The three of us, meaning Mitch, Doc Perri and I, made it back to Detroit without incident. It was on the shuttle ride back that just what happened on that fucking shithole of a planet finally settled in. I actually was in the middle of a conversation with Mitch and turned around to get a reaction from Diego who I was absolutely positive would give his signature mischievous grin but of course he wasn't there. That dampened the mood right up.

I had been trying to ignore the grief but as I lounged I began to realize just how much I missed everybody, funny how spending over a year living day in and day out with people does that. It wasn't even anything big, just the little aspects about their personality. Diego's smirk when he would be causing trouble for somebody. Big Ben's hearty laugh and his general giantness. Chelsea's sweet smile and kind words for everybody. I even missed Talia telling me to shut up and stop being such an idiot. The only good thing was that they were almost positive she was going to make it out ok now. The adept still wasn't going to move for the rest of her life but at least she was going to go back home to her family a hero.

The ship was touching down and we stepped out into the cool Detroit weather. It didn't take long to spot the massive mountain of man that was Jack Ramsey along with the one turian in the whole place. The two of them were overjoyed to see us even though Dax tried to hide it with his usual sense of sarcasm. I re-introduced Mitch to the two of them along with the doctor before I gave a rundown of the whole deal at Torfan and after that we went our separate ways. Mr. Perri going back home, wished us farewell as he left and telling us two Marines to remember to check in with him regularly before the rest of us returned to Jack's.

We walked through the store, Dax volunteering to tend the counter so the rest of us could catch up. He tries to fake it but deep down he's a good guy. Jack started whipping up some food for the two of us in the kitchen, since after the long ride both of us were starving. As he cooked, he turned back over his shoulder and continued the conversation.

"That wouldn't happen to be David Anderson you met would it?" Jack quizzed me incredulously.

"Yup, that's the one. You know the guy?"

He just stared at me in amazement. "Do I know the guy?" He laughed. "You even realize who that was? That's David Fucking Anderson!"

"Yeah we know his name…" Mitch and I just stared blankly at the outburst from the older man.

"Damn kids these days, nobody teaches about our history anymore." He shook his head. "Let me put it in terms you can understand then. The guy's basically my generation's equivalent of Shepard. First Marine to graduate N7 at Arcturus Station and served with honor at First Contact. You name the medal, the guy's had it awarded to him. There were even rumors going around back then that he was going to be made a Council Spectre." I just looked at him vacantly once again. "Do they teach you kids anything these days?"

Mitch spoke up, reciting from his crutches as if he was standing in front of a classroom. "It stands for Special Tactics and Reconnaissance. They're basically the Council's elite personal agents, selected from every race from my understanding. Their primary responsibility is to preserve galactic stability by whatever means necessary and they're generally considered as being above the law, using any means necessary to accomplish their objective. Only the Council can revoke their status and if one goes rogue the only people even capable of taking them down are other Spectres, they're that talented."

"Thank you Mitch." Jack smiled at the blonde warmly. "At least somebody around here knows something about the state of affairs today."

"Hey it's not my fault my schooling was rather limited."

"And who skipped out on high school every chance he got growing up?"

I just scratched my hair. "Yeah I have no retort."

"For once." Mitch looked over and grinned mischievously.

"Oh, before I forget. This came in for you Nate." He walked over to the kitchen counter and grabbed a small white package. Striding back across the room he handed over the envelope, its contents still sealed up. "Don't worry kid I didn't even sneak a peek."

I ripped open the package in one fell swoop and pulled out the contents, a brand new, sparkling necklace with sapphire gemstones set in it. Holding the thing in front of my face I stared blankly for a few moments, not saying anything.

"Nate…wow, I didn't know that was your thing." Jack good-naturedly ribbed me. Ordinarily I would have fired something right back but at that moment I really didn't feel like joking around.

"I'll be in my room if you guys need me. Glad to be home Dad."

As I left the kitchen Jack called out. "Hey aren't you hungry kid? I'll have some food whipped up in a couple minutes here."

"Thanks but no thanks Dad, not too hungry right now." I ripped my eyes away from the piece of jewelry. "Hey Mitch you can take the bed upstairs, I'll be on the couch." I attempted a smile as I joked but it came out more like a grimace I imagine. "Wouldn't want the cripple to have to suffer through sleeping on the couch. I'll have covers, pillows and everything set up for you. Night guys." I then yelled into the store portion. "Night Dax!"

"Wait Nathan! I've got something for you."

Walking into the store, I saw the turian reaching up on a high shelf and pulling down a box that looked like it had been extremely well-preserved. Whatever was in there must mean a lot to him I guessed. As he opened the crate he revealed a…talon? It literally looked like a metal-lined turian's claw fashioned into a curved blade. "This is a Cabal talon dagger." Looks like my guess was spot on. "When a Cabal falls in combat these are fashioned and given to their squadmates as a memento. It's basically a reminder that even though they may have fallen they will always be with you in spirit and I uh…" he scratched his fringe awkwardly, "figured you could use the reminder much more than me. I want you to have it."

As he held the weapon out in front of him I walked over and instead of taking it, I pulled him into a hug. Slightly tearing up at Dax's thoughtfulness, I managed to stammer out my thanks. "Thanks Dax, this means a lot."

"It's no problem Nate." He placed the talon in my palm. "Here, generate a warp in your hand."

Doing as he said, I focused on generating the attack and to my surprise the warp concentrated around the weapon. It swirled up and down, almost giving the appearance that the knife was literally on fire. A purple-blue fire, but still fire. "Dax…just what is this thing?"

"Well I don't know how they do it, but the meteoric metal they use to reinforce the blade and hilt allows you to channel warp fire along the edges of the weapon."

"Huh." I examined the gift once again. "That's amazing." Pulling the turian into another hug, I gave him a final thank you and told him goodnight.

I walked upstairs, just barely catching Jack asking Mitch if I was ok, if there was something wrong he said that made me leave the room. Mitch's reply went unheard by me but I'm sure he explained the necklace and the significance of the whole thing. Entering my old room I flopped down on the couch and pulled an old cover up to my chest, holding the jewelry in one hand, the Cabal dagger in the other and thinking about just how exactly things went from great to really fucked up in such a short time span.

LINE BREAK

"Wolf you awake bud?"

I heard Mitch from off to the side on the bed but didn't say anything. Talking was not at the forefront of my mind right now. On the other hand the prospect of sleep wasn't too appealing either. The fitful hours I had gotten were filled with the tunnels of Torfan, this time though they stretched endlessly. As I walked through them I was flanked on all sides by the forms of both allies and enemies who accused me of letting them die, of being the one to cause their death. At first I tried to explain to my Sierra teammates how it wasn't my fault, that I tried to save them and couldn't. But as the nightmare continued I broke down and just hung my head in shame. People of all races jeered me as I walked the never-ending hall, calling me various names like killer, murderer, executioner, psychopath and butcher.

The worst part though was seeing Emma. She was always standing at the end of the corridor but I could never reach her. I'd hold out the necklace in some kind of peace offering as I shambled forward towards the elusive woman but as I got close she'd disappear in a fog only to be further down the road. And the whole time she had the most disappointed look on her face that broke my heart.

"Wolf, I know you're awake man. Please answer me."

I rolled over from my position of looking at the ceiling and instead stared at the blonde infiltrator. "How'd you know I was awake? Nightmares keeping you up too?"

"No, your electronic eye shines in the dark like a damn night light." I couldn't help but smile as I pictured the impish smirk on the man's face. "But yeah, ever since I woke up from the sedation they had me under I've been getting 'em too. I see Torfan again. I see the team getting killed. I see that bastard Rokneba leering into my face as he crushes the life out of me."

I scowled at mention of the batarian who had almost butchered the CO of Sierra team. "Thank God I'll never see him again."

He sat up straight in bed. "How did you kill him by the way? Last thing I knew the dude started teleporting like fucking Nightcrawler and then I got smashed into a wall."

"Who's Nightcrawler?"

"Comic book hero. You wouldn't know him."

"Apparently not. Well, after you smashed into the wall I lost it a bit. I kept bio-charging him with my knife and he would teleport away when I got close. Eventually I faked a rush one time, stopped and shot him in the leg when he moved. After that the big bastardgot pissed. Granin closed into CQC range, punched me in the face, teleported to the other side to elbow me and then finished it up by giving me this." I pointed to the milky-white line and fake eye. The gesture didn't have the same effect in the dark. "After I just barely dodged having my head split in two he picked me up and threw me into a wall, non-biotically this time. Soon as I could stand I started firing away with my pistol and I guessed that he would teleport behind me. Luckily for me, my guess was right and I stabbed him in the neck with my dagger before getting out the omni-blade to finish the job."

"Finish the job?"

"Yeah…I cut off his head."

"Damn Wolf. That's fucking cold."

"I was already livid before that and then I thought he killed you, my best friend and I snapped."

"Well thanks for saying that…and remind me not to piss you off."

"Sure thing, just don't go getting yourself killed ok? I'm just barely holding on right now." A silence filled the room before I questioned Mitch. "You know how I was talking about reality not really setting in yet?"

"Yeah."

"Well if it hasn't set in before it has now. I was just thinking about the party we had at Jimmy's after boot and realizing that I'm never gonna see Big Ben, or any of the others for that matter, again and who knows when they'll let us see Hawk. I'll never be dwarfed by that human giant, see Diego's roguish grin as he pranks someone or Marissa's warm, shy smile again. Did you know her and Ben were a thing?"

"Not until she died no, I figured pretty quickly after that from the way he was cradling her though." He gave an angry sigh. "Tell me something, why the fuck did we become Marines again?"

"The good food." Despite the sad mood I couldn't help throw in a little wisecrack.

"Seriously Wolf."

"Well I didn't really have a choice when I started since there was the whole, 'fleeing for my life thing,' but as for why I keep fighting." I paused for a long moment as I tried to think of just how to explain why I fight. "You know, when I was down there by myself, carrying you through those Godforsaken tunnels I came across a bunch of slaves. It was without a doubt one of the most miserable sights I've ever seen. The people in there had lost all hope, whether asari, turian, salarian or human it didn't matter, they just looked broken in every sense of the word. But when I told them that the Alliance was coming through and we were going to free every single one of them the cheer that went up was deafening. After walking through all that death, pain and suffering to get there it, almost made it worth it."

I summed up what I was trying to say. "I guess it's just my way of paying back the universe for the years I wasted as a Red on the streets. All that time I just looked out for number one and that was all that mattered, I didn't give a shit who I hurt. Now, here comes the Alliance and they give me a chance to use those skills I developed for a positive end goal. How can I say no to that? And as for joining the N's, I figure if I can further hone these talents of destruction I've been given, maybe I can save a few more people on the way." Mitch laughed abruptly and I gave him a look that was quizzical and a little hurt. Here I was opening up about my life and he was chuckling it up to himself. "What? What's so funny?"

"Well, my reasons were kind of similar as to why I joined, except for the whole, "gang," thing and now that I think about it, the whole thing sounds pretty damn ironic."

"How so?"

"Well, both of us want to save people right? So how do we go about doing it?" He paused for a second. "By getting better at killing other people." He snickered again, a little less humorously this time. "Save someone by killing others. Now that I say it out loud it seems a little fucked up. Maybe that says something about me as a person."

I propped up the pillows on the side of the couch opposite Mitch. If I wasn't going to be sleeping anytime soon due to this deep philosophical debate I might as well get comfy. "Well, I guess I'm a little messed up in the head too since that was my reasoning behind taking out those techies at Torfan. Well, that's what I tell myself to excuse the fact that I killed a bunch of unarmed people."

I stopped for a moment before I sat upright, getting more animated by the moment. "You know what, no, fuck those guys. They were in cahoots with slavers and whether they had guns on them at that time or not, they made their choice to be in that line of business. I'm already dead fucking tired of being portrayed as a villain for wiping out a den of sickos who killed dozens of Marines and I've only seen that report once. Fuck the batarians. Fuck the damn SIU. And you know what, fuck Westerlund News and that Al-Jilani bitch too. I usually try not to use that word in reference to women but she is the damn example of that with her snide insinuations, disingenuous assertions and tabloid journalism."

"Big words. Especially after that whole, 'fuck everybody,' bit." Mitch smiled cheekily after my vulgar rant.

"Just 'cause I'm a street thug doesn't mean I can't use a big word every now and then, switch things up a bit."

"Glad to see you're branching out. So…"

"So what? I'm not a mind reader buddy."

"So, what's up with Emma? You talked to her yet?"

I sighed loudly. "Nope. No word from her yet."

"You going to call her?"

"No, I'm not. I told her I'd give her time so that's what I'm going to do. Until she wants to talk I'm not saying a thing."

"What do you think she's going to say?"

"Don't know buddy. One of the last things she said to me when we talked was to call me, and I quote, a, 'callous murderer.' Now I don't know if that was from the news report or not but either way, it's not good." Mitch just winced and gave a sharp intake of breath, as if to say 'ouch.' "Who'd have figured right? You mean to tell me girls aren't cool with dating someone who's infamous to everyone who's seen an interplanetary news report as being a cold-blooded killer? Fuck, I just wish somebody would have told me earlier."

"I'm sorry Wolf. I know we haven't talked about it a bunch in the past but I do know that you feel strongly about Emma and if I was in the same situation I wouldn't be handling it too well."

I was getting pretty testy just thinking about it. I need to go to bed. Faking a yawn, I set my pillows back up in a position where I could sleep comfortably and settled in. "Well, I'm getting tired so I'm gonna try and go back to sleep. I'm glad you're here though buddy, it's nice to have someone from the team around so I'm not flying solo."

"No problem man. I'm glad to be here. I was thinking we could go visit Ben's parents in the next couple days if you're up for it."

"Sounds good, I grabbed the rest of the team's contact info so I figured maybe we could give their parents a call too. It's not much but it's something. I'll talk to you about it in the morning though. Night."

"G'night Wolf."

LINE BREAK

Following up on the talk Mitch and I had, we resolved to go to Alabama the day after next and visit the family of our deceased comrade-in-arms. I still hadn't talked to Emma and whether that boded well or ill for me I wasn't sure. At least she hadn't broken up with me yet so there's that.

After another day in the Armory passed Mitch and I waved goodbye to Jack and Dax and boarded the air-bus headed for the South, but not before getting the all clear from Dr. Perri who once again reminded us to be cautious. The two of us didn't talk too much on the ride down, I think the subject of our visit weighed heavily on both of our minds. Most of the journey I just slept through.

Eventually we touched down in Montgomery and from there it was only a short cab ride to Prattville. I told the driver to bring us to the local high school, hoping that someone there would know the coach of the football team. The two of us walked through the parking lot of the school, everywhere you looked there was signs with, "Lion Pride," and other slogans similar to that adorning the otherwise ordinary-looking building. These people took their football pretty fucking seriously.

Luckily for us it was a Friday night and the sounds of the crowd drew us towards the green grass of the gridiron. The crowd was celebrating a win for the home team and the scene was absolute pandemonium with a little touch of chaos thrown in. I leaned in towards Mitch and I still had to speak pretty loudly to be heard. "Hey, we should ask someone if the coach is here. I'd imagine he's home with the shit that went down but maybe we could get some directions."

Dressed in our Alliance garb we cut a swath through the crowd, people clearing the way out of respect for the uniform. I poked one passerby as we walked against the flow of the horde on the shoulder. "Hey, Coach Vandel wouldn't happen to be here right now would he?"

The man looked at his feet. "Yeah he's here…real shame about Ben. Kid was one of the best football players I've ever seen. More importantly though he was a good person, always had a helping hand for anybody who needed it." He shook his head in sadness. "But I'd imagine that's why you're here."

"Yes sir." Mitch cut in. "I was the leader of our fireteam on Torfan, my name's Service Chief Mitchell Woley and this man next to me is Nathaniel Wolfert, also a Service Chief."

The guy squinted at me before noticing my fake eye and further scrutinizing my face. "You look familiar, wouldn't be from the area would you?"

"Nope." There's no doubt it was from the news report that the guy recognized me but I was definitely not going to be the one to tell him that. The less people that recognize me as, "The Butcher of Torfan," the better. "I just have one of those faces you know. You'd think with the scars and the fake eye that it wouldn't happen very often but trust me, it still does. Weird I know."

"Right…" He pointed towards an area off to the side of the high school. "Locker room's back there and that's where you'll find the coach. After his talk with the players he always takes a walk around the field and that's your best chance to catch him."

The two of us shook the man's hand as we left. "Thanks for the directions sir."

"No problem, thank you two for your service. Good luck."

We walked around the back of the bleachers and like he said, the coach was there walking around the field leisurely. How did I know it was him you might ask? Well the fact that he was the only person I'd ever met taller than Ben tipped me off just a bit. "Hey Mitch, you think maybe that's him?"

"You know, you just might be right chief." He nudged me from his crutches. "Keen observation there Wolf."

I yelled out towards the ambulatory man of epic proportions. "Coach Vandel? Coach Vandel you have a minute sir?"

The man turned towards the two of us and for the first time, we saw his face. Shit, he looked almost exactly like an older version of Ben. He smiled in a friendly manner while walking over but there was still an air of sadness that could be seen in his eyes. "Sure, what can I do for you two Marines on this lovely night?"

"Well sir," Mitch took over the introductions once again, "I'm Service Chief Mitchell Woley and this is-"

I interrupted him. "Thanks Mitch but I can introduce myself to the man." Mr. Vandel took my hand in his vice-like grip and shook it. "I'm Service Chief Nathan Wolfert."

"Good to meet you chiefs. Now what exactly can I help you out with. I'm sure two Marines like yourselves didn't come out just to see some Prattville football."

"We were with your son, Ben, until the end." I began to give him the backstory to our relationship with the poor man's child. "Mitch and I both shared a dorm with him through Boot Camp, then we split to go to Specialization training and after that we were assigned to the same fireteam." I dropped my eyes from looking at the man's face to instead becoming intensely absorbed with the details of my boots. "I was probably the last person he spoke to. I promised that I'd come visit you and pass along his message and Mitch here, our fireteam leader, was kind enough to join me."

I waited for him to say something but he gave no audible response. "He got shot in the chest defending one of our injured members in a firefight and after that sacrificed himself to bring down the walls so we could complete our objective. Before he left he simply asked me to just go down to Prattville and tell my family thanks for everything and that I love them. That's it."

He hesitated for a moment before grinning in a rather melancholy manner at the two of us. "Would you two like to go grab some food and talk?" He pointed at the surroundings. "A football field isn't exactly the most comfortable place to have a friendly chat."

Mitch looked over at me and I nodded. "That sounds great Mr. Vandel sir. Where were you thinking?"

LINE BREAK

So, just like that the three of us found ourselves seated on the bright red cushions of a diner booth in the area that was open late hours and according to Mr. Vandel had decent burgers and shakes. "So, now that we can talk in peace I need one of you two to tell me, how did Ben pass? Please I just need to know what my boy did in his last moments. What happened on that planet?"

"Well…" I looked over at Mitch and he indicated for me to go ahead and talk. Guess I was the one to talk to him before he left to go bring down the roof so it's fitting. "It all started when the slavers attacked Elysium."

I went into the full story, detailing Shepard's repulsion of the attack there and our fireteam being built as a result of that. Ben especially I put in whenever I could, figuring that the man would want to know as much as possible about his involvement. After that I began to talk about the actual attack itself, our journey through the tunnels and the initial ambush. I talked about the passing of Chelsea and Diego and our subsequent escape that would have been short lived if it wasn't for Ben and Talia's heroic sacrifice.

"So, before he left to bring down the walls he pulled me aside and that's when he gave me the message about coming to visit you. I made him a promise that I'd come down to Plattville to give his final message. After that Mitch and I fought our way to the communications room that was serving as their headquarters, Mitch got thrown biotically into a wall by a high-ranking batarian in their equivalent of the Special Forces, breaking a few bones, puncturing a lung and getting a severe concussion."

The big man looked at my companion critically and in a rather approving light. "You're made of tougher stuff than you look like kid…no offence."

"None taken Mr. Vandel."

"After that I basically eliminated everyone else that showed their face and that's about the gist of it sir."

He leaned back into his booth and looked at the two of us critically again, this time though it was directed more towards me. "How'd you get that?" His meaty finger gestured towards my face.

"Same guy who almost got Mitch slashed me across the face. Doc had to put in an artificial eye while I was unconscious afterwards since mine was completely destroyed."

"I see." He sighed loudly and covered his face. "Thank you boys for everything, from what you were saying it seems that you three were pretty close so I thank you for the friends you were to my son."

Mitch addressed the man. "It's no problem at all sir. Ben was one of the best people I've ever known and I'm sure I can speak for the both of us when I say that we're both proud to consider him our friends."

"He went out like a true hero sir. We wouldn't be here with you today if it wasn't for him."

He laughed lightly which instantly brought up the mood. "That was Ben to a tee." He brought a hand up to his chin as if he was reminiscing on the past. "He was always selfless like that, willing to help out anybody who needed it. I wouldn't have expected anything else from the kid. That's his Mom's influence right there, he definitely didn't get that from me."

After that the mood lightened considerably as Mr. Vandel began to tell us stories about Ben's childhood, growing up and a lot of hunting and football stories. We talked for another half-hour or so until things began to wrap up. "So, where are you two staying at tonight?"

I glanced over to Mitch who just raised his shoulders as if to say, "I have no idea." Well I guess it's up to me then. "To be honest sir, I hadn't really planned that far ahead besides just getting down here and finding you." I scratched the back of my scalp, feeling rather foolish at this obvious oversight. "I guess we probably will just find a hotel and share a room. You wouldn't happen to know where the nearest one is would you?"

"Get out of here." He waved me off as if the idea was pure stupidity. "You think I'd let a couple of my son's good friends stay at a hotel while they're in town. Why it'd be an affront on my status as a Southerner. Both of you are coming back and staying at my house tonight. The rest of the kids are moved out and my wife is spending the weekend visiting her folks so the house is practically empty. It'd be no problem at all."

"Are you sure sir?" Mitch questioned the man. "We'd hate to impose."

"'Course I'm sure." He started to gather his things up before turning back to us with a big grin on his face. "Have either of you two been hunting before?" Both Mitch and I shook our heads. "Well, if you'd like you two can join me then in a tradition Ben and I have had since way back. After every Friday night game during hunting season, we'd go out the next morning, bright and early, to go hunt some buck. What do you say?"

I shrugged. "I'm down."

"Count me in too."

"Perfect, we'll go back to the house then, catch some z's and early next morning the three of us will pack things up, grab our rifles and head out."

LINE BREAK

The alarm clock the next morning went off way too early. Mr. Vandel had set up everything the night before for us and had neglected to tell the time that we would actually be waking up at. Yawning heavily, I rolled over and saw that the sun had not yet risen. "That's weird." I commented before opening up my omni-tool to look at the clock function on the device. "It's three-thirty in the damn morning!"

As I practically screamed, Doug Vandel walked in with a steaming mug of coffee in hand. The man was already completely decked out in camouflage and smiling from ear-to-ear. It's official, Ben's dad is crazy, no one should be up this early and be that chipper. Probably coming to see what all the noise was, Mitch shambled into the room, still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"Sleep well?" The giant of a man asked.

Not even talking, Mitch simply gave a thumbs up and I just nodded. I don't trust myself not to say something totally inappropriate at this hour of the morning.

"Good. I've laid out outfits for the two of you. Nathan." He tossed a set of earthy colored clothes towards me that landed on my face. What, my reflexes aren't great before seven. "These are for you, I found a pair of Ben's old stuff from when he was a teenager. Hopefully they won't be too big on you."

Right. Almost forgot that Ben was a giant for a second. I wonder what he's got for Mitch. Can't imagine that any of the males in the family would have something for his stature. "Mitch, these are my wife's. Try 'em on."

I busted up laughing as Mitch too got hit in the face with the outfit. Mitch simply gave me the finger, choosing to let his actions do the talking. As I started to get dressed in the mossy oak patterned apparel I thought to myself, this day is starting to look up.

A/N: Big thanks to LogicalPremise and his amazing Encyclopedia Biotica. The talon dagger was an idea of his that he very kindly let me use for the purposes of this story.

So usually I just put something stupid here summing up what you guys have just read in the last 5k+ words but today I thought I'd switch it up and share something personal.

I've been a huge fan of basically everything Rooster Teeth since about three years ago when I stumbled into a random episode of Red vs. Blue and after that I basically consumed everything they made whenever I had a free moment. RvB, RWBY, Achievement Hunter, the RT Podcast, you name it and I've most likely watched/listened to it.

So if any of you are familiar with their work you probably already know where I'm going with this. Monty Oum, the character animator and fight choreographer for RvB, one of the main driving forces behind RWBY and producer of some amazing videos that he did on his own channel (if you haven't watched them yet and love epic anime-influenced battles then go do that immediately, they're called Dead Fantasy and Haloid respectively,) passed away earlier this week at only 33 due to an extreme allergic reaction caused during a routine medical procedure. He went into a coma shortly after and never recovered consciousness until he passed away last Sunday, February 1st.

It's funny how people that you've never even interacted with can be role models in your life but just from hearing co-workers of his talk about him I grew to have an immense amount of respect for the man and his dedication to his craft. He was a true perfectionist in every sense of the word and it showed in the art that he put forward.

If I had to highlight the main things I learned from Mr. Oum it would be to make every second of your life count and to use your time to do what you love. I remember hearing one story told on the podcast where they stumbled across him microwaving his food for 55 seconds. When asked why he simply said that it was more efficient to keep your hand in the same spot while pressing two buttons rather than moving and pressing three. It might sound stupid but that's just one little way he preserved every moment possible and he applied that little time he would save to be the very best at what he did.

Without RvB I can honestly say I would not have written this story. The breathtaking fight scenes in the Freelancer sagas are what filled my mind with imaginary fights between characters in the Mass Effect universe, another universe I had also grown to know and love in the last few years, where they weren't limited to the narrow scope of a game engine. Eventually I decided to try and jot down those ideas I had floating around in my thick skull to paper(keyboard?) and put them here, where other people who've had the same desire to share something they've created have formed a community where novice writers like me can transcribe what's on their mind.

So I guess what I've been trying to say in this whole rambling, incoherent mess of an A/N is that Monty Oum is going to be sorely missed by tens of thousands of people, my thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends who have been affected by this tragic accident. Monty may have passed on, but his work will live forever, not just in the shows that he's personally had a hand in but in little projects like mine who he inspired and are now trying to emulate some little aspect of a creative genius' work.

If you'd like to hear people who actually knew him talk about his life then go check out the Rooster Teeth website or iTunes, it'll be the latest podcast on there. Also, here's a link to a tribute the company put up on youtube in honor of him, watch?v=_465XaHoiGs

Rest in peace Monty, if God needs a kickass fight choreographer he doesn't have to look too far.

Ranger Station Charlie is my Beta.

Thedude19859: Thanks for the review and kind words! I always appreciate it.

RSC: That pretty much explains my reasoning behind it, now I'm just going to have to copy/paste it into the story itself, lol.

Lewiswriter123: Have to say, I love the juxtaposition of your review with the one directly above it where you're hoping for the breakup and they're saying just the opposite. Guess you'll both just have to wait and see.

RomanceDagger: Who doesn't want more bromance in their life? Where would we be without as a species without a little male bonding every now and then.

The Guest: I definitely chuckled a little bit, fortunately there won't be anyone with those nicknames though.

As cold as it the Alliance has to view their soldiers as an investment and the potential payoff for Talia being healed is not enough to put that much time and money into creating some experimental tech that only might work.

Yup, time skip alert incoming.

Tarikk: You'll just have to wait and see what happens there with the romance aspect ;)

I can say definitely that Vega is still with his Spec Ops Delta team so unfortunately the two will not be meeting up anytime soon.

Unity9: Yeah, it's kind of understandable considering Wolf took out some unarmed people but at the same time they were slavers who probably deserved it…kind of a moral gray area, at least to me.

Fallout Fan: Yup, Talia's a tough bastard that's for sure.

And yeah, they're going to call the parents to let them know how things happened, I think it'll be next chapter that the conversations happen.

Yeah Wolf and Emma will definitely have some things to work out between them if they're going to make it work. We'll see how things go once Wolf is back in Detroit.

That would be pretty funny for sure, I might have to use something like that in a future combat scenario. Wolf's frustration levels when he goes back to the range and tries to repeat the results but fails repeatedly would be crazy high.