I hope y'all enjoy this chapter. For those of y'all that have been for a bit and noticed the rating change fear not. The content and how the story operates won't change at all. Just until we get to those scenes that will make me go to an 'M' rating it'll stay at 'T' just to help with the story's exposure.


POV: Aedon Wynne (Torchbearer)

After Shepard left I decided to get my sorry ass off the floor. No more moping for my bitch ass. I was better than that, had to be if I wanted to do anything in this universe. Being a little bitch would help no one.

Leaving the space I was in I made my way to the Quartermaster. Staring him down as I approached he visibly gulped before reaching down under his table and put two packages on the table. One a lot bigger than the other. Huh… oh the smaller one must be the one from Volio. Grabbing them both with and nodding to the Quartermaster I left him and went straight to my locker.

Knowing that the bigger one was the Predator X armor I didn't bother opening it and just put it into my locker. Grabbing the other package from, what I assumed to be from Volio, and placing it on the workbench. Thankfully, Ashley wasn't here so we wouldn't have to contend with each other for the space. Plus, she wouldn't see what was inside.

Opening it up the first thing I saw was a letter from Volio. Putting it aside for now and grabbing what was inside I was happily satisfied with what was there. It looked like a singular 8 round magazine for my 1911. Hollow Point rounds too; perfect for squishy targets but pretty useless against anything with armor. Wonder what I could use them for? Setting it aside and grabbing the letter I opened it up and read it.

Hey kid, I had to call in a couple of favors to get these made. A lot more expensive than I expected them to be but they're well worth the money. Titanium composite hollow point rounds with a C4 kicker chambered in your pistols .45 caliber. They are quite easily the strongest, fastest and most explosive rounds probably ever conceived for that caliber.

I test fired them and it kicks like a goddamn mule but it hits just as hard, if not harder. They'll put down damn near anything but be careful with them. They're the only ones ever made and getting more probably won't be an option. Use them on the fuckers that deserve it.

Setting the letter down I smiled at myself. Grabbing the mag again and popping out a bullet I examined it. It's color was definitely a bit different from what I was used to with hollow point rounds back home and at the base of the casing there was a little red x mark. That's where I assumed the C4 kicker was. These rounds definitely had to pack a punch like no other. The smile that graced my lips was definitely predatory.

Putting the round back into the mag and then back into the box with the letter I put it into my locker. Shutting it I took a long sigh and made my way up to the mess hall. My stomach was rumbling for some food. Even though, all we had was MRE's that was enough.

Getting there every one of the ground team was already eating. Grabbing myself an MRE and sitting with them I closed my eyes and just enjoyed the sound of everyone talking. Sha'ira might be right with me being alone now but in the future? In the future I won't be. Never again; I was never alone.


*2 weeks later*

The last two weeks had been relatively uneventful. Well, not exactly. We had been running around a lot doing a lot of the game's side quests. Nothing crazy either, most were just the general go in and get out ones. I missed the first couple anyways because Dr. Chakwas still had me sidelined for the first couple days. It wasn't too bad, just really boring.

After that, if we weren't on missions, sleeping or cleaning I was working out with Ashley. Shepard wasn't lying when he said she would get me into shape with CQC. She was exceptional at it but as surprising as it was I wasn't as far back as I thought myself to be. Keeping up with her wasn't as hard and for the most part we were evenly matched.

She still ended up winning most of our fights, mostly because she had far more real experience in that arena than myself. Training doesn't do jack shit if you've never actually fought someone. Well, I have but definitely not as much as she has.

Other than that I went to Garrus for shooting tips; one could never have enough teachers. Most of what he taught me and was continuing to teach me were geared more towards sniping than anything else but that was to be expected from him. Still, he definitely imparted a lot of good things to me.

Specifically, how he trained me to count shots. It wasn't universal like it was in my old life but there was a threshold for every gun and person who used them before they would have to stop it from overheating. No matter how well you controlled your bursts you would still have to let it cool eventually. It was a nice thing to pick up and would definitely help with combat in the future.

Tali helped me with some Tech things too. She was still giving me a bit of the cold shoulder after everything with Ceelo but she was still helping me regardless. She didn't let her feelings on my teacher conflict with helping me. When Ceelo said she was a prodigy too he fuckin meant it. I had grasped, or at least was starting too with Ceelo as my teacher, but Tali was eons beyond me. Made it feel like it was the beginning of Ceelo teaching me again. At least she wasn't shitting on me at every opportunity.

Moving on since my ban on going on missions had been lifted I had gone on several and been sidelined for several as well. As had everyone else so meh it wasn't too bad. Surprisingly though even with all of our missions that we've been getting done we still spent most of our time in transit. Hence all the training and sleeping I could get in; plus all the cleaning. I had heard that in the military everyone learns to be a janitor and I gotta say, they were right.

Nothing I hadn't done before but some of them were especially tedious. Specifically, the bathrooms, especially after Wrex had some food that didn't agree with his stomach. Shocking for that to happen to a Krogan but it still did. It wasn't fun or pleasant for anyone to clean it up.

Leaving that particular can of worms alone for the rest of my life right now we were on a mission. Some bum fuck planet in the middle of nowhere and we were being asked to raid a small pirate stronghold. Scans from The Normandy told us it couldn't house more than 25 people so it checked out with the info Hackett gave us.

On the planet the air was breathable so no one had to wear a helmet but I still did for obvious reasons, it was too good not to. As for where we were particularly, the base was holed up at the bottom of a cliff with only one real way to get in. So on that note I was sent forward to do some recon. At the moment I was on the right side of the cliff slowly pushing forward towards the base while staying out of sight.

It was tedious work, especially since these pirates weren't amateurs. Although a small group the intel said that they were all former military and not just your run-of-the-mill mercs. Better to nip this in the bud now before they actually gained a reputation. It wouldn't be good for anyone if they did. Who knows how many others would follow them.

Slowly making my around a particular rock on the slope I spotted a body. Ducking back behind the rock quickly as to not get spotted. Taking a slow deep breath I peeked my head out around the corner and was surprised at what I saw.

They were obviously a woman with a rather large sniper rifle in their hands. She was scanning the area below by the Pirates base, even peaking at it from the couple seconds I watched her. Other than that she had a couple flashbangs around her leg with a rather intimidating knife strapped to the same leg. On her other leg, I saw what looked like a Razer pistol. And in a moment of weakness I looked at her butt, it was very nice.

Although, none of that was what surprised me. She had a fucking N7 logo on her shoulder. None of the intel Shepard shared with us gave any indication that these guys had N7's working with them. I feel like that should've been obvious. Fuck, I'll radio Shepard.

"Sam," I whispered. "Turn off the helmet vocals, I can't be heard while I radio Shepard."

Already done Pilot. Not responding to her I radioed Shepard.

"Shepard. Are we expecting friendlies?" he took a couple seconds to respond.

"No. Why?"

"Because I'm staring right at an N7 sniper in front of me," I said as I peeked back around to look at the woman who hadn't moved yet.

"Hold one." ahh the classic. Hurry up and wait.

Waiting another couple of seconds I peeked around the corner again only to see that the woman was gone. Fuck me.

"Sam hit the pulse."

No sooner had I asked than the pulse went out around me and it showed her right on top of me. Knowing she couldn't be below me I looked up just in time for her to jump down at me from above the rock I had been using as cover. She hit me right in the face with her knee sending me straight into the ground. Her body weight plus her armor and the force sending me straight into the ground rattled my head pretty significantly. She was able to pin my left arm in the process too.

My vision swimming in front of me I was just barely able to make out that she pulled out that wicked looking knife and plunged it towards my eye. Blearily I moved my free hand to try and block it with limited success. It didn't hit my helmet's eye but it went straight through my palm, that fucking hurt.

It was at this moment I thanked God I had made myself just a little bit taller in the change. If that hadn't been done there's no way I would've survived the encounter.

As it was she was just far enough up on my body that she wasn't on my hips. Using this to my advantage while she was currently trying to use her body weight to press the knife onto and through my helmet. I used my free hips to buck her upwards and then my right leg came all the way up and kicked her in the back of the head.

It rattled her just enough for me to flip us over so I was on top. Ripping my hand out of the knife I tried to disengage only for her legs to stay around my side and she squeezed just like Tela had two years ago. This time though this woman had a knife in hand and was not shy about trying to stab me with it.

With me having the top position I was able to kinda control the fight but without my gun in hand it forced me to be defensive. She tried to use her impressive core and get above with her body and force me onto my back again but I was having none of that. She still tried but I was able to smack her knie away and then deliver an overhand swing to her head. Even with a helmet it still disoriented her enough for me to disarm her from her knife.

As soon as she lost her knife she wasted no time and did something even more impressive. She swung backward, arching her back and threw me with her legs. It was around this moment that it started to become apparent that she was just plain better than me. You don't do something like that without years of practice and 100 percent faith that you could do it.

Getting up from being thrown she was already charging me with her knife. While I dodged her another thing became apparent to me, she was just as tall if not taller than me. What is it with me being the shortest everywhere I go?

Due to my idiotic lapse of concentration she almost skewered me on her first try but I dodged it just in time, not fast enough to avoid a gash on my arm though. She came at me again as she missed the first strike almost instantly switching grip on her knife into a reverse grip and stabbing at my chest.

Seizing the opportunity I stopped the thrust and made to disarm her only for her other arm to come below my arms and hit me straight in the solar plexus. It was like being hit by a tank and it knocked the wind completely out of me. Staying on my feet out of pure instinct telling me if I went down I would die I backed away trying to get some space between us.

She was having absolutely none of that and pressed her advantage. In desperation, I jumped up and drop-kicked her. It propelled her backward only a foot or two. However, it gave me just enough time to pull my pistol out and aim it at her only for her to do the same thing to me. Due to the proximity, we were at and her unbridled speed both our pistols rested on each others helmets.

My helmet may be really good but I didn't want to test it out with a pistol barrel sitting right on it. This was definitely the closest I had come to death yet. Whoever this woman was too she was just plain better than me but Lady Luck and God were on my side. At least for now.

Just then my radio blared to life.

"Wynne. Have you engaged?"

"I was engaged sir."

"Are you both alive?" We were both still holding each others pistols to the others head.

"For now."

"Repeat after me. Charlie, Alpha, Foxtrot; X-1252" and so I did.

Looking at me for what felt like an eternity the woman stood up and put her pistol away. Doing the same with my pistol I slumped down and breathed a sigh of relief. Fuck me that was hard.

Standing up she looked at me before seemingly listening to the radio in her helmet. It must've been a short conversation because she looked back at me before speaking.

"So you're one of Shepard's crew huh?"

"Yes… when did you see me by the way?"

"2nd time you peaked. You're sneaky."

"Thanks. You solo or where's the rest of your team?"

"Rest are on the other side about to make the assault. Your's?"

"Down the middle. Blitz."

"Not a lot of cover down there."

"They got 4 strong biotics. Plus me up here. They would've been fine."

"Probably… John always was a charger." There was definitely some familiarity there.

"You know him personally?" I was curious.

"You haven't unlocked that part of the backstory yet," I couldn't help but chuckle a bit at that.

"I'll get there eventually."

"You sure big guy?"

"Not anytime soon but I'll get there."

She stayed silent after that and so I did too. Now, we were just waiting to find out what the plan was. With the time I 'examined' her further trying to get a better read on who I was dealing with here.

She carried herself with confidence only someone who was ridiculously hot or knew they could kill you at a moment's notice could. I went with her being the ladder, no one stays pretty in this job for long, or they die quick.

Her loadout consisted of only the sniper and pistol so she obviously wasn't a frontline fighter, she definitely could from what I just experienced. That'll be chopped up to her being an N7 though, training must be freakish. Her body showed it too.

Even through her armor and suit, it was easy to make out that she had a BODY. Long and slender legs that lead up to a very nice ass. Couldn't make much of her upper body but with how the armor was she probably didn't all that big of a bosom. A trade-off that was easy to make with how her lower body was.

I need to freaking stay on task here, good christ it's like I'm a teen going through puberty lately. It was a good thing that the adrenaline finally wore off from our fight and the pain from being stabbed through the hand hit me with full force.

Sam, being smarter than me, had already turned off the helmet's external speaker. So when I gasped and then swore with the pain the woman wouldn't know anything. Taping a few buttons on my omni-tool I got the omni-gel ready, medi-gel wouldn't help on this would. Swiping the omni-tool over my hand, it closed the wound.

Dr. Chakwas would still have to look at it and she definitely wouldn't be happy. However, for now, my hand was still fully functional and the pain had receded to just a dull throb. Wait… did she poison the blade? Better safe than sorry.

"Do you poison your blade?" while I had been talking to myself and observing her she had retaken her position but on my side of the rock now so she was right in front of me.

Not moving at all she responded. "No. You'll be good." Taking it as the truth nothing more happened. Until she spoke again.

"Were you checking me out?" On one hand, I could lie and say no, on the other I could say that I was. Assuming she's anything like the military Marines I knew back home I chose the second option.

"Yes." this time she did turn her head and looked at me. She was silent as she stared at me but said nothing more.

We stayed in that silence until my radio blared to life and Shepard's voice came over the radio.

"Assault begins on the N7's mark, Wynne you'll be assisting."

"Good copy," and at that, I went to what was her previous spot and set up a shot on one of the 8 soldiers outside. My radio blared to life again and this time it was an unfamiliar voice.

"Target?" assuming they were asking which one I was targeting I answered.

"Far-right, human with the Mercenary armor," the voice then started counting down.

"3...2...1… Mark."

As soon as he said 'Mark' 5 shots rang out and each of our shots brought down one of the unprepared mercs. Well, except for mine, I had to shoot him twice as the first shot had only broken his shield but did nothing more. The rest of the mercs got into position very quickly and were reinforced by a squad of soldiers almost instantaneously.

Of their reinforcements 4 of their 5 made it to cover. Simultaneous shots from both me and one of the other N7's put him down.

They were at least professional and started to return fire from their cover and used it effectively. It would've been a drawn-out firefight if Shepard hadn't literally charged at them straight ahead. They might have been prepared for an assault of the N7's nature but not for that. Not for a Krogan Battlemaster, Asari biotics expert/archeologist, a Turian Marksman, a Gunny who seemed a bit too happy to be charging, a rather strong biotic, a Quarian engineer wreaking havoc on their weapons and shields, and an N7 Vanguard in heavy armor who was leading the charge.

The other N7's and myself generally kept the soldiers in cover and as a result, they didn't notice the charging group until they were within 50 meters. By then it really was too late. Shepard's group just rolled over them. It wasn't even a fight, just a slaughter.

It took them all of 30 seconds, maybe, to finish the remaining soldiers outside. Once that was done I made to join them but Shepard was already looking my way and gave me the signal to stay. Looks like I was staying on Overwatch but at least Garrus looked like he was going to be joining me.

Nope, he was going to the other side. Switching out with 2 of the N7's as they were sliding down the side while he went up. Two on each side, I'm good with that. Would rather be inside but without a shotgun, or my Predator X armor on close quarters wasn't the best of ideas for my health. Plus with the reinforcements of 2 N7's they didn't really need the pulse ability from my helmet.

So I sat back down and got myself comfortable. My rifle setup with the barrel on the ledge looking out over the entrance Shepard came through and out into the planet's plains. Now, it was just a waiting game.

It was a rather boring affair all things considered. The pirates got no support or reinforcements at all. Well, not entirely true.

We picked up comm chatter, Joker did actually, and it stated that a smaller shuttle was inbound. As soon as Joker asked what his orders were Shepard waited all of half a second to give it. That being to blow the shuttle out of the air with the Normandy. Joker responded with an affirmative and made us wait about 20 seconds before he radioed back with it being destroyed. Pays to have a stealth ship.

That was it. Overwatch, at least this one, was the pure definition of the 'Hurry up and Wait' philosophy. With the N7 chick not saying anything and the coms being mostly silent with the occasional order coming through there was nothing to do. Could've been worse, could've been fighting endless waves of drones.

About half an hour, give or take a couple minutes, after Shepard and company went inside they radioed the all clear and to regroup inside. Looking over at the woman we both nodded to each other. I went over the ledge first with her covering me. Stopping at the bottom I turned around and covered her as she slid down.

Then we made our way to the door, covering each other the whole way with Garrus and the other N7 joining. It might seem a little stupid to keep covering each other when we had killed every single one of the pirates. That being said it was but paranoia always wins out and until you are out of the combat zone always consider it to have at least 1 person ready and willing to kill you. Paranoia saves lives, trust me.

Getting to the door we banged on it twice before it opened and we made our way inside never dropping our guard. That was until Shepard gave us the 'all clear' signal with his hands. Letting out a small sigh of relief I put my rifle onto the mag strip on my back and walked over to where Wrex and Tali were talking.

"I miss anything fun?" Tali didn't respond but shook her hand in a so-so gesture.

"No. It was a pathetic showing, all they did was hide," Wrex's voice held some frustration and I couldn't really blame him, the guy wanted a fight.

Reaching behind me I grabbed my canteen and offered it to Wrex. He shook his head and I made to offer it to Tali but stopped, it wasn't like she could drink it at the moment anyway. Just a second from putting it back away because I didn't want to show my face to the N7's, mostly because this was the first time in a while I wasn't wearing makeup. Just then though a hand tapped me on the shoulder. It was the woman sniper and she pointed to the canteen in a silent question. Nodding, I handed the canteen to her and she popped her helmet off to get a drink.

She had strawberry blonde hair done in a pixie cut and frighteningly bright blue eyes, they weren't synthetic as far as I could tell. Her button nose and freckles that went over it made her look a lot cuter than I expected. That, however, was marred by the grizzly scar that started under her nose, bisected her lips and finished at her chin. To me though, it just gave her more character.

Taking a long swig from the canteen she sighed like she hadn't had any water in days and handed it back to me. Giving me an award winning smile along the way. Even though she couldn't see it I did return the smile.

"I never got your name?" I asked as soon as the canteen was in my hand.

"Ahh," she tutted at me, shaking her finger in my face. "That's classified."

"Then I'll just ask Shepard," I wasn't backing down and I didn't want to do that but I was curious and whoever said I fought fair.

"Oh, you Blue Falcon*," I could tell she was doing it in a joking way but being called a Blue Falcon didn't particularly sit well with me. Tali looked confused on what that meant but Wrex caught on quickly but didn't react.

"You harm me," I said back in a mocking way, clutching my chest. "To say that is just terrible after I covered you on the way in."

"After trying to kill me."

"To be fair, you attacked first. And now I'll have to visit Dr. Chakwas who will not be happy with me," waving my hand in front of me for the three of them to see. Wrex gave the woman an approving nod and muttered something to me about females loving scars. The N7 just shrugged. Tali, on the other hand, jumped up and damn near shoved the N7 to the ground as she walked past and grabbed my hand and started examining it.

"Did you use omni-gel?" she demanded, her voice having a rather new edge to it.

"Uh…"

"Did you use omni-gel you Bosh'tet?!"

"Yes!"

"You [translation error….]. Wrex!" Wrex looked at Tali sharply, registering the urgency in her voice and jumped up. "Hold the idiot down."

Being grabbed by Wrex and unceremoniously slammed into the ground by the Krogan Battlemaster hurt. It rattled my head for the second time in the day and made hearing and seeing a little hard. Though, feeling was just fine as I felt something stab into my neck bypassing the neck guard. Judging by the numbness that followed it was a painkiller but it didn't help that much when superheated plasma burned into my hand.

It, thankfully, didn't last all that long and when it ended I looked over at where my hand was. Tali was there now bandaging the hand that she had just opened the wound on. Burning through the omni-gel that had been there but somehow not cauterizing the newly bleeding wound. Shepard was standing behind her looking somewhere between pissed and concerned.

"Uh, why?" I groggily got out as Wrex let me get back up. Tali responded instantly.

"Omni-gel stops circulation and the nerve endings you bosh'tet; you could have lost your hand! You have medi-gel for a reason," she snapped out at me.

"I thought medi-gel wouldn't cover it," shrugging as I said so Shepard let out a long despondent sigh.

"Looks like you need some lessons in first aid Wynne. Dr. Chakwas will be more than happy to assist you," I could tell there was a smug smile on his face knowing the doctor would take a perverse pleasure in berating me but then his head snapped to the woman N7. "How the fuck did you not notice Serrato?" there was a legitimate edge of anger in his voice.

The woman in question stared back at Shepard with lightning in her eyes ready to make a move but calmed herself down before responding.

"I had more pressing matters of watching the pirates and covering my team than checking on yours," she spat out. Shepard took a step forward, his whole demeanor completely changing to someone really goddamn angry and I'm pretty sure it wasn't for me. These two had a history.

"I'm fine Shepard. It's all good."

I spoke trying to defuse the situation that now had the attention of everyone else. The N7s fingers were twitching and our whole group had their hands on their weapons. Hell, Wrex had his ready to go. Shepard continued to stare down Serrato who eventually looked away. Once she did he calmed down and announced that we had gotten what we had come for and for Joker to pick us up.


Getting on the Normandy Shepard ordered me to go to the Med bay immediately. Dr. Chakwas was not happy or even in the mood to do more than just give me an incredibly heated lecture on basic first aid. It wouldn't have been so bad if it had only lasted a couple of minutes but it went on for over an hour. She didn't lose any steam the entire time either. At least she treated the wound before she started the lecture.

After an hour plus of her lecturing me it ended in her demanding that I be with her every day for the next 2 weeks so that I don't, and I quote: "Don't kill yourself through sheer stupidity." It was an acceptable deal to me. Though, being taken off the ground team until I had progressed in an acceptable manner wasn't.

We argued for another hour about it in which it ended with her testing me on basic first air. I got nowhere near to acing it but I did well enough for her to retract her previous statement. I knew basic first aid from my previous life but apparently there had been a lot to change in the years since. That being said, the two weeks learning from here were still mandatory.

Leaving the med bay after almost two and a half hours staying there I made my way to Shepard's quarters. Knocking at the door I only had to wait a second before Shepard called for me to come in.

"You good?" he asked right away.

"Besides my bruised ego yeah," he gave me a small chuckle at that. "So, you and Serrato? You have a history there." Letting out a heavy sigh he stared directly into my eyes.

"That's none of your business Wynne," I nodded, not expecting more than that really.

"Why were they there anyway?"

"I'm pretty sure the Alliance is shadowing me."

"We gonna do anything about it?"

"I already got Tali working on it and I'll talk to Hackett about it. See why they're doing it. Anything else Wynne?"

"No sir."

"You're dismissed then."

Leaving his quarters I made my way all the way down to the engine room. As soon as I entered Adams and the other Alliance engineers left leaving only Tali and myself. Tali hadn't even noticed me being too engrossed in her work but after loudly coughing she snapped her head around. Her glowing eyes behind her visor bore into mine for a silent few seconds before she turned back to her work station. Looks like she still had me firmly in the dog house.

"Thanks for earlier," I barely got the words out before she wheeled around and stalked towards me like a woman possessed by anger. Stopping a foot in front me she thrust a finger into my face.

"Don't you ever do something that fucking stupid again," I restrained myself from chuckling at how she acted knowing it wouldn't do anything to help me.

"Can't promise I won't do anything comparably stupid but I won't be doing something like that again," she was silent for a long while with her finger still in my face before her hand fell back.

"Bosh'tet." I did chuckle at that and she looked ready to launch back into barking but I stopped her by holding up my hands in surrender. She stopped herself from yelling at me and when I was sure she wasn't going to do anything more I reached up behind my head and undid the clasp.

Are you sure Pilot? Sam's voice echoed in my helmet but I just smiled.

"Yes." and then I took off my helmet. Showing her my true face. She examined it like she did whenever she was looking over new tech. With an edge of wonder and curiosity; she didn't do anything else.

"I trust you Tali," and with that, I put my helmet back on and left.


POV: Commander Shepard

Standing in the conference room that doubled as our comm station I waited for Joker to connect me to Admiral Hackett. Just a couple of seconds later Hackett's hologram popped up and I snapped a salute in greeting. He returned it before speaking.

"Any reason you're contacting me, Commander?"

"We came in contact with another N7 team today while performing a mission. However, I had Joker scan their ship as they left and from the scan, we found that it was the same signature that's been following us for the last two weeks. Why are we being followed sir?" I tried to make it as respectful as possible to Hackett, I liked the man. His face showed just a brief moment of confusion before it was gone.

"I was not aware of this. I'll confer with the other admirals and get back to you," he then abruptly cut the link. I didn't think he was lying but the only thing that was coming to my mind was my old thought process while I was still a grunt.

Fuck the Brass.


There y'all go. Hope you enjoyed. Don't forget to Review, help me create the best story for y'all.

Sorry that it's really just a filler chapter but It has some important bits which shouldn't be all that hard to spot.

The game never ends. Remember that.

BTW here are some recommended stories: Mass Effect: Raven, Mass Effect Plan for the Galaxy.

*Blue Falcon: buddy fucker; someone who puts their self before others of the group actively looking to fuck them over.