Paying the Price

Yeah i got this done much sooner then i anticipated. Though in turn it came out shorter then i planned because i chose to split the chapter in half...

Oh well, hope you all enjoy :D

To Ryouseiken: Glad you're still enjoying, hopefully i can keep the story on track lol. The idea of a Garrus/Shepard romance is intriguing and close to what i was planning, so don't be surprised if that starts to show soon.

Paying the Price

Chapter Seven
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Shepard froze as the massive hand came rushing towards her, for some reason, the colossal monster suddenly springing to life had sapped the energy out of her limbs and left her powerless to fight back.

Luckily she was the only one, as a second later Garrus rushed into view, and tackled her to the ground. The loud bang of the reapers fist colliding with the platform jolted them, but luckily neither had been crushed as a result.

Shaking her head slightly, Shepard stumbled back to her feet, one hand closing around her assault rifle as she turned to face the grinning nightmare that was the reaper. "How the hell do we stop it?" She asked quietly, she couldn't see any way to shut it down; it wasn't like these things ran on power or the like.

Garrus, having heard her question, simply shrugged. "How the hell should I know/" Rolling back to his feet, he brought his rifle to bare and fired. Naturally the round simply bounced off the reapers armour.

Pulling herself upright, Melina did the same, firing her assault rifle one handed as she stumbled back towards cover, the ominous glow in the machines mouth was getting brighter, and she had a feeling it was going to fire again.

Another loud bang sounded as Garrus fired, and surprisingly the reaper recoiled, a loud shriek leaving the commander deaf for a few seconds. "What did you do!" She demanded, her eyes snapping around to focus on Garrus as he leapt over the wall and sunk into a crouch next to her. Damn it, he made it look easy.

"Beats me. But it hurt." He shrugged slightly, before chambering another round and shifting upwards to fire again. This time the reaper was faster as it let go of the platform and vanished from sight. "Damn, where'd it go?"

Ears still ringing, Shepard simply shrugged, though even with that difficulty, she could still hear the clangs of the beast moving below them. "It's coming up!" She warned, before whipping around just in time to see the reaper surge over the edge once again, Its claws sinking into the platform's edges and tearing sparking chunks of metal out as it did so.

Rolling over the cover, she ducked behind the other side, before propping her rifle up on the edge and taking aim. This wasn't going to work, bullets against a reaper, hell she'd have been better off throwing rocks at the damned thing.

Putting the thought from her mind, she simply started firing, half hoping to hit something vital. Bullets pinged off it's chest and neck as she slowly brought her aim upwards. "What the hell do they make these things out of?" She cursed, knowing the answer was likely star ship grade plating or better.

Suddenly, Garrus fired again, his one striking one of the reapers eyes, and again it recoiled with a roar of pain. Shepard hesitated for a moment, before focusing on Garrus and Legion, whom she noted was having the same results as her. 'Go for the eyes!"

Chances are it would only piss it off. But it was better then nothing. Before she could add her own fire to the battle, the monster returned fire, obviously angered with getting shot, and the trio were forced into hiding as rockets slammed into their cover, chunks of metal struck Shepard's shields and caused her to wince as a piece made it through and cut her cheek.

The dull throbbing was nothing compared to her other injury's though, and like them, she simply banished the pain to the back of her mind and resumed firing, her aim now carefully directed towards the reapers eyes.

Garrus was the lucky one however, his rifle easily planting shots where they counted, Melina and Legions assault rifles however were more erratic and even firing short controlled bursts, she knew the rounds were simply not powerful enough. "Damn, if only we had a rocket launcher…" She muttered, before slamming a fresh clip into her rifle and resuming firing.

This damned thing just wouldn't die, and they were rapidly running out of cover. Now and then it would lash out with it's fists, forcing them to move and in turn crushing sections of wall and platform. Others a barrage of rockets would tear through what little was left.

Despite the squads best attempts though, the reaper seemed invincible. Every time they managed to hit the eyes, which seemed to be the only place the monster felt the shots, it would simply fall out of sight and come up from a different angle, and even then it didn't see to be that bothered by whatever damage they were doing.

Another rocket barrage ripped through the area, and Shepard offered another colourful curse. "Damn it! We can't keep this up much longer." She spared a glance towards her Omni-tool; the countdown timer on the purge was rapidly bleeding away.

6:32

Legion stumbled as a rocket ripped through the wall he'd been hiding behind, though he just as quickly he ducked out of sight, finding another section to use. "Were fast running out of cover here…We can't keep this up much longer." Shepard winced as the ground shook from another impact, how much more could the supports on the platform take?

Garrus continued to hit the reapers eyes, though Melina noted with mounting fear that it wasn't helping, yes the occasional shot made seemed to hurt, but the fact was it was still trying to rip them apart.

She knew she had to do something, her assault rifle was rapidly running out of clips and there wasn't time to get more. Cringing at the prospect, she compacted the weapon and exchanged it for her own sniper rifle. Considering her arm, using a weapon that would force her to use it certainly wouldn't help. But what other choice was there?

Brining the weapon up to her shoulder, she started to line up with the eyes, only then did she realize it in fact had three, two on the left, and one on the right. She paused for a moment, confused by how she didn't see it sooner, before the commander simply banished the thought, why she had to think about that now she didn't know.

The glow was getting brighter, it was going to fire again, great. Shepard was in the process of lowering her rifle, when an idea struck her. "Garrus! Aim for the mouth, hit the rockets!"

It was stupid, sure, but if they could cause them to explode, maybe it would do some damage. At least throw the reaper off for a few seconds.

She noted a slight hesitation, before the turian nodded and steadied his aim. She wasn't confident enough with the rifle to pull off a shot like that, he was.

But that led to another problem. It was aiming right at them.

Springing to her feet, Shepard broke into a run for the opposite end of the platform, firing her rifle blinding as she moved. Sure enough, the reapers head turned to follow her rather then focus on the still stationary Garrus. And with Legion no where in sight, she could only hope she wasn't leading it to him by mistake.

Skidding to a halt, she chambered another round and fired again at the machine, this time taking the time to line up with its eyes. She saw it rear back, though that didn't stop the incoming rockets.

As the barrage began however, another shot rang out, and the missiles suddenly exploded, one chaining into the next. This time the reaper did scream, the sound coming out as both human and somewhat heart wrenching, and like screeching metal.

Shepard found herself on her knees at this point, hands clasped over her helmet in a vain attempt to stifle the sound. After a few moments the sound died away, and Melina risked opening her eyes. The reaper was nowhere in sight.

Was that it? Had they beaten it? She spared a glance over her shoulder, Garrus and Legion were jogging over to her, the sniper was yelling something, but thanks to the reaper she couldn't hear much of anything at this point, save a high pitch ringing and the sound of her heartbeat.

Shepard shakily stood once again and spared a glance towards the last known location of the beast. "We killed it?" She asked, her own voice muffled and weak to her ears.

"Think so." Garrus responded, and she managed a weak sigh of relief as she actually heard him this time, if only just. Luckily that thing hadn't ruined her hearing, not fully at least.

Melina did her best to steady her heart and breathing while checking her Omni-tool display. Her heart almost stopped entirely when she brought up the timer.

4:17

"Oh, hell…" She spared a glance towards Garrus, whom looked less then thrilled. "We have to move, now!" Shepard drew her assault rifle, the collectors weren't just going to let them walk out of here. And started towards the edge of the platform, how the hell would they get out of here in time? "EDI, can you get us an exit, fast?" She called into her comm...

No response, that wasn't good.

Melina licked her lips nervously before repeating the question, still nothing.

"Must be interference, we'll have to find our own way out." Garrus offered as an explanation, though Shepard could tell he wasn't convinced by his own words. Maybe the Normandy had been destroyed.

"Okay, we need to find another path out of here, going back the way we came will take to long." Her Omni-tool flickered into life, and ignoring the rapidly dwindling timer, she brought up the schematic of the base and tried to locate an exit.

"Shepard commander!" Her gaze snapped up from the display to focus on Legion, whom was peering down into the depths below, one hand was straying towards a gun on his back.

'Oh you've got to be fucking kidding me!" She growled as a distant clang sounded, and a slight vibration swept through the platform.

Another followed, then another. And a moment later, the same nightmarish hand closed around the remains of the platform edge, and the once grinning skull of the reaper surged into view.

Now though, she noted two of the three eyes were faded and sparking, and the lower half of its jaw was missing, the explosion had really done a number on it. But the fact remained it was still moving.

3:22

"I'm out." Garrus growled, his rifle dangling uselessly at his side. A quick glance confirmed the same thing. "Pistol's won't work, if rifles didn't."


Shepard sighed heavily as she met the behemoths gaze. So this was it, their was no way to stop this thing, not with their weapons anyway…

"Shepard commander." She spared a glance towards Legion, whom had finished preparing the weapon he'd been carrying all this time. Funny how she'd never noticed it, or really paid attention before.

Her gaze calmly scanned the design, and she felt her heart speed up as she recognized the device. "You've had that this whole time!" She snapped, causing the geth to shrug slightly. "Why the hell didn't you tell us!"

"Didn't seem necessary at the time." Legion responded before bringing the weapon to bear on the reaper, it's still working eye focused on the machine, and both tried to stare the other down.

Shepard started to inch backwards, he wasn't going, oh hell. "Garrus! Get down!" She called out, before dropping to the ground as fast as possible, just in time to hear the missile fire.

The reaper roared again, and she could hear one of it's fists raising for another attack, the whine of servos making it apparent that it wasn't holding up well after the last attack, and this one…If this didn't stop it, then nothing would.

She had enough time to tilt her head slightly, her before a blinding flash forced her head back down, her arms instinctively wrapping around her helmet to protect her as best as she could.

A second later the white light was accompanied by a deafening boom. Melina had enough time to wince, before the platform started to quake and shudder under the resulting shockwave.

Again she risked a peak, and cringed as she saw nothing save the same light as before, white slowly gave way to blood red as the reaper howled again, the sound much quieter then before as the explosion ripped through the chamber and silenced everything in its wake.

Red slowly gave way to orange as the nuke ran it's course and the explosion began to die out. Though not before doing massive damage to the reaper, having hit it square in the chest.

Still dazzled by the explosion, Melina shakily pulled herself up to one knee and glanced about the platform. The machine was gone, Legion was nowhere in sight, and she was just able to make out a shape stirring slightly as Garrus spared the explosion a glance.

"The, hell, was that/" He asked, his wide with shock.

Shepard tried to answer, though dissolved into a coughing fit as she pulled herself upright, a hand jumping to her ribs as pain washed over her, this constant moving wasn't doing her any good. "Legion…He had a Cain." She managed to gasp between coughs. "He must had raided the armoury before we came down here."

Speaking of which, where was legion? Shepard did another sweep of the remains of the platform, and winced as she failed to see him. "How the hell is this thing even still standing?" She mumbled, noting the ground around them was ruined, from explosions the reapers claws, and everything else that had happened, the place was a mess.

As if to answer her question, the sound of metal groaning under the stress broke the tense silence, and the platform began to sway slightly. "Oh you've got to be kidding…"

Sure enough, the platform suddenly shuddered, then dropped as it began to follow the reaper downwards.

The sudden drop caused both soldiers to stumble, though that was the least of their worries. Other platforms were coming down around them. Glancing upwards, Melina noted the support beams that had hung overhead were breaking apart as well.

Great, she'd set the place to purge to keep it intact for Cerberus, but it looked like that nuke was bringing it down anyway.

"Well, least we took that son of a bitch out with us." Garrus said, a forced smile forming as he clung tightly to a broken section of wall.

Shepard nodded slightly. The ground floor had to be coming up soon, this was it…

She hesitated for a moment, before simply shaking her head, f she was going to die, then she was going to make the most of it, unlike last time.

Without pause, she stepped forwards and wrapped her arms around Garrus, her head burying into his chest. "See you on the other side." She mumbled quietly, uncaring if he heard or not. They were dead anyway, might as well make the most of it. Surprisingly, she felt an arm wrap around her shoulder, just before something struck the platform, and everything went black.

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Not the best ending for a chapter, but eh, i had planned for the escape through the collector base and them reaching the Normandy to be in this chapter as well, though once i hit this point i thought that was a good time to end it. And it makes it flow a little better, in my mind anyway *Shrugs*