Author's Note: Thank you, my faithful readers for your patience. I do apologize for the length of time between chapters. Here is an extra long one for you guys for your patience, packed with alot of action and more insight into the characters. As always reviews are welcome. Please enjoy.

Chapter 6

The shuttle bounced and rocked as they entered through the atmosphere of Eden Prime. Liara was studying an orbital hologram of Edem Prime. She sighed with exasperation "Eden Prime, this is where it all began. Where the Pro…."

"Ooohhhh, I remember this planet, of course from my universe, this was the main galactic hub for the fourth great and bountiful human empire. It is a quite a tragedy what happened to this planet." The Doctor was staring out of the front viewscreen, looking over Cortez's shoulders. Rose was holding on to one of the overhead straps to keep herself from falling due to the shuttle's jostling as it entered orbit. "What happened to the planet?"

The Doctor looked back at Rose, with a small amount of sadness on his face. "The planet imploded, experimental weapon system malfunctioned. There was a nice little café in the town square, sold the most delicious biscuits in the entire empire." The Doctor gave Rose a big smile as he went back to viewing their descent towards the planet's surface. Rose gave a smile at his antics, nothing could keep the Doctor down for long. Mickey, who was standing next to Rose, scoffed. "He is bonkers, he mentions a planet imploding and all he can think about is biscuits? That man is daft."

Garrus walked up next to Mickey, "Actually, he is probably the sanest person in this shuttle…" This elicited a look of indignation from Mickey, a raised eyebrow from Shepard and a small cough from Liara. Garrus ignored his squadmates and continued "…Anyways, war is incredibly brutal and it changes anyone who is caught in it. Soldiers cope with it in different ways, some bury it inside themselves, others use humor to deflect the pain. That is most likely his way of dealing with what he had lived through."

Liara spoke up at this point, "So what do the Krogan do?"

Garrus grinned a little and clicked his mandibles "They head butt the closest thing to them."

Liara covered her mouth to hide her smile. Shepard chuckled in response "That explains the dents in Grunt's quarters then."

That elicited a chuckle from Garrus and Liara. They sat in silence a moment before the Doctor walked back to join the rest of them. "So what is the planet in your universe?" Rose asked.

Shepard and her squad went silent, Liara spoke up first "Eden Prime is where everything began, it is where the Prothean Beacon was uncovered at…"

Garrus shifted and spoke next. "And where Saren launched his first major attack with the Geth."

"Yes, and now with Cerberus here, Eden Primes colonists are under attack again."

Shepard looked between her squadmates "It's hard to believe that it had only been three years."

"Cerberus hit Eden Prime hard, whatever they found here was worth a major offensive. There are other survivors elsewhere on the planet, but… they killed everyone near the dig site."

Shepard frowned "Cerberus will not get away with this, Eden Prime has already suffered enough." The determination in her voice made it abundantly clear that Shepard intended to enact retribution on Cerberus, and no one will stop her from doing so.

"Do we have any idea on what artifact was uncovered?" The Doctor asked the question that had been bugging him since they arrived in orbit.

Liara shook her head "The Alliance didn't get any specifics on what Cerberus has uncovered, so we have no idea if this artifact is part of the crucible or not. It would help to have another source of information on the catalyst, but we can't count on that."

Cortez interrupted Liara "Commander, I am bringing you in as close to the dig site as I can. No way we can avoid detection, but we should have a few minutes before we get company."

"Understood." Shepard nodded and turned back to the squad, who were readying their weapons. "All right everyone, get ready to move. If we are lucky we can get to the dig site before Cerberus knows what is going on." Everyone in the group nodded in response.

The shuttle glided in and hovered a couple feet off the ground, the door slid open and Shepard hopped out first, readying her rifle and scanning around for any hostiles. She heard everyone else hop out and form up behind her. "Liara, you and me take point, Garrus, cover our six. Mickey, cover Rose and the Doctor. Everyone, keep your eyes peeled, Cerberus won't be long."

Shepard started forward, taking the lead, with Liara close behind her. "No contact yet, we need to find the dig site." Liara relayed to everyone. Shepard followed the path that wound towards a cliff face and back amongst dwelling units that seemed to have been placed almost haphazardly.

Shepard frowned at the serene scenery that their vantage point offered of the valley. "This was a beautiful colony once."

Shepard could hear Garrus from the back "It survived Saren, it can survive this."

Rose took in the scenery, taken aback by the pristine calm and quiet. "This place is quite lovely, how come you never take me anywhere nice, Doctor?" Her teasing was quite evident in her voice.

The Doctor had a look of indignation on his face, that made Rose almost burst out laughing "Come on now, I've taken you lots of pretty places, The Floating Gardens of Thiraxnis, The Spiral Star Cluster of Jereshmet. Plenty of places." He then scoffed then muttered to himself "And she doesn't believe I take her anywhere, all of time and space and she says I don't take her anywhere."

Shepard took them through a couple of the dwelling units, which showed signs of being abandoned in a hurry. Computers left on, tables set, food uneaten, everything looked like the occupants were just out for a walk, a far cry from the true horrors of what had transpired here. They exited the dwelling and came up to a metal catwalk. Liara was the first to call out "There, that is the console that controls the elevator that leads down to the dig site." Liara went to the console and started typing on it, after a few brief moments, they heard the whirring of motors as the elevator ascended. Liara stared at the read out display of the computer console. Her eyes went wide and she stepped from behind the console and peered over the edge as the platform drew closer. "By the Goddess, Cerberus didn't unearth an artifact, it's… " The platform reached the top and came to a rest with a black cylindrical tube resting on it. The Doctor scooted forward as soon as it came to a rest and pulled out his Sonic Screwdriver and sonic'd it. "Ohhh, it's a stasis pod, an old one at that." He rested his ear against it as if he was listening to something, then he turns his head and licks the side of the pod. He made a odd face and acted like he was trying to get a bad taste out of his mouth. "Ohh, very old indeed, at least 50,000 years. This is simply amazing, something as old as this, buried and forgotten by all life forms, still running and working as it should be, it's amazing the things you people create." The Doctor had a giant grin on his face as he walked around the pod.

Shepard stepped forward to inspect the pod herself. She looked between the Doctor and Liara, "Could there be an actual Prothean inside that pod, still alive?" Liara stepped around to inspect the pod for herself. "You saw the stasis pods in the archives on Ilos, the only reason those failed was for a lack of power." Liara pulled up a read out and scanned the pod with her Omni-Tool. "Cerberus found this in an underground bunker, it still has power." At this point the rest of the team gathered around the pod, while Garrus kept a look out. Shepard again gave voice to the question that was on everyone's mind. "Can we revive him?" Liara scanned the pod more with her Omni-Tool and sighed. "Cerberus damaged the lifepod when the excavated it, the life signs are unstable, if we break open the pod, we could kill him. We need to figure out the command sequence to bring him out of stasis mode. We also need to figure out how to physically open the pod it out doing more damage. Cerberus took over some of the labs nearby to research what they found at the dig site. That is likely our best bet for…." The remainder of her comment was interrupted by the hum of the engines of a shuttle as one skimmed over their heads and came to lower down to the ground in the direction they needed to be heading, the Cerberus symbol clearly present on the side of the shuttle.

Shepard looked at her squad. Mickey and Rose, stay here and secure the life pod with Garrus. Liara, you and the Doctor come with me, we will try to draw most of them towards us. Doctor, keep low and stay with me. Everyone nodded at Shepard's commands. Mickey and Rose took up positions behind barricades, keeping an eye out in all directions. Garrus set up nearby, amid a pile of crates, affording him a better view of the field from all directions. Shepard took point, closely followed by the Doctor with Liara covering the rear with her SMG ready. Shepard scanned the field with the sights on her Avenger, ready for the first Cerberus lackey to poke his head out. They made it across the bridge to some crates that had been left there. As they reached the crates, the first Cerberus soldiers came around one of the prefab buildings. Shepard took aim and squeezed off a few rounds, downing the first, as she took aim for next guy in line, his head exploded in an eruption of red. Shepard looked back to see the Garrus lining up another shot. Over the comms she heard him say "Got you covered Shepard." Shepard took aim on yet another Cerberus soldier, this one wearing a lot lighter armor than most. She squeezed off a few rounds, and at the last second, the soldier leaped to the side, effectively dodging the rounds, only scoring a glancing blow, eliciting a subtle blue ripple, indicating that this one had personal shielding. Shepard started to sight for another visible target when, from the barricade the agile soldier leapt behind, a red beam leveled on Shepard's head. She barely managed to pull her head back behind the barricade a fraction of a second before a round followed the line and slammed into the barricade, taking a decent chunk out of the spot where her head used to be. Shepard swore to herself in a low voice, "Son of a bitch that was close."

Shepard placed her fingers to her ear to activate her comm. "Garrus, you got a bead on that sniper?" She saw the smoke trail, a split second before hearing the loud report of Garrus's sniper rifle. "Got one, but she brought friends." Shepard poked her head around and frowned as two more snipers came into view. She brought her rifle up and acting on reflex let fly a five round burst, she scored a direct hit on one of them, bringing the shields down and embedding into the snipers shoulder. Shepard was about to finish the sniper off when suddenly the sniper glowed the tell tale blueish-purple of Biotic power and was thrown against one of the prefabs, on the other side of the courtyard, the force of the throw snapping the snipers neck like a twig. Shepard looked around at Liara who ducked down and gave a satisfied smile as a flurry of rounds chipped at the barricade they were crouching behind. The Doctor caught Shepards gaze and said "Do I need to come back later when there is less shooting?" Shepard chuckled at his words and clapped him on the shoulder. "Don't worry, Doctor, just stay back here and let me and Liara take care of these party crashers. Liara, cover me." With that, Shepard hopped over the crates and ran towards a set of cement barriers. She took aim and dispatched the remaining sniper and two other Cerberus soldiers before sliding into cover. While her shields took most of the hits, her hardsuit got some more scoring from rounds impacting her stomach and arm. They stung from the force, but she was still able to fight.

Shepard poked her head around and counted her enemies, there were three of them left. BAM! Came the report of a sniper round. Now there were two left. Shepard ejected the thermal clip and slapped in a new one. Shepard leapt from behind cover, raised her rifle up and took aim at the soldier closest to her, and fired off a five round burst. The soldier managed to turn and fire a short burst at Shepard before he went down. The burst tore through Shepards shields and hit her hard. Most impacted against the plates on her stomach and one caught between the plates of her left arm. The last soldier glowed blue and was flung over the prefabs and went screaming over the cliff. Shepard leaned against one of the prefabs to catch her breath. Liara and the Doctor ran to catch up to her. The Doctor put on a set of glasses and went to inspecting her arm, which was bleeding freely. "You're wounded Commander, this needs to be seen to before you lose too much blood." Shepard shooed him away, dropping her rifle and with her right hand, went into one of the compartments in her hardsuit and pulled out a cylinder of Medigel and activated it right onto the wound itself. The gel seeped into the wound and stopped the bleeding, then covered the outside of the wound, protecting from infection. Shepard tossed the used cylinder to the side and leaned down to pick her rifle back up. She gave the Doctor a confident smile "There, all better now." Shepard tested her left arm, while it was sore and throbbing, she still had full mobility, she hefted her rifle and checked the ammo read out, she didn't have to pop the heat sink yet, so she readied her rifle and led them through some of the prefabs, searching for the labs that may contain the information they needed.

Shepard led them around a corner and spotted another Cerberus soldier at the top of a set of stairs. She ran up towards him, spraying rounds on the soldier. He must have had some strong shields because when Shepards gun overheated, he was still standing, wounded but still alive. The soldier turned to try and run when Shepard dropped her over heated rifle, taking up her SMG in her left hand and activating the Omni-Blade on her right. She closed the remainder of distance to the soldier. He didn't make it more than a couple of steps before Shepard ran him through his chest with her Omni-Blade. She looked over his shoulder to see an Automated Turret leveling its barrel at her head, targeting her. Suddenly the turret shook and self destructed. Shepard let the soldier she was holding up drop to the ground and turned to see the Doctor standing with his Sonic Screwdriver pointed to where the turret was sitting. The Doctor gave Shepard a pleased grin, he spun his Screwdriver in the air and caught it. Liara walked around to stand next to the Doctor, looking at his Screwdriver with a mixture of astonishment and curiosity. "How did you do that?" The Doctor waved his Screwdriver in the air. "Just some Sonic jiggerypokery is all." Liara picked up Shepard's Avenger assault rifle and handed it to her. Shepard took it and thanked Liara, ejecting the heat sink and placing a new one in its place. Shepard led Liara and the Doctor further into the maze of prefab units, searching for the labs they need.

Since Shepard and her squad went out of sight range, Garrus hadn't seen any other Cerberus soldiers yet. Which worried Garrus, not for what they might be planning, but for what Shepard might be encountering without him. She tended to charge headlong into combat, trusting her squadmates to back her up. Garrus was more than happy to oblige, he came to care and respect Shepard. Not as just the juggernaut that she was on the battle field, but as the human that was beneath the rank. Garrus had seen a side of Shepard that few had seen before. To his knowledge, he was the only one Shepard had opened up to between missions. They shared a connection that went back to when they were on the first Normandy. Often, Shepard would make her way down to the cargo bay to speak with Garrus. He looked forward to those times, partly because it was boring as hell just sitting down in the cargo bay with almost nothing to do, and partly because she intrigued him with her strength, her character, and her personality. She was an unequivocal master of the battlefield, both in personal combat abilities and in tactical prowress. He heard about her actions in the Skyllian Blitz, how she held the position on Elysium, single handedly holding the Batarians back long enough for reinforcements to arrive and kept the colony safe.

Turians in general were attracted to women like Shepard, and Garrus was no exception. An attraction that Garrus had thought was not reciprocated until they worked together to combat the Collectors, after her resurrection. She professed to him that she had the same feelings as well. Since then, Garrus had done everything he could to be there for her when she needed someone and to protect her on the battlefield. It was why Garrus found it hard to let her go with a non-combatant at her back instead of him. While Garrus knew that the Doctor was a good man, he questioned his sanity when the Doctor rejected even taking a pistol into combat.

Time seemed to tick away as he kept a watch out not only for Cerberus, but on the two travelers. He would not let Shepard down, had hadn't started yet, and he did not intend to start doing so now. After what felt like an eternity of waiting, another Cerberus shuttle zoomed overhead and unloaded more troops. He shouted at Mickey and Rose to get ready, taking leadership over them as he resettled his gaze down the sight of his beloved sniper rifle, ready to thin Cerberus's ranks, one headshot at a time.

As the first soldier rounded the corner, Garrus put a round between his eyeslits. He chambered the next round and repeated the process on his buddy. Garrus was not the best damn shot in the galaxy for nothing, and today he was letting Cerberus know why. However, more soldiers came around than what Garrus could keep up with, even with his legendary accuracy. One soldier rounded the corner carrying a shield. Garrus promptly shot him through the slot where he was looking out and into his eye socket. Garrus scoffed at the thought of a shield slowing him down, they didn't know who they were messing with. Garrus had to pop the heat sink on his rifle and more soldiers came around the corners of the prefab, taking up various positions along the courtyard, now close enough to try firing at Mickey and Rose. Garrus radioed to Shepard "Shepard, we've got company here, might want to finish choosing shoes here soon and come to the dance." Garrus gave the Turian equivalent to a laugh as he ended the feeble attempt of a Cerberus sniper to try and hit him. Garrus heard Shepard groan over the comm link "We are on our way to the second lab, can you hold them?" His temper flared at hearing the pain in her voice, she was injured and he wasn't there to help her… these Cerberus bastards are going to pay, and Garrus was here to collect. He fired three rapid rounds, dropping four soldiers, thanks to a nice pretty line up, before responding "It's like they aren't even trying, but you might want to pick it up before they get their act together." While Garrus was confident, he knew never to underestimate Cerberus, and he wanted to be gone before they pulled something out of their hat to try and ruin his day.

"This is the first lab." Liara commented as the door finally opened after the liberal application of the Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver. They entered the room and Shepard moved forward to access the computer. Shepard saw images flicker across the screen for a brief moment, before she saw them though her own eyes. The images were a flurry of destruction left in the wake of the reapers, images that she had seen translated by the people of her time, but instead of seeing Turians, Krogan, Salarians, and Asari, she saw images of Protheans, not as she seen them corrupted by the Reapers into Collectors, but as they were before that. The images slowed down and focused on a group of Protheans, one in particular who she saw a lot of herself in. A fearless warrior, standing down a group of Collectors, methodically eliminating them in rapid succession, even using biotics to throw them against the wall. She saw him drag a fallen comrade back before large doors sealed them off from the horde of Collectors, determined not to let him fall prey to their enemy. The situation looked grim for the Protheans, as they had lost many life pods already. But Shepard saw something that they needed, the sequence on how to open the lifepod. The vision shortly ended and Shepard was returned to the present. "I think I can duplicate that to open the pod safely." Liara frowned and narrowed her eyes "You understood that?"

Shepard turned to look at Liara, "You mean you didn't?"

Liara shook her head "No, all I saw was static, Cerberus was trying to make sense of it with no success. The Prothean Cypher you received on Feros, it let's you see the images as a Prothean would and understand their language" They both looked at the Doctor who seemed to be deep in thought.

He turned to look at them, raising an eyebrow "Well that explains a lot, I only saw static but the sounds were chaotic, jumbled up. From what information you do have on the Protheans, they have the ability to communicate telepathically, even with the translation matrix from the TARDIS, it doesn't do what your Cypher does."

Shepard shook her head, but it was Liara that spoke "Either way, we know how to open the pod, but we need to command sequence to end the stasis mode. There is another lab not far from here." Shepard nodded and led the way out of the room. For the moment, the courtyard they had cleared just outside of the first lab was clear of Cerberus. Shepard led them across the courtyard to a closed prefab. She opened the door to reveal four civilian corpses, all still sitting where they were when they were gunned down. Shepard growled, the brutality that Cerberus is displaying towards their own species was appalling and angered Shepard to a level she hardly knew she had. "They were gunned down while having drinks and watching the game, this isn't a military stronghold, it's somebody's home."

The Doctor stood next to Shepard, surveying the carnage that was displayed before them. While he knew the cold hard truth about the casualties of war, scenes like this still caused his blood to boil. These people did not deserve to be slaughtered like this, especially by their own species. Scenes like this are why the Doctor tried to save as many people as he can, and why beings like the Daleks, Cybermen, and now these Reapers anger him so much. They slaughter people with no reservations, it doesn't matter if they fight back or not. "They didn't deserve this, no one does."

As much as Shepard wanted to yell and scream at the injustice that this war has brought, she had a mission to complete and the longer they waited, the greater the chance of failure became. She shouldered her Avenger to the ready position and turned to head towards the second lab. "Come on, let's go and make Cerberus pay for this." She led them through the rest of the dwelling and out the door on the far side. It opened up to a large courtyard. Shepard caught movement at the far end and moved to get into cover on one side of the stairs. Liara darted over to the other side and crouched down. The Doctor crouched low, behind Shepard. Shepard turned her head to address the Doctor. "Stay close to Liara, move up when she does and keep your head down." The Doctor gave a nod to her, although his expression told her that he didn't like what she is saying. Shepard gave a confident smirk before hopping up and around the barrier that they were crouched behind and hurried down the stairs, letting loose a spray of rounds from her Avenger to cover her advance.

The Doctor gave a worried look to Liara at Shepard's seemingly reckless combat technique. If Liara was fazed by the Commander's actions, she didn't show it as she popped her head above the barrier and used her Biotics to throw one of the soldiers into his comrade and let loose a barrage of bullets, while it didn't do a whole lot of damage from that range, but did succeed in making the Cerberus troops take cover long enough for Shepard to get halfway between the Cerberus troops and where Liara and the Doctor were located. Shepard managed to duck just in time before another one of those infernal turrets opened fire and took a chunk out of the cement block where her head was, just a fraction of a second before. "Cerberus and their toys." She grumbled to herself before she popped up and fired a volley into the engineer who placed the damn thing in the first place. She couldn't get more than a few rounds off as the turret spooled up and fired again at Shepard.

Liara watched as the Shepard dodged the turret's deadly volley a second time. She can't keep this up for too long, she thought to herself as the turret ceased fire and swiveled around, looking around for another target. She looked at the Doctor, "You were able to destroy that first turret, can you do it again?" The Doctor poked his head up real quick to get a bead on the turret then brought his Screwdriver up and activated it. He had to duck real quick as the turret answered, not with a resounding explosion, but with a barrage of lethal bullets. The Doctor threw a frustrated look in the direction of the turret before looking at Liara and shaking his head "Not at this range, I have to get closer." That was not what Liara wanted to hear. She sighed as she spoke into the comms "Shepard, the Doctor can disable the turret, but we have to get closer."

Shepard swore to herself, Garrus would be a big help right now. "Negative Liara, he doesn't have a hardsuit, he would get torn apart. Cover me and I'll take care of it." Shepard pulled a grenade off of her chest plate, activated it and threw it. When she heard the explosion, she popped up and ran to the next barricade, determined to get closer. What she wasn't expecting was the turret to still be active. It was visibly damaged but still functional. It swung it's barrel to train on Shepard and opened fire. The turret tore through her shields and landed some solid hits on Shepard. She stumbled and rolled into cover. Shepard groaned at her injuries. Most of the shots were absorbed by her hardsuit, and while they hurt like hell, they weren't serious. One shot had punctured her hardsuit and took out a small chunk of her stomach. Shepard pulled out another cylinder of Medigel and applied it to her stomach wound. Dr. Chakwas was not going to be pleased. While she loved her ships doctor, Chakwas tended to be like another mother to Shepard and her crew. Shepard hissed in pain as the Medigel took effect and quickly stopped the bleeding and began to mend her wound. Shepard heard Garrus call in over the comms "Shepard, we've got company here, might want to finish choosing shoes here soon and come to the dance." Shepard shook her head at her friend. Garrus could find humor in just about any situation. Shepard clicked the comms and groaned as the Medigel continued to work "We are on our way to the second lab, can you hold them?" Shepard stiffened at hearing movement close by, Cerberus soldiers coming to see if she survived the turret, Shepard thought to herself as Garrus clicked back in. "It's like they aren't even trying, but you might want to pick it up before they get their act together." Shepard chuckled as she twisted her torso as much as she could. The pain was bearable, time for round two. Shepard ejected the heat sink and slapped in a new one to her rifle. She then leaned it against the barrier as she drew her shotgun out. She counted to three then popped up and quickly took aim and opened fire on the approaching troops. The first shot tore through the closest soldier, spraying the one behind him in a liberal amount of blood and tissue. The second shot ripped through him, cutting short his cry of surprise. Shepard swung the shotgun around and blasted the third soldier, sending him spinning to the ground, screaming in pain and missing most of his arm.

Shepard quickly ducked back behind the barricade after dispatching the inquisitive soldiers as a flurry of fire from the turret and the last remaining soldier peppered the rapidly eroding barricade. Shepard changed out the heat sink on her shotgun before storing it back behind her back and grabbing her assault rifle. She pulled another grenade off of her armor, set it and threw it. This time she followed it up and as soon as she cleared the barricade, she strode forward, unleashing a storm of rounds at the turret, softening what remained of its shields before the grenade she threw exploded and destroyed the remainder of the turret. Shepard turned to face the last remaining soldier and fired the remainder of her rounds before the gun overheated. The rounds harmlessly bounced off of the shield he was holding. He raised a vicious looking handgun and leveled it at Shepard. It was at that moment that he glowed blue and was quickly thrown to the side, the shot that was intended for Shepard went wide as the soldier screamed wildly as he bounced along the ground and was abruptly silenced when he collided with a support beam with a resounding crunch. Shepard looked back to see the angry blue and purple aura surrounding Liara quickly dissipate and her and the Doctor came running to catch up to Shepard.

Shepard popped the heat sink of her assault rifle and motioned for the others to follow her. Time was running out for them, they needed to get to the second lab and get the command sequence before Garrus, Rose, and Mickey were overrun. Shepard led the way through the prefab at the end of the row. Upon entering the prefab unit, Shepard saw a soldier exit from the lab and turn to look at them, freezing in surprise. Shepard growled and charged, taking advantage of the soldier's hesitation. She collided with him and used her momentum to send him over the railing, flailing and screaming down into the chasm below. "That is for Eden Prime." She spoke softly to herself as she watched the soldier fall. It was a small bit of payback, far less than what the colonists deserved. She didn't even look back at her squad mates, she just motioned them to follow her into the lab.

After clearing the room, Shepard went straight for the console, initiating the playback and like before, saw images of the destruction the Reapers were unleashing, Shepard thought that she was seeing the same transmission when it changed to show the Prothean she had seen before. She didn't know why he thought it was the same one, the Protheans looked all the same to her, but for some reason Shepard knew that this was the same Prothean. Shepard saw the Prothean talking with another about them waking after the Reapers returned to dark space. More importantly, Shepard saw the signal needed to awaken their Prothean. Shepard quickly returned to the present. "I take it you understood that one too?" Shepard nodded as she turned and readied her rifle, not wanting to waste any time getting back to the pod and their team mates. "Yeah, I've got a command signal used to activate stasis mode." Liara let a hint of a smile cross her blue face. "Excellent, then we have everything we need to open the pod." Shepard nodded as she opened the door to head back to the others. They saw a Cerberus shuttle skim by over head and unload more troops on the far end of the prefab. "They just don't give up, don't they?"

Garrus fired off yet another round, sending the headless Cerberus soldier crumpling to the ground. "They just don't give up, don't they?" He told himself as he took aim and deprived another hapless Cerberus mook of his cranium. There definitely seemed no end to them at all. Luckily they have managed to hold off the soldiers, but only because a small amount came through at a time, allowing Garrus to thin most of them out before either Mickey or Rose finished them off.

At first Rose was extremely hesitant about shooting people. That hesitation evaporated after a few close calls. She better understood now why the Doctor hesitated in taking the lives of others, giving them at least one chance to reconsider. It wasn't easy to make that decision to fire the gun and take the life of another, but luckily in the heat of battle, with bullets whizzing all around her and the myriad of other sounds and noises, she didn't have time to think about it, she just reacted. Thankfully, she couldn't do much more than maybe injure them. Having no real combat training or experience, she wasn't doing much more than firing in the vague direction of the enemy, periodically hitting either a shield or a non-vital spot. Mickey on the other hand, had been more effective at taking care of the soldiers that Garrus missed. The minimal training he got from Vega was invaluable in keeping him and Rose alive.

Garrus growled as he yet again had to eject the thermal clip and slap a new one in. Where the hell was Shepard, they should have been here by now. He thought to himself as he sighted and fired again. Once again, hoping that Shepard's confidence and borderline recklessly aggressive combat behavior doesn't get her hurt or killed. He just got her back, he does not want to lose her again.

Shepard squeezed off another burst of fire, eliminating the last of the reinforcements that had been dropped in by the latest group of shuttles. Shepard popped the heat sink and shouted to Liara and the Doctor "Come on, we are almost there." Shepard rounded the corner, coming face to face with a Cerberus soldier that had been trying to flee from Garrus and his frighteningly accurate fire, which was proven by the large amount of headless corpses littering the field. Shepard reacted first by swinging the butt of her rifle into the face of the soldier. He staggered back and was promptly relieved of his cranium by a well placed shot from Garrus, who was more than relieved at seeing Shepard and her squad for the most part in one piece. Shepard, Liara, and the Doctor ran up and reunited with the rest of their team. Once the Doctor got close, Rose jumped up and threw herself onto him, wrapping her arms around his neck. She hadn't been more glad to see him than in that moment. The Doctor had a look of bewilderment, but returned the hug by wrapping his arms around her. "Are you alright, Rose?" He asked her, concerned for her safety. She finally released him and backed up. She smacked him in the chest with her free hand. "Don't you dare disappear like that again, you had me worried half to death."

The Doctor flinched slightly at her outburst, but his look of shock was soon replaced by a smile "Well, you seem to have done marvelous here." He leaned forward to speak in to Roses ear. "I am glad you are safe." While he didn't tend to show his affection, he cared for Rose deeply, more than he had allowed himself to do so in a long time.

Shepard ran up and accessed her Omni-Tool, immediately a display on the stasis pod lit up. "I am transmitting the signal" Liara pulled up the readout on her Omni-Tool "Perfect, it will take a few moments for the lifepod to process it." At this point, Garrus ran up to join the rest of them on the platform. "Watch out, heavy Cerberus forces inbound, looks like we got a siege on our hands." A Cerberus shuttle lifted off from the same location that they landed at earlier. Garrus took up a position next to the pod, while Shepard and Liara moved across the bridge to engage the Cerberus forces. Mickey stayed back with Rose, making sure that no one got close to Garrus or the pod, also making sure they did not get attacked from the other direction. The Doctor walked around the pod to the instrument panel, monitoring it's read out and making adjustments so as to keep the occupant alive.

Having Garrus and the others made the difference, and while there were a large amount of Cerberus troops that swarmed to attack. Shepard and her squad made short work of them all. After all of them were dealt with, Shepard squatted at the end of the bridge, trying to catch her breath. "Looks like we've got a second to catch our breath." Garrus chuckled as he changed out the thermal clip in his sniper rifle. "If anybody needs fresh clips or a bathroom break, now's the time." Shepard and Liara scavenged spare clips from the fallen Cerberus soldiers and distributed them out. Shepard looked around to address the Doctor. "Has the lifepod ended stasis?" Without looking up, he replied "Not yet, just a few more moments." The life pod was damaged more than they thought, the Doctor had to keep making corrections to account for the damage the pod had suffered.

Liara saw it first "HEAVY MECH! Don't let it get close!" She shouted moments before one of the mechs they had seen on Surkesh slammed into the ground and stood up to its full height. Liara, Mickey, Rose, and Shepard all started peppering the mech with rounds, trying to bring it's shields down and keep its attention off of the lifepod. Garrus concentrated on eliminating the group of soldiers that accompanied the mech. Shepard kept up the stream of fire from her Avenger until the mech got right where she wanted it. She pulled her last grenade from her chestplate, armed it and tossed it at the mech. The grenade exploded, making the mech rock a little, but it was still standing. Shepard and her squad opened fire on the mech with renewed vigor. The combined fire tore through what remained of the mech's shields and managed to shred the pilot's canopy before the mech exploded. This elicited a cheer from Shepard's squad.

The reverie was broken when the console beeped and the Doctor stood up to address everyone "The life pod is ready, it just needs to sequence to open the pod." He stepped out of the way to let Shepard have access to the control console. Shepard punched in the sequence to open the pod. They heard a whirring as the pod opened up. Through the mist that plumed out of the pod, Shepard could make out the still form of one of the Protheans from her visions, no, it was the same Prothean, Shepard was certain of it. She didn't know how she knew, let alone the infinitely high improbability that Shepard could not calculate happening. Everyone gathered around the pod, curious to see who was inside. "Goddess." Gasped Liara, upon seeing the Prothean. The Doctor said nothing as he studied the occupant of the lifepod. Initially they saw no movement from the Prothean, "It may time him sometime to regain consciousness." As Liara looked back at him, they saw him stir.

His mouth moved and his two sets of eyes groggily and slowly came open. He looked around at the gathering of people around his pod. He suddenly glowed with a teal energy and threw everyone away from the pod. As everyone was getting back to their feet, the Prothean stumbled out of his pod, falling to his knees as he tries to reacclimate his body to being awake. The Prothean staggered to his feet as Mickey pointed his rifle at him. The Doctor knocked the rifle out of his hand and glared at him, almost daring Mickey to point it at the Prothean again. The Doctor quickly turned his attention to the startled and still confused Prothean, he held out his hands in a non-threatening manner, to show the Prothean that he is unarmed. "We are not here to hurt you, we are friends." The Prothean seemed to barely register what the Doctor was saying as he looked out over the landscape of Eden Prime like he was trying to process where he is and what had happened. Liara quietly spoke to the Doctor and the others. "Remember, it's been fifty thousand years for us, but for him it's only been a few…" Shepard couldn't stop herself, she reached out to gently touch the Prothean's shoulder. The moment she did, she was instantly zapped back into the same place that she had seen in the transmissions. "… A few minutes." She saw the Prothean turn and address a holographic image of another Prothean.

The hologram shook it's head "No, the bunker is falling, there is no other option." The Prothean growled as he spoke "There are pods online, those soldiers are still alive." The hologram remained stoic, "Their sacrifice will be honored in the coming empire. Preparing neutron bombardment, get to your life pod, now." The Prothean shook his head, clearly wanting to continue the argument, but he knew that time was against him. He ran to a lifepod and climbed in. The voice of the hologram came over the comms "Neutron bombardment underway." Explosions shook the pod, the Prothean visibly grew more and more angry with each explosion. Eventually the rumbling stopped and all was silent. The hologram's voice returned. "The bunker is secured, Commander Javik."

The Prothean, whom Shepard concluded was Javik, sighed in resignation "What is left of it. A few hundred people, how am I to rebuild an empire with that?" The hologram spoke again "Furthur adjustments may be necessary, the neutron purge compromised the facility."

"Clarify."

"Sensors are damaged, automated reactivation is not an option. You will remain in stasis until a new culture discovers this bunker. This may lead to a power shortage."

"DO NOT SHUT OFF MORE PODS! I NEED THE FEW THAT ARE LEFT!"

The holograms voice remained passive. "Power needs will be triaged appropriately." Javik slumped down in the pod, knowing that the future for his people looked grim. The hologram's voice spoke one last time "You will be the voice of our people."

As sleep was over taking him, Javik spoke one last time. "I will be more than that." Pure seething hated prominent in his voice.

The vision ended and the Prothean and Shepard fell to their knees, taken aback at being returned to the present. The Prothean ground his hands in the dirt. "How many others?" He spoke in perfect English.

Shepard stood and sighed before replying "Just you."

The Prothean grumbled as he stared out along the landscape. Shepard raised an eyebrow "You can understand me?"

"Yes, now that I have read for physiology, your nervous system. Enough to understand your language."

Shepard almost shuddered at the thought. "So you were reading me while I was seeing…"

The Prothean stood up. "…Our last moments, our failure."

Shepard moved around the Prothean to see his face. "Your people did everything they could, they never gave up. And I could use some of that commitment now." Shepard's comms beeped as Cortez radioed in "Commander, whatever you did got Cerberus interested."

"Roger that Cortez, bring in the shuttle we are ready for pick up."

The Prothean turned to look at the beings around him. "Asari, Turian, Human…" He paused when he looked at the Doctor, the Prothean stepped closer to inspect him. "You, you look human but… you are not familiar at all. You are… different. You and I are alike, the last of our kind…"

The Doctor pointed a finger at him "Stop that."

The Prothean shrugged "I am surrounded by primitives."

While most of the party seemed put off at his statement, Shepard had more important things on her mind. "This place isn't safe, will you join us?"

That piqued the Prothean's interest "You fight the Reapers?"

Shepard nodded, "Yes."

The Prothean turned to face Shepard. "We shall see."

Shepard held out her hand to greet her new comrade. The Prothean looked at the hand and then looked back at Shepards face and said nothing as he walked off towards where the shuttle was landing at.

Rose walked up next to the Doctor and looped her arm through his. "He is a cheery bloke, isn't he?"

The Doctor said nothing in response. He knew exactly how the Prothean felt. He was right, they both were the last of their kind. The Doctor felt the same emotions cascading from him in the brief moment that his mind and the Protheans brushed against each other earlier when the Prothean was inspecting him. The Doctor made it a point to speak to this Prothean, Javik later on, it would help to speak with one who had lived through what Javik is experiencing right now.