Four hours after leaving the Citadel, the Normandy landed in the spaceport of planet Kierlack. Known for its outrageous crime rates, Kierlack is a hub for batarian slavers to sell their "wares" to the public without fear of the Alliance interfering.

"I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that the biotic is going to be put on display in that arena over there," Garrus said as he followed Shepard to the nearest taxi.

Shepard cast a look over his shoulder at the turian. "What makes you say that," he asked with a smile.

Garrus Vakarian nodded in the direction of a large arena far off in the distance. "Possibly all of the spotlights coming from that arena over there, along with the flashing advertisements along the streets asking to come and see the most powerful biotic ever discovered at the Kierlack Arena."

The commander nodded.

It had been a week since the Normandy had left the Citadel, leaving Captain Anderson behind. After telling them about a Prothean expert named Liara T'Soni, Anderson also mentioned hearing about some batarian slavers that some how managed to capture, what they claim is, the most powerful biotic ever discovered. The intriguing part was that these slavers claim that the biotic is crazed, as it keeps ranting about Reapers and how the galaxy was in danger from an impending attack. Since no one has heard of or believes in the existence of Reapers, the batarians had no reason to believe that the biotic was mentally sound. On a hunch, Anderson had asked them to investigate this biotic to find out what they know about the Reapers. A week later, here they were on the crime and poverty stricken world of Kierlack.

"I just hope that this biotic actually knows something that can help us," Shepard stated. "It would be nice to catch a break."

Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, who had been trailing behind the two, spoke up and said, "This biotic must know something. It's too much of a coincidence for someone to turn up talking about Reapers and imminent attack on the galaxy right as Saren is attempting to return the Reapers from dark space."

Once again, Commander Shepard nodded in agreement. He just hoped that this biotic wasn't as crazy as the batarians said it was. Otherwise, he feared he wouldn't be able to get any information out of them that could be of any use to the Normandy team and they would have come all this way for nothing.

The three Normandy squad members, after paying the fare, all hopped into the nearest taxi and were soon speeding off in the direction of the Kierlack Arena.

While they flew over the brightly lit city, a question formed in the commander's mind and he proceeded to turn to his teammates. "Why would they bring the biotic to an arena? Isn't it more secure to bring them to somewhere safer, like a specific building?"

"On any other planet, yes, but here the slavers don't have to worry about disguising what their merchandise is. There are no laws or law enforcement on Kierlack so the slavers can't be charged with anything. Because of this, whatever they catch must be put on display at the arena for potential buyers. With this one in particular, though, they must be expecting a full house. Who wouldn't want to get their hands on as powerful a biotic as they are saying?"

"But it does beg the question: if this biotic is so powerful, how did they get captured by slavers? With biotics like theirs they should have been able to fight their way out no problem, but they didn't. Why?"

The Spectre shrugged. "We'll just have to ask them when we meet them."

"Which," Tali continued, "brings me to my next question. Do we even know if the biotic is male or female? Or even what species it is? The batarians just keep calling it the most powerful biotic ever discovered, but they never said anything more than that."

"It's probably to draw in the crowd. They get curious as they wonder which species gave birth to a biotic as powerful as the one they keep describing. To find out for themselves, they buy tickets to the show find out," Garrus said matter-of-factly. "Though, if I had to venture a guess, I would put my credits on it being an asari. Each one is born with biotics and asari matriarchs are known for the incredible amount of biotic power each one possesses."

"That's true, but for one thing, asari matriarchs are not that easy to capture. Like you said, they have an immense supply of biotics to protect them and they also never venture out to parts of the galaxy where slavers are. They stay in densely populated areas where they can serve as honored advisors. No matriarch has any reason to be this far out in the Terminus systems," the quarian concluded.

Shepard listened as the two went back and forth on their theories on what the biotic's gender and species could possibly be.

Five minutes later, the skycar set itself down right in front of the colossal arena. The doors open and the odd three stepped out into a massive crowd of anxious spectators awaiting their turn to enter the arena. Flashing lights blinked and waved over the sky, determined to get everyone's attention.

"I'll go get us some tickets," Garrus said before disappearing into the sea of diverse spectators.

Shepard looked around the crowd lazily, once again finding himself hoping that the biotic was worth it. A nudge from an elbow interrupted his surveillance of the crowd. He turned to see Tali nodded sideways through the crowd. "Some old friends have come to meet our new friend," she stated with a hard tone to her voice.

The human turned, discretely, to look in the direction she had indicated. Immediately he noticed four humans. Each one had a pistol belted to their waist and wore matching uniforms, but that wasn't what Tali had noticed. It was the familiar symbol stitched into those uniforms, which could only belong to one organization.

"Cerberus," he said icily as he returned his gaze to the gate. "What are they doing here? We don't even know that the biotic is a human."

"It's possible they found out some how by bribing or threatening one of the slavers," Tali said thoughtfully. "Even if it isn't a human, they still may want the biotic to find out how it had obtained so much power."

"Either way, we are not letting Cerberus get that biotic."

Garrus appeared through the crowd and handed each of them their tickets. Shepard proceeded to inform the turian of the unexpected attendees to this show. Garrus looked in the direction of the Cerberus agents, his mandibles twitching in irritation.

After about fifteen more minutes of waiting in line, and a few more wary glances in the direction of the Cerberus representatives, the Normandy squad finally managed to squeeze through the gate and into the area. Already, the stands were three fourths of the way full. The three of them were lucky enough to get a seat in the middle of the stands, near the aisle, in case they had to act in opposition to anything the Cerberus members might try to do.

Another half an hour passed as the seats in the stadium continued to fill with an eager audience. The air hummed with activity as hundreds of conversations overlapped one another. The bright lights continued to flash in the night sky, overshadowing any chance of seeing the stars. Then, suddenly, all of the lights directed their attention on the large stage at the center of the colossal arena. The spotlight fell upon a human man who had just emerged onto the stage.

"Ladies and gentlemen! I welcome you to Kierlack Arena for this special occasion! Today, we celebrate the advancement in the evolutionary chain as a new, more powerful biotic emerges to challenge what we believe to be true power. While attempting to capture this biotic for your viewing, and maybe even purchasing pleasure, twenty one men were killed. Rest assured that no harm will come to you from this crazed powerhouse. We have state of the art technology to keep the biotic's powers in check."

At this the man gestured to four tall metal pillars arranged around the stage. Shepard had seen nothing like it. He wasn't sure how it was going to contain the biotic's supposed exceptional powers.

"We have also taken additional steps such as sedating the biotic so that even if it managed to free itself, it wouldn't even be conscious enough to use them. In case, even this fails, we have hired mercenaries standing by for your protection."

The three members of the Normandy crew looked around and noticed at least thirty mercenaries ringing the stage of the arena, assault rifles drawn and at the ready.

"Now! Our main attraction is arriving by air short-" The announcer was cut off as someone began talking over his comm. system. A couple of words were exchanged before the man turned his attention back to his captivated audience. With a broad smile he said, "Ladies and gentlemen! Asari, humans, turians, batarians, salarians, elcor, hanar, and any other species in attendance! I give you the most powerful biotic in the galaxy!"

As if from cue, a massive ship flew over Kierlack Arena. Its roaring engines were deafening, causing the spectators to clap their hands over their ears. The gusts of wind generated by the massive ship were so strong that the audience had to take a firm grip on their possessions, as well. The ship slowly, gingerly moved over the arena until it was hovering directly above the stage. At this, a circular section of the stage disconnected from the rest and began to rise toward the ship.

"Where the hell did slavers get the money for all of these toys," Shepard asked almost to himself.

"I don't know. They are clearly not taking any chances with this biotic though. Maybe they weren't all talk after all. Maybe this biotic is as powerful as they claim," Garrus speculated.

Tali nodded in agreement with the two as she continued to watch the platform rise into the air to meet the ship. When the platform was halfway to the ship the cargo hold opened its door to greet it. Light spilled from the opening in the ship and definite shadows of multiple figures could be seen waiting in the hold. When the platform reached the ship, the people in the cargo hold stepped onto it.

Suddenly, the four metal towers ringing the stage flared to life. They sent out long blue tendrils that extended to intercept the shadowy figures as they descended from the sky. When the blue ribbons reached them, they wrapped themselves around the wrists and ankles of a small figure in the center of a group of heavily armed soldiers, who were obviously mercenaries. Two soldiers had their hands entwined around, what was assumed to be, the biotic's arms. Four more men ringed the biotic, gripping something tightly in their scarred hands. As the platform descended closer and closer to the stage, it became clear that the four mercenaries were actually gripping chains in their hands. The chains were wrapped around the biotic's stomach, to prevent it from moving or running away.

Like it could even think of even running away with all this security. From the amount of mercenaries they have here to the anti-biotic technology installed around the stage, there was no way this biotic could even think of escaping, Garrus observed.

"It's a little old fashioned to be using chains, isn't it," Shepard said as more of a statement of fact than an actual question. The turian just nodded in agreement and continued to watch.

With a slight hiss, the platform reconnected to the rest of the stage and its passengers began to proceed off it and head towards the eager announcer. The two mercs on either side of the biotic half dragged, half carried the biotic forward, the blue tendrils still attached to its wrists and ankles. The biotic was hooded from a thick brown jacket, still not revealing what species or gender the biotic was. Just by looking at the silhouette, Garrus could rule out certain species immediately. First, it obviously wasn't a krogan, since it was lacking in the typical large size and weight. It wasn't a salarians or quarian either, since its legs didn't bend the same way as an asari, turian, or human's did. It wasn't a turian either because it didn't have a spike on the back of its legs like all turians had. That just left the asari and humans. Which would it be?

As the mercs dragged the biotic to the announcer, who was happily shouting out details of how the biotic was caught, Garrus noticed the biotic was struggling to even keep its head up.

That's right. The announcer had said they had drugged the biotic, Garrus recalled. He continued to watch them drag the biotic over to the chatty announcer, the biotic still fighting to keep its head up.

When the mercs finally dragged their prisoner before the announcer, the two mercs on either side of the biotic released their grip and the biotic crumpled to the group, apparently too weak to keep its legs beneath it. It stayed there, wavering slightly, as if there was a strong wind that it was struggling to stay upright against. The announcer, with a face television ready smile, marched fearlessly over to the weakened biotic. When he stood before the biotic he reached out and gripped the hood of its jacket. Garrus could feel the excitement radiating from the crowd as everyone crept onto the edges of their seats and held their breath for this moment.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! I give you the most powerful biotic in the galaxy!" With that the announcer ripped the hood off the biotic's head. There was a collective gasp from the audience.

The biotic was a human woman.

She was stunning by human standards. Long tresses of obsidian black hair were tied securely behind her head, except for a few locks that eluded the hair tie and hung around her face. Her skin was pale, but hard to tell just how much since she had so many spotlights fixated on her at that moment that they gave her skin a sort of glow. But it wasn't her hair or her skin color that had the audience captivated. It was her eyes. They were a startling shade of blue. So blue, in fact, it looked like they even had a glow to them. The color of these eyes had a strange effect as they looked at you, like they were looking into the depths of your soul as easily as looking through an open window. They were depthless and filled with a deep fire, but yet Garrus could sense something else...a profound sadness that threatened to drown that fire in her eyes.

His thoughts were interrupted as he realized that the announcer was signaling some of the mercs to try to get her on her feet so that the audience could see her better. Some of the mercs holding the chains gave a little tug. The biotic tilted weakly sideways and would have fallen over if she hadn't caught herself by bracing her arm on the floor of the stage. Then the mercs from the other side tugged harder on their chains.

Suddenly, the human biotic's arm shot up and gripped one of the chains. One second she was sitting weakly and helplessly on the stage floor, in the next she was on her feet and ripping the chain out of the mercs' hand and swinging it around her head like a weapon. She whipped the chain at a merc that she saw reaching for his gun and the chain wrapped around his neck, the force of the blow knocking him onto the ground. This all happened in a matter of seconds and the other mercs hesitated for a split second, stunned by what was happening.

The merc whose chain she had stolen was charging her from behind and the human woman didn't have time to reach before he slammed into her and sent her sprawling, the drugs they had given her apparently still hindering her ability to react quickly. But the biotic was already on her feet and in a protective crouch. The merc immediately threw himself at her again, but the same attack didn't work twice on this biotic. She dodged his lunge and as she leaped out of the way she grabbed the mercs' pistol from his belt. In one swift motion, she brought up her new weapon and smashed it into the back of the mercs' skull. In another second, she turned and fired three shots from the pistol at the nearest anti-biotic device that shackled her. The device sputtered, sparked, and in the next moment exploded, killing three nearby mercs still dumbfounded by what was going on. But the mercs were coming to their senses and beginning to draw their assault rifles and pistols. The biotic saw this as well and quickly shot the two mercs still holding onto her chains and then shot the second anti-biotic device, disabling it. Now, only her ankles were shackled.

Chaos was beginning to ensue in the stands. The biotic was breaking free and none of them wanted to be there when she was completely freed of her shackles. They were beginning to rise and hurriedly push their way towards the nearest exit. Voices were beginning to elevate as the biotic destroyed the devices and shot mercs. The people didn't want to be caught in the middle of a fire fight and were now starting to charge toward the exits.

Shepard stood, drawing the assault rifle from his back and looked at his squad mates. "Let's say we give her a hand," he smiled.

"Right behind you," Tali answered immediately.

The three of them pushed their way through the frantic crowd, trying to reach the stage. A few gave startled yelps as they saw the drawn guns in their hands and immediately proceeded to let them through. Others didn't even notice, too absorbed in their goal to reach the exit. Garrus had is sniper rifle drawn and at the ready as he followed Shepard and Tali down through the crowded stands.

The biotic had managed to get off the stage and into some cover alongside it after taking down three of the devices and more than a few mercs, but the amount of bullets that were flying at her that moment hindered her ability to line up at shot at the last shackle and free herself. Garrus stopped, brought up his rifle, lined up his shot, and fired. The bullet hit home, as it always did, and the last shackle exploded, killing two more mercs. Garrus saw the woman shift a surprised gaze from the destroyed device to the stands where she saw the shot come from. Her eyes locked for a split second on Garrus, reflecting a mix of gratefulness and surprise, but also wariness. But it was gone in the next second as she stepped calmly out of her cover and into the hail of bullets.

But the bullets never reached her as a blue biotic barrier repelled them. The mercs hesitated, unsure whether or not to keep shooting, seeing as how it would do them no good. The woman seized this chance as she hopped back onto the stage and into plain sight. But she could also see all of the mercs. In an instant, she brought up her hands and the familiar blue glow of a biotic enveloped her as her powers flared to life. Suddenly, the gun of every merc attacking her was ripped from their hands and pointed at their own heads. The mercs slowly raised their hands in defeat, fear and hate mixed in each of their eyes.

"Walk out of the stadium now and don't even think of coming back," the biotic commanded. "If you even think of getting help, you will be shot with your own gun. Is that clear?" A few of the mercs nodded their heads while others rolled their eyes in annoyance. Then, with their hands still raised above their heads, thirty or so mercs walked out of Kierlack arena held at gunpoint by their own guns.

Shepard and his comrades were at the stage by this time and stepping around the retreating group of mercs who were being followed closely by a crowd of assorted floating assault rifles, sniper rifles, submachine guns, shotguns, and pistols. They stepped up onto the stage just as the human biotic turned to watch them approach.

"Impressive. You certainly are skilled with biotics," Shepard commented.

The woman eyed the commander warily, her strange blue eyes trailing over every detail and then proceeded to examine Garrus and Tali closer. "What the hell is a member of the N7 program doing here," she asked in a hard tone.

"We came to free you, but it seems you didn't need our help to do that…" Shepard said.

"Pretty much. So it looks like you came all this way for nothing," she said, crossing her arms across her chest.

"Not quite. We came to free you so that you could join us."

This piqued her interest as her eyes suddenly lit up with unmasked curiosity. "Join you in doing what? And why do you want me?"

"Well, we heard that you were talking about Reapers. We think maybe you know something about them."

The biotic froze. After a couple of seconds of staring at Shepard in a stunned silence she said, "I know a little. Why are you looking into Reapers?"

"We have evidence that a rogue turian Spectre named Saren is trying to bring them back from dark space and he is working with the geth to accomplish this," Shepard explained.

"And you think I can help you…?"

"Yes. If you have even a little knowledge about the Reapers it could help. We heard about you telling people that they were coming so you must know something about them if you are able to identify to signs that they are coming back, even before anyone else determines that it is Reapers."

She nodded slightly. "True, but I don't know that much. I don't know how much help I would be," she said.

"Even so, your biotic powers are formidable. You would be a great asset to our team," Shepard said.

"Team? Don't you have an army chasing after this crazy turian?"

Shepard looked down slightly, mixed feelings of disappointment and irritation showing on his features. "No. We are the only ones pursuing Saren. The Council stripped him of his Spectre status and made me the first human Spectre and ordered me to bring Saren to justice, but didn't acknowledge the Reaper threat. We are alone in this."

"Okay. Well, first of all: congratulations, Mr. First Human Spectre. Second of all, don't worry about the council. They're always like that, so what'd you expect? Lastly, I would love to join your merry band of…" she looked at Tali and Garrus, "assorted aliens. But first I need to free the slaves kept here and find my things that they took from me." She turned and began to walk briskly across the stage towards a small metal door at the far end of the arena. Shepard and his squad mates rushed to keep up with her, and Garrus observed that she was still tipsy from the drugs the slavers had given her. She had probably been play acting most of the weak and frail looking parts just so the mercs and slavers would think she really was drugged and get a false sense of security.

Shepard's voice interrupted Garrus' thoughts as he asked, "So, with the amount of power your biotics have, you would have easily escaped from the slavers, but you didn't. Why?"

"I was staying at a colony on Freedom's Progress when the slavers hit. I fought them but they had already abducted most of the colony. I tried to free them but in the process used too much biotic power, showing that I was a stronger biotic than average. You could almost see the money symbols in their eyes. I could've run, but if I did the colonists would be taken away and sold. So I let myself be caught so that I could free them, but I hadn't planned on them drugging me, not to mention those weird anti-biotic things. I have no idea where they got something like that."

"So you intentionally let them capture you so you could free the colonists," Garrus inquired.

"Yeah. How else would I have found them again? I don't have a ship and I had no way of knowing where they would be taken. Besides, there wasn't really time to plan. I had to think on my feet and that was the best plan I could think of at the moment," she answered.

"By the way," Garrus began, "We still don't know your name, unless you prefer being referred to as 'hey you.'"

The black haired woman laughed. "I'm Amalia Carter."

After about another hour, all the slaves were freed and given free transport back to their colony. Amalia received more than a few tearful hugs from grateful colonists, both when they were released and when they were boarding their transport. The biotic just would smile and hug them, seeming genuinely glad to see them safe and happy. Amalia also found her stolen belongings in a makeshift office. All it was was a large, army green duffel bag. Whatever was in it seemed to fill up the entire bag, seeing as how it had bulges and protrusions everywhere.

When the last transport had left, carrying the newly freed slaves back to their homes, Shepard led the way back to the Normandy. Amalia was still groggy from the drugs as she swerved when she tried to walk in a straight line. Garrus was surprised she had been able to function for that long.

Shepard escorted her down to the med bay, insisting that Dr. Chakwas examine her and ensure that the slavers didn't pump anything else into her system. Amalia had immediately protested, forcing Shepard to assert his authority and order her to stay. After that, not a word was said, although she did glare at him as he left the med bay. Dr. Chakwas gave her something that would help speed any drugs she had in her out of her system, but Chakwas wanted to keep her in the med bay for observation, just in case. Amalia just nodded her consent, laid down on the medical bed, and was asleep in minutes.