Hello all!

I've had this idea churning in my head for a while now, I only hope it'll be half as good on paper (so to speak) as it is in my head.

Each chapter will begin with a small "diary" excerpt from a specific character in the story, though the chapter may or may not focus on him or her.

Enjoy!

I didn't like Cerberus.

It had nothing to do with their organization; hell, I didn't even know there were others out there just like us. Maybe if I met a "turian" or a "quarian," whatever the hell they were, maybe I would like them. Maybe not. No, it wasn't Cerberus or what they stood for that bothered me.

It was the Illusive Man.

I never met him in person, not at first. None of us did. But those eyes of his…

Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. Marcus always warned me about that.

After the war was over, after all the Locust and the Lambent had been defeated and the Queen Bitch Myrrah had been killed, things were quiet. Without imulsion for fuel, we were a dead planet. We just sat around for a long time, killing raiding pirate and keeping the Stranded at bay. Suddenly, Cerberus appeared out of nowhere, promising us aid, food, medicine and rebuilding/colonization efforts. It all seemed like a hazy dream the day they showed up.

"What do you think it is?"

"I don't know Baird," Emily replied tersely, "maybe a bird?"

Obviously it was too big to be a bird. Baird made a face and flipped her the finger anyway. As the "bird" got closer, they saw that it looked more like a shuttle, or maybe a space ship. Small jets at the bottom rotated and blasted to slow the shuttle down. The sand below formed a brittle glass as two armored figures emerged.

"What the fu—"

Baird was cut off before he could finish as one of the figures laid a small metal disk on the ground. The figure was very large and ominous as the other was slightly smaller and less stocky. One must have been a male and the other a female. Baird and Emily could only see the reflection of their own confusion in the masks of the strangers. Baird cautiously approached the disk and jumped back when a hologram rose from it.

"You know, I remember reading about these." Emily said excitedly.

"Well, what is it?"

"It's a hologram projector. Have you never seen one before?" The hologram chuckled lightly and lit a cigarette.

They didn't answer. Marcus approached silently from behind and placed one massive hand on Emily's shoulder, pulling her back.

"Go see if Anya and Sam need help."

"Marcus, no. I can—"

"I said go."

Since Marcus was the impromptu leader of the rag-tag band of surviving Gears, there was no point of arguing with him. She turned to walk away, but stopped as she locked eyes with the hologram man. His image was static-y and flickered as Baird ran his hand through it and said something. His eyes remained locked with hers and she shivered, feeling a sudden chill on a hot, windless summer day.

"Wait, don't go." He called after her. "What's your name?"

"Her?" Marcus asked, turning around. He defensively stepped in front of Emily. "You don't need to know."

Emily's cheeks flushed as she briskly walked away to find Anya and Sam. What did he want with her? She was no one. Actually, if you asked around the camp, she was the sleaze that was trying to move between Anya and Marcus. It wasn't true, obviously. Well, not entirely anyway. She always had a thing for Marcus; he was strong, smart as a whip and had a funny way of showing he cared for people. She would never try to come between whatever was between them, though no one but them was sure there even was anything. Marcus cared about Anya and Anya loved Marcus, but they were so secretive about it. They crept around in the night like teenagers disobeying their parents' wishes.

"What's your problem?" Sam teased when Emily finally found her. "What's going on over there? Is that a hologram?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"You know anything about it?" Anya asked, appearing from a nearby tent and looking on with Sam.

"No, why would I?" Emily replied, her annoyance growing.

"Well, maybe because the man in that hologram is glancing in this direction." Sam replied, staring over the hot cobblestone wreckage left over from a once-recent battle.

Emily grunted and went inside the tent to see lancers, pistols and snipers disassembled and laying on burlap sheets. She grabbed a cloth and a bristle and began cleaning the parts, trying desperately to forget about that man's empty stare.

"I just want to know her name. I plan to get to know everyone here." The man sighed, sitting in a very padded, opulent chair.

"The point is that you don't need to know her name." Marcus replied in an angry tone.

"Yeah," Baird agreed, "you've been here twenty minutes now and we don't even know yours."

"My name is unimportant." He replied, taking a long drag of his cigarette, "However, you may call me The Illusive Man if you wish. Everyone else does."

"Alright 'Illusive Man,' what is it you want with us? And how did you even find us?"

"I've had my eye on Sera for quite some time, since the tail end of the Pendulum Wars in fact." He started.

The Illusive Man reached off-screen and accepted a glass of liquid and sipped from it, choosing his next words carefully.

"I know who you are Marcus Fenix; decorated war hero, upstanding citizen and calming the masses when needed. I still retained some of the records, even after the Hammer of Dawn incident.

"Then I suppose you know it's my father you would want and not me."

The Illusive Man's eyes flickered; it would seem that Marcus wasn't the mindless brute he pretended to be. No, there was so much more behind those icy blue eyes.

"Well, speaking to Adam would be optimal for my needs. However, I'm well aware that he's…" The Illusive Man paused for a nanosecond. But a nanosecond was all Marcus needed.

"Deceased." He finished for him, crossing his arms.

The Illusive Man nodded, waving his hand.

"Adam's son is the next best thing then, I suppose. But I digress. You asked why I'm here? I'd like to offer you some assistance."

Before Marcus could answer, Baird scoffed.

"Hey asshole, in case you haven't noticed, your 'assistance' is a little late. If you had all this information on us and Sera, where were you fifteen years ago?"

Marcus couldn't argue with that logic. He looked to the hologram for an answer.

"It was too dangerous fifteen years ago, but I can help you rebuild today."

"Hm." Marcus considered for a brief moment, "No, I don't think so."

The Illusive Man was not expecting that response. He figured if he waited long enough, the Serans would flock to Cerberus, desperate for supplies. He needed another approach. Someone Marcus would certainly listen to under any circumstance. The hologram flickered off and one of the Cerberus soldiers picked it up and went back to the shuttle. They did not take off however; they just stayed there, the only sound was a consistent clicking and clunking as the engine cooled down. Marcus turned around and walked back toward the camp, barking orders to keep everyone busy as he searched for another way to bide the time until they could find another fuel source to keep going.

Back at his hideout, The Illusive Man pondered. His nearly-empty glass filled with amber liquid rested on a small table next to him, waiting to be finished. He stood up and gingerly took in his hand and downed the rest in one sip. He winced from the burn and hurled the glass against the wall.

"You know anger won't help this situation." A seductive voice said from across the room.

"Miranda, I do not need this right now."

"On the contrary, I believe you do need this." She handed him a manila folder.

He looked at her quizzically. He took it and laid it on his desk, spreading the contents.

"I couldn't get it to transfer digitally. Those Serans are so primitive."

"Yes, well it doesn't help that they bombed themselves back to the Stone Age. What is this?"

Miranda coolly reached over his shoulder and pulled a piece of paper out from the pile. It was the girl he locked eyes with earlier and asked her name.

"It's a dossier. I don't know who she is, but some consider her to be important. The only other one I could find was on Marcus. The others were corrupt or unable to transfer."

Her name was Emily Wilda [NAME REDACTED]. Miranda pointed to her name and tapped.

"Her surname is redacted, though I don't know why. It would seem they were trying to edit some of her information before the satellites went out."

Her exact birthdate was redacted as well. She born sometime in July 2160, making her 25 years old. She was orphaned around the time of "Emergence Day" and picked up by Colonel Hoffman. There were other photos of her, all of them striking. She had big, round brown eyes with long eyelashes. Her lips were a pale, rosy color as she barely smiled in her pictures. Her whole face was pale and just served to make her look more like a porcelain doll. The Illusive Man was surprised that such beauty existed in such a shitty place.

"There was a small fling between Emily and Marcus, which set her apart from many people there."

"Why?"

"Well, in part because it's believed that he and Anya Stroud are an unofficial couple. I studied Marcus' dossier further, and as I'm sure you could tell, he's a very quiet and somber man. Doesn't open up easily."

"Why are you telling me this Miranda?"

"Because, I think Emily is the only person that ever got through to him. If you get to her, you may be able to get to Marcus."

The Illusive Man nodded slowly. He should have seen it when Marcus pushed Emily away at their first meeting. The way he angrily and defensively said that The Illusive Man didn't need to know her name.

"Have one of the teams on the ground slip a hologram projector in her room. Tell them to do it quickly and quietly. I don't need Marcus to know."

Miranda nodded tersely. "Right away."

As she walked away, her clacking heels echoed off the walls. When the sound disappeared, The Illusive man picked up Emily's dossier again and stared at her picture. There was no way she was a soldier. She didn't fit the part. She loved to paint, sing and dance. She loved to laugh, though one could never tell by looking at her picture. What was so appealing about Marcus that he drew her in? Truth be told, The Illusive Man didn't particularly care, he just needed her to convince Marcus to accept Cerberus' assistance.

That was all he needed.