The Absent Door

Disclaimer: I do not own anything about Mass Effect…everything about it belongs to Bioware.

**Little more than 4 hours after

John Shepard has been declared a

Spectre and the hunt for Saren has begun**

Even as Isaac Haymond looked down upon the group of turians with his Thunder III assault rifle trained on them in case one decided to play hero. Each turian seemed to glare back at him with defiance and anger lit in their eyes. Behind the group of turians who sat on their knees, hands behind their back, and stripped of their armor, was a deep canyon that stretched for miles as far as the eye could see. The sky of planet Theyar gave the soil, water, and even the plants a pinkish glow that made him think of some sort of flower. In the far distance he could see the many thunderstorms that plagued the planet seemingly fighting to top one another in an amazing display of lightning.

The sudden beeping of his omni-tool snapped him back to the reality that he hated so much. He glanced down briefly to bring up the message making sure to keep his rifle trained on the nearest turian. The message was short and to the point. Get rid of them. He closed down his omni-tool and glanced once more at the turians who had caused so many problems. Originally there had been 20 or so of them, doing what they could to wreak havoc and destroy any facilities they came across.

That had been until he was called in to find them all and put them down to ensure the disruptions ceased. It had been easy enough. Look at the destruction and evidence they left behind before following their pattern of movement until he had caught up to them. Then it had turned into a deadly game of hunting, he wasn't some assassin who hunted his prey in the dark of night using knifes and hand-to-hand combat to kill. Isaac was someone who, as some would put it, went "loud". Walking into a building shooting precisely and methodically in the middle of the day when it was busiest was his preferred method. He had mercilessly eradicated every last turian in the group, making sure to leave a message for the others…he was coming for them. Isaac had them living in fear. Never knowing when he would strike next or who would be his next victim left the turians to only be sure of one thing: their end was near.

The five fools in front of him had decided to leave together in a pack, thinking that there was strength in numbers. Yet, here they were. Unfortunately for them, with just the right amount of credits and force he was able to get onto the transport taking them off the previous world. Imagine the looks on their faces as they relaxed in the passenger area and the door opened with him standing there in full gear. They had surrendered without a fight after they took note of all the innocent civilians scared around them. After making sure the pilots took a little detour to Theyar, he forced each turian off the transport as it took off and slipped into space. Now each one of them was on their knees in front of him, soon to be dead just like their comrades.

"Get up and line up on the edge of the canyon, NOW!" Isaac ordered fiercely, prodding the nearest turian with his rifle.

"How does it feel to be nothing but trash, human?" The turian with dark carapace and white paint across his face said as he smirked.

Isaac glanced at him and smiled lightly before bringing his rifle to bear front of the turian and pulling the trigger. The turian had a brief look of surprise before half of his face was torn off, spraying blue blood into the air as the body tipped backwards before flying off the edge of the cliff and disappearing. Three of the turians jumped at the sudden gun shot and called out a name which Isaac noted was most likely the recently dead turian's name. Seconds later they each turned to him as the grim reality of their fate began to finally settle in.

Isaac looked at them each briefly in the eye, one by one, and noticed that one of the turians on the end seemed calm and at peace. He also hadn't jumped when Isaac had shot the other turian. Hell, the guy didn't even blink.

"I've always been nothing but trash…doing dark things just for money and for my own personal reasons. That won't change anytime soon, even after I kill each of you. I'm sure there's a dark place for the likes of me when I die." Isaac muttered more to himself than the turians in front of him.

He shifted his sight to the next turian in the line before pulling the trigger and watching the accelerator rounds rip through the turian's body, throwing it off the edge and into the canyon below. One of the turians screamed something before taking one look at Isaac then jumping off the edge of the cliff screaming to his death. For a second, Isaac just stared at the spot where the turian had been, trying to wrap his head around the thought of the turian having to watch the ground get closer before slamming into the canyon floor. He, himself, would have rather have been shot, but it was stupid to think that everyone wanted to die this way.

"Anyone else want to jump to their death like your friend?" He asked. "It's one helluva drop though, so you might be falling through the air for a minute. Hell, you might even be able to see your friend falling if you jump quick enough."

The last two turians shook their heads but the calm turian stepped forward placing himself next in line to be killed.

"If you are to kill me, human, then I request that you shoot me in the head and make it quick."

Isaac took note of the turian's features making sure to remember them as this was the first time anyone he would kill would face their death so bravely. Even for a turian he was taller than most and seemed to have a dark carapace along with dark paint across his face. He bore some scars along his arms, legs, and face which showed he was experienced enough in combat. His eyes were filled with many emotions but the one thing that stood out to Isaac was the calm look he had in his eyes.

"You were just like me when I was younger human...doing things that tear you apart deep down and make you hate yourself. The life you live right now will only lead you down a darker path until you end up destroying yourself. It's not too late…to escape that fate like I did."

"How do you know?" Isaac asked.

"Look at me." Was all the turian said calmly.

"I don't understand what you mean."

"It will come to you in time…isn't that what you humans say? I suggest you finish up your mission…I heard your leader can be very impatient."

Isaac stared blankly at the turian in front of him before nodding quickly then lifting his rifle up and letting off a single shot directly in between the turian's eye sending his body over the edge. He then turned quickly to the last turian before doing the same sending the last body into the canyon and ending his mission. He turned slowly, tapping his communicator on his ear and radioing for pickup while walking away from the edge. As he walked away from the scene, the fearless turian's face kept popping up into his mind seconds before he shot him. The calm without a smile look he had on his face as Isaac had shot him wouldn't go away. He gripped the little hair he had on his head muttering to himself to calm down over and over trying to get the thought of what had just happened out of his head. He wasn't affected by people pleading for their lives so why the hell was this getting to him.

The loud thrusters of the approaching shuttle ship made him snap back to reality. He watched as the transport ship hovered briefly before slowly coming down in front of him. The door swung open suddenly as the co-pilot glanced down at him briefly before sticking his hand out for Isaac to grab.

"He wants to see you…"

**One hour later **

Isaac glanced at his own reflection patiently waiting for the elevator to come to a stop and its doors to open to the communication room. It was becoming hard to look at his own reflection without hating everything about who he use to be and what he became. When he had first started to become a mercenary four years ago, it had been out of desperation for credits, so he took any and all jobs that came his way. He had liked it at first. The jobs he started out with didn't require him to do much at all, guarding a shipment, roughing up someone, being a bodyguard to some important person, etc. He had been scrawny with hardly any muscle to him, but he had been in shape, being raised on the streets of Earth had required him to be. Isaac had just been another black kid on the streets with no family and had ran with gangs not knowing what else to do but when had been given the chance he ditched that life never looking back, stowing away on a transport ship going to a far away station. That had lead to the mercenary job after he couldn't scrap up anything and no one wanted to hire him to do a real official job when he didn't have any credentials or identification on him.

From there he had begun the downward spiral to where he was today. He could still remember the first mercenary mission where it had changed. The client had lied and withheld information from, him then tried to betray and kill him. By the time everything had ended, he had killed 7 people and somehow mistakenly killed four innocent people in cold blood. He had drunk himself silly that day to forget the screams and decided to let himself go with the flow.

Stupid as hell? Yea, but he never wanted to stoop so low as to kill people. Especially innocent people who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, but he proved himself wrong. After that incident his life had changed and so began the dirty jobs which consisted of hits, smuggling drug shipments, or whatever else came his way until he was offered a proposition to come work for him. He liked that Isaac produced results every job and felt his talents were being wasted and so with little thought he became his personal errand boy. Isaac was assigned to get rid of someone, ensure a delivery made it to the right destination without any distractions, ensure that base leaders were on schedule for the projects given, or whatever else he wanted but along with that Isaac was required to bulk up. He didn't tolerate anything but the best and ordered Isaac to go through special combat training and combat exercises repeatedly to fine tune his abilities. He went from being a scrawny180 pound but fit mercenary to a well toned 220 pound muscular killing machine.

"Please enter, he has something very important he wishes to discuss with you." The assistant that had accompanied him informed him of.

Isaac nodded as the elevator doors opened and he followed the aid down a hallway to an opening in a dark room. As he stepped forward a circular white ring spread around before freezing and projecting an image before him. A giant red and blue planet glowed fiercely in the back with the very surface moving as if it was alive while stars littered the space around it creating the illusion that the planet was real. The room illuminated by the planet glowed red and in the middle sat the person he answered to and who paid him.

The illusive man seemingly sat before him in this room sitting down smoking his cigar regarding Isaac with his steely blue eyes and gazed at him with no emotion on his face.

"I want to congratulate you on a job well done again, Isaac. You continue to amaze me and never fail an assignment. I am glad I made the right choice in recruiting you. That turian group has been a thorn in my side for quite some time now and thanks to you my facilities can breathe a bit easier. You may be wondering why I am rushing you here on such short notice but something important has come to my attention and I believe you are best man for the job." The illusive man blew a cloud of cigar smoke into the air staring at something or someone Isaac couldn't see.

"As you may have heard from reports or rumors, the colony of Eden Prime was attacked by the Geth. Who haven't been seen past the veil in many years and left the colony in complete ruin and thousands dead."

Isaac nodded his head but was still confused about where the illusive man was going with this but yet he could feel that he wouldn't like it at all.

"Through some of my higher up…let's say contacts, I've learned that the geth were being led by a now rogue turian Spectre named Saren. Right now Saren has fled but Commander Shepard who just recently became the first human Spectre to represent humanity has given chase."

Isaac took the chance when the illusive man paused to jump in. "I'm sorry but what does this have to do with me? Why not leave this Saren guy to Commander Shepard?"

The illusive man glanced at Isaac, as if annoyed by his question.

"While I do believe the hero of Elysium and one of the greatest N7 operative can handle this problem, something tells me there is more to this than meets the eye. I have…history with Saren and for him to be leading the geth now means something has happened to change him from the man he use to be. I need someone I can trust on the inside along with Shepard who can keep an eye out on everything happening and inform me on what the Council and Alliance don't want everyone to know. This is where you come in, Isaac." The illusive man stood up and began to pace back and forth in the dark room.

Isaac could already feel the headache from this assignment coming on and rubbed his face with his hands. He didn't sign up to be a spy for the illusive man and hell he sucked at lying but he owed him and knew he couldn't refuse.

The Illusive man stopped to look at Isaac once again while making a motion with his hand. "I have prepared Shepard's dossier as well as Lt. Kaiden Alenko and Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams so that you know enough about them to prepare yourself. My contact on the frigate SSV Normandy that Shepard commands informs me that he has a turian, a krogan, and quarian onboard helping him. I can't give you any information on them so prepare yourself accordingly. Shepard as we can tell is headed to pick up a missing asari scientist who may have a lead to Saren but you will beat him there. Right now as we speak, the frigate you're on is headed towards Therum in the Knossos system after my surveillance teams reported geth activity on the planet's surface and orbit. While we have no guarantees that she is there, the fact that Shepard and the geth are looking her is good reason to believe she is on that planet. You are to rescue the scientist and use her to become a part of Shepard's little group and assist him in any way possible while providing me with updates after every mission. Make sure your cover is NOT blown, Isaac. This is an assignment you can't fail. If you must kill anyone who gets in your way, the contact on the Normandy will come to you when the opportunity presents itself."

As he stared into the Illusive man's eyes, he could see the hidden threat behind his words and knew his life would be riding on this.

"Now go Isaac, you don't have time to waste. I expect to hear from you shortly and that you have made it onto the ship with no problems."

Isaac nodded once before turning around and walking out the circle and through the doors. The assistant was outside waiting for him with folders in her hands.

"Read these as you are en route to the location. You will only have 30 minutes to remember as much as you can. Your gear and weapons have already been loaded on to the shuttle."

The assistant was speaking a mile a minute while walking at a fast past requiring Isaac to keep up. She walked to the airlock doors for the shuttle and pressed the button, opening them before handing him the dossiers and ushering him inside.

Isaac watched the doors close slowly before he felt the shuttle jerk as it detached from the station and took off. He glanced down at the folders before sighing deeply…

"God dammit."

Author: Hello there this is my first mass effect fanfiction story so bear with me. I've wanted to type up one for a while but my lazy side decided it against it multiple times. If I continue the story will first play through the the first mass effect and based upon your reviews I will decide to continue to mass effect 2. For the prologue I wanted the reader to get a little bit of background knowledge as well as the direction I'm trying to go but I want to try to increase the length as well as add more action. Can't say for sure how long this story will be if I finish but most major missions will a chapter as well as a few assignments that can help further the story. Well that is about it for right now, I hope you enjoy my story and I hope to not disappoint.

Special thanks to my amazing proofreader and editor. I have horrible grammar and I apparently hate commas, she did an amazing job finding things I could improve on and fix and for that I'm grateful. Still I will be beating you at Mario Kart 64 when we are old wrinkly people and YOU will be wearing that cosby sweater when you lose.