Miranda Lawson, SR-2 Normandy, XO Office

"Shit."

Miranda was not fond of cursing. She had always thought it to be the sanctuary of those with insignificant cognizance.

"Shit."

But right now, cursing seemed very appropriate.

From: -

To: Lazerous_01

Subject: -

Project Overlord has gone dark. The cell has been experimenting with volatile technology. You need to do whatever it takes to convince Shepard to investigate. The work is extremely compartmentalized. Enough so that operational details cannot be sent over this channel. The planet is Aite, in the Typhon system, in the Phoenix Massing cluster. Use extreme care in this matter.

"Shit," Miranda sighed out as she leaned back in her chair and rubbed her forehead. She could feel a migraine building behind her eye. Maybe she was about to have an embolism. I can only pray for the sweet release of death….

First, Miranda was told to retrieve the body of Commander Shepard. Wasn't too difficult. Time consuming, yes, but not difficult.

Second she had been tasked with bringing the fucking dead back to life. Which she did. Of course she did.

Third, she was supposed to guide Shepard to the target Cerberus wanted him to strike. In fact, part of her briefing had been about how she should seduce him away from deviant alien interest and make him fall for her. That can rot right off….

Now she was expected to convince Commander Shepard to go and assist a Cerberus experiment. While they were still trying to fight Collectors for the fate of humankind.

Honestly, there was only one word for the situation.

"SHIT!"

Zaeed Massani, Lazarus Station.

"Fuck."

Zaeed took a deep breath, before slowly letting it out. Afterall, it wasn't like he was scared.

Of course not.

He was Zaeed Massani. He was one of the most feared bounty hunters in the Terminus. He was a battle hardened mercenary that fought on all types of world, and killed every type of asshole possible. He was not scared.

"Alright, then," he muttered. "Then why haven't you push the goddamn 'send' button?"

Twenty Minutes and Half a Bottle of Cheap Whiskey Later

His finger hovered over the button. He strained against the strange field that was stopping him from pressing it. His teeth gritted as his finger shook from the strain.

"Ah, fuck me…" Zaeed spat as he slumped back in his chair with a groan. "Maybe I'm a little scared…."

He had faced rampaging krogan that weren't as intimidating as the situation he found himself in. And the worst part is that he had put himself in it. He was a coward. He had thrown everything good in his life away. More than once over his stupid, fucking, pride. But now...now he had a chance to...to what? It's not like he deserved it. He would hurt everybody.

"DAMMIT!" Zaeed cursed as he slammed his fists down onto his desk. Over and over, until the vibrations shook the bottle right off the table, to shatter on the floor. "Dammit."

Turning, Zaeed leaned over and reached for the towel that hung next to his weapons kit. It was full of gun oil, but maybe the liquor would burn through some of the shit.

That was when he slipped. Over extending himself, his chair tipped. His hands shot out to grab the desktop, catching himself. And hitting a stupid button.

Zaeed had time to register what had just happened. He had time for his eyes to widen. His mouth was able to go dry. His hand reached out, trying to un-push the button…..

"Well, well, fucking, well," Hannah Shepard tilted her head in the small screen. "Let me guess. You got got drunk, slipped and called me?"

"Uhh…" Zaeed swallowed, not looking at the woman.

Hannah shook her head for a moment before realization dawned on her, her expression going from irritation of mildly shocked, then right to pissed off. "You have got to be kidding me! I was, goddess damned, joking Zaeed!"

""Well, I...really got nothing here Han," Zaeed sighed deeply as he righted his chair, still not looking at her. "I just thought I should...you know...Talk to you. I mean. We haven't spoken really since the service."

"Oh no, you did not," Hannah hand came up to slap over her eyes for a moment as she grumbled something unintelligible. "First, don't call me Han. I always hated that, and you know it. Secondly, there is a reason we don't talk Zaeed."

Taking a deep breath, Hannah slowly blew it out her nose and seemingly blew out some of her anger. "Alright. I was glad you were there. Surprised but…." Hannah caught herself, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment, before looking back at him. "No, that isn't fair. I'm sorry Zaeed. I know you kept tabs on the kids. I always appreciate the little gifts that just 'showed up'."

"Goddamnit," Zaeed sighed and shook his head wryly. "I thought I had covered my tracks pretty well."

"You did," Hannah smirked. "But I also remember being on that roof, and you talking about how your dad had gotten you a red bike for your eighth birthday, but then sold it the next week for liquor. I remember how you said you would be different. You were going to teach your son to actually 'ride a fucking bike'."

Zaeed looked at Hannah, his face had gone slack as he stared at the woman. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," Hannah's expression turned serious. "So when two red bicycles show up at my duty station as 'accidental shipments', it wasn't exactly a giant leap of logic."

"Ah...yeah," Zaeed hung his head for a moment.

"Hey," Hannah's voice softened slightly. "So...thanks for that. And the cake that time. And the money when I needed it."

"Dammit woman," the old man swallowed again.

"The party clown was probably a bad idea though," Hannah rolled her eyes for a moment. "She ended up getting drunk on the cooking wine and doing lewd balloon animals. To this day John hates clowns."

"Ha!" Zaeed barked as he sat back grinning. "So his weakness is goddamn clowns?"

"Pretty much, yeah," Hannah nodded before going silent and staring at him. It was eerie, the way she seemed to look straight through him. Didn't miss this part….. "Have you told him?"

"No," Zaeed didn't even try to act surprised that she knew he was with their son. "I don't think he needs to deal with that particular load of wet cats at the moment. We have enough crap going on. The Normandy is like some damned soap opera. Or bad action movie. Not sure which."

Hannah looked down at her hands for a moment before looking back at him. Her eyes had become sharp as frozen steel. "What are you doing, Zaeed?"

"With Cerberus I can finally fucking end this!" Zaeed spat. "I found him Hannah! I finally got him, and he doesn't know I'm coming for him!"

"You son of a bitch!" Hannah half shrieked as she swung a fist right through the holo display on her end. "You goddamned piece of shit! You don't take my goddamn boy and drag him into your mess!"

"Dammit Hannah!" Zaeed snarled back. "Have you seen how he moves? How he fights? He's like a goddamn hurricane! He cut through half a planet of geth to save that quarain! Damn near his entire crew started out Cerberus die-hards, and now he's got the quarian as head of engineering, a turian and a goddamn krogan on his ground team, and the crew couldn't worship him any more than if he was fucking Zeus almighty!"

"Of course I know!" Hannah's voice shook with anger. "I taught him how to ride that damned bike! Hesti taught him how to control his biotics! Biotics that are YOUR GODDAMN FAULT!"

"No!" Zaeed sat back as if he had been slapped. "No! It was Vido! He's the one that sabotaged the shuttle! He was trying to get to me through you!"

"That's my fucking point Zaeed!" Hannah's voice dropped to barely a whisper. "The shuttle's drive core blew right behind me. I was three months pregnant. I begged you to just leave. Drop it all and we would leave. Go back to earth. Anything. But no…'one more job' and 'I can't just let him push me out'. I was lucky enough to survive. The facts that the twins got through it all with only John getting mild biotics? That was a fucking miracle."

Zaeed shook his head as his hands covered his face. "No...it wasn't….I didn't…."

"You never came, you son of a bitch," Hannah's words were knives driving into him. "I was lost in a burning shuttle, that you were supposed to be on with me. I was alone."

"I'm sorry, Hannah," the broken man squeezed out. "I...I'm sorry….."

"Fuck your sorry, I don't care. But you look at me," Hannah demanded. "You fucking look at me!"

Slowly, Zaeed looked up at her. Her face was as black as her voice was cold as she stared into him again. "I don't care what happened. I don't care about any of it anymore. I got my son back. And now he is with you, and there is no stopping him. There never was. So you had better bring him back to me. Or I swear, I will claw my way through what ever fucking hole exists that you call hell and I will hurt you."

He just stared at her for another long moment before he gave a nearly imperceptible nod.

"Good," Hannah breathed quietly. "Try to keep me inform as to what's happening. I know you are doing some clandestine Spectre bullshit, but tell me what you can, alright?"

"Yeah," Zaeed nodded. "Yeah, I'll do that."

"Thank you," Hannah gave a small nod then killed the feed.

Zaeed leaned back in his seat, letting his head drop backwards. He was looking at the ceiling, but he didn't see it. All he could see was that time on the roof. His hand on the stomach of his lover. "Don't you worry, Daddy will take care of you guys. I'll do it all right. I'll teach you to ride that bike. I always wanted to try fishing…."

"I love you, Zaeed…." she said, her eyes warm and wet. "I love you….."

John Shepard, Aite, Typhon System

"Please move to security and have your weapons check!" the cheerful announcement played again.

"That is getting really annoying," Garrus sighed as he looked around the large entry area of the Cerberus base. "And I'm sure that the fact that there is nobody here isn't a sign of anything bad."

"No, of course not," Tali snorted, her omnitool was up and cracking the security terminal. "I bet they are all just having lunch."

"Maybe they are all hiding in fear!" Grunt growled smashing his fist into his palm. "Shepard and I are unstoppable, after all!"

Garrus, looked at the krogan for a moment before turning to John. "Really Shepard? I know he is your first born and all, but did you need to bring him to work?"

In response, John stepped over next to Grunt and laid a hand protectively over the krogan's silver shoulder pad. "You're just jealous that you aren't my second favorite anymore."

"How dare you!" Garrus gasped letting his arms and mandibles drop wide. "After all those long, hot nights? They meant nothing to you?!"

"Nope, not really," John shrugged as he twirled his pinky in his ear for a moment before looking at it and frowning slightly.

"Wait...if I'm the new second favorite….Who's the first?" Grunt frowned slightly. He actually looked concerned.

"Tali, of course," Kasumi laughed over the comm.

"Ah!" Tali cursed as she fumbled the security panel. "Bosh'tet, I was almost through…."

John grinned as he looked at Tali. It was true. She was his favorite. He could almost feel her embarrassment. It made him want to tease her all the more, but it also made him want to hold her. It was a strange mix he hadn't really encountered before.

"Shepard?' Maranda sighed as she jabbed him in the ribs. "Stop swooning. We have work to do. I'm a bit afraid of what Jacob and Zaeed will get into while we are gone."

"Yeah, that could be bad," Garrus nodded.

"And we're through, no thanks to you people," Tali sighed roughly as the security door opened in front of her. To a geth.

A geth who promptly exploded as five weapons opened up on it at the same time.

"My kill!" Grunt called as he stepped forward.

"Not hardly," Garrus objected. "I shot first!"

Miranda laid a hand on the turian's shoulder as she shook her head sadly. "I'm afraid I had it with my biotics before your weapon even came up, Vakarian."

"Keelah….can you people grow up?" Tali said, the irritation practically dripping from her voice, as she lay on her back.

"Hey guys," Kasumi cut in. "While you were playing I found our guy. Wanna talk to him?"

"Looks like Kasumi gets to pick movie night," John sighed with a smirk. "Yeah, I got a panel up. Just bridge him through."

John tapped the console as the screen came up, showing a middle aged balding man. Next to him, the smaller Kasumi grinned and waved. "This is Doctor Gavin Archer! You might want to send Tali out of the room for this one, guys."

"What?" Tali sat straight up from where she had been laying. Half turning, her eyes narrowed. "They are playing with another damned AI, aren't they?"

"N-no! Of course...no, of course not!" Archer smiled weakly as he tried to back away from the camera, only to have Kasumi's grip on his arm tighten.

"Speak!" Kasumi commanded the man as her omniblade extended out. "I command you! In the name of Evil Overlord Tali!"

"It...it...it...it's a VI….it just, you know…." Archer squirmed, unable to take his eyes off the glowing orange blade. "It got out of hand. It's sort of taking control of the geth matrices. It's...already attacked two other bases on the planet. And...if it isn't stopped. It could….um…."

"Buddy, it's in your best interest to tell us now," Garrus leaned in. "You really don't want to see what the quarian will do to you. I mean...you'll be begging for the krogan." Garrus jerked his thumb over his shoulder at Grunt. Not that the man could see him.

"It's trying to realign the main dish so that it can beam itself out!" The man finally yelled. "It could go anywhere!"

"Right," Kasumi nodded as she let her omniblade lightly touch the man's hair, little wisps of it evaporating. "Tali goshujinsama, do I execute the criminal slowly, or more slowly?"

"Ha ha, guys," Tali said flatly as she stood up and dusted off her rear. Something John could watch all day….

"Yeah, taze the guy and lock him in a closet or something," John chuckled. "We'll pick him up when we finish this whole satellite dish issue."

"Roger that!" Kasumi's omniblade swung back in as she slapped her omnitool to the back of the man's head. A quick spark later and she was dragging the man off camera. "Don't wait on my account. I'll catch up!"

Jacob Taylor, Lazarus Station

Leaning into the cafeteria, Jacob glanced around until he saw Zaeed. The older merc was eating an Alliance ration as he thumbed through an honest to god paper magazine.

"Hey, Zaeed!" Jacob called out as he jogged over to the man. "Bored?"

"What?" Zaeed looked up, a perplexed expression on his face.

"You bored?" Jacob repeated with a grin. "I'm tired of sitting around the station and I caught wind of a Freighter that just went dark. The MSV Rosalie was carrying research materials and people for a Cerberus project. It's only a short jump from here and I thought, maybe we can get some useful gear."

"Bullshit," Zaeed shook his head as he dropped the magazine onto the table. Jacob blinked for a moment when he saw that it was Fornax. Didn't even know they came in printed copies….

"You just want to get out of this place and do something while the Professor finishes his Frankenstein work."

Jacob's jaw dropped as he took on a hurt expression. But it only lasted a few seconds. "Yeah, I need to go do something. Not really any reason to hang out here and wait. Besides, I already got the shuttle prepped. Want to go shoot stuff?"

"You're goddamn right I do," Zaeed wiped his mouth with a napkin that had been tucked into the front of his armor and stood up. "Just had a shit vidcall with my ex. Killing things sounds fucking amazing."

"Well, alright then!"

Zeona, Elysta System

"Jacob," Zaeed said casually.

"Yes, Zaeed?" he answered back, just as smoothly. "What can I do for you?"

"Couple things come to mind, actually," Zaeed crossed his arms as he shook his head. "Why are we on a planet made of liquid rock?"

"Well," Jacob tilted his head for a moment. "This is where the Rosalie's transponder led. And this, right here," Jacob indicated the giant crate the pair had just opened. "Is a part of that ship's equipment manifest."

"Allright," Zaeed nodded. "The other question, why the hell are we trapped three clicks away from our shuttle and surrounded by geth?"

Jacob was quiet for a moment as he rolled the question over in his mind.

It was a pretty good question. The situation was not exactly a vacation. Warm as it might be. And, granted, they were certainly not bored, they also had a fairly decent sized chance of dying terribly.

"You know, I really don't know," Jacob shrugged. "But I think, if we want to get back to the shuttle, we are probably going to have to drive this thing there."

"I was afraid you intended to say that," Zaeed groaned. Honestly, Jacob couldn't blame him. The thing in the box was a vehicle.

"The M-44 Hammerhead, is a rabid, fast attack transport vehicle. Two large turbo fans keep the main body aloft while the eezo generator provides power. Jump jetts enable the vehicle to reach fair sized heights, but be careful! Overheating can cause a power rupture! The main gun of the Hammerhead is a homing missile turret, great for attacking multiple targets! Just a word of caution, the vehicle is lightly armored, as too heavy and the turbo fans would have a had time keeping it aloft! "

"Jacob."

"Yeah?"

"Did you just read me the advertisement brochure?"

"Ah...yes. Yes, I did."

"You have a good reading voice."

"Thank you."

Mordin Solus, Lazarus Station

"My knowledge is prodigious though I'm stuffy and professor-y

I'm fluent in the vorcha tongue and hanar luminescer-y

My xenoscience studies range from urban to agrarian

I am the very model of a scientist Salarian!" A male tenor sang out absently.

"His xenoscience studies range from urban to agrarian

He is the very model of a scientist salarian!" responded a high female soprano.

AN: Song is borrowed from AssaultSloth (who probably has the best name ever) With permission.