Steam is wafting around my legs as I roll to a stop. I look up, seeing Nelon standing right above me with his omni-tool out. "How'd I do, doc?"

"You've shredded 27% of the muscles in your legs, fractured both of your legs and you have a splinter of metal stuck in your right big toe." He listed off, pulling said splinter out and discarding it. "You'll recover in three hours."

Mary comes into the back room just as the good doctor is setting my legs. "Mr. Dewitt, you have-oh my god!"

The cracks as my bones are snapped back into place prove to be too much for her, and she falls back in a dead faint.

"Ah, doc…Mary's fainted again." I point out.

Nelon sighs and, without looking, shoots a very weak Cryo blast that amounts to an ice cube up Mary's dress.

The young woman leaps up with a shriek of surprise, batting frantically at her purple dress. After about thirty seconds of jumping and smacking herself, a small ice cube falls out of her dress and hits the floor.

Mary shoots Nelon an absolutely venomous glare that could poison every water supply within a mile. "There's a client outside waiting for you, Mr. Dewitt. A woman named Karlie Johnson, saying something about her son."

I hum. "Alright, can you tell her we'll be out in a minute?" Mary nods and leaves, shooting Nelon one last angry look before she goes.

"Doctor, my swivel chair!"

My chair skids to a halt behind my desk. Across from me is a woman who looks to be in her sixties, maybe, her eyes are red from crying.

"Good afternoon, ma'am, I'm Saul Dewitt, Private Investigator, and this is my partner, Doctor Nelon. What can I do for you today?"

She sniffles and wipes her eyes, lifting her head to face us fully. "Mr. Dewitt, I need your help. My son, Jeffery…he's been so cold to me recently! He always comes home late, he blows me off, and I know his grades are failing at school!"

The doctor and I exchange bereaved looks. "While I feel sorry for you ma'am, what do you need us for?" It's sad and all, but I'm not emotionally equipped to deal with women who won't stop crying.

"I want you to follow my son," She looks up at us with firm determination in her eyes. "C-Sec won't do it, so I need you to follow my son and find out where he's going after school, please. I can pay; I just want to find out what's wrong with him."

Sighing, I roll my head back and try to adjust my legs. On one hand, it's a job, and it pays, which is good, because money is good.

On the other hand, this may very well be a very trivial matter like the kid having a girlfriend or something, which is not that big of a deal, unless this woman is one of those controlling types who believes that their kids should live with them until they die. Probably with a racing car bed.

Eventually, my need for sweet green wins out over my thirst for action and adventure. Plus, my broken legs. "Alright, Mrs. Johnson, we'll take the case."

"You will?" Her face lights up like a Christmas tree, and I get struck by the realization that she's happy that I agreed to stalk her son.

"Of course. What's your kid's name? Do you have a picture that we could use to identify him?" Nelon asks. I barely hear the restrained boredom in his voice. He's not too thrilled about this, and I don't really blame him.

She perks up at the word 'picture'. "Oh. Yes, of course. Here you go!"

We open our omni-tools and open the data packet. The first picture to pop up is of a chubby brown-haired baby playing in the bath with an older kid dumping water on his head. The next is the same two kids, this time older. The chubby baby is now a toddler, with sticky hair and messy grin on his face from the chocolate cake that the older brother is shoving in his face.

Flicking through the whole album, I'm coming to the realization that this lady sent us a bunch of baby pictures. The entire thing is full of the two kids, and none of the pictures are recent at all, so I delete the thing.

"Oh, Charlie and Shane were such cute kids…" The old lady is talking to herself, crying silently while staring at pictures on her omni-tool.

Alright, fuck this. I'm going to deal with this lady anymore. I take a picture of her face with the camera app of my omni-tool and upload it to the C-Sec database. They really do have crappy security. I could bust through their security algorithms in my sleep, and that's saying something.

I add her name to the picture and start the search, watching the screen flick through faces for about three seconds before it finds Karlie Johnson, age 63, height 5'3", weight-I don't care about that, skip. Two kids, Charlie and Shane Johnson. Charlie is sixteen and goes to Larathos Institution on the Kithoi Ward, while Shane had joined the Alliance about three months ago when he turned eighteen.

The information had a picture, thankfully, and I finally find out what this kid looks like out of diapers. He's got short brown hair and dark brown eyes and a couple of freckles dotting his nose and cheeks and is otherwise completely unremarkable, if not for the scars that mar the left side of his face. They're not huge or really all that scary or anything, but the four jagged lines on the side of his head do stand out.

I poke the doctor in his side to get his attention, and the red-skinned Salarian flicks through the information. "Good idea," he whispers, watching the still-talking woman mutter to herself. "No relevant data from this female. School ends for the day in three hours. We should remove her from the premises soon, or I will lose my damn mind, Saul! She's freaking crazy!" He's growling by the end, baring his sharp teeth in an angry grimace.

Weird. He usually talks in a stilted manner that conveys the point he's trying to make, but this is odd…wait, no it's not, not if he's been drinking ice water.

That's an odd thing about Nelon. Ice water slows him down a bit so that he speaks regularly, acting like a relaxant for him. He's also more open about his feelings and uses a lot fewer scientific terms. Soda, on the other hand, makes him very giggly and hilarious. I don't know if it's a Salarian thing or not, as Nelon's my only Salarian friend.

"Mrs. Johnson!" I speak up, cutting into the older woman's rambling. "Thank you for the information you have provided us. My partner and I need to make plans and some other things, so…you should leave." Delicate, I am not.

She's surprised. "You-you don't need any more information?" I can tell she's fishing for another reason to stay longer, but I'm past the point of caring with this woman.

"Nope, we have all we need. Good day, and we'll let you know what we've found within a couple of days." It may have been somewhat cold on my part, and I really don't care.

"Oh…okay." The older lady slowly gets up from her seat and slowly walks to the door, then slowly walks through it, loitering about in the doorway before finally leaving.

As soon as the door closes, I let out a loud sigh. Nelon knows exactly how I'm feeling. We've got three hours, so I open up my terminal and map out a route to the Larathos Institution, but that only takes about two minutes.

The doc goes off to do his own thing, so I'm bored with no one to talk to. I open up Galaxy of Fantasy and log onto my Krogan Black Paladin. The Black Paladin is a class that uses curses to drain health from enemies and heal itself, while also dealing heavy damage with large weapon and wearing heavy plate armor. It's level 345, and it's quite the accomplishment that I've gotten it that far in most of a year.

As I finish off the last boss in the instance I'm doing with one of my online buddies named John Smith, my omni-tool chimes, and the light on the alarm is blue. There's only one person with that alarm on my omni-tool, so I really need to take this. I say good-bye to my friend and start for the workshop. It'll be empty, with Nelon out doing his thing, so I'll have some privacy.

I slide my ass in my swivel chair into the room and tap my tool and open up a screen. "Hello?"

The familiar blue face with white paint marking her cheeks, lips and forehead, along with the purple scale-like features on the crests of Tevos Belsari fills my screen. "Saul!" I can hear the relief in her voice. "It's so good to hear you again…" She blinks in confusion, her pale blue eyes roving my face. "…how old did you say you were?"

It takes me a minute, but I realize that she's referring to the stubble and the grey in my hair. "Oh. I just made myself look older," I sheepishly admit, scratching at the stubble on my face. "A lot of people don't take a fresh-faced PI very seriously, so I made myself look more grizzled."

"Oh." She blinks, as if it never occurred to her that people aren't really willing to believe that a handsome young man like my fine self could possibly be a good semi-cop. "You'll get rid of that when you meet me, right? I don't want to mess with your thing, but I want to meet Saul, not a grizzled private investigator."

I chuckle. I know what she means. I'd rather not spend some intimate time with someone I knew looking like someone else entirely. It'd be disconcerting. "It's easy to get the dye out of my hair and the stubble will grow back in a couple of hours, so no worries there. You said you want to meet with me?"

Tevos nods, smiling slightly. "Yes. It's been a long time, and I can barely get any time off. My trainee will take over tomorrow, so I want to take the time and be with you." She taps a few buttons, and a packet shows up on my omni-tool with an address and a time. "Ask for Tenya, she's the manager, and very discreet."

Her smile is soft and her eyes are warm. "I can't wait to meet you tonight. I'll see you then, okay?"

I can feel the smile on my face, and there's a warm beat in my chest. "I'll be there, Tevos. Good bye for now."

The screen closes, and I check the time. I've got about an hour until we need to leave, and my Krogan Black Paladin is calling to me.

Stake out if really damn boring. Nelon and I arrived early and have been watching the Institution for thirty minutes, with no sign of Charlie Johnson so far.

Larathos Institution doesn't seem to be a very fun place to go to school, what with the grey uniforms and rigid teachers. There are mostly humans here, a few Salarians and Turians and maybe thirty Asari. There are no Krogans, Batarians, Quarians or Vorcha.

I'd hate to go there, it looks like all work and barely any play.

The bell rings, and a flood of students flow out of the doors and onto the streets. Nelon and I are sitting on top of a low-rise building with our HUD-glasses on, searching through the students with the zoom function.

The doctor nudges my arm and points down at a group of students gathering around a couple sky-cars. It's a mix of human, Turian and Asari, and they're just loitering around a pair of cars. Among them is our target, Charlie.

The group starts getting in the sky-cars, so Nelon and I get in our own and start it up. As they begin to drive away, we follow them at a distance, keeping the cars within sight, but not too close to be alarming.

We follow the two cars for nearly twenty minutes. The 'Arms' of the Citadel are huge, each Ward basically being a city. We head into what seems to be the 'slums' of the Kithoi Ward, though it's kind of hard to call it that as the legions of Keepers keep everything really clean.

The cars finally stop at a three story building that seems to be the base of a shipping company or something, I can't really read whatever language that's on the front of the building.

Nelon set's the car down on a nearby apartment building and we watch the group enter the building. "Well, that's not suspicious at all." I mutter to myself. "Why a group of teenagers would be coming to a shipping company if not for something illegal is a friggin' mystery to me. So that means they're either learning about the illustrious career of a manager in a small-time shipping company, or they're doing something that they shouldn't be doing, which means as the C-Sec officers, somewhat, that we are, Nelon, it is our duty to bring them in."

"Of course." He nods in assent. "Duty and all that."

We get back in the car and land it on the closest building, which seems to be some sort of warehouse. The gap between the buildings is about eight feet, and easily cleared by the both of us.

"Doc, run a scan on the building for cameras, please." I tell Nelon. He opens up his omni-tool and starts to tap away.

"Scan reports the presences of four cameras in the building: two out front, one on the middle floor and one in the basement." Nelon frowns, fingers tracing over the glowing tool in his hands. "Look at this."

Peeking over his shoulder, I can see two views of the front, one of a locked door in the basement, and the final view is of a group of people sitting around a room with various pipes, syringes and other paraphernalia, along with actual drugs as well.

"I see red sand, lotus, angel feathers, and marijuana. Only the marijuana is legal." Nelon tells me, his eyes scanning the room.

"So, this case just became a drug bust." I mutter, looking at Charlie Johnson sitting in a corner.

The door to the roof opens suddenly, spilling light onto the rooftop. The human sees us because we aren't really hiding, and his mouth opens and he starts to shout…

When Nelon's Cryo Blast hits him head-on and freezes him in place.

"Nice one, doc."

We wait for ten seconds for the ice to melt. As it fades, Nelon moves forward and punches the man right in face, knocking his ass out cold. He uses some omni-gel to make a pair of zip-tie cuffs and apply some sticky gel to gag the man on the ground.

I hack into the system and look over the cameras. I can't tell how many people there are beyond the stoned group, so we need to be cautious, as well as non-lethal if we can.

I say as much to the doctor, and we pull our guns. I basically copied Tagger for the doc, and in return he made the stun time last a lot longer and act more like a knock-out shot than a tazer, though that is still one the main functions. He also made it quieter, which is a plus.

The top floor is mostly empty, with maybe four cubicles and an office with the door locked. There's no one here either, which is good. I hack the door, and it slides open, showing a man in a middle-class suit wearily tapping away at the terminal in front of him.

As he looks up, my gun fires, the bullet crossing the distance before he can even blink. The rounds are modified so that they shatter on impact, scattering pieces of metal around the target and dispersing the charge at multiple points, instead of just punching straight through.

The man jerks in his chair, spasming as thousands of volts are directed into his body, and falls down, twitching. Nelon moves quickly, knocking him unconscious and binding and then gagging him.

The computer is unlocked, so I have access immediately. I open up the records and close the browser in the back with the porn on it.

Reading through the logs, I can come to two conclusions: either this man is stupid as all hell or he is aware of the smuggling and drug-dealing and is just being vague. Either way is really annoying.

"The company seems to be a front for a smuggling ring of some sort, along with a distribution center for some local dealers." I tell Nelon, who's finished with the manager and is flicking through a datapad.

"This man is stupid." He bluntly states, lightly kicking the man. "He's not aware of the smuggling or the drug dealing. He's been under the opinion that the floor below is under construction and has been for nearly a year. He also flirts with his secretary."

We copy down the information so we submit it as evidence later, and then move on. Nelon and I avoid the elevator and take the stairs.

I peek out of the door and see two guys standing around the hall, smoking something. "Two guys, three meters on the first and seven on the second. Which one do you want?" I ask the doc, readying my gun.

"I'll take the nearest. Can you close the distance quietly and subdue the other?" He replies.

"Of course. On three." I raise three fingers and put them down one at a time.

We dash through the door: Nelon leaps and lands on his guys' shoulders, twisting and throwing him to floor while discharging a weaker Overload into the guy and knocking him out.

I imagine pulling a rubber band softly and letting go, charging across the distance between us. The man turns, legs spread with his hands going for the gun under his jacket, but he's too slow. I kick my legs out and slide between his, punching him square in the balls as I go. The guy folds, mouth open and trying to scream, but pain has disabled his vocal cords temporarily, which is just fine to me.

I tap my boots on the floor and jump up and back, bringing my elbow down on the back of his head, knocking him into sweet unconsciousness. I cuff his hands and gag him, setting him against the wall with the other similarly trussed up guy that Nelon took down.

"Can you crack this door open just enough to fit through?" I ask the doctor, holding up a slim black disc.

He nods and commands the door to open about two inches, and I roll the disc through the crack and into the center of the room. We don our sunglasses and I count down from three. On one, I detonate the flash-bang grenade and hit the holo-switch.

We burst through the door, guns kicking in our hands. He takes the left and I take the right, mowing down the boys and girls inside with electric rounds that fry the drugs right out of them.

It's over in twenty seconds. With the flash-bang going off, added with the already addled states of their minds, they couldn't defend against our onslaught.

Nelon and I move through the room, cuffing and gagging the kids and then lining them up and taking pictures of their faces. I tap out the number for C-Sec while Nelon gathers the drugs and stuff for evidence.

"Hey, it's Dewitt and Nelon, we've got a drug den and a smuggler's hideout at 362458 in the Kithoi Ward, Shipping District." I say to the person on the other line.

"Do you need back up?" The rough male voice asks.

"Nope. We already have the people inside the den cuffed, and we're going for the hideout next."

"Alright, I dispatch a few squads to your location. Call if you need anything, Bailey out."

Nelon's done with his deed, so we move down. The lobby has only a secretary.

The doc and I come up behind her with our guns out, and she surrenders without a fuss, so we move down after cuffing her as well.

The basement door opens, showing us a Turian with a shotgun pointed at us. Before he can even squeeze off a round, Nelon freezes him with a Cryo Blast.

I pry the shotgun out of the Turian's hands, wait for him to thaw, and then club him over the head with it. "You're good with the Cryo, doc. I need to buy one of those modules."

The doctor taps his omni-tool and sends a packet to me. "I already have one for you. Sending it now."

I look up from my cuffing and gagging and stare at the doctor. "You've had the module all along and you're just giving it to me now?"

He smiles, holstering his gun. "Dramatic timing."

"You can be a dick sometimes, doc."

"I know."

We spread out, looking through the crates of smuggled goods. I find a few guns along with some illegal mods, and a curved knife of Turian origin.

The last box I find is small, black and sealed airtight. The only marking on it is a circle, half of it white, and the other half of it with three wavy lines. It opens after a minute of hacking, hissing as the atmosphere escapes.

It contains a grip, for something like a pistol or a knife perhaps, and nothing else. Weird. What the hell is this supposed to be?

I grab the grip, and it settles into my hand perfectly. The top has a slot, like that for a really big coin, and small switch on the side.

Using my powers of common sense, I deduct that the switch activates something inside, and I point the opening away from my face and flick the switch.

The device hums and a something blue shoots out, stopping around two-and-a-half feet, humming softly.

This can't be what I think it is. No way.

One of the crates had shoes to cover up the illegal cargo, so I grab one of those and toss it into the air. As it comes down, I swing on it.

The blue blade slices through the shoes with ease, leaving two slightly melting halves of shoe on the floor.

It is what I think it is.

I just found a fucking lightsaber.

After pulling off the section of box marked with the little sigil, I disposed of the box and hid the lightsaber away.

C-Sec shows up maybe ten minutes later and takes custody of the people inside. From what I can tell, the manager won't face too many charges but will most likely be fired for incompetence. The secretary won't face anything, this was her first day on the job after her predecessor quit due to sexual harassment. The Turian and the other humans who lead the whole thing would face charges of smuggling, dealing and distributing illegal drugs and weaponry. The teenagers would face a fine, a stern warning and the disappointment of their parents.

Nelon and I brought Karlie to her son's cell to speak to him after she paid us. A job is a job.

"Why would you do this, Charlie?!" She's ranting at her son. "What would your father say?!"

I can see the tensing of Charlie's shoulders. He's nearly vibrating with anger in his seat, listening to his mother rant at him.

"Red Sand, Charlie? How could you?" She screams, and Charlie snaps.

"I did for Shane!" He shouts, jumping up and looking his mom in the eye for the first time.

His mom recoils like she's been smacked. "What? Why?"

"Red Sand lets you feel what it's like to be a biotic." He explains, glaring at his mother. "After you kicked Shane out for having 'unholy' powers and he joined the Alliance, I want to feel closer to my brother! He was my only friend in this damn place!"

"You know," I interject, causing both of the fighting people to stop and look at me. "The Alliance has a cadet program for those sixteen and seventeen if they want to join the Alliance straight out of school. Schooling is free and service is guaranteed if you complete the course."

The hopeful look in Charlie's eyes contrasts the horror in Karlie's perfectly. "Really?" He asks.

I nod. "Yeah. They don't take drug addicts, though."

Charlie rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. "Well…to tell you the truth, I didn't actually take any." He admits. "I was going to, but you came in before I could."

Karlie cuts in. "Charles Samuel Johnson! You will not join the Alliance, and you will not do any drugs! Am I clear?!"

Charlie looks to me and Nelon, then back to his mother. "Mom. Shut up. You can't tell me what to do. Ever since dad died you've been so controlling. It's time you stopped coddling me and let me be my own person."

"I was only protecting you!" She screams, tears streaming down her face. "When Shane…when he did that…that thing, and hit you in the face with that vase, I thought you were dead!"

"Things happen, mom. Shane didn't mean to do it, and you know that." The young man shakes his head. "You really hurt him when you kicked him out. I…I don't want to talk to you right now, mom."

He sits down, looking at the wall, ignoring his mom's presence entirely. Karlie stares at her son in horror, before running from the station in tears.

On one hand, we may have just destroyed the relationship between mother and son, but we gave a young, troubled man a chance to step out and grow up.

Nothing ever comes without a cost, it seems.

I can't wait for tomorrow.

A/N: It took longer than I thought it would for this to come about, but my muse was like, "Go do something else, I'm tired of thinking, asshole!"

My muse can be kind of bitch sometimes.

Anyway, hope you liked it.

Read, Review and Enjoy.

Stay Awesome.

~Soleneus

P.S.: It's not a lightsaber. It'll be explained.

Stay Awesome Some More.

~still Soleneus