I'm Nobody

by free man writer

He didn't have anything when he was born. just a name and number. But overtime, what he had grew. He, with his friends began to understand that there was more to their existence then just their name and number. They will prove that they were meant to be real. To exist. To become something more than just a Nobody. Co-written and created with Jebest4781. Fem Shepard. Now on Ao3.

29. Rarely A Moment's Respite

Hey, we're back at it again with this one, picking up right where we left off.

Let's do this.

Rate Read and Review and as Always Have Nice Day.

I'm Nobody Chapter 29: Rarely A Moment's Respite

Things have been quite strange as of late for Admiral Steven Hackett.

All starting from the discovery of the Prothean beacon on Eden Prime and things spiraled out of normalcy from there.

It could be hard to imagine the whole slew of things which now occurred in the galaxy at large since that fateful day.

The betrayal of Saren Arterius, the discovery of the Reapers, the arrival of the Heartless and knowledge of actual life outside of the Milky Way.

Literal magic as plain as day for all to see being utilized by those strange humans who claim not to be humans in black cloaks.

One could think they merely possessed highly advanced technology which could be easily mistaken for magic like hundreds and thousands of years ago, but thi wasn't the case at all.

Just one literal universe shattering reveal after another.

Hackett was certain he had aged considerably in this short span.

He still looked the same.

But his soul…

There were a few dozen miles on that one now. He could feel it.

Needing some air, he walked out of his impromptu office at the Alliance base he was presently at. With a cup of coffee in hand, he made his way outside. Once there, he felt the breeze hitting his scared face as he took a swig of his bitter beverage. His eyes gazed at the ships flying at a peculiar location in the distance. Nothing to obscure his vision as he inhaled deeply as a swirl of emotions welled within him.

Now while this wouldn't be strange at all, one could proclaim it as a dream if this occurred days; let alone years ago.

For you see, he was standing out in the open environment of Mars with no form of protection. No air mask or helmet, no oxy-chew, nothing.

This… well, it wasn't completely insane but dammit, it was up there.

'Oh God, the paperwork and media fallout.' Hackett groaned internally.

Now the latest part of his new strangeness in his life occurred from a recent investigation.

Once combing through the Prothean Archives with the data package Shepard's crew acquired from Ilos, a number of things happened. One of which was a signal going off somewhere on this very planet which prompted him to send a team to investigate. Unfortunately things didn't go easily as planned as an odd EMP field surrounded the source, which was at a mountain for some reason.

This ended up having him calling in Shepard and her team once more for help.

When they went to investigate, something strange occurred where they lost contact with them.

It was only later did one of her team -Axel- arrive to report what happened to them before procuring a pair of Makos with provisions for where they were at.

It just so happened the Normandy's ground team wound up on Mars… well… a different Mars.

One similar yet utterly different set nearly 300 years in the past.

And to top it all off, it was of a fictional one but was in fact real all the same as they were in the world written by Edgar Rice Burroughs; interacting with characters of John Carter.

That clearly gave him one hell of a migraine.

After this bit of strange reveal, any word from the Normandy team was more or less quiet as they were trying to resolve a massive issue occurring in that fictional world.

Upon their return, something occurred inside of the very mountain where he sent Shepard and her team all those days ago.

The result… Mars was now breathable!

It can become a proper garden world and it would be right next door to Earth.

This was just insanity to actually believe this to be true.

Yet it was.

That deep inhale of breathable Martian air proved it to be so.

Hackett gazed up at the new building that towered high into the air

The mountain where he sent Shepard and her team crumbled. In its place was this metal structure of some unknown alien civilization. And from it, an emitted beam of light is striking this planet's very atmosphere, making it breathable since god knows how long.

Upon first glance, the structure reminded him of that Shroud structure that was on Tuchanka.

But it was clear for all to see that the metals of this tall spire were not one's familiar with the greater galaxy.

Scientific teams practically swarmed the place once everything settled, wanting to comb the place from top to bottom. It no doubt became a new archeological find for Humanity, let alone the galaxy at large.

It wouldn't be soon for other species to make their arrival here.

And the Council will undoubtedly want to hear about this and have some of their own representatives be sent here.

Honestly, more power to them.

Hackett was well aware that while a great deal of the galaxy viewed humanity in a positive light after attaining a seat on the Citadel and sacrificing lives to save the Council, there were also those that viewed his race a bit tenuous and even nervously.

The human race was viewed by three aspects across the galaxy.

Positive, negative and naturally, the in-between.

The fastest race to achieve a seat on the Council while having profound influence on the galactic stage in less than several decades.

One makes many friends and enemies with such "Grandiose" actions.

Right now, Hackett was well aware that it was better to work with the Council and be more open with the Citadel as to stay on their good side; showing them their appreciation for the responsibility that had been bestowed upon them. The Admiral was more than willing to take on the challenges presented before him and the human race.

He just knew that he would hate the headaches to come.

Pulling out a datapad, Steven Hackett scrolled through the latest findings the Alliance scientists were able to uncover about the uncovered addition to Mars.

Not only have they gotten first rights to researching Gummi technology, but also this environment tower…

The name for this new discovered technology will be thrown about until something were to finally stick. One such name was Remnant, due it being the only thing remaining from a long lost civilization far older than the Protheans; theoretically.

It wasn't just this Remnant tech, but the technology Shepard had brought back from when the Normandy more or less left the galaxy. The Etherium technology and the ones from Barsoom -the fictional Mars- were somewhat the same to some degree but largely different in other aspects.

'Maybe some Salarians should be brought here.' Hackett internally mused. 'Or some Quarians. Maybe Shepard's teammate can get some here to help out.'

He did know Dr. Liara T'Soni was planning on staying on Mars to investigate further on the Ilos data package with the help of Della Duck from the Okoku galaxy via video transmissions. But with this environment tower now unveiled, she might feel compelled in working on that as well.

Not that he could blame her, given her expertise.

The salarians could be of some help, but a number of Alliance personnel seem hesitant to work with them. He heard their concerns pertaining to the short lived species might exploit the Rem-tech in some shape or form. And there was quite the lengthy list of their other reasons.

Same could be said if the Quarians were to be asked to lend their assistance. It would seem relatively unfair to let some species study the Rem-tech while leaving others out.

If they were to let others access, they'd need to go through a lengthy screening for security precautions...

"Admiral."

The aged Alliance veteran turned to see none other than Jane Shepard standing before him, standing at attention with a crisp salute.

"Shepard." Hackett greeted, saluting her in return. "You know by technicality, you don't have to salute me anymore."

"Apologies sir, but that's unlikely." Shepard rebuked. "Experience over rank."

Hackett snorted at that. "Pretty confident that whatever it is you and your team have experienced these last few months outclass anything I've been through."

Jane merely snorted, knowing that to be true.

"Then I guess out of courtesy and respect, sir."

"Appreciate the gesture, Commander." Hackett said, looking back up to the spire. "This one though… definitely ranks up there as some of the more crazier things to happen."

"I hear ya, Admiral." Shepard remarked, gazing up with Hackett. "Just when I thought my life couldn't get any crazier."

"Life always surprises oneself with each passing day."

Jane merely gave a small nod.

"But with you…"

The Spectre laughed, shaking her head. "Try not to tempt fate as is, Admiral. I'm certain this is only the start of it."

Hackett let out a small 'hmph'.

"What do you think, Shepard?" The Admiral said inquisitively.

"Hmmm?"

"You've seen and done some insane shit when looking at it all in a short amount of time." Hackett humorously stated. "How do you rank this one?"

Jane Shepard crossed her arms, mulling over the question for a few moments until she made a so-so gesture with her hand.

"Don't wanna be too quick to judge this one overall." Shepard said.

"Too quick to judge?" Hackett asked in amusement.

"In a short amount of time I've traveled to other galaxies, learned that magic is basically real, some of the stories that humanity has told are likely real and traveled to alternate realities by technicality with this one." Shepard listed off. "Nothing short of time travel is all that's left that'll shock me and I know some weird shit is still gonna happen."

Hackett silently regarded her.

"So seven out of ten?"

"Seven point five."

The Admiral chuckled to himself as he returned his gaze to the spire.

"This is a new one for me." Hackett admitted. "We just got handed the capabilities of terraforming planets into garden worlds on a silver platter. More or less."

"More power to us then." Shepard remarked. "God knows we can do less of the usual barren planets."

Steven gave a brief nod before noticing another person approaching them.

"Sir, Citadel representatives have arrived." A Marine Lieutenant said aloud with Hackett nodding at him.

"Well, guess that's my cue." Hackett stated. "Take five on this one Shepard. You and your team have been through enough as is. That's an order."

Jane fought back a smirk rising on her lips. "Of course, Sir."

They parted ways. Shepard going either back to the Normandy -which was presently docked- or the present quarters she and her team have been given at the base for the time being. As for Hackett, he followed the marine lieutenant in order to meet the new arrivals.

It was a hodgepodge of the Council races with scientists from humanity, Salarians, Asari and even several Turians. Military scientists for the Turians but scientists all the same.

They were chatting amongst themselves before slowly halting upon Hackett's arrival.

"Ladies, gentlemen, welcome to Mars." Greeted the Alliance admiral. "I can already see you are all antsy to get things started."

A male Salarian was the first to speak. He had pinkish skin with white spots on the majority of his face.

He appeared extremely giddy and excited to be here, eyes constantly going between the Admiral and the towering spire in the back.

"When will we be able to finally go there, sir?"

"Once you get your security clearances, then you'll be able to do what you've come here to do… Mr…"

"Kallo, Kallo Jath." The Salarian introduced himself chipperly.

"Glad to have you." Hackett said. "All of you. We're gonna need everyone's assistance for this because… well…"

"Understandable, Admiral." Kallo stated. "Though I should admit this at least. I'm not really a scientist, merely an engineer. But I couldn't pass up this opportunity."

"And I wouldn't blame you, Kallo. Scientists, engineers, archaeologists are more than welcome to visit the spire so we may learn more of what it holds. We'll need everybody to finally crack it's servers, learn of its origin and so much more."

Hackett can see a number of nods from the congregated mass.

"Now if you all follow some of our security personnel, they will direct you to getting processed. Once done, you will be directed to your assigned quarters for the duration of your stay before you are allowed to the Spire."

The Council representatives soon began chatting amongst each other as they began following the security officers out of the room.

"Admiral Hackett." Said a male voice from the side.

The Alliance officer turned and blinked in surprise at the man who had just walked up to him.

"Interesting to see you again, Ryder."

"Indeed it has, sir." Said the former N7 marine.

"Honestly surprised you would be here."

"Hard not to be with this latest discovery."

Steven said nothing at first as he merely stared at the dishonorable discharged officer before him.

"And how is it you were given access here anyhow?"

"Councilman Udina needed some… unorthodox measures to figure out more of the Spire."

"Then you believe your past research can help speed up the progress, correct?"

"Hopefully."

Steven exhaled a sigh. "As long as your AI studies don't go out of control…"

"It won't, Admiral." Ryder assured.

"Then I expect to see weekly reports on whatever you find with your skills."

"Of course."

-Scene Cut-

The Normandy was back at the Citadel once again as it usually was when it had completed a mission.

Only this time, rather than the crew choosing to run some errands, go spend some time with each other or eat together somewhere, they had an important matter to attend to.

A matter that came with… a somber and bittersweet feeling.

The crew of the Normandy stood together on one of the many docking bays of the Citadel and they had all gathered here for one reason.

"Do you really have to go, Wrex?" Commander Shepard asked softly, the red head gazing at the Krogan Battlemaster with a sad smile.

"Don't go sappy on me now, Shepard." Wrex quipped with a toothy grin. "Not after all the shit I've seen you do."

The Spectre couldn't help but snort at the comment, simply extending her arm out for him to grasp which he did.

They had a firm shake of respect and camaraderie before she stepped back with the others.

"So, whatcha gonna do first Wrex?" Axel inquired with his arms crossed. "Build yourself a throne? Get a harem going? Start a family?"

"Don't even joke about that." Garrus groaned aloud jokingly. "The galaxy isn't ready for multiple Urdnot Wrex's running about. Think of the collateral."

"I don't know." Tali hummed thoughtfully. "They'd be trying to fill some pretty big shoes after us. We detonated a nuke for Keelah's sake."

Wrex chortled aloud. "Well you won't have to worry about that for a while. Just gotta get the Krogan under one banner first."

"Give us a heads up if ya need any help." Kaidan said straight away. "Any warlord beaten up, any Thresher Maws that need to be "removed" from your front lawn."

"And let you guys have all the fun?"

"Hey, it's the homeworld of the Krogan, ain't it." Ashley joked. "If there's ever a place to keep our skills sharp, it's there."

Wrex's grin only grew wider. "Tuchanka is always open for you guys to drop by and kick some ass. Show those runts how it's done."

"Careful now Wrex." Garrus teased. "You're about to make this Turian cry. Think of the conflict in my heart right now."

"HA." Wrex guffawed. "Leave it to me to make friends with the one Turian who thinks he's funny."

"How do you think I feel?" Garrus admonished. "I was supposed to believe that Krogan were nothing more than brutes but here you went and warmed your way into my heart."

"Take care of yourself, Wrex." Liara spoke now, a kind smile on her face. "We'll always be here to help you at a moment's notice."

"Appreciate the gesture, Liara." Wrex said earnestly. "Pretty sure with your Asari charms, you can scrounge up some funds for me huh?"

Liara shook her head, amused now at the Krogan's words.

The Battlemaster then turned to the youngest two of the team with one immediately tackling him with a strong hug that actually took his breath away momentarily.

"Bye Wrex." Xion cried, comical tears streaming down her cheeks. "Make sure to write and visit and message and call and-"

"Xion." Axel interrupted through his laughter. "Ease up on the big guy. He's got a reputation to uphold."

"Waaaaaaaa~~~" Was the brunette's response as she only clung to the centuries old Krogan with tears now arching out to the ground. "But I don't wannaaaaa."

The team was barely able to reign in their laughter at the sight of a Krogan, one of the toughest races in the galaxy in such a frozen state was…

Well, Wrex should be thankful that none of them were recor-

"YOU BETTER PUT THAT OMNI-TOOL AWAY YOU MATCHSTICK BASTARD!"

"What~? This?" Came Axel's mischievous response. "Just checking some spam mail buddy, nothing to worry about."

Wrex growled with his brow twitching.

Shepard shook her head with a wide grin in place, stepping forward to reach for the young girl.

"Alright Xion, give Wrex some room." the Spectre said kindly, placing her hands on Xion's shoulders and managed to pry the girl off Wrex. "You've embarrassed him enough for the rest of his lifetime."

Xion didn't verbally respond, only looking up at the Battlemaster with large water eyes and a sad puckered lower lip that kept trembling with comedic sorrow.

Wrex openly cringed, giving the teen a crooked smile.

"Shit Xion, this ain't goodbye forever." The Krogan said, hastily patting her shoulders. "Just see ya next time. Ya think I won't see you again?"

"Feels like it." Was her admittance.

Wrex merely chuckled as he ruffled her hair at that one.

"Well, it's not."

Xion rubbed her eyes dry only for more comical tears to stream down her cheeks.

The Krogan only laughed again, with the young teen only going in for another hug with this one being less tighter than the last one.

"I'm gonna miss you, Wrex." Xion said quietly as she held the big guy who simply patted her head.

"Yeah, me too squirt." He said softly.

She stepped back with a big watery smile on her face which only served to make Wrex look away lest he break.

"Damn idiots." Wrex muttered aloud. "Making me soft and shit."

The boys laughed at the Krogan's plight with the girls merely looking on in amusement.

Wrex turned to Roxas who had Stitch resting on his head.

"Don't forget to call us if anything comes up." Roxas said straight away.

"Heh, and hog all the fun to myself?" Wrex quipped. "See, unlike you kid I know how to share."

"Come now Wrex." Liara jokingly chided. "You know how you get."

"Yeah, glory hog and all." Ashley added with a wide grin.

Wrex only huffed in good humor, shooting them a smirk whilst shaking Roxas's arm.

"It was good meeting you kid." Wrex said earnestly. "All of you."

"It was good meeting you as well, Wrex. Don't be a stranger." Roxas said happily.

"I won't runt." Wrex promised, going over to their friends for one last personal goodbye with each of them until he turned and walked towards the ship awaiting him.

Up ahead, the Normandy crew saw several Krogan standing there and patiently waited for him with Axel being the only one to recognize several of them.

With one last look back and thump on the chest in goodbye, they watched as their Korgan friend stepped inside the ship.

They simply stood there and watched the ship fly up into the endless vacuum of space until it was out of sight and out of mind.

"Well this wasn't depressing." Kaidan remarked.

"We'll see him again." Xion said confidently. "He promised."

Garrus snorted at that, shaking his head. "A few months ago I would have believed that a Krogan who would hold his word would be a fantasy. Now… well, can't believe I'm missing the big bastard already."

Axel shrugged. "Can always visit the place. Hearing everything from Wrexy, Tuchanka is a radioactive hell hole so should make for a great tourist attraction."

"Let's not go that far just yet." Joked Shepard. "Last thing I need is a team of mutated degenerates."

"Degenerates." Ashley squawked. "That should be the last sort of comment coming from you."

"Need we remind you of the cliff incident, Shepard." Came Tali's flat response.

"Don't tempt me to do it again." Shepard said, turning to leave with the team following suit as they began bantering and bickering.

All the while, one seven hundred year old Battlemast chuckled to himself within the transport ship he was in right now.

His mind drifted back to his friends he had just left and could easily picture the group just arguing nonsensically over stupid crap like they always do.

'Gonna miss that for a while.' Wrex mused internally, approaching the front of the ship.

"Everything set?" Wrex asked the pilot who nodded at him. "Good. Then let's head home."

There were rumblings of agreement and anticipation from the other Krogan in the ship as their clan leader made this proclamation.

As Urdnot Wrex left one journey, he began another.

He had titles and lands to reclaim along with rebuilding his clan from the ground up. The rites he will need to undertake will be time consuming, but worth it.

Wrex has his family's armor cleaned up and maintained. He has his trusted gravity hammer by his side with the callot pup sleeping in somewhere on this ship at this very moment. And he's got his fair share of spoils during his time on the Normandy, which will greatly help him in the coming times.

Clan Urdnot will need to be ready- no, all of Tuchanka will need to be ready for the Reapers. And he will be damned to see his species fade away if he did nothing about it.

Nothing will stop him from this goal now.

So look out Tuchanka, he was Urdnot Wrex and he was coming.

-Scene Cut-

Most of them were enjoying their meal save for several that were in a rather contemplative mood.

Something that Shepard would address.

"Alright, spill it." Jane spoke up, making some of the crew look to her. "What's been eatin' ya?"

They all looked at the Spectre in confusion before turning to who it was she was speaking to and saw that it was Axel.

He had his arms crossed and head tilted down with his expression conveying that he was in deep thought.

"Axel?" Xion said, placing her hand on his shoulder and lightly shaking him out of his thoughts.

"Huh what?" Axel looked up at the crew who had their eyes on him. "What? Something on my face?"

"More what's on your mind." Kaidan remarked. "What's up? You look like you were contemplating the meaning of the universe."

Green eyes merely rolled as their owner went to resume eating his meal. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Aw come on Axel, what's wrong?" Roxas asked. "You're clearly thinking of something."

"Maybe I'm thinking about how to up my cool factor, ever thought about that?" Axel quipped, lightly flicking Roxas's forehead.

"Oh please~" Garrus said dramatically. "We all know who holds that distinction. And we know bullshit when we see it."

"Yeah, thinking either of you believing yourselves to be cool." Ash dryly said.

"Seriously Axel, what's up?" Shepard cut through the small chatter and gave the red head a hard gaze.

Seeing everyone gang up on him, No. VIII exhaled a frustrated sigh. Running his hand through his fiery red hair, he seemed to relent.

"Just thinking about a number of things."

"Being…" Jane rolled her hand for him to go on."

"Like what I should do when everyone leaves and does their own thing."

"Huh?" was the collective response.

"Are you leaving the team too, Axel?" Xion's eyes welled up instantly.

He responded by lightly bonking her on the head.

"No you dummy, I ain't doing any of that." Axel wryly said. "You ain't getting rid of me that easily."

"Oh joy, my soul can rest easy." Ash sarcastically said.

"I'll burn your hair off, Williams. Don't tempt me."

"Touch my hair and I'll shove my shotgun up your ass."

"Didn't know you were that kinky."

Ashley merely flipped him off in response.

"That is a rather grotesque thing in my mind unfortunately." Liara muttered to herself, massaging her temples.

A small laugh was shared amongst the team before Axel cleared his throat.

"Look, the Organization knows where we are now. They have an advantage on where we mostly rest up when not on missions."

"But they haven't exactly been active." Kaidan pointed out.

"Yes, not since we fought against Lexaeus." Liara added.

"But right now, we won't be together for long." Axel said with a frown. "I know it's a crappy thing to consider but Wrex just left and I know that Tali is probably gonna have to head back to her own home as well after her whole pilgrim thingy."

Tali looked down upon hearing that, knowing this to be true.

By this point… she believed that she had done more than enough for her Pilgrimage, a sentiment supported by all her friends.

And yet the bitter truth was rearing its ugly head as it was almost time for her return.

"Shep's a Spectre so she's always going to be busy one way shape or form." Axel gestured to said Commander. "Ash and Kaidan are part of the Normandy so at least they'll be sticking by her. Don't know about you Liara or you Garrus but there's also the Heartless that are running rough shot back at our galaxy thanks to the Organization. Sora and his friends are good but they can't be on all those Worlds at once.

Axel held a deadly serious face as he went on.

"We don't know what the end goal of the Organization is and can't exactly track their movements. We've probably got some help with Sora and his team since they now got some Omni-tools, but they don't know things that I know. So I was thinking I can at least try to monitor the Organization."

"Is that such a good idea?" Shepard asked in concern. "Didn't you say that they can track us?"

"Well right now they can." Axel stated. "We're not really making an effort to stay hidden. But I know my ways of keeping myself out of sight and mind. Wasn't one of their go to guys for nothing."

"That still seems a bit dangerous to be doing it on your own." Liara added.

"Everything we do is dangerous." No. VIII countered. "We just gotta be more prepared for all the shit to come."

"A lot of things about the Organization are probably being outdated now as they'd be changing tactics." Kaidan said, rubbing his chin in thought. "What you three did undoubtedly threw a monkey wrench in their plans. They will need to make new measures so they won't get a sudden surprise from either of you or perhaps us."

"It's something that I'll take a risk on." Axel said. "I know that they're still cocky as all hell, thinking they got the jump on us cause they got the numbers for now."

"So what will you do then?" Ash inquired, leaning forward on the table.

"Gonna prepare for some world hopping." Axel said plainly. "Pop in on several marked Worlds the Organization had and see the damage and see if they've done anything there."

"If you say so."

"Shouldn't we come with you?" Roxas asked.

"No, no." Axel denied straight away. "They're after you and Xion and right now, it's best you keep your distance. For the time being, you two stay with the others."

"But-"

"Sad to say, but Axel has the right decision."

"Ah come on, that's not fair." Xion complained. "This is our fight too. We fought Lexaeus."

"Yeah, we did." Axel emphasized. "You guys need a bit more work if you're gonna try to solo some of the members. Even Sora and Riku always fought the Organization with a team. Just like we did."

"I'm not entirely sure about you doing this alone Axel." Kaidan said. "Feels a bit bullheaded."

"We're bullheaded by nature." Axel shot back. "Take Ashley for example."

He got a piece of paper bouncing off his forehead courtesy of the Alliance marine.

"We should still go with you." Roxas said emphatically.

Axel only shook his head in denial.

"Look, you two can come with me on recon at a later time. But for now, I need to survey for a while and hopefully find a safe window for either of you to join me."

Roxas and Xion gazed at their older friend only to feel a hand on both their shoulders.

They looked up to see that it was Shepard who had gotten up from her seat and stood behind their seats and gave them a comforting look.

"He'll be fine you two." Jane softly told them. "Just trust him."

"But are you certain about doing this alone, Axel?" Liara inquired. "This still feels a bit risky."

"I've done plenty of risky things in my life, Liara. What's one more under my belt-"

"Don't get cocky on that. You are gonna be doing something which we might not hear from you for a very long time." Jane interrupted with a stern look.

"I'm not gonna be gone that long." Axel said. "Just a week or two, maybe more. Nothing too crazy."

"You say that now…"

Axel released a sigh soon after. "Would it make it better if I message daily?"

Jane let out a sigh of her own, going back to her seat. "It's a start. Just… don't do anything risky or crazy. It's strictly Recon, you understand me? When the time comes for the Reapers-"

"All hands on deck." Axel assured. "We'll all be there for that fight."

There was a moment of silence afterwards with the team slowly returning to eating their meal until the group resumed a more lighthearted banter.

It was a pleasant meal for the most part but in the back of their minds, an unsettling truth began to settle upon their group.

This…

This felt like it may be the last time they would be able to do something like this again.

It was honestly feeling like this was happening too fast too soon.

-Scene Cut-

-The World That Never Was-

The heart shaped moon shone down upon the castle stronghold of the Organization, its ethereal light washing over the structure on the edge of nothingness.

At the Altar of Naught, Saix was gazing at the unique structure currently being developed.

On occasions, the Superior would be spotted here. Seemingly speaking with Kingdom Hearts just about every other day.

At this time, No. VII was able to secure this place all by himself. Left alone to ponder on his thoughts.

"Here once again I see."

No. VII didn't have to look back to see who it was. The voice was easily recognizable for him.

"As are you."

No. VI of the Organization stood by the Luna Diviner as both gazed up at their Kingdom Hearts.

"It's grown recently." Zexion noted. "Seems our wayward traitors have been keeping up with their duty as are Sora and the King."

Saix gave a brief nod as he kept his gaze at the sky above.

"Perhaps their little rebellion was necessary in the end." Zexion remarked. "Now we have multiple Keybearers going about harvesting Hearts for our Kingdom Hearts without us needing to direct them."

No. VII scoffed derisively. "Traitors are still traitors and shall be dealt with accordingly."

Zexion opted to remain silent, only raising a brow in response as he watched blue wisps float off Saix as the effects of the moon were amplifying the man's clear "rage" on speaking about them.

"In time, naturally, they will be." No. VI said with a nod.

The dark, silver haired Nobody soon stood at the Altar of Naught, staring at the same sky as his fellow Nobody. He waited for him to perhaps dismiss him so he won't seem rude or anything of the sort. Zexion was merely being professional-

"There was a girl."

Zexion turned back to the Luna Diviner. "Pardon?"

"One of the reasons Axel and I constantly snuck into the castle and why we became apprentices." Saix said slowly, lethargically. "She… she wasn't healthy per say but she was always happy to see us. We wished to help her, to heal her. But that never came to pass."

This was… this was certainly not what Zexion had expected to hear from Saix of all people today.

"I wanted to ask you." Saix faced him, eyes alight with the power of the moon coursing around him. "Did you know of her?"

Zexion gaped slightly and silently shook his head in the negative.

"I… I did not know of this." Zexion admitted. "There was much that I was aware of and much that I… had done."

The look that flashed across No. VI's expression could almost equate to regret.

"But in all my time there, I was never aware of a girl being kept… was she a prisoner?"

"That's what it seemed like." Saix nearly growled. "Lea wished to free her. But then our world fell."

"Then no, I do not know to whom it was you are speaking of." Zexion said with finality.

Saix gazed at Zexion with his eyes still glowing from the moon's power until it subsided after a few moments and he looked forward as if nothing had transpired.

"Unfortunate… Is there anything else of their status?"

"Nothing has changed as far as I'm aware."

"I see. Then we shall continue on with monitoring them with utmost discretion."

No. VI simply nodded and after a moment conjured a corridor of darkness and teleported away leaving the Luna Diviner to brood by his lonesome.

His mind was once again a whirlwind of thoughts with his hand slowly curling up into a tightly clenched and shaking fist.

-Scene Cut-

"You sure we shouldn't come along?" Roxas asked.

"It's nothing serious." Shepard said to the blond. "Just routine check up of sorts."

"Admiral Kahoku says otherwise." Kaidan said, walking by the two redheads towards the Normandy.

"Not helping Alenko." Jane dryly said with a deadpan look directed at the LT-Commander before turning back to Roxas.

She let out a small sigh. "Alright fine. Look, we got word from Vice-Admiral Kahoku about a base operated by that human splinter cell group called Cerberus. There's been some unsavory shit coming out from that place and he wants me to check it out and call in the Alliance if need be to take care of it."

"Wouldn't it be easier for all of us to come then?" Roxas asked.

"Axel, Ashley, Kaidan, Stitch and Liara will be more than enough to help out on this end." Shepard countered.

"So why can't we come then?" Xion had now approached the two with a small frown.

"Overkill?"

"It feels like you're fishing for excuses." Roxas flatly stated.

Shepard couldn't help but chuckle, patting his shoulder.

"Look, we've done missions before without having the entire team on hand and this'll just be one of them." Shepard said. "No need to make a fuss about it. We'll be back before you know it."

"I guess." Xion said, gazing down at the ground.

"But why isn't Tali coming along then?" Roxas asked.

"Because I requested it."

The trio turned towards the Quarian who was walking up to them and explained. "I… I need to make my own preparations to return to the Flotilla. I can't delay it any further."

Roxas and Xion expressions fell slightly upon hearing that with Tali rubbing her arm slightly.

"I could use some help."

"Of course." Xion said straight away.

No. XIII didn't say anything at first, merely giving his friend a firm nod on his compliance.

"But what about Garrus?" Roxas soon asked.

"C-Sec business and something else." Said Shepard. "Council representatives wanted to speak with him about something."

"Wonder what that's all about."

"We'll just have to wait and see. Perhaps once we finish this mission, we'll learn it from him." Jane said with a slight shrug.

"Still don't like we're not coming with you." Roxas mumbled with Jane laughing in response.

"Hey, consider it a day off." The Spectre said, ruffling his hair. "Help Tali out with packing and then just spend the rest of the day relaxing."

Roxas shoulders slumped slightly until he felt a three fingered hand on his arm.

He turned to see Tali with her shining eyes through her helmet and though it was not easy for most to see, being with Tali for so long allowed Roxas to tell that she was smiling at him.

No. XIII put on a smile as well, wanting to hide his disappointment on the present situation. But he wanted to make the best of it for Tali at this time.

"Alright, let's get to it then."

"We'll be back soon enough you three." Shepard assured. "Just try to stay out of trouble."

Roxas snorted. "Trouble?"

Shepard gave them a knowing smirk as she turned and headed towards the Normandy, leaving the youngest members of the team to themselves.

They watched as the ship they had come to view as a home flew off away from the Citadel and to wherever it was they were needed.

"So Tali, what's the first on your list?"

-Scene Cut-

The Normandy ship came out of FTL from the relay they used to get to the Columbia system within the Voyager Cluster.

Their destination, the planet Nepheron.

From what Admiral Kahoku had told Commander Shepard, this place was marked as a Cerberus base that is believed to contain highly illegal and dangerous substances and/or creations.

Now, what these things were, Kahoku didn't clarify.

As a matter of fact he himself admitted that he wasn't quite sure as to what it was that the Cerberus base was doing. All he got from the tip was that it was a priority mission that needed to be handled immediately.

So here they were, being dropped via Mako towards the surface of Nepheron.

Crew was relatively small with only it being Shepard, Kaidan, Ash, Liara, Axel and Stitch.

Not just for this mission but the fact that half the crew wasn't even back on the Normandy. Felt… emptier than usual.

But right now, they had more pressing matters to attend to that being the mission on hand.

The rugged and mountainous terrain of the planet was nothing new for the Mako to traverse through though with Kaidan at the wheel this time, it wouldn't be as stomach churning.

Shepard had attempted to sit down in the driver's seat but Axel, being paid off by Ash and the others, quite literally swept her up and pinned her to a passenger seat.

She struggled quite comically as she spouted her Spectre status over and over again well into their drop and drive on the planet's surface. It was an amusing sight for her fellow redhead and other crew mates with Axel shamelessly recording this and wondering how much he could sell it for online.

As they drove towards the marked location of the Cerberus base, a strange gut feeling began to well up in the group.

Stitch seemed a bit off with how quiet he was and how he kept squinting ahead as he stood on top of Kaidan's seat.

"Anyone else have this weird feeling in their stomach?" Ashley asked aloud.

"Oh Goddess, I thought it was only me." Liara said, hand to her temple.

"What is it?" Kaidan asked.

"Instinct." Axel said slowly.

"Why that?" Liara turned to the Nobody who had a contemplative look on his face.

"Think it has to do with what we've done to this point." Came the response from Shepard. "We just know crazy shit is always around the corner."

"Don't know if that's good or bad." Ash murmured.

"Both." Axel and Jane said simultaneously.

Going over a large mountain top, Kaidan spotted the Cerberus base down below at the base of the mountain he currently drove on.

And in an instant he was met with artillery fire being directed at him.

"Whelp, there's the welcoming party." Kaidan grunted, steering the Mako out of the line of fire.

"Let's respond in kind." Said Ash, getting up out of her seat to man the main cannon.

She aimed down the sights of the cannon and saw Cerberus personnel armored up with both soldiers and turrets all pointing their guns at them.

Williams fired upon the Cerberus forces, landing killing blows on a multitude of her volleys.

"Garrus would have done it faster." Jane commented.

"Bite me, Commander." Ash shot back. "Respectfully."

Eventually, after one drive around in eliminating the enemy forces outside the entrance to the base, Ash cleared the area allowing them to exit the Mako and approach the base.

Once again, thanks to Oxy-Chew, helmets were not necessary for this mission.

Once at the door, they found that the doors were sealed shut and the coding needed to get through was rather complex and encrypted heavily.

"The hell?" Kaidan said, hands skimming through his Omni-Tool. "What kind of lock is this?"

Bringing up her own Omni-tool, Ashley saw what startled her friend. The results were not kind at all.

"Jesus, tone down the encryption."

"Makes ya wonder what kind of base this is." Axel said, running a hand through his hair.

"Man, I wish Tali or Garrus were here. They'd get past this in an instant." Alenko groused out in frustration. "Either them or Roxas or Xion with their Keyblades."

Shepard scoffed. "Whaddya mean? We have our own lockpicker here."

"Who're you talkin-"

"Stitch, would you kindly help?"

The blue furred alien merely smiled and waddled up to the door. Extending his claws, he jammed them into the door. And with a powered yank, he ripped it right out and threw it towards one of the artillery towers. The result had it spark and explode some seconds later.

"That's one way of doing it." Liara stated with Stitch puffing his chest out in pride.

"Good boy. You'll get extra coconut cake later."

"Shepard." Ashley admonished with an amused look.

"Aw come on Ash, he's earned it." Shepard jokingly said before turning to face the entrance of the base and becoming far more serious.

A mood shared by the rest of the team as they all had their weapons at the ready.

"Let's move." Shepard said, taking point as she went in first with the rest of the team following after her.

Going down the corridor that would lead deeper into the base, they noted how it was stretched rather long and the walls were a lot more different then the standard bases they had been too.

Approaching the door at the end of the hallway, they walked in and were met with fire from Cerberus soldiers inside.

On instinct, Liara threw up a Biotic dome that absorbed the shots fired at the group.

"Axel."

"On it."

The fiery Nobody conjured one of his Chakrams, the tips of the blade alight with flames and threw it into the ground.

Moments later, several Cerberus snipers felt the ground beneath them heat up considerably and as they looked down they were consumed in a pillar of fire that turned their bodies to ash.

The sudden fires that incinerated their comrades distracted the other Cerberus personnel allowing for the Normandy team to go on the offensive.

Though they had the advantage for the most part, they were met with a ferocious resistance with the team having to have focused on specific spots at a time in clearing out the enemies blocking their way into the base.

"They really don't want us here." Kaidan couldn't help but say this.

"Really?" Came Ash's dry response. "They don't? Couldn't tell ya if I could."

"They do seem a bit adamant in fighting back against us." Liara grunted, sending out a stasis that caught several snipers from afar that were quickly picked off by Stitch and Shepard.

Axel was a flurry of fire and death across the large room, using his speed and teleportation skills to move around the area and sow discourse amongst Cerberus.

Eventually, the room was clear of all enemies with the team taking a moment to regroup.

"These guys were crazy." Ash noted, looking over to some of the bodies of the Cerberus soldiers. "They didn't give an inch till we shot them."

"This base must hold greater significance than we anticipated." Liara stated.

Looking around for a moment, Shepard spotted a terminal over on the right side of the room and went over to it.

Bringing up her Omni-Tool, she saw that this terminal was encrypted as well but not as much as the doors were.

Glad to have this lucky stroke, she pulled off a trick shown to her by Tali that allowed her to easily hack into the Terminal and she began looking for a layout of the base as well as its importance.

What she got stunned her slightly as she discovered this underground base was far bigger than she had anticipated.

"Whoa." Jane said aloud, getting everyone's attention. "Check this place out."

She sent the layout of the base to the others who all saw just how large of a place they were in right now. By the look of things, it seemed to be a mile wide in diameter, perhaps larger with four subterranean levels in total.

"The fuck?" Ash said in surprise. "What kind of base is this? It's huge!"

"And a lot more important in hindsight then." Kaidan muttered, rubbing his chin in thought.

"What should we do, Shepard?" Liara asked.

Shepard opened her mouth to answer when she saw Stitch standing up with his nose sniffing the air.

He then turned to a door adjacent to the terminal Shepard stood near and growled with his four arms aiming his guns at it.

In an instant the others followed in Stitch's motions and stood prepared.

"Stitch?" Axel said slowly. "What is it? What do you smell?"

"Nasty." Stitch barked, widening his stance.

Ash looked to Kaidan and Liara, mouthing the word to them with the two only shrugging.

They focused up upon hearing some banging coming from the other end of the door and a hissing, growling sound.

Then… silence…

The six of them were tense as they waited patiently for whatever it was that was on the other side of that door.

A moment later, hissing was heard again and this time, they saw steam coming from the door. Suddenly, a green, viscous liquid seeped through and melted the door down entirely.

From there ran a number of corpse-like humanoids that appear to be lacking eyes and had several mechanical pieces embedded into their body.

The crew fired upon these newcomers, taking out a multitude of them until they had to retreat slightly as there was a greater number of them still coming through.

Axel threw up a fire wall that allowed them to run back for cover and it was in time to as the humanoids hurled green bile from their mouths.

The liquid that hit the fire wall evaporated into steam straight away.

A moment later, the fire wall expunged itself forward making a number of these creatures catch on fire.

The team pounced on this advantage and ran out, taking out these bizarre creatures left and right.

Stitch rolled into a ball and barreled forward towards one of these things, bouncing off the chest of one and leaving a sizable dent that killed it.

The little blue fur ball flew back towards Williams who instantly stepped forward with her leg winded back and punted him straight towards another one of those humanoids.

Stitch smashed through the head of a humanoid, its head bursting into a grey and green paste as the body dropped to the ground.

Liara saw a number of these enemies grouped together and activated her higher function of her weapon and aimed.

Channeling her Biotics, she fired a small black and blue sphere that went in between the cluster of the humanoid creatures and exploded in a Biotic shockwave that took them out.

Kaidan utilized his own Biotics to pull in the Humanoids with Shepard and Ash shredding them apart with their rifles.

Axel flung his Chakrams forward with the two weapons spinning around each other to create a flaming tornado that killed off the last of these humanoids.

Once again the area was clear though there was no feeling of alleviation as the crew went about investigating these strange adversaries.

Stitch in particular seemed extremely angry and snarled at one of the corpses, prompting the others to go over to him. They looked down at the corpse and all save for Axel had their eyes widen considerably.

Axel noticed this and took a moment to confirm for himself that it was all of them.

"...You gotta be shitting me." Was Ashley's response.

"I take it you know what these freakazoids are?" Axel asked though he already knew the answer to that.

"You're goddamn right we do." Kaidan all but growled. "What the hell are Thorian creepers doing here?"

"I thought we were done with them." Ash stated in frustration.

"Apparently not." Liara said glumly, kneeling down to the creeper to get a closer look at it. "But… these are different from the ones we fought on Feros and Nodacrux."

"What do you mean?" Shepard asked.

Liara wordlessly grabbed one of the arms of the dead creeper and held it up for them to see some sort of metallic implant within the arm.

"That wasn't on the Creeper's back on Feros and Nodacrux." Shepard muttered with a frown as she saw there were other implants and changes done to this Creeper's body.

She looked back to some of the Creeper corpses that remained and noticed a number of them shared the same sort of modifications as this one had.

"Looks like someone's been experimenting on them." Jane noted.

"So what are they then?" Axel asked the group in general.

The group took a moment to regard the fiery Nobody and they nearly palmed the sides of their heads upon remembering that Axel, along with Xion, joined after their foray of Feros.

They never encountered the Creepers nor the Thorian and for that matter, they just realized they never really told them about it.

It was strange to them but in a weird way, in the back of everyone's mind, it just felt like they had been together from the very start of their adventures.

"Before Roxas went off to get you guys, we were on a planet called Feros where we ran into these things." Shepard explained. "These were… most likely, humans or corpses of them that were reanimated by an unknown alien creature."

"Space zombies then?"

"More or less." Ash said with a distasteful snort as she lightly kicked one of the arms out of her way.

"ExoGeni was experimenting on this ancient alien plant thing called the Thorian. The Creepers derived from it and it was a huge annoyance to deal with as it's spores were infecting the colonists." Liara elaborated further.

"We thought we saw the last of it on Feros, but we came across another ExoGeni facility on Nodacrux where their scientists were doing further studies on the Creepers in a sealed environment." Kaidan added. "After the Thorian died, they went nuts; nearly killed everyone there until we found their distress signal and took care of them once and for all."

"Or so we thought." came Ash's bitter tone.

No. VIII gave a brief nod as he digested the relayed information. Processing the summary of things before sharing a thought of his with their present circumstances.

"So… we're dealing with a mad scientist most likely?" Axel said with the group nodding. "Someone perhaps related to ExoGeni or these Cerberus bozos acquired their research in more ways than one."

"That's sadly the more likely idea here." Grumbled out Kaidan.

"Yeah, it's always the crazy ones." Jane said in annoyance. "Come on, let's move."

They faced the doorway that the modified Creepers had used and cautiously approached it.

Stepping inside, the group saw an elevator of some kind and they carefully walked over to it. Stitch stood upon Shepard's shoulder, sniffing the air and nodding at them to let the team now it was clear.

Entering the elevator, they were tense the entire way down with only the sound of metal grinding against metal as they descended further down into the lower levels of the base.

The door opened and they stepped out of the confined space. And it was from there did they momentarily pause in seeing what was presented before them.

Seeing the schematic layout was one thing, but seeing the full scope with their own eyes was another.

There were linear paths circulating around the walls and upon reaching the railing, the team saw there was a massive gaping hole at the central part of the facility. A massive metallic pillar resided within said hole with only a few bridges were connected to it. And how deep it went could've been miles, only knowing beforehand there were four subterranean levels to this place; yet it seemed larger in scope.

"What the fuck?" Ash said in astonishment. "How the hell did they fit all this down here?!"

"This must have taken years to build." Liara murmured in awe at the grandiose scale of the base.

"Let alone made underneath the planet's surface." Kaidan said. "Where'd they even get all the funding for this place?"

"Much as I wanna know, we still have an objective here." Shepard stated, stepping forward. "Let's get going. Feels like we're gonna be here a while."

Without saying a word, the group moved forward with their weapons pointed in all directions as they had the gut feeling of any enemy popping out at a moment's notice. Stitch opted to jump off from Shepard's shoulder and crawl upon the walls with his lower arms holding his blasters.

There was an ambient echoing noise coming from all around that grated on some of the team's nerves but they remained calm as they moved forward.

It was only when Stitch unintentionally pressed a switch along the wall did something occur.

The metallic wall caved in and opened up to reveal a room. Seeing they had no other choice but to keep on with their investigation, they entered inside.

Going up a small flight of stairs, they entered a small darkened room with what appeared to be glass pods containing some green liquid lining the walls.

"Ok, this isn't creepy at all." Ash said under her breath.

Coming near one of them, the team saw there was something inside as a darken silhouette was aimlessly floating. There was some sort of layered grime on the surface, causing Kaidan to wipe it away.

When he did, he nearly jumped in surprise on what was inside of the pod.

"Whoa!" Kaidan exclaimed, making everyone snap their heads and weapons in his direction.

"Kaidan?" Shepard said in concern.

"I think I know what they do in this place, Commander." Kaidan said with a sick look. "Then again, those Creepers should have been a huge clue from the start."

As soon as he said this, the lights of the room switched on and they were able to see everything that floated within the pods in the walls.

"What in the hell- What kind of place is this?!" Jane yelled in disgust.

"Goddess, they're experimenting on them all!"

"Holy shit. I… I think I'm gonna be sick." Ash muttered, face paling slightly at the sight of the grotesque creatures floating within the tubes lining the walls.

The various amounts of experimental pods was… alarming.

"Are they building some kind of army or what?" Axel asked, hand resting atop one of the pods.

Inside was… an it or something fleshy that he couldn't even begin to describe.

He squirmed slightly as these pods… they were a bit similar to something he had once seen back in his old homeworld.

Narrowing his eyes, he turned back to the others who were observing all the creatures in the pod.

"We can't stay here." Axel declared, the team all nodding in agreement.

"Yeah, let's get the fuck outta here." Ash said with her shaking her head, eyes now forward and not on the things in the pods.

Leaving the one room they were in, they carefully traversed through the halls. As they did, they heard a man's voice around the hallway corner.

"So first… Hmm, or perhaps instead…"

Following after the source, they saw a scientist about to enter a locked room.

He was a gauntly man with a pair of round spectacles placed above his sharp, crooked nose. His long, oily black hair was tied back into a ponytail that freely bounced on his upper back. his clean white coat was left open to show off his grey button up shirt with black pants and slick boots to finish off his appearance.

Sneaking up to him, Shepard held her pistol up against the scientist's back; halting him in place.

"Don't move." Ordered Jane.

He paused but slowly lowered his hand with Williams cocking her gun.

"We ain't bluffing." Ashley said soon after.

Turning his head over a little, the scientist saw who was behind him all the while ignoring the threat.

"Intruders..." Voiced the man. "Hmm… Found this particular area already?"

"Open the door and let us through or else you might get a bullet through the head." Warned the N7 marine.

"...Very well." the man said candidly.

Pulling out a keycard, the scientist swiped it through a slit. Moments later, the doorway opened where there was some commotion going on inside.

Ashley butted her shotgun against the man's back, prompting him to move forward.

Entering the sealed off room, the Normandy team saw a number of scientists gathering up a number of things before leaving the room from another doorway. Some soon halted upon seeing the spectacled scientist enter with the intruders right behind him.

"Professor Hojo-"

"Don't be alarmed." Hojo coolly said to the other scientists. "Resume the procedures as per instructed."

"None of you ain't going anywhere except in an Alliance cell." Shepard said aloud.

Hojo only chortled condescendingly. "So you say…"

Taking a moment to gauge the group that held him prisoner, the scientist took better note of the group in general. The intruding individuals were familiar and started coming back to him from what he learned as of late.

"Ah~ Commander Shepard and her ragtag team of extraordinary misfits." Hojo said with a small smile. "Stirring up trouble on this neck of the galaxy, I see."

"Yeah we have that effect on people." Axel said conversationally.

Hojo eyed the Nobody with great interest.

"Yes~ I've especially had my eye on you, my fiery friend." Hojo said with a manic grin. "You and those two youngsters I've seen in this group. Your entire team are ones I have been observing for a looong time, Commander Shepard."

"We get it, you're a creep." Ash snarled, pressing the tip of her gun in the back of the man's head. "Now move."

Hojo harrumphed as he did as Williams said.

"I can't imagine what business you have with me-"

"We're shutting down this facility, that's what." Kaidan said, walking past the man and held his gun up to the other scientists and gesturing to them to gather at the wall. "None of you move a muscle, you hear?"

"Do stop pushing. Unlike you, I am less accustomed to physical violence." Hojo said, adjusting his clothing.

"Keep resisting and you'll unfortunately have to get used to it." Axel said, body radiating fire and heat.

Hojo merely rolled his eyes as he was brought alongside his fellow scientists. "And do you expect to overthrow this entire facility by yourselves?"

"Since you've been following us for a looong time, you would probably know such a thing." Shepard said, Omni-tool out as she began looking over the schematics of the facility again.

Unbeknownst to the Normandy members, Hojo flexed his hand where a miniature Omni-tool sprang to life behind his back. His fingers began dancing across the hard light device.

"Tell me, how was it that you found this place?" Inquired the Cerberus scientist.

"An admiral told us." Said the red haired Nobody.

"Axel…"

"What? We captured him and-"

"An admiral, you say?" Adopting a thinking gesture, Hojo soon realized who they were referring to. "Oh yes, Admiral Kahoku. Should've realized that sooner."

The quick deduction was rather unsettling for the team.

"I'm afraid he didn't hide well enough." Hojo said casually. "Pitiful waste rea-URK."

Hojo was promptly slammed into the wall with Jane holding the collar of his shirt, her expression murderous with her Biotics and another aura glowing around her.

"What did you do?!" The Spectre growled like a savage animal.

"Temper, temper." Hojo managed out, struggled as he did.

"You better start saying the shit that'll keep us from putting a bullet in your head cause you are not doing any favors for yourself." Ash said venomously.

Hojo proceeded to roll his eyes at her threat. "It wasn't what I did, but those who were more physically prone to violence."

Axel's green eyes caught something from Hojo's lowerhalf. There he located a peculiar light from the palm of his hand, along with his fingers moving in a certain manner.

It was soon after did he realize what the Cerberus scientist was doing.

"Shepard!"

Axel's warning came too late as a multitude of pods within the room burst open.

From those containers, out jumped bizarre, unidentifiable creatures who all faced the Normandy team, snarling and teeth… or something like that bared at their direction.

They were humanoid in structure with slimy, leathery skin with glowing red lines across their flesh. There were no opticals that were presently seen upon first glance. And there seemed to be some sort of large stinger-like limb protruding out of their back.

"What's going on?" Liara spoke in an alarmed manner.

Hojo merely smirked as he was suddenly dropped to the ground.

The humanoid entities let out screeches and charged forward at the crew.

Axel instantly conjured a wall of fire and pushed it forward towards the charging creatures. Several got burnt to a crisp while a few others managed to take the attack with a few burn marks on them.

Shepard and Kaidan whirled around as they heard more pods burst open and they spun around to see more of those strange humanoids hopping out of the pods.

Stitch was already rolling towards them, jumping and uncurling to unleash a torrent of fire at the unknown entities.

As this went on, Hojo and the rest of the scientists quickly vacated the room as their experiments went to take care of the Normandy team.

"Form up." Jane ordered, the group going back to back as they had enemies on all sides.

"Axel."

"Coming right up." Axel jumped up and vanished in a flurry of flames.

A flicker of fire later, Axel burst forward and made a wide sweeping arch around the entire team to create a floor of fire that exploded outward.

Molten metal and flames cascaded on the creatures, the unknown entities stumbling back.

Liara, Kaidan and Shepard all called forth their Biotics and created a Biotic dome that they transformed into a shockwave to shove all the creatures back.

"Move, we need more space." Shepard yelled and the group ran towards the exit where the scientists used to get away from them.

During the chase, more of these unknown entities started appearing and halting their progress.

Rushing in close, No. VIII spinned around as his chakrams started cutting into the Cerberus creations. Coming to a stop, he thrusted his weapons into their chests in a jabbing motion before harshly ripping and tearing right through them. Before long, he slammed his chakrams onto the metal floor, causing a burst of flames to erupt and burn his opponents into crispy husks.

With them taken care of, the team proceeded onwards.

It wasn't much longer before they wound up where they more or less entered this facility in the first place.

"Where'd he go?" Ash asked, wildly looking around.

"Wish I knew." Kaidan grumbled to himself.

"He probably went to a place where he's secure." Liara commented. "He knows this place better then we do."

Shepard said nothing, tilting her head slightly at Stitch crawling back up to her shoulder and sniffing the air. The little guy let out a grunt, rubbing his nose in disappointment and shook his head.

"Well, he ain't nearby then." Jane said. "Come-"

"Very impressive. I really must thank you for providing me with such invaluable combat data so far."

"Cocky, arrogant egghead, ain't he?" Muttered the red haired Nobody.

From a secure room in this Cerberus facility, Professor Hojo was viewing the live feed in the comfort of his chair before speaking into the intercoms.

"I admit there are some interesting unknown variables in your ranks, Commander. Something which I'm dying to learn more from than what I know beforehand."

"We will find you, you son of a bitch." Ash said aloud, getting a derisive laugh from the Cerberus scientist.

"Unlikely. And before any of you bother to find any other personnel, they're in the process of leaving this planet as we speak. So I wish you luck in trying to find them, but we all know the likely outcome of that now."

Things didn't seem to go as planned for the Normandy members as trying to find anyone from here is basically gone in the wind. And if possible once leaving, this place will become abandoned and most likely destroyed to hide any evidence of its existence.

"What is this place anyways?" Shepard asked aloud.

"This facility is home to an extraordinary array of specimens that'll change the galaxy as we know it." Hojo said with dramatic pride. "Cerberus has seen the light of my genius and wholeheartedly agrees and has been generous in their funding of my endeavors."

"Genius in creating bio-weapons, you mean." Said the Asari.

"And what's wrong with that?" Hojo inquired rhetorically. "There are always those who wish to advance in their own capabilities. What you view as amoral is what I call the natural progression of life itself. Bio engineering to become living weapons that can take on armies! Have you not yourselves shown such capabilities? Your little blue friend there is clearly one who has benefited from such changes to his body. Am I right?"

Stitch growled and snarled in response.

"We're not gonna be your labrats." Kaidan said fiercely.

Stitch only added to this by firing his weapons into the air a few times, roaring all the while.

"None of you have any say in the matter." Hojo let out a soft chuckle. "I promise, you'll regret coming here."

"Let's not stick around here guys." Shepard said. "Let's go."

Suddenly the platform they were standing on started to shake and break apart. The team tried to regain their balance but were failing in the process.

"I hope none of you will be disappointments with my research. You do have reputations to uphold after all."

A split second later, the surface gave way as they fell towards the chasm below.

-Scene Cut-

Roxas let out a small yawn, arms resting behind his head as he laid down on a bench within a small park within the Citadel.

Xion and Tali were… somewhere around here, the two gathering items and other resources for the latters trip home.

He had opted to stay here for a moment to catch a break as they had been scrounging up multiple bags of stuff for Tali's go home trip and that they were gonna meet Garrus here.

He was essentially their "pack-mule" as it were.

He did offer to help them carry their belongings, but it seemed to be a mistake with the excessive amount.

Apparently Shepard, Liara and Ashley were becoming bad influences to them when it came to shopping.

So for now he was fiddling with his Omni-tool, playing a game on it.

It was a rather old fashioned style game with there being minimal controls and design.

He had been playing these minigames on his Omni-tool for the past few weeks, finding the feature earlier when they were still chasing after Saren.

No. XIII had played the games in his off time, usually able to get the highest score on each small game after a few tries. With every new high score he achieved, a new game was added on and on afterwards.

Right now, he was playing the latest game that being the King steps out.

It was relatively simple, just jump over puddles, collect the musical notes along the way and get to the King's Queen at the end of the level.

Fairly simple.

After playing the game for a few minutes, Roxas at last reached the end of the level and attained the highest score he could get and smirked to himself in victory.

He laid there, waiting for the next new minigame to pop up…

But nothing happened.

Frowning a bit, Roxas wondered what was taking so long when…

"Excuse me." he blinked upon hearing a raspy breath and voice.

Looking onward from his seated position, Roxas saw it was a Volus.

"Uh… May I help you?"

"Yes." Rasped out the Volus. "I have a delivery for you. Roxas, correct?"

"For me? From who?"

"I wouldn't know. I'm just delivering a package."

Holding out a datapad, Roxas saw he needed to sign it in order to get whatever he was receiving. He saw his name outlined with stars bursting out from it.

Signing his signature, the Volus handed Roxas a small box.

"Wonder what this is." the boy asked himself, taking a moment to inspect all sides of the box.

"I wouldn't know. But it does come with a message." Said the delivery person.

Typing away on his Omni-tool, the Volus forwarded Roxas a message for him to read from so the rest of the delivery can be complete. Once done, he went off to resume his work for the day.

Seeing the new message in his inbox, No. XIII opened it up and read it's contents.

To my loyal player!

Firstly, I'd like to thank you very much for taking your precious time in playing Classic Kingdom. You are the very first person to complete all of the challenges and reach the highscores depicted in each of the games.

As a token of my gratitude, the package you received is the grand prize for such an achievement. One of a kind -mind you- as there is nothing like it.

And don't think it's just some simple trinket as it'll be quite useful for you in the future.

Sincerely yours,

The lead developer and creator of Classic Kingdom.

M.

Once finishing the message, Roxas quirked a brow up before gazing at the box in his possession. Opening it up, he blinked in wonderment before curiosity took over.

Dumping the contents into his hand, he saw it was a keychain charm.

The links consisted of white lifesaver tubes all leading up to a wooden brown helm wheel.

"Uh… Thanks? I… guess…" Roxas trailed off, realizing the Volus was already hobbling away from him. "Oh, he's gone."

Gazing back at the keychain once more, No. XIII narrowed his blue eyes.

It seemed familiar to him… somehow… in some way.

He just couldn't put his mind to it.

Shaking his head, he pocketed the item as he'll figure it out sooner or later on in it's significance.

It was a free gift anyways.

"Roxas, there you are." Came a familiar warbled voice.

The sandy blonde didn't need to look up right away as he regarded the person.

"Hey Garrus." Roxas said with a smile. "What took ya so long?"

"The Council was asking a lot of questions about me personally." Garrus said, squirming a bit.

"What for?"

"Something I thought I'd never expect to happen to me. Something which my father would feel similar to if he was in my boots right now."

Roxas only looked on, silently egging the Turian on to reveal just what he was talking about.

The detective sighed aloud, rubbing the top of his head.

"Man, I wish Shepard were here for this. This is in her wheelhouse afterall."

"Shepard?"

"They asked me if I consider undergoing training to become a Spectre." Garrus revealed, surprising Roxas greatly.

"Really?" the boy asked, frowning in thought.

"Well, that's a better response then the one you gave to Shepard when she got it." Garrus said with a laugh.

"...Guess you're right on that one." Said the Nobody, who merely scratched his head in response. "So did you-"

"It's not official yet. I haven't given them my decision just yet."

"No kidding. I mean you got this thrown onto you from out of nowhere."

"Exactly."

"...What was that part earlier with you bringing up your father?"

"Oh right, that. Thing is, my father doesn't exactly trust Spectres all that well." Garrus revealed.

"Why not?"

Garrus threw his hands up slightly. "Well, he wasn't exactly keen on them basically existing outside the law more or less and having a blank check to do whatever they want to get the mission done. Classic Turian type of thing."

"I guess."

"I know he's gonna have quite the reaction."

"Huh…" Roxas looked down at his lap. "Wonder what it would have been like to have a father."

"You and every orphan out there more or less ask the same thing. And the responsive answer varies from person to person."

"Huh?" Roxas looked up at the Turian who stared back at the Nobody and realized what he really meant.

"Oh, oh, right, right, sorry I meant that… uh, you know, being someone who came into existence suddenly and uh… well, technically you're kind of an orphan but then again, that Organization did adopt you by technicality. No, no, wait, that doesn't count, what I meant was… I dug myself into a corner, didn't I?"

Roxas gave an amused shrug with Garrus running his hand over his face.

"Thank the Spirits the others weren't around to hear that." Garrus then froze. "You didn't record that, did you?"

"I'm not Axel." Came No. XIII's flat response, eliciting a laugh out of the Turian.

"Thank the Spirits you're not. One is enough."

Moving the conversation onto another topic, the Spectre candidate gazed at the items sprawled by Roxas' person.

"Playing pack-mule I see."

"Pretty much. I don't know if Xion and Tali are doing this on purpose or not. I doubt all of this is just for Tali's pilgrimage gift."

Garrus merely chuckled, patting his back as he sat down beside him.

"I had to deal with a similar situation as you when I helped out my sister. Was not fun in the slightest." Garrus remarked. "Glad to know it's not a Turian female exclusive thing."

Roxas smirked at him though it quickly fell away as he became a bit more… melancholy.

Raising a brow at this, Garrus nudged the young teen with his shoulder.

"Something I said?"

Roxas shook his head. "No, no, it's just that…"

He didn't say anything for a few moments with Garrus waiting for him to continue.

"I… I guess we really are going our separate ways then." Roxas finished with a more downtrodden look.

Hearing this, Garrus himself couldn't help but sigh in agreement. He too was beginning to rather dread the coming days where undoubtedly a majority of the team will have to go their separate ways.

Wrex just left and Tali was getting ready for hers and now he has been approached for a chance to join the Spectres.

Then with what happened on Mars, Liara would be following suit as well; where she'd be working at both the Prothean archives and the Remnant Spire.

And of course there was the trio of Nobodies who knew they would also need to return to the Ōkoku galaxy to handle the growing threats there.

It really was coming to an end and Garrus was genuinely sad about this.

But he also knew this was an eventuality.

"Hey. We'll see each other again, Roxas. It's not forever. It's just the natural course of things." The turian said in a reassuring tone. "And with the latest upgrades to our Omni-tools, we can still communicate across other galaxies so we won't lose touch."

"I figure… Maybe." Roxas murmured. "But I just wish… I just wish we could have done this for longer. Forever even. You guys… you guys are my friends. My… my family. You're all I ever wanted in life and I didn't even know it."

Garrus threw an arm around the blond and lightly hugged him from the side.

"Well, if the others heard this, I know they'd appreciate the comment." Garrus said with a kind tone. "But there will be times where we have to go our own separate ways. Where we do things by ourselves for ourselves and for others. Just the nature of things. But just cause we finished the mission here, doesn't mean that it's the end. Like Axel said, when the time comes, we will all be together for that fight."

It took some moments for Roxas to digest the given words. His mood was uplifted, even for the smallest of margins on the present situation.

"Thanks Garrus." He said appreciatively, the Turian retracting his arm and patting the teens shoulder.

"What are friends for?"

Roxas gave a more relieved smile, the two now sitting comfortably in silence as they waited for Tali and Xion to meet up with them.

"You think the others are fine right now?" Roxas abruptly asked.

Garrus merely hummed, thinking for the barest of moments. Before long, he gave out a brief shrug. "They probably are. I mean, what's the worst that could happen to them?"

-Scene Cut-

"When I see that spectacled bastard, I'm going to skin him alive!" Roared an infuriated Operations Chief Williams as her incendiary rounds burned through the oncoming horde of enemies.

Things were not looking too bright for the Normandy members.

Earlier the team had regained consciousness after their harsh plummet to the bottom level of the Cerberus facility from it's highest one.

The members were separated for a time, but were able to regroup shortly after. During this process, they had to fight a number of robotic obstacles as they were making their way back up.

They had made it down to the next level of this base and were met with even more of those freaky humanoids with the extra limb on their backs. Only this time, they had been joined by some other freak of nature or artificial ones at that.

It could be best described to be some kind of dog or varren mix though it favored the former over the latter.

Red and black skinned with sharp canines and a tendril sticking out of its back and sharp tipped ears.

These two types of adversaries were attacking them in droves with the team having very little moments to catch their breath.

"God damn Bloodhound." Jane growled out, sending a Biotic throw to hurl away a number of the dog-like creatures that bastard Hojo had unleashed.

Liara kept up a large Biotic dome for them, having switched out with Kaidan who used his own Biotics to send out miniature explosions to thin out the crowd.

Stitch was jumping from enemy to enemy, either shooting them, throwing, clawing, punching or ripping them apart. It was a grizzly sight, but neither of them fully cared as they were just venting out their frustrations on their current circumstances.

Axel had been gliding and teleporting around the area, fire basically surrounding him by this point. His Chakrams were ablaze with his ethereal flames and were cutting a swath through the humanoids and hounds, leaving ashes in his wake.

Leaping up into the air, Axel's chakrams spun around his body until he caught them both. His weapons became engulfed in fire and he heaved them over his head before flinging them down with all his might.

The Chakrams slammed into the ground and from them spread out an encompassing fire wave that turned the floor molten.

The team was completely unaffected by this but the same can not be said for their enemies.

Flinging his arms up, a plume of fire exploded out from the ground that completely incinerated every single enemy within their vicinity, at long last giving them a moment to rest.

"Holy hell." Ash said, slumping against a nearby wall.

Kaidan grunted in silent agreement, adjusting his armor.

"What kind of sick twisted place is this?" Liara murmured.

"Don't know, don't care." Ash said. "All I do know is this place has gotta collapse down on itself."

Stitch let out of bark of agreement, looking around in anticipation in case of more enemies.

Jane was breathing heavily, trying to steady her heart rate.

She heard a heavy sigh and turned to see Axel seated on the floor with his head resting on the wall and his eyes were closed.

"Axel." She said, going over to him. "Everything alright with you?"

"Yeah, yeah." He waved off, pulling out a Hi-Potion and Ether. Tossing them up above him, the two items burst and disbursed down onto him.

His body glowed with him standing back up and swinging his arms back and forth horizontally.

"Last one took a lot out of me." Axel stated. "All better now."

Jane nodded slowly, looking back to the rest of the team.

It appeared seeing Axel do that gave them the same idea and so utilized items of their own to get them back up to fighting strength.

Turning back to her fellow redhead, she saw that he had taken out another potion and held it out for her to take.

Giving him an appreciative smile, Shepard took the Hi-Potion and tossed it over herself. The Spectre took in a deep breath as she felt herself get more rejuvenated.

"Thanks." Jane said softly, Axel smirking friendly at her.

"Think that was the last of them?" Kaidan asked, tone hopeful.

"Not even likely." Liara said dejectedly. "This facility is large and that detestable man probably has more of these… atrocities."

"Without a doubt." Ash said, shifting her weapon to a brand new mode. "Let's see if they can take on this."

The team then moved forward to go deeper down into the base with the staircase that led to the next level up ahead.

Naturally, more of those hounds and humanoid creatures blocked their path.

They got to quick work with all of them utilizing some of their more explosive weapons and abilities to clear out these creatures.

Once finished with this batch of enemies, the group moved onwards.

As much as they'd like to progress at a faster rate, they had to come face to face with some puzzling annoyances.

They all figured Hojo merely put them there for his enjoyment in seeing them suffer.

Not only was he surveying their battle prowess, the Cerberus scientist was probably inspecting their intelligence.

"Ahem. Can you all hear me?" Came the rather despicable voice of the man who likely ran this base.

Speaking of...

"Hojo…"

"So tell me. How are you enjoying this facility?"

"None in the slightest." Shepard deadpanned.

"You should feel honored in traversing this place."

"I sure as hell don't." Ash grumbled, brow twitching.

Hojo harrumphed from wherever he was located. "You'll have the opportunity to take part in a rather ambitious experiment of mine. Complete my puzzles and I'll grant you access to progress further. Oh I look forward to data both invaluable and instrumental…"

"Uh huh, right…"

"I'd rather just skip these puzzles and mozzy on outta here." Axel griped.

"You could just use a Dark Corridor and leave." Ash pointed out.

The redhead scoffed. "And leave you guys behind? Fat chance. I'm sticking with you."

"Aw~ how sweet." Jane couldn't help herself, pinching the man's cheek with him swatting her hand away with a deadpan directed at the Spectre.

"We need to keep moving." Liara looked around nervously. "It feels like those creatures will pop just about everywhere."

"With how this place is laid out, that's more than likely true."

With the team traversing through the facility, they had to improvise along the way with how they had to reach certain areas.

There were some moments where they needed either Axel or Stitch to get across a rather large gap in order to activate various walkway mechanisms. After which, they had to fight several waves of enemies when they were forced to separate in different wards of the levels.

While they were truly fearsome as a whole, it was challenging in fewer numbers.

In one area, the genders were indeed separated for a time. Another, their communications were being jammed. And the corridors made things limited on their maneuverability as a number of examples.

One of which had them redirect freshly fired missiles either back to their senders or using their skills to direct them elsewhere for Hojo's desired results.

They had to adapt and try new things on their strategies and attack formations.

It would've been considered good team building exercises… if it weren't for the fact they were being "surveyed" against their will.

"My word, your movements, your abilities, they truly have yet to fail in astonishing me." Hojo openly praised. "Individuals like yourselves are an exceptionally rare breed."

Stitch growled, looking around with his ears perking up. Tilting his head upwards, Stitch spotted what looked like one of the speakers that Hojo was utilizing. Grabbing one of the metallic floor panels, Stitch tore it up out of the ground and flung it right at the speaker with it being destroyed in an instant.

"How rude…" Was Hojo's response, this time being noticeably further from before.

"Shove it up your ass, you prude."

"Goddess, I am normally not one to say this but must he prattle on like that all the time?" Liara asked exasperatedly, not really expecting an answer.

"These types of jackasses are a dime a dozen." Ashley stated. "Pricks who are smart and love to hear themselves talk about how smart they are."

"With the way Hojo speaks reminds me of Vexen. Always vexing and indulging himself with research and data." Axel commented with a scowl.

"Vexing Vexen?"

"Shut up." No. VIII then released a sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Thinking about it now, I shudder to think what might happen if those two were in the same room together."

"Then let's hope they never do." Shepard said, wincing as one of those Unknown Entities sprung out at her from the wall.

On reflex, she bashed the but of her rifle in the creature's head and Liara instantly ensnared it in her Biotics.

The others killed it a second later and the group kept on moving.

They eventually reached a platform where there was no means of traversing further.

"Shit, where to now." Kaidan said, looking around for a means in which to keep moving forward.

Stitch stared ahead with his eyes narrowed before hopping off from Shepard's shoulder and crawling upon the wall over to the other side.

Jumping off the wall, the fur ball landed on a lever that went down from his weight.

Before them, several container pods jutted out to form a makeshift bridge to get across.

"Well now… that was convenient." Axel remarked with a laugh.

"Stitch, you're awesome." Ash praised aloud, Stitch still standing on the lever with his arms on his hips and laughing boisterously at the compliment.

"Don't praise him too much." Shepard said, shooting an amused look at Stitch. "He'll have a bigger head than before."

"Hey." Came the indignant response from Stitch, the team hopping atop the tubes to get to the little guy.

The Spectre ran by, flicking Stitch in the nose with him whining while rubbing his nose before jumping onto Liara's shoulder as she passed by him.

"Where are we?" Kaidan asked, the team running towards who knows where.

"We're close to the lowest level." Liara said, Omni-tool out to confirm this.

"Think that's where this mad bastard is?" Ash asked.

"Only one way to find out." Shepard said and they soon went down to the lowest level of the base.

The first room they entered into was considerably larger than most of the other rooms they had been.

"Wonder what sick shit they did in here that they needed all this space." Ash commented, pointing her gun around with the others doing the same to see that the room was clear.

"I hate how morbidly curious I am." Liara admitted, self admonishing herself.

"Let's just find the psycho and be done with this place already." Kaidan said, squirming about.

However, the group didn't get far in when the speakers flared to life.

"Ah, you made it at long last."

The team collectively groaned upon hearing Hojo's voice again.

"Look, just get to it already." Shepard said aloud. "Just send out whatever big bastard we need to kill."

Hojo scoffed. "I'm trying to at least put on a show for you, make it somewhat bearable."

"It's not, never will be, just send out whoever you have lined up for us next." Ash all but demanded by this point.

"No appreciation for showmanship."

-Insert Final Fantasy VII Remake: Catastrophe-

Suddenly the entryway and exit to the room began closing and locking the occupants inside.

"Commencing next test. All personnel must evacuate the area." Spoke an automated voice. "Commencing test."

"Here we go again."

From the adjacent walls, doors opened up to bring out a number of synthetic creations.

A few were familiar to the group so far as they were dubbed Shock-Rays and Blast-Rays. The Shock-Rays were drones which floated around and created barriers for the Blast-Rays as they were these big spider-like tanks.

However, there was a new synthetic opponent thrown into the mix.

It was like this killing machine armed with a drill on its head, claws on its arms and rotating blades on it's lower half; which was a rolling ball. Spray painted on one of its arms read out M.O.T.H. Unit prototype.

And once again, those unknown humanoid entities and bloodhounds lept out and ran right towards the six of them.

Axel's form flashed suddenly, throwing his Chakrams forward with Liara and Shepard firing their Biotics.

The Biotics seemingly fused together with Axel's weapons and as soon as they reached a large cluster of enemies, there was an implosion that became an explosion of Biotic fire that turned a large portion of their enemies to ash.

The group stared, momentarily taken aback by what they just saw.

"Uh…" Jane turned to the Asari and Nobody of the team. "Did… either of you know we could do that?"

"No… no I'm fairly certain we did not." Liara muttered in shock.

"It'll certainly be one to remember." Axel said, a grin now growing in place with his chakrams returning to his hands.

With that said, the team rushed forward with the experiments all charging back at them.

Stitch ensnared one of the tentacles from a bloodhound's back. Using his strength, he whirled the mutated creature all over as a bludgeoned weapon to smack other opponents away. Once done, the blue furred alien tossed the broken body away into one of the incoming killing machines.

When it was knocked off balance, Stitch swiftly whipped out his various automatic weapons and began firing upon the Shock-Rays to bring down the protective barrier. Once those were destroyed, the little alien rushed in, leaped onto the Blast-Ray and started tearing right through the metal.

"Hey Axel." Called out the marine. "Mind coming here for a bit."

The Nobody leaped into the air, leaving through one of Hojo's creations before landing beside the biotic. "What's up, Kaidan?"

"I've been meaning to ask this earlier, but have these machines look familiar to you?"

"Can't say I have. We just fought these models today, Kaidan."

"I know that but…" Alenko gave them a hard look.

"But what?"

"Do you perhaps think there's something familiar about them?" Kaidan asked. "I know we've seen these somewhere before. Or something like them, I just can't put my finger on it."

"Why don't you try figuring that out after we scrap them." Axel said, raising his hands up with his Chakrams floating beneath them and spinning to catch fire.

"After." Kaidan casually said, priming his gun. "After will do."

Unclipping an EMP grenade from his belt, Kaidan tossed over and let it release it's pulse. The shielding went down, giving them a good window for some of the team to break down the machines.

Focusing on his enhanced biotics, Kaidan ensnared another machine and started crushing it upon bringing his hands together. The sound of metal straining could be greatly heard. Before long, it became a massive ball of scrap.

Once created, the LT-Commander slammed the misshapen object down hard on another machine and rendered it useless.

This greatly exhausted him as he was still trying to master his newfound capabilities since his visit to Barsoom. He had been training long and hard and no matter how much he tried he felt out of breath afterwards; even once consuming a number of Ethers.

Yet his drive will keep pushing him on along with his imagination to try out new things.

As Kaidan pulled out a Mega Ether to consume, the M.O.T.H. Unit came rushing in, blades rapidly spinning around and around. Axel had to leap right in and block the ongoing blows with his chakrams. He struggled with the speed and pressure behind it all, but he gave his friends an ample opening for them to fire upon it.

Kaidan amped up his next shot by infusing his Biotics into it and fired directly at the center drill head of the robot.

The bot's head came straight off with Axel turning it into melted metal a moment later.

Alenko let out a breath, feeling a strain on his body which quickly evaporated courtesy of a quick Potion washing over him from Axel.

He nodded in appreciation, No. VIII patting the man's shoulder.

"Okay, Kaidan, now these guys are scrap. What is it you wanted me to look at again?"

Kaidan rubbed his chin in thought, narrowing his eyes at one of the mangled bots. Why was he thinking of Garrus and Wrex as well?

"Oh yeah." Kaidan snapped his fingers in realization. "Don't these little bastards look kinda like that big crab robot we fought when we went to get Wrex's armor back?"

Axel regarded the destroyed crab-like robots in front of them and took a second to look over at the others.

"Huh… yeah, you're right they do. From that douchebags warehouse. The hell was his name again?"

"Tonn Actus."

"Yeah, him. These guys are a bit too similar, don't ya think?"

"Makes you wonder." Kaidan said, now glaring up at a speaker in the corner of the large room. "Where do you think these bastards came from?"

"A coincidence?"

"By this point, in our line of experience, fifty-fifty chance in this scenario." Kaidan said, Axel nodding in agreement.

From the sanctity of his safe, monitor room, Professor Hojo had overheard this particular conversation.

"Hmm? So they had come across my Crab Warden?" Mused the Cerberus scientist. "That fool Tonn. A waste of my efforts if used to guard some needless trinkets."

He observed the rest of the crew take out all the creatures and mechanical beings he had sent out to kill these intruders but thus far, they have proven wonderfully inept in this matter.

This only served to make his sinister smile grow with his ambition to best his previous works matching his manic expression.

The reports and video feeds will be a great amount of data for both him and the Illusive Man once this whole mess is over.

Back in the sealed off room, the rest of the enemies were finally defeated. A doorway opened up for them, prompting the group to enter the newly available space.

Once inside, the squad saw it was an extremely wide open space. When the last of them entered, the doorway behind them closed up with the speakers flaring to life.

"Most impressive." Hojo sounded condescending even when he complimented their abilities. "You truly are something else entirely. I must say, the research and data you have all given me is invaluable. I must reevaluate everything I understand to make for a better scientist but of course, that comes with the territory."

"Will you please, PLEASE, stop with the damn monologues already." Ash growled savagely.

"But you have only fought the basic foot soldiers." Hojo went on, entirely ignoring the Operations Chief.

"Wait… what did he just say?" Kaidan asked.

"Time to test out whether or not you all are truly special as The Illusive Man and myself believe you all to be." Hojo's manic glee was on full display. "Releasing Specimen HO512."

The group then heard something large being operated. Looking over, they saw a large containment pod. It's glass container lid opened with a thick gas being emitted.

Then came this beastial sound that was unnatural as it arose and stepped out of the containment pod.

"▄▄"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"What in the FUCK is that supposed to be?!" Ash all but screeched out.

"By the Goddess." Liara whispered in horror. "What have they created?"

"One ugly motherfucker." Axel said, expression stone cold as he twirled his Chakrams in his hands.

"Formation loose people." Shepard instructed. "There's one of it and six of us."

Much of this monstrosity reminded most of the team of fighting the Thorian back on Feros. But this time it had limbs, tentacles, bones and was mobile.

This… thing was by far one of the most grotesque and frankly most disgusting enemies that they had ever come across and the smell it gave off was rancid and putrid.

Just when the squad was about to commence their attack, something fell down from the rafters above.

"Oh you gotta be kidding me." Growled the LT-Commander.

Apparently Hojo decided to top off this experiment with these creepy little eye monsters on spider legs as cannon fodder!

"This is some next grade level bullshit if I ever saw anything like it." Axel stated in irritation, fires dancing around his form.

The Specimen disregarded the fodder around it and made a beeline straight towards the team.

Shepard let out a quick whistle, Biotics flaring.

Stitch laughed maniacally, forming himself into his ball form as Biotics surrounded him.

Jane tossed her rifle around to grab the barrel and proceeded to smash the butt of her gun into Stitch in the form of a baseball player.

Stitch's Biotically charged body sailed through the air, straight at the oversized grotesque monster they faced and crashed right between its eyes.

The Specimen roared in pain and clear anger, flailing its arms about with several tubes and parts of the wall being torn down.

"Since when was that a thing?" Ash asked Jane in amusement.

"Since just now." Shepard said, gripping her rifle back to normal. "Come on, let's kill this bastard."

-Insert Final Fantasy VII Remake: Final Experiment-

Specimen HO512 moved forward, swinging its clawed arm at the group, forcing them to scatter.

It followed up the swipe by using its strange fleshy cannon arm, unleashing a torrent of gas that appeared both airy but strangely… solid? Whatever it was, there was a physical force behind it as Axel and Kaidan learned the hard way.

What's worse was their immediate reactions afterwards.

Green in the face, the duo began coughing violently with Alenko hurling out the contents of his lunch a moment later.

"Whoa, what the fuck was that?" Ash asked in alarm, rushing over to Alenko whilst Shepard and Liara were by Axel and they pulled them away.

Stitch provided covering fire, blasting away at the smaller crawling crab creatures and keeping the attention of the larger specimen.

He grabbed one of the smaller crab-like critters by its leg and hurled it at HO512.

The Specimen roared challengingly with Stitch comically roaring back, shooting at it with all four of his guns.

Stitch's friends had gotten their two "sick" comrades a slight distance away with the duo nearly falling to the ground.

"What the hell was that?" Ash asked, worry clear in her tone and face. "Are you two alright?"

"Easy you two." Liara said, slightly fretful as she kept Kaidan from falling over.

"That was some poison or some shit." Axel said, struggling with his words.

"Lost my lunch." Kaidan muttered in slight misery.

"Feels like more than that." Shepard murmured. "Stay back, you two."

"Just give us a minute." Axel said, his green face slowly returning to its normal color. "Feels temporary."

"You sure?" Shepard asked in concern.

"You sure bout leavin' Stitch there by himself?" Kaidan managed out, making the three women turn back and see Stitch get violently flung away.

"Stitch." Liara cried out to him.

"Come on, he needs our help." Ash said, raising her weapon and rushing forward to help their small friend.

"Concentrate your fire on that left arm of his." Jane ordered out.

"We'll be right behind you… eventually." Axel called out weakly, slowly feeling some semblance of the poison leaving his system.

Ashley started off this next confrontation, focusing her firepower directly at HO512's cannon of a left arm.

As this went on, Liara and Shepard used their Biotics and tossed the remaining eyeball creatures at the giant of a creation to give them more space to work with and hurt it in the process.

Before long, HO512 sweeped it's massive claw left to right. It then swung it's small claw as it charged forward. When it wasn't able to land it's mark, the Specimen surprised the Normandy squad by leaping in the air and crashing down hard onto the ground.

The shockwave knocked them off their feet, causing an opening to occur for HO512 to take advantage of.

It soon seized Ashley and tightened it's hold on her. She struggled in it's grasp before being hurled to the ground with tremendous force.

"Ash!"

Experiment 626 saw this upon his recovery and fiercely growled upon witnessing this and decided to act in retaliation. Rushing onward, Stitch soon grasped onto the Specimen's right arm. Mustering much of his strength, he ripped it's arm right out of the creation's socket. From there he started blougeting the massive monstrosity with it's own limb.

During this momentary beatdown, Sheprad and Liara rushed over to Ashley's side and helped her up.

Once administering a Hi-Potion, the Operations Chief was more or less able to get back on her feet. Yet her movements will be slow at best as she was still sore from the crash earlier. But she decided to stay in the distance for the time being and provide support.

Specimen HO512 let out a bellowing shriek when Stitch stabbed it's severed right limb into it's back. From there, Hojo's creation began sweeping it's massive claw left to right once more but more fiercely than before.

At this point, Kaidan and Axel forced themselves to move and began attacking the large behemoth once again.

Charging up his Biotics, Kaidan felt a tingly go up his arm as he noticed crackles of electricity course within his Biotic field.

Eyes wide in stunned astonishment he quickly shook his head and returned focus on the Specimen.

He fired his electrified Biotics, the sphere impacting the Specimen and creating a cascading effect all over the body of the creatures.

HO512 screeched, moving statically but forcefully as it powered through its pain and began swinging its claw arm wildly about to keep the team at bay.

In doing so, they saw many of the injuries it had sustained began to regenerate and its stumpy arm was reforming.

"Goddess, we can't keep doing this." Liara said aloud. "It will just recover every chance it gets."

"We need to find a way to hurt this fucker from all sides." Shepard said through gritted teeth.

Narrowing her eyes, Operations Chief Williams felt a light bulb go off in her head.

"I got an idea!" Ash called out to the others, pulling out a number of explosives. "Get some fire charged up Axel, the rest of you cover me."

Not waiting on the team to respond, Ashley ran around the room and threw her explosives at the giant monstrosity.

Rather than them blowing up, they stuck to the massive frame of the Specimen with the team cluing in to what Ash was trying to do here.

They all started firing upon HO512, the specimen roaring in anger and pain as it attempted to attack the team in retaliation.

Axel had hung back the whole time, concentrating on channelling his power to a single fixed point.

Ashley rolled beneath the Specimens claw arm and tossed her last explosive at the chest of the monster.

"Now Axel!" She yelled out.

Axel conjured up an intense flame between his Chakrams with it flaring up violently.

At its apex, No. VIII leaped high into the air before slamming his weapons together to form a large fireball.

"Get clear!" Axel flung the sphere down to the monster.

The squadmates did so just as the ball struck Hojo's specimen.

*KRA-KOOM*

Mixture of explosive and magic flames greatly harmed their present opponent. As it toppled over, the squad saw parts of its body falling apart but it was still up and running as it were.

"You've gotta be kidding me." Alenko said aloud.

"Don't let up." Shepard ordered.

Not wanting to lose the advantage, they brought down the hammer by unloading a hail of bullets, biotics and torrent of flames onto it. It shrieked and rived during this onslaught before it fought its way back up onto its feet.

They thought they were having the upperhand on this fight… until a few things happened.

First thing it did was seem to be heaving numerous times. Arching its head back, the specimen spat out something from it's disgusting mouth.

Turned out it was more of those eyeball creatures with legs.

As the squad had to kill those off, the Specimen began regrowing it's severed limb and damaged body parts; something which most had noticed right away.

Williams was irate. "Oh that's bullshit!"

From it's left claw, it began spraying it's putrid gas once more. The team had to move away from the fumes as they didn't have any proper protection from accidentally inhaling it.

Of course some were not fortunate in avoiding it.

"That thing just keeps spraying that gas at us." Kaidan said, coughing slightly at the underlying effects of the noxious fumes.

"Our Biotics can only do so much." Liara said, arm slightly covering her mouth.

"Any ideas then?" Shepard asked. "I'm open to them."

"Wait…" Axel said, staring at the creature for a second before scoffing derisively. "I'm so stupid."

"Glad to see we're in an agreement."

"Not now, Ash." Shepard admonished. "What is it Axel?"

"It uses gas right?" Axel asked rhetorically. "What happens to gas when you heat it up?"

It took a moment for the gears in most of the teams heads to click into place when they realized what Axel was insinuating.

"Think it'll be enough?" Kaidan asked.

"Don't know until we try." Ashley said when she faltered. "Wait, that big bastard can regenerate. Think it'll be enough."

"We can contain the gas around the body." Liara quickly said. "Use all three of our Biotics in a dome to make sure it remains stationary."

"And you with your explosives and incendiary rounds with Axel's fire will be the nail in the coffin." Shepard finished, getting nods from the team. "Now move!"

Stitch was the first to leap into action, rushing towards some of the eyeball crawlers. Rip and tear and crush right through them in order to give the others their opportunity. Even throwing those disgusting offspring back to their maker to somewhat draw it's attention away.

It worked, partially, when the specimen went to attack the blue fur ball along with his companions.

Repeating her actions earlier, Ashley gathered up her explosives once more. Running around the room, she threw them at the giant specimen. During this process, she whipped out her shotgun and blasted whatever walking eyeballs came her way. And whatever bombs seemed to have missed it's mark, either Liara or Kaidan would use their biotics to get them back to their intended destination.

As this went on, Shepard used her biotics to keep their opponent in place as long as possible. A few eyeball creatures tried attacking her, but were quickly burnt to a crisp courtesy of Axel.

Seeing as it wasn't able to move all that well, Hojo's experiment brought forward it's large left arm and let loose a mighty stream of gas.

It was then did things finally act accordingly.

"NOW!"

Liara flared her biotics and used them to block the incoming gas stream. Beside her, Kaidan gave his support before transitioning to forming a barrier alongside Shepard.

Entrapping more of HO512, Ashley and Stitch kept on firing with their respective weapons. The flames started to build up within the biotic barrier and roasting the monstrosity.

As this went on, Axel built up more flames and condensed them once more and when the signal was delivered, he delivered his payload. When the package was received, Ashley triggered her explosives just when the barrier finished closing up.

*KRA-KOOM*

The sound appeared muffled, due to the biotic barrier, but the force behind the blast was fierce.

After some time keeping the barrier up, the three biotics finally let it collapse. A large plumb of smoke spread outwards with charred remains of Hojo's experiment crumbling to the ground.

"Think we overdid it?"

"Better doing that then dragging it longer than it should."

The speakers flared to life once more as Hojo's voice could be heard.

"Bravo~ Bravo~ Quite the remarkable spectacle."

"Glad we weren't a disappointment." Ash said through clenched teeth.

"You weren't." Said the Cerberus scientist. "Now as much as I'd like to continue, I'm afraid it's time to bring things to an end."

*WHAAAAAA* *WHAAAAAA* *WHAAAAAA*

"Attention. Attention. Evacuate the facility. This is not a drill. I repeat. This is not a drill."

"What's happening?" Alenko said, looking around in alarm.

"Oh that would be me setting off the self destruct. Sad to see this place go." Hojo said with a dark chuckle. "Have fun escaping. Ta~"

"You son of a bitch!" Ash shouted.

"We can curse and damn him all we want, but we gotta get the fuck outta here!" Shepard said hurriedly.

"But the door-"

"You guys better step back." Said Axel, enflaming his chakrams.

Doing as instructed, they saw their red haired squadmate condensing more fire into his weapons. Instead of encompassing them with a flaming coat, the metal was glowing brightly. In mere seconds, Axel rushed forward and swiped his heated chakrams down hard.

A split moment later, he was on the other side as he cleaved through the dense doorway like a hot knife through butter.

"Double time people!"

The sirens were loud as the evacuation countdown was being heard in the air. Neither really paid attention to the amount of time left as they merely focused in traversing their way out.

They had to scale up the levels with all their might, Axel using fires to propel metal platforms they stood on to rocket them upwards whilst Liara utilized her Biotics to keep them steady.

Most of them wished they still had their unique jumping ability back on Barsoom as it would've greatly helped. But alas they had to make due with their present skills.

"There's the exit!" Liara pointed ahead.

"Go, go, go!"

"It's closing on us!" Kaidan pointed out.

Hearing this, Stitch jumped up to grab a piece of falling debris and hurled it forward with all his might.

The large chunk of metal smashed through, creating a wide enough opening for the entire group to make it through in one go.

"JUMP!"

The team lept out in time of the collapsing base just as the door behind them fell through.

They all collapsed down onto the ground of the planet in a small heap all breathing heavily as they finally had a chance to catch a moment of proper rest. Even as they rested, they felt a massive quake from the very earth before it slowly subsided, signaling the base's destruction.

"Everything hurts~" Ashley moaned aloud. "I don't wanna move."

"You and everyone else can rest up on the Normandy on the way back to the Citadel." Shepard said, unmoving as she lay on her back. Activating her Omni-tool, she signaled Joker to pick them up.

"Nearly lost my oxy-chew." Kaidan murmured, face slightly embedded into the dirt below them.

"We're not walking back?" Liara said, turning to Jane who scoffed aloud.

"Fuck no." Shepard said. "I'm good on running around for a few weeks at least."

"Just hope the others are having a far better time than we are right now." Said the red haired Nobody.

-Scene Cut-

Currently, Roxas was with Xion, Tali and Garrus, the four of them enjoying a nice quiet moment as they had lunch together.

Tasks were more or less done for the day and all sorted out for the present group. Only things left were a handful of touch ups, as it were.

Right now, they just waited in the eventual return of their friends from their mission. So they were in a bet of a lull, just waiting for something to happen.

But they weren't stupid in tempting fate like that.

Some crappy situation where their lives would be on the line will not only happen, it's expected to happen. It's an occupational hazard by this point really.

Eventually, they would all be thrown into the thick of "it", whatever the situation at the time would be where they were basically fighting for their lives.

And others

And the galaxy by this point.

After some time within the comfortable silence -if one could call it that- someone decided to break it.

"Do you think we eat too much?" Tali abruptly asked, holding up her cup of ice cream.

Her friends looked at her in confusion.

"Pardon?" Was Garrus's response.

"I just think we've been eating a lot lately." Tali said offhandedly, going back to eating her ice cream.

"Uh… hmmm, well if we are, it doesn't show." Xion remarked.

"What makes you say that?" The Quarian inquired.

"Have you seen what we do on the daily?" Xion rhetorically asked with a small grin.

Tali blinked, laughing to herself a moment later.

"Yeah, we do have a standard after all." Garrus sauvely said, flexing his arm with the girls giggling slightly.

Roxas only looked down at the burger he was eating for a few moments before shrugging and taking another large bite out of it.

He would burn off the fat and calories in the next fight he would be a part of.

"So what's left, Tali?" Xion asked with the Quarian humming to herself.

"Most of my assembled Pilgrimage gift is back on the Normandy, so I'll have to organize all of that once we're back on board." Said the engineer. "Outside of that… I believe I need to make arrangements with the Flotilla to send someone to pick me up with my gift."

"Couldn't we just give you a ride to it?" Roxas asked.

"You could, but I still need to inform them ahead of time on my deciding form of transport."

"Doesn't sound too bad." Garrus stated. "Besides I wanna see the looks of their fac- body reactions, when they see the shit you bring to them from everywhere we've been to."

Tali let out a snorted laughter, already imaging the reactions of her people.

Not just them but the admiralty board and her father most of all.

"How do you think they'll react to the stuff you bring back?" Xion inquired curiously.

"Some may pass out from it all." Tali said mischievously. "I'll be sure to record and send it to you all afterwards."

"You better." Garrus warned her jokingly. "I want our group to hold that distinction of firsts to continue."

"You have my word." Tali said in utter seriousness though her glint of amusement in her eyes was plain as day for them to see.

As they resumed eating, Roxas looked back and forth for a few moments.

Xion tilted her head at his motions. "Everything alright Roxas?"

No. XIII didn't respond at first, looking a bit wistful.

"I kinda miss that we don't have everyone here." Roxas admitted.

Tali found herself nodding without a second thought. "Yeah, does seem a bit odd that it's just the four of us being together."

"You're right on that one. Grown used to all of us eating and hanging out together." Said the turian. "I mean, back before I joined the Normandy I was used to spending time with the occasional C-Sec officer during the off hours but it wasn't for long. Either due to short time windows, cases or exhaustion from long days work. But now? Being part of this group… don't know if anything after will compare to it."

"You're telling me." Xion said. "Roxas, Axel and I had the Organization and they didn't wanna do anything at all."

"I had friends and family on the flotilla." Tali said with a fond tone. "But being on the Normandy with all of us there… never had anything like it."

"This really was the best time of my life." Roxas said with a smile.

"Yeah, you're short… how many months have you existed for by now?" Garrus asked, making the Nobody think for a second.

"Uh… like… eight I think?" Roxas was unsure. "I stopped numbering all my journal entries on my Omni-tool. Kinda lost track of time."

"Yeah, kinda does become blurry after a while." The C-Sec detective admitted, resting his hand in his hand.

"I'm gonna miss this." Xion softly said. "Miss… all of us being together."

"Unfortunately… Nothing lasts forever." Garrus remarked with his own mood taking a slight downturn. "So let's make the most of it."

A somber mood slowly surfaced and surrounded them. The truth was bitter, but they had to face the facts.

Wanting to make the most of it, Roxas voiced a passing thought.

"Any idea on what we could do to kill time before the others return?"

The four Normandy members sat there pondering, thinking of places to go to. Some place where they can enjoy themselves as a group instead of individually.

"Maybe we could head over to the Silversun Strip and find something to do over there." Tali suggested.

Roxas nodded. "Sounds like a good idea."

Garrus soon shrugged. "Better something than nothing."

A number of thoughts crossed their minds on where they could exactly go and have some fun.

They could try out the casino, given the vast amount of credits they all have. Yet things might become awkward with the two Keybearers as they are considered "minors". Not to mention some employees would be biased with their Quarian friend and teammate.

The Castle Arcade would probably be a safer bet for the foursome. The vast array of games they could play and no one could be judgemental. And they could be there for hours and time will fly by relatively quickly… up until some complaints could arise if it's closing time or the Normandy made it's return.

Yet before they could take off towards their destination-

"Excuse me, Roxas?"

The four looked over to the side and saw…

"Down here."

They inclined their heads down to see a Volus standing before them.

"You again?" Roxas blinked at the sight of the black suited stubby alien. "Didn't you already deliver me my key chain?"

"I did." Rasped out the delivery Volus.

"So… is there something else for me?"

"Yes, I have a delivery for you."

"Another one?" Roxas looked to the others before back to the Volus. "From who?"

"I didn't get a name, just a title."

"And that would be…?"

"He whose Mother is of the Ancients."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"What in the spirit's name is that bullshit supposed to be?"

The Volus only threw up an arm. "Don't ask me, I'm only the messenger."

"Right, sorry about that."

The Volus held out a datapad for Roxas to sign. Once giving his signature, the delivery person handed the Nobody-

"An envelope?" Roxas said in bewilderment as the Volus walked away.

"What sort of dated delivery is this?" Garrus asked, bemused at what he was looking at.

"Looks kinda fancy." Tali noted. "How's it feel, Roxas?"

"I dunno… crisp I guess."

Cutting open the sealed parchment, Roxas slid out the letter and felt something was tucked within the folded document. Once opening it, he saw the item was a platinum card.

Garrus noticed something on the back of the card that he recognized instantly. "Huh, didn't know the Arnax Arsenal Arena made one of those."

"You know of this, Garrus?" Xion asked.

"Browsed their selections the last time we were there. A means of somewhat knowing ahead of time if we were to go back and all."

"Then what's this card for anyways?" Roxas inquired, holding it up for Garrus to squint at slightly.

"A pass for an exclusive match. Really pricey if I remember correctly."

"Exclusive match?" Tali said in confusion. "What kind?"

"Well it's in the card. A platinum challenge." Garrus pointed out. "Noticed that the Arena has tier lists of the level of challenge that are available for competing in Arnax. That there is one of the highest ranks to have."

"So whatever this challenge is… it's challenging." Roxas felt a little dumb in saying that.

"Basically." Garrus nodded.

"Question is, what did the person log into the card in the first place?" Tali asked, taking the card out of Roxas' hand to inspect it herself.

"Only one way to find out, I suppose." Garrus said.

"We were planning on heading over to the Silversun Strip anyways." Xion pointed out.

"Free match is fine by me." Roxas said with a shrug.

"Hopefully it won't turn out like last time." Muttered out the engineer.

The detective ended up exhaling a groan. "Don't… don't tempt fate like that."

AN

Phew, this was a sprint of a chapter.

We kinda held back on it for a few weeks after finishing the Barsoom arc and now we're one chapter away basically from the end of part one of our story.

The team is beginning to go their separate ways, Wrex with Tuchanka and soon, Tali shall be making her return to the Flotilla.

Roxas, Axel and Xion will also be making their way to their home galaxy and the rest of the Normandy must go their own separate ways.

Jebest4781: It would be at this time we will be focusing a bit more on the Disney/KH elements than ME as there have been things we wanted to tackle for a while.

Also I just gotta say, I'm so happy for Mass Effect Legendary Edition to have come out and boy it looks amazing. Graphics from ME1 have been greatly upgraded to the engine used in ME3 and beyond to make it feel smoother.

FMW: Yeah, both of us have been exploring our old stomping grounds in the ME universe, greatly refreshing ourselves with our love and lore for the Mass Effect galaxy. Also, we've got Castlevania Season 4 and the Bad Batch so this is a nerd weekend galore for us. Lots to work with on both those shows with Castlevania obviously for A Song of Fire, Ice and Hearts and Bad Batch helping add great lore and material for Infinite Wars and the details that will be added into later arcs.

Jeb: I agree and I hope you all stay safe out there. Get your shots when possible, if not then try to keep yourself prepared until you can get an appointment.

Thanks again for reading everyone.

Rate Read and Review and as Always Have Nice Day.