Heyo, back with update number seven. Um, this was originally a Tali-Centric chapter but I realized I accidently got my Quarian history wrong and since it was a major part of the chapter, its going through some serious remodeling. It'll probably be the next update or the one after that at most. Also, the new OC comes in. But other than that, Read, Enjoy, Review.

"Shepard! You're alive!" Engineer Kenneth Donelly greeted as they pushed out of the crowd at Purgatory. John had been with Vega just moments ago, showing the soldiers on the frontlines that he was no different than them, though Vega ambushed him with an older saying of the Marines that he almost forgot. He smiled at the two as they approached, glad to see his two friends managed to escape death at the hands of the Reaper. He needed the morale boost anyways. After dealing with Cerberus on Sur'Kesh and watching Adrian Victus sacrifice himself so that the Krogan wouldn't be killed by a massive bomb that had been planted on the Tuchanka, a drink sounded nice.

"I told you! Nothing can take down Shepard!" Gabriella told Kenneth, hitting him in the arm as if reminding him why she shouldn't be doubted. They both wore Alliance regulation casual clothes, brand new from the looks. He smiled along with them.

"The going gets tough and my former engineers hit the bar?" John questioned jokingly. They exchanged guilty glances before turning their attention back to John.

"We heard about the Reapers attacking Earth, and then Cerberus decides to screw you too. We can't believe we worked for them." Kenneth excused them.

"We rejoined the Alliance when your ship was grounded. Got our old posting back on the Perugia." Gabriella explained to him.

"So you're not on the Illusive Man's payroll?" John asked, glad that these two got out of the shady organization but worried about their safety. He had already met Kelly down in the refugee center, advising that Cerberus was not likely to take her AWOL lightly and told her to change her identity when she told him that she couldn't go back on the Normandy.

"Not anymore." Gabriella told him with a curt nod.

"But we slipped away." Kenneth informed, letting John know that their leaving was not something Cerberus had approved. "We were there for the Normandy. For you. Not for them."

"After the Alliance locked you up and impounded the Normandy, Cerberus recalled the whole crew." Gabriella continued, shaking her head as if remembering some bad memory. "And there was something creepy about those recall orders. It didn't feel right."

"She's got good intuition." Kenneth complimented, making Gabriella blush lightly. Kenneth didn't notice of course, but John did. He shook his head lightly, noting that the Scottish had yet to notice how much they were meant for each other. At least, Gabriella seemed to start getting the gist of what all their banter was meant to hide. Even from themselves.

"Cerberus helped us take down their Collectors. They served their purpose." John agreed with him. Even as he said this, he couldn't help but notice how Cerberus had changed over the past six months. The Illusive Man tried to serve his own agenda, but now, he was just a radical tyrant.

"And now its time to pay them back. Right in their daddy bags!" Kenneth said, getting pumped up.

"Let us join you Commander. We'll serve on whatever ship you fly. We want to help." Gabriella requested.

"What about the Perugia? Aren't you guys needed there?" John asked, worried about the men that might be left with a few engineers.

"The Perugia is docked with serious weapon complications. We won't fly for another month. Even then, they have a crew of over a hundred, so they can spare a couple of engineers." Gabriella told him, as if she had already anticipated the Commander's question.

"And no one in their right mind would refuse you either." Kenneth supported.

"Alright, grab your gear. The Normandy's in Docking Bay 26." He told them. They smiled and saluted the Commander before walking away. "One moment, what happened to the rest of the crew from the Normandy?" The question had been biting at him for a month now, when he first discovered what Cerberus was doing to their soldiers on Mars. Gabriella and Kenneth sighed sadly.

"Besides Chakwas, Kelly and Hawthorne, the rest of the crew followed the orders." Gabriella told him. John nodded sadly and dismissed them, realizing that means that worse had happened. He wondered if he had already killed Mess Sergeant Gardener, or Goldstein, when he fought with the Cerberus troops. He was never close to much of the Cerberus crew, but he knew they were good people and didn't deserve that fate. He nodded his head to dismiss his new Engineers for the Normandy, and turned to leave the bar. He needed to check the Spectre office for anything that may have come up.


When John entered the hospital, he saw the drell he had expected to see completing an exercise with someone who was unknown to him. To what John knew about what they were doing, it looked like kendo exercises with improvised weapons. Some of the hospital staff cast a few worried looks at the two but otherwise remained silent about it. John knew why. Thane was a trained killer, even with his Kepral's syndrome slowing him down, he could easily take down just about anyone. But the woman was matching his steps and seemed to even be winning against his old squadmate. He paused for a moment, watching them exercise as he looked over the woman.

The woman had long black hair, which covered a majority of her face, hiding a good portion of her facial features from John as he watched her. From what he could tell however, she was clearly Asian in ethnicity, most likely Japanese given her expertise in Kendo. She was about the same height as Thane, with a similar lean build. She wore a dark blue Alliance t-shirt and a pair of faded dark blue casual pants. Her eyes were glowing a bright blue, not in the sense that it was a really light blue but they were actually glowing, even in the bright lighting of hospital. John nodded, content with the conclusions he had drawn and approached his friend. He waited until they paused their Kendo match before finally announcing his presence. "Commander Shepard, when I heard that Earth was under attack, I tried to call but I never got through. Lieutenant, this is…"

"Commander Johnathon Shepard. Any soldier in the Alliance is senile if they don't know your name." The Lieutenant greeted John. "Lieuntenant Commander Takara Miyabi Katori." John shook her hand before turning his attention back to Thane.

"Thane, good to see you staying in shape." John told him.

"My disease kills slowly. With enough care and a healthy lifestyle, it can be delayed for a few years. Of course, my allotted time has come and gone. Now I exercise because it pleases me." Thane told him. "I met Katori only a few days ago. She introduced me to this style of exercise shortly after we met. It is….refreshing to learn new techniques despite my waning time."

"I was enrolled in a Kendo school when I was a kid and I was one of the top students. It helps separate me from the average grunt without the help of biotics." She paused for a moment as she remembered that the man before her was also a biotic. "Uh, no offense meant of course."

"What are you doing here Shepard?" Thane asked.

"Visiting a friend who got hurt while we were escaping Earth. Kaiden." John told Thane, sighing sadly as he looked towards the area of the hospital that Kaiden was being held.

"The human biotic in intensive care….I saw the marks of implant." Thane guessed. "Your enemies may attempt to finish him off here. I will help how I can, consider him under my protection."

"I'll help how I can too." Katori promised.

"Thanks Thane. And you too." John told the two before him.

"Don't mention. I'm not due to leave the hospital for another month. The Doctors want to make sure my cybernetics take before I'm allowed to leave and this will give me something to do."

"And I am near the end of my life. It is a good time to be generous." Thane offered his own explanation. "Kepral's Syndrome has put most of my other plans on hold." Thane led John over to a couple of nearby seats, standing up behind the two while offering Katori his own seat. She took it and sat down with a grateful smile.

"I'm back on the Normandy, on an important mission. Sure could use you." John mentioned to Thane, looking at him with hope.

"I would not be as I was before. I need daily medical attention. And if I know you, you will want to fight the Reapers somehow. You need the best at your side, and I am not at mine." Thane politely declined the offer. John laughed at that, shaking his head at this.

"You don't have to wrestle down Krogan and break their necks. I'm sure we could find you lighter work. Maintaining the armory or acting as in ship security. The Normandy is short-staffed as it is."

"I am at peace with what I've done in my life, Shepard. There comes a time when one must rest from war and conflict." Thane told him. "It is not your time, nor is it Katori's, but it is mine."

"Alright Thane, I understand."

"Thank you Shepard. Perhaps maybe we should discuss other events."


"Samantha, I didn't expect to see you here." John commented as he walked up to the Memorial wall. The reporter just laughed a little and shook her head at this comment, reminding John of the current state of the galaxy. "Uh, bad choice of words I guess."

"No, nothing like that Commander. I just got word in. Remember that Turian I told you about, Krix. I just got word that he was killed when he suicided a Reaper destroyer. Dumb bastard slammed a cruiser into it to save some evac ships. Destroyed the Reaper but killed himself in the process. He's been posthumously awarded the Golden Medallion and Gold pay. From what I was allowed to know with my special clearance, the dead Reaper is helping the war effort immensely. They're going to transform its armor into ship armor for dreadnaughts and they are naming the invention after him." Samantha laughed as she shook her head with fond memories "Always trying to outdo me, even in death."

"I take it you two were fond of each other?" John asked.
"If you're asking if we ever did the naked tussle, then no. But we were always trying to outdo each other. I would run ten miles, he would run eleven. He would headshot someone from 200 yards away, I would do it from 300 yards away." She told him turning towards him. She raised a sniper's scope, one that had the lens cracked down the middle. "I got this when we made about who could shoot the enemy in a more vital spot from a really far distance. He got a bastard in the chest, dead center on his heart. I got someone between the eyes. It was actually a missed shot since I was aiming for the bastard's heart as well. The Prize was this. It was his favorite scope." With a sigh, she set it down on the memorial wall, next to a picture of a batarian couple. "Rest in peace, you SOB."

"Tell me about your team." John asked, seeing that she needed to let it out. Samantha smiled and shook her head with a smile.

"Bunch of bastards, I'll tell you that." She laughed, turning towards him. "What do you want to know? Ranks? Names? How many kills?"

"Who were they?" John asked first.

"Like I said before, there was two of every council species. Our bomb and tech experts were Salarians from the STG. We called them Don and Capelli, but that wasn't their real name. No one went by their real names. There was also Joan and Ross, Asari commandoes with highly decorated military backgrounds. They were our biotic specialists. Then there was Krix and Driz, the Turian Blackwatch members. And finally, me and Thatch, the N7 Commandoes. The last four of us were the meat, the ground and heavy units."

"I noticed those names are mostly humans'." John noted as he thought back to the names.

"Yeah, they thought it would be ironic or something if they went by human names. Except the Turians. Most of them act like they got a giant pole in the ass. We just shortened their names a bit." Sam explained.

"Tell me what they were like." John requested, wondering how a group of elite soldiers acting while they were together.

"Well, Joan was hard-headed gal, always going around and head-butting people. Says she got it from her dad. But she was loyal to the death, refusing to leave anyone behind. Ross was an asari pureblood with some serious trust issues but once she said she was going to do something, by damn she did it. Krix hated the nicknames like Driz, but he knew how to banter and could give a friendly competition once in a while. Vakarian kind of reminds me of him. Driz was a by the books kind of guy, not breaking the rules unless under the most important circumstances. Then there was Thatch, who was a major perv and couldn't keep his damn mouth shut, but he was good soldier and a powerful biotic. Don and Capelli were like twins, always finishing each other's sentences and otherwise acting slippery when we talked to them." Samantha told him, waving for him to follow her out of the memorial area as she walked.

"Sound like good people. Whatever happened to them?" John wondered. Samantha sighed and shook her head sadly, stopping outside the Batarian refugee area.

"What happens to any good team. Mission went bad." Sam told him. "We were sent in to deal with some Cerberus guys, right after you got locked up. We were going to deal with a base of the bastards where they were supposedly experimenting on alien races, finding better ways to kill them. Went good at first, swept the first few rooms without incident. But then it all went to shit."

"What happened?" John wondered, sadly noting how haunted her look was.

"They strapped a bomb to the chest of a kid, some little Asari girl that they had kidnapped and made her go to us. We didn't know it at the time, we thought she escaped when she heard firing. Ross ran forward and picked her up, trying to save her. The moment she grabbed her….." Samantha paused as tears began to form in her eyes, just long enough to wipe them away as she talked. Her voice was getting shaky as she spoke. "What kind of monsters uses a child as a weapon, regardless of species or gender?" She wondered as an afterthought, looking towards John with heart-broken look.

"Only the worst kind." John agreed. She cleared her throat, shaking her head as she tried to return to a stoic demeanor.

"Anyways, the bomb goes off, killing Ross in an instant. Drix and Don got caught in the explosion as well, but at least there was something to recover of them after that. Taken by surprise, I wasn't even prepared was a Cerberus soldiers leaps out of nowhere and hits me on my knee with something that resembled a german trench club. My patella was snapped in half instantly, a sound so loud that you could hear it. Blasted the bastard's head off as I went down though."

"How'd you get out?" John asked.

"I ordered them to retreat to the shuttle. I told the bastards to leave me behind, but Joan, the ever loyal one, lifts me off the ground like a damn ragdoll and sprints to the shuttle with ease. Cerberus was waiting for us at the shuttle though, ripping apart Capelli the moment that he left the room. Thatch and Joan took them out with their biotics and got on the shuttle before more could show up, but it wasn't fast enough." Samantha took a deep breath and shook her head. John could tell that this reporter was trying hard not to get emotional on him, reminding him of his sister in a way. "Thatch got one center of the back. Didn't kill him right away but we all knew that he was hurt too bad. He would have bled out on the shuttle before we made it to the nearest med-bay. So, without a word, this guy turns around and biotically charges forward, taking out almost an entire squad of Cerberus troops before a sniper got him in the head. By then though, Joan, Krix and I were already in the air and out of range of the rockets. We gave our report to the council, and after what they ruled, they were damn lucky that we didn't shoot them."

"Why is that?" John asked. He had a fair idea, the council having given him so many reasons to hate them that he could understand any equivalent of hate from someone else.

"They said that they couldn't allow the others a hero's death. The official story was that it was a joint training op where a 'electric' fire caused an explosion that killed them. Where's the honor in that? So instead of sticking around for another squad that they were making, we all told them to shove it and went our separate ways. Krix rejoined Blackwatch, Joan went off to be a merc and I became the loving personality of ANN." Samantha told him with a shrug.

"Thanks for telling me that, Samantha. I understand what it feels like to lose people under your command. It's never an easy thing." John sympathized with her.

"Yeah, everyone knows about Virmire. Ashley Williams, the soldiers who brought back the honor of being named Williams. She seemed like a damn fine soldier and I wished I had met her." Samantha told him. "Thanks for listening to me prattle on Commander. I never really talked about this before, and it feels nice to get it off my chest. If you need me though, I'll be in Purgatory, talking with soldiers and whatnot." With that Samantha walked off, leaving John alone by the refugee camps.


So, there you have it. I added the cut scene that recruited Gabby and Ken because I liked it better. It also offered an explanation as to why you never see any of the other Cerberus crew out and about. Also, Katori's introduction into the story. It's really hard to see a character abandoned in a story that didn't quite work out and since I liked her character so much, I brought her back. It works out fine too, since I already drew up her entire history and whatnot. Uh, that's about it. See you all next time and hopefully, I'll have a Tali chapter for you.