Potential Trigger Warning!
You have been warned!

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Chapter 13: We didn't start the fire...
Lucian POV.

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One thing video games over the ages gets correct is Escort Duty. It's either dull as hell, or annoying as hell. Thank goodness that real people aren't QUITE as bad a glitchy AI but they can still pull some idiotic moves when panic sets in. You'd think that people would be calm in certain situations but studies even in our home 'verse showed that the reasoning part of our brain tends to shut down during panic inducing situations and it takes a lot of training to counter that reaction. Of course, it was just my luck, we got an annoying run.

An unmarked Eclipse ship attacked us when we were about to hit the Asari Relay to head to a scientific base set up in orbit around Pluto. From there, the vaccine would be mass produced and then sent out in shuttles to the Citadel and to the colonies. The six scientists on board were currently in the back part of our small transport ship alternating from whimpering, praying, screaming or hovering over their stored work like protective mothers in the case of the two heads, one Human male and one Asari.

I always thought that space battles in and of themselves could be very exciting, IF you're the Pilot. As it was I was waiting near the airlock with the others, weapons trained on the door in preparation of a worst case scenario, a boarding which was still likely at this point. Everyone had their helmets on, a hull breach would kill us otherwise if the Eclipse got a lucky shot in, but thus far they were aiming to cripple the ship, not to kill, as they didn't want to damage their desired prize.

The Asari pilot let out a shout as the ship rumbled suddenly. Our engines fell silent with a pained whine. Well, that answered that, boarding party incoming.

"I can bypass the system and get our engines online in ten minutes!" The pilot, Annia, barked in the ear of my headset.

"They'll board us in that time, Sparklefingers." I said with a growl.

"I know! Do your job and I'll do mine!" There was a sparking sound that caused feedback to echo in my ears. "Goddess! Hold them off!"

"Fine fine, just don't blow up the console! This isn't a training simulator you know." I said with a laugh, her response made me laugh harder, and even got a few chuckles from the others, as she snapped off the Asari version of 'Fuck you!' in my ear. Annia's nickname came from the fact that she shot a biotic blast from her hands during her training days and blew up the training simulator when she got angry at it, leaving it a sparking mess. She'd been our pilot through the whole of this mission and was a smart ass and had the temper to match as well.

I glanced at the others who all had grim smiles on their faces and signaled for them to be ready. We had a decent amount of cover set up, crates and a portable barrier whose power source was carefully concealed and the Asari Commandos were ready to launch a Biotic Push or Shield if the merc's tossed a grenade. A few of the scientists could see us from their vantage point and pulled their own weapons, eyes wide with fear and only one held the fierce determination of experience in her gaze.

I signalled for her to protect the others and to stay put and she nodded back, a faint, cold smile passed over her lips and a blue glow over the hand not holding the gun. She was one of the project heads and was also a Matriarch, I could trust her to keep the others in line and not hit us in their panic. The Human project head remained hovering over the crates of supplies and snapped at the scientists without guns.

"Get down and hide you idiots! Not there! BEHIND Sinir! You don't want to end up IN FRONT of a Biotic Barrier, you'll get hit by ricochet that way! And you boast an IQ of 183?! MOVE YOU IDIOT!"

I had to bite back another bark of laughter as the other scientists moved to frantically follow their head's orders and turned to confirm that my team and the others had their shields up and turned to the door. The ship shuddered slightly as their docking ramp connected to our door. There was a steady clicking noise now as the Eclipse worked on bypassing the primary doors security measures. The blue glow of biotics next to me was reassuring and I had to fight down a grin. I'd specifically given orders that our roster would only include human names of crew and scientists just on the off chance we were attacked. There would be the same number of individuals but anyone expecting an all human crew would be in for a painful surprise. The Asari themselves had agreed with the idea, as the vaccine was primarily meant for humans it wouldn't have been surprising to have an all human crew taking the vaccine back to Earth's solar system.

The doors red light flashed and flickered white for a moment before turning green and the door opened. I held a hand up, two fingers raised. A small round object came flying into the ship and was immediately caught in a biotic field right before it hit the ground. After a second I flashed a signal and the Asari who'd caught the grenade tossed it back down the connecting walkway. The grenade, timed as it was, went off on the other end of the walkway with a bright flash and a plume of smoke that filled the walkway quickly. Personally loved to use the Flash-bang grenades myself, useful for disorienting the enemy. The resultant cursing from the mercs made me grin and we all ducked behind cover as they fired blindly down the hall at us, expecting us to be foolish enough to try to board them in retaliation. They knew now that we had at least one biotic, and would hopefully continue to think the rest of us were normal humans.

We weren't going to oblige them with an outright attack though. We would keep them off the ship long enough for Sparklefingers to reroute power to the engines and then we would toss our own grenade down the boarding walk way to damage the walk way itself, hopefully bad enough that it ruptured completely or at least bad enough that tearing away from it wouldn't damage our ship too badly and seal both the main docking door and the emergency door and we would then rip the rest of the way from the merc ship. Mercs had a habit of attacking cargo ships close to unprotected, or even Relays if they were ballsy enough, mostly so they could slip through the Relays before authorities had a chance to catch them. Due to this we were close enough ourselves to make a jump once we broke away and left them floundering in shock.

Once the random fire from the other end stopped I held up my hand again in a 'hold' signal to the others. I heard the slow clunk of footsteps starting down the walk way, stopping every few moments. I grinned at that, they were nervous and wary, perfect. The longer they took trying to get across the more time Sparklefingers had. A voice piped over my headset on the secure channel my team used.

"So how much do you want to be it's a greenhorn pissin' his pants?" Ripley said, a sneer of annoyance in her voice, still wasn't all that patient of a person even after all this time.

"Not gonna take that bet." Dundee snorted. "You know they use the greenhorns as cannon fodder."

"Hmph, it's also likely that this is a group of Sisters and the 'greenhorn' isn't a greenhorn and will try to play the sympathy card." Chief's voice was soft but filled with scorn.

"I know right? 'Oh...I didn't know what I was getting into... please sir save me from their wicked ways!'" Ripley's said, which was followed by a grumble from Dundee.

I let out a bark of laughter at that and shook my head slightly at their antics. We'd had a run in with the Eclipse not that long ago. Unlike Shepards eventual mission in Mass Effect 2 where he/she runs into an Eclipse sister playing innocent, we'd actually caught two of the Eclipse in the process of torturing a Salarian. The younger one had been standing to the side and had frozen for a moment before bursting into tears and running over to us saying that she didn't want to be there any more and more of the ilk. The blood on her hands clued me in otherwise, though Dundee had looked eager enough to believe her as she made a beeline toward him. I'd waited until she was right next to me and hit her in the head with the butt of my gun while Ripley covered the other Asari. We'd given Dundee no end of shit for wanting to play the white knight to the Sister. With what happened though, it made me think that the 'overwhelmed and innocent newbie' act was SOP(Standard Operating Procedure) for the Sisters if they got caught.

I checked through the scope of my weapon into the smoke and could just make out the form of bright yellow masculine armor approaching when the smoke shifted, there was no black that I could see on the chest plate. I humphed softly and spoke to the others.

"One target, male armor, no markings. Newbie from the look of things." New mercs to most of the groups weren't allowed to wear the groups colors until they did something to earn them. I let a teasing tone slip into my voice. "Looks like we're going to be spared a 'white knight' incident."

"Come on! Are you guys EVER going to drop that?!" Dundee voice whined in our ears. I saw him tightening his grip on his gun out of the corner of my helmet.

"Not likely." I said with a grin and shifted my grip on my gun as the merc reached the end of the walk way.

He'd been smart enough to shift to the side of the walk way and had his back pressed to the wall. He was easing up at a slower pace, gun raised and looking through his scope. The smoke was just as much a hindrance to him as it was to us. I saw the moment that he saw us aiming at him through the scope. He tensed and I found myself wondering if he would run back or open fire.

Instead of doing either of those options he dropped his gun, raised his hands and ducked around the corner of the doorway. He crouched down, keeping his hands up and in sight as Dundee and I trained our guns on him, the others keeping aim down the hall. Keeping my gun trained on the merc I signalled for one of the Asari commandos, Kurili, to go frisk him. She did so, taking away a smaller backup pistol, he didn't even have any grenades or even a flashbang. She pulled off his helmet to make sure he couldn't talk to the other mercs and slapped a breather on him that covered his mouth and erected a barrier around his head to give him a contained atmosphere in case the hull ruptured when we pulled away.

The merc was little more then a kid really. Looking to be about sixteen at the most with brown hair and blue eyes filled with fear. Kid was almost definitely a newbie and was probably hoping that we would show some mercy, ie: time in prison instead of killing him outright or depending on his age, Earth still had a kind of Juvie system in place (read; if the kid was caught by authorities and the crime was bad enough mandatory entrance into the military to correct the behaviour and give the kid(s) discipline. Unless the parents were willing to pay a fine to keep him out of the military.)

Taking a risk, I signalled for the Kurili to see if she'd be willing to meld with the kid. She looked at me thoughtfully for a moment, signalled us to cover her and leaned in close to the kid. A few moments later he nodded his head and she leaned in closer, almost touching her forehead to his. I kept my gaze on the kid while the others focused on the walkway. It was over moments later. Kurili's voice came over the radio channel.

"Kid's only fifteen, orphan. The Eclipse found him hacking into a building in order to hide when they hit a colony and decided to 'enlist' his help in raiding the place. He's been stuck with them since." Her voice was strangely without emotion. She carefully bound his hands and dragged him a little further to the side. "Kid took a stupid chance when he was ordered forward. We could have blown his head off."

"He's lucky." I said. My voice went cold a moment later. "He do anything we need to put him down for?" I wasn't about to risk having a threat on board if I could help it.

"No, only thing he's been good for is hacking, bait and..." Her voice went cold with contained anger. "as a toy..."

My vision tinged red as I immediately realized what she was referring to. One type of... creature... was sadly true across all of the species; Child molesters. These cretins existed regardless of speices and while each species had their own punishment method for these beasts of society and each species had their own age of consent, there was always going to be the sad and horrible truth that we couldn't stop them all.

Let me give you a small breakdown; Humans, regardless of cultural backgroud, were of age at eighteen. Salarians due to their shorter lifespan, started breeding contracts at age fourteen. Turians were of age when they joined the military at sixteen. For Quarians it was when they completed their pilgrimage (or if they separated from the fleet it defaulted to nineteen years of age). Asari were of age once they hit their Maiden stage between thirty-forty years (their physical age equivalent of seventeen). Krogan defaulted to the Rite of Passage, which could be done as soon as the youngster felt ready (which was anywhere between fifteen and forty years, Grunt would be a special case since he would be the PHYSICAL equivalent of fifteen, for even with all of the information imprinted onto him, he would still have quite a lot to learn emotionally compared to other Krogan youngsters. Normally Krogans took the right as soon as they turned fifteen) and they were not allowed to breed until they'd passed their rite and even then only if a female took interest in them (In a way the Genophage made some sense to me, Krogan breed way too fast statistically compared to other longer lived species and overpopulation could be a risk factor not just for their civilization but for other worlds as they tried to expand to help spread out a rapidly growing number of people which could result in more wars with the Krogan species, but I felt that the Salarians should have neutralized the eggs themselves so that the Krogan females could be spared the pain of a still birth. If the egg was neutralized then there would be nothing for the sperm to viably attach to. Neutralize a good percentage of the eggs and each female Krogran would still have a chance at a live birth and wouldn't end up committing suicide out of grief as many females tended to do when they found they would only have still-births.)

Now all of those age differences, not to mention the differences for the other species out there, led to occasional issues regarding cross-species relationships and the ages of those involved, those were normally easily sorted out when it was a matter of honest confusion. However we still ended up with those who would go after the youth of a particular species, knowingly ignoring the laws in order to persue their sick desires.

'Raine and I both held a particular loathing for those individuals who found enjoyment in attacking children in such a manner. Especially the Asari that took to doing things like this. They could rape the body and the mind of their prey. Normal rape did enough mental damage as it was, what an Asari could do if they were that kind of a monster was Freddy Kruegerish. I tilted my head as I looked at the boy and then looked back to Kurili.

"Were all of them involved?"

She knew what I meant by the question.

"Yes."

I had to take a deep breath to calm myself. My first instinct was to change our orders, to tell Sparklefingers that once we'd pulled away successfully that we needed to torch the Eclipse ship. I was in charge of the mission, and the look in the Asari commando's eyes, hell the eyes of all of my team as I looked to each of them, was to order just that. Reason won out. Barely.

"We continue the mission as planned. Get away and get the cargo to safety. Once we're clear of the Eclipse ship and able to make a clean jump I need you to alert the Asari Patrols about the Eclipse shuttle and that we have rescued an underage human from their... abuses. From there we can see about getting him an escort to the Citadel as a key witness against these fuckers. Copy Sparklefingers."

"Copy that boss. I say fry their asses, but you're right. Mission comes first."

I looked to the others to make sure they understood my orders. Since we were all on the same channel they had heard everything. Everyone, Asari and Human, had dark looks filled with a contained desire for vengeance. They would obey orders, each one of them, despite their anger. I gave a grim smile. They were good soldiers, all of them. And those in my unit were good friends. I realized that I would miss this when I made my move to take over Cerberus. The talk a while back with Chief had made me realize that I would miss them as friends, but now... to not have them at my back as I made my move...

I shifted, rolling my shoulders and turned quickly back to the corridor. The Eclipse had been fairly quiet on the other end, almost too quiet. My soldiers instincts gifted to me by the Lore Keeper were screaming in my ears. I tilted my head, it had taken time, but I had finally wrested control of the instincts and understood now what they warned me of. No longer would I not be in control of my own body.

I understood the instinctual threat and I signalled swiftly to one of the other Asari commandos with us, she lifted her hand in a biotic grab just as a grenade was lobbed into sight. I sneered slightly, they probably had been hoping that the boy they'd caught would do just what he had done and assumed, due to the false manifesto, that we would be verbally getting the boys story from him instead of a swift meld. We weren't as helpless as they thought and they were about to learn the hard way.

She threw back the grenade. I couldn't have timed it more perfectly myself, as I heard the explosion sound and the sudden screams and curses that filled the air from down the connecting walkway. Not a sight disabling grenade this time. I nodded slightly to myself.

"They're kicking things into gear, you ready up there yet Sparklefingers?"

"Bypass almost complete boss. Should be able to power the engines on shortly. Keep them occupied for another minute will ya?"

"On it."

I gave a signal and two of the Asari Commandos readied a Shockwave. Kurili pulled the boy off to the side so they wouldn't get hit by the attack. Once they were out of the way I dropped my hand and one Commando let loose. No curses this time, but moments after the Shockwave would have hit the other side there were the sounds of running footsteps down the walkway and a war cry from multiple voices. I signaled again and the second Commando released her own Shockwave. I let out a mirthless laugh at the sound of the shocked screams.

"Mow 'em down! Don't let them step one foot on the ship, you force them back! Make them cower!"

"Sir, yes sir!" Came the unified response of those around me.

For several moments gunfire was traded back and forth down the walkway. Biotic attacks from the Eclipse were countered expertly by the Commandos with us. After that last grenade they kept to gunfire, not wanting to damage the walkway. I felt a sneer come to my lips as I caught one of the Eclipse in my sights and laid her low with a headshot. While we weren't going to board the enemy ship, that didn't mean we wouldn't thin their ranks for the Asari's Patrol ships. Sparklefinger's voice echoed over the comm.

"Boss! Make sure you're ready down there!"

"Got it!" I shouted to the others. "Mag check folks! Be ready to roll!"

A chorus of 'All clear' sounded in my helm. A glance to the side showed Kurili making sure the teen's boots were firmly locking against the floor. I nodded to myself as it wouldn't do for our rescuee to go out the hatch.

"Boss, you guys ready?"

I glanced to Chief, who was standing ready to close the emergency hatch door. He nodded.

"Ready as we can be Sparkles."

"Alright, ten count! Ten!"

Three of the commando's readied grenades, the rest wrapped themselves in biotic glow.

"Nine!"

I ducked under a blast of gunfire and returned fire, taking out another Eclipse. While I trusted my shield's to hold, it was best not to weaken them.

"Eight!"

A nod to the Asari scientists and a biotic barrier flew up to protect the room they were in.

"Seven!"

A yelp drew my attention for a moment, Dundee hadn't ducked and his shields had failed. From the look of it he'd taken a bullet to his arm before Ripley was able to pull him behind cover.

"Six!"

The Eclipse seemed to sense we were up to something and were trying to force themselves down the walkway. Another Shockwave forced them back.

"Five!"

The commando's tossed their grenades down the walk way with just enough force that they landed roughly in the middle of it.

"Four!"

The resultant explosion tore holes into the walkway and the fires from the blasts were immediately extinguished as the oxygen was ripped from both ships.

"Three!"

The Walkway was badly damaged but still held the ships tethered. I signaled the commandos and they sent out multiple Shockwaves which tore the walkway apart further. Only a few beams of metal held us together now.

"Two!"

A signal to Chief and he hit the switch for the emergency hatch door to close. A few last shots slipped through as the door closed and we all ducked down.

"ONE! Hold tight!"

The engines rumbled to life and the ship shuddered as we pulled away. The sound of metal bending, twisting and then snapping echoed along the hull of the ship worse then the sound of nails scraping along a chalkboard. One final lurch and the shuddering stopped.

"We're clear! Permission to give them a parting gift boss?"

"Do you have to alter course from the Relay?" I asked, brow raising as I stood up from behind cover and moved to turn off the portable barriers.

"...Yes sir."

"Permission denied. Mission first. Get us the hell out of here Sparklefingers."

"...Yes sir!"

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I checked on everyone first before moving to take a break at the back of the shuttle. Dundee was alright, the bullet he took only grazed his arm, though he would need to replace the armor. Chief and Kurili took it upon themselves to watch over our guest, Billy. Kid had had it rough, he would get twitchy any time an Asari other then Kurili got near him. I think the only reason he'd been willing to meld with her was because it was the only way he'd felt we would believe him about what he had gone through. Kid looked depressed and out of sorts, but at least Kurili was there to help him if he needed to talk. Asari made great counselors for a reason, they literal understood everything that you'd been through with their ability to meld.

The scientists were all double and triple checking their work to make sure things remained perfectly intact. It was rather amusing to watch them, they were almost like ants who'd had their nest disturbed, flitting back and forth quickly among the various crates of supplies and equipment.

Shaking my head at their antics I sat down in one of the small chairs, hit the safety on my gun and set it in the seat beside me. Next I took off my helmet and set it down next to my gun and then opened up my omni-tool. I had several messages. First was from our Commanding Officer demanding a detailed report of the attack. I recorded a quick, but detailed, vid message for him letting him know we were all alright and that we had the kid on board and got it sent off. The next two were requests from Dundee to join me on a few online games. I deleted those, when would he learn that I didn't like games where you had to buy access to items when grinding worked just fine in other games. The last though, was a quick audio message from 'Raine. She sounded like she had been crying.

'Lucian... Please... When... when you can call me back... when it's safe, I know you must be busy since I'm not getting through. Just... call me when you can... please?'

My brow furrowed as I listened to her message. She hadn't sounded like this since she regained some of the darker memories of her youth. She'd forgotten much of what had happened when she was a child, only to have the death of one of her uncles bring the memories back. The only reason it had really come up was that she was GLAD that her uncle was dead, refused to go to the funeral for fear of ostracizing herself from her family due to a stong desire to dance on his grave and couldn't really remember why. That reaction, once I'd coaxed it out of her after almost a week of avoiding me, had worried me badly. It had taken time, but we had worked together as friends, as a team and as a couple to help her both regain and surpass the memories of her abuse at her uncles hands. It was one of the reasons 'Raine and I both held such a deep hatred of child molesters. I'd have put him in the ground myself if I could have.

I rubbed the ridge of my nose and let out a soft sigh. This... had to be something bad. I signalled to the others that I was to remain undisturbed and slipped my helmet back on. Switching off the external speaker so I couldn't be heard, I opened a line to her Omni'tool. She picked up after a few moments.

'Lucian?' Her voice was still sorrow-filled and strained, but she sounded as if she'd woken up after crying herself to sleep. I felt a small sense of relief, that she had slept at all was a good sign. She'd had horrible fits of insomnia while we'd worked on overcoming her memories.

"Hey Little Light." I said, pitching my voice low and calm. "Are you alright? Your message has me worried."

'I... I think... no, not really.' I could almost see her slumping. 'Things... 'came to a head' between me... and Rhys' aunt...'

I blinked a bit in surprise, then bit back a growl. "Are you hurt?"

'No... no, I'm okay.'

"They have her in custody, yes? If she tried to hurt you..." 'Raine cut me off.

'...She's dead.' Her voice had gone almost emotionless.

"...Tell me what happened love." I kept my voice calm, though I was starting to seath inside.

'I think she overheard Rhys' parents talking about my Pilgrimage, since Rhys, Tali and I will all be leaving at the same time.'

"Mhmm. She didn't react well then."

'No... she tried to kill me.'

WHAT?! I thought, sitting straight. I couldn't hide the growl this time.

'She rigged a lift door to open before the lift had actually arrived.'

"...I never thought your habit of looking up to make sure an elevator was there would come in handy."

'Tell me about it. I've never been so thankful to a horror movie.'

It was a bit of a running joke for us since she'd watched a horror movie when she was younger, she could never remember the name of the movie but it had imprinted that habit on her quite firmly in her youth and had lasted to this day. Most people don't even look up from their 'tools(or phones as was the case in our home 'verse), they just walk forward into the lift trusting it would be there. So while her fear may never have before been founded in fact, that one little habit of looking up as she walked into a lift may well have just saved my Light's life. I leaned forward in my seat, hands against my helmet.

"I don't think I'm ever going to tease you about that again my Light. I could have lost you."

'Yeah...'

"What else happened?"

'She ranted at me. Then lunged at me, trying to push me out into the open lift shaft...' She fell silent for a moment. I stayed quiet, giving her time. 'We struggled, got turned around. I threw her away from me, but as I was doing so I realized I was throwing her into the empty lift shaft...'

I thudded my helmet against the seat in front me and sighed.

"You tried to save her."

'...Yeah. Grabbed her wrist before she could slip out of reach. Braced myself against the door frame and tried to pull her up.'

"She slipped free I take it?"

'No...'

I blinked a bit. It was unlikely 'Raine would have willingly let go of someone to fall to their deaths.

'The lift was coming...' Her voice grew pained.

I closed my eyes, suddenly filled with a sense of dread.

"Oh my Light..." I said softly.

'I noticed and tried to pull her up, she kept trying to pull me over the edge...!' A high, desperate tone to her voice now.

"I'm here..."

'I pulled as hard as I could, I tried! I really tried Lucian! But the lift came too fast! Her arm!' She was starting to breathe too fast. I realized in horror what must have happened, she would have tried to rescue Rhys' aunt, only to be left with a severed limb in her hands. I stood up at that thought, hands clenched. I saw that the others were looking over at me worriedly, they may not have been able to hear me but they would be able to tell from my body language that I was upset. I waved my hand at them and they turned away, for the moment.

"Lorraine! Breathe! NOW!" I ordered firmly.

The was a sharp intake of breath. She let it out shakily and took another.

"That's it Little Light, breathe for me."

A few more shaky, sobbing breathes filled my ears. I wished I could hold her right now, but my voice was all I could offer.

"There you go baby. Just breathe."

'I tried. I did. I just...'

"I know you did baby. It's going to be okay."

Personally I wish she hadn't tried to stop the bitches fall. She put herself at risk. But I knew it was in her nature to try to save those that she could, even someone who might hate her. It's something I both loved, and hated about her. Something that made her the Hero that the Lore Keeper needed.

'I... I keep...thinking. Did I let this happen? Did I murd-'

"Hush." I interrupted firmly, a hint of anger slipping into my tone. "Don't you dare start down that path. You would never purposefully set out to kill someone like that. Self-defense, an accident, a gunshot at a distance to protect yourself and others in the middle of a firefight, yes. But you would never mutilate someone, not like this. Not on purpose."

'But... I think... am I glad she's gone? Am I relieved that I don't have to face her anger, her hatred any more?'

"'Raine..." I stopped with a frown, it was a tricky question in part. "There's always going to be a bit of relief, when you are no longer being bullied or treated unfairly just because you're human and they're Quarian or Turian or something else. Are you glad that the bullying is done with? That you wont have to face such blatant hate now? That you will no longer have to worry that your medical supplies might end up poisoned because the person who hates you is a medical officer on the ship? Yes, and that is okay. Are you upset that someone had to die for all of that to end? Yes, and that is okay as well. You didn't murder her. It was a combination of self-defense and a horrible accident. You did your damnedest to save her, don't you ever doubt that."

I heard a soft sniffle. 'You're mad aren't you?'

"A little. Mostly that she tried to kill you, but you could have gotten yourself killed trying to save her." I sighed heavily. "I'm upset that you put yourself at risk trying to save someone who wanted you dead. THAT was foolish." I let out another sigh. "I love you Little Light."

'Love you too, my Darkness.' She let out a soft, shaky sigh. 'Rhys isn't talking to me.'

"He's probably in shock, give him time."

'Yeah.'

"What about Tali?"

'She's been a good friend, her and Falare have been very... supportive.'

I snorted. "They aren't leaving you alone at all are they?"

'No, they're not.' A wistful tone entered her voice.

"Good. I'm glad they are there for you. Do you need me to try to get some leave time?"

'No... no.' A soft, mirthless laugh from her. 'You need to be in place before ME starts and so do I.'

"Are you sure? I still have time."

'I don't think you do my love, you have a fallen guardian to restore. How can you restore the guardians honor if you're taking care of me?'

"Honor? Hmph." I snorted softly in amusement as well as her attempts to be covert, someone had to be close enough to overhear her for her to decide to switch to 'spy-speak'. It was cute. "I intend to engender loyalty and hopefully keep things from blowing up in our faces."

'Exactly. The Lore Keeper said that a Trojan Horse will be needed, we don't want the guardian to be that horse though. If you...' I heard her take a deep breath and the steel she tried to put into her voice. 'If you're babying me then you risk the guardian.'

"Responsible of you." I said, adding a teasing tone to my voice.

'Ha ha.'

We stayed silent for several moments. I finally sighed.

"I'm going to have to go soon. I love you Little Light. Don't lose yourself to despair over this. It's not your fault."

'I'll try. Stay as safe as you can my Night.'

I chuckled softly. "I'll try."

I ended the call and sighed. I accessed an order list of mine and asked to have a rush put on one of my orders that was on hold for another two weeks. 'Raine would need a little cheering up and a reminder that despite the distance I was still here for her.

I looked over at the others milling about and nodded to myself. It was time to put things into gear. Once this cargo had been delivered I would make my move. Sorry Tim, I thought with a grim smile, Cerberus is Mine.

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-Begin Audio Log-

'The things we sacrifice for a 'greater good' can be horrible.' The womans voice is soft, sorrowful.

'I would have taken the time to be with you.'

'I know, but things would have been worse had you not stayed. My comfort was not worth their lives.'

'Your life is worth more then you think. When the time comes my love, I expect you will soar just as high as Shepard.' A joking tone now. 'I'll be here if you fly too close to the sun though.'

A snort of laughter echos in the room.

-End Audio Log-

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Whew...

Another chapter done and we still haven't even truly gotten to the meat of things, I know most of you are probably eagerly awaiting 'Raine's debut on the Normandy or Lucian's Debut as 'Ruler of Cerberus'. I should have the events of ME2 starting between chapters 16 to 20 as I still need to get people in place and events leading up to me2 squared away. I do hope you all have enjoyed the journey so far and will continue to stick with me as we travel onward.

Also still looking for a Beta for this story and my HP story. If you are interested in helping out pls PM me :)