1392 hours, 2 minutes and 43 second since the red wave of The Crucible washed over the galaxy and killed all synthetic life.

Smooth, he hated it. He had worked hard, with his own sweat and blood to get new scares after his resurrection. Again it had all been washed away, like it never happened. This skin was not his, not the skin of hard bitten man of war and strife. No, this was the skin of a spoiled underwear model that spent all his time looking pretty and not thinking of others around him, just searching for next thing to inflate his ego. That's what Rioul Shepard thought of this new skin that now been placed over his chest and upper legs. He found it insulting.

And to make it all worse, instead his lower four Rectus abdominis, there staring at him, as a haunting reminder, were sythmuscles standing as mockery to his original formidable abdomen. Like the sythmusles on his arms, it was a dull grey color. He could count the fibers that composed of it and spoke of nothing human, more machines trying to be man then anything natural found on the human body.

It made him sick to look at it. His brain twist in revolt and disgust, making his blood boil with unhampered rage. Making his want to seek vengeance on its inventors greater, however he needed him if he ever what get out of this bed, considering his foot was still missing.

It was the asari doctor, Portoa, who came to him. But unlike her environmental suit covered partner, she at least explained first it was time to graft his new skin before putting him under for surgery. An improvement in comparison to Ganus, who just knocked him out and put cybernetics into his body where there were missing parts.

However to his surprise to when he woke up and found this new cybernetic when he was told he was just getting a skin graft. When he pursued for answers to his confusion, he only got unsatisfactory "there was too much damage, they had to be replaced". Now when he sat up he felt no feeling in his abdomen, and even when he hit it as hard as he could, he still felt nothing. It was like nothing was there and his upper body was floating away from his waist, only attached by his spin.

That was not all the complaints that ran through his mind at the moment. It was maddening of the lack of stimulation to his mind. All he could do here was sleep and think. The first option, sleep, was a good option, as finding rest was hard to come by in his proffesion. However it did not work for his mind was restless. The other option was something he had no desire for as the unpleasant would always seep in there, a constant reoccurring thorn in his side. He had nothing to distract himself, no omni-tool to fiddle with, nothing to read or even a strong drink to help coup with the thoughts. Being coped up in this room was nibbling away at his sanity at a feverish pace.

Then suddenly sounds from outside cut his thoughts away from him. It sounded it like Grunt was chatting with someone, rather friendly he might add. There was chuckling and laughing and hint male human voice. This could only be good thing Shepard thought because Grunt is not friendly to people he does not know, so it had be someone he respected, some Shepard knew.

With possibility of a visitor over the horizon, Shepard quickly pulled the sheets over his bare chest and waited for the bearer of this interruption to his solitary confinement. Then with suddenness of a car crash, the chatter outside stopped. However it was only seconds before in was replace with yelling of a familiar voice, a very welcome voice in the ears of Shepard.

"Am I going to be let in or am I going to have to bust the door down. Is the great Commander Shepard too good for a lowly merc now" bellowed a voice with a tinge of English accent. The combination of merc, accent and Grunts approval led this to only possibly being one person in Shepard's mine.

"Of course you come in Zaeed" and without further ado the old mercenary came waltzing in his iconic yellow armor with his right upper arm bare. However three new scars now accompany his arm now. Three identical slashes were stretch across Zaeed's bicep.

"I brought you a gift. I am always bored out of my mine when I am in the hospital, so I figure I bring something I wish I had when I was in hospital. I think the last time I was in hospital was twenty something years ago, when I was still young stupid" Zaeed placed on table next to Shepard that was meant for gift for visitors. However one of the gifts was probably something it was not meant for. Shepard took a moment to gaze at amazement at the salvation to his boredom. A bottle of what he guessed was whiskey and an omni-tool. Shepard picked up the bottle and it turned it about. He was right about the whiskey part, but he didn't recognize the brand. However it was surprisingly old, 2150 it listed, so that made it over 36 years old.

"Zaeed where you get this, I figure finding something like this would be hard considering the times" Zaeed gave Shepard a satisfied grin as he came to his response.

"Well let's just say its previous owner won't be using this anymore and I figure why let it get wasted on some other people" He pulled up a spot on wall and leaned back on it like he was back at his room in Normandy. Shepard at this point noted his preference on leaning on walls as oppose to sitting or standing.

"Well did you bring glasses or we just going drink out the bottle" Shepard had to admit he was slightly sadden to hear of the bottle origins, but yet he could not look gift horse in mouth, especially when it came with booze and tech.

"Of course I brought glasses, I just figured you want wait till later and keep all to yourself" Zaeed removed himself from the wall and pulled what appeared to be two crystal glasses from behind his back. Shepard could not help but stare at odds with his good fortune and from such an unexpected source too.

"I am too impatient to wait and it would be just too rude for me to drink right in front of you" as Shepard made his remark; Zaeed place glasses on the little table, filled himself a drink and retreated back to his spot on the wall.

"Well good, this should make this more interesting. So, how have you been Shepard?" Zaeed commented while taking a sip, savoring the rare, antique and golden liquid.

"I was slowly going crazy in here, but I think you save me of that with these generous gifts. Speaking off that, let's see what we got here" Shepard reached over and picked up the omni-tool, put it on, turned it on and looked over it. It was rather Spartan of any customization and it was not a very advance brand. But something caught his eye; there were several combat applications on it though. incinerate, submission net and a flamer. "Where did Zaeed get this?" he asked himself.

"Zaeed, where did you get this?" he asked the merc who only raised an eyebrow the question.

"After meeting up with you I did some missions for Hackett and got paired up with this vorcha. He was surprisingly less annoying then rest of his kind and was capable of actually having a somewhat intelligent conversation. I suspect though he was probably a slaver or something considering the net and some his opinions. I took omni-tool when died figuring to make a buck or two, but forgot about it. Then I remembered that flamethrower you carried all the time when I served, so I figure you appreciate the built in flamethrower. And I thought you like be able to fiddle with some tech when I left" Shepard took time to marvel at what had just occurred. Zaeed just walked and gave him booze, a wrist computer and a flamethrower in one fell swipe. Shepard was wondering if it was his birthday or something. Now if only he had gotten Tali here and things would have been perfect and this would have been the best birthday ever. Then again he had little to say of birthdays.

It was at this time Shepard notice Zaeed had his gaze fixed Shepard's arm, more specially the new artificial bicep that had been emplaced.

"You know that bicep reminds me of a job I did once" Zaeed finally broke out of his trance with the arm and stared Shepard in the eye.

"Really?" Shepard was not really surprised, but he figured he would humor the old man and let him tell his tale. He liked Zaeed for that anyways. He always had very intriguing stories and Shepard remembered spending great amounts of time with Zaeed down in bottom of Normandy, trading war stories, and on the rare occasion stories not involving fighting.

"Yeah, I was hired to be basically a body guard for this one volus trader in Illium. He was an annoying little ball because he always yelled at everything, like he had make up for something. Didn't see why though, he made more than me in 10 minutes then I do in a mouth. However…" Shepard interrupted Zaeed before he went on.

"I did not think you hired yourself as a body guard?" Shepard was confused by this and could have sworn he said he did not do that.

"I don't and I would never do it after this. You see the volus sold the job as stopping an assassin, but that involved a lot of just standing around in his estate, waiting for the bastard to come. The volus apparently pissed off some higher up hannar and was sure one those drell assassins was going to try kill him, like the one had on your own ship"

"You mean Thane" Shepard wondered if he had been told about his death.

"That's the one. Anyways, the little fudge ball lived in this big tower that had this nice estate with a garden at the top of it, in a courtyard. So I twiddled my thumbs bored out of mind when a big explosion happened in courtyard. Me being young and stupid rush in to check it out. Not surprisingly it turned out be a distraction. When I got to ground zero, I looked up at my employer office window to see this big drell rip off the poor bugers mask, letting little ball choke to death, bastard. Angry at falling my contract and I wasn't going to get paid, I chased the assassin down. When I finally caught the bastard I came across what could the ugliest cyberneticly enhanced thing until I meant husks. The guy had giant synthetic arms that I am sure could crush someone's skull. The guy had a metal lower jaw powered by pistons for cheeks. And finally he had these stilt things for feet that made it so he could jump really high in air, he could clear a 20 foot jump easy"

"Sounds nothing like Thane to me" Shepard had to admit he kind of wanyed see this guy, but considering this is a Zaeed story, he will probably be dead by tbe end of it. Or ask Shepard to track him down and kill him.

"He had a coat just like his. Anyways I was running and gunning after him. He was jumping around like a maniac, throwing around biotics this way and that. Eventually we end up on catwalk outside, thousands of feet in the air. I thought I had him, as it was dead end, but I was wrong. He jump right over my head, got behind me and kicked me so hard I fell right on my back. It knocked the wind right out of me. He then kneeled next to me ready put his fist right through my skull when I thought fast. I grabbed his coat collar and rammed my head into his as hard as I could. He stumbled back and gave me enough time to get up. Then I received on of greatest ass kicking of my life time. Eventually he was holding over the edge of the catwalk by my throat. However I saw something glimmer in his pocket. A pistol I was sure he did not even use in the fight. So I reached in pulled it out shot a few shots into his arm and kicked him back on the catwalk. At this point I guess he got the idea that he already did his job, so he did not need finish me off. So he jumped off the catwalk and hijacked one of those automated taxi with no driver" Zaeed took another sip from his glass

"You are kidding, he jumped off a catwalk and landed on air car without breaking anything" The more and more Shepard heard the less it seemed possible, but there was no reason for Zaeed to lie, so he went with it.

"Yeah he did. I guess those stilts he had are also good for landing. And again being young and stupid, I decided it did not look so tough to do what he did. So I jumped off and got my own taxi, it was easier than you would think. Anyways this had become personal now, I could not fail a contact and receive such an ass kicking and be alright with it. So bastard had to die I thought. I caught up with him and considering taxis don't have any weapons, I started ramming him. He did not like that I guess and opens his door so he could launch a biotic warp at my taxi, which pretty much killed it. So I jump for his car, pull myself into it and got a few good punches in. After my first barrage of punches, we start wrestling in the car. At some point a gun goes off and car can't turn no more. He doesn't seem to notice and proceeds to kick me out of the car, almost. I am barley holding on to the bottom of the door frame, when I make my next move. I take my knife and stab it into his foot stilt thing and impale it to the bottom of the car. I proceed let go and I crash on top of two wives taking a vacation from their husbands. I get into their car and watch as the assassin car goes right into side of one those towers, blowing up beautifully, taking the bastard with it"

"What happened after that" Shepard did not bother to think how many bystanders probably died in that crash. But he had come to expect that from Zaeed.

"Well I figure I needed a vacation and these woman were about have one, so I went with them" and out of all the things he had said so far, Shepard found that the hardest to believe. Two grown woman about take a vacation just take a stranger that fell out of the sky and decide to take him along. Shepard shook his head trying to take it all in and responded.

"And next you're going to tell me is that they didn't go back their husbands after a taste of Zaeed" He knew he was jumping to conclusion. But it might was well considering the ridiculousness of the story. It screamed cheesy action film.

"Almost, it was a taste of each other that made not go back to their husbands, not me. I was just a helpless bystander" he just shrugged and sip from his glass again.

Sensing the decreasing intelligence level of this conversation, Shepard decided a change of topic was in order. "So what happened sense my last conversation with you, Zaeed?"

"How can you ask that question? That was the toughest battle of my life; I don't think I will ever top that Shepard. It started out well and good" Shepard sigh as he realized he just released the floodgate to another story. The way he saw it is that it could only be more ridiculous the last story.

"So they load me up with some Alliance marines in armored convoy and tell me to follow them and shot some stuff, sounded easy enough. Well no least then twenty minutes in and all transports had been immobilized and I am fighting for my life with Alliance marines. I was not supposed to give order or follow any their officer gave, so I shot anything that looked a little creepy. Although in less time that it took to take out the transports, the chain of command falls apart as leader keep getting shot as they tried yelling orders. Everything was going to hell fast and I am sure I killed more things in that time then I usually do in ten normal contracts. Figuring were going die if not some order is in place soon, I try something. I try yelling some orders and immediately the marines look up for next order. I guess they were impressed by me killing a few of those krogan things and figured I most know what I was doing. So in no time at all, I got little under a company of marines following me. It felt good to lead a bunch of men in desperate battle again" Shepard took this in silence, waiting for Zaeed to go on.

"I led them to an above ground parking garage and told them to plant explosive as we went up. Next thing we know we are on top of the garage filled with explosives and those Reaper things. I tell them to jump to the next building and blow the stand. It was wonderful to hear scream all those monsters die at once. It gave us some breathing time, so I told them to plant explosives on building we are standing on now. We proceed to do the same thing with garage with ten or more buildings. Each time though, we lost a few guys and by the time of eleventh building or so, I only had two guys left. They didn't last long. So it was just me, Jessie and a hundred or so Reaper things…" Now Shepard had to interrupt at the news of Jessie working again.

"You got Jessie fix, I thought there was no way repair her" Shepard had to admit he was very curious about his answer to this and why he didn't do it sooner.

"You think I go greatest battle of mankind without my favorite gun? I gave you more than that Shepard. I gave her to a STG guy back roughly when met the vorcha I mention before. He got her working like she was new. Too bad he is dead now" He seemed to spare a moment of silence to the salarian that repaired Jessie.

"Anyways, I was surrounded and I figured I was going to die, but I figure I make it easier for you. So I tried to take as many of those bastards down and be a big huge distraction. I ran all over the place running and gunning. I even broke the sniper rifle I brought over some turian things head. I think I doubled over Jessie number of kills that day. And Shepard I got to say you have impeccable timing because right when Jessie stopped firing and died again. That red wave went over and saved my sorry ass. I honest could not believe I was still alive and I just started laughing like I heard to funniest joke in the known universe. I sure I scared any survivors if there was any around me. Then I finally came around and I decided to take a nap on the rubble. Rocks seem very comfortable after fighting Reaper abomination for what felt like forever"

"You took a nap after you were fighting" Shepard had to admit that was not first thing he thought of. He guessed it made sense, but it seemed strange.

"Why not, I was dead tired. I am getting old, Shepard. It is hard to keep this up anymore, most people fighting my age are usually either in command of big army or dead at my age. I have yet to find someone as old as me and still fights on the ground" one question came to mind from that remark. Shepard proceeded to ask.

"So, what now? What are your plans now, after all of this?" Shepard could not honestly guess what the merc would say. On one hand it made sense to stop now, but he could not see Zaeed doing anything but killing.

"Aren't I supposed to be asking you the questions? Ah, whatever. I have done a lot fighting Shepard and I don't think I can ever top this. So I figure I retire somewhere nice and sunny. Which I have been meaning to ask you, you have been lot place, know maybe a nice colony that's warm and dry, maybe a beach that could use somebody like me?" the question blindsided Shepard like incoming traffic or a missile. Zaeed been around longer than he has, why couldn't he answer his own question. Certainly he had been some places that met his qualifications. This didn't make sense to him. He mauled over the question, trying to think of an answer, but he could only think one thing. He thought it was a little preposterous though. However that described his career in nutshell.

"The only place like that I've been to recently that like that, that's not Tuchanka, is Rannoch. It's all being rebuilt and your probably have to talk admirals first, but I could give them my good word. There probably are some job opportunities too" Zaeed took the answer and process it before giving a reply.

"Well that beats buying a ship full of explosions and committing suicide on Omega. Although doesn't sound likely, but probably less people there would know who I am. I will consider it. So, how about you, you got any plans. Going to keep being a god damn hero?" Shepard had thought about what he was going do. The problem was all his plan revolved around a certain quarian and without her all he had left was his career as specter. He didn't want that. He was tired and wanted settle down for awhile, but yet saw no point if Tali wasn't there with him. Maybe going out with bang like Zaeed said wasn't so bad of an idea.

"I actually was thinking about reti…" Zaeed didn't ever let finish before jumping off his wall and interrupting Shepard.

"No you can't do that Shepard, you're in your prime. You still have a lot of fight in you and this is now a time of opportunity, with all this talk rebuild. And someone has to scare the mercs so they don't get any silly ideas" Shepard wasn't sure to take him serious or not, as he was talking in such a way it gave both a dark and light edge to what he said.

"I don't feel like I got a lot in me. I am tired of…" again Zaeed interrupted him with glee.

"Tired, tired from what, killing? Shepard I have seen the way you fight, the way you charge into the middle of it all without any regard. Only two kinds of people do that, idiots or people who enjoy being in the thick of it all and love battle. I know that's you because I am same way and you remind me of myself when I was younger. Even if you did retire, I would bet in less than year you would come back to fight" As he listen to Zaeed words, he had to admit it rang true. He did love to be thick of it, with fire and bullets everywhere, smoke and napalm filing his nose. That delicious moment where you looked into your enemies eyes and see the defeat it them, where he accepts you will bring his death and delivering the final blow. He always felt euphoric during battle and a brilliant afterglow when its over. But that was not why he was tired.

"No it's not the killing why I want retire. No, there are two reasons. The number one reason is I am tired of watching friends die and I don't want isolate myself so I don't feel grief at their death. It's also hard to tell yourself it's not your fault, even when it's not" he stopped and thought to himself to think when he started to feel this way. Zaeed filled the pause with his own words.

"Who died to cause this?" There were a lot people who could say but most would not be true and there was one that nagged him, like a gun press against his back.

"Samara died"

"How" that was Zaeed only word as what appeared to be genuine shock filled his face.

"Suicide and I was there, and watch the whole. I was too surprised and slow to stop her. I would have never guessed she would commit suicide" Zaeed only respond by sipping his glass.

"The second thing is that this war is not the same. It was not like when fighting mercs when every time you killed one it felt like you're hurting them. That you are winning against an opposing force. But like you said it doesn't feel like a war when your enemies as tall as a skyscraper. No sense of victory when I killed a cannibal or a brute. They have millions to replace them and it's not really hurting them. I felt like we were just digging our own grave. I just now want sulk away to Rannoch and…" he caught himself but it was too late. The cat is out of the bag. He didn't want say anything until Tali was in his arms again, but he let it slip. And also with that last statement Zaeed's eyes became big as he was stuck with realization.

"I get it now, so all the gossip is true. You just what retire so you can go live happily ever after with your damsel, like god damn fairy tale hero. And you want me retire there too so you have little company of the same DNA type and have few beers, am I right?" at this point Shepard didn't see point of continue this conversation. He figured why not just go with the flow. He doubt Zaeed would understand anyways. Although he did find strange that Zaeed seemly slow on his whole relationship with Tali thing. Some people are just slow on that sort thing he guessed.

"That's it Zaeed, you caught me. I just want retire so I can spend all time on Rannoch being a romantic and drinking" responded Shepard sarcastically, putting his hands in the air in mock surrender. Zaeed shot down his drink and was about to say something when his omni-tool start beeping. He took a brief look before saying.

"Would love to stay and chat like asari, but something important came up. Got to go" And like that he was out the door. Again leave Shepard in silence. He didn't mind it now though as he now had a toy to play with and good drink. He decide to use his new omni-tool to brush on what been going on and surf threw news until he feel blissfully into sleep.

Author's Note: I feel Zaeed is one of the great unappreciated characters in Mass Effect. How many times has he been spotlighted in any stories? I can tell you too few. Zaeed in my opinion has a lovable personality, tells great stories, gave me a flamethrower in ME 2, is a badass, and thinks on the same wave length as me. I know those things don't make a great character, but in my book it will sure make you a enjoyable one.

And am I the only one who was disappointed that you can't have some of the multiplayer powers in single player. Okay I am lying about that. I just wanted a flamethrower really bad and saw that vorcha had it. There are few weapons I love more than a good shotgun, and a flamethrower is one of the few. This author's note seems to be turning into the flamethrower appreciation note. God I love flamethrowers. I shouldn't be allowed near fire.

By the way, am I the only one who had notice that every time you meet Zaeed, he is leaning on something? The only time I can think of when he is not leaning on something is when you first meet him, when he is kicking a man on the ground. An activity I fully support.

I should probably see a psychologist. But then again the last time I did that I ended up eating some guy's liver and wearing his face. Okay I am just rambling now to fill up my word count, bye.