Chapter 29

Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect or any of its characters. Those belong to Bioware and EA.

Thanks everyone

She lay hidden in the tall grass on the top of the ridge. The ground was cold beneath her and she shivered as a gust of wind blew. She kept her head low as she surveyed the area below her. There was a Cerberus shuttle there that had unloaded about seven soldiers to search for her. She held her breath as she aimed her sniper at the first one and pulled the trigger.

She fired off two more before the first had even reached the first one. All three shots found their mark and three of the soldiers dropped dead as their heads exploded from the force of her sniper.

The other soldiers immediately raised their guns searching the hillside for the sniper. She smiled as she calmly reloaded and squeezed off three more dropping another three. The final soldier looked around in panic and made a run for the shuttle. She shook her head slightly as she fired another shot. The bullet tore threw his back shattering his spine. As he stumbled towards the shuttle she fired another shot as he fell blowing his head apart.

She sighed and turned over onto her back and stared up at the stars. She'd been running on this planet for over a week now. She wasn't worried about the shuttle they would send another and she would be ready... they always sent another..

She slowly got up and made her way back to her campsite all the while thinking of her brother and where he was in the universe.

XXX

"Will! Were coming up on the planet of the coordinates that you gave me" Tella said as she turned her chair to look at me.

I nodded as I slid into what I'm guessing would be the co-pilots seat. I stared out the view ports as the planet came into view.

It had taken 14 hours to get here since Tella had given the coordinates to the AI. Tella had given each of us quarters for which I was grateful. The downside I had to constantly ignore Tella's advances. I knew that in a way she was just joking but also serious at the same time. I also had to calm Emily down several times. She would flip out every time Tella put her hands on me.

~I swear I thought my problems with women back on Earth were complicated~

"Will?... you ok?" Tella asked breaking me out of my thoughts.

"Yeah.. just got some things on the brain ya know" I said.

She nodded.

"So Will do you know what were going to find down there?" Emily asked as She and Eve joined us in the cockpit.

I shook my head "I'm not really sure to be honest. I'm hoping its my sister."

Both women nodded and Eve handed me a data pad.

"Have hope that your sister is down there..." I handed the data pad back to her and nodded. She smiled at me and gave a short nod.

"Alright! Ships on Auto-pilot were heading for the shuttle Dev! Make sure you activate the stealth system and hide behind one of the moons." Tella said getting up from her seat.

"As you wish your highness!" Dev's avatar appeared on a small holo terminal. Dev's avatar appeared as a floating greenish orb that followed us around everywhere on the ship. Thank god Tella informed it to not follow us to the restrooms otherwise that would cause quite a bit of conflict.

We headed to the cargo bay. Tella had Dev construct us new suits to replace our current ones since they were far superior to our originals.

As I placed the helmet on my head it locked into place. At first it was pitch black inside than I heard a robot feminine voice saying that it was syncing. Suddenly there was a flash and it was as if the helmet wasn't there. I had a perfect view all around me. This was awesome.

We piled into a shuttle of sorts. It looked similar to the main ship but was far simpler. We hooked our harnesses in and She called out that the bay doors were opening.

I gazed down at the planet. It was beautiful though I didn't really know much else about it.

As the shuttle landed we all got up and headed out the door. I glanced around at all four of us. We looked like monsters in the new suits of ours. I had to inwardly chuckle as the sight of us likely would cause panic to whomever we encountered.

We waled a few yards away from the shuttle before Tella turned and activated a device on her arm. The shuttle vanished.

"How the hell did you do that?" I asked.

"Oh its still there. It's not a complete cloak though. If you look at it at an angle you can see it... otherwise its perfectly invisible. The main ship has this technology as well.

I nodded but than thought of something "Wait a sec... If your ship has it than do the reapers as well?"

She shook her head "My fathers ship was an experimental model. They blew the other two before the reapers engaged our forces in the system. They didn't want to run the chance of them getting this technology. My father however liked to have an ace up his sleeve."

I nodded and we made our way towards a small ridge.

As we got near the top we stopped and I brought up some kind of track that Tella had given me. It was about the Size of an old style compass.

It flashed an arrow to the east before disappearing. "Alright let's go!" I said.

XXX

It took about thirty minutes before we reached the area that the coordinates indicated. What we saw surprised us all... well except for maybe Tella.

It was a small Cerberus base. It appeared to be some kind of outpost. I motioned for everyone to get down.

"Cerberus! This changes things!" I said.

"Maybe Ms. Little ex Cerberus can help us out here?" Tella said glancing at Emily.

"As I said before I was not made aware of all Cerberus's activities. The Illusive Man hides his secrets well" Emily said anger clearly evident in her voice.

"We need to find out how many there are on the outside and inside!" I said.

"Hold on!" Tella said digging in a pack on her belt.

She pulled out a small round ball. "What's that?" I asked.

"The answer to your question!" She said tossing it up into the air. It hovered for a moment before zooming off towards the base. It moved at unbelievable speed.

Fives minutes later it returned and dropped into her hand. She held it for a second before looking up.

"There are 15 soldiers 5 on the outside guarding the perimeter and the other 10 are inside. There are also 12 scientists..." She said.

I nodded "Alright let's take out the five on the outside than make our way in."

As we moved down the slope Emily, Tella, and myself pulled out sniper rifles and lined up shots with three of the guards. With three small bangs the guards dropped dead. We quickly shifted to the other two and took them out before they could sound an alarm.

We quickly made our way up to the door and entered.

It was quiet and had the feeling of dread hanging over it.

Eve nodded towards a doorway off to the side and we proceeded towards it as Eve and Emily covered our rear.

Suddenly an alarm flared and guards started pouring into the hallway from the area we had just come from.

"Will! Eve and I will cover you get to that room and get what we came for!" Tella said pulling out an AR and planted herself in cover as Eve did the same with her SMG and they both began firing at the soldiers.

As Emily and I dashed towards the door I suddenly had a feeling of deja vu.

"Emily take up positions on the left." I said feeling the words echo in my head.

I hit the door panel and the door opened revealing a couple of Batarian slavers. The reached for their pistols and we opened fire on them.

We made our way quickly into the room. I stood stock still as I stared at a single crate in the center of the room.

Emily noticed a OSD laying on the ground and made her way over to it. She picked it up and began to read.

"Will! Cerberus apparently bought a this individual from these slavers several weeks ago. The slavers had agreed on providing extra security in exchange for a exclusive rights contract to bring in more slaves for Cerberus to experiments.. Apparently Cerberus wanted this person badly and they were willing to pay a great amount for it." She said looking up at me.

I walked over to the crate and activated the holo lock on it.

As it slid open Stacey's image kept floating into my head. I gasped as the crate opened all the way.

"It's... It's a child?" Emily asked more than stated.

I stared down at a little girl. She couldn't be more than seven years old. She had sandy blonde hair.

Suddenly she woke up and stared up at me. "Please don't hurt me" She said trying to shift towards an area away from me in the small crate.

"Relax! I won't hurt you" I said taking off my helmet.

She gasped as she saw that I was human and slowly got to her feet. She wobbled for a few moments before stumbling and I caught her.

She was weak. She looked like she was running a fever and had been malnourished. She had on a hospital gown.

I clinched my teeth in anger at Cerberus and the slavers. ~Those sons of a bitches will pay for this~

"Will! We need to get her back to the ship than we can figure out what to do!" Emily said picking up her rifle.

I nodded and replaced my helmet with one hand while still holding the little girl. She had apparently passed out and was holding onto my arm for dear life.

As we made our way back out through the door we had came out of Tella and Eve greeted us.

"Who's the kid?" Tella asked.

"Were not really sure.. only that they've been mistreating her and god knows what else they were doing to this poor child" Emily said.

"Well let's get the hell out of here. I've already signaled the shuttle to pick us up. Let's move" Tella said.

XXX

I sat in a chair off to the side of bed that held the little girl. I couldn't shake this feeling that was tugging at the back of my mind.

All three women walked into the room and came over.

"Will you need to get some sleep. She's stable and will recover in a day or so." Emily said looking at me with worry on her face.

I nodded and started to move when the little girl coughed and opened her eyes.

"Hello?" She asked looking around wildly for a moment before her eyes settled on me and she relaxed.

It was the first time I had really gotten a look at her eyes and they were blue.

I made my way over to her with Emily behind me. "My name is Emily.. what's yours?" Emily asked.

The little girl surveyed her up before answering. "My name is Faith" She said.

She noticed Tella and Eve and started to panic but I quickly assured her that they were friendly and wouldn't try to harm her.

~Damn! This little girls been treated so horribly by Aliens its unbelievable~

"My names Will" I said.

The little girls eyes widened for a moment before she shifted and relaxed again.

"Faith is a pretty name. Do you have any brothers or sisters?" Emily asked. She was in her usually perky attitude now and I knew she probably could get more out of Faith than I could.

I started to turn to head out of the room when what was said next stopped me in my tracks.

"What's your mothers name?" Emily asked smiling.

"Stacey" She said.

Everyone froze.

Emily glanced at me confusion and shock evident in her features.

"What's your mothers last name?" I asked feeling my voice shake as I did.

"Her full name is Stacey ******" She said clasping her hands together.

I felt my knees give away and I dropped to floor breathing heavy.

"WILL!" Emily and Tella shouted at the same time making their way over to me.

"Did I do something wrong?" Faith asked tears forming in her eyes.

"No... NO you didn't" I said slowly getting back to my feet.

"Do you remember your father?" I asked.

"No... Mother said he died in some kind of battle before I was born." She said her head hanging down in sadness.

I decided to ask a question that was bugging me "Faith... you know who I am don't you?" I asked in a calm voice.

She looked at me a moment before nodding.

"I know who you are uncle. Mother kept faith that you would find us. She even named me after that." She said.

"Did she explain anything to you?" I asked.

"She explained some but not a lot. She said I would know more as I got older and understood better." She said calmly.

I started to ask another question when Tella interrupted me "You must be starving! Are you hungry?"

Faith stared at her a few moments before she nodded as he stomach growled loudly causing a chuckle to escape us all even Faith.

I helped her to feet and we started to make our way out of the room.

As we walked down the hallway I turned to Faith.

"So... did your mother happen to mention how long she's been here?" I asked.

She looked at me curiously for a moment.

"I'm really not sure what you mean. But mother informed me once that If we ever got separated I was to tell you the date that she remembered 2175." She said looking up at me.

I stopped for a second as I let the realization set in. ~My sisters been here for eight years?~

I shook my head and continued walking with Faith towards the mess area.

I had a lot of things to think about. I felt my head spinning from everything I had just learned.

"Uncle Will... are we going to go get mommy?" Faith asked tugging on my hand breaking my inner thoughts.

"Yes dear as soon as we found out where she is" I said smiling down at her.

She stared at me for a moment before speaking "But Uncle Will... I know where she is!"

A/N: Dun Dun Dun! Cliffhanger! Lol thanks for all the support and stay tuned for the next chapter.