Chapter 49

Baby Café

As Ty stared at the reanimation of the Illusive Man many thoughts crossed his mind of how life would have been had his mother survived long ago and if the man responsible hadn't been such an evil person. He doubted it would have changed that much since his grandfather would have likely been killed anyways and that was the cause of the blacklisting of his family.

Perhaps he had been lucky in a way. Had his life been different, he may not have met his old friends or his new ones. Ty sighed as he walked away from the depiction of the Illusive Man. For all I know I might have been a slightly different person. I never wanted to fight as a kid anyway so I might not have even taken up fighting and followed a more easy boring life.

It was a sad reality that he had to lose so much to be the person that he was, a person that he was happier with now than he had been the last few years. He wished that his grandfather and his mother had survived because of who he knew his grandfather to be and what his father had told him about his mother, but that wasn't the way it all worked out.

For the most part he wouldn't pass up the good or bad experiences he had gone through. Even though some of the things he experienced tore his chest open, ripped out his heart and crushed it in front of him, he couldn't even think of what his life had been like if he hadn't met the people he had loved and lost. Although losing them had been the worst feeling in the universe, just being able to have known them was worthwhile.

Ty stopped at his workbench and sat down to relax for a moment. Wonder if Tali and Shepard have spare time to talk. They did wish to hear about how I was created and now is as good as time as any for me. It wasn't a happy story; it was one he wished to only tell once so he didn't have to explain it again.

On the Normandy it was mostly common knowledge that the warrior and his brother were created in an experiment. While he knew Mordin had a scientific curiosity about it all, he wondered how much the others wished to know. I should just invite them all to talk or over a comm link or something. If they want to know, they'll listen and if they are fine with the knowledge they have now then they won't.

The former mercenary let out another sigh. He hadn't even known the woman fully but the story still hurt in its own way. Maybe it was hearing the pain in his father's voice and the hurt look on his face when he had told his sons about it that left an impact on Ty or maybe it was the childish wish in him to have known her better because of the person his father had described her as. Someday we'll meet that is certain, he conceded. I just hope it's later than sooner in that case.

Ty had no current desire to reach the shores of the afterlife anytime soon so he opened a comm link to Joker from the terminal at his workbench to start moving towards the conversation on his abilities. "Ty?" Joker answered.

"Hey Joker, I have a question for you."

"This isn't going to be one of the really weird questions, is it?"

The purple eyed man rolled his eyes. "No. Could you send a message for me asking the crew if they want to know about how I got my past seeing abilities, purple eyes and such?"

"Sure, I'll send out the memo."

"Thanks, Joker. You're the best."

"Didn't have to tell me that, I knew already."

Ty shut the comm off and used the elevator to head up to the Crew Quarters while he waited for the response. The elevator doors opened and he walked out and to his room not knowing exactly how he was going to tell everyone who wanted to hear it whether through comm link or just all in the Mess Hall.

He got in his room and laid down on his bed when EDI popped up across from him. "Mr. Moreau wants me to inform you that Shepard, Samara, and Kasumi are heading to your room while Garrus, Tali'Zorah, Doctor Chakwas, Miranda, Jack and Mordin will listen from their rooms. Grunt said he would listen but he wasn't really interested unless there was a big battle so I would not expect to hear him ask any questions. Jacob Taylor also had little interest in it so he asked not to be involved."

That was surprising. He hadn't thought that nearly all of them would like to hear about it, but that made it easier for him since he'd only have to tell it once and if any of the other people they recruited wanted to know they would be able to ask anyone in the crew. "Wow, that's more than I expected. Are you going to open the comm while I talk?"

"Yes. You will be able to talk at any pitch and they will still be able to hear you."

"Alright, thanks a lot EDI, and tell Joker thanks as well."

"I will." EDI said then disappeared.

A few minutes passed allowing the warrior to relax himself on his bed. When his door finally opened it revealed Kasumi, Shepard and Samara walking in simultaneously. She's a Justicar? Damn, not what I thought by a long shot.

Samara didn't look as threatening as he imagined a Justicar to look. She had a regal appearance and seemed almost completely serene compared to what he expected. He had only ever heard of a Justicar once or twice in his life from Valera and Tara and it wasn't a huge amount of information either, but the information he did know didn't prepare him for her actual appearance.

She wore a red armor that hugged her body, showing off her fit and curvy body. The armor opened in a V form revealing her cleavage and her blue chest and neck, she also had a slim piece of red armor on her face that went up her cheek on both sides then bent towards her nose above her eyes.

Though he expected a different type of armor, it probably was a good armor for her since she obviously didn't wear it to get men or women of any race to stare at her. She was a Justicar, love or relationships more than friends probably weren't allowed.

Ty did notice that she had a certain type of beauty to her that he had only seen a few times in his life from the Asari, but one of the more astounding features of hers were her eyes. They were a very light blue color that showed a caring soul deep under all the armor and barriers, but the color captured his gaze quickly. The only one he had met recently that had a similar effect on him was Shepard with her vibrant sapphire blue eyes.

Her eyes held his as he admired the beauty of them and searched them for answers to his unspoken questions. Why was she here? They never met, but she was here to listen to a story about things she didn't know about. Would they have issues in the future because of their choices in their lives? Was there really care in her eyes or was it a façade she could switch on and off?

Answers would come in time, but not now. "Sit where you feel comfortable I'll probably end up pacing back and forth." He told the trio as he sat up. The three nodded their heads and Kasumi and Shepard sat in two of the plush chairs in his room while he stood up and walked over to Samara. "I'm Tyler Rhoddy, but everyone calls me Ty." He introduced himself, putting his hand out for a handshake.

Samara shook his hand elegantly. "I am Samara. I am pleased to meet you Ty."

"Likewise." The Justicar sat on his bed crossed legged which reminded him of himself in a way so he figured she probably meditated a lot. "EDI, do you have the comm open?"

"No, it will take a few seconds to link everyone in."

"Okay. I guess I should apologize to you now, Samara, since our first meeting is you listening to me talk about something that isn't really a bright gleaming light in my past."

"There is no need to apologize. I could have chosen not to listen, but I was intrigued to hear some of your story and why you have the abilities you have. I have seen many bad things in my long life. I will not be affected by this."

"I hope so."

For someone who was commanded by her code to kill innocents if they held her against her mission, she seemed very calm, though everyone on this crazy ship had calmness about them when they weren't in battle. She had sincerity in her voice that told Ty she was truthful about what she had said, but he hoped that the darker part of the story truly didn't affect anyone who heard it.

EDI popped up again on her terminal in Ty's room and said, "The links have been connected. You may proceed when you are ready."

"Thanks EDI. Alright everyone who's on the comm, you ready for me to start talking?"

"Ready." Garrus answered.

"I'm ready Ty." Tali said.

"Yes." Mordin followed.

"Go ahead dick." Said Jack.

"I am ready." Chakwas said.

"Whenever you are ready Ty." Miranda finished.

It was unexpected to have almost the entire squad waiting to hear the story, maybe they were all just curious of how he got the power or maybe the bonds he had with them were stronger than he thought. He shrugged off the thought and decided to forget it for the time being. "I'll warn you all now that the last half may evoke some anger deep inside you, but then again a lot of my past isn't very happy as you have all found out. Anyway, I'll just get this over with so we can all get back to our duties."

Ty walked to his big window and started pacing a little. "My father is a human as you know, but my mother was a Drell so as you can guess a human-Drell hybrid is so rare it doesn't exist to my knowledge. They fell in love at a young age and were together for years while my grandfather worked for the Alliance through contracts and my father just hired himself out like my grandfather did at first. Eventually though she wanted to have kids with my dad and after long talks of what they would do they finally came upon this secret scientist guy named Dr. Vance who was a specialist in basically a 'baby café' as my dad explained it." Ty started.

"A what?" Garrus asked.

"Baby café. If I'm keeping with this metaphor than you could go to him and order off a menu what you wanted your child to have." A silence filled the room and the comm for a moment or two before Ty broke it. "Yeah, like I said this is not a happy story so if you want to leave be my guest." Silence filled once again but there was no sign of the comms being shut off. "So he experimented on baby human DNA in an attempt to unlock different potentials. My mother wanted to have kids that had the Drell quality of past reliving though not as extreme so after deciding they wanted two sons three years apart from each other, they told the doctor what they wanted and he obliged."

He stopped pacing and stared out into oblivion. "My dad says now that he should have known it was a bad decision to trust this guy since he was fucked up in the head, but they wanted kids so they were blinded by that he said. The guy ended up experimenting on a three year old, my now biological brother, while experimenting on me as a day old. He changed our DNA so we'd have similarities to my parents and we'd become biologically related, but what he didn't tell them is that he also experimented with different abilities giving us the Asari melding ability and the Drell ability to be able to recall our past with perfect clarity but without the slipping into it unless we did it ourselves. I'll let you guys be the judge on that one being successful or not based on how much I do actually slip without consent."

And here comes the confusion that I face that has no answer. "Something went wrong though. No one that's alive is sure of what went wrong but something did because we are able to see every past moment around us or of someone else's. I mysteriously have four interconnecting nervous systems, three of which we know are human, Asari, and Drell and the other that is this big mystery that hasn't been solved."

Pacing back and forth again Ty waited to see if there were any questions yet. "So your eyes are purple and your brothers are really bright green because of this Dr. Vance's experiment?" Tali asked.

"Yeah. As far as I know human eyes can't be purple and they can't be as neon as my brothers are without contacts or some type of science like the one this guy used." And I am thankful I have human eyes without the second set of eyelids, that would just be creepy.

"What about when you visit your past or lose control of your anger and your eyes go all purple while your veins get darker blue?" Garrus questioned.

"We aren't sure if it was intended to do that, but yeah, from the same experiment. For some reason in times of severe pain and anguish and my anger gets unleashed my veins and eyes do that, but any other time I lose my temper it's just my eyes going purple."

"And here comes the fun part." Jack said dryly.

"It's like you've heard me tell this type of story before, Jack."

"I know you well enough now to know that you start out with something like that and then end it with the shit that pisses everyone off." She retorted.

"It's kind of become my thing when we get new recruits to share some history of mine I guess, but yeah you're right, that's where this is heading. The experiments worked and the guy gave me and my brother to my parents and sent them on their way for a fee. For three years nothing bad happened. My parents raised us with unconditional love and were on their way to becoming normal citizens. They were even able to visit Earth once and watch a sunset, which is the only intact memory I have of her, but I guess that isn't so bad since the things I know now I'm glad I don't remember."

The reflection of the window showed Kasumi, Shepard and Samara listening intently with looks that were between surprise and question. Ty continued to keep his eyes away from their reflections, not sure how he was going to hold up for the remainder of the story. "I grew up from years four and up with no memory of my mother except the mother my father told me about who was a human woman who left us because she didn't give a damn about anyone but herself. I wondered for a little while after he told us the truth why my father would tell us that instead of the truth and I think I understand it a little now. I think his grief was a key factor, but the other key factor I think was so we wouldn't grow up knowing our mother was dead. It stopped him from having to explain it to us more than once since we wouldn't understand as innocent children that mommy died because we were an experiment that was recalled."

He stopped pacing and turned around to face the three in his room then leaned his back against the window and slid down to the floor to sit. "I feel bad that my father lost her and I understand in a way what he felt because of losing Ka'Reena. Even though I didn't know her that well, I guess I still love her since she was my mother and what she did for us will immortalize her to me."

"What was your mother's name?" Shepard asked in a caring tone.

"My dad told me it was difficult for him to pronounce still to this day so to save himself the trouble he called her Cassie when she was alive, which was the closest name to it."

"What happened to this Ka'Reena, if it is not rude to ask?" Samara asked.

Ty shook his head. He forgot that Samara was new for a moment and had no knowledge on what had happened to him. "It's not rude. I forgot you didn't know. Ka'Reena was my Quarian girlfriend and lover and it got really serious to the point of us being bondmates or lifemates. Short version is I worked in the Blue Suns with my own crew of people until they sent us to deliver women and children to slavers and we choose not to because of how wrong it was. They were watching us so they knew what happened and blew up our ship along with everyone in my group except me and one other member. I hunted them and met Ka'Reena then they kidnapped her and murdered her in front of me to try to incite my anger…" Ty let out a sigh of defeat. "They did succeed in that much."

Samara nodded and Ty could see in Shepard's eyes that she wished to be sitting next to him so she could do something to comfort him but was restraining herself. "I can see that you have been burdened by this for many years. You have had a hard time letting yourself feel again and have on occasion blocked everyone that you care about out of your life so you could be cold and calculating and not effect anyone but who you hunted." Samara stated.

If Ty had been showing his true feelings, his jaw would have hit the floor. He would have also questioned her being a psychic once he picked his jaw up, but he held those emotions in to not seem like an utter fool on this first meeting. She was wise and had read Ty like a book within seconds, it was impressive but it almost sounded like a question or like she had known someone with the same qualities before and there was a connection she was making. Maybe she's referring to herself?

He'd figure it out eventually if all went well between the two, but for now everyone in the room nodded including Ty all agreeing that what she had said was true. Samara dipped her head in a nod once again giving him her full attention. "I see. Please continue if there are no other questions."