Chapter 66

Adele: Skyfall

October 16th, 2185
1:17pm, Omega time
Archangel's hideout

"All three?" Melanis hisses, and I can see how much she wants to shout the words as she stares down at me incredulously. I'm pretty sure she would be yelling, along with pinning me against a wall and growling in my face, if it wasn't for Monteague and Laet making their calls near us. At least she's caught on to keeping it a secret, though if we all make it out of this I'm pretty sure I can look forward to being lacerated afterwards. "How long did you say we have?"

"Half an hour," I reply, trying to keep my voice calm as I realise the sheer extent I've fucked this up. Half an hour isn't much at all. I can spend that long in the shower without even putting my mind to it; we're supposed to make some kind of defence and evacuate the squad in that space of time. Fuck, how could we just leave Sidonis here? "And yeah, it's going to be all three. Trust me, we've really pissed them off these past two years."

"Half an…why are you only telling us now?" Melanis asks, flaring her mandibles angrily, repeating the question I'm starting to ask myself.

"I thought you agreed we don't have time for questions," I say, looking around the base to try and come up with some kind of plan. If Vortash breaks every single traffic regulation and flies as fast as he can, which I've no doubt he will, it could take another fifteen minutes to get everyone back here. Then we have to, at the very least, brief everyone about what to do and get everyone onto the shuttle, and then get the shuttle well clear of the base. This is assuming my idea of mercenary timings are correct, which I'm nowhere near as confident about as I hope I sound.

Melanis' eyes narrow, and she reaches out to my shoulder, spinning me back around to face her. "You owe me this one," she says firmly. "I'm the one putting blind faith in you here."

I sigh, running a hand through my hair. I'm not going to be able to make a plan with Melanis bugging me, and I need her trust. "I thought I'd avoided this," I tell her. "It's becoming pretty evident I haven't."

"How long have you known for?" she presses.

"A while, alright?" I snap. "Trust me, I realise I've messed this up, you don't need to tell me." Melanis keeps looking at me, but her expression softens as I admit that, looking more sympathetic.

"Is it Sidonis?"

"Yeah," I nod, rubbing my temples and trying to get my thoughts straight as Melanis' posture finally relaxes from its aggressive stance. "Look, we have to get this place defendable." I glance up at the female turian again, still staring at me with a mixture of confusion, sympathy and underlying anger in her face and eyes as her mandibles flex questioningly. As much as I'd love to explain everything to her, doing it right now isn't an option. "Mel, I want you to understand, but we don't have time. Right now, I need your help so we can actually survive long enough for me to explain this."

She finally nods, just as I notice Monteague running along to us from the other side of the room. I can understand why Melanis wants to know everything. In her position, I'd be the exact same with the questions. "The other teams were still waiting on an opportunity to strike," the drell explains, looking between Melanis and I. "Vortash thinks he can get everyone extracted and back here in under fifteen minutes."

"That's a stroke of luck," I mutter. "God knows we needed one of them." Monteague looks at me blankly, as do Melanis and Laet. Garrus is supposed to be the one in charge of evacuation procedures; since he's not here, everyone seems to be waiting on me. Shit, uh…if the squad is getting out, then they're going to need supplies. "Monteague, Laet, go to the medbay and grab all the medical supplies you can get. Just the vital stuff, medi-gel, whatever, you know better than me." The drell and turian nod, turning to set off, before I have a thought, calling out after them. "Split the supply pile in half. We're going to need some of it here."

"Why are you leaving some here?" Melanis asks, obvious concern in her voice. Right now, I really don't need to tell her that Garrus and I are going to have to stay behind. We need to be here for Shepard, plus with the squad escaping, a distraction at the base keeps the mercs focused here, rather than searching elsewhere. I can't see Melanis being happy about that; precisely why I'm not going to waste time having that argument.

"Mel, grab all the weapons and ammo in the base. Take the weapons and half the ammo, put them near the garage, then leave the rest of the ammo here," I say, ignoring her question as I look to the kitchen. "I'll get food and essentials." She wavers in her spot for a few seconds, before wordlessly running off towards the armoury. I jog over to the kitchen, flinging open the cupboard doors and pretty much dragging out everything that's edible without being cooked. This must be so surreal for Mel…at least the others think it's a real threat. She'll barely know what to think.

Okay, food. Drinks now. We've got a whole load of gallon sized water bottles, so I heave them down two at a time, before cracking open the fridge and pulling out anything else I can find that's non-alcoholic; which basically equates to a whole load of Tupari which I pile on the floor with the rest of the stuff. I leave three of the water bottles and enough food to get a turian and a human through about three days, then start dragging the rest towards the centre of the living room, glancing down at the time on my omni-tool. Should only be about ten minutes until the others arrive…

"I got the medi-gel," Monteague announces, and I turn my head to look at him as he walks in from the corridor that leads to the medical bay, clutching a load of medi-gel capsules in his arms. "Laet is getting other supplies. I-"

There's a sudden, distant cracking sound, and suddenly blood explodes out of Monteague, the drell spinning and falling to the ground as the medi-gel tumbles from his hands, spinning and rolling across the polished floor. The whole thing takes about a second, my mind taking two more to rationalise what happened before I throw myself behind a sofa, just as I see Laet walk into the room.

"Monteague!" he yells, rushing forward to the drell…and right into the line of fire. There's another sharp crack, definitely a sniper rifle report, and a bullet thuds into the wall, travelling at an angle only a few centimetres above his head.

"Laet, get in cover!" I shout, even as he tries to pull Monteague back with him. Average sniper takes about three seconds to reload, one to aim and fire. I barely have time to get to my feet, run to Laet and tackle him to the ground, just as another shot fires, whistling past us and burying itself in the wall. Monteague's still sprawled out in the open, not moving, but I don't get to look for long as Laet starts struggling wildly in my grip, trying to get back to the drell. "Stay here!" I shout, trying to hold him back, before just giving in and slapping him on the side of the face to make him look at me. "We can't do anything for him until that sniper is dead, alright?"

"We've got to help him!" Laet says desperately.

"And we will, when it doesn't put us in danger!" I persist. "You're turian, you've done your military training, so start acting like it!" Laet's eyes are widened in fear but he gives me a shaky nod, settling back against cover and closing his eyes, muttering what sounds like a turian prayer as I pull my sniper rifle off my back, grateful for the fact I'm still geared up from going after Taren.

"Mel, we're under attack," I say on the comm. line, lifting the rifle scope over the top of the worktop we're sheltered behind and looking through it over the bridge. Five lightly armoured, assault rifle wielding Blue Suns, a couple of turians and humans along with a batarian, are advancing cautiously towards the base, and hiding behind one of the bridge pillars at the back, I can just make out a body and rifle barrel poking out. Come on, mate, try lining up another shot… "Monteague's down."

"I'm on my way," she says, as I see her emerge from the other side of the room, coming up from the underground part of the base where we store weaponry. "Monteague's down? Is he…"

"I don't know," I reply, fighting the urge to check the drell's body and focusing my energy on my aim. The sniper starts to lean around cover again, bringing up the rifle…but it only gets halfway before I pull the trigger, my shoulder absorbing the kickback as the round tears through his skull, dropping him with ease. "Five guys with assault rifles coming over the bridge. Go upstairs to the dorm and shoot out the window there."

"On it." I pull back the bolt and quickly slam a fresh thermal clip into the Mantis, readying up again. The mercs have dropped caution now we're firing back, running at the base to take up cover on the exterior. I manage to plug one of the slower humans in the chest, knocking him down where he lies still. There's the rattle of assault rifle fire from upstairs, and the blue blood I see hit the bridge suggests Melanis' managed to get one of the turians.

"Pick him up now," I hiss to Laet, folding the rifle away and drawing my pistol, running out from behind the worktop while firing steadily at the entrance to the house, suppressing anyone there to buy Laet enough time to get Monteague out of the way. The merc there isn't stupid, though, blind-firing his assault rifle around the corner at me. I instinctively duck behind the sofa I was using previously, but know that the shots will have hit where Laet and Monteague were just a second ago. "Laet!" I shout, looking behind me. No sign of either of them. "Laet!" No reply. "Shit," I mutter, activating tactical cloak and moving up. He'll be fine. He has to be.

I hear a ferocious snarling as I move to the front of the house, then see Ghost suddenly fly past me, the albino varren's teeth drawn back. The human merc who blindfired pulls around his cover fully to try and get a clean shot…and gets tackled by Ghost, who pins him down and clamps his jaws around his throat and weak neck armour. The varren shakes his head furiously, snarling louder and louder…until he yanks his head back and there's a huge tearing sound, the human lying limp beneath him.

"Ghost, get back-" I start to shout, but it's already too late. I hear the short burst of assault rifle fire and Ghost's surprised yelp of pain, then he's laid on his side, unmoving as a turian walks around in front of him and sprays another burst into the varren's corpse. This gives me the perfect opportunity to stand up and empty the remaining ten shots of my Predator into the bastards' head.

There's a few rounds fired from upstairs, and I look out to see the batarian fall down as he tries running back across the bridge. "All clear," Melanis reports, as I walk forward and kneel down next to Ghost, looking for any signs of life. Nothing. His eyes are glazed over, white body sagging as he lies on his flank. "You?"

"Clear," I sigh, getting up and running back into the house, towards where Laet and Monteague were. "Laet!" I shout, pushing Ghost to the back of my mind as I round the worktop we were sheltered behind…and see him applying medi-gel to Monteague's arm, cradling the drell protectively as Monteague looks up at me, smiling apologetically.

"You're alive," I say, breathing an enormous sigh of relief as I look at the very much breathing drell. "I thought you-"

"The shot sliced the side of my arm," Monteague explains. "I decided playing dead rather than taking another bullet would be preferable. The medi-gel will stem the bleeding."

"Good call on playing dead," I smile, as I hear Melanis jogging over and stopping next to me, making an equally relieved noise to see Monteague's alright. "Just tell me next time. You scared the shit out of me."

"I don't think you're the one he scared the most," Laet mutters, finishing up with the medi-gel and helping pull Monteague up to his feet. "They only sent six people after us?"

"Scouts, most likely," Melanis suggests, before I can say anything. "They were probably expecting us to be unprepared." I can feel her eyes on me as she says that.

"Which means the main bulk of them can't be far behind," I say, hearing the sound of a single, familiar engine drawing closer to the base. "When the scouts don't report in, they'll know this is the place. We've got maybe another ten minutes. Fifteen if we're lucky and they have to stop and ask for directions. The three of you, keep getting supplies together. I'll explain what's going on to the others and have them help you."

"Got it," Melanis nods. "Let's go." Her, Laet and Monteague set off back to their respective tasks as I run towards the garage, breathing heavily as the adrenaline from the fight wears off. We barely made it through six mercs without Monteague almost dying…and we lost Ghost. I wish I'd made more time for him, but too late for regrets. In ten minutes, the merc groups come crashing down on us, and escape for the squad becomes practically impossible. I hear the shuttle touch down, and within five seconds Garrus is storming in from the garage entrance as I run towards him.

"What's going on?" he snaps, as Butler, Weaver, Grundan, Vortash and Sensat assemble behind him, with the latter apparently taking this remarkably well, from her calm expression.

"Umbra, the Blue Suns and Taren had our location on file, and they're assembling all of the three main merc groups to kill us here," I explain, repeating the lie I told the others. "We need everyone out in ten minutes, or the shuttle's going to get blown out the sky as soon as it takes off."

"You're no' joking, are you?" Butler asks, sighing as I shake my head. "Fuck."

"All of you need to find Monteague, Laet and Melanis, and help them pack the supplies they're collecting into the shuttle, as fast as you can," I say. "Five minutes at most. Then get back here so we can tell you what to do once you're out. Weaver, if you can leave a few explosive surprises in the underground areas…"

"It'd be my pleasure," the salarian nods, and I see the smallest hint of a smile on his face.

I look over at Garrus, resisting the urge to yell at him right now for leaving Sidonis where he did. "Garrus, I need to talk to you separately," I tell him, surprised at how calm I'm able to keep my voice.

"Alright," he replies, furrowing his brow ridges as he gestures to the others to get to work. I wait for them to rush over, before leaning in closer to him, glaring furiously.

"I can't believe you just left Sidonis here to betray us like that," I snap, only raising my voice by a fraction. "What the fuck were you thinking?"

Garrus blinks in surprise, staring down at me. "What are you talking about?"

I'm about to keep having a go at him, but the genuine shock on his face makes me stop mid-sentence. "I sent you a message when I left after the auction house." He's still giving me a blank look. No, no, no… "I sent it," I repeat, opening up my omni-tool, scrolling down to the sent messages and showing it to Garrus. "It says right there."

"I never got that," Garrus says, and there's not even the smallest hint of a lie in his voice. But…how? How does that even happen? The message sent! "You knew Sidonis was going to betray us," he says quietly. "And you didn't tell me."

"Well, it's not like I didn't try," I retort, pointing to the message again. "I couldn't tell you when I first got here, you would've kicked him out of the squad straight away."

"And so what if I did?" the turian growls. "Would we be in this mess right now if…" He rests a hand on the top of his head, tensing in frustration before giving a look of ice. "I don't believe this. Ten minutes to save the entire squad because of you."

"Hey, because of Sidonis," I reply. "I wasn't the one who betrayed you."

"But you're the one who could have stopped it!" Garrus shouts, making me quickly glance around to see if anyone's nearby. No-one is, thankfully. "You didn't think it would be a good idea to check if I'd got the message?"

"It was sent and marked as read on my omni-tool, why would I?" I ask. Garrus stares at me, making me give an exasperated sigh. "I knew you'd do this. Is it too much to ask you to be understanding?"

"I understand fine," he shrugs. "You don't trust me."

"You don't exactly make it easy to trust you with some things, though, do you?" I snap. "Sidonis saved our lives more than a few times. If you'd kicked him out straight away, there's a good chance we wouldn't be here right now. If I'd trusted you with this earlier, we might be dead." He gives me the same stubborn look, and I shake my head. Neither of us are in the right here, but I don't think he's going to accept that. "This is my fault, but you're just confirming why I did what I did. This is exactly why I didn't tell you about Evan."

"Evan?"

"Blue Suns detective who helped me with that quarian serial killer," I explain. "If you'd found out I was working with the enemy, what would you have done to him?" Garrus stays quiet. "That's my point."

"Well, here's my point," Garrus says dangerously, walking up to me and jabbing a talon into my chest. "You let this happen. If a single one of the squad dies because of you, it's blood on your hands."

"You make it sound like I didn't know that already," I reply calmly, not shirking away from his gaze as he walks past me and towards the others, growling lowly. "This means Shepard's coming back," I call after him. "You and I are going to have to stay here and buy the others time."

"Great," he says sarcastically. "We've got a lot to talk about."

I turn on my heel and follow him to grab supplies, shaking my head as I do. I didn't expect Garrus to be understanding, so I can deal with the disapproval. What I can't get my head around is him not receiving my message. You don't get delivery glitches in 2185. Messages reach the intended target, period. This is making less and less sense to me.

Packing up the supplies take the five minutes I allocated to everyone, and thankfully this time no-one's shooting at us as we all work together and frantically pile guns, ammunition, food, drink, credits and medical supplies into the shuttle, until Vortash tells us that if he wants to fly it and the squad, we have to stop. From the looks of things…it should be enough.

Which means that, approximately seven minutes after Garrus arrived back at base, we're all gathered outside of the garage. Everyone is still in their armour, with the exception of Laet, Monteague, Vortash and Sensat, but they're all armed as Garrus and I stand in front of them.

This…this is it. Goodbye. I knew it had to come at some point, but still, I can scarcely believe it. I thought we'd at least have time to do it properly. Rather than only being given thirty minutes notice that we have to pull out. I mean, hopefully it's not goodbye for ever, but the whole Omega era is coming to a close. This is the end. We don't even have time for a long goodbye speech.

"Everyone except for Ian and I are going to get in the shuttle as soon as I finish talking," Garrus explains, meeting everyone's gaze at least once as he looks around the room. "Vortash, I need you to take everyone to the nearest private spaceport away from merc attention. When you get there, you need to hijack anything that can get you away from here." Vortash couldn't handle something like the Normandy, but Omega is rife with small cargo ships that we know he's capable of piloting. "When you have a ship, get out of here as fast as you can and get somewhere safe, somewhere like the Citadel. When you get there, split up and go your separate ways, no more than two people go to the same place. Once you're certain you're safe, message me and let me know. Does everyone understand?"

Everyone in the room gives a sharp nod, not wanting to waste words. Time is of the essence, after all; we're all acutely aware the mercs could be on us at any moment. I glance down at my omni-tool again. Optimistically…we have two minutes. "We've done everyone on Omega a valuable service," Garrus says, unable to resist adding something extra to his speech. "We've weakened the scum on this rock, we've let them know that people will hold them accountable for what they do, and we've shown them that justice exists, even on Omega. You might be leaving now, but we won't be forgotten. Not after this. I'm sure of it."

He looks around everyone again, and I see his mandibles quiver a bit. He's going to miss them just as much as I will, but even so…I'm glad they're alive. My mistake didn't cost them their lives. "Get to the shuttle," he finally says, standing to the side as the squad rushes towards the garage, quietly saying their goodbyes to Garrus and I as they pass.

Everyone except Melanis who stops in front of me…then takes my hands in hers. "Don't you dare die," she says, simply and firmly. "You understand?"

"I'll try," I smile, wrapping her in a hug, taking one last moment to savour her warmth and scent around me before she pulls away, tracing a talon down my hand. "Look after yourself, Mel."

"You too, Ian," she says, looking back at me over her shoulder as she walks away. Then the female turian breaks into a run towards the shuttle, giving one last look back before she steps into the garage, and out of my line of sight. I can hear Vortash firing up the engines…but asides from that, an eerie silence and emptiness settles upon the base as Garrus shifts next to me.

"Two of us against the whole of Omega," I finally say, glancing over at him. "It'd help if you weren't pissed off at me as well as all the mercs."

"Go down into the underground and check Weaver's explosives are in place," the turian sighs, but the tone in his voice seems less hostile as he sets off up the stairs towards our sniper perch. "I'll make sure the mercs don't get across to us."

"Roger that," I mutter to myself, turning and heading across the room and underneath the stairs to enter the underground tunnels. Garrus should mellow out. I hope. I mean, he can see that I tried to warn him about Sidonis, after all. It's not like I don't trust him at all, I just…know him too well. Not that it's going to stop him holding it against me, I'm sure.

I could have told him earlier. I could've taken more care to make sure Sidonis didn't get away from us. My life seems to be increasingly full of "what if" scenarios; things like Mierin, Evan, the auction house, Erash, Ulron…either Omega is complicating things, or I'm just cocking stuff up at a higher rate. Or both.

I sigh to myself, reaching the bottom of the underground stairs and moving into one of the tunnels ahead, looking at the boxes and crates strewn about haphazardly for agility training with Melanis. In a few hours, we might be down here, fighting off vorcha and varren. Assuming Weaver's explosives don't do the trick. Speaking of which, where are the little things? I suppose the logical place would be the archway at the end of the room. Could bring the whole roof down on people –

"Ian, Garrus, come in!" Vortash suddenly shouts in my ear, making me jolt in surprise.

"What?" I ask, taken aback by the worry in Vortash's voice. "What's wrong?"

"We were taking off, but someone has a lock on our thermal signature!" the turian tells me frantically, and I'm already up and sprinting back towards the stairs as fast as I can, checking my sniper rifle is still on my back. Garrus didn't have his helmet on. He won't hear any comm. traffic. "There'll be someone on the bridge with a missile launcher, you need to get rid of them!"

"I need at least half a minute to get a shot," I reply, pushing myself as fast as I can go and flying up the first flight of stairs leading back into the base. "Buy me some time!" I'm praying to hear Garrus' voice, but there's nothing. This is down to me.

"We can't, he's firi-" The sound of Vortash's voice is replaced by static as I reach the door, frantically pressing the control panel and willing it to open faster as I hear an explosion.

"Vortash!" I shout. Still static. The entire squad is on that shuttle. It can't have gone. "Vortash!" The door finally opens, but the static on the line takes all the energy out of my legs, and I slump against the wall as it keeps crackling in my ear. "Come on, please…" I say, willing his voice to reappear. Nothing. Just the constant sound of empty white noise.

"...damaged the si…comm. unit is…rking…ear…us."

They're still in the air. I can barely make out the noise, but there's still communications traffic. I burst through the door, and with the muffling effect of the underground walls gone, I can still hear the shuttle engines, weaker now, but still in flight. The radio must have taken a hit; but not enough to take it down. I burst towards the stairs to the sniper nest, trying to work out how long I have to get there…but as I round the corner that lets me see out across the bridge, I hear the sound of another missile launching, the shuttle trying to pull away as the rocket streaks after it. I lift my rifle and try to shoot the rocket, but the shot flies wide as I watch helplessly.

Then there's a sniper shot from in front of me, Garrus crouched at his spot and aiming down at the bridge, and instead of following the shuttle's flight path it simply flies straight on, as if the guidance system has been aimed away.

"….ssile is…fferent path. Th…shot the launc…" I hear in my ear, along with static-muffled cheers behind it as the shuttle gets clear. As long as the engines are still working, with the headstart he has, Vortash can evade anyone the mercs send after him. They're safe. Truly safe. Even with Sidonis' betrayal still happening, that fact feels like a huge weight pulled off my shoulders, and I let out a laugh born of hysteria and relief as I walk into the dorm, while Garrus reloads his rifle, helmet firmly fixed onto his head.

"Had to let him get a shot in for dramatic effect?" I ask, slumping down next to him and pulling out my Mantis, looking over at the pile of thermal clips Garrus has amassed for us.

"It's not an escape attempt without a bit of excitement," the turian mutters, looking over at me and sighing. "Look…I don't like what you did. I don't like that you didn't tell me until now. There's some things we need to talk about, but they can wait until after we make it out of here."

I'm half-tempted to say "join the queue", but resist the urge to snark at him, reaching out and clasping his wrist as he does the same to me. "Sounds good to me," I nod, quickly checking the Mantis and looking over the balcony, seeing a group of seven Eclipse mercs drop onto the bridge. "We've just got to hold out until Shepard gets here."

"The mercenaries can't send too many people at once through this chokepoint," Garrus says, scoping down the bridge as the occasional merc darts across the gap in the street behind it, where they're setting up the base of operations. "We can hold them for a long while, especially with two of us. Let's hope you didn't forget to mention any surprises."

"You ready for this?" I ask, ignoring the jibe. He's not forgiven me yet, he's just postponing yelling, so I'm sure I can expect more as this drags on. Beats being dead, though.

"I don't think the mercs are going to give us much of a choice," Garrus mutters, then pulls his trigger, sending a round through the skull of an asari as I do the same to the one I've targeted. "Here goes nothing."

With that, it begins.

########

October 17th, 2185
00:12am, Omega time
Archangel Task Force field headquarters

"Don't move," a female voice says, and I slowly turn around, facing the person who's going to end it all for me with the detonator held in the palm of my hand. A dark skinned woman is holding a Predator against my skull, dark red hair straightened against her head, and I can make out brown eyes beneath my hazed vision. Jentha. The Blue Suns commander that's with Tarak on Garrus' recruitment mission. As good a person as any to go out with me. "Who the hell are you?" she asks, though the expression on her face suggests she's probably putting it together.

"Archdemon," I croak, lifting up my free hand weakly and pulling off my helmet, the limb shaking furiously at the effort until I have to drop it, seeing black spots in my vision. May as well let her see the face of the person who'll kill her. Besides, when the explosives go off, it's not like they'll be able to identify my body. "You must be Commander Jentha."

Jentha glares, fury written over her face as she moves in closer and jabs the gun in my face. "How the fuck do you know who I am?" she says dangerously, then smirks, calming herself and taking a small step backwards. "Doesn't matter. You can tell it to the interrogators. Get up." I stay right where I am, flipping the detonator open from where it's hidden beneath my body. "Get up!" Jentha shouts, grabbing my thankfully non-wounded arm as I shake my head.

"I'm not going anywhere," I gasp, straining to get the words out while my thumb shakes over the detonator, preparing to stab down on it. At least I get rid of her and the gunship. It's not a useless death. It's mercy for myself, too. "Sorry. You shouldn't have found me." I pull the detonator out, Jentha's eyes widening as she lunges for it.

They stay widened as a bullet drills cleanly through her head, the lifeless body falling on top of me and onto my bitten arm. I cry out as she rolls off me, feeling my hand spasm and knock the detonator a few feet away while pain from my arm rolls through me, leaving me on the edge of consciousness with feverish, blurred vision. I can faintly make out a turian in Blue Suns armour walking towards me, then I blink and he's in my face, shouting something…

"Why did you call me?" the turian snarls, suddenly grabbing me by the throat in his hand and pulling me towards him, growling furiously. "What did you do, Ian?"

Even beneath the fever and pain, I'm lucid enough to recognise that voice. "Sid…Sidonis?" I manage to say, my voice scratchy and dry. This can't be right. I'm hallucinating.

The grip on my throat tightens, but I'm too weak to even lift a hand up to stop him, feeling my breath get shallower and shallower. "You didn't think I'd come back?" The opaque section of his helmet fades out…and I see Lantar Sidonis giving me a look of death. "After you send me that message to leave the base, you're not at the place we're supposed to meet, and then this happens?" He growls again, tightening his hand another notch. "Why me. Why frame me for this?"

"I…never sent…that message…" I croak, wriggling weakly as the dark spots close on my vision again. Sidonis keeps growling, eyes locking with mine. "Does it look…like I planned this?" I manage to ask him. A flicker of doubt goes over Sidonis' face as I do that, and the hold on my neck loosens slightly. "I got bitten…by a varren," I try to explain, coughing and almost throwing up with the effort it takes. I just want him to either finish me, or let me go so I can end this myself… "Wound got infected. Came here…to buy Garrus some time." I glance down to the detonator, seeing Sidonis' eyes follow my gaze. "Last stand."

Seeing that, Sidonis finally lets his hand drop, confusion written across his face as I cough and retch as air pours back into my lungs, making my head pound and my vision pulse as my body tries to cling to life. "I don't understand," he says, shaking his head. "The message came from you. I thought…" He suddenly glances over his shoulder at the sound of footsteps approaching. "Shit," he mutters, giving a look back down at me…then gets to his feet and runs as the footsteps, accompanied with voices, draw closer.

"Sidonis…" I croak weakly, lifting up a hand as if trying to stop him, but he's around the gunship and gone within seconds. I let my hand drop back down to my side, looking down at the detonator lying a few feet away, and try reaching over to it. The arm stretch sends me to the ground, lying on my front as breath rattles through my lungs, the energy necessary to even crawl completely gone. In that moment, I just give up. Stop trying to reach the detonator, stop trying to fight, stop everything. I press my face to the floor and close my eyes, feeling the pain ebb away as my senses start to slip from me.

"Shep, look at this," a faint, unfamiliar voice suddenly says, and I feel a slim, gloved hand press against the side of my neck, checking my pulse. "He's alive, barely. You think Archangel got to him?"

"This area is sheltered," an extremely familiar voice replies. "Maybe he got shot crossing the firezone and bled out here." That's…that's her. That's Shepard. With what takes a gargantuan effort, I lift my head up, making the glove on my neck recede as I lock eyes with Lara Shepard.

She doesn't even look like she's changed, except for the faint scars of the surgery that brought her back to life. Same shoulder length brunette hair, small green eyes in her usual calm, professional stare, the most delicate feature on her strong face, asides from the raised cheekbones. She had a fairly neutral expression on her face…at least until she sees me, and her mouth and eyes widen in surprise before she kneels down in front of me, reaching for medi-gel straight away. "Ian?" Lara asks, sounding like she can scarcely believe it as my suit automatically applies the gel where it's most needed, making me gasp in relief as it soothes my arm once again. It's only temporary, though. I'll get about a minute before I feel even more like shit. "What are you doing here?"

"Nothing much," I pant, looking around the group she's got with her. Miranda Lawson, of course, with her arms folded as she gives me an unimpressed look. I've no doubt she'll at least have a vague idea of who I am, though. She's had two years to study Shepard; I must have come up somewhere. Zaeed Massani looks equally unimpressed, but a hooded, slender Japanese woman looks genuinely worried as she stands with Lara. "Just dying. My left arm."

Shepard immediately heads to that part of my armour, unclasping the gauntlet and shoulder piece and letting it fall, before she winces at what she sees. I can't even bring myself to look at how bad it's gotten. "Varren bite," Zaeed says bluntly. "He's a guddamn dead man walking."

"We've already talked about keeping your opinions to yourself sometimes, Zaeed," Shepard says calmly, turning her head to give him a look. "This would be one of those times." She looks back down at me, and I see her eyes flick across to the detonator before she does. She knows exactly what I was doing here. I doubt she's going to let it happen. "Archangel is Garrus, then?"

"He's going to be gutted I ruined the surprise," I grunt, trying to laugh and coughing onto the floor again as Shepard reaches a hand out to my shoulder. "You need to go and help him. Trying to get me out of here is going to draw too much suspicion, and I don't know how much longer he can hold out."

"He's right," Miranda says, but she does come along and help out as the Japanese woman and Shepard pull me to my feet gently. "The mercs are building up to something big. If we leave now, Archangel might not make it."

"We're not leaving you here, then," Shepard tells me, putting my good arm around her shoulder and helping me walk after she picks up the detonator. The squadmember I don't know reaches tentatively towards my injured arm to support it, but I shake my head, keeping it hanging uselessly at my side. She touches that, I'll probably pass out. "I should've known you and Garrus would have gotten into a mess like this," Shepard mutters to me as we walk, checking around us to make sure we're not arousing too much suspicion. Thankfully, everyone seems too preoccupied running around looking busy, so we're in the clear as Shepard gently helps to lower me onto the bridge.

"At least we're consistent," I reply, gritting my teeth as we start to set off across the bridge again. The freelancers from in-game are noticeably absent, which is a relief…but Garrus isn't shooting at us as we cross the bridge, and we're not exactly making a big deal of pretending to take cover. People are going to work this out any second. "This isn't a fever hallucination, is it? You're…well, dead."

"Was," she corrects me, a little frown passing over her face for a second before it takes on its usual businesslike expression. "I got brought back."

"I'm assuming Cerberus had a hand in it, since you've got her following you around." I look over at Miranda, breathing heavily as we get halfway across the bridge. The medi-gel is starting to wear off, and I can feel myself deteriorating. "You don't seem…the xenophobe type." I start coughing again, a wet hacking noise that makes me almost drop to my knees, if it wasn't for Shepard supporting me.

"Shep, the mercs are looking at us," the hooded woman says, glancing back over the bridge. I do the same, and indeed, I can see a couple of Blue Suns and Eclipse pointing at us, waving more people over. "We might need to pick the pace up."

"I think Ian can sort that out for us, Kasumi," Shepard says calmly, not turning around as she nudges the detonator in my hand. I get the hint quite quickly, finally jabbing down on it and listening to the huge explosion behind us, along with the screams and yells of mercs as their attention gets turned to the burning gunship instead of us. Kasumi…I don't remember her. Shepard must have picked up someone new.

"You aren't going to introduce me…to everyone?" I ask, groaning as my arm pain flares up again and each step saps my energy more and more. I'm purely running on the adrenaline of Shepard returning, and that's not much. At all. "I think I'm going to black out if I stop talking…don't really think that's a good idea in my current state."

"The woman with the Cerberus logo is Miranda Lawson, she was in charge of the project that brought me back," Shepard explains, guiding us into the house I never expected to return to. I'd written myself off as dead. The throbbing in my arm and sweat pouring over my body reminds me that's still a distinct possibility. "The guy with the charming manners is Zaeed Massani, ex-mercenary, and this is Kasumi Goto, master thief." Kasumi looks at me as Shepard says that, giving a small but welcoming smile.

"Hell of a mix," I mutter, making our way upstairs and along the landing towards the dormitory.

"Does Garrus…" Shepard starts to say, sounding a bit nervous, shaking her head. "No, that's a stupid question given the circumstances. Forget it."

"I told you, keep me talking," I grunt. "Ask whatever you want."

"Garrus remembers me, right?" she asks. Given that two years have passed in what must've felt like a night's sleep for her, I can see why she asked it. Her feelings about Garrus will be the same ones she had two years ago.

"Shepard, I remember you," I point out, with another coughing chuckle. I need to stop trying to laugh… "I think he's going to be…happy to see you."

Shepard doesn't reply, but there's a small smile on her face as she presses her hand to the door control and slides it open. Garrus is already turning around as she does, pulling his helmet off and rushing towards Shepard, the two of them embracing tightly. "Shepard," he breathes, leaving Miranda, Zaeed and Kasumi to hover awkwardly as I stagger past them to the sniper post and collapse at the wall, leaning back against the wall and resting my aching body.

"I'm back too," I murmur under my breath, as the two of them break apart. "Not dead...just yet."

"We might need to save the introductions until later," Shepard tells Garrus, jumping back into her role as Commander as she walks over to me, and the rest of the squad follows suit. "We need to clear a path through the mercs to extract you and Ian to the Normandy." I'm still panting in breath, but suddenly groan out, lifting my good hand to my head as I feel it start to pound, even worse than it has before.

"He's getting worse," the Japanese woman says, crouching down in front of me. Shit, what was her name? She literally just told me it…and I can't remember. My mind's racing as I try to think, but everything feels really far away as I do, voices sounding like I'm underwater as I try to focus on something, but my eyes refuse to work.

I groan again, this time clutching my stomach as it gives a huge ache. Then I'm on my back. I'm not even sure how I got here, but I feel like I've been thrown inside an oven it's so hot, boiling, voices getting dimmer and dimmer. I feel something press against my chest, then the side of my face, but it's suddenly as if all the light in the world just goes out, and I'm plunged into blackness, faintly hearing my own rattling breaths and feeling my limbs shake, head and stomaching aching furiously as I sink further and further into it.

"He's seizing…give him room."

"Hang on, Ian. We're getting you to the Normandy."

Silence again. The pain's gone. The noise has gone.

Suddenly, there's just…nothing.

"He's not gonna make it."

END OF PART THREE

A/N: Almost one and a half years and four hundred thousands words, and here we are. Wow. It's probably fair to say I didn't anticipate the story being this long, or taking this long to write.

This has definitely been the fic I've enjoyed writing the most so far, though. Creating Omega, the squad, the missions, writing Aria, setting up things to come, this has been an absolute joy both to write, and to see how you as readers have enjoyed me trying new things, and attempting to mature my writing. I realise there's still things to improve on, things I wish I could have devoted more time to (like some of the character subplots), but on the whole this is still a story I'm proud of, and more importantly, one I hope you've really enjoyed reading. To say it's been an experience would be an understatement.

Of course, it's you, the readers, that help me improve, keep me writing even when I feel like throwing in the towel, and take the time out of your days to read and support the story. So, in no particular order, thanks to;

Morgaur

Lunatic Pandora1

justsomebody2

Sarge1995

ArchAngelGundam

RiderPale

Sherwood374

M-Angel 05

the Zogg

WildCard-Yes Man

sorrow's follower

Lord Lithos Maitreya

Atreyu429

Lollaro

InsidiousAgent

Kraidle

Bigstupidjellyfish1137

the stone tiger

DelVarO

CuHnadian

Elateyin121

Accipter46

TheRev28

CyanB

Hyperlethalvector

perionrobinson

Breeanski

Hijokugei

Spiritstrike

Panthour

S058

dhogan6

Delta XIII

Avai

FFAddicted

Sirryu

BlackAdder117

Exar Kun IV

One Over Infinity

Rob DS Zeta

Eothr Si'Ian

Samarrific

BladeRy

Princess of Persian Rugs

GreyWolf244

FieryHawk79

Jarrick32

The Golden Echo

donald7777

quantumparadigm

Kassandra Black

FEholic

80sHairBand

Attonranden

xUnDeadKittenx

TornAres

Italian Yakuza

BumbleBeePixie

S4pphi

Liege Lord

And everyone else who reviewed consistently and I missed on this list. There was a lot to check, cut me some slack.

And of course, extra special thanks to:

TheRev28, for essentially 'voicing' Melanis for most of the story and being a bro in general.

quantumparadigm for her work with Ulron and being awesome.

Abstract Indigo for putting up with my questions.

Myetel for letting me use her turian lore from the 'Spirit of' series.

Kassandra Black, Sarge1995, attonranden and BumbleBeePixie for their support and friendship.

In addition, thanks to everyone single one of you, named here or not, for reading and following the story, even if you're a new reader, or you've been here since the start. You make the series as much as I do.

There shouldn't be an enormous gap between this and MtM4. There'll be one, of course, I have to get my ideas together and suchlike, but we will return. After all the questions I set up there, it'd be cruel if I didn't.

If you want to know the second the story does come out, remember to subscribe to author. Favourites are always appreciated, but I'm fairly sure they won't actually act to give you alerts, just so you're aware.

Oh, and the squad really is alive, as is Melanis. You don't even know how long I've been waiting to tell you all that.

Once again, this has been amazing to write, and I can only hope you've had as much fun reading it as I have writing it.

See you next fic.

Ian.