sovereign bashed his fists across her face, sending her away from him.

"XION!" Roxas yelled out.

"Fucking bastard." Shepard growled. "Stop hurting my friends."

Sovereign was soon met with a number of explosives, sending the Reaper-Heartless back. It looked to the source and saw the assault recently came from Ashley.

Charging right at her, while ignoring the hail of bullets from others, Sovereign went to end the Gunnery Chief.

When it got close, it momentarily halted when it saw the smirk on William's face.

"Tick tick boom."

If the dark synthetic could blink, it would've.

Soon hearing a rapid series of beeps from its audio receptors, it looked down and saw a whole string of mines that were about to be set off.

Just when it was about to leap out of the way, Liara and Shepard used their biotics to keep the Heartless-Reaper in place. And as this happened, Ashley threw another set of disks as they soon expanded to form a barrier with the lava coating.

A second later, a large explosion went off as they heard a metallic shriek heard from within the lava barrier.

"You think that's enough?"

The answer was soon received when the barrier broke apart with Sovereign's form heavily melted with darkness filling in the gaps of its destroyed form.

"Guess not-"

Ashley was then punched in her sternum, sending her flying and hitting the nearby wall and nearly rendering unconscious. She only was able to hang on a little longer, due to some bits of will lingering on to keep on fighting.

Sovereign stalked over to the downed Gunnery Chief when powerful sniper rounds met it's back and head a good number of times.

It snapped its head over to a Turian standing on an elevated position.

"Oh, now you notice me." Garrus quipped, firing repeatedly at the Reaper-Heartless with its eyes glowing a deeper shade of red. One shot struck it in the eye leading Sovereign to let out an animalistic roar.

"Are machines supposed to act like that?" Shepard asked with Tali, Roxas and Axel by her side.

"Hell if I know." Axel commented

"It's the darkness." Roxas noted. "It's starting to influence Sovereign more and more."

"How is that possible?" Tali asked in confused fright.

"With the Heartless, anything is possible." Axel said, raising his arms up with his chakrams levitating and spinning rapidly in front of his hands with fire flaring up around them.

Grabbing them, he flung them both forward, one hitting Sovereigns back and the other striking his legs.

It fell to the ground though it was already rising back up.

"Liara, get to Ash and get her the hell out of here."

"But where would we go?"

"Guys!" Xion shouted, the form of Sovereign hunching over as the darkened parts of its body pulsed all over it.

A moment later, another pair of arms appeared with the earlier ones expanding in size.

As this happened, a giant shockwave of darkness erupted from around Sovereign with it spreading out entirely across the area.

The still conscious team were all flung back by the force of the shockwave with all of them landing hard on the ground.

The human Spectre groaned, feeling her adrenaline coursing through her body despite the pain shooting up and down from her head to her toes.

"Fucking hell." she said to herself, wincing as her left arm was trembling.

"Shepard." came the metallic demonic voice of Sovereign, the Spectre whirling around to face him.

Seeing as she was the only one standing right now, as far as she knew, Jane wasn't going to go down without a fight.

Mustering a lot of biotics from within, she threw Biotic throw after throw to knock Sovereign back. Rolling out of the way from a blast of darkness aimed her way, the Commander threw a number of explosives before unleashing a hail of fire. Once the explosions went off, Shepard used the cover of smoke to move elsewhere-

Only for her to be kicked down some steps away from where she once stood.

Rolling across the ground, Shepard coughed out some blood as the agonizing pain was spreading across her torso. Even looking down to see the massive dent on her armor as it was uncomfortably pushing into her wound.

Before she could try to relieve herself by ejecting part of her suit, she heard heavy steps come right towards her place on the ground.

"Your allies have fallen before me." Said Sovereign, reaching down to grab Shepard. "Soon, your meddling will come to an end. We oversee the order of your evolution. Without it, chaos will reign. So we rule and control your progression. Organic free will is a folly, a worthless illusion. You need only to accept the Cycle. There is no escape."

As this happens, Shepard screams in pain as the Heartless-Reaper begins squeezing, cracking her armor.

Before anything dire could truly happen to her, a blast separated the pair, sending the Sovereign controlled puppet away.

Shepard breathed heavily as her body ached, soon feeling relief when she saw a familiar green aura surrounding her of a Curaga spell being casted. Looking over, she saw Roxas looking straight at Sovereign with life showing through his blue eyes.

"Organics do not need to be told what their will shall be. We can create our lives with our own vision."

Sovereign stood back up as it's optics peered at the Keybearer. "An indulgent statement of organic folly. Do you not comprehend how much turmoil and confusion you have created?"

"We may not see our next step." Wisps of light slowly formed around him as he stepped closer. "We may stumble. We may fall off the path. But we shall always move forward!"

More light surrounded him as he summoned his Keyblade. But instead of Oathkeeper, it was something else.

It was the same Keyblade he received after he and Xion opened the Lane to have the Normandy return from the Etherium Galaxy.

The Pirate's Dream.

"That is our power!" He proclaimed.

Shepard gets back onto her feet with new determination fueling her. "Your broken, twisted Cycle ends here, Sovereign. Starting now!"

Roxas zoomed forward with his newest Keyblade in hand and unleashed a torrent of attacks upon the possessed corpse.

Before it could even get a retaliatory swing in, Roxas was joined a moment later by a recovered Xion and Axel with the trio giving everything they got to bring him down.

Sovereign unleashed a small windy burst of power that gave it enough room to try for a proper attack on the Nobodies.

All three performed reversals, expertly weaving around the attack with ease.

"Come on." Roxas yelled out challengingly, thrusting his Keyblade forward.

In an instant, he felt a new sensation come over him as a flash of light came off of his Keyblade.

Swinging his Keyblade up, it disassembled itself entirely and reassembled itself around his arm.

The gauntlet looked like that of a thruster he would see on…

"Solar surfer?" Roxas repeated in confused recognition.

Suddenly, from the thruster engine popped out a solar sail that was at first curved in appearance before morphing into a circular shield followed by an angular triangle of sorts.

It retracted itself back into the gauntlet engine which had a steady fire going.

"Whoa, what the hell is this Roxas?" Axel asked in astonishment.

"No idea." Roxas said, facing Sovereign once more.

Sovereign was rearing back for another attack.

"But I'm sure as hell gonna use it!"

Punching his fist forward, the gauntlet thruster sent Roxas flying directly at the Reaper-Heartless.

The solar sail popped out, changing into the streamlined triangular shape as he rocketed himself towards Sovereign.

Crashing right into him, Sovereign was knocked back with Roxas grinding the ethereal solar sail into the corpse's gut. Sending it back a few feet away, Roxas pulled his arm back with the sail changing into a crescent shape.

Swinging forward, he struck Sovereign on the side, knocking him into a nearby tree that was planted on one of the artificially made soil patches on the Citadel.

A second later, Roxas felt another new sensation wash over him.

Following his instinct, he raised his arm up and the Keyblade gauntlet shifted once again. It shifted apart and quickly entered into his enclosed fist with a metallic rusted pole forming out within his grasp.

On the bottom end was a shrunken down engine thruster and attached from the top to the middle part of the pole was a glowing solar sail with its hexagonal patchwork and all.

Out of instinct, Roxas twirled his weapon as he soon struck Sovereign's form a number of times. The glowing solar sail partially blinded the dark synthetic as it fluttered across it's optics with its bright light.

Screeching out, it unleashed a powerful dark shockwave in defense yet Roxas just cut right through it and jabbed Sovereign in the stomach.

Once more, the feeling came and washed over again.

Thrusting his flagpole forward again, he released his weapon as it started shifting into what appeared to be a solar surfer, one reminiscent to what he saw Jim Hawkins had prior to its destruction back in the core of Treasure Planet.

Quickly hoping aboard, an odd feeling washed over his mind as his vision momentarily blurred before it snapped back to normal.

He was unsure as to what that was but why was he feeling… nostalgic?

Putting such thoughts aside, he quickly thrusted himself to the side, having his solar surfer glider strike the dark synthetic a good number of times with all sorts of tricks.

The others, having recovered for the most part, had hung back for the most part with them basically watching Roxas utterly thrash Sovereign with this new ability of his.

They witnessed as the weapon he held transformed into something familiar for several of their teammates.

"Wait, is that a solar surfer?" Garrus asked.

"I believe so." Tali confirmed.

"How the hell does he have one right now?"

"We can ask later." Kaidan spoke out. "Right now, we need to help."

Floating in front of Sovereign, the Reaper-Heartless cocked its arms back with dark energy surrounding them all

Not wanting to give it a chance for another atta, Roxas used his new Keyblade Formation and knocked Sovereign off his feet. Activating the thrusters, he rammed the solar surfer into Sovereign's solar plexus and bashed him to a nearby pillar.

"Roxas!" Shepard cried out, reaching out and grasping onto Roxas' unintentional outstretched hand.

The moment she had a firm grasp of his arm, the Keyblade glider zoomed out of the area, crashed Sovereign through a number of walls and pillars, grinding the Heartless-Reaper's form all over the place as the three soon disappeared.

"We need to go after them!" Tali yelled out.

"Don't have to tell us twice!" Garrus said.

"Wait, what about Ashley and Wrex?" Kaidan pointed out to the two unconscious teammates.

"I got the big guy." Axel said, easily hefting Wrex over his shoulders. "Xion, grab Ashley."

"Got it." No. XIV ran over to the Gunnery Chief and scooped her up into her arms.

With that done, the group ran forward as fast as possible in hopes of catching up to wherever the action took place now.

All the while, Roxas and Shepard rode atop the former's newest flying surfboard with Sovereign still in front of them with the tip of the board piercing his chest.

They had flown across the area, heading straight back towards the Council Chambers.

"Back here again, huh?"

"Hey, I tried piloting this thing as best as possible." Roxas snapped back. "Now I know how it's like with your driving."

"Hey, I'm just taking note of it." Shepard easily said in return. "That and you're flying is atrocious."

Before Roxas had a chance to retort, Sovereign at last separated himself from the board and fell down to the ground.

He landed on all his limbs only to jump back at the flying duo with Roxas angling his legs up which helped in dodging out of the Reaper-Heartless' way.

"He just won't let up, doesn't he?" Came Roxas' comment.

"How do we take this bastard down?" Shepard grunted in frustration.

"Hitting it really hard." Roxas said after a moment.

He received an incredibly flat look from the Spectre with a voice as dry as a desert.

"Really? "Hitting it Really Hard". That's your solution?" Shepard mockingly asked.

"Oh shut up." Roxas countered. "Yours would have been to just shoot it a bunch of times."

Rushing in, Roxas met Sovereign as they crashed into each other.

What felt like hours, turned out to be minutes for the rest of the Normandy team. Rushing all over to find out where Shepard and Roxas' location were, they soon turned back to the very top of the Citadel Tower.

And it was there they witnessed what was presently going on.

Shepard was repeatedly firing her gun at the Reaper-Heartless who was clinging onto the Keyblade Solar Surfer with its eyes solely on her.

"Oh my fucking God, just die already!" Shepard shouted, now having the bottom of her boot meet the face of what was once Saren's face.

She kicked Sovereign right off the board.

"Alright, that's it." Roxas said in complete aggravation now. "Shepard, step off for a moment."

She didn't get to respond properly as she was promptly dumped on the ground in a fly by.

"What the-? Roxas!" She yelled in an annoyed manner as the boy rocketed straight towards Sovereign.

Shifting back into its flagpole form, Roxas smacked Sovereign a whole number of times with utter ruthlessness.

As this went on, the solar sail-flag started glowing more and more as it started to fully fill to its limit.

Out of instinct, Roxas slammed the flagpole to the ground as the built up energy was shot across the surface.

...Now… whoever was relatively close to where Roxas stood could balk in utter surprise in what they were witnessing now.

Forming beneath his feet was a miniature black hole.

Sovereign tried to flee, but a strong gravitational pull was drawing the dark synthetic in. It plunged it's sharpened claws into the ground to halt its progress to possible annihilation. Yet the black hole was hard to manage to escape.

"QUICK!" Shepard exclaimed. "Shoot that bastard down, now!"

Snapping out of their shock, the conscious team quickly went to action and unleashed everything they could muster.

They had fired everything in their arsenal.

Tali's Omni-Bolts.

Axel's inflamed Chakrams.

Xion's Magic Hours.

Kaidan's Biotic Burst rifle.

Liara's enhanced shredding bullets.

Garrus's sniper rifle.

And Shepards own enhanced Biotic rifle.

Roxas firmly stood in place as if he wasn't affected by the miniature black hole his Keyblade had created.

The moment Sovereign was able to be pulled far enough into the cosmic anomaly, something seemed to burst from within.

From the darkness was something bright and rather hot. It started out small before it started to grow. And in a mere second, everything exploded upward.

What Sovereign now experienced was being hit with a powerful Magellan blast, point blank.

"Now how'd you like that?" Said Roxas, prying his flagpole out of the ground as the mini-black hole dissipated into motes of cosmic light.

The weapon soon reverted back into its standard Keyblade form right after, not that Roxas really minded.

Not wanting to give Sovereign a chance, both he and Shepard rushed forward with their respective bladed weapons out.

When Sovereign tried to regain its bearings after collapsing from that powerful blast, it's optics brightened significantly when it saw the two coming in for one final strike.

Whatever it tried to do to evade the blow was fruitless as Roxas zoomed in and plunged his Pirate's Dream Keyblade right through its chest with Shepard plunging her Omni-blade right through its head.

Prying their weapons out not long after, Roxas and Shepard stumbled back and caught their breaths.

Sovereign swayed about on the spot, the multiple pairs of arms it once had disappearing. The synthetic blue glow he had also vanished with dark mists emanating off its body.

…

…

…

*SCRAAAAAAAA*

The conscious Normandy team collectively winced at the screech that Sovereign let out, some covering their ears as this went on for a few seconds until it stopped.

They all gazed upon the still form of the Reaper-Heartless until, at long last, it tilted forward and fell upon the ground in defeat.

-Insert Mass Effect: Victory-

Upon the Reaper-Heartless falling, something… interesting happened.

Unlike before when the darkness disappeared from Benezia's corpse, they saw something else.

Streaming out of the corpse was a rather gigantic Heart ballooning out and enlightening the area. As it eventually faded away, the body that was once the Turian Spectre faded away in motes of darkness.

As this occurred, Sovereign's main body was starting to short circuit. Blue lights were starting to fade, red electricity spasming on and off as it tried to maintain its grip onto the Citadel Tower.

"It's shields are down!" Joker reported in. "Now's our chance!"

"You heard him boys!" Della bellowed out with a smirk. "Hit it with everything ya got!"

With the remaining forces unleashing hell onto Sovereign, Joker shot the Normandy high into the air and maneuvered his ship around.

"Hard on my flank! We're going in!"

"Right behind ya!"

Stitch merely bellowed out gibberish over the line as he followed right after Joker and Della.

The three unleashed their final payloads as they dived towards the Reaper. Moving out of the way, they avoided the blast that destroyed Sovereign for good.

Back within the Citadel Tower, the group was slowly recovering from the fight for their lives.

"It's over." Roxas breathed out. "It's finally over."

Shepard gave a firm nod. "Saren's dead this time and Sovereign can't really use his body for anything else."

"Yeah. Just hope we were able to make it in time of stopping the invasion." Kaidan said, moving to look over the still knocked out Ashley and Wrex that were placed next to each other. The latter was beginning to come to.

"Wha- What happened?" Wrex asked in a groan, raising his hand to his head.

Jane was about to tell him they won when-

"Look out!"

Roxas and Shepard heard their yells of warning. Turning around to see what's going on, they saw the others running away as the chamber started to darken. Looking at the window, the two saw a large black object racing straight towards them. It had the familiar red glow to it, even if it died seconds later.

Turning back around, Roxas and Shepard made a quick dash, but they could only go so far before a loud crash was made behind them. They felt the ground heave upwards from underneath before everything went to black.

-Insert Mass Effect: From the Wreckage-

Upon entering the Council Chambers, David Anderson and a number of other personnel were combing the area for any survivors. All that they saw so far upon first glance were the droves of Geth bodies bleeding out white synthetic blood with pieces of Sovereign littering every other area. And glancing at where the large window was once set was a kinetic barrier that kept everything inside from being sucked out into the vacuum of space.

The search party immediately shifted through the debris and started finding Shepard's party left and right. Most were delirious from the impact while others were out cold but were relatively alright. Nothing that a simple checkup won't solve to see if there were any further problems.

Those that were conscious soon assisted in finding the rest.

Coming across another piece of debris, Anderson was assisted by Garrus as they were able to find Tali and Xion.

"Anderson?" Tali said in recognition.

The Alliance captain nods at them.

"Thank goodness you're alright." He said. "Where's Shepard?"

"I… I don't know." Said Tali before worry soon overwhelmed her. "Wait… what about Roxas? Did you find him yet?"

Xion soon mirrored her Quarian friend's action.

"I haven't, but I bet he's somewhere under this debris along with Shepard." Came Anderson's response.

"Then we need to help." Xion said firmly, slowly being hoisted up by Anderson as Tali was helped up by Garrus.

When the others were about to regroup with the rest, who were presently being treated, they heard footsteps shuffling and approaching from the higher ground.

Everyone held their breath in anticipation, some even going so far to raise their pistols in case of attack.

"Stand down!" Ordered the Alliance Captain.

Not long after, they soon saw Roxas and Shepard walking side by side as they held onto each other with a noticeable limp, respectively. Dirt, grime and cuts were presently seen on them both with dents present on Shepard's armor.

Upon seeing the rest down below, the two wanted to pick up their pace as they bit back the pain they presently had.

When the two got close enough, both Roxas and Shepard could see some of their teammates wanting to rush in out of worry.

Tali, Xion and Axel held no such reservation, the trio running over to the duo as the Quarian tackled Roxas with a hug with Xion following suit.

Roxas went bug-eyed with pain shooting across his body yet he remained standing with him subconsciously hugging both girls back, leaning his head against both their shoulders.

Now while Axel merely rubbed Roxas' sandy blonde hair, he was quick to help Shepard up with the loss of support.

Jane gave him a thankful smile soon after, albeit pained in the mix.

He only smirked in response in that cocky manner that he usually did which made her shake her head in amusement.

Anderson stood before her a moment later, the Captain positively beaming at her with clear pride and admiration for his star pupil and surrogate daughter.

Shepard then addressed to her old mentor, friend and father figure only one thing to come past her lips.

"Mission accomplished, sir."

Anderson only returned the sentiment with a proud look on his face.

"Well done, Commander. Well done."

Pirate's Dream Keyblade: received from a chest from Captain Nathaniel Flint's ship, the Sabre.

Pirate Thruster: Keyblade Form change, gauntlet in the shape of a solar sail thruster engine. Sail pops out in three shapes for defense, wide arching attacks and precision based diving attacks.

Solar Flag: Keyblade Form change, sharp pole weapon with a solar sail flag attached. It's finisher forms a miniature black hole, drawing opponents in before unleashing a powerful Magellan blast.

Pirate's Sail: Keyblade Form change being that of a solar surfboard glider. Holds feelings of nostalgia when in this form as it's combat ready.

Solar Flare: Pirate's Dream's Shotlock attack which fires off a volley of ethereal green projectiles. When in the Form changes, however, Shotlock formation is that of a ring of an 'X' around the targets that shoots beams of energy.

AN

And we are DONE WITH MASS EFFECT ONE. WOOOOOOOO!

Oh, you guys have no idea how fucking happy we are for getting this far in such a short amount of time!

Jebest4781: Hot damn this first part of this writing project had been a marathon. And boy we're about to get into the next leg of things with this expansive stuff we have in mind before tackling Mass Effect 2.

FMW: Yeah, we quite literally turned our engines up to eleven and fucking flew through what was a twenty chapter opener with the first third of this story. We've got so many events to come in between this end and the start of ME2. An insane ordeal of crazy twist and turns with a lot of exposition, twist and turns and set up to come for everything after.

Jeb: Until then, we hope you'll be patient with the progress that'll need to be written out. Given that we're basically doing a whole lot of OC content to hopefully blend things well on this story.

FMW: Thinking on it, ME2, KH2, Dream Drop Distance, ME3, KH3 and all the gaps that there are in between makes me realize how fundamentally different the ending will wind up being once we get there. Yes, there will be familiar beats and we'll "follow the outline" for the most part but the coming end of the story is going to be gargantuan and grandiose in style and execution. I cannot stress how giant of a finale we have already planned out. And think about this, we're only getting started.

So from me and Jebest4781 to you all, thank you all for reading and hold onto your butts cause it's gonna get even wilder from here on out.

Rate Read and Review and As Always Have Nice Day.