"Dead? Me? When did that happen?" was Nine's response.
"Commander," Chakwas interjected, "good to see you."
"You sent Tali to get me with the message that he," Shepard said as he pointed to Nine, "died, yet, unless he is a zombie or a husk, he is alive."
"Commander, I rarely make a mistake on any medical matter, you know that. His pulse was gone and we couldn't remove his armour for CPR. By all medical laws, that man should've been dead."
"But he isn't, is he?"
"That's because that armour. I don't know what Cerberus did, but the armour that prevented us from aiding him, also keeps him alive."

"Right, next thing you tell me he's a cyborg," Shepard said sarcastically.
"I'm right here, you know."
"Chakwas, test him and tell me if he's able to fight in the field."
She sighed as she put on plastic gloves, "Alright commander, one physical examination coming right up."
"Another one? You people are sick!"
"What?" said two voices at the same time.
"What other explanation is there for this Asari on my chest? Seriously, if you try to experiment on people get the evidence away after it! Sheesh! At least Cerberus tried to be subtle."
Shepard look inquisitively at Chakwas, who only responded with a shrug.
"I suppose I could add a mental evaluation too."
"Just get it done by the time we reclaimed Wrex's family armor." Shepard said as he walked out of the medbay and the doors closed behind him.
"Son of a…"
Chakwas groaned as she realized this was going to be a long day.

After the excruciatingly long examination by Chakwas, for some reason she didn't believe he had been sedated, Nine could finally eat in the mess hall. Or at least, something that resembles eating, with a helmet that had opened at the mouth, and with an appetite that could match a Krogan's.
As he was eating, a noise that at first seemed to come from a bird, came from behind him.
"I believed you swallowed a cockroach right there."
"Good, that's more proteins. Never hurts to have some more of those."
"And here I was, thinking humans hated cockroaches."
"And here I am thinking Turians hate humans, yet here you are, serving on a human ship. Guess we both learned something today eh?"

They both chuckled and the Turian seated himself on the opposite end of the table.
"Fair enough, the name's Garrus Vakarian, C-sec agent and the most handsome person aboard the ship."
"Nine's the name and well, you've seen my game."
"Don't remind me." Garrus took a sip of his drink as he tried to put the images of the Cerberus base out of his head again.

"Alright, back to the point. Shepard told me to brief you on the next mission, so that's exactly what I'll do," Garrus began as he opened a file on his omni-tool, "I discovered an old cargo freighter a few days ago. One that hasn't been seen since my old c-sec days."
"Fascinating," A yawn that followed revealed his true opinion though.
"On board of said freighter was and most likely still is, Dr. Saleon Heart, a salarian who experimented on his employees."

"What kind of experiments?"
"The lethal kind, humans growing a new liver, krogans another quad, just to sell to the highest bidder. Stuff like that."
"Count me in. I've got one more question though. Can you get me a list of his victims?"
"Why would you need that?"
"Call it paying my respects."
"I'll see what I can do."
"Appreciated."

-Cargo Hold, 2 hours later-

A small piece of meat fell into a compact, burning fire in a small bowl.
"Thor, please grant me the strength to exact vengeance."
Another piece of meat fell into the fire.
"Odin guide me so my judgement is just and correct."
Another piece.
"Loki, be my wits, so it is I who outsmart and not my foes."
Another piece.
"Freya –"

"Don't you grow tired of that long list of gods whose favour you ask?" A woman's voice came from behind him.
"What do you mean?"

"Simple. Don't you think a single, real, god would be easier? A god of peace , calmness and love instead of that bunch of warmongering devils you worship?"
"How would your god be more peaceful or real than my gods? What makes him better than mine?"
"Your gods advocate war and slaughters. They were made up to give an explanation for the elements. Mine gives meaning to life itself. He loves all his creations."
"Then why bother being a soldier?"
"Why? Simple, to prote-"

"Don't give me that protect and serve bullshit. There's non-violent ways to do that. Fact is that you took a way of violence. Which makes you nothing but a hypocrite. Though nothing else is to be expected considering your religion's history. Crusades, raids against Jews, persecution of gay people, depopulation of the Americas, religious wars in the seventeenth century. And the list keeps going on."
"You can't blame a religion for the mistakes of its followers!"
"I can if it is involved in more than half of the religious wars in history, has dozens of different interpretations and its followers claim it to be superior to everything else."
"Don't worry, I forgive you. I know you're just spitting out propaganda. You don't mean half of what you're saying. I know you're misguided, but I can bring you on the right path."

"Seriously? What makes you think I'm spitting out propaganda?" Nine took a deep breath, "You know what? I don't care actually. This conversation is over." He picked up the bowl with the fire and charred meat and began walking away.
"Then go hide in a corner like the Cerberus coward you are."
Nine froze. "Care to say that in my sights?"
"Sure," she said as she gave an ungentle tug on his shoulders to make him face her.
Yet the tug made Nine lose the grasp on the bowl. And as the bowl fell and in the end shattered, so did Nine's self-control.

Before anyone in the room realized what was going on, Nine charged forward in blind fury, his dagger drawn.
As he prepared to stab his frozen prey, a blue glowing ball hit him from the side and knocked him into the metal wall of the cargo hold.

"You've got a Krogan's temper! Let's see if you can drink like a Krogan too!" A booming voice said from above Nine.
"Eh, wha-?" Nine could bring out before he was dragged up and off into the elevator without a chance to struggle against his captor.

"You're lucky Wrex intervened when he did Ashley. You shouldn't challenge people you don't know. Especially not like that."
"No Tali, he attacked me because he knows I'm onto him. Sooner or later Shepard will realize he's Cerberus too."

-Cockpit, 15 minutes later-

"Garrus, find Nine, we'll be boarding Saleons ship in 35 minutes."
"Alright Shepard."
"Great," Garrus thought, "Now I have to find that guy. Guess I beter check the cargo hold. He mentioned something about praying to his gods there."
As Garrus walked down the stairs on the Normandy towards the elevator, drunken laughter greeted him from the mess hall.
"That Krogan is drunk again? With such a lack of discipline it's not a wonder his race lost the war." Garrus thought.

Moments like this nearly made him miss C-sec. Until he remembered the disappointed voices of executor Palin or his father that is. Or until he remembered the red tape. Then he was glad he could just walk through it without any problems.
A few moments later he was on the elevator- why didn't this thing move faster anyway – towards the cargo hold.
As the door opened and he could get a first glance, he noticed that Ashley was ranting against Tali about the one or the other. Nine was nowhere to be found though.

"Might as well ask the ladies," Garrus thought.
He walked towards Tali and Ashley; despite the latter's curses about Cerberus and people fornicating with their mothers.
"Mental note: Human rituals are really disgusting." Garrus muttered to himself, before speaking up loudly so the ladies could hear him. "As interesting as your conversation sounds, I'm afraid I'll have to ask if any of you have seen Nine, you know, the new guy?"
Ashley opened her mouth, but Tali acted faster.
"Wrex dragged him off to one of his drinking games in the mess."
"Spirits! I'll have to run if Shepard want him to fight today."
"No need to hurry for that monster."
"Who? Shepard or Nine?"
"Nine of course! That cursed thing!"
"Ashley, you know that if Shepard wants him to fight today and is not able to, he'll find out who's responsible for that! No one needs to get in trouble."
"I guess you're right."
Garrus ran to the elevator door as Tali tried to calm Ashley some more. As the doors closed he couldn't help but wonder. What did he miss?

-Normandy cockpit –

"Joker, what are you doing?"
"I've been preparing this introduction prank for the new guy. Trust me Shepard! You'll love it! And if my calculations are correct then the elevator that is going up now should contain both him and Garrus!"
"What did you do?"
"You'll see!" Joker said as he pushed a few buttons on his display.
Shepard groaned in annoyance.

-Elevator-

The elevator went up and Garrus impatiently tapped his foot.
"Is it me or is the elevator going slower than usual?"
Out of nowhere music seemed to start in the elevator.
"When did we get elevator music here?"
And that's when a recording of Joker singing kicked in.
"We're no strangers to loooove. You know the rules and so do I."

-Citadel, council rooms-

"And I am of the opinion that we should revoke the spectre status of Shepard. His la-"
All out of a sudden Tevos began screaming, shaking and clutched her head.
"Are you alright councillor Tevos?"
"I'm – I'm alright now, thanks Sparatus. It's just that I felt a scream so anguished, so tortured that it somehow broke though time and space."
"Right. Moving on. As I was saying..." Valern continued.

-Normandy cockpit-

"Let's look at them." Said Joker as he opened a screen that showed the elevator insides.
"I'll have to get those bugs removed, you do realize that Joker? And where is Nine anyway? I only see Garrus in there."
"Uh-oh, you're not going to let him kill me, right Shepard?"
"Of course. I'll let him break a few of your ribs though."
"Ah shucks."

-Elevator, 1.5 minutes later-

At last the elevator doors opened. Garrus stepped out and let himself drop to the floor.
At that exact moment he swore he'd make Joker pay. He didn't know when, how or where. But he knew he'd have his vengeance one day. Yet even vengeance has to wait for duty.
Garrus' duty led him to the mess hall, where he noticed Wrex sitting at a table with Nine lying half over the table on the other side. A few bottles of ryncol were silent witnesses of Wrex' game.

"Wrex. What did you do? We need him for the next mission! You - " Garrus stopped as Wrex chugged down another bit of his drink. A drink consisting of clear liquid, "You're drinking water?"
Wrex responded by quietly telling Garrus to 'shut his stinking Turian mouth' and pointing at Nine.
"What do you-?" Garrus managed to bring out, before he was interrupted by Nine, who started mumbling stuff."
"Id nr. 197086543. Fubar. Need evac."
"Wrex, we should record this."
"One step ahead, Turian." Wrex said as he lifted his arm, revealing an omni-tool.
"Wrex, you are a genius! I could kiss you right now."

The response Garrus got, was a menacing stare.
"Or maybe not..."
"Liwei, Kahoku, bombers."
"He's not giving us much to work with though."
"You lose." Nine's breathing became more erratic. "Who? Where? Cerberus?"

Nine's mouth twitched visibly, before he started screaming.
"Ik zweer bij de goden dat ik jullie allemaal ga vermoorden of zal sterven bij mijn poging."
What followed was a scream of pain and agony.

A few moments later Nine jerked up.
"Hey Krogan, remind me never to drink with you again. Oh, hey, Garrus, when did you get here?"

Garrus couldn't respond and instead stared dumbfounded at Nine, wondering how he could act as if nothing had happened.
"Why is everyone staring at me?"
It was true, everyone in the mess hall was staring at him.
"We'll explain another time, Shepard needs you to be ready in about five minutes, so you better hurry up and get a gun in the cargo hold before he gets mad."

Nine sprang up and ran off towards the cargo hold, muttering some, what Garrus' experience learned him, human curses.
"Did he just call Ashley a narrow-minded, crazy, female dog?"
"I don't know. He seems... weird, even for a human."
"Yes. What was that language he was speaking sometime during that dream? Why didn't it get translated Wrex? What are the humans keeping from us?"
"I don't know, ask Liara." A small pause followed, "He was speaking alliance slang at the beginning though."
"So, the experiment was actually an Alliance soldier? Ashley won't like to hear that."

"Still could be a defector though." Wrex chuckled, "But I won't miss any sleep if Ashley is wrong. She's been giving me the evil eye since day one."
"I know, she's been doing the same to me. She deserves a lesson sometime. Oh and Wrex?"
"Shut up Turian."
"Pleasure talking to you."
Garrus might have imagined it, but he could've sworn a small smile crept up Wrex' face. On the other hand, Krogan don't smile, definitely his imagination.
For a while they sat there in silent understanding, until Garrus noticed Nine walking in again.

"Well, I suppose he's ready. Got to shoot something now. Oh and Wrex, don't forget to send the file to Shepard."
Garrus got, what he assumed was, an affirmative grumble from Wrex.
"Hey, Garrus, what's up with the awesome music in the elevator?"
"You're joking me right?"
"No, seriously, that singing is awesome. I actually am starting to feel welcome."
"Hate to break it to you, but I suspect the pilot tried to prank you."
Nine stopped for a while, just frozen and for a moment Garrus thought of warning Joker to run for his life.
"I haven't met the man and I already start to like him. Guess he's just awesome like that."
Garrus mentally facepalmed himself. "Humans!"

-Cockpit same moment-

"Slowing down to the same speed of the freighter."
"Equal speed has been achieved."
"Extending docking tube."
"Docking tube has connected."
"Pressurizing tube interior."
"Interior has been pressurized and oxygen is seeping in. All is ready for the boarding team, commander."

"It would help if the rest of the team would be present."
"We're here commander."
"Took you long enough. You know I don't like to be kept waiting, Garrus."
"Sorry commander, tried to prevent Nine from encouraging Joker."

"Ah, I see. Well, there's a certain doctor waiting for you Garrus. Let's go."
They walked into the docking tube. Garrus was to Shepard's right, a sniper rifle clutched in his hands and an assault rifle strapped over his back. To Shepard's left was Nine, who was idly twirling a pistol in his left hand and had a knife strapped to his boot. The lack of other weapons concerned Shepard, but he decided not to speak on it.
Shepard himself had his entire arsenal with him, he might not need it, but he'd be damned if he wouldn't be prepared.
The first door opened and tortured screams reached their ears as multiple insane persons charged at them. Within moments a human jumped at Shepard, while a salarian took Garrus' gun in its hands.
Shepard blocked the human's hands . While in normal circumstances Shepard would've been able to easily beat the man, it seemed said man had super human strength as it managed to get on a standstill with Shepard.

"Sir. Calm down, we're here to help!"
The response Shepard got was the man simply trying harder to strangle Shepard.
"Let go of my gu-" Came from Shepard's right, followed by a thud. A quick look to the right showed Garrus being swarmed by the salarian and two turians. The three of them directing their attention to Shepard now Garrus was downed.

"Weak," said a voice to his left and a moment later the force Shepard was struggling against was gone, the human falling down with a knife sticking in its neck. Shepard looked to his left just in time to see Nine jumping up, biotics glowing around him.
When he landed to Shepard's right, the turians and salarian were thrown in the air and afterwards caught in a singularity, which got detonated by a warp.
"Pathetic."
An asari charged at Nine, her own biotics glowing bright as she charged. Only to be caught by a cable shooting from one of Nine's gauntlet. When it made contact the brightness around her body was replaced by a different kind of brightness as electricity cackled through the cable, over her body, making her collapse for a while.
Instead of tranquilizing her, as Shepard would've done, however Nine walked forward, opening a compartment in his chest armour and took out a knife. As he stood in front of the asari he muttered something and drove his knife into her chest, killing her.
"Useless."
Shepard ran to Garrus to help him up, when a menacing chuckle rang through the room.
From behind one of the storage containers appeared a krogan, the condition of blood rage evident in its motions. It roared with a certain delight in its cry as it spotted Shepard's team.
It charged into the closest member of Shepard's team, Nine.
Before anyone had the chance to react the krogan had smacked Nine into a wall and was biting into him, the sounds that came from the armor began to hint at it giving in under the sheer pressure of the bite.
"Piece," The krogan flew back, a blue orb in its chest, straight into one of the metal containers.
"Of," Both of them got up, the krogan roaring again. It failed to notice the blue light surrounding the container behind him though.
"Shit!" And with a loud smack the container toppled and crushed the krogan beneath it.

Shepard in the meantime had helped Garrus up and the two of them had shot up a few dozen more of the subjects, some of which headed for them, some of which for Nine and remarkably some other had headed for each other. In Shepard's mind however it did explain why every one of them was covered in blood.
"Garrus, Nine, let's put a stop to this doctor's practices."
"Just a moment commander," Came Nine's voice, " I feel like I've been hit by a cargo train. And every car on it."
At that point the kickback of the biotic display and the added mauling by the krogan hit Nine and made him fall back down.

"No way I'm going to carry him."
"Shut it Garrus. Let's clear the room."
"Affirmative commander. Oh, by the way, Wrex has some intel for you."
"Oh? He found a clue on Saren's whereabouts?"
"What? Nah, he found out Nine sleep talks. About his past."
"I'll check in by him after the mission."
"Room clear, Shepard," Garrus said after a while of scouting, "The door to the next room is locked however."
"Ok, Garrus, help Nine up while I hack this door. If necessary send him to the med bay and have Pressly send Wrex."
"Will do commander."
And as Garrus turned around and stepped away, Shepard turned all his attention towards hacking the door.

- In another room on the MSV Fedele-

The intruders didn't realize that he, the great doctor Saleon, had his cameras checking them the moment they entered the ship. He watched their progress and how they dispatched of his useless subjects. He noted their strengths and weaknesses. They would make excellent test subjects indeed. All he had to do was to deceive them, to lure them in the trap he had prepared for this purpose.

He watched as he saw them split up, once, then again and cursed that he hadn't set up his trap sooner, he could have captured and subdued them one by one. But it was a mere delay. Nothing else.
He watched the Turian and the Human with the strong biotics argue and then move back to the third Human, which he deducted to be the leader. He watched as they went through the door and into the hallway. Three doors there were for them to choose from. One leading to his trap, one leading to him and one leading to the cockpit. As he had expected the leader walked to the closest door, the one leading to his trap. A smile crept up Saleon's face.

He realized partly that he was shaking out of joy and anticipation. The leader began hacking the door. As expected.
The smile on Saleon's face became larger.
The leader finished hacking the door. At that same moment the Turian looked up to the camera and shot it.

Saleon cried out of anger. He wouldn't be bested! No! The intruders might have destroyed that camera, but he had others, yes. He switched to the camera inside the room. His trap ready to spring. Only, the intruders were nowhere to be seen. He checked the camera inside the cockpit, for nothing to be seen. The next camera revealed nothing but dead subjects in the cargo hold. So, he, the great Saleon, deducted that the intruders were still in the hallway.

His omni tool alerted him of someone trying to hack the door to his room. The foolish human did not realize that he was facing off against the great Doctor Saleon, who aside from being a master in genetics, also was a hacker of the highest level who still knew all the tricks. Yet he accepted the challenge of the dumb scum and for every attempt the intruder made, Saleon was two steps ahead, never letting the human get closer.

From the commotion he heard from the other side of the door he knew that his opponent was getting frustrated. In Saleon's eyes that simply proved the inferior intellect of his opponent, an insult to hackers everywhere. He chuckled at his own joke, while never letting his attention drift away from his omni tool to prevent his opponent from hacking through his door and thus forcing them to check the trapped room first.

"Wait," He thought, "Did I just hear them? How? Walls and door are soundproof."
Light began reaching his eyes and as he drifted his attention to the wall next to the door he noticed a half-formed circle in the wall and the distinct precision of an omni tool with torch welder. He returned his attention to his omni tool and in time prevented another hacking attempt. And he smiled thanking his own genius again for the security upgrade he made that made omni gel useless on his door. The game continued between the doctor and his opponent, each giving their best, yet, the doctor knew, he would win in the end, soon his opponent would grow tired of this a-

A thump cut off his trail of thought and he directed his attention to the wall. A hole the size of a krogan's face had appeared in the wall. Saleon began thinking of a new plan immediately, hoping to outwit his opponents and to prevent them from throwing a grenade in the room.
He would pose as someone else… Who though? He was not sure yet.
A plan began to form in his head and then…

"Heeeeere's Nineeee!"
The biotic's helmeted face appeared through the hole and disappeared.
"Nine, what are you doing now?"
"You should try this Garrus! It's damn fun!"
"Sounding as a psychopath is fun?" A moment of silence.
"You are truly crazy."
"You're no fun Garrus." The helmeted face turned to Saleon, "Don't go running now, I'll be back the moment I made this hole bigger. I'm serious! No running away now!" And with that he disappeared and Saleon could hear the torch being used again.

At that moment Saleon realized the one flaw in his plan. He had assumed his opponents would be sane. In the same breath, he also realized he hadn't given the counter-hacking attention during the interlude. The door opened and Saleon's eye gave a twitch.
"Outwitted by morons," He thought, "The shame!"

He had to think fast, somehow find a way to turn the situation back into his favour. He, the great Saleon, would never be out of idea's. He noticed the Alliance symbol on the leader's chest plate and just like that a new plan sprouted. Hopefully the human would buy it as Saleon thought of a better plan.

"Thank you! Thank you for saving me from those… things."
"It's not considered polite to try to lock out your saviours," replied the human.
"I thought you were pirates. I am glad you got my distress signal."
The Turian walked in and for some reason the doctor found him oddly familiar.
"That's him Shepard. That's doctor Saleon."
"What? No I am Doctor Heart!"
"You sure, Garrus?"

"Positive," the Turian changed his attention to Saleon, "There's no escape this time, doctor. I'd harvest your organs first, but we don't have the time."
For a moment a shiver ran down the doctor's spine, but he thought he could use this psychotic attitude in his plans, "You're crazy!" He directed his attention to the human, "He's crazy! Please don't let him do this to me."
"We arrest him Garrus. Let c-sec or the military deal with him."
"But, we have him, Shepard! We can't let him get away again!"
"If he dies we'll never know what's he been up to or how he did it. We'll let them take him in, interrogate him and then he'll spend the rest of his life in prison."

Dr. Saleon was starting to get mildly annoyed by this conversation. Good thing he had formulated his plan by now. He'd throw a stun grenade at them, shoot them both in the head, get to the cockpit, close the hatch before ripping his ship loose of the docking tube and making sure he'd get to omega. But why did he have the feeling he forgot something?
"I've… Okay, you're right." The Turian turned his attention back to Saleon, "You're a very lucky Salarian, you owe the commander your life."
And that was Saleon's cue to execute his plan.

He launched the stun grenade from his omni tool before either of the two could react. Yet as he reached for his pistol, a piece of the wall fell down. Saleon cursed inwardly as he realized he had forgotten the second human. As he turned to deal with the most imminent threat a blue glow surrounded him and froze him in place.

"I can't believe I managed to get that field working… Commander, Garrus, you two alright?"
"Goddamnit, Nine, couldn't you have done that earlier?"
"Sorry! The wall was tougher than anticipated."
"Spirits, you're an idiot."
And Saleon watched from his static state and wondered how he could've been outsmarted by these degenerate buffoons.
" We should kill him right here and now."
"Calm down Garrus, we've gone over this already, we'll let c-sec or the military deal with him, whoever we encounter first."
"You saw what he just did! We can't risk to get him aboard the Normandy."

"I could command the ship and drop him off where you want him. Make sure he confesses as a nice Salarian and stuff on top of that."
"Nine…" the human leader seemed to contemplate it and Saleon was sure he'd refuse, it's what a sane man would do, "Go ahead, just remember that confessions under torture aren't considered to be legal." And the leader walked away.
The Turian however walked forward and whispered.

"What I just said about you being lucky? I take it back. I'd say good luck, but luck won't help you now." The Turian walked off and silence ruled in the room. A form of pregnant silence that is.
From the distance the sound of the airlock closing reached them. As the sound of the closing airlock reached them, the human's omni-tool flared on and he turned his back onto Saleon.
"Heh. Who names their kid "Alexandrov Artyom Abrahamovich? Kind of a long name."
Saleon could've wondered what the use of saying a random name was, but he wouldn't waste his time, he felt the stasis weakening enough for him to move his limbs. He began crawling, gathering whatever shrapnel and debris he could. Once he was confident he had enough, he opened his omni tool and began assembling a new stun grenade.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. I will enjoy breaking your legs and arms if you even as much as try to attack."
Saleon decided to ignore the human, his omni-tool indicating that the stun grenade was nearly ready. He pointed his omni-tool at the human, he'd launch his stun grenade followed by an incinerate program. Then he would most likely find a weapon somewhere and kill the human off, given that he actually survived the incinerate program.
Certain that his plan would work Saleon jumped up and threw his stun grenade. As the grenade made its way to the human, he turned around.

"What are you…?" He began asking as the grenade made impact with the helmet and bounced off, only to explode next to it.

In the same time Saleon brought his omni-tool up and activated the incineration program. Sparks erupted from the omni-tool and started to surround him as his omni-tool died because of an overload program. Saleon was still wondering what went wrong when the human loomed over him.
"Got to love automated hard suit lockdown," The human muttered, then a bit louder, "And you made a horrible mistake. Guess I'll have to introduce you to my friends, but first…"

Saleon saw an armored boot rapidly approach his face.
"Don't worry, you'll survive… Probably."
And for a moment, he, the great Dr. Saleon, felt the touch of fear, before losing consciousness.
"Let's see wha-" was the last thing he heard.


A/N:

Hello,

I could come with a silly excuse to explain why I haven't posted anything in so long.
Truth is, it was (and still is) a combination of a lack of will, motivation and inspiration.

In the end, the only thing that made me able to finish this chapter was glorious coffee. Got hooked on the stuff and it made sure I could do this.

I'd say leave a review, send me a pm, shit like that, but I won't even bother as I know nobody will send me any thing.
See you next time,

Jdinofreak