…

"Whatever happens tomorrow you must promise me one thing. That you will stay who you are. Not a perfect soldier, but a good man."

(Abraham Erskine)

…

Pragia, January 24th, 8:20 PM, 2185

…

It only took five minutes to break open all the cells in the room, releasing all the children Cerberus had imprisoned here. Grunt and I were able to make quick work of the locks with our respective strengths, and by the time we had opened every cell, I tallied thirty-nine children in total.

Grunt just looked confused the entire time, even as the kids, shy and nervous, backed away from him. Even though I still knew relatively little about Grunt and his personality, I knew he was bred for war. I had no way of gauging how this was affecting him. Jack watched quietly from the corner, having regained her stoic composure in the time it took to open all the cell doors. If she had experienced anything like this, I couldn't blame her for getting emotional. Kirva kept watch on the doorway for any activity, whilst keeping her eyes on our three new "friends."

Dixon, Tony and Morgan were doing their best to give every child a cup of water, running back and forth between here and the water purifier. I could only imagine the thoughts going through their own heads. If they were indeed telling the truth earlier, they must have felt terrible knowing they had contributed to something as heinous as this. I had no idea how long they had been part of Cerberus or why they had joined in the first place, but I imagined they were already aware of how bad their decision was.

I could only shake my head, feeling what felt like the weight of the world on my shoulders. I was now faced with the gargantuan task of getting all thirty-nine of these children out of here.

"Alpha, this is Bravo… we have a bit of a situation here." I spoke into my communicator, thinking all my words over several times before actually speaking them. "Do you copy?"

"I copy, Bravo. What's wrong?" Shepard immediately replied, sounding more curious than worried as he spoke.

"We've found the holding facility for those Cerberus test subjects… thirty-nine children, some with injuries. We need to get them out of here." I quickly explained, getting a pit in my stomach. "We've also got three Cerberus techs here who agreed to help us. As far as I know, they weren't involved in what Cerberus was doing here."

This got a sizable pause over the comm, leaving me in the air before finally getting a response from Shepard.

"Understood. Delta is nearing your position. I'll have them link up with you, then you can move the kids to the roof of the facility for shuttle pickup. We'll mop things up down here." He laid out, sounding much more serious this time around. "In the meantime, send Grunt and Jack ahead to link up with us. We could use the help."

"Will do, over and out." I nodded to no one in particular, turing to face everyone. "You guys get that?"

"Yeah, we're going." Jack quickly nodded, holding her shotgun against her shoulder as she looked at Grunt. "You coming, big guy?"

Without a word, Grunt drew his massive shotgun again, walking off with her with what I could only assume was a look of satisfaction on his face. I looked back at Kirva, the children, and our three tagalongs, running the new game plan through my head.

"Kirva, you take the rear with Tony and Morgan. Dixon, you're up front with me." I ordered, walking up and getting everyone's attention. "Alright guys, we want you to follow us closely and quietly. We're going to get you to the shuttle pad on the roof where we'll get you out of here. OK?"

I received various nods and OKs from the thirty-nine kids, looking back at Kirva with the best smile I could muster. We'd have to be very careful.

"Dixon, here." I invited over, handing my Carnifex to him and releasing the safety. "I assume you already know how to use one of these?"

"Yeah, I had some practice back on Earth with the old gunpowder ones." He nodded, taking hold of it and testing its weight. "I assume you want me in the lead?"

"If it's not too much trouble." I jeered, getting a quick smile out of him.

"Alright then, follow me." He agreed, taking point with the handgun, as all of us began moving.

We entered the hallway, seeing it was still completely empty. We moved as quickly as we could, none of us making a sound as we walked towards the center of the facility.

"Up here's the main administration area. We have to be careful, this is where we came from before." Dixon warned, opening the door with caution.

The opening revealed a simple series of office spaces, mostly glass cubicles. The power, like most of the rest of the facility, had been knocked out. I could tell there had already been a scuffle ahead, the scorch mark from an explosive clearly seen at the other end of the hall with broken glass nearby. Only then did I spot a commando corpse sticking out of one of the windows, helmet missing and head bashed in.

"Your work?" I questioned, pointing at the corpse as a grim expression fell over his face.

"He left me with no choice." He stated clearly, averting his eyes as he focused on the job at hand.

I nodded, understanding what he must have felt as we cleared each cubicle, making sure not to miss a corner. Before we made it to the end of the hall, we heard a door on the other side of the room open. With no time to hide everyone behind us, we crouched with our weapons at the ready, waiting to see who'd come around the corner.

We waited for what felt like ages, hearts racing before I spotted something shimmer in the light, just quick enough for me to realize what it was.

A cloaking device, like the one Powell had installed on his platform. He wasn't here, and I knew none of us were using one.

I fired at the shimmer, just barely missing it, hitting the wall instead. Dixon looked at me as if I was insane before a flashbang grenade flew over the cubicles, landing straight at my feet.

"Everyone move!" I yelled out, turning my head and jumping backwards in an attempt to avoid the flash. I managed to do so just in time, but my ears immediately rung like the Fourth of July. My stomach turned, and pain shot up my back as I hit the ground.

All the children began to panic, bumping into each other as they attempted to find a safe place to hide. Kirva, Dixon, Tony, and Morgan had all been looking at it when it went off, blinding them temporarily.

I fired wildly into the office space while still on my back, attempting to shoot whoever had hit us with that grenade, but with no success. As the ringing in my head continued, I saw the shimmer appear again, charging at us through a gap between two of the cubicles. I attempted to fire my plasma rifle, only to suddenly realize it was dry.

"Son of a bitch!" I yelled out, chucking my rifle at the figure as I forced myself back onto my feet. I was lucky, having managed to hit it and damage the cloaking field, revealing an armored, female figure clad in Cerberus colors. She grunted in pain, holding up some kind of odd gauntlet weapon. She was aiming for me.

I rolled out of the way, the blast from her weapon barely missing and impacting a pane of glass behind me. I closed the gap, drawing my knife as I relied on my exo to give me an edge. I slammed into the woman, knocking her straight into the ground as she drew her own knife, parrying my downwards jab. She kicked me in the gut, throwing me back and shooting pain up my entire lower abdomen. She pressed her temporary advantage, lunging towards me. I threw myself backwards, rolling out of the way as she drove her knife into the floor, actually managing to lodge it in the metal. She abandoned the blade, attempting to charge her gauntlet weapon again before I grabbed one of the office chairs, hitting her as hard as I could. I knocked her back just in time, the blast from her weapon hitting the ceiling above me.

By this point, everyone had more or less recovered, trying to figure out what was going on. Eventually managing to hear the sounds of our scuffle, Dixon and Kirva ran around the corner, trying to take aim at the woman but unable to get a good shot, both of us being too close together. I noticed they were there, attempting to get out of the way before we both fell through one of the walls of glass, tearing my mask off in the process.

"Come on, you piece of shit!" I yelled, kneeing her in the stomach several times as I tried to her her off of me. She then grabbed a handful of glass shards, throwing them into my face. I reeled back in pain, feeling the glass cut into the left side of my face. Just as I heard her weapon charging again, Dixon shot the woman in the hand, blowing several of her fingers off, finally causing her to let go and yell out in pain.

Finally getting the upper hand, I pinned her down against the floor and stabbed her through her remaining hand, managing to damage the weapon she had been shooting at me with. She yelled out again, attempting to kick me before I pinned all of her limbs so she couldn't move.

"Who the hell are you?" I demanded, adrenaline and pain flowing through me like a stream of hot water. She let out pained gasps, still fighting through the pain in her hands.

I yanked off her helmet, seeing the young woman's fierce face looking back at me. She appeared to be augmented with cybernetics, her eyes glowing and faint implant lines clearly seen across her face.

Before I could say anything else, her entire expression changed, her face shifting and swelling slightly before her eyes literally blew out of her skull, spraying me with blood and chunks of flesh. Having reflexively covered myself, I lowered my arm and looked back down at her face, seeing the charred remains as clear as day.

"Jesus Christ!" I exclaimed, backing away from the body as quickly as I could. "What just happened?!"

Dixon and Kirva stared in shock at what just happened, unable to say anything as I attempted to pick the bits of flesh off of my armor.

"Ugh… I think I'm going to be sick." I said with revulsion when I discovered one of the chunks to be part of her nose. I nearly vomited, holding back the tight feeling in the back of my throat.

"That explosion… came from inside her skull?" Kirva finally mustered up, sounding just as confused as me as she kneeled down to get a closer look. I finished the gruesome task of picking the chunks off my armor, attempting to wipe away some of the blood.

I didn't want the kids to see me like this, covered in gore.

Before I could get my faculties together, I heard the door open again, grabbing my plasma rifle and quickly slamming a fresh cell into it. I was relieved to see James's face appear from around the corner, flanked by a few of his own squadmates.

"There you are! What happened? We heard gunfire coming from..." He paused, seeing all the kids we had brought with us. "Oh Dios mío…"

Unable to think of anything to say, I quickly took the dead woman's omni-tool, slipping it into my pocket.

"We don't have much time, we need to get these kids out of here before something else happens." I urged, doing my best to ignore the pain emanating from my face as i tried to get things back on track. "Dixon here knows the way to the shuttle pad. We're following him."

"We're not going anywhere with your face bleeding like that." Milique quickly stopped, pulling out a med kit. "Hold on, this'll sting for a moment."

I braced myself, feeling the gel enter the four wounds across the left side of my face. It indeed stung for a few moments before it settled in, instantly relieving the pain.

"Alright jefe, lead the way." He nodded, obviously still a little shocked as I refocused myself. I looked at Dixon, getting a quick nod as we moved on.

As James followed behind Dixon, I did another headcount, making sure everyone was accounted for after that flashbang had gone off. As the last kid walked past, I realized we were one short.

"What's wrong?" Kirva asked, her body language suggesting she was anxious.

"One of them's missing." I said with a grave tone, looking back the way we came. "Wait here."

She nodded, still incredibly uncomfortable with the situation.

I wasn't going to leave any of these kids behind. Not one.

I backtracked slightly, checking each cubicle again before finally finding the missing child, a little girl with blond hair. She sat with her back against the wall, both knees pulled up to her body. She was shaking.

"Come on, we're almost out of here." I urged, seeing her shake her head without a word. She was obviously scared out of her mind. "Don't worry, you can trust me. I'm a big strong guy."

She looked at me again, reluctantly nodding and running into my arms. I pulled her up, holding her against my chest as I held my plasma rifle with one hand. He put her arms around my neck, still shaking uncontrollably.

"Come on!" Kirva shouted, at the end of her patience as I kicked my rear into gear and began running.

The three of us ran down the hallway, trying to catch up as quickly as possible. We ran up two flights of stairs, finally reaching the rain-covered pad on the roof. The two shuttles from the Normandy had already arrived, and were loading the children aboard.

"Is that everyone?" I yelled over the roar of the wind and engines, getting a nod of confirmation from James. "Alright, let's get out of here."

I stood in the interior of the shuttle with Kirva, Dixon, and the other two, having little to no room left except standing. The entire thing was packed. As we lifted off through the storm, I couldn't help but think about everything that had happened down there. It was… overwhelming, running it all through my head.

Unable to focus on anything in particular, I instead pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to relieve the pressure felt behind my eyes. It was… scary, the things I had seen today. I'd likely see that woman's face in my nightmares for years to come, and the morgue… the image in my brain was forever burned there.

I still had no idea what use any of this "research" being performed was. The implications of such horrid, twisted things were uncomfortably clear, but the actual purpose and end result… I had no idea.

"Hey mister?" I heard a familiar voice call out, seeing the child who had called out to me when we first entered the holding blocks. "Thank you."

He then hugged my leg, surprising me in the process. I couldn't help but smile, patting him on the head and nodding to myself.

I had done something good today. I looked at all the new faces around me, including Dixon, Tony, and Morgan, seeing relief on nearly every single one of them.

I had done something good today… even if the cost was part of my humanity.

…

MFV Normandy, January 24th, 11:57 PM, 2185

…

I sat quietly on the edge of the edge of the hanger, watching all the kids sleeping on the cots we had put out for them. Seven had to be taken to the med bay for treatment, injuries ranging from broken bones to internal bleeding. I had checked up on them personally, talking at length with each of them to make sure they were OK. I was still in a mild state of shock from what had gone on down there, and I was fighting as hard as I could to keep myself from dwelling on it. So far, I was… mostly unsuccessful.

I had to sit in the decon unit for half an hour after returning, scrubbing all the blood and gore off of my armor and weapons. I was shocked to see how much more came off of me during the process, making me wonder how I had looked during the mission as a whole. Afterwards, I was treated for the four cuts on my face. One on my eyebrow, two on the cheek, and one against my lower jaw. Despite how grizzley it looked, the scarring would be minimal to non-existent according to Karin. All four were now held shut by clear butterfly bandages.

Shepard and Jack blew the bomb I had rigged for them not long after we left, turning the whole facility into a hole in the ground. He was horrified to see the children we had rescued down there, having not fully grasped what I had said over the comm. He promised we'd be taking them to the nearest Alliance colony, Arvuna, as soon as possible. While I appreciated his reassurance, I was still incredibly scared for these kids, fearing what would happen if Cerberus ever got ahold of them again.

Jack had refused to talk to anyone since they all got back, having locked herself in her little cubby hole in Engineering. Shepard asked me to try and get her out an hour ago, but I respected her privacy enough to give her a few hours to think things over herself. I knew she sure as hell didn't want me barging in there.

Dixon, Tony, and Morgan were sitting in the ship's holding cells not far from where I was currently sitting, having cooperated with all the questions Shepard had asked. Currently, Miranda was running a full background check on each of them, wanting to confirm all the information they had relayed to Shepard. They were just thankful to be out of that facility, though I hadn't talked to any of them since they were taken into custody.

I heard the elevator door open, seeing Pistis walk out, immediately spotting me and making his approach. I mentally prepared myself, knowing he wasn't just down here for small talk.

"Hello." I greeted, leaning backwards in my chair as he focused his aperture on me.

"Doctor-Michaels, we wish to discuss something with you." He immediately started, getting straight to the purpose of this discussion. I appreciated the propensity of machines, especially the Geth, to cut the bullshit out of conversations.

"Lay it on me." I nodded, throwing my arms behind my back.

"We are struggling to understand the purpose behind the actions taken by Cerberus. We've analyzed their communications and all available documents pertaining to the organizations, but we've been unable to come to a consensus regarding their motives." He said, sounding mildly confused. "We wish to ask if you have any additional data to input."

I couldn't help but crack a smirk at his inqury, knowing full well what they must have been trying to figure out.

"Well, it's kind of hard to describe… there's this quote from Theodore Roosevelt, it went along the lines of "Those with education and no morals are a menace." or something like that." I tried to describe to the best of my ability, getting a slight head tilt from Pistis.

"To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society. Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States." He quoted verbatim, constricting his aperture even further. "You suggest Cerberus lack in morals, and are dangerous as a result?"

"It's not a suggestion, its a fact." I stated bluntly, standing my ground on the subject. "Cerberus does these things because they simply don't care about the lives of individuals. If it suits their warped vision of humanity being the most powerful race in the galaxy, they will go to any lengths to obtain it."

Pistis looked into space, widening and contracting his aperture several times in quick succession before focusing back on me.

"Cerberus' original manifesto states it is willing to sacrifice the lives of a few for the greater betterment of humanity. Is this not a valid stance?" He argued, raising my eyebrows.

His statement actually caught me off-guard. I had to stop and think about what I was going to say next.

"Pistis, you have to understand, there is a difference between sacrificing yourself for a cause and sacrificing others to a cause." I began, standing up and walking closer to him. "Sacrificing others pointlessly comes at no real cost to the one giving out the orders, especially in the case of those too uninformed, young, or uneducated to know any better. To sacrifice yourself to a cause, to do something that'll benefit others years and generations later, is the real sacrifice. It's not about numbers or statistics, it's about investing your life to better others. You take away people's agency in that choice, then it becomes meaningless. It's wasted."

I motioned towards the sleeping kids in the darkened part of the hanger, getting him to turn around.

"Look at them. Even if they were old enough to consent to this kind of treatment, this wasn't their choice. They were used." I pointed out, looking back to the machine.

Pistis stared at me for seven whole seconds, aperture unmoving before he finally turned his head towards me. It was the longest he had even gone before responding to me.

"We have reached a consensus." He nodded, focusing his "flashlight" aperture on me. "Thank you, Doctor-Michaels."

"Your welcome." I finished as he walked off, leaving me to contend with more of my own thoughts.

I looked back at the kids sleeping soundly in the hanger, wondering how an organization such as Cerberus could exist. All the human rights abuse, unquantifiable treatment of other races, and outright murder in the case of people such as Admiral Kahoku. But then again, I remembered an often-quoted example in Nazi Germany. Dixon himself even compared the organization to the SS back on Pragia.

A lot of (potentially) decent people following a small number of really bad people. Coupled with indoctrination over time, it was a devastating mixture. It was rather simple in hindsight, and made me realize how easily we could be manipulated as individuals. It's always quite simple, to become attracted to an easily-digestible idea, then the longer your exposed to stronger and more extremist ideas, the more it seems like the right path to take.

It was invoking a feeling of sadness more than anything. It made me wonder how many people like the three in the holding cells were in Cerberus. Naive people misled to join a cause they wouldn't otherwise be a part of.

Letting curiosity get the better of me, I decided to stand up and go talk to them. I had nothing better to do until we reached Arvuna.

I walked over to the door that led to the holding cells, opening it to spot two guards standing at attention in front of the cells. Inside, Dixon and Tony were playing cards while Morgan slept. Both turned to face me the moment they heard the door open.

"Take a break, gentlemen." I ordered to the two marines, nodding towards the door as they obliged and walked out. I walked over, pulling a chair over from the nearby desk and sitting down in front of the cell.

"What's going on?" Dixon questioned, looking at me with a suspicious look in his eyes.

"I dunno, I was just bored… tell me about yourselves. We've got some time before we reach our next destination." I explained, watching the two of them look at one another briefly before turning back to me.

"Well, what's there to say, really? We're just a couple of idiots from Oklahoma." Tony said bluntly, crossing his arms across his chest as Dixon nudged Morgan, waking her up.

"Oklahoma, huh? I'm from Maryland." I smiled, happy to know I was talking to a few Americans.

"Maryland… isn't that the state shaped like a gun?" Dixon joked, getting a sharp chuckle out of me.

"It sure is!" I nodded, putting both hands against my knees and leaning forward. "I love how that particular little factoid annoyed a lot of political pundits."

It was actually weird talking about home nowadays. When it came to the specifics, I had to be careful with what I said, lest I reveal I lived in the United States before the United North American States became a thing. The idea of it all was so strange to me, even all these years later. I never imagined in a million years that the US would ever break borders with Mexico or Canada to become a larger power.

"How'd the three of you end up joining Cerberus?" I inquired in an attempt to change the subject, leaning back slightly as I eyed the camera in the corner, knowing Lydia was watching.

"Well, it's not as long of a story as you'd probably expect." Dixon began, putting both his hands together. "At the time, we were approached by one of their recruiters. They were offering a triple-digit income and a chance to go out and see the galaxy. We thought it looked reasonable, so we decided to sign up."

"Turns out it wasn't all it was cracked up to be." Morgan detested, looking more ashamed than anything else. "When we got to Pacifica, we were practically treated like dogs the entire time. It wasn't until we completed our on-site training they transferred us to Pragia."

"Pacifica?" I repeated, noticing that in particular. "What is that?"

"Pacifica was one of their mobile training facilities, an old space station. It was located somewhere near the Armstrong Nebula, but I'm not sure where exactly." She explained, looking up at the ceiling in thought. "It's moved every month for security reasons."

Mobile training facilities… I could only imagine how paranoid The Illusive Man was.

"I did hear a name mentioned while I was there, someone by the name of Gavin Archer. Any idea who he is or what he does?" I probed further, trying to gleam as much info as I could.

"Yeah, apparently Gavin Archer was Marcus Kelborn's arch-enemy." Tony answered, looking more interested in the conversation. "He constantly fought Gavin for project funding, but even the plebs like us at the bottom of the food chain knew someone up top didn't like Kelborn. He's supposedly some kind of A.I. expert."

"I guess it's out of the realm of possibility that you guys might know where this man bases his research from?" I quipped, getting the expected head shakes from all three of them.

"They didn't tell us maintenance guys a damn thing down there." Tony said with scornful anger, crossing his arms. "They had us on a seperate network and everything."

"Not to mention the constant surveillance." Dixon added, looking up at the camera that looked down at all three of them. "They likely knew the exact consistency of my excrement on any given day."

I grimaced at his last comment, knowing full well how paranoid they were after my "stay" on the Barn.

"Either way, I'm just glad to be away from them." Morgan sighed, leaning her head back.

I nodded, seeing everyone was tired.

"Alright, it was good talking with you three. I'll see you later." I finished, nodding to all of them in succession in an attempt to be as polite as possible to them. As polite as you could be to someone sitting in a jail cell.

As soon as I back in the hanger, I linked up my earpiece with my private channel, knowing Lydia had heard all of that.

"So, what do you think?" I asked, looking up at the camera as I sat back down in my chair.

"I think you took an incredible risk allowing them to live and come aboard, but I have no reason to fault you." She said into my earpiece, sounding rather nonplussed by the situation. "Given their status in the organization, I doubt they were ever privy to the deeper workings of Cerberus. I am curious about one other thing, though."

"What's that?" I asked, leaning the back of my chair against the wall.

"Out of all the people killed down there in the facility, why did you allow those three in particular to live?" She questioned, obviously confused.

"Well… that's kind of hard to explain." I started reluctantly, not having told her or anyone else about what I had done down there in that morgue. "After seeing all that death and destruction, hearing what they had been through, I just wanted something to come out of there with its life intact."

"If it were my brother down there, he likely wouldn't have let any of them live." She said, sounding mildly disturbed. "I've finished those background checks. Dixon Clarke, Tony Stone, and Morgan Ngobi. Nothing I'd consider significant, except a few news articles and one interesting police report from the Edmond Police Department."

"Huh, that sounds interesting. Lay it on me." I nodded, wanting to hear more.

"According to a police report filed April 22nd, 2184 by an Officer Joana Almeida, Tony Stone was arrested for breaking into the Edmond City Council computer servers and leaking private files to the Extranet." She read, causing my eyebrows to shoot up and triggering minor pain on the left side of my face. "The files revealed that the Council had been embezzling funds using local charities, stealing over two million credits. After the information was circulated, Tony was released with no formal charges."

"Wow." I shook my head, knowing that no matter where you went, there was always corruption somewhere. "Wait, so did he hack into their systems?"

"He did. He created his own bug and everything." She confirmed, sounding rather impressed. "He even wrote a subroutine into the bug that automatically emailed the compiled information to several local news outlets upon completion."

I let out an amused huff, unable to keep myself from smiling.

Sounded like these three had a few tricks up their sleeves.

…

A/N: So, a bit slower than I had originally anticipated, but hopefully interesting enough to keep you all on your toes. For me, writing combat is one of the hardest things for me to do, and no matter how I do it, it never seems quite right to me. I'll let you guys be the judge of that.

College is off to a… boring start this semester. Hopefully, things'll start picking up soon, because my Astronomy class is about as engaging as a wall of drying paint. On the plus side, it's given me plenty of time to mentally write my story, which is always a bonus.

As always, I'd love to read any reviews, and I'm always up for suggestions and constructive criticism! Stay tuned!