Pragia.
Shepard, Miranda, Ashley, and Jack were in the passenger bay of the shuttle, while the pilot was hard pressed to evade fire from Cerberus fighters. The flight was rocky, but soon they had arrived at the old Cerberus facility. There, they were almost instantly attacked by a group of Cerberus troops.
Jack hit them with a shockwave, and Ashley fired on them with her assault rifle, while Shepard took cover, and fired on the nearest assault trooper. The round from her phalanx knocked the Cerberus trooper to the ground, and while she moved to check him for any information on the Illusive Man's intentions the rest of the team took out the rest of the Cerberus troops.
Shepard was searching the body, when the helmet popped open, and the man was covered in blue glowing reaper tech. The controlled man said, "You cannot hope to win."
Shepard didn't reply, instead, she just put a round through his head, killing him.
In the next room, there were a series of crates along the wall, Jack said, "They brought new kids here in those crates. No one ever knew what was really going on here."
"That's disgusting, how could they do that to kids?" Ashley asked, looking somewhat sick.
"I don't know, but it looks Cerberus is trying to reactivate the project." Shepard replied, pulling out her Harrier.
In the hallway through the door, a Varren pounced on Shepard and began trying to tear out her throat. She grabbed its neck, and snapped it. Miranda helped her up, and while the Commander regained her footing, Ashley pulled out a shotgun and killed the other varren that was attacking them.
Jack stood there quietly, fear clear in her eyes, yet also grief. She was staring at a bloodstain on the wall, Shepard asked, "What's wrong?"
Jack shuddered, and said, "That blood stain on the wall is the first thing I saw when I was brought here. I was confused and didn't know what was going on, and believed the bastard who was taking me to my cell that it was just some paint that a student had spilled on the wall."
Ashley placed a hand on Jack's shoulder, and said, "Clearly God wanted you to see it, He works in mysterious ways."
"What kind of bullshit is that?"
"Sorry, Jack." Ashley said.
A few more Varren attacked them, but proved to not be a threat, as the group was prepared for the group of enemies. After going down the stairs at the end of the hallway, they saw a terminal and activated it, revealing a hologram of a scientist. Shepard said, "That can't be right."
"What do you mean, Jessica?" Miranda asked.
"That guy, he works with the Ascension Project at Grissom Academy."
"That can't be right. The Alliance wouldn't hire someone who worked on this," Ashley paused for a moment, looking at the bloodstained walls, and finally said, "this monstrosity."
Shepard said, "The Alliance isn't omniscient, they don't know everything that the people they hire have done in their past."
"You're defending them hiring this guy?"
"No, but I'm just saying that they might not have known about him working here, or even the existence of this place. Cerberus has had a lot of ops so black that not even Alliance High Command knew about it."
Garrus was working on focusing the Thanix Cannon when an order from the CIC came in to fire it up. The turian grinned, or as close as a turian can come to a grin, and loaded the weapon up.
From outside, you could see the Normandy fly out of the way of several Cerberus fighters, before firing the Thanix cannons right into the
The blue beam of molten metal tore through the shields of the Cerberus vessel almost instantly, and left a gaping wound in the vessel's hull. The Cerberus vessel was then hit by a volley of missiles, completely destroying it.
The Normandy ground team stood outside the door to Jack's old room, the convict staring at it. Finally, she opened the door and a thin man who kept frantically looking around the room. His eyes twitched, and he never quit rubbing his hands together, as if the fingers were cold and he was trying to warm them.
"Are you Aresh?" Shepard inquired.
"You, you killed my guards. We were going to rebuild, to find the secrets that they were so close to! And now it's lost!" he replied.
"That wasn't what I asked."
"I don't care about what you asked!"
Jack said, "Answer the damn question, punk! Are. You. Aresh?"
"Yes, why do you care, Zero?"
Jack ignored him but it was clear that his words hurt her, then Ashley asked, "What is wrong with you? Are you trying to push her so that she'll attack you?"
Aresh grinned, the madness clear in his eyes, and said, "You don't understand. I was to turn this place into where humanity achieved godhood. Where we learned the true secrets of how biotics work. We were to learn how to control time itself, to turn our people into gods! In the words of the Illusive Man, and the motto of Cerberus, Saeculi mei, ut homines deorum!"
"What?" Shepard asked.
"In my world men will be as gods." Miranda translated.
"Men cannot become gods, because that isn't what God intended for us." Ashley piously replied.
Jack had sat down on the bed, and asked, "Why, Aresh? You were the only one of the kids who didn't try to kill me when I escaped. The only person who was a friend. You sneaked in here when we were both prisoners. Why the hell are you trying to do to other kids what they did to us!"
"We just didn't know enough to see past the pain! They were doing the right thing, the only option that they had to maximize humanity's potential!"
Shepard pinned Aresh to the ground, and said, "Miranda, you've had quite a bit of medical training, can you tell what's been done to him?"
"I'll try, but it's been a long time since I did anything like this." She replied, while quickly examining him. After a few minutes, she said with confusion, "They used old fashioned water torture on him."
"How can you tell?" Ashley asked.
"Normally it wouldn't have a visible effect after the fact, but they clearly left him like this for months. There are slight signs of the skin having been eroded." Miranda turned to Aresh and asked, "Why did they torture you?"
He shivered and said, "No, won't talk about it. Too painful!"
Shepard said, "Aresh, please, we need to know why, that way we'll be able to help you better."
"You can't help. No one can. Cerberus knows the way to perfect humans. To free us from the water that weakens us, that tears us apart from within!"
"Intense hydrophobia. The only way we'll be able to get an answer from him is with, strangely, water." Miranda said.
Jack moved over to the window, and opened it, gathering some water in a small pitcher, and bringing it to Aresh, she said, "Why did Cerberus torture you, Aresh?"
He didn't respond, so she poured a few drops onto Aresh, who instantly cracked, saying, "For trying to spread the word about this place, it made me easy to find! Please, no more."
Shepard put Aresh in cuffs, and said, "We're going to get you some help, but we'll have to keep you in cuffs to keep you safe."
Jack planted the bomb with some help from Ashley, and then, they were about to leave, when Jack stopped and went back into the room, and stared at the bed. 'This is my childhood, do I really want to destroy this? If I blow it, there will be nothing left of what made me what I am, other than the memories. This is where I learned almost everything I know. This fucking place has to go! Why the hell would I be thinking of leaving it in existence? So long as it is around there will be people who want to use it for their own good, but, this is where I grew up.' Then, a sickening revelation dawned, Aresh had been implanted with reaper tech like the troopers. She pulled out a pistol and fired a single round through Aresh's heart, and he fell down. He rolled over, and there, the life slowly faded from his eyes.
"I'm sorry, Jack. They were too powerful for me to resist."
"I know, Aresh. And don't worry, I'll kill every last one of those bastards for you."
"Thank you. Jack." Were his final words, as he breathed his last.
Normandy SR2.
Jack collapsed into her bed, the destruction of the Pragia facility not even clear in her mind. Aresh's eyes haunted her, and the madness filled husk of a man he had become. She was shocked when she found herself crying like a newborn child, but she didn't try to stop. Aresh had been her only friend, and he had died, because of Cerberus. Then, it turned to rage. If it hadn't been for Cerberus, and the people that worked for them, Aresh would never have died, and she'd never have become who she was. And Miranda, from the files that the former operative had given Jack, she learned she had been quite the Cerberus Cheerleader.
The woman had worked on Cerberus's most important tasks because she was completely loyal to the Illusive Man. And if it wasn't for her, Cerberus may have crumbled before it could turn Aresh into something less than human. As more time passed, Jack became more sure that it was Miranda's fault what had happened. She would avenge Aresh today, on the Normandy. She got off of her bed, and flared her biotics to their max, the sheer amount of dark energy she was wielding was far beyond anything she'd ever used.
The stairs bent beneath the force of her steps, and when she hit the command to head up to Deck 3, when the doors opened, she marched right into Miranda's quarters, and lifted the woman into the air.
Miranda clutched her throat as Jack used a mass effect field to cut off airflow. She slammed the operative against a wall, earning a thud that greatly satisfied her, and created her biotic sword. The woman tried to type a few commands into her omni tool, but Jack blocked her and forced her victim to wrap her own hands around her throat. Miranda was gasping, desperately trying to breath, but Jack wouldn't let her. A moment later, the Australian was unconscious, and Jack moved in to filet her like a salmon. When she was about to place the biotic blade to the operative, a single shot pierced the utter silence in the room.