"This is the secret underground passage?" Kyo asked dismissively as the small group stood next to an open manhole with a service ladder already installed on the edge of it. There was also a large, crudely-painted wooden sign right next to the opening which said, 'To the Underground Alliance Training Grounds'.

"Yes, well," Leliah stammered as she tried to defend her obvious trickery while letting Chekov slide down the ladder first. "It's very confusing once you get down there!" She followed soon after, hitting the ground with a thud before calling up. "You can come down! It's safe now!" Rolling his eyes, Kyo was careful about going down the ladder with only one good hand to get a decent grip with while the other tried to hold onto one of Shiro's legs so that he wouldn't fall to the filthy pavement below. Once they were all safely on the grated walkway, a heavy pistol was drawn with a lit flashlight at its tip to illuminate the way. Even though the floor was trailed in small white lights, it was still difficult to see clearly or to even tell what could be running around wild down here. Since there wasn't any immediate danger, Kyo began to lead the way.

"Come on," he said in a hushed voice as he crept slowly forward with the pistol still sharply aimed. The Quarians looked to each other before nodding. Following the lights, the tunnel echoed with muffled voices and dripping pipes, but it was the constant sound of footsteps which made Kyo uneasy. The sensitive ears of the formerly famous singer could recognize the difference between background noise and what was in his actual vicinity.

"So what's the deal with you and that dead body?" The voice of the younger Quarian boy was inquisitive as usual, even though he didn't really seem all that interested rather than just wanting to break the uncomfortable silence.

"Chekov! Don't be rude…Ah…What he means to say is…," the sister interjected, but was cut off.

"What's with me and the dead body? I can hear just fine, thanks." The sergeant's attitude made Leliah uneasy enough to force another nervous laugh from her a second time since their meeting. Continuing to look ahead with the weapon still drawn, Kyo answered the question without removing his gaze the dancing shadows in the distance. "He's not dead. He's in some kind of coma, but I have my orders. He's the best lead I've got."

"But…he's not conscious."

"Tell me something I don't know." The omni-tool on the pistol-carrying arm lit up again and the animatronic voice spoke as it updated the nav point.

Subject found.

10 meters.

5 meters.

1 meter.

"Shit! GET DOWN NOW!"

The arrow was pointing behind them as in the distance, a glowing blue light approached at rapid speed. After pushing the siblings into a corner, Kyo took a knee as his omni-tool reshaped the small, hard-light screen into a large, glowing orange shield. It formed just in time to absorb the impact of the basketball-sized biotic mass which would have tossed the party into various directions otherwise. Scrambling, the Quarians took cover as best they could and began to tap away at their own tools while tossing inert little drones towards the direction of the fight. The crab-like robots began to shoot off small rockets into the darkness where the biotic attack had come from. While it may have been a good faith effort to assist in their own way, the missiles were still knocked away to explode against the sewer's walls. "Major Alenko, stand down!" Kyo shouted from behind his shield as he remained crotched.

"Why are you following me?" was the first question Kaidan asked from the distance in a harsh and hoarse tone as the sounds of his steps grew closer. "Which merc team is it this time?" was the second. "Blue Suns? Blood Pack? Some Drell Assassin? I've seen them all." Despite at least acknowledging that this was, in fact, the human Spectre he had been looking for, Kyo still wasn't convinced enough to drop his shield. This turned out to be a good thing since Kaidan then teleported over and nearly shattered it with a close-range attack. The few shots that Kyo did manage to fire before having to brace himself for impact went through the man as if the major were a ghost and even though he had prepared his body to take the hit, he was still pushed a few feet backwards with his armored boots scrapping against the slick metal-grated flooring with an earsplitting screech.

"Neither…I'm…with the Alliance. Hackett…sent…me!" It took a great deal of determination and raw strength just to push Kaidan back as the shield recovered power, but it left Kyo winded.

Pausing, Kaidan took a look to his left to see the pair of terrified Quarian children and seeing their fear helped him regain his senses. The tremendous force which enflamed his body was reduced from a raging blue fire to a gentle glow.

"Hackett did? Why?"

"No idea, sir. I just have my orders to find you…and…I was sort of led here."

"By them?" Kaidan turned to look at Kyo only briefly before looking back at the kids.

"Yes and no, sir," Kyo answered, but still didn't trust the biotic enough to drop his defenses entirely. Exhausted from the short yet intense battle, he continued to speak as best as he could. "If you're done trying to kill me, I'll answer all the questions I can, though it won't amount to much."

"Fine. Come on." Teleporting yet again, Kaidan's body flickered and reappeared in front to take the lead. Dark eyes narrowed as the sergeant watched his superior move about in such a way. It reminded him entirely too much of how banshees would flicker about before shoving their arms into the bodies of his teammates. He had a general distain for biotics to begin with and now this one in particular, even more so. Still, he got what he wanted and turned to the Quarians.

"Come out, guys. It's alright now." The siblings nodded, standing to gather their tiny bots and cradled them in their arms as they followed along. Kaidan didn't speak for the entire five minutes or so of walking before he opened a nearly invisible door, leading them to a surprisingly clean and well-lit apartment. There were several monitors stationed at a small desk and a made bed in the corner with crisp, white sheets. On the nightstand was a photo, turned down onto its face. Sitting in the only chair at the desk, Kaidan swiveled to face Kyo as the siblings took seats upon the soft bed. Of course, when Shiro's body was tossed down between them, they quickly scattered off like little mice to stand in opposite corners of the room. Sighing as the weight was removed from his body, the sergeant took a moment to stretch and look around. "Nice place."

"Uh huh, so you said that Admiral Hackett sent you over? For what? To hide a body? There are better people for that sort of job around here." Kaidan spoke with suspicion in his voice, eyeing the motionless corpse that was now on top of his clean sheets.

"That's Shiro, so I call him, and he's not dead. He's just…weird," Kyo pointed out in a minor attempt to clarify.

"Right, you have some drugged body instead? What do you really want from me, kid? I haven't got all day." There was another sigh as Kyo reached over to pull the major up into a standing position. He then took Kaidan's omni-tool bearing arm by the wrist in order to hold it over Shiro's body.

"Look, this is gonna sound weird, but this guy wanted me to find you. Just…stand there for a second. Something's gonna happen."

"Something?" Kaidan asked in disbelief. "Like what? Look, I…" His speech was abruptly cut off as his omni-tool's display screen popped up and began to speak to him.

Scanning. Scanning. Subject Found: Major Kaidan Alenko.

Access granted.

It flickered to show a video playback; only static at first before it became very clear. It was from a security camera in Huerta Memorial Hospital; a recording from after he was attacked by that Cerberus fem-bot. From the looks of it, this recording was from while he was still unconscious and bedridden. He watched as Commander Shepard spoke from the doorway of his hospital room, saying things he didn't remember hearing in that state.

"I need you," was Shepard's final line before the audio cut out. Kaidan's chest tighten.

"…Shepard," he said breathlessly as the screen froze on the commander's expression. When Kaidan's fingers touched the digital image of his lover's face, the display changed to the galaxy map instead. Once again, the electronic voice of the tool spoke.

Scanning. Scanning.

Subject found: Dr. Liara T'soni. Additional subject verification is required.

System shutting down.

"Liara? Wait! No! Dammit!" No matter how much Kaidan pounded at his forearm, the screen would not return with the same image as before. Kyo had wandered off to take the liberty of turning up the facedown picture upright. It was the same scruffy faced man from the vid.

"You," Kaidan said as he shot a glare to the prying sergeant. "What the hell just happened?" he asked as he frustratingly turned the frame back down after grabbing it from Kyo's hand.

"Even if I were to guess, you wouldn't believe me anyway. I don't even believe it myself." The weary eyes from both men peered over at Shiro, who still remained as he had always been.

"Try me." Kyo only huffed while looking away in youthful rebellion. After taking a seat upon the mattress, he moved Shiro's arm to rest on top of the blanket there instead of dangling off to the side.

"What do you know about Cerberus?" The question was serious enough and unwavering. It also caused Kaidan's hazel eyes to narrow with even more rage.

"Enough. Get to the point."

"This guy," Kyo began with a pointed gesture, "is a Cerberus project. He's got all these implants in his body and I think he's leading us somewhere. He does stuff that messes with tech. It's like a ghost in the machine or something. He only does it for a little while, but his body doesn't move at all. He's breathing and there's a heartbeat, so I think that he's trying to tell us something, but can't, ya know?"

"What?" Kyo was right about one thing and it was that Kaidan didn't believe him in the slightest. "You're saying he's…what? Manipulating tech in on ethereal level? That's completely ridiculous…" Although admittedly, he also remembered how this wasn't the first time someone had suggested something like this was possible to him.

"No," Kyo answered. "Well, yes. Maybe? I don't know. I was just told to find him because there was some weird signal coming from an abandoned Cerberus base on Mars. We thought it was maybe a black box with an automatic SOS transmission. I mean, he kind of is, right? But we were expecting, I don't know, an actual box or hard drive. A secured server perhaps, but not an entire person!" Since Kaidan and the Quarians seemed dumbfound, the room remained quiet until Kyo's intercom went off.

"Sergeant? Sergeant, do you read me? Did you find Major Alenko? Over." The incoming voice was all too familiar to both soldiers.

"Yes sir, he's right here. Over."

"Major, this is Admiral Hackett. Have you been briefed on the current situation? Over."

Still in disbelief, Kaidan remained quiet for a moment as he looked to the body on his bed before answering. "More or less, Admiral. Over."

"Good. I need you to join this mission. Over."

"No offence sir, but what mission? Over."

"Then you are not aware? The subject that was found at the Cerberus base flooded our intel with files dating back over twenty years. We are still working on the encryption, but we have some broken information on Project Lazarus." There was a paused as Hackett wanted to be perfectly clear. "We believe the subject is looking for the rest of the Normandy team. We also believe the subject may know the location of Commander Shepard. Over."