Chapter 11

Experimenting

Shepard stood in the CIC at the galaxy map as she planned to plot their next destination. Probing planets had taken up a lot of her time but she needed the resources to upgrade the Normandy's armor and Med-Bay. Getting her new planet scanner had been her first objective since it cut her probing time from most of the day to a few hours.

The N7 scanned through all the systems she could go check out, there wasn't really much for her to do now since she had cleared out all the systems they had and finished collecting the people for the mission. There was always that Project Firewalker dossier she had gotten, maybe that would provide her something to do while she waited for the Illusive Man to get back to her on what to do next.

With a sigh she set her destination for the fuel depot and then to the planet Zeona in the Elysta system of the Ismar Frontier. She didn't mind going to do the mission, it was just the fact that she hadn't heard from the Illusive Man on taking the fight to the Collectors yet or recruiting more individuals that was bothering her. She hated to admit it, but she was relying on the Illusive Man to get them some solid data to work with.

As Shepard walked down the steps Kelly met her eyes with concern written on her face "Commander, may I speak with you?"

"Of course Kelly, I always have time for my crew. What has taken your lovely smile away?"

The Yeoman blushed faintly as she averted her eyes to the side. Shepard knew she had feelings for her, but she couldn't resist making her blush now and then for all the flirting that Kelly did with her. It was just a part of her personality to flirt now and then, but her heart still belonged to Kaiden. She missed him so much but did her best to never allow it to get her down. She had a new crew that she was getting to know and become friends with despite how much she wished she was still with her old crew.

"I'm concerned about Ty. He hasn't left his room since you all came back from Korlus yesterday and you didn't mention in your report about what happened to him. You have seemed a little off since then as well. I know that waking Grunt up was physically trying but you were more excited than scared by it."

Shepard was more than bothered by what happened on Korlus but it wasn't the blood covering Ty or what he had done to Jedore that had bothered her, she was used to seeing those type of things and compared to Akuze those images didn't bother her in the slightest. What had bothered her was seeing Jedore mentally and emotionally beat Ty. She had all the cards stacked in her favor because of what she had done and she used them to make sure that the former mercenary felt even more like a failure then he already did. Shepard had seen the look in his eyes when they talked about him losing his friends; she knew the look because she had seen it in her own eyes when she lost her squad on Akuze and then Ashley on Virmire.

She wasn't sure about what to do to help him though; no amount of helpful words would ever be enough. No one could tell anyone when they had mourned enough, that was something that only you as the mourner could decide. This was only the third time that the Commander had ever felt helpless when it came to her crew, the first being Akuze and the second being Ashley. She had always been able to help her crew through all of their tough times, but it felt as if there was nothing she could do this time.

"Kelly…there are some things no amount of words can solve." She replied.

"What happened Shepard?" Kelly asked worry in her tone.

Kelly never ceased to amaze Shepard with how caring she could be no matter who it was they were talking about. "The Blue Suns leader down there, Jedore, had history with Ty. She ratted him out and killed eight of his friends all because he didn't have sex with her in the year that he trained her, or at least that's why she said she did it and Ty…lost it."

"Did he kill her?"

"That's one way of putting it. I'll spare you the details but it was pretty gruesome. I don't think I've ever seen someone lose it so badly on someone but after it was over he just stayed quiet the rest of the trip back. Before he went to his room I tried to make him understand it wasn't his fault that she killed them all…but I was less than successful." She released a sigh. "…I wish there was something I could do to help him. I hate it when I can't help my crew."

There was a person behind all the Alliance propaganda and he wasn't heartless, he had a heart that had been ripped from his chest and never put back. Now he was just a lost wandering soul trying to find meaning in living again. Shepard shook her head trying to shake the thought from her mind; he wasn't going to remain lost if she had any say. No man was ever left behind and she intended to bring him back from whatever depths he was in, no matter what. The N7 looked back to Kelly who had a small smirk on her face. "You have the look of a woman who is about to spearhead her way through any obstacle in her way."

Shepard smiled. "So I have been told...I don't know what I'm going to do yet but I'm going to figure it out. Take care, Kelly."

"You too, Shepard." Kelly said as she turned around.

No one gets left behind.


It had been a day since Ty killed Jedore and he hadn't stopped thinking about it or been able to stop the memories of his crew dying from flooding in. Killing her wasn't the issue he had; she needed to die for everything she had done and all the pain she caused, but what he was not happy at all about was her reason behind killing everyone. The very thought of what she said made him clench his hands into fists and want to punch the wall. All because he wouldn't get in a bed with her she killed them, hell he would've been more acceptant to "they betrayed the Blue Suns" instead of because HE didn't sleep with HER. He had never even thought about her in that way.

As the warrior laid on his back and stared at the stars he thought about Korlus more, a lot of the same things that had been making his blood boil flooded back into his mind from Jedore's laugh to her last dying breath or what he thought was her last dying breath. "Betrayer" the voice had whispered. Had he betrayed his friends by going on this revenge mission and almost losing complete control of everything that made him who he was? Had he abandoned his code for revenge and anger to become the only things he believed in anymore? No, he hadn't betrayed his code or his friends, but he could feel his anger taking hold in him again.

His anger brought out a bad side of him, so bad that he began referring to it as his demon because it was like something was possessing him and changing him. He knew that it was just himself losing his temper, but his anger did change him and it always felt like an evil spirit entered his body when he did, like a thousand cold knives plunging into his skin.

Ty sat up in his bed and brought his hands to his face. I need to get control of my demon now before I go back down that road again. He had lost all control a few years after his friends died and didn't come out of it until 2182 after being around his favorite Japanese kleptomaniac. I need to do something like work on my bike to keep my mind away from it. He got out of bed and walked up to EDI's platform to question the A.I. "EDI, can you hear me?"

EDI popped up right away. "Yes Mr. Rhoddy, I can hear you."

"Any idea if we have a mission today?"

"Shepard has set a course for the planet Zeona in the Elysta system of the Ismar Frontier, why do you ask?" Why the hell are we going out there? Though he was curious about why they were heading there, he pushed it away to focus on the task at hand. "EDI can I tell you something and have you tell anybody?"

"Yes."

"Alright, can you tell Shepard, Jack, Miranda, Garrus and Jacob if they are looking for me I'll be down in the Cargo Hold working on my bike?"

"I will inform them Mr. Rhoddy and if you need anything while you are working all you need to do is ask."

"Thanks EDI. I'll see you down there then."

After brushing his hair back and ponytailing the crown of it, he pulled his hood up and walked out of his room to enter the elevator. His destination was the Cargo Hold where he hoped he'd be able to keep his mind off of Jedore and everything that happened. He leaned his back against the wall and rested his head back. Focus on the good, not the bad. I'll save Haley and make everything right. I will not fuck up again. After contemplating connecting his omni-tool to the circuits of the elevator to try and speed it up, the doors opened letting Ty walk out and towards his parked space bike which was near the right desk near the elevator.

Ty got to his bike and took his tank top off and put it in his pocket since he had just cleaned it along with his shorts the other day of all the blood that was on it and had no desire to get anything on them for a while. As he stared at his bike he contemplated what he could do or if there was anything left he could do aside from regular maintenance. He also didn't want to get zapped for trying to do more to something he already upgraded all the way so that was another point towards regular maintenance.

As he knelt down next to it he looked up at the console. "Hey EDI, can you hear me?"

"Yes Mr. Rhoddy, what can I help you with?"

"Two things, first off just call me Ty. When you call me Mr. Rhoddy it makes me feel older and two, is there a radio down here or something I can use for music?"

"You can access music on this console which allows you to play music from an assortment of recent and past artists."

Ty raised an eyebrow slightly as he got up and walked over to the console. After looking over the buttons he found the one he was looking for and said, "Thanks EDI, you're the best."

"Thank you Ty." The former mercenary sifted through the recent artists but found nothing that he wanted to listen to at the moment so he began going through music from the twenty-first century until he found a group he had once listened to during his research long ago into music history.

Four Hours Later

Ty had been experimenting on his bike trying to tweak its speed and jump speed to a ridiculous level, the endeavor was less than successful. He had gotten zapped by the circuits a couple times until he finally decided that shocking him was his bikes way of telling him no. Overall the man was having fun working on his bike and listening to music with the volume possibly loud enough for the whole ship to hear. The music was good even to this day; he didn't care if it had come out before they found the Prothean technology.

At the moment Ty was kneeling down next to his bike putting things back together as he was hummed along with the singer when his loud music turned to silence. He chuckled slightly then spoke. "Well I guess it was only a matter of time until someone got sick of it and came down here to turn it down."

"What are you doing?" Jack's asked him with curiosity laced in her voice.

The purple eyed man grabbed a screwdriver and started putting the screws that held some of the new equipment he had just installed that would be bad to let others know about back into his bike. "Well at this exact moment I'm putting my bike back together after basically tearing it apart, but otherwise I had been trying to re-tweak the speed of this thing and try to get the jump speed faster even though it's already fast."

"Your work has been successful thus far Ty. You have been electrocuted a few times, but the installation you had me monitoring has been successful." EDI answered.

Jack laughed. "Well well, the sarcastic dick got himself electrocuted."

"Yeah yeah, laugh it up all you want, but when you've created your own space faring vehicle from scratch and make it faster and more maneuverable than most vessels than you'll understand why I get electrocuted. So aside from turning down my music how come you came down here 'cause it obviously wasn't to chat about mechanic shit."

Ty finished screwing the stuff in and walked to the other side of his bike and started putting some of the stuff together on that side. Jack was sitting down on a crate nearby and was finally given a good glimpse of his scarred body. "Damn and I thought your tank top was fucked up."

"Thanks for the compliment, Jack." He responded with a smirk.

"No problem. So, how have you been dealing with everything that happened back on Korlus?"

"Don't really want to talk about it, but since you asked I might as well give an answer. I haven't stopped thinking about it since it happened."

"She was a bitch and you killed her. It doesn't bring them back but at least you avenged them."

"I'm not done yet. There is still one person alive who had a hand in it." Ty said as he stood up and went to the front of his bike.

Jack raised an eyebrow in honest intrigue. "Who?"

"A Batarian who was the one who gave her location away. His name is Scrum and is a leader of a section of the Blue Suns. I'll take a wild guess and say he's the one who owns the base on Illium. Tarak wouldn't have trusted Haley to anyone else."

"So you have been hunting these bastards down for what they did to your friends?" Jack asked.

Ty nodded. "Yep but not just them, I've taken down their businesses, their friends, and anyone who supported them. I saved the ones who cost me everything for last so when I struck them down they would have nothing left."

"Damn! You're one vicious bastard." The tattooed biotic said with a laugh.

"Trust me; what happened down on Korlus was barely a taste of how vicious I can be. I lost my temper down there, when I lose control of everything is when bad shit happens."

Ty stood up and wiped his hands off on his shorts but as he did he wanted to slap himself since he hadn't wanted to get anything on his shorts. Crap, now I have to wash these again. Ah fuck it, who cares. He looked over to Jack who had a look of interest and mischief on her face. "What kind of bad shit?"

Ah crap, sometimes I just need to shut my damn mouth. He didn't want to talk about the bad things he was capable of doing because the memories of himself under the intoxication of bloodlust was not a happy time for him to remember. Ty shook his head. "I don't want to talk about it Jack. The last thing I need is to lose control, I hope you can just take that and understand it."

Jack didn't look satisfied with his answer but she nodded regardless. "Okay, one last thing before I go, I'm trying to find a location but I need some help."

"Need me to read files for you?" Ty questioned with a raised eyebrow. He hoped he didn't have to read files; especially Cerberus files "No, I want you to look at my past and see if you can pinpoint it for me."

Oh no. No, no, no, no, no I am not doing that again. "I told you that's not how it works." He said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"No, you said you needed specifics to do it and I can give you specifics."

Ty sighed, damn me for putting myself in a corner. He attempted one last time to get out of it. "Jack I don't know if I can do it or how I'd do it, it's not as simple as finding out who shot someone. Besides, I thought you didn't want me in your head."

Jack smirked and stood up then walked over to him. "True, I don't want you to get in my head. This is the only exception I'll make so maybe you can experiment with your power and try and see exactly what I'm looking for."

She was either going to try use sex as a bargaining tool or physically beat the crap out of him until he did, not liking either option due to the complications in their friendship it would cause the former mercenary shook his head. "Fine I'll try, but I'm not paying for therapy if something goes wrong." He sat on a crate cross-legged. "Stand in front of me and look into my eyes even if I close them."

Jack walked in front of him with her brown eyes staring into his purple ones. The eyes of a person were the direct access to their memories but he could also access the memories through touch. This time he chose her eyes and let his mind reach out to hers as he focused on protecting his mind from hers and her mind from his. A persons mind was their temple and if he forced himself in or didn't put up any defenses he could break the person, not something he wanted to do to anyone especially Jack who more than likely still would be able to kill him afterwards.

He began feeling the energy from her memories so he closed his eyes and let his mind enter the energy as he accessed her memories. When he opened his eyes the room changed into a desolate room with a window looking out to another room where children were though for Jack all she saw was his eyes turn completely purple. "Did it work?" Jack asked.

Ty saw a young child beating against the glass window who he immediately knew was Jack based on her eyes. Younger Jack just continued to beat her hands against the glass and scream at all the other kids who appeared to be completely oblivious to her existence or were ignoring her. He couldn't stand seeing it but he was there now and Jack needed his help so he was stuck with it. "I don't know what I'm looking for, but I see a younger you and I beginning to hate that I did this. This may feel weird but no matter what happens Jack do not take your arm away from me."

Before Jack could respond Ty grabbed her arm and his vision became her vision. As she entered the memory with him she began looking around seeing him now standing next to her instead of sitting with his hand holding her arm. "Jack, is this where they kept you?"

Jack looked around in awe. "This was my room."

He shook her arm slightly to bring her attention back to him. "Don't try walking around, if you do I can't find what you are looking for."

"How is this possible?"

"My mind can access anyone's memories and when I visit them I get to stand sideline to it all like we are. If we are looking for the name of this place then give me a second, I have to focus."

"What are you going to do?" Jack queried.

"Access the memory of this place through your memory. The rooms might go by really fast so don't freak out and let go."

"Are you sure you've never done this before?" She asked skeptically.

He had done it more than a fair amount of times but the cost in the end had always been painful. Each person he had done this with that died caused him serious pain and those who let go before he was ready left him with a lovely side effect. "I've done it before, I just don't like doing it which is why I'm telling you not to let go of me."

"What happens that you don't like?"

"You'll see now hold on I have to focus."

Ty focused all his mental ability on the lingering memory imprint that the place had from Jack's memory. It was like searching for a needle in a haystack until he found something though he wasn't sure what it was. As he honed in on it the rooms started passing by really fast until they were standing at a terminal with a man recording himself. Most of the information he was talking about the warrior didn't understand, but then the man at the terminal said, "The Teltin Facility so far has come up with interesting results, but we will need more test subjects. If we can get more children sent to Pragia, it would help to continue our tests for biotic advancement."

"Motherfuckers." Jack responded with anger as she tried to go after the man.

The purple eyed man kept a firm grip on her arm as he shifted the memory away and to his own of being on his ship by himself in his quarters as he read over reports. He needed to get out of the memory before his old friend Tara came up to his room, but he also had to talk to Jack while she wasn't completely pissed off because of how important the next step was.

The sudden change of scenery halted the tattooed biotic and caused her to look around in confusion. "What the fuck?"

"I didn't want you to let go because of what happens so I brought you to one of my memories." Ty answered.

Before he could speak Jack looked around him to see the younger him, age fourteen to be exact. He still had his long hair, his outdated fashion sense and all his tattoos except for his back tattoo. "Is that you?"

Ty looked back over at himself taking in the young and mostly innocent version of himself, he missed those days but he couldn't dwell on it. "Yeah nine years ago. Listen we aren't here to watch this memory so before we leave I have something's I need you to do for me. First off I'll need you to sit me up against this crate and then I'll need you to get EDI to get Chakwas to check my vitals to make sure I'm still alive and if I am then just leave me. I'll wake up. The last thing I need you to do is be clear to tell them I knew what I was doing and it wasn't your fault and that I usually stay knocked out for thirty minutes and then I'm fine with no side effects, alright?"

The tattooed biotic looked at him with confusion. "Wait, you mean you go unconscious after you do this?"

"Only when I join minds with someone. I haven't gotten control of it yet so I go unconscious. You ready to do what I said?"

"Yeah, are you sure this is safe?"

"Hey Ty what are you doing?" Tara asked as she walked in.

Ty smirked slightly seeing the lithe Asari again but looked at Jack. "Nope, but no other way. See you later Jack."

He let go of Jack and as he did black circles began to form in his vision and sounds were more distant. The warrior tried fighting it as long as he could, being able to get off the crate and sit himself down against it as Jack was talking to EDI. The blackness soon was in almost all his vision when suddenly he saw Jack kneel down next to him. "The doc is on her way. Don't die Ty or I'll kick your ass understand."

The man gave a final chuckle. "Is that care in your voice Jack? I told you I can't have a re…lation…ship."

Ty blacked out into the abyss.

Forty Minutes Later

"Hold on he's coming to. Mr. Rhoddy can you hear me?" Chakwas asked.

Man I hate this feeling, Ty thought. He blinked quickly as he came to in the Cargo Hold. "Doc, just call me Ty. It makes me feel older hearing myself be called Mr. Rhoddy."

Ty regained his vision allowing him to see Chakwas kneeling next to him and Jack, Miranda, and Shepard standing behind her. "How are you feeling?" Chakwas asked.

"I'm good Chakwas, just a little light headed. Jack you feel fine right, no side effects for you?"

Jack shook her head. "Nope, I'm good."

"Good, then everything is fine."

He pushed himself against the box and onto his feet only to be met by curious stares from Shepard and Miranda. "Maybe we should have Chakwas run some tests on you to find out the source of your power so something like this doesn't happen again." Miranda offered.

Ty chuckled slightly, after seeing the shit he had through Jack's memories the last thing he wanted was to have a test, especially if Cerberus was involved. "I know why it happened, it's 'cause my mind isn't strong enough to join with another and not pass out afterwards from mental exhaustion."

"Joining minds? Like the Asari melding?" Shepard asked in surprise.

"Yeah, kind of, but I'm not an Asari. My skin complexion is way too tan and I know for a fact I'm not female. You really didn't believe anything about my abilities, did you?" He shrugged to himself at his rhetorical question. "I know it sounds crazy for a human so I guess I understand why you would doubt it. Anyway, I let her see what I saw. I've done this a plentiful amount of times and each time I can fight the blacking out longer, not much longer but it still counts."

"It sounds like you have it figured out." Shepard turned her gaze to the others. "Everyone else, back to your stations." Everyone nodded and Miranda and Chakwas turned to leave but Shepard stopped Ty as he began to walk and grab for his tank top at the same time. "If you need anything, let me know. I don't like seeing my crew suffer."

"I'll get through it, but if I need anything I'll let you know."

The Commander nodded and jogged to catch up with Chakwas and Miranda as Ty put his tank top back on and the hood up. After he shut off his music completely he headed over to the elevator where only Jack stood apparently waiting for him. "You didn't want to ride with the Princess I take it." He asked in jest as he reached her.

Jack smirked. "Fuck no, I'd kill the Cheerleader."

Ty smirked but then stopped as the sight of a young Jack banging her hands against a glass window flashed through his mind. It was a grim reminder that he wasn't the only one who got screwed out of a regular childhood. "You sure you're alright Jack?"

The tattooed biotic shrugged. "I'm fine, besides I know what I'm looking for now so I'll have my destination soon enough…Thanks for doing all that to help me."

"You're welcome but I'm sure I didn't have a choice. You were going to use force to persuade me to help you I bet."

"Eh, maybe."

"That or you would try to use your lovely feminine charm on me also known as flashing your tits and ass to get what you want."

Jack laughed. "Maybe."

"It wouldn't have worked."

"Why?"

"I'm not your regular guy if you haven't noticed. Doesn't matter how much you flash me your tits and ass, I don't fall for that game."

Jack smirked at him. "You'd be surprised how many guys fall for it."

"No I wouldn't be. I've seen my fair share to know." Ty said as the doors to the elevator opened.

The pair got in and Ty hit the buttons for their floors. The elevator brought them up one floor to allow the biotic to return to her quarters. "I'll see you around Ty and…well, you know, thanks."

"You're welcome. I know you don't want a friend and you were just using me to help you, but if you ever need someone to talk just get EDI to get me."

"Don't get all mushy with me now because I needed your help."

"I'll still be a sarcastic dick Jack, I'm just saying if you need a shoulder to punch or someone to use your biotic's to throw or a guy to scream at who can take it all, I'll be up a floor."

"Whatever you say Ty. I'll see you around."

"See you Jack." Ty said then shut the doors.