Chapter 68 – Cloud


2105 hours, April 10th, 2211 — Omega Nebula, Sahrabarik System, Omega

(Spectre Operative 04272182-Cloud)

A biotic field slammed into my chest. I hit the wall behind me and tumbled to my knees, my teeth rattling. The pirate queen grabbed her daughter and flung her over to the other side of the room. Still ablaze with biotic energy, Aria grabbed one corner of the massive, oak table and flipped it on its side to give us some cover.

"Moklan, sound the alarm," Aria ordered. Her tone never wavered from its cool timbre. "These the friends you've been waiting for, Cloud?"

I never thought my life would ever be saved by the likes of someone like Aria T'Loak. I scrambled to my feet and peaked out from behind the oak desk and out the shattered window in the direction the shot had come from.

A damned sniper. Hated snipers. If anyone ever wanted to take killing me seriously, a sniper would probably be the way to do it. My fear was somewhat mitigated by the vindication that I was feeling. I knew the window had been a sniper risk the first time I had ever stepped in this room.

On the roof across from us, several more black-armored figures appeared around the first one. I finally managed to get a better look at their silhouettes. Turians.

Severus Tyrannus' commandos. Somehow they'd gotten here ahead of when we thought they would.

"Defend the civilians, Aria! I'm going after them!"

"Don't be stupid, it's clearly a—,"

But I was already out the door, Kel hot on my heels.

I shoved my way back through the crowd of bar-goers and dancers that perpetually flooded Afterlife. The heavy bass was overpowering, rendering all other sounds into nothing more than muted shadows. More armored figures – Aria's men – went about securing doors and taking up firing positions. The crowd was oblivious.

Kel was yelling something at me, but I couldn't hear her over the music.

Save them all.

I stormed out of the club, my biotic cloak already ablaze. The scene outside was a different one than the disconnected reality that existed within Afterlife. Frightened shouts and screams were echoing through the air and people were panicking and running away.

Standing in the center of the square outside Afterlife was a salarian in black armor. He was surrounded by a dozen soldiers in Systems Alliance armor that had been painted black.

Kneeling in front of the salarian were three terrified civilians. Two human males and another salarian. The salarian had a pistol pointed at the head of one of the humans.

Wary, I slowed my pace but kept my cloak up. The salarian would start to twitch every few seconds or so. The twitching would get worse until eventually he would slap a button on his armor and his twitching would cease.

The salarian removed his helmet, revealing a familiar face and a pair of big, black bulbous eyes that gleamed beneath Omega's dull, red light. His scarred face was covered in tell-tale red scars that patterned across his skin like lightning. Biotic burns. My handiwork.

"Morder Zakiah," I spat. "Still alive?"

Zakiah tilted his head to the side. His smile was unnaturally wide. "Truth be told, I don't even remember your name. But I see your face every night when I close my eyes. When I dream I dream of you, kneeling before me, crying and begging me for death."

The salarian twitched a few more times. Zakiah pressed the button again and gave his head a quick, little shake.

"But unfortunately, my dreams must remain dreams for now. At this moment you are far more useful to us alive than dead. So, you'll be coming with me."

I cautiously made my way down the stairs towards Zakiah. All three of his hostages were desperately pleading to me with their eyes.

"In what universe do you think that I'll go willingly with you?"

Zakiah looked amused by my question. With his free hand he gestured jauntily into the air around himself.

"Why is the Project trying to get to Erebus? What's there?" I ventured.

"Ah, you know about Erebus then? I told them that we should have stayed until Shepard was dead. Worthless. Worthless, worthless, worthless. Incompetent insects."

The salarian's eyes began to gleam even more brightly. "A million life-times ago, Erebus was once called Mürabann. It was the home planet of a species who were far more advanced in the scientific studies than your tiny, human mind could even comprehend. Locke and the others believe that there lies a way to bring back everyone that the Reapers harvested."

I tensed up. Zakiah raised a brow. "My, you don't look surprised. It looks like someone has already whispered that little song of theirs into your ears…"

"One of your scientists told me. Its insane. It… it can't be done."

It can. Bring them back.

"You're right, Spectre. My comrades—they are fools. Dreamers… no… no, no, no, no, no… not even that. Fools grasping at the wisps of a dream. Let me tell you what is really waiting for us on Mürabann."

Morder beamed. His unnaturally-wide smile was devoid of any genuine warmth or empathy. The madness emanating from him was almost palpable.

"Power. Power over life and death. Immortality."

You can bring them back.

I shook my head. "What do you mean? There is no such thing as immortality!"

Zakiah laughed. "No? Come with me and find out."

An all too familiar ache began to creep its way through my skull and I felt a cold chill come over me. It felt as if I was being watched. "There's nothing you can do that'll make me go with you."

Zakiah raised his other brow. Somehow his smile grew even wider. "Nothing?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing?" he repeated.

A sound like a thunderclap tore through the air, reverberating through the square and cutting through the screaming. It was followed by another, and then a third. The Project troopers standing around Zakiah recoiled but held their ground.

The air rushed out of my lungs. My vision narrowed and my cloak intensified. That fucking bastard.

I was about to weave my biotic signs but instead my fingers found themselves curled around my temples. The pain in my head reached a crescendo.

And suddenly a massive shadow threw the entire square into darkness, like there was an enormous beast passing overhead.

A horn sounded somewhere above me, deep and chilling. It was the same horn I'd been hearing for months in my dreams, playing the same damn note. You could feel in every single cell of your being.

The three bodies lying at Zakiah's feet suddenly began to twitch and convulse. I watched as their flesh began to shift beneath their skin. Their backs arched and their necks jerked back and forth. Synthetic cables erupted from their flesh and connected again in random spots with no rhyme or reason. Their skin began to harden into metal in some places and began rotting in others. Their eyes were replaced with burning, blue orbs and the flesh around their mouths began to slough away, revealing razor-sharp teeth made of both bone and metal.

Save us. Save us all. You can save us all.

The shadow above me grew darker and darker. I could feel something watching me. Judging me. The pain in my head had grown almost unbearable.

The horn sounded one more time and suddenly the pain was gone and the shadow had disappeared.

My biotic cloak evaporated. I fell to my knees and looked up into the sky. There was nothing there. Just Omega.

I looked back at Zakiah. There were no Corpsers, no monsters. There was just him, the Project troopers and the bodies of three innocent civilians lying dead at his feet.

All of them were staring at me like I was the monster. I looked around me. The air hissed and reeked of ozone. Biotic scorch-marks ringed the dirty poly-steel floor.

"Mad…" Zakiah said softly. "Absolutely mad…" He then looked over my shoulder and gave a slight nod.

I felt something sharp prick the side of my neck. I whirled, pistol in hand.

Strong fingers checked my wrist, forcing my gun down and away. I found myself staring into a pair of red eyes. A look of disgust crossed Severus Tyrannus' face. The white-scaled turian also looked at me like I was some kind of monster.

I tried to tear myself loose but my limbs were declining to respond. I dropped to a knee and pressed one hand over the area where I'd felt the pain on my neck. It began to grow dark once more.

"What did you do to me?" I gasped, but it was too late. The darkness overwhelmed me.


Time Unknown, April 10th, 2211 — Omega Nebula, Sahrabarik System, Omega

Location Unknown

(Spectre Operative 04272182-Cloud)

I woke gradually, biding my strength while stitching my mind back together thread by thread.

My head had been left swimming from whatever tranquilizer the Project had used but I was starting to regain my senses. My armor was gone. The air reeked of disinfectant and I could feel metal bindings keeping me secured to a padded chair. Was I in a medical bay?

Someone was sitting in front of me. I could hear them shifting in their seat but I could not catch any species-specific tells. There was no turian flanging from a cleared throat or the hiss of a volus rebreather. The individual hadn't said a word in the last fifteen or so minutes since I'd regained consciousness.

"Stop your theatrics Spectre. We have a lot to talk about."

The voice was deep, likely male, and the accent a strange one. It was lyrical and had both a khellish and thessian tinge. Above all it was… familiar. Where had I heard that accent before?

I opened my eyes.

My next breath died in my throat. Sitting in front of me was an alien with radiant blue skin and luminous eyes. It had human features much in the same way that asari and quarians did. Thin, fleshy tendrils hung from its jaw and a plate of bone sat on its forehead, jutting upwards almost like a krogan's. Two horns set above a pair of pointed ears curved towards the ceiling.

A chill ignited at the back of my neck and raced its way down my spine. I had seen this thing – or something like this thing – before. I had seen it in my dreams. I had seen beings like him going about their lives in cities of towering silver, beneath a sky with three planets.

I had seen beings like him burn and twist and warp beneath the shadow of a monster with many arms. My mind went back to the city in my dreams and I could once more hear the chittering and the snarling and the screaming and that damned, terrible horn.

He looked exactly like the star-child. Tanara.

"You're…"

"—A Cris'paii. Finally awakened after a long, long nightmare."

I looked around. I was strapped to a chair that looked like something that might be used for a medical procedure. The room was small, with walls colored a dull gray-blue. The light strips overhead emitted sterile, fluorescent rays. To the side were tinted windows that I couldn't see through. Likely one-way mirrors.

Adrenaline immediately flooded my systems. I managed to resist the urge to strain against the straps holding me down. It always irritated me that captives even bothered to try.

The Cris'paii chuckled. He pulled his chair forward so that he was closer to me. "Please, I am not here to torture you. I've heard a lot about you. My comrades figured that this—," he gestured at the chair, "—with all of its accompaniments would be the safest way to have a calm, productive conversation. I just want to talk to you."

My eyes drifted downwards. The Cris'paii was wearing a set of Systems Alliance fatigues with the sleeves cut off. The reason for the tailoring was immediately apparent. His skin was partially covered in metal plates and cabling. Protruding from the blue flesh on each of his forearms were a series of short, metal scythe-like protrusions.

It took about a second for me to draw the connection.

"You… you're one of those things!" I grunted. Now I strained against my restraints.

The Cris'paii tensed. He was big, maybe a head taller than Percival, and heavily-muscled like a batarian. He looked like he would have no trouble snapping me in two. "My name is Achimundé and I am not a thing," he spat, his nostrils flaring. "Those things are my kin whose rebirths have been tainted by the legacy of the Ainur Melkorä!"

My head suddenly began to pulse. Save us. Save us all. Bring us back. Bring her back. You can bring her back. The ghostly voice gimmick was getting old.I groaned through my teeth and strained harder at the bindings keeping me in my chair.

Achimundé's tendrils twitched and he rose with a speed I would not have expected from a creature his size. "You are a Tar'Elessar," he muttered, astonished. "Who, I wonder? Another Gene Architect? A Vindicator? Could I be so lucky?"

Tar'Elessar. That was what the Chimera had called me, back on the Hippocrates. That title had haunted me ever since.

I forced my rapidly-beating heart to slow down and I looked Achimundé dead in the eye. "What is the Tar'Elessar? Do you know what is happening to me?"

Achimundé looked at me with a bemused expression on his face. The corners of his lips curled.

"Not 'the Tar'Elessar'," he chuckled. "'A Tar'Elessar'. You are a Tar'Elessar". A good translation might be… 'occupied vessel'. It means your body already houses the souls of one of my kin."

I couldn't help but let out a laugh. Achimundé raised an eyebrow, confused by my outburst. That's all it was? I wasn't some sort of 'chosen one' or maybe a 'child of prophecy'? I was just a guy with an alien living in my head and sharing my body? The story of my life was an utter joke.

He drew closer. Achimundé had two prominent canines surrounded by teeth that betrayed his carnivorous background. "And you also bear the taint of the Ainur Melkorä."

The Ainur Melkorä? You mean the Reapers?"

"Ah, so you know of the Reapers too?"

"I know they're dead."

"They are dead," Achimundé shrugged his massive shoulders. "But that does not mean that we are free from their influence. Consider a dead mumahkil. As its body decays, it becomes the genesis of a host of microorganisms. Some of them will cause diseases in other creatures. The mumakhil is dead, and yet it can still influence the living around it."

As if on cue a fresh, new crop of whispers welled up in my head, followed by another pang of pain that sent stars across my vision. I felt as if I was being watched. It felt as if a thousand different pairs of eyes had me under their gaze, and yet there was no one in the room but Achimundé and I.

I let out a long exhale. "How do you know I'm tainted? What's going to happen to me?"

Achimundé shrugged again. "I do not know. The Reapers were full of secrets and were capable of a great many things. All of these they took with them to their graves. But I am certain you are tainted. The eyes never lie."

"So what do you want from me then?"

The Cris'paii pulled away and I let out a small, unbidden sigh of relief that I hope had gone unnoticed. Those canines of his sent shivers down my spine. Tanara's were much smaller.

"I answer to the the whispers of the Call within me. Alice Anders tells me that you lead those who opposes us. She tells me that you and those who fight alongside you believe that her path will lead to nothing but the destruction and ruin of your galaxy"

"What the Project is attempting is beyond dangerous," I spat. "They're creating monsters. Dangerous monsters. I've been fighting them non-stop for weeks. They've killed dozens of my friends. The Project killed millions of people with just one Reaper core and there are hundreds if not thousands of other cores scattered across our galaxy, waiting to turn innocent people into those things!"

The scale of it all. I hadn't seen death of that magnitude since I was a child. During the Reaper War. "One Corpser or a Changer can potentially infect an entire planet."

Achimundé's brows furrowed. "That would likely be the work of the Index, though not something I imparted into it."

I stiffened. "The Index?". That was the device that Tanara had been alluded to. She'd called it the 'Gift of the Gene Architects'. Both Achimundé and Tanara had used that term. "What is the Index?" I asked.

"It is my people's crowning achievement." There was no mistaking the pride in Achimundé's eyes. "It's an artificial gene that can capture a complete blueprint of an individual. It can record every single mutation or change you have ever underwent and every chemical or electrical signal you have ever produced. Then it codes for your rebirth and revival. The result is that the Index is capable of completely recreating an individual down to every last memory.

The Cris'paii smiled. "It is the pinnacle of my people's scientific achievement. Our final defence against the Reapers. With it, we could wait out the cycle."

For a moment I could forget the pain I was in. I was at a complete loss for words. "You do not believe me?"

It all seemed like fantasy. "How… how is that possible?"

Achimundé crossed his arms. He seemed to grow straighter in his seat. "My people are masters of genetic manipulation. The race that previously inhabited our home planet prior to their harvest by the Reapers were also extremely gifted in such sciences. We discovered hidden archives buried deep beneath our planet's surface. Then, we built upon their knowledge. It is a route of development that I am sure your kind is familiar with as well. Tell me, did Alice Anders tell you why they are doing what they are? Did she tell you what the Project intends to achieve?"

You can save her. "Yes."

"And yet you still oppose them. Tell me, did the Reapers ever harvest anyone you love?"

It felt like a roiling, black hole had suddenly appeared in my chest, but I didn't answer. You can save her.

"I lived under the terror of the Reapers for almost three hundred years. I have seen friends and family members torn apart by the Reaper's abominations or worse – forced to become them. I know what they are capable of. If your kind survived a cycle and even won against the Reapers a mere twenty-five years ago, then you must be familiar with the horrors of which I speak."

He leaned in closer again. "Have you lost no one to their harvest? No one that you would do anything to have back?"

"No."

He smiled wryly. "Then you must have a heart of ice, to deny them and billions of other grieving souls the opportunity to hold their loved ones again."

I swallowed. "…Can they? Get them back I mean?"

Achimundé stroked the tentacles hanging from his chin. His eyes gleamed but they betrayed nothing.

"Like I said, my people were masters of genetic manipulation. We had found a way to cheat death itself. I stand before you today as proof that a harvested individual could indeed be revived."

"And why are you helping them? What do you get out of this?"

The light in Achimundé's eyes almost visibly-darkened. "Right now I am the last of my people, human. The last of a species that once numbered more than a trillion souls on a thousand different planets. One in a trillion… those were the odds of this 'Project' bringing me back. Me. Achimundé Uth Loitaro, son of Arg'us. Gene Architect, first order."

The expression on his face was a mixture of pride and desperation. "Destiny does not have idle hands. Destiny has brought me back to life so I could resurrect my species and I will. Not only because the Call wills it, but because there is no other hope for the salvation of my people. The Reapers have tainted our rebirth. The Project and I have a mutual goal."

Something in his tone made me instinctively shrink backwards. "You said the Call told you to find me. What is the Call?"

"A module embedded in the Index. It creates a 'calling', or maybe the more appropriate term of yours to apply is an 'instinct'," Achimundé explained. "The Supreme Architect himself crafted it, so I do not know entirely how it works. The Call supposedly imparts hidden knowledge in our hosts, calling us to act in certain ways. It drives us down a path towards the resurrection of my people. It was meant to facilitate our rebirth. I call it an instinct because you may not be consciously aware of it's influence, like an organic being's reproductive urge. Still, I know that the Call guides my actions even now."

"So what, is it a form of brainwashing?"

Achimundé looked at me like I was an insect. "Nothing so inelegant. You must have felt it manifest in some way by now, being a Tar'Elessar. Perhaps a call to save our people?"

I tugged at my restraints. "I've had a bunch of voices in my head for months telling me to 'save them all'. That what you mean?" I growled.

Achimundé frowned. He looked at me with more than a bit of wariness in his eyes. "That has not been my experience, but not outside the realm of possibility I suppose. The Call works in mysterious ways."

That didn't sound very reassuring. "If I'm infected – if I am a Tar'Elessar – why didn't I change into one of those creatures?"

Achimundé pondered my question. Jaelen had told me his hypothesis, but could Achimundé help unravel the mystery?

"That I cannot say either," the Cris'paii finally shrugged. "I would need to conduct some tests."

I bit back a sigh. First order Gene Architect my pale, white ass. "How do infections happen? Some Corpsers release these spider-looking creatures which crawl into dead bodies and turn them into more Corpsers. Others are turned by these bigger creatures we call Changers. Those guys stick you with these cables before turning them."

Achimundé was silent again for a while. "The Index reads a host organism's biological code and the mechanisms hidden within and then uses the organism's own abilities to bring about rebirth. Based on what you are describing, I would hypothesize that those means of infections were Reaper machinations that the Index had copied. I do not know what spiders are, but during our war, some Reaper abominations had the ability to release tiny, many-legged creatures. Others were capable of turning other organics into Reaper abominations by impaling them. Once we were harvested our biological code was mixed with that of the Reapers. The Index would have had access to whatever secrets held in the Reapers' own biological code and then used it to obtain new hosts for each Cris'paii."

I remember the lesson that Shepard had given us back on the Archangel's Wrath about the creatures she had fought during the Reaper War. Ravagers – former Rachni – were capable of releasing swarms of mechanical, spider-like creatures. Organics were impaled onto these devices called Dragon's Teeth to create husks. Though the mechanics were beyond me, it made sense.

"You make it sound like the Index is a living thing."

"The Index is not simply a gene!" Achimundé hissed. His eyes began to glow bright-blue. "The Index is both one and many. It is the cradle that harbors the souls of each of my people and it is the shepard that ushers in their rebirth. It is the closest thing that you will find in the known universe to a god! It is the composer of one of the greatest symphonies ever written – Immortality!"

The Cris'paii suddenly lurched towards me, his hands around the top of my chair and the light in his eyes reaching a new intensity. "The Reapers took someone precious to you. No matter what you may say or not say, I could see the pain in your eyes when I spoke of it. You have lost someone!"

I shook my head. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"This is destiny! This is fate!" the Cris'paii pressed on. "The Call compelled me to bring you here, and now I find that you are a Tar'Elessar! You are the only Tar'Elessar I have met who has not turned into one of those abominations. You, out of hundreds of thousands – no, millions!"

"If you think I'm going to—,"

"Stop fighting it!" Achimundé thundered. The temperature in the room felt like it had suddenly plummeted. "You have the Call as I do and its hidden gifts! We are both on the same path. Don't you see? You were never meant to oppose us! The Call has been guiding you to us just as it has guided me to you!"

A fresh, new wave of pain overwhelmed me. The horn's ominous song sounded again in my ears and atop of that the voices had started up once more, begging and pleading with me to save them – to save her. Eyes – it felt like countless eyes were staring at me. Watching me.

"I offer you the same offer I made Alice. Help me bring back my people and I shall help you bring back everyone you lost. Together we can do it. The fate of a trillion souls and more rests in your hands…will you help me?" he begged.

A spectre appeared in the corner of the room wearing a face that had been haunting me every night ever since I had discovered it again.

I gritted my teeth and tried to will her away, but she didn't leave. This time my mother remained, staring at me with sadness in her eyes. Drops of sweat emerged on my brow and rolled down the corner of my eyes. It was all just an illusion. It was all just the Index.

"I will never help you."

Achimundé's visage suddenly began to warp, his features twisting into a visage I was all to familiar with. His flesh began to slough away, revealing metal beneath his skin. His teeth grew razor-sharp and the scythes on his arms elongated to their full, wicked length. He leaned in to me and roared, and I was entranced by the harsh, blue light emanating from within his gaping maw and the pits of his stomach.

I closed my eyes.

When I opened them again, he had reverted back to his original form. Or had he? My mind felt like it was fracturing.

"You are strong-willed, Spectre. You truly believe that it is up to you," Achimundé whispered, his eyes growing softer. "Your voluntary cooperation would have made this much easier but it matters not to the Index. You are subject to forces beyond your control. In time the Call will ensure your compliance and win me the assistance that you refuse to give freely. That I am sure of."

With that, Achimundé turned and left the room, leaving me alone with the spectre of the woman whom I had spent my whole life missing.


Time Unknown, April 10th, 2211 — Omega Nebula, Sahrabarik System, Omega

Location Unknown

(Spectre Operative 04272182-Cloud)

An asari came in what felt like a few hours after Achimundé left. The Project hadn't seen fit to release me from the chair, so she'd had to feed me like I was some sort of infant.

I didn't remember her name, but she told me how she had been a nurse back on Thessia. The fighting had been bad in the core cities where she had worked, and she had spent most of the war in hospitals. She had come home one day to an empty house and signs that the Reapers had been there. She had waited months and months for her husband and her daughter to return. They never did.

A former Systems Alliance marine from the ninth came in some time later. I could not tell how much time had passed. There were no clocks in my prison.

Her name was Operations Chief Amanda Zhou. She was around my age— maybe only a few years older than I was. To my surprise she asked me how Percival was doing. Apparently she was one of the ones that he had saved on Bahak, after he abandoned his mission to save a trapped company.

Operations Chief Zhou told me that she had felt terrible ever since the incident on the Hippocrates had happened, and especially after she had learned that Percival was one of the Spectres leading the mission against the Project. She also told me how as a child she had seen Reaper troops dragging her parents away from between the slats of the closet door she was hiding behind.

I didn't say a single word the entire time. The spectre standing in the corner of the room smiled at me. Why was she still there?

It is so like you, to be in denial about grief. Those people… can't you see that they are grieving, just like you were?

The talking was new. She wasn't my mother. It was just an illusion painted over an old memory.

"Get out of my head," I said out loud.

Morder Zakiah came to visit me next. It must have been in the late hours of the night because I was close to drifting off when I heard the door open. Before I could even fully open my eyes I found myself staring into two massive, pitch-black orbs. I was trying to break the cycle of hatred within me, but I think my trauma would understand if I angrily removed one more piece of filth from the galaxy first. I would have given my left arm to kill Morder Zakiah.

"Lost, frightened little Spectre. Caught in a trap. No one to save you," Zakiah crooned. He stroked my hair with a scarred, wrinkled hand. I couldn't help but flinch.

I glared at him. In what universe did I look scared to him? "You know, I was expecting a little better from a former STG operative. Maybe some better lines, or some better acting. Your crazy cop routine is an utter joke."

Zakiah immediately scowled. "I know a thousand different places to cut – a hundred different tendons to sever. I'll flay you bit by bit until you're begging me to die!"

Believable, but I'd learned a few things from my time interrogating Seamus back on Omega. I knew he couldn't touch me. That – plus the sleep deprivation – had me feeling bold.

"Except you can't, can you? Achimundé needs me. Alice Anders probably told you to keep it in your pants, didn't she?"

Zakiah narrowed his eyes, but he remained silent.

Time try another angle. "Yeah. Not many non-zombies with the Index running around in them."

The crazy bastard couldn't keep the surprise out of his eyes. Well, it looks like the Project ringleaders were keeping secrets from one another.

"You have the Index?!"

A smile spread across my face. In the corner of the room the spectre of my mother gave me a disapproving look. "What, they didn't tell you? Yeah. I've got the Index."

A thousand shades of insanity crossed Morder's face before I could even finish my laugh. His eyes darted back and forth across my face and his scarred face darkened. Good. Get pissed at your own buddies. My life would be a lot simpler if Morder completely lost his mind and started killing the other Project leaders, but my luck wasn't that good.

I saw his hands twitch in the direction of a button situated on his chestplate. My eyes followed the trail of wiring extending outwards. It linked to a small, rectangular tube affixed to his armor behind his left shoulder.

Morder grimaced and began to grind his teeth together. I could see him straining to keep his hands still. Eventually he hit the button on his chestplate. His grimace faded and he let out a little sigh of relief.

A perverse pleasure filled my chest and my smile twisted. The button must have been linked to some sort of painkiller. That with the biotic scars could only mean one thing. Biotic-induced peripheral neuropathy. Nerve damage due to biotic exposure. Salarians I heard were particularly prone due to their amphibian biology.

Permanent. Good. Son of a bitch deserved it.

"You know, my friend Cade got me a cream last Christmas for biotic burns. Not that I burn myself but sometimes when you're with an asari—,"

Morder suddenly grabbed my face and wrenched it towards his own. The deranged salarian was breathing hard and his eyes were filled with bloodlust.

"I will skin you alive, you filthy, stupid ape!" He roared, spittle flying from his mouth.

"You trying to kiss me?" My words were muffled by his palms.

He let out a frustrated shriek and pushed me away.

Morder retreated a few steps backwards before turning his back to me. He then started to pant heavily, almost as if he were hyperventilating.

I waited for him to gather himself and resume his little tantrum. Seconds stretched into a half-minute. Then a full minute passed. Still he just stood there, panting.

Three minutes passed and finally he stopped his heavy breathing. Morder had now fallen completely silent. I couldn't see Morder's face from where I was sitting but my mother's spectre could. She looked at him and then back to me. Her expression caused the hairs on the back of my neck to rise.

Morder finally turned back around. To my surprise, tears were streaming down his face.

"Then you… then you cannot die?" he croaked. The murder had disappeared from his eyes.

I hesitated. Would the Index work on me too? Or would it just work for a Cris'paii?

"No," I lied. Something told me that I was wandering into some dangerous territory, but my gut told me to keep up the charade. "You were right, Morder. It's all real. All of it. I will live forever."

I was half-expecting Morder to jam a knife into my chest right then and there to test me. Instead, a big smile suddenly appeared on Morder's face and the salarian began to laugh ecstatically.

One moment he was raging for my blood and now he looked ready to throw me a party. Councillor Jath's intel on Morder Zakiah's mental state was either incorrect or outdated. How far gone was the salarian's mind?

Morder wiped the tears from his eyes. "I've been waiting for this moment for almost five years, Spectre. Did you know that? Five years. I'm forty-one years old right now."

He pointed at his face. His finger hovered over a set of old scars, ghoulish-white. They weren't scars from my biotics.

"Want to know how I got these scars?" Morder licked his lips. "I was a highly-decorated operative you know? I'd served the STG for almost twenty years. Hundreds of missions. Assassination, espionage, intelligence-gathering. Never questioned my orders. Always got the job done. Always. A good soldier."

"Five years ago, when I was still a captain in the STG, my cell was ordered to raid a krogan warlord. Our intelligence suggested that he'd managed to get his dirty paws on some old, nuclear warheads. Our orders were to secure them and terminate him."

The salarian's eyes darkened. The whispering started up again as Morder continued his story. I gritted my teeth.

"The mission went bad… first time in my life. Until then, nothing but success. We underestimated the krogan. My team and I were caught and captured. No torture, surprisingly. They just tossed us into a cell."

"Each day, the krogan would bring the four of us a single cup of water and a hunk of bread. Not enough for the four of us, but we were all friends and veteran operatives. We did our best to split it and to hold out until the STG could send reinforcements. Every day, the same cup of water and hunk of bread…,"

"…Then, the days stretched into weeks, and then months. Eventually we lost track of time."

The whispering swelled, but Morder's story managed to cut through it. "The hunger… oh, you could not imagine it. It began as a dull ache in the pits of our stomachs. It was easy to ignore at first—we had been trained to go without food for days—but as time passed the hunger grew more and more insistent. It gnawed and gnawed and gnawed at us. Made our limbs heavy. Drove our minds to dark, dark places. Insistent…Ravenous…,"

"…I awoke to a scream one night. One of my operatives, Solas, had attacked another of my men. I never learned why. Perhaps the hunger had finally driven poor Solas mad. Folut was always the weakest of us, and when I came to my senses I saw Solas hunched over him, muttering and giggling to himself. Kurun woke next, and the next thing I remember we were all fighting. All shouting…"

"…At the end of it, I was standing over the bodies of my team. When the krogan came back the next morning he just looked at me and laughed. There was no bread or water that day. Or the next. And then the hunger…" Morder swallowed, his words catching in his throat. "The rescue team came two weeks later and I was… the only one who made it out of that cell."

The blood had drained from my face and I felt myself go cold all over. All of a sudden the whispering stopped. Morder touched the ghoulish-white scars on his face once more. "These scars are where Kurun scratched my face as I strangled the life out of him."

The salarian closed his eyes and sighed. "We salarians have a photographic memory," Morder tapped his temple. "I remember every second of my time in that cell. But what haunts me the most is not the hunger or the deaths of my comrades. It is the feeling I felt as I defended myself against my own comrades and what I had to do afterwards to survive. I didn't want to die, Spectre. I didn't want to die… I wanted to live…"

"I want to live, Spectre," Morder repeated. He sounded the sanest he had ever sounded. "I don't want to die. I want to live and you and an alien that died hundreds of thousands of years ago are my only hope."

He rubbed his eyes and then turned to face the door. My mother looked at me with tears in her own.

"I will be back tomorrow, Spectre." Morder spoke to me over his shoulder. "Your cooperation would be much appreciated."

With that, Morder left.

I sagged back into my chair and sighed. I wished fervently that I wasn't restrained right now so I could bury my face into my palms.

I let slip another sigh and closed my eyes. Some sleep would be a real help right about now.

Go to sleep. I will watch over you.

I fought back against the urge to answer. Damn the Index and the Call and whatever Reaper crap I had in me.

I tried to sleep but all I could see was Morder hunched over the bodies of his friends, a red hunk of flesh in his hands and blood around his mouth. There was too much blood to have come from the scratches that his friend had caused him.

Just when I thought I might finally fall asleep, I was pulled out of my stupor by a noise outside.

The door rattled and then slid open. A figure wearing a battered set of black and blue armor pulled himself through, a long, black rifle protruding over his shoulder. My heart skipped a beat.

"Cade!"

My friend did not reply. His mandibles were taught against his jaw and he barely even looked at me. Cade opened my restraints and shoved a familiar-looking Predator pistol, a communicator, a kinetic barrier generator, and one of my Talon combat knives into my chest.

I checked the heatsink and the ammunition block and slid the knife into my belt. With the kinetic barrier generator activated I was starting to feel a lot more like my old self. "You're a sight for sore eyes, man. The Project must have sent an advance team in a frigate or something. How'd you find me?"

"The quarian," came the terse reply.

So that's where Kel had gone. To find my friends. I slipped on the communicator on and activated it. "Kel?"

"Cloud! Thank the ancestors. Are you okay? Did they hurt you?"

"I'm okay," I said. "Aside from drugging me all they've done is talk my ear off. How about you?"

"I'm finel. I'm so glad that we found you!"

"Me too."

We made our way out of the operating room, exiting through a short vestibule with a handwashing station into a larger lobby with a number of adjoining doors leading to other parts of wherever we were. My mother followed behind us. A quartet of guards were lying still on the floor.

"Cade, where are we?" I asked, but my friend ignored me and instead made his way towards a door marked with a set of stairs. Strange. What the hell was growing under his scales?

He passed through and my mother and I followed him into the stairwell. Irritated, I tried Kel instead. "Kel? Can you tell me where we are?"

"You were taken to the Amin district. To one of the hospitals there."

I grunted. "I assume you guys have a plan?"

"Take the stairs up. We're going to meet on the roof and call for a shuttle. Then we will fly out."

Always the damned roof. Always the clichés. "Wait, are you here too?"

"Yes. I'm in a security room right now."

"Damn it." The last thing I had wanted was for Kel to become involved in this whole mess. "Stay there, we'll come to get you first."

"No, that's a waste of time. I'm several floors below you in a security room. Don't worry, I'm safe."

"Is Kiki there with you at least?"

"No, I had to leave her behind on your ship. She'd draw too much attention."

"Okay, but stay there until we've cleared the way. Please." Ahead ofme Cade's head tilted a fraction of an inch in my direction. It was the first time he'd acknowledged me since breaking me out.

"Okay. Good luck."

Kel cut the line and I sighed. "Okay, what's your deal man? Why are you giving me the silent treatment?"

Instead of answering, Cade began to walk up the stairs. I'd had enough. I grabbed Cade's arm. "Hey, don't walk away from—,"

Cade whirled, mandibles flared. "Where in the Spirits have you been?!" Cade hissed.

I stopped. That look in Cade's eyes right now. I'd seen him direct it at others before. Slavers, gangsters, criminals… but I'd never seen him direct it at me.

I was taken back. "A lot happened," I offered lamely.

My friend scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Yeah? And over the last two days you couldn't even send us a spirits-damned message?"

He pulled himself away from my grasp. "What happened?" he demanded.

"Now's not the time, Cade."

"No," Cade said. He stood his ground, blocking my path forward. "No, you wanted to talk so let's talk. You can spare me a five-second explanation of why you didn't reach out or I'm not moving a single inch."

I felt my cheeks flush. "I was off completing our objective, which I did by the way. I won Aria's support, alright? I found her daughter."

"No, I know all of that. You don't think Kel'Raynea told me what happened? I'm asking you why you didn't try and contact us."

"Kel had disabled my omni—,"

"That is complete crap!" Cade jammed a talon into my chest. I balled up my fists. "Spirit, you're a Spectre for crying out loud! Kel'Raynea might be technically-gifted but there's no way you wouldn't have been able to slip away and find us."

I found myself unable to reply. "Its you being you all over again!" My friend thundered on. I had never seen Cade so furious. "Just like on the Hippocrates when you left us to go off on your own. Just like on Anhur, when you ran off to some prison instead of coming back to us. I'm tired of it, man!"

Cade took a step back. "You didn't even try and check in on Percival."

Suddenly I couldn't meet Cade's eyes.

My mother looked at me from over Cade's shoulder. Her eyes were soft and understanding. You're hurting the people who care about you and you don't even know it. It's my fault. I should have been there to teach you. I should never have left you.

My heart ached. No, I thought. You shouldn't have.

"I'm sorry," I whispered. "How is he?"

Cade's eyes were like chips of ice. "He's okay now, but he was shaken up pretty badly."

"How bad?"

My friend turned back around and continued his trek up the stairs. "Mild traumatic brain injury, some organ damage. He took the brunt of the explosive shockwave for us. If he hadn't been wearing the upgraded tech armor Shepard gave him it could have been much worse. He might not have survived."

"Will he be okay?"

"He's still shaken-up. The brain injury was not catastrophic but still pretty bad. He'll be mostly okay in the short-term but Rentea thinks that he might experience some symptoms later down the road."

"Shit."

"Occupational hazard," Cade shrugged. His words were glib but Cade wasn't fooling anyone. Percival was one of the most important people in Cade's life. "This isn't a game. We don't always get to shrug off all the damage we take."

As if on cue my left shoulder began to ache. I wonder if it'd ever be the same again after it had been dislocated back on Anhur. Now I also really felt like a piece of shit for not reaching out to my friends.

The conversation didn't repair the rift between Cade and I. He didn't speak to me again until we had reached the door to the roof.

"Think they're waiting for us outside?" I asked him. The air around me sizzled as I brought up a biotic barrier.

"If they are then they knew we were coming up the stairs, and they should have attacked us then."

"Easier to surround us outside."

"They could have still surrounded us on the stairs too."

"Easier to attack from several angles outside though."

Unfortunately, Cade wasn't keen on bantering with me after what I'd done. He unslung his Black Widow sniper rifle. "Just get ready. They probably are outside."

I sighed. I had really messed things up between the two of us this time. "Fine. I'll frontline?"

"Yes. But keep at least five meters away from me."

Had I heard that wrong? "Um, what? Why?"

Cade just signalled for me to go. I sighed a final time and kicked the door. My biotics sent it flying off the hinges.

I dashed through the threshold and slugs immediately began bouncing off of my biotic shield. I scanned around. We were on the roof of one of many towering buildings that threaded through the skyline here. Like the rest of Omega's massive, central hub, everything was colored the same rust-brown. In the distance, large industrial lamps shed reddish-orange light on the district. Around me the wind howled.

On the far end of the roof were about two dozen Project troopers wearing blackened Systems Alliance armor split into two groups. Not a bad move. Less chance they'd shoot each other.

My barrier held beneath the overwhelming fire. Shepard's custom amp not only came with a few more abilities but it was also much more efficient than my old L7x, which was saying something given that my old model had been the best you could get on the market.

Three of the Project troopers in the left group suddenly dropped, holes in their helmets. I took the opportunity to launch a Singularity at the remainder of the group. The Project troopers were experienced Systems Alliance marines so most of them managed to dodge it in time, but the swirling ball of biotic energy still managed picked up another quartet of troopers. They whirled in the air, helpless.

I followed up with a Warp. The ensuing biotic explosion sent the four of them flying over the edge of the roof. Their screams died in the wind.

The remainder managed to bring their weapons back to bear on me and I was forced to raise a biotic barrier once more.

A glowing blur whipped over my right shoulder, careening straight for the other group. As it passed by my communicator crackled, and to my surprise the charge on my kinetic barriers began to drain a bit.

The blur landed amongst the other group in a flash of metal and crackling, blue energy. My jaw almost dropped when I saw that it was Cade. His Ghost Infiltrator armor was cloaked in a bright-blue energy field similar to my own biotic cloak. A second, larger energy field several meters wide surrounded him like a ball of electricity, though it glowed less brightly than his cloak. Electric discharge emitted periodically from his inner cloak to strike the surface of the outer one.

The air began to sizzle and hum with energy. The troopers nearest to Cade aimed their weapons at him and began to fire. "Cade!" I screamed.

The shots looked like they were hitting him but somehow his kinetic barriers were holding steady. I was prepared to shift my barrier onto him when a symphony of cracks split the air. One by one, the kinetic barriers of the Troopers surrounding Cade began to fail. Then, their weapons overheated.

Wide, metal blades about two feet long suddenly snapped out from the top of Cade's armored vambraces, coated in the same bright-blue energy field surrounding him. Cade whirled and the three troopers closest to him crumpled like puppets with their strings cut. The other troopers tried to track him but my friend was too fast, using armor's his booster jets to jump to his next pair of victims. Cade plunged both blades into the chest of a fourth trooper and then cleaved cleanly through the neck of a fifth. My friend fought with an almost terrifying savagery that I'd never seen before.

Cade's flashy display had drawn the attention of the other group that had been keeping me pinned down with fire, leaving me free to retaliate. I didn't have time to weave the mnemonics necessary to use Shepard's biotic energy blade or the biotic shuriken, so I settled with another pair of Singularity and and Warp combinations. I finished off the last few with my pistol and turned to see how my friend was doing.

Cade was standing alone near the edge of the roof, amidst a pile of severed limbs and broken bodies. He had retracted his armblades but his energy field was still active.

I stepped towards him but stopped when I noticed that my communicator had begun to fritz and my shields began to drain again. "Cade!" I called out again.

My friend turned. His blue eyes were glassy, like he was caught in a particularly bad memory. I wondered what was running through his mind.

My mother stood behind Cade's shoulder. Really? Perhaps you don't know your friend as well as you thought you did.

"Sorry," he shrugged. The field dissipated and I walked up to him. Cade turned on his communicator and started to talk with someone on the other end. I turned my communicator back on as well. "Kel, the roof's clear. Get up here."

"You've got it. I'll see you two soon."

Cade finished his conversation as well. "Dropship's on its way," he said.

I gestured at the bodies surrounding us. "Was that Shepard's gift to you?"

"Yeah."

I nudged the body of a trooper with my foot. "The field, it disrupts electronics?"

"Yep. It also siphons kinetic barriers and causes nearby weapons to overheat faster. It's why I told you to stay away."

"That sounds broken."

"It doesn't last as long as you think," Cade said. He still had a troubled look on his face. "Besides, I'm pretty sure you got a gift from Shepard too."

"Yeah," I grinned at him. "New custom amp. It lets me use both Vanguard and Adept techniques, is more efficient, and then there is this." My fingers flashed as I weaved the complicated set of mnemonics required to activate one of Shepard's two unique, homebrewed biotic techniques. I was getting faster at it.

My left hand began to blaze with glowing, white-blue energy so bright that it looked like lightning. I waved my hand around. "It's highly-condensed biotic energy. Let's me take off armored limbs as easily as your armblades do. I've actually shoved my arm through a krogan using this technique."

Cade's browplates rose, but my friend didn't smile back. "Wow. Any negatives?"

I turned it off. "Well, I'll overheat my amp eventually. Plus, my hand gets really sore after a while. You should see the other custom technique she plugged into this thing though."

"Maybe later," Cade shrugged. "Shepard is… she's an eccentric one, isn't she?"

"She is one weird woman," I shrugged back at him. I thought I'd gotten the measure of her back when we'd spoken in the depths of the Excalibur, but after seeing exactly what she'd given to both Cade and me I realized that I might not actually know her all that well at all. "A lot flashier than a fancy, new gun though. Looks like Percival got the short-end of the stick huh?"

My friend shook his head. "Oh you'd be surprised. His new tech armor pretty much makes him invincible to small-arms fire, and unlike our upgrades his doesn't run out as easily."

I whistled. I was going to spout off another quip but for some reason it died in my throat, leaving the two of us in an awkward silence.

Beyond Cade, my mother looked at me with pity in her eyes. Say you're sorry.

"Why didn't you come back for us?" Cade suddenly said.

I opened my mouth and then closed it again. Just say you're sorry, my mother repeated.

"A lot was happening at the time," I said. I looked up at the station ceiling, hanging far, far above us. "A lot has happened since. I've…. I've been doing some thinking, Cade. I've been thinking a lot about the kind of person I am and the kind of person I want to be."

I thought about the cycle of pain that I'd been caught in ever since I was a child. Fighting and violence… none of it ever fixed anything broken inside of me and the pain would always come rushing back. But still, I'd go out and hurt people to make myself feel better. If they survived, they'd go out and do the same thing, continuing the vicious pattern of infection. Pain would only ever beget more pain.

"This mission, this fighting, the Project… I want to find a way to end this without any more fighting. Without any more violence. I've changed, Cade. I've changed…"

The hairs on the back of my neck started to rise and a chill ran down my spine. That… wasn't exactly I had meant to say. In the corner of my eye I saw my mother beaming at me, nodding approvingly. I'm so proud of you, my son. You're growing so much. You can save them all. All of them.

I pressed my eyes into my hands and shook my head angrily. Cade looked at me with an odd look in his eyes.

"Cloud…" Cade said. "My father… you know what he did. He did what he thought was right, but what he thought was right turned out to be very, very wrong."

He balled his fists. "I should have seen the signs earlier. I should have seen the weight on his shoulders. But I didn't, and because of that my father walked down the wrong path in pursuit of what he thought was the right thing to do. He even sacrificed his team – my friends – to walk it. And…"

I shot him a confused look. Beside him my mother also looked confused. Where was Cade going with this?

"…And?" I asked.

"…And I want you to know that you can tell me anything. Anything."

I smiled. I mean, I'd always known that, but it helped to hear it from my friend. "Thanks man."

Cade swallowed. "You're my best friend, man."

I remember the first time I'd ever met Cade, standing outside of a video game store talking about galaxy of fantasy. I wondered what I must have done in my past lives to deserve a friend like Cade in this one.

"And you're my best friend too," I replied. The two of us turned, gazing out past the edge of the roof down at the station below us. A sigh flew past my lips. I was getting really tired of Omega.

"I'll tell you everything once we're back on the Excalibur, Cade. I swear."

My friend turned towards me and nodded slowly – almost warily even. "Okay, it's a deal. First lets—,"

A barrage of gunfire suddenly came out of nowhere. It tore through Cade's kinetic barriers and sent him reeling down on one knee. Blue blood began to drip down onto the ground.

I let out a raw scream and immediately threw up a barrier around us. The gunfire continued to rain down on my barrier, but it managed to hold. Time to fight! You can do this! My mother screamed.

A dozen black-armored solders suddenly de-cloaked in a rough semi-circle behind us, guns blazing. All of them were turians.

A few seconds later a thirteenth one appeared at the front of the group wearing black armor silhouetted in gold. He was tall, but slimmer than the rest. The leader pressed a button on his helmet. The back of it bloomed, allowing the turian to pull it off and revealing pale, white scales and a pair of bright-red eyes.

Severus Tyrannus wave his hand. His commandos spread out to completely encircle us and began to approach me. One pulled out a set of restraints. Severus looked at me, and then looked at Cade. The threat was implicit.

Go with them, my mother begged. They'll kill him if you don't!

All of a sudden my legs felt like lead and I was seized by a desire to kneel.

"Wait…" a voice suddenly croaked out. I glanced down at Cade. The pool of blood beneath him had grown to a startling size. "Don't worry about me…," Cade whispered. ":et them get in closer…"

The sound of Cade's voice drove the weakness from my limbs and cleared the fog from my head. My mother looked at me with understanding in her eyes and nodded. I readied myself as Severus' commandos continued to close the distance between us.

Bolts of electricity suddenly began to arc through the air and Cade's energy field came to life, enveloping the two of us and the nearest commandos. The commandos halted in their tracks and exchanged confused looks. As well trained as they were, they had never encountered anything like this before.

My shields began to drain but I ignored it. Instead I brought my hands together and began to weave my signs. My left hand began to blaze once more, coated in electric-blue biotic energy that burned like a miniature sun.

I launched myself into a biotic charge at the commando furthest on the left and drove my hand clean through the surprised turian's chestplate. I pushed him away and stepped towards the next one. At the same time Cade activated his boosters. He shot towards the farthest commando on the right and sliced through his neck seal with his armblades.

The ones closest to Cade began to fire at him, but his energy field replenished his own kinetic barriers using the commandos' own. Their weapons soon began to overheat. Cade pressed inwards from the right while I did the same from the left, fighting harder than I'd ever fought and doing my best to drive the commandos into Cade's electric field.

"Back away!" Severus snarled. The surviving six commandos quickly obeyed, arranging themselves back around the Project leader.

Cade's energy field turned off and he retracted his armblades. Him and I were standing shoulder to shoulder, surrounded by half a dozen bodies of the Project's elite troops. I could hear my friend's labored breathing beside me. It was a miracle that he was still on his feet.

Cade and I shared a glance and my friend shook his head. His shield was all used up. Hopefully Severus hadn't picked up on that.

I raised my left hand, still ablaze. I wasn't entirely sure I could finish this before I overheated my amp, especially with Cade's energy field being depleted, but that wasn't going to stop me from trying.

A spike of pain suddenly tore its way through my head, so agonizing that it dropped me down onto one knee. It felt like liquid fire had been poured into my skull. A giant shadow began to appear on the ground.

Cade grabbed my shoulder. "Cloud, Cloud are you okay!?"

I closed my eyes and tried to draw deep breaths. Ride it out, I could hear my mother saying from beside me. Ride it out, it'll be okay! Don't fight it! Let it pass through you.

Eventually the pain subsided. When I opened them again the shadow was gone and there were four gunships in the air. Dozens of Project troopers poured out of them, taking up positions all around the roof and training their weapons onto Cade and I.

Another familiar face appeared, standing beside Severus. It was Locke.

"You two are surrounded," the former N7 said. His voice was as cold as ice. "Lay down your weapons and I promise you, no harm will come to the two of you. We can all sit down and discuss this in civilized manner."

"This doesn't look too good," Cade whispered from beside me. I glanced at him. His scales were growing duller and duller.

The door to the roof suddenly burst open. Morder Zakiah appeared, dragging Kel alongside him. The bastard had a pistol pressed to her head and that bone-chilling smile on his face.

Cold fury traced its way through my veins, pushing the rest of the pain out of my head. Zakiah took his place alongside Locke and Severus. He kicked Kel's knees out and forced her to the ground.

"Hello again, Spectre! Do I need to say the obvious or will you be a good little boy and come back to us?"

"Cloud, don't worry about me! Get out of here!" Kel pleaded. Zakiah raised his hand and slapped her across the cheek. Kel's yelp of pain caused his smile to grow even wider.

"I'll kill you!" I screamed at him. My biotic cloak flared up and my amp burned even hotter.

"Actually, you will help me live forever," Morder said cheekily. The salarian's eyes burned with manic energy. "The veil between life and death will be severed, Spectre, and you will be the blade. Transcendence is nigh."

Kel looked at Morder, and then at Locke and at Severus. She looked at the gunships hovering in the air and the dozens of armed and armored troopers scattered over the rooftop.

Then she looked at me, tears rolling down her cheeks. The look she gave me tore open all the old wounds that I had accumulated inside of me and all of the air flew out of my lungs. As I watched her pull out a grenade, ghosts wearing familiar faces started to appear one by one as if called, standing alongside my mother.

Please. No, I couldn't go through this again. I just couldn't.

And then I heard a hiss high up in the air above me, followed by a pair of explosions and the rhythmic drumming of a heavy repeating cannon.

One of the Project gunships suddenly exploded. I looked up. A Kodiak darted through the sky, spewing fire and depleted titanium rounds.

An asari wearing an unfamiliar set of white and blue armor landed in front of me, facing the three Project leaders with her back turned to us. She threw up a barrier around Cade and I. Was that Rayla?

Then a trio of rapidly-spinning discs of biotic energy each the length of a man came hurtling out of the sky to crash around the roof, landing among groups of Project troopers and showering the area with limbs and debris. A woman with red hair landed in front of the asari wearing a battered set of black armor, a faded red and white stripe painted on the arm.

Shepard.

Two more familiar shapes landed alongside Shepard and I recognized Garrus Vakarian and Miranda Lawson.

"Keep them safe, Liara!"

"Yes, Shepard!"

Shepard raised her hand and flashed a few hand-signs, and then Garrus broke off to the left while Miranda went right.

Then chaos ensued.

The rooftop was suddenly filled with a flurry of biotic detonations that sent more bodies flying. Another gunship went down with a fist-sized hole through the cockpit. People started to scream and tracer rounds filled the air. Shepard tore through the Project troopers like a hurricane, combining her biotics with gunfire in a mesmerizing, deadly dance.

Turning away, I searched for Kel. Morder had shoved her aside and had begun firing at Garrus, but the old turian was a lot faster than I gave him credit for. Garrus darted and danced across the rooftop, pausing only for the briefest of moments to take shots that seemed impossible to make, and yet every time he stopped to do so another trooper went down.

Kel scrambled backwards from Morder. The grenade that had been in her hand was now rolling between Locke and Severus.

Locke looked down first. His omni-shield sprung to life and to my horror the N7 used the tip of the shield to flick the grenade back in Kel's direction.

The grenade sailed over Kel's shoulder and I screamed like I had never screamed before. A split second before it detonated a blue barrier appeared around it, containing the explosion.

I pushed myself back to my feet and activated my biotic energy blade. The amp on the back of my neck was growing unbearably hot.

"Cade, protect Kel!" I forced through gritted teeth. My friend started to stumble towards her, with the asari that Shepard had called Liara following along with her barrier.

My gaze was fixated on Locke. I made my way towards the former N7. The man starred grimly back at me with a promise of his own hidden beneath his cold, blue eyes. The ghosts were now standing behind him, starring at the man's back. My mother had moved to stand directly beside him.

Locke raised his omni-shield and aimed its tip right at me. Its edge was razor-fine and looked like it could take whole limbs off if Locke could put enough strength behind his swing. The last time we had fought he had pierced right through my armor with it, and I wasn't wearing any armor now.

Suddenly the omni-tool flickered, and then it disappeared completely. Miranda was standing off to the side, her fingers flying over her omni-tool's surface. Locke cursed and turned to Severus. The N7 nodded in her direction. The white-scaled turian pulled a rifle off of his back and let loose a barrage of gunfire at the former Cerberus operative, but Miranda was fast. A barrier popped up with a flick of her wrist, blocking the rounds.

Locke pulled out a standard-issue Systems Alliance combat knife and held it out in front of him, its blade pointed downwards. With his other hand he gestured for me to approach.

I was happy to indulge him.

I closed the distance in a heartbeat. I lashed out towards his face with my biotic lightning blade, but Locke slipped it with ease. I shifted my attack into a wide slash across his chest, but the N7 darted backwards out of the way like it was the easiest thing in the world.

I gritted my teeth and tried again. The air hummed with the sound of crackling electricity as I let loose with a barrage of piercing strikes and slashes at the man, but Locke managed to slip them all. Ribbons of brilliant, blue light danced between the two of us as I struck out again and again. Locke was dodging every single one of my attacks like I was some child of his that he was teaching how to fight, and he had yet to attack me even once.

Another flaming wreck hurtled out of the sky as someone felled another of the Project's dropship. A chaotic chorus of screaming and shouting trumpeted through the air, the words lost in the pandemonium of battle.

The smell of heavy ozone that surrounded me like a cloak grew more pungent with every stroke, and my amp was now so hot that I could feel it burning my skin as it approached its limits. I cursed inwardly. Locke was the farthest thing from an amateur fighter. The veteran N7 knew how to fight biotics.

Flashes of pain began to tear their way down my spine, beginning at my amp. At the same time, my head began to pulse with a heavy, familiar ache. Still, I pressed on.

Locke darted backwards, but this time either by mistake or divine providence or sheer, dumb luck he lost his balance for a fraction of a second. I closed the gap immediately, and my hand flew straight at his chest.

The man slipped out of the way and I flew past him. My heart sank.

My amp shrieked and then flashes of intense pain began to slither from the base of my neck out to what felt like every nerve in my body. My biotic blade disappeared with a hiss. Meanwhile the aching pain in my head started to crescendo.

Locke had been fighting me grim-faced this entire time. Now, the slightest hint of a smile had appeared at the corner of his lips. The N7 started his offensive. His knife flew towards my face and then slashed across my chest in a mockery of my initial opening. I didn't even have time to pull out my own knife or pistol.

I managed to dodge both attacks, albeit with a lot less grace than he did. His attacks were slower than mine but he was much better at chaining them, with Locke initiating his next strike before I had a chance to fully recover my balance from dodging the previous blow. I was suddenly made aware of just how much the N7's fighting experience eclipsed mine. With each attack I felt myself losing more and more of my balance until it was all I could do just to avoid his attacks.

Locke suddenly dropped into a half-crouch and aimed a slash at my stomach. I evaded that with a simple step backwards.

I wasn't prepared for the leg sweep that followed.

I hit the ground and the air flew out of my lungs. In a flash Locke was on top of me. My mother was standing over his shoulder.

There were no words or any self-indulgent taunting, and I wouldn't have expected any from a man like him. Locke simply looked over at Severus, who broke away from his continued fight with Miranda just long enough to give Locke a simple nod.

"No! We need him! I need him!" Damn, I wouldn't even outlive an insane, deranged salarian. Somewhere in the distance I heard Kel screaming my name. The pain in her voice made my heart ache in a way that it had never ached before. I hoped Cade could manage to get her out safely and say sorry to Percival for me.

"Do it!" I hissed.

"It's nothing personal." Locke finally spoke. "But I can't let you get in our way anymore. You're too dangerous. I'll kill a thousand of you if it means I'll see her again one day."

The N7 raised his knife above my chest.

"Tom! Wait!" A voice rang out.

Locke turned. Shepard walked towards us, her armor stained with blood and biotic scoring. The sky shimmered from the heat of the flaming wrecks scattered across the roof and there was not a single Project trooper standing upright except for Morder, Severus and Locke. The former stood across from both Garrus and Miranda, forced into a wordless stalemate. Some distance away, the asari that Shepard had called Liara stood sentinel over both Cade and Kel. To my relief those two were still alive.

"Jane." Locke spat the word out like a curse. "So this is what it takes for you to finally show your face. Twenty-five years of galactic discord, in-fighting, slavers, and you can stick your head in the sand on some backwater planet without a care in the world."

Locke hardly tried to contain the bitterness beneath his words. "But when a group of people who spent the last twenty-five years hurting try and stop that hurt— suddenly you're here. Suddenly the 'hero' returns. "

The N7's looked at one another. Locke's face was a mask of raw agony. "You're a coward, Jane. A goddamn coward! I only wish that more people could have seen the real you!"

Pain flashed in Shepard's eyes, but she held her ground. "Tom, please," she said. Her tone was calm and level. "You can't kill him."

Locke's eyes darkened. "Why? He's the one the Council sent to stop us! He's the one in my way! He's the one who wants to stop me from getting Martha back!"

Martha. Was that the name of his wife then? The one he'd lost to the Reapers?

"You can't kill him," Shepard repeated.

"Why!?"

"Because Tom, he's your son."

My heart and lungs stopped all at once. Locke froze. My mother looked at him and then at me with a sad, little smile on her face.

"What?" Locke whispered. His hand shook and his knife quivered. His eyes darted between my face and Shepard's.

Shepard walked over and grabbed Locke by his pauldron, pulling him off of me. Locke didn't fight her. The commander's fingers fumbled over his chestplate. Shepard eventually pulled out a worn photo from a hidden compartment and shoved it in his face.

"You've been searching for Martha for the last twenty-five years Tom, but don't you see?"

Locke took the photo from Shepard. He looked at it and then he looked at me, his mouth open. Shepard pointed down towards me.

"You found her, Tom… You found her."

I pushed myself to my feet and pulled the photo from Locke's hand. It was a photo of a woman – a woman with long, blonde hair and eyes just like mine. It was a photo of a woman whose face I had almost completely forgotten until a few short weeks ago. It was a photo of a woman I'd spent my whole life missing.

It was a photo of the woman standing behind Locke's shoulder.

A photo of my mother.

Something indescribable filled every cell in my body. I shoved the photo into Locke's face. "Why do you have this?" I demanded. "Why do you have this!"

Locke couldn't speak. My fingers suddenly fell limp and the photo fluttered to the ground between the two of us.

Locke picked up the photo. He looked at it again and back at me.

Shepard placed her hand once more on Locke's chestplate. "Tom, I know how badly you want Martha back but don't you see? You've found her. Your son is all that's left of Martha. Stop this—all of this! Let her go."

I stumbled backwards. It couldn't be.

You found me, my mother said. You can bring me back. You and your father… Together...

Together…

Bring me back…

You can bring me back…

Pain erupted in my head, followed by a chorus of soft whispers that grew louder and louder until they had drowned out everything else. I dropped to my knees, my hands around my temples. A shadow appeared overhead once more, blotting out any light and coating me in darkness.

The horn played its chilling note, and a single, final word echoed through my head.

Obey.