As she exchanged glances with a Turian walking by her, sitting on a bench next to the Presidium fountain, Commander Nythari Shepard felt a chill run down her spine, she studied the behemoths face as he passed, he was huge and bulky, at least compared to her, Adventi were normally about 6 feet but were mostly very petite. She put a hand to her face, gripping the long, midnight colored lock that ran down her cheek and placed it gently behind her long, pointed ear as she stood slowly and pulled up her boots.

"Thari?" asked an American accented human voice from next to her.

"What's up, Ash?" Nythari replied.

"That guy was massive!" exclaimed the lieutenant.

"He is a Turian, Ash" said Shepard with that smirk of hers, "They're all giants!"

"Well, you are too Thari!" The woman smirked.

"I am an Adventi; you humans are too little and squishy… Turians are too big and spiky, Asari are even squishier than humans and Salarians are just eww… Granted, I'm 6 foot 4, but the average height for turians 7 feet, we're not squishy like humans but we're not plated like turians and salarians, we are neutral." Nythari's odd yet beautiful, glowing, yellow feline eye's focused on the human woman's colorless ones; she smiled, showing an unnerving set of very oversized, razor sharp canines and gave her concealed tail an imaginary swish.

Shepard never enlisted for the Alliance Military, When her father died she boarded the Atlantic, an Alliance frigate with a new friend. When she was 14 Captain Udina started sending her on missions, an extremely powerful biotic was as dangerous as a gunship if not more so on the battlefield. Nythari earned her role as commander of the SR1 Normandy only six months ago. She had gotten to know the crew and love them like family, or at least most of them. Her real family was out of reach… or dead. Her older brother Oquaan joined the Renyachi Adventi Military when he was 15 and Nythari was 5, her parents lived on Karvann, an Adventi populated planet with Oquaan and Nythari until her mother was killed in battle when Nythari was 2, her father died when their house caught on fire when Nythari was 7. Her best friend Deelia was killed along with many others in area 76 when Nythari was 16, which left her with nobody, except her pilot/best friend. A familiar voice in her ear crackled;

"Tai, the council is ready for you."

"Thank you, Joker"

Joker was the pilot of the SR1 Normandy. Nythari had known him since she was 10. His father found her in an alley on Karvann when she was 9, when slavers invaded. They became friends and eventually she agreed to board the vessel he was working on. He introduced her to Joker after three weeks of being on the ship, they immediately clicked and became friends. All the humans except him and his dad saw her as either the little alien kid or the tattooed cat girl, but he saw her as a friend. 8 years ago she met him and thought of him as a big brother ever since, almost more so than Oquaan. He was supposed to be the best pilot in the Alliance and she believed it but that didn't stop her picking holes in his work.

"NYTHARI! The Cap's getting twitchy, better move your ass or Anderson's gunna sack it" the voice said again.

"Sorry Joker, had my head in the clouds."

"Like that turian that passed earlier!" Ashley yelled from behind. Nythari laughed,

"Yes, but not for the same reason"

"Bullshit!" She exclaimed trying to gain composure.

"You don't send a SPECTRE on a shakedown run, it's just bullshit! You're not telling us something and I know it!"

"What the Commander is trying to say is…"

"NO! Shut up Alenko! I said what I said PURPOSLEY I wasn't TRYING to say anything!" Nythari shouted, almost screaming, you could see the surprise in Kaiden's face, he did not like this side of the commander and it was obvious.

"Commander Nythari, PLEASE calm down." You could see the worry in the asari councilor's face as she said it.

"Yes this side of coin had best be put back in the purse."

The salarian councilor stated before ordering everybody to leave, everybody except Shepard and Captain Anderson, Shepard's only superior on board the Normandy.

"Nythari Shepard, the pretty little alien, the Adventi, what a surprise" a voice said from the shadows, an all too familiar voice.

"The alien? That's rich coming from you turian" Nythari forced a sharp toothed smile before rubbing her glowing eyes and glaring at Captain Anderson.

"You didn't say this asshole was the spectre coming with us" She grumbled, her eyes focused on the turian spectre's instead of the Captain's.

"Nythari, I know you and Nihlus don't have a good history but…"

"NOT A GOOD HISTORY is a hell of an understatement sir! He killed the entire team except me, not to mention Captain Loesine in Area 76 only to earn his role as a spectre; my BEST FRIEND was in there! He killed Deelia! Do you know how long it took me to get over that sir? DO YOU!"

"You AND your squad were involving yourself in COUNCIL affairs, and may I say your little friend Deelia was it, proved quite the challenge." Nihlus growled coldly and quite unprofessionally.

"If I didn't chase her I most likely would've noticed you sneaking out through the air duct and killed you too"

"If I knew what was about to happen to her I would've instantly given away my life for hers so don't say it like I made out lucky in spite of her death and personally, I would hold your tongue if I were you, if I met you on any other circumstances you would be laying limp in the presidium fountain! I swore that I would not let her die un-avenged, that if I met the man who killed her again I would end him painfully and here he is in front of me, so watch your back turian because I won't kill you myself, but I won't stop anyone else, be on your guard, I'm warning you." Nihlus looked stunned but that didn't stop him from saying. "Big words from a little girl."

Shepard growled at him before turning to Anderson

"Dismissed" he said before gesturing to the door.

"We'll talk later Nythari"

Kaiden and Ashley waited for Nythari at the door but when she came through as infuriated as she was they became worried instead of curious, Kaiden wanted to see what was wrong and went to reach for her arm, Nythari hissed showing her fangs and Kaiden wrenched his arm back.

"Ugh! Stupid alien." He whispered tempted to hiss right back, but he thought about it and decided it would just make him look like an idiot.

"When did you become a xenophobe?" Ashley asked chuckling at his frown.

"Come on, let's see if we can catch up, shall we."

Kaiden plodded after Ashley and Ashley was sprinting after Nythari but it was no use, she could run ridiculously fast thanks to her elevated, spring like Adventi feet, she was just running and Ashley who was a great runner and sprinting could barley see her she was so far behind. After about 5 minutes of bolting as fast as she could Ashley gave up.

"It's no use" She managed to say, still panting like a dog on a 70 degree day.

"She's too fast"

"Well that's great!" said an exhausted voice behind her, sure enough it was Kaiden still attempting to run, but miserably failing.

"Please tell me you know where she is. Plleeeaaassse! I don't want to have to call animal control!" he panted still trying to catch up.

"Where is she?"

"I honestly don't know Kaiden, I really don't" Ashley said smiling in both amusement and frustration.

The door to her quarters whooshed open as Nythari stormed in.

"Oh Varnera! I'm turning into Anderson" she thought out loud as she made her way to her desk, still steaming as she upturned a photograph, 39 men, half only boys and 17 women, all of which looked experienced and two young girls, one had blonde hair, blue eyes and tanned skin, the other wasn't a human, she had long, dark purple hair with soft curls in the bottom, huge yellow eyes and grey, tattooed skin. It was Nythari, the youngest and yet the only one who lived, hard to believe it was only 3 years ago, it felt like another life, another person. 'Deelia's dead, just as I was getting over it BAM! Nihlus is in arms length and I can't kill him because of a little shakedown mission'. She thought, slamming her fists into the table and growling bestially, the reminder that she had lost so much and was still so young brought her back to her depressing reality. 'Only 18 and the commanding officer of the most advanced starship in the Alliance Navy, left only with a brother I knew for five years, dead parents and a best friend who was killed by a turian that I'm now forced to work with, my life is like the start of a bad joke, a very bad joke.' Her thoughts were interrupted by a voice on the speaker in her wall.

"Hey Tiny T, heard your playing hide and seek with Alenko and Williams." She was relieved that it was only Joker but the feeling was soon replaced by irritation and slight confusion

"Joker, how the hell did you…"

"Ashley's comin' your way Shep."

"Oh great, best be prepared for an ass whooping"

"Kaiden's on his way too"

"Great, an ass whooping and a ridiculously boring lecture from the galaxies' biggest ass with a heaping side of douche-bag!" She snickered.

"Ha!" the speaker crackled and then it fizzled and beeped once

"Microphone is on"

"Wait you're…recording?" She asked.

"NYTHARI!" came a voice from outside, then the door hissed open and a limping Kaiden and a stern Ashley trotted in, or in Kaiden's case limped in.

"Oh thank god, NO MORE RUNNING!" Kaiden panted desperately slouched over with his hands on his knees.

"Are you okay Nythari? I saw Nihlus and figured the rest out by my self." Ashley asked obviously concerned, but Shepard suspected she was actually worried about her pay check, no Shepard no mission, no mission no pay. Simple Observation.

Nythari strided down the corridor leading to the cockpit,

Alenko was co-piloting the Normandy so she just wanted to check up on them and insure that he wasn't driving them into a black hole anytime soon

"Commander" saluted a technician working on the galaxy map.

"Wow, nice job on the map… I'm rising your salary" She nodded at him, she saw him punch the air and heard him whisper a cheer.

When Shepard got to the gunnery station she stared out at the stars and the ruby nebula they were passing. 'Whoever came up with the phrase 'space is the empty void' is a blind man, it's so beautiful!' She thought only to realize Ashley was staring at her curiously, but as she worked out what Shepard was looking at she said;

"Stunning, aren't they."

"Hmm?"

"The nebulas"

"Ah, yes. Ruby nebulas are rare, but they're so beautiful!"

"Aren't you supposed to be checking on Kaiden and Joker?"

"Oh, yeah. Seeya Ash"

"Bye Nythari"

She walked through the door and snickered, of course Kaiden and Joker were arguing again, nothing unusual about that.

"No, she's 19!"

"Nooo, she's 18!"

"19"

"18"

"Nu-uh!"

"Yeah-huh!"

"Nah!"

"Yeah!"

"And what's this about?" Shepard asked lashing her tail violently.

"Joker thinks your 18!" Kaiden shouted looking curiously at her tail.

"Hey! Eyes of the money maker! Oh, and sorry to break it to you but I am 18" Kaiden frowned.

"Your tail's your money maker?"

"Oh, you were looking at my tail… Awkward silence." She tried to hold back a laugh, but failed.

"Told you! Told you!" Joker cheered childishly in the background.

"Anyway, how long until the relay?" She asked hoping he would say 5 to 10 minutes.

"Just over 4 hours Commander" Kaiden replied

"Great!" she drawled sarcastically.

"Lucky me!"

"Feel sorry for me! I have to sit here with HIM for the next 4 hours!"

"Oh I do Joker, I do" Nythari said in-between laughs

The speaker crackled.

"Shepard! Get to the comm room, ON THE DOUBLE MISS!"

"Is it me or does the Captain always sound really mad?" Joker asked Kaiden.

"Great! Boshtet's pissed; it's been nice knowing you, well, maybe not Kaiden but you know." She chuckled.

"Boshet?" Kaiden asked.

"Adventi word for asshole, although she tends to say that too, and every other swear in the galaxy in every language." Joker turned his chair to where she was standing hoping for a reaction but she was already half way down the hallway, she was fiddling with her tail, he could tell she was nervous, she always fiddled with her hair or tail when she was nervous and she often did it before big missions.

She stepped into the comm room to find Nihlus waiting for her.

"Shit" she whispered and tried to back away slowly so he wouldn't hear her but the Turian heard her anyway.

"Nythari"

"It's Shepard to you Nihlus"

"Fine, but anyway, I need to talk to you."

"Why? What's happened?" Nythari tilted her head to the side and looked into the spectre's cold face.

"Eden Prime is not just a shakedown run Shepard, it's a pickup, and we expect enemies." The door hissed and the Captain stepped in.

"Shepard, Nihlus is here to observe your fighting skills" Anderson stated turning to look at Nythari.

"He's here to put your name down as a Spectre" She had always hated politicians and loathed the thought of being one.

"Like hell he is sir!" She shouted at Anderson, completely unaware she was doing so.

"I would rather drink acid after chewing on a razor blade!" She stared at Nihlus coldly; she looked nothing like she did normally. Her usually playful and bright golden eyes now seemed lifeless and dark and her eyebrows slanted into her nose. She was breathing heavily; she looked intimidating and deadly instead of her usual big-eyed innocence and misleading appearance that often made people mistake her for a harmless, adolescent alien instead of a killer and biotic marvel.

"Spectres know no boundaries, they kill and nobody cares, Deelia is proof of that, did anybody care about Deelia's death? NO JUST ME! They didn't even hold a service!" She looked down at her hands, they were shaking.

"Anyway, who would want an Adventi let alone a kid in the spectres?"

"Please Shepard, see reason. This could be a great step for your people and the universe; you would also be the youngest spectre in the history of the galaxy! That added onto the prothean beacon of course." Anderson said trying to coaxes Nythari into accepting, but the only words she heard were prothean and beacon.

"Captain?" she gasped

"Did you say PROTHEAN?"

"Shepard, we're expecting some enemy forces as I said earlier, gangs from the terminus systems mostly. We're sending in a ground team and I'm scouting ahead, but yes. He said prothean." Nihlus stated, almost like he was in charge.

"No Nihlus, you'll go with the shore party, BEHIND us and meet us at drop point 2 for pickup. You'll get a chance to see me in action but you'll also get a taste of your own."

"Shepard, I'M SCOUTING AHEAD! Hear me?"

"Oh here we go." Anderson mumbled under his breath. Shepard hated it when people disobeyed her orders because it usually got them or others killed, and this was Nihlus, so he suspected that she would go berserk without even hesitating. It was as he feared; Nythari exploded in a field of magic and focused two glowing white eyes on Nihlus'. She slammed him against the wall with an incredibly strong three fingered hand to his chest; she seethed showing a set of teeth that made Nihlus swallow hard and retracted her claws, he let out a surprising shriek. 'Coward.'

"I am the commanding officer here, you will obey my orders or I swear to the ancestors I will throw your turian ass out the airlock, you may be above the law in citadel space but out here in the Terminus systems you follow it, and on the NormandyI AM THE LAW! Do. You. Understand?" Her high-pitched, accented voice didn't match the threat at all but that didn't make it any less scary.

"Y-Yes" he whimpered.

"DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!" she shouted at him.

"Yes Ma'am" he saluted, the blue glow faded and Nihlus ran to the other side of the room, the speaker fizzed.

"Hey Ny… Commander and Captain Anderson?" Joker's voice boomed through the comm room.

"We have a message from Eden Prime"

"Patch it through Joker"

"Aye-aye Captain" At that moment the screen alighted with color and a video played. It showed what looked like synthetics slaughtering human colonists and a huge ship in the background, the ship looked… Strange. Almost like a giant insect only mechanical.

"Synthetics. Krathos maybe?" Anderson thought out-loud.

"No, those were bio-synthetics. Those were geth." Shepard shoved her fist into her omni-tool and tapped away at the keys, a few moments later she swiped the console of the comm projector with it and a new picture came up, a picture of just the ship and information beside it.

"This suggests that the, thing in the background is a… oh ancestors! IT'S A REAPER!" she started hyper-ventilating and furiously thwacking the keys of her omni-tool, her still retracted claws scratching the surface.

"Impossible and ridicou…" Nihlus started but a cold glare from Nythari hushed him up. Anderson started to tap at his omni-tool as well.

"Sh-she's right, I-it's a reaper, or at least of identical structure." He gestured at the console of the huge monitor, Nythari strided over to it, tail swishing behind her whipping the back of Nihlus' knees painfully and purposely as she started to fumble with the controls; she became frustrated and roared, similarly to a tiger or jaguar, the sound made Anderson jump and caused Nihlus to back away. Nythari slammed her omni-tool into the controls. The screen once again changed but this time to the Normandy's blueprints, an orange pair of pipes ran down the hulls interior and sectioned off to each end of the ship. Nythari traced the larger one with her claw, which was still unsheathed, to the Normandy's drive core.

"That's the stealth system power source." She flashed a smile at the Captain that managed to be savage and warm at the same time.

"Looks like it's going to come in handy."

"Two minutes to the relay Tai." Joker smirked as he turned.

"So you know the incident in the comm. room with you and Nihlus, yeah we got that on video." Nythari quirked and eyebrow then said.

"You're douche Joker, you really are."

"Hey Nythari, you gunna take that pole out your ass and start beating people to death with it anytime soon, hmm?" his smirk widened to grin.

"So eloquent Joker, you really should be a poet." She jokingly beat her chest with her fists and thwacked the back of Jokers head with her tail.

"Ouch! Smart ass, hey Tiny T, pretty sure Nihlus shat himself while you played the role of the nutcase." Joker brought up a video, it showed a glowing Adventi from behind and Nihlus' face, Joker was right. It looked like Nihlus defecated in his what ever turians wear, his face went purple and his mandibles clicked furiously. Nythari started laughing hysterically, so hard she nearly fell over.

"I seem to have a talent in scaring the lives out of people, one of the advantages of being a certified psychopath I guess." She drawled in-between laughs.

"Well, best call the cleaners."

"Geez commander, go easy on him, he might just pee himself next time, or do whatever turians do." Kaiden joined in but he just made the whole thing boring so Nythari walked away with her middle finger extended over her head, she had seen many humans do it and had figured out what it meant. Joker laughed and turned to the flight controls 'Such a child' he thought.

She slipped on a visor and collected a variety of guns, and of course a flame thrower and missile launcher. A young corporal came up behind her and looker over her shoulder.

"A missile launcher, a flame thrower. Geeze Tazza who you fighting an army of mutant krogan?" He asked.

"Jenny, I'm just being safe, if I were you I would be too; just make sure to put it on safety mode." She shoved the last thermal clip into her gun and stood.

"Don't even want to tell you about the guy who forgot to put his flame thrower on safe, he was looking for anything that could've clogged its barrel before going into a mission. Messy." The corporal laughed.

"Call me Jenny again I will kill you with your own biotics, I don't know how but I will!" He nudged his commander/friend gently with his elbow and snickered.

"Be on your guard Jenkins, I don't want to loose any soldiers today and I don't plan to." She patted him on the shoulder and passed him a visor.

"Be careful out there."

"Right back at ya, Nythari" He smiled and nodded.

"Also, you shoot Nihlus and I promise to buy you a drink."

"Gladly." They both laughed.

"Approaching drop point number one Nythari" Joker's voice bounced around the armory. Nythari strided in confidently, both her teammates quirked an eyebrow. They had obviously never seen Adventi amour.

"Umm… Commander? Shouldn't you be wearing, well… armor?" Alenko asked looking at what she was wearing.

"I am, though it's made for an Adventi." She gestured at the robe and tights she was wearing, the robe was specially designed to be intimidating to other Adventi, not humans. It showed her mid-section, where her war tattoos were. Adventi used their tattoos as a defense mechanism, the different clan markings would frighten weaker clans, but they would challenge stronger clans, which was why she was happy she was a Sylvari, one of the strongest clans.

"Anyway, I have biotic shields to my disposal; I don't need to look like a god-damn Krogan! Not like Ashley and you." She smirked and adjusted her visor to glow blue.

"No offence of course."

"She needs to be able to move easily L.T, she's not a long range biotic like you and she's not a tank like me." Ashley continued.

"I-I guess you are a… a…" Kaiden started.

"Shadow?" She helped.

"Yeah, hey… do you have a blue wire?" He asked. Nythari didn't need anymore information; she chucked an omni-tool Kaidens way. The Normandy jolted violently, throwing Ashley and Kaiden against the wall in a tangled mess. Shepard toppled but a backwards roll broke her fall and got her back on her feet almost instantly. The Adventi's hand glowed blue as she swiped it left, unhinging and throwing the air duct plug across the floor so she could jump into it and crawl to the cockpit in a few minutes rather than having to walk and it take ten. Joker was panicking when she got there, and his commander 'dropping out of freaking nowhere' as he said it didn't do much to help.

"Joker! WHAT have you done THIS time, hmm?" She asked, playfully mocking him.

"Umm, well you see… The giant ship-bug hybrid got our left wing with its gun, the hulls exterior's pretty messed up too, we may have to pick you up with a shuttle…" He said still fiddling with the buttons. The battered Normandy jolted again but this time the fuel gage alarm started ringing ear-piercingly loud through the ship.

"Oh bloody hell, get out of the way!" she exclaimed shoving him and his chair to the side and taking control herself, after a few minutes of tampering she ordered Ashley and Kaiden to the shuttle bay before shutting of her comm. and sprinting to the bay herself. She had reset the Normandy's course to go to the nearest repair station, which from Eden Prime was only 30 minutes away, but that also meant that the teams all needed to leave at drop point one, and they so they did.

She positioned herself tactically on a roof where she could snipe geth without being seen and drop on any more challenging foes, her position came in handy instantly. Kaiden was firing blue balls of uselessness at the geth destroyer and Ashley was hammering it with her assault rifle, Nythari got a good shot in, right in the flashlight head but that still didn't bring it down. She shook her head and leapt off the roof onto the destroyer's shoulders; she grabbed its head and started to pull, it came clean off but Nythari plunged her dagger into it a few times before she sent it flying across the battle field with a remarkably powerful biotic blow, just to be safe, smashing many other geth as it did. Both teammates stared in shock at her insane abilities, but there were more to come.

They walked silently and carefully down the colonies square, the residential buildings were eerily… normal, in a situation like this you'd expect bullet holes everywhere but no, there weren't any. They decided to look around, one house was especially disturbing and horrible, it had a bathroom with a small potty, the fridge was covered in small children's drawings and photographs, all of the same girl and the bedroom had a double bed and a small child's bed in it, but the walls, they were covered in adult handprints, dragged across in a gruesome trail of blood. Nythari heard whimpering from under the large bed, she knelt down to look and her heart skipped a beat, it was the girl in the photos, she had hidden from the geth!

"Hey, it's okay to come out now sweetie. The baddies are gone." Nythari said in her 'sweet as honey' voice.

"Where's my mummy? Did you see her?" The small girl asked quietly, she had a strange accent Nythari had only heard once before. Deelia, she was from Earth, Ireland to be specific.

"Um… That depends, what does your mummy look like?" Nythari asked in the same voice.

"Just like me, but she's very big and her hair is orange." The girl replied.

"Do you want to go find your mummy and smash some geth heads on the way?" She said in the same 'sweet as honey' voice, although it didn't match the question quite right.

"Will it help me find my mummy?" The girl asked.

"It'll make you feel a bit better."

"Okay, let's go. I might find mummy too right? And if I don't can I come with you so I can kill more stuff?" Nythari couldn't help but laugh and take the girls hand; she followed them until they found a warehouse. They hadn't run into any geth luckily.

"Gracie, stay in here. The geth can't get you here, and there are people in here. I can see them, look." Nythari said lightly pushing her into the now open room. The girl hugged her and ran to a tall woman with red hair. She heard her cry out "MUMMY!" in relief of her living mother, Nythari smiled at the reunited family, or what was left of it, the handprints were most likely the girl's fathers.

"Thank you" The lady mouthed turning to hug her daughter.

"L, your wee little girls back, hurray! Oi! Best lay back on me beer aye Ellie?" Said an obviously intoxicated man.

Commander?" Asked a husky male voice from beside her after the door had closed.

"What do you want Kaiden?" She sighed.

"That girl was sweet and all but don't you think it was a bit suspicious that she hid under a bed from a race of machines with x-ray vision?" He asked puzzled.

"Yes, yes I do but I don't care. She's alive isn't she? That's all that matters, at least to me it is." She turned her head towards the hover-platform docking station and gestured to it with 2 of her fingers.

"Let's drop this for now and get moving."

The 2 humans and the 1 Adventi stepped cautiously onto the hover-platform and gripped the rails; it rose and flew off, in the wrong direction.

"Crap! This wasn't part of the plan!" Nythari exclaimed practically pouncing onto the terminal, both her feet were on either side of it and she was in a crouched position on top tapping away at it furiously.

"Apparently we're heading to the wards, Animal Hospital, China Chef… Oh that is not okay…Lorella Café, Jamaican Blue Café, every other friekin' café known to the galaxy, Food Court, actual Court, Catholic Church, Christian Church, Jehovah's Witness Church, Turian Church, Asari Church every other church except Adventi Church, umm… Hospital, Cemetery, huh, must be a pretty shitty hospital… Oh and a Cargo Hold size of Palaven, I'd say we head there. Maybe look for survivors at the hospital?" She tilted her head at Ashley who was approaching her, Nythari hopped off the terminal for fear it wouldn't hold her weight anymore.

"Hmm… Hospital's locked from the inside, either a geth stockade or a survivor's camp; I say we take a chance with it." Ashley stated observing the terminal.

"Wait… Are either of you an engineer?"

"Bitch please, I could out-hack an elite machinist!" Nythari boasted playfully.

"You're going to have too" Ashley said diverting her gaze to the beautiful Adventi.

"They've got an expert blocking it." Nythari smirked, now this was her kind of work. She tapped a few keys then stepped back.

"That's it?" Kaiden asked. "No struggling, frustration? Just a few taps?"

"And why not?." She turned to him and forced a smile.

"Have you had practice?" He asked.

"Practice indeed Kaiden, also might want to check the contents of your drawers, well, what would be the contents. Everything's gone now, you should really put a better lock on them." Kaiden frowned.

"My healing stuff was in there! I'm a great healer you know… Perfect even." He boasted quite seriously.

"I'm a great asset in battle!" He modestly continued. 'Yeah, take away the et and that's you' She felt like saying but she decided to take a more drastic approach.

"Prove it." Nythari said evilly as she threw her dagger into his stomach, he groaned.

"Go on blue boy, heal." Her grin was as smug as that of a Krogan with breeding rights. He glowed blue and took the dagger out of his stomach, dropped it onto the floor and scowled.

"You-you stabbed me!" He exclaimed at the girl retrieving her oversized knife.

"You wanted to prove a point; I proved it was my point." She smiled at him again, though this time it was a mocking smile and was not at all forced.

"You could have killed me!" He shouted flailing his arms around like an idiot.

"I didn't." She retaliated comically.

"But-but you could have pierced my stomach!"

"I didn't." She said again. Kaiden put his face in his palm.

"You. Are. IMPOSSIBLE!"

"Did you just call your C.O impossible?" Ashley asked.

"And what if I did?" He heard Nythari mutter something in Adventi, he suspected she was insulting him.

"I'm nice if you're my friend, and I do things like stab you if you're not, take a hint pretty boy." With that she skipped off the now docked platform with Ashley at toe.

"Friekn' psychopath I swear." He muttered under his breath to himself.

"Hey I heard that!" She shouted, her left ear twitching slightly.

"Uh… How?" He was extremely confused; she was at least 10 metres away.

"It's called superior hearing you idiot!" Kaiden grumbled 'I hate you sooo much' he thought 'So so much'.

The hospital was not nearly as full as they had hoped; the only survivors there were traumatized anyway and couldn't help the group much. Lucinda, a 37 year old human woman asked Nythari if the cows and bull survived, Nythari not knowing what they were shrugged and moved on. The next survivor to be asked about the attack was a man named Tressin, he wore tattered clothing and had many bandages wrapped around his fore-arm and thigh. His blue eyes seemed sad as he flashed a knowing smile at the young Adventi approaching him. 'Surely she can't be military, how old is she?' he thought sketching the girls face with his eyes.

He extended the non-bandaged arm and held out his hand.

"What do I do with that?" She asked pointing at his palm.

"You shake it." He let out a small laugh but then clutched his mid-section. Nythari started shaking the wrist like a baby would a rattle.

"Like this?"

"No, but anyway, me name's Tressin Kaskelle." His Irish accent rung familiar in her ears, the young girl laughed and bent down.

"Tell me man, what do remember of the attack?" She asked her tone changing to solemn.

"Aye, me lost everthin' in that attack. Me dear wife Ellen, me beautiful daughter Gracillia, it is a mournful time indeed for me, it is." His incorrect grammar amused Nythari, but the name Gracillia seemed so, so familiar to her. Then she figured it out, he was the dad. He was Gracie's dad and Ellie's husband!

"I think I know where your family is, sir." She took his hand and dragged him off the floor, at the same time the glow of her omni-tool illuminated her face a fluorescent orange, she typed in the number Gracie had given her and waited. A few minutes later a low-pitched, Norwegian female voice filled the room.

"Hello? Who is this?" It asked, Nythari could hear the hope in her voice.

"Hello ma'am, this is Commander Nythari Shepard Vas'Neema, I recently rescued your daughter… It seems you are in luck today Mrs. Keskelle, I have also found your husband, Tressin, would you like to speak to him?" Nythari spoke in a formal manner the humans had taught her, they said to talk like it when addressing the council, Nythari didn't see the point since every time she saw the council she ended up swearing at them, and speaking to civilians.

"Tressin? Gracie said he got taken by the geth!" She exclaimed, Nythari looked over to the mans exhausted face and he nodded, lifting his dressed arm and pointing to the bandaging on his thigh.

"I think he did, but he made it out alive." She smiled at him as warmly as an Adventi could, passing him the omni-tool.

"Ellen me dear! Are ye okay? Is little G okay? WHAT HAPPENED?" Nythari once again smiled at his miss-use of words. Ellen filled him in about how 'the little miss, the lady solider and the pretty man' saved Grace from the geth, afterwards he looked up to her. Sure she was an alien, a woman well, actually a girl and she looked incapable of holding a gun but that didn't change the fact that she was a solider, Tressin would mostly resent people for ending lives, if you could call a geth's existence a life but this small girl changed his, saved his daughter, saved his wife, hell she was even saving his planet! He thought of her as an idol, for all to look up to, he, Ellen and Gracilla certainly did. Nythari was making her way to a strange looking man who looked to be in his 50s, he was certainly a bit frightening and exceedingly creepy. She stopped in front of him and forced a smile, he just stared intently and blankly at her. She decided to go talk to Malinda, the lady looking after the 3 children and the baby but as she turned she felt a shooting pain in her side. She went to grab it but saw blood, lot's of it. Kaiden screamed like a woman and Ashley stared.

"Holy shit! It's blue!" She yelled gawking at the blood building on Nythari's robe. The man wrapped an arm around her neck pulling her closer into a headlock. 'You're good, but not good enough', she thought looking at the pistol in his left hand and then at the gaping bullet wound in her side. She sighed.

"They cannot take the beacon, it is the peak of our technology! I will not allow this alien bitch to steal it!" His eyes were wide and he laughed manically. Everybody started to panic, everybody except the hostage, she just sit there enjoying the entertainment. Waiting for the time to strike.

"Hahaha, Stereotype." She giggled.

"Shut your mouth hostage!" She screamed at her.

"N-now Manuel, put the sweet little girl down and we can compromise." A tall man said warily approaching.

"Sweet little girl? That our commander your psychopath pet's holding at gun-point." Ashley spat. Manuel was distracted with Ashley so Nythari figured this was the best time, she sunk a pair of savage teeth into the mans arm and threw her head side to side until a huge chunk of flesh ripped from it. She spat it on the ground and did a forwards hand-spring, taking advantage of his weakened grip and kicking him in the nose and jaw in the process. The maniac screamed and stumbled back, Nythari bolted forward so fast to some she was merely a blur and shoved him extremely hard. She then did a backwards cartwheel puncturing the claws on her two toes into his stomach, holding his weight with her legs until her feet hit the floor, smashing his head against the tiles before his body. When she took her claws out of the gurgling human they were covered in red liquid she did not recognize, she smelt it before she saw it, it smelt almost… metallic. The man was reaching for the gun only a few feet away from him as Nythari looked down, she kicked the gun across the floor before kneeling down in front of the bleeding human.

"Too slow." She taunted before taking his neck between her hands and twisting it to an unnatural position, it only took a moment before she heard a satisfying crack that would make most others sick to the stomach. All eyes were on her, she grinned savagely, wiping the blood around her mouth, smearing it across her face rather that removing it. Tressin stared in disbelief and shock, just a moment ago you felt like pinching her cheeks an talking to her like you would a baby. But now you saw what she was… An Adventi, a race of primitive beasts with daggers for claws and knives for teeth. She just happened to be a small girl with a misleading appearance but that didn't change what she was, or what she had a taste for… Blood.

About 10 minutes had passed when Nythari's omni-tool pinged, a hologram of a human man popped up on screen.

"Drake, status report. " She said to the orange face glowing in front of her.

"Nythari, we're just coming down to the wards, the damn hover-platform's takin' us the wrong way!" Nythari let out a small giggle.

"Animal Hospital, China Chef, Cemetery, Hospital?" She chimed, a manly laugh came from the other end, not at all like her girlish giggle.

"Hahaha, yep." She heard the grumble of Nihlus and the constant babble of Jenkins in the background, then an exclamation of profound language and panic combined with gunshot.

"Geth! Don't worry Shepa… Oh Shit! Jenkins is down!" Nythari scowled at the now non-existent hologram and cursed in the language of the Sylvari, her clan.

"Alenko! Stay here and keep the survivors under control, Williams! Come with me… IMMEDIATLY!" Both teammates obeyed.

"Hold on guys, we're coming." She said to herself before her and Ashley ran out into the open.

The fight was worse than she had thought, Nihlus had disappeared and Jenkins was crunched up in a ball in a pool of the red stuff that had come out of the crazy man, that left only Drake to do the fighting. He was outnumbered 20 to 1, Ashley rushed to his side and Nythari disappeared into the shadows, she managed to take out 3 geth silently but then saw how Ashley and Drake were struggling. Nythari bolted into the open and did a handspring and a flip in mid air.

"That's new." Drake stated, marveling at the nimble Adventi.

"So is this!" She shouted mid-flip, just before disappearing again in a puff of black smoke, In her place a marvelous creature called a Rhenyazren. Similar in size to Earth's tiger, it was a beautiful shade of willow green and had yellow eyes, recognizably Nythari's. The amazing beast let out a large roar before killing the remaining geth, it's tail lashed at one geth and it's teeth tore at another. After the massacre it trotted over to the 2 stunned humans, both their jaws hit the floor.

"Ny-Nythari?" Ashley stuttered.

"Yes?" The beast replied. At that Ashley and Drake

both screamed, and Ashley scrambled away. The Rhenyazren dissipated in another puff of smoke leaving a smiling Adventi where it was.
"When… How…?" Drake started, Nythari put up a dismissive hand and chuckled.

"I'm a Shape-Shifter, all Adventi have the gift… Some more than others though, like my brother, from what little memory I have of him, he can only change into a Demetradon, basically a lizard-bird thing, Where-as me and my mother can change into anything if we research it properly… That includes other people." She smiled.

"And your dad?" He asked curiously.
"He changes into nothing."

"Oh, umm... No magic?" Drake quirked an eyebrow.

"He's a Quarian so no, no magic." She stated.

"Wait, what?"

"Yep, I'm half quarian, in low hygiene places I have to wear a quarantine suite, that's why the Normandy's so… Sterile. I reckon I'm going to have a few infections after this mission, I thought Eden Prime would be more sanitary than it is, now I feel sick because of my false thoughts." Drake let out a small laugh, at that moment Jenkins squirmed and groaned.

"Come-on we should get Jenkins to the hospital." He was about to pick him up but Nythari stopped him.

"He could have some pretty serious injuries, It's better if I carry him." Drake was confused at the least by her last statement, 'she couldn't pick him up surely'. He thought, her hands alighted with blue as the man was lifted of the floor using biotic force, she held him like that until they reached the hospital. Then she put him down on a bed and let Sondra and Mike inspect the wounds, Drake was sitting with his head in his hands and Ashley was twiddling her thumbs nervously when Sondra came and gave news about Jenkins.

"I'm very sorry, his spinal cord was severed. He passed when we were searching for any signs of injury." Ashley nodded sadly and Drake looked up at the woman with sad eyes, almost like he wanted to cry. When Nythari walked in her companions expressions gave her the answer better than any words could.

"He's dead, isn't he" She asked not daring to look them in the eye.

"Yes, he is… I know he was your friend, I'm sorry." Ashley said, her voice sounded lifeless.

"Yeah, he was a good friend. I'll miss him…" Nythari tried to keep a solid tone but that didn't stop a silent tear rolling down her cheek, she jerked her head to the side in an attempt to hide it. Tressin could hear the solemn conversation and could see the side of her face she was trying to hide and thought 'Poor kid, loosing a comrade's always hard… but loosing a friend's a lot harder'.

"Nythari, are you okay?" Drake asked placing a hand on her shoulder, she tried to hide her face still, worried they would see weakness, and nodded. Ashley started to tear up as well, Jenkins was Ashley's friend too, just as he was Drake's and Nythari's.

"I-I'm fine." There was a slight quiver in Nythari's voice.

"No you're not." Ashley took a step closer, not even attempting to hide the tears streaming down her face.

"Thari, you're crying… You're not okay, you're also not weak." Nythari looked up and flashed a knowing smile, Ashley wrapped one arm around the Adventi's shoulder and the other around Drakes, who was now crying as well, and pulled them both into a hug.

"Drake…" Nythari asked.

"What?" He replied.

"You look and sound like a seal when you cry and it

makes me laugh."

"Yeah, you do!" Ashley exclaimed, all three shared a laugh before a silence that seemed to last forever rested over them. Finally they all pulled away, they were still mourning their loss but they all felt a bit better.

"Well, it's times like this when I say 'Life Hurts, It's Okay To Fall For Just A Little While As Long As You Get Up Afterwards, After All, You'll Always Come Out A Little Stronger Than You Were Before, But Never Let That Strength Consume You."

"Wise words indeed." Ashley let out a weak laugh and Nythari smiled. 'I guess they are… I just wish I didn't have to use them so often'.

They walked warily towards the limp body of Nihlus, Nythari gagged at the foul stench, he'd been dead for at least 3 hours. She almost felt sorry for him as she studied the wounds, she immediately recognized the unique shape of the bullet holes.

"Hmm, doubt this was done by mercenaries or thugs… Done by a Kessler 117, way too expensive for mercs… These are Acid Rounds, whoever did this has access to a wide variety of weapons and ammo mods… AHHA! This was done by the turian spectre Saren!" She exclaimed.

"Really, a body and you can already tell who done it?" Kaiden asked, Drake gave him a strange look then turned to Nythari and tilted his head.

"Mhm, I can also tell by the warmth of the body that Nihlus was killed exactly 2 hours and 18 minutes ago… I can tell it was a spectre because of the design of the bullets, only the council agents and spectres use the 992 models and I can tell it was Saren by the initials on them, S.I.Q 0400, Saren's full name is Saren Idjus Qintyontek and if you access the Citadel database and look up S.I.Q 0400 it comes up with his details, ship and career info." All team members stared at her in disbelief and shock.

"H-How do you know all this?" Ashley finally asked, almost suspecting she was a stalker.

"After the attack on the Sylvari home-world, I grew up on an Alliance frigate called the Atlantic, don't ask me what that means because I have no idea, but spectres and council members came on board on a regular basis, me and my friends Kasumi, Kelly, Ada and Meredith's room was right next to the conference room, Kasumi and I gained a habit of listening… That sparked an interest that I still hold, don't get me wrong, I hate politicians but I do find spectres interesting… I know of many thanks to Kasumi, she keeps notes on them… Most of the time they're her targets… But she always sends me a few things she finds interesting and she also gets me to observe the little information on them looking for clues about their lives, for example where they live… It's not stalking, I do it so Kasumi can provide adequate information to the shadow broker, which I happen to have an alliance with… So yeah, I know a lot about a lot of things." Kaiden looked like he was attempting to eat the people in front of him and Ashley looked like she was attempting to eat everything else whereas Drake just smirked.
"Should've known you work for the shadow broker, how else would you know the things you do… As in basically everything." Drake muttered the last 4 words but Nythari still heard him clearly thanks to her hearing.

"I don't work for him just as I don't work for the Alliance, he heard of me through Kasumi, a now well-known thief and my friend, and I gained his disposition through sending him little bits of info I thought were relevant… After a while he gave me a rank, I still don't follow all his rules but I provide him with what he requests, Information. Just as I never joined the Alliance, I did how-ever gain their trust, after a while Udina started sending me on missions, and not long after he gave me a rank, I've worked my way up not by playing by the Alliance rule book but by doing what is necessary and not going over-board. I give them what the want, a Commander and they ask nothing more of me." They all looked shocked at her last comment, Kaiden decided to speak up, which was one of the biggest mistakes he could've made.

"So you're an illegal immigrant the Alliance has kept in the dark from the authorities, if we marched you over to the citadel immigration ward you could be jailed?" He said dismissing the fact she was his commander .

"No Kaiden, I'm a Commander that just happens to be Quarian and Adventi, If you marched me to the immigration ward they would laugh in your face and send you to Foreign Acceptance institution for attempting to put your C.O in jail for being an alien, you would also be the biggest boshtet known to the galaxy… Feel good now don't ya' asshole? Do yourself a favor, don't question my legal right to be here or go take a long walk off a short pier, your choice. Choose Wisely" She taunted, she always had a way with words. Kaiden mumbled something and obeyed.

"Okay, we're dealing with a rouge spectre here… we should inform the council." She stated before walking away; Ashley, Drake and Kaiden followed closely.

Nythari bolted towards the large bin, holding her stomach with one hand and her mouth with the other, gagging at the same time. Ashley cringed and Kaiden turned green, Drake just averted his gaze completely.

"Well… umm… that's what you get when you're half quarian…" he joked uncomfortably, in the background Nythari could be heard heaving into the bin like a teenager after a few too many drinks.

"I HATE MY FATHERS GENES!" She whimpered between gags. Kaiden and Drake started to snicker, then they started shaking with laughter.

"Keep going if you like being hurled on" She threatened, that shut both of them up. Ashley came up behind Nythari and started to pat her on the back.

"At least this isn't as bad as when you threw up on that krogan at Afterlife, remember to wear your quarantine suit next time you go to Omega, especially the Night Clubs…" Nythari wiped her mouth and turned to Ashley.

"Thanks for making me feel better, boshtet." Ashley let out a small laugh that quickly died with Jokers voice.

"Oh that is so nasty." He said through the speakers of Ashley's visor.

"Oh shit, you taped that didn't you." Nythari grimaced, her reply was a devious laugh and what she thought was a 'yep'.

"Hehehe, taped it through Ashley's visor." He said proudly in a sing-song voice.

"You insensitive bastard." He didn't know if she was joking or not but laughed anyway.

"Hey, you're half quarian! If we can't make fun of you who will?" Nythari could hear the smirk in his voice, she sunk into a hip and crossed her arms.

"I never make fun of your creaky legs, or your inability to flirt." It was her turn to smirk.

"My inability to flirt?"

"If you were a potato, you'd be a good potato? You made of boiling water cuz' you're steaming? Your pick-up lines are the definition of hopeless." All her companions started to snicker, then laugh. Nythari heard Joker mumble something then shut off the comm. She rolled her eyes then walked off, something then caught the ear… A frequent beep. Fear rose in her chest and her heart started beating uncontrollably, it was the same noise that was forever burnt into her memory… Akuze.

"D'Arvit! Get to cover!" She screamed before glowing blue and surrounding herself, Drake, Kaiden and Ashley in a biotic barrier, she bolted as fast as she could to a tiny alcove in a wall that almost nobody could squeeze in except a very small child. Nythari's abnormal flexibility allowed her to stretch to an almost impossible angle and squeeze in. Kaiden commando crawled to a half-destroyed brick wall that barely covered him even when lying flat on the floor and braced himself, Ashley scrambled to a large crate and put her head in her hands to protect her face from any debris and Drake dropped to the floor and crawled to a stack of metal boxes. The ticking noise continued for 4 more ticks, BOOM!

The bomb exploded and littered the cargo hold with shards of metal and debris. Nythari could feel the heat of the blast but remained unharmed, besides the building nausea she was fine. When she sensed the explosion was over she leant out of her cover to see if her teammates survived, the memory of Akuze scaring her to look. Ashley's left arm was burned badly and the armor was ruined but that was the worst injury out of them all, Drake's leg got slashed by a metallic shard and Kaiden suffered a few burns but the biotic shield protected them from the worst of it. Nythari saw something out of the corner of her eye and turned her head, her face turned white and she screamed in horror, there was a strange… thing… walking towards them, actually, it was RUNNING towards them. Nythari leapt out of her cover only to discover an army of the things surrounding them.

"HUSKS! SHOOT THEM! SHOOT THEM!" Ashley shouted before rampaging with her sub-machine gun, Kaiden fumbled with his pistol and started shooting and Drake pulled out a missile launcher. Nythari just stared at the things blankly, frozen in fright. Drake could see her fear and ran over to her, chucked her over his shoulder like a sack of grain and ran back to his cover. When he put her down behind the crate he said.

"Look Nythari, I know they're horrible and I know you've never seen them before but you shoot them, they die. You're not a little girl anymore Thari, you don't need to be scared of something you can kill with one bullet." Her expression hardened and she scowled.

"They look so much like… people… Ugh! Whatever they are, I'm frying them to an ember" She growled before charging in with her flame thrower, It was heavy and she had trouble maneuvering it but that didn't stop her barbecuing each one of the bastards. They surrounded her and her flame thrower was out of fuel, she gave each one a menacing stare before letting out a bestial roar that could be mistaken easily for that of a tiger and exploding with blue, It looked horribly beautiful, knocking each one and everything else except her teammates since they were still shielded, to the floor and sending the less stable ones flying across the battle-field. The team finished the last of them off while Nythari was regaining her energy, using that much biotic force can really drain you. She looked up, the battlefield was too… quiet, too quickly. Something wasn't right and she knew it.

The beacon was glowing a distorted green, It didn't look like it was working. Nythari didn't like the way it emitted a strange aura, all Adventi are spiritual and therefore can see auras, especially Adventi like Nythari, it was blurry and she couldn't work out the picture but is was dark purple, which ultimately meant corrupted by evil or broken by Sitejhes, the goddess of jhes know by humans as rouge. While Ashley and her were sharing concerned looks Kaiden foolishly approached it intent on touching it, Nythari spotted him and pushed Ashley to the side, running to stop him. She shoved him out of the way but didn't get time to move herself and was lifted by a strange energy and held in place while it invaded her mind. Her vision went black and then she saw synthetics, reapers… slaughtering a strange bug like race of organics, screaming, crying… she saw what she thought were children trying to run, trying to escape… but nothing did. She was afraid at the least, it was horrible… She felt like running but was being held, being made watch… It felt like death only worse. The pictures stopped and her mind went back to black, the energy wore off and she fell to the ground. Her eyes briefly opened but everything was a blur, then they closed again and the nightmares came… They always came.

I walk down the path, arms linked with Deelia. She flashes a smile and winks at me, I wink back… there is no need for words when I'm with Deelia, we are almost in-sync but not quite. She bounces and giggles and I look over curiously.

"Excited Deels?" I ask, even though there is no reason… she is making it painfully obvious

"You bet ya! Our first day on Akuze! This is going to be amazing! Our first real mission! I know Udina sends you on little stuff but this… is real!" She exclaims.

"We get bragging rights right? That's kinda why I'm here." I joke.

"This is serious Tai!" She scolds, but I sense a bit of humor in her voice.

"Nothing that involves Jeff and I is serious Deels." She rolls her eyes at me.

"Jeff? That's right he's here on training isn't he? Let's call him." She shoves her omni-tool on and taps in Jeff's number, his familiar voice rings through the speakers and his hologram pops up.

"Well if it isn't Tails and Blondie." He's stupid nicknames annoy me so I make up one for him too.

"Well if it isn't Vanilla Creaky Legs." I say and Deelia laughs.

"Yeah yeah, I going to get you back for that Tails, Hey Blondie, your boyfriend started a fight. Pretty Boy can't get enough of being beaten up hey?" Deelia frowns at Jeff calling her boyfriend 'Pretty Boy'.

"Ugh! Dammit Kaiden! Tell him to sort it out and tell him Deelia says that he isn't getting any…" She starts but I cut her off.

"No need to go into details Deels, he gets the message."

"Well I don't know what you were thinking but I thought she was going to say 'He isn't getting any of my apple pie for a month'" Jeff jokes, I laugh but Deelia scowls.

"Jeff, I think if he didn't get what we were talking about for a month he'd go crazy. Also, I'm going to start calling you Joker," I say, when he replies with 'Haha! I like it' I roll my eyes.

BLAM

Gunshot, the squad I'm a part of is running towards us. A Corporal grabs my arm and I grab Deelia's, we run with him trying to find out what's going on,

"Thresher Maw! Army of mercs! Need to run away! To many! Outnumbered!" He panics, me and Deelia exchange glances. The group stops running, I wonder why and stand on my tip-toes. There is a line of mercenaries, the ground trembles and a thresher maw erupts. I scream along with many others, we turn around and meet the eyes of another line… and another thresher maw. We are trapped, the mercs start shooting. My friend Paul goes down, I go to help him. I kneel down and put my hand on the bullet hole in his chest, he smiles at me and manages to rasp "Go get 'em cat woman." I smile back and whisper

"Will do." I watch the life escape his eyes, I start to cry and Deelia pulls me back. We hear a ticking noise, Deelia immediately recognizes it. She throws me over her shoulder and runs to a large crack in the wall and shoves me inside. I beg her not to stay, to get to cover but she doesn't listen. Her figure covers the crack that I can only just fit into like a wall, tears roll down my face, I try to push her away but the space is too tight and I can't move. I scream for her to go to cover but she does not, her face is emotionless as I look into her eyes and beg, she is wearing the mask that she always does when she tries to hide her sadness or anger. The ticking noise ticks once more then is replaced by a deafening boom, I watch helplessly as the skin is ripped off of Deelia's face and arm and as the flesh is badly burned. A single tear runs down her cheek before it is torn from her, her face now an unrecognizable slab of charred flesh. She is thrown from my cover by a second blast, the heat invading and slightly burning my shoulder and badly burning my face, a large metal shard impales my chest, just missing my heart and lungs, I am surprised it could actually get to me. I am in agony, blue blood running down both cheeks and my chest and legs. It ends. I struggle and eventually fall out of the crack, I am surrounded by embers, small fires and scattered bodies and limbs. All I can smell is smoke and something metallic but I hear a familiar voice.

"Deelia? DEELIA! Oh my god! NYTHARI! NYTHARI ANSWER ME! PLEASE! Nythari… please tell me you're alive… Deelia? Deelia can you hear me?" I limp over to Deelia's charred body, the sight makes me feel sick. The blast took out a large chunk out of Deelia's stomach and thigh, tears roll down my cheeksas I look at her… it is… sickening to say the least. She is covered in a red liquid slightly thicker that water and doesn't have much skin left, most of it was burnt off in the blast. I examine her pristine omni-tool, damn the gods for making them so strong, and see Joker's hologram… she never had time to end the call.

"O-Oh my god Nythari! You are so hurt! You need medical attention! Holy Christ! How did you survive that in the chest! Shit! I'm getting you and Deelia an Ambulance! Hang on tight they're coming!" He panics, I smile at his amount of care but am still crying… the tears sting. I look down at Deelia, a breath escapes her now non-existent lips, I gasp.

"J-Jeff! Deelia's alive!" I cry out.

"What! I saw what happened to her how can she be alive!?" He shouts, it's now even more horrible… Watching your best friend in that much agony.

"Help… me… Joker…Nythari" She drawls breathlessly. I quickly shush her and tell her not to talk.

"Joker it is." His hologram smiles then the connection cuts off. I look around, all my friends are on the floor in a pool of their own blood, some in more than one piece. I start to cry again and curl up into a ball on the floor, the metal in my chest making it difficult.

The ambulance arrives and Me and Deelia get hoisted up onto it, She smiles at me and I smile back. I feel a large and warm hand on my grey and cold cheek. I turn my head to see a pair of forest green eyes looking into mine, glowing yet lifeless, the figure takes his cap off and puts it on the table. He smiles warmly.

"I'm glad you're okay, I'm glad Deelia's… Okay's not the right word… alive." I let out a weak laugh, it hurts my chest greatly.

"And that's why we call you Joker." I say while clutching the now open wound on my upper-torso. Joker moves my hand and examines it.

"Ouch! Let me get a bandage for you." He cringes at the blue blood on his hand and walks over to the cabinet. He comes back with a medi-gel soaked bandage and hands it to the doctor who takes the hovering stretcher to the surgery room, I flash one more smile at Joker before I disappear around a corner.

Nythari sat up so fast that it made her head spin, her eyes were wide and her skin was cold and clammy and she was shaking. Dr Karen Chakwas walked over to her accompanied by Joker on his crutches, Nythari put a hand exactly where the metal shard impaled her chest and felt a deep scar. She looked down at the white sheet of the medical bay bed and started to breathe heavily, the sight of Deelia still fresh in her mind, the memory of her…

"Nythari… you dreamt about… Akuze again, didn't you." Joker asked cautiously, his tone solemn and worried.

"Oh, hi Jeff… Joker. Yes, I did... I wish I could've put a bullet through that monster Nihlus' neck artery and watch him slowly bleed and die…" A stray tear rolled down her face, it didn't sting which relieved her. Joker sat at the foot of the bed, his face was dismal as he observed Karen wipe the tear off Nythari's face.

"I still miss her you know, that's why I kept the name." He said breaking the silence that settled over them, dismissing her disturbing fantasy.

"What?" Nythari asked not really hearing what Joker said, too busy imagining ways to kill Nihlus for killing Deelia only a few months after Akuze.

"Deelia, I still miss her… That's why I'm no longer Jeff, I'm Joker Mouroe."

"Oh… I will always remember and miss her, I will never forgive Kaiden for breaking her heart like he did." She growled, mentally punching him in the too-pretty face.

"So that's why you hate him so much."

"Yeah, I know he can be a nice guy… I just, huh. Deelia was my… our best friend and he dumped her 3 weeks before she died. I remember blaming him for everything, I know it's stupid but… I guess I never got over it." Joker nodded and his phone pinged, he pulled it out and touched the screen.

"Hah! Speak of the devil! I gotta go, sorry Thari. Just try to get some rest and try not to think about Akuze, or Deels, feel free to think about punching Pretty Boy though." He picked up his crutches and hobbled out of the med-bay. Karen came up next to Nythari and examined her vitals.

"Any infections?" Nythari asked, the suddenness of the question made the good-doctor jump.

"No, you just had a stomach bug. You will, however, need to wear an environment suit. It doesn't matter where you go, your immune system is now extremely vulnerable to disease. I believe we are docking the Citadel in a few hours, go put on your suit and meet Alenko and Williams in the cockpit. One of the disadvantages of dominant quarian blood I suppose." Her strong British made Nythari smile, she sounded funny when she talked… Then again when Nythari spoke English she did too. She nodded and left the med-bay for the armory, humming as she walked. 'Lovely day to get my head ripped off by the council' She thought.

The doors to the cockpit hissed open to reveal Nythari looking scaringly… quarian. She had an enviro-suit on that clung (because enviro-suits had to cling so they were completely air-tight) and was mostly shiny and black, besides the collar and arm-rings, which were silver and metallic and the fabric of the hood, which was lighter grey and dark grey elegantly patterned. Her boots were black with a silver platform, they had heels a bit thicker than stilettos and a platform under the foot about an inch tall. She wore high-heels often, she wore them to make her look average height, and not tiny. Her gloves had finger-holes, so she had to wear a pair of white ones under them. Her mask was a clouded dark grey, the speaker and the decoration on the very sides were silver. Joker wasn't fazed but Ashley was stunned.

"Nythari? That you?" She asked, observing the strange suit.

"Mhm, Ash don't act all surprised. Even he knows my blood's dominantly quarian, I'm sick so I have to wear this so I don't get sicker." Nythari explained, pointing a gloved finger at Kaiden, giving him a look that a child would give somebody that stole their candy. Joker laughed silently at her hatred, he actually got why she disliked him so much now… and he saw humor in it. His attention went to the galaxy out of the window.

"Hey guys, look." He said, pointing at the huge station.

"Whoa!" Kaiden exclaimed.

"Jesus! It's so big!" Ashley marveled.

"Yeah, yeah. Size ain't everything you know." Joker mumbled.

"Touché." Nythari teased, he poked his tongue out at her. She repeated the action, though hers was blue and about 8 inches long and he couldn't see through her mask.

"Odd shape aye." Ash said while the Normandy approached the Citadel, Joker snickered.

"What?" Ashley asked with a stern look, Joker tipped his head towards Nythari.

"She'll make some stupid comment about it I promise you. The stations changed shape in the last 5 years..."

"Actually it was rebuilt, the old one was worryingly dodgy. This new one was built in only a year, impressive I will say." Kaiden explained, Nythari rolled her eyes even though he couldn't see. She walked over to the window and tried to get a clear view, when she did she started laughing hysterically.

"Oh… Oh my god! HAHAHA! It's… HAHAH!" She started but she was laughing too hard to finish.

"WHAT!" Joker shouted so she could hear him over her own laughter.

"Well, all star-ships I've seen look like penises, even the Normandy. From the time when I boarded the Atlantic I have wondered what a girl shaped ship would look like, and If I've ever seen a flying vagina… That's it! Life-long wonder diminished." She exclaimed humorously, Joker shook his head and Kaiden and Ashley started to shake with laughter.

'This crew might not be so bad.' Was her last thought before they boarded the Citadel.

As the doors to the Presidium Tower hissed open Nythari marveled at it's beauty.
"And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the tax-payer money at work." She joked, she heard a snicker from Ashley but nothing from Kaiden. They had only taken a few steps before the strange looks came, Quarians weren't exactly welcome on the Citadel but Nythari was here on business, the laws would have to wait. After they trudged up the first flight of stairs a turian clad in blue armor and blue clan-markings approached them.

"Bloody C-sec." She cursed under her breath before greeting him.

"Problem Officer?" She asked in her sweet and innocent voice, not like it would help, she knew what was coming.

"Indeed, my name's Officer Vakarian, of Citadel Security. C-sec as most people know it. I'm very sorry but you are not permitted to be on this station." He said it politely but Nythari decided to push some buttons.

"I'm a quarian, yes… So what? On our Fleet or our Flotilla do we not let races of other origins board? Let me ask you this, are you attempting to arrest me because my people invented the geth or is it just pure racism? If you're talking about Alien Acceptance laws I have every right to be here don't I and racial exclusion from a station or planet is against the law isn't it? So tell me this Mr. Vakarian, by refusing me entry to the Presidium are you not breaking the law you claim to work for?" She asked, knowing it would get to him.

"I… Umm…" He started then he sighed and shook his head.

"Look quarian, I hate these jobs. I feel no hatred towards your people, I'm just doing my job." Nythari smirked under her helmet at the mans response, just as she had hoped for.

"Your job is to round up small quarians who end up besting you at Citadel Law? Must be an exhilarating ride! Too bad you don't have the cranial capacity to understand that word" She mocked, the turian put his face in his hand and tried to hide a scoff. 'Li'l smart ass aren't you' He thought, he didn't know if he was amused of irritated by the too smart girl.

"And this coming from… I'd say about a 100 year old." Nythari scowled at him calling her a child, and then at Kaiden for telling him how old she really was.

"18? Where's your mummy and daddy darling?" He mocked, Adventi, Turians, Asari and Quarians are long live species so to them 100 is about the human 13. Adventi actually become fertile when they're 18, the same with Turians and Asari, but they are not permitted to drink until the age of 300… by Adventi law that is. So as you can imagine 18 is about 2 in their years, although they develop slightly faster than humans, once an Adventi gets to the age of 30, their physical appearance changes at a much slower rate… You see, one Adventi year after full (physical) maturity is 100 human years. Adventi elders are considered extremely wise, and they are. Adventi can live for over 5,000 years if they are in pristine health. Some elders were at the very early ages of life when humans first mastered space-travel, Nythari's grandfather fought in the first contact war. The war humanity started when they first discovered the other races, especially Adventi and Turians, Nythari didn't understand why humans so fetished war… they had 4 upon themselves, the wars they called world wars, and 8 with the galaxy… which they all lost.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. In theory I am mature because I'm 18, which in human years is old apparently… Anyway, I need to go. I have a meeting with the…Council… So umm… yeah. Bye! Been nice almost getting arrested by you, Toodles" She cringed at the word council… she even hated it, let alone the people that form it. At that she nodded an walked away. And well, she wasn't completely mature… alright she had the demeanor of a child but she got the job done, and at least she had a sense of humor 'Sharper than a knife, Her and Garrus would get along just great.' He thought.

'Well, a quarian on the Citadel… The boys sure to meet her. I can already hear the sirens.'

Was his last thought before disappearing into an elevator.

"I'm sorry Miss Vas-Neema but Saren is one of our best agents and we refuse to listen to fool accusations, we will also have to remove you as a candidate for the Spectres." The Asari said, looking down her nose at the infuriated Quarian/Adventi in front of her.

"Exactly! He is one of your best agents! That just gives him more of a reason to go rouge! You have to listen to her you blue bitch! If you don't you could be his next victim!" Kasumi exclaimed in an attempt to convince her, calling her a blue bitch didn't do much for her point though.

"Yeah! What she said! Minus the blue bitch yadayadayada " Nythari rambled making the turian councilor smirk.

"Until you have solid evidence of his betrayal we will be forced to dismiss all claims." The old, blue woman stated, the turian councilor shook his head at her then said.

"Mhm, sure. He's one of YOUR best agents, so I am quite convinced you are being pathetically bi-ist. Shepard, If you and your team want a fair trial then bring the evidence on-board the Xarxes, the Salarian and I will be on board for the next month." Nythari smiled at him.
"Thank you Mr. Fortimensdaka… dude, thank you dude, I won't disappoint you." With that she, Kasumi-Goto, Ashley, Kaiden and Anderson left the Council chambers to talk to the Ambassador, Udina. Her previous Captain.

"Shepaaaaaard, you neeeeeeeed to go seeeeee a maaaaaan caaaallllllllled Garrrrrrrrrrrusssssss Vakkkkaaaaaariaaaaaaaan" Udina stated painfully slow, his assistant pushed him aside and started talking.

"Garrus Vakarian is a C-Sec officer, you encountered his father Aledias earlier today, Garrus had been investigating Saren for 2 months now, he could be a useful asset to your team." He sounded like Chakwas when he talked, only lower.

"Okaaaaay, where do I find this turian, hmm?"

"I'm actually not sure, we can't find a location he's stayed in for more than a few hours, beside his house. But it's best not to break in if you want to leave a good impression…" Nythari giggled, at that moment Anderson stepped in.

"I have a… contact. Nothing gets past him, his name's Harkin." He stated, approaching the slender Adventi in front of him. Nythari cringed at the name Harkin, she had met him before, he was a pig. Always trying to get lucky with women far out of his league, so every woman in the galaxy…

"Hmm, at Chora's Den no doubt, not my type of club… Not a fan of but-cracks and boobies being shoved in my face, or other women at that so yeah… I think I'll send Kaiden and Drake on this one." She jokingly told Anderson.

"Also, Shepard. I am putting forwards a recommendation for you to be Spectre, the Asari won't like it but the Turian actually suggested it... so if you don't find any evidence you'll have a better chance ."

"Me? The girl who just said but-cracks and boobies?" Ashley and Kasumi laughed, a few minutes later Udina's omni-tool pinged.

"Mr. Udina Crowley, a military lieutenant wants to see you and Mr. Braden Anderson." The auto-tuned, female, Artificial Intelligence voice chimed.

"Seeeeeeendddd hhhhhim innnn…" The A.I. obeyed, a moment later a muscular male quarian waltzed in with 4 body guards… All Adventi.

"Hmph, the Admiral told me I was boarding a new vessel. An Alliance Starship, apparently." He said, his voice was deep and slightly unnerving. Anderson stepped forward and raised his hand.

"Ah yes, we were told we were getting a new lieutenant. Please, come over and we shall discuss your role on the Normandy. I assume these men are coming with you?" Anderson had to project his voice so he could be heard over Kasumi and Ashley's constant chatter, Nythari, however was in the Assistants office trying to figure out if breaking into the officers apartment would be a better alternative than speaking to Harkin, she could still hear everything going on but couldn't see anything thanks to the office's clouded window.

"Affirmative." The man stated.

"Ah, Okay. Let's step inside the office, you can meet your Commanding Officer, she's inside discussing the latest mission."

"She?"

"Yes, She. I understand that the Renyachi are skeptical about female warriors… Trust me, She's not just your run-of-the-mill Commander. She prefers to kill with her mind rather than her fists, biotic bloody marvel too." With that the quarian nodded and followed Anderson into the office in-which Nythari was pacing, when the quarian walked in she stopped her work and stood up straight. She took her helmet off to greet him, face-to-face. Screw Chakwas, a few minutes won't do anything. When he saw Nythari's face, the mans arms fell to his sides and he gasped.

"I don't believe this… Nythari?" Her huge, Almond shaped eyes had lost their glow, they hadn't glowed at all since that thing with the beacon so now they were just big, sparkly eyes the color of sand but he still recognized them. The man took off his mask to reveal his face, he had the same adorable button nose, although his was bigger that hers, the same almond eyes, though his were quite a bit smaller than hers and the same face shape, high cheekbones, defined jaw and pointy chin.

"O-Oquaan!" She exclaimed, walking towards him with a huge grin that still managed to look small and dainty.

"You've changed… a lot." He said, staring at the girl he expected to be… well… he wasn't really sure what he expected, the last time he met her she was a tiny, naïve child that was so connected to her spiritual side that it actually frightened her, she would see ghosts and then run to Oquaan.

"Vanassan Tri Cora Olestra Matramandre, Clanborn."

"I'm sorry, sister. I have lost the voice of the people, I now only speak in the human tongue."

"Thessra Guide You, Brother. I shall have to take you to Karvann so you can re-join the people and re-gain our combined voice." She spoke of the ritual that binds all Adventi, they meld souls with one-another and see into each others minds, which for some can be traumatic. The clans do not have a language… they have a voice, it cannot be taught. You are born with it, If you do not speak it for too long, then you lose the voice. The only way to re-gain the voice is to go through the Vashanna, the soul melding ritual, and meld souls with another Adventi, known among themselves as The Kindred. A Kindred can only meld souls with that of family, so Nythari could perform it for Oquaan, but she would loose control over her mind… as would he… for a short while. Nythari, however was never in full control… All Adventi have 3 demons, some more potent than others. It didn't help that hers were Tasna, Wakakiri and Makudu. Tasna is form of rage, it makes Adventi loose themselves to the Beast… the Beast is the part of an Adventi that only knows to kill, it feeds off peoples pain… literally… When Adventi loose themselves to the Wakakiri, they begin to see peoples darkest sides… They can learn anybody's biggest, dirtiest secret just by looking them in the eye, the persons soul opens up to the Kindred and the Kindred can learn things about a stranger they have told anyone without talking to them or touching them… This can be a great burden when with your friends or idols. Makudu is one of the worst demons, it gives you knowledge of yourself… in Nythari's case… her insanity… The Makudu can push a Kindred so far that they commit suicide, all because of a voice in their head that constantly tells you your flaws, or what you think are your flaws… Most Adventi that end their lives hear the voice in their head and begin to think they're insane, of course If they believe it, so does the Makudu. The Makudu constantly tells them they are crazy, so much it drives the Kindred actually crazy. Nythari knew she had some of the worst demons, but it didn't really bother her, her mind was a lot stronger that most.

"So… this is your brother?" Anderson asked, confused. Nythari smiled her sickly sweet smile and nodded, she then earnt a noogie from her long-lost brother.

"Well, I imagine you will want to tell him all about your life and vice-versa." He stated, giving them both a shove.

"And maybe you can get familiarized with the Normandy at the same time."

"Yessir!" Oquaan saluted.

"You don't need to be so formal you know, we aren't tight-asses like the Renyachi." Nythari joked, nudging her brother with her elbow.

"Oh, my apologies…" He apologized.

"Ugh! I need to teach you how to talk" At that she linked arms with Oquaan and skipped away.

"Later Anderson" she yelled at Anderson.

"Bye Nythari." He yelled back.

Nythari had shown him all her baby photos, her pictures from the Alliance high-school and her public school on Karvann. She showed him pictures of her, Deelia and Joker, which made her cry and told him her life-story.

"It's good to have family." She said, hugging him.

"Hahaha… Sure is." Oquaan laughed and Nythari flicked him in the head, earning herself another noogie.

"Okay, how many of these do I have to expect?"

"Well, seeing as you're still a smart ass, lots." She rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at him.

"Hello? We're coming up to the lower reaches of the Citadel. Suit up and get out." Jokers voice bounced off the walls, Nythari looked down at her oversized t-shirt she had gotten at a place called London and her leggings, she couldn't exactly ask somebody to join her team looking like that.

"Well, unless I'm asking him to be a hobo with me, I think I'll wear something else." At that she disappeared, Oquaan's omni-tool pinged, he picked it up and touched the screen. There was a message saying…

Suit up, you're coming with us. Can't have me being scarred for life in Chora's Den without you coming along to take a picture, assuming you're the ass you used to and seem to be I wouldn't be surprised if you actually did. Be ready in 20 mins.

Nythari

Oquaan smiled at the message and then left to get changed into his armor.

Ashley, Oquaan and Nythari walked into Chora's Den, the music was extremely loud and there were Asari everywhere, a dancer spilt a strange violet liquid all over Nythari's new armor and then tried wiping it off franticly.

"No thanks it's fine" She said, pushing the Asari away.

"Stupid blue lesbians." She grumbled under her breath as another offered her a drink. When she got to a corner inhabited by an old man, she shivered.

"Why the hell couldn't we just break into the guys house?" She asked Ashley as they approached Harkin.

"Hey Darling, that quarian getup looks real good on that body of yours. Let me buy you a drink, see where this goes." He said, earning two punches in the stomach, one from Oquaan and one from Nythari.

"Never, ever, talk to my sister like that again old man or I will blow your head of." Oquaan threatened, making Nythari smile.

"Pft! I was in the army before you were born kid, you don't want to test me. I could break your little quarian legs with my pinkie finger"

"You lay a hand on him I paint the walls with your brains."

"Jesus, talk about over protective siblings. Alright, you want something or can you piss off? I'm tired of being threatened by babies."

"Seriously! Do you have a death wish?" Nythari pulled out her gun and planted it on the table.
"The threats just got serious, tell me where Garrus Vakarian is."

"Okay, okay. He is with Dr Michele Lorenz, in her medical bay. He had some sort of injury or something I don't know the details." He put his hands up defensively, Nythari nodded and threw 5 dollars at him.
"For your trouble jackass." At that she strode away, Ashley and Oquaan close behind.

The doors to Dr Michele's med bay whooshed open to reveal about 20 thugs, one holding the doctor at gun-point. 10 of the thugs surrounded Nythari, the man calling himself Reaver picked up a baseball bat.

"Oh…" Nythari started, what came after 'Oh' was anyone's guess, but there was a large chance it wasn't 'Dearie Me'. The baseball bat hit her temple hard, effectively disorientating her, surprisingly enough, not knocking her out . Ashley and Oquaan scrambled to cover unseen, trying to figure out how to grab Nythari and stay that way.

"Look here Vakarian! Two hostages! Trash the investigation or the old woman and the pretty little quarian get it." Reaver yelled at the turian hiding behind a crate, he ripped Nythari's mask off her face, alerting her and making her regain her focus in the process. The turian gave up.

"Okay Reaver, I'll dump the investigation." He rose from his cover, wisely keeping his gun in one hand and putting his other up in surrender, his electric blue eyes looked into Nythari's bloodthirsty, gold eyes and saw power, he almost flinched when he saw a white spark. Nythari shook her head.

"Like hell you are!" At that she elbowed her captor in the groin and sent the others around her flying with her biotics.

"Ashley! Oquaan!" Her companions sprung out of cover and started shooting, keeping mindful of the two civilians. Nythari took on five of the thugs herself, she shot one in the face and landed a biotically charged punch in another's stomach. A thug grabbed her around the waist and held her at gun point, she cursed under her breath and released her hand from his grip, taking hold of the gun herself and manipulating his hand, using his own strength against him. When the gun reached his temple, her dexterous fingers found the trigger, and pulled it. She turned to face her next attacker, who was carrying a tire iron, Nythari pulled out her dagger and spun around him, disorientating him and getting behind him. She then slit his throat, painting her hands crimson. The last she stabbed up the nose, slicing his brain. She looked no where near as innocent as she did earlier, she was covered in the red liquid she now recognized as human blood and was wearing a savage grin.

"Who are you?" The turian asked, looking dazed.

"Just an angry little girl with a knife." She pulled her shotgun out, making the turian flinch, and pointed it to the hospital bed. She heard a quiet squeal then a thug came rushing out, before he could take two steps Nythari landed a bullet through his head.

"And a shotgun." He stated, pointing at the gun she was now holstering.

"Well, you haven't run away screaming yet so that's a good sign, my name's Nythari."

"Shepard Vas-Neema!" Oquaan shouted from behind, Nythari rolled her eyes and smiled at the turian eyeing her cautiously.

"M-My name's Garrus."

"Ah, just the turian I was looking for. Investigating Saren I hear, well… so am I."

"What? Why?"

"He killed Nihlus and now I'm copping the cold shoulder from the council, 'fool accusations' she said, well, maybe with some evidence that bitch would listen." Nythari seethed, earning a concerned look from Oquaan.

"Fist is working with Saren…" Said a somewhat distressed voice from the other end of the room.

"Dr Lorenz? Fist? Who is Fist?" Nythari asked, approaching the plump, red-haired, older woman.

"Fist, the owner of Chora's Den, human, I think. I've never met him before."

"Hmm, looks like we're paying Fist a visit."

"You may be able convince him, assuming you're a good speaker."

"I'll stick with shooting him in the face until he tells me thanks." Michele shook her head, Garrus sprung up from his seat as they were leaving.

"Take me with you! Please… I want to find Saren as much as you do! He killed one of my friends… the bastard's gunna pay!" Nythari smirked.

"Welcome on-board Vakarian." Garrus, confused asked…

"How do you know that's my name?"

"You look like your father… just younger."

"My dad? Oh spirits don't tell me you met him." Nythari laughed and nodded.

"Miss Vas-Neema? How are you not dead? You're not wearing a mask."

"One, call me Tai. Two, I'm only half quarian, same as this guy over here." She said, gently removing Oquaan's mask.

"He's my brother."

"Oh… okay then." Nythari gave Oquaan and Ashley a shove.

"Come on ladies let's go" She looked back at a still dazed turian.

"That includes you Garrus."

"You're good to go." Chawkwas stated, observing her vitals. Nythari punched the air and cheered.

"Put on some warm clothes though, it's icy. Can't have you wearing those tiny things, your poor little legs will freeze." She gestured at the shorts Nythari was wearing and gave her a pair of black sweat pants. The doctor poked her in the stomach, making her giggle and flinch.

"You're too skinny, eat some cake will you"

"I can't eat cake, It's practically poison. Remember, I can't eat levo based foods, so none of your flour, or iggs or muk."

"Correction, none of your flour, or eggs or milk"

"Stop flinging fancy words at me! I liked them better how I said them." Karen laughed her funny sounding, posh laugh then looked over at the door, which was ringing, indicating that somebody wanted to come in.

"Hello?" She asked through the speakers.

"Hi, it's Garrus. Crazy guy over here broke my mandible"

"Sorry!" Said Oquaan's voice in the background. Karen turned to face Nythari, only to find her completely redressed.

"How… Ugh! I don't have time for your physics-defying ways." Nythari laughed.

"Only humans have physics, we can defy the rules for they don't apply to us." Karen looked stunned, as she stared at Nythari whilst opening the door control. Garrus limped in clutching his left mandible and moaning.

"I told you not to spar with Oquaan! He's a heavily trained solider and you're a rookie cop! Vassra! You look terrible!" Nythari exclaimed, earning an eye-roll from the groaning turian. Karen helped him onto a hospital bed and when she turned around Nythari was gone, she shook her head, looking at the untouched door controls and pristine ventilation shafts.

"How does she do it?"

The doors to Chora's Den whooshed open to reveal an ambush, they hadn't heard the door open… luckily. Nythari pushed Garrus and Oquaan to an alcove between two booths.

"Okay, we can use this against them, if you two can manage sneaking. Garrus, because you're experienced with sniper rifles you'll go up onto that deck, take out the guard silently, and when the big guy to the left goes down, fire at will. Oquaan, because you are our tank you will stay here until the big guy to the left goes down. Then… do what Krogan impersonators do best… Charge and Shoot, and me… I will convince that big guy to the left that I'm a rookie thug, then… betrayal, I'll shoot him so I can get the other's attention, I'll make it obvious too, I don't like shooting people in the back, I go straight for the face. Also, both of you go for the reavers and big guys. I'll handle the weakling groups. Move out." Both obeyed, Garrus snapped the guards neck and took point on the balcony, watching the whole plan unfold. He thought it was a brilliant plan, ambush an ambush, but if Nythari couldn't persuade the thug, then he would be at her six. He opened the comm. line so he could hear what she was saying.

"Hey man, Fist needed somebody with brains on his team, I took out that Krogan too." The man eyed her curiously and nodded.

"You mark Royloor."

"Yessir!" Instead of saluting she took him by surprise, kneeing him in the groin and grabbing her shotgun. She cocked it back and blew his brains all over the wall.

"Royloor ain't my cupper tea I'm afraid." Garrus silently laughed, 'So macho' he thought as he picked of thugs with his rifle, one by one. Oquaan charged a group of reavers, glowing a faint blue as he did, his magic was very weak but it made a difference. Nythari took on a group of ten, she jumped about 5 feet into the air and spun, straightening her legs out from her sides, kicking each of her attackers in the face. With Adventi's dangerously strong legs a kick in the head or neck can often be fatal. All of them had broken faces but only one died, by the look of the strange angle of his neck, she supposed she had broken it.

"Time to bring out the big guns." She said as she back flipped out of the circle of thugs, as she did she transformed into a Loskadadian, the creature humans got the idea of dragons from. The creature fried some with it's fiery breath and mauled the others with it's tail, once again, the sandy colored, unique eyes were recognizably Nythari's. It then flew into the air with the remaining two thugs in it's mouth and flung them into the sky, shattering their bones on impact with the concrete floor. Mid-air, she transformed back into a satisfied, stunning young girl, who had a savage smirk drawn across her delicate face. She landed gracefully in a crouched position with one arm extended. Garrus stared in awe, he had been told about the gift but had never seen it in action.

"Fist's welcoming committee may not do him so well in the end, as lovely as the gesture was."

"How did you know they had trouble with a Krogan?" Garrus asked curiously.

"There's always gunna be one Krogan problem."

On entry to Fist's office Nythari was shot in the shoulder, Garrus, Oquaan and Fist were all amazed at how it didn't seem to faze her, she was acting like nothing happened.

"Hahaha! You think your so tough with your manservants and fancy guns, but your still a girl and I'm a fucking GOD!"

Nythari smirked at his confidence, it was largely misplaced.

"All I want from you is answers, there doesn't have to be a fight."

"Pft! You'd like that wouldn't you gorgeous, but no, I don't got info, that quarian does, little does she know she's running straight into an ambush. Stupid woman, almost as stupid as you for messing with me. Guess what, in 2 minutes she's a dead lady." Nythari shook her head.

"Like hell she is you boshtet!"

"What you gunna do? Paint my nails until I die of boredom?"

"You can talk the talk but let's see if you can walk the walk after I break your legs." At that she shot out both his kneecaps out with her pistol, leaving him in a mushy, fleshy pile on the floor, groaning in pain.

"Nope." Nythari blew up the nearby door with her biotics and ran out, both her companions following closely.

The dark, rank alley was lit a dim red by the old lights that ran across the pipes. It was still to dark to see properly so Nythari used Alteration Magic to brighten it just enough so they could see, it was the perfect place for an ambush. Nythari smelt smoke, Oquaan's head shot up just as hers did, thanks to their superior sense of smell they could both smell it whereas Garrus couldn't. She placed a hand on Garrus' forearm and her hand alit with green as did his entire arm, she used a spell called 'Mirrored Senses' to give him the superior sense of hearing, smell and taste that Nythari and Oquaan had, hoping that his 4 years of drugs and smuggling research and eventually work would help him identify the smell. His mandibles flicked up in a turian-style smile.

"Nokna, a turian herb, Gotch, a type of paper made from Tik. I'd say it was a cigar." Nythari's eyes widened into a surprised expression that didn't quite reach her mouth.

"Remarkable, I recognized the Tik smell but I didn't know it was paper. You really are turning out to be a brilliant asset to our team Garrus." She patted him on the back and Garrus blushed a funny, bluish color. They approached the scene to see a female Quarian, 10 Drell assassins and a turian smoking a cigar. He held the woman at gun-point but when he noticed the young Adventi approaching he turned his attention to her.

"You two, hold her down. I'm going to take care of our visitor." Nythari gestured for her teammates to stay unseen in the dark as she stepped forwards.

"I-I don't where I am! Please don't hurt me! I-I'm lost! I-I'm new to the Citadel! Wh-what are you doing to her? I'm only 18 please don't kill me! Oh Keelah!" She panicked, the quarian shot her head up when Nythari used the quarian term.

"Damn she's a good actor" Garrus whispered to Oquaan.

"You might want to get running darling, let's hope your fast or I might just catch you." The turian let out a morbid laugh.

"Oh there's no chance of you catching me, but I have something else In mind…" It was her turn to laugh.

"I'm going Keelah bitch." Oquaan and Garrus laughed, getting the turians attention. Before he had time to react to the ambush Nythari was running circles around him, looking more akin to a blur than anything else and disorientating him . She then jumped up unnaturally high and disappeared into the pipes on the ceiling, the turian looked behind him to find all his drell in a pool of their own blood and a stunned quarian unmoved. Nythari lowered herself behind him and jumped onto his shoulders, making him start to buck like a bull. She then did what was so natural to her, she snapped his neck, as he fell she leapt of his shoulders to land in front of the distressed quarian.

"Keelah! How did you do that!"

"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha, it's a secret."
"O-Okay, did your slaughter have a purpose?"

"Yes, you."

"What!?"

"You have information on Saren, I need it."

"Wait, let me start over. WHO ARE YOU!?"

"My name's Nythari Shepard Vas-Neema and the 2 knuckle-heads behind me are Oquaan Shepard Vas-Neema and Garrus Vakarian."

"By the ancestors! This is such an honor!"

"What the whaa…?"

"Vas-Neema! You are Jononten's daughter! That would make you Lyterni's and Trondour's granddaughter! You're basically royalty back on the Migrant Fleet!"

"Ummm… Why?" Oquaan asked, approaching.

"Well you're Jononten's children, he was the head of Admiralty Board, so he was basically the president and Lyterni is the head of the Elder Council. So she's basically queen along with Trondour, your grandfather." The woman's voice was similar to Nythari's, only deeper.

"They say that you are a magical masterpiece and are as beautiful as the many winds, that even Dibella is no match. They say that you can meld with the shadows and can talk to nature, that you're a druid." Nythari blushed and awkwardly looked at the floor.

"I am a druid and a shadow but I don't know about the rest."

"I do" Garrus stated, making Nythari blush an even deeper purple.

"Awww, you look adorable when you do that." Oquaan teased making Nythari pout and cross her arms.

"And you! They say you're a great warrior! The best! And are as handsome as all the suns combined! I see they are right."

Oquaan then did the same thing as Nythari, he stammered.

"Can somebody get rid of this damn blush! I look like Nythari!."

"Sure thing brother, be careful what you wish for, you just might get it." Nythari chimed, she then kneed him in the groin, making him groan in pain and fall to the floor and making his skin return to it's natural grey, maybe even a few shades lighter.

"You enjoy doing that don't you." Garrus nudged Nythari with his elbow.

"Yep." She retorted.

"Anyway, may I know your name." Nythari asked the Quarian.

"Ah yes, my name's Tali Zorra Narayya. I'm a quarian machinist. I also have proof of Sarens betrayal"

"What! GIMME!" Nythari started jumping