Chapter 2

The shuttle had just passed through the relay, entering the Artemis Tau cluster. Kota sat across from Rex with her arms crossed, leaning against the back of her seat, her eyes closed. Rex had tried to ask the asari more about herself, but all of her inquiries had been deflected or stated to be classified information. The human had just wanted to know a little more about the new Spectre before she went into fire with her.

"We're almost to the coordinates," Rex said as she stood and placed her helmet on. She secured it and checked all of her weapons. She was a soldier through and through, so she had a full set of weapons.

Kota opened her eyes and looked up at the human. She was a biotic just as any other asari, so she only took a few weapons of her choice. She preferred a heavy pistol, shotgun, and SMG. Kota had nothing to say to the human as she rose and made sure her heat sink was in place in her SMG.

As they came closer to their coordinates, something quite large became visible on the screens inside the shuttle. "Damn, what the hell is that?" Rex looked at the feed, narrowing her eyes. The shuttle pilot turned a spotlight on for them to get a better view of the object. When it became visible under the light, both the human's and asari's eyes widened. "Is that..."

"A Reaper," Kota finished Rex's sentence, "It looks dead. But how?"

"Sensors aren't reading any mass effect fields," the shuttle pilot said, "Has to be dead."

Rex just shook her head, "Who would do this?" After the crucible fired, organics had been connected with synthetics, even Reapers. So, it wasn't unusual for organics to feel empathy for damaged or dead synthetics. They were practically one of them now.

"People who hate Reapers. Who do you think?" Kota shot Rex a scowl. "You think just because they helped rebuild people won't want revenge for what they did. They killed millions. You can't get life back. Personally, if I had it my way, they'd all be dead."

"Hmph, bet you feel the same way about humans too, right?" Rex returned the angered look through her visor. This made Kota change her expression. Now she looked confused. "The council thinks you're a human hater. That's why they sent me with you."

Kota rolled her eyes and shook her head, "No. I don't hate humans. I hate partners. It just so happens that every person I have been partnered up with has been human. I work better alone. Goddess, I've been made out to look like some xenophobe. This is just great."

"Whatever. Let's board that thing and find out what happened here."

"Right," Kota said with a nod before placing her breather over her mouth and nose.

The shuttle pilot found a large hole in the hull of the Reaper and landed inside. Rex and Kota stepped out of the vehicle and drew pistols as they began their search for answers.

"Whoever attacked this thing must have had some serious firepower. From what I heard, it takes an entire fleet to take one of these things down," Rex stated as she scanned through the area.

"Yes, but now we have information and tactics from civilizations before us. Like the ones who made these things. Damned Leviathan." Kota put away her pistol as she knelt down, finding a datapad. "What's this?" She began reading it. It was a personal journal from someone who was there.

"You got something?" Rex walked over to her partner, if she could even be considered that.

"Some kind of journal. Whoever was here wanted data on the Reapers' main weapons."

"You mean like the things that I call the big red lasers of death?" Rex wasn't all for high tech science talk. She was just a soldier.

Kota nodded, "Yes, they wanted to know how they worked, how to build them."

"Whoa, that's not good. That's a powerful weapon. Does it say who they worked for?"

The asari shook her head, "No. It looks like this datapad was damaged. I'll hold onto it. The Council will want to see it. We should look around more. I suggest we split up to cover more ground."

"Haha, nice try," Rex smirked, "I'm here to observe you. You aren't getting rid of me that easily."

The asari let out an annoyed sigh. "Fine. This will just take twice the time."

The two Spectres continued on with their search for nearly three hours before coming up on a dead merc. He was human and took a shotgun blast apparently at point blank range because the whole front of his head was gone and his blood was splattered on the wall behind him. He was in heavy white armor with black and orange lines down the arm plates.

"Holy shit," Rex gasped, getting down on one knee to examine the body, pulling his arm up to see if his omnitool was still intact, and it was. She began skimming through the tool. "Well, well, we have omnitool data. Let's see. Ah, a recording." She opened the recording.

'I can't believe it. We just killed this thing. It actually made sounds as if in pain when we did. Can these things even feel pain? What we're doing is right, isn't it? I mean, these things nearly killed everyone in the galaxy. Now we're trying to figure out their own weapons to use them against the Reapers to wipe them out. We're dismantling the main weapon to take it back to the lab. I mean they helped us in the end. I really shouldn't question it. I don't want to be turned into one of those husk looking things. Better follow orders. Sometimes I can understand why Cerberus was nearly wiped out by-huh? Sir, I was just-ARGH!'

"Cerberus," Kota said, "I thought they were wiped out. They've been gone for almost a century now."

"The Illusive Man was killed. Doesn't mean they could have retreated and a new leader took position," Rex replied as she copied and saved the recording on her own omnitool.

"So they took the main gun from this thing and took it with them. Where could they have gone?" Kota rubbed her chin in thought.

"I'd say the Terminus systems, away from the Council and Alliance. Maybe on some uncolonized world where they won't be noticed. I think we got what we came here for. We should get back to the Citadel."

"Yeah, and it only took us...oh yeah, a lot longer than it would have if you had just let me work on one half while you on the other," Kota said with sarcasm.

"Hey, you gotta learn how to work as a team sometimes," Rex turned to her speaking sternly, pointing her finger at Kota, "You're a Spectre now, not a lone wolf. You don't always get what you want. It's not all about you. It's about working with and helping others. Get used to it."


The ride back had been silent aside from the sound coming from the engines of the shuttle. Kota had been pondering Rex's words before. The human compared her to a wolf? She understood their culture for the most part, but some of their sayings still made no sense to her. How could she compare her to some furry beast? Asari didn't have any fur or hair. They were more like sea creatures.

Rex broke the silence by asking, "So where are you from?" The human was attempting to learn about the new Spectre again.

"Why does that concern you?" Kota opened her eyes glaring at Rex.

"Come on, I just want to know at least a little about you."

"The mission is over. It doesn't matter," she replied, closing her blue eyes.

With an exasperated sigh, Rex decided to tell her about herself. "I was born on Earth. My mother is Ashley Williams. She served under Commander Shepard during the Reaper War. She's a General now, but she hates being called General Williams because my great granddad surrendered the Shanxi garrison to the Turians in the First Contact. I don't know my dad, but from what Mom says, he was a real jackass. We moved around a lot, ship to ship. Military life. I entered the Alliance when-"

"Why did you call me a wolf?" Kota interrupted. She didn't want to hear Rex's life story.

Rex just blinked, "Excuse me?"

"You said I was a lone wolf. What does that mean?"

"Uh, a lone wolf is someone who secludes themselves from others and refuses to accept help from the outside. It's a human term."

"I see. Fine. I was also born on Earth, a year after the war. My mother and I left when the relays were rebuilt and lived on Thessia. I was still very young then. That's all you are deserved."

"Who was your dad?" Rex wanted to know more.

"Like you, I don't know. Besides, I just said that's all you're getting." Kota closed her eyes again.

Rex shook her head sighing, "Fine."


Once back on the Citadel, Kota and Rex reported back to the Council immediately. James was there as well, waiting on them. "Find anything out," he asked.

Rex looked at him and then the Council. "Yeah, and it's not good. Kota?"

The asari Spectre looked up at the Council and put her hands behind her back straightening her stance to look more professional. "We found evidence that suggest Cerberus has re-arisen. What we came upon was a dead Reaper. They killed it, by what means is unknown. But they also dismantled its main weapon. They want to know what makes the Reapers tick, and they want to use it to wipe them out completely." Rex just nodded in agreement.

"Cerberus?" James was in complete shock. "How is that possible. The Illusive Man was on the Citadel with Anderson and Shepard when the Crucible fired. The Alliance took his body."

"We have a recording that says it was Cerberus, sir," Rex said as she brought up the recording on her omnitool and played it for them all.

"Christ," escaped Nixon's lips as he put his hand to his face to pinch the bridge of his nose.

"If I may just say, if they want to destroy the Reapers, why stop them," Kota added.

"We can't let that kind of weapon fall into the hands of the wrong people," Sparatus replied, "Especially Cerberus. It could spell disaster for all aliens and humans who opposed them."

Bakara took a step forward, "Besides, the Reapers helped us rebuild everything. We don't know why, but they did."

"Are there any clues as to where they took that weapon?" asked Valern.

"Unfortunately no," said Rex, "But if I wanted to get away from prying eyes, I would go the Terminus."

"Well if that's the case, you know we can't send fleets out there," the admiral said, "But a small team..."

"To investigate the matter will be adequate," Nixon finished what James was going to say, "One ship."

"Understood, I can find a ship within the Asari military to-" Kota began, but Tevos cut her off.

"No. We will put Williams on this," Tevos said.

"What?" Kota retorted, "This is my mission."

Sparatus' mandibles twitched as he was annoyed that the new Spectre was acting like a child even though by asari standard she still was, being the age of ninety nine. "Commander Williams has more experience."

Nixon looked at the other council members who nodded to him as if they were hiding something. "Williams, we have been waiting to reward you with this for some time, but this situation calls for us to give it to you now." This caused the human Spectre to give the Councilors a look of confusion. "You have been one of our most successful Spectres since Commander Shepard. You have an impressive service record. We want to give you a ship to help you on your mission."

"Really? My own ship?" Rex's eyes lit up, glowing green. She was unable to mask her excitement. The human looked like a child in a candy store.


Hours later, Rex was relaxing in a hotel room in the Wards. She could have gotten one in the Prisidium, but she thought spending that many credits on a place to just sleep was ridiculous. She was in more comfortable clothing now, wearing some gym shorts and a white N7 tank top. At the moment, she was on a vid call with her mom. "And then, here's the really cool part. I get my own ship. Full crew and everything," Rex said, still sounding like a teenager to her mother.

"Wow, that's amazing. Congratulations, sweetheart," Ash said, smiling. Her smile went away, though. She was happy for her daughter, but the thought that she would chasing after Cerberus made her worry. "Just...be careful. Cerberus...they've done horrible things to get what they want."

"I'll take them out," Rex said confidently.

Ash's smile returned, "You sound like one of my old COs. So, what's the ship's name?" It was true. Rex reminded Ash of Shepard in more ways than one. Except that Rex was very much a free spirit and always easily excited. However, when it came down to work, Rex could be a real hardass.

"Ah, it doesn't have one, yet. They want me to name it. I was thinking Normandy, SR-3," Rex said with a grin.

"Normandy? Why?"

"Oh come on mom, what Alliance soldier doesn't want to serve on a ship called the Normandy, the ship commanded by the great Commander Shepard? It's like my dream. Besides, it has a lot of the same designs. Looks a lot like it, except more advanced."

"And here I thought it couldn't get anymore advanced than the SR-2. Hope you have a good pilot. There's only one pilot I know that can handle a ship like that and he's retired now," Ash said, a beeping sound coming from behind her, "Ah, crap. Work calls, sweety. Congrats and good luck on your mission. Make me proud."

"Don't worry Mom, I won't go surrendering a garrison anytime soon."

"Haha, better not."

Well I decided I would go ahead and put the next part up tonight while I still had time before work. Enjoy!