BioWare owns the content they own. So here's the new chapter guys. I'm sorry it took a little longer, I was stuck rewriting some of it due to being really unhappy with it, so I hope this version is preferred because the rest wasn't pretty, lol.

Edit: Fixed the dialogue.

Chapter Seven: Just Another Day

Normandy, 2185, August 28th 6:03AM

I woke to the sound of Riley in the bathroom. There were a few moments of bliss before my head erupted in pain. I groaned at the pain as I pressed a palm to my forehead, I obviously drank too much last night. I tried to remember how many drinks I did have, but I just ended up thinking about Miranda.

Although it was brief, we did spend about an hour together. Drinking and talking about nothing in particular, it was… unexpected, in the best possible way. She was still a rule following Cerberus hardarse though.

My thoughts were interrupted as Riley stepped out of the bathroom and looked over the railing at me. She rolled her eyes before turning to her desk and grabbing a bottle of water, throwing it at me shortly after. I barely caught it as Riley came down the stairs.

"You should probably die it down on the drinking while we're on the mission," she said slyly as she made her way to her closet.

I sat up on the couch and opened the bottle of water. "Nothing I can't handle." I took a sip as she turned and raised an eyebrow.

"Is that so?"

"Yep." I shrugged as she turned back to the closet, mindlessly scrolling through her clothes as she hummed to herself.

"So what did Miranda want?"

I put the lid back on the bottle and placed it on the table in front of the couch before stretching. "To apologise, I guess she felt bad. We're on okay terms now, I suppose."

"That's good; I want my crew to get along."

"Riles, seriously though, should we be trusting Cerberus?" It was a concern I've had since I first saw her with them. Miranda was okay, but there was no telling if she would turn on us. Cerberus was not a good thing; Riley wouldn't have fought against them if they were.

"Should you be asking that when this place is most likely bugged?" Riley asked before turning with some clothes draped over her arm.

I just shrugged as I watched her walk passed me towards the bathroom again. "I took care of the bugs in this room; I don't like to be spied on."

I waited a few minutes for Riley to get changed. She left the bathroom shortly after, stopping at her fish tank briefly to feed them before coming down the stairs again and standing in front of me. "I'm not going to argue with that, and we'll talk about it later. Now, get ready, we have a big day today."

I rubbed my forehead a little as some pain passed through before raising a curious eyebrow. "What's happening today?"

"I'm headed for the crash site of my old ship, where I and some of my crew died. Seeing you, you reminded me of the past, I feel like I'm finally ready to see it."

"Oh… I don't know what to say, I'm sorry." I rubbed the back of my head nervously.

Riley held up a hand to keep me quiet as she continued. "No need. Anyway, after that I'm going with Kasumi, apparently a deal was made and I have to honour that. As for you, you're helping Jacob clean some guns at eight sharp, since you're such a gun expert," she said the last part almost sarcastically as she smirked at me, but then it hit me, I had to spend the day with Jacob… cleaning guns? What kind of punishment was this?

"I'm not cleaning guns."

Riley held her hand up again. "It's punishment for getting arrested, so just get it done. When that's done, I've asked Jacob to get you set up with some body armour, oh and go see Yeoman Chambers. You've been avoiding her and she wants to ask you some questions. So please, just do as I say Vex. If you do, I'll take you to Purgatory."

"I don't think you know what Purgatory is, that isn't a reward."

She shook her head at me with a small smile. "No, it's a mission, there's someone we need to recruit there."

"Oh… fun."

"It could be." Riley shrugged before heading for the door.

"Thanks… Riles…," I said silently.

I heard her stop by the door before it opened. "Don't mention it." Riley left the room, leaving me to sit in silence as I thought about what she said. I knew she was just trying to cheer me up since I was wrongfully punished this time. I knew she had to keep up appearances to these Cerberus chumps; I had to be treated like anyone else on the ship.

I wasn't looking forward to cleaning guns, not with my hangover, but the body armour part did sound cool, even though I didn't need it. I wouldn't have to leave my Mantis lying around, which was a plus. Then there was Chambers… that was probably the least fun part of the day.

I sighed loudly before standing and running a hand through my hair. My head was killing me, but maybe a shower would calm it down. Hopefully the dull act of gun cleaning wouldn't make it any worse.

Normandy, 2185, August 28th 8:19AM

"I should have known you'd be that kind of person." My eyes briefly flicked over to Jacob as I entered the Armoury. I knew exactly what kind of person he was referring to, he wasn't off by much.

I shrugged before leaning against the wall next to the door, he was lucky my head was feeling better. "The kind of person that's always late? Sure, you got me."

He gave me an amused smirk as he leant on a table against the wall and stared at me. "Just remind me not to get in a tight spot when you're the one cover firing."

I snorted at that. I was a beacon of perfect aim and timing on the battlefield… at least in my mind I was. "Please, that's the only place I'm never late."

"We'll see." He pushed himself off the table and looked over the many guns scattered over the tables in the room. A whole Armoury worth of weapons… today was surely going to be a bitch.

"So… gun cleaning," I started unwillingly.

He hummed in agreement and carefully ran a hand over an assault rifle in front of him. I watched him carefully; I didn't know much about Jacob. I was quite neutral about him actually; I had no opinion on him just yet. Maybe a day of bonding over dirty weapons would shed some light on him. "We should get started. We still need to fit you for body armour after we're finished too; it's going to take a while."

"I don't think I really need body armour, I'm fine how I am." I crossed my arms defiantly as Jacob pulled out some tools for cleaning the guns.

"It's better to be safe than sorry, wouldn't you say?" He slid a gun in my direction and I gave a heavy sigh before sluggishly walking over to the table.

I picked up the gun and examined it. It was a heavy pistol, small clip. It adorned white, black and yellow. "M-358 Talon, a shotgun in pistol form."

I heard Jacob chuckle which caused me to look up at him. "The Commander was right; you do know your guns."

"It's a talent." I smirked at him before I carefully started the tedious chore of cleaning the pistol.

"Speaking of guns, where are yours? I was told you brought your own, but I've been through the inventory a few times without any luck in finding them."

I halted for a few seconds, there was no way in hell my Mantis or Carnifex was going in this Armoury. I glanced up at Jacob for a second, but he was focused on cleaning the weapon in his hand. "Riley and I have an arrangement, don't worry about it." This caused him to look at me curiously, but thankfully he let it slide and continued to clean. I started to clean again as well, and soon enough a few minutes went by and I was holding a clean Talon. I put the gun to the side before noticing a pretty good looking submachine gun. "M-4 Shuriken, not too bad."

Jacob looked up for a second before continuing with his work. "Yeah, that's Miranda's gun."

"She has okay taste." I shrugged before picking the gun up.

Jacob cleared his throat before speaking again. "So how have you been doing on the Normandy so far?"

"I've been fine so far, Riley wants me to get to know the crew," I said nonchalantly as I started to clean Miranda's gun.

"And what are your thoughts on the crew?"

"What are you? Chambers?"

He gave me an odd look at my tiny outburst, though he shrugged it off. I instantly felt a little bad, but he was starting to pry. "I'm sorry if I overstepped, it was just a question."

I sighed before giving it a bit of thought, would it really be that bad to casually answer his question?" "Everyone seems fine, apart from Archangel for obvious reasons."

"Fair enough."

I smiled to myself as we both cleaned the guns in silence, he wasn't pushing me to answer stupid questions like I know Chambers will later in the day, so Jacob was alright in my book.

Normandy, 2185, August 28th 1:52PM

"No, that's stupid," I groaned as Jacob went through a list of helmets. I couldn't stand helmets, I much preferred hoods.

"Well, you can't just run out in street clothes."

"Look, I get that, I'll wear armour… just don't get me a helmet, get me a hood and a Kuwashii Visor and I'm good to go."

Jacob sighed but finally nodded his head. "Okay, okay. Kuwashii Visor and a hood."

"Cool."

Jacob changed the order and purchased the armour. I stared at the screen; the images of the armour looked kind of cool, I had to admit. The armour was completely black and made of ultralight material so I could move around quickly to cover the team; it also had barriers with a quick recharge speed for any situation where I might get caught, and the best part… the ability to go invisible.

Admittedly, it was a good idea to wear armour now, with whatever this was. Plus the armour was made by Kassa Fabrication, and I have to say I love their work. They designed a lot of good guns and weapon mods. If I didn't love my Mantis so much, I would have gotten one from them.

"Okay, done. We'll have to pick it up on the way to Purgatory, but everything's in order," Jacob said pulling my attention from the armour. I glanced at him as he moved away from the console and back over to a table covered with clean weapons.

"Who are we recruiting from a prison anyway? Is it some guard?" I leant against another table as Jacob shrugged.

"I don't know, probably. It must be urgent if we're skipping passed our next stop to go there first tomorrow though. If you're really curious you could ask Miranda since Shepard isn't here."

I was curious about it, but not that curious. "Nah, I think I'm good."

"I suppose you aren't her biggest fan then?" He seemed to want the answer to that question more than he should, but I didn't think anything of it.

I shrugged before saying anything on the matter. "We seem fine now, but all we usually do is fight. So to answer your question, no, I'm not a fan."

Jacob laughed a little, causing me to glare at him. What was so funny about that? I hated when people would laugh at me for no reason. "You won't like Purgatory then."

Click, I realised why he laughed. "Miranda and I are on the Purgatory mission?"

"Yes, you are."

Well that confirms it. How bad could it be? Miranda and I did act human to one another last time we talked; maybe we could get along… or fail so Riley sees we can't work together. Miranda or not though, I was still going on this mission, I hadn't been on one yet. I was pretty curious about how it worked and who we were recruiting. So maybe I could pry that information out of Miranda beforehand. "So, you said Miranda would know who we're recruiting?"

"You should probably do what The Commander asked before bothering Miranda." So it seemed Riley told him about me talking to Chambers as well, I suppose she wanted me to stay on track today while she was gone.

"So Riley is at the crash site of her old ship?"

Jacob glanced at his omni-tool before shaking his head. "She would have gone with Kasumi by now; hopefully she'd be back soon. So I would go talk to Yeoman Chambers now if I were you."

I smirked, the idea of ignoring him and doing my own thing before subjecting myself to a therapy session started materialising in my head. "Sure thing." I turned as I heard him typing away on his omni-tool.

I had almost made it to the door before he called out to me. "Oh, I told Yeoman Chambers we're done, so don't forget to meet up with her outside the elevator."

I instantly stopped and turned half way to stare at him. I couldn't exactly be mad at him; it was a good move on his part. "Well played." He gave me a small smirk before I turned and left the room. It was well played indeed; he was definitely okay in my book.

Normandy, 2185, August 28th 2:09PM

I entered the CIC to see an eager looking Chambers staring at me from across the room. Regretfully, I approached her, a small smile appearing on her features with every step I took. "Vex, hi. How are you?"

I stared at her in what almost felt like disbelief, I completely regretted doing this. "I'm fine; can we just get this over with?"

She looked a little hurt by that, but after a few seconds she shook her head and continued to talk. "Certainly, I just wanted to ask you a few questions."

I shrugged and stepped to the side to lean against the railing on the galaxy map. "Shoot."

She opened her omni-tool and started typing away on it as I stood there silently watching. I started to feel awkward, it wasn't that I couldn't talk about my problems, I just didn't want to. "So, how has your experience on the Normandy been so far?"

"It's fine, I'm not stressed or whatever you're checking for with these questions, I'm fine with the mission, I believe what Riley says." For some reason that answer seemed to satisfy her, so I wasn't going to complain, I just wanted this to be done with.

"And how do you feel about the crew?"

"All of them or just my new squad members?" I asked sarcastically.

"All if you'd like."

"Well, I haven't met everyone. Apparently there's a doctor, some engineers, a pilot and a bunch of other people I haven't met yet."

"Why haven't you introduced yourself yet?"

I gave her a sour look before hearing the elevator doors open. I looked up to see a random Cerberus crew member leave the elevator with Riley waiting in the elevator behind him. We locked eyes for a second and she seemed happy when she noticed what I was doing. She gave me a smile and a slight nod of approval as the doors closed once more. Damn did I want nothing more than to follow her instead of being with Chambers.

Shit… Chambers. She was staring at me, waiting patiently for my answer. I thought back on her question, I knew exactly why I didn't introduce myself yet. "I don't feel like part of the crew, I'm just some person Riley picked up along the way."

"You were offered a spot on the team, you're part of the crew now." Chambers seemed sympathetic and stopped typing before closing her omni-tool. Like she thought I've had enough and wanted me to go now.

"Are we done?" I asked as I started to feel a little uncomfortable.

"If you want, Vex. Just try and introduce yourself to the crew sometime, it may help."

I gave her an awkward nod before turning and walking towards the elevator. I set it to take me to the Crew Deck, I wanted to ask Miranda about the mission, but then again Riley was back… but no, I wanted to ask Miranda first, I'll do that.

I was alone in the elevator as it started to head for my destined floor. I was alone with my thoughts, and they weren't exactly organised. Maybe Chambers was right, maybe I was part of this crew and I just didn't want to be… or because I do want to be part of it, I didn't want to be close to anyone. Fuck, being alone with my thoughts was shitty.

The elevator stopped at the Crew Deck and I had never been so relieved to see that now familiar view of the wall with 'Crew Deck' written across it. I sighed as I stepped out of the elevator and chucked a right towards Miranda's room.

As I approached the door, it suddenly opened revealing Riley. She stepped out and the door closed behind her, she stared at me for a few seconds before a faint smile met her lips. "I'm proud of you."

"You've been saying that a lot lately, it's gross," I joked as Riley smiled even more.

She then pointed to the door behind her with her thumb. "Are you here to talk to Miranda?"

"You could say that."

"Alright, just come to the room earlier tonight and we can talk about a few things."

"Like what?" I folded my arms across my chest as I watched her curiously.

She just shrugged. "What you asked about this morning, plus tomorrow's mission, we should be heading there now and we need to go over it."

"Alright, I'll be there, eight sharp?"

She nodded. "Eight sharp."

We both said our goodbyes and Riley was soon headed towards the med bay where I could see a silver haired woman going through some shelves. I made a mental note to talk to her at some point before knocking on Miranda's door.

It opened shortly after and I stepped into the room. Miranda was working at one of her monitors and she hadn't looked up to see who entered the room yet. "Is this a bad time?" I asked gaining her attention, she looked almost apologetic, but maybe that was just me.

"Vex, I actually wanted to ask you something."

I was surprised, I didn't think she'd ever want anything from me. Though I suppose a question isn't much in that respect. "What is it?"

"How much did you read of my files? Did you find anything on genetic modification?"

I put my hands up in defence before shaking my head. "No, nothing like that. Just your age and the fact you're an important Cerberus Officer, oh and your biotic ability."

She didn't seem relieved by what I had said, almost like she wanted me to find out what was in the file. "The Commander assured me you wouldn't have told anyone if you did find out, but I'm not too sure."

And there goes that non-trustworthy thing again, I understood though. I didn't trust her, she didn't have to trust me. All I needed to do was to trust Riley. But then an interesting thought sprung to mind, why would genetic modification be in her file? Either she thought I went through an entirely different file or she has some modifications, and I'd put money on the latter. "Are you genetically modified, Miranda?"

A slight smirk found its way onto her features, which confused me, I thought she'd be upset. "I've had extensive genetic modification. I didn't choose it, but I use it to my advantage. I'm very good at anything I choose to do."

"Well, it's good to know you're modest."

"I was given an edge and I use it, no point in hiding from it, it's helped Cerberus enough to prove its worth."

"I wouldn't exactly call that a selling point. But I'm not the one you should be trying to impress. I just wanted to know who we were recruiting tomorrow."

She seemed to be thinking about what I said before sighing and pulling out a datapad. She slid it across the desk towards me. "Here's the dossier on her, feel free to scan it to your omni-tool." I opened my omni-tool and started scanning the data as I watched her glance back at her monitor.

"For the record, my opinion of you hasn't changed."

She looked back at me briefly before returning her attention to the screen in front of her. "And what is your opinion of me?"

That you're a stuck up bitch, but somehow there's a person deep down, and an intriguing person at that. "That's for me to know, Miranda."

"I suppose it is," she said as she took one finally look in my direction.

"Thanks for the information, I'll see you tomorrow." I gave her a small wave before turning and heading towards the door.

"Goodbye Vex."

I smiled slightly to myself as I left the room, the door shut a few seconds later. Two civil conversations in a row, I'd consider that a win. The way she made it seem though, I figured that conversation would have been serious, but she was so casual about it, I suppose it wasn't that big of a deal to her. So I guess it wasn't a big deal to me.

Normandy, 2185, August 28th 7:58PM

I opened the door to Riley's room, I was a little early but maybe that would impress her. I was right of course, she couldn't even believe it was me at first. "This is unexpected," Riley said as she looked me over.

"It's not that unusual."

"Okay, I'm sorry. So, you wanted to talk about Cerberus?"

"Yeah, can we trust them?" I crossed my arms as I waited for a reply.

"To an extent, but I only trust four people completely on this ship. Joker, Garrus, Dr Chakwas and you." I was humbled to be one of those four people.

I gave Riley a small nod of acknowledgement before replying. "I only trust you."

She smiled a little before resting a hand on my shoulder. "I won't let them get away with anything shady, this is my operation, not their's."

"Alright, so let's do this then."

She nodded and removed her hand as I walked passed her and went down stairs to sit on the couch. I had just finished talking to a bunch of people around the ship and wanted a break, though I still had a few to go, like the pilot. Riley did tell me once that he's a good friend of hers, so that should be interesting.

"So, about the mission," Riley said as she came down the stairs.

I waved a hand dismissively. "We're looking for a highly dangerous criminal. What do we want with a dangerous and may I add powerful biotic?"

"She would help us a lot, Vex."

"Yeah, but dangerous and powerful. Like, she could kill us all within seconds kind of powerful."

"Now you're getting ahead of yourself," Riley said as she sat down on the couch.

"I think I'm entitled to be wary of the super powerful biotic you're bringing in."

She gave me a sideways glance before laughing a little. "Okay, if it makes you feel any better, she isn't allowed in our room."

Riley got up and started heading for the stairs before I spoke again. "Did… did you just say our room?"

She turned to me with a questioning look. "Yeah, our room." A smile made its way onto my lips. That's the first time Riley had called it our room. I suppose I really was accepted here, I was part of the crew.

Thank you for reading the new chapter, I hope you all enjoyed it. Have a nice day everyone.