Illium

The old transport hovered over the wreckage, the sound of it's rippling thrusters barely audible over the roaring flames. Nos Astra had once been called the crown jewel of the Terminus Systems. The commercial hub of Illium which had been home to millions of residents was now a mass grave of charred corpses, crumbling skyscrapers and ash. The cloud belt which hung in the air between Illium's surface and the tall buildings and structures where most of Nos Astra's foot traffic had traveled now glowed with an orange hue. Black smoke plumed into the sky and distorted the transport's view of the carnage.

There had been a time when a council race never would have dared attack a planet within the Terminus Systems. The threat of war with the lawless sectors had hung in the air for ages with neither side ever fully believing the conflict would come to pass. Those days were over. The Turians desperation while understandable had put a sudden and decisive end to their allegiance with not only the council but perhaps the entire galaxy. The turians pride and fear had saw to the demise of a peace that had lasted for generations. They had performed exactly as Aquilla predicted.

The ship touched down on what used to be a park that had been erected atop a floating barge station which had provided a bridge between the various buildings that had surrounded it. Those buildings were now almost entirely vaporized. Their structures stripped clean at least halfway down their towering lengths. All that remained were the blackened remnants of their steel skeletons.

The transport's airlock hissed open after it's engines fell silent. It was the man who stepped out first. Kaidan Alenko's boots left footprints in the ash beneath him. He had expected to hear the sounds of the blast's survivors crying out in agony but instead he heard nothing but the sound of the flames devouring what remained of the city. The devastation stretched as far as the eye could see. Kaidan felt the urge to speak but he had no words to give. He turned his eyes from the smoldering skyline and shifted his gaze to the ground before him. Amidst the charred remains of the park Kaidan found them. The collection of blackened bodies were gathered in a heap in the center of the barge. His stomach twisted into knots when his eyes found the small corpse curled up next to what he could only guess had been an asari. He couldn't help wondering if this was all that had remained of Ashley Williams. For a moment he feared he might puke before his disgust turned to anger.

When he had seen the devastation the Reapers had caused in London he'd been appalled by the senseless destruction and loss of life. Yet at least then he could blame the cruelty on the unfeeling machines that had caused it. This was something else entirely.

He turned to the sound of footsteps behind him. The two women exited the ship together but when they stepped out into the apocalyptic scene Rahna froze in place. The darker skinned woman stared at the ruined skyline before she too found the charred corpses. The woman cried out and covered her mouth with a hand as she braced herself with the other on the side of the vessel. Overcome with the crippling reality of the atrocity they had witnessed Rahna found herself unable to move forward. She gagged as she turned herself away from the horror. The other woman moved in an almost trance-like manner. Jack's brown eyes were filled with an empty terror the likes of which he had never dreamed of seeing the woman emote. She had always been the toughest and most fearless woman he'd ever known, even Shepard came in second to Jack's ferocity. Yet in that moment she was someone else.

Jack's body trembled as she scanned the horizon for any sign of life. She gritted her teeth and clenched her fists, her knuckles still painted with the fresh blood she had drawn from pounding them into the transport's metal walls. He reached out to her and she pulled away.

"Don't." Jack hissed. "Don't fucking do that." she wiped her cheek dry with the back of her hand. "She's alive. She's fucking alive! She has to be."

"Jack…" Kaidan's voice came out in a whisper. "Look around. I...I know how hard it is...Jesus, I don't know what to say."

"Then shut up!" Jack screamed as she franticly paced back and forth. He knew her anger wasn't really for him. "You can't give up on her, Alenko! We'll find her!" she quickly opened her Omni-Tool and frantically poured through her contact list until her finger hovered over "Cheerleader" on the display.

She hesitated before pressing the call button. After what felt like a lifetime of ringing all Jack was rewarded with was the woman's voicemail. Jack shook her head, unwilling to accept the obvious implication. "We can find her with this."

"The omni-tool?" Kaidan allowed himself a flicker of hope when the realization dawned on him. "Miranda had us install those trackers!"

It had been last Christmas when the need arose. Kaidan had insisted that they all spent their holiday vacation in the cabin his parents had left him atop an otherwise abandoned mountain. Miranda had forced them all to install the tracking application in case one of them had been lost in the hike up the snowy mountain. It had been one of their finer holidays together.

"I've got her!" Jack cried as a blip appeared on the application's display. "She's out there, Kaidan!" Whether the woman actually believed herself or was merely trying to convince herself was unclear. She spun on her feels and ran back to the ship before Kaidan caught up with her.

"Jack, wait." He stopped her.

The convict didn't turn to face him as she tried to brush him off. "We don't have time! She needs us."

"We need to be ready for what we might find."

Jack's face twisted when she turned to meet his eyes.

"Look...you know how much I care for Miranda, for both of you. But we need to be realistic."

Jack tried to put on a brave face before she shoved the man back as her eyes glassed over. "How can you even say that shit?! After everything…all the shit the galaxy has dealt me over the years...no!" Jack yelled while shaking her head in defiance. "This isn't how it ends! It can't be!"

Kaidan placed his hand on the woman's shoulder. "Jack...if the worst comes to pass. I just want you to know I'll always be there."

"I can't lose her..." She couldn't meet his eyes when she spoke. "Fuck...if it wasn't for Miranda...I never would have made it this far."

The implication hung in the air. Alenko knew what she had meant without having to ask for more. The two friends merely stared at each other before Jack could continue.

"She saved my life, Kaidan. Fuck the odds, I'm returning the favor."

Kaidan nodded. "Then let's go get her."

Elsewhere in the ruins of Nos Astra a lone skyscraper still stood despite the devastation. It's tall structure had been decimated by the blast and flames devoured what remained of it's body. The glass windows had all been shattered by the bomb's shockwave.

On the building's top floor a massive hole had been punched through it's wrecked exterior. The remains of a skycar were embedded in this hole with the back half of the vehicle still dangling over the edge. Inside the vessel rested the bodies of two women. Their heads hung limp with gashes in their flesh that spewed blood. The fires swelled outside of the wreck until at last the heat caused one of them to stir.

Her eyes opened softly as she let out a grunt of pain. Fire consumed her view. What little she could see through the cracked glass was drowned in flames. The heat threatened to cook her alive and the pain was unbearable, but she was alive.

Oriana Lawson coughed, the black smoke pouring into the cracked skycar windshield was already making it hard to breath. As her senses returned to her, they were accompanied by an overwhelming flood of pain. Ori gritted her teeth as she looked down at herself to assess the damage. Her breath came in short gasps when she saw the bone protruding from just under her left knee.

She tried her best to not let the panic into her voice when she spoke. "Miranda?"

At last she turned to the driver's side and her eyes went wide with terror. She let out a cry and covered her mouth with the palm of her hand.

Her sister was pretzeled up in the driver's seat, her head pressed against the glass window with a trickle of blood running down her cheek. Her eyes were shut and large chunk of glass from the shattered windshield of their skycar was embedded in her torso. Miranda's body was limp and Oriana couldn't tell if she still drew breath.

"Miranda!" She screamed, hoping desperately that it would wake her sister. "Miri, please! Wake up!"

Oriana leaned over in an attempt to shake the bloodied woman to alertness. The slightest movement sent an immobilizing flash of pain through the young doctor. Ori fell back into her seat, completely helpless. Her eyes glued to her sister's limp body.

Illium Orbit

High above the glassed surface of Illium a battle raged on. The smoke from gunfire hung in the air so thick that Marion was finding it hard to pick her targets. She slammed the slide back on her shotgun as she loaded a fresh thermal clip. She peeked her head around the shredded nav console she was currently in cover behind. The Hologram display of Illium had turned from blue to red during the course of the battle and she didn't need to guess to know what it meant.

Beside her the Pirate crouched with her hands on both her weapons. "Got five of 'em. How bout you, gorgeous?"

"Six." Marion answered.

"Couldn't let me have that could you?"

"We're running out of time." Marion hissed. "They have more men then we have rounds."

"Well maybe the blokes are having better luck." Val chimed before she turned to the airlock behind them where Jacob and Vega were currently entrenched. "How's it going, boys?!"

"Almost dry!" Jacob screamed over the gunfire.

Val turned to the Justicar who was pinned down across the room behind a console that was so riddled with bullets it spewed bright sparks. "And you, Justicar?!"

"Out of ammunition." Samara said grimly as she charged up a closing fist.

"Where's the Commander and Garrus?!" James cried.

Marion peeked around the cover at the red hologram of Illium. "Don't think they're coming." She fell back into cover and and turned to the woman beside her. She took a deep breath before she spoke the desperate idea in her head.

"Val...how'd you like to do something stupid?"

Val's lips perked up into a bright smile. "All the best nights of my life started with that exact sentence, mate."

With a roll of her eyes Corvus turned to the other members of the squad, "You three lay down suppressive fire!" She ordered. "We're gonna try and flank them. We have to divide their fire or we're all screwed"

"You sure about this?!" Jacob cried as a bullet whizzed by his face causing him to nearly toppled over in surprise.

"I'm sure it's the only chance we have for some of us to make it out of this." Marion answered before gripping the slide of her shotgun and facing Val. "Just follow my lead, stick to cover and take down as many as you can."

"Let's go have some fun." Val said as she unsheathed her knife.

With that the two women sprang out of cover and ran for the nearest staircase to the CIC's upper levels. Jacob, James and Samara suppressed the immediate response from the turians but it was difficult to keep up the fire with their dwindling supply of thermal clips. Marion scanned the battlefield as they sprinted up the staircase and fired blindly at their attackers. She counted no more than ten soldiers.

Marion leveled her shotgun when they reached the top of the first staircase and caught an unlucky turian who popped up from behind a navigational console just to their left. Before he could even raise his iron Marion blasted him square in the chest. The point blank shot ripped through the man's armor like paper and sent chunks of smoldering flesh soaring as a splash of blue blood spat her way. He was dead before he hit the floor.

Corvus pulled the slide back on her shotgun once more with her eyes trained on the squad of six men on the CIC's upper ring whom Samara and Jacob were keeping in cover with their combined fire. She began to search for her new target but he found her first.

She wasn't ready for the aged marine who spun around a support column to her right. Marion swung the barrel of her shotgun to meet him but she knew in her gut it wouldn't be fast enough. Yet before the man had his chance to put her down a large combat knife soared through the air and buried itself in the exposed and vulnerable flesh of his neck with expert precision. Val charged forward with surprising speed. The woman grabbed Saxon's hilt and stabbed the blade deeper into the soldier's throat as she fired off a round from the canon in her left hand. The bullet hit it's mark and another turian fell dead when Mona's bullet tore through his thick skull.

The sight of their fallen comrades was enough to spur the remaining turians into action. The squad in the CIC's upper tier all rose to their feet and aimed for the Blonde. Before she could even think Marion dove for the woman and tackled her to the ground behind the only cover she could find, the stabbed turian bleeding out beside them.

The unsuppressed turians unleashed their combined fire squarely on Marion and Val. Corvus rolled the bleeding man over them and the rounds that tore through the consoles and support columns they hid behind were absorbed by the man's body with large explosions of gore.

Marion gritted her teeth as she felt the familiar pain of a bullet as it grazed her exposed arm. The pirate under her for once appeared genuinely afraid and Corvus was stunned when she realized she shared the feeling. It used to be much easier to be fearless when she had nothing to lose. Suddenly the onslaught of bullets stopped when a blue bubble manifested around the duo. The bullets absorbed themselves harmlessly into the biotic field with muffled pops.

Corvus rolled over enough to see the Justicar standing entirely exposed, her arms outstretched and her eyes glowing white as she maintained the shield that had saved their lives. Before the turians could put her down Jacob and James charged forward, firing the few bullets they had left at the turians who remained. Two of the alien soldiers fell before the men ran out of bullets. The surviving hostiles turned the barrels of their guns toward Samara, The wounded Justicar's legs trembled beneath her, the strain of her injuries and the power she was exerting finally started to crack the woman. Jacob and James could do nothing but hit the deck and prepare for the worst.

The turians that remained rose to their feet and formed a firing squad. Their aim set squarely on the powerful asari. Marion watched as the men prepared the execute the warrior. A shot rang out with deafening strength. An explosion of blue blood erupted from the head of the turian standing in the center of the firing squad. The alien hostiles quickly shifted their aim from the asari to the two figures who emerged from a doorway on the CIC's mid level.

Garrus Vakarian lined up his follow-up shot as Shepard unloaded a barrage of fire from her assault rifle. The Commander buried another turian with a gut shot. No longer outnumbered, the Normandy squad pressed their advantage.

Marion lunged for the dead turian's fallen weapon. With pistol in hand she and Val sprang to their feet and fired in unison. The combined fire of the Normandy's crew didn't cease until their last enemy hit the floor.

The stood in silence for a moment, their weapons still held in outstretched hands. Smoke still clung to the air, accompanied by the smell of blood. The bodies of the turian crew were strewn about the multi-tiered CIC but all eyes were on the Hologram display of Illium.

"Shit." Marion broke the tension.

"They did it didn't they?" Jacob asked.

Shepard could only offer a mute nod in response.

"Bleeding pricks." Val shoved Mona back into the holster on her hip.

"Garrus, was he telling the truth about all that? Your people really wired the homeworlds to blow?" James sounded hopeful that it wasn't the truth.

"I wish it didn't...but it sounds right. Why else would the Primarch do this?"

"Victus is gonna answer for this, Garrus." Shepard finally spoke, her voice was filled with a rage Marion had never heard in the woman before.

"You're damn right he will." Vakarian agreed.

Jane walked up the stairs to the top level of the CIC and stopped before a grand viewport. She stared down at the glowing orange spot on the planet below which marked the atrocity she failed to prevent. Her eyes were set firmly on her failure as the rest of the turian fleet began to jump through the nearby relay and retreat back to Palavan.

Garrus came up beside his old friend. "Spirits, Shepard...I'm sorry. I tried to...I should have done more. This is on me. All of it."

"No." Jane said. "This is on the Primarch and Aquilla."

"Whatever you're planning to do, I want in." Garrus said.

Shepard gave a silent nod of agreement before her comm chirped to life in her ear.

"Commander, Shepard, I'm…" Joker fumbled to the find the words on the other end of the call.

"Bring the Normandy in for pick-up, Jeff." She said before hanging up on him. She turned to face her team. She tried to find comfort in the fact that they were at least still alive. She'd already lost enough friends.

"Aquilla wanted a war and now she has it." Jane said.

"So what do we do?" Vega asked.

"We finish it."

Illium

The trio stood on the remnants of a connector bridge that was attached to one of the few skyscrapers that still remained. Rahna had landed Felina's transport on the clearing that acted as a sort of entry plaza to the building. Like the barge they had stood on before it was littered with the charred corpses of the unlucky Illium residents who had been caught outside when the bomb struck.

Bits of flaming debris rained down from above, a large chunk of burning wreckage rested just a few feet from where they stood. Fire engulfed the building, black smoke billowed into the sky and joined the already thick cloud of darkness over the dead city.

"She's up there." Jack's voice cracked when she spoke.

"Oh god…" Rahna muttered.

"Let's go!" Jack cried and ran for the entrance to the towering inferno.

Kaidan was quick to follow before Rahna caught his arm. "Kaidan, you'll never make it out of there! The whole place is coming down!"

Alenko looked over his shoulder and watched as Jack wasted no time disappearing into the cloud of smoke inside the building. "It's Miranda." He said.

"You'll die!" Rahna nearly choked on her words.

"She'd do it for me." Kaidan said before he pulled her in close. Their lips came together with desperation. Rahna clung to him when he pulled away. "Get the ship ready to get us out of here." He said before he brought his hand to Rahna's cheek. "I love you."

He couldn't wait for further objection. Alenko turned and ran after Jack.

Breathing was nearly impossible. Jack could hardly see six feet in front of her and the heat was unbearable. She pushed it from her mind and focused on the display on her wrist. Her omni-tool told her Miranda was fifteen floors up and she didn't intend to keep the cheerleader waiting.

Jack covered her mouth and nose with her shirt as she spun around in search of the stairwell. Suddenly a figure emerged from the smoke. Kaidan rushed to her side and took hold of her shoulder.

He pointed behind her. "Stairs!" He screamed before launching into a coughing fit.

Jack ran for the door. The flames licked at her heels and burned her skin but she pressed on until she stood before the entryway. The door's lock display was flickering red, a sign of it's malfunction. The two sliding halves of the door were stuck with a small crack in the center. Without hesitating Jack reached for the opening. Her flesh let out a sizzling hiss as she gripped the scalding hot metal. She screamed as she pried open one half of the entrance.

The opening was hardly enough to squeeze through but somehow she and Kaidan made it. The stairwell was still choked with a blinding cloud of smoke but the fire had not yet spread to it. Still bits of flaming debris from the floors above rained down into the open chasm at the center.

Jack clenched her burned hands into fists and bit back the pain.

"Are you alright?" Kaidan asked.

She ignored the question. "We need to move!"

"How many floors up is she?" Kaidan said as he followed her up the stairs.

"Fifteen."

They didn't pause to accept the odds they faced. Instead the two friends sprinted up the stairs. By the time they were five floors below their goal the smoke had them both wheezing and gasping for air. Jack's vision had begun to blur and her lungs screamed for relief, still she pressed on. With each floor they passed the voice in the back of her head got louder. The one that told her it was too late.

Despite the odds they at last found themselves outside the door to the top floor. Kaidan and Jack pulled it open together. Flames devoured what had once been an office. At the center of this office, before a large opening in the wall, rested the crashed skycar. Part of the collapsing building's roof had fallen down on top of the skycar and the fire was quickly approaching. Through the loud chaos Jack could hear the sound of a woman screaming from inside the crashed vessel.

Jack's body glowed as she reached out both hands. The debris crushing the skycar was scooped up in a biotic field before Jack tossed it on the flames. She and Kaidan ran for the crash site and jumped atop the car's hull.

"Help!" Screamed the woman trapped inside.

Jack tore the roof off with a powerful strike of her biotics. The metal peeled back and exposed the car's occupants. Jack's heart sank in her chest when she saw them.

Oriana's face was covered in ash and soot. "Jack?! Kaidan?!" she cried in both confusion and relief. "Help us, my leg is broken and Miranda…"

Kaidan scooped the younger Lawson up in his arms. "We got you." He said before he looked to the driver's side.

Jack bent down over her lover. Miranda's head was slumped over, her body still limp. The glass shard protruding from her right shoulder. "Miranda…" Jack whimpered.

"We have to go, Jack!" Kaidan screamed as a hunk of debris fell from above. "This place is coming down!"

Jack shook her head clear and scooped her wife up into her arms. "Run!" Kaidan yelled as they sprinted back for the stairwell.

The building let out a booming moan as more and more bits of flaming wreckage rained from above. Jack was beginning to see tunnel vision as they moved, her wife feeling heavy in her arms. Her legs trembled beneath her at the halfway point. Ahead of her Kaidan nearly toppled over with Oriana in his arms.

A massive boom sounded as the building began to fold over into itself. The stairwell shook like an earthquake and Jack's legs gave out. She fell to her knees and held Miranda close to her. She scrambled back to her feet as quickly as she could as another quake struck. The walls of the stairwell cracked under the rising pressure.

At last they found themselves outside the door they had first squeezed through. Kaidan kicked the hot metal with his boot until the gap widened enough for him and Ori to squeeze through. Jack followed close behind him. As they ran through the burning lobby the odds finally caught up with them.

Kaidan stumbled when the building quaked for a third time. He dipped into the flames and Jack could only watch as his uniform shirt caught fire. With the fire spreading he sprinted out of the building and on to the plaza outside.

Oriana leapt from his arms as Kaidan removed the burning shirt by tearing it open and tossing it aside. Rahna opened the transport's hatch as Miranda and Jack emerged from the smoke.

"Get in!" She screamed.

They piled into the transport and Rahna wasted no time taking off. As they rose into the air they watched as the skyscraper crumbled to the ground. However Jack's attention was elsewhere. She propped Miranda up by the wall and knelt down beside her.

"Miranda...shit…" Jack ran her fingers through her ash covered hair. Her eyes glued to the glass shard protruding from Miranda's flesh.

"Remove it." Oriana cried through hacking coughs. "You have to!"

Jack took hold of the sharp debris and yanked it free. The pointed tip was painted red with Lawson's blood but Jack was relieved to see it was not buried too deep. Yet Miranda still laid motionless.

Kaidan fumbled through Felina's med-kit before he tossed a tube of medi-gel her way. "Here!"

Jack caught it and quickly sealed the open wound. Finally she did what she had been dreading. She pressed two fingers to her wife's neck and searched for a pulse. When she found none she frantically re-adjusted her fingers.

"Miranda, Please!" Jack cried. "Please wake up. I can't do this without you!" Her body was shaking as she pulled Miranda close to her. "Please, don't do this. Not now, not now. Fuck!" she sobbed as tears streamed down her face. "I need you, I fucking need you. Please, wake up!"

Jack's pleas turned into a mess of tears. She held Miranda tighter in her arms and buried her face in her chest until she suddenly felt someone hold her back. Jack looked up, tears streaming down her cheeks. All at once all the life returned to her as she watched Miranda's eye flutter open.

"Jack?" Miranda spoke in a weak voice.

A wide smile graced Jack's face before she pulled Miranda close again and planted kisses on her cheek and her lips. Miranda wrapped her arms around her wife and looked over to where Kaidan, Rahna and Oriana watched in shared relief.

"You saved me?" Miranda said before she pulled her wife in for a passionate kiss.

Jack made a point to remember every detail of that moment. The galaxy may have been crumbling around them, their odds of success dwindling with each passing day. Yet so long as she had Miranda, Jack didn't care about the rest.

Notes- Thanks for reading! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and will share your thoughts with me in the reviews. Next time we'll be catching up with our villains as our heroes recover from this defeat.