There will be flashbacks. 

==============================================================

Priority: Therum

SSV Normandy 

Engineering Deck 

Garage

Orbiting Therum

"Why am I getting left behind? I get messed up by water not lava." Cole was trying to see any logic in the Splicer Spectre's decision. He dropped his voice to a whisper. "You on the other hand, were born at the bottom of the Atlantic, yet it's perfectly fine for you to go down there?"

Ryan sighed, this was an excellent start. He was already upset that they couldn't bring the Chief simply because the Mako's re-entry systems conflicted with the gel layer in the Spartan's armor. "Cole, there is obvious source of electricity down there expect for the geth.  And I'd rather you find a power source that doesn't try to shoot you. Your implant is good, but not infinite in supply." 

"But what about the 'off the damn charts' readings that Joker mentioned? They're coming from inside that ruin. Readings mean energy."

Ryan growled. "And how do you suppose energy from a Prothean ruin will react to your presence? Your powers are the most unstable of anyone's. We're lucky that the ship hasn't disintegrated simply because you're standing near its drive core! I, on the other hand, have an innate resistance to all of the elements, and Alex doesn't get denatured like normal DNA." Ryan stepped back and calmed down. "If it makes you fell better, Hackett sent a lead on your old "friend" Elanos Haliat. We won't know where to go after we get Dr. T'Soni, so if you let me handle this my way, you can set a course straight for his last known location. Deal?"

Cole thought about this for a moment. Technically, there was nothing stopping him from going anyway, nor would Ryan simply allow Haliat to roam free if Cole disobeyed. Still, it would be better for the rest of the team to see them cooperating rather than killing each other. Plus, he knew that the implant may not hold out. He was good against the geth of course, but they had a natural resistance to his basic lightning bolts, so take them down cost more energy than taking down an organic opponent. Finally, Ryan would have to put up with Alex's commentary for the entire mission if he left Cole behind, so that was a petty victory right there. He'd back down for now.

Taking Cole's silence as an affirmative, Ryan turned to the squad that was gathered by the armory. "Wrex, Tali, and Williams, front and center."

The rest of the team left the garage so the Mako could be deployed safely. As the three squad members and Ryan got inside the vehicle, Ashley was confused. Sir, you can fit four people into the Mako on a good day. How are we supposed to fit five?" 

Ryan simply smiled. "When did I say Alex was riding with us? Hit it Joker!" 

Air rushed into the room, and when the Mako didn't immediately deploy, Tali pulled up the external cameras. "Keelah! What in the hell is Mercer doing? He and MacGrath are just standing there!"

It was true. The two Supernovas were simply standing off to the side, as if there wasn't any concern of falling into Therum's upper atmosphere. Ryan smiled again, "He'll be taking the express at a point further ahead of us to save us some trouble."

Alex made a sweeping "after you" gesture, and Ryan hit the switch. Lurching forward, the Mako's occupants braced themselves. The rover surged out of the garage and plummeted to the fiery planet below. 

Alex and Cole walked up to the edge of the floor. Cole hadn't notice it at Torfan since he had dropped first, but this situation was reminding him of a similar experience with another hooded Supernova. He clenched his fist as the unwanted memories rose to the surface....

========================================================================================

Flashback 

Columbia Paradox Rift #3

Emporia Sky-Lines

Airship on approach

Cole looked down on the complete devastation that had been created. There were flames, bodies, and blood everywhere, and the Vox were still shooting anything that moved. A heavy sigh reminded him he wasn't alone. His ally turned to him. "All this death... What genius in the organization thought it was a good idea to open up Halla to a place filled with unstable dimensional rifts?"

Cole shook his head. "I don't know, Desmond. Whoever it was, I honestly don't think they knew this would be the consequence. Hell, we don't even have the names of the Uniques from this territory!" A drop of blood fell from the conduit's nose. "I can already feel my connection to Conduit Earth slipping. We've got to close this job fast."

The assassin nodded and pointed at a nearby sky-line. "I can get into the premises from there. Be ready to back me up, though," He was now pointing into the distance. "There's a Handyman on the way." 

With that, Desmond Miles crouched on the very edge of the airship they had "borrowed" before jumping off in a flawless Leap of Faith. As he neared the sky-line, the hooded assassin flicked his wrist, extending a hook-blade that had been modified specifically for this job. Hooking onto the convoluted track at a descending section, Desmond lessened the force that would rip a normal man's arm from its socket. Now on the sky-line, he rode it forward, tossing knives and small bombs into groups of enemies and firing his hidden gun at oncoming traffic.

Now it was Cole's turn. He set his ride on a crash course with the nearest Vox gunship. He would have simply struck them all down with lightning storm, but whenever he did, not only would Comstock take the credit as a means of rallying people to his cause, but even worse, that damn bird would ship up.  They had promise this territory's mysterious Uniques not to kill the abomination, and while the rules declared that no Unique could order how to have their territory saved, this was far from the typical job. The stakes were unbelievably high this time, so if the powers that be had any advice, the Supernovas would damn well follow it. Alex could only hold the thing's attention for so long. The sociopath was meant for brutality not distraction. It was likely that Alex would soon run out of patience and kill the metal monster by accident.

Leaping off the barge just before it smashed into the gunship for a fantastic explosion, Cole landed feet first on the sky-line. Smoothing out into an Induction Grind, he glided over the top of the rail, rather than hanging from the bottom. Cole leveled the landscape with an endless barrage of electric artillery. Anyone that tried to use the underside of the sky-line was sent falling to their deaths, courtesy of his Amp.

They were doing well, until the Handyman showed up. Unfortunately, the gorilla-like heavy hitter was all but immune to lightning, so Cole had to get creative. Leaping off the sky-line, he slammed into the courtyard and unleashed pair of cryo rockets from his palms. They traveled faster than his electric rockets, and they froze whatever they hit. Both of the Handyman's giant limbs were trapped by the attack, leaving its fragile heart completely vulnerable. Desmond came down with perfect imitation of his ancestors, releasing the hidden blade and plunging it deep inot the tragic creature's chest. Injecting the blade's poison, the Handyman was dead before it hit the floor.

Between Desmond's Eagle Vision and Cole's rudimentary control over quantum mechanics thanks to Kessler, the two were the best candidates for fixing this mess. 

Clapping black-clad assassin on the back, Cole nodded toward the Comstock House. "Time to hit the old man where it hurts." 

End Flashback 

==============================================================

Forcing the rest of the memory away, Cole sighed. He had lost so much in that job, and since they hadn't completely succeeded, his connection to his former home had been completely cut off.

Cole couldn't have ever gone back to Conduit Earth anyway, since he had already died, along with the Beast and every other conduit on the planet that was killed by the RFI. But rather than let him rest, Kessler convinced Old Man Pendragon to revive Cole within Halla. It was a single exception to the finality of death: those that died on their home territory, like him, could be brought back to life by Pendragon. But death on a foreign territory was still the end of the road. 

Rather than congratulate Cole on succeeding where he failed, Kessler merely "asked" his younger self to join the Supernovas. With no other choice, and the blood of millions of conduits on his hands, Cole had accepted the offer.

And until the Columbia Paradox Job, things had been really good. He made friends like Alex, Desmond, and the Chief. He had a purpose that suited him. And in a second it was all gone. That little game of "quantum hopscotch" on Columbia had stripped him of all abilities. Kessler had done what he could to restore Cole to his former strength, but since the Unique had never possessed any ice abilities at all, it was pretty safe to say that Cole had lost those for good. All Kessler could do was give Cole back the powers he had when they clashed in Empire City, along with a few of the Unique's own tricks to make up for the loss. 

But the entire experience of failing, losing his powers, and discovering the horrible truth behind the job had been too much to take in all at once. In his grief, Cole had cast aside his Amp and replaced his New Marais attire with the old outfit he wore back in Empire city. He wandered the ruins of the Mojave until he could think straight, then rejoined the Supernovas and regained what passed for normalcy in their line of work.

Alex noticed the familiar look on his best friend's face: That was the "I hate Columbia" look. He didn't know what all had been done to Cole during the Columbia Paradox job since he had been too busy playing cat and mouse with a multi-ton mechanical bird. He knew that Cole wasn't the same after that day. The guys also lost more than just his powers. It well and truly had sucked for him, and a few other Supernovas back in Halla had suffered even worse fates. The kicker was that the Uniques refused to comment on who - or what - had caused it all in the first place, but since it affected Cole so badly, Alex was positive that Kessler, as usual had all the unfortunate answers.

Shaking Cole by the shoulder to gain his attention, Alex gave him a reassuring grin. Looking at the intercom the hunter shouted, "Joker, if you miss, and I land in the lava, I'm coming back here and eating you!" With that, he dove straight out of the hangar, aiming for the geth outpost below.

Cole sighed before saying, "You know he was being serious right? Lava doesn't kill him very quickly."

"Oh... Shit..." was all Joker said in response.

==============================================================

Therum

Industrial Outpost

The human ship would inevitably deploy its rover. The probability that it would attempt to fight past them in an effort to recover Dr. T'Soni was one hundred percent. The forward outpost was the most logical place for geth to counter organics' forward progress. Expendable turret hardware was placed for maximum effect on the Mako should it turn the corner. Armature units would be deployed via dropship to hinder the ground vehicle and its occupants. They would retrieve the asari for Saren-Prophet, and by extenstion, Nazara. Failure was not an option. 

Ryan-Commander's ship deployed its Mako as predicted, but then continued to fly directly over the outpost dead center of the outpost, pulverizing every single geth in sight. The viral predator laughed his ass off. "Man, that never gets old!"

Radioing Team 1, Alex decided to give them a little grief. "How was your landing boys and girls? Did you manage to hold down your meals?"

"What?" came the reply from Wrex. "You saying you didn't eat?"

Alex laughed, "I eat people, Wrex, and I don't do it for any nutritional value. I don't even require sustenance unless I'm dangerously low on biomass." 

"To answer you question, Mercer," Ryan interrupte. "We're all fine." The groans in the background begged to differ. "We're en route, but I don't think the geth will let us have an easy approach. See if you can clean the way ahead, and we'll rendezvous at the main ruin."

"Copy that, Team One. Mercer out." Alex shifted to his whipfist, and took off for the Prothean in the distance.

==============================================================

Therum

Team 1 

Mako Drop Zone

"Who in the name of the ancestors taught you how to drive? Tell me now so I can 'thank' them later!" Tali was positive that ground vehicles weren't made for these kinds of maneuvers.

Ryan looked back at her as if he didn't even need to look at the lave-filled road ahead (and from what he had told her about his abilities, he probably didn't). "The Chief taught me. The thing is, he taught me using a vehicle that didn't have these stupid, vertically-aligned mass effect field generators, so I'm winging it!" 

"That's it! Next time, I'm driving, Commander!" came Ashley's voice from her left.

"Marine! Did I give you permission to bitch?" Ryan screamed as he swerved away from a river of lave, just barely keeping on the path. 

"Sir, no Sir!"

"If yo three are done playing down there," Wrex boomed from the turret controls. "Then you might want to take a look ahead!"

Sure enough, the krogan was right to warn them. Soon, a geth dropship screamed by their position, releasing two large objects before flying off. The objects unfoled, and four limbs and a head extended from the main body. Raising themselves off the ground, they turned towards the Mako and promptly attacked with siege pulse weaponry. 

Tali realized that she could prove useful here by informing the others what they were actually looking at. "Ryan, those are armatures. They're literally walking tanks."

Ryan told Wrex to open fire, then turned back to her. "Can we disable the pilot from here?"

"It's not piloted by geth. It is a geth!" 

Her Commander tapped his comm. "You get all that, Mercer?"

"Every word."

Tali was very grateful for her mask at the moment, as it prevented anyone from seeing her embarrassment. She had completely forgotten that Alex, on foot, might need the same information. According to Ryan, the powerful creature had a thing for hijacking vehicles, so calling it a tank would have gotten Alex nothing more than a siege pulse to the face. 

A feeling of weightlessness shook the quarian from her musing as Ryan hit the Mako's thrusters, jumping over an incoming siege pulse. They were getting pounded by the armatures' secondary machine guns, but Ryan was still driving straight at them. "Keelah, what is he doing?" Tali thought.

While Wrex was drowning the closer armature in cannon fire, Ryan slammed the Mako directly into the machine, knocking it off its feet and sending it sprawling. While it was down, Wrex ripped its exposed underside to shreds with a barrage from their vehicle's turret. And at the last second, Ryan boosted again, avoiding another siege pulse from the remaining armature. Rather than let Wrex keep shooting, he simply rammed the thing into the nearby lake of lava.

"Sir," Ashley began firmly. "I'm all for cutting corners with the politicians, but I begging you: please use this vehicle the way it was designed!"

"Where's the fun in that?" Wrex grumbled. It took Tali a moment to realize that he was being completely serious.

Ryan rolled his eyes and radioed Alex. "We're coming up on your drop site, Mercer. You make any decent progress?"

Alex's voice did not sound happy over the open channel. "Yeah, I've made progress. And Tali? You were planning on mentioning the really big armatures at some point, right?"

"Oh, Keelah." Tali said, eyes wide behind the opaque facemask. "A colossus." 

Ryan floored the accelerator. He wasn't concerned about his viral associate. He just didn't want to miss the show.

==============================================================

Therum

Team 2

Roadway

Rocket troopers, two armatures, and an aptly-named "Colossus" were attempting to keep Alex from getting any closer to the ruins. He really was going to enjoy this fight. All previous resistance had been too easy, so a fight against three Nova-class opponents was like a gift for him. The lava made it all the more exciting. 

As the rocket troopers fired at him, Alex dodged the first rocket, caught the second by the tail with his whipfist, and brought it down hard the left armature's lamp-shaped head. Normally a single rocket wouldn't do the trick, but the added force generated by Alex's prehensile arm had been more than enough to bring down the geth quadruped. Lashing out a second time with the whip, Alex silced through the rocket troopers effortlessly. Now dodging siege pulses and machine gun fire, Alex ran around the giant platforms, gathering speed as he went. At the last second, he leapt into the air, tensed up, and dropkicked the second the armature into the nearby stream of lava.

Back-flipping out of the kick, Alex stuck the landing, only for his world to turn completely white. The colossus had fantastic trajectory plotting, and it had finally impacted its agile target with a heavy siege pulse. Telemetry data indicated that Alex Mercer had survived worse injuries, and this was unlikely the end of combat. 

Before another pulse could finish charging, though, several dozen spikes tore up from the ground, penetrating systems all throughout the colossus's body. Judging that extending the spikes had rendered Alex immobile, the colossus fired again and again. This caused the spikes to quickly detract, but the motion dragged the colossus off its feet in the process. 

The geth tank moved to get back up, only to detect that all limbs had been ripped off. The figure of an armored Alex Mercer strode up to its giant foe's camera-shaped head, and placed one foot above it. He looked down and grinned. "Lucky shot," was all he said before crushing the colossus's head under his heel like an insect. 

Turning around, Alex looked out at the Mako that was sitting a good kilometer away. "You could have helped, you know?"

Ryan's voice came in over the comm. as the tank came closer. "Yeah, about that. After Tali explained what geth colossus actually was, Wrex and Ashley made a bet on whether or not you could actually win alone. Seriously! You killed at least ten thresher maws on Akuze, and my gunnery chief questions your ability to take on that little thing? Ashley, pay the krogan, would you kindly?"

It never failed to freak the hell out of Alex whenever he heard Ryan use that phrase. Several of the veteran Supernovas knew very well what the significance behind those three words. The predator ran alongside the Maki until they hit a snag. The path was blocked and the radar was jammed. It was obviously a trap.

"Well," Ryan said awkwardly. "Looks like we're walking from here." Alex's suggestion to toss the Mako over the roadblock was shot down by all parties, Wrex included.

They exited the rover, guns at the ready and made their way forward. Instantly, the group was assaulted by a squad of geth snipers, rocket troopers, and shock troopers. Ryan was grateful that his teammates had acquired Master Gear weaponry, since they needed the accuracy from such a vulnerable position. Anything Wrex and Ash weren't blowing apart was dying at the hands of either Tali's own shotgun or the geth she hacked. That last action earned her a few points in Ryan's book. Even his hacking plasmids wouldn't work on the synthetic machines.

When the sounds of combat finally stopped, they all proceeded to what looked like the entrance to the Prothean ruins. The whole place screamed "trap" to Ryan, so when a new variant of geth leapt out of hiding and began to jump all over the place, the splicer merely said, "Check it out. Spider-geth."

Wrex and Alex's chuckles were drowned out by the sounds of a geth dropship swooping in and deploying an armature and various kinds of troopers to eliminate the team. Now with an actual fight on their hands, the squad took cover to avoid the siege pulse. "Mercer, we can't do much with those hoppers pinning us down. They can sabotage weapons, tech, and biotics with their damn beams! I got hit, and now my teleport isn't working!"

"Gee, Ryan," the virus droned. "I'm pretty sure that Cole would be completely immune to an attack like that. Maybe we should have brought him, since the siege pulse is electric-based too..." 

"Not now Mercer!" 

"Fine, dead spider-geth coming up."

Alex ran into the thick of the field and followed the geth hoppers whenever they jumped. He was just as nimble as they were, and in a few minutes the ground was littered with their froglike corpses. Unfortunately, he had taken quite a few hits on this little voyage, and he hadn't consumed anything since the Citadel, so he was in no position to be hit by any more siege pulses. Dodging the armature's main weapon just in time, Alex began to climb up the scaffolding that surrounded the entrance to the ruin. When he had gained enough height, he switched to hammerfists, and dropped down hard on the two rocket troopers that were pinning down his teammates. This was a mistake.

Alex's little surprise attack had the unintended effect of causing his victims to fire, sending stray rockets into Ashley and Tali's cover. The quarian, focused on hacking the now-defunct geth, was caught in the blast radius and knocked out of safety. The armature had a clean shot. With a hairline crack in her helmet, all Tali could think about was how disappointed her father would be.

The air in front of Tali shattered as Ryan appeared and redirected the incoming siege pulse with a sonic boom plasmid. Clenching his right fist, the telltale orange glow of an omni-tool materialized around his forearm. Tali was afraid for her Commander's sanity, since any omni-tool weaponry would be ineffective against an armature. Then, instead of forming a simple mini-fabricated blade, Ryan's fist disappeared behind a rotating... drill?

Her Commander used an "omni-drill" for emergency close combat. What had he said to her before?

"I have an omni-tool weapon, and I assure you, if the need arises, I won't hesitate to use it."

Apparently the need had arisen.

VROOM

In less than a second and with no teleportation, Ryan crossed the twenty-meter gap between him and the armature and rammed his drill straight through its head, utterly devastating the platform's systems. The momentum carried him right past its head, so he was now standing on its back. As the whole machine came crashing down, Ryan slid down the remnants of the armature's ruined neck, landing on his feet with inhuman grace. 

Walking up to Alex, the Splicer King kicked his viral associate in the nuts and whispered, "While you grow those back, keep in mind that we're going to talk about this later."

Rya turned to his highly impressed squad and motioned for them to follow as he opened the door to the Prothean ruins.

==============================================================

Therum 

Prothean Ruins 

Prothean Barrier Curtain

"Well done T'Soni." The asari archaeologist thought to herself. Not only had she found relatively little in the way of new information about the Protheans, but when fleeing the geth that had attacked her excavation group from nowhere, she had managed to get herself trapped by the very same security field that was keeping them from getting to her. Some Prothean "expert" she turned out to be. Now, if the geth and the krogan leading them didn't get to her, she'd die from thirst and hunger due to own mistakes. Her mother would be so proud.

BOOM

Was that gunfire? Nobody had made it out alive, and certainly nobody would come looking for her. 

CLANG! CLANG! WHAM!

Now Liara knew she was hearing things, since only melee weapons from the ancient times would make sounds like that. Of course her doubts were erased when the head and left shoulder of a geth dropped down to the floor in front of her, followed shortly by a hooded human in a black leather jacket.

He looked at her and she didn't know what to think. His eyes weren't like any she had ever seen. While primal at first glance, the brilliance was obvious. This was a powerful individual standing before her. He was a true hunter. It was no wonder he had been able to track her down. Why he had even come for her was still a mystery.

The hooded man signaled to his left, then returned his gaze to Liara and said, "Dr. T'Soni? Dr. Alex Mercer at your service. You seem to be in a bit of a bind, and we'll help you, but only if you can return the favor once the bullets stop flying. Deal?"

Liara was still stunned by this turn of events, but she recovered well enough to form a sentence. "O-of course. This thing is a Prothean security device. Noting can reach me, but I can't move either. The worse part is that it can only be deactivated from my side, which you can imagine might be rather hard to accomplish for either party.

"I could teleport to the other side relatively easily" suggested a new arrival. He was dressed in a strange hybrid of armor and what looked like drell attire. Did he say teleport? Perhaps he was a biotic, but using biotics to hurl oneself through a wall results in sterility.

Before she could open her mouth to warn the man, Dr. Mercer countered his argument. "You do that, and maybe you can bring the bubble down, but that leaves us out here with a barrier curtain in the way. What then? The elevator we used isn't in all that great condition. Once again, if Cole was here, he'd simply drain the barrier. You really didn't think this one through, Ryan."

Liara was now very confused. "I don't want to seem pushy, but there are still more geth out there, and a krogan battlemaster is lurking somewhere around here." The krogan standing with the group before her muttered something about being a battlemaster, but she ignored it. "They're working on ways to break part the barrier, and I would appreciate if you could do so first."

The human woman looked skeptical. "Hold on. "Your mother works for saren, so whose side are you on?"

Liara rolled her eyes. Was this really the time? "I'm not on anybody's side. She's my mother, yes, but I am nothing like her! We haven't spoken in years. Please! I just want to get out of here!"

Dr. Mercer cocked his head to the side, analyzing her. She felt rather exposed under his gaze. Then he grinned, and Liara wasn't sure if that was good or bad news. "I believe her. I cut ties with my parents what became a legal adult. She's got the same look in her eyes, but a different reason for it." Everyone seemed to be satisfied with this conculsion. 

Dr. Mercer turned to face the large excavation chamber behind them. "If I could direct your attention this way, I believe the geth have provided us with a means of bypassing this barrier."

It was true. The chamber below was filled with geth, and there was a giant mining laser there too. The one called Ryan turned to Dr. Mercer. "Are we actually doing this because it will work? Cuz from where I'm standing, it looks like more of your favorite philosophy: 'when in doubt, blow shit up."

Dr. Mercer gave a discomforting laugh. "Who said anything about doubt?"

He didn't elaborate further, but instead he leapt off the balcony and practically flew across the length of the chamber. The krogan quickly followed, accusing the human doctor of taking all the fun. Ryan turned to the human and quarian women standing by him and sighed. "Just sit tight Dr. T'Soni. We'll be back soon enough."

As eager as she was to leave, the thought of them returning was not entirely comforting. 

More sounds of metal being torn apart came from the distance, and she was beginning to wonder just what kind of people had come to her rescue.

A thunderous noise echoed across the entire complex, halting any further coherent thought. Apparently Dr. Mercer had found his explosion. A couple minutes later she heard shouting coming from behind her. She couldn't hear much, but what she did catch was about slow elevators. She had to admit, it was a slow elevator for such an advanced race.

"Do I even want to know how you all got back here? Liara asked Dr. Mercer as he approached. 

He gave that unsettling grin again. "I 'knocked' with the mining laser, and a door conveniently appeared. 

"I suppose that's one way of doing it. Can you get me down now? I've seen enough geth to last a lifetime." The moment the words left her mouth, Dr. Mercer's expression told her that she would be seeing much more of the geth in the near future. Regardless the hooded doctor disengaged the security bubble holding her in place. If she wasn't so positive that Mercer wasn't the "touching" sort, she would have given him a hug for getting her out of that thing.

As they made thier way toward the elevator in the back of the room, Liara began to ask the question that was bothering her. "Is this really about my mother and her connection with Saren? What has Benezia told Saren that would warrant geth to attack me?"

The human woman looked at her with disdain again. "Saren's Looking for the Conduit. Take a wild guess, Miss Prothean Expert!"

Before Liara could plead her innocence, Ryan stepped between them and began to thunder with the assert of tone of a seasoned commando. "Lock it down, Williams! I value the opinions of my crew, but save any antagonism for the debriefing." He was about to continue but was cut short by a tremor that shook the entire structure.

Liara's eyes went wide. Dr. Mercer might have done too good of a job with the mining laser. "I think you handiwork has triggered a seismic event, Dr. Mercer."

As Ryan radioed someone named "Joker" for a pickup, Mercer turned to her and grinned again. "Drop the formalities. I only demand to be addressed as 'Dr. Mercer' by people I don't like. You haven't annoyed me or shot me yet, so please call me Mercer or just Alex, whichever you prefer."

"ETA: eight minutes? He's gotta be taking a piss! Nothing takes eight minutes!" Ryan fumed.

Before anyone could reply, the elevator came to a jerking halt, and a massive krogan battlemaster stomped into the room flanked by two shock troopers, a rocket trooper, and a sniper. The centuries-old warrior seemed rather calm for one in a room about to collapse. "Surrender!" he bellowed. "Or don't. That would be more fun."

Mercer simply sighed, and looked to the krogan that had been on his side. "Wrex? Do you remember that discussion we had about killing other krogan? Their either idiots or on Saren's payroll, right?"

"Hey!" yelled the enemy krogan. "Hand over the doctor!" 

The krogan, Wrex, grunted. "Killing the latter is business. Killing the former is a favor to the universe."

"Stop ignoring me!" The battlemaster was on the verge of blood rage not. 

Mercer cackled psychotically. "Well guess what? This is both!"

"That's it! I will destroy you!" The battlemaster and his geth allies all targeted Mercer, pounding him with carnage blasts, assassinations shots, rockets, and biotics. This, combined with the already unstable conditions of the room released a massive cloud of dust and debris that hid Mercer from sight.

Ryan began to scream like a man possessed. Grabbing Williams and the quarian, he shrieked, "Adrenalin Surge! Hit the deck!" and pulled them to the floor.

Not even a second later, the smoke was blown away by a concussive bast of air, showing a very angry Mercer. In the blink of an eye, he crossed the room and lash out with his... claws? His hands had been replaced by horrific claws. That would explain the melee sounds from earlier, but it raised so manny more questions, Liara didn't know where to begin. The geth were ignored as Mercer disemboweled the hopelessly outmatched krogan battlemaster. 

The gutted krogan had been so thoroughly shredded that Liara doubted he even had backup organs in working condition. But Mercer didn't stop there. He let out a furious roar and stomped through the battlemaster's head hard enough to crack the platform below. The next event made Liara want to vomit:

He... ate the krogan's corpse. Mercer assimilated biomass of his victim, absorbing it into his skin. He wasn't wearing a leather jacket  or a hood. Those were part of him!

Shifting his right arm from those claws to a sinister barbed appendage, Mercer cleared the room of all geth in a single swipe of what was apparently some kind of whip. He turned back to the group, arms now those of a human again. "Let's get the hell out of here!"

Liara only then remembered that there was a more pressing concern than Mercer's physiology. They all ran as fast as they could for the exit to the ruins. The place was falling apart all around them, and the dormant volcano surrounding the ruins didn't seem so dormant anymore. Smoke was beginning to fill the air, and it was practically raining igneous rocks.

Liara, weak form her imprisonment, had no more energy to keep running. She was convinced this was the end for her, when suddenly a pair of strong arms lifted her and the ground seemed to fly by. Looking up, she was shocked to see that Mercer had picked her up and was now carrying her to safety at impossible speeds. It was amazing how quickly he had shifted from brutal killer to hero.

Her luck changed when the platform gave way under Mercer's feet. He didn't fall, but instead clung to the side of the rock, totally defying gravity. He switch his hold on her, and called out, "Wrex! Catch!" before tossing Liara effortlessly toward the krogan. Moments later, the scaffolding came crashing down on her savior, and lava finally began to pour into the ruin. 

"Mercer!" she screamed. But it was too late. Nobody could have survived that. Wrex unceremoniously hoisted Liara over his back and sprinted for the exit. They were so close, but so was the cloud of ash behind them. 

Everyone but Alex had just made outside, where a beautiful-looking ship was hovering, when the ash cloud reached the exit.

WOOSH

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They had cheated death by inches. And whatever Alex was, he had saved her. Liara would never forget that and whatever these people needed from her, she would gladly provide. She owed him that much.

A rush of cool air shook the asari from her thoughts. The ash was freezing over, and it seemed to be Ryan's doing. How in the goddess had he managed that? Not even cryo grenades could accomplish such a feat!

Walking back to the exit, Ryan peered inside. "How bad is it?" he yelled. Liara couldn't understand why he was shouting to the dead. She understood completely once the dead shouted back.

"Half my face is gone and I'm missing an arm. If you don't want to see that, then get on the Normandy now, cuz I'm coming up!"

Nobody moved. Liara stayed perfectly still, unable to comprehend that he was alive. Her hero had managed to survive falling into a volcano! When that "hero" stepped into the light, saw the extent of what he was. Most of his body was burnt down to the bone, and his left arm was a bloody stump surrounded by small, black, writhing tendrils. Most of his hood had disintefrated, exposing curly brown hair on the right side, and brain matter on the other. 

"He shouldn't be alive," she thought. "Nothing alive looks like that." Before anyone could speak, a buzz-cut human leapt out of the ship's access ramp and began to take charge. 

"Alright, people. The show's over. Keeping gawking and I'll make one of you carry him to the Med bay." That sent them all away pretty quickly. "Ryan, we've already got the Mako loaded back on the ship, so all you have left to do is write a mission report for the powers that be, attend the debriefing, and call it a day." When Ryan didn't move, the new arrival clapped him on the arm. "Hey, I've got this covered, just get on the damn ship, and see if Tali needs a new mask before she gets a cold or something from that crack." Ryan hesitated but finally entered the Normandy. The new human turned to him as he left and said, "Oh, and let Joker know that Alex isn't going to kill him! He'll know what it means."

Finall, he turned to Liara. "Dr. T'Soni? I'm Cole MacGrath, Ryan's civilian counterpart. We're the first tow human Spectres, and if you're worried about Ugly over here," he gestured to Alex. "Then don't. He'll be fine. He's already regenerating on his own, but I'm taking him to the Med bay. A little helping of biomass will have him back to normal, and our doctor has stocked up on blood packs for this very reason." With that, Cole walked over to Alex, who hadn't made a single movement this entire time. As he took Alex' remaining arm and placed it over his shoulder, Cole said, "Luckily, he's lost most of his weight in that volcano. Otherwise I wouldn't have a chance at lifting him. Come on. This ship's leaving, and I'd prefer that you be on it."

Liara finally regained her voice. "Of course MacGrath. Whatever assistance I can provide is yours. Though I must say, you keep strange company." 

"Liara," Alex said with clarity not common for a man with half a jaw. "You don't even know the half of it."

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Up next is the debrief and the hunt for Haliat. 

Until next time my friends.