Quintessence Effect Collective Rebirth

by EvaShinobiKaiserKnight

Two Years have passed since the Paladins and the Normandy had suffered the tragedy of loss. A year since the Altean's have begun to return to the galaxy after the second battle of the Citadel. But the Reapers are not done as the Paladins and a revived John Shepard must gather allies to face this threat. This is their Rebirth into a new world of wonders as Heroes. NOW FORM VOLTRON!

6. Chapter 6 The Battle of Horizon Part 2

Collective Rebirth

ESKK: Hey so get this originally this was supposed to be one chapter, but shit happened, and the chapter was split in two… so enjoy the new update.

(Start Wade hidden Cerberus Base)

Wade smirked as he saw his new weapon had reached its destination and was currently glaring down the Lions and the Robeast. Back when he was in the Alliance Wade had several if not thousands of radical ideas all to ensure that the human race would flourish and stand above the others. Advanced alien life was something he could not tolerate being above humanity.

He was there during the First Contact War against the Turians. He had seen many brave men and woman die by their hands. Every medal he wore he earned it, every new weapon he used he built it. It was also why he abhorred the Lions and the Paladins. More Worthy hands were within reach and the Lions chose, children fucking children to pilot them. A weapon does not choose its wielder it serves its purpose, and the Lions were just that weapons, tools to further his ambitions.

So, glaring at the screen Wade watched as the battle was about to unfold. It almost made him want to grab a tub of popcorn as he watched the fireworks. After all what preys on Lions, the answer is actually simple, an even bigger lion.

(Scene Break back on Horizon)

"Maybe it's friendly." Hector offered when he saw the new arrival. The Spider Robeast screeched and went on the attack only to be swatted away by the robot Lion which surprised the group. "Hey it is friend!" Hector cheered happy to see a new ally on their side.

"Wait a second." Leon said and thus his suspicions were spot on. The new Lion roared and proceeded to attack the group by chomping down on the Green Lion much to Penny's panic. Penny cried out as her lion was tossed aside by the new opponent on the scene.

"It's not friendly!" Hector cried out as the Lion roared and fired its guns at the other Lions.

"MOVE!" Leon cried out as the four lions began to run for cover to escape the new enemy. The larger robot lion got moving to the smaller four as it went on the attack firing off its weapons at them.

Meanwhile Kalvin saw that the web was loosening on his Lion and seeing the chance opted to act on it. "I'm free!" Kalvin said and thus he smirked. "Let's go black!" Kalvin announced and thus he got moving to rejoin his team.

The Robot lion roared ready to fight while nearby the Spider screeched as the two giants now had new targets to focus on. At the same time the Black Lion roared and attacked the mech with a maw beam before rejoining the team. "Kal good god your free!" Leon cheered happy to see this.

"Yeah, now let's circle back around and attack!" Kalvin called and thus they got moving.

"Right behind you!" Allura said as she followed Kalvin into the battle seeing as they now had two foes to worry about. As the Lions got close to the more severe threat, they proceeded to bounce on it singing their fangs and claws into its body to rip it apart. The Mecha Lions roared unaware that Penny snapped a small picture of its Cerberus crest. It then proceeded to force the Lions off of its body by crashing into the canyon walls. With a mighty roar the beast held its victory only for the Spider Robeast to roar in challenge.

In turn the battle broke out between them as both giants charged in and began a battle against each other. "Heads up their fighting each other!" Penny announced as this was getting confusing.

"Wait whose on whose side?!" Leon asked having trouble keeping up.

Soon enough the Spider Robeast had its prey pinned and began stabbing its blade tipped legs into the robots body tearing it apart. This went on for a bit until it began to deploy its webbing using the sickly silk to cocoon itself with the robot lion that attacked.

"Penny what are we looking at?" Kalvin asked as he needed confirmation.

"The Robeast is cocooning itself with the robot." Penny reported as she saw what was going on. Soon enough the robeast and its quarry were cocooned and for a time was unmoving.

"Uh did we win?" Leon asked confused at what he saw.

"I don't think so." Allura said as she was on edge now.

"Should we poke it?" Hector asked and thus everyone panicked.

"NO!" Kalvin, Allura, Penny, and Leon all yelled at the same time.

(Back over with John's Team)

Shortly after leaving their previous battleground, the assault team found themselves encountering some of the paralyzed colonists that Miranda's team had mentioned to them. The assault team only paused for a few moments so that Mordin could run a few scans of the colonists before moving on again. At the moment the rendezvous point was now just around the corner from their position.

Sadly, they soon found themselves needing to fight their way there, as another battalion of Collectors descended upon them from above. Just before the fighting began though, something unexpected happened that shocked the entire team. One of the Collectors suddenly started convulsing and twitching, almost as though it were having a spasm attack of some kind. But then suddenly, it lifted into the air and started to glow as cracks began forming in its body until finally, an explosion of energy was released from the Collector, and it descended back to the ground. When it did, everyone saw that the Collector in question had changed quite a bit from what it once was, as it now emitted a rather foreboding glow through the cracks that had formed in its skin, while what appeared to be lightning surged around its body. The only thing that shocked them more, was when the Collector actually spoke, giving orders to the others when it did.

"Preserve the humans' bodies if possible. Kill the others," the Collector commanded his fellow insectoid aliens.

"Wow, I feel so special," Jack grumbled before unleashing a power wave of biotic energy on a group of Collectors that was converging on their position. The minute that Jack had blasted the offending aliens away, the team scattered for cover, firing weapons on the Collectors as they did. "Someone want to tell me what the hell that fucker is," Jack shouted as she fired her heavy pistol at anything that was not on her team.

Surprisingly, it was actually the altered Collector that answered her. "We are Harbinger, and we are your genetic destiny." The Collector now a host for the Reaper Harbinger said. "You will know pain, humans." He said and thus it was time to battle.

"Well, if that's what you want us to know, then you're a little late on the lesson," Jacob commented before popping out from behind his cover and tossing out a biotic blast of his own into a group of Collectors, sending three of the aliens flying up into the air. Once he saw the Collectors helplessly floating in the air, Mordin immediately fired a few rounds at the Collectors, killing them in a matter of seconds. Seeing that the Collectors he had blasted were dealt with, Jacob quickly exchanged a quick nod of thanks with Mordin and then returned to firing his pistol at the enemy forces.

Sadly, it did not seem like this group of Collectors would be dealt with as easily as the others, especially in the case of the one who called itself Harbinger, because no matter what the team threw at Harbinger, it all seemed to bounce off some sort of energy field that had surrounded him. The only things that seemed to get through were the few biotic attacks that Jacob and Jack were able to spare, but that solution did not provide very satisfactory results.

Harbinger or its host felt the pain as it cry out, with the team keep shooting at it trying to take out its shield before it return fire as it suddenly launch red biotic energy blast at the Jack, as she put up her biotic shield, only to get knock by the power of it follow by Jacob as he did the same as they protected themselves from the attacks before Harbinger said, "I know you feel this. You cannot resist."

"Resist this," John said as he throw a grenade at the Collector as it beeps before blowing up, causing some damage to the reaper possessed Collector, taking out its shields before the Commander came up and fire upon it, quickly shot its weapon out of its hands before unloading his entire clip into the collector before it cry out and gave out with the glow from its body was gone.

"Is everyone alright?" John called out to his team as Jack moan a bit as she recovers and said, "Yeah, son of a bitch was powerful."

"No doubt on that," Jacob said as he recovers too with Mordin give them a quick scan to see if there was any internal damage or such as Mordin said, "Light bruising from impact, you'll both live."

"Good to know," Jacob said as John look over to the collector they just face, as he knew it was different from the others as he soon ask Mordin, "What was this?"

"Unknown, even to me, but it quite interesting. A deep inspection would be required to learn and understand this one," Mordin said as Jacob, "Which we won't have time for."

"Right, leave it here and let move on," John said as Mordin sighed as he said, "Disappointed but Understand."

With that, the assault team moves on, taking out any collector they may come across before they came upon building with more collector were coming out before one of them started to acting the same way the last one did before it spoke the same way the last one did as it said, "My attacks will tear you apart."

"Another one?" Jacob said surprised as Grunt came up and shot at it before he said, "I'll tear you apart instead."

The Collector turn its attention to the 'Pure' Krogan as it was about to fire at him until Lotarius came in and lay down covering fire for Grunt as he came in and knock the collector down before punching and smashing down on it before he throw it over to Lotarius as he went to down on it as he punch and step on it hard as it's shield gave out before it was beaten to death by the two Krogans.

After that, they looked at each other with Grunt smile and give a nod to one of his tank bred brothers, as jack said, "It seem those two are getting along well."

"As long they do that bonding on the collector than us, I think we're safe," John said as the team keep moving forward running into more Collector.

As the Assault team engage in combat with them with Jack using her Biotic to beat down a collector while she said, "These guys are like cockroaches. No matter how many we smash, more of these fuckers keep popping up!"

"Well keep stepping on them, we got to keep pushing forward, the settlement needs our help more than ever," John said as he keeps shooting before a 3rd collector acting up before it glows with cracks all over its body as it spoken to them, "I will direct this personally."

"Sounds like this guy has a grudge, whatever it is," Jacob said as John looks at it and the more, he thought about it, the more it seem like it was looking familiar as he remember Saren after he died and… the Reaper took over his body as he said, "Are you reapers angry at me after we stop Sovereign plan from bringing forth the others from dark space?"

"Sure, seems that way." Jacob said as they kept firing at the incoming Reapers.

Harbinger soon had control of another Collector and was once more on the attack. "You will fail again, Shepard." Harbinger said as he glared at John.

"Don't bet on it." John responded as he pointed his pistol at the Reaper possessed Collector. Harbinger did not show any signs of slowing at all, or even pausing at the sight of the Commanders insistence on continuing to resist. But before either of the two could engage one another in battle, Sven was heard as he attacked Harbinger with his sub-machine gun. Once he got close enough Sven used his Prosthetic arm and slammed the glowing hand against the Collector taking out its head. Following this up several more Collectors suffered from headshots curtesy of a sniper rifle.

John looked to the source and saw Miranda coming in with an active Biotic Shield and was accompanied by Kasumi and Garrus. "Sorry if we're late, but we got a little held up running some scans of the colonists," Garrus quipped as he reloaded his sniper rifle and then leapt down from the walkway that his group was on top of so he could find another firing position.

"Good to have you back." John said happy to see Garrus had rejoined the fight before turning his attention back to the remaining Collectors. With the full team now on sight they began to mop up the last of, even if there were still quite a few of them. An impressive combination of Biotic attacks and gunfire was seen in use as the assault team went to work on eliminating the Collectors.

Amongst the fighters shows of teamwork was seen in play. Miranda and Jacob both managed to down a number of Collectors by setting a target up with their respective biotics before letting the other one finish the targeted Collector off with whatever weapon they were wielding at the time. At the same time, Jack and Grunt were also able to tear through a number of enemies as well, as Grunt's massive strength allowed him to take quite a bit of punishment as he charged, while Jack paralyzed whatever target she could hit with her biotics for the Krogan. Meanwhile Garrus and Mordin were able to deal with various enemies at a distance, as Garrus managed to keep the professor well covered in case, he needed to perform any emergency medical treatments for the team while Mordin managed to use his omni-tool to fire a high-energy plasma round into an enemy, leaving the target open for Garrus to take out as it flailed around helplessly in an attempt to extinguish the flame that had engulfed it.

Not everything went so smoothly though, as evidenced when Kasumi used her cloak to disappear and attempt to get around the enemy's flank. As the master thief was moving, a Collector turned its attention towards her and fired a powerful blast from its cannon that knocked Kasumi off her feet and across the ground, forcing her to drop her cloak as she came to a halt.

"Seeing this happen Sven sprang into action. "Lotarius throw me over to Kasumi!" Sven called out and Lotarius nodded to the ex-Paladin.

"Understood." Lotarius said and thus he grabbed Sven and proceeded to throw him to where Kasumi was. Using this Sven fired off his sidearm to take out several of the Collectors to cover Kasumi. Landing on the ground Sven fired his gun off at any foe that got to close while Lotarius charged in to give the pair cover. Once thing cleared up enough Sven began to pull Kasumi safely over to Mordin so that the Salarian professor could administer some quick medical treatment. By the time Mordin finished treating Kasumi's injuries, the battle had finished, and the whole team had gathered together to take stock of their condition.

"How's our master thief," John asked as he checked in on the thief.

"A little shaken, but I'll be fine otherwise, Taicho," Kasumi reassured John, while easing everyone else's concerns as well as she gave the best version of her usual, easy-going, yet confident smile.

Despite Kasumi's efforts though, it did not detract from the main concern of the matter, which only Miranda seemed willing to bring up. "What exactly happened? How did they manage to land a hit on you," the genetically perfect woman inquired seeing something not right with this picture.

"I…I don't know," Kasumi finally admitted as the fact she had been caught like that had shaken her up. "That's never happened before whenever I used my cloak. It was almost like those things could actually see me." Kasumi said as this was something to take note of for later.

"Physically seems fine. Would recommend not taking too strenuous actions in near future. Could be detrimental," Mordin advised his patient as she was fit for battle but should rest for a bit.

"We'll worry about that later." John said taking command once more. "Right now, we should get to that shelter over there." John said pointing to the shelter that had Collectors were trying to get in a bit ago. "It looks like the Collectors were having a hard time getting in, so it may be a good place for us to take stock of what we still have going for us," John said to the group, quickly getting a few nods in response before they made their way over to the bunker.

(Later inside the Shelter)

Once they had reached the shelter, Kasumi went to work hacking the lock so that they could get it open, and soon enough, they were able to make their way inside, with Jacob closing the door behind them once they had. At that point, John noticed a sudden movement in the shadows, and he immediately moved to the front of the group with his gun armed and before calling out, "Whoever's hiding over there, come out where we can see you."

Everyone had instantly gotten on their guard again after John said that, and were all either dropping into fighting stances, reaching for their weapons, or just arming themselves while aiming their weapons in the direction that Commander Shepard was facing. None of them dropped their guarded stances again until they finally saw their company was in fact human and clearly not an enemy.

From the way that the man was dressed, he was most likely a civilian or one of the people in charge of maintaining the colony, and even in the limited amount of light that the room had, they could see that he had a roughly trimmed mustache, along with few indications that he was probably middle-aged. When the man had fully stepped out of his hiding spot, everyone had lowered their weapons once again and relaxed their guard, waiting for the civilian to say something.

"You're…you're human," the man finally gasped in relief after a minute, only to adopt a more panicked tone a second later. "What're ya doing out here? You'll lead them right here!" He said clearly not liking them being here.

"I'd hate to disappoint you, sir, but the Collectors were trying to get in here long before we arrived," John said as they had gotten here to stop the Collectors from getting in.

"Those things are Collectors? You mean, their real," the man gasped in astonishment. "I thought they were just made up. You know, propaganda to keep us in Alliance Space." The man said as he tried to make sense of this revelation. "Oh…they got Lilith! I-I saw her go down! Stanton too…they got damn near everybody!" He said starting to panic when he realized what this meant.

"Calm down." John said in a calm tone to the panicked man. "We're here to try and stop them, but we won't be able to do much at the moment unless you can tell us what you know about the attack," John said as they needed information to work with.

"M-my name's Delan. I'm a mechanic for the colony," Delan replied after taking a deep breath to ease his nerves a little

"What're you doing here," Miranda asked taking mental note of anything he said that was important.

"I came down here to check on the main grid after we lost our comm. signals." Delan began as he told what he saw. "Then I heard screaming so I looked outside and there were swarms of…bugs. Everyone they touched just froze." He said recalling that nightmare he bore witness to.

I sealed the doors to try and keep them from getting me as well."

"And you didn't think to try and help anyone else," Jacob asked with a mild glare on his face, showing he was already assuming the worst.

"I…I was scared, alright?" Delan said defending from Jacob's accusation. "A lot of the people who were closest to me had already gotten hit by those things, so I panicked and thought that if I went out there to try and do something they would get me too," Delan hurriedly explained, and no one needed to be experts at reading people in any way to know that he was telling the truth. After a second or so, Delan gained a rather apparent scowl on his face before he added, "I-it's the Alliance's fault. They stationed that Chief Williams and that biotic Alenko here and built those defense towers! It just made us a target." Delan said as he clearly needed someone to blame.

"Would you mind telling me a little more about what they were doing here?"

"What, Alenko and Williams? Sure, but I don't really know that much," Delan admitted as he got down to explaining. "Heard Williams and Alenko were some a pair of heroes or something." The man said as John was glad Leon wasn't here to question the guy. "Didn't mean nothing to me though. I'd rather they'd both had just stayed back in Council Space." Delan said as he had a scowl on his face. "They were supposed to be helping to get the defense towers up and running, but I got the feeling they were here for something else; spying on us, maybe." Delan said as John was now wishing Leon were here to avoid losing his cool again. After all Leon would have lashed out on Delan.

"What about these defense towers?" John asked as he might have an idea. "We saw a few of them on our way over here, and I was wondering why they did not seem to be firing on the Collectors." John said as he then went on asking, "Do they need someone to man them?"

"No, they're automatic, and they were a 'gift' from the Alliance," Delan said with another sneer on his face. "They're high-powered, GARDIAN Lasers, and they're supposed to keep hostile ships from landing near the colony." He described as these guns sounded powerful. "We had to build a massive, underground generator just to give it enough juice, only we couldn't get the targeting systems online." He began to complain before adding on to it, "So the Alliance gave us a giant gun that couldn't shoot straight, stupid sons of bitches!"

"What're you thinking, Boy Scout," Jack asked the minute she saw the Commander getting a contemplative look on his face after hearing all of this.

"Maybe…if we can get that targeting system working, we can use those guns to disable the Collector ship long enough to get inside and get at least some of the captured colonists out." John said offering his idea.

"While simultaneously gain some insight on the Collectors themselves," Miranda finished with a slight tone of approval. "Seems a little risky though." She added as this plan had a few risks involved.

"She's right." Garrus said seeing what Miranda meant. "If the Collectors know that those guns just need a few adjustments to get them working then they'll likely want to keep us away from the controls for the targeting system any way that they possibly can," Garrus added seeing the risk they would have to take.

"Possibility certainly likely, but calibrating targeting systems shouldn't be hard to figure out. Dealing with Collectors that try to stop us should also be simple given current fighting strength. Just need the location now," Mordin reasoned as that was why they had EDI to help them out.

Everyone then looked to Delan, clearly asking if he could point them in the direction they needed to go, and they were not disappointed when Delan told them, "Head for the main transmitter on the other side of the colony. It's pretty hard to miss. The targeting controls are at the base."

"Thanks," John said with a nod as they now had a plan of action. "You should probably stay here where you'll most likely be safe and out of the way." John said knowing the Civilian needed to be kept safe.

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking too," Delan admitted before bringing up his omni-tool. "I swear, I came here to get away from the Alliance and their crap, since nothing good ever comes from getting mixed up with them." Delan said his last bit of complaint and began to leave the area to hide until the danger had passed. He then coughed a bit and faced the group again to say, "I'll let you all out, but I'm locking the door behind you. I'm not taking any chances. Good luck. I think you're gonna need it."

Everyone gave Delan a small nod in thanks for his last words and then moved to the door that they needed to leave from so that they could get to the targeting system's location. Once they were through the door and it had locked behind them like Delan said it would be Jack found that she had to sarcastically remark, "Well, he seemed to be real fucking pleasant."

No one saw fit to argue with him seeing as they agreed with what Jack said. "I don't normally veel zi need to punch people vut zis man almost made me do that." Sven admitted as he walked with the team.

"I'd have been okay with that if you did," John admitted with a smile, getting a few smirks out of the rest of the team once he had said so. With that said the team schooled themselves again for the upcoming confrontations and immediately pressed onward to their next destination on Horizon.

(Back to the Robeast Battle)

The Lions stood around the Spider's cocoon as they glared at it. "Alright, poke it." Kalvin ordered and in turn the five lions fired off their maw beams into the cocoon. However, when they did the Robeast began to emerged transformed into an amalgam of the Cerberus Lion and the spider robeast. It was now some sort of Lider Robeast. The chimera roared out as it released acidic saliva from its mouth.

"MOVE!" Leon called out as the Lider then went on the attack. Luckily, the Lions avoided it and now flew in the air to keep out of its range.

"Ok that's enough holding back." Kalvin said as he had enough of this. He figured they had the Collectors attention now and thus they knew it was time to act. "Team on me! FORM VOLTRON!" Kalvin ordered and thus it was time to assemble Voltron.

(Forming Voltron)

Black Lion roared out as it flew forward with its arms folding into the needed sections. First it folded backward before folding into the container units and once secured Black Lion began to take on a more humanoid look. Then Green and Red Lion flew in as they flew upward leaving behind a trail of energy in there colors as when they did their legs began to fold up and secure themselves to form the arms of Voltron as once, they did they flew off to continue the formation.

Next up was Yellow and Blue Lion as they flew in and began to fold up their legs to be secured and become more leg like themselves as once, they were secured they now looked more like legs. They were now ready for the finishing touches as they got ready to form up with their prides leader the Black Lion. Red Lion attached first as once it was in the socket a connecter shot out and not only secured the arm but also made sure it was usable as this caused the Red Lion to extend a bit to be the right arm of Voltron.

Green Lion was the next to connect as its back shield was now the shoulder pad for Voltron as once Green Lion was in the socket the connection was made and secured in turn allowed the arm to extend a bit to better form the arm like with Red Lion. As this was done Green Lion roared out. Once this was done Blue and Yellow Lions began to form the legs as when they did it was shown that once the Black Lions rear legs were inside Blue and Yellow Lions it began to seal up to both connect and secure the connection as once it did and both legs were secured the transformation was almost done.

Now that the body was formed Black Lion's head was now ready as the yellow eyes then flashed as the maw opened up as first the crown formed and in turn the maw opened up to reveal the face of Voltron as soon Voltron formation was done. When the formation was done Voltron then crashed the mass of Red and Yellow Lions before splitting them apart while a current of energy went through them. Voltron then struck a pose with legs and wings spread and the right arm pointed upward before releasing a burst of Quintessence that formed the Galaxy behind it in turn as Voltron was ready for battle.

(End formation)

Voltron came at the Lider fast giving it a hard punch which sent it flying across the canyon before it recovers and ran off before Voltron could smash it over its feet as he came down hard and missed, as suddenly the Lider jump into the air and started spinning around before diving into the ground as it seem that how he was able to tunnel into the ground as Kalvin said, "So that how that spider did it, it turn its body into a drill."

"Yeah, but where did it go?" Hector said sounding fearful of the upgraded robeast, as they never faced anything like this before as no doubt Haggar was getting better at making new Robeasts as Allura said, "WE need to defend ourselves."

"Right, time to form the sword," Kalvin said as he pull out his Bayard and insert it into the Bayard slot and turn with Voltron put his hands together to form the sword, but the spider suddenly jump out from below and attacked Voltron before it could form the sword at all as the group cry out a bit, with Leon said, "Damn it, I hate this thing more and more!"

"Stay focus, Penny bring out the shield quick!" Kalvin said as Penny was working on as she said, "Shield coming up!"

Voltron standing tall with the shield in hand as the Lider came at them again and again as it was leaping at them many times as they use the shield to block and deflect any attacks that came at Voltron, including the acid spit as Kalvin said, "We need a new plan."

"We need another weapon," Penny said as Leon spoken up saying, "How can we, it takes too long to form any of our weapons, and I doubt this thing will stay in once place to get blasted at with either shoulder or arm cannon."

"Can we just form the jaw blades or something?" Hector suggested as Allura said to him, "We can't, they are only meant for single lion combat only, and beside they will be too small to fight against this creature if we could."

"We need something reasonable size and useable," Kalvin said as then Voltron heard them and came up with something as from Leon and Penny Bayard slots suddenly opened up suddenly with Leon said, "Hey my Bayard port just opened up."

"Same here," Penny said as Voltron shaken up as spider knocked over the defender before it started clawing at him as the paladin cry out before it started to cocoon them up as well as Allura said, "The robeast is trying to combine us with it as well!"

"Come one guys use it-use it- USE IT!" Hector cry out as both the Lider and Voltron were cocooned together as Leon and Penny both quickly insert their Bayard into their port before turning as the cocoon finish forming.

Everything was silent for a moment, then a light from within the Cocoon shine out with both Leon and Penny both shouted, "Form weapon!"

At that moment, the cocoon burst open with Lider was thrown back and hit into a canyon wall hard with a X cross mark in its body as look over to Voltron shows him standing up with two cutlass in hands as Leon said, "Whoa, now these are short swords."

"They are cutlasses, used on the earth we were still using sailing ships in the navy," Penny said as Hector also added in as he said, "And pirates, don't forget pirates."

"Let put them use then," Kalvin said as then the Lider as hybrid creature roar out as it charge at them as it fire more webs at them with Voltron cut through then with ease with the new swords before moving in closer to the Lider as it fire everything it had to slow or stop Voltron, but he keep deflecting the webs and spit with ease before cutting at one of its legs, causing it a lot of pain before cutting off another leg.

The Robeast fell back with a loss of another leg as Voltron charge at the Lider going at full speed with the leg boosters as the paladin give a battle cry with Voltron held the cutlasses at its side before swinging them and taking out the rest of the Lider's legs as it fell into tis back crying out as it wiggling its nubs legs with nothing left to fix itself or crawl with before Voltron flip one sword over in a reverse grip, combine the two swords with a blade at each end before it stab into the Lider robeast, as it give out one last battle cry before blowing up.

Voltron had leap up before the robeast blew up before landing and take a Heroic pose as Kalvin said, "Robeast down."

"Show off." Leon scoffed but then Penny looked to the Collector Ship.

"Guys we still have another issue to deal with." Penny said reminding the team that they had one more enemy to take on.

"Right, guys we're going for the bugs hive!" Kalvin called out and thus with a new target in mind Voltron activated his boosters and flew towards the Collector ship. But as they left in the smoldering wreckage something horrifying began to take place. The Lider Robeast began to slowly reassemble itself as its hateful red eyes gave off an evil glare.

(Meanwhile back with John's team)

The team's journey over to the far side of the colony was not easy, but it was rather simple in comparison to how their travels across Horizon had been so far. They encountered a few more husks here and there, as well as a few more Collector squads, but there had been no further signs of the Reaper Harbinger appearing before them, or anything else that would have been considered a major threat to the group really. Of course, everyone was a bit on edge when it came to bringing up the topic of Harbinger, seeing as he was a Reaper. No one really wanted to think about it too much if it were the latter, and thankfully, they were able to put the matter on hold once they had finally reached the main transmitter, which was indeed hard to miss, just as Delan had said it would be.

After eliminating any Collectors that were in the area, along with a few husks that were just sitting around until a target appeared for them. John led the team over to the targeting controls and stared at the computer for a minute until he finally motioned for Garrus or Kasumi to come over and work on the thing for him. "I was hoping for more of a fight, but this is just too easy," Grunt grumbled as the master thief and former vigilante worked.

All seemed clear at first as Garrus and Kasumi were trying to get the computer working. "We've got a bit of a problem," Garrus suddenly called out which got the groups attention. "I can't seem to get this thing working. The thing's targeting matrix is so crazily messed up that you would need to have the mind of a computer to get these guns working." Garrus said as they needed to deal with this issue before more Collectors showed up.

"Normandy, this is John Shepard. Do you copy," John called as they needed EDI's help to get the cannon working.

"Joker here." Joker responded to the revived SPECTRE with his voice carrying with it static. "Sorry about before, Commander, The Collectors found a way to block our comm. at our last position so I had to do some fancy flying in order to get so much as a signal through again." Joker said explaining what happened, but John understood. "Signal's weak, but we've got you now," the pilot's voice replied through a small haze of static.

John had to grin a little in response to hearing Joker's voice again, even if the quality of the communication was not ideal. But the fact that it was enough to get a signal through at all was good enough for him, and hopefully, it would be good enough for what they needed. "EDI, we may have a way into the Collector ship so that we can rescue the captured colonists, but it'll only work if we can get the colony's defense towers online. Can you, do it?" John asked as he hoped this was not beyond EDI's skills.

"Errors in the calibration software are easily rectified for me, Captain, but it will take time to bring the towers to full power." EDI responded as this was good, but it also carried with it an issue. "I recommend a defensive posture. I will not be able to mask the increased generator output." EDI said as Miranda heard this as well.

"Which means that the Collectors will notice and converge on this position in an attempt to stop it," Miranda said seeing they will be fighting for a while.

"Good. Maybe we'll finally get a real fight," Grunt grinned as he was ready for a fight.

Lotarius nodded as he cocked his gun ready for the battle to come. "Any other helpful tips from our favorite ship-board AI," Kasumi inquired as she stepped away from the computer she had previously been working on once she saw EDI had started doing her work.

"Just one, Miss Goto." EDI began for the group. "Enemy reinforcements are closing in. I suggest you ready weapons." She said and in turn Jack growled to this.

"No shit," Jack remarked sarcastically as she pulled out her shotgun and readied herself for action, with everyone else doing the same shortly after.

"Garrus, Kasumi, and Mordin, you three stay up here and keep that computer safe until EDI's finished." John said looking towards the named group. "Everyone else, pick a target and take it down. Let's show these monsters what happens when they cross us," John said ready to eliminate the Collectors here and now.

A chorus of "yes sirs" and similarly positive responses were all that John received in reply before everyone had quickly scattered to a position that would both allow them to carry out their jobs as necessary and keep the three guarding the platform as well as the computer for the targeting matrix out of the Collectors' reach for as long as possible, and then, all they had left to do was wait. That wait was not very long though, as seconds later, the Collectors had dropped down from above them with a few husks racing into the area shortly after, and the team immediately opened fire with whatever they had as soon as they saw the yellows and blues of the two opposing forces' eyes.

The only problem was that this time around, it seemed that the Collectors had no problem with unleashing everything they had on the team, as evidenced by how everyone was now struggling to just avoid being hit by enemy fire after they saw how one blast from a Collector weapon created a massive hole in a nearby wall, and they all had a sneaking suspicion that the aliens were still holding back. Thankfully, the husks were easier to deal with for most of the team, seeing as the zombie-like beings just ran right up to them, making them easy targets for anyone who fought with weapons like shotguns or who preferred fighting in close-combat. However, that was still a small comfort given how the Collectors would always open fire on anyone who was not careful enough to remain in their cover while they tried to repel a husk.

This struggle was only made more difficult when Jack suddenly found herself tiring out from an overuse of her biotics for the first time in her life, at least as far as she could remember, and it was not long after that when some of the team started finding their weapons running short on ammunition. Thankfully, the latter was not too much of an issue for some of the team, such as Sven, who was mainly fighting with his prosthetic arm which the hand gave off a violet glow, and Jacob was able to get Jack into cover so that she could catch her breath and recharge enough so that she could use her biotics again. It probably would have gone a bit more easily if everyone were able to fully join in on the fighting for the entire time, but there was never really a moment when anyone was able to do so after everyone started running low on steam in one way or another.

Eventually, Grunt could no longer contain himself and just charged their attackers, fists swinging madly as he roared with rage, and this time, no one planned on stopping him any time soon. At least, no one other than the Collectors, because after Grunt managed to take out a number of their forces, the alien beings began focusing most of their attention on the Krogan. Lotarius also jumped in relying on his own Krogan rage but due to being, imperfect as his creator saw him it was clear his Krogan Rage was not as potent as Grunts. Lotarius roared with Grunt as they tore their way through the enemy forces. The Krogan brothers were not holding back as they tore the Collectors apart left and right.

At first, Grunt and Lotarius were able to take most of the punishment that was being dealt to him. But when so much punishment was being thrown at them at once, after a while, it began to become too much for the two Krogans to take. The too Krogans were too far out for Mordin to safely get to them so that the Salarian could administer some field medical treatments. Seeing this prompted John to turn towards their resident kleptomaniac and shout, "Kasumi, get to Grunt and Lotarius and pull them back here."

Normally, Kasumi would not have hesitated to do as ordered, but just as she was starting to trigger her cloaking device, her mind suddenly flashed back to when the Collectors had seen through her cloak and managed to land a powerful hit on her. The fact that someone had managed to see through her cloak at all scared her, but when one added in the fact that she had actually been hurt while cloaking was petrifying, and it was taking everything she had to not curl up into a ball and start whimpering at that point, despite the explosions, gunfire, and yelling that was happening all around her.

Seeing that Kasumi had not moved from her position to help Grunt, and that said Krogan was only getting hit harder and harder by the second, John immediately repeated his orders to the master thief, only to receive no reaction at all. That just left him with one other option.

"Sven get to Grunt and Lotarius pull them back here, fast!" John ordered relying on Sven to get the job done and save the two Krogans in battle.

"Understood, Commander!" Sven responded as he got to work on getting those two back to some cover. With a sub-machine gun in hand Sven began to charge and tear his way through the Collectors using his prosthetic hand to chop and tear his way through the ones that got close to him. After firing off a few rounds into some Collectors that were converging on Jacob's position, Lotarius made it to the two downed Krogans. When Sven reached the Krogans he proceeded to clear the area out so he can have room to carry them over to cover so Mordin can get them treated.

"Ok how do I carry zi's two Krogans to zavety?" Sven asked aloud as he knew he needed help.

"I got your back!" Jacob called as thanks to Sven his location was cleared so he can move to assist.

"Zanks." Sven responded and in turn he hoisted up Lotarius while Jacob did the same with Grunt. But being two humans one of which was a biotic they were struggling with the two Krogans.

"Jeez you two need to ease up on the calories." Jacob grunted as he and Sven worked on pulling the Krogan pair to a safe location.

John covered them when he saw the two at work as they pulled the Krogan towards cover. Thankfully, there were less enemies now allowing for the two Krogan to be brought over to cover. The whole time this was going won Mordin was reaching them, omni-tool and medi-gel already prepped.

"The Krogan seemed to have suffered a bit of trauma after taking so much enemy fire." Mordin said as he got to work as the teams field medic. "Shouldn't take long to recover though. Just need to apply small amount of medi-gel and should be good to go again in a few seconds." Mordin said as he was already applying the treatment onto the Krogan.

Just then a loud noise was heard causing John to peak over the cover to see what had arrived as did Sven and Jacob. "Zis iz not good." Sven said as John felt that was an accurate description of the situation.

Standing just a short distance from where the team was were a number of rather large husks with large humps on their backs, and a shoulder-mounted cannon that was easily throwing out what seemed like biotic blasts. Just looking at this far more distorted version of the husks made a lot of the team feel rather sick to their stomachs all of a sudden, and that was not counting the fact that these new husks' heads were on their shoulders that was opposite that of their cannons. Seeing these things only gave the team more reason to increase their efforts and pray that EDI was close to finishing her work, and those prayers increased even more when one of the Collectors suddenly started convulsing until it transformed into one that had been possessed and enhanced by Harbinger.

"You cannot resist," Harbinger told the team as he opened fire on them as well, forcing Jack to put most of her focus into forming a biotic shield around everyone that she could in an attempt to deflect the much more powerful blasts that were now being thrown at them. "Your form is fragile. We bring promise of a greater destiny." Harbinger said as he glared down upon Shepard and the ground team.

"Yeah, Sovereign said something similar. We disagreed." John said and thus moving out of cover he opened fire on the Reaper controlled Collector. Harbinger focused his attention on John once more and despite his enhanced body and years of training, the N7 still found himself struggling to keep ahead of Harbinger's attacks. Throwing a Biotic attack did nothing to halt Harbinger save for slowing him down a bit. Eventually, John ended up taking a very serious hit from the Collector and was knocked onto all fours after slamming into a nearby wall. Just as Harbinger was about to finish the N7 though, it was suddenly hit by a powerful biotic blast from the side, drawing its attention to Miranda, who seemed rather pissed off.

This distraction gave John enough time to spring up and slam an uppercut into its head before severing said head with a combat dagger. After glancing around to see that the enemy was finally down, John started to think that the battle was over for the moment and they could catch their breaths, until the Collector that Harbinger had taken control of suddenly shuttered a little with one last thing to say. "You are an unexpected variable, Shepard but you will fail." Harbinger said as he glared at Shepard. "You think you have won, but you only damage a vessel. You cannot hurt me. The Praetorian will tear you apart. Releasing control." Harbinger said and in turn the Collector was no more.

"Well, that doesn't sound good," John muttered before moving to where his team was gathering. "Status report?" John said as he looked to the team.

"Well, I wouldn't say that we're all alright, but none of us are dead, so that must account for something," Miranda reported as this was a victory at least though not a completed one.

"The only downside is that we're extremely low on thermal clips, our armors have all taken a serious beating to the point where I'm not confident as to how much protection they'll give us once our shields go out, and we're all exhausted." Jacob said giving John the rundown of how bad of a shape that they were in. "We're in bad shape here, Commander." Jacob said which John knew was not a good thing.

"No shit," Jack grumbled while panting. She had not really expected to actually tire herself out like this, or that she would ever reach a limit on what her biotics could do, and the fact that she finally had done so was actually more disturbing than she thought it would have been. "And let's not forget how Little Miss Klepto over there froze up in the middle of that chaos." Jack said accusingly towards Kasumi

That drew quite a bit of attention to the kleptomaniac in question, who could only look away from the others in an attempt to further hide the ashamed look on her face more than her hood was already doing. Her efforts did not really help in preventing John from asking the question everyone was wondering though. "What happened back there, Kasumi?" John asked concerned for the girl.

"I…I don't know," Kasumi admitted as she never froze up like that. "I was going to do what you asked, but I remembered what happened the last time I used my cloak, and…I guess I…choked." Kasumi said which quickly brought looks of understanding to everyone's faces.

"It iz ok." Sven said assuring Kasumi that she was not at fault. "It happen to zi best of us." Sven added assuring Kasumi that it will be ok. He choked up a couple times when he started out as a Paladin, so he knew what Kasumi was going through.

"Thank you." Kasumi said grateful for Sven's comfort.

"Anybody got something to eat then, because I'm feeling hungry," Grunt suddenly groaned, drawing looks of disbelief from most of the group to him.

"We've got bigger problems than that at the moment," John revealed in an attempt to steer things back on track. "Harbinger gave us a parting warning before he decided to leave the field this time and said that something called a praetorian was coming for us." John said letting everyone know they have another enemy to take on. "Anyone know what that means?" John asked hoping someone had an answer for him.

No one was able to give an answer beyond Miranda saying that the word praetorian was title used during the age of the Roman Empire for someone of substantial rank or influence, which was not really all that helpful at all, until Garrus finally suggested, "Maybe it's another new type of husks like those big ones we had encountered a moment ago."

"I hope not. Those things made me sick to my stomach," Kasumi remarked as she hated those robot zombies.

"Well, I'm sure we'll find out one way or another in a few minutes," John said, and he then turned his attention to his comm. link. "EDI, status report." John asked needing an update on the current progress.

"Initial power up has been initiated. GARDIAN anti-ship batteries are currently at sixty percent. Synching targeting protocols to Normandy's systems. Continue to protect the tower." EDI said reporting on her part of the mission.

"What does she think we've been doing," Grunt grumbled to himself as he got ready for the next wave.

"Well, it's about to get a lot harder in a minute. We have more coming in." Lotarius said as he had his gun ready to fight.

Barely seconds later, the Collectors and husks were coming back at them in force, each throwing everything they had and more at the team, but none of that was what had them worried. No, the thing that gave the team reason to be concerned would be the horrifying shriek that echoed through the air before a massive, four-legged monstrosity suddenly dropped down from above, releasing a massive energy burst the minute its legs had slammed into the ground. Had the team not found cover quickly enough, they would all have more than likely been sent flying by the blast.

An instant later, Grunt, Lotarius, John, Sven, and Jack were all charging forwards to try and land some direct hits against the newest beast, who they all assumed was the Praetorian that Harbinger had spoken of before, while the rest of the team provided covering fire, both against the creature and anything else that tried to attack the four. They did not get very far though, as the creature lifted up into the air again, fired a large, blue energy beam that tore through anything in its path, and dropped back down again to release another shockwave, which sent all four flying in different directions.

"Okay, that piece of shit is going to fuck all of us unless we kill it fast," Jack grumbled as she rolled into cover before the Praetorian's energy blast sliced through her.

"Well thank you for that astute observation." Miranda snapped while glaring at Jack. "Any brilliant ideas on how we might accomplish that task though," Miranda shouted in heavy sarcasm and frustration.

But before anyone could say anything else the Praetorian roared and was about to attack. Key word being about because not even a second later it was suddenly stumped on by Voltron's right leg of the Blue Lion. Everyone was caught off guard and even knocked off their feet as they looked up and saw Voltron was on the scene.

"That." Jack said as she pointed at the scene. Jack was actually surprised how Voltron did that and had even jumped a bit when it happened.

"Hell yeah!" Leon was heard after the fact. "Ain't no kill like overkill!" Leon cheered as he was grinning.

"Sorry we finished up our fight and thought we'd lend a hand." Kalvin added over the communications link.

"Good thing you guys made it." John responded smiling to the Black Lion. "EDI update on the charge?" John asked as he contacted the Normandy's AI.

"Cannon is full charged and ready to fire." EDI said and thus this meant it was time to fire.

In turn the cannons all aimed at the Collector ship and proceeded to bombard it with fire tearing through its shields and armor with every shot. After the cannons finished firing everything, they had on the Collector ship John knew that it was time for them to move on and see what they could find on said ship. At least, that was the plan until something that none of them wanted to happen suddenly did.

Before anyone could even think of moving towards the Collector ship, the ground suddenly started shaking, and from the way that the alien ship was glowing, it was clear that the Collectors were taking off. Seeing that they were likely a little too close to the Collector ship's engines for comfort, John immediately shouted for everyone to move back as far as possible just to ensure that none of them ended up being incinerated by the flames that had ignited from the ship as it started to take off.

"NO!" Kalvin called out and thus Voltron went after the Collector Ship. Grabbing the ship Voltron pulled in an attempt to prevent the ship from escaping. "Don't let the ship get away!" Kalvin called out as the Paladins held their ground with Voltron. The shup was trying to escape Voltron's grip, but the Defender of the Universe would not yield.

"Who said you guys get to leave?!" Leon roared as he helped keep Voltron's grip on the Collector ship.

"Hold your ground!" Allura added as the five kept Voltron grounded and with it the Collector ship grounded.

On the ground John saw what the Paladins were doing. "Target the Collectors engines!" John ordered seeing Voltron gave them an opening.

"I will need time to charge the guns again, Commander." EDI responded as she was already on it but clearly, they did not have said time.

Just then a segment of the Collector ship began to open up revealing eye like lenses inside. Voltron's midsection was right in front of it as the Collectors made a calculated risk. The risk being a powerful beam hitting Voltron at point blank range with enough force to send the Defender flying back. The Normandy ground team saw Voltron fly off as the Collector Ship made its escape from the site.

Voltron got back on his feet as he watched the Collector ship take off. "Hector form the Shoulder Cannon!" Kalvin called out knowing how little time they had to act.

"Right!" Hector called and inserted his Bayard into its slot.

From there Voltron formed the Shoulder Cannon and after taking aim fired it upon the Collector Ship. The Ship kept going as the beam grazed its side as the targeting was done in a haste. Eventually the ship finally blasted off into the sky and away from Horizon. Despite knowing that they had likely saved at least a few colonists from being taken by the Collectors, there was still no way for anyone to not feel a sting of defeat given how the Collectors still got away with so many of Horizon's colonists. This was a fact that was only enforced when Delan suddenly came running up shouting about how they could not let the Collectors get away since half the colony was in there.

"I'm sorry." John said in a tone of defeat. "This isn't how I wanted things to end up, and I really wish that we could've done more." The SPECTRE finally said to Delan once the civilian had stopped shouting in desperation long enough to listen to someone. Meanwhile in the Black Lion Kalvin saw this and with a painful snarl Kalvin slammed his fist into the controls for his Lion.

(Later)

The Team was off to work once more, Voltron had divided back into the five lions and the Paladins were helping to clean up the mess. The Paralysis was coming undone as the remaining Civilians were being treated. Scans and samples were being gathered for Penny and Mordin to study later. Everyone was doing their part... well everyone who wasn't wearing Cerberus colors at the moment.

The Paladins had one rule when it came to situations like this stay behind and assist with rescue and recovery. Despite the changes to the crew that rule always remained the same. John was actually proud of his son on this way, but he hoped the clean-up would not take long. They needed to be gone before the Alliance showed up.

With the paladin themselves, it was surprisingly that the settlement loved the paladins of Voltron more than they did of the Alliance, with their stories told and their action of saving the colony itself, and try to save those who were taken, as the people knew that the Voltron force did all they could to stop the collector ship and just blame the Normandy crew for not helping them that much.

Leon and Penny were helping get the defensive towers online and working with Leon experts of guns and Penny with her programing with the help of EDI they gotten them operational which the settlement was glad for this, while still blaming the alliance for giving them defective equipment.

Hector was more or less set up an open soup kitchen for the people to help recover after being paralyzed by the Collector's bug swarm, and something to life their spirits up even after they lost a lot of their friends or family who were taken by the collectors.

And speaking family being taken, it seem there were a lot of kids without family thus leading them to be orphans, with some people of the settlement had taken a few of the kids into their own home, the rest could not take them for number of reasons, while Allura didn't like this, she had gather the crew from the castle of lion, as she and the crew quickly fix up a building, which became damage during the attack and became unusable, now became livable, as they turn it into a suitable orphanage for kids without any family, a few people from the settlement volunteered to watch over the Orphanage and help feed the kids until the Alliance could help send someone else to help with them, with Allura wish she could do more but there was nothing else to be done.

Lastly was Kalvin as he was doing what he can around, such as gather all the supplies, rebuild homes that were damaged during the attack, and give some people tips of surviving future attacks as there was no telling if the Collectors were return or not to finish what they started with the settlement, but in the end, he just found a quiet place to sit at for a while.

John was walking around the settlement seeing how things are doing and looking around for Kalvin before he saw in in an alleyway between two building as he was sitting on a create before he came up to him and said, "Hey Kal."

"Hey dad," Kalvin said to him as John look at his son and saw the look on his face, showing he was disappointed, and to his guess, at himself. With the Commander soon ask him, "Kal, I know you blame yourself for not able to save the other colonist. We did all we could but even our best won't be enough."

"Well, it should have been," Kalvin stood up from the create and walked around as he said, "We had them, we had them in our hands, and they slipped through our fingers once again. People are gone, maybe dead or something worse and we cannot nail these guys down long enough to capture them or figure out where they are at, not to mention we had Voltron helping, I'm a paladin of Voltron, I was supposed to help people, save them, and yet I failed at that."

"You didn't failed," Ashley voice rang out to them as both father and son look and saw Ashley coming up to them as she went on saying, "You did what you could, and no one can blame you for doing your very best, as you already know that Voltron isn't always unbeatable, but that doesn't mean you can let that get you down, you were just 15 when you came a paladin of Voltron and did a lot of good things for people. As yes, we may have lost people today, but there are others who are safe and sound because of what you and the others had done, so take that to heart because I know the next time you face the collectors, I know you can beat them."

"Thanks… I guess," Kalvin said as he smile a bit as Ashley smile to this as well before she turn her attention to John as she said, "Commander."

"Ash," John said to her as they walk up to each other before Ashley put her hands around John Shepard and hug him tightly, as she was glad to see him again, "I thought you were dead Shepard. We all did."

"It's been too long, Ash. How have you been?" John said to Ashley as they soon let off the hug as she let off and said, "That's it? You, show up after you years and like nothing happened? I would've followed you anywhere, Commander. I thought you were gone...I... you were more than our commander, and then I gotten a call from Kal, confirming that you were in fact alive, brought back by Cerberus, but why didn't you try to contact me? Why didn't you let me know you were alive?"

"I was out for two years. You've moved on with your career, and your life. Why reopen old wounds?" John said as he didn't want to bring back the past."

"I try to move on, but I had someone to look after when you were gone," Ashley said as she look over to Kalvin, as she went on saying, "I couldn't leave him alone, not after what happened."

"Never got to thank you for looking after Kal, I'm glad he was with someone I can trust," John said as Ashley nodded and said, "Your welcome, if it wasn't for Kal, I may have just moved on completely, but here we got getting pulled back in. And now We've got reports about you and Cerberus."

"I guess you already knew then about me and Cerberus," John said as Ashley nodded and said, "Yes I did, and our intel keep saying that Cerberus was behind the missing Colonies. We got a tip that this one could be the next to get hit."

"So, you already knew we would be here?" John question as Ashley said to him, "Yes so I went to Anderson, but he wouldn't talk. But there were rumor about you not being dead, and you were working for the enemy, but Kalvin clear thing up with me, saying that no one else was willing to help so your just working alongside Cerberus while the paladins were keeping an eye on you, which I am glad they are."

"That's right. Our Colonies are disappearing. The Alliance turned its back on them, and Cerberus is the only group willing to do something about it."

"You can't really believe that!" An angry voice from Kaidan was heard as he came marching up to them as John said, "lieutenant, when did you get here?"

"Just a sec ago, and I heard what you said. But do you really think Cerberus give a damn about anything? We both know what Cerberus is like. What they 're capable of," Kaiden said as Ashley said to him as she try to stop him, "Kaiden."

"You're not stopping me Gunnery, as tell me Commander, do you really believe that you and Cerberus want the same thing or what they make you think," Kaiden said as he came up to Commander Shepard's face and went on saying, "I wanted to believe the rumors that you were alive, but I never expected anything like this. You turned your back on everything we stood for!"

"Kaidan, you know me. You know I'd only do this for the right reason," John said as he tried to talk sense into Kaiden as he went on saying, "You saw it yourself. The Collectors are targeting human colonies. And they're working with the reapers!"

Kalvin saw how this could escalate and in turn opted to step in before that could happen. "Kaiden, I get it working with Cerberus is not ideal, especially since they just had my team attacked by a robot lion that was clearly overcompensating." Kalvin said stepping in on the subject.

"Wait what?" John asked as he wasn't told about this.

"I'll explain later." Kalvin said knowing he had to tell his dad what happened during the Robeast battle. "Kaiden, listen you know me and trust me, right?" Kalvin asked as he looked to Kaiden.

"Of course, I do." Kaiden began but before he could continue Kalvin cut in.

"Then trust me when I say that this is my dad, and he would never work with Cerberus without a damn good reason." Kalvin said which Kaiden knew he had to concede to the leader of the Paladins. Kaiden did trust Kalvin, after all the original Normandy team looked out for Kalvin and the Paladins for the past two years. Ashley and Kaiden visited Kalvin during his year in N7 School, Garrus kept Hector in one piece on Palivan, Shiara tutored Penny during her time with the Asari Commandos on Thesia, Liara kept in touch with Leon while he was with the Salarian Special Task Group, and Tali made semi-regular visits to Allura on New Altea.

Kaiden was silent for a bit and then growled for a bit. "Dammit your right." Kaiden said as he knew Kalvin would never lie about this. More so Allura would never openly support Cerberus which made the official story of the Paladins investigating a possible Cerberus Operation a bit more believable. "I need to clear my head." Kaiden said and thus walked off to find a place to think... and deal with the headache from his L2 Implants.

"And there goes the wedge." Kalvin said as he knew this was a lot to take in. "I should go." Kalvin said knowing his team might have updates for him. Kalvin left as John knew this was mainly an excuse to keep himself busy while he deals with the aftermath of what happened.

Seeing Kalvin leave Ashley knew that Kalvin was still reeling from such a defeat. Yes, they managed to save a good portion of the Colony but everyone else got taken by the Collectors. But when Kalvin mentioned that he was attacked by a Cerberus mech that was caused for concern.

"I need to check this out." John said as he knew that if what Kalvin said was true Cerberus had attacked the Paladins.

"I won't stop you." Ashley said and with a nod John left to investigate why Cerberus would attack the Paladins.

Ashley was soon left alone with only her thoughts to keep her company now. Ashley was not entirely sure what to think about what she just learned. Yes, it did hurt learning that Shepard was working with an organization that she both distrusted and despised with a passion, but at the same time, it was also clear that he had his reasons. After two years of looking after Kalvin Ashley can honestly say that she trusts Kalvin. Sure, he had some issues here and there but his sense of right and wrong was one to respect. Kalvin and the other Paladins could not just sit around when bad stuff are happening in the galaxy.

So, after seeing what the Collectors do firsthand, she could not really fault him for doing this, no matter how much she wanted to. It honestly made her head hurt thinking about it, so she was understandably rather snappish when Garrus finally caught up with her. "What Garrus? Didn't want to join your new Cerberus pals in their big mission," Ashley questioned, probably a little more harshly than she would normally have intended.

"First off, I don't trust Cerberus any more than you do. I'm only with them because of Shepard and I trust the Paladins as much as you do." Garrus said as Ashley was reminded, they all had a role in those kids upbringing. "And after seeing what these Collectors are doing firsthand, I can't really turn my back on it," Garrus retorted which caused Ashley to give a small chuckle before she said, "You always were really passionate about seeing justice was done no matter what it takes, Garrus."

"Well, I think my time on Omega as Archangel would be evidence of that," Garrus quipped in response with the Turian equivalent to a smile on his face. At that point, Ashley really did laugh a little before revealing, "I still can't believe that an old teammate and friend of mine is the vigilante cleaning house in Omega."

Garrus rolled his eyes a bit at Ashley but could not argue with her assumption since it was true. "In all honesty it was the people of Omega who gave me the name, so it wasn't really my choice." Garrus revealed as things began to lighten up. "As for how it happened, well the short version is that I got tired of all the red tape that had been coming up when it came to stopping criminals after I got back on the Citadel, so I went to Omega to take care of the bad guys my own way." Garrus said before he then paused for a minute before he finally asked the big question that had been bugging him. "How have you been doing after all these years, Ash? And I mean really, not what you lead others to believe." Garrus asked as he wanted to make sure the old crew was still handling things well.

Ashley had known this would have been coming ever since she saw Garrus was with the group that had recently arrived on Horizon to try and save the colony, but that did not stop her from trying to keep up the façade of seeming to be strong until she finally sighed in defeat and revealed what she had been going through since she last saw her old friend. "Honestly, I like to think I've been doing okay, but it hasn't been easy since we lost the old Normandy and…and Shepard," Ashley finally admitted and even though she knew he was alive now the scars from that day didn't leave. "I mean, that old ship had become like a second home to me, and Shepard was more than just our commander, so you can't really expect me to say that everything's all sunshine and roses after losing both." Ashley said which Garrus had to agree.

"I know," Garrus said with a nod of admittance. "I miss those days too. Sure, we had a lot of rough times, especially since we started out with the whole chase for Saren, but things eventually got to the point where we weren't just comrades in arms and squad mates." Garrus said fondly recalling those days. "We were a solid unit that could read each other with just a simple glance. If it weren't for Shepard that probably wouldn't have ever happened." He finished which Ashley nodded.

"Not to mention, we'd probably be dealing with Reapers wiping out all life in the galaxy right now," Ashley pointed out in a small bit of good humor. "Although, I'm surprised you really feel that way, unless that sentiment doesn't extend to Wrex as well." Ashley said with a light jab to her friend.

"No, it does," Garrus admitted to the gunnery chief. "I may be a Turian, and feelings between my people and the Krogan may not be that grand, but I know better than most that not all of them are bad, and it's mostly thanks to Wrex that I know that." Garrus said as he did miss that Krogan. From what he heard from Hector Wrex was busy trying to unite the Krogan so they can rebuild their world. "I'm actually kind of hoping that this little adventure we're on takes us by Tuchanka at some point so I have a chance to settle our old sparring score once and for all." Garrus said as that got a laugh out of both of the two friends.

However, once he settled down from his chuckles, Garrus managed to finally bring himself to ask the other big question he had for his old friend. "We could really use you on the new Normandy, Ash. There's already a couple of old faces there, but it would definitely help having you along both for your skills and so that we have someone else we trust there." Garrus said as he knew with Ash on the team, they may stand a chance of surviving the Suicide Mission.

Ashley's face grew a bit somber when she heard that, and it honestly hurt her a bit to say what she had to. "I can't, Garrus, and you know why." Ashley said as she knew this might hurt her old friends. "I may not have always been the biggest fan of aliens, but I don't trust Cerberus, especially with their history of being extremists." She said which was a good reason not to join. "More than that, I'm an Alliance soldier through and through. It's in my blood. Do you really think I could just throw that away?" Ashley asked reminding Garrus that she came from a long line of military.

"No, but I had to ask, regardless," Garrus admitted as he did it for Kalvin and John's sake. "Just take care of yourself Ash and try not to end up on any other colonies that may be targeted by the Collectors." Garrus said and in turn Ashley nodded in response to Garrus' warning. Ashley then indulged herself in the impulse she had suppressed earlier by wrapping the Turian in a tight hug. Garrus was a bit surprised by her sudden display of affection, but still recovered quickly enough to return said hug as his old friend softly said, "You do the same, Garrus. Whatever you're going to be doing with these guys, get it done, and make sure you come home."

"I'll…do my best," Garrus hesitantly replied, not wanting to tell Ashley that they were on a suicide mission to stop the Collectors for good because of how much he was sure it would upset her. After another minute, the two released each other from their embrace and allowed one another to depart for their respective teams, each feeling that they had both had enough of this particular colony for a long time, and that sentiment was easily shared by Kaiden, The Paladins, and the rest of the new Normandy team as well, even if it was not entirely for all the same reasons.

(TBC)

ESKK: Another chapter is done, I hoped you all enjoy it and will join us next time as we continue this awesome trilogy. Now I also have some news for everyone because while I know its early this still needs to be said. The Vehicle Voltron has been greenlit but not for the Mass Effect Trilogy but instead it has been greenlit for Andromeda in a story called Quintessence Effect Andromeda's Defender. Look forward to that story as we continue through this trilogy. Now then you all know the drill leave a review before leaving and as always folks, ja-ne.