Ascension

accidentally shot.

'Hendel!' he heard Lemm shout. 'You're alive!'

He walked out from the storeroom and climbed gingerly over the desk. Lemm, Mai, and four other quarians were gathered at the foot of the stairs.

'Is that the last of them?' Hendel asked, nodding toward the dead Cerberus troopers on the ground. He figured the fight was over, as he didn't hear anymore gunfire.

'There might be one or two left,' the captain answered, 'falling back to the Cyniad'

'They had us on the run, when all of a sudden they broke into a full retreat,' Lemm added.

'Why would they—' Hendel began, then stopped short. 'Where's Kahlee? Where's Gillian?'

Nobody answered.

'Cerberus has her!' Hendel shouted. 'That's why they're pulling out!'

As a group, they broke into a run, heading for the landing bays.

'Should I shoot her?' Golo asked.

Grayson looked at Kahlee, still lying facedown on the ground in her enviro-suit. The quarian had his pistol pointed at the back of her head.

'No,' Grayson said. 'Keep her alive. She's an expert in biotic amp configurations. Cerberus might want her to help with Gillian's new training.'

'I'll never help you with your sick experiments,' Kahlee spat out from the floor.

'Quiet,' Golo warned, kicking her hard in the ribs. Grayson winced.

Kahlee grunted and rolled over onto her back, her hands clutching at her side.'Gillian will hate you for this,' she gasped, trying to catch her breath. 'She'll never forgive you.'

The quarian hauled off and kicked her again, causing her to pull her knees up into a fetal position to try and protect herself.

'Enough!' Grayson snapped.

'How can you let them do this to your own daughter?' Kahlee asked through gritted teeth, still balled up from the pain.

'Did you see the forklift out there?' Grayson demanded. 'Do you see what Gillian is capable of? That's because of what Cerberus did!'

'They want to make her into a weapon,' Kahlee countered, panting behind her mask. Grayson guessed several of her ribs were broken. 'They're turning her into some kind of monster.'

'They're transforming her into a savior of the human race,' he countered.

'We don't have time for this,' Golo warned.

'They're destroying her,' Kahlee snarled, her words filled with pain and anger. 'Those drugs made her condition worse. Without them, she has a chance to be almost normal!'

Unbidden, the memory of Gillian actually hugging him outside the airlock filled Grayson's mind. He remembered her words, and her surprising defiance.

We have to wait for my friends. I'm not leaving without them.

'Gillian was happy here,' Kahlee continued. 'Have you ever seen that before? She was actually happy!'

'Shut up!' Golo shouted, kicking her again.

This time he didn't stop, but continued to beat on her until Grayson snapped, 'No more! That's enough. It's over.'

Golo looked over at him, panting slightly from the exertion, and shrugged. On the ground Kahlee was rolling feebly from side to side, moaning and whimpering from behind her mask.

Grayson's eyes flicked away from her and over to Gillian on the bed. She looked so small, vulnerable and helpless.

Salvation comes with a cost, he seemed to hear the Illusive Man saying in his head. His mind flashed back to the mutilated quarian in the cellar of Pel's warehouse.

Judge us not by our methods, but by what we seek to accomplish.

'We're almost out of time,' Golo reminded him. 'We have to leave now. We can't wait for the others.'

Grayson was suddenly struck by the similarities between the quarian and his former partner. Both were sadistic and cruel. Both had no compunction about torturing or killing others for personal gain.

And both were traitors to their own people. It sickened him to think about the kind of individuals he had allied himself with.

We take terrible burdens on ourselves for the greater good. This is the price we must pay for the cause.

'Get the engines fired up and get us out of here,' Grayson ordered.

As the quarian turned to leave, Grayson calmly bent over and picked up the pistol Kahlee had let fall to the floor. He stepped up behind the quarian and jammed the barrel against the back of his helmet, too close for the kinetic barriers to save him. And then he shot Golo once through the head, the bullet exiting through the front of his mask and lodging itself in the shuttle's bulkhead.

As the quarian toppled forward, Grayson let the pistol fall from his hand. He turned and looked down at Kahlee, but he couldn't tell what she was thinking behind her mask.

'The ship we arrived on is filled with explosives,' he told her. 'We have about two minutes before they detonate and rip a hole in the side of the Idenna. I'll need your help if we want to stop it.

'Can you walk?' he asked, reaching down and offering a hand to help her to her feet.

She hesitated for a split second before grabbing it and hauling herself up with a groan.

'I can damn well try,' she answered.

Hendel and the quarians were running at a full sprint as they burst into the loading docks. The Cy-niad was in bay seven, on the far end past all the other ships. The former security chief's long strides had pulled him slightly ahead of the others, but they caught up when he stopped to stare in amazement at the two figures coming out of the airlock in bay three.

Kahlee, still in her enviro-suit, and Grayson, wearing Cerberus armor, were exiting the shuttle. She had one arm wrapped around Grayson's neck, and he appeared to be holding her up, as if she couldn't stand on her own. Neither one of them was armed.

'Hendel!' Kahlee shouted, but her voice was cut off in a gasp of pain and her free hand clutched at her side.

'The Cyniad' Grayson called out to them. 'The ship in bay seven. It's filled with explosives!'

Hendel, bewildered by the scene before him, could only shake his head. 'What's going on? Where's Gillian?'

'She's safe,' Grayson answered, speaking quickly. 'But you have to get to the Cyniad. Disarm the bomb before it detonates!'

'What the hell are you talking about?'

'Cerberus. We never intended to escape on the Cyniad. We were going to take my shuttle. The Cyniad is filled with explosives and set to go off on a timer to provide a distraction as we escaped.'

'How many explosives, and how much time?' Hendel demanded.

'Two minutes, and enough to rip a hole in the Idenna's hull.'

'Watch him!' Hendel said, pointing at Grayson as he turned to go.

'Wait!' Grayson shouted, freezing him in his tracks. 'It's a dual sync arming system. You need two people to enter the code simultaneously or it'll detonate.'

'What's the code?' Mai demanded.

'Six two three two one two.'

'Everyone else evacuate the loading bays,' the captain ordered, then turned to Hendel. 'Let's go.'

It took them less than thirty seconds to reach the

Cyniad's airlock. The bodies of Isli, Seeto, and Ugho lay just beyond it. The airlock