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POV: Aedon Torchbearer)

Since getting Wrex's armor all we have done is travel. Going to the Artemis Tau system for Mrs. Dantius which we were just about to enter. Of course, that was just the ship, as a group the ground team had been really just been doing some general maintenance and training. Nothing too crazy but I did get a good amount of time to talk to Liara.

It was nice talking to another person who knew actual ASL but I did get a surprise along the way. Apparently, sign language wasn't as universal as I thought. In general it was about the same with her as it was everywhere else but the more we signed to each other the more I realized that we were both misinterpreting words.

We never insulted each other, thank god, but there were definitely points where neither of us knew what the other was saying. We were able to clear up most of it by actually talking since we weren't deaf but it was interesting. Never thought sign language would have different dialects.

It was interesting but that was all it was. As for Kaiden he was being passive aggressive to me, honestly I didn't give a flying fuck but at times it was annoying. Just minor stuff that was petty, he left my gear alone so he didn't have a deathwish. He did have a little bit of brains.

As for everyone else it was the usual. They all did what they were supposed to and didn't argue about it or do anything stupid. Though Garrus was being a bit antsy, Shepard shaped him up with a singular talk; it was frankly amazing. That being said, Wrex got to Garrus before Shepard did and probably gave him the same lesson he gave me but in a different way. Who knows.

Right now I was cleaning my weapons and going over my shot counter. You see even though you never have to reload in the first game due to the ammo block it still has only a finite amount of shots before it's done. Mine, which hadn't been changed yet, was still sitting at a comfy 1,000 shots remaining. It would need to be replaced soon but it wasn't an immediate concern.

What was an immediate concern was my Predator armor. The radiation from the planet for Wrex's armor had screwed it up more than I thought. Both the biotic dampener and the shield capacitor needed to be completely replaced, along with wiring throughout the suit. Basically, I wouldn't be using it anytime soon until after I got replacements. If it's absolutely needed I would have to give it to Tali and have her cannibalize other suits for it. Either way, I would need her help with the wiring. It seemed that only the Mantis armor was serviceable for a while.

Putting my AR back together and throwing on my armor I heard Shepard's voice come over the PA

"Ground Team to the Conference room. Ground team to the Conference room."

Nodding to Wrex on my left we left together towards the elevator joined by Garrus in said elevator. The ride was quiet as usual, these two knew silence. Leaving the elevator we made our way to the conference room and entered as a group of three. We were the last ones to arrive with everyone else already seated. As usual, I didn't have a seat so I leaned on on the wall near the door.

"Okay people," Shepard began clicking a button and a slide popped up showing Miss Dantius' little sister. "This is Dahlia Dantius. According to intel she's been taken hostage by a rogue pirate gang on the planet below. We are to go in and get her out," clicking the button again showed the scans of the facility we were currently taking.

"This is nothing special for pirates. Basic housing and basic infrastructure; Joker will keep their air out of the fight and we'll be going in to get Miss Dantius out. We'll all be going down in the Mako planet side but only myself, Liara, Kaiden and Wynne will go in. The rest of you will hang back and only move if we need backup. Any questions," Garrus was the first to respond.

"Why only you four? This is a hostage rescue but you can never be too careful, this could be a trap."

"The four selected are the best for this type of situation. Wynne, for recon and if Chesty* is smiling upon us he'll be able to extract her unseen. Liara and Kaiden for crowd control for a quick escape if it's needed and I'm in command. You all will be watching our backs outside and supporting us if needed."

"Understood sir," Garrus have a small nod to Shepard to which he returned.

"Any other questions?" there was a collective silence at that. "Good. We drop in an hour. Be ready."

Leaving the room I went straight to my locker and got my gear out. Doing a quick weapons check and satisfied with the result I popped in a pouch and sat down next to the Mako. Letting my mind wander as I waited it was a simple task. Thinking aimlessly about small things and big things they all blurred together but it was broken when Shepard pounded on the Mako.

Opening my eyes all of us clambered in and as soon as we were all in, shot out the back of the Normandy. Same old landing and we made our way to the base. We moved slowly in the Mako, studying the landscape as we went. Getting to a little divot before a ledge Garrus got out on Shepards order and observed the base.

Basic layout outside with only a singular guard. Seeing this as a good opportunity Shepard gave me the order and I got out. Taking the scope from Garrus I found the guard and just nodded running off to the right to go around. It would take longer but the guy would never see me coming.

It took me almost a half an hour to get there and in position on the side of the building in the guards blindspot. Radioing Shepard that I was in position he gave me the go ahead.

Creeping around the corner as the guard's eyes wandered away from me, I got just about ten feet from the man before forgetting stealth and sprinting at the man with my knife out. He never had a chance to do anything more than look at me and gasp before I was on him and my knife went through his neck piercing his lightswitch. He collapsed in a heap on the ground lifeless and I waved towards where Shepard and co were. They rolled up in the Mako a minute or so later.

Shepard, Liara and Kaiden got out and we stacked up on the door; Kaiden and Liara on the left, Shepard and I on the right. Tapping my shoulder from behind I hit a pulse and saw no one immediately close to us but about 14 people inside the building. As soon as the pulse was done I hacked open the door and went inside checking the corners with the others behind me.

No one was in the entrance room as shown from the pulse. Fully making sure the room was clear, checking behind the desk, Shepard pointed at me and then up. Nodding to him I hit my pulse again and went to the open door leading to the main hall. Rolling from the door to behind a crate to avoid being seen I crouched and stalked forward. The other three staying behind at the door to cover me incase it went belly up which it would.

Stalking around the hall as a ghost I racked up 4 kills on unsuspecting pirates. All with a clean knife through the neck severing their lightswitch. I moved like that until I made it to the far corner near the water tank and waited behind one of the crates for a man to grab some water and kill him. Turns out the next person to come over was Dahlia in full pirate leader regalia. She didn't notice me as she walked

"Shepard," I spoke into the Radio as Sam cut the external speakers. "Dahlia is the Pirate Leader, she isn't a captive. Advise?"

"Take her. Nonlethal," his response was immediate as was my reaction to his order.

Stalking behind her silent as the grave I hit her right at the base of the neck and she collapsed like a sack of bricks. Grabbing her before she could hit the ground I swung her over my shoulder in a fireman's carry and made my way back to the door. Now, I knew I was good at stealth but to actually make it back to the door without anyone noticing me while carrying someone surprised even me.

I should've known better than to tempt fate, even if it was only in my head.

Just as I got through the door and handed off Dahlia to Kaiden there was a shout behind me and all the pirates started raining bullets down on us. Being past the door already made our lives a lot easier and we, surprisingly, didn't even bother to truly stand and fight. Instead we just fired off pot shots as we quickly made our way to the exit.

Getting out of the main door we all piled into the back of the Mako with the exception of Shepard, who drove. All things considered it was hands down the cleanest op we've had. Hell, even the ride in the Mako to the pickup point was smooth sailing. Well, until Dahlia woke up for a couple seconds but that was remedied by Wrex and the butt of his shotgun.

When we got back to the Normandy Wrex grabbed her and took her to the brig. As for Shepard he grabbed Liara, myself, Garrus, and Ashley and brought us to his room. Myself and Garrus sat on the bed while the rest stood around the room.

"So… Thoughts?"

"She used us to do her dirty work," Ash.

"No shit Sherlock," was my response to that as I took off my helmet. No makeup. She gave me a glare but I couldn't be bothered to care.

"Pretty common all things considered. We were an outside factor and she didn't want to be implicated, this way it looks like we were just taking care of a pirate leader," Garrus stated matter of factly as he leaned forward elbows on his legs. "Well, at least it is in the underworld."

"Could you pay her a visit?" Liara asked looking at me and I did not expect that. Two years from now yeah but not now. I just shook my head though.

"I could but there'd be no point. We'd get nothing out of it."

"Blackmail?" Ashley suggested.

"Then what do we do with the prisoner?"

"Alright, we're thinking about this too hard," Shepard stated, taking a commanding stance. "We're just going to give her to her sister. They can do what they want afterwards. Besides, she wanted her sister so she can have her."

"When?" was all I asked.

"We'll be going to the Citadel now. Ship needs maintenance work done and we don't have the tools for half the work."

"I request to be there when you hand her over," Shepard just nodded his head in response then waved his hand. We all filed out at that.

Tali found me rather quickly after we left Shepard's cabin and just asked what we were meeting about. Seeing no reason to lie I told her and she seemed satisfied by the whole situation. We went in to get the girl and even though it didn't go the way we thought we got her out and we didn't have to kill everyone. All in all, it went better than usual.

She left me after we talked for a bit and I went back to the cargo hold. Kaiden gave me the evil eye I as we passed each other but it just rolled off me. He was mildly intimidating when I first saw him because it looked like he was a true veteran with how he held himself. Now, after fighting with him, not at all. He was a solid soldier and a powerful biotic but nowhere near a level that would have me concerned if we were ever on opposite sides. Remember, I was trained to fight and kill biotics.

Pushing him out of my mind I grabbed my Predator armor out of my locker and looked it over. There were scratches and dents all over the thing along with the parts that needed replacing. Sighing I laid it down on the bench and walked over to the quartermaster. Told him what I needed and he was able to come through, at least partially. The shield capacitor and biotic dampener he had on hand and sold them for a reasonable price but the wiring he didn't have. That had to be gotten on the Citadel, he did give me the stores that would be able to provide the wiring.

Taking the shield capacitor and biotic dampener to my armor I replaced the old ones but didn't connect the wiring. Essentially, they were just sitting there but that's how it needed to be. Surprisingly enough Ashley came over and asked about the armor and what had happened to it. Telling her she was a bit sympathetic, armor was your life after your weapon and to have extensive damage to it sucked.

That being said we had a pleasant conversation following our quick talk over the armor. Found out a lot about her family, never really did anything with her in the games. To be honest too from how she talked about them they reminded me of my family. Stubborn, prideful and strong but at times hotheaded. She was a surprisingly good conversationalist and even though she didn't really like me she was amicable enough and trusted me in the field.

I eventually asked if she was going to do anything about the missing part of her ear. The damage had been a bit more extensive than I first thought. There were burn scars near her chin and neck on that side that probably would be healing clean even with medi-gel. Honestly, she rocked the scars and it was just the lower part of her ear that was gone. Specifically, the part that hangs that moms would grab when they were pissed at you.

Anyway, she told me that there was no point in getting surgery to put it back. It wasn't essential and she could hear just fine. As for the burn scars she came to the same mind as me on them after seeing them in a mirror, she made them look good. When I agreed with her she looked at me skeptically but just gave me a mild thank you in response. Then we started talking about the aliens.

"So what do you think of them?" She asked sitting down across from me as she pulled out her rifle to do maintenance. I was just chilling with nothing on the table.

"I trust them. Wrex may be a Krogan and mercenary like me but he knows what is at stake. Garrus wants to nail Saren to a cross and Tali is just too innocent to do anything uncouth. She's a bit of an idealist but we just might need her because of that more than the fact she's a mechanical prodigy," was my response.

"Are you sure your opinion on Tali isn't skewed?" she stated plainly giving me a deadpan look.

"Probably is," I shrugged before continuing. "But you can't not see it. Garrus and Shepard after Cerberus and Saleon haven't been doing great; they want violence whether they admit it or not. Wrex and myself are used to it and just don't care if we get our hands dirty. You and Kaiden will follow orders from Shepard even if you don't particularly agree with them. Then there's Tali, an idealist. She might just be the one that gets us out of this without going down a very dark path."

"You think she could keep us in check?" I sighed and shrugged my shoulders.

"I don't know but of everyone here on the ship she seems like the only one that would."

We stopped talking after that and Ashley had her thinking face on the whole time. It was nice and silent but my words had given me a bit to think about. Who knows where this could go, this isn't a game and we're real. It wouldn't be hard at all to fall down the rabbit hole. Maybe Tali's naivety and idealism is exactly what we need. It wasn't the thing to worry about now.

*Citadel*

It took us about 4 days to get to the Citadel and our maintenance needs really showed when we were trying to dock. Our wings were barely turning and as a result we had to back up from the dock more than once in order to actually dock. Being up at the bridge while he did this made for some high quality entertainment. Joker was so frustrated it was hilarious and rather impressive with the amount of swear words he used.

Eventually he did get us in and when he did so the whole of the ground team left sans Kaiden. Shepard, myself, and Garrus were bringing Dahlia along with us to meet with her sister. Tali, Wrex and Ashley were on their way for a shopping trip. All mechanical stuff along with spare food and weapon parts. I also asked Tali if she could pick up the wiring for my armor.

We rode down the main elevator together and then went our separate ways. My group immediately got on a rapid transport and made our way to a cafe where we were going to give the sister back. Speaking of Dahlia she had been quiet the whole time and had changed out of her Pirate leader gear. She just wore a regular dress Liara had apparently given her. She looked surprisingly good in the dress but damn near every Asari looked good. It was a bit unfair.

Getting out of the rapid transport vehicle we spotted the cafe and made our way there. Walking in Nassana was sitting down enjoying her coffee when we walked in. From the look on her face she had not been expecting us to bring her sister back.

"Your sister. As requested," Shepard stated as Garrus gave Dahlia a little pat on her back to move forward. She did so without a noise and was staring absolute daggers at her sister.

"I thank you Shepard," again with the haughty 'I'm better' voice from an Asari.

"And payment?" I pipped up making her eyes zero in on me. She dismissed me as just another merc working with Shepard, not everyone knew about me and the helmet yet it seemed.

"You know my company. A permanent discount on all products of 20%. Is that acceptable?" she questioned looking at Shepard. He didn't even think about it.

"Yes."

I wanted to stay and intimidate her but after thinking for a few seconds I decided not to. It wouldn't help anyone besides my ego. Plus, she's definitely petty enough to tell every mercenary in the galaxy that the Torchbearer is with Shepard. A bounty ranging between 3million and 20million, depending on who they gave me too would definitely get a lot of people after us. Something we couldn't afford.

So, instead of that, we all left together with Shepard leading the way only to run directly into Al-Jilani. The reporter you can punch if you want to. Gonna be honest, I did it every time I got the chance in the game. Still, here in this universe she had been a rather vocal supporter of mine. So, I had a bit of mixed feelings about her at the current moment; wonder how she'll conduct herself here?

Honestly, it went exactly the same as it had in game. Though, this Shepard was a lot more cordigal to Miss Al-Jilani. He answered her questions quickly, efficiently and made each answer as short as possible. Never spoke for more than a few seconds before wanting to punch the woman. Though, Shepard did what I always did and he told her that Eden Prime wasn't solely a Geth attack and that Saren was involved. Al-Jilani hadn't been expecting that and promptly ended the interview.

All things considered, she was a lot more pleasant here than in the game. Not to mention, a lot hotter; like ridiculously so. What can I say, I like exotic women. She also didn't have that god awful haircut and instead it was curly and went down to her mid back. Just like in the game though she was just as annoying.

Moving on from that we left as a group and made our way back to the Normandy. We got back before the other group and while we waited for them to get back Garrus worked on the Mako and Shepard went to fill out paperwork. I just set out my Predator armor and waited for Tali to get back. It would be another hour before they got back.

I don't know where the others went when they got back but Tali dropped off the repair tools with Adams and then came to the cargo hold. She proceeded to show me how to replace the wiring on my armor. It was a lot simpler than I expected it to be except for the last part. Being that you had to manually hardwire them into the capacitor and dampener. That part was hard but otherwise it was easy.

While we worked on that together Adams and the rest of the mechanics went and did the scheduled maintenance. It wasn't a quick affair and once Tali was done helping me she went to help them. We ended up spending just about two days docked on the Citadel. The mechanics worked like they were possessed and finished all the maintenance and repairs within a day and a half. The extra half day was just for them to recover.

During that time I really just sat around with my dick in my hand. Anything mechanical was not my area of expertise, software and technical stuff was my area. I did try to help where possible, it really just amounted to me being a gear carrier. Hauling tools from one place to the next and doing whatever the mechanics told me to do. For the most part that amounted too: "stay away from everything. We'll let you know when we need you." As said before, I spent a lot of time with my dick in my hand.

When it was all said and done all the engineers and mechanics went to their sleep pods and collapsed inside of them. Shepard let them recover but as soon as Adams had woken back up we undocked and got on our way to The Kepler Verge. There was only one thing there for us there and it's just gonna hurt Shepard.

Walking over to Wrex in the cargo hold as we took off he looked at me dismissively. I didn't take it to heart and kept staring until he looked at me. The intensity from the other day was still there but I returned it.

"Wynne."

"Wrex."

"What do you want?"

"I have a bad feeling about this."

"About what?"

"Us going after this serial killer."

"Why?"

"Got contacts that say it might be connected to Cerberus."

"Might?"

"80-20 in favor of." Wrex just hummed in amusement before raising an eyebrow at me.

"And what do you want out of me?"

"You remember the rage?" his stare became dead serious then.

"Yes."

"Stop Shepard if it comes to it."

"No."

"No?"

"I gave him the same talk. It is up to him to heed it," and with that he walked away.

I admit that I agree on that but at the same time I'm literally fighting for the soul of the new world here. If Shepard goes down the wrong path we are all fucked. Looks like it'll be up to me.

POV: Frank

I had to give it to Timmy here, he knew how to minimize risk. The base that we just hit had next to nothing on anything other than what was happening at that specific base. They had a few snippets about other bases but we already knew about the ones that they talked about. As for the base commander, he took the easy way out. The only one that would've known anything beyond this place and he killed himself; gotta admire the commitment.

Other than the commitment and the good minimization of risk this place was total crap. We picked the wrong one to raid as far as I'm concerned. No tech to resell and all the armor here is already on the market and crappy. The weapons are nice but old, antique old. They'll fetch a good price but those types of weapons are really only for collectors and I don't have any contacts in that area. I'll probably end up just selling them at an auction and hope for the best.

Putting that aside they really weren't doing anything of note here. Just studying some type of frequency, never seen it before in my life. If Ceelo was here he would know what to make of it but he wasn't so I did the next best thing. I downloaded all the data they had on the frequency plus all the samples. It'll be his coming home present, he always liked puzzles to solve.

"Y'all find anything else?" I called out to Juni and Volio. Volio's head popped up behind a crate and Juni's popped out behind the side of one about 10 feet to my left.

"We ain't found shit. You picked a crap base to hit Frank," sighing I looked over at Juni.

"What he said."

"Yeah yeah, you can pick the place next time. Let's get out of here, pack everything we got onto the cart and get it into the ship. I'll start it up."

Starting up the ship as they loaded everything else up was easy work. Thinking about it as I went about starting it up I should really show the kid how to pilot one. He's got a steep learning curve, shouldn't take long. He'll definitely never be a great or even good pilot but he'll at least know how to fly one.

It would only be a couple more minutes after the ship was ready that Volio and Juni loaded up the cargo. Volio joined me in the cockpit once they were done loading everything up. Juni stayed in the cargo bay making sure everything was strapped down tight and would do inventory once we broke atmo. She banged on the cockpit door twice when she had made sure everything was strapped on tight. With that we took off.

We had just broken atmo when Volio spoke up breaking our silence.

"Hear anything from the kid?"

"Got an info packet from him the other day."

"About?"

"A couple of politicians who are on Cerberus payroll."

"We gonna do anything?

"I already forwarded the packet to Admiral Hackett. Beyond that they're way too well connected for us to do anything without making a lot of noise. Something we don't need."

"Agreed. Citadel or Omega?"

"Neither."

"Ah. Illium, is that two or three days?"

"Three."

"Kay. Wake me up when we get to the Relay in a couple hours. I'll take over for the jump and a bit after," and like that he leaned his head back and was passed out.

Sorry about the short chapter. Would've felt forced if I put too much in here.

Review so I can get better!

1*: Chesty: Chesty Puller. Famous Marine from WW2. Known for being a hard charging mother fucker. As close to an icon as any Marine will get besides Mattis.

If y'all forgot what the lightswitch is, it's the nerve that connects your spine and your brain stem located in the back of your head. That little dip on the back of your neck is where it is and cutting it means absolute death, no recovery. It can be cut by stabbing someone through the front of their neck at an angle, depending on where your stab originated.