"I'm glad to hear that they've made such progress." The Illusive Man stated. The distortion of the communication tried Leng's patience but the proximity to the comm buoy couldn't be helped.

"Perhaps it would have been better if these clones had been used against the Collectors, rather than rebuilding Shepard." Leng offered.

"That had been their original purpose, but Shepard was the only one who had fought a Reaper." The Illusive man replied. "We needed that kind of expertise to deal with their servants. But yes, they would have been far more cooperative than Shepard ever was. Still, we needed her, and now they have a new purpose."

"Destroying Shepard."

"Before she can do more harm to humanity, yes." The Illusive man said. "And by this assessment I would say they could more than do it. Especially given that they are nearly ready to be activated, correct?"

"Yes sir." Leng stated, activating his omni-tool. "Several of the researchers here have backed Dr. Grey's assessment that the three of them will be ready to wake up tonight."

"And those that didn't?"

"Most have kept quiet about it as much as possible. Dr. Angela Romero is the only one who has been vocal in her objections. She could be a problem."

"Don't let her become one, Leng." The Illusive Man ordered. "She has already proven valuable to Cerberus and I'd like to be able to continue using her expertise, but if she tries to jeopardize this mission in any way do not hesitate to deal of her."

"Of course, sir." Leng replied. The Illusive Man cut the transmission and Leng turned to leave.

"He must want this Shepard person killed pretty bad." Elanor stated. Leng wasn't surprised she'd been listening in, though he was surprised he hadn't heard her sneak in. "She kill someone important?"

"She destroyed possibly the greatest resource Cerberus has ever seen." Leng replied, walking past her.

"Sounds like an idiot, making an enemy of Cerberus." She said, following Leng out. "But I'm guessing she's dangerous. Otherwise you'd be sending soldiers after her, not these... things."

"You've heard of the Collectors, I assume."

"Yeah, the doctors all talked about them and how these three clones would be able to fight against them with the limited data we had."

"Shepard wiped them out."

"Oh..." Elanor froze, not liking the idea of pissing off someone capable of doing something like that.


"As you say, Doctor." Leng replied stoically. They stood in a room, full of the top minds that had worked on the project, with a large, kinetic barrier reinforced window that over looked a room twenty-five meters below. Inside were the three pods, hooked up to a series of cables that would give the signals to drain the fluids from the pods and release the clones. There were also nearly a dozen guards, armed with shotguns, just in case.

Leng looked to his right and noticed Dr. Romero crossing her arms and looking dismal. He decided she would not be a problem anymore, as she had no way of stopping the clones from being woken up.

"My colleagues!" Dr. Grey called out, quieting the room. "My partners and friends whom I have worked with day after day, night after sleepless night. Today we see the fruits of our labor and reap the seeds that we have sown. It has taken so much time, sweat and tears to reach this day, but reach it we have!"

Dr. Grey moved to the console that would begin the process of rousing the clones from their sleep and looked back at everyone with almost childish excitement.

"Today we go down in history as the engineers of perfection." He hit the console and all of the scientists huddled against the window while Leng and Elanor merely watched the vid screen. The guards in the room below raised their weapons on the opening tanks and watched as the tubes began to drain of their fluids. "Today man's grasp extends further than ever before."

The doors of the three pods slid open with a long, drawn out hiss and the tables the clones were attached to angled forward. When the pods were completely opened, their doors folding back behind them, a small electrical charge shot through all three pods, signaling the clones' hearts to begin beating. All three of them coughed and spat up more of the fluid that they had been resting in, the thick blue goo pouring from their nose and mouth in thick gobs as they tried to replace it with oxygen for the first time.

Nearly in unison the three of them fell to their hands and knees, wobbling as they all tried to stand. When they stood fully on their feet, they each looked at the guards before them and then at each other. Leng noticed the scarring they had across their faces. It looked exactly like Shepard's scars, a faint red glow to the tears in their skin and their eyes, as well.

Several of the scientists and engineers in the room burst into tears at the sight of all their work having finally paid off. Leng shoved past them to look down through the glass and his heart skipped a beat. He hit the console, activating the microphone in the room.

"I said head toward the back door." One of the guards was commanding of them. "I know you can understand me."

"And who are you to command us?" One of the clones asked. His short black hair was slicked down, matted against his head thanks to the fluids and he, strangely, had an English sounding accent even though no one that Leng had met in the facility did, except Captain Fel, though she would never have interacted with the terminals controlling the clones. Kai Leng noted that the one speaking was the assassin.

"I won't warn you again, clone." The guard said, moving forward. "Move to the back of the room and exit so we can begin your testing."

"I think not." The assassin replied and before the guard could catch the movement his shotgun was out of his hands and pointed in his face.

"Oh shi-" Before the guard could finish the clone squeezed the trigger and the shot tore through the guard's shielding, shattered his visor and blew the back of his helmet open. Before any of the scientists could even ask what had just happened a full blown firefight had erupted down below, causing many of them to scream. Smoke filled the room below and Kai Leng watched patiently to see what had happened. As the smoke was sucked into the ventilation system he could see the three clones, unscathed, standing amidst the corpses of the guards down below. The biotic had a barrier around himself, the tech warrior covered in omni-tool powered armor and the assassin on the opposite end of the room.

"Warning, subject hostility confirmed." A synthetic voice announced. "Activating emergency response protocols."

"No!" Dr. Romero shouted. Leng looked down to see the ventilation shafts were spewing out a purple haze into the room below. The biotic waved his hands and little barriers warped around the vents, blocking the gas from getting into the room. The tech ran for the door in the back after grabbing one of the shot guns from a dead guard and began trying to hack through the back door. The facility VI announced that it terminated the console's connection with the rest of the facility, effectively sealing the three of them within. When all eyes were focused on the room below Dr. Romero his a few commands into her omni-tool. Many of the scientists gasped in terror as the back door slid open and the clones darted out.

"Doc, what have you done?" Elanor demanded, pointing her pistol at Romero. "You saw what they did, they could kill us all!"

"Because they were threatened!" Romero defended, backing against a wall. "We can't damn them just because..."

Her words stopped as Leng sent his blade through her abdomen. Dr. Romero looked down at her blood as it stained her lab coat and poured all the way down to the floor.

"We need to contain the situation." Leng stated as Romero sank to the ground, dead. He ran toward the window, firing a shot from his omni-tool that shattered the glass and leaped into the room, activating his tactical cloak. Elanor watched and looked around at all the scientists who watched her with terrified expressions.

"Alright everyone, let's get you all a safe distance away until security deals with this." She said and began ushering them out of the room.


Tracking the clones was not difficult for Leng to do. If there wasn't the long trail of bodies, splattered and smeared on the walls, fried by electrical burns or shot and stabbed in every way possible, then there was the small puddles of blue fluid on the floor that allowed him to figure out exactly where they were going. Right up until the tracks split off.

Leng knelt down and tried to make discern whether two had gone left and one right or the other way around. The sound of a tactical cloak disengaging caused him to whip around, sword held ready. He arced the blade toward the clone, the assassin and came at the man's neck. The assassin, true to Dr. Grey's predictions, was fast. He ducked and dodged every slice Kai Leng threw at him and cartwheeled backward, stopping with a hallway to his right.

An engineer, terrified of what was happening but wanting desperately to help grabbed a wrench and swung it at the clone's head. Without turning to face the man the assassin grabbed the man's wrist and squeezed it until the wrench fell from his grasp.

"You are no warrior." The assassin stated, not looking at the man. "Why do you interfere like one?"

"You're... killing people!" The engineer shouted through gritted teeth as the pain in his wrist ceased. The assassin let go of the man and knelt down, picking the wrench up. "You're killing the ones who were here to protect us."

"It was either my brothers and I, or them." The assassin replied and took a step toward Leng. "I bet you all thought we were asleep this whole time."

"What do you mean?" Leng demanded, eyes darting from the clone's eyes, to the wrench to his feet, watching his every move.

"The youngest first learned how to use his omni-tool." The assassin explained. "Clever of him, too. After your Man of Illusions stopped sending this facility resources we were practically left alone. He managed to hack into everything in this building, literally with his eyes closed."

"You were conscious?" The mechanic asked, backing away.

"We were. And the youngest figured out how to use our omni-tools to communicate with one another without you all noticing. After we realized we were all different from you people outside the pods, we realized we were the same. We knew it in our gut that you would try to use us for something, but we weren't sure what. Not until the youngest hacked deeper into your database. You wanted to send us to die, to destroy an enemy we could not reach."

"That enemy has already been taken care of." Leng told him, causing the assassin's shoulders to drop ever so slightly. Leng saw the slight distraction betrayed on the clone's face and chose this moment to strike. As he darted forward and made to impale the clone, the assassin side-stepped Leng's blade and brought the wrench down against the back of his head, knocking the Cerberus officer out cold.

"Then... we must find out why you woke us up." The assassin stated and began walking down the hall, discarding the wrench as he went.


Elanor opened the door to the hangars and looked back at the scientists following her.

"Come on, we're almost there." She told them as she ran inside. Turning her head forward she stopped cold and felt herself beginning to shake.

In front of her the biotic and tech clones had apparently been preparing a shuttle to leave when their gaze fell on her. Their hair, stuck over their faces from the fluid hardening in it made their eyes almost impossible to see, save for the faint red glow of them.

"Shit..." She whispered and carefully looked behind her at the scientists who had all practically fallen to their knees in panic. "Please... We aren't a threat to you."

"You're armed." The tech stated, pointing at her pistol. "That's kind of threatening."

"It's to protect them." Elanor told him, pointing back at the other scientists. "I saw what you did to the men in the birthing room. I can't even touch you with this."

"Then how is that protection?" The biotic asked, taking a step closer. Elanor noticed that they'd covered themselves in rummaged pieces of Cerberus armor, likely more to preserve their modesty than because they felt they needed protection. He closed with Elanor, who raised the pistol and pointed it in the biotic's face, her hands shaking uncontrollably. The biotic set his hand on the weapon and gently lowered it before turning to the scientists. "We are unhappy with you all... but you have not harmed us. You have nothing to fear from us."

"Then why are you fighting?" Dr. Grey asked, stepping forth from the crowd. "We created you to be the greatest human's in existence! Why do you attack us like we wish to enslave you?"

"Don't try to pretty up what we are." The tech snapped, glaring at the doctor. "You created us for war."

"A war that's already over." Came the voice of the assassin from behind the crowd. Several of the doctors screamed and crawled out of his way as he strode forward. "Brothers, the Collectors are destroyed..."

"What?" The biotic blinked several times. "Then why did they wake us up?"

"I don't know." The assassin replied and looked to Dr. Grey.

"Cerberus demanded you be ready for action." Grey replied. "Humanity faces a lot of threats these days."

"A threat greater than the Collectors were?" The tech demanded. "What could possibly be worse than them when so many resources were poured into us just to fight them?"

"Shepard..." Elanor replied. "The man with the sword, Kai Leng, he said you were meant to find and kill someone named Shepard."

The clones looked back and forth at one another and shrugged.

"I'll give the extranet a look." The tech said, hopping out of the shuttle. As he began to look through the history of the Spectre, Commander Jane Shepard, a tech attack hit him, causing electricity to surge through his body. The VI in his head did what it could to shunt the damage away from its systems but the clone let out a scream as parts of his brain overheated and he fell unconscious.

The assassin and the biotic looked to see Kai Leng, his gauntlet raised and sword prepped.

"You bloody moron!" Elanor shouted and aimed her pistol at Leng. "You're going to get everyone killed."

"Brother..." The assassin said, causing everyone to look. "Get the youngest on board."

"Don't hurt the others." The biotic stated.

"Of course not." The assassin replied and charged at Kai Leng. Leng activated his cloak and began to dart around the clone but his feet were sewpt out from under him and he hit the ground hard. "You cannot hide from me."

The crowd of scientists shuddered and looked away as the assassin snapped the bones in all of Kai Leng's joints before the man could even put up a proper fight. The Cerberus officer howled in pain and then the clone hit him in the throat, making sure he was conscious but unable to make that annoying yelp. His gaze then fell on Elanor.

"You." He said, causing her to tremble. "Come with us, please."

"M-me?" She asked, dropping her pistol. "Why?"

"Because we need someone who knows things about the galaxy we have not been taught." The biotic answered and waved her and the assassin over. "Now come on, we have to get him to a medical facility."

Elanor looked at the scientists and realized if she didn't go then the clones would either just force her or take one of them. Rather than risk ending up like Leng, battered and broken on the ground, she nodded and slowly got onto the shuttle, fear gripping her.

"Wait, please, you have so much to offer humanity, boys!" Dr. Grey said, running to the shuttle door. The biotic grabbed him by his coat and shoved him away.

"So did the one who let us out." He spat and slammed the shuttle shut.


Elanor watched as the planet ground got further and further away. All too soon she could see the whole thing and the shuttle was preparing for FTL. She wanted to fight them, or jump out the of the shuttle, or just curl up and close her eyes, but she was still too afraid to move.

"Relax." The assassin stated and took a seat across from her. "Take your helmet off, stay a while."

Elanor did as she was bade and pulled her helmet off. Her long blonde hair was matted to her head form the sweat caused by wearing the armor all the time. The assassin could see the fear still present in her features and sighed.

"I don't suppose anything except time is going to convince you that we mean you no harm, huh?"

"Politely inform her that time isn't something we have in great supply right now." The biotic stated. "Little brother needs medical attention, fast."

"Yes but we can't risk running into some form of military or law enforcement in this ship." Elanor spoke up, getting a raised eyebrow from the assassin. "Cerberus is a pro-human group and some of our cells have gone rouge, gone bad. Majority of the galaxy, including humanity sees us as the bad guy."

"Well then we'll need to find us a place that doesn't care about being bad guys." The biotic said.

"Any place you can think of like that?" The assassin asked.

Elanor thought for a moment and then looked up and nodded.

"Omega."