A/N: First of all thank you for your patience and of course thank you Kirabaros, Jules Hawk, Impslave, Vorcha Girl, and jediserenity82 for your lovely reviews. Each one made my day! I also want to thank Jules Hawk for jumping in as a pinch hitter and beta reading this chapter for me!

Chapter 47. Mars

The elevator taking Vega back to the lower level had just disappeared when a door slid open with a hiss on the upper level followed by the sound of heavy boots running towards their position. They moved quickly into cover while Cerberus soldiers poured onto the balcony. Liara caught the first group in a Singularity and Shepard was about to pick them off when she felt the familiar tingling of dark energy being gathered. Next to her Kaidan flared brightly and a bluish bolt surged away from him, detonating the singularity in a biotic explosion.

A thrill ran through Nick at Kaidan's little display of biotic power. It felt good fighting alongside him again. The air surrounding him crackled with biotic energy and she was close enough for her to feel it; a static build-up that made her skin prickle. She had missed seeing him in action and one thing was certain, he wasn't holding back. He was stronger, faster, and much more assertive than he had been three years ago. It was exciting. Taking a deep breath she waited for the explosion to subside before zeroing in on the next hostile.

Once the last hostile was down they searched for a way to the upper level.

"This is supposed to be a secure station. How did Cerberus even get in here?" Kaidan asked, jumping onto a crate and from there onto a vehicle lift. The maintenance elevator had been tampered with leaving this the only way up.

"I don't know," Liara admitted. "One moment we were getting reports of the Reaper invasion, the next chaos broke loose. We didn't even realize it was Cerberus at first."

"This is a little outlandish, but could they be working with the Reapers?" Kaidan suggested.

The very thought sent an unpleasant shiver down Shepard's back, like ice cold water trickling down her spine. No, Cerberus had given her resources to fight the Collectors and the Collectors had worked for the Reapers. On the other hand the Illusive Man had demanded that she save the Collector base and he'd been less than happy when she destroyed it.

"Doubtful," she replied before Liara could, casting a quick glance at him before jumping over a banister. Doubt continued to gnaw at her as she walked on. "Then again, Timmy was pretty pissed when I destroyed the Collector base with its Reaper tech, so I suppose anything is possible. I can't imagine anybody being so delusional, though." The moment the words left her mouth memories of Saren and Lady Benezia flooded her mind. "Unless he's indoctrinated," she added thoughtfully.

Gunfire and muffled yells sounded from the next room and they wordlessly took position at the door. After exchanging a brief glance with Kaidan and Liara Shepard opened it revealing a room filled with thick, acrid smoke. A grenade detonated, sending a body flying through the air. Nick ducked into the room, staying low and scooting past a large pipe which hindered a clear shot at the enemy, aware of the other two moving in after her.

"We've done a sweep through the residence. Going to check on Able Squad. They're not reporting in," a Cerberus trooper said into his comm.

Shepard motioned her squad to stay in cover, fully intending to have surprise on her side. Shuffling along the half-wall of pipes she moved closer to the trooper, taking up position behind him. She cast a quick glance up over her shoulder. Her target was still speaking on his radio, his back turned towards her, and the other Cerberus forces in the room also seemed unaware of their presence. Taking a deep breath she shot up, grabbing the enemy and driving her omniblade into his throat.

A movement on her right flank made Nick spin around, but before she had closed the gap between her and the approaching foe he was suddenly enveloped in undulating waves of blue. The short, barking fire of a heavy pistol sounded and he fell to the ground lifeless. Dropping back into cover she glanced to the side to meet Kaidan's gaze. He was surrounded by telltale wisps of biotics, and she was certain he had taken care of the second attacker. She gave him a quick smile, mouthing "Thank you" and returned her focus on the remaining hostiles, but she was more flustered than she wanted to admit; she shouldn't have been flanked so easily.

"We need access to the pedway control system. There should be a console nearby," Liara said as they moved into the next room. "Here!" The asari led them to a control room filled with surveillance monitors and powered up a terminal. Almost immediately she cursed. "Damn it. Security has been tampered with! I'll try to get us live feed from the surveillance cameras. Shepard, try gaining access to the pedway from that computer." Liara pointed to another screen.

Kaidan chuckled despite their situation as he walked into the small control room, circling around his own axis slowly, his weapon at the ready. "You sure that's the best idea, Liara? Remember what she did to that console on Noveria?"

"Hey!" Nick said, shooting him an indignant glare as she pulled back the chair and sat down. "A little more confidence in my abilities, please." She knit her eyebrows as she focused on finding the controls for the pedway, listening to the conversation next to her with one ear.

"I have the fullest confidence in your abilities, just not when it comes to anything tech related," Kaidan let her know drily.

"Very funny, Alenko! It's not like I have to hack anything here!" Nick turned her attention back to the screen suppressing a smile, memories of Kaidan running her through simple hacking programs during their shore leave popping into her mind; lazy days spent in bed with him trying to improve her tech abilities and her distracting him. "It's just a matter of finding - ."

"I can't unlock the live feeds, only recordings," Liara interrupted. Nick glanced up the screens briefly and scowled. Having access to the live feeds would have been a small advantage, but they would have to make do without. Security footage began playing on one of the monitors showing a darkhaired woman with a pistol accessing a terminal.

Something about her felt off.

"Can you stop the recording?" Kaidan asked stepping closer to the screen. Apparently she wasn't the only one who had a strange feeling about the unknown woman. "Who's that woman? She's armed. Was this before or after the Cerberus attack? There's no time stamp visible," he asked in quick succession.

Liara looked at the recording thoughtfully. "That's Dr. Eva Coré. She arrived here about a week ago. It must be after the attack, I don't know why else she would be armed." She turned to Shepard. "Any luck?"

Nick frowned at the information on her screen, shook her head, and got up. "The pedway's locked out. We'll have to find another way."

"We can get out on the roof," Liara suggested, "and find a way around from there."

Shepard nodded and put on her helmet as she walked briskly toward the airlock.

The stormfront loomed threateningly in the distance and harsh winds pulled at them as soon as the airlock was open. They stepped outside, fighting the howling winds with every step as the dust whirling around them became denser by the minute. They had to wrap this up quickly, and not only because of Cerberus. The tramway was still visible through the dust, maybe two hundred meters away, but they would have to go around to access it.

Muzzle flashes on a tram heading to the far end of the tramway caught her attention. The question was who was defending the far station.

"Looks like the Alliance is still putting up a fight," Kaidan said with grim satisfaction in his voice as they paused for a brief moment to watch the firefight. Nick silently agreed with him. It was good to see that Cerberus wasn't in complete control of the facility yet.

"That tram goes to the archives," Liara let them know. "Once Cerberus is across there is nothing between them and the archives."

Nick exhaled softly. "Then we better hurry. Move out."

They had only covered a short distance when a garbled transmission from James reached them. All they could understand was that he had lost contact to the Normandy, but the interference caused by the storm was too strong to make out the rest of what he said.

"I didn't read that, repeat!" Shepard waited a moment, but only heard static over the comms. "James? Lieutenant, repeat!" The radio crackled. "Damn it!"

Swearing under her breath and shaking her head angrily she climbed up a ladder and jumped onto the neighboring building, stopping short at the sight of an open airlock. They slowed down, coming to a halt a few steps away from it.

"This airlock shouldn't be open," Liara said in a flat voice. "It leads to a small cafeteria."

"It doesn't look like it was forced open," Kaidan commented. He had stepped closer to the airlock and begun examining it. Nick could practically hear his frown.

"No, you have to override security protocols to open it," Liara agreed.

A sense of foreboding washed over Nick as she stepped into the dark, unlit building. An open security airlock during an attack was seldom a good sign, and since all Cerberus troops they had encountered so far were wearing helmets they most likely weren't affected by it. After only a few steps she found confirmation for her line of thought - an unarmored figure lying on the floor in the beam of her flashlight. Her throat constricted at the sight of blackened, distorted features. Nick swallowed. She remembered the sound of air escaping her hardsuit, knowing there was no way for her to stop it, and the blackness that had followed. These people had barely had any time to realize what had happened before losing consciousness, she reminded herself.

"By the Goddess, somebody vented the air from this room while people were still here!" Liara exclaimed, horror and disgust seeping through. "This was brutal."

"It was a fairly quick death," Shepard replied in a level voice, focusing on what she had learned during her training. She didn't want to admit that those last seconds had probably felt like eternity to these poor sods. "It takes about ten seconds to lose consciousness in this atmosphere as it's a near vacuum. Am I right, Alenko?"

She turned her head to look at Kaidan, wondering if his thoughts had made the same jump hers had and had taken him to the destruction of the SR-1. Their eyes met, and for a moment neither said anything.

Kaidan swallowed. "Yes," he finally answered, his voice sounding rough. "That's a good estimate."

Shepard moved on, stepping over another body. She gripped her shotgun tightly as she made her way carefully through the dark mess room.

Muffled voices reached them as they carefully continued through the mess hall and lights in the hallway suddenly lit up. Half a dozen Cerberus troopers were assembled in the corridor blocking the entrance to the next area. Narrowing her eyes Shepard took in the situation. Four hostiles stood close together and at least two more were covering their six on either flank. She pursed her lips and slid carefully back into cover.

"Liara," Nick whispered, "I want you to catch those four fuckers in a Singularity as soon as the glass is gone. Kaidan, you detonate it. Give me a nice big biotic blast."

Not waiting for their replies Shepard brought her shotgun to the ready and fired, shattering the glass. Instantly the other two followed her orders while she dropped back into cover and switched to her sniper rifle, picking her target as soon as the explosion subsided.

Access to the adjacent lab area was locked down until they found the control to close the open airlock and pressurize the room. There was a small control room to their right and they began searching it for a manual override of the airlock and environmental controls.

"Hey, that looks like a recording of what happened here," Kaidan pointed out, gesturing at a monitor. Shepard looked at the frozen image on the screen, and pressed play. They watched as the woman from the earlier security video shot the guards in the back of their heads and then got to work at one of the terminals. Seconds later sirens started blaring, and everybody working inside dropped to the ground clawing at their throats as they suffocated.

"Guess we know how Cerberus got in," Shepard remarked after a moment of silence.

Liara was shocked. "I should have noticed something," she murmured, shaking her head incredulously. "I should have realized something was wrong when I met her. I was just so focused on finding a way to stop the Reapers I didn't pay much attention to her."

"It's not your fault, Liara. You can't change what happened here, and stopping the Reapers is what everybody should be focused on," Nick replied.

"But what if we're wrong?" Liara asked, wringing her hands. "What if we can't stop the Reapers and we're spending our last days trying to solve a problem we can't fix?" She took a deep breath and turned around to face Shepard. "I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't talk like that. How do you do it? How do you always stay focused, no matter how bad the situation?"

Nick gave a short shrug and glanced at Kaidan who was guarding the doorway. "I just think of what I lose if I give up. There's too much at stake for me to fail."

Liara crossed her arms with a knowing expression. "That's a terrible burden."

"We'll stop them." Nick placed her hand on Liara's shoulder and gave her a reassuring squeeze. "I may not be able to change the past, but I sure as hell aren't going to give up. If there's something I'm good at then it's fighting. It's why I'm a soldier."

They quickly encountered more hostile forces on their way, asking the most of their abilities in close quarter combat as they battled their way through the labs.

At last they reached the door leading to the tram station. Shepard pushed the button of the door panel, and froze as she watched a large ceiling-mounted turret swivel toward them. With a curse she dove to the side.

"I take it this is the only way to the tram station?" Kaidan asked, glancing around the corner.

"It's the only way I know of," Liara replied with an apologetic shrug.

"Fucking perfect," Nick muttered. "At least there's enough cover."

"I'll move up first," Kaidan said, and before Shepard could protest he left his position. The turret immediately started firing, but he was one step ahead, skirting around the edges. After clearing the turret without any difficulties they found the next room filled with more hostile forces. The air rapidly filled with acrid haze of grenades and spent heat sinks, flashes of biotic blue and the orange glow of omnitools bathing the room in an eerie light.

"Looks like they made it to the archives," Liara said glancing at the monitor once the last trooper had been eliminated.

"Yeah, and I doubt they'll just send us a tram," Kaidan put in sarcastically.

Shepard shot him a quick glance and shook her head, a small smile teasing her lips. She looked at Liara. "Can you override it?" she asked.

"No, the archives are on separate network. We're completely locked out."

"Not necessarily," Kaidan put in. He seemed to be thinking out loud. Nick and Liara turned to face him with matching looks of surprise. "If we found a short-range communicator, helmet-to-helmet, we might be able to convince them we're on their side. Tell them the Alliance forces have been taken care of, something like that," he elaborated.

For a moment nobody said anything as they let Kaidan's words sink in.

"How sneaky! Why didn't I think of that? I like it!" Shepard finally replied sounding impressed. "I had no idea you could be so devious. See what you can find." Kaidan nodded once, and headed towards the door. She watched him walk away before turning her attention back to Liara. "What?"

Liara smiled. "Oh, nothing. Kaidan seems to have become very capable."

"He's always been capable," Nick said. "He just needed a tiny push to be a little more assertive."

"Have you two made up?"

"Not yet," Nick answered. "Not properly, anyway. I plan on it once we're back on the Normandy."

"Shepard!" Kaidan called from the adjacent room. "I've found something."

Nick jogged lightly over to him, not waiting for Liara to follow her. He was busy fiddling with the helmet.

"He has a transmitter in his helmet," Kaidan explained as soon as she stepped next to him. "If I can -." He stopped short and paled as the visor lifted showing them the trooper's face. "My God. He looks like a husk." His voice was rough with horror as he stood up and stepped away from the corpse.

Nick knelt down. Glowing bluish veins ran down the trooper's sickly pale face. His unseeing eyes were surrounded by dark shadows and they glowed in the same unnatural light as the cracks in his skin. Kaidan was right - the trooper's appearance resembled a husk.

"Yeah," she said quietly, bringing her face closer to the trooper before pulling away, her nose wrinkled in disgust. "They've certainly done something to him."

"They?" Kaidan echoed. "And by 'they' you mean Cerberus? They did this to their own guy?" He hesitated. "Is this what they did to you?"

Nick stood up abruptly looking as though she'd been slapped. "What the hell, Kaidan? You're calling me a husk?! That's not fair! How can you compare me to … him?" She waved a hand at the body lying on the floor.

"I'm not calling you a husk! That's not what I meant," he groaned, tilting his head back and staring up at the ceiling before looking back at her.

"Then what did you mean, Alenko? Because I'd really like to know," she snapped angrily.

His eyes roamed her face as he chose his words. "I mean, do you know what Cerberus did to you when they rebuilt you? How do you know they didn't experiment on you? Or build in a kill switch to control you?"

"First of all I know that the Illusive Man wanted me brought back like I was before," Nick snarled, stepping closer to him, a defiant look in her eyes. "And secondly, Miranda would have told me. I am who I am, who I always was, but words aren't going to convince you, are they?"

"I -," Kaidan swallowed, furrowing his brow as she continued to glare at him. His gaze darted to the unmasked Cerberus trooper. "Probably not," he finally admitted with a sigh as he looked back at her. "I trust you, Nick, but I don't trust Cerberus and I'm worried about you. I miss you, but this - I don't know." His voice trailed off, his gaze wandering back to the dead trooper.

"Yeah, I know. You were always stubborn." Nick muttered, ignoring his disbelieving "Me?". She pushed past him and leaned against the railing while her gaze swept over the room in front of her. Liara joined them again, and after taking a few deep breaths Nick said, "Okay. Let's see if this idea of yours comes together."

A/N: I hope you enjoyed it! Reviews are most welcome :)