"Any sign?" I whispered into the radio in my jacket's collar.

"Maybe." Kasumi's voice answered me. "She's not blond, but hair can be dyed. Super pail, red lips- eyes are the wrong color, but then, yours probably are too right now."

I grunted a yes, the purple glow of my eyes- occasionally flashing to red- hidden behind my visor as I looked around the wards outside Darkstar. "What about her body type? Skinny? Fat? Muscular?"

"Can't tell, she's wearing pretty baggy stuff."

"And let me guess, she's sitting down so you can't tell what her height is either?"

"Well...I'd guess she's as tall as you, give or take, but yeah, it's trickier to tell...you gonna make a move on her?"

"Does she look impatient? About to leave?"

"She's reading a datapad, looks like she's been here all day. If you stood there all day you might catch her on the way out."

"Teleporters are hard to catch." I deadpanned. "And if I surprise her, she's liable to think I'm attacking, and any chance of sitting down to talk things out is gone."

"She cut your arm off, you do remember that?"

I glared silently, loud enough she heard it over the com.

"Just saying. I could probably-"

"Overload probably wouldn't work, and if you shoot, people will panic, might trample the invisible person."

"I know how to not get run into, I've been doing this for a while."

"...Maybe, you could set up a shot for if things go south, but I wouldn't count on it...has she looked your way at all?"

"...you're worried she can hear me from here?"

"I probably could if I was paying attention. If she's absorbed in the book or whatever else she might be reading, she might've let her guard down, but...I already don't like you risking yourself like this. If you get hurt cause of this...I was lucky enough that my last friend got zombified, but I doubt that sort of lightning strikes twice."

"Hey, I snuck after you, you didn't ask me to do this."

"Yeah, you're not really helping your case." I frowned. "Unfortunately, you're as stubborn as I am, so I couldn't just send you back, and if I'd teleported you onto the ship, my stuff would've gone missing."

"Yep."

"Screw it, I'm going in."

"Sure you don't want to call Shepard?"

"I've found I have better luck begging Raptor for forgiveness than asking her for permission."

"...You realize that if Jennifer kills you, I'm going to have never been here, and I'm taking your TV?"

"Let me update my will to include you real quick then." I rolled my eyes. "Just keep an eye out for Slade or Isaac in case they show up. I have a gut feeling that she kept this secret from them, that her intentions are genuine... but then again my gut is bruised as hell thanks to Shepard, so knows if it has any fucking clue what's going on...I do need you to do something else for me."

"What's that?"

"Be far enough away you can't hear us talking."

"Huh?"

"Look, I trust you and all, but even Raptor doesn't know everything about the two of us. And thanks to the Amnesia, I'm a bit in the dark too, but this stuff needs to stay absolutely secret. I can fill you in later if I can."

"...Just, like, give me a hand signal or something if you want me to shoot her."

"I'm sure I'll want you to the moment I walk in, or the first time I do anything with the robo-arm. But don't shoot her unless...hmm, well, I just got an omni-tool installed in the robo arm, but I still have the one-handed one...if I use the one in the robo-arm, that'll be your signal. Otherwise, I'll use the one in the right hand."

"Gotcha. Just don't do it by habit."

"The way the stupid thing's set up, it'd be impossible for me to muscle memory it...wish me luck."

"Try not to die." She responded dryly.

"Thanks." I said with a chuckle, turning the comm off and walking through the doors into the club. As I walked in, my eyes quickly scanned the area for where Kasumi was, where Jennifer was, and for anyone that remotely looked dangerous.

I didn't see any sign of Kasumi, and couldn't hear her either with the music, which I took as a good sign- Jennifer might not've picked up on it either.

I saw the woman Kasumi had described in a booth, and instantly knew it was her. Not just from her appearance- she'd changed it well enough that it alone wouldn't have guaranteed it for me. But I knew it had to be here based on where she was placed- she could see not only the doors going in, but also the bathroom doors, where I could've teleported in from. And with her back to the wall, nobody could surprise her, but she could teleport out rather than be cornered...of course, it could've been coincidence, or by accident, but I prefered to not underestimate the person who'd left me sans an arm.

She glanced up from her datapad as I walked in, and our eyes met from across the room. Her eyes were green, but I saw a blue glow behind what had to be contacts as I walked over and sat down across from her.

"Nice dye job."

"Nice job covering up the scars with makeup." She responded in the same even tone.

"Hand was the difficult part." I said, pointing to the leather gloves I was wearing. "Shiny silver tends to stand out, and the sizing is way different for prosthetics than normal gloves."

"I hope you're not here for an apology." She said with a hint of sarcasm.

I set both elbows on the table as I leaned forward, fingers together. "You're the one that called this meeting, so you tell me...unless Isaac or Slade sent you something saying it was from me and me something from you as a trap and we both walked right into it."

"...You're as paranoid as Mike was, that's definitely the same."

"I doubt it's the same. It's one thing to believe the world's out to get you, a hell of a lot different when it's true."

"Uh-huh." She leaned back in her seat. "The reason I called you here is probably the same reason you showed up. We both have answers the other one wants."

"How do you know I'm not just here to shoot you in the head?"

"Same reason I think you know I'm not going to do that to you. And if you were going to just do that, you already would have. Or you would've had your invisible thief friend over in the corner do it...Kasumi is her name, isn't it?"

Damnit. "What do you-" I looked around, and pretended to only then notice her as she shifted slightly. "Huh, she's gotten better at trailing me. Thought I lost her an hour ago."

"And you're lying to protect her...probably something else Mike would've done."

I looked back at her, eyes flashing red behind my visor. "Let's get something straight here. I might have plenty of things in common with the other guy, but I'm not him. I'm not Mike, and even if the memories magically came back, I still wouldn't be. If you're just here cause you want a shot at getting your boyfriend back, forget it."

"I don't believe you."

"What you believe is not important to what's true. Micheal ***** died a long time ago, when that lightning bolt hit him. After that, there was a new man. And when he crashed on Eden Prime, he disappeared too, and that's when I came into the picture. The only thing I know about you is that I want you dead, almost as much as I wanted Saren dead. And let me tell you, I wanted that murderous asshole dead pretty goddamn badly."

She didn't so much as blink. "If you just came here to fight, then let's get to it."

"I didn't come here because I wanted to fight. And if I'd wanted you dead, like you said, I would've just told Kasumi to shoot you."

"So what's your signal to tell her to shoot me?"

"Let's do things this way." I ignored her question, and by the look on her face, she wasn't surprised I'd ignored it. "You ask a question, I answer it, then I give you a question to answer." And with the visor, I can monitor her vitals. Won't be perfect, but I should be able to tell if she's lying. I hope.

"Alright then...you said you don't remember anything before crashing on... Adam Prime?"

"Eden Prime." I corrected. "I remember getting struck by lightning, disintegrating. Then, nothing, then I woke up there. Anything else I might remember only shows up in nightmares."

"...Okay, your turn then."

I kept my pokerface in place, surprised she hadn't kept pushing. But maybe she's trying to keep to that one question each thing so she doesn't antagonize me further...not that she could push me much further short of threatening the crew, and the only one here is Kasumi. "Why'd you run on Illium?"

"Which time?" She deadpanned.

I glared. "The second. After-" I tapped my forehead with a finger.

"...How do I know you weren't lying about what happened there? Your own madness could've colored your memories."

I raised an eyebrow. "You wanna see the scar on my arm from Tali's knife?"

"You could've inflicted that on yourself. And the biotic color changing isn't enough to convince me either."

"So what would?"

"FYI, I'm counting that as another of your questions."

"Fine."

"And I doubt anything would convince me, since both 'AI' are supposedly dead...how could you have attacked them all like that and not been thrown off the ship?"

"Did you never see Wrex's confrontation with Shepard?"

"...Point taken. But there's a difference between that and stabbing someone in the gut who could so easily die from it."

"Tali and Garrus still don't exactly trust me. Doubt they will anytime soon either, if ever."

"Why doesn't Garrus?"

"A, because he's that sorta guy, B because he and Tali are an item."

"...I thought that didn't happen till the third game at the very end?"

I shrugged. "It ain't all the same."

"So then...how is so much still the same?" I got the feeling she wasn't asking because she didn't know, but because she wanted to know what info or theoriesI had on it.

"Luck, I guess." I half-lied.

"Okay, so what's the real reason?"

"I honestly don't know for sure. Best guess is that being here created some sorta... reality warping paradox thingee or something."

"...I think I watched too much sci-fi stuff with Mike. That actually makes almost-sense...have you felt..." She bit her lip, thinking. "Some sorta, vibrations in the air or something when stuff happened?"

"Close enough to how I'd describe it I guess. But now it's my turn again. How did you guys get away from Saren's facility?"

"...We didn't. We saw you tearing things apart in the red...then-"

"Then you were handed over to the collectors?"

She nodded silently, eyes tightening with remembered pain. "They...were worse than Saren."

I thought back to the files I'd read. I hadn't fully understood the experimental data, but given what the collectors were capable of, I didn't doubt her. "So how'd you get away from them?"

"...I don't know. Slade and Isaac suddenly tore open my cell, told me to follow them, ran for a while, fought some Collectors...but then I lost consciousness. I don't know what ship we broke free from, or where we were. I just remember waking up on a shuttle with them, what they said was a week later."

"'What they said was a week later?' You think it was longer?"

"I don't know. Before I didn't doubt them."

"So why do you now?"

"I'm not sure I do. The *memories* showed you and Iron and Hero. It never showed them knowing anything about-" I cut her off by raising the pyschomancer hand.

"You wanna see Slade calling me Iron mockingly?"

"Even if you weren't faking it, they could've just been aware of your delusion."

"How? Seems like the only way they could've known was if they'd found out after Hero and Iron got implanted. And it seems like you guys were outta the picture by the time that happened. There's a point where healthy skepticism turns into denial."

"I don't know, maybe they hacked Saren's stuff? Isaac got plenty of tech stuff shoved into his head, he probably could figure that out."

"Doubtful."

"Well how else would they know?"

I paused a moment, weighing the options in my head. Screw it, already took plenty of other risks today, they panned out. "I got a few of your memories too, of me beating you at least."

She tensed visibly, angry but still in control. "What's your point?"

"I had a theory about what happened, and I think it still holds up after seeing that. Maybe even more so."

"You mean that you'd already had *Iron* implanted in your head- what the hell is with those names anyway? Seems like the type of name you always gave your RPG characters."

I looked over at where I thought Kasumi was, hoping she wasn't actually listening. Or that I could pyschomance her into forgetting what she heard if needed. "They sorta...were. They tried using the same sorta process that brought me there to get brain patterns for the AI implants, but accidentally called in...alternate versions of Shepard, from other realities, who just happened to be identical to those I, er, created in the real world. Hero was a paragon adept, Iron an insane renegade vanguard."

"...I kinda hate that I actually followed that."

"Point is, I don't think they were implanted yet. I think that happened directly after, and that's why I beat the hell out of you...or the other guy did, whatever, I's just easier to say."

"What do you mean you-"

"I think the other guy found out about the implantation somehow, or maybe thought it was indoctrination, so he figured if they thought he was the best, he'd be their guinea pig instead of one of you."

"...That is just stupid enough to be true."

"Yeah, that's about what I said when the thought occurred to me."

"Of course, if it was true, it didn't exactly work, considering instead he went and slaughtered in Saren's name while we got turned into the collector's playthings."

"'The road to hell is paved with good intentions'." I quoted bitterly. "Trust me, if I'da known how things'd turn out doing that, I doubt I'd have done it. Same time though, who knows- If it'd been Slade or Isaac been implanted or even indoctrinated, Saren could've won. And if it'd been you, since you know absolutely nothing about this galaxy..." She glared at me for that. "Then again, with how much I fucked things up at different points, who knows, you could've done better outta ignorance."

"Speaking of knowing things- back on Horizon you said something about trying to save Alenko, and sticking a knife in his back to not screw things up."

I paused. "Small one before I answer that- did you three end up with the perfect memory? Or perfect recall, I guess might be more accurate given the amnesia...still doesn't sound right though."

"Do you mean, could I recall the entire conversation word for word like you undoubtedly can? No, but I could get the gist of most of what went down. My memory was pretty good before anyway; might be why I remember more about the real world than Isaac and Slade. And you had entire sections of the game memorized word for word- maybe that's why you ended up with memory like a...Krogan?" She guessed.

"Drell."

"Damnit, thought I had that one."

I tried not to crack a smile, though I only barely managed it.

"Either way- you stuck a knife in his back just to-"

"No...not exactly." I sighed. "Just listen to the whole story this time instead of cutting me off by breaking my arm with a biotic restraint."

She pursed her lips, and nodded.

"I knew what was coming with Virmire so- er, wait do you know about that, or am I going to need to give a quick summary here?"

"In the game, one of the marines went with the...salarions-"

"Salarians." I corrected.

"Right, them, and the other was in charge of the bomb. But then stuff happens, and you only have time to save one before it goes off, right?"

"Meh, good enough."

She leaned forward slightly. "...that was the fiction. What happened in reality here?"

"I...I didn't think I'd be able to save both of them. So I made a choice, I sent Ashley with the Salarians, thinking that Raptor would go to save them and her, rather than just Alenko."

"Yeah, sorry to interrupt," and she actually seemed to mean it, "Why is Shepard's name actually Raptor? I mean, I know you liked giving your characters stupid names, but how'd that work out here where everything's...real?"

"That's...a bit personal. For her I mean. It was a nickname that stuck, is the short version, and she legally changed her name to it."

She seemed to accept that. "But then, it sounded like you were just going to leave Alenko to die."

"...I knew, if I could only save one of them, which one I wanted to save."

"Because you and Ashley were fucking?"

I blinked a few times. "That's...more... crude than I would have put it...and not strictly accurate, since we didn't actually get to that stage of the relationship for like another week and a half."

She managed to smirk at my slight embarrassment and glare at me at the same time.

"But when it got to that point, to making the choice, Shepard wanted to go after Kaidan. Make sure the bomb didn't go off, and since Alenko was a sentinel as opposed to a regular soldier...Well, I hadn't seen that coming...And since I couldn't just stand by and let Ashley die, but Shepard wouldn't leave Alenko...I took a third option, and told her to go for Ashley while I pulled Alenko out of the fire."

Her eyes widened slightly. "You, alone, against that many Krogan and Geth?"

"Didn't say it was easy...Iron gave me a power boost." I admitted. "I had two redundant amp sets, one for each AI. He gave me access to his, so I had more eezo at my disposal...I think. By the time I could've actually studied it and figured it out, my amps had been rewired and upgraded too many times for me to tell anymore."

"So you just tore through the geth, got back to the ship- No, I guess you would've fought Saren first."

"Yep. He revealed the truth about my origins- minus the video game thing, since I doubt even the Reapers know that- and then Iron took over, tried to either join him or kill him himself. Dude was too insane for me to really be able to tell. But since I pointed out the only way he'd willingly follow a nutjob like Saren was if he'd been indoctrinated-"

"What do you mean he had been? I thought it was permanent?"

"To be fair, I was kinda talking outta my ass to try to get to him. But considering he knew for sure what'd happened, what would happen, he might've been unable to fooled as much and at least resisted it, then getting taken offline and turned back on reset things so it wore off. Or the fact he was pretty much completely insane might've mitigated its effects. Anyway, we fought, but since Saren wasn't supposed to die yet, I basically was unable to kill him."

"You didn't kill him when you had the chance?"

"I mean- and this is going to sound crazy, but it goes with the reality paradox thing- he literally couldn't die. Time, reality itself was protecting him. I have seen Raptor Shepard miss less fewer than a dozen times in all the time I've known her- especially not with a sniper rifle. She missed him, because while he was on his platform talking to me, he shifted how he was standing the exact same instant she fired, and it whizzed past his head instead of going through it. And when I fought him, his kinetic barriers didn't go down regardless of how much fire I put into them, while his modded rounds tore through my protection like it was... bubbles and tissue paper."

"Tissue paper part makes sense, but bubbles?"

I shrugged. "Couldn't think of anything else to compare the barrier to."

"...Could've said...okay yeah, I see your point."

"Anyway, then, when he was holding me over a cliff, ready to drop me to my doom, Raptor shot at his head again. But instead of putting it through his eye, she shot one of his mandibles off, which distracted him from me, but let him get away to fight another day...Alenko was KOed, he couldn't get to the Normandy on his own, nobody else could get to him in time, so I charged over, grabbed him, charged onto the Normandy right as the doors slammed shut and it went for orbit. Barely got out of the blast radius."

"But then, you stabbed him in the back?"

I shook my head sadly. "No. When Saren shot at me with the modded gun, it tore up the armor, including the stuff holding one of my larger knives in place. When we tumbled around, in a one-in-a-million- no, one-in-a-trillion- shot, it slid out of my sheathe, and ended up in his back. Or ended up positioned so he landed on top of it, but either way it had enough force to punch through his armor and sever his spinal column. Total dumb luck...at least, it could be luck, if it weren't for the fact that it took him outta the picture and made him unable to help Shepard."

She pursed her lips, thinking, before apparently deciding she believed me. "That's too stupidly unlikely a story to try to make up, so...So you think it was that...paradox reality thing that did it to him?"

"Same reason I think I ended up a Spectre. Me and Shepard together, two Spectres as a team? We do about the same as what she'd have done alone, just taking some of the load off of her. History isn't changed as much."

She seemed to be digesting that. "So, what about the cruisers you sent to their deaths? And I know it was you that ordered it."

"Please tell me it isn't common knowledge I'm the one that saved those assholes instead of Shepard doing it?" I groaned.

"Then why did you save them?"

"It was either let them die, let their replacements be worse, and kill the crew of the ship they were on, or let the alliance take the casualties. It wasn't a decision I made lightly. It's one I regret. And it's one I'd make again if I had to...probably. Unless Sparatas had really pissed me off that day."

She gave me a glare not unlike one of Shepard's.

"Also, as far as the question distribution goes, I think you owe me like four or five."

"...Fine."

"Slade and Isaac don't remember their real names?"

"...Odd way to take the conversation." She commented. "No, and neither do I. I know that they started with an S and I respectively, it's why they chose what they did. I only remember my first name."

"And their families? Your family?"

Her hands slowly clenched into fists. "It varies. Overall, enough to miss them, without having all the details we'd like."

"Hmm, guess that's just more proof of my theory." I muttered.

"What theory?"

"...Something Raptor asked me about once, if I'd want the memories back given the chance."

"Let me guess- no, because you'd be distracted by them and be worrying about getting back instead of killing Reapers?"

"...Basically."

"You're an asshole, you realize that?"

"Raise your hand if you haven't cut off anyone's limbs recently." I responded, pointedly raising the left arm.

She glared at me.

"Well, saying I'm an asshole is kinda the pot-"

"The pot calling the kettle black- god, that's another thing you have in common with Mike is using that phrase, all the goddamn time."

"And is that a good thing, or a bad thing?"

"It's an annoying thing...and it makes me even less sure that you're not Mike."

I raised an eyebrow. "You realize that if it turned out I am basically him sans the memories- than you just cut off your ex-boyfriend's arm?"

"..."

"Yeah, that was definitely not your finest hour."

She put her head on the table with a groan. "You're the one that talked me into not killing you."

"Another question- why do you think Raptor would work with you? Brainwashing aside- and by the way, I doubt that'll work, I tried knocking her out with it earlier to get her to back down from a fight so she didn't kill herself, and it wore off in like a minute...actually," I reconsidered, " before you might've had a chance if you'd killed me, and just you went to her, since she already didn't trust Isaac or Slade, and you could've made something up about my death. But since that didn't happen, your odds of getting her to trust you are less than zero."

"...Why'd she work with you?" She asked, head still on the table. "I mean, you couldn't have told her the truth right off the back."

"She still doesn't know the whole truth, about this being a game. But at first, she worked with me because I was there. She needed all the help she could get against the Geth. Then, I got hit with the beacon like she did, she needed what I might've had. But I couldn't coast on that forever. I had to fight to earn her trust. And I did it by not cutting off her crew member's limbs...granted, Iron did stab a crewmember, which set progress back a bit…"

She took her head back off the table to look at me. "But...what about Jack, or Kasumi, or ….the lizard assassin guy? They're all criminals, and she worked with them. Is working with them right now." Her voice held a note of...desperation?

"There's a difference between being seen as a criminal, and being considered a monster, someone who made things personal...if you had approached us, without trying to kill me, we'd have been hesitant, but I doubt we'd have turned away help, even if we kept a close eye on you. But since you wanted revenge...whether or not it was justified, or what the circumstances were that caused the other guy to 'betray you', you've basically ruined your only chance with her. And there's very little chance she'd forgive you for it. Even if- no, especially if you managed to kill me. Slade lost his chance on Omega, so did Isaac. You had a chance to not doom yourself that way on Horizon, and you blew it."

"...What if Slade and Isaac are lying to me?" She asked quietly, and I thought I saw her eyes watering, though it was hard to tell in the dim light, and the faint glow from her eyes made it more difficult.

"You've known them longer than me...Sorta. But then again, you were kinda off base about me, and they knew about Iron and Hero when you didn't, then kept that knowledge from you. They didn't just tell you everything about the game so you could be ready...the question is, why?"

"I...I…"

"The way they probably see it," I said gently, "I brought this on myself. But you're the one that didn't let Mike die, that touched the x-box and brought them here. They could blame you for this as much as or more than me slash Mike. And given how they feel about me..."

"But, they've let me into their heads, they know what-"

"Slade was able to keep me outta his head on Zorya. And it sounded like you didn't admit to them that you and I had our little...brain fight. He thought you were more powerful than me. Seems more like you're my equal, at most."

"I...No. I couldn't admit that. And the last time I mentioned Iron or Hero, they...I couldn't see their faces since they still had the helmets on, but…" She wrapped her arms around herself.

I forced myself to lean back, and study her vitals. It didn't seem like she was faking it, but I wasn't going to let myself get drawn into a sobstory just so she could shank me.

"...What would it take to join you guys?"

I almost wanted to laugh at the absurdity of the question, and might've if it wasn't for how she asked it. Her voice was guilt, fear, regret, and her eyes held desperation behind barely held back tears.

It brought back a memory to the forefront of my mind. Me, alone in an alley behind Chora's den, my only company Iron, and the guilt of having almost killed Tali...It's not all the same. I was fighting against Iron, keeping him from killing them. I...well, I could've done better, but it sure as hell could've been a lot worse...she could've killed me, and she could've not cut off my arm...damnit, either I'm reading into this too much, or projecting, or something, but...

"It'd take a helluva lot more than an apology, that's for sure." I leaned forward, hand on the table. "Between Samara, Jack, and myself, we've already got plenty of biotic power, so it'd take more than your status as an Alpha to convince anyone. Not to mention the fact that nobody trusts you, several of them would probably hate you, or at least hate Slade and Isaac, you by extension...Basically, give me a single reason I should even consider it? In fact, give me a single reason I shouldn't give Kasumi the signal, or just crush your skull myself, right here, and right now. Because I can think of plenty of reasons I should do that. And plenty of reasons I want to. The only thing currently staying my hand is that you called me here peacefully. So tell me, why should this stay, peaceful?"

She opened her mouth, closed it, and...she put her head in her hands, looking like she was trying not to sob.

I glanced at the vitals- it was genuine.

"I...I never meant to...I just wanted...I was…"

"Another mark against you? I'm a fighter, probably was before this? Wrestling, right?" I added as I remembered some of the images I'd gotten from looking at Isaac.

She nodded, tears starting to flow.

"You're clearly not. Biotics alone don't make someone a fighter. It's what's inside. I got broken, reforged into someone strong enough to fight against Saren, to fight against Sovereign and any other Reaper or enemy that gets in my way. Slade and Isaac, screwed up as they are, have the guts to go up against me, knowing what I can do. You? You needed backup, or a cheap mind trick, or an anti-biotic restraint to feel like you stood a chance, and even then, you couldn't kill me. So even if I trusted you, even if your skills meant anything to us- you just don't have the guts to fight this fight. You're not Spectre material, not a feared warrior. You're a lovesick girl, a child who's outta her league. You're not worth having at my back...you're not even worth killing right now."

I stood up, disgusted at myself as much as I was at her. "Walk away, and I've got bigger problems than you. Follow me, or fight me, and you will die. This is your last chance to live. I suggest you be smarter than Isaac was, and you take it."

She suddenly grabbed at my arm, grip firm, but not crushing...not that it was easy to tell, since I'd deployed the lash/pyschomancer glove under the cloth one I was wearing.

"You want proof?" She said, voice harsh. She rolled up the sleeve of the arm holding mine, and I noticed for the first time she was wearing gloves too. As I saw her arm, my eyes widened slightly.

With how pale her face was, I knew her arm should've been similar, but I could only see a few miniscule patches of the color, while the rest was scarred with thousand, maybe millions of intersecting razor-thin blue lines; they looked almost like the ones on my face, apart from the color, with the way they looked unhealed. Her sleeve still covered most of her arm, but I could guess it went the rest of the way up.

"If you don't believe I want to help Shepard...believe I want to kill the Collectors, and their masters. You're right. I wasn't a fighter. But I survived this long, and it wasn't all because of Slade and Isaac. I saved them as many times as they saved me. And I lasted longest against you. Longer than they did." She released me, leaning back and sliding the sleeve back up with a slight wince. "I'm a survivor. But you were right on Illium. And I'm tired of just surviving- I can't live like this. Can't just live in fear, unsure of who I can trust- who anyone really us, what they really want." Tears flowed freely across her face. "So either kill me now, and just end this, or believe me, and let me at least help make sure they can't hurt anyone else like this."

For a moment, I stood staring at her, face emotionless before I raised my hand to my collar. "Kasumi, you still here?"

"Yeah, almost shot her when she-"

"Stand down."

"What?"

"Head back to the Normandy. I can handle things from here." Unless she's lying...but damage to the arm like that?...I doubt it's faked...Hell, I don't even think that could be faked. Not to mention the color- eezo maybe?...And if I'm wrong...well, since I doubt Kasumi will listen to me, I'll have backup. I sat back down. "There's only one way I'm going to believe anything you say."

She nodded, warily.

I took the leather glove off, revealing the psychomancer. "And given the circumstances, I don't think it's too much to ask."

She hesitated visibly, but eventually nodded again.

"You're not going to resist, and if you do, or I find anything to make me even think you're lying-"

"Then I've got nothing to worry about." She said, venom in her voice. "I won't fight Slade or Isaac for you, and we might still have a reckoning with you after the Reapers are gone...but I want them dead first. If we kill them, and then you kill me, at least I'll go down happy knowing those... mechanic abominations will never hurt anyone again."

"And if we die in the process of killing them?"

"Still better than how things are now."

I nodded, and activated my biotics. Here goes nothing.


)What the hell Seahawks. What. The. Hell.(

(How do you go from a kickass catch like that to just...to...For crying out loud, even I wouldn't have been stupid and crazy enough to do that!)

)I'm so depressed, I don't even think stabbing you would cheer me up...well, okay, it did a little bit, but still not a lot.(

(Yeah, you're welcome dickhead.)

T117: You got another knife? I think I might wanna try this too.

*I already called dibs on the next one.*

(At least the fight was kinda entertaining...in a 'good god those people are fucking idiots get it under control you morons' kinda 'can't look away from a trainwreck' kinda way.)

T117:...Just embarrassing for the Seahawks overall.

(Yeah.)

*It didn't help that every other commercial was super depressing.*

(I thought that was a saving grace...that and the halftime show.)

)I agree with the second part.(

T117: Ditto.

*Well, I guess we might as well wrap up. Leave questions for next chapter if you have them.*

T117: Sayonara.