A/N: Hey Guys!

A few things I wanted to say:

First off, I'm afraid this story won't be done before august. With the ways things look now, and how slowly I update, it simply isn't possible. However, I can say that with how things are looking right now, the story will probably reach around a 100 chapters in length.

And second: I thank all of you who leave reviews and PM me. I have received heartwarming messages and I can't begin to describe to happy they make me feel. I thank you all.

Kind regards

KanisRussell.

25/7 2185

Abandoned Collector ship.

"This place is like a fucking beehive." Mads complained as they walked with careful steps. For all they knew, these walls were alive and ready to strike them at any moment.

"What's a beehive?" Garrus asked. Still staying close to Mads and Tali as they made their way forward.

"Never-fucking-mind." Mads muttered as they pressed on. The whole place seemed haunted in its nature.

And then there were the whole thing with love. Mads had wanted to tell Tali, but now simply wasn't the time. They had a job to do. Tali did seem happy to be back on the squad. But to break this train of thought: Whatever make-shift holster Garrus had created for the Deagle looked fucking dumb, and Mads began to regret giving the gun in the first place.

But, this vessel seemed off in every way. They just packed up left? Why would they do that? And why would a Turian patrol vessel find it, and then disable it? Where was it now? So many questions, so few answers. Best they could do was try and get some information while they had the chance.

"Something is off. Keep your eyes peeled." Mads ordered as they came to what appeared to be a console. A collector body was strapped to a table. Mads plugged Edi into the console.

"Edi. Can you make sense of this?" Mads asked. He kept on coming with different possible answers, yet none of them fitted. Why were they taking the humans in the first place? To test them? Edi took a few moments to go through all of the data that was there.

"They were testing for a lot of things, though there is no mention of what they were looking for. But, there is something else to note." Edi began explained.

"Go ahead, Edi." Mads said. Eagerly waiting what Edi had to say.

"The Collectors share DNA with the Protheans." Edi finished. Mads took a moment to think. Garrus and Tali seemed to do the same thing.

"You mean-" Mads started.

"They are no longer Protheans. They have been heavily modified." Edi informed. Like that was any help.

"And now they are slaves. This is what they want to do to us humans, isn't it?" Mads asked, already knowing the answer. Tali placed a hand on Mads' shoulder, trying to comfort him.

"I'm sorry." She said. Mads placed his hand upon hers.

"Me too. Let's get some more information. We need to stop this." Mads ordered. Both Garrus and Tali nodded.

FP Glory, 'Outer Heaven' vessel

William looked over the map of the galaxy as he took a sip from his coffee. Things had become rather dull since making a truce with Cerberus, something he never had thought he would do. He took a moment to reflect on everything that had happened in his life up to this point. Namely his failures.

He sighed at his own stupidity. At how easily he had been convinced to join Cerberus back then. And he was ever glad for the man who showed him the truth. Corporal Toombs had never been a man of many words; William hardly knew his name back then. Yet, he had survived as well. He had gotten a different treatment from Cerberus.

William had no idea where Toombs was now. Probably reliving the terrors he had experienced. William's heart went out to him, and he hoped that one day he would find peace. For William, the only peace he was going to get was a Cerberus-free world.

William had cursed Romanov when he saw that he worked for Cerberus. He wanted nothing more than to punch him, break his jaw or something. He used to look up to the bastard! Yet now, he can understand why he did it. For now, he would accept the status quo.

One of his crew members pulled him from the deep thoughts he was having. "Sir! You need to see this!" The Salarian said as he presented a disk with information.

"What is it, Irsall?" William asked, instantly curious about the matter.

"We have intercepted a call from a small freighter that claims to have seen something remarkable." Irsall replied with excitement.

"Well... What is it?" William asked slightly annoyed over the pause.

"A cruiser of unknown design, whoever, the description sounds a lot like a collector vessel." He answered, almost jumping around.

"How do you know that?" William asked confused.

"We pulled a scan on the cruiser on Horizon. I am almost 100 % positive." He reassured.

"Alright, let's go take a look. This is bigger than Cerberus. This is our problem as well." William ordered.

"Yes sir!" Irsall said as he saluted.

Abandoned Collector ship.

"Romanov?" Joker's voice called over the radio.

"Yeah?" Mads asked back as they went deeper into the collector vessel.

"Edi performed an interesting scan. You might want to hear what she has to say." Joker continued.

"Go ahead Edi." Mads approved.

"Well, according to data recorded by the previous Normandy before it's destruction. This vessel is identical to the vessel that attacked the Normandy 2 years ago. With a 98,7 % probability rate." Edi explained over the radio. Mads had to stop up and think about it.

"God damn. The same ship has been on my ass for two years? There is something shady going on here. Do the collectors have more than one vessel?" Mads asked.

"There is no data to tell from." Edi replied.

"Alright. Thanks Edi." Mads said as he pressed on. They walked through the corridors that seemed to almost press down on them. This entire place felt off, and it was didn't have a welcome feel to it. Mads kept himself on guard the entire time, ready to shoot whatever would move.

The whole situation seemed off, that's what he kept thinking. His gut feelings had never let him down before, why should it start now? Once he was done here, he would have a serious talk with the Illusive man about what he knew.

Walking into a huge hall, Mads was baffled at what he saw. Thousands upon thousands of pods, able to contain humans. Never ending rows of them, on the ground, on the walls and on the celling. Mads was speechless at he stopped to observe what the hell it was.

"Spirits! There must be hundreds of thousands here!" Garrus remarked. He was also quite baffled by the sight, and what the collectors had planned.

"More than enough to target all human colonies." Tali added, only realizing now how much this must be effecting Romanov.

"They're going after earth." Mads said in a sad tone. "Let's get what we came for." Mads ordered. They both agreed and hurried forward. They finally found the center console. This should tap them into the database and look for interesting things.

"Hooking you up now, Edi." Mads said as he entered some commands on the console. Edi began to search the database for anything useful.

"You two, keep a close watch. We haven't seen a trace of the collectors since boarding, something doesn't add up." Mads ordered.

"On it, Romanov!" Garrus said as he began to secure the surrounding area. Tali joined him.

"Edi, what have you learned?" Mads asked impatiently as he took off the safety of his AK.

Suddenly a loud bang went off, things were shaken up. The pods and a lot of things on the wall began moving around. The program seemed to glitch out on the console.

"What is going on!?" Mads demanded an answer over the radio to the Normandy.

"Power surge by the looks of it." Joker replied.

"Everything alright?" Mads asked.

"I managed to re-route the overload to non-critical systems. But... It wasn't a fault in the system. I believe it to be a trap." Edi explained.

"Fuck me." Mads remarked. The platform beneath them starting flying upwards. "This just gets better and better." Mads said. "Edi, any help?" Mads asked, hoping she would be able to do something, well... Anything would be nice.

"Someone else is in the system, I can't keep up connection." She said as the platform came to a halt. It knocked both Garrus and Tali off their feet and left Mads scrambling for balance. And then they saw them. Those asshats coming to kill them. Of course the collectors had set up a trap, and of course Mads had to walk head on into it.

"I got connection again. I have to finish the download before I can override any other systems." Edi said.

"Make it quick, will you?" Mads ordered as he took cover behind the console.

Those bugs wanted a fight? They sure as hell got it. The fight started off well, Mads got off a couple of headshots, and took out several more. Garrus was hard at work sniping them out, keeping himself safe behind cover. Tali slowly made her way a bit forward, in order to get a close range with her shotgun. She flew up her purple and pink drone, one she had named Chatika vas Paus, which Mads thought was kind of cute.

Mads gave suppressing fire to support Tali's way forward. She took position and stood ready for one of the collectors to come close enough. She didn't have to wait long before surprising a unaware collector and blasting its face off. She took the opportunity to move forward, and Mads followed. Garrus also changed position.

Mads noticed a collector began to sneak up on Tali. A rage burned through him as he realized that the collector was going to succeed if he didn't do something quick. Mads acted quick, and took the knife that was strapped to his boot. He hoped that he was still as good as he used to be.

With a shift throw, the knife was planted right in one of the eyes of the collector. It stumbled around confused at what had just happened. Until it fell dead on the ground. Mads quickly rushed over to Tali and took out the knife from the skull of the collector. Edi kept updating them with the progress she was making with the Data.

They continued fighting. They fought well, like they always do. A grand team, Mads smiled at the thought as he reloaded his rifle. By this rate, he would have to contact Sergei for a new ammo supply. And he did miss a backup pistol. He looked over at Garrus, who wore the Deagle proudly in his ugly ass holster.

Mads used his biotics to throw a bunch of them over the railing. Watching them fall to their death was oddly satisfying. "Edi! You done yet?" Mads asked as he kept on holding them off. This Harbinger was getting on his nerves. There was something about that thing; it kept on taking control of random collectors.

"Yes" was the simple reply was Edi. "I have regained control of the platform." She proclaimed.

"Fucking finally." Mads said as he went over the console once again. "Anything useful?" He asked as he leaned against the table it was standing on. Edi began to fly the platform away.

"I found data that could help us to navigate beyond the Omega 4 relay. And something else..." She replied.

"What is it?" Mads asked confused.

"The Turian distress call that lured us here. The collectors made it." She replied.

"Is that so hard to imagine?" Mads asked further in a confused tone.

"That's not what I mean. The Turians used secondary decryption for their calls. This message was corrupted. It is not possible that the illusive man would fall for it." Edi said.

"That fucking prick! Made us walk head first into a ambush!" Mads stated in a very angry tone. "I'm gonna have a word or two with him once I get back!" Mads promised.

"Now we just have to get out of here." Garrus broke in and said. "Yeah, you're right." Mads agreed. "Let's get a move on."

"Ehhhh... Captain? There is another problem. The ship is powering up." Joker informed.

Mads gestured for them to get a move on. "I don't have full control. I'll provide whatever assistance I can." Edi promised. They began to move out, and Edi barked instructions on where to go, and doing her best to open whatever doors where in the way.

What she couldn't change, was the amount of collectors gunning for them. They kept coming, mostly from out of nowhere. Flying in and joining the fight against Mads, Tali and Garrus. Moving and shooting became the order. Garrus had taken out his Deagle and fired off a few rounds. It was clear he really loved that gun.

The collectors threw everything they had at them. And they had a lot to pull from. Anything from soldiers to those flying creatures. Mads hoped they would make it out in one piece, but every time they went around a corner and a new set of foes appeared, that hope would fade a bit away.

And they finally came to a door Edi couldn't open right away. The enemies stacked up, more and more joining the battle to aid their friends. Mads was beginning to run out of mags, Tali and Garrus both were running on low thermal clips.

Yet, they kept fighting. They had to. Faith and hope were driving them, even when things were beginning to look really dark. As the battle carried on, they became more and more surrounded. Enemies kept on pouring in.

Then, when all looked really grim. A shot was heard. It echoed throughout the ship as it killed a collector. They all watched the lifeless body drop to the ground. Mads looked up and was instantly relieved.

William Sheridan was there, waving at him. "Captain Romanov! Seems you are in need of a little help!" He yelled down to the team. Several of his crew members joined the fight. With the new threat, the collectors became stretched thin.

"Thanks pal!" Mads yelled back. "I ain't your pal!" William stated as he continued firing.

Finally, Edi got the door open. "See you around, Captain!" William yelled as he retreated back with his crewmates. Hopefully they would get out in time. Mads and his teammates had their own headache to deal with. The collectors didn't stop fighting.

They ran and ran, until finally they saw the shuttle waiting for them, and not a moment too soon. Mads made sure Garrus and Tali were both on board before boarding himself. They flew away and landed on the Normandy just in time to escape the hell that the collector ship had planned for them.

2 hours later

Normandy

Mads stepped into the briefing room. He looked around and saw no one was present. Excellent he thought as he took out his pack of cigarettes and pulled one out. He smelled the familiar tobacco and placed it in between his lips.

"Edi! Open a connection to the illusive man." Mads ordered.

"Yes Captain." She replied and quickly went to work. Mads held his zippo lighter in his hand as the call opened. He used his thumb to open and close the lid, giving that familiar click noise that zippo lighters had been famed for.

The Illusive man came into sight, sitting in that damn chair and smoking a cigarette of his own, all while sipping Whiskey or whatever he was drinking.

"Captain Romanov. I see you have returned. Was your trip productive?" he asked as he saw the hologram of Mads.

"Can I ask you a question?" Mads asked. The illusive man was caught off guard. "Sure" He replied.

"Do I look like a dipshit?" Mads asked.

The Illusive man looked very confused in that moment. "No, why do you ask?" He asked back.

"Then why do you keep treating me like one? I nearly died today, and then I find out you knew it was a trap all along!" Mads ranted.

"Calm down Romanov. It was a necessary risk. And you did fine." that calm voice made Mads all the more angry.

"You fucking cunt! The only reason why I survived was due to someone saving me! William Sheridan, does that name ring a bell?" Mads asked in a very angry tone.

The Illusive man looked disgusted with the mention of him "Ah yes, I had hoped that me and Mr. Sheridan wouldn't have to see each other again. But you got the data, right?" The Illusive man asked, going back to the calm voice.

"Yeah I got it. You're lucky you ain't here in person! Otherwise, I would choke you out! Fucking rat!" Mads ranted on.

"Please restrain yourself from that language, Captain. Like I said, it was a necessary risk. We now have the information we need. Focus on training your squad and make them loyal to the course." The Illusive man ordered.

"Don't worry about me." Mads said as he ended the call. He wanted nothing more than to punch something. He had to calm down. He took a few deep breaths and decided to call it a day. There was still something else that needed to be planned.

Mads had spent hours rehearsing what he wanted to say to Tali. He wanted it to be perfect. But whatever concept he could think, seemed stupid in the end. He began to wonder if he was a fool. He was a man out of time and touch, how could he do anything Tali wanted?

Mads threw himself on the bed, and quickly his eyes closed. He was tired, and he let sleep claim him instantly.

His eyes opened to another scene. A beautiful wheat field, he was in his old uniform. Once again looking like a high standing crown prince. He got up on his feet and began to realize this was no ordinary dream. Normally, his dreams would be a memory, a simply playback of something that happened once in his life. This was different.

He had full control. He could walk, see, speak, smell and touch all the things. He felt it as if he was there. He then saw a small hilltop, with a giant tree upon it. The place wasn't anywhere he had been before, but still it seemed very familiar. Then he could see a small figure dancing around up there. He got confused, and started to make his way over there.

As he got closer, he had to stop up and look. His jaw must have hit the ground as he saw who it was. He couldn't believe it, he slowly but surely made his way up the hilltop and watched her once he got to the top.

She continued to dance around a little in her sundress. Seeming very happy as she plucked the flowers around the tree. Mads was speechless, he must have looked like a grade A idiot standing there.

She hummed a song while dancing around. The sundress was the same she wore the day they met. So many years ago.

"Nika?" Mads asked in a rather low voice. She ceased her humming and dancing and looked at him. She smiled, a very wide smile. Mads began to smile too.

"Mads, so good to see you again." She walked over and pulled him into a tight hug. They stayed like that for a while. Just hugging each other. "Sit down with me" She requested. Mads nodded and saw down on the grass.

"When you died..." She took a moment to breathe. "I cried for days. I blamed myself; I closed myself off to the world. It took a long time, but at least I accepted what had happened." She explained.

"I'm so sorry." She hushed him as he tried to apologize.

"It's a long time ago, and I moved on. Look, it was hard to convince God to grant me this meeting with you." She stated.

"What?" Mads asked confused.

"Don't act like that. I know you meet with him, and I'm sorry I wasn't there when you made your brief appearance. But look, I have watched you on quite a while now." She started. Mads grew nervous, what was she going to think of his feelings towards Tali?

"I think you and Tali are really cute together. And I wanted you to know, that I accept you two being together. I moved on, and it's time for you to move on as well." She finished with a smile.

"Nika I-"

"Don't. Just know that I have always loved you. You were always there for me, and while I wasn't always the best girlfriend, you were always the best boyfriend. Now, get your shit together and confess your love to her!" She demanded. Mads looked at her for a little while, but finally he nodded.

"Okay. Thank you." He said. She smiled.

"And please do go save the galaxy. It would seem you are the only one capable." She said.

"Yeah, so it would seem." Mads agreed. She pulled him up on his feet and they looked at each other for a short while.

"I'm afraid this is all the time I had. But I will still keep my eye on you." Nika remarked.

"I know you will. It was great to see you again." Mads said. They shared a final hug, and then the scene began to vanish.