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Mary finally finishes with her mission with the collectors, stepping into the QEC scanner to meet with The Illusive Man. She’s ready to tell him the job has been completed and that he can go suck a big one. The hologram of the man sitting in his chair smoking cigarette flares to life in front of her. She crosses her arms, her top lip curled into a snarl, she wishes she could debrief with him in person so she could put a bullet in his head.
As his image comes into view he speaks before Mary can even say a word. “Shepard, you’ve done the impossible. Now that the Collectors are taken care of it’s time to focus on the bigger threat. The Reapers.”
Mary rolls her eyes. “You fucking idiot.” She screeches out at him. “You still don’t understand do you, is you ego that big or are your just that stupid?”
The Illusive Man sits forward in his chair, dumbfounded by what Shepard just said to him. Before he can respond she continues her thought.
“From now on, we do things my way. And my way doesn’t include you.” She narrows her eyes at him.
The Illusive Man quickly stands up in his chair strutting over to get in Mary’s face. He isn’t intimidating over holo-gram, he is just a coward staring at her from afar. “Shepard, don’t be stupid, think about everything I’ve done for you. I brought you back from the dead, I gave you your life back, your ship back.”
“Except you didn’t; I might be breathing because of you, but you can’t give me back the life I had before. The Alliance gave me everything I ever loved, my ship, my crew, and a life. I worked with you to help out the human colonies, now it’s time for me to handle the Reapers.” She leans in, narrowing her eyes even more at the man. “My way.” She rasps out in a dark voice before stepping back.
“Shepard, you think I’m just going to let you walk away?”
“If you really wanted me to stay and be your lap dog you should have had Miranda implant that control chip in my head. I guess that was another dumb move on your part.” She looks up at the ceiling to refer to her pilot. “Joker lose this channel.” Mary gives the man the finger before she turns on her heel to walk away.
“Commander, we have a problem.” Joker’s voice sounds concerned.
She stops in her tracks letting out a frustrated groan. Nothing is ever simple is it? She thinks to herself. “What now Joker?”
“The Normandy. I’ve lost all control of it. She’s flying on her own and I can’t seem to override it”
“I told you I wouldn’t let you just walk away Shepard.” The Illusive Man calls out behind her. Even without looking at his creepy glowing eyes Shepard can tell he’s giving her an evil smile.
“You fucking bastard. You took control of my ship?!” She turns around to stare back at his smug face wishing she could slap that damn drink out of his hand and throw a Nova on his face. “EDI can you override the controls?” She looks up as she speaks to the AI.
“I am doing my best Shepard, the control is coming from a secure source. I am having trouble tracking the signal.” She responds in a calm voice.
Then as if on cue, an electric hum sounds through the ship the lights flicker and suddenly EDI goes silent. “I also had contingencies in place in case you decided to run.” He remarks as he turns to sit back in his chair.
“Big talk coming from a man cowering behind a screen. How ‘bout you and I meet up behind an ally and I’ll show you real pain.” Mary growls to the holographic man as she crunches her knuckles.
“Oh don’t worry Shepard, you and I will meet face to face soon enough. Until then enjoy your sleep.” Mary hears the beep of a button come through the comm and suddenly the vents in the Normandy start to hiss, releasing a green mist into the room.
A nerve toxin, he’s knocking everyone out. Mary turns to run out the door, but finds it locked as she reaches it. She pounds on the door in the hopes that maybe it would fly open. She coughs as the gas starts to cloud around her she brings her hand to cover her face trying hard not to breathe in the gas. “Fucking. Asshole.” She coughs out at the smoky holo behind her before falling to the ground.
Mary hears a hum of distant voices as she slowly starts to regain consciousness, it feels like waking up after dying all over again. Her neck is sore from the position she laid in, her head pounding from being gassed. She cracks her eyes open, squinting at the bright light. As her vision clears she notices a pair of shoes standing in front of her through a glass door. She blinks a few times and takes a dry swallow before sitting up and staring at the figure before her. Instantly recognizing the man she chuckles to herself, shaking her head at the pure irony of the situation. His glowing eyes seem even more chilling in person. He lights a cigarette taking a long drag before speaking. “I told you we would be meeting face to face soon enough.”
Mary brings herself to a stand, walking over to stand face to face with the man through the glass. “Let me out of here so I can wipe that smug look off your face.”
With a drag of his cigarette his chuckles, standing silent for a moment before retorting. “Such big words for someone who can’t act on them. You’d have a hard time fighting without your biotic amp.” He raises his hand holding a little chip between his thumb and forefinger. Mary reaches around to the base of her skull to feel an empty amp port, as powerful of a biotic as she is, without her amp she couldn’t do much damage. She looks up through hooded eyes at the man she so loathes, staring into his glowing eyes with an ice cold glare and makes a silent promise to herself that she will take him down.
In this moment she is so glad she contacted Hackett after returning from the Omega 4 Relay, telling him if she wasn’t back at Earth in a week to send help. A week was enough time to drop off her crew wherever they wanted and tie up some loose ends. All she has to do now is wait for the Alliance to send back up. She just hopes The Illusive Man won’t kill her before then, but he wouldn’t kill the woman he poured four billion credits into, the only hope for humanity, the only one who can defeat the Reapers. Mary wonders what he is going to do to her now that she is his prisoner.
“Now the next thing will be to improve your attitude. I brought you back exactly as you were because you have a certain drive, a certain willingness to survive that others don’t have. You survived Akuze, that test showed me that you were more than just an average soldier.”
With sudden realization Mary looks back up at the man who stands staring at her with a straight face. “Cerberus has been watching me since Akuze?”
“Akuze is what brought our attention to you. But after we did some digging we found that you weren’t just the sole survivor of Akuze, but also the only survivor from the raid on Mindoir. There’s something special about you Mary.” He says as he tilts his head, looking at her with amusement.
“Don’t call me that, only my friends can call me by my first name.” She grunts through gritted teeth.
“My apologies, Shepard.” He says putting his hands up.
She crosses her arms over her chest leaning back on one leg. “Well you have me as your prisoner now. What happens next? You plant a control chip in me?”
“Well that was a thought, but then I wondered what would really get you to cooperate would be to hit you where it really hurts.” With a few button presses on a console TIM brings up a live feed coming from the Citadel. Mary tries to hide her surprise as she looks at the screen and sees Kaidan sitting in Anderson’s office next to Admiral Hackett. There’s no audio, but she can see that it looks like Kaidan is getting briefed on a new mission as he looks over data pads with the two men. “I believe you and Kaidan Alenko are well acquainted?”
Mary attempts to hide all emotion in an attempt to fool the man into believing that Kaidan is nothing more than a former crew mate to her. But the Illusive Man is all too smart, he can see right through her. Additionally, his research showed that Kaidan and Mary were intimate during their time on the SR-1.
“Don’t try to tell me he meant nothing to you either. I did my research.” Another press of a button shows Mary and Kaidan together during their shore leave following the defeat of Saren.
“We weren’t together. We were just really good friends.” She keeps her face straight but internally she is screaming.
Another beep of the console brings up a picture from a security camera of Kaidan and Mary being intimate.
“Yes, very good friends I see. I heard about your encounter on Horizon, but regardless of what happened you still care about him. That picture in your room was a test to see if your emotional connection to him was still there after your rebuild.”
“I doubt that was the only reason.” She states as she shifts her waits on her feet.
“It wasn’t a threat if that’s what you're implying. But now, it is. You disobeyed me, you destroyed the collector base. That was the one thing we could have used to defeat the Reapers. Now we have to start from scratch.”
“Boo hoo you have to do a little extra work now. At least the Collectors were defeated and all the Reaper tech was destroyed. That to me is a mission accomplished.”
The Illusive Man steps away looking over his shoulder to speak once more to her. “You should get some rest Shepard. Your new training starts tomorrow.” He walks away hearing her voice speak out once more to him.
“Training for what?”
“You’ll see, commander.”
Kaidan walks into Councilor Anderson’s office, Hackett is already there waiting for him. He takes a seat in the chair opposite of Anderson’s desk.
“Alenko. I have a mission for you. High risk, and also highly confidential.” Hackett notes as he sits next to Kaidan.
Anderson pushes back from the balcony, turning to walk over to his desk, standing over it for a moment before taking a seat. “It’s about Shepard.” Anderson says as he grabs a datapad from his desk and hands it to Kaidan. He grabs the datapad thumbing through the information.
“These are records for the Normandy. How do you have this? I thought it was under Cerberus' control?”
“Shepard says she unshackled the AI on her ship and it was able to allow us access to information coming from the Normandy. Also Shepard called and said she finished her mission, she was supposed to drop her crew off and come back to Alliance HQ. But she said if she doesn’t contact us within a week to send help. We assume that maybe Cerberus found a way to take control of the Normandy and that they have Shepard as their prisoner. . . or worse.”
“Worse? What do you mean? That, maybe they killed her?” Even saying the words makes Kaidan’s stomach turn.
“It’s a possibility but I don’t think Cerberus would put all those credits into resurrecting Shepard just to kill her. No, the Illusive Man is up to something. He’s going to do something to her, and we need to rescue her before he turns her into a sleeper agent, or modifies her into a super soldier.” Anderson leans forward placing his arms on his desk.
“Where can I find her?” Kaidan asks as he looks up from the data pad.
“The signal is lost out in the Voyager cluster.” Hackett states, pointing at the datapad.
“That makes no sense, Cerberus hijacks the Normandy and takes it into Alliance space?” Kaidan questions.
“Maybe it’s to get our attention but either way she needs our help. I’m sending you out there to find her and bring her home.” Hackett says as he looks at Kaidan.
“What happens when I get there and I’m swarmed with Cerberus troops? I need a ship like the Normandy to get me in undetected.”
“The plan, Commander, is to get you into the system and send you out on a shuttle to find where she is. We aren’t sure which system or planet she's in though.”
“Wait, her omni-tool. We can track it. I have the IP address for her tool. If it’s still the same address I can find her.” He pulls up his omni-tool bringing up the tracking interface and entering the code he has for Mary. His heart pounds against his chest as he waits for his tool to bring up a result. With a ping on his tool he has a precise location for Mary. “She’s in the Yangtze system, Binthu. Cerberus must have a facility that they’re keeping her in.” He stands up quickly looking down at Hackett. “I’m ready now. Where’s the ship?”
As Kaidan enters the facility he sneaks up behind an armored guard, taking him out silently and pulling him into a small room to change into his armor. It’s heavy and uncomfortable on him but he just needs to be able to fool the Cerberus troops and get to Shepard without getting detected.
He grabs his weapon and walks out of the room, finding a local terminal he can hack to find where they’re holding Shepard. He finds data on the holding cells, it looks like her entire crew is being held here. He gets the location and immediately starts down the hall. He slowly walks through the halls, checking each corner carefully, until he reaches the wing. The label above the door reads holding cells. Kaidan walks through the door, sitting down at a terminal to find which room is Shepards’. He notes that each room is occupied by each member of her crew. After finding the room location he walks down to the last door in the hall, but as he opens the door he finds that it’s empty.
Kaidan sighs, cursing to himself as he stares at the empty room. “Damn it, where could she be?”
A sudden scream shakes Kaidan out of his thoughts, sending a shiver down his spine. It’s her. He knows that voice, that scream. He turns and runs around the corner finding a room with Cerberus agents and Shepard strapped down in a chair.
Kaidan thinks of a plan in his head, he notices an observation room with a comm to speak into the room. He walks over pressing on the button to speak into the room disguising his voice the best he can. “Time to take a break men.” He hopes that’s enough to fool the men into leaving. As the men exit the room he waits a moment to make sure they’re gone. He notices Shepard laying in the chair, looking pale and weaker than normal.
“You might as well kill me you bastard. You won’t turn me into one of your sleeper agents.” She mutters, attempting to pull against the restraints.
Kaidan walks into the room slowly stepping to her side. She turns her head to face him, a deep scowl on her face. Kaidan tilts his head at her. “Aren’t you a little short to be a Cerberus agent?” Mary jokes as she scowls at the man.
Kaidan removes his helmet, showing her that he came to save her. Her eyes widen and relief falls over her.
“Kaidan? What the fuck are you doing here?”
“Well Princess Leia, looks like I came to save you.”
“I see, and are you supposed to be Luke Skywalker or Han Solo?”
“Shepard you saw the vids with me, if I was Luke Skywalker that would mean that I’m your brother.”
“You just want to be Han Solo because he’s more badass than Luke. And more handsome.” She says with a smirk.
Kaidan walks over to a console nearby and releases the restraints on her chair. She rubs her bruised wrists and turns to get up, stumbling as she stands. Kaidan grabs her arms and steadies her. “Are you okay? What did they do to you?”
“They took out my amp. They’ve been trying to turn me into one of their super soldiers, a sleeper agent for Cerberus.” Her gaze shifts from the floor to his eyes.
“Damn it, Shepard. I’m sorry.”
“You saved me. That’s all that matters. If you hadn’t come I don’t know what they would have done to me.”
“Do you know where they put your amp?”
“It’s nearby, I know that. Go get my crew, I'll look around in here for it.”
Kaidan nods as he turns away to go release the crew. He goes to a console to unlock the doors, each one opening one by one as the crew peaks their heads out with caution. Joker notices Kaidan, he limps over to him extending a hand out for a shake. Kaidan gladly takes it, shaking his hand and patting him gently on the shoulder with the other hand.
“Kaidan, boy am I glad to see you.”
“I’m here to get you all out of here. Where’s the Normandy? Can we take her?”
Joker sits down at the console, looking for information on the ship. “She’s in dry dock in the lower part of the facility. We can get there but there’s guards everywhere, if we take this shaft behind the torture room back there it should lead right to the docks. Ugh now I have to go crawling through the ducts again.” Joker says with a sigh.
“Again?” Kaidan asks with a raised eyebrow.
“Long story but I had to crawl in the ducts in the Normandy to unshackle the AI.” Joker waves his hand in the air trying to wave it off.
“Jesus, Joker you unshackled an AI?!”
“Okay big picture here Alenko. Can we talk about this after we escape the dangerous Cerberus facility?” He presses a few more buttons on the console. “Okay the Normandy is at dock 32. We have to go through that duct and it should reach a room here.” Joker points to the screen indicating where the tunnel leads. “Then we go down this hall and we should be right next to the ship. We will have to use the terminal outside to override the locks.”
“Alright let’s go then. Do we have everyone?”
Joker looks at the group of people surrounding him, some look tired, others look angry. He stands from the desk and walks to the group standing before him. Kaidan relays the plan to the group, he asks all the biotics to keep a group of non-biotics around them to keep them safe.
They walk back into the room where Shepard finally finds her amp in a desk in the corner of the room. She walks over to Kaidan holding the small chip out to him before turning around and moving her hair to the side. “Do you mind?”
Kaidan places a gentle hand on Mary’s shoulder to steady her as he gently inserts the amp into the port. Mary takes a sharp breath in and out as the biotic amp sends a shiver through her body, filling her with the power she has gotten used to having since being brought back from the dead. She flares her powers over her body, testing out that the amp hadn’t been damaged. A blue flame ignites over her hand; she wiggles her fingers around it before letting it die out. She turns to stare back at Kaidan with a devilish smirk. Kaidan’s heart thumps as he sees the woman he loves become drunk on her own power. It’s always been a quality that he found attractive, Mary is a force of nature, and Kaidan always found that to be one of his favorite things about her.
“Let’s get the fuck out of here.” Mary states as she nods in the direction of the exit.
They send the crew through the duct Kaidan and Mary keep watch for any Cerberus agents. As the last group crawls in Kaidan turns to Mary giving her a pointed look. “Go on.” He exclaims after a moment.
“You first.” Mary responds.
“Mary this isn’t up for debate get-” Alarms start to sound around them alerting the facility about their escape. Two armored agents round the corner and start shooting down the hall. Kaidan throws Mary behind him and throws his barrier up around him, she flares hers up in response to his. She throws out a shockwave towards the guards causing them to stumble back a few steps, Kaidan throws a cryo blast at one of them, he freezes up and with a single bullet he shatters into a million pieces. Mary can’t help but feel such strong adoration for how Kaidan protects her, he came out here to rescue her. And here he is, showing off his moves. Mary decides it's time that she shows off a little. With one guard falling down, she locks on the other one and with a trail of blue falling over her she Charges at the final soldier causing him to stumble back. Before the man can even regain his footing Mary throws her shield force into her hand and slams down a Nova to the floor. The Cerberus soldier falls still letting out a grumble as he dies, Mary stands staring at the man for a moment to make sure he doesn’t get back up. She turns back to Kaidan who is looking at her with amusement but also anger.
She knows he’s mad at her because she went charging into an enemy without her armor on, but she knew she could take him. It was only one man, and she wanted to get her revenge. She walks back to Kaidan, silently giving him the ‘I know what you’re going to say so don’t say it’ look. She jumps into the duct not realizing it was a shute straight to the garbage compactor. Her entire crew stands around the room with disgusted looks as they look down at the sludge and muck they stand in. Mary hears a thumping from the shute above her and watches Kaidan fall into the pile of garbage that sits piled under the shute.
Kaidan lays in the pile looking down and giving a long sigh and a shake of his head. Mary chuckles at him, he looks up at her, she sticks her tongue out at him.
“Why does it always have to be the trash compactor?” Kaidan grumbles as he lifts himself out of the garbage.
“Apparently we’re living in some kind of Star Wars alternate universe.” Mary responds. “Come on, let's get out of here before they send more troops.” Mary walks towards the door on the far end of the room. She presses a button on a console but the button blinks red. “Damn it they’ve sealed the doors.” She grunts in frustration as she kicks at the door, knowing full well it won’t make it magically open, but just to get her anger out on the stupid piece of technology.
“I’ll see what I can do.” Kaidan says as he bends down to look at the console, clipping and crossing wires. Soon the door opens and they all rush out of the room, slipping and sliding along the floor in their wet boots. Kaidan and Mary take point at the head of the group. They round a corner that leads to the docking bay. It’s surrounded by guards, Shepard turns and throws up a barrier as large as she can make it around the group, Samara and Jack quickly place their hands on the barrier to strengthen and enlarge it to fit the entire crew inside.
Kaidan starts firing at the soldiers, Mary uses her free hand to throw a pistol she picked up earlier at Garrus. He misses the catch, but quickly grabs the gun off the ground and runs up next to Kaidan to assist.
“Can we walk while maintaining this field?” Shepard asks, looking over at Jack and Samara.
“We will have to take it slow, but it should be manageable.” Samara says in her usual calm voice.
“Hell, we kicked ass at the collector base.” Jack states.
“Let’s move out. Stick close, everyone!” Mary commands.
The group slowly starts towards the Normandy, bullets ricocheting off the large barrier. Kaidan and Garrus continue to shoot the troops that surround them. As they approach a fallen soldier Shepard grabs a gun off the body and throws it to Grunt.
“He, he, he.” The Krogan bellows as he loads the gun. He points it at a trooper across the room and fires, hitting the man in the stomach. “I. Am. Krogan.” Grunt shouts as he praises himself on his shot.
“Scratched one!” Garrus calls out as he hits a trooper.
Tali sends out her combat drone. “Nothing’s faster than Chatika vas Paus!” Mordin incinerates one of the soldiers, he blows at his omni-tool before pretending like he’s holstering it. “Indeed.” He chirps in his melodic voice.
Zaeed picks up a rifle as the group passes another dead soldier. “My turn you sons of bitches.” He calls as he cocks the gun, immediately throwing himself into the action.
The Cerberus men fall one by one as the Normandy crew throws out tech shots, and a barrage of bullets at the men. Even with the soldiers wearing heavy armor they seem to go down pretty easily. As the group reaches the cargo bay door they slowly start to make their way up into the ship. Luckily the door is already open, Mary just has to deal with the console keeping the Normandy grounded. She lets go of the barrier, allowing Samara and Jack to hold it until the crew is safe inside the ship.
Bringing her own barrier up over her skin she rushes from the group, beelining it to the console at the end of the cargo hold. Most of the Cerberus troops are taken care of, now it’s time to steal the Normandy from the clutches of Cerberus and head back to Earth.
Mary gets to the console, quickly pressing multiple buttons trying to find the right one that releases the Normandy.
“Engines on and ready commander.” Joker states over the comm.
Pressing her fingers to her ear she responds to the man. “I’m at the console now, be ready to take off on my signal.”
The clicking of footsteps jolts Mary’s gaze away from the console, looking over her shoulder she sees a man appear before her, surprisingly he doesn’t have a cigarette in his hand. She turns to look at him wishing she had a damn gun in her hand at this moment.
“Shepard.” The man says in a greeting tone. “I should have known your little boyfriend would come for you.”
“I would have found a way out if he hadn’t come.” She says only semi-confidently. Mary is sure she could have escaped at some point, but it probably would have taken her longer. Her crew could have been hurt or worse, she’s glad Kaidan risked it to come and save everyone.
The Illusive Man chuckles. “Sure you would.” He says with a hint of sarcasm. Mary flares her biotics in response to his crass tone. She slowly inches towards him, TIM doesn’t falter as she nears him.
“I’m going to enjoy killing you.” Mary hisses at him as she comes within arms reach of the man.
“Shepard!” Kaidan calls as he stands at the base of the cargo bay door. Mary looks over at him, her heart races as she sees him start to run towards her.
“Kaidan no!” Her voice is loud and harsh. “This is my fight!”
Kaidan stops in his tracks halfway towards her. Mary looks back over at TIM, his face curls up into an evil smirk. He brings his fingers to his ear and calmly speaks into his comm. “Leng, finish him.”
Mary’s eyes widen, she turns her head back to Kaidan who shifts on his feet to avoid being hit by a katana. The men start to throw attacks out at each other, biotic and kinetic attacks clash against each other in mid air. Mary starts to feel a heat of rage boil up in her stomach, she clenches her fist together gathering her energy in her hand. She slams her fist into TIM’s chest, sending him flying back slamming into a wall.
Mary Charges at him, body slamming right into the man. She steadies herself and starts throwing punches at him, he manages to block her, throwing his arms up and stopping each punch and jab. He manages to grab both of her wrists holding her arms down as he leans in to address her. “One thing you don’t know about me, Mary, is I used to be a soldier too.” He slams his head into hers, causing her to fall to the floor. He pulls away reaching for a pistol in his jacket. It expands as he pulls it out, he grabs a clip and slams it into the gun, cocking the gun to fill it with a round. Mary spins to the side, catching her feet on the ground as she stands quickly bringing her barrier back over her skin. She can feel the beginning of biotic fatigue fall over her, but she won’t give up until the man is dead, she won’t let him get away.
Sneaking a glance over at Kaidan she can see he’s still deep in his fight with the dark haired man. Mary notices a cut on his cheek, but the man with a sword looks worse than Kaidan does. Mary brings her attention back to TIM who slowly starts walking towards her holding his gun at her. He knows shooting at her barrier is a waste of ammo, he has to time his shots perfectly if he has a chance against the biotic.
Mary throws a Shockwave at the man, but all it does is flicker over his shields. She won’t be able to use her biotics to take his shield down, her only hope is to get that pistol from him. With a loud grunt she runs towards him clutching her fist and bringing her energy into her hand as she throws it towards the man. He dodges her fist, moving to the side. Mary counters with her other hand catching him off guard, she punches him right in the gut. He coughs, bending over holding his stomach. Mary snatches the pistol from his hands, bringing it to his head.
His shields are too strong to take bullets, it would take an entire clip to bring it down. Mary looks down at the man who sits on his hands and knees on the floor. “It’s over Tim.” She uses the acronym as if it were his real name. “I have the high ground now.” She smirks as she holds her arms out. Feeling all high and mighty knowing she has him at a disadvantage.
“You underestimate my power Shepard.” He looks up at her, his glowing eyes shining more brightly than she ever noticed before. He lunges up at her before she can even react, the gun falls out of her hand and on the floor. Mary falls to the ground, a sharp pain stings her back as his weight lands on top of her. She screams out in pain, the sound causing Kaidan to look over and see she’s pinned down by the Illusive Man. Kaidan notices the two struggling as they both reach for the pistol that lays just out of reach.
He turns to the man with the sword, his hand held out with a kinetic force priming in his glove. Kaidan knows the man is growing tired, he knows one thing that can stop him for good. He has been learning to Reave for a while now but hasn’t perfected the power yet, and he hasn’t used it on anyone yet. But desperate times. He gathers his energy and remembers what he has to do to effectively throw out the power. With a flash of his biotics and a flick of his wrist he launches a Reave at the man. It hits him, a biotic aura emulating off his body as he starts to scream in pain. Kaidan feels a certain strength flow into him as the aura of the power flares over his skin. With Kaidan’s final bullet he lines up a shot to the chest and pulls the trigger. The man falls to the ground, coughing and choking on his blood. Kaidan leaves him to bleed out as he runs towards Shepard.
Mary struggles to reach the pistol, if she can’t reach it she’s trying to keep TIM from getting it. His reach extends farther than hers but not enough to grab the weapon. Mary’s only thought is she can pull it with her biotics so she can reach it. She likes to think of it like using the force when she pulls objects towards her.
TIM feels the biotic energy coming from Mary; he quickly punches her in the face to keep her from using her biotics. She clutches her face screaming in pain, TIM quickly leaps off her and grabs the pistol stumbling to his feet. He notices Kaidan running towards them, with a click on his gun he loads a concussive round. He aims it at the man, causing Kaidan to skid to a stop. His shields flare over his armor that was slightly damaged from his earlier encounter with the Cerberus operative. Mary turns her throbbing head to the side to notice Kaidan standing still, slowly putting his hands in the air, when she turns her head the other direction she notices TIM has the gun and is pointing it right at Kaidan.
“Now I have you both right where I want you. Your friends can go. I just want you and Alenko. You two are some of the most powerful human biotics I’ve ever seen. I could use you both for the advancement of humanity. Biotics are the genetic evolution for humanity. Soon everyone will have these abilities that you both possess and humanity will rise strong, and we will take over the galaxy.”
Mary grunts as she attempts to sit up, her vision swarming as a warm trail of blood falls to her lips. “You’re delusional.” Mary grumbles to the man.
“No, I just see things for what they are. Humanity has grown stronger since we’ve discovered the mass relays, and learned how to use biotics. One accidental exposure to Element Zero and we suddenly get the power to move things with our minds. One day we won’t need the Eezo exposure, biotics will reproduce with each other and their children will be born with a natural biotic ability. It's all part of the evolutionary process. You both are amazing biotics, your spawn could be born with abilities that far surpass your own.”
Kaidan speaks up in response to his words. “It wouldn’t be fair to put such a high expectation on a child, especially from birth. And if I ever have children it will be on my terms, not forced on me by some mad man who wants to host an experiment.” His lip curls up into a snarl, Kaidan knows first hand what it’s like to be taken from your family and forced into having powers that you didn’t ask for. Being watched and studied as you were training to use these abilities. He wouldn’t want that for his kids, if he ever has any. In this moment he doesn’t want kids, knowing they could be born like he was. A freak of nature. He doesn’t want his kids growing up like him.
“You don’t understand Alenko. You and Mary were both exposed to Eezo, something that should have killed you, but instead it made you both stronger. Think of how biotics will be in the future, when we won’t need implants to be able to use our abilities. And biotics will be more common, they will be honored rather than feared.”
Mary slowly stands breathing heavily through her mouth, her nose is definitely broken. The blood pours down into her mouth as she breathes. She spits a clump of blood on the ground. “It’s over Illusive Man. Cerberus is finished.”
“Don’t try it Shepard. I have my gun aimed at your lover.” His eyes leave Kaidans and fall onto her.
Mary looks over at Kaidan who looks at her giving the smallest nod, so small it wouldn’t be visible to anyone else except Mary. When they were together they learned a silent language between them. His nod is his way of saying I’ll be fine, do what you need to do .
Bringing her gaze back to TIM she quickly flares her biotics, a gunshot rings in the air as she throws her attack. Mary falls to her knees feeling a throbbing headache press on her brain; she looks over to see the Illusive Man laying on the ground, blood quickly pooling around him. A large dent in the metal wall from where he was thrown into it. Mary doesn’t take a second look back as she stumbles as quickly as she can over to Kaidan who fell to the ground. The gun shot took out his shields and knocked him unconscious. Mary doesn’t see any blood, he must have been hit with a concussive shot.
“Commander, the lock is still in place. EDI is back online and fully functional but you have to disengage the lock from that console.” Joker’s voice rings in Mary’s head. She stumbles over to the console pushing the button to disengage the lock. The anchors lift from the ship. Shepard walks over to Kaidan and grabs him by the arms, dragging him over the entrance to the ship and hauling him inside. Once they both reach the inside of the ship she orders Joker to take off as quickly as possible. As soon as the ship jumps to FTL Mary finally allows herself to fall to the ground and close her eyes. Knowing that; her, her crew and Kaidan are all safe. Darkness soon falls over her.
EPILOGUE
The docking bay now stills with silence since the Normandy departed. In the middle of the room a black haired man lay unmoving in a puddle of his own blood, his eyes open but lifeless. His sword lays still in his hand, as it had been as he died. A trail of bloody footprints leads over across the room where the Illusive Man lays in his own blood. His eyes are closed. He remains still, but a flicker of a heartbeat still pounds in his chest. With a small gasp of air, his eyes snap open, the glow in his eyes still as bright as ever. Even the threat of death didn’t dull the illumination in his eyes.