Star Wars is owned by Lucas Arts and Disney. Mass Effect is owned by EA and BioWare.

MEleeSmasher - That's a fair criticism. However it wasn't completely a flash back chapter, the later parts were concurrent to what is happening in this arc.

RabidArmenian - I actually based Nox's personality off of Slannesh. I'm a big WH40k fan, considered writing a story for that universe but wanted to do this one more.

Old one Griffin - You'll be getting one of your wishes in this chapter.

hunter 139 - I believe Revan choked Wreav at the end of Chapter 1: Mass Effect. Also, exactly! What people seem to always forget are Force-users precognitive abilities.

fresh prince1 - We'll definitely see more force choking through a hologram.

joltflier - I have big plans for the Asari, all of which will involve Nox.

boban094 - I prefer writing chapters focused on SW characters. Don't worry, we'll be getting a lot more of them after this chapter.

Guest 1 - Thank you, I always thought that Wreav was an underutilized character in the ME franchise. Instead of making him interesting he amounted to: "Not as cool as Wrex".

WriteAnon - As always, thank you for giving me a very in-depth review. I like that you noticed my line about biotic blades, I wasn't sure if anyone would catch it. Thanks for putting up with my sometimes crappy wording and grammar. I don't have a beta so I have to edit things myself, and that can be pretty hard when all I wanna do is publish the chapter.

Terlander - Nice catch with the twins! Was wondering if anyone would get that without me spelling it out for them.

Kaioo - My story is a bit AU. But I'll say that Turians have the largest military fleet. Asari have a fleet that's more technologically advanced and better equipped, since they are economically the most powerful race.

Guest 2 - You'll just have to wait and see.

ShiggyDiggered - You must think 1 meter = 3 feet, it doesn't. 1 meter = 3.28 feet. The Wrath is 1.91 meters tall, which means he is about 6'3. That makes him taller than average.

Eeeeeeeeeey! I'm alive! Happy (really) late holidays! Thank you all for your reviews! I find them all very encouraging! Also, if you are looking to read some good stories while you wait for me, there's a great Mass Effect/Warhammer crossover: Only The Faithful, which is awesome! Go read and tell the author I sent you!

I suggest you get a drink or something for this one, cause it's really long.

Mass Effect: Shadow of the Sith

Chapter 7 part 3 – The Normandy Strikes Back

Garrus' head had been ringing when he'd woken up this morning, but that had been the nice kind of ringing caused from a little too much drinking the night before. The ringing that he was currently experiencing was the bad kind, the kind caused because a modified Mako APC had nearly blown him up with its missile launcher.

Pain lanced through his skull and snaked its way through his body. Garrus opened his eyes and immediately wished he hadn't. Everything was either too dark or to bright, and nothing was staying as still as it should. He blinked twice in an effort to stabilize his wobbly vision. The first thing that he managed to make out was an armored figure standing above him. Panic bloomed in his chest and he reached for his Ventis, but found it missing. Driven by adrenaline and survival instinct, Garrus settled on tearing out the soldier's throat with his bare talons.

"Whoa!" The figure caught Garrus mid-strike by the wrist. "Easy there Vakarian!"

The voice was familiar but for the life of him Garrus couldn't pin it. He tried to ask who they were, but his words came out of his mouth in a confused jumble. "Wha...who...what?"

"It's okay, just stay still a moment." Memories of the voice were coming back now. He trusted its owner, that much Garrus could recall. Desperately he shook his head and blinked rapidly. Slowly his vision began to steady and come into focus. Then he saw why the voice was familiar.

"Shepard," Garrus realized.

"Welcome back to the land of the living," the Commander smiled. Garrus noted that he was wearing his combat armor and holding an assault rifle. Both were covered in grime and blood, indicating that the commander had been in battle recently. "This is becoming a bad habit of yours, taking missile fire."

"Heh, must be my magnetic personality."

Shepard stared down at him for a moment and then said, "that was terrible."

"I just got blown up by a missile," protested Garrus, "give me a break."

Weakly he sat up, ignoring the pain in his side that the movement caused. Now in a proper position Garrus could now see that they were in some sort of bunker. The room was well lit by pale sterile lights that reminded him of a hospital. There were a number of beds present but the only one occupied was his own.

"Where are the others?" he asked.

"They're fine," assured Shepard, "the missile hit closest to you. Grunt shielded Miranda and Jack from the rest."

"Good," Garrus swung his legs over the side of the bed. "How'd I get here? I remember a Mako crashing through the front of a building and then...nothing."

"The short answer: Roussel and I saved your life."

"Ah...I see, well nothing new there. Did I miss anything special?"

"I punched that Mako you were talking about."

"Really? How'd that work out?"

...

Shepard loosed his power with an upward gesture. A wave of blue energy struck the nose of the Mako APC, causing it to stand upright on its two back wheels. Before the vehicle could fall back down, Shepard performed a Charge shoulder first into the APC's thick metal belly.

Like a giant animal, the vehicle let out a groan as it's hull crumpled under the sheer force of Shepard's Charge, and then went tumbling end over end down the Kuussov street. More than a few CAT6 soldiers were flattened by the flipping vehicle before it finally came to a halt on top of the second Mako.

...

"Of course you would be the one to finally push a Mako to its limits. I'm just glad I wasn't inside of it when you did."

"Hey, my driving isn't that bad," Shepard protested.

"I have the testimony of at least four others that say different." Garrus flexed his talons, the real ones first and then the fake ones on his prosthetic. "If the others are safe then I guess you already know what we found out?"

Shepard nodded. "I do. STG told me first but the team confirmed it for me once we extracted them. Tyco's in Kuussov."

Garrus furrowed his brow plates in confusion. "Not that I don't mind seeing you're ugly mug, but if you know then why are you here with me? Shouldn't you be, I don't know, capturing Tyco?"

"STG has eyes on the CAT6 base. So far we've seen his men, the ones with energy weapons, but still no sign of Tyco himself. We're waiting to see if he'll try to bug out now that he knows we're on the planet. If he does we'll contact Commordore Zaman to intercept. Tyco and his men might have laser guns, but even that won't be enough to take on a carrier battle group."

Garrus relaxed a bit at the explanation. "Good," he nodded, "I was afraid I'd royally screwed the mission...again."

Shepard put a firm hand on his friend's shoulder. "Hey, you did great out there. Miranda explained the whole thing. No one could have expected they'd be onto us so quickly."

"Thanks. But we both know that's not true," Garrus grumbled. "By the way, did Miranda tell you what happened to her and...Zaeed!" The Turian jumped to his feet. "Spirits! Shepard! Zaeed was-"

"Captured, we know. That's another reason why we haven't attacked yet. We don't want to risk the possibility of them executing him."

"Blood of my sire!" Garrus cursed angrily. Without warning he unfurled his prosthetic talons and slashed them against the nearby wall. The concrete was no match for the hardened alloy of the Turian's artificial digits and was left scarred with two deep parallel gashes.

Shepard silently stared at the wounded wall and listened to the heavy pants of his Turian friend and the light whirring of the motors inside the mechanical arm.

"You done?" he asked, after some time.

"Yeah," muttered Garrus, but Shepard was not buying it.

"I need a truthful answer. I need to know that you'll have you're head on straight when we go out there again."

The stern tone of the commander reignited Garrus's the old instincts drilled into him by his training sergeants. Standing up straight and with a steady voice he said, "I'm fine. Ready to get some pay back."

"Good, because I'm going to need you're help if we're going to get that grouchy old fart back."

"Heh, maybe we should leave him with them for a few days. He'll probably tell them so many of his stories that they'll all surrender just so we'll take him off they're hands."

At that, both Human and Turian burst out into laughter.

The door to the barracks opened, admitting one of Kirrahe's operatives. Shepard and Garrus managed to smother the last of their giggles.

"Pardon Commander," said the Salarian, "but Major Kirrahe wishes to see you."

Against Shepard's wishes Garrus accompanied him to the control room. The Turian was still a bit shaky from his wounds, so Shepard was forced to walk at half speed to allow him to keep up. Part of him was thankful to see Garrus up and about so soon. The mission had started off on a sour note, one that Shepard knew Garrus still blamed himself for despite Shepard telling him otherwise. Regardless of whose fault it ultimately was, they would need every hand on deck to get Zaeed back.

Upon arriving at the control room they found Major Kirrahe in talks with Miranda, Roussel, and Bau.

"Major Kirrahe, I hear you've got something," said Shepard.

"Indeed we do," Kirrahe responded. He then spotted Garrus and smiled. "Ah! Vakarian, it is good to see that you have recovered."

Garrus gave a respectful nod. "I'm pretty glad about that myself. It's good to see you again Major."

"Where are the others?" Shepard asked Miranda, when he didn't see the rest of the Normandy team.

"They went back to the truck with Legion, apparently Grunt doesn't like narrow spaces, and neither does Jack."

Shepard nodded. "Well, as long as they keep out of trouble."

"It's probably for the best," agreed Miranda. No doubt she was glad to have Jack as far away as possible. Shepard returned his attention to Kirrahe.

"You found something on CAT6?" he asked.

"Yes," Kirrahe swiveled towards one of the techs below. "Give me screen 604. Time stamp 16:55:69:73"

A holographic screen appeared before the command dais, large enough that all present could see it without trouble.

Kirrahe gestured to the screen. "This is the CAT6 compound, about one hour after your team was discovered."

"It looks a lot busier than when I saw it," noted Garrus. Shepard could see the Turian silently stabbing himself with self loathing. No matter how many times he was assured otherwise, Garrus would always blame himself first. The thought made Shepard sigh internally.

"You are correct Mr. Vakarian. CAT6 has indeed been put on high alert," Kirrahe continued. "But so far their activities have been restricted to the defensive. No CAT6 forces have been sent out to search the city."

"Any sightings on Zaeed?" asked Shepard.

"A few minutes after you and Roussel left, our cameras caught this image." Kirrahe swiped the screen to the side and a new one replaced it. On the new screen they saw Zaeed being dragged between two CAT6 soldiers. "We've seen nothing else since you successfully extracted your team."

"He doesn't look dead," commented Roussel. "They probably want to interrogate him for information."

"He won't give it to them," assured Garrus.

"How the hell did this happen in the first place?" asked Roussel, turning her eye squarely onto Miranda. "You were ambushed right?"

"By a lone assailant, yes," Miranda answered evenly.

"And he got the drop on you?"

Miranda scowled and crossed her arms. "He was well trained. Definitely a professional." Miranda's scowl then turned into a vicious smirk. "I'll bet that he could've probably even snuck up on you."

"If he could, then you would be dead," Roussel shot back. "Instead you got away from him, and left one of your own behind to be interrogated. From what I read in your files I expected better. You should have put a bullet in the old man to prevent an information leakage."

"Agreed," added Bau.

Miranda flinched at the comment. "I...I wouldn't do that to a member of the team."

Roussel looked utterly unconvinced. "Is that so?"

"Yes," Miranda replies vehemently, "if I could have saved Zaeed I would have. But by the time I'd managed to beat my attacker, a squad of commandos and an armored attack vehicle had shown up. I couldn't fight them off, so I ran."

Roussel's eye continued to stare analytically at the raven haired woman. Shepard noted that it seemed the SAI agent didn't entirely believe Miranda's story. For what reason he could not possibly fathom. In the end he simply chalked it up to the spy's natural paranoia, spooks were always seeing problems where none existed. Besides that, what reason would Miranda have to not share the truth?

"What happened happened," he said, catching both women's attention. "What matters now is that we work together to secure Tyco and save Zaeed."

"Agreed," said Garrus.

Neither woman looked like they were about to let this simply die. Internally, Shepard let out another exasperated sigh. The last thing he needed to deal with, was another internal rivalry. Jack and Miranda were bad enough, but now it seemed that they had entered a hate triangle with Roussel. Not that he could really blame them, after all he was hardly the picture of friendliness when it came to Roussel. But for now the SAI Agent provided him with some much needed back up, so he had to keep playing the peacemaker.

"Kirrahe, you've been in the city longer than any of us, you know how things work here. What do you suggest our next move be?" he asked.

Thoughtfully the Salarian placed a thin finger on his chin. "I would advise against making any offensive moves for the moment. The enemy has a significant numbers advantage and the defenses of their base are not to be taken lightly. A wait and see approach would be best. Allow them to make the first move. Then we can come up with an appropriate response."

"We can't just leave Zaeed with them," Garrus protested immediately.

"No, we can't," agreed Shepard. "We need to grab Tyco and we need to rescue Zaeed."

"An assault on the base would be foolhardy, especially when its defenders are prepared for you," Kirrahe pointed out. Shepard noted that it was not a derogatory remark, simply a logical one.

"That may be true. But I'm not about to abandon one of my own."

Kirrahe sighed heavily and sagged his shoulders. "If you are set on taking the offensive against CAT6, then I suggest at the very least we wait for sunset. It will give us time to come up with a plan and the cover darkness. They outnumber us greatly, so we must have surprise on our side."

Shepard nodded in agreement. "Good idea, and thank you Major."

Kirrahe returned the nod with a smile. "You were there to assist me and my team on Virmire, Shepard. You attacked an army of Geth and Krogan for me and mine. It would be poor manners to not return the favor."

"Commander, with your permission I'd like to contact Samara," said Miranda. "Now that Tyco knows of our presence, they may start looking for our ship. She'll need to know to be on the look out."

Shepard nodded. "Do it."

"I'll tell the communications team to expect you," added Kirrahe, earning a thanks from the Normandy XO. "Now, I think that given our limited force, the best way to attack would be..."

Outskirts of Kuussov

From the depths of meditation came a violent snap-hiss, followed by a voice: "I hope you find peace in the embrace of your Goddess."

Though she had only heard it once, she knew the voice well. It belonged to the demon who had killed Jacob, and made a mockery of the entire Normandy team: The Wrath. Samara was no stranger to defeat. During her younger years as a mercenary she had met many who had been her superior in combat. Even now, nearly the age of 1000, she still met the occasional individual who could outwit or outfight her.

In the aftermath of meeting such an individual, she would reflect on her defeat and emerge from it a better warrior.

But this was different.

For some reason she shied away from both the memory and contemplation of her fight with The Wrath. Why? She wracked herself for answers, but eventually came to a realization. There was no point in wasting her energy trying to come up with answers on her own. Not when she had The Code.

Mentally she recited The Code, and found comfort in its familiarity.

There was something truly freeing about emptying one's self of personal opinion and allowing the certainty of The Code to fill you up. With The Code there was no gray, no questionable territory, only black and white, wrong and right. The Wrath had attacked her, a member of the Justicar Order. He had nearly killed Shepard, the one whom she had sworn herself to. And he had murdered Jacob Taylor.

In the face of these crimes, Samara knew instinctually that The Code called for The Wrath's execution, and that she would be his executioner. Thus The Code demanded that she find a way to defeat The Wrath

Once again she fell into a meditative trance and recalled her battle with the demonic being. She forced herself to remember the blinding speed with which he had moved and the sheer murderous intent she had felt with his every action. She could still clearly picture his blazing red blades and hear their electric hum, just remembering them was enough to make Samara's muscles tense.

Then she remembered his lightning.

In her entire millennia of existence, Samara had never witnessed anything like it.

Of all her memories of the battle, the clearest was when The Wrath had stretched his hand out and sent a bolt of crackling energy at her. The pain had been worst Samara had ever felt. Just recalling it caused a dull soreness to surface along both her arms.

When The Wrath had unleashed his eldritch power, Samara had instinctively tried to block it with a Barrier. It had worked at first, but then her Barrier had shattered. When she had woken up after the battle, Samara had found both her arms covered in electrical burns. Medicine had treated the wounds and they were now little more than scars.

In her younger years, Samara mused, she would have been horrified by the marring of her once flawless skin. Though she had long since outgrown such vanity, she often found herself tugging on her suit to better cover up her arms.

When next she faced The Wrath she would no doubt obtain many more scars. The thought of facing him again tugged at feelings long buried.

She recognized one feeling as: fear.

Samara had not felt fear for centuries, she had thought The Code had emptied her of it. But she recognized it now, coiled coldly around her heart and chipping away at her resolve. She tried to find courage in The Code by recalling its sutras, but even as she did, memories of a demonic creature hampered her.

When the sound of someone climbing up the maintenance ladder reached her, Samara was almost grateful. She opened her eyes and saw a head of blonde hair appear over the edge of the ship.

"Oh! Sorry ma'am, didn't mean to disturb yer meditation," said Tina, the pilot who had flown the JingXi to Kuussov.

Samara had chosen to perform her mediation on the roof of the ship. It gave a comfortable seclusion and allowed the warmth of the Kal-Riv sun to fall on her. The pilot, Tina, climbed onto the roof carry a bag of what looked to be tools. Samara deduced that she was here to perform some sort of maintenance on the ship.

"Just doin a quick check up," said Tina in her unusual accent. "I'll be done and outta yer hair in a jiffy."

The pilot paused as she realized Samara did not actually have hair.

"Er, I mean...outta yer head...things."

"The proper term is crests," corrected Samara.

"Right...sorry ma'am," Tina sheepishly looked at her toes.

"It is quite alright."

Awkwardly Tina went about performing a variety of checks on the JingXi. Samara returned to her meditations and was thankful for the opportunity to focus on tuning out the noise caused by the pilot rather than keeping away the memories of The Wrath. Ten minutes into Tina's maintenance check, she interrupted Samara's meditation again.

"Um ma'am, do ya mind scootin over fer a minute? Yer kind of parked ontop of an access hatch for a secondary sensor."

"Of course," Samara replied serenely, and then gracefully stood up and moved away.

"Thank ya kindly," said Tina as she went about opening the hatch.

As Samara settled on a new spot nearby, she noted that the pilot was casting curious glances towards her.

"Do you require more from me Ms. Walsh?"

Her question caught Tina off guard. "N-no ma'am! I mean...I do, but it's not...I...I was just wondering...how old are you?"

Samara's lips curled into a kind smile. The pilot's question reminded Samara of when her own daughters had been growing up and full of questions. Why is the sea blue? Why do other species have two genders?

"I believe I am 789 of your human years," she answered.

The pilot dropped her tool and her jaw. "Holy-! Yer that old?!" Tina flushed as she realized how loudly she'd said that. "Sorry ma'am, I just...I'd heard Asari could live a long time, but I never thought you could go that high."

"It's quite alright. I am used to such reactions from shorter lived races."

"I have to say," continued Tina as she picked up her tool, "you look mighty good fer being nearly a thousand ma'am. I can see now why some of the girls back home are jealous of yer species." Tina's face scrunched in contemplation. "Now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever seen an ugly Asari, or one with wrinkles. Damn, now I'm jealous. Another thirty years and I'll be lookin like my grand ma's homemade dried prunes."

Samara found herself smiling as the pilot continued to speak. Such levity was a welcome relief from the recent dark thoughts that had plagued her recently.

"You must have lots of family if you've lived that long," commented Tina.

Samara immediately lost her smile. "I did," she replied.

"Did?"

Before she could answer, Samara's Omni-tool chirped. She answered its call and Miranda's voice greeted her.

"Samara? Are you there?"

"I am," she replied, "has something happened Miranda?"

"Zaeed has been captured and we've discovered that our target is on the planet."

"Is he here?" Samara asked tensely.

There was no need to explain what she meant by he. Miranda paused a moment before responding. "We don't believe so. In any case, Shepard has decided that it would be best to have everyone in one spot. I'm sending you coordinates for a rendezvous. Meet us there and we'll explain more of the details."

"I shall set off at once."

The call ended with another chirp.

"Sounds like you've got to get into town," said Tina, having heard the conversation. "You can take one of the hover bikes in the cargo hold."

"You have my thanks," Samara nodded curtly then leapt of the JingXi's roof.

Soon after, a throaty roar came from inside the JingXi's cargo hold and Samara drove down the cargo ramp on her newly acquired bike. She made a few doughnuts in the dirt to acclimate herself to the vehicle's handling, before hitting the throttle and speeding off towards the distant city.

Whether she was ready or not to face the demon once again, The Code dictated that she carry out her duty to Shepard.

And Samara would always follow The Code.

CAT6 Kuussov Base

The world returned to Zaeed in an explosion of cold. Icy water dripped down his face and body, he'd definitely had more pleasant wake ups. As the vision in his eye slowly came into focus Zaeed quickly took stock of himself. His hands had been bound tightly behind his back, and his ankles had been tied to whatever it was that he was sitting in, likely a chair. His armor had been stripped off, as had the body suit beneath it.

Great, he was cold, wet, tied to a chair, and naked.

He'd been in similar situations before. A few had included women of questionable moral standards, others were closer to his current circumstances.

"Comfortable?" asked a voice that made Zaeed want to punch its owner.

"Yeah," he growled, "all I'm missing is a cigar. Any of you boys got one?"

None of the figures standing around him in the barely lit room responded. It took Zaeed a moment, but he realized that he recognized all of them. They were those soldiers that Garrus had talked about. The ones with nice shiny black armor and fancy laser guns. All of them had their bucket shaped helmets on, preventing him from seeing their features. But judging by their hostile stances, he was going to guess they they were all glaring at him.

The thought made Zaeed snort.

"I wouldn't laugh if I were you," said the same voice from before. A hand suddenly roughly grabbed Zaeed by the back of his head and then slammed his face down onto the table in front of him.

Stars exploded in Zaeed's vision and a horrible stinging pain filled his nostrils. Then one of the helmeted soldiers stepped forward and struck him across the jaw.

Zaeed smiled, and spat out a glob of blood. "Is that the best you got?"

"No," said the same voice. It's owner finally stepped around to the other side of the small table. "And trust me, you don't want to see our best, bounty hunter."

Zaeed immediately recognized the man. "You're Tyco."

Tyco's already impressive scowl deepened. "And you are Zaeed Massani, infamous founder of the Blue Suns, and bounty hunter. Recently you joined up with the revived Commander Shepard to defeat a race of secretive aliens known as the Collectors."

"That speech supposed to intimidate me? Christ, I think I preferred the beating."

A soldier stepped forward and punched Zaeed in the gut. It knocked the wind out of him and made his ribs sore, but it was hardly the worst he'd ever had to deal with.

"There we go!" he laughed, "come on! You hit like my grand mother! Show me what you've got!"

The same soldier raised a fist to oblige but then Tyco held up a hand. "Enough! Stand down!"

The soldier immediately did so, snapping back into place beside the others. Zaeed noted how quick the soldier had been to follow orders. These boys weren't amateurs, they were disciplined and well trained. That was fine, Zaeed had plenty of experience killing professionals.

"So," Tyco began, "I can only guess that since you're here, Commander Shepard is aware that I am on planet."

Zaeed sniffed. "Dunno, haven't seen him after the Collector job."

Tyco gestured with his head, and a soldier hit Zaeed again. Blood began to trickle from his brow, thankfully it was the one above his bad eye.

"Don't bother lying to us," said Tyco, his voice low and dangerous, "after we captured you, we found your friends. How many more of you are there?"

"Just your mother," Zaeed shot back. That earned him another fist to the face, but it had been worth it.

"This doesn't have to be painful bounty hunter. Just tell us what we need and we'll release you."

That was a lie if ever Zaeed had heard one. If he did tell them what they wanted, it was more likely that they'd put two in the back of his head, and then dump his body in a ditch somewhere for the rats to pick at.

Tyco could see that he wasn't even considering it. "If saving yourself from pain is not good enough, perhaps another incentive might loosen your tongue. I am authorized by my superiors to offer you a generous sum in exchange for cooperation."

"Heh," Zaeed chuckled. They were trying to buy him off. He would have liked to have been able to say that he was above bribes. But the truth was that he wasn't. "How about we define what generous means."

Tyco smiled. "100,000 credits."

Zaeed burst out laughing. "Hahaha! 100,000? Shit kid, is that the best you've got?"

Tyco wasn't smiling anymore and there was a noticeable twitch in his right eye. "Am I to understand then, that you will not be telling us what we want of your own free will?"

In response, Zaeed hacked up a globe of blood and spat it at Tyco. "Smart dog. You should ask your master for a treat."

If looks could kill, Zaeed would have died right there in that chair. Tyco made a gesture with his hand. "Bring in the droid."

Droid? What the hell? Did he mean mech?

Sure enough a mech was brought into the room. But it wasn't any kind of mech that Zaeed had ever seen. It did not walk on two legs, as many were designed to do. Instead it moved by floating, and instead of resembling a humanoid it looked more akin to some sort of robotic jellyfish. As it moved over the table towards Zaeed, he noted that its 'tentacles' held a number of sharp pointy instruments. A few were connected to glass vials filled with all sorts of colorful looking liquids.

The 'droid' came to a halt just in front of Zaeed and looked straight at him with a single large red optic.

"Last chance," warned Tyco.

Zaeed just snorted again. "Got to hell you fuck."

"Fine, begin the-"

Zaeed heard the sound of a door being opened behind him. The droid remained still. It continued to stare at him menacingly, but otherwise did nothing harmful.

"What the hell is this?!" demanded Tyco, "I gave specific instructions not to be disturbed!"

"Apologies sir," said someone Zaeed could not see, "but we've received a call from the agent. We know where they are."

A smile spread itself on Tyco's thin lips. "Excellent, prepare the men. I want six squads loaded for assault in ten minutes."

"Yes sir!" Zaeed heard the door shut close.

"What should we do with him?" asked one of the soldiers.

"Put him in the brig," ordered Tyco, grabbing his helmet from one of the other soldiers. "He might still be of use to us." Briefly Tyco regarded Zaeed. "You should have taken my offer bounty hunter."

The Endless Void

Far'thog had been bartender of the Endless Void over a decade. About five years ago his establishment had come under a run of bad luck. Profits had been low and Far'thog ended up accumulating a sizable debt. He had been just a month from losing everything when he'd been approached by a Salarian who had offered to pay off his debt.

Naturally he had been skeptical. Not just because of the convenience of the hand offered to him, but because he just plain didn't like Salarians. The shifty little bastards made terrible slaves, and their women were ugly.

But in the end Far'thog had taken the deal. Before he knew it, a whole group of them, all heavily armed, had carved a tunnel under his storage area. He had never personally seen where that tunnel led and he did not care. Allowing that tunnel to exist made him more money than selling drinks ever had and, more importantly, it had never caused him any trouble.

Today was different though.

It had all started with that human showing up. Since then some serious amount of traffic had been coming in and out of his bar. He'd had to give out free drinks to the whole house multiple times to ensure their silence.

As he cleaned a dirty glass with nothing more than his spit and a dirty rag, Far'thog gave some thought to maybe rethinking this deal he had with the Salarians.

Then his ears picked up the low rumble of vehicles outside the bar. It was not an uncommon sound, but from what he was able to discern there were quite a few of them. The noise came to an abrupt stop, and then he heard the sound of many bodies disembarking.

Far'thog didn't like this. His instincts which had kept him alive for years on Kuussov were telling him to run. But instead he reached for the shotgun he kept under the table.

As soon as his fingers touched the butt of his weapon the door slid open, allowing the planet's natural light to stream in. Standing in the door way was a squad of heavily armed and armored figures. Far'thog's four eyes widened as he recognized them: CAT6.

Without thinking he pulled out the shotgun and prepared to fire.

The sound of a weapon boomed inside the bar.

But for some reason none of the CAT6 commandos took cover. They just stood there, guns pointed down, the blue lenses of their helmets staring at Far'thog. Then the Batarian felt pain bloom in his chest. Wondering what it was, he looked down and saw that his shirt was stained red with blood, his blood.

The shotgun slipped from his fingers and he fell to the dirty floor.

In his last moments of life, Far'thog could only wonder one thing: who had shot him in the back?

STG safe house

Warning klaxons suddenly shrieked to life. Inside the tight quarters of the bunker the sounds were even more jarring than they usually would have been.

"We've got gunfire in the Endless Void!" shouted one of the STG analysts.

"Give me security feeds!" ordered Kirrahe. A screen popped up before the command dais. It showed a live feed of the bar where a squad of CAT6 commandos were already beginning a sweep. In the bottom left corner, Shepard noted the body of the Batarian bartender.

"Where's the audio?!" demanded Kirrahe.

"Trying to get it back sir!" said one of the analysts.

Silently the CAT6 commandos moved towards the bar while pushing past fleeing patrons. Shepard was about to ask how well hidden the secret entrance to the safe house was, when a new figure stepped out from around the bar.

It was Miranda.

"What the hell?" he asked aloud.

Shepard immediately brought up his Omni-tool to call her and ask what the hell she was thinking confronting them alone. Then he recalled that the walls of the safehouse blocked all transmissions. They needed to get out there and help her. Shepard turned to Garrus, who he could tell was thinking the same thing. A silent agreement passed between the two of them and they both moved towards the exit at the same time.

A thundering boom suddenly rocked the entirety of the safehouse, knocking everyone to the ground. For a brief moment Shepard was deaf to the shrill screeches of the alarms and all he could hear was a high pitched ringing. To his right, on her hands and knees, Roussel's lips silently shouted something at him.

Shepard shook himself as his hearing gradually returned.

"-atus report!" he heard Kirrahe order.

Bau was the first to rise to his feet. "Some sort of explosion!"

"Warning!" a synthesized voice came over the bunker intercom. "Fires detected in Communications! Warning! A breach has been detected in sector zero!"

"That's the front door!" realized Kirrahe.

"Come on! If CAT6 is coming in we need to make sure they've got a warm welcome!" said Shepard.

"Go!" said Kirrahe, "I'll stay here and try to get operations back online!"

The explosion had filled the entire structure with a thick fog of smoke and dust. Shepard quickly unclipped his helmet from his belt and placed it back onto his head. He was immediately grateful for the seclusion it provided from the outside world.

"I'll take point," he heard Roussel say, who was now wearing her own helmet. Not even bothering to wait for agreement, the woman stepped to the front of the group and pulled out both of her Hellfire shotguns.

Shepard chose to back her up, filling his hands with the familiar weight of his Crusader. Bau took third place in the line and Garrus silently accepted the position of rear guard. Still half shaky from the explosion, the squad of four half walked and half stumbled through the narrow halls of the bunker. Along the way they encountered the occasional shell shocked Salarian agent.

They soon came upon the Communications room, where all calls to and from the bunker were received and sent. The door was gone, replaced by a wall of thick gray smoke. Roussel gestured with her shotguns, signaling her intent to enter. Shepard gave a silent not of agreement.

With practiced fluidity the two N7 graduates entered first, their training allowed them to easily cover each other's blind spots. As it turned out, there was no need. There were no enemies inside, only a lot of burning machinery and a large black ring in the middle of the room.

Garrus kneeled down by one of the many Salarian bodies on the ground and scanned it with his Omni-tool. He looked up to Shepard and shook his head.

Dead.

"We need to keep moving," said Roussel, once they were sure the room was clear.

Shepard didn't like the idea of leaving before checking the rest of the bodies, but he nodded anyway. CAT6 could be storming inside right now and if they did, there would soon be a lot more casualties. As the group continued, Shepard couldn't help but start asking questions.

"How did this happen?" he asked.

"We have a traitor," Bau responded.

Shepard wanted to look over his shoulder at the Spectre, but training kept his eyes firmly fixed forward. "You really think so?"

"There is no other way that an explosive could have made its way into the center of the Communications room."

"But who?"

"Most likely one of your crew," Bau said bluntly.

Shepard's reaction was immediate. "No way. My team is loyal, none of them would have done this."

"With all due respect Commander, look at the evidence. Until recently, the location of this safehouse was uncompromised. Yet mere hours after we show up, the enemy somehow managed to slip an explosive through heavy security into the middle of the bunker. You saw the residue of the bomb, it was in the center of the room. That means it was planted there without any of the agents inside even noticing. The bomber was likely someone whom they trusted enough not to question."

"With all due respect Bau, you don't know my team."

The group was silent after that. Internally Shepard knew that Bau's reasoning made sense. But he still didn't buy it. Not for a moment did he think that any member of his team could be a traitor. But he accepted that Bau was at least on the right track. The question was, if not a member of his own team, who else could have done it?

As they came up on the bunker's entrance Shepard pushed his thoughts away. He could think about how this happened later, he needed to focus on the here and now.

Just like with the Communications room, the main entrance to the Salarian bunker had been blown apart. The two heavily armed STG operatives that had greeted them upon their first entry lay on the ground, unmoving. A quick examination revealed that their throats had been cut. Neither one of them seemed to have fired their weapons. That leant more credence to Bau's traitor theory, but Shepard remained adamant that it was not a member of his team.

Until he saw one of them point a gun in his direction, he wouldn't even give it a thought. And even then, it wasn't like certain members of his crew hadn't tried to kill him before. Jack had once threatened to crush the whole Normandy and Grunt had actually attacked him upon exiting the maturation pod.

"Clear!" announced Roussel, after sweeping her shotguns over the area.

CAT6 had not yet arrived.

"Major Kirrahe, this is Shepard. Can you hear me?"

"I read you Commander," said Kirrahe's voice. Even though the connection was inside the bunker, the call was still plagued with static and interruptions. "What's the situation at the front door?"

"No hostiles. We're in the clear for now. But I'm guessing it won't stay that way."

"You'd be right. We just got security feeds back for the bar. I don't know how but they found the entrance into the tunnel. You're going to have company real soon."

"Acknowledged, we'll take care of them. You concentrate on evacuating your people."

"Thank you. Once we've concluded burning protocols, I'll send you coordinates for a new rendezvous."

"Alright. Good luck Major. Shepard out."

As soon as the call disconnected, Shepard switched to his team's COM channel. "Miranda! Can you hear me? What's happening out there?"

Static was his only reply.

"All members of the Normandy, this is Commander Alan Shepard. If you can hear me, please respond. The Endless Void has come under attack by CAT6 forces. Can anyone hear me?" Once again, only static returned. "Fuck! Still can't get a god damn signal to the outside."

"Jack and Grunt were in the truck with Legion," remembered Garrus, "what are the chances they stayed hidden?"

"Zero," answered Shepard, "and Miranda was in the bar. We've got to get up there and help them!"

Bau and Roussel said nothing but they did not voice any dissenting opinions.

"I'll move ahead and scout for trouble," said Roussel.

Before anyone could respond, she disappeared under a stealth cloak. Shepard could no longer see her, and he could not even hear her footsteps, but he knew she was already gone. Roussel had always had top marks in stealth tactics back at the N7 academy.

"How will we know if she found trouble?" asked Garrus.

"We'll hear gunfire," answered Shepard.

Only 5 minutes passed before they heard the booming report of Roussel's twin shotguns. Soon after they came upon a squad of dead CAT6 commandos, all with gaping holes blown through their bodies. From the look of them, it appeared that they never even got a shot off.

"Not bad," commented Garrus.

"Thanks," Roussel's stealth cloak dropped, revealing her to be standing in the middle of the corpses. "I did a bit of recon up top. Two squads of CAT6, all armed with shotguns and assault rifles. They also have two auto-turrets pointed at the entrance. If we walk up there, we get torn to shreds."

"Can you sneak past and disable them?" asked Shepard.

"Course I can. I'll just need a quick distraction to take them out without getting shot myself."

Shepard nodded. "I can do that. Give me a signal when you're ready."

Roussel returned the nod and then disappeared again.

"For two people who hate each other, you seem to work well together," Bau noted.

"We're both N7s," replied Shepard, and left it at that.

Upon entering the bar's storage closet, the three stacked up against the door and waited. Only a few moments passed and they received Roussel's signal.

"I'll take point, you two provide support," ordered Shepard. Without waiting for a response, Shepard delivered a biotic kick to the door, knocking it clear off the frame with a heavy groan. As Roussel had said, two auto-turrets greeted them.

Shepard stretched out a hand and summoned a circular Barrier that easily soaked up the accelerator fire that would have shredded them. Seeing that the auto-turrets weren't getting the job done, the CAT6 soldiers formed a semi-circle around Shepard and were about to open fire, when Roussel materialized behind them.

In a single second her twin Hellfire shotguns boomed four times, killing the two combat engineers controlling the auto-turrets, and putting down another two soldiers. The survivors immediately whirled around to face her, turning their backs on Shepard and the others.

Big mistake.

Roussel disappeared again. Shepard dropped his shield, and opened fire on CAT6 with Garrus and Bau. A dozen soldiers were soon lying dead on the bar floor.

"That was easy," commented Garrus.

"Don't get cocky," reminded Shepard, "we still haven't seen Tyco. But first things first, let's check on the truck."

"FIRE!" Shepard heard someone outside shout.

The entire bar exploded beneath a storm of accelerator fire. Three shots struck Shepard in the chest and were absorbed by his barrier. He ducked behind a booth for cover. Entire shelves of alcohol burst, the wooden structure of the bar splintered, and all noise was drowned out save for the sound of bullets whizzing by his ear. Garrus and Bau dropped down behind the booth next to him. He wasn't sure where Roussel was but decided there were more immediate concerns to deal with.

CAT6 likely figured out their assault team had failed and decided to just shoot up the building along with anyone left inside of it.

"What do we do?!" Garrus shouted.

"We've got to get outside! This whole place is a god damn kill box!" Shepard replied, not sure if they heard him or not. "Let's do a line up!"

"A what?!" asked Bau.

"Just follow Garrus!" Without another word, Shepard burst out from his cover and summoned another biotic shield. Accelerator rounds ricocheted and bounced off of the shimmering circle of blue energy, Shepard gestured for the other two to join him. "Come on!"

Garrus was the first to move out and stand crouched behind Shepard, placing one talon on his friend's shoulder. Bau mimicked Vakarian, piling up behind the Turian. Together they moved in a protected line straight for the Endless Void's front door. Just as he had done with the doors to the storage room, Shepard used his biotic strength to forcibly burst through the front doors.

Outside they were immediately greeted by the planet's setting sun, along with two Mako APCs and two more squads of CAT6 soldiers. The turrets on the APCs immediately swiveled towards them. Shepard dropped his shield and prepared to launch into a Charge.

"HOLD IT!" the voice cut through the air, and Shepard immediately turned towards its owner.

It was Tyco. For a moment Shepard could almost taste victory. The feeling died, however, when he saw that Tyco was holding a pistol to Miranda's head.

"Stop!" Shepard ordered, and the trio came to a halt.

Miranda was on her knees with Tyco pressing his weapon to the back of her head. Shepard felt hot anger rise in his belly, but held back from acting on it for Miranda's sake.

"Drop your weapons!" ordered Tyco. When they did not immediately comply, he shouted, "NOW!"

"Do as he says," said Shepard, dropping his shotgun.

"I'm sorry Shepard," Miranda said quietly.

"It's alright Miranda," assured Shepard as he tossed down the rest of his weapons. "It's gonna be alright."

Tyco made a gesture and two of his black armored soldiers collected the weapons, chucking them far away where they could not be reached. Shepard thought about taking one of them as a counter-hostage, but thought better of it. Tyco didn't seem like the kind of guy to care if anything happened to his own men.

"Put'em in cuffs!" CAT6 soldiers stepped forward and placed Omni-cuffs on all three of them. "Bring'em here."

Roughly, Shepard, Garrus, and Bau were shoved towards Tyco and Miranda, then pushed to their knees. Shepard silently endured the abuse, knowing that any resistance might end with his XO's death. A jab at the back of his head informed him that guns were now being pointed at him as well.

Tyco smiled smugly while he watched his men work. "Well, well, well, the great Commander Shepard is on his knees before me. The Lord Wrath will be pleased by your capture, and impressed that it was done so easily."

"Fight me fair like he did Tyco, and we'll see how easy it is," Shepard spat.

"Heh, I'm not stupid commander. I know what you can do. But unlike you, I don't have the weakness of compassion. That is why you are on your knees and I am on my feet."

Miranda snorted, as she stood up. "Yes, you're a regular strategical genius."

Fear spiked inside of Shepard. What was Miranda doing? Did she want to get executed? He opened his mouth to tell her to stop, but then notice that neither CAT6 nor the black armored soldiers were turning their weapons on her. What was going on?

Tyco frowned at her. "This never would have worked without my men."

"And without my plan, your men would be nothing more than red smears on the street," Miranda shot back. "The Lord Wrath will be pleased with both of us."

Shepard's heart dropped as the realization of what was happening slowly settled in. He didn't want to believe it. Even as his mind began to fit the pieces together, he fought against the truth that crawled its way forward. But even then he just could not believe it was possible. How could it be possible? After everything that they had been through? How?

"No," Shepard heard Garrus whisper. It seemed he was reaching the same realization as Shepard.

"You are the traitor, not unexpected" Bau said evenly, completely nonplussed by the revelation.

Miranda gave a snide smirk. "You need to be loyal before becoming a traitor, and I was never loyal to Commander Shepard."

"You bitch-" A soldier cracked the butt of his rifle into the back of Garrus' head, sending him to the ground, where he lay very still. Shepard checked the corner of his HUD and saw that his friend's vitals were still steady, that was a relief.

"Have you something to say as well Commander?" Miranda asked.

Shepard simply glared at her in silent seething hatred. A thin blue corona of blue fire began to flicker along his body as he felt his anger rise higher and higher.

"I wouldn't if I were you," she warned, and the soldiers turned their weapons upon Garrus. "Wouldn't want another one ending up like Jacob, would we?"

Fresh anger roared to life within Shepard. At that moment he wanted nothing more than to unleash his power. To detonate a Nova and rip them all limb from limb. To show them how he had earned his reputation on Elysium against the slavers. But his training reeled in his impulses and he reminded himself that his friends were still in danger. As much as he wanted to attack right now and demand answers from Miranda, he wanted to make sure his remaining friends survived more.

With as much self control as he could muster, Shepard forced his powers to die down. Gradually, the blue fire surrounding him went out, and the soldiers turned their weapons away from Garrus' limp form.

"Good," said Miranda, then she turned to the soldiers. "Get them in that APC and-"

The Mako that Miranda had been gesturing to suddenly exploded. Fire and shrapnel showered the entire street and sent all those standing to the ground. Having been low to the ground thanks to his captors, Shepard as able to recover quickly. He called upon his biotics and snapped his Omni-cuffs, then did the same for Bau.

"Get him to safety!" he pointed at Garrus. Bau simply nodded and did so, dragging the Turian back towards the bar.

Assured that his friend would be safe, Shepard performed a Charge into the remaining Mako. The impact sent the APC rolling on its side like a log, crushing several CAT6 soldiers, and crashing into a nearby store.

"Shoot him! Shoot him!" ordered Tyco.

The surviving CAT6 and black armored soldiers had finally shaken off the effects of the explosion, and now turned their weapons on him. Shepard channeled his power, stretched out a hand, and flexed his rage into a wide Push that sent many CAT6 flying. The black armored soldiers however, seemed to anticipate the attack, and rolled out of the way before they could be struck. Shepard threw out his hand and fired out several Warp bolts.

One struck a black armored soldier dead on, and burned right through the armor. The others dodged or took cover, again they seemed to anticipate Shepard's attack. He began to suspect that they had experience dealing with Biotics, or perhaps, dealing with powers similar to Biotics? Powers like those The Wrath possessed?

Shepard was pushed out of his contemplation as the black armored troopers finally regrouped and began to fire back. Crimson bolts of pure energy cracked through the air at him. Quickly he raised a hand and summoned a Biotic shield, just in time to catch several of the incoming bolts.

"Keep firing!" barked Tyco.

Miranda had been thrown far by the explosion. But when she finally was able to regain her senses, she was greeted to the scene of Tyco and his squad firing on Shepard, who was holding them back with a barrier. The two sides were completely focused on one another.

Seeing an opportunity, Miranda found her pistol and took aim at Shepard's exposed backside. Just as she was about to pull the trigger, something pressed itself against her temple.

"I wouldn't do that," said a voice with an accent similar to her own.

Roussel appeared from thin air, as she often did, holding one of her Hellfire shotguns to Miranda's head.

"Hm, very impressive," Miranda said calmly.

"Thanks," Roussel replied, just as evenly.

"I should have noticed that you weren't around, it won't happen again."

"There won't be a chance for 'again' Lawson. You're finished."

A single beat passed in which neither woman made a move.

Then Miranda whipped around, batting the shotgun to her head aside. Roussel let the weapon go then grabbed Miranda by the wrist and twisted, forcing the raven haired woman release her own weapon. Miranda countered by producing a knife, seemingly out of nowhere, and slicing at her opponent.

Roussel released her hold on Miranda and avoided the attack, unsheathing her kukri as she did. The flames of the Mako she had destroyed reflected off of her weapon's blade and the single blue lens of her helmet, making her look like a monster out of hell.

"Aren't you going to ask me why I did it?" asked Miranda, twirling her knife.

"I'll do that after I kick your ass pretty girl," responded Roussel.

With a growl, the SAI agent lunged forward.

Outskirts of Kuussov

After having finished her quick maintenance on the JingXi and with nothing else left to do, Tina decided that she would take a quick nap in the cockpit. She didn't need to worry about thieves or anything, the marines keeping guard outside would make sure no locals with sticky fingers would try their luck.

Comfortable in the knowledge that she was safe, Tina propped her seat back and closed her eyes.

Almost immediately, she heard a sharp crack from outside. Her eyes snapped open. That had sounded like gunfire, but not like any kind of gun fire that she had ever heard before. No, it sounded more akin to the activation of a ship's GARDIAN laser when it ionized air inside of a planet's atmosphere. But if a ship had fired its GARDIAN laser, it would have been a lot louder.

Tina heard more of the same sound, followed by the familiar sound of accelerator fire from a standard issue Avenger rifle. Then she heard screams, human screams. Then the sound of footsteps coming up the boarding ramp.

Adrenaline rushed through her veins and she pulled out her sidearm from its holster.

Taking cover in the doorway of the cockpit, Tina trained her sights on the ship's boarding airlock.

"Blue!" she challenged. If the person coming up was friendly, they would return her challenge with 'Texas'. When no response came, she had her answer. Tina flipped the safety of her pistol off.

A blur of black combat rolled into the ship. Tina fired her weapon twice, having been taught to hold a weapon since she was 6 years old on the farm, her shots were dead accurate. But the rounds just bounced off of the black armored invader.

The intruder raised a strange boxy looking rifle.

The last thing Tina saw was a brilliant blue ring erupting from the weapon.

Outside the Endless Void

It had been 90 seconds of the most fast paced combat Roussel had ever been a part of.

Roussel snarled as she lunged forward again, taking a swipe with her kukri. Miranda shifted back just out of reach. When Roussel attacked again with a downward's chop, her opponent dodged, then stepped inside of her guard to slip the blade between Roussel's ribs.

But Roussel was prepared, and wearing armor. She used her forearm to deflect the stab and retaliated with a stab of her own, aimed at Miranda's eyes. Unfortunately the raven haired woman possessed incredible reflexes, and threw herself back at the last moment.

Miranda then drew her hand back. Roussel assumed it was to do some Biotic attack, and prepared to execute a combat roll. Instead a fistful of dirt, scooped up at some point during the duel, was tossed at her. It caught Roussel off guard, just long enough for Miranda to slide past her guard and score a strike.

Roussel saw it at the last moment, and instead of slicing through her brain, the blade skated off of the face plate of her helmet, leaving a thin scar on the material. The SAI agent growled in frustration.

Nothing about her duel with Miranda had gone as expected.

For one, not once had the traitor made use of her impressive biotic powers. If she had wanted, Miranda could have used a Push to knock Roussel to the ground, or a Lift to make her float helplessly in the air, either would have left Roussel open to a killing strike. But instead the duel so far had been a purely martial contest.

Second was the knife that Miranda used. At a glance it had seemed like nothing more than a ordinary knife. Roussel first noticed how peculiar it was when it had nearly sliced off her ear. The weapon seemed to...hum as it passed through the air. Whatever made the knife special also gave it incredibly cutting power. The thin cut on her face plate was just the latest of new scars her armor was adorned with, which was supposed to be able to hold up to accelerator fire.

"What's the matter Laura?" Miranda taunted, "where's that bad bitch attitude that you're always flaunting?"

Roussel did not respond. Instead, she crouched down and picked up her Hellfire shotgun, which she had been inching towards the whole fight.

Miranda dove behind the cover of the flaming Mako wreck just as Roussel squeezed off two shots. With her shotgun in one hand and her kukri in the other, Roussel pursued. Just as she rounded the corner of the Mako, Miranda struck. Her knife sliced into the shotgun and pinned it to the APC's metal carcass.

Roussel didn't miss a beat. She released her destroyed shotgun and sliced at Miranda's wrist. Miranda moved back just in time but at the cost of letting her knife go. The momentum of the SAI agent's attack continued as she stepped forward and slammed her faceplate into Miranda's nose. She felt the satisfying crunch of something break, and immediately followed up with a solid kick to the gut.

Miranda went tumbling backwards, but as she did something flashed out of her palm. Instinctively Roussel tried to move out of the way, but was too late. Something struck her in the collar, right between the plates of her armor. Roussel pulled it out and held it up to her eye.

A dart.

Roussel's vision began to go hazy, and she immediately knew what kind of dart it was.

"Fuck me," she cursed.

Miranda stood up. Even with her impaired vision, she could see the smug smile on the pretty woman's perfect lips. At least Roussel had dulled that prettiness with her headbutt, which had no doubt...not broken her nose? What the hell? Roussel blinked a few times, but no matter how many times she did, Miranda's face remained as perfect and unblemished as it had been at the start of the day.

But that was impossible. That headbutt should have shattered the woman's perfect face.

"Not bad," said Miranda as she pulled out another knife, seemingly from thin air. "Now it's my turn."

"LOOK OUT!"

90 seconds ago...

Shepard exploded out from a streak of blue fire to deliver his fist into the chest of a black armored soldier, sending the man flying back 9 meters. The remaining soldiers surrounded him. Shepard threw out his hands, detonating his personal barrier into a Nova that scattered them. Tyco, who had stayed back, was the only one left on his feet.

"Die primitive!" He fired a volley of lasers at Shepard's back, only to be foiled when the Commander teleported a step to the side.

Shepard whipped around to face Tyco with almost palpable hate. Here was his target, the man he had been searching for, the man who would lead him to the true source of his anger: The Wrath. Tyco stood just a few meters away, he was so close. Shepard swore silently to Jacob that he would not fail.

Calling upon his biotics, Shepard thrust out his hand and made a grabbing movement. Tyco was enveloped in aura the same blue as the one that surrounded the Commander, and hoisted up into the air. He squirmed against his invisible restraints, but to no avail.

"Tell me where he is!" demanded Shepard.

"Never!"

Shepard clenched his hand closer to a fist and the pressure on Tyco increased.

"Where is he!?" Tyco's black armor began to crack.

"G-go on..." Tyco gasped in pain. "Do it!"

Shepard wanted nothing more than to squeeze the life out of Tyco, to watch the man pop like an overripe fruit. But he held back. He couldn't kill Tyco, not yet at least. He needed Tyco to tell him more, to explain to him what the hell was going on. It was then that Shepard heard something else.

Was that...a ship engine?

He turned his gaze skyward, and to his surprise he saw the familiar form of the JingXi hovering down towards them. Shepard smiled, he didn't know how, but Samara must have figured out that Miranda was a traitor. With the JingXi providing them air support, their victory was practically assured.

Then he heard the unmistakable sound of the JingXi's GARDIAN lasers power up, and Shepard lost his smile. In a snap decision, between living and holding on to Tyco, Shepard released his hold and teleported away just in time. A beam of red energy sliced down from the JingXi and carved a deep trench into the spot where he had just been standing.

He saw the JingXi turn towards Roussel.

"LOOK OUT!" he shouted.

Shepard sprinted into a Charge, teleporting to tackle Roussel to the ground. A moment later the JingXi's GARDIAN lasers swept overhead, scorching the air above.

"We gotta move!"

"Can't...losing feeling...in legs," Roussel strained out.

"What?!"

"Poison."

Well that was just perfect. Knowing that another beam of energy was imminent, Shepard grabbed Roussel and teleported the both of them through a window, back into The Endless Void. Bau was inside, protecting a still unconscious Garrus.

"What happened?!" asked Bau.

"Grab Garrus!" ordered Shepard as he dragged Roussel back towards the bar's storage area.

"Damn it," Miranda cursed as she picked herself up, "I had her."

"We still have them outnumbered," noted Tyco as one of his men helped him stand up. "And we have their ship. They've nowhere to escape to. I say we-"

"Of course they have somewhere to escape to," Miranda pointed out. "That's an STG safehouse after all, a Salarian always has a back door." She opened a communication channel to the ship. "Fire on the bar! Raze the building to the ground!"

Tyco grabbed Miranda by the wrist, his face contorted with anger. "What the hell do you think you're doing?! The Lord Wrath wants them alive!"

"The Lord Wrath will understand!"

Before argument could continue any further, the JingXi fired all of its weapons. The metal structures of the Endless Void were no match for the military grade accelerator cannons and GARDIAN lasers. There was a loud crack, like the snapping of bone, and the building collapsed in on itself.

Anyone that had been inside, was either dead or buried.

"I think they're gone," said Shepard.

The tunnel drenched them in complete darkness. When the STG cell had evacuated their safehouse they had also scrapped the generators. Thankfully Shepard's helmet featured night vision, and so through a sickly green filter he saw Bau nod his head in agreement.

"The bar is more than likely destroyed. The entrance is now buried under at least half a ton of rubble" surmised Bau, "we should-"

Shepard stretched out his hand and blasted the rubble covering the tunnel entrance with a Biotic Push. Bau's words were drowned out under the ensuing noise. Dim but natural light streamed into the tunnel. Shepard cautiously poked his head out of the opening he had created.

A full second passed where nothing happened. "Looks like its clear."

Without waiting for Bau to respond, Shepard stepped outside. The Salarian Spectre simply shook his head at the actions of his colleague. "Why does no one ever listen to me?"

Making sure his pistol was in working condition, Bau moved to join Shepard. As the Comander had stated, the surrounding area was indeed clear of hostiles. Quite a few scavenging teams had already come to pick at the building's fresh carcass, but there were no signs of CAT6 or Tyco's men. Shepard ignored looters and scanned the surrounding area.

"The truck is gone," he noted. Another thing to add to the growing list of things he'd lost.

"And your companions along with it," added Bau.

Shepard nodded, there was no point in denying the truth. Though he maintained a facade of calm, internally he was still reeling from the revelation of Miranda turning traitor. How did this happen? Had she forgotten what he had done for her, with Oriana? Had she forgotten how they had survived the Collector base? Had she always been loyal to The Wrath's secretive organization? Had she ever been loyal to the Illusive Man?

Too many questions, and not enough answers.

He mentally shook himself. This was no time for moody contemplation. Garrus was unconscious but relatively uninjured. Roussel on the other hand had somehow gotten poisoned. Likely it had something to do with Miranda. That was another thing that didn't fit. Shepard had never known Miranda to use poison. Though he admitted it didn't seem like something that she would be above.

"We need to rendezvous with Kirrahe and his STG cell," said Shepard. His voice surprisingly somber, even to himself.

"I agree, we must regroup, and with your team down we will need the Major's help more than ever." Shepard found Bau's tone almost annoyingly calm for what had just happened.

"Aren't you going to say it?" asked Shepard.

Bau looked at him and blinked. "Say what?"

"That you told me so. I didn't want to believe that the traitor was from my team, but as it turned out it was." Shepard clenched his hand into a fist. "I was so blind. I couldn't even think that it was possible."

Bau was silent for a beat. "Boasting about the correctness of my earlier statements would serve no purpose. Our time would be much better spent on more useful actions. Besides, as a junior member of the Spectres, you are allowed to make a few mistakes."

Shepard cocked a brow at the Salarian. "Junior?"

"Not counting the amount of time you spent dead, you have still been a Spectre for under a year."

"Heh, I guess that's true." He had never really thought about it.

"Come," Bau gestured, "let us try to wake Mr. Vakarian. I would prefer not to carry him, he looks heavy."

CAT6 Base - Stockade

After Tyco had run out on the interrogation, Zaeed had been unceremoniously thrown into a cell. As far as cells went, Zaeed had been in much worse. There was no bed for him to rest on and no window for fresh air. But at least the floor was clean, and there was an actual toilet instead of a bucket full of shit.

Zaeed spent most of his time nursing the ache on the back of his head and observing the guard rotations. A new soldier came in to serve as warden every 2 hours. Each one was professional to the bone. Never talked to the prisoner, him, unless to tell him to shut up. Never took off their helmets either, so Zaeed could never tell what the hell they were thinking or looking at.

Busting out was going to be hard.

Zaeed had just about given up for the day, when he heard a bunch of commotion coming from down the same hall they'd dragged him in. The guard on duty stood at attention as a squad of his fellow CAT6 came stomping into view.

"We've got two more," said one of the new comers.

"Step away from the bars prisoner!" Zaeed's guard ordered. He did as he was told, resisting would just get him a beating.

A loud electronic alarm sounded as the bars slid open. Two more guards, hauling a massive teenage Krogan in between them, entered the cell and promptly tossed said Krogan at Zaeed's feet.

"Grunt!"

"Stay back if you want to keep your head prisoner!" Zaeed reluctantly did so. Outside of his cell he could hear the bars of a different cell being opened.

"Throw this one in here," he heard someone say. So someone else had also been captured.

The guards soon left, leaving Zaeed in a cell with an unconscious Krogan.

"Just bloody great," he grumbled and kicked Grunt in the gut. "Oi! Wake up you big dumb lizard."

Even though their captors had stripped the armor off of the Krogan, it still felt like Zaeed was kicking a solid wall of bricks. After a few more, Grunt finally started to awaken.

"W-what? What's going on?" he asked groggily.

"You got captured kid," Zaeed answered.

"Captured? Me?" Grunt sat up. "But, that's impossible! I don't even remember a fight!"

"What a coincidence, neither do I."

Grunt tried to stand, but found his footing wobbly, so Zaeed was forced to help him. "Where are we?"

"Probably the CAT6 base. No windows around, so no way for us to see."

"Hey!" their guard barked, "quiet in there! No talking!"

Grunt snarled. "You think you are safe behind these flimsy barriers?! They cannot hold me!"

Zaeed realized what was about to happen. "Grunt, don't-"

"I AM KROGAN!" As predicted, Grunt rushed head first into the bars, and promptly bounced off of them.

"Ha! Dumb dinosaur! Those bars and the walls surrounding you are made of starship grade alloy. You'd have better luck getting an Asari to keep her legs closed."

"FUCKERS!" screeched a familiar voice, which was followed by a familiar catchphrase. "I WILL DESTROY YOU ALL!"

Zaeed expected the building to shake, but to his surprise nothing followed. He sighed, of course they'd removed the crazy bitch's amp.

"Keep it down! All of you!" ordered the guard.

"Fuck you-"

"Just do as he says you stupid bloody girl," growled Zaeed.

"Old man? Is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me. Now shut the hell up. It's bad enough I gotta bunk with the dino. I don't need your bloody screams keeping me up at night."

"Fuck you old man! Just because you wanna bend over for these fuckers doesn't mean-"

The guard fired his weapon into Jack's cell.

"JACK!" Zaeed grabbed the bars of his cell.

"That was a warning shot," the guard said coldly. "Any of you say anything more, and I won't hesitate to kill you. Understoood?"

They all glared at the guard, but none of them said anything.

"Good."

A scowl still on his wrinkled features, Zaeed walked to the back of his cell and sat down. Grunt sat down next to him, looking equally put out and angry. As much as he hated to admit it, they were stuck here at the mercy of their guard for now. Until their fortune changed, their best move was to do as they were told.

Come on Shepard, where are you?

The secondary STG safe house was located in the back of a Turian owned fast food restaurant. Not the most original of places, Shepard had thought, but just like the first it had been remarkably well hidden. To his relief, this one was not as security heavy as the first and he was able to contact Samara without the need to patch into a relay.

As it had turned out, Samara had traveled to the coordinates given to her by Miranda and found four squads of CAT6 soldiers waiting for her. Those soldiers were now dead of course. In the basement, amidst boxes of artificial protein, vegetable paste, and high fat cooking oil, Shepard spoke to Samara through his Omni-tool.

"I know you don't want to. But I think you should come into the city," said Shepard. "With how things are going, I'd prefer everyone be together."

"I agree," said Samara. Shepard wanted to ask if she would be alright being surrounded by so much criminal activity, but at this point he almost wished she would go on a justice-spree.

"Kirrahe is sending some people to pick you up."

"Then I shall see you soon Commander. Goddess light your way."

"And you," Shepard returned. The call ended, and Shepard finally felt the exhaustion of the last 8 hours sink in. So much had happened, he was still processing most of it.

"Well this has been a crap day" said Garrus, sitting nearby on a thin metal chair.

"It sure has," said Shepard, settling into a free chair next to him.

"Here," Garrus handed Shepard a Heart Attack Hero burger (non-dextro), a special of the restaurant. "Figured you might be hungry."

Shepard was. He hadn't eaten since this morning, except for a few tasteless high nutrient bars. The constant activity combined with the use of his Biotics had been a big drain on his reserves. It wasn't until they'd gotten to the restaurant and he'd inhaled the smell of food that he'd realized that he was starving.

He unwrapped the burger. It looked unappetizing, and evidence that the meat and vegetables weren't real surrounded him, but he could not stop himself from swallowing every bite. Hunger did wonders for taste.

"Thanks," he said through a mouthful of food. "You feeling alright? That looked like a pretty bad crack on the head."

"I'm fine. I got a thick skull," Garrus tapped on his own head form emphasis.

"Heh, no surprise there," Shepard chuckled. For sometime, the two friends sat silently in the basement. The only noise between them came from the sound of Shepard's chewing. Finally Garrus broke the silence.

"Do you think the others are alright?" he asked.

Shepard swallowed the last of his burger, and hesitated before replying. "I don't know. We didn't see any bodies. They were probably captured like Zaeed."

"Yeah, yeah that makes sense," nodded Garrus, as though trying to convince himself.

"Or maybe, they were tortured for information, shot in the head, and left in a ditch somewhere," said Roussel as she approached. Nosily she dragged a chair over and sat down next to them.

"Ah, I see you're back to your normal self. That's very unfortunate," said Shepard.

Roussel rubbed her collarbone, where the dart had struck her. "Ha-ha, very funny. There was just enough of the toxin in the dart to make someone pass out, but not enough to kill. It was a stunner."

From a pouch on her belt, she produced the dart.

"Doesn't look like any I've ever seen," noted Garrus. Since Mordin had often utilized neural darts from his Omni-tool, the entire Normandy team was somewhat familiar with them. But those were flash-forged projectiles. This one was a small, gleaming, silver, and looked as though a lot of work had been put into its manufacturing.

"Funny you should say that. I had a few of Kirrahe's nerds run it through their scanners. It doesn't match any thing in their database. This little bugger is, for lack of a better term, not of this world. Or any other world." Roussel turned it between her fingers admiringly. She could appreciate a good weapon, even if it had been used to nearly kill her.

"You said Miranda fired this one?" asked Shepard, skeptically.

"That's right."

He pressed his lips together. "That just doesn't sound right. In all the time we've known her, we've never once seen her use darts of any kind."

"Spook rules 101: Never let anyone know every trick in your book," said Roussel as she pocketed the dart. Then added, "not even your allies."

"Miranda does love her secrets," agreed Shepard. "But I still just can't believe the idea that we never really knew her."

Roussel leaned forward. "Get it through your head Shep. The Miranda you got to know, the one you trusted, was the Miranda that she wanted you to trust. What did she use? The Ice Queen act? Oldest one in the book. Act distant and aloof, but drop hints that lead others to believe there's more. Then bit by bit, get them to think that they've melted you."

Shepard winced. That pretty much described how things had played out between Miranda and himself, and most of the crew. But even when she had kept her most personal details to herself, there had always been a feeling of trust, real trust. Shepard didn't care how logical Roussel's words sounded. Roussel didn't know Miranda.

But his memory had not deceived him. Miranda had really betrayed them to Tyco and his secret organization, whoever they were.

What could have made one of his closest friends turn like that?

CAT6 Base - Captain's Office

Tyco was furious. "You stupid barvy-"

"That's no way to talk to a lady," Miranda interrupted, her full lips curled into a mocking sneer.

"You're no lady anymore than I am a mercenary!" Tyco shot back, as he paced violently back and forth across his office. "The Emperor and The Lord Wrath were very explicit! He did not want the Commander dead! We just disobeyed an order from the supreme authority himself!"

"No, we didn't," Miranda countered calmly.

"What are you talking about?! We just blasted them to pieces!" Even as Tyco said the words, a realization dawned upon him, and he grinned. "No, I didn't disobey. You did!"

Miranda remained unfazed, and simply crossed her arms.

"You're the one who ordered the ship to fire on the bar. You're the one whose going to go down for this!" Tyco's grin grew wider with every word. "I hope you've had a full life, because when the Lord Wrath hears about this, he's going to-"

In a single blink, Miranda was across the room. Tyco's collar was balled up in one hand and with the other she pressed the deadly edge of a vibroknife to his throat.

"One: don't ever threaten me. Two: don't try to be smart, it doesn't suit you. Three: Lord Wrath doesn't need to hear anything. Not yet at least. Understood?"

"Go-"

Miranda pressed the knife harder against Tyco's throat, causing a single drop of blood to trickle down the blade. "Understood?"

Tyco silently, and reluctantly, nodded. Satisfied that she had the Captain's cooperation, Miranda pulled the knife away.

"Good dog. Now, listen carefully. This is what we're going to do."

"Indoctrination!" Shepard stood suddenly, almost knocking his chair over in the process.

Roussel sighed. "What are you on about now poster boy?"

Shepard ignored her and turned to Garrus. "It could be indoctrination right? We've been thinking that Tyco and whatever organization he's with might be working with the Reapers. Maybe they have some sort of technology that allows them to quickly indoctrinate somebody."

Garrus scratched his chin plate thoughtfully. "They do have laser guns, so I don't think that it's an impossibility."

Roussel raised her hand. "Uh, the woman is confused. Indoctrination, that's that thing your Reapers do right? Some sort of Lovecraft style mind control?"

Now Garrus was confused. "Lovecraft?"

"Human author," Shepard explained, then turned to Roussel, "and yeah, that about sums it up. You were right before Laura."

"I was?" her eye widened in surprise. Shepard was just as surprised to hear himself say it.

"You were suspicious of how Miranda managed to get away after she and Zaeed were attacked," he recounted. "At the time I thought you were just being your usual bitchy self. But now that I think about it, that might have been the time when they could have pulled some sort of quick indoctrination. Right?"

Shepard looked to his companions to give him support, and found none. Roussel looked skeptical, which was expected. But Garrus seemed almost sympathetic, like he was watching a child struggle to understand a concept too big for their mind.

"Shepard," the Turian began, "I'm not saying that it's impossible, but..."

"You're fooling yourself," Roussel finished. "Not everything that goes wrong in the galaxy has to do with mystical space squids."

Shepard pressed his lips together in rage. "Oh come on! These people have weapons we've never seen before! We fought a man who took on our team with laser swords and could shoot lightning from his fingers! We don't know what other weird shit they might have!"

Roussel looked to Garrus, who simply nodded confirmation. "Yeah, lightning."

"Okay, fine, yes. I admit that these guys, whoever they are, have some fairly impressive tech. Stuff that shouldn't even exist yet. Maybe you're right, maybe they did brainwash your cheerleader into switching sides. But you're not doing yourself any favors by thinking that her just being a traitor isn't a possibility."

"You didn't know her like we did. Right Garrus?"

Garrus was silent, and Shepard felt his anger go cold. "Garrus?"

His friend sighed before staring Shepard right in the eye. "Shepard, you know that while I was on Omega as Archangel, I had a team. And just like this one, I thought I could trust them with my life. But you also know what eventually happened to them."

Shepard nodded bitterly. "Yeah, you were betrayed."

"I didn't want to believe it at first," Garrus continued. "I tried to rationalize it every day afterwards. I thought: maybe they're just trying to get to me. Maybe Sidonis has some sort of plan. Maybe it's just a Turian that looks like Sidonis. I didn't really accept that my friend had become a traitor until I was looking down my scope at him. Until I heard him say it in his own words."

Shepard was silent for a beat, then asked, "what are you trying to say?"

Garrus stood up and placed a comforting talon on Shepard's shoulder. "I'm saying that I know what you're going through. Maybe you're right, maybe Miranda is being brainwashed, or controlled, or something else. But there's a chance that Roussel is right. It's possible that Miranda was never loyal to us. If that's the truth, then you can't try to blind yourself to it."

"I'm not trying to blind myself," said Shepard, he sank down into his chair. It felt like his strength had been sapped out of him. "I just..." he struggled to find the right word. "I just trust Miranda. Just like I trust you, and everyone else on my team. I trusted all of you to defeat the Collectors. I can't just stop trusting now."

A solemn silence settled over the room. Even Roussel seemed affected by it, as she stared at the floor with her arms crossed. Shepard realized, that perhaps the reason she was being so adamant that Miranda was a traitor, was that perhaps she had gone through the same thing that Garrus had. Maybe some time ago, she had been betrayed, and her world may have been colored ever since.

He didn't know the details of the Alliance's Black Ops, and maybe he didn't want to. Being in the SAI had changed her. She had been much the same as she was now when Shepard had first met her in the N7 academy. But back then her arrogance and cynicisim had always had a sense of goodness behind them. Shepard remembered a Roussel who had wanted to use her skills serve, to do good for the Alliance that she loved.

By the time they had reunited on Torfan, that had changed. She no longer served to save what she loved, she fought to kill what she hated. Shepard knew that he had never really gotten along with Roussel, but it was only on Torfan that their rivalry had turned into full blown dislike for one another.

What had happened to her?

A chirp from his Omni-tool interrupted Shepard's thoughts. He brought it up, thinking that it was Samara calling to report that she had been picked up. It wasn't.

"It's her, isn't it?" asked Garrus.

Shepard nodded.

"Answer it," said Roussel, "this is a good chance to gather intel."

Shepard had already planned on doing so, but was glad to know he wouldn't face opposition for the decision. He accepted the transmission, and waited silently for her to speak the first word.

"Are you there Commander?" asked Miranda.

Shepard forced down the urge to shout. "I'm here," he said evenly.

"Good, I'm glad you aren't being childish about my decision to switch to the winning side. I know how immature you can be."

He nearly lost control of himself then and there, but reminded himself not to give in. "What do you want Miranda?"

Though he couldn't see it, he got the distinct impression that Miranda was smiling. "Listen carefully Commander. Do exactly as I say, and your team will live to see another day."

3 hours later...

"I've got a bad feeling about this," said Garrus.

"Yeah, me too," agreed Shepard, beside them Roussel and Samara stood in stoic silence. Shepard had wanted to say something uplifting and witty. But as he stared at the tall metal gates of the CAT6 compound, it was hard to be either. With an earsplitting creak and groan, the gate began to slide open.

"You still sure you want to do this?" asked Garrus.

"They have our friends. We don't have any other choice," Shepard replied.

"We are with you Commander, no matter what happens we will not abandon you or the others" Samara said. The resolute steel in her voice was reassuring. He gave her a thankful smile and nod.

Miranda's offer had been simple, almost cliché: Shepard would surrender himself to them, in exchange they would release all the hostages. Shepard put the safety of his team above all else, and so naturally he had agreed to the terms. Night had fallen since then, and as the gates opened fully, Shepard could see that the compound was lit by a series of high powered flood lights.

Standing on the other side of the gate was Tyco and Miranda, both looking fairly pleased with themselves. In between them was his team, all of whom had been forced to their knees and had at least one of Tyco's black armored men pointing a laser rifle to their back. Despite the situation, Shepard felt relief flood him. They were alive.

But Legion, the JingXi pilot, and Roussel's marines were nowhere to be seen.

"Where the hell is Legion and the others?!" he demanded.

"Your droid and the others are fine," Tyco replied. "We'll release them once we're sure that those sniper's you've got on us won't shoot."

As if on cue, six red targeting dots appeared on Tyco and Miranda, dancing threateningly across their chests and faces. Shepard quietly cursed, he didn't think they would notice Kirrahe's team so soon. Or perhaps Miranda had simply anticipated it, she must have known he wouldn't come without some insurance of his own.

"How do I know you'll release them once you've got me?" asked Shepard.

"You don't," Miranda replied this time, "but you don't have any other choice."

On cue, the laser rifles being pointed at his team emitted a high pitched whine. Shepard didn't know much about the foreign rifles, but he recognized the sound of weapon being powered up. The message was clear: we can kill your friends whenever we want.

"Fine," he called back, his voice heavy with defeat, "we'll do it you're way."

Miranda nodded, satisfied.

"Step forward slowly!" she ordered.

"We still have a chance to go with Plan B," whispered Garru. Both he and Roussel had silently crept their hands towards their weapons, while Samara had slowly spread her feet towards a fighting stance.

"No. This is the best shot we have," Shepard replied, giving all of them a look. "Just be ready for the signal."

As requested, Shepard began to move through the gate and into the compound. Once he had taken a few steps, Miranda gestured to for Tyco's men to release Shepard's team. One by one they were roughly hauled to their feet.

"Get moving," one of the soldiers ordered.

"Should have known a Cerberus bitch like you would turn fucking traitor cheerleader," Jack spat over her shoulder at Miranda. A high pitched crack cut through the silent night air as her guard fired his weapon at her feet. The bald woman visibly recoiled as the bolt of pure energy burned the dirt near her right foot.

"No talking!" Jack looked like she wanted to say more, but eventually fell into step with Zaeed and Grunt.

Shepard had fought to control himself during the whole exchange. Every cell in his body was urging him to rush forward and throw up a protective bubble around his team. But there were too many CAT6 soldiers around for his Barrier to hold out any longer than a few seconds. A quick look at his surroundings vanquished any further inclination towards that plan.

Tyco and Miranda had prepared for this exchange well. Shepard counted at least three dozen CAT6 soldiers on the ground, protectively flanking the duo. He also spotted sniper teams in the guard towers, on the walls, and above the gate. One wrong move would result in him and his team looking like Swiss cheese.

Stick to the plan, he reminded himself.

"Are you alright?" Shepard asked when he finally met with his captured friends midway.

Zaeed gave a silent nod. Jack looked pissed, but also nodded. Grunt kept his eyes on the ground, like a kid caught doing something he'd been told not to. No doubt he viewed his capture as a great shame.

"Keep going!" ordered Tyco.

Stiffly, Shepard continued walking till he was standing just two meters from Miranda and Tyco.

"On your knees."

Shepard obeyed Tyco's command. One of the black armored soldiers moved behind him and bound his wrists in binders.

"Just so you know, the minute you try to use your biotics, those binders will deliver a nasty shock that'll make you soil your pants," Tyco spoke like a man who had already won.

"How nice."

"We wouldn't want you to get any ideas on backing out on our deal, now would we?"

"No, I guess not. You've got me. Now hold up your end and release the others."

"Patience Commander. First we make sure your friends don't get any ideas." Miranda turned to one of the soldiers. "Close the gate."

Shepard chanced a look over his shoulder as the compound gate slowly slide close. He was relieved to catch a glimpse of Zaeed, Jack, and Grunt safe on the other side. When he turned back, he found the barrel of Tyco's laser pistol inches from his face.

"The smart thing would be to execute you now," said Tyco. Shepard didn't even blink, he stared right down the weapon and into Tyco's eyes. To the Commander's immense satisfaction, he saw a flicker of unease. "But the Emperor doesn't want you killed unceremoniously, and I obey the commands of my Emperor."

Shepard's face scrunched with confusion. Emperor? The only emperor that he knew about was the emperor of Japan. Miranda gave Tyco an annoyed look.

"Enough gloating. He doesn't need to know anymore," she said.

Tyco chuckled confidently. "It's over, we've won."

"Not yet we haven't."

"His friends won't try anything. They know that if they do, we'll execute the other prisoners. Stop being paranoid and enjoy-"

An explosion in the middle of the compound cut off the rest of Tyco's sentence. A second explosion destroyed a nearby barracks, and a third explosion took out the building next to it. Tyco immediately began shouting orders for his men to investigate, then whipped around to face Shepard again.

"You and your team must be monumental morons. I hope you enjoy having corpses on your conscious."

Shepard smiled, and pointed with his chin. "You mean those corpses?"

Alliance marines, stripped of their armor and carrying stolen weapons burst out from the compound's stockade. Fueled with fury from being held captive and with the element of surprise on their side, the marines gunned down every CAT6 soldier they saw. Leading them was a figure clad in black armor, wielding a shotgun in one hand and a kukri in the other.

On the other side of the gate...

The hologram of Roussel that had been standing next to Garrus and Samara finally fizzled out of existence. Just in time, Garrus thought, he hadn't been sure how long the battery on the projector would last. If it had died during the exchange, Roussel's cover would have been blown.

A moment later they heard the sound of explosions and gunfire.

The CAT6 soldiers atop the gate briefly turned away from the group below them. That turned out to be a fatal mistake, as the STG sniper teams promptly gunned them down.

"That's the signal," said Garrus. He handed a spare pistol to Zaeed while Samara provided a pair of shotguns to Jack and Grunt. "Are you all good to fight?"

"Me and Grunt are always good for a scrap," Zaeed replied as he gave the pistol a quick check, "but Jack had her amp fried."

"I'm fine," Jack protested vehemently.

"Stay close to the others," ordered Garrus.

"I said I'm-"

"This is not up for discussion," Garrus' tone left no room for argument. Jack looked resentful, but she said nothing, which was as good as could be hoped for. "Samara, care to open the door?"

"It would be my pleasure." Samara's shapely form became surrounded in a fiery blue aura and her eyes began to shine white like a pair of distant stars. She cast out both hands and unleashed the largest Warp Garrus had ever seen. The gate stood no chance and was blasted apart like it was made from nothing more than tissue paper.

Samara barely paused to catch her breath before leaping through the breach.

"Fucking'ell I love watching her work," Zaeed smiled.

"Let's go!" Garrus led the charge inside, and the others followed.

Roussel's surprise attack and the revelation that their prisoners were no longer prisoners had taken the attention off of Shepard. Seizing the chance, he caught the distracted Tyco with his cuffs, using them as an improvised garrote. The man had foolishly turned his back on Shepard, and was now paying for it.

"H-h-help!" Tyco managed to weakly choke out, but it was lost amidst the deafening sounds of fighting.

Miranda noticed however. Her Omni-tool flashed and the promised pants soiling voltage Shepard began to course through his body. As he screamed in pain, Tyco managed slip away.

"Kill him!"

Several of the black armored soldiers turned their weapons upon the defenseless Shepard. Then the gate was torn apart, and Samara leaped into the compound. With a mere gesture she cast a Biotic Push that scattered Tyco and his men like leaves in the wind. Six CAT6 soldiers fired on her, full-auto, with their assault rifles. Their rounds bounced uselessly off of the Justicar's Barrier. With an almost casual ease Samara dispatched them all with a single Warp.

Garrus and the others entered soon after. The Turian immediately went to work sniping, pulling off headshot after headshot on the soldiers up in the towers and walls. Grunt, eager to redeem himself after his shameful capture, charged head first while announcing himself with a bellow. Many CAT6 soldiers immediately focused on the Krogan only to be picked off with their guard down by Jack or Zaeed.

"Go! Back to the Command Center!" ordered Miranda, as she and Tyco beat a hasty retreat.

Meanwhile, Shepard withered on the ground. His teeth chattered uncontrollably and his vision was becoming tinged blue. Samara noticed and saved him by destroying the cuffs with a swift Biotic knifehand strike, snapping them easily. Shepard breathed a sigh of relief when his body was allowed to relax.

"Commander? Are you alright?" asked Samara.

Shepard nodded. "I'm fine. Just a bit crispy."

"Get on your feet poster boy!" Roussel appeared from thin air and shot a nearby CAT6 soldier without looking. "There's lots of killing that needs being done."

"Did you get all of the prisoners?" Shepard asked.

"I found all of my marines. But the pilot and your robot weren't there. They must be holding them somewhere else."

"Fuck!" Shepard cursed. "We've got to find them!"

"Perhaps we can assist with that." Shepard turned to see Major Kirrahe, Bau, and two squads of Salarians entering through the breached gate. Kirrahe commanded the squads to assist Garrus and the marines, then knelt down next to Shepard. "We had one of our drones perform a quick thermal scan of the compound. There is a heat signature coming from the command center. It might be your pilot."

"Any sign of Legion?"

Kirrahe shook his head. "I'm afraid not. It's likely your Geth has been shut down and is therefore not emitting any detectable signatures."

"Damn, alright, one thing at a time." He got to his feet with a small struggle, and Bau handed him a Salarian made pistol. Shepard nodded a thanks. He had come without weapons and armor, to better sell the idea that he was surrendering. "You all secure the compound. Roussel and I will find Tina and Legion."

"Very well, may the Goddess be with you Commander," said Samara, before she went to rejoin the battle.

"Good luck," added Kirrahe, and then he and Bau did the same.

With all the chaos that was happening inside the compound, Shepard and Roussel barely had to do anything to reach the command center. While Shepard used his Biotics to tear open the door, Roussel finished cleaning her kukri on a dead soldier's body whose throat she had slashed open.

"I'll take point," she moved in without waiting for Shepard's agreement. But given that she wore armor and he was clad in little more than his Alliace fatigues, Shepard found it a smart idea.

They met no resistance on the first floor. Once they were sure it was clear the two swept up a set of stairs and moved to a door. Roussel paused in front of it abruptly, causing Shepard to nearly bump into her backside.

"What is it?"

"Thermals show six contacts on the other side," she explained. An unspoken agreement passed between the two Humans and they both took positions on either side of the door. "On your go."

Shepard was surprised but did not argue. He nodded his agreement and held up 3 fingers.

3...

2...

1...

Shepard opened the door and Roussel immediately tossed in two disks. "Flash out!"

A beat later, two brilliant flashes of light briefly flooded the room. Cries of anguish followed. Together Shepard and Roussel moved in with practiced motions, both instinctively covering the other.

First kill went to Roussel. A CAT6 soldier had stumbled blindly towards to the entrance and Roussel took only a moment to stab her kukri through his visor and into the eye. She held the knife inside the man's head, even as she fired her Hellfire twice, taking out two more soldiers. Shepard made a sweeping motion with his hand, crushing three soldiers against the wall. Then triple tapped the last one with his borrowed pistol.

"Clear!" announced Roussel, finally pulling her knife out of her victim's eye socket. The body crumpled the ground a moment later.

"Clear!" Shepard said.

A scuffle of panicked motion came from behind an overturned table in the far corner of the room. Both Humans swiveled towards it, weapons raised.

"Wait! Wait! Don't shoot!" A pair of hands waved out from behind the table. "I surrender! Please! I don't want to die!"

Shepard and Roussel shared a glance.

"Come out with your hands up!" ordered Shepard. "Do it, and we won't shoot you."

"O-okay," a CAT6 soldier cautiously stood up into view.

"Where's your bosses?" demanded Roussel, through her helmet she sounded like she was growling.

"If I tell you, w-will you let me go?"

"Yes," Shepard said immediately, "you have my word."

"Tyco and Cee-Nine are in the captain's office with the prisoner," the man stammered out.

"Cee-Nine?" asked Shepard.

"Sounds like a code name. Probably for the traitor," said Roussel.

"So can I go now?" asked the soldier.

Roussel answered by blowing the man's head off. Shepard glared at her. "I gave him my word."

"I didn't," she pointed out. "Come on, we've got a pilot and robot to save."

Shepard huffed angrily but followed. A combat zone wasn't the place to get into philosophical debates, not when there were lives on the line. Focus on the mission, he reminded himself. They found the captain's office easily, as with before Roussel paused to take a look through thermal vision.

"I see three contacts. Two of them are standing, the third is in a chair and looks to be bound."

"Tina?"

"Looks female, so probably. Hmmm."

"What?"

"I'm getting some weird readings from Miranda. It's probably just interference," Roussel assured.

Once again the two took breaching positions against the door. Shepard took the lead again and held up three fingers.

3...

2...

1-

The door slid open.

"Come in Commander, we've been expecting you. Ms. Roussel is welcome as well," Shepard heard Miranda say. He looked to Roussel, who shrugged. Expecting to be shot at the minute he peeked his head out, Shepard strengthened his personal Barrier and stepped into the room. Roussel cautiously followed after.

Tyco was standing behind his desk, pistol pointed threateningly. Miranda on the other hand was standing with her back to them, in front of the hostage.

"It's over," Shepard said firmly. "I suggest you both surrender."

"Never!" declared Tyco, "we'll die first!"

"Excuse the Captain, Shepard. He's not use to being outsmarted," said Miranda.

"And you are?" challenged the Commander.

"Heh," there was a smile on her voice. "I have experience with it. Enough to understand that being outsmarted is a possibility no matter how much experience you have. The trick is to get in the last laugh."

"You can laugh all you want from behind bars bitch," said Roussel.

"Mmmm, no. I think I'll have it right now." Miranda stepped to the side, revealing the hostage: Miranda.

Shepard's mind reeled, and he nearly took a step back from pure shock. Dark raven hair, a strong jaw line, icy blue eyes. It was definitely Miranda who was sitting bound and gagged in the chair. But that couldn't be right! He looked to the other Miranda. The one standing and looking at him haughtily, no doubt reveling in the confused look on his face. Shepard blinked several times to try and clear his vision. But no matter how hard he looked, he could see nothing different between the two.

"What the fuck?" asked Roussel, giving voice to his own thoughts.

Shepard pointed his pistol at the standing Miranda. There was a flash of bright light, and Miranda changed into a man. One wearing dark clothing, whose face was obscured behind a hood and featureless mask. Like a living shadow, the man pounced out of Shepard's sights to move behind Miranda, the real Miranda, and hold a knife to her throat.

"Heh," The imposter's voice shifted gradually from Miranda's to a soft yet undeniably masculine voice, "you should see the look on your face Commander."

As Commander Shepard and Agent Roussel tried to comprehend what they had just seen, the imperial agent took the moment to take stock of his options. The compound was lost, which was unfortunate, but not devastating. Given what he had accomplished here he was sure his superiors would forgive the loss of one measly base and several dozen men. There were also enemy combatants surrounding the building even now. He had counted around 27, before he and Tyco had taken refuge in the command center.

Commander Shepard and Agent Roussel, arguably some of the deadliest soldiers in the Alliance military, were just three meters away. They were stunned, but not enough to be passive. Still, the smallest advantage was still an advantage. He had a hostage: Miranda Lawson. Quite possibly the most beautiful Human woman the agent had ever had the pleasure of meeting. It was unfortunate that she was with the enemy, she would have fit right in with Imperial Intelligence.

Even while holding a knife to her throat, the agent could appreciate the smoothness of her skin, the excellent tone of her figure, and the perfect silkiness of her hair.

Perhaps I can convince her to change sides for real, he thought to himself.

"Who the hell are you?" demanded Shepard, snapping the agent out of his thoughts.

Right, deal with angry Humans pointing guns first. Plot to seduce beautiful perfect Human woman later, he thought with some amusement.

"You want a name?" he asked, unable to hide his enjoyment of the situation. "I'm afraid even if I wanted to give you one I can't, you see I don't have a name to begin with. It makes first time meetings very awkward."

"Don't play with me!"

Beneath his mask the imperial agent smiled. "Oh very well, if it means that much to you. Most people simply call me by my codename: Cipher Nine."

"Cipher Nine," Shepard rolled the words passed his lips as though testing them. "It was you all along. Miranda was never a traitor, you were pretending to be her."

The agent noted the subtle triumph inside the Commander's words.

"Well done," Cipher Nine said mockingly, "you figured it out, and it only took me dropping my holo-disguise right in front of you for it to happen. I'd clap but...well...it would be unwise to underestimate Ms. Lawson." Cipher Nine pressed the blade of his knife harder against Miranda's neck, eliciting a sharp intake of air from the woman.

"Let her go," ordered Shepard.

Cipher Nine snorted. "Now why would I do that?"

"You've got no way out now. All your men are dead. There's no one coming to save you. The only way you get out of this alive is to let her go and surrender."

"A fair point. But not enough to make me give up. I once had to take down a secret galactic terrorist organization with only an anarchist, a diplomat, a psychopathic droid, a mad doctor, and my protégé for back up. In comparison, escaping this base is hardly stressful for me."

"You've lost," insisted Shepard, "whether I take you in one piece depends on what you do next."

Cipher Nine shook his head patronizingly. "Poor, poor, Commander Shepard. You think you have a chance. You think you know what it is you're up against. What was you're first explanation for what was happening? The Reapers?"

Shepard shifted almost imperceptibly, and Cipher Nine knew he'd struck a nerve.

"You thought Miranda had been indoctrinated, didn't you. How much time did you waste trying to come up with alternative explanations? How long did you refuse to believe that Miranda was a traitor? It must have been like trying to grab water."

"It's called trust," Shepard shot back. "Maybe you've heard of it?"

"Heh, there's two kind of trust: the helpful kind and the blind kind. You have the second, and it will cost you some day," said Cipher Nine. As he spoke he shifted his feet in preparation for his next move. "There are things in the universe far worse than the Reapers."

"Like what?"

"You'll learn soon enough. Until then, I'm under orders not to be taken captive. So unfortunately I'm going to have to force you to make a choice."

Cipher Nine lowered his head down and whispered into Miranda's ear.

"Until we meet again Ms. Lawson."

Then he sliced open her throat.

Shepard watched in stunned horror as a thin spray of blood burst from the fresh smiling wound across Miranda's neck. Coldly Cipher Nine shoved the woman out of the chair towards the Commander.

"Help her or chase after us. Your choice."

Without another word Cipher Nine and Captain Tyco leapt through the nearest window. Shepard didn't hesitate, and rushed to Miranda's side. Roussel on the other hand didn't even bat an eye and immediately followed after them through the window.

Shepard desperately recalled the basic medical training he'd received in boot camp. Gently, he laid Miranda down on the floor so that gravity would prevent the blood from escaping too quickly. Then he activated his Omni-tool's medical suite and applied a generous amount of Medi-gel to the wound.

The bleeding soon stopped, stemmed by the viscous medicine. Miranda struggled against the Omni-cuffs binding her wrists and ankles. Shepard broke them with his Biotics. Once freed, Miranda immediately used one hand to motion towards the window Tyco and Cipher Nine had jumped out of.

"G...g...go," she whispered weakly.

That was the Miranda that he knew. Always thinking about the mission. He gave her a small canister of Medi-gel, just in case, and then jumped through the window after Cipher Nine and Tyco.

Like all centers of scum and villainy, Kuussov had a healthy nightlife. Denizens of every species walked the neon lit streets of the city searching for every form of debauchery imaginable. As a result Cipher Nine and Tyco were forced to not only navigate a maze of streets but maneuver around the considerable amount of people in their way.

Cipher Nine, had done missions on Nar Shadda, whose red light sector was easily 10 times larger and busier than Kuussov's. He had no trouble finding his way through the crowds of drunk and drugged individuals. Captain Tyco on the other hand was a stellar example of a Reek inside of an artifact shop.

It was almost painful for Cipher Nine, watching the Captain bump and bounce through the crowds. It also worried him a bit, delays were not something you wanted when The Butcher of Torfan was trailing you. Shepard might be willing to pause for a friend, but the agent knew that Laura Roussel had no such inhibitions.

"Hey! Watch it!" growled a Turian who had his pants down and was being 'serviced' by an Asari prostitute.

"Apologies sir!" Cipher Nine chuckled as he and Tyco exited the dirty alley where the deed was being done.

"I'm so glad you're having fun. I hope you're able to continue having it when The Wrath executes us for failing the mission!" Tyco spat furiously.

"Relax Captain. The mission, though not perfect, achieved its goal. Both The Wrath and The Emperor will be pleased."

"Pleased? How could they possibly be-"

"ARGH! Can't a Turian get some privacy!" Cipher Nine heard the same Turian they had interrupted complain from the alley. He gave a look over his shoulder just in time to see a figure in black armor exit the same alley. It turned its single deep blue eye upon them.

Cipher Nine felt a smile crease his lips as he felt adrenaline rush through his veins. "Here she comes."

Tyco hastily fired a volley of shots from his blaster pistol. All of them were dead on, but Roussel gracefully dodged and avoided, which only served to infuriate the captain.

"Die you damn schutta!" He fired again and again, but continued to be unsuccessful. Cipher Nine had to admit to himself that he was impressed. She was almost as good as a Force Sensitive at predicting the trajectory of the lasers, and as uncaring as the coldest imperial agent.

When she'd crossed half the distance between them in just a few seconds, she grabbed a nearby bystander, a Batarian, and used him as a shield. The poor alien was forced to soak up five shots before Roussel abandoned his corpse on the ground. Having seen enough, and in no mood to fight, Cipher Nine grabbed Tyco by the shoulder and dragged him into a nearby open top aircar.

Roussel fired her Hellfire twice, peppering the vehicle's bumper and destroying a tail light.

"She's coming!"

"Calm down," Cipher Nine ordered. His Omni-tool flashed, running a quick hacking program that overrode the vehicle's ignition system. The engine roared to life and Cipher Nine took the wheel. They began to ascend up into the night. Cipher Nine took a quick glance in the rear view mirror.

He watched as Roussel leaped up, as if to fly after them. It didn't look like she would make it. Then micro-jets on the back of her armor fired and provided the SAI agent with the needed boost to reach them. Unsheathing her Kukri and wielding it like a climbing pick, she sank the knife into the trunk.

Cipher Nine was impressed.

"Damn it! Shake her off!" ordered Tyco.

The car swerved back and forth, up and down, but the woman in black armor remained firmly stuck on the trunk like an unwanted blemish. They then heard the loud boom of her shotgun twice.

"What's she firing at?" asked Cipher Nine. His answer came when their vehicle began to descend rapidly and alarms spread out across the holographic dashboard.

"Kriff! She took out the anti-grav repulsors!"

"Clever girl," muttered Cipher Nine. "Unfortunately for her, we're almost to the space port. I say we let her have the car."

Both Imperials jumped out, abandoning the stolen aircar and its unwanted stowaway to crash in the streets. Before they too could crash into the streets, both pulled out a small grapple spike launcher. Cipher Nine fired his into a nearby neon sign and lowered himself safely to the ground.

Tyco made his landing with less grace, but was equally uninjured. The two watched their stolen aircar soar overhead with Roussel still holding onto its trunk.

"Ha! We've lost her," Tyco cheered.

Then The Butcher looked down, fixing her blue eye of her mask upon them like a spotlight.

"I think you made her angry," commented Cipher Nine.

The SAI Agent yanked her blade out of the air car and fell. She had no grapple spike launcher, but the micro-jets in her armor's back, calves, and shoulders, fired to slow her descent for a soft landing. Tyco took aim at her with his pistol, and Cipher Nine knew that this time the captain would hit his target.

Then a streak of blue struck Tyco and sent the man flying six meters. Commander Shepard stood in the captain's place, his body wreathed in a fiery blue cloak. He turned towards Cipher Nine and stretched out his hand to cast out a blue orb towards the agent.

In his long career as a Cipher agent, Cipher Nine had found himself constantly put up against Force users, both Jedi and Sith. Their powers were invisible and so he had been forced to learn how to anticipate and counter. In comparison, the blue energy that accompanied each Biotic attack was practically screaming for him to avoid it.

Cipher Nine gracefully executed a combat roll out of the arcing orb, causing it to splash harmlessly on the ground. He then whipped out his pistol and fired six consecutive shots rapidly. As expected, the Commander raised a barrier to protect himself, just what the agent wanted.

Quickly he unclipped a metal sphere from his belt, thumbed the activation button, and tossed it. The cryo grenade detonated, drowning the Commander in a slurry of quick freezing liquid. Shepard let out a quick cry of surprise before the substance finished its transformation and rendered him as silent and still as a statue.

That wouldn't hold the Commander for long, Cipher Nine knew. In the next 60 seconds the liquid would dissolve and Shepard would be free. The agent grabbed Tyco, pulling him to his feet. The captain gasped with pain and Cipher Nine saw that his armor was cracked, and likely so were the man's ribs.

Tyco was lucky, Cipher Nine thought, considering Commander Shepard's punches were famous for doing much worse.

"Come on Tyco! We have to move!"

Shepard had never been buried alive before. But he was fairly certain that this was what it would be like. Whatever gunk had exploded out from Cipher Nine's grenade had covered him, hardened, and was now restricting his movements. Despite his enhanced strength he could not break free.

Great, he was stuck being a living statue. Meanwhile Cipher Nine and Tyco were probably laughing their way to the spaceport.

The thought made Shepard angry.

No! He was not about to let those assholes just walk off Kal-Riv. Not after everything they had done to his team! Fueled by his hate, Shepard budged as hard as he could against his prison. Then he realized, he had budged! If the fast freezing substance had really coated him, then he shouldn't have been able to move at all.

Shepard chuckled at his own stupidity. His Barrier had protected him, holding the liquid back just a couple centimeters off of his skin. With a thought he detonated his Barrier into a Nova, shattering his prison and releasing him back into the world.

"Enjoy your nap poster boy?"

Shepard immediately wanted to be imprisoned again, if only so he would have to deal with her. He was about to respond but Roussel had already sprinted off after the targets.

For reasons she could not fathom, Tina had been separated from the others when they had all been taken prisoner. As a result, she had spent the last 3 hours tied to her own pilot's seat. Thankfully the chair was comfortable, she made a mental note to look into getting leather for her own fighter's seat.

From what she could gather by looking out through the cockpit window and listening to the idle chatter of the CAT6 hangar guards, the JingXi had been taken to the PMC's private hangar in the upper-city spaceport. As she sat, Tina attempted to formulate a plan for escape. There were no less than at least six guards in the hangar at all times. She struggled against her rope restraints but to no avail.

Damn it! She was a pilot, not a spy!

Then when Tyco and a man wearing all black boarded the JingXi, Tina felt what little hope she had plummet. To her surprise she was freed of her restraints.

"What are you doing?" asked Tyco.

"She's still of use to us," said the man in black. Tina found his voice oddly pleasant to listen to. "There's an Alliance Battle Group waiting in system. The minute we escape out of the planet's atmosphere The Butcher will order it to intercept. We need to make sure we're not just blown up."

Tyco nodded, accepting the explanation. Then he put the barrel of his pistol to the back of Tina's head.

"Start the kriffing ship!"

"Alright! Alright! I'm starting!" she said, as she tried to begin the lift off sequence with a gun to her head.

The man in black looked from her to Tyco, and seemed to frown. "Why don't you keep an eye out for our pursuers with the men. I know how to fly this galaxy's ships. I can help her and keep an eye on her."

"You actually learned how to pilot these primitive things?" scoffed Tyco. "Fine, the sooner we're off. The better."

When Tyco left the cockpit, the man in black reached over and grabbed her by the wrist.

"That's enough ma'am. This ship isn't going anywhere."

"Uh...what? Don't you wanna escape," asked Tina, thoroughly confused.

"Of course I do. But sometimes for the mission to succeed, sacrifices must be made. Because you see I'm right. With that Alliance Battle Group waiting up there, we'd never escape, even with you as a hostage. They'll just fire on the ship's engines and board it. But you were hoping for that weren't you?"

Tina felt her gut twist. The only reason she had willingly gone along with flying the ship for them was because she had indeed known just that.

"Don't worry, I won't kill you. Tyco might, but I won't." The man in black stood up and checked something on his wrist. "Hm, it seems your rescue is coming sooner than I anticipated. Good for you, I suppose."

"Um..." Tina didn't know what to say, so she remained quiet.

A shout came from the hangar outside, followed by the sound of gunfire.

"And there's my cue to leave," said the man in black. He waved an almost cute goodbye to Tina, then vanished into thin air. Tyco came running into the cockpit a mere second later.

"Agent! We need to-," he looked frantically around the cockpit, then settled his gaze on the lone Tina. "Where is he?!"

"I don't-"

"ARRGH," Tyco slammed a fist into the wall. "Damn you Cipher Nine! Damn you!"

Shepard finished off the last of the CAT6 hangar guards with a single Warp. With Roussel at his side, he moved towards the JingXi. The ship remained planted inside of the docks, but just in case Roussel had contacted Comodore Zaman. The 8th Carrier Battle Group had moved to block any attempt to escape the system. Tyco and Cipher Nine were trapped.

"I see two heat signatures inside," whispered Roussel.

Shepard nodded. "How are we getting inside? All the entrances are closed and locked."

"You still got enough energy for your blue space magic?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Remember that exercise we did? Flight 8969?"

Shepard let out a nostalgic snort. "Yeah, I remember."

Tyco continued to vent his rage on the JingXi, Tina tried her very best to stay out his way. She desperately hoped that Lieutenant Commander Roussel and Commander Shepard would show up soon. The man in black had said they were close, and Tyco seemed frantic with fear. But Tina was starting to worry that his fear would cause him to become unstable, and she did not want to be around for that.

What sounded like a light knock came from behind.

She turned, to see Commander Shepard and Lieutenant Commander Roussel crouching on the JingXi's nose. Commander Shepard waved charmingly at her, and despite her situation, Tina blushed.

"Blast!" Roughly, Tyco grabbed Tina by her straw colored hair and yanked her back towards the cockpit door.

Shepard shattered the cockpit window with a single Biotic punch. Then he and Roussel leaped into the ship, guns raised.

"Stay back!" ordered Tyco, his voice was overflowing with desperation. "Stay back or I kill her."

Roussel took a step forward, but then Shepard grabbed her and pulled her back. She shot him an annoyed glare, which he caught even through her helmet. He gestured for her to let him handle this.

"It's over Tyco. You've got nowhere left to go."

"I don't think so! I may not be able to use this ship! But Cipher Nine must have one! That's why he's betrayed me! He had a ship here this whole time! And the bastard never even told me!"

Tina flinched as Tyco tugged on her hair and moved them back towards the airlock entrance.

"I've got a shot!" Roussel said.

"No! You'll hit Tina!"

"He's going to get away!"

"Don't shoot!" ordered Shepard.

Tina was glad that Commander Shepard seemed to be the one calling the shots. She was quite sure that The Butcher would happily sacrifice her if it meant getting the bad guy. Finally Tyco had brought them to the airlock.

"Open it!" he ordered her, and pulled her hair again.

"I don't-" she tried to tell him that she couldn't see where the controls were. But Tyco took it as an attempt at escape.

"No talking! If I hear so much as another peep from you, I will blast you full of-"

Suddenly, Tina threw her head back. Her cranium smashed into Tyco's nose with an audible crunch, he yelped in pain and reflexively released her hair. The instant she was out of the way, Commander Shepard performed a Charge and slammed into Tyco, throwing him against the bulkhead.

Like a boneless doll, Tyco fell to the floor with a groan. Shepard mercilessly planted his knee on the man's backside.

"We've got you, you son of a bitch." He then turned Tina. "You okay ma'am?"

Tina nodded. "Yes sir."

Shepard returned the nod, then turned back to Tyco. "Where's Legion?"

"Go to hell," Tyco spat.

Roussel stepped forward and put the barrel of her shotgun to Tyco's head. "Talk fast shit stain, or I'm decorating my ship with your brains."

At first it seemed that Tyco make her do just that. But finally, his survival instinct won out. "Cipher Nine has your droid, he's probably taken it off planet by now."

"What? Why?" asked Shepard.

Tyco just snorted. "I wish I knew."

Aboard The Silent Hand

The sleek form of a X-70B Phantom-class star ship, called The Silent Hand broke through Kal-Riv's atmosphere. There it found the 8th Alliance Carrier Group lying in wait. But The Silent Hand had earned it's name from years of slipping past all manner of sensor technology. Compared to the instruments used by the Sith Empire and the former Galactic Republic, those used by the Alliance ships might as well have been a 19th century periscope.

The Silent Hand, slipped by the 8th Carrier Group, and not a sensor analyst aboard any of the ships had even noticed. Kuussov, and soon Kal-Riv, became distant specks. Once he came to the edge of the system, Cipher Nine plotted a course in his navi-computer and engaged The Silent Hand's hyperdrive.

The stars themselves began to stretch, and then The Silent Hand shot through space, leaving Kuussov, Kal-Riv, and the entire nebula behind.

Confident that he was free of any further hindrances, Cipher Nine accessed his ship's communications array and opened up a channel. In mere moments a connection was made, and the blue-gray form of Emperor Revan himself appeared above the ship's holoterminal.

"My Emperor," the Imperial agent bowed his head respectfully.

"Cipher Nine," greeted Revan. "Have you succeeded in your mission?"

"Yes my Emperor. I have successfully captured the Geth known as Legion, and am bringing it to Rannoch for you as we speak."

"That is good to hear. I trust it did not give you too much trouble."

"A little," admitted Cipher Nine. "I had to disguise myself as a buxom lass, drag it from a truck to my ship, and avoid STG and Council Spectres. But all in all, I'd say it was a fairly routine mission."

"Excellent. It is time for negotiations with the Geth to progress. I look forward to your arrival. You have done well, agent."

Cipher Nine allowed himself a cocky grin. "All in a day's work, my Emperor."

The JingXi - Cargo bay

Disheartenment had gripped the JingXi. As Shepard felt the ship jerk and lift off from Kuussov's surface, he couldn't help but feel that he was right back where he'd started. He tried to focus on the good that had come from this mission. They'd captured Tyco, which had been the goal. They had also taken down his men and secured their weapons and armor, a ghost of a smirk touched his lips as he thought about how excited Tali and Mordin would be to look over them.

But they had lost Legion.

The Geth was out there somewhere, captured by the mysterious man: Cipher Nine. Shepard wasn't even sure Cipher Nine was really a man. For all he knew, what he had seen could simply be another disguise created by a hologram. A holo-disguise is what Cipher Nine had called it. More technology that was beyond what was possible.

Holograms were prevalent in the galaxy. But to use them to disguise oneself, and with such accuracy, was frankly unheard of. Maybe Roussel would know more, she was a spy after all, and would be more privy to the sort of toys spies had access to these days.

Shepard's eyes drifted to Miranda. She was lying down nearby on medical bed the marines had pulled out from one of the containers. There was a cast around her neck, and Shepard couldn't help but flinch every time he saw it. He had been so stunned by the revelation of Cipher Nine, that he had almost let one of his friends die.

The STG medic that had attended her before they left, said that she would make a full recovery. The wound was apparently not that deep. Still, the knowledge did not help Shepard forget, he could still see Cipher Nine slicing open Miranda's throat.

Shepard lowered his face into his hands. How had this happened? How had they all survived a mission all of them were sure they wouldn't be coming back from, only for this to happen?

His eyes drifted to Tyco, who had been thrown unceremoniously into a corner, bound and gagged. Two armed marines watched him at all times. The man looked just as defeated as Shepard felt. At least they had him, and soon they would have answers to their questions.

Shepard was looking forward to the interrogation.

"Commander Shepard and Garrus Vakarian to the cockpit. Commander Shepard and Garrus Vakarian to the cockpit." Tina's unexpected voice over the ship intercom snapped Shepard out of his thoughts.

"What now?" groaned Garrus.

Shepard just shrugged, he was too tired to banter right now.

When they arrived at the cockpit, they found the SSV Baldwin growing in the window. Hovering next to it, about the size of a fly, was the Normandy. It had been less than a day since he'd last seen it, but Shepard couldn't help feeling an overwhelming sense of joy upon seeing it again.

"What going on?" Shepard asked.

Roussel answered from the co-pilot's seat. "The Baldwin has a transmission from the Citadel for you. Patching it in now."

"Shepard," the voice of David Anderson greeted him, "I've been trying to reach you for a while."

Just like seeing the Normandy, Shepard felt a bit of his energy return upon hearing the voice of the Councilor.

"Sorry sir. Had to go dark for a mission. I actually wanted to talk to you as well. We accomplished our mission and-"

"Shepard listen to me," Anderson's voice was heavy. "It's about the Hierarchy's 9th Fleet and 141st Legion."

Shepard recalled that those were the forces sent by the Council to restore order on Tuchanka. Garrus noticeably shifted upon hearing about the 141st, his father was the General of that legion.

"What happened?" asked Shepard, "did they run into trouble?"

For a beat, the only noise inside the cockpit was the sound of breathing.

"They're gone Shepard," Anderson finally said.

"Gone?! What do you mean gone?!" demanded Garrus.

"I mean the entire peace keeping force the Council sent to Tuchanka has been destroyed."

Alright! That arc is done!

Hey there everyone! Apologies for the long wait. Originally I wanted to release this chapter before the end of 2017, but that just didn't happen. I was too tired to do any writing and I really needed a break. But after some rest over the holidays, I managed to find my inspiration again.

This will mark the beginning of the actual "war" that I have been promising since the beginning of the story. I have some ideas for the next chapter, and I think you'll all like them.

Thank you to everyone whose sticking with the story. It really provides me with much encouragement. I can't promise that the next chapter will be out soon, but I will try my best. I think that it will be easier for me to pump it out because it will feature the most crossover so far.

So please tell me what you thought of this chapters developments.

Legion has been captured, but for what purpose?

Cipher Nine makes his first appearance since shoot Wrex! I hope you liked him and how suave he was.

Garrus' father is in jeopardy!

Leave a review and tell me what you thought!

Bye!