CHAPTER 3

Erin, leaned her head one way, then the other, listening to her neck make a satisfying *pop* on both sides. Picking up Samara had been more running around than she'd anticipated, and while she was happy to help, Miranda's request only proved to be more of the same. Why can't more people be as easy to pick up as Massani was? Just, 'hey, I need you for a mission' and they say 'Mission? Sure, ok, I'll go get my things and report to the ship!' Not that she didn't understand that there was a balance of give and take to the universe, but she had enough to worry about with the Collectors. She shook her head back and forth, forcing the thought from her mind. She raised one leg up until it was parallel to her waist, and then stretched both her arms out. One in front and one to the side, in the second arabesque position, then easing into croise derriere. She ended in a simple sweeping spin and plie. Then smiled to herself at how she'd memorized all those positions when she was ten years old, but still remembered them like they were yesterday.

She stretched once more before walking over to sit down on a storage crate and laid her back flat against the metal. Her day had gone so fast. Go find Samara, shoot up some mercs. Find ship name, shoot up more mercs. Help Miranda, shoot even more mercs. Monotonous, but fast, and it left her too wound up to relax. But also too stressed out to do her usual exercises, so she'd gone with practicing her ballet. 'One of these days I'm going to be down here and someone is gonna catch me.' She thought to herself as she sat on the crate letting the metal cool her back. 'Ok, time to do the rounds.'

Erin took the elevator up to the engineering deck, thinking she'd do her rounds from the bottom up. Luckily she practiced ballet in her black yoga pants and tank top, so she didn't need to change. First for that evening was Grunt, as always he wasn't interested in talking. She skipped Zaeed, trying to get done with her rounds for the evening quickly. Next were Tali, Gabby and Keith. While Tali was too busy working, Keith said that they'd appreciate a converter coupling for the engines. Erin made a note to look for one the next time they went to Omega. She avoided Jack because she didn't seem in as sociable a mood unless they were on their way to Pragia. And as far as Erin was concerned, she could wait to blow up an abandoned building, it wasn't as though it was going anywhere. She continued checking in on the rest of the crew, Miranda thanked her again for her help with Orianna. Garrus was still busy with calibrations; she couldn't help but laugh at that and Dr. Chakwas apparently was regretting never opening a bottle of brandy she had on the Normandy SR1 'Heck, that's the easiest request I've heard all day.' Erin thought. Next was Thane, she left the medical bay as quickly as she could without running. 'Get it under control Shepard, he's just a man.'

'A very handsome man.'

'Ok, yes, a very handsome man. But he's still a drell.'

'With skin that beautiful shade of green, and red, and those eyes.'

'YES WITH BEAUTIFUL SKIN AND EYES, JUST SHUT UP!' Erin found it near impossible to escape her own thoughts. 'I'm arguing with myself, how sad is that?' was the last thought she had before the door to life support hissed open. He was sitting in the chair again, staring at the drive core.

"Do you need something?" He asked without turning, and she swallowed trying to control her breathing.

"Have a few minutes to talk?"

"Certainly." He turned his head to glance at her, the rested his hands on the table in front of him.

"I've met a fair amount of assassins, you're not like any one of them. If you don't mind my saying." She walked over to the window that opened out to the drive core.

"You've spent too much time fighting thugs who think custom painted armor makes them professionals. The hanar trained my body for this role since I was six years old." Erin's eyes flew open wide at that, and she turned to look at him in utter disbelief.

"You've been killing since you were six?" She didn't even try to hide the shock in her voice.

"Of course not. I didn't make my first kill until I was twelve." She turned back toward the window and thought 'Oh yes, of course. Six is too young, twelve is better. What was I thinking?' she kept her comments to herself though. "They were training me, I was an investment, not to be used and thrown away." That flared her temper; she knew more than most how important it should be to have a normal childhood. To worry about skinned knees, cooties, and what to have for snack time. Not training to kill.

"You were a child, not an investment!" His expression eased into something like appeasement.

"I've given you the wrong impression, they valued me. Yes as a resource. But also as a person they…" And he looked up and into Erin's eyes, seeing her fierce defense for him as a child, it caused him to pause and choose his words carefully. "Regretted, their need for me."

"I find it hard to believe that the hanar train assassins." That was putting it mildly in her opinion.

"Every species trains assassins, the hanar are only unusual in that need other species to do the killing for them. They have a strong grip and natural toxins, but have you ever seen one move quickly outside of water? Or fire a gun? " He made a good point, but starting that young for a life of violence just wasn't something that should happen to anyone in her opinion.

"Why did your parents agree to this?"

"The agreement was made under the compact. Most drell owe our lives to the hanar because they rescued us from extinction, we've live on the hanar home world ever since and we owe them our lives. That is the compact." Apparently she'd been asking so many questions he wanted to beat her to the punch. So rather than insult either him, or the hanar, she continued.

"But you don't work for the hanar anymore, you're freelance. What changed?"

"I was asleep for a long time yes. I paid no attention to what my body was asked to do but then-" his eyes widened and his body jerked slightly, stiffening. "Laser dot trembles on the skull. One finger twitch, he dies. Then, the smell of spice on the spring wind, sunset colored eyes defiant in the scope. The laser dances away." He bowed his head, trying to make an effort to refocus it seemed. "My apologies, drell slip into memory so easily." Erin nodded.

"Was that one of your assassinations?" He folded his hands again, looking more uncomfortable.

"Uh….y-yes…perhaps we can discuss it later? I've taken too much of your time."

"Alright, I should get back to my rounds anyway." Her eyebrows knit together in confusion, but she did need to finish checking on the rest of the crew.


She finished checking in with each crew mate. Jacob apparently wanted to go hunt down a lead he got from an anonymous tip about his father. She didn't like the man, but it was his family. Erin couldn't and wouldn't say no to that.

Erin had Joker plot a course for the crash site that Jacobs father was supposed to be at. Once they found the first survivor she told them about the 'out-casts', and the food. After a short fight with a few of the 'out-casts', she took them to a small settlement just up the hill. She looked around and noticed it was only women in the camp. 'The outcasts seem to just be men' Erin thought. They found a doctor there, well someone who had been a doctor, and she gave them the mission logs by the Acting Captain and Co-Captain. Reading over all the information, the frown on Jacob's face grew deeper. "My Father wouldn't do anything like this, there must be some mis-" He stopped mid sentence as he came across what looked like a list to organize all the women and manage which officers they were 'assigned to'.

"Is this kind of thing normal for humans Shepard?" Garrus asked, Erin wasn't good at reading turian expressions but she thought maybe he looked shocked and appalled. Like her and Jacob.

"My God, they were running a harem!" Erin half whispered in disbelief. She couldn't imagine anyone in the Alliance falling so far, even after ten years. They continued up the hill. Fighting wave after wave of mechs and after one huge fire fight with a YMIR mech, they finally reached Ronald Taylor.

"You're here! I knew a real squad would blow through no problem! If the mechs scuffed your pads I'll get you something nice when we get back to Alliance space, I'm bound to have some back pay coming." Jacob seemed to have plastered a permanent sneer on his face, unhappy with all of the information they'd found out trying to reach the Acting Captain.

"What about your crew acting captain?" Jacob said, Erin wondered if Ronald recognized his own son, they even sounded alike.

"Total loss. Once they ate the toxic food they turned wild and propped me up here like some kind of ritual. Waiting for a chance to signal has been hell." Jacob shook his head, not buying the lie for a second.

"Is that the best you can do?" He said, and the acting captain looked over at him in confused agitation.

"You let all your people talk back like that? Who are you anyway?" Erin turned from the view of the small deck they were on, facing Ronald Taylor.

"Commander Shepard of the Normandy. I'm surprised you don't recognized Mr. Taylor." She waved her hand in Jacob's direction.

"Jacob! No! Not Jacob…" He shook his head, and cast his eyes on the ground.

"Why not me? Would ten years of this look better to anyone else?!" Jacob was half shouting by this time.

"The realities of command change you! I wasn't ready for that! I did try to make sure you were taught right, I'd hoped to leave it that way."

"God damnit! Why did you do this to your crew?!" Erin looked over towards the entrance of the dock-like area and saw a few of the deranged men, affected by the toxins, walking in. She nodded her head in their direction after looking pointedly at Garrus, he nodded an affirmative and readied his M-92 Mantis.

"We can help these people Jacob, Cerberus can have ships here in a few days." Erin said. But Jacob pulled his pistol out and pointed it at his father.

"He's not worth the fuel it'd take to haul him out, or the air he's breathing! He's damn lucky I don't think he's worth pulling the trigger!" Erin, put her hand over his lowering his weapon slowly.

"And he'll have a long time to think about it in prison." Jacob glanced at her then back to his father and nodded before he turned to walk back to the Normandy.

"I'm sorry Jacob, I did the best I could." But he was already halfway down the hill, and he either didn't hear or didn't care enough to respond.


Once they were back on the Normandy, Kelly informed her that the Illusive Man was in the debriefing room on vid-comm. Jacob walked with her to take the call, and she felt her heart open up a little more to him. Maybe he wasn't the easiest person to be around, and he was way too vocal in his open suspicions, but he was a good man. 'Damn, that means I can't kick him off the team.' She shook her head clear of the thought, and steeled herself for dealing with the Illusive Man. He yammered on in his usual unhurried manner, smoking his cigarette and giving Erin fits for one. 'Damn you, do you always have to be smoking when you talk to me? I get enough nicotine fits as it is.' She'd walked in late and Jacob was already speaking with the Illusive Man.

"So you had no idea about what was going on?"

"Jacob, if I had known about the Hugo Gernsback and what happened I would be smiling at your resolution of the situation. I am not smiling."

"Uh-huh, sure." Needless to elaborate, Jacob was less than convinced. Not that she felt a particular need to squeeze the truth out for Jacobs sake, but she did want the truth.

"If it wasn't you that sent Jacob the tip, then who did?" That was when Miranda walked in.

"I did." She was looking at Jacob, apparently addressing only him.

"And you did this out of the goodness of your heart?" Erin didn't ask to sound cruel, but it wasn't in Miranda's character to just do something for someone else if it didn't benefit her.

"One of my sources sent me the information. It felt like…keeping an old promise." Jacob nodded slightly, but Erin was only even more confused.

"We'll talk about your treatment of the chain of command in private Miranda. For now, Shepard, Jacob." They were dismissed evidently. 'One of these days I'm going to enjoy crushing that mans spine.' Erin thought as she walked out. Disingenuous as the thought was, she couldn't help herself, the man was so…so…irritating. Miranda left as quickly as she could, embarrassed by all appearances, but before Erin walked out of the conference room she stopped Jacob.

"Are you ok with this?" She'd never seen Jacob and Miranda interact much besides that shuttle ride as they left the Cerberus station she was rebuilt at. But she didn't get the feeling the two of them got along perfectly, cordially maybe if anything.

"Yeah, Miranda has a good memory. Selective, but good." He nodded, and she could tell there were other things on his mind.

"Something there I'm missing?" Jacob sighed and ran his hands along the sides of his hips, a little uncomfortable, but not so much that it stopped him from answering her.

"She and I had something a while back, didn't work out. She…requires a better man than I." Erin could see the lines of regret etched around his eyes as he spoke, and she just nodded in response. He left without another word, having gotten her answers she let him go. 'So…Jacob and Miranda?' she mulled the picture over in her head for a second, and thought of the differences between the two. 'Maybe a different man. Not better, but different.' Miranda didn't strike her as the type to tolerate Jacob's hypocrisy, and Jacob was a little too self-righteous to stomach Miranda's 'matter-of-fact no matter how harsh' manner.

Erin chuckled a little at the thought of the two of them and what must have broken them up, no doubt something that any open minded couple could easily have resolved. But for two polar opposites like Miranda and Jacob, it wasn't a stretch in her mind that something small could've broken them up. She took the elevator back to her cabin to check and make sure that no more dossiers where waiting on her desk. As she entered her room and sat down at her desk she caught the picture of Kaidan someone had set there. Unable to find more paperwork for the moment, she turned towards the picture and studied it passively.

Kaidan had been an attempt at normalcy. He was sweet, lamely funny, and sort of thoughtful. But the one thing Erin remembered more than anything was how boring he was, which is why she'd flirted with him in the first place. All her life had been far too interesting, she'd wanted some semblance of a normal life. But Kaidan was too boring, and she couldn't force herself to it. She'd tried, she really did, but there was no spark, Kaidan had apparently missed that. Given the way he relentlessly pursued conversation, and that night before Illos when he just showed up at her room. She'd tried to let him down gently and let him know that she wasn't looking for anything serious, not with him anyway but she didn't want to crush him like that. But he was relentless. And in the end she'd relented and let him bunk in her room for the night, he'd acted so in love. Erin was so sick with herself that she let it happen, she'd gotten dressed before he was even awake. Even so, he should have known her better, and damn well shouldn't have been able to say the things he'd said to her on Horizon.

Erin shook her head, determined to distract herself, she shoved away from her desk roughly and turned to leave her cabin. Before she could walk out the door Yeoman Chambers called over her room comm.

"Commander, Grunt is causing quite a stir in the port cargo bay. Could you please go see what's causing him to be so restless? He's making the crew nervous." Erin rolled her eyes, she liked Grunt he reminded her of Wrex. Not that he had grand plans for his people, just in that he had the same tendency to jump in and fight before really looking. But Grunt dove in out of pure instinct. Wrex had always dived in out of the same instinct but made macabre and hilarious comments as he went. Wrex's was the behavior of an older krogan, a more mature krogan, she had to remind herself how young Grunt really was.

"I'll go check it out, Thanks Chambers." When she saw Grunt, he was pacing the cargo bay. Confused, angry, and violent. He talked about wanting to kill, about seeing everything through a haze of red. It was enough to make Erin worried and more than a little uneasy.

"Ok Grunt, just take it easy. We'll head to Tuchanka and see what's wrong." He nodded.

"Thank you Shepard. I do not like this, rage is my choice, not my sickness."

As she selected the CIC deck on the elevator, Mordin caught her on her way up, stopping to let him on.

"Shepard, good. Wanted to speak. Know you're busy. Have to deal with the Collectors. Planning attack. Too important to wait. Just received data, still processing, analyzing likely scenarios. Not sure how to begin. Too much intel! You remember our talk? My work on genophage modification?"

"Of course Mordin, what's got you so wound up?"

"Blood pack mercenaries captured former team member Maelon. Last seen on Tuchanka. Might torture him. Make an example." His voice shook slightly as he spoke, letting Erin know just how badly he wanted to help Maelon. "Recovering Maelon would be a personal favor to me." Erin nodded.

"We'll go to Tuchanka and see if we can find Maelon, not to sound cold but we needed to go there anyway. Grunts tearing up the cargo deck and I have a friend there who can probably tell us what's wrong with him."

"Already headed for Tuchanka? Good. Was worried it would be a burden. Appreciate it. My assistant, my student. Want to see him safe. Maelon last seen outside Urdnot territory. Scouts might have seen blood pack. Talk to them or clan chief." And with that Mordin's head dropped back down to his work, with lines of worry engraved on his face.


As they docked on Tuchanka, Erin had Mordin and Grunt meet her at the airlock.

"Mordin, I know you're worried about your team member but we need Grunt focused before we can do anything else. We'll work just as fast as we can, and figure out how to help Grunt. But I need you to be a little patient a little longer." She spoke as gently as she could, but the simple fact was, they weren't gonna find anyone with Grunt going stir crazy for no apparent reason.

"Understand Shepard. Help Grunt focus. No use if uncontrolled." He understood, but she could tell he was still anxious to find his old student.

As they walked past the Urdnot guards and towards the clan chief Erin noticed it was Wrex sitting in the chiefs chair. She smirked as she thought just how he'd been doing with leadership. He always was a wise old krogan, and a killer soldier to boot, she could only imagine what he was doing with power. At first the guards wouldn't let her pass.

"The clan chief is in…talks. You must wait until he calls on you." She looked guard up and down, heavily considering for a moment crushing her head into his own skull just to prove a point. But Wrex beat her to it.

"Shepard!" He seemed excited to see her.

"Does that count?" she rather arrogantly said as she walked past the annoying krogan and towards her old friend.

"Shepard, my friend!" Wrex pushed out of his chair and past the guards, slapping Erin on the shoulder and laughing exuberantly. For Wrex, anyway. "You look well for dead, Shepard. Should have known the void couldn't hold you." Erin smiled at her old comrade.

"Wrex, looks like you've done well for yourself." She motioned towards the thrown he'd been so morosely sitting in not a moment before.

"Not for me Shepard, for all krogan. Clan Urdnot is just the start. When I'm done we will be one people again." The krogan that Wrex had been speaking to came up beside him to interject his opinion.

"You abandoned many traditions to get your way. Dangerous." Erin looked him up and down, doing everything she could not to laugh. It was hard for her to take anyone seriously when they had purple teeth. Wrex turned around slowly, then rushed forward in one step and rammed his head into 'Mr. Purple Teeth's' head.

"Speak when spoken to Uvenk. I'll drag your clan to glory whether it likes it or not." That apparently was his final word, as he walked back over to his thrown and sat. Addressing Erin once more. "Now, Shepard. What brings you here? How's the Normandy?"

"In little pieces on some frozen forsaken hunk of rock, I ended up spaced."

"Well, you look good. Ah the benefits of a redundant nervous system!" Erin chuckled at his misinterpretation at her 'survival'.

"Yeah, humans don't have that." She smiled

"Oh, it must have been painful then. But here you're standing and you have a strong new ship. Takes me back to the old days, us against the unknown. Killing it with big guns. Good times." Wrex nodded, reminiscing to himself.

"I have a krogan on my crew, he's sick and needs treatment." Wrex looked behind her to Grunt, the permanent frown on his face became a little more defined.

"Where are you from whelp? Was your clan destroyed before you could learn what is expected of you?" Grunt stepped forward to address Wrex properly, while the krogan named Uvenk began walking around him as he spoke.

"I have no clan, I was tank breed by Warlord Okeer. My line is distilled from Kedak, Moro, Shiagur-"

"Okeer is a very old name, a very hated name. But since you're with Shepard I'm assuming he's dead." He turned and looked at Erin. "There is nothing wrong with the whelp, he is becoming a full adult." Mordin piped up with two cents.

"Ah! Puberty ritual! Common among species with hormone-driven reproductive urges." Wrex waved his hand forward in a dismissive gesture.

"I don't care what aliens call it, Krogan undergo the Rite of Passage. So, Grunt? Do you wish to stand with Urdnot?" Grunt looked to Erin and she shook her head. Uvenk stormed off in a huff without a word, to where, was uncertain.

"This is your decision Grunt, I'm not going to tell you what to do." He turned to take a long look at the war torn land before him, the rubble and destruction, then turned back.

"It is in my blood, it is what I am for." Wrex smiled, kind of, approvingly.

"Good boy, speak with the shaman on the second level. Give him a good show and he'll set you on the path. You too Shepard," he glanced in her direction "how many times have you stepped in a mess for your crew, hmm?" Erin laughed.

"More times than I can count, one more thing, have you heard of a salarian scientist around here recently? I have sources that say he's being held by the Blood Pack."

"The Blood Pack? Then clan Weyrlock has him. Speak with my scout commander, he can give you a convoy to use and show you how to get where you need to go. No offense Shepard, but I have other things I need to deal with now, watch yourself. Tuchanka isn't safe and homey like Feros and Illos."

Erin, Grunt, and Mordin all walked over to where the shaman was. After speaking with him and learning just what they had to do to get Grunt the Rite, they left on the truck for the sight. The trio stepped off of the truck and passed through the grand entrance to the arena. The shaman's voice boomed over loud speakers announcing that the keystone had to be pressed for the Rite to start. They fought wave after wave of varren for starters, but it was like shooting fish in a barrel. They kept coming from the same place. After the three waves were done it became quiet once more.

"We must press the keystone to continue the Rite." Grunt concluded and Erin nodded, it made sense. The point was to survive, not die. So if a few extra moments between waves of enemies in order to patch up any and all wounds was the difference between dying and surviving, then they'd put in the keystone to make sure no one had to work off a timer. The second onslaught of waves were klixen, Erin hated them, they reminded her of giant dung beetles. A few cryo rounds in each and she happily fired off her shotgun, shattering them. Once it was quiet again, Erin went to press the keystone for the final wave. The shaman spoke over the speakers again, Erin wasn't really listening but she did hear something about 'the only goal is survival', which meant that whatever they were going to face wasn't killed often. 'Well, it couldn't all be easy.' And the ground shook violently. "You feel that? I am ready!" Grunt really seemed to be enjoying himself. Just as she dove behind cover, she spotted a thresher maw tongue just waving around out of the ground.

"Hey Grunt, look! There is something on Tuchanka that's blue besides your eyes!" Grunt laughed and fired off his assault rifle, making the tongue retreat back into the ground. Again with the grueling games. Fire, take cover, wait. Fire, take cover, wait. Only this time Erin was getting pissed off, she was tired of it. She charged up her fortification and grabbed the particle beam from her back. Anchoring her elbow on a fallen concrete beam, she fired it straight for the maw's weak spot. It's tongue. After a moment it let out a screeching wail, and sunk dead to the ground. After a ridiculous fight with that Uvenk moron, the group was on their way to look for Maelon.

"You ready Mordin?"

"Yes, Shepard. Must help Maelon."