Hey guys. Here's Chapter 11. We finally get into the proper crossover with some familiar faces (and one or two new ones). Just to serve as a head's up, things will be becoming more and more AU as the story progresses. I'll stick as close to the overall plot as possible, but the details will definitely change, so please don't get mad if some stuff is different. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far.

1000 Hours Military Standard Time, May 26, 2629(revised date, Military Calendar)/ Captain David Anderson, Onboard UNSV Normandy, Geosynchronous Orbit, Lunar Dark-side, Sol System

"Good morning, gentlemen," Admiral Hackett said. "I trust you know why we are here."

"Indeed," Councilor Udina said curtly. "This is a great opportunity for humanity."

"I've been briefed," said Captain Anderson.

"Good. We'll get down to business then. First off, any suggestions?"

"Yes," Udina said. "It seems logical to me that the first choice should be a Spartan. They already have a reputation as fearless warriors."

"I agree with the Ambassador. A Spartan would make an excellent choice. The only problem is that they are so heavily ingrained with the military lifestyle. Sure, they can operate for extended periods outside of any command structure, but would any of them be willing to out of their own free will?" Anderson said.

"Good point, Captain," Hackett said. "Well, that removes several candidates… What about this Lieutenant Alenko? He's a graduate of the Angel Project, passed with flying colors."

"Too inexperienced, sir," Anderson said. "He'd make a good team member, but he's too green to lead it."

"Hmm… Interesting…" Udina said as he read the file in front of him. "Lieutenant Commander Jonathan Shepard. What about him?"

"Good choice. Solid soldier. Excellent leader," Hackett said. "Made a name for himself during the actions at Torfan."

"Plus, he's Orbital Recon," Anderson added. "He's used to being out of the structure of command and making his own decisions. His CSV is almost as long as yours, Admiral."

"And he's only been in the service for ten years," Hackett said. "He's seen a lot, though. Torfan, Elysium, The Blitz, Death Valley. There might be some scarring from all that."

"Negative, sir. If he wasn't broken by The Valley, I doubt he can be broken," Anderson said. "The man can get anything done. Once he has an objective, it WILL be accomplished, no matter the loss, personal or otherwise."

"Is that the sort of man we want protecting us?" Udina asked.

"If we learned anything from the War, it's that that is the only sort of soldier that can," Anderson said.

"Alright," Hackett finished. "I'll make the call. Captain, ready your ship and crew."

1350 Hours Military Standard Time, May 29, 2629(revised date, Military Calendar)/ Lieutenant Commander Jonathan Shepard, Onboard UNSV Normandy, En-route to Eden Prime, Utopia System

Jonathan Shepard considered himself fairly unbiased. In his line of work, one had to be. Biases introduced feelings, feelings introduced hesitations, and hesitations resulted in deaths. As such, he had learned to think things through logically. Despite this, he found himself rather put-off by the alien in front of him. The Turian was a Spectre, one of the Council's elite special operatives. Its name was Nihlus and an awkward silence had fallen over the two Special Forces soldiers as they gathered in the Normandy's comm room.

"Commander," a deep voice greeted. "Nihlus."

Shepard turned and saluted his CO, Captain David Anderson, who returned the gesture. Nihlus merely nodded.

"I'll jump right into it," Anderson said. "This isn't a shake-down run, Shepard."

"Kind of figured that out myself, sir," Shepard replied. "Why only tell me now?"

"The brass has been unusually tight lipped about this one. That's one reason for the skeleton crew. It turns out that some builders on Eden Prime found a Prothean beacon during a routine excavation project. Both the UEG and the Council want it out of border space as soon as possible," Anderson explained.

"So send a corvette. There's no need to send this much firepower out here. I've seen how much munitions we're carrying. We have enough bullets, beans and bandages to keep an entire company combat effective for two weeks. Are they expecting trouble?"

"This is not a simple snatch and grab…" Anderson said as he gestured to Nihlus.

The alien spoke with a measured clip. "I will also be blunt, Commander. You are a candidate for the Spectres, the first of your kind. I've seen your combat record and I, for one, think you would be an excellent addition to our brotherhood."

Anderson spoke up, saying, "I don't need to tell you what an opportunity this is for humanity, Shepard. A human in the Spectres after only twenty-three years? That would definitely show how far we've come. Nihlus here would act as your… mentor."

Nihlus laughed. "It is not anywhere nearly as formal as it sounds. You do not need any "mentoring" Commander. I will merely assess your performance, of which I have no doubt you will exceed all expectations."

Before Shepard could say anything, Joker, the Normandy's pilot, broke into the conversation over the loudspeaker. "Captain! We have a problem."

"What is it, Joker?" Anderson asked. His face had transformed into the one he wore when going into battle.

"I just picked up a distress call coming from Eden Prime, sir. I'll patch it through to the comm room now. It's audio only."

The distress call started, "This is Lieutenant Daren Cooper, UNMC. If anybody can receive this, Eden Prime is under attack!" Explosion could be heard in the background which sometimes drowned out Cooper's voice despite him yelling. "We are taking heavy casualties. I don't know where they came from, but there are a lot of them! Norton, blow the left charges! NOW!" An explosion roared over the call. Shepard recognized it as a fougasse charge. "We are trying to get to the armory but at this rate we won't have enough men to retake it. I will try to update as often as possible, but I don't kn-" The call dropped off suddenly.

"Joker?" Anderson asked.

"The call was dropped on their end sir. All signals from the planet were cut off simultaneously," Joker replied. "There are no other UNSC ships in the area, Captain, and we are fifteen minutes out. Stealth systems are already running."

"Bring us up to full speed Joker, and prepare for planetary insertion," Anderson told the pilot. He turned to Shepard and Nihlus. "This mission just got a lot more complicated. Get your gear and meet me in the cargo hold."

1418 Hours Military Standard Time, May 29, 2629(revised date, Military Calendar)/ Lieutenant Commander Jonathan Shepard, Onboard UNSV Normandy, Over Eden Prime, Utopia System

Captain Anderson had to yell to be heard over the scream of the wind filling the cargo bay of the Normandy. "This is your stop, Commander. Remember, the beacon is your top priority. We cannot risk it falling into enemy hands."

"Roger! What's our ROE?"

"Whatever it takes to get to the beacon. Section Two has your back covered. Now go!"

Shepard and his two teammates, Lieutenant Kaiden Alenko and Corporal Richard Jenkins, jumped out of the cargo hold and dropped to the ground. Their combat suits easily absorbed the shock from the twenty foot drop.

Shepard gestured with his hands and the other two fanned out to secure the drop site as the Normandy accelerated away. Once they had confirmed there were no immediate threats, Jenkins quipped, "I can't believe we dropped Nihlus off alone. He's a Spectre, sure, but still…"

"He can handle himself," Alenko answered to him.

Shepard broke in and said, "Keep it tight."

The two troopers nodded and started advancing up a small canyon. They emerged out onto an open area overlooking the fertile plains that Eden Prime was known for. For a moment, Shepard wondered if it had been a good call to bring Jenkins along, who was a native of the planet. The sight of the destroyed farmland only seemed to harden him, however. Shepard noticed the flashes and signs of military grade ordnance being employed on the fields below him. He was glad to see that there was still at least some resistance left. If the defensive garrison had been able to get to the colony's main armory and break open their combat suits, there might still be a chance to save the rest of the colony.

Shepard advanced into the rubble strewn area under the cover of his teammates. He motioned to Jenkins, who started to sprint to the cover offered by the rubble. As he got to the halfway point, several drone flyers emerged from the forest ahead of them and opened fire. Their rounds struck Jenkins multiple times, but his suit's shields held up and he slid into position next to Shepard.

"Well, this is going to be fun," Jenkins quipped.

Shepard ignored the quip and said, "All right, Alenko. You're next. Jenkins and I will provide covering fire. On my mark. Mark!"

Shepard and Jenkins popped up and depressed the triggers of their combat rifles, sending hundreds of rounds downrange. Alenko sprinted from his cover and came to a stop next to a group of rocks five meters from Shepard's location. Shepard was about to bark out an order when he heard a sharp whining sound. Jenkins popped up to provide suppression fire when one of the drones crashed into his head, knocking him back onto the ground. Jenkins immediately grasped at the drone and pried it off of his helmet. It struggled furiously to reattach itself, but Jenkins' power suit proved to be far stronger than the small drone. Jenkins tried to throw it back across the battlefield. Just as it left his hand, it exploded. Shepard was engulfed in the fireball as everything went black.

Shepard returned to life as a flood of pharmaceuticals coursed through his blood. In an instant, his trained eyes took in the devastation. The explosion had torn a crater in the ground. More importantly, there was no more gunfire. He assumed that Alenko must have dealt with the rest of the drones. He peeked over the edge of what remained of his cover to double check and there were, in fact, no more hostiles. He turned to look where he had last seen Alenko and saw the biotic kneeling over legless and armless corpse. Suddenly, he realized it wasn't a corpse, for Richard Jenkins was still alive. As Shepard approached he saw the full extent of the damage. Jenkins' right leg was missing from the knee down, where his suit had amputated itself to control the loss of blood. The same could be said of his left arm, which was missing from the elbow down. More worrisome was Jenkins' left leg, which was missing completely.

Shepard moved around to Jenkins' other side and removed the man's helmet. Mercifully, Jenkins' eyes were closed, his suit having put him in a coma. Shepard looked to Alenko and saw that he had made a biotic field over the wound, trying to staunch the flow of blood.

"The blast damaged his suit too much," Alenko said. "It can't seal the wound. There's too much blood for biofoam or medi-gel." Alenko was quiet for a moment. "I can't keep this up, sir."

Shepard looked at Jenkins' face one last time then said, "Pull the plug."

Alenko's head jerked up. "What? You want me to just let him bleed out?"

Shepard nodded. "We have to keep moving, find the beacon."

"This is crazy!" Alenko replied. "I can't let him die here."

"That's an order, Lieutenant!" Shepard snapped. "We can recover him after the mission and revive him on the Normandy."

Alenko hung his head and quickly pulled his arms back. What was left of Jenkins' life-blood quickly emptied out onto the dirt. In Shepard's helmet, Jenkins' vitals flat-lined. He quickly squelched the alarm.

"Sorry, Corporal," Shepard whispered. "We'll be back. I promise."

The two remaining soldiers set about hiding the body as best as possible and within a minute were back on the trail. They carefully advanced through the forest from which they had been ambushed, but it was clear of any enemies. When they emerged from the copse of trees, a dip in the ground lay in front of them. On the other side of the bowl, two figures were wrestling a third onto a contraption whose purpose Shepard couldn't identify. A second later, any confusion was cleared up as a massive spike erupted out of the device, impaling the third figure. The gush of red blood told Shepard that the victim had been a human. He gestured to Alenko to move to his right as he crouched behind a boulder.

Once Alenko was in position, Shepard motioned to Alenko to wait for his signal. He kept an eye on his motion sensor and waited for the two hostiles to appear. Instead of the two red dots he had been expecting, a single green dot appeared, moving rapidly. Shepard was confused for a moment, until four red dots appeared behind the friendly. He signaled to Alenko and they stood up, rifles leveled. An armored figure was sprinting full out towards them, followed by four drones. The figure tripped and fell, but managed to roll over and fire at the drones, which quickly went up in flames. This had attracted the attention of the first two figures, which began to advance on the downed soldier. Shepard and Alenko jumped into action. Alenko threw a stasis ball at the two and froze them in place. Shepard primed his rifle's grenade launcher and shot a grenade into the pair, sending them into pieces. Shepard noted that there wasn't any gore, but a lot of sparks. Robots? He wondered.

The two advanced into the depression and came face-to-face with the newcomer.

"Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, sir." the soldier said as their suits traded information.

"I'm Commander Shepard. This is Lieutenant Alenko," Shepard said. "What's the situation here?"

"SNAFU, sir," Williams said. "We don't know where they came from."

"Who's 'they,'" Shepard asked as he nodded towards the remains of the enemies.

"We think they're Geth, sir."

"Geth?" Alenko asked. "What are they doing in this part of the Galaxy? They haven't been outside of the Veil in hundreds of years. Unless…"

"The beacon," Shepard finished. "We need to find it. Now. Williams, do you know where the beacon is?"

"Negative, sir. The El-tee might though," she said. "I'll take you to our camp. It's a click or so to the north."

1545 Hours Military Standard Time, May 29, 2629(revised date, Military Calendar)/ Lieutenant Commander Jonathan Shepard, Refugee Camp, Eden Prime, Utopia System

"I can't tell you how glad I am to see some friendly faces," Lieutenant Daren Cooper said. The cluster of make-shift buildings that had been dubbed a "refugee camp" didn't look like any refugee camp Shepard had ever seen, mainly because there weren't that many refugees. Shepard counted a handful of civilians in torn clothing, but the vast majority of the people present were military. Not that there were a lot of military personnel present either. At most, there were twenty people in the entire camp. "We've managed to keep them off of us for now, but if they make a concentrated push, they'll easily overwhelm us."

Alenko spoke up, "So they haven't launched a full assault?"

"Not here, no," Cooper said. "Once they figured out we're trapped here, they pretty much stopped all combat. They drop a few mortars now and then, but I suspect that's mostly just to keep us on our toes. It's almost like they're just keeping us quarantined. The armory is just on the other side of that hill," Cooper said, pointing. "We got within spitting distance of it before they managed to beat us off." He sighed. "If we could crack open our suits, we could retake the planet before sundown." Cooper paused and then spoke hesitatingly, "I uh, suppose that you want to take over command, Sir?"

Shepard looked at the rag-tag bunch of Marines left. "Negative, Lieutenant. I need you to keep this area secure. My primary objective is to secure the beacon. Do you know where it is?"

"The beacon? Yeah, they moved it to the spaceport this morning, a few hours before the attack."

"Thanks, Lieutenant. We'll try to open up the path to the armory as much as possible, so be ready to move at a moment's notice," Shepard said.

"Aye aye, sir," Cooper replied.

Shepard turned to walk away but stopped himself and asked Cooper, "Have you seen a Turian by any chance? He's part of my team, but I lost comms with him."

"Turian? Can't say I have… Actually, hold on a minute." Cooper turned and yelled to two men sitting under a makeshift tent. "Walker! Josephs! Front and center."

The two Marines scrambled up and jogged over to where Cooper and Shepard and his team were talking. "The Commander here is asking if we've seen a Turian. Fill him in," Cooper said and then turned to Shepard, "Sorry Commander, gotta run. A lot of things to take care of." He jogged off.

Walker started speaking. "Bill," he nodded towards the man called Josephs, "and I were out on the perimeter. This was at the point when we still thought the Geth were going to overrun us. We had set up on a hill a few clicks to the northwest, towards the spaceport. Bill spotted some movement and so I brought the fifty around, hoping to get some Geth."

"But it wasn't," Shepard said.

"No, sir. Didn't get a really good look at it, but I thought it was a Turian. If you don't mind me asking, sir, why are you interested in him?"

"He's part of my team. We dropped him off as a scout," Shepard said.

"Your team, sir?" Walker asked.

"Did I stutter Marine?" Shepard asked back.

"No, sir. Sorry, sir." He glanced at his spotter. "It's just that this happen around 1400 hours. You couldn't have been here yet, sir."

Shepard paused. Another Turian? he wondered. "We need to find that beacon asap. Walker, Josephs, I'm attaching you to my unit. Sniper support would be nice. Get your gear and meet us by the gate leading to the spaceport."

1616 Hours Military Standard Time, May 29, 2629(revised date, Military Calendar)/ Lieutenant Commander Jonathan Shepard, En-route to Eden Prime Spaceport, Eden Prime, Utopia System

"My God," Ashley muttered. Shepard found himself thinking more profanely, but her brief swear was understandable.

"How did we miss that from orbit?" Alenko asked.

"Ships that large aren't supposed to be in-atmo. Sensors must have mistaken it for a landmass," was all that Shepard could say. The ship in question was slowly plowing its way through the lower atmosphere of Eden Prime, but was accelerating rapidly. It was one of the largest ships Shepard had ever seen, and he had toured the Sol back at Earth. "We need to keep moving. If the Geth are bugging out, they might have already found what they were looking for."

The team crested a small hill and the space port lay before them. It was swarming with Geth. Shepard also noticed at least a dozen of the impaling devises scattered about. He had noticed a few before, ominously standing there, but had dismissed it as classic psychological warfare.

Now however, the spikes started to retract, bringing the bodies down with them. What had once been humans peeled themselves off of the devices. Shepard zoomed in on one of the figures. Its flesh still had a faint peachy color to it, but streaks of electronic blue zigzagged across flesh that was tearing off in parts. Shepard's mind flashed back to the briefings he had received before jumping onto Forerunner worlds. These…things, now just empty husks, reminded him a lot of the pictures of the Flood that he had seen. What he was seeing seemed worse than that though. These people had been transformed using cybernetics.

He motioned to his team to move in. Like oil on velvet, they slid down the hill into an ambush position. Shepard noted with pleasure how well the other three members he had acquired had melded into the team. He motioned to his two snipers to move to the left to get into a better firing position, and they quickly complied. He signaled Ashley to move to the area between Alenko and Shepard and on the flank of the snipers. It would be her job to provide extra security for them.

He and Alenko, being the only two with powered combat hard suits, would do most of the heavy lifting. He clicked his mic once, the static burst signaling the team to open fire. A loud crack boomed over the battlefield as Walker opened fire. The fifty caliber round tore through what appeared to be an up-armored Geth. If it was, it hadn't been up-armored enough. By the time the bullet came to a stop, there wasn't much left of the Geth trooper. Another shot rang out in rapid succession, and another Geth fell. A third shot. A fourth one. By the time the echo of the fourth shot had died out, Shepard was only just clear of his cover. He was very impressed, and slightly shocked, at how fast Walker had been able to empty his rifle. Those would have been impressive times even with a neural linked scope. Walker had done it all by hand.

Shepard pushed that out of his mind. Right now he had to focus on winning this battle. Alenko flung a singularity into the midst of the largest group of Geth and converted husks, which not only started tearing them apart, but also slowed them. Combined with Walker's already devastatingly accurate fire, the enemies were torn apart. Shepard slid into cover behind an outcropping of rocks. He stood up and took aim on the nearest target. It turned out to be one of the husks. For a moment, Shepard hesitated. Could they still be saved? Could he try to reason with them? As he looked at the husk, its face horribly contorted, he decided no. He would not want to live like this.

He depressed the trigger and the husk danced as it was riddled with rounds. A mixture of red blood and a blue/grey fluid spattered the ground. After Shepard had emptied two thirds of his clip on the thing, it finally dropped. This was not going to work.

Shepard opened a link to Walker, "Walker, focus on the husks. Bring them down with the fifty. Our rifles don't pack enough punch." There was no reply, but the firing rate slowed almost imperceptibly. The husks were smaller than their Geth overlords and moved in a swaying stumbling motion, so Walker had to take care to hit his targets.

It took the team a good fifteen minutes to clear out the area in front of the entrance to the spaceport. Once they had, they made a gruesome discovery.

"Hey Commander," Alenko said. "I found Nihlus." The Spectre was in a pool of his own blood, the left side of his face blown in by what appeared to be a large caliber handgun. As Shepard looked around, it became clear that a fairly vigorous fight had taken place. What worried Shepard most was the almost perfect execution-style kill. As they inspected the body further, the extent of Nihlus's wounds became apparent. Both his legs and his right arm had been broken and he had two gunshot wounds to the gut.

"Looks like it was a pretty tough fight…" Ashley said.

"Yeah, but what did this to him?" Shepard asked. "The Geth don't fight like this. Whoever, or whatever, did this made him suffer." He turned to Alenko. "Your assessment? Think we can revive him?"

Alenko examined the head wound. "Maybe, though I don't know how much like the old Nihlus he would be. We might be able to at least save his memories."

"Alright, we'll pick him up after we secure the beacon."

"If it's still here." Walker spoke for the first time. "The mothership bugged out, so they must have found whatever they were looking for."

"Then why are there still ground troops?" Ashley asked.

"My guess?" Walker said. "Clean up crew. Probably going to nuke the colony. Make it look like they were never here."

A silence descended over the group. "Move." Shepard commanded.

1649 Hours Military Standard Time, May 29, 2629(revised date, Military Calendar)/ Lieutenant Commander Jonathan Shepard, Eden Prime Spaceport, Eden Prime, Utopia System

Shepard couldn't believe it. The Beacon was still here. If they could recover the beacon, this mission wouldn't just have resulted in the deaths of two fine soldiers. The only problem was that standing between him and it was the largest synthetic Shepard had ever seen. It stood nearly three meters tall and was silently staring down Shepard and his team, as if daring them to cross it.

Shepard would be more than happy to oblige it. He motioned to his team and they sprung into action. Alenko used his biotics to slow the target down as much as possible, while Walker fired his rifle as fast as the bolt would cycle. Shepard, Ashley, and Walker's spotter, Josephs opened fire while moving in opposite directions, trying to get the giant Geth caught in a crossfire.

The Geth wasn't stupid though, because it was a Geth Juggernaut, and as such was networked with all of the Geth still on Eden Prime and even still had a tenuous link with its mysterious mothership. This enabled it to pull resources and processing power from all of these. It had been observing them since they had initiated contact in front of the space port, and it had been learning. In a matter of nanoseconds, it took in the paths of every bullet in the air, where all of its foes were and likely probable vectors that they would move on and to where. It classified the targets in order of lethality to itself. The sniper was highest, followed by the two armored targets, especially the biotic, while the ones without combat hardsuits were the least dangerous. It analyzed all of these factors and more and decided how to best neutralize these threats in the space of time it would take for a human synapse to fire.

By the time Shepard had taken two steps, the juggernaut was already rolling into motion. It moved to place the beacon between it and Shepard and Alenko. Its gamble paid off as they stopped firing, too afraid to hit the beacon in the crossfire. It fired its rifle in the direction of Ashley and Josephs, suppressing them. Once they both fell into cover, it fired a rocket towards Walker. It connected with the low wall Walker had been using as cover. An explosion roiled across the battlefield and the sniper fire ceased. Though the largest threat had been removed, a great deal of damage had already been done. The sniper rifle rounds had been hammerhead rounds, designed to transfer as much of their kinetic energy as possible to the target. As such, the juggernaut's kinetic barriers had been greatly reduced. It swung around and acquired Shepard and Alenko. Using its machine precision, it was able to fire on them, while still using the beacon to prevent them from firing on it.

Shepard, for his part, was rather impressed by the tactics the juggernaut was employing. He was worried for Walker, but knew that he had to deal with the problem at hand first. As Shepard watched the Geth switch from himself and Alenko to suppress Ashley and Josephs, he realized they wouldn't be able to win this battle using normal tactics.

He turned to Alenko and said, "Throw me."

Alenko's face became dumb-founded for a moment. "What?"

"You heard me. Throw me at it using your biotics."

Alenko's expression faded as he realized the same thing Shepard had. He nodded. Balls of biotic power appeared in his hands. Shepard vaulted over his cover and sprinted as fast as his suit would allow. He suddenly felt himself lift off of the ground and literally fly forward as 1200 Newtons slammed him towards the Geth. Several hundred pounds of human and combat armor crashed into the Geth with enough force to knock it off its feet. Shepard and it wrestled on the ground. Though it was larger than Shepard, Shepard was smaller, and thanks to his suit, just as powerful. On top of that, the Geth hadn't been instructed in every major martial art devised since feudal Japan.

Shepard smashed one palm into the Geth's neck and the other into its chest, crumpling the alloy plating. The Geth struggled to get a grip on Shepard, but found it to be a futile exercise. Shepard launched another strike, this time against its left arm, shattering the joint. Before he could do anything else, the robot rolled over and pinioned Shepard to the ground. It brought its monocle eye close to Shepard's visor. Its eye started to glow even brighter and Shepard had a sinking feeling that he was about to face the same fate at Jenkins, only on a much larger scale.

A loud crack sounded out and the robot's eyepiece exploded. The massive thing slumped onto Shepard, who grunted as several hundred pounds of dead weight fell onto him. He used his suit to lift up the dead Geth and saw Walker standing there, the barrel of his rifle still smoking. Shepard rolled over and pushed himself up.

He found himself directly in front of the Beacon, now emitting a soft green glow. He suddenly got a very bad feeling in his gut. He tried to take a step backwards, but found himself gently levitating off of the ground. At first, the sensation was slightly pleasant, but then the screams started.

0436 Hours Military Standard Time, June 3, 2629(revised date, Military Calendar)/ Caitlin West, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United North American States, Earth, Sol System

Caitlin West liked working at night. She wasn't a night owl, per say; she just liked the quiet. Not that she was a complete introvert, either; she could party with the best over the weekends.

No, she just didn't want people to interrupt her and the early morning hours were the quietest. Thus, that was when she worked when she wanted to get things done. The lack of people meant fewer interruptions from idiots thinking they could show off to her. Even centuries after its founding, MIT still had a strongly skewed gender demographic. As such, Caitlin was far outnumbered by men. The fact that she was fairly attractive didn't help much either. She had quickly learned in her first stint through the university to use the lab facilities when no one else was around. He professors had been reluctant to allow it at first, but when they had seen the things she was capable of, they had quickly come over to her side.

So when a voice behind her asked, "Caitlin West?" she nearly had a heart attack. She spun around but saw no one.

She tentatively replied, "Yes?"

As soon as the word had left her mouth, a figure seemingly appeared out of nowhere directly in front of her. He spoke, "First off, do not be alarmed. I'm not here to hurt you. My name is Adam and I was sent on behalf of a group that find you very interesting."

"What?" was all Caitlin could muster.

"Alright, I'll be blunt," Adam said. "This existence you're living is in grave danger of being lost. My employer is sworn to preventing that from happening, but we've run into a snag. We need someone to help us. No one is more qualified than you. Would you be interested in helping us?"

Caitlin looked at him incredulously. "I'm guess that if I say no, you'll take me anyway?"

"Not at all," was the reply. "We will continue on without you, and try our best to stop the dam from breaking. Your assistance would greatly tip the odds in our favor."

"You're crazy," Caitlin dead-panned.

"So what if I am? I know that you hate it here, can't stand the disruptions around you. You are brilliant, Caitlin. Put those smarts to work and come with me and I'll show you how big the universe really is." He held out his hand.

Caitlin merely stared at it as thoughts raced through her mind. She did hate it here. The novelty had worn off long ago. After she was done with this degree, she would move on and get another. She didn't have anything to lose, so why not have an adventure?

She met Adam's eyes. The only thing she found there was sincerity and a slight sense of amusement, almost as if he already knew what she would do.

She reached out and took his hand. White light enveloped her.

Well, there you have it. Please leave a review. It'd make my day. Also, feel free to look at the Codex on my profile page for some interesting information about the back story. It's updated with new info as it is introduced in the story (and whenever I feel like it), so check back often.

Oh, one last thing, with AP and IB exams coming up in May and then graduation, the next chapter might take a while. I'm terribly sorry in advance, but just let me finish with school and I'll have more time to devote to this.