Chapter 4
Xen walked down the hall with a sense of purpose, she was in her full enviro-suit to include her mask. The black suit and mask reflected the white lights as she moved. She arrived at her destination moments later and walked into the make shift children's bay. The children were sitting around not saying a word.
"Hello children I hope that today's tests will be more fruitful then yesterdays. You wouldn't want to upset Aunty Xen again." Xen said her voice even with no hint of emotion.
The children stood up and followed Xen as she led them down the hall, each child had a small collar on with a number on it. None of the children spoke all of them had their heads down as if afraid. A small girl no older than seven her blond hair shaved close to her skull coughed and Xen stopped and looked back, the girl began to shake and a tear escaped her right eye and rolled down her cheek.
"What did I say about coughing around me children?" Xen asked slowly walking toward the girl who coughed.
"Never to do it ma'am." The children all said in unison, with no emotion as if this their humanity had been removed from them.
Though the masked hid her face Xen was smiling at the idea of how easy humans broke when pain was involved. She considered the terror to be enough but decided to correct the child anyway. Pulling up her Omni tool she pressed a few buttons and the child's collar sparked sending the girl to the floor in a hard spasm as her muscles contracted from the electricity now coursing through her. The girl tried to scream but all that escaped her throat was a high pitch moan as her bladder emptied on the floor soaking her pants and the ground around her.
"Now look what you did!" Xen screamed and the children pulled back in fear of what was surely next. Xen turned off the shock collar and girl stopped convulsing at once and began to weep softly. "Oh don't play the victim my dear, you brought this on yourself!" Xen said pushing another set of commands into her Omni tool and a single Geth appeared from one of the many doors.
The Geth was a dark silver and the light bounced off its metallic body giving it an odd appearance.
"Yes Master Xen how can we assist you?" It said in a robotic tone that Xen liked, she had all the Geth reverted back to their servant software all except Legion of course.
"This one needs to be taught to follow instructions, take her and teach her what it means to obey." Xen said her voice was that of a person speaking to a servant.
The Geth nodded and grabbed the child who was no openly crying but still laying in the puddle of her own urine by the ankle hard. A little too hard as a loud snap filled the hall and the child screamed in pain as her ankle shattered under the Geth's grip. Xen and the Geth paid no attention to her cries of pain. The Geth turned lifting the child by her broken leg and walked off taking her into one of the rooms.
"No we won't have any more outburst today!" Xen said her voice holding a hint of anger and pleasure at the same time.
The children nodded some had tears in their eyes but they fought them back and once again formed a line following Xen who was now whistling down the hallway.
2
Shepard was growing impatient with both Cerberus and the Alliance his mission had been scrubbed again now for the fifth time and he couldn't figure out why. He looked over the latest intelligence about the lab on Krios and nothing had changed other than the number dead on the Citadel from the virus. It had mutated again and it was now burning its way through what was left of the Krogan and Turians. Frustrated, Shepard slammed his fist into the desk and stood up "EDI get Alliance HQ on the comms." He said to the empty room knowing EDI was always listening.
"Right away Shepard." She responded
Shepard waited for the call for a moment but instead of an Alliance member answering EDI came back.
"Sorry Shepard they said they cannot speak to us at the moment. However I do have an incoming call on the old emergency frequency, the one used on the Normandy." EDI's voice had a bit of concern and intrigue.
"Okay, put it through." Shepard said looking at his vid screen.
Shepard was waiting for an old friend to appear but instead got no picture only a voice. "Shepard, I need to speak with you and Captain Delta in person aboard your ship. This is of utmost importance, the information I have cannot be broadcast over the net." The voice said in a hurry.
"Who is this? How do you have this…?" Shepard was cut off.
"No time for all of that, I will answer all your questions in person. Head to the Horsehead Nebula, the old Cronos Station. Bring your daughter along I think she will want to hear this as well." With that the connection broke and there was nothing but a faint static on the line.
Shepard looked at the black screen thinking for a moment frowning as he did. "I don't like the sound of this" he thought. "Okay EDI, take us to the Horsehead Nebula." He said, heading off to talk to Delta.
3
Liara slowly read and reread the report on her data pad not wanting to believe it. Cerberus was now in power of the entire Alliance it said. Had she missed something she thought over and over, but she was sure she hadn't and worse this was saying the Prime Minister was just a puppet at this point. She had feared this when Kelly announced he was allowing Cerberus back into the Alliance's good grace. "Glyph!" She said into the air calling for her info drown.
"Yes Dr. Shepar… T'Soni." The drone corrected itself.
"The damn thing how many times?" She thought but didn't correct react this time. "Get me the SSV Bastogne QEC as soon as we have an uplink. Then message Agent Sapphire tell her Operation Cesar is a go. That son of a bitch Kelly will pay for this!" With that Liara walked out of her office on
Thessia over to the park where she played as a child and sat in the cool grass. The wind was blowing and the perfume of spring was all around, she closed her eyes and thought of her daughters. Neither were safe any longer and the High Command would use this slip up by her as an excuse to send agents after Anima. "I have to warn them but…" the old Normandy frequency popped in her head and she had an idea.
4
Xen was back in her room sipping some tea no need for her suit now she wasn't around those disgusting miniature humans or kids as they were called. A smile flashed on her face as she remembered today's tests. It narrowed the potential subjects to two one male one female, and the female seemed to already has some basic biotic ability which was good news. It would speed up her transformation. She turned on her Omni tool pressed a few buttons and waited.
"Yes, this is Xen… No, no I am fine... Listen I've decided… yes you were right it is the female. The male? I don't care what you do with him, we need someone to clean the air vents don't we? So what if is dangerous, I would rather risk him then one of my drones… Okay see to it, let the lab know we move to phase two in one hour." Xen ended the call and turned off the Omni tool, smiled then took another sip of tea.
Forty minutes later Xen appeared in her lab the brown hair girl who was about ten years old was strapped down to an exam table. The girl is crying and looking around wildly as if looking for an escape that wasn't there or a hero that wasn't coming. "Those happen in movies not real life" she thought then she saw the crazy alien woman. She didn't like her one bit she liked hurting children. She fixed her eyes now burning from the tears on Xen and watched her walk over to her.
"Hello dear." Xen said her voice sweet and friendly.
"Hello ma'am" The girl responded in a flat tone.
"I need a helper, would you like to be my new helper?" Xen said still using her friendly voice.
"No." The girl replied quickly.
Xen took a step back as if wounded by the girl's words but she quickly recovered. "It doesn't matter what you want, we will tell you what you want in just a moment anyway." Xen snapped back her sweet voice all but gone now. Xen looked at one of the technicians across the room. "Bring me the Reaper nanites, and hold the sedation I think she will enjoy this." Xen said.
The technician did as he was told and brought over a large metallic syringe. Xen took it from him along with an alcohol wipe.
She lay on the exam table looking up at the ceiling she knew she shouldn't have been rude to the alien lady but she didn't care. Then she felt two hands on her head holding it in place someone opening her mouth and placing a mouth piece in it. "What are they…?" Her thought was cut off as her head exploded with pain she bit down hard on the mouth piece tears flowing from her eyes she tried to scream but all that came out was a moan of agony. She heard a loud pop and knew it was coming from her head then the burning started and this time she screamed in horror and pain before passing out.
Xen looked down at the unconscious girl and smiled. "Make sure you make her forget her past and for god sake give her a bath when you are done." She said turning "Oh and we begin her training in the morning."
5
Sapphire read the message that gave a simple command that simply said Operation Cesar is a go. "Finally." She said smiling and removed her knife from its sheath. She put her right index finger to her right eye and turned on a neuro implant that displayed a map of the Prime Ministers compound. A red dot marked his whereabouts or rather the implant she inserted in his left buttock while he slept. "There you are sweetie, sorry but it is time for goodbye." She removed her finger and the map that displayed on her retina disappeared.
She grabbed her pistol and connected the silencer, attaching it to her belt she left the bedroom heading for his office. Turning the corner she saw two Cerberus security guards and walked up to them.
"What is it ma'am?" One of the guards said.
"I need to see him." She replied holding the knife behind her back.
"Sorry ma'am no visitors he is in a meeting." The guard replied.
"I was hoping you would say that." She said smiling.
"Ma'am?" The guard said confused.
Sapphire brought the knife forward slashing the guard's throat a spray of crimson hitting the wall as he fell back. The second guard went for his weapon but Sapphire kicked him between the legs sending him to his knees, grabbing his crotch was the last thing he did in life as she plunged the knife deep into his neck and brought the blade forward nearly separating his head. With the two guards taken care of she walked through the door into the next section of the compound.
Three guard came walking around a corner and noticed she was covered in blood and came running toward her.
"Ma'am are you okay?" One guard said.
"It's okay boys it's not mine." She said pulling her pistol and shooting all three in the head. The guards fell at her feet and she continued toward the next room which was her former lover's office.
Kelly sat at his desk looking over Cerberus and Alliance reports though at this point they were one in the same. He hadn't wanted to trust Cerberus but he knew the cost of his rise to power and wasn't going to mess it up now. One of the reports said that Shepard was asking to go into the Krios lab again and he was getting tired of stalling the Bastogne. For some reason Cerberus didn't want to risk him on that mission. Then he heard a knock on the door and looked up.
"Enter." He said in a matter of fact way that comes from being in charge.
The door opened and he saw is soon to be wife standing in the door covered in what looked like blood. "My God are you okay?" He said standing from behind his desk.
She didn't answer just walked in turned, shut and locked the door then turned back toward him.
"I'm fine dear but I am afraid your guards aren't." She said with a hint of a smile.
"What happened?" Kelly asked moving from around his desk walking toward her but he stopped cold when he saw the knife in her hand. "What is going on? What did you do?" He said trying not to let on he was scared.
"I am afraid our time together has come to an end, consider this goodbye." With that she threw her knife hitting him in the chest knocking him back until he hit his large wooden desk and fell back onto it.
She walked over to him slowly he was coughing up blood now still trying to understand what just happened. She leaned over him and grabbed the knife. "I'll always remember last night, but I think we can forget about tomorrow." With that she thrust the knife completely into his chest and held it there as his body began to spasm as it fought to remain alive, but a few seconds later his last breath came and went. She whispered one more thing "I just can't live with the pathetic tickles that you call sexual thrusts' anymore." And kissed his forehead then with a violent action pulled the knife from his chest wiped it on his suit jacket, sheathed it, picked up his phone on the desk and called for a cab.