Lance blinked his eyes a few times and looked at the photo closely. There was a man on a metal slab. He had brown hair and a few scars on his face that were likely from him being rebuilt. His eyes were closed and he had some slight stubble on his chin. There was no mistaking it, the man was Commander Shepard. "Holy shit."

He heard knocking on his door and he quickly downloaded all the files to his omni-tool before shutting down his laptop. Then he realized something. I'm not expecting anyone, am I? He looked toward the windows and realized he hadn't tinted them before he started hacking into Cerberus' files. "Damn it." He looked out the window and saw someone watching him from another apartment and trying not to look obvious about it. The man realized Lance was staring right at him and put two fingers to his ear. "Well, that's just great."

Lance vaulted over the couch and ran to his pistols, grabbing one before his door was blown away by an explosion. He took cover in the hall that lead to his room as five figures dressed in black charged through the doorway. He heard them closing towards him and he primed his omni-tool to electrocute the closest attacker. He checked his pistol and saw that it was set to fire chilled rounds. Good, that'll slow 'em down. He saw the barrel of a gun poking around the corner and he readied himself to move first. A figure appeared and Lance raised his omni-tool to the figure's chest, electrocuting him. The figure slumped to the floor and Lance aimed his pistol at the next figure, pulling the trigger and hitting him square in the chest. He ducked back behind the wall as the remaining three started firing. He prepped his omni-tool to launch an incendiary attack, waiting for an opportunity to fire it. The figures stopped firing and Lance launched the incendiary, setting a figure on fire as he shot another figure, nailing him in the head. He ducks behind the wall again as the last figure takes cover behind the couch and the other burns to death. He comes out from around the corner and aims at the couch, waiting for the last figure to show his head.

The figure stands up and Lance fires, only to have the shot be deflected by the figure's shields. "Shit," he curses aloud before he charges at the figure, lunging at him over the couch. The figure's gun goes flying as they go over the table, landing on the floor. Lance places his pistol to the figure's temple and puts his knees on the figure's arms, pinning him. He holds his hand in front of his face as he pulls the trigger. He stands up and looks back to where the man who was watching him was and saw that he was gone. "Gotta be more coming," Lance said to himself. He looked over to the figure he electrocuted and saw that he was trying to move. Lance walked over to him and kicked his gun away. He grabbed the figure by the collar and dragged him to the wall near his window before tearing of his helmet. "Who are you?" Lance demanded, pressing his pistol into the man's temple.

"You're digging into things you shouldn't be messing with," the man responded, his voice hoarse from being electrocuted.

"Fine. If you won't answer me, Aria will get you to talk." Lance hit the man in the head with the butt of his pistol, knocking him out. He set his comlink to a secure channel and contacted Aria.

"Did you find anything?" Aria asked.

"Yeah, but we got a problem."

"What?"

"I got someone tailing me and he's got friends. They just attacked me and I'm thinking it's Cerberus."

"Didn't you cover your tracks?"

"Yeah. I was able to take one of them alive. Think you can get him to talk?"

"Glad to. I'll send some men your way and they'll take care of him."

"Ok. I'm also going to need to get off Omega for the time being."

"Fine. Head to the bunker on D-deck. Paul and Liselle will meet you there."

"On my way." Lance closed the connection before tying up the unconscious man, grabbing his laptop, turning off the music, and leaving his apartment with his pistol holstered. He left the building and traveled to Aria's bunker on D-deck, backtracking several times to make sure no one was following him. He reached the bunker and entered it, seeing Paul, Liselle, and two batarians waiting for him.

"Hey Lance," Paul said, walking up to him. "Heard what happened. You alright?"

"Yeah," Lance replied. "Took 'em down quick."

"Guess that pistol practice did the trick, huh?"

"Yeah. You got anyone following you?"

"No, though I guess it's just a matter of time."

"Why do you say that?"

"Just got a weird feeling that it might happen. You know what it's like working with Aria."

"Got that right. So, where we going?"

"Up to you."

"Might have to go to Council space," Liselle suggests.

"Why?" Lance asks.

"Cerberus knows where you live. Worse yet: they can go after anyone you contact here and get info from them since everyone knows who you are."

"So we go to Council space? You sure?"

"Can't think of anywhere in the Terminus to go that would be safe.

"Ugh, fine. I can't believe this shit."

They all turn and head to a ship docked in the hangar that's used specifically for leaving Omega in a hurry. It's twice the height of a human and three times as long, streamlined with grey stripes running the length of it. The rest of the hull is black, making it nearly impossible to pick up on ladar, and it has a stealth drive based off the one that was used in the Normandy SR-1, which Lance got from the Alliance's database a couple months after it was built. It was one of the fastest in Aria's fleet, though it didn't look all that high-tech. It seemed like it was made from recycled parts from derelict ships and that were reshaped to make a new hull before being repainted.

They enter it and Lance looks around. The ship was roomier than one would think, and it was built for comfort for the passengers. Lance couldn't help but feel a little nervous. This was the first time he was leaving Omega. He wasn't exactly sure who, or what, he would find out there.

"You nervous?" Liselle asked, almost as if she could read his mind.

"Why do you ask?" Lance responded.

"This is your first time leaving Omega, right? Wouldn't be strange if you were."

"I'm not nervous at all," he bluffs, keeping a perfectly straight face. "Just anxious."

"If you say so."

Paul and Liselle headed to the cockpit and Lance sat down in the nearest seat. He put his laptop on the table that was bolted to the floor in front of him and powered it on. He masked his location and got onto /The_Messengers/' homepage, looking for Acid, Ymir, GaMeZ, or Vaenia in the forums to tell them what happened. He eventually found Acid and sent him a chat request. A few seconds later, the chat box opened and Acid typed, Was just gonna to tell u I found something.

Hold on to that for a sec, Lance replied. Got something you need to tell Vaenia and the others.

What?

I was just attacked by Cerberus and I got someone following me.

Shit. U alright?

Yeah. Killed 4 of them and one is being interrogated. My tail disappeared tho.

Damn. Guess you're leaving Omega?

Yeah. Headin to Council space.

Anywhere specific?

Not yet. Y? You got somewhere I can lay low?

I don't, but I got a buddy who does.

Where?

The Citadel.

U serious?

Yeah.

Great…

What?

Rly didn't want to go there.

Y not?

Too many hypocrites.

Well, I live on the Citadel. Maybe we could meet up and I could help you out.

Not sure about that…

K. Well, u want 2 know what I got?

What?

Something called Project Overlord.

Any details?

Yeah, apparently they were trying 2 find a way 2 control geth.

Geth?

Yeah.

Every hacker knew it was nearly impossible for anyone to hack a geth for more than a few seconds, though there have been a few master hackers who were able to hack a geth for a full minute. But controlling just one geth permanently was thought to be impossible, let alone all of them.

Anything else?

Last record said they were close 2 a breakthrough.

But?

That was weeks ago. Nothing after that. It's like they just dropped off the grid.

Or everything blew up in their face.

Probably. I'll send you the files and let the others know what happened.

K. Just be extra careful. Wouldn't be surprised if u got a tail too.

K. Here r the files. After a couple seconds, Lance's laptop beeped as Acid sent the files to him.

"What was that?" Paul asks from the cockpit.

"Getting more files on Cerberus," Lance replies.

"Even after they attacked you, you're still grabbing their files?"

"Why not? They're already pissed at me. Might as well give them more to be pissed about."

"Ha! You always did like annoying the shit out of people."

Lance laughs in response as the last of the files on Project Overlord are sent to his laptop and Acid leaves the chat room. He downloads the files onto his omni-tool and checks his email. His inbox received a message from someone named M4A3E8. Lance furrowed his brow, not recognizing the handle. He clicked the message and it read, Good, you survived the attack. I'll keep this short: you need to go to the Citadel. Don't trust the batarians in your ship. Don't trust anyone you don't know personally. I'll be keeping tabs on you.

"What the hell?" Lance said, more to himself than anyone else.

"What?" Paul asked, walking up to him.

"Nothing. It's fine." Lance closed his laptop after he answered, looking up at Paul.

"Alright… Well, we're ready to get going. You should send whatever files you got to Aria before we jump to FTL."

"Yeah." Lance sets his omni-tool to send copies of all the files he has to Aria before saying, "Could we go to the Citadel?"

"Why there?"

"Just got a feeling like we'd be better off laying low there, than anywhere else."

"Hmm… That kind of makes sense. In a weird way."

"Glad you think so. Shouldn't you be getting back to the cockpit?"

"Yeah. You should get some rest. Gonna be a long trip."

"Sure." Paul turns around and heads back to the cockpit. Lance looks around and sees the two batarians sitting and talking about past missions and how this one was the most boring one they ever had. He angled himself so they couldn't see him pull up the files from Project Lazarus on his omni-tool. He chose the file that had the photos of Commander Shepard being rebuilt. Looking over the dates again, he noticed that the last one was only from a few days ago. He went to another file and it showed various stats, most of which he didn't understand at all. At the bottom of one of the pages it said 'success' and this confused Lance. Success? Success with what? He closed the file and selected another, which showed a crew log naming everyone who was on the project. As he read the names, he noticed they all said 'deceased' after the names except for two: Someone named Miranda Lawson, who seemed to be the head of the project, and a Jacob Taylor, who was listed as head of security. What the hell happened that only two people survived? He rubbed his chin as he thought about it before deciding that he could think about it later. Then he noticed a side note mentioning the destruction of the base. Must have been too far gone.

He noticed one of the batarians get up and start walking towards him. He closed the holographic screen on his omni-tool before the batarian asked, "Why are we supposed to be escorting you?"

"Let me guess: you don't know the whole story of what just happened to me?" Lance retorted.

"All I know is that you need to get off Omega and we're supposed to keep your ass safe."

"And that's all you need to know. Just follow Paul and Liselle's lead and keep your mouths shut."

"You're lucky you're so valuable to Aria or you'd have a hole in your head."

"And you're lucky I don't think you're worth the effort to shoot."

The other batarian stands up and moves next to his friend. "You think you're so tough, huh?" he says

"Coming to back up your buddy? Figures. Why don't you just go back to whining about how boring this mission is while I get some shut-eye?"

Both the batarians glare at Lance as he leans back in his seat and closes his eyes. He hears them walk back to where they were sitting earlier as he sets his omni-tool to play music into his ear-piece and falls asleep.