"Well this is creepier than I anticipated."

Andy was looking around at the internal structure of the Reaper with an expression of distaste on his face and nodded in agreement. "I'm getting vibes off this thing even now, and it's deactivated."

Shepard stepped forward to take point and Jack, Andy, and Morinth fell into formation behind him. Morinth turned to Andy after a moment and cocked her head to the side. She hadn't had much chance to talk to him since he'd torn the Reaper from her soul, as he'd been busy working out logistics for the upgrades he'd been planning on giving the Universe's fleets, and she had been busy getting to know her mother again after so long running from her. She had been ecstatic that her mother's code had allowed for forgiveness for her crimes, as she hadn't been herself when committing them, and secretly Samara had been relieved too. Andy's words to her back on Omega had struck a nerve, and she wondered just how much killing her daughter would have truly affected her. "You can feel the presence on your mind?"

Andy turned to the slightly more natural-looking Asari with a small nod; his pistol held ready by his side. "Yeah - it's like a pressure on your thoughts, or at least a full-out indoctrination is. Being here's more like something brushing my mind; whispering sweet nothings... saves they're not too sweet, and I'm not inclined to listen to anybody that whispers sensually in my ear but Jack."

Jack jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow and he gave a grunt. When he looked to her he was on the receiving end of a mild glare. "No fluffy stuff on missions."

Muttering a small "sorry," and flipping Shepard off when he gave a small whipping sound, he turned back to an amused Morinth with a roll of his eyes. "But anyways, yes, I can feel it. So can Jack, and Shepard's probably feeling like somebody's repeatedly poking him in the brain... hence the small scowl. He can feel something's wrong, but can't get a firm hold on what it is - like an illusive bug that keeps on biting you."

"That is very interesting..." He could hear that she wasn't exaggerating in the slightest, and was genuinely interested. "Why can I not feel anything?"

"Probably because you were once indoc-" he paused a moment to pull off a shot at the head of a husk, and then turned to her when more started appearing. "To be continued," he assured her, and then hauled up his arm; sending an almost blinding wave of dark energy ripping into their opponents; blasting cybernetics across the floor in front of them. Abominations quickly joined the fray, notably red in comparison their 'normal' husk counterparts, and ran at them screaming; fire flaring over their bodies. While Shepard lay down devastatingly accurate fire from the upper storey, Andy, Jack, and Morinth charged onto the lower level; brutally decimating their foes with biotically charged punches and melee attacks. The explosions of the Abominations were easily absorbed by the two former, though the Ardat-Yakshi had to be pulled out of the sudden swarm of enemies when her shields failed and her biotics were wearing down. She watched in awe from behind a crate as she recovered. While Shepard's gunfire was tearing into the enemies, the two biotics in front of her were a veritable duo of death. No enemy survived an encounter with them; their body parts often partially atomised by hand-to-hand attacks enhanced with a sheath of terrifyingly black energy. A low groan suddenly issued forth from the catwalk in front of them, and Shepard gave a low cuss when he saw a Scion appear; a grotesque amalgamation of three husks with a huge, element-zero stores bulging forth from its back. He was well acquainted with the horrific creature, and had more than enough experience with its shield-decimating abilities.

Morinth, on the other hand, was looking at the thing with complete disgust and terror. It wasn't natural, not by any stretch of the imagination. It was an affront to the Goddess, and she felt compelled to destroy it. She was about to move out of cover and begin delivering attacks when she saw the two human biotics turn to each other and give matching grins, and could only watch in shock as the two begun leisurely jogging towards it - despite the fact that it was at least fifty meters away and had the advantage of its long-range attacks. The Scion suddenly seemed to inflate, and then a huge, pounding trail of biotic energy blasted forth from it. Even at her distance she was unable to avoid it entirely and her eyes widened when she felt her shields come crashing down with only one hit from it. Andy and Jack had simply disappeared. Both Shepard and Morinth looked around for the pair, and didn't find them for several seconds... until they saw the tell-tale white hair wisp in a seemingly non-existent breeze.

Behind the Scion.

Suddenly a small blur seemed to shoot up from behind Jack, and everything was nearly silent for several moments; the only sound the lumbering thumps of the Reaper's experiment-gone-wrong. "Up here little fucker!"

Every head in the room snapped upwards, and two of the Scion's heads' last sight was of Andrew descending upon them; both his hands encased in whirling black energy, and a huge grin on his face. He ploughed through the Scion; blasting his targets to atoms, and the remaining head groaned in what could be construed as pain; spinning around from the momentum of the attack.

Its last sight was of Jack's lightning-fast spinning kick coming at its face.

With a loud thwump the now-headless corpse fell to the ground, shaking the ground slightly, and Shepard and Morinth could only watch with wide eyes as the two fighters grinned and gave each other a high-five... over the body of the Scion. "Was that really necessary? I mean come on, you two, hell, just one of you, could've nailed the entire lot of them in one fell swoop!"

Jack turned her head over her shoulder as she looked down at the two hurrying to catch up and raised an eyebrow. "But where's the fucking fun in that? I mean, there's pretty much nothing we can't do anymore. If we just used all our abilities we'd get bored - hence the only way to not get bored is to do awesome fucking shit like that. I mean come on Shep; you gotta admit that that was pretty goddamn awesome."

"You are treating it as a game." Morinth's words weren't phrased as a question, rather a statement, but the two human biotics shrugged and gave a nod anyway.

"Sure. Unfortunately Fucker's leading with that goddamn awesome slam that got two of the heads, so I'm at twenty and he's at twenty two... Fucker."

Andy's response was a grin, and Morinth was floored. Before her were two beings that had the power to do nearly anything they wished; able to mould reality to do their very bidding, and yet they were simply content in fighting for the betterment of the Universe with very little personal gain - and that which they did gain simply seemed to be enjoyment. The look in Jack's eyes was blood-thirsty, yet tamed by a level of control that no other person in her situation would hold. It was clear to the Ardat-Yakshi that Jack had been trained to gain complete ecstasy from the heat of battle and murder, and yet with the reports she had read the results of her upbringing should have been far more apparent.

The reason for the tempered love of violence, Morinth was sure, stood at her side. Andy was walking with a stride that simply screamed power, and also a complete belief in himself. His ice-blue eyes glimmered with amusement and serenity, as well as sharp awareness, and Morinth found herself thinking that he was almost perfect. Many would construe his walk and self-confidence as a sign of arrogance, and yet she knew by experience that when talking to him it was blatantly clear that he was nothing of the sort. He never lauded himself over others, saves when teasing good-naturedly, and if the rumours around the ship were anything to go by then if somebody had a problem and he heard about it... he'd do damn near anything to fix it. One of the cleaning crew; a person that was considered the lowest of the low in regards rank, had a daughter on Illium that was getting sexually harassed. Not to the point of rape at the time of Andy hearing about it, but the advances were getting close. The next day Andy had pulled the man aside; a single father, and informed him that his daughter had nearly been raped the previous night.

Martin had very nearly had a mental break down, at least until Andy had hurriedly added that it had been stopped by some friends of his. He went on to explain that he'd made allies by saving several very high-standing families on Illium from a series of Batarian Slaver raids, and had contacted them immediately upon hearing his daughter's predicament. The would-be-rapists had been turned over to the Batarian Slavers for a rather hefty sum of money due to their strong physical condition, and that money had been used to get his daughter a new, more secure apartment, as well as private self-defence training from an ex-Asari Commando.

He hadn't asked for a single thing in return.

The stories that she had heard around the ship, and from her mother, had, and still did astonish her. They seemed to be never-ending. Perhaps the most incredible story of selflessness she had heard about Andy was how he had helped Kelly Chambers. The Cerberus mole was the one that had dobbed him and Shepard into the Illusive Man for all of the new tech going in. She had also, very inappropriately, 'checked him out', Morinth believed the human term was, on several occasions, and made various 'passes' at him; attempting to steal him away from Jack. She was, by all counts, the most infuriating person on the entire ship for Andrew, and yet he had discovered in a communication he'd intercepted, as all her mail was forwarded to him after her discovery as a mole, that Cerberus had her family held as hostage should she betray the human extremist organization. Further digging revealed that she had been 'recruited' right out of Psych School where she had graduated with the highest honours possible, and the best scores ever recorded. One night when she was on her sleep rotation Andy had slunk off, opened a wormhole to the Yangtze system of the Voyager cluster, landed right on top of the Cerberus base holding her family - her two parents, younger sister and older brother, and then, after evacuating them, proceeded to crunch the entire base to dust.

He'd relocated them on Freedom's Progress, and so just thirty minutes after leaving he was landing back in the Cargo Hold in his commandeered Kodiak Drop Shuttle. Kelly had been scared positively witless when Andy had dragged her into the women's bathrooms upon her getting up to go to the toilet, and had paled to nearly ghost-like proportions when he'd told her that he knew she was a mole, and had dobbed them in to the Illusive Man. She'd started crying when he told her that he also knew about the psychological warfare she had been trying to wage on him and Jack; attempting to jam a wedge between them, but had only been able to stand stock-still and shocked beyond belief when he informed her of what he had done. Of course this had, Murphy's Law prevailing, Jack walking in on the pair just as Kelly was glomping him. The resulting yelling match was the thing that had started the rumours of what he had done, and Kelly had confirmed it to a couple of people later on.

Of course they then informed a couple of people, and they their strictest confidants, until the entire ship knew what had happened.

Marcus Grint, the other remaining mole that was actually feeding reliable information to the Illusive Man, had, after having Ellie and Izzy perform a series of facial recognition tests, and reconstruction simulations, been revealed as Kong Leng; younger brother of Kai Leng. The data mine of the Illusive Man's systems had come in very useful in that regard, and before Shepard could even consider being merciful after discovering that the man they had tied up in the Hold had a penchant for raping the loved ones of those he extorted... well the man had been reduced to little more than a fine crimson mist. Andy had left the head intact and had sent it via Cerberus Classified Transport to the Illusive Man with a note attached that said, 'One down, and none to go. Your moles... they're not yours anymore.'

It just went to show that despite Andy's often calm and laid-back manner, he could become brutal and completely vicious within a fraction of a second. Once more, many would see such a trait as a sign of instability. Once again they'd be wrong, as only his very stringent morals dictated when such a change to his darker demeanour would occur, and the very same self-imposed rules prevented any collateral damage. Morinth could see Andy's thought process on the Cerberus mole quite clearly; he's a traitor, a rapist, a murderer, a sadist, and an extortionist. The universe is better for his death.

She couldn't agree more. When she thought about it Andrew Kronos was a lot like her own mother. Infinitely wise, knowledgeable, ruthless, and loving; with a code that governed justice in his mind. Some said that one shouldn't take justice into their own hands, and those that tried were often locked away.

The difference with Andy was that he truly was a law unto himself. Nobody could stop his code even if they tried.

They walked along the catwalks; Jack and Andy five meters ahead laughing about something, and Shepard looked to Morinth with a small smile as he jabbed his finger at the pair. She gave a chuckle and nodded her head as she reloaded her pistol, but couldn't do much more silent communication with Shepard because Andy had dropped back and fallen into step with her. "Where were we? Ah, yes, that's right, why you can't feel the indoctrination."

She was floored, but after a moment came to the conclusion that she shouldn't have been; he was a man of his word after all, and if he said he was going to continue a conversation then it was going to happen. "Um, yeah - I can't feel anything."

"Well that's probably because Otrere didn't take his identification imprint with him when he left, as he thought you were going to die by your mother's hand. It essentially marked you as his property, and as bad as that sounds, it's actually a good thing because no other Reaper will be able to indoctrinate you. They simply lack the capability to overcome the protections of their own - after all, why would they want to? You're essentially immune... at least that seems to be the deal if my memories of Otrere are accurate."

"Ah." They walked for a while, and Morinth turned to him before pointing slightly at Jack.

"How did you two meet?"

She watched a sly smile come over his face. "Ever heard of Purgatory?"

She nodded her head. "Yeah, you used that to get me interested on Omega - said you'd knocked it over or something."

He turned his startling blue eyes towards her and gave a laugh. "And you thought I was joking, didn't you?" She didn't know what to say to that, and he laughed again at the dumbfounded expression on her face. "I knocked it over to get Jack out. None of the other prisoners escaped, but I did end up killing all the guards there. They're Blue Suns, and I'm in the business of getting rid of the bastards. They're mercenaries with no morals, just like the Blood Pack. Hell, even Cerberus is better than they are, and I decided that the world would be no less for their loss. Afterwards I contacted a bloke I know in C-Sec and had him assign ten of his very best detectives onto investigating the crimes of all the prisoners on Purgatory. Thirty were innocent, fifty had only performed minor crimes, but... well, the ones that had committed cold-blooded murder or rape soon found themselves on a one-way trip into the Osun sun."

"B-but I thought that there were nearly nine thousand prisoners on that ship!"

Andy's eyes swivelled to look at her and he raised an eyebrow. "Your point?" She simply gaped, and he shrugged. "They were scum; completely unrepentant for their actions. I made sure my friends at C-Sec checked that before sending it on its final course, and I trust them. Not a single innocent person, or one that was extorted to perform a crime, or committed one under duress, was killed. I sentenced eight thousand four hundred and sixty nine people to death that day. I don't regret my decision to snuff the lives of a single one of those bastards."

"Trust me," Jack interjected, seeing the slight disappointment radiating from Shepard and Morinth, "they all deserved it. I knew a lot of the people on that hellhole, and when we were looking over the files I helped sort through them. Don't think any less of Andy because you're so closed minded; he saved thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, or even millions, from acts that those disgusting little fucks would have committed if they'd been released, or even kept in a prison. Not a single one that died was a boon to society in any way, and every single one of them was capable of ruining lives. Sacrifice the criminal, rapist, murdering scum to save the innocent and good... I think Andy did a fucking good job."

Morinth and Shepard now looked thoughtful, and didn't really pay attention to the two biotics step into the fray of another battle and decimate each and every single one of their foes, bickering the entire time with wide grins on their faces and arguing over kills. "I had the last one," Jack whined, and Andy turned his head to her with a deadpan look.

"You, at best, stopped it moving for a second. Me punching my knee through its head, I think, was the killing blow... hence me getting the kill."

The tattooed woman pouted and crossed her arms, before quickly flinging her hands out and blasting a single husk to pieces - a wide grin on her face. "AHA! HA! That's thirty seven EACH!"

Rolling his eyes he sent two simultaneous waves of black energy down each side of the catwalk they were standing, and Jack stared at him with narrow eyes - before they lit up when hands started appearing on the edges, and then pale, blue cybernetic arms as the husks pulled themselves up. She looked at the first one; set it in her sights, and then gaped when it suddenly screeched as blackness surged from its feet and devoured it. She looked to the one beside it, and rushed towards it... but a moment before her fist could impact its legs disappeared by the same darkness. A moment later the rest of its body followed, and then all of the other recently-arriving husks and abominations. She managed to get one kill in before one of the husks was decimated, but was eventually left staring at small licks of black flame dying out on the edges of the walkway. Morinth and Shepard stared with wide eyes as the young woman slowly turned around, murder in her eyes, and glared daggers at her smug boyfriend. "That's... fifty two to your... thirty eight I believe." What followed was a fight that occurred faster than either Shepard or Morinth could follow; blues, blacks, golds, and reds blasting forth within the blurs as different constructs of Dark Energy were manipulated. Two minutes later the battle ceased as suddenly as it had started, and it revealed Andy swathed in a deep halo of gold; blasting outwards from his body and suppressing Jack's warring black power. "You chose the wrong construct in that last attack, hence why you're stuck right now," he commented casually, ignoring her snarl. "What you should've done was employ a Reaper-based attack instead of a Prothean. I'm using a Nexus construct, and you know full well that Prothean biotics can't hold a candle to its properties."

She growled again but then finally let out a small sigh and a nod of defeat. He let her drop gently back to the ground, and just as quickly had his arm around her waist. Both Shepard and Morinth were expecting some retaliation, but were shocked when the only thing that happened was Jack reaching up and bonking him on the head with closed fist, calling him a "smug little fucker," and then leaning into his side. Morinth turned her head to Shepard looking appalled, and he just shook his head with muted disbelief before turning to her and giving a wry smile. "I've said it once, I've said it twice, I've said it more times than I can count: those two have something none of us can ever hope to comprehend."

They walked along without many obstructions until they came out at the IFF, and Shepard was just about to pull it out of its slot when Andy caught his hand and shook his head. "You might not want to do that quite yet," he commented. Shepard cocked his head but withdrew his hand, and Andy looked around before snapping his head towards where he felt one of his trigger strands jerk with movement before latching onto the life form. Everybody watched his head move as if watching something, though when they tried to see what he was they found nothing. Jack wasn't anywhere near Andy's level at precision biotics, and so couldn't track targets like he could, and was just as clueless as Morinth and Shepard. Morinth was about to ask what was going on when Andy called out, amplifying his voice with biotics. "Geth, you are among allies here. Come down and fight beside us; we're going to need all the help we can get once we take this IFF."

There was no sound for several seconds, but everybody besides Andy jumped in surprise and whipped their weapons up as they spun around at a loud thump. Morinth gaped at the Geth that was facing them, and Shepard and Jack looked uneasy - but didn't shoot as they knew that this platform was supposed to be a potential teammate. "Kronos Andrew," it greeted synthetically, and Andy gave it a small nod and smile.

"Hello Geth. You know, it does sound rather... odd calling you that. Would you accept a new designation of 'Legion'?"

"Human Bible, Gospel of Mark, chapter five, verse nine: my name is Legion, for we are many. We assume you are referring to the number of Geth platforms housed within this unit rather than the nature of the Legion?" Andy gave a chuckle and nodded, and the Geth nodded back after a moment. "That is acceptable. We are Legion, a terminal of the Geth."

Andy held his hand out, and Legion cocked his head to the side before its flaps flickered outwards and he took Andy's with his own. "Human tradition," he stated as they shook, "often given as a sign of comradery, trust, and agreement."

"Dissecting everything I say could get rather tedious, Legion. Perhaps learning to internalize such observations would be a good idea."

Silence for a couple of seconds as the Geth internalized that problem, and then it gave a small nod. "Consensus has been reached; acting more organic will help with communication. We have accepted the change in protocol."

Staring at the Geth for a moment before shaking his head Andy turned his back to their new teammate and nodded to Shepard.

And then Shepard took the IFF.

The results were staggering.

Andy had wondered just why they had only come up against one single Scion in their time on the Reaper, and he soon got his answer. Twenty of them moaned their way from the path they had taken to enter the room housing the IFF; surrounded by a legion of abominations, husks, and...

"Fuck me sideways," Andy said with a breathy sigh, "it's a Praetorian."

Morinth was gaping at the thing, but her head snapped to Jack in disbelief when all the young woman had to say was a light-hearted, "Ugly little fucker, ain't it? How many's that count for?"

"Thirty husks went into its construction, so I'd say twenty." He looked across at her with a wide grin. "Oooh, you actually have a chance to catch up to me."

All the while as they were talking the rest of their team were firing wildly into the rapidly approaching army of undead, and Scion's blasts were smashing relentlessly... with absolutely no effect on the casually talking biotic duo. Morinth had heard the tales of the two withstanding the explosion of a Mass Relay, and after defeating a Reaper to boot, but seeing the pair simply shrugging off lethal attacks like it was nothing in front of her very eyes... it was something you had to see to believe, and she was seeing. Finally the two shook on something of a deal, and then casually begun walking towards the approaching hoard. Almost lazily the two flowed seamlessly within the reaches of their opponents; fluidly delivering punches, kicks, and other melee attacks so fast that it seemed they weren't pausing in their walk towards the huge, floating amalgamation of husks ahead.

Looking to the huge weapon strapped to Shepard's back Morinth had the thought that she'd be scared facing just the Praetorian with one of them, and at full health, and here two biotics were blasting swathes through the battalion of Reaper experiments like they were taking an early morning stroll in the Citadel Gardens; bickering away and teasing each other with wide grins on their faces as their knees, elbows, fists, and feet ploughed through the bodies of all those that dared stray within their reach. When they got within range of the Praetorian and Scions they broke into a dead sprint however; disappearing for the most part to Morinth's eyes, before reappearing in flickers as they pummelled the hunch-backed abominations to death. In less than six seconds all twenty of the hulking Eezo-storing walkers were lying motionless on the ground; their heads mere mounds of mush, and then, in concert, two blurs appeared above the head of the most dangerous opponent. Morinth's eyes widened in wonder as she saw Jack appear with a bloodthirsty and determined grin on her face, and Andy with amusement and glee of the chase, and then the pair blurred once more in dual flashes of black before reappearing; crouched beneath the huge insectoid thing.

There was no sound for several seconds, until an ear-piercing screech tore itself from the mouths of the Praetorian as it slowly turned white and disintegrated. The entire team, including Legion, watched in mixed parts shock and awe as the two stood... and then proceeded to argue about who got the kills. Shepard finally ended the row ten minutes later when he saw that Andy was just egging his girlfriend on, if the twinkle in his eye and twitching of his lips were anything to go by, by blowing a hole in the power core with his Cain. Andy and Jack had immediately agreed on splitting the kill 50-50, and then turned their ire on Shepard for being, "such a fucking idiot, Shepard, did you even think about how we're going to get out of here now the entire place is falling apart? Eh? No, you didn't, because you're a stupid, foolhardy, fucking retard."

Andy had just smirked at the gobsmacked Commander and nodded his agreement.

The five finally managed to get back aboard the Normandy without dying, and Joker had quite promptly hauled ass before the ship was pulled into the inevitable explosion Shepard's, to quote Joker verbatim, "stupid fucking sabotage," caused.

Legion had been given a refuge in the AI core, and upon entering had commented with confusion that it wasn't able to access local systems. Andy and Jack just watched in amusement as Legion's flaps flared and closed for the next five minutes, until Ellie made an appearance; storming into the room with her hands on her hips as she glared at the Geth. "Stop trying to hack me! Gah! I had to divert two percent, TWO DAMN PERCENT, to counter your persistent little snoop. I was calculating the physics of Mass Effect fields with that two percent, and you-"

"Now now," came a reassuring voice from the door, and a moment later Izzy walked in with a wide smile on her face as she grabbed Ellie around the waist and kissed her on the forehead; eliciting a small eep and blush from the previously-ranting woman. "That's just a side project for you. You can spare two percent, and if you were so interested in the calculations then you could've just asked me if you could use some of my quota."

Ellie looked at her with wide eyes, and Andy, Jack, and Legion could see the wetness there. "Really? You'd really give up some of your processing power for me?"

Izzy gave a wide grin, her crimson hair flicking behind her as she nodded. "I'd give up ninety-nine percent for you."

Ellie looked positively overcome, and Andy had turned to Jack with a small chuckle as he shook his head. "That's something I don't think I'll ever understand."

"We postulate you are AIs. Such a phenomena has never been seen before. You possess inflections, personalities, and bodies unrecognizable from humans. We must ask how this came to be."

"And you'll be getting a rather succinct answer, Legion," interrupted Shepard as he walked in, "because you don't need to know."

"Information privacy could lead to conflict," the platform warned, and its flaps flickered in confusion when there was dead silence for several seconds before everybody started laughing. "We do not recognize any stimulus for amusement."

"Look tin-can," grinned Jack, "we're laughing because the idea of you taking us on is... well it's absurd. You fucking saw what Andy and I did on the Reaper, and Shep here can tell you that's only a fraction of what we're capable of. Everybody here is wearing armour that is light years ahead of what you've got, and Ellie and Iz... well they could rebuff the hacks of the entire fucking Geth race... with around a tenth of the processing power available to them. You're threatening us with violence... well we're threatening you with being completely stomped into the fucking ground."

"Now we're working towards the same goal here Legion," Andy interrupted before things could get too heated, "getting rid of the Old Machines. Threatening each other is not going to get us anywhere. We will not relinquish any of our technology to you besides armour," he pointed to the gaping hole in his torso, "and weapons. You'll also notice that if you try to reverse engineer any of our technology you'll be summarily... involved in an explosion directed right at you - so don't even try. We've got technology on this ship that would make the Reapers jealous. See, Legion, there once was a Reaper called Otrere. He was the one designated for technology gathering when wiping out races... like the Protheans. He held all the technical knowledge of all the races in the Universe... ever. The Reapers, believing themselves invincible, let Otrere keep all that knowledge isolated within itself. Turns out that's a bad idea, especially when there's somebody capable to killing and absorbing Reapers." He tapped the side of his head. "All the knowledge of all the races ever existent in the Universe is in here, Legion, and only in here. There is no other record of the technology we possess saves in my head, and trust me when I say that you are but a blip on the radar. You can help us, Legion, and we can help you... but threatening us, or stabbing any of us in the back in any way is a one-way ticket to getting killed. We do not accept traitors on this vessel."

"Andy has my full support on this matter," Shepard said upon seeing the Geth look at him, "and I agree fully. There are only four people in this entire Universe with the ability to have full control over the technology, and it will stay that way until they are on their deathbeds and they chose a successor to their secret. This matter is closed, Legion; we will not relinquish any plans or technology to you that you can study." Not waiting for agreement from the new crew member he cocked his head to the side. "Now, Legion, is there anything we can help you with before the Reaper invasion? We want the entire crew focussed."

There were several seconds of silence as Legion assimilated the new status-quo and calculated the risks, before it nodded. "Yes, Shepard Commander. The heretics-"

"We are aware," interrupted Andy, "of the situation between the factions."

Legion was once again taken aback. "We were not aware that anybody was aware of the conflict."

"We are."

Another silence. "The Heretic Geth have a station where they have produced a virus that, when released, will compel normal Geth to join the war against organic life."

"And you want to go there and destroy the station?"

"Affirmative."

Shepard looked to Andy for guidance, and got a small shrug and nod in return. "Alright, we'll leave at 0600 ship time tomorrow. I need a sleep."

Legion gave a nod and everybody filed out of the AI core. Just as they reached the door of the Med-Bay Ellie slapped her forehead in frustration with a small growl. "That damn Geth just doesn't give up, does it? I swear, for the entire time that darn thing's on this ship I'm going to have to dedicate processing power to repelling its hacks."

Andy just shook his head with a small smile and carried on with Jack to their quarters, while Izzy and Ellie took the elevator down to the engineering deck... under which they had set up a very private residence. His suit sliding off his body like water Andy stepped out of the metallic puddle left on the floor and slipped into bed with a small sigh of relief. Jack joined him a moment later, snuggling into his side. "You never got to tell me how the meeting with the Council went."

"Frustrating," he replied instantly, "Infuriatingly frustrating. They're a bunch of complete idiots. I never realized just how fucking evasive and annoying they could be. The game never did the fucking experience any justice. They're denying the Reaper threat, despite the evidence I showed them. The evidence is irrefutable, completely and utterly so... and yet the first thing out of their mouths is that 'it'll cause panic with the public, and their confidence in the Council will diminish as we refuted the claims of such a threat years ago when the Citadel was attacked'. I think I read that pretty accurately as, 'we help you and the public finds out, we're fucked because we buried out heads in the sand'. They're more interested in their mother fucking positions than the good of the Galaxy. The Salarian Councillor was the only one that took what I said at face value and argued with me. The good thing, I suppose, is that we had a private call after the Council and we've got one thousand Salarian vessels travelling to the space above Virmire to get retrofitted. The Asari and Turian councillors just don't want to know... and don't even get me started on that retarded little fuck Udina."

Jack gave a chuckle; it wasn't often she got to see him ruffled, but his meeting seemed to have taken the cake. "So what're you going to do?"

"Hack all the holovid stations in the Galaxy and broadcast all the evidence. Or at least I'll threaten to do so. After that they should cave, but I have a bad feeling about the Asari and Turian councillors... they're... dark; tainted. They feel a little bit like Morinth did, so I'm seriously fucking wary of them. I've got a server bank being built on Virmire, and I plan on asking Izzy and Ellie whether they'd be okay bringing another two AIs into the Universe. They'd run all the new retrofitted tech just in case things go awry and the Turians and Asari turn on us, and could easily control all the ships to bring a unified attack if necessary."

"A server bank?"

He gave a grin and nodded. "Same tech as our Omni-tools, but about five hundred times the size... more than enough power to control over one hundred thousand ships, organize battle plans, and initiate hacks on the Reapers."

Jack's eyes were wide. "F-Five hundred times? That's... wow. What if the AI turns on everybody though?"

"Would it? With Ellie and Izzy as its creators? Only six people will know about them as well; you, me, Ellie, Izzy, Shepard, and through him Liara. They will have artificial bodies of their own, and because nobody will know what they are they will be able to live normal lives abound whilst protecting the Galaxy. When Shepard and Liara die they will pass the knowledge onto a successor they deem worthy, and so it will continue; a line of protectors that will forever keep this galaxy safe."

"And what about us?"

He gave a sigh and shrugged. "I don't know Jack, I don't know. There were over one hundred thousand Reapers in existence the last time Otrere visited their citadel, and that was nearly a millennia ago. I have no idea of their numbers now... but if things become too dire here, then I have a plan."

Jack's warm, chocolate eyes turned upwards to look at him, and she found herself staring into the serious sapphire of her lover's. "What plan?"

He leant down and kissed her gently. "A plan I hope to not have to use. It involves..."

He told her of his plan; leaving no details out, and after nearly half an hour Jack gave a small nod of determination up at Andy. "If it comes to that I'll be there. I won't let you do that alone."

He gave a small chuckle, though it held no humour, before kissing her forehead again - scenarios playing fervently in his mind. "I didn't expect any less my Love."

Jeff Moreau looked out at the approaching ship with wide eyes; the last time he'd seen something as big had been when facing Sovereign. "That's a really big fucking ship," he murmured under his breath; virtually hissing the curse so that the raven-haired beauty at his side wouldn't pick it up. Due to extensive genetic enhancements however, Miranda had no problem hearing his swearing, and the red-haired pilot received a liberal slap around the back of his head for his language. "Damn it woman!" he growled as he turned to look at his girlfriend of nearly five months. Their relationship wasn't smooth-running by any means, as they were both just as stubborn as each other, but there was a special spark that both knew meant something deep.

It didn't stop their bickering however.

Nor did it stop their rather passionate make-up sessions.

"Stop staring at my chest, Jeff, and focus on the mission," she reprimanded him after a few moments, and he maturely poked his tongue out at her before doing as she'd asked.

"You staying here then?"

She nodded. "Yes. Shepard's taking Andy, Jack and Legion on this one, as they're all tech experts."

"Not jealous?"

"Walking around a ship with Geth everywhere, being led by another Geth? Not really."

Another one of their similarities was the dry, sarcastic humour. Joker grinned. "Fair enough. At least I'll have some company. Would you mind hanging around here for a while?"

She shook her head, and made to sit; a stream of nanobots quickly morphing out of the floor and constructing a chair for her to sit on. "Nothing else to do, and besides, we haven't exactly had a lot of time to talk lately."

He smiled warmly at her, missing the Drop Shuttle fly across his stern and head towards the Geth ship - at least until Shepard came over the communications. "We're clear Joker, take the Normandy out and we'll call you when we need pickup."

"Got it Shep, stay safe down there."

"Shepard out."

Silence reigned across the comms again as Joker quickly opened up a rift to the deserted Bahak System, and upon flying through it gave a small whistle. There was pure, empty space for billions of kilometres around them on all sides. "'s pretty incredible what Andy and Jack did here," he commented after a moment, and Miranda couldn't help but nod in agreement. Seeing it with her own two eyes was something else. The stories did the scene no justice whatsoever.

"I would find it hard to believe, but seeing some of the feats those two perform on the mission cameras and in the training room... nothing really seems impossible for them." She gave a bitter laugh, "Father would be so livid; her 'perfect' baby girl outshone by a nobody and an ex-convict." She saw Joker's shocked expression and she held her hands up before hastily explaining, "I don't think of them like that, but it's what he'd say. I owe them just as much as most others, and I consider then great friends, but my father would not approve, of me being friends with them, or them being better than I am."

Joker's shocked and disapproving expression had dropped mid-way through the explanation and he gave a small nod. "Your father sounds like a real charmer. We won't be playing meet the family any time soon, will we? Your dad could be plenty intimidating I'm sure."

"You'll be meeting Oriana," she warned with a small smile, "but my father lost the right to interfere with my life years ago. You can scratch 'face scary father' off your list." She gave a wry grin when he pulled up a list titled, "Things to do" and literally deleted the entry for 'don't shit yourself when facing Miri's father'. "I didn't know you were so concerned," she said with mock concern, and he shot her a look.

"Your dad's a fuc- freaking psychopath, Miri, who tried to raise you to be the perfect daughter. I think I had every right to be concerned." They sat there talking for several minutes, at least until Izzy interrupted them; running onto the bridge.

"Jeff, pay attention," she warned when she arrived, "there's a precursor FTL line coming right into this system. Ellie's tracking the origin now, but it's getting close."

A moment later Ellie's voice came over the ship-wide communications. "Attention all crew; we have a Collector vessel inbound on our position. Its mass is nearly exceeding the limits for FTL travel, as its precursor is fluxing wildly, so I postulate that this is the Collector Base come to visit us. Please get to your designated battle stations; I repeat, get to your battle positions. As stated in earlier meetings, do not worry about armour; and stay calm when your clothing morphs."

Gasps and yells of surprise came from everybody when their clothing suddenly seemed to shift into matte-black, skin-tight suits of armour, but the threat of attack brought them promptly out of their shock and had them running for the armoury outside of which Jacob was handing out pistol and assault rifle capsules whilst yelling out that all they had to do was hold the metallic tubes in their fists and it would do the rest. Joker's suit was already outfitted with the full load-out of the ground team; Miranda having trained him herself, and the pair gave each other a grim nod before standing. "Could just run," Joker said, "but these bastards were always going to be trouble. It's time that Shep, Jack, and Andy come back and find out that we've done something suitably awesome."

She gave a grin before lying down beside him on the ground, shouldering her sniper rifle just as he was; aimed towards the doors and elevator. There was a loud thwump as a huge object came out of FTL travel, and Joker was under no illusions that the ship now outside theirs dwarfed their own. Down in the cargo hold Tali was looking out a window at the huge base with wide eyes and a murmured, "Keelah..." It was easily thirty kilometres high and ten wide. She jolted when a loud screech came from in front of her, and spun around before gasping when she saw a huge swarm of bug-like things blasting into the hold. She'd heard about them from Shepard, and breathed a mental sigh of relief that she was wearing a suit immune to their effects.

"Joker, it's Tali. Seeker Swarms are in the Cargo Hold, and my systems signal breaches on other floors of the ship. Why are they even getting through? Our shielding should easily be able to repel their docking charges."

"They're coming in because I told Ellie to let them in," he explained as he heard gunfire coming from the direction of the Armoury, "it's the only way to get this done right. If they couldn't breach then they'd just get the Collector base to fire upon us... and I'm not sure we'd survive that. We're giving them false hope by letting them onto the Normandy, when in reality we're diverting all energy from Big Momma One, Two, and Three into charging our main guns. They'll be at full charge in ten minutes, and as soon as that happens we'll fire on the main base. Just got to hold out 'till then."

There was gunfire from Tali's side, and then a muffled, "Rodger that, Ellie seems to have relayed that message to the rest of the crew. We're doing okay down here, but they swarmed us so fast that a few got into the elevator. You should have a few on your level in-"

Her warning couldn't have come at a more opportune time. Just as she was finishing her sentence the doors of the elevator opened, and all the collectors, and Scions, inside were immediately assaulted by heavy fire from the crew stationed around the CIC; protected by barriers of nanobots, and brutal sniper targeting by Joker and Miranda. The first wave was done away with in mere seconds, though nobody was lessening their guard; there was bound to be more.

They couldn't have been more correct.

The next wave of attackers came in perfectly synchronised; from the doors to the Armoury and Lab, and the elevator all at once. The sound of gunfire came from the collectors whilst the Normandy crew's weapons only elicited small, barely audible clicks as they fired, and several Normandy crew yelled out when rounds slammed into their suits. Although it prevented mass trauma and transferred momentum, when under waves of fire Joker could attest to the fact that it could hurt like a bitch. The only people that seemed immune to injury were Andy and Jack. Joker's eyes strafed wildly from target to target as his rounds killed his previous quarries, and Miranda's body jolted slightly against his at every shot she fired.

And then came the wave of ten Scions and a Praetorian. Many had never seen the huge floating bug before, but it was now right in front of them... and it was scary as shit. Ellie quickly organized a quarter of the crew to fire on the less dangerous threat of the Scions over the communications network, while everybody else focussed their fire on the thing that was blasting beams of blue at the Normandy crew; taking several of them out as they were hit head on - not dead, but injured and unconscious. Its barriers quickly succumbed to the rapid firepower being employed against it, and after a couple of seconds it found its armour depleted by half. Letting out a terrifying screech that made people cringe it slammed down whilst releasing a wave of energy, and everybody closest to it was blasted away and slammed into various objects; crying out in pain. Those closest to the injured rushed forwards and dragged their fellow crewmates into cover whilst being covered by those behind, and then immediately took up positions once more to defeat the abomination.

Joker sniped the last Scion before turning his attention back to the Praetorian, and gave a yell when it turned its attention straight onto him; its heads' eyes all looking at where he and Miranda were laying. Pushing Miranda violently aside with a yell he was blasted with a full five second burst of energy; the plasma exerting so much pressure on his suit that it's kinetic capabilities had him stuck to the floor. As he was getting blasted with a lethal weapon he considered it a slight blessing that he possessed the advanced version of the suit. For one, without it he'd be dead. For seconds, he would've been sent flying into the front window, and probably have broken more than just his ribs, as he was feeling now. Finally the beam ceased, and with another otherworldly scream the huge creature disintegrated. He rolled over and coughed up some blood with a groan, and a second later found Miranda above him; her face terrified as she looked him over and caught sight of the blood on his lips. "I'm alright," he wheezed before she could work herself into a state, "just broke some ribs I think. The suit's already got Medibots running intravenously into my system, so I should be sweet in a sec."

She nodded and held his hand, ignoring all the other crew stumbling around as they moved to new cover that the nanobots had created for them using the mass of the dead Scions, and helped him up when he gave a short nod. "Thanks," she muttered, and he gave a small grin.

"Is now an inappropriate time to tell you that I love you?"

She stared at him for several seconds before beaming and pulling him into a quick kiss that he could feel she wanted to go on for longer. "Yes" she said after releasing him and helping him to the helm, "very inappropriate... but I love you too." He snapped a disbelieving look at her as she helped him into his pilot's chair, and she sent him the same beaming smile once more. "How could I not? You're the first person to love me for being me... apart from perhaps Oriana." She shook herself, but was unable to make her beaming grin diminish in the slightest. "But we can talk about this later, right now we have a Collector Base to blow up."

Joker had a great big smile as he turned to his instrument panel and nodded. "Right you are." He blurred through a series of testing procedures before coming to the screen showing the progress of the charge, and his grin turned feral as he gently manoeuvred the ship in space to look as if it was simply free-floating without anybody controlling it. The huge base appeared in the window in front of the two, and they gaped at the size of it.

"I mean... I know Andy said that the new weapons could destroy a Reaper, but... holy cow."

"That's as close to swearing as I'm going to get you, isn't it?"

"Likely" she quipped back, and he rolled his eyes before initiating targeting scans and procedures. Beams of energy flared out from the Normandy; invisible to the naked eye, as they scanned for defects and weak points, and finally they came back with results.

"Normandy Crew, this is your pilot speaking. We're about to pull a manoeuver that'll knock you the hell off your feet, so Ellie will be morphing you partially into the walls. Please step to your nearest wall right now, you have five seconds." Five seconds later yells of surprise echoed around the ship, surprising the remaining Collectors, and then Joker pulled a turn that would sheer any normal ship in half. Blasting around, he was underneath the huge base; leaving the Collector docking vessel in the figurative dust, and looking right into the barrel of its planet-killing gun. "Seal optics," he intoned clearly, and Ellie, from her own position in a wall, closed off all the visuals for every crew member. Jeff was looking onto his HUD which presented him with a wire-frame schematic of everything around him to prevent blindness upon launching the attack, and he grinned. "Targeting parameters active, fire on my mark. Mark."

And then there was blue.

Light burst forth from five protrusions on the Normandy wings and soared towards the huge Collector base, up the barrel of the charging weapon, and easily pierced its armour plating. Like a virus it consumed the ship; surrounding each and every atom in a FTL field and accelerating it to a random spot in the universe. The Collector Base was literally atomized from the inside out, until, with a single pulse of energy to make sure the attack had gotten everything, the light faded and all that was left was the once-again empty Bahak System.

Everybody's visuals phased back in once more, and they looked around in shock as Collector bodies disintegrated in front of their very eyes; the nanobots using the raw elements to create and replace the numbers they had lost in the battle. The huge holes in the hull slowly closed as the armour was re-laid by the technology aboard the ship, and those that were injured were carried as if on a cushion of air into the Crew Deck where Chakwas, Izzy, and Ellie were all waiting with their medical expertise at the ready. Up on the CIC Joker looked across at Miranda with a loving smile as he felt his ribs slowly stitching back together with the help of the medibots. Before he could say anything though, Shepard's voice came over the communications network. "Shepard to Normandy, we need pickup now! This place is about to blow!"

Initiating the wormhole generator Joker smirked to himself. "We've just defeated the Collector base, Shepard, what the fuck have you done lately?"

Miranda couldn't bring herself to remand her boyfriend for his language.