Hey, y'all here's another chapter. Hope you enjoy it!

LMK about anything and I'll try to address it.

With those last words of the Geth now displayed on my omni-tool I didn't care to respond outloud, as they obviously could hear me, and just decided to type my reply to them. Simply saying: not here. There was no actual acknowledgement but that agreement from them in and of itself. Deciding not to dally I left the cafe and headed on my way back to Frank's but not before locking my omni-tool to make sure the Geth couldn't get into any other systems along the way.

I was a man possessed on the way back taking in nothing of my surroundings and just lost in thought. Why the hell were the Geth contacting me? Did they know about me being Torchbearer… stupid question, if they were contacting me at all then they had to know. That still begged the question as to why? Why contact me at all? What the fuck was going on with them… could this be when they are first in contact with Saren and they're beginning to fracture?

Little is known to me about what the Geth were up to before the events of Mass Effect 1. So, them beginning to fracture now is possible. Deciding to look up Saren real quick to see if anything had been announced about him recently I got a little bit of a surprise. He had facial markings unlike in the game where he was barefaced… maybe there was a part of him under what you meet in game. A part trying to tell people he couldn't be trusted anymore as that was a common conception with Turians who had no facial markings. Maybe. There's too many god damn maybe's, if's, what's and why's now. Fuck.

Snarling to myself I looked up from my omni-tool in time to bump into a Turian. A familiar one, Garrus Vakarian. This day just keeps getting better and better, I had hoped to stay off his radar completely. He was one hell of a detective and had no qualms with getting his hands dirty when he needed to. If anyone could sniff me out on the Citadel it was going to be him.

"Sorry man, wasn't looking where I was going."

"Don't worry about it human," he simply waved me off and kept on walking, seemingly really interested in his own omni-tool. Guess he was on a guess and didn't pay attention to me, small miracles.

Pushing that out of my mind for now I continued on my way back to Franks. Hoping to just get out of the public eye for now so that the Geth could speak. Who knows where this will lead for now. Taking the back streets and a couple shortcuts it only took me about another 40 minutes to get to his place. He was sitting at his desk behind the counter smoking a cigarette reading something on his omni-tool. It took him all of half a second to notice something was wrong.

"Kid. You okay?" his voice held concern and wariness as he leaned over the counter so he could hide the fact he was reaching for the gun under the counter. Probably thought I got made which isn't exactly wrong.

"I… uh…" I could see his face start to harden and his shoulder began to flex getting ready for anything. "We need everyone."

"Why?" It was a challenge. So I showed him the interaction between myself and the Geth that still hadn't made a move since I asked it to be quiet. "Oh."

"Yeah… What now?" he thought for a couple of seconds before

"Go downstairs. I'll get the others."

It took them just about 30 minutes to get here. The first being Miss T'Kari, expected, and after her was Ceelo with Volio being the last to arrive. He was apparently nursing a hangover but some tea Miss T'Kari had made when she arrived had helped. Hell, it was helping with my nerves too and tea really isn't my thing.

"Why are we here boy?" Ceelo asked once Frank came downstairs after closing up the shop for the day.

"I was contacted by the Geth."

Total and utter silence hung in the air. Volio, was instantly sober and hangover free looking at me in utter shock, mouth hanging open like an idiot. Miss T'Kari's biotics flared minutely in either surprise or anticipation of a fight, I couldn't tell. Lastly, Ceelo looked about ready to jump out of his chair in rage, surprise or fear. Maybe all three.

"Repeat that please Aedon. I think I misheard you," Miss T'Kari asked as she set her teacup down, taking the one from Volio as well as it was dangling from his fingers.

"I was contacted by the Geth today. They… uh. Didn't ask for anything yet, just to talk for now but y'all deserved to know that this happened."

"You locked your omni-tool right?" Ceelo practically demanded as he looked at me. I nodded and he seemed to relax, if only partially.

"So, what do you need from us?" Volio asked as he seemed to regain his senses.

"Honestly, just support. No one's seen one outside of the Veil in over 300 years, let alone talked to one. I'm willing to jump into the deep end alone 99% of the time but this firmly falls under that 1%," Volio nodded in understanding. Miss T'Kari nodded in approval of my decision and Ceelo did nothing.

"It's good that you're still learning," Miss T'Kari said. "But for now. Let us talk to this Geth and see what is going on."

"Yes. Let's," came the clipped and vibrating tone of Ceelo as he seemed to sit up a little bit straighter.

Nodding to them all Frank tossed me a little holo projector. It would allow me to show my screen to the whole group. Putting it on the table I connected it to my omni-tool and instantaneously my screen was being shown to everyone.

"You still there?" I asked the air. The response was instant.

Yes.

"What did you wish to talk about?"

A job Torchbearer

"What's the job?" Them knowing I was Torchbearer got small reactions out of everyone but they quickly realized that the only reason they would have talked to someone like me is if they knew who I was.

A new drug is being tested at a facility on the Citadel. It's set to be released soon but it has too many adverse effects that the company is hiding.

"Who's the company and what are the effects?" I was curious now. This was new and definitely not covered anywhere on anything pertaining to Mass Effect.

ARK Medicinals; a subsidiary of Serrice Technologies. The drug is meant to be an antibiotic to help treat infections. They plan on selling it to everyone. It is extremely effective for dextro-amino species but causes cancer in only 1 year after initial use for over 60% of the test subjects, sterilization of all subjects and in up to 40% of the tests causes the infection to get worse for 2 whole days before getting better.

"Sterilization?" Please don't be what I know it is.

They can no longer breed.

"Why come to me though? This drug would never last on the market for more than two months at most." I had a sinking feeling I knew already but I had to be sure.

Because the Creators just ordered 50,000 vials. Enough to treat the whole of their Fleet.

The silence that hung in the air was positively palpable. We all slowly turned our heads towards Ceelo as he sat in his chair in total silence. He betrayed nothing of what he thought or felt at the moment but he radiated both mistrust and sadness at that statement. Understandable but if this was true there was no way I couldn't take this job. Whether or not it would happen in the game I had probably changed things already, this had to be stopped.

"How can we trust you?" came Ceelo's voice breaking the silence.

The Geth didn't respond and instead started to upload files onto my omni-tool. Opening them up for everyone to see in the hologram it showed everything. All the data, all the tests, even videos of patients coming back to see the results that they had been sterilized. That wasn't the worst of it though; it showed videos of Quarians strapped down and infected only to be given the drug without their choice. Most died while violently spasming from the infection as it set in on them and wreaked havoc on their bodies. Their bodies weren't even recognizable.

We request that you destroy their facility, all their vials and delete any and all data on the project. Elimination of all scientists and researchers will be added as a bonus to original payment. Is this acceptable?

"Yes," was my immediate response. No way was this going to stand. "What's the payment and any and all information you have on this will be appreciated."

2 million credits. The bonus will be a favor to be called in at your convenience. The warehouse with the vials is near the lower docks; it is protected by 45 Blue Suns Mercenaries. Their facility is in the west section of Zakera Ward. Time is of the essence, the first shipment is tomorrow morning.

I already had 10 different plans to deal with it but most would take too long. Looks like it'll be a full frontal assault on the facility and the warehouse. Thinking of ways it could be done I couldn't really ambush one and then the other, it needed to be done at the same time. With a group and conveniently there was one here with me. Looking at them the response was immediate.

"Don't even bother asking kid. We're in," Frank spoke as he looked me dead in the eyes.

"What's the plan?" Volio asked.

"Kid, get a plan ready. This is your show. Volio, with me; we're getting the gear," Frank stated as he left without waiting for Volio's response. Volio didn't hesitate for a second and followed him upstairs.

"It'll need to be a frontal assault but you already figured that out," Miss T'Kari stated and I nodded my head in grim determination. Ceelo was still not speaking.

Thinking about the plan I had made up my mind was made up. Still, there was something in the back of my mind that was suspicious of this whole affair. So unexpected and out of the blue… Trust but verify. Fuck, this is bad.

Still thinking, Frank and Volio came down the stairs with a whole arsenal. They even made two trips. When they were done Frank looked pointedly at me demanding a plan with his eyes only.

"Alright. Here's the plan. I'm going to assault their facility in Zakera Ward and draw as much attention to myself as possible. I'll need a fully enclosed helmet for my face and the best armor you got. C-sec and the Blue Suns will undoubtedly come running once the shooting starts. Any explosives and destructive equipment as possible too. Once, the Blue Suns start to leave the warehouse y'all will hit with everything you got. Destroy everything."

Four hours later, around 5 o'clock, I stood in the shadows alone across from their facility. The others were preparing to assault the warehouse. I had faith that they could do the job but regardless this job was going to be messy and more than likely cause us to have to disappear after this. Not all that hard for everyone but it would suck. Especially for Ceelo as he had nowhere to go but this was the price for doing something right, even with the possibility it wasn't right. This must be done.

Sighing I went over my gear one more time. My Predator X heavy armor sported the best shields on the market at the time and had very good armor plus high levels of tech and biotic protection. Which was definitely going to be needed if this was going to succeed. Everything was snug on me and like it's classification, was really god damn heavy.

Checking the straps across my chest my bandolier was filled with as many grenades and explosives that we could fit on it. An assortment of them too from incendiary to smoke and flashband along with regular ass grenades. This was going to be hairy.

Looking at the two weapons I brought too one would definitely be useful with all the grenades. The Hahne-Kedar grenade launcher was currently held in my hands and already with the highest explosive grenade we had, it would blow the facility front wide open and kill everyone inside. Checking the launcher one last time everything seemed to be in order and I clipped it onto my back and took out my other weapon.

A Kovalyov VIII assault rifle. More of a machine gun with the amount of shots it could get off before overheating but that didn't matter. It was modded with a kinetic stabilizer, stock and inferno rounds. All in all, it was a dealer of death and at the end of the day it would kill many.

Putting it back on my back I took the Hahne-Kedar back out. With it out I brought up my omni-tool and shot the hacking code into the nearest outlet. It would scramble outgoing messages from inside any of the shops but not outside of them, it would give me a little time but not much. With my omni-tool still out I opened the comm channel.

"Commencing assault." and promptly shot the grenade at the facility's front door.

It was devastatingly effective. Blew out the whole of the front of the building and sent people screaming away in terror. Looking at the destruction for half a second waiting for anyone to come out, no one did.

With that I replaced the Hahne-Kedar with the Kovalyov and began jogging forward towards the facility and immediately got fired upon. A turret had survived the blast and all it took was a single overload and then it was a pile of discarded parts.

Stepping over the threshold and into the facility truly the back door opened and out poured four armed guards. With them grouped up at the door though a sabotage followed by a grenade and several well placed shots and they all went down in a heap. They were able to tear into my shields however and my HUD showed that only a third of my shields remained.

Standing on the left side of the door I waited for my shields to completely recharge before peeking. The response was a hail fire of bullets but I was able to get a picture of what was waiting for me. It was a narrow corridor about 30 feet long and had a turret at the end of it hanging from the ceiling and beyond that were boxes and crates. There were two guards that were visible behind the boxes but undoubtedly there were plenty more guards waiting in the room.

Taking out the grenade launcher I loaded a smoke grenade before shooting it down the corridor. It exploded just beyond the end of it blocking the view of the doorway. Getting back into cover as I felt the turret ping me I loaded a regular grenade before going back out of cover and hitting the turret with an overload before exploding it with the grenade.

Reloading with an incendiary grenade I grabbed a flash with my other hand and sprinted forward tossing it into the room through the smoke. Waiting a second for it to explode I jumped through the smoke and immediately shot the incendiary grenade where the soldiers I had seen had been. The screaming started quickly afterwards as they were burnt alive.

Taking a right after shooting the grenade I switched weapons as quickly as possible before rounding the corner of the crate. There were two Salarian guards clutching their heads trying to recover from the flashbang. They never got to as my gun tore into them and both died quickly.

Going around the crate I was immediately greeted with a biotic throw. If not for the quality of my armor it would've sent me into the wall and probably killed me. Thankfully, that didn't happen and the Asari who had sent the throw recovered quickly but not quick enough. She hit me with a warp that was tearing into my shields but it was too late for her. Five perfect shots to the head and her barrier and shields shattered. She got back into cover before the final shot could be made but it didn't matter.

Grabbing a grenade from my bandolier and tossing it at where she had taken cover it exploded and there was a scream of pain from the Asari. Running to where she had been I slid across the floor and good thing too. A human had replaced her and fired a shotgun right above my head. Without the slide that would've been a point blank shot to the chest, no armor could survive that.

Going into a pop up slide I learned from baseball I unloaded into the human holding down the trigger until the crate behind him was painted red with his chest cavity. The Asari was barely holding on while on the ground as she had one leg missing and the other was unrecognizable.

"Why?" she feebly asked as I looked down at her dying form.

"The drug." was my only reply and that seemed to be enough for her as she gave a small 'oh' before passing out from blood loss. There was nothing to be done, she was going to die.

There didn't seem to be any more soldiers in the immediate vicinity. Looking to find the door it didn't take long and when I opened it the answer to my paranoia came. There were a dozen Quarian and several Turian bodies strewn about. The Quarians were unrecognizable but the Turians just looked peaceful, dead but peaceful.

Moving through the lab, passed more bodies and monitors showing flatlines I was starting to get sick. This wasn't humane, why would anyone do this? Yeah, the drug helped most but this was conscious death dealing that had the potential to wipe out an entire species. A species that just so happened to have the largest naval fleet in existence… Were the Reapers really active now? It was the only thing that made sense at the moment.

Walking past all the monitors and bodies there were some that were recovering but that was few and far between. There must've been 100 total bodies I walked past and at the very end of them there was a door. Before getting to the door four turrets popped out of the ground and with no cover I wasn't in a good position.

Sending an overload in the middle of them, it disrupted two of them long enough for me to destroy them but not the other two. They tore into my shields and eventually overloaded them but not before I was able to destroy one of them. The last hit me twice, not penetrating the armor but there was definitely going to be bruises. My armor gave me just enough time to dive to the side and use a bed and one of the Quarian bodies as cover.

As soon as my shields began to charge I grabbed a grenade off my bandolier, my last grenade, and tossed it at the turret. Peeking my head out, the turret was gone. Standing up I groaned in exhaustion, the adrenaline finally setting in. Also, might've been the blood loss as I now noticed that the assault hadn't been as clean as I believed.

My left arm was still functional, of course, but there were pockmarks of blood all over the armor. More than likely from shrapnel from a grenade or the warp. My left leg had a strip of metal sticking out of it. For now, the undercoating of the armor was keeping it from being a problem but it was bleeding and needed to be looked at. The armor in general had taken a beating but was still going strong.

Walking up to the door the turrets had protected I overloaded the controls and kicked it open. There on the other side were five doctors, 3 Salarian 1 Asari and one Human huddled in the far corner of the room and one human doctor standing at the computer. Not bothering to say anything I immediately shot the guy at the computer in the leg. He went down like a pile of rocks.

"Move and die." I stated looking at the other doctors.

Walking up to the computer he had been trying to delete the files. Thank god he was a doctor and not an engineer, he was deleting the files but the memory core still held them. He hadn't been able to wipe them from the computer. Downloading everything to my omni-tool took a couple of seconds before it was done. The Geth had indeed been telling the truth; even had the scheduled shipping dates for the Quarians and the other races.

"Why?" I asked calmly, looking at the doctors. At least give me a good reason for the experiments, say you found a breakthrough. Anything, please.

"The drug is good," one of the Salarian doctors began.

"For anyone but Quarians and Turians," I stated simply gesturing towards the direction of the bodies outside the room.

"Turians don't need this drug. They have good antibiotics already," the same Salarian voiced, gaining a little confidence that I was letting him talk.

"And the Quarians."

"Won't be missed." I won't lie. I was impressed with his conviction.

"Well, that makes this easier," I chuckled but there was no humor in me. My voice was ice-cold as I looked at them behind my mask. Didn't even hesitate to slaughter them then, just held down the trigger. Looking at them for a second I played with my omni-tool for a second before the holographic code came up; letting me put my signature Torch in the middle of the room.

Not bothering to linger on them for any longer I walked out of the room and made my way back through the facility. No one bothered me and no one shot at me which was surprising. That being said, when I made it all the way to the room with the crates there were 8 blue suns mercs waiting for me.

They smoked my shields but weren't quick enough to finish me. Not wanting to be rushed as they were recharging I grabbed a flash off my bandolier and bounced it off the wall into the room. Rushing in and firing off an overload, followed by a dampening and sabotage they weren't able to stop me from ripping them apart. Never even had a chance to recover from the flashbang, they were broken in enclosed spaces.

Continuing at a slow jog out of the facility I was greeted by nothing and no one waiting for me. Huh, well I'm not gonna complain; especially when the incoming sirens were audible. Running to the nearest backstreet I didn't bother changing and just tried my best to disappear as best as possible and head to where my clothes had been stashed.

After 45 minutes of stalking around in the back streets I made it to my clothes. Taking the gear off took longer than expected but that happens when you have a metal shard in your leg. Still, it was accomplished in about 10 minutes and the shard was out of my leg now, with gauze covering both the leg and my arm. All of it was hidden under my clothes so no one would immediately notice. Putting on eye color-changing contacts and some hair dye spray I then applied a light layer of makeup. Just around the eyes and cheeks but it was needed to maintain cover.

Putting my gear into a duffle bag and throwing it over my shoulder I made my way back to Franks. The long way of course so it took over 2 hours to get there but oh well, it was okay with me. Getting there and walking into the place it was eerily quiet. Getting past the table and down the stairs a breath of relief left me as all four of them were sitting around the table.

Frank got up from the table and walked over to me in silence and stopped right in front of me. He had bandages over his forehead and right eye along with several nasty looking cuts along his arm but was otherwise unharmed. Looking me in the eye he put his hands on my shoulders before pulling me into a tight hug. I returned it.

"I thought you died in some alley kid," He said to me in a shaky voice.

"I'm not dying anytime soon old man," he chuckled a bit at that before pulling back and grabbing a chair for me to sit down on.

Once sitting down I looked at the others. Volio looked the worst off with the amount of bandages and gauze on him but he still looked okay, medi-gel was doing wonders for him. Though, it'll never take away the scarring that was already forming around his neck. He gave me a simple thumbs up. Ceelo looked completely okay, unscathed which wasn't all that surprising. He acted as more of a support role than anything. He was his usual stoic self and was completely unmoving.

Miss T'Kari looked beaten up and exhausted but otherwise was fine. Her skin was already darkening in places so she would definitely be bruised everywhere later. As for the exhausting she looked about ready to just fall over and was lazily chewing on a ration bar. She gave me a tired smile before continuing to eat her ration bar.

"So, how'd it go with y'all?" I asked as I sat down.

"We killed them all and set the warehouse on fire. There's nothing left but ash. Now, tell us. Did the Geth set us up or were they telling the truth?" Ceelo stated in his no nonsense tone. Miss T'Kari shot him a withering glare that would've had most men cowering but he paid it no heed. Though, she calmed down slightly when Frank squeezed her shoulder lightly.

"They were. It was bad Ceelo. To get to the file room I had to walk by every single body. Most weren't even recognizable as Quarian," he hung his head and began to mutter something to himself.

"Can you contact them?" I didn't respond verbally and just nodded my head. Swiping with my omni-tool it went back to the holographic projector on the table.

"You still here?"

Yes. We have seen your success on the news Torchbearer. Did you kill all the scientists?

"Everyone who was on site died," they were silent for a couple seconds before responding.

Acceptable. You have completed the mission along with eliminating the scientists. 2 million credits will be transferred to your omni-tool within the next day. The favor is yours to call in.

"Thanks," looking at everyone. "Make sure they get a cut. Split 5 ways."

Acceptable

"Before you go I have questions for you Geth!" Ceelo spoke up immediately after I spoke.

Yes creator Ceelo'Nos?

"Why did you tell the Torchbearer this? Why help us? Quarians I mean." The silence that hung in the air for a few seconds was weird. Like his whole life depended on it. Which it kinda did all things considered, raised to hate and fear the geth only for something like this to happen. What could it mean, to him at least. I knew the answer from playing Mass Effect religiously but to Ceelo it's completely new.

For the creators that protected us during the Morning War.

Ceelo began asking more questions but the Geth didn't answer. They disappeared and there was absolutely no trace of them on my omni-tool anymore. Vanished into thin air for all intents and purposes. It angered Ceelo something crazy but Miss T'Kari stopped him before he could do anything drastic. He started muttering to himself before burying his face in his hands. It began to sound like he started crying and when he looked up at us he was. Even through his opaque visor we could tell he was crying.

"What else don't we know? What other lies have I been told? Why?! Why! Why! I want to fucking know!" he screamed and we couldn't fault him. Even for the others they didn't know. This went against everything they knew. Even T'Kari, who had been alive during the Geth revolt, had trouble forming words.

"I'm sorry sir," I said, touching his shoulder. "Is there a way you can get in touch with the Flotilla to let them know about this?"

"They won't ever fucking listen to me!" he snapped at me before recomposing himself. "They won't listen to an exile."

"But they might listen to the Torchbearer," I stated with my hand still on his shoulder. Looking at me in silence.

"You can try Aedon. You can try," it was the first time he had ever used my name.

I had to at least try even knowing they would never listen to me. I knew they wouldn't but I could try. Not today though, I was too tired to do anything. Ceelo left quickly after that and Volio was quick to follow.

Miss T'Kari, Frank and I sat in silence around the table. Frank had given me some tea and judging by the things that were swimming in front of me now it was Miss T'Kari's special brew. Guess it was healing but caused some minor hallucinations for humans. Why not right.

"Hey, where was C-Sec?" I asked, breaking the short silence that we had.

"I thought they collapsed on you cause we didn't see them either," Frank stated looking slightly confused.

"Let's not worry about that now. Just thank whatever gods there are that they didn't. It would've made our lives a lot harder," Miss T'Kari voiced as she stroked Franks arm. "I'm headed to bed, join me when you can." With that she left to go to Frank's room.

"You gonna call the Quarians?"

"Ceelo gave me their codes after that job with his grandniece. Might as well but they won't believe me, even with all the evidence."

"You're right, they won't. But there might be a couple there who will."

"Gotta try right?"

"Gotta try." he affirmed before patting my shoulder and leaving.

*1 year later*

Alright, not too much has happened since the assault on ARK's facility and I was still pissed even thinking about it. Serrice Technologies received nothing but a slap on the wrist for the whole thing even though they owned ARK Medicinals. Said they had no idea about what was going on which was bullshit but what's done is done.

Adding onto that bullshit ARK wasn't even charged with anything; said they knew about the drug but that the facility had hidden everything else from them. Nothing to be done about it but it still made me incredibly mad.

The Quarians had at least been thankful for everything. With the evidence presented to them, they were thankful and tried to ask for recompense from the Council for what was almost done to them. The Council, however, decided that wasn't going to be the case. Said that since the Quarins weren't even technically part of the Council races that nothing could be done. That was quite the kick in the balls but I hadn't expected anything else.

That being said, they didn't believe me at all about the Geth. Not surprising at all but it still hurt that they weren't even able to listen to me. When I brought up that some Quarians had actually protected the Geth during their revolution they went into an outrage. Didn't get past that and not long after they had terminated the connection. It hurt but at least a couple of them seemed to listen, maybe one or two; that was enough for me.

Out of the whole shitty situation, at least Torchbearer increased in notoriety. Torchbearer was now a household name damn near. There had also been a minor exodus of some companies and officials from the Citadel after the incident. They were running but if anything it told me all I needed to know, they had something to hide. All the names of the companies and people affiliated with them who left were now on a nice and encrypted list on my omni-tool. They would get what's coming to them.

Couldn't really blame them though. Who in their right mind would want to stay on the station that had someone hunting people who did things like I did. Attacking a facility in Zakera Ward in full daylight and not only being successful but without being caught. Bringing them up I found out why C-Sec hadn't collapsed on any of us. Saleon.

Yeah, Dr. Saleon. The mission you get from Garrus in the first game where you hunt down the guy who was using people as incubators to harvest organs. The standoff at the docks with him and the hostages had happened during the assault on the facility. That's why C-Sec's response to my attack and the warehouse took so long. Lucky break for us.

Moving on there hadn't been much in terms of activity since then. Just a couple of jobs. Most didn't even involve killing or using the Torchbearer name. They were simple in and out missions. All involved taking data from people and then disappearing. Pretty sure most of the jobs came from the Shadow Broker or Cerberus. Neither was the company I wanted to keep but for now they paid well and most of the data was blackmail anyways. Besides, they didn't know they were contracting the Torchbearer, just someone who could get them their data.

Of the jobs that required some killing there really wasn't anything of note. Just a couple of drug runners no one was going to miss. Didn't even bother leaving the Torchbearer mark on one of them, man had literally pissed himself begging for mercy. The other one did have a Torchbearer mark over his head for the simple reason that he was selling his drugs to kids. That wasn't going to fly.

After this most Merc companies, Blue Suns and Blood Pack especially had put some rather impressive bounties on my head. None were even close to the Batarian bounty but they tried; it was flattering. This brings me to the conversation Frank was having with me right now.

"So… I have another bounty on my head?" I asked drinking some water while looking at Frank.

"Kid. The Shadow Broker put a bounty on the Torchbearer. This isn't the Batarians or the mercs, this is the god damn Shadow Broker," he stated in a deadly calm voice as he stared me straight in the eyes.

"What does he want? Me dead or alive?"

"No," that got a raised eyebrow out of me. "He wants information on you and when he starts asking for information on you it's never good."

"Can we trust the others not to rat me out for the money? How much is he offering anyways?"

"Couple million," he said it with a lot of nonchalance. "As for everyone I don't know. Ceelo won't rat, that's for sure; you're practically a second son for him." that brought a smile to my face; our relationship had improved dramatically in the year since the Geth job. Still worked me to the bone when training but it had improved.

"Miss T'Kari won't at this point cause she likes you and you're very polite to her. As for Volio I wouldn't be surprised if he tells the Shadow Broker about you. Guy's been looking to retire for a while and this would give him what he needs. Don't think he'll give a name or your appearance but he'll definitely tell him where to find you. Of course, I won't do that but you already know that."

"Then what's the problem?"

"The problem is that there's no doubt the Shadow Broker already knows damn near everything about you besides the type of women you like. More than likely because of Telly, she's made deals with him in the past and his info has saved a lot of lives. He definitely leveraged that to learn about you," Well that's not surprising. Kind of expected that after I left the first calling card after killing the Batarian.

"Again, what's the problem?"

"The problem is that someone is masquerading as the Shadow Broker to get information on you," furrowing my brows that kind of made sense but why? And who has that type of money laying around besides companies which would make sense but then they would just put a bounty on my head like the others. Why only information?

"Who do you think it is?"

"My old boss. He's always had a feud with the Shadow Broker and this is something he'd do just to piss him off."

"And who's your old boss?" Please don't be The Illusive Man. You know what, never mind, it's going to be TIM because I'm just so popular. This is not the type of attention I wanted to be honest but it is what it is. Bound to happen anyways.

"The Illusive Man," called it! "Runs an Alliance Black Ops group called Cerberus but they were defunded not long after the First Contact War ended."

"Let me guess. Human supremacists with a lot of unofficial support keeping them afloat?"

"Bingo, but I wouldn't put them as a Human Supremacist group." I raised an eyebrow in questioning before he continued. "They are more of the mind of Cerberus supremacy. Not something they'll address but I saw the writing on the wall in the early days and called it quits. Went freelance."

"How big a problem are we looking at then?"

"Right now, less than what I'm making it out to be. For the future though, who knows. Anything could happen and I don't like it," yeah, he's got a point.

"Anything to be done about it for now?"

"No, but no more contracts for the foreseeable future."

"Understandable," I nodded and that was okay with me. The first game was going to start in three months' time anyways. Time to rest up and get ready.

"By the way, I got you a present. Well, presents anyways," he stated as he turned around and headed up the stairs. Following him we ended up in his storage room with all his illegal shit.

"Goodies?" I asked as we entered the room and he didn't even look back at me and just nodded instead gesturing to the table in the middle. We stood on opposite ends looking at each other in silence for almost a minute before he began to talk.

"You've gotten me a lot of money over the last year and a half and I'm grateful. Not to mention Jino, without you I would've never had an opportunity to mend that bridge," He gave me one of his bright smiles and I couldn't help but smile back. "So, in light of that. Consider these my investment back into you so you don't die anytime soon."

"I don't plan on it anyways. Got a lot of plans for the future," He looked me in the eyes and nodded with a smile on his face and playfulness in his eyes.

"Never doubted that kid. You're too smart to stay here your whole life. Now, Here you go," He started as he reached underneath the table and had to grunt to lift up the box underneath the table.

"Don't hurt your back now old man, remember to lift with your legs."

"Fuck yourself kid," I chuckled at that and then he opened the case before swinging it around so I could see the contents.

"Mantis VIII Medium armor. It's no Predator armor but this is the best armor for you and how you fight. Good joint movement and extra ablative plates on the chest, arms and legs. Plus an active HUD and life sign monitor that will show up in your helmet; it'll tell you exactly where the problem is on your armor. Built to last.

Next is the Breaker VIII assault rifle. Probably the best overall rifle out there right now. Solid at close, medium and long-range. I'll leave the modding to you here but I did add something myself," He spoke, lifting the rifle up and pointing to a little ticker on the left side. "Select fire. Single, burst or full auto. Not many guns have this nowadays," he handed me the gun and I played with it for a couple seconds. It was nice, balanced and everything about it was perfect. There wasn't much to do to it, maybe an internal kinetic stabilizer and ammo mod but that was it. It was like it was made for me.

"Then there's this little spitfire," he spoke, waking me up from my amazement with the Breaker to hand me a pistol. "The Brawler VII, with a specialized cooling mod. You'll get about 30 shots before it overheats and it hits like a truck. Made by the same guys who make the Predator armor. Just don't overheat it, the thing explodes when you do so," raising my eyebrow at him he continued. "They never bothered fixing it cause it would take away too much power from the gun. Second to last we have your Omni-tool," he said, handing me the same omni-tool from my first mission to kill the Batarian.

"The very same from your first mission. Scrubbed clean so that no one can connect you to that job but it's the same one. Try not to activate it around people though, that thing's rare for civilians. With that out of the way we have the cherry on top."

With that he leaned back under and brought up a singular box. He turned it around and slid it to me gesturing for me to open it. Undoing the clasps and throwing it open I got to look at the most beautiful sights ever. It was the god damn Elite Riot Gear helmet from Fallout: New Vegas. Modernized, of course, but it was unmistakable. Even had the blood-red eyes.

Picking it up in my hands as if it was the holy grail I slowly put raised it up to my face. Turning it around there was a clasp at the back of it, undoing the clasp it hissed open partially forcing me to open it. Sticking my head inside it was almost a perfect fit and when the clasp was closed behind me it hissed again and righted itself so that it was a perfect fit. As soon as that was done the whole thing lit up but I couldn't see anything. It just had a loading symbol in front of me.

"Little weird huh?" came Frank's voice.

"Yeah. But this is so cool."

"The eyes are a reinforced meteoric alloy tinted red. Same with the whole helmet, nothing short of a rocket to the face is going to crack this baby."

"Thank you Frank. Thank you."

"It's not over yet kid."

Initializing… Hello Pilot.

… Reading signature and life signs… accepted new user: Aedon Wynne… transfer complete. New owner: Aedon Wynne.

"That was my old helmet. VI in there is called Sam, take good care of her."

"I will. I will."

"I'll leave you to get acquainted. It'll take a bit," and that it did.

It took a little over an hour for everything to be taken care of with the VI and the helmet but I'll simplify it. Essentially it displayed a holographic outlook a lot like what you saw in Iron Man's suit. However, there were a lot of extra goodies bound into it. At the top of the screen showed my total shields and there was a system in it programmed to tell me once they got low or were in the process of disappearing. On the right it showed actionable intel which Sam explained to me was meant to be where my teammates would be shown. On the left was my total amount of equipment.

Not only that but it was wired to my omni-tool so it would tell me when everything was recharged and ready to be used again. From my overloads to my dampening and anything in between. Under that, it showed me how much gear I had left. Probably amounting to the grenades and ammo for a bit, or at least until heatsinks came out and ammo was a thing again.

Finally, there were sensors in the damn thing. It was essentially a minimap but not really. It would mark objects or hostiles in front of me and track them. Probably would be fooled by cloaking but for now, who knows. This thing was absolutely beautiful.

Putting everything back into their boxes I took it downstairs and into my room. Walking past Frank on the way. Once it was set up in my room I went back out and went straight to Frank hugging him.

"Thanks Frank."

"No problem, Aedon. No problem at all."

*3 Months later*

Ture to Frank's word there hadn't been any jobs since the talk we had and the gear he had given me. With the events of Mass Effect getting close to coming about I had asked the group to quite literally beat me into the dirt with training. Surprisingly Miss T'Kari was the hardest of all of them. Wouldn't accept anything but near perfection in every way. From fighting hand to hand to with a weapon and even trained me in some unconventional weapons. Towels and belts being examples of that.

Volio had pushed me to the absolute breaking point in our weapons training. Had me running through simulations that were normally reserved for the top spec-ops people; doing them alone to boot. It wasn't fun and in the simulations every shot that hit, regardless of whether my shields were up or not, would shock me. Frank had to stop it one day because it was close to giving me nerve damage.

As for Ceelo, it wasn't fun. Surprisingly though it was the one with the least amount of punishment. A lot of it was studying; being when is the correct time to use sabotage, overload, dampening and everything else. How to use them in conjunction with biotics and other tech abilities to create the biggest effect on the enemy. The best thing he taught me though was how to hack biotic amps. Yeah, you could hack those with devastating effectiveness. It was hard to do so but if given enough time I could do it and it would always kill them. Hard not to when the thing is wired into their brain.

As for right now, at this moment, I was sitting in a cafe sipping on some overpriced coffee watching the news. It was kind of hard to see the screen with the news with where I was sitting, exactly where the Geth had contacted me. That being said the screen could still be easily heard as it went through the mundane.

My peaceful time was interrupted as the door to the cafe opened and in walked Miranda fucking Lawson. Let me tell you, all the descriptions of her being perfect did not do her justice. She was breathtakingly beautiful. Every facet of her person was beautiful. Especially graced with what she was wearing. A long, single-piece, white dress that seemed to be both seductive and conservative at the same time.

She didn't pay any of the attention everyone was giving her, seemingly used to it, which she probably was, and walked up to the counter and ordered a single coffee. Getting her coffee almost immediately from the over-eager human barista she smiled at him politely and walked away. Looking around the area for a place to sit her eyes landed on the open seat at my table and made her way over.

"May I sit here?" god her accent was hot as hell.

"You may," I flashed her a small smile, which she returned.

We sat in silence for a couple of minutes sipping our coffee and looking at our omni-tools before I decided to talk. To be honest why not though, they had definitely made me if Miranda was here talking to me so why not. Maybe I could throw her off her game; more than likely not but shooters shoot.

"So, what's your name miss?"

"Rosellina. Yours?" her tone was a bit icy but controlled and dipped in that seductive accent.

"Aedon… So, what's your story?"

"I'm new to the Citadel and my father is a geneticist who I work under. Thought I'd check out the shops. See if any compared to his homebrew."

"And does it?"

"It's not bad," she gave me a small chuckle at that and I swear to you it sounded like angels talking. Fuck, I can understand why she was one of Cerberus' top agents. "How about you Aedon?"

"Been here for just about 2 years now. It's quieter than how everyone described this place but it's still nice," I said and she caught the slight hint of disdain in my voice.

"You don't like it?"

"I don't like cities much to be honest. The more and more I'm here too, the more and more I find myself not liking it."

"Why?" the innocence she put in her voice was a very nice touch.

"Expected corruption to be at least better regulated at the heart of the galaxy. If you've looked at the news the past two years you'd see that isn't the case."

"Hmm. Why do you say that?"

"Rose," I said, shortening her name. "Corruption is everywhere, as you no doubt know. You don't strike me as a dumb woman, no matter how beautiful you are. All you have to do is look a little bit deeper than the surface and you'll see that this place is dirty. No matter how prim and proper they make it seem this place is dirtier than Omega."

"A bold statement. Why do you say that?"

"Because at least on Omega you can expect treachery and death. You know it'll happen. Here though, if you're not constantly watching your back you'll get a knife in it. Even if you have Cerberus protecting you," to her credit she didn't flinch at all.

"Cerberus?" playing the dumb card. Not a bad play here.

"The three-headed dog of Hell. Protected its gates in ancient Greek mythology. Made sure no one who is not allowed gets in."

"So, it's a protector?" she asked, her voice betraying nothing.

"And also a keeper. It made sure no one who wasn't supposed to, got out either. When he failed in his job many a great tragedy occurred. Or so the legend goes." she was silent at that and stayed silent for the rest of our time seemingly thinking everything over.

Breaking News! The news blared over the loudspeakers A Human colony on Eden Prime has been attacked by rogue synthetics! Updates to follow.

And so it begins. Time to find the best girl.

Told Y'all it would only be about 3 chapters before everything got going.

For those of you who have come to enjoy Volio, Frank, Ceelo and T'Kari don't be worried about them disappearing. They will definitely still be here and present in the story. Just not as much as before.

As for Aedon. Expect things to start moving and going hard. I'll be leaving Shepard as a surprise for how they are and how they operate but if y'all want to throw your 2 cents in on how they should act go ahead.

As always. Review when you want and constructive criticism is always welcome. Have a great day y'all.

PS: Tali is and always will be the best girl. Sorry, not sorry.