So we've hit over 40! Much thanks to Eryxter, SgtTarkus, evilninjadog, Brittsis, deftonie, wpagos, cateye0911 and revanchist131, as well as those of you who have stuck around since the beginning for making this possible.

Update: Hail has just started falling over here, and I'm honestly rather terrified right now. Ice from the skies is NOT supposed to exist at a country situated at the equator! The world is ending! :O

I hurriedly limped my way towards the lab, where I could see Miranda Lawson and an obviously nervous T'Soni were already waiting.

"Hey," I greeted. "So what's up?"

"Lab reports have come in, and they're not exactly optimistic," Lawson replied.

"What do you mean?"

"By the time Shepard's stasis pod arrived on our table, its condition was in a very weathered state. Coupled with the fact that it wasn't a very good one to begin with, her body is in a much worse state than it originally was on Alchera. At least there, the extreme cold temperatures helped preserved the.. corpse..."

"Can it- can she be saved?" T'Soni queried, her voice laden with worry.

"Most probably, but I'm afraid it is going to require much more effort and resources than we had planned beforehand. Our scientists were not prepared for such an advanced stage of decomposition and tissue deterioration."

"With all due respect, Miss Lawson, I don't want maybe. I want a yes," I said, perhaps a little too harshly. "Because I did not go through all that shit just to-"

"This is Cerberus we are talking, Mr. Grayson," Lawson snapped back. "We have the best scientists in this galaxy, cutting edge technology that nobody else has. So yes, we will get Shepard back, only now we'll take more time is all."

She glared at me.

"Do you understand me, Mr. Grayson?"

"With disturbing clarity."

"It doesn't matter what it takes," the Illusive Man said. "Just ask, and I'll give it to you. Just make sure Shepard wakes up from that operating table."

"But with all due respect, sir," Jacob Taylor said. "There's nothing left of her, just some tubes and bones, to be honest..."

"There is nothing Cerberus cannot accomplish, Mr. Taylor. Besides, I'm certain you are also aware of the consequences should we fail to revive the Commander?"

Miranda Lawson watched on as her superior's unnaturally lightning blue eyes pierced through the gaze of the Cerberus lieutenant.

"Now that we have Shepard in our hands, we must tighten the security on the station. The Collectors and the Shadow Broker aren't the kind to let up easily, especially after such a crushing defeat."

The Illusive Man took a leisurely sip of brandy.

"Mr. Taylor, I'm putting you in charge of security. Contact Miss Lawson if you need anything. Don't take any chances, and don't let me down. Am I clear?"

The other man waited for a moment before he responded. "Yes, sir," he said, before walking out of the quantum entanglement.

The genetically-engineered woman studied her superior.

While the man frequently participated in fine dining, clothes, cigars, top-shelf liquor and women, the Illusive Man was not to be mistaken for a generic unproductive bachelor. It would be dangerous, lethally dangerous for one to do so. While his indulgences were not a façade, the mysterious head of Cerberus was definitely not an individual to be taken lightly with. There was no one in the whole Milky Way could match up to the Illusive Man, in terms of resources, wealth and data intelligence. Not even the Asari, Turian or Salarian governments, including the Alliance Cosairs as well.

The man was rivalled only by the Shadow Broker and the shadowy Collectors.

His name was only known to a few across the galaxy, but if it was known, then it was -without a doubt- feared as well. Even among his own organisation, less than twenty had actually seen his face, with less than half of them having met the enigmatic human face-to-face.

Miranda Lawson had worked diligently under the Illusive Man for a very long while to have achieved what she currently had - a revered position and an infamous reputation, just the way she liked it. Even for other cell leaders, they would only have met him once every six months. None were his right-hand man like her.

The Illusive Man snubbed out the last of his cigar.

"Is it true, Miranda?" the Illusive Man suddenly asked. "Is Shepard really such a lost cause?"

The officer chose her words carefully. "Her condition is much worse than we originally anticipated, and I have to admit is going to take at least five times of what we have right now to revive her, if not more."

The Illusive Man poured himself another helping of brandy, and downed it all in one shot.

"But with unlimited resources?"

She took a deep breath.

"Yes, it can be done. I'll need more time, but it can be done."

The Illusive Man seemed pleased with her answer.

"Good."

He lit another cigar.

"What do you propose to do of our guests?"

"Hiring the services of Liara T'Soni is out of the question, but killing her would be of no benefit to us. It seems she's having a personal vendetta with the Shadow Broker. Adding into account her personal connections, I highly recommend leaving her alive as a viable ally in future."

"And what of Grayson Kovac?"

"I- I don't know, sir," Miranda admitted. "We couldn't find any information on him, no family, no prior contacts, no job applications, no records, no property ownership... Nothing. It is as if he appeared out of thin air."

"What about Jack Napier?"

"We've tried digging out Grayson Kovac's past through him as well, but to no avail. Napier is just a run-of-the-mill C-Sec officer for-hire. We couldn't find any corresponding links between the two of them. That man is a ghost."

Her eyes widened slightly when she saw the glimmer of amusement across the Illusive Man's scarred features.

"Sir... are you..."

"What do you think of his capabilities?" he asked.

"Smart man, with obviously better survival techniques than both Napier and the Drell, Feron. I might have to cut off that tongue of his, though."

The Illusive Man gave a slight smile.

"Get him a bait. If he passes the test, put him on our payroll."

"Are you sure, sir?" Miranda protested slightly. "If we use him, we'll need to keep a very tight leash on that man."

"Are you questioning my judgement, Miss Lawson?" the Illusive Man said, his voice a low growl, tinged with the touch of the lethality of a scorpion.

"I... No, sir."

He gave a satisfied nod.

"Good, now see to it that my orders are executed. And Miranda, I have high expectations of you. Do not disappoint me."

I watched T'Soni push around the pieces of food on her plate.

Calamari gumbo, I remembered Albert saying. The human version that was derived from an originally Asari recipe. I'd passed and opted for the wonderful buffet line instead.

Say what you would about Cerberus, but they had fantastic employee perks. I'd been expecting nutrient bars and astronaut food on the research station, but to my pleasant surprise, a wide range of mouth watering old school breakfast foods was offered.

"It's like this every day. Breakfast, lunch and dinner," a scientist told me while we were queuing for the scrambled eggs. "Fantastic huh? They pay well too."

Afterwards, I picked up a few rashers of -thankfully pork- bacon, slices of toast, and a good old mug of piping hot coffee before I returned to the table.

I couldn't help but give myself an approving nod.

Good job Grayson. Anywhere and everywhere, food will always be your best friend.

I tore open a few packets of creamers and brown sugar, stirred, and took a sip of the now-not-so-dark liquid.

Freshly brewed, just like what you would have expected in a downhome diner back home.

Perfect.

Ah, the little things in life.

The only thing less-than-perfect was probably the fact that I was enjoying all of these at a Cerberus research station.

Ashamedly, it was only after I'd polished off my brilliant eggs and begun buttering my still-warm toast that I'd notice the Asari's restlessness and non-existent appetite.

"Uh hey, doc. You feeling okay?"

Of course she's not, you retard, I told myself.

"Is your food really that bad?" I asked, hoping to lighten the mood.

She didn't reply, but merely took a sip of her own coffee, now probably as cold as her gaze. And then I remembered T'Soni hadn't added anything to her coffee at all.

Cold, tough and bitter.

I mentally shivered.

Cautiously, I speared one of those oddly purplish morsels on her plate with my fork -none which looked the slightest bit like calamari- and foolishly placed them into my mouth.

What immediately followed could only be described as the taste bud equivalent of a massacre so horrible and numbing that I thought my tongue had dissolved into a bloody mush.

I quickly spit out the hazardous specimen and ungraciously cleaned my tongue with a serviette, desperate not to leave any traces of the demonic food on my delicate tongue.

Cerberus might have been great at customer satisfaction, but it was still a human-centric organisation, to put it nicely. Although I wasn't sure if they truly sucked at preparing alien cuisine, or if they were simply trying to kill off the Asari by destroying her nervous system.

"Yeah, I can see why you aren't eating..." I muttered.

I looked at the Asari intently, trying to get her to feel disturbed and respond, but after a few minutes, I was the one becoming increasingly uneasy. So I stopped and resumed munching on my heavenly human delicacies.

If she didn't want to talk, she certainly wasn't going to anytime soon.

I was halfway through my glorious non-varren bacon when she suddenly said, "Excuse me," and left.

I finished the rest my splendid breakfast without event and returned to my room.

Maybe I can watch a few movies or something, and then head back out for lunch. Ooh, maybe we'll have steak. Do they have room service?

I didn't know when or where Cerberus was releasing us out back to the world, but I certainly wasn't going to bring it forward. For a man with no mission and no income, top-notch free-of-charge accommodations and catering seemed like an excellent vacation, Cerberus or not.

I wasn't far away from my room when I briefly escaped my daydreaming and noticed a man following me. I didn't think much of it. After all this, was Cerberus. Security on the station was probably better than the White House.

But suspicions were raised when he still stuck around when I reached my door.

I turned around to face him.

His matted, messy blonde hair first caught my eye, along with his sharp features, scarred face, and highlighter-green eyes that were definitely not the work of nature. And then his Cerberus outfit. But instead of the uniform everyone else was wearing, the man donned a slim, shiny suit of battle armour, with the Cerberus logo proudly emblazoned on the chest plate. His gauntlets were exceptionally bulky, with just a faint hint of dark blue energy swimming around it.

To be honest, the man looked like a wolf. A very dangerous wolf.

Without warning, a whip of electric blue appeared, slashing forward in my direction. My instincts told me to dodge, but my injured leg would not allow it. The whip struck my left shoulder and instantly registered a sharp shock. It burned, in an electrifying sort of way, and I let out a not-so-glamourous "aahh!".

When I turned my head up again, the whip was gone, but I noticed his forearms were now encased in a rather terrifying bright hue that could only scream intense pain.

The whips must've been conjured up by the man's biotics through the aid of those gauntlets.

Great.

Right now, I was seriously hating Cerberus' 'cutting edge technology'.

The man lashed out another whip, but this time I was prepared. I quickly brought up my omni-shield.

Electricity and holo-tech clashed into a sizzling disagreement. The man's whip disappeared, but it also took a huge chunk out of my shield's energy. If this continued, the fight wouldn't last another minute, and I wouldn't be the one left standing.

I decided to try my luck with my old SWAT skills.

Step one: understand and negotiate.

"Hey buddy, maybe we can sort this out," I said. "Did you get the wrong guy or something?"

The man struck again, and my shield fizzled ominously upon contact with the damned whip.

Guess that's a no.

That meant Cerberus was after my ass.

So much for customer service and satisfaction.

Drake Frost lashed out again, and this time, Grayson Kovac's omni-shield obediently faded out.

Excellent.

The Cerberus lieutenant's lips curled into a wry smile as he charged up his gauntlets for the finishing touch. It would be splendid, big.

And deliciously final.

His prey's omni-tool would require a 30-second cool down before the wretched man could create another of those annoying orange shields.

Half a minute was more than sufficient to carry his corpse and eject it out of the nearest airlock.

As the phoenix vanguard released what was to be his final strike, he could sense that something was not quite right.

Kovac's fingers were still scrambling over his omni-tool.

But it was futile.

Nothing could save him from the biotic.

As the bio-electric whipped flew downwards, the target suddenly brandished out his omni-tool.

And out came a fiery spew of raging flames.

The man's whip dissipated, much to my relief.

The fire worked.

Good job, Grayson. You just saved your own sorry ass.

I pushed forward, using my fire-spewing Omni-tool like garlic against Dracula.

The biotic visibly winced, annoyed, as he retreated, step by step.

I'd suddenly recalled one of my training sessions back on Illium with Napier.

Mass effect fields were disabled in the presence of fire.

And biotic energy was mass effect energy.

I applauded myself for being a genius.

"Not so dangerous now, are you, punk?" I taunted.

But my luck didn't hold.

The fire from my omni-tool triggered the fire alarm, and the sprinklers activated.

My Dracula's garlic extinguished.

Seizing the opportunity, the blonde grabbed my good arm and sent a heavy blow to my chin.

Unfortunately, I fell on my ass in an extremely unfashionable way.

"Game's over, meat," he declared, voice gruff as he grabbed me by the collar, not unlike a very angry tiger.

He was about to send me another crushing blow when a voice stopped him at the last second.

"Stop," it ordered.

It was Miranda Lawson.

My attacker frowned, irritated that he couldn't complete his kill.

Catching him off guard, I kicked him in the chest with my good leg and got to my feet.

"You're going to have to do a lot better than that if you want to stab me in the back, Lawson."

"Really?" she said, amused. "It seemed to me, you were having trouble keeping up with operative Frost over here."

"Fuck you," I retorted. "And fuck your guard dog here, too."

"I should kill you!" Frost growled.

"Leave us," Lawson ordered. "I have another assignment for you."

Frost gave his superior an angry, indignant look.

"Now."

The biotic walked away, but not before shooting a few daggers my way.

I rubbed my bruised chin.

"You don't have a very obedient dog," I said. "I think you gave him too little doggie treats."

"It'll do you well to hold your tongue, Mr. Kovac. Operative Frost is one of our best agents. Few have lasted encounters longer than five minutes with him. None has lived to tell the tale. He took his time with you."

"Yeah, sure, keep telling yourself that," I snapped back. "What does Cerberus want with me, Lawson? Or is murdering your ex-employees a habit?"

"It was merely a test, to see if you were as skilled as we thought."

She gave a smile.

"And you've passed. Congratulations, Mr. Kovac, Cerberus would like to offer you a position among our organisation."

"You're fucking with me, aren't you?" Kovac exclaimed. "First you tried to kill me, then now you're offering me a job?"

"We are sincere in our invitation, what happened just now was merely to see if you were as good as we thought."

The man appeared to ponder over the suggestion for awhile.

"And if I refuse?"

Miranda Lawson smirked.

"Then you die, right here and right now. You're either with us or against us, Mr. Kovac. And I suggest you choose carefully."

A/N: So there we go! Hope you guys like this!

And now that we're at 44 subscribers, let's try to hit 50, shall we?

Cheers!