Mass Effect: Massive Shock

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or Irrational Games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.

"Pretend inferiority and encourage his arrogance."

~Sun Tzu~


Ch. 11: Behind Closed Doors

9:39 PM March 13, 2182


Oh shit. I have really fucked things up haven't I?

I walk over and kneel next to Barla Von's dead body. Like I REALLY fucked things up! This guy was somewhat instrumental in the early events of Mass Effect 1! Oh my Lord I'll bet that turian assassin worked for the Shadow Broker. I'll bet that they found out about my little devious plot and targeted Barla Von. It's my fault really I directly planned for Barla Von to be implicated with the betrayal.

Why? Why didn't I implicate that random asari broker to be the traitor? Why?

"Hey Jackson, I—"

Uh oh… this isn't going to be good. I slowly turn my head and see Nelyna standing behind me, staring wide-eyed at Barla Von's corpse.

I stand and take my helmet off.

I have to be calm and collected otherwise I might freak her out. "Listen, Nelyna, it's not what—"

Nelyna slaps me across the face midsentence hard enough to turn my head to the side. "You murderer! You killed a man in cold blood!"

I turn my head to face Nelyna again. "Nelyna I—"

She slaps me again.

I exhale heatedly. "Nelyna—"

She tries to slap me again but I catch her wrist. "Listen! I didn't kill him! He was dead when I got here!"

Nelyna wrenches her arm from my grip. "Why should I believe you?"

I roll my eyes. Really? "You know my reputation. You seriously wouldn't be alive right now if I actually killed this guy and…"

As I explain myself to Nelyna I can't help but focus on a figure approaching from behind her. Oh SHIT!

I grab Nelyna and spin her around so that we practically switch positions. The turian assassin from before has returned, obviously he spotted us in here and needed to finish the job. The assassin fires a couple rounds from his pistol at me and they strike my shields, reflecting harmlessly.

I pull Nelyna to the side so that we're not in the doorway anymore. I put my helmet on and draw my pistol and peek through the doorway. He's gone.

I holster my pistol and face Nelyna again. "Besides, if I killed him, that wouldn't have just happened."

Nelyna is breathing heavily and after a second in which she is unable to compile words, she just nods in acknowledgement. Good enough.

"Freeze mother fucker!"

I look over my shoulder at the group of C-Sec officers quickly filling the room.

I sigh… great… I put my hands over my head and so does Nelyna. I feel myself get roughly dragged out of the office with my hands being bound behind my back. The guards relieve me of my weapons and lead me to a C-Sec prisoner transport van. They throw me inside and I fall on the floor.

I look around… no benches… well that's classy. Nelyna is thrown into the transport as well and she in falls next to me.

Nope that was classy. "Very gentlemanly sir." I shout to the C-Sec officer before he closes the doors. Just before the doors shut, I spot a familiar face with a smug expression. Garrus. Oh well that's just wonderful. Just fucking wonderful.

I struggle and sit up with some difficulty. Nelyna opts with just lying on the floor.

Nelyna turns and lies on her back. "Well I hope you're happy."

I look at her. "What?"

She looks at me. "What do you mean 'what'? You got us in this mess!"

I let my head fall back against the wall. My helmet makes a very audible noise against the metal. "I got us in this mess? I seem to remember being slowed down in my explanation of innocence by your palm."

Nelyna sighs. "So it's my fault then?"

I shake my head. "That's not what I meant. Neither of us are to blame. They've got no evidence on us. They can't keep us in jail."

Silence falls. This is great. Just great. They're gonna take off my helmet, run my fingerprints and stuff, use facial recognition or whatever, and they're going to find out that I don't exist here.

"What does that mean? What do you mean you don't exist?"

Fuck you inner monologue. "I'm not registered here. I technically don't exist."

Nelyna looks up at me concerned. "You're going to get deported!"

I sigh. "Probably."

Deported? Eh… That's not good…

I feel the van cabin shake a little. "Looks like we're here."

Nelyna sits up just as the doors are opened again.

An officer hops in and pulls us to our feet. Nelyna gets out first and I start leaving. Just before I hop out the cop kicks me in my lower back and I fall out of the van and flat on my face. Luckily I'm wearing my helmet. Still, it doesn't help stop the force. I don't have shock absorbers in my torso and helmet after all.

"Hey!" I hear Nelyna shout somewhere nearby "What's the matter with you!"

"You shut up!" I hear another cop shout, followed by a loud slapping sound and a gasp of pain from Nelyna.

"Hey!" I yell as I struggle with my binds and try to turn over. "You leave her alone dammit!"

"Officer Daniels. That's not necessary." I hear the unmistakable voice of Garrus say somewhere behind me.

I then feel hands on my back haul me to my feet. I look around and see Nelyna being pulled to her feet by Garrus. She has a fresh purple bruise on her cheek and it's already swelled slightly.

The cops lead us into the C-Sec headquarters where were are split and I am lead into a small interrogation room.

After a moment or two a turian in a suit comes in and sits across from me.

He hands me a datapad. "Listen. I work for some people who would hate to see you deported from the Citadel. So here is who you are: Your name is Robert Jackson. You're 23 and from Los Angeles, California. You grew up in a foster home and never had any family. You ran away from the foster home soon after you graduated from high school and lived on the streets. You earned enough money to move to the Citadel a few months ago. In your time on the streets you learned you were a biotic and became an exceptional tech expert through unconventional means."

I look down at the datapad. It's all the details he just told me plus a few other things. Who the hell is this guy?

I look up and the man takes a tiny plastic bag and a small vial of blood out of his pocket. "I am supposed to take DNA samples and blood samples."

He holds up the plastic bag which I now see has a hair in it. "This is your DNA." He opens the vial and takes a sample of blood. "And there is the blood."

The man stands to leave. "I'll need that datapad back. Do you remember the details?"

I nod and hand him the datapad.

He opens his omni-tool. "Oh and I almost forgot…"

After a short second. "There. I downloaded your mercenary license to your omni-tool. I know you don't have it but still."

The man turns to leave but I stop him. "Wait! Who are you? Who do you work for?"

The man turns and looks at me. "Patience. We'll be in contact."

The man leaves and I take a seat again. Hours pass…

From what I remember about watching cop shows on TV in my Universe I'll be in here a while. More hours pass…

Finally Garrus comes in. "Well, well. Mr. Splicer. I never thought this would happen."

I shake my head. "Hello Garrus. How is it going?"

Garrus takes a seat across from me. "I'll be the one asking questions today."

I nod. "Ask your questions then."

Garrus scratches the side of his head. "Well first I'll have to ask you to remove your helmet. I prefer to speak with criminals face to face."

I sigh. I know that if I refuse he'll just have some guys take it off by force. Might as well. I unlatch my helmet and remove it. I place it on the table in between us.

Garrus takes a moment to stare at me. He's probably memorizing my face so that he can pick me out of a line up or something.

Garrus nods as if he has my face in his memory. "Alright, then let's get down to… business."

I wait patiently. This is going to be a long night…

"Why don't you tell me why you killed him?"

I laugh. "Who?"

Garrus shakes his head, frustration starting to build. "The volus. Barla Von."

I shake my head. "I didn't kill him."

"Oh really? We found you at the scene, fully armed and armored. And just a few hours ago we had to clean up a bunch of dead gang members out on the Wards. The only person left alive there was a woman who said she was grabbed by the gang and that you came to save her. That true?"

I nod. "Yes that's true."

Garrus frowns… or does the turian equivalent of a frown. "So then it's also true that you killed all those people?"

I nod again. "Yeah… Your point?"

Garrus opens his omni-tool and holds it up to my face. "Could you repeat that please? I need a recording of the confession."

I sigh. "That wasn't a confession. They shot at me first Garrus I was just defending myself." That isn't totally a lie. I was shot at first after all. And I did defend myself against the people defending themselves so…

Garrus stands and slams his hands on the table. "Listen, I'm tired of your shit! Just give it up! We know you're a cold blooded killer! We know you killed Barla Von. We know you killed all those gang members. And you're the top suspect on several other murders on the Presidium alone!"

Assertive… If I'm going to get out of here scot free then I'll need to piss him off, this isn't going to end well. "Listen Garrus, I don't want to be your enemy. I'll admit, I killed those gang members, but in self-defense. I didn't kill Barla Von I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I can prove it too. Check ballistics, I'll bet my pistol, that you guys confiscated, won't match the rounds in the body nor will any of my other guns. As for those other murders, if you guys need help with those I'd be happy to help."

"You son of a bitch!" Ha! I got on his bad side. Garrus throws the table between us out of the way and headbutts me fiercely. His headbutt was perfectly aimed, connecting his forehead with my nose.

The force of the blow makes me fall backward in my chair. I feel blood pour from my busted nose onto my face and into my armor. I cough and sputter out blood and spit. Hopefully somebody was watching and they'll come in here and stop him.

Garrus bends down and grabs the collar of my armor. "We don't need your help around here!"

Garrus throws a surprisingly strong blow into my face. I feel a few teeth get knocked loose. Garrus throws another blow into my temple. If somebody doesn't come in to stop this I might have to defend myself.

"Garrus!"

I feel Garrus release his grip on me and I fall to the ground. My eyes are swelling and my vision is blurry but I can make out Garrus being dragged away from me by two human officers. I can also see a third person, a turian, standing the table and chairs back up.

The turian then helps me to my feet and puts me in my original chair.

He kneels next to me and examines my face. "Shit Garrus… What the fuck did you do?"

The turian raises a hand to his ear. "We need an EMT in interrogation room 3. Hurry."

I cough. "Who's talking?"

The turian looks at me. "Names Zurin Sageaus. I'm a detective in homicide. You can call me Zero. Listen man, help is on the way you're going to be fine."

I spit a mouthful of blood and some teeth onto the floor next to me. "I'm going to be fine you don't need to worry about me."

I feel my face start to throb and get really hot as my Fast Healing tonic kicks in. My vision starts to restore as the swelling goes down and I flex my jaw and hear a few audible cracks. I then feel around in my mouth with my tongue and find my teeth are regrowing.

I blink a few times to clear the haze out of my vision.

I look over at Zero and see him staring at me wide-eyed. He's a little shorter than average turians, but that's still heads and shoulders over me. He is also missing his left mandible. His skin is a greyish brown, but in the bright light there's a kind of blue iridescence and he has no face markings.

He gestures lazily at my face. "Uh… how did you do that?"

I crack my neck a few times and exhale. "Natural talent."

The door opens again and an asari EMT comes in. She rushes to my side and gets ready to help me.

She wipes off the blood on my face but stops. "What the hell? Isn't he supposed to be hurt?"

Zero shrugs. "He just healed right before my eyes!"

The EMT looks up at him. Zero shakes his head and shrugs. I take the cloth that the EMT used to wipe my face and wipe the remainder of blood off of my face and neck.

I hand it back to her. "Thanks."

The EMT just shakes her head in confusion and leaves throwing her arms up in frustration.

I cross my arms and recline in my chair. "So, are you Garrus's partner? Are you gonna be the good cop to his bad cop? The Yang to his Yin?"

Zero shakes his head. "No I'm supposed to take you to Executor Pallin. You sure you're… alright?"

I nod and stand. "Yeah I'm fine. Why does Pallin want to see me?"

"Can't say for sure. He just asked for you." Zero handcuffs me again and leads me out of the room.

As we walk I take a brief moment to examine the place. There's a lot of turians here and they all seem to be staring at us. The only people I see not staring are the few humans, asari and salarians around.

I lean over and mumble to Zero, "Hey, why is everybody staring at us?"

He shakes his head. "They're not staring at you. They're staring at me. Nobody trusts me around here despite the fact that I've been working here for almost three years."

I frown. "They're staring at you like your some kind of brand new alien species. Why don't they trust you?"

Zero sighs. "Little history lesson here. During the Unification War, before the Citadel was even discovered, the turian species had expanded out into the galaxy and had created strong thriving colonies. The war was actually a civil war between the colonies. Nearing the end of the war the turian Hierarchy stepped in and made peace between everyone. During the war, the warring colonies distinguished themselves by wearing unique and ornate face paints. People who were in the turian Hierarchy at the time didn't have face paint. This tradition has lasted the test of time and even now most turians wear the face paint of their ancestor's origin colony, even people on Palaven wear special face paint. However, turians who were in the Hierarchy, as I said, didn't wear face paint. Thus their descendants don't wear face paint. It's pretty rare, but a turian who doesn't wear any face paint is known as 'barefaced'. It's usually a term reserved for politicians but descendants of the turian Hierarchy all those years ago are also barefaced. The term also refers to one who is untrustworthy or beguiling or sinister, which is why politicians are often called barefaced."

I look around at the turians staring at us, or rather Zero. "So they don't trust you because you're barefaced? Why don't you just put on face paint?"

Zero rolls his eyes. "Ignorant human. Because that would be disgraceful, even offensive. Besides, most people are taught from a young age their distinct face paint. I don't know any so I would probably get it wrong. People around here know I'm barefaced anyways so it's pointless. Besides wearing face paint even though I'm barefaced would just make the stereotypes true."

He's got a point. Poor guy it seems like everyone here hates him and he seems like a decent fella. Zero leads me outside and toward a car. It's still dark out but it must be close to 4 in the morning by now. The Presidium really has it's sunrise and sunset thing really accurately set. He helps me inside and gets into the driver's seat.

Huh. That's odd. There's no other escorts. Usually for prisoner transport they have at least a second officer guarding the prisoner. They must really not give a shit about this guy.

I lean forward. "Hey Zero. What time is it?"

"5:33. The 'sun' will come up at 6 sharp."

After the short trip to the Embassies where Pallin's office is Zero opens the door for me and I step out. I actually haven't been to this part of the Citadel yet. Never really had the need to. Oh look there's Ambassador Udina!

Everyone in the area stares at us as Zero leads me toward Pallin's office. I wave at Udina as I pass and offer a smile. Udina just gives me a confused stare in return.

He, he. He's going to be in for a mind fuck when I turn up again in a year or so. Zero leads me into Pallin's office and leaves me alone with him.

After the door is closed, Pallin turns off his terminal. "Hello Mr. Splicer. Or should I say, Robert Jackson? Sorry about this mess. I hope Garrus didn't harm you too seriously."

I shake my head. "No I'm fine."

Pallin nods and gestures to a chair. "Good. Please have a seat."

I take the seat and wait for Pallin to continue. I wonder why he called me here.

Pallin puts his elbows up on his desk. "First of all I need to ask: Did Detective Sageaus try to do anything with you? Like did he try to get you to do anything… illegal?"

I shake my head. "No. We just talked a little."

Pallin nods. "Good. Sorry, it's just that he has some people in internal affairs looking in on him. He's suspected of a lot of stuff."

Probably because he's barefaced… not cool.

Pallin sighs. "Anyways, back to you. Our forensic scientists ran some tests and found that you couldn't have killed Barla Von. Ballistics doesn't match up and there's evidence of a turian assailant. You're cleared of all charges. You can go get your things at the station. Detective Sageaus will bring you back."

"One last thing Executor," I say, this has been nagging me for a while. "I read that comment of yours in the paper about me after I caught Pendosa."

"And?" He says propping his elbows up onto the desk.

I smile. "And, I heard your reputation for not trusting humans I was surprised by your positive feedback of my work."

He nods. "I see. Well I'll explain it to you Splicer. You're right. I don't trust humans. But you're different somehow. You come off as… trustworthy I suppose, which is likely why I gave you the job.

I stand and extend a hand to him. "Thanks Executor. If you guys need help with anything you know how to find me."

Pallin stares at my hand for a second before he shakes. "Mr. Jackson."

I'm about to get up and leave but a thought comes to my mind. Wow I almost forgot. "Excuse me Executor. But I was arrested with a friend of mine, Nelyna. What about her? Is she going to be released too?"

Pallin nods. "Yes I just sent her release request to the station. She'll be released by the time you and Zero get back to the station."

"Thank you, sir." I stand and leave Pallin's office. Zero is leaning against the wall down the hall a little doing something on his omni-tool.

I walk up to him and he looks up from his omni-tool. "What'd he say?"

I shrug. "He was just telling me that I'm cleared of all my charges."

Zero checks his omni-tool. "You're right I just got a message from him."

Zero unlocks my cuffs and clips them to his belt. "You ready to go back to the station for your stuff?"

I nod. I follow Zero back to the car and we drive back to the station in silence mostly.

Somewhere in the middle of the trip I decide to break the silence. "You know Pallin mentioned you."

Zero looks over at me. "Really? What did he say?"

"He asked me if you tried to get me to do something illegal. And he said you had a lot of people looking in on you in internal affairs."

Zero smirks. "Yeah that sounds about right. There are like 5 or 6 cases that internal affairs are running on me right now."

Damn! "5 or 6? That's crazy, what the hell have you been doing?"

Zero rolls his eyes. "The list of things I'm suspected of is the longest on the force. None of it's true however. It's all just speculation. Like I said, nobody trusts me."

Wow. You'd think that a species as sophisticated and proud as the turians would show a little more love for one another. Discrimination will be a part of society for many years to come. It doesn't matter how hard one person tries to change something, everyone is entitled to their opinion. The beauty of that rule is that you can look down on somebody else's opinion because that's your opinion. Loopholes…

The car touches down at the station and we walk into the station together.

Once in the lobby, we stop and Zero extends a hand to me. "It's been a pleasure, but I have cases that won't solve themselves. This has been the strangest day of my life."

I shake his hand and smile. "So far."

Zero smirks… oh wait, maybe he's smiling he's only got one mandible so I can't tell. "You can get your stuff at the front desk. I'll see you around, Splicer."

Zero walks down a hall and disappears into an office. I turn and head toward the front desk.

I walk up to the clerk who is busily typing away at a terminal. "Excuse me."

The clerk looks up. "Can I help you?"

I scratch the back of my head. "Uh. I'm Splicer. I came for my things."

The clerk's eyes brighten and she reaches under the desk and puts a large plastic tub on the desk. "Here are your possessions. Please sign these forms before you go."

I start signing the forms. The last piece of paper is actually a large picture of myself with a line at the bottom. I look up at the clerk whose eyes are locked on her screen, but she steals a glance over at me every so often. I sigh and roll my eyes and sign the picture. The clerk gets all exited and claps her hands together before snatching the picture away leaving the rest of the forms forgotten in front of me. I shake my head and look in the tub. Let's see, assault rifle, handgun, shotgun, omni-tool, credit chit… where's my helmet? "Hey! Where's my helmet?"

The clerk looks up at me and frowns. "Uh. I'm not sure. Was it confiscated on the way in?"

I shake my head. "No I took it off in interrogation."

Her frown deepens. "Then maybe one of the detectives took it."

Garrus… Dammit I have a video feed in my helmet! If he manages to get in there, then he'll have video recordings of every single hit and job I've done, plus a few private things that I'd rather not discuss. I had that video camera installed so that I could observe my enemies, refine my combat technique, make fewer mistakes, you know basically the Research Camera from Bioshock. I actually ended up using one of those in Rapture and it actually came in handy.

Well now it seems that this may be bad. I have no doubt that what he plans on doing is illegal.

I look up at the clerk. "Where is Detective Vakarian's office?"

The clerk points down a hall to my left. "He doesn't exactly have an office. The vice department is down that way."

I quickly run down the hall she indicated. Who knows how much time I have?

I run up a flight of stairs and into a hallway with the left wall replaced by a window. This building sits on higher ground in the Presidium, if that makes any sense, and if I stopped and looked out this window I could look over the entire Presidium.

But I don't have time to stop! I need to get my helmet from Garrus!

Suddenly, and without any warning, the building starts shaking violently and I fall to the ground. My unprotected head hits the hard metal ground which results in me rolling around of the floor for a few seconds in pain.

After I recollect myself I get to my feet, only to fall to the ground again as a second quake shakes the building even more violently. After a few seconds the shaking stops and I pick myself up again.

A third quake, much more violent than the first two starts, but I manage to stay on my feet. This one however is preceded by a deafening boom. I look out the window just in time to see the massive cloud of smoke, flame and debris flying upward near to the station.

My jaw drops to the ground as I take notice of the two other columns of smoke rising in the distance.

A fourth explosion rocks the building, this time it's close enough for the shockwave to shatter the window and throw me against the wall. I throw my arms up to protect my face from flying glass and let myself slide down the wall into a seated position. What the fuck is going on?

I open my eyes and see that the latest explosion was only blocks away from the station. Then small pops start going off in very quick succession. What is that, assault rifle fire?

Nope those were distant explosions! The pops turn into booms as the artificial ceiling starts getting peppered with small explosions. The explosions move past the building overhead and in the aftermath of the blasts the power quickly fails and the Presidium is plunged into darkness. Well not total darkness because the fires from the explosion light the streets up a little.

Suddenly numerous gunships begin flying past the building overhead. Every so often as they fly over the Presidium, one gunship splits off from the formation and hovers over a part of the Presidium. This is clearly very organized.

I look up and see more gunships flying out of the holes created from the explosions in the Presidium ceiling.

What the fuck is going on? Suddenly the hallway is illuminated by the bright light of a gunship. I cover my face with my arms and quickly get to my feet.

I then hear the unmistakable sound of a mini-gun spinning. Oh shit!

I sprint to my right just as the gun starts firing. I literally missed it by a hair's width. In an attempt to gain some ground I use Aero Dash to get ahead but the gunship quickly catches up each time. Why does this hallway have to be so fucking long!

I Aero Dash three times in quick succession and reach the end a little too early. I crash through the door to the other side and collapse to the ground.

The gunship ceases it's attack and I hear it fly away. I breathe a sigh of relief and get to my feet.

The room is in total darkness but I can see a few people freaking out. Then out of a door on the far right side of the room I see many lights appear. These lights come out from flashlights at the end of assault rifles.

The armed men quickly fan out in the room, screaming commands at the people. Suddenly one spots me.

"Get on the ground! Get on the fucking ground!"

The flashlight is blinding but I can take a guess at where his head is. I draw my pistol as quickly as I can and shoot at his head until he collapses onto the ground dead. Damn! That bastard had some tough shields! It took 6 shots to kill him! And a top of the line assault rifle, he managed to kill my shields just before he died.

I holster my pistol and draw my assault rifle. I set it to burst fire mode and quickly pick off a few of the other armed soldiers. The remaining two soldiers roll into cover, moving in opposite directions. Shit they're trying to flank me!

I quickly sprint to my left and vault over a cubicle, directly onto one of the soldiers. I quickly put him in a choke hold and after a few seconds I apply enough force to snap his neck.

I stand and peek over the top of the cubicle in the direction of the other soldier.

Shit! Looks like he took a hostage.

An asari woman who is wearing a C-Sec uniform but looks very afraid, I guess she isn't used to these situations. I crouch down again and close the distance between us, remaining out of sight. Once I'm close enough I rise out of cover and move into the open keeping my rifle trained on the pair.

The soldier keeps his gun pointed at his hostage's head, and he also keeps a tight grip around her neck. I can't use Telekinesis to take the gun, he might shoot her. I can't use Incinerate or Insect Swarm either because it could kill the hostage.

Looks like I don't have a choice. "Sorry about this lady."

I quickly activate Electro Bolt and blast the woman in the stomach. The current created by the pistol touching her head and the arm around her neck, causes the electricity to travel into the merc as well. Luckily the electricity shorts out the pistol and despite the violent spasming pair it doesn't go off.

Wow that was lucky I didn't plan on that happening; I should really be more careful next time. Or I shouldn't push my luck and try that again.

The two fall to the ground shaking violently I walk up to the soldier and fire a shot in his head.

I then turn and kneel next to the asari woman. "Hey sorry about that. I didn't really have a lot of options."

The woman stops shaking a little and looks up at me angrily. "What the hell? You could have killed me!"

I shrug. Whatever lady I don't need your approval. I glance over at the soldier. Now to find out what's happening.

I kneel next to the dead soldier and turn on my omni-tool light and shine it on him. Oh shit… The Blue Suns? Why are they attacking the Citadel?

Or more important: Why is something that never happened in the Mass Effect games, happening now?


A/N: Whoa, bet all of you didn't expect that to happen.

The next 21 chapters are my favorites. They're way better than the first 11. Oh... I almost forgot, part one of the story is officially done now. 32 chapters, 568 pages. Hope you guys enjoy it.

Thanks for reading and give me feedback: How am I doing so far? Think this is good? Think it sucks? Tell me why. I'd love to know how to improve my story. Again, thanks for reading, and I'll see you next week.