AN: I read through and re-wrote this chapter multiple times and couldn't feel happy about it. Lemme know what you think, I know the events I want to happen but my presentation just feels off. Gonna publish it anyway though, because I want to keep this moving. Fuck you if you don't like it.
Chapter 31
"Uh, Commander?" Garrus said.
"I see them." Shepard said, swerving wildly to avoid incoming fire from a Geth Prime.
"Don't stop Janey!" Harry yelled, before apparating out.
"HARRY!" Shepard yelled.
"What is he doing?" Tali asked, just then the mako's view screen automatically dimmed when the area was bathed in blinding light.
"Fuck!" Shepard.
"Commander, Sovereign just made a break for the relay!" Joker said over comms.
"Follow it!" Shepard ordered. They were bathed in white light again, this time the explosion was enough to rock the Mako up onto three of its wheels momentarily before with a bang it settled back onto all six.
"We're almost there!" Ash yelled.
"Where's Harry?!" Kaidan yelled.
"No time, goddamnit!" Shepard growled as she hit the accelerator. Their stomachs turned as they accelerated to hyper-luminal speeds once the front of the Mako entered the Conduit. They all braced as the vehicle shook violently for the short amount of time it traveled between Ilos and the Citadel. Unfortunately Shepard's overzealous acceleration caused them to roll the Mako as soon as they arrived, leaving everyone suspended upside down from their restraints.
"Everyone ok?" Shepard asked.
"Relatively..." Wrex answered, grunting as he landed on the ceiling of the mako with a loud thump.
"Come on, we don't have time to waste." Shepard said. She released herself and kicked open the emergency hatch, lowering her weapon and scanning the surroundings.
"Took your sweet time..." Harry said, kneeling on the ground clutching his shoulder.
"Harry!" Shepard cried, running over to him. She nearly knocked him over running to him.
"Hi Janey." Harry said with a grin.
"You're hurt!" Shepard said.
"Yeah about that.. you mind?" Harry asked, coughing up a small amount of blood.
"We need to get you medical attention." Shepard said, on the verge of panic.
"Janey, stop. Breathe. We don't have time. Patch me up and we'll go stop Sovereign, then I'll go see Karin, ok?" Harry said.
"R-Right..." Shepard said, pulling her wand and applying several episkeys. Harry groaned as his ribs set and his shoulder popped back into place.
"I'm ok.. come on let's go." Harry said.
"Where are we going?" Ashley asked.
"The Citadel's main control unit.. Up there." Shepard said pointing at the council's tower in the Presidium.
"Power's out all over the place, that elevator might not be an option and that's a long climb..." Wrex observed, before sighing.
"Can we apparate?" Shepard asked.
"Do we have to?" Garrus whined.
"I have another idea..." Harry said with a grin, turning to look at a skycar.
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Kai Leng cursed as he once again was informed by the station VI that he lacked credentials to access the Main Control unit. He looked behind him, at the C-Sec officers he'd killed, wondering if they had some sort of access codes on their omnitools. His hack program would eventually get him access, however he was a very impatient man.
"Initiate program seventeen." Leng said. His omnitool lit up and the control panel's display started lighting up with thousands of password failure indications. He smiled when at last it said 'Access granted.' and the arms started to close. A flash outside caught his attention, it was the glint of the Widow system's star reflecting off the shiny exterior of what looked to be a late model sports skycar.
"What is... shit." Kai Leng said, throwing himself to the floor as the sky car collided with the tower, breaking several of the windows. When the wrecked transport came to a rest, the doors opened and Harry, Shepard, Shiala, Liara and Tali emerged.
"Well I'll be. Kai Leng. You're shorter than your dossier suggested. How's Jack?" Harry asked, struggling not to limp as he approached.
"The Illusive Man warned me you might interfere..." Leng said, withdrawing his sword. Harry grinned and pulled The Sword of Gryffindor.
"Uh, Harry?" Shepard said. Harry gave her a stern look. She nodded.
"Shiala, help him." Shepard ordered. Shiala nodded and raised her hands, charging a singularity.
"Tali and Liara, come with me we need to stop those arms from closing!" Shepard said. She forced herself to watch Tali and Liara's backs, she couldn't lose focus despite knowing that while Harry had learned many things over his unnaturally long life, despite carrying the sword for most of it, he never really did learn how to use it.
"Tali, get ready to add the file we got Ilos. I'm using my spectre codes to keep the arms open." Shepard said.
"No!" Leng shouted. Shepard turned just in time to see a red flash of magic collide with the back of Leng's head, knocking him to the ground.
"How sad. Jack's gonna hate finding out his wunderkind was caught sleeping on the job." Harry growled, getting his attention again. Leng leapt to his feet and dashed towards Harry who groaned as Leng's sword sliced into his injured arm.
"The arms are almost closed!" Shepard shouted before raising her rifle and firing at Leng. The bullets ricocheted harmlessly off his hastily erected barrier.
"Fuck!" Harry said, looking up just to see Sovereign in front of a swarm of Geth ships, slipping between the arms just before they closed. As if in slow motion, it slowly glided towards the tower and attached itself.
"Where's the council?" Shepard bellowed. Liara worked on the console.
"They evacuated already..." Look out!" Liara shouted. A dozen Stalkers crawled in through the broken windows.
"Stay focused!" Harry shouted, banishing a few with his wand.
"Fire!" Kaidan shouted as he stepped out of the elevator along with Garrus, Wrex, Kaidan and Ashley. A hail of bullets assaulted the remaining stalkers as well as Leng's barrier, driving him slowly back.
"Don't let up!" Ashley shouted, as they all poured bullets into his barrier, ineffectively. Leng's eyes darted around searching for cover to hide behind when his communicator activated. He pressed a finger to his ear.
"It's done... You sure? Yes sir..." Leng said. He looked up at Harry who was just finishing closing the wound on his arm and looked quite unsteady on his feet. He grinned.
"Next time we meet, I'll take that arm with me. Or perhaps your head." Kai Leng said before be did a ridiculous backflip out of the window, landing in a skycar that made a quick escape into the panicked Citadel traffic.
"Forget him. What do we do about that?" Shepard asked, pointing at Sovereign.
"Concentrate on opening the arms. The fleets can paste him them." Kaidan said. Harry carefully lowered himself to the ground and sat, winded.
"Harry you look like shit." Garrus said.
"How's the view from inside that glass house, Garrus?" Harry asked with a grin.
"Explain that later. You've lost a lot of blood, you should lay down." Garrus said.
"No can do. We need all hands. Janey, what are our options?" Harry asked. Shepard frowned.
"I hate this..." Shepard said, hesitating. Eventually she spoke.
"Harry we have no reason to believe the shields on that thing can block apparition. No technological or biotic barriers that we've encountered have been able to, and you're the only one that can resist that thing's influence on us." Shepard said. Harry smiled.
"I'm proud of you, Janey." Harry said, slowly getting to his feet. Shepard's eyes welled up.
"Go fuck his shit up, Harry." Shepard said. Harry limped over to her and took her in his arms, before kissing her.
"I will come back to you, Janey." Harry said, reaching down and taking her hand.
"I know I've said this to you countless times, but I love you." Harry said. Shepard smiled and kissed him again.
"I know." Shepard said with a grin. Harry laughed, before apparating out.
"What can we do in the meantime?" Ashley asked.
"See if you can open up communications..." Shepard said. Ashley waved her omnitool and they heard a distorted message.
"The Destiny Ascension... Main drive offline... kinetic barriers down to 40%... The Council is on board! Repeat, the Council is on board!" The message said.
"Fuck." Shepard said.
"Normandy to the Citadel, Normandy to the Citadel... please tell me that's you commander!" Joker's voice said over the comms.
"Joker! What's your situation?" Shepard said.
"We lost Sovereign on the way. The relays are locked down, but we hooked up with the Arcturus Fleet in the Andura sector. We can save the Ascension! Just unlock the relays around the citadel and we'll send the cavalry in!" Joker said.
"Are you really willing to sacrifice Human lives to save the Council, Shepard?" Garrus asked.
"This is bigger than Humanity! Sovereign is a threat to every organic species in the galaxy!" Kaidan protested.
"Fuck 'em." Wrex said. Shepard grimaced.
"I appreciate your viewpoint Garrus, but without the Council the citadel worlds go into chaos. " Shepard said, punching in commands to the main command unit.
"The relays are locked. Fuck 'em up!" Shepard ordered.
"Understood." Joker said.
"I hope you know what you're doing, Shepard." Garrus said
"Agreed." Wrex said.
"Janey!" Harry cried out through the comms.
"Harry! What's going on?" Shepard asked.
"It's really, really gross in here... I think this is probably what the inside of a Thresher Maw's ass looks like..." Harry said.
"Can you find a control room?" Shepard asked.
"I found a control thing... SHIT!" Harry said.
"Commander! The Destiny Ascension is drifting towards the star!" Joker reported.
"Send a ship in there to rescue them!" Shepard shouted.
"No can do, Commander, the Geth are swarming around them." Joker said.
"Janey I have an idea that you'll hate." Harry said.
"No." Shepard said.
"You don't even know what it is, and I'm not hearing any better ideas." Harry said.
"I know, but I had to at least try." Shepard said.
"I know Janey. I found out reapers are organic enough to fall under the influence of the imperius curse. I can fly this son of a bitch between the Ascension and the st ar and self-destruct it. Thing is, I'm gonna have to be here to keep control." Harry said.
"You're right. I hate it." Shepard said.
"I know, me too." Harry said.
"Do it." Shepard said.
"I'm sorry." Harry said.
"Harry, please. Please come back to me." Shepard said, her voice breaking.
"I swear it." Harry said. He disengaged the communications on his omnitool and looked at the giant pulsing nexus of wire and organic matter at the center of Sovereign.
"Fly to these coordinates." Harry said, punching coordinates into his omnitool and sending them to him.
"Yessss..." Sovereign said. Harry felt the reaper moving. He clutched his head, and closed his eyes, seeing images flashing in his head. An enormous, dead cephalopod washing ashore on a primarily aquatic planet, Tall willowy beings with strangely shaped heads fleeing in terror from others of their kind that were covered in cybernetic augmentations, a gargantuan fleet of derelict ships drifting near the core of the galaxy, ramming into each other randomly, bodies too mutilated to recognize being collected and dragged away by the keepers of the citadel while others dismantled the buildings and stored the materials for later use.
"Next time, no legillemency on billion year old genocide robots." Harry said. He felt Sovereign stop and he sighed.
"Sovereign, self-destruct." Harry said. He could feel the Reaper trying desperately to break free of the imperius curse, but it had never encountered magic and had no counter. The ambient temperature increased as the power plant deep inside the ship started to overload. Harry looked around, now recognizing many of the components inside the ship since he'd had a chance to dance around in the monster's brain.
"Ok now how do I get out of here?" Harry asked himself. To his surprise, Sovereign answered.
"The Turian's personal shuttle remains in the docking bay." Sovereign said, illuminating a path out of the ship.
"Oh, cool." Harry said following the path. He was unable to run, the temperature was rising continuously and he was still suffering from severe blood loss. He slowly staggered down the corridor, occasionally stopping to lean on a wall. After what felt like hours, he passed through a doorway and into a surprisingly large docking bay. Saren's ship was there, its cockpit opening, and with a monumental effort he hoisted himself inside and closed it.
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Shepard stared out into space, watching the geth armada slowly getting wiped out. With every destroyed ship their processing power decreased, and it would not be much longer. She ruthlessly resisted her urge to panic when she saw the colossal explosion occur close to the star.
"Goddess... We're saved! The explosion knocked us free!" An Asari voice cried out.
"That was the Geth Dreadnought!" A Human cried out.
"Focus! Clean up the rest!" A Turian soldier bellowed.
Shepard kept staring, seeing the occasional flash of a ship exploding, not even noticing a three-fingered hand settling on her shoulder.
"Commander. We should get to the Normandy." Tali said.
"Y-yeah..." Shepard said.
"He'll be ok. If that disease can't kill him how could this? Besides, you know that slippery little shit can weasel his way out of anything." Wrex said. That actually made her feel a bit better. She turned and went to leave when she suddenly had the feeling of impending danger. She looked up and to her horror, she saw a huge chunk of Sovereign tentacle was hurtling towards them.
"GET OUT!" Shepard shouted, shoving Wrex who collided with Tali and Garrus. Liara and Shiala immediately bolted, leaving Ashley and Kaidan there with Shepard.
"Come on!" Kaidan shouted.
"Don't wait on me!" Shepard yelled, running towards them. Just as Kaidan and Ashley made it into the next room, the entire tower shook violently as bits of the dead reaper collided with it, pinning Shepard underneath the rubble.