This story is a continuation and rerelease of a story by Zorlite. I am humbled by his generosity in allowing RPG Girl and I to finish it for him.

This is a Borderlands X Mass Effect story involving the characters of both in the Mass Effect Campaign. I own nothing in regards to either franchise, I am simply writing a story.

Begin Chapter 1: Crossing Swords

"Are you sure about this?" A beautiful woman asked a man sitting in a chair.

"32,000,000,000.000 credits makes me very sure." The man said back—never looking away from the dying star he always watched. "Give the dossier to the Commander."

"As you wish." The woman nodded and turned to leave the small oval room—the one that projected her likeness to her boss. However she had one question, "If I may be so bold to ask, why is this person so important?"

The man turned to her, "Miranda. This man, whose identity I don't know—even with our vast resources, has escaped every agency in the known universe. He has taken on impossible challenges and come out speaking poetry. This man is dangerous. This man is perfect to help Shepard."

Miranda understanding left the Illusive Man to his star. The Illusive Man took a puff off his half gone cigarette and sighed. He stood and looked around himself; he was alone in a half-way windowed room, staring at a dying star, and he had a massive empire named Cerberus under him. So why did he feel uneasy.

He brought up a life size hologram the dossier's target, and wondered to himself, 'Are you human? Or something more?,' He looked at the man's hands, 'You only have three fingers and a thumb, but have a very human-like body. But then again so do the Asari. I guess at this point in time it doesn't matter.'

He sat in his chair again and smiled. 'Things will always work out in the end.'

"Did you hear me Commander?" Miranda asked, slightly annoyed that Shepard wasn't answering.

Shepard looked at Miranda, then to Garrus, then to Mordin, and finally to Jacob, "I heard you Miranda. I heard you want me to bring upon my ship a wanted criminal with a bounty in the billions."

Shepard looked down to the large oval table that was in the center of the otherwise bare room, "I don't like it."

Garrus' mandibles twitched, but otherwise he remained silent.

Mordin started pacing, but like Garrus didn't speak. This amused most everyone in the room as usually Mordin was always talking or theorizing about this or that.

Jacob was the one that broke the silence, "Commander. While I also have reservations about bringing aboard someone with such a," Jacob paused as he thought of the right word, " infamous reputation. I would think that you of all people would know how desperate we are."

Shepard sighed and messaged her brow, "I never said I wasn't going to get him. I just said I didn't like it." She ran her hand through her hair, "An I do know how badly we need people Jacob."

Shepard sighed again before turning to a now some-what smirking Miranda, "Any idea where this man is Miranda?"

Miranda nodded, "We have a small lead; a rumor that he was going to be on Illium."

Shepard did a double take, "A rumor? Sense when does Cerberus not have solid data?"

Miranda cleared her throat, "This man has been very thorough in making sure no agency gets much info on him."

Shepard smiled, "I like him already."

Miranda rolled her eyes as Shepard announced this. She was accustomed to Shepard's remarks towards herself and Cerberus. She didn't care, but it did get tiresome. She was going to ask Shepard if they were going after the new dossier when Shepard contacted the pilot,

"Joker."

"Yes Commander?"

"Head for Illium."

"Gotcha."

Shepard left the room without another word. She didn't see, but she knew what each of her crew were going to do after the meeting; Jacob would go back to the armory and take stock, Mordin would continue to work on...whatever it was he worked on, and Miranda would report to the Illusive Man. 'Just like any other Monday.'

She walked to the elevator waving at Kelly as she ran past, 'Such an odd girl.' After she got into the elevator she presses the button for the Captain's Deck. As the elevator made its way, it's so very slow way up she took another glance at the dossier in her hands. She read some of it out loud,

"The subject is called Ghost...no information on his real I.D...massive bounty...unique abilities...killer and hero...likes poetry. What an odd dossier."

The elevator doors opened eventually, and Shepard walked into her cabin. She took off her Cerberus civilian clothing, rolled her shoulders, and stretched before heading to her own personal shower. She turned the shower on and just stood there. She let the water, slowly getting warmer, hit her and cascade down her back. The warm water was soothing to her aching muscles.

She 'showered' for a while before Joker's voice interrupted her contemplation, "We are nearing Illium. ETA 15."

She turned the shower off and stepped out. She wrapped her towel around herself, and sighed. She muttered lightly, "One more time Shepard. One more time."

"Yeah man you shoulda seen this one blue bitch. She was sweet. Well, right up until I blew her head off."

"Not before she blew yours, right?"

The two men laughed blissfully unaware that their day was going to end very quickly. Both men continued to talk. They talked about life, their sexual conquests, and even their big bonuses for catching and delivering an Asari to the boss. They kept talking until one of their heads was blown of its shoulders.

"Striking from nowhere / Killing with accuracy / This is who I am"

The second man, the only one left alive, started shooting in the direction the shot had come from. He did so until movement caught his eye. He turned left and saw a man running at him with a sword, and he did the only thing that was natural; he opened fire. The bullets went right through the man. The man stopped however and started doing some weird sword techniques. The Man lowered his weapon...

"That was your fault / You should have paid attention / And looked through the lie."

The man was shocked, "Wha-"

The man didn't finish his sentence as a sword ran him through. The man looked behind himself and saw something that would confuse him for the rest of his very short life. He saw: 0- in red displayed in front of a faceless person. The person had a helmet that was very Quarian like.

The faceless man watched as the life bled out of the man on his katana. He tilted his head to the side and kicked the body off his blade. He looked at his surroundings and chuckled. It had been a long time since he had been in a city like this. He walked slowly to the nearby elevator closely observing the half built walls, the structural weaknesses, and the walls for good ambushing points. He pulled out his trusted SMG, E-Tech of course, and checked the magazine. It had been so long since people had used conventional bullets that he didn't use his Dahl sniper as much as he would like, he also didn't use his corrosive Maliwan pistol, nor his Vladof assault rifle. He mainly used his katana because it didn't require ammunition, and his SMG because since it was E-Tech it used any kind of bullet as ammunition—even the heat sinks that had become so universally popular.

As he thought more and more about this a bright red: { was displayed from his helmet. The elevator was slowing, so it was close to stopping. He jumped up and pulled himself through the man hole on top of the elevator. He held on as the elevator slowed to a complete stop. When the elevator was completely stopped he dropped a grenade into the elevator. It had a 2.5 second fuse so it should be fine. At 1 second the doors opened, at 1.5 three people walked in—one of which was the target: Nassana Dantius, at 2 seconds the door closed, at 2.2 the three people heard, "How hilarious. / You just set off my trap card - / Your death approaches."

"What?" was all the target got out. 2.5 seconds...the three were dead. The job was done. And he was bored. This job wasn't nearly as exciting as he thought it would be.

The elevator, which had been extremely damaged by the grenade, was no longer working. The man looked over the edge of the elevator and sighed, the ground was a very long way down. He stood up and cracked his neck. He leaned over the edge and examined the distance. After a moment or two he was able to estimate that the decent was close to 400ft. He shrugged and jumped. The fall was exhilarating.

Garrus rolled his shoulders, "You sure he's supposed to be here Shepard?"

Shepard turned to her closest friend, "That's what Miranda's contact said."

Jacob remained silent.

Shepard turned back to the tall half-finished tower that the person designated Ghost was supposed to be at. She took five steps before something hit the ground in front of her, missing her by barely a foot, hard. She involuntarily jumped back, and readied her pistol. She was expecting a fight with a mech or some new advanced something or other, but what she didn't expect was to see a man in a black and purple outfit. She stared at the man as he stared at her. Each studying each other, each thinking 'Is this person an enemy?'

Shepard's thoughts: Well armed with at least three different guns, and tense, ready to strike.

The man's thoughts: …

They stayed in this little standoff for a few more moments until Jacob shifted. Jacob's movement caught the man's eyes, or yet Jacob's shotgun caught the man's eyes. Shepard noticed this and noticed that the man dropped ever so slightly lower to the ground,

"Oh, Shi-"

Was all Commander Shepard could get out before the man sprang past her and right at Jacob.

"Bow to my weaponry!" The man called out as a sword, his katana, appeared in his hands and was aimed right for Jacob's heart.