Omega's Samaritan

by Wanderer3000

An alternate Ben 10 becomes lost in the Mass Effect Universe after a run-in with one of his foes. After creating a name for himself on Omega, he draws the attention of a newly revived Shepard who seeks his help in her fight against the Reapers. How will the Omnitrix wielder's presence effect the fate everyone within the Mass Effect universe? Will it be all good? Some bad?

3. Chapter 3

Author: I'm finishing the Omega missions in this chapter. The Next will be split, the first talking part is on the Normandy and the second is taking place on the Citadel. I also apologize if the fight scenes are plain and unexciting for some of you, but I never said I was that good. Also I'm not good at writing the beginning of stories. I tend to think of stuff happening in the middle, than figure the ending, than work on the beginning. I don't know why it just happens. Sorry for any grammar mistakes, I looked over it a few times and did what I could but some always seem to escape me. And I'm usually eager to post these.

Answers to questions and comments from readers:

To foxtrot813: I thought about what you said about the Council so I'm going to do a little scene in the next chapter regarding that. Because now that I think about it, after six months they definitely would've sent someone to check out the stories of strange aliens on Omega. As for romance option for Ben...well you'll have to wait and find out because I can't really explain without giving away too much. You may be disappointed or may not care, you'll have to wait just a little bit longer.

To Alcides12: Thanks for trying to ease my worries about my fight scenes. I'll always be nervous about writing them, but I appreciate the words of encouragement. Yes Ben will have an Asari form, but its not going to be what you think it will be or what anyone else thinks. It will be...different to say the least. I can't really explain without giving away the rest of the story. But I will say this, I am going to do my best to make one hilarious scene involving that transformation.

Meaning of text styles:

Regular narration

"Thoughts"

Emphasis

(extra text in between scenes/Actions/Sounds/etc)

["Speaking through a communication device"]

I do not own Mass Effect or Ben 10. This is just for fun!

Updated 5/7/2019

---

Chapter 3: Cure Plague. Rescue Archangel.

Shepard-Quarantine Zone

Protecting a brief case with vital cure seems like an easy enough job…until crazy vorcha with goddamn rocket launchers show up and make you run behind cover. Two vorcha with the rockets are near giant fans on a balcony across the corridor from Shepard and her team, while 8 other vorcha are below firing at them whenever they get near the edge…. Thankfully they have a behemoth with them who can tank rockets and shoot electricity from his hands and blow them up in mid-air.

The Team is just outside the entrance to environmental control. Miranda is pinned down by the balcony overlooking the entrance while Jacob and Shepard are being a crate behind her. Frankenstrike is out in the open just hitting rockets left and right with his electric before they made it halfway. He misses one and it hits him point blank in the chest and he kneels for a moment grunting in pain but recovers quickly. He moved closer 'till he was near the crate Shepard was hiding behind and fired at the rocket vorcha on the left and sent him hurling into the fan. The fan was deactivated so no swirling gore, but the dents and blood splatter from hitting it hard was not a sight for those of a weak stomach

Shepard looks at him surprised at how he just took a rocket to the chest

"Jesus did that even hurt!" she shouts.

Frankenstrike looks at her with a sly smirk "It kind of tickles, actually." He replies humorously.

Shepard just looks at him, unable to tell if he was joking or not, she probably wouldn't believe it either way, because they didn't slow him down…And he doesn't even have a shield on!

Shepard looked from her cover and noticed that the last rocket vorcha on the top balcony was aiming for Miranda who just shot and killed two vorcha below (One shot to the head for both)

Shepard shouts "Miranda!" to warn the Cerberus agent.

Too late, by the time Miranda noticed, the vorcha fired. But this next part took Shepard by surprise. Before she or Jacob could react, Frankenstrike was already rushing towards Miranda.

Time slowed down as the Samaritan grabbed Miranda and turned his back toward the rocket with her engulfed in his embrace and protected her from the impact and explosion of the rocket. Shepard had to get behind cover again, as she looked again, she was relieved to see that Miranda was find as Frankenstrike released her from his embrace (she was slightly stunned and disoriented for a moment) and he turned toward the location of the rocket vorcha and aimed his right arm.

Time slowed again. Right as the vorcha fired again, Frankenstrike fired electricity and it reached the vorcha before the rocket made any distance. The electricity ignited the rocket and the vorcha was caught in the explosion and it screeched as it was incinerated.

Shepard and Jacobs mouth hanged open and Miranda widen her eyes in surprise but kept her facial expressions schooled. They eventually got over their shock and reached the end of the balcony to finish off the six vorcha. Jacob lifted one so high into the air with his biotics that he died the moment he impacted the ground, and Jacob shot a second leaving four left.

Shepard decided to get close and personal with the last four ducking near the entrance. Charging her biotics, she jumped from the balcony at high speeds and slammed into the vorcha in front and splattered him on the floor beneath her. The biotic shockwave launched the two closet vorcah back into the wall, one dead from impact and the other stunned momentarily. She turned her attention to the last standing vorcha who shot at her, but the bullets were negated by her biotic barrier, she waited for him to run out of ammo and he stood their clueless. She smirked as she lifted him with her biotics and lunged him toward herself. She then focused her biotics into her right arm and punched him point blank in the chest and into the stunned vorcha who was near the door when they both went splat and dented the doors.

She hears a "Wow…" from Jacob.

She looks back up and sees that Jacob and Frankenstrike are giving her a stunned look while Miranda is looking at the Samaritan with an analytical look. She's probably surprised since he made it clear that he hates Cerberus, but it seems that didn't stop him from helping her.

Its Shepard's turn to have a sly smirk "Anytime you guys are ready, we've got work to do!" She shouts to her team.

---

Frankenstrike-Quarantine Zone

Once again, this woman surprises Frankenstrike. He was not expecting her to charge in head first, but than again he's one to talk, but he doesn't need armor. It was almost unsettling to see that smirk after she obliterated the vorcha. The zombie pale skin and glowing orange scars on the left side of her face was unnerving as well. Of course, he is covered in stitches and looks like a living corpse, but she can be scary when she wants to be.

"Thank you for the assistance." Miranda says in a calm tone with a hint of gratitude.

He looked back at Miranda and gives her a nod. While he didn't trust the Cerberus agents as far as he can throw them, but he will admit their descent in a fight.

They meet up with Shepard near the entrance. Once they entered, they traveled through until they encountered a Blood Pack Krogan and two vorcha.

The vorcha began firing from cover while the Krogan charged

Frankenstrike was ready to take on the krogan until Shepard managed to beat him to it as she biotically charged into the krogan and managed to destroy his shield. While Shepard was slightly dazed, she managed to snap out of it and pulled out an inferno grenade and tossed it under the dazed krogan and she leaped back from it as it exploded. The Krogan was still alive but on fire, but the krogan's redundant nervous system allowed him to push on without pain and charged at Shepard. She finished is off with her rifle by firing into his face.

Frankenstrike was again left impressed but turned his attention to the vorcha who he makes quick work of with precise firing and shocking them both into the wall with bone crunching results. The group continued onward up another set of stairs.

Frankenstrike turns to the group "The environmental control should be nearby. The rest of the vorcha will most likely be there waiting for us." He looks at Shepard and continues "Stay close and I'll get you and the case to where you need to go."

Shepard nodes and turns to her team "Let's get this done."

All nodded as they came to the door. As it opened, they entered with Frankenstrike front and center. Shepard and Jacob on his left. Miranda on his right. And they were greeted by a pack of four angry vorcha.

One stepped up to address them while snarling. "You no come here! We shut down machines! Break Fans! Everyone choke and die. Then Collectors make us strong!"

"Well, Mordin was right about the Collectors having a hand in this." Frankenstrike thought.

Shepard glaring at vorcha "What do the collectors want?" Shepard asks while glaring at vorcha

"Doubt they know what their doing themselves." Frankenstrike mutters

Vorcha snarls angrily again "Collectors want Plague!"

"Shocking." Frankenstrike sarcastically mutters.

Lead Vorcha points at the team "(Snarl)You work for doctor! Turn on machines. Put cure in air! We kill you first (Snarl)"

Frankenstrike thinks "That's my que." As he charged at the vorcha while the team stayed back to protect the cure. The three vorcha with rifles fired but as usual, the Samaritan tanked it and fire a shot of electricity at the one who spoke, ignited the grenades on his sash and he exploded taking the vorcha on his left with him. The third vorcha activated his flamethrower when the Samaritan got close enough to him and his fellow vorcha.

While he felt the flames spread all over his body, it did not hurt or damage him. The two vorcha idiotically stared at him as he grabbed the pyro and shocked him to the point his canisters exploded, engulfing Frankenstrike and the fourth vorcha in the explosion.

---

Shepard

Shepard watched the smoke dissipate and revealed the Samaritan unharmed by the flames and the explosion. He then signaled it was clear for now, and the team moved up. She looked at he vorcha he incinerated without even breaking a sweat. She never thought she meet anyone crazier than Wrex, who probably would have pulled similar crazy stunts in his place.

Shepard gets an incoming message from EDI on the comms ["Shepard I scanned the room. The central control system is in an alcove in the center of the back wall. You can inject the cure and reinitialize the system there."]

"Copy that EDI." She acknowledges the A.I.

Frankenstrike led her to the back of the room with heavy machinery and controls for the ventilation and environmental systems. Shepard approached the machinery in the center. She placed the case on the ground and opened it to reveal the tube containing the cure. She found the spot for insertion and administered the cure into the machine, which hummed to life as it activated.

"Excellent, the cure is in place. Now we just need to reactivate the fans." Miranda said

"There are two fan array controls on the east and west sides of the room. Doubt the vorcha will let us though." Frankenstrike explains.

Shepard smirks at the Samaritan "Well its good think we got a walking pile driver with us." She humorously remarks.

Frankenstrike smirks. But before he could reply. Jacob alerts the group "Heads up, we got company!"

Five more vorcha appear. Three on ground level. Two on a balcony over the exit with rocket launchers.

Shepard gets to cover behind a pillar on the left while Miranda and Jacob get behind cover on the right pillar. Frankenstrike is near Shepard firing at the rockets before they get close. They still needed to activate the east and west fan arrays to administer the cure. Time to divide and conquer.

"Miranda!" Shepard shouts and Miranda turns to her "You and Jacob clear out the west side!" She points to Frankenstrike "Me and the big guy will take care of the east!"

Nods all around as Shepard counts down to when they will break from cover. "Three, two, one…break!"

Everyone breaks from cover and lets the vorcha have it. Jacob obliterates the head of one of the ground vorcha near him with a shotgun and then uses his biotics to pull one of the rocket vorcha off the balcony and hurls him towards him and smacks him away with a biotic punch into the wall on his right. Miranda than grabs a ground vorcha with her own biotics and raises him into the air and slams him down hard into the metal floor, killing him. Both manage to slip away to the west area of the room and being fighting off the vorcha in that area.

Shepard powers up her biotic charge and zooms to the top balcony and charges into the rocket vorcha and smashes him into the fan behind him. She turns to watch Frankenstrike grab the last vorcha and slam him into the ground and the vorcha goes splat and the gore splatters Frankenstrike. The guys hardcore when he wants to be.

She turns to the west side to watch Miranda ignite a pyro's pack and kill two of his comrades as they make their way to the west fan array. Shepard jumps back down to join the Samaritan as they head for the east fan array.

Two rocket vorcha appear from the top balcony on the east side and fire two rockets at one. Frankenstrike reacts faster and gets in front and shots one midway towards them, and nails both as they explode. Both hear shouting and see a krogan charging. Frankenstrike runs toward him and they collide with each other and begin to wrestle. Shepard focuses on the rocket vorcha on the balcony and biotically charged to the one on the right and slams her right fist into his face and reducing it to a bloody pulp as he goes flying off the balcony. She turns and aims her rifle at the last vorcha as he is about to fire and she fires at him, scoring a perfect head shot as the vorcha falls to the ground.

She looks down and sees the Samaritan and krogan trying to push each other back. She sees Frankenstrike smirk as the coils on his back start to pump electricity and flows through his arms and electrocutes the krogan who is stunned enough for to throw him across the room, shorting out the krogan's shield. Shepard looks to the down at rocket launcher near the down vorcha and decide to help out. Grabbing the launcher, she aims at the krogan who regenerates from the damage and gets back up and stares down the Samaritan as he prepares to charge. He never saw Shepard aim the rocket launcher and she fired at the krogan who looked up too late and was hit in the head by the rocket, obliterating his head as his body was flung into the wall.

Frankenstrike looks up at Shepard "I had could have handled him you know!" he says with humor in his voice.

Shepard smirks "What? And let you have all the fun. You're not the only one who can go toe to toe with a krogan." She replies as she jumps down from the balcony to join the Samaritan as they continue to push to the fan array.

As they approached the door, they encountered four more vorcha (two regular and two pyros) The vorcha opened fired but Shepard raised her biotic barrier while Frankenstrike just tanked the bullets.

Frankenstrike looks to Shepard "There all yours, its not a krogan, but killing a couple of pyromaniacs can be fun too, right!?" He says with a smirk.

Shepard humorously shrugs "Eh, I'll take what I can get" she replies as she focuses her biotics and use it to push a pyro on his back, who winds up torching a fellow vorcha on his right, who begins to scream in pain. She than fires at the remaining pyro's canisters, causing it to explode and igniting the down pyro's canisters, engulfing the entire group in a burst of flames.

She looks back to the Samaritan and smiles "You know what? It was fun." She remarks.

Frankenstrike chuckles.

"Told you." He replies.

The doors to the fan array controls open and two vorcha are on the other side and step out with their guns ready. Shepard thought "Too easy" and decides for the up close and personal approach as she powered her biotics and charged at the vorcha before the Samaritan could react.

---

Frankenstrike

Frankenstrike was about to charge himself but Shepard beat him to it again and already punched the one on the right into the wall in the room behind them than she quickly pulled out her side arm and shot the other point blank in the head who quickly dropped dead. He's starting to believe that this is the savior of the citadel back from the dead. He may have to hear her out after all, besides, it's the least he could do after she went through all this just to help-

A Blood Pack krogan came out of nowhere from the control room and tackles Shepard, and then picked her up and slams her into the floor. Denting the metal under her and shorting out Shepard's shields.

Frankenstrike eyes widens. Time slowed down as he raises his hands and his coils pumped with electricity. The krogan raised his pistol as he aimed for the face of the dazed Commander while pinning her to the floor with his foot…

"GWEN!"

---

Shepard

Shepard will admit she got a little cocky, but to be fair, she has been on an operating table for two years. And finding out that she had Cerberus to thank for saving her life, made her very eager to hit something to vent the rage she's been feeling since waking up.

Normally she would have saw the krogan coming and be quicker to dodge. Sadly, that wasn't the case and the pain in her back of her head was telling her two things. One, wear a helmet more often. Two, stop rushing into shit like your eager to die all over again. Now she is looking at the blurry figure of the krogan pinning her to the floor and her mind is screaming for her body to move, or power up her biotics. Do something before the krogan shoots-

"GWEN!"

She could hear Frankenstrike shout her name as a bolt of electricity hit the krogan and stunned him enough to make him release his hold of the commander, and she felt the weight of the krogan's foot leave her chest. Next thing she knew, the Samaritan came charging in, roaring as he tackled the krogan to the ground and began pummeling him in the face.

Shepard started at the scene as her vision began to clear up and saw the Samaritan breaking though the krogan's mask and blood began to splatter as he continued to punch the krogan repeatedly with his right fist. Despite the scene taking place in front of her she, Shepard was more surprised when she heard the Samaritan shout her name, her first name. She wasn't surprised that he knew her first name, but it's just so rare to hear anyone call her by her first name, and she was used to everyone calling her either Commander, Commander Shepard or just Shepard. Only close friends call her Gwen, and even that's on rare occasions. Despite just meeting this bizarre alien, he didn't say her name like she was just a recent acquaintance. He called out her name in a way one would call out to an old friend. A question for later, she decided.

During the whole commotion she managed to bring up her omni-tool and started to apply medical gel to sped up her recovery. Eventually the Samaritan stopped, leaving nothing left of the krogan's face. He stood up and walked up to Shepard and looked at her with relief as he saw she was okay.

"Shepard are you okay?" He asks with obvious concern.

Shepard sat up and rubbed the back of her head as the pain slowly helped with the pain, making it a minor annoyance. Shepard

"I'm fine big guy, just a little sore, nothing a little med-gel can't handle" she reassured the Samaritan with a grateful smile. "Thanks for the help by the way" she adds.

Frankenstrike smiles a little.

"It not a problem, just doing my job." He responds

Shepard raises an eyebrow in confusion

"Your job?" She asks.

"Being a hero." He clarifies as he offers his hand to help her up.

She smiles again and gratefully accepts the hand and rises to her feet with his assistance. She stumbles a bit but eventually regains her composure and she walk alongside the Samaritan as they enter the control room.

"I'll activate the fans" Frankenstrike offered as he walked into the control room and began the process.

Shepard was leaning against the left side of the door and faced outside to watch out for any more vorcha that might be lurking around. She glanced back at the Samaritan as he worked and still couldn't help but be in awe of the power he displayed and thought of what it would be like to fight alongside the other Samaritans, but she was sure she would find out if she could convince them to join her on this mission.

"Where the hell is his team during all of this?" she thought to herself. She figured this would be a situation that required more than one Samaritan. None of them were even helping Archangel and these guys are supposed to be allies with the turian vigilante. The plague and one-man war would be done in an instant if they all just showed up and helped. He said that their comms was having problems, but that couldn't just be it, he was their teammate, they must be concerned about him if they haven't heard from him by now, at least one of them could have showed up.

["Shepard you okay"] Jacobs voice came over the comm with concern in his voice ["EDI said you were hurt, and we could hear the big guy yelling your name. "]

["I was altered by your armor that your shields were deactivated and that you had sustained injuries in the areas of you lower cranial, upper back and shoulder blades."] EDI said in her emotionless tone. ["Current scans reveal your injuries are now subsiding and are in process of recovery"] She added.

Shepard was pulled out her thoughts as she responded, "I'm alright, our Samaritan friend took care of things and is about to active the fans in a minute." She rubs the back of her head as the pain is still fading "What's your status with the west array?" she asks.

["We ran into a couple vorcha, but we managed to take them all out. Miranda's about to turn on the fans on our end."] Jacob reports.

The fans began to come to life in that moment

["All systems are a go Commander"] Miranda responds from the comm ["The cure should be dispersed throughout the district in a matter of moments and prevent future fatalities from the plague. Now we just have to go talk with Doctor Mordin and get him and Samaritans on board with the mission."]

"Copy that Miranda" Shepard speaks up. "Meet back at the entrance and will be on our way."

["Copy"] ["Copy"] Miranda and Jacob both acknowledge.

"Thanks for helping out." She hears from the Samaritan as he approaches her from the controls "You didn't have to help these people, but you did despite the risks to yourself." They started to walk out of the control room and toward the entrance as he continues to speak "There's not a doubt in mind anymore. You're the Commander Shepard I've heard about." he said with a smile and admiration in his tone.

Shepard was glad that he didn't doubt who she was anymore, now she just hopes he is willing to join and put up being with what was technically a Cerberus crew, but the Samaritan's history with the collectors might be more than enough reasons to put aside what he feels about them, just like her. They made to the exit where Miranda and Jacob were waiting for them and Shepard decided now was goes as any time to ask-

["Shepard its Zaeed, the mercs are planning one big push against Archangel, if you want to get this guy on board you better get your ass down here fast."] Zaeed's transmissions interrupted before Shepard could say anything.

"Shit" was all Shepard could say as she looked up to the team who just heard the message on their own comms. Only Frankenstrike was the only one who didn't hear the transmission.

"We need to move if we want to get to Archangel in time" Miranda spoke up.

Frankenstrike looked at them with confusion.

"Archangel, your trying to recruit him too?" He asked the team.

"Yeah and all the top mercenary groups have him surrounded right now." Jacob responded, "He doesn't have long."

Frankenstrike narrowed his eyes, clearly, he didn't like the sound of this.

"What about Sidonis and the others?" Frankenstrike asked.

Shepard didn't know how he would take this, she knew the Samaritans team up with the Archangel band. While she only saw the Samaritans with Archangel, she could assume that a few of them knew Archangels' men.

"They were ambushed by all the mercenary groups." Shepard answered as delicately as possible. "Only Archangel is left." Frankenstrike eyes widen with shock and anger as he processed the information. "We're planning to go there on ourselves, but now maybe you and your friends can help us save him."

His fist started to tighten but he eventually relaxed and activated his omni-tool. Shepard's lit up and she examined it seeing that Frankenstrike sent her a communication frequency.

"I'm going to get the others, I call you when Archangel is out of danger." Frankenstrike replied as he ran out through eh exit.

"Wait!" Shepard yell as she and her team ran out to stop him but all they saw was a green flash that blinded them momentarily. When Shepard looked back, the Samaritan was gone with no trace.

"What the hell?" Jacob said in confusion.

"What just happened?" Shepard asked.

"It's what the Illusive Man believes to be their form of transportation" Miranda answered with an intrigued tone.

"What, like teleportation?" Shepard asks

"Not exactly" Miranda Answers "Our theory is that they possess some sort of device that allows them to move faster than we can perceive. All we really know is that the green flash is an indication of the enhanced speed being activated."

"What now Commander?" Jacob asks.

There wasn't much they could do but go back to the clinic and wait for the Samaritans to contact them with news about Archangel.

Shepard sighs "Lets head back to the clinic and talk to Mordin." She answered "Hopefully the big guy will call back and hopefully he'll have Archangel with him and the other Samaritans.

---

Narrator

A black and blue blur is seen zooming past people throughout the streets of Omega as it makes its way to the now known hideout of Archangel.

The blur takes a turn into the ally.

The scene focuses on the wall of a building as the blur stops in the ally. The shadow on the wall kneels to the ground and the owner of the shadow grunts in discomfort. It appears to be in the shape of a humanoid velociraptor with a sharp cone shaped head.

(Quick raspy voice)" Ugh not now…" that was all the voice could say before the shadow began to morph as a sort of flash occurred, unlike the familiar green flash, this flash is a rapid white light, like a camera flash, creating a photo negative effect around the area, and you could see the figure change its shape.

The Shadow morphed into the form of a familiar diamond hero, that quickly morphed to a humanoid with moth wings, and then a giant humanoid with four arms before changing a rapid pace.

The scenes change to the entrance into the ally as the flash continues. It eventually stops and the area becomes calm again.

"Aw man…" the new unknown voice groaned in annoyance.

---

Shepard- Mordin's Clinic

Mordin was on his terminal when we approached him in the clinic with a grateful looking Daniel standing beside him

"Environmental systems engaged." Mordin speaks. "Airborne viral levels dropping. Patients improving. Vorcha retreating. Well done Shepard. Thank you." He turns away from his terminal to face them with a pleased look of his face but noticed someone was missing. "Frankenstrike not with you?" before Shepard could respond "Ah, called away on another emergency I presume? Will thank him later then. Again, thank you for your assistance commander."

It was still hard to follow his fast speech, but Shepard was starting to get use to it.

"And thank you from me as well" Daniel chimes in, while nervously rubbing his fingers (probably a nervous tick). "Those batarians would have killed me. I'm was glad that you kept your word and didn't just let Frank kill them after they let me go."

Shepard almost snickered at the shortening of the Samaritans name, but kept her neural tone.

"I made a promise to spare them if they let you go. I honor my promises." Shepard gives the young man a smile "Even if that means facing down a behemoth who tries to break it."

Daniel returns the smile with a nod.

"Merciful of you." Mordin replies. "Risky. Would have let Samaritan kill them. Would have helped him kill them myself."

Daniel stares at him in surprise at the claim, despite the many times Mordin as shown brutality with the mercenaries that threaten his clinic and the people in it.

"Professor how can you say that." Daniel argues. "You're a doctor, you believe in helping people. Like the Samaritans."

"Lots of ways to help people." Mordin counter argues as he looks at his assistant "Sometimes heal patients. Sometimes execute dangerous people. Either way helps. Samaritans understand this. Kill dangerous people that threaten the innocent. Samaritans value innocent lives over dangerous lives. What I do is no different."

Daniel has a disappointed look. Shepard remembered how he said the Samaritans started off with leaving Omega criminals alive. Then they gradually accepted killing them, the longer they stayed on Omega. While the commander respects the young man's ideologies, she agreed with the doctor. Sometimes you must kill to save the innocent. Shepard had to learn that the hard way…

"Go check on the patients" the salarian doctor said to his assistant. "Lots of work to do. Think about what I said."

Daniel sighs and walks past Shepard with a nod of gratitude, which she responded with her own nod and a smile.

"Good kid. Bit naïve." Mordin says but still smiles. "He'll learn. Letting him take over the clinic. Should be able to handle it now that vorcha are gone."

"We cured the plague, are you ready to help stop the collectors?" Shepard asked the doctor, hoping he'll say yes.

"Yes" came the doctors reply "Unexpected to be working with Cerberus. Many surprises." He as he left the room to attend to other matter before he left.

Before anyone could say anything else. Shepard's omni-tool chimed to life and revealed she had a call from Frankenstrike communication frequency. When she opened the frequency for all to hear and she was greeted by a voice electronically hidden.

["Hello Commander Shepard, Frankenstrike spoke good things about you. I hope he is right about you."] Said the distorted voice.

"What the hell?" Jacob spoke.

Exactly what Shepard was thinking, why wasn't Frankenstrike the one calling?

"Who is this, and where the hell is Frankenstrike?" Shepard asked, not liking how this feels one bit.

The voice didn't respond at first, but after a few seconds

["…you can call me Magister. I'm the leader of the Samaritans."]

(A/N: Magister is a rank in the Plumber organization. Max Tennyson's rank in the plumbers is Magister, so I figured this would work as the name for the mysterious leader of team Samaritan.)

Shepard raised an eyebrow and then looked between Jacob and Miranda.

"We suspected that one of the Samaritans was acting as a leader for the group." Miranda stated, "But they're never seen together or even communicating with each other, making it difficult to determine who's in charge."

"Could it be someone we never seen before?" Jacob offers

"Why isn't Frankenstrike the one calling?" Shepard asks again, she didn't believe it was Frankenstrike. Why would he call with his voice in disguise? If the leader of the Samaritans is a secret, why have him call? Why not let the Samaritan she knows call and keep the leader a secret? Something is not adding up.

[" …Frankenstrike is in disposed at the moment, he sustained serous injuries after his fight with the Suns and the vorcha."]

Shepard was not buying this

"He seemed fine when he left. Hell, I've seen him get hit by rockets and he got back up after being stunned for a second." Shepard pointed out, hoping to get this guy to reveal the truth.

A few more seconds of silence, as if the leader was contemplating is answer.

["…We may seem invincible to the rest of you, but even Samaritans have their limits, we can get hurt too…and even die."]

Shepard still couldn't believe that the Samaritan just suddenly fell over the moment he left Shepard's team, she needed to get straight answers from this guy.

"That's not good enough." Shepard replied. "What exactly happened to-"

["We do not have time to argue!"] Magister interrupted, and he started to raise his voice with irritation ["Archangel is about to be overwhelmed by every fucking mercenary on the station, and most of our heavy hitters are in no condition to save him!"]

Shepard was not fazed by him raising his voice, she had dealt with worse. But she noted how Magister spoke about Archangel. It didn't sound like how you talk about a work associate. He sounded like someone who was concerned for a friend.

["Archangel needs you help Commander…We need your help."] He said with an almost pleading tone.

Shepard looked at her teammates and saw that they were engrossed in the conversation and now awaiting Shepard's word on what they would do about it…

"This guy has a lot of questions to answer when this is over" she thought as she sighed.

She decided to play along for now, until they get Archangel.

"Alright, we'll help but I expect you to give me straight answers when this is over. No more bullshit." Shepard let that sink. He didn't respond with a yes or no, but she knew he got the message. "What's the situation? How many Samaritans are still standing?" She asked still not believing most of them are too hurt to fight.

["…Including Frankenstrike…Diamondhead, Four Arms, Feedback and Big Chill are also down…"]

"Shit" Shepard thought. She remembered those guys for the videos. They could have gotten Archangel out of their no problem. What the hell happened that could've hurt those guys?

["Swampfire, and Kickin Hawk are in the area on standby, but they can't get through without alerting the mercenaries and they can't get Archangel out without risking the chance of him getting killed in a storm of bullets. Most of the mercs are armed with heavy weaponry. It very likely they are expecting us to try and save him."]

She wanted to ask more about this Magister. Was he really an eighth Samaritan that's never been seen before? He didn't talk like he was one of the seven. If so, then why isn't he out in the field if the situation is that bad? Maybe it was Swampfire or Kickin Hawk since they were the only ones still active. Or it could be one of the injured working from a secret location. However, there wasn't much time for these questions. She would save them for later.

"There's a recruiting station at Afterlife for freelance mercenaries to sign up for the job to take out Archangel" Shepard revealed. "We could sign up as freelancers to get close enough to help Archangel. Its not much but it's the best we got." She finished.

It was silent for a moment.

["…Its better than nothing."] came Magister's simple reply. He was probably willing to try anything to save his friend.

"We already have a man watching the mercs from the inside. You know him. Zaeed Missoni."

["Zaeed? He's there too?"] Magister sounded surprised about this. Didn't he say that two Samaritans were close by watching the scene? Wouldn't they have spotted him? It's not like Zaeed blends in with the crowed. Shepard was going to grill this guy for answers after they get Archangel.

["Alright that good. Zaeed's perfect for this."] Came the Magisters reply in a calmer tone. ["I'll have one of our Omega contacts meet you at Afterlife."]

"One of the helpers?" She knew that they relied on these guys for interacting with the residents of Omega for information, but she never saw any but the krogan fight in the videos.

"Alright who should I expect?" She asked.

["Your looking for a krogan named Berserk"]

Shepard almost laughed. A krogan with a name that could be used to describe the whole krogan people. She would just love to see Wrex's reaction to a krogan with that name. Was that even a krogan name? It could be a code name now that she though about it. Again, time for these questions later, focus on the mission now.

She looked to her team. She could just have Miranda and Jacob escort Mordin to the ship while she goes with Zaeed and this Berserk. But with most of the Samaritans benched, she needed to have all the help she can get with getting Archangel out. The two active Samaritans can hold their own in a fight, but they can't tank all those weapons and cover our escape with Archangel at the same time, unless they plan this perfectly when they arrive.

With Magister on the line she addressed him and the group before her.

"All right here's how we'll do this…"

---

Shepard-Afterlife

Shepard approached Afterlife alone. She had Miranda and Jacob escort Mordin to the Normandy, she didn't want to risk him in this after just getting him on board. He was planning to get on the seeker swarm analysis immediately. Miranda and Jacob would arrive later, while Shepard, Zaeed and Berserk get to Archangel, the Cerberus agents will hang back and be ready to cause havoc within the mercenary blockade that surround Archangel's hideout. The Samaritans would jump in and assist after we break our freelancer cover. She still couldn't help but feel the Samaritans were holding something back regarding viable information, but right now she had to take what she could get and be glad that whatever Frankenstrike said about her was able to convince the others to work with her.

Once she neared the entrance, she noticed a green-eyed krogan leaning against a wall near the entrance. He had orange-yellow skin, black armor with white highlights, and a green bandanna that covers the front of his head plating, a shotgun strapped to his back, a pistol on his left hip. Shepard knew from her conversations with Wrex that this krogan was considered young by krogan standards, a young adult at least.

She recognized him from the video of him and Patriarch and approached him (really did look like a younger version of the elder krogan. Could they be related?). He wasn't a Samaritan but the recordings of his fights with Blood Pack assassins showed that he was decent in a fight. But she would have expected no less from a member of the warrior race.

"Berserk?" she asked as she approached him.

He noticed her.

"Commander Shepard" he stated in a deep voice (A/N: Kevin Michael Richardson voice/Bulkhead voice from Transformers Prime), as he reached for his bandanna and lifted slightly so only Shepard could see.

As she expected, the green and black hourglass symbol was placed on his head plating. This assured her that he was a Samaritan helper without a doubt.

"The Samaritans tell you about the plan?" she asked the young krogan who re-covered his head platting.

"Yeah, we sign up as freelancers and meet up with Zaeed at Archangels hideout and do whatever we can to cause hell and get him out before shit hits the fan." He answered.

"And the Samaritans will be there to help us, right?" She asked, still feeling something in her gut telling her that there is more going on with these strange aliens that they're wiling to tell her.

Berserk looked at her for a moment as he seemed to be pondering what to say to her. She immediately picked up on how calm this guy was, almost Wrex-like calm. Most young krogan are eager to fight and charge head first in without regards for pretty much anything, but this one did not follow the normal behavior of young krogan. It felt like she was talking to a younger Wrex.

"…They'll be there…they won't step in until our cover is blown, but they'll help be there to back us up." He answered.

She had no choice accept that answer for the moment, but she would still confront the Samaritans when this is over. Berserk tuned to the direction of the entrance.

"Don't know about you, but my bloods boiling. Let's find something to kill, shall we?" He stated in a relaxed tone.

Shepard slightly snickered at how this guy could be Wrex's long-lost brother.

They entered the bar and Shepard noticed the krogan glancing occasionally at the second floor. She turned and noticed Aria eyeing them. She gave the duo a sly smirk as they made their way to the recruiting station. Shepard was dying to know what exactly the Queen of Omega had on the Samaritans and their helpers, but she needed to get them on her side first, and she need to meet this supposed leader.

As they were walking, Berserk's omni-tool lit up and he examined it. He gave an annoyed grunt as he turned to face the commander.

"There a problem?" She asked.

"…(grunting)Just need to take care of something really quick. It's just outside and it should only take a second." He answered

He kept gazing up where Aria, who was facing away from them this time, but Shepard could tell that she knew where the duo was without looking. She figured that this had something to do with the Asari. She didn't want to delay the mission, but she didn't need to the risk of Aria causing complications if this involved her.

"(sign) Alright but let's be quick, there isn't much time." She stated.

"(grunt) Right." He replied and headed for a door near the bar with the commander right beside him.

Once they reach the lower ramp for the door, it opened and were greeted with the sight of two Blood Pack krogan approaching.

"This will be quick. Get Ready" Berserk said to Shepard before he approached the other krogan.

Shepard hanged back and waited to see how this all played out.

"Out of our way kid." The Blood Pack krogan said menacingly as he waved his gun in a manner to tell the younger krogan to move.

"You here for Patriarch?" Berserk asked, not at all fazed by the gun in his face.

Shepard recalled the video of Berserk talking to Patriarch and how the krogan was being targeted by the Blood Pack. Berserk offered to be his krantt and fight for his honor.

"What if we are?" said the assassin. Sounds like he's not at all bright if he doesn't realize he is talking to Patriarch's krantt by now. "(pointing at Berserk in a threatening manner) You gonna something abo- "

He never got to finish because Berserk headbutted the assassin and tackled the stunned krogan to the ground. The other assassin was about to fire at Berserk, but Shepard pulled out her pistol and fired at the second. The assassin turned to Shepard and ignited his weapon as a stream of fire shot at the commander who dodged to her left and sent a biotic push at the krogan, knocking him into the wall and shorting out his shields. She charged at him with biotic punch that broke through his mask and smashed into his face. She than aimed her pistol at his faced and emptied the clip into him. He dropped dead to the ground.

Shepard her the sounds of bones breaking as she turned to see Berserk pummeling the assassins face with his hands, and splattering blood all over himself. Shepard had a sense of déjà vu, as his position over the assassin was like how Frankenstrike tackled the krogan that pinned her to a wall and pummeled his face. It was strange to see it again from Berserk with the exact manner and motions of punching. Almost like he and the Samaritan practiced the same kind of fighting.

She broke from her musing as Berserk stood up and approached her away from the body, whose face was nothing but a bloody mess. He looked at the assassin Shepard killed and nodded in approval of her kill.

"Not bad." Came his short remark. Shepard smirked and nodded

"If we're done having fun, we need to get the mission done." She replied

Berserk grunted and nodded as she led the way to the recruiting station. They approached the entrance and the merc recruiter waiting outside the door.

"We heard your recruiting?" she asked the batarian merc.

The Blue Sun batarian made a "Hmph" noise as he looked at Shepard and Berserk for moment before he pointed to the door.

"Why don't you step inside" he said as he allowed them to go talk to his boss.

The duo made their way inside to find another Blue Sun mercenary at a holographic terminal, talking to a man in white combat armor.

"You'll get paid when the job's done, just like everyone else" the Blue Sun said to the freelancer, who left afterwards. "Who's next?" he asked as Shepard and Berserk approached his terminal as the freelancer passed them.

The mercenary gave amused and almost pervy look at Shepard. She was tempted to gauge his eyes out at that moment.

"Well aren't you sweet" he said with a condescending tone. "(went back to typing in his terminal) You're in the wrong place honey. Strippers quarters are that way" he said motioning his head back to the door as he continued typing.

Shepard glared at the batarian. "You did not just call me HONEY" she thought. As much as she wanted to deck this guy in the face for that stripper comment, she needed to keep up the freelancer act. But that doesn't mean she had to take that quietly. So, she pulled out her pistol and aimed it at the batarian.

"Show me yours, tough guy." She said in a threating tone as she aimed her gun. "I bet mines bigger."

She could see Berserk out of the corner of her left eye with his arms crossed and smirking, apparently amused by the scene in front of him.

"Impressive" he said as she lowered the gun from his head, and he looked at her more seriously "So you're here to fight than?"

"Sure" Shepard replied as she put away her weapon "If this is the place to go after Archangel?"

"This is the place" he said as he looked at Berserk who was still beside Shepard on her left. "You with her?" He asked the krogan.

"She said this job involved killing a tough turian" He answered with what Shepard could tell was a faux tone of krogan blood lust, "He is tough?"

"You can say that…" the batarian answered as he started typing again. "Standard fee is 500 credits each, you get paid when the jobs done. If you die, your friends don't collect your share. (Shepard and Berserk share a look at the casualness of that remark) You'll need your own weapons and armor. (he looks at them both) Looks like you got that covered. (He stops typing as he looks back at them) And no, this does not make you a member of the Blue Suns, Eclipse or the Blood Pack. (he goes back typing) You are a freelancer period. Any questions?" he asks as he finishes speaking.

"Seems like a lot of trouble for just one guy." Shepard remarks.

"He had a whole team, but we've dealt with them." (Shepard could see from the corner of her eye that Berserk slightly tensed at the mention of Archangels team) "Now he's just one guy. But he's got the advantage."

"And that is?" Berserk asks

"Its his base of operations and he knows we're coming. He's planned for and attack like this. Lost a lot of men trying to get to him already."

"It's gonna be tough to get to him" Berserk comments with his arms crossed. Clearly, he doubts the mercenaries can take out Archangel.

"Like chasing a vorcha out of the sewer pipes." The Blue Sun commented.

Berserk snorted at the comment, and Shepard could her him mutter: "Been there, done that..."

"But that's why we're recruiting. If we just keep throwing fighters at him, we'll get him eventually." The mercenary finished.

"Where's the attack taking place?" Shepard asks

"Archangels base of operations" The Blue Sun says as he checks his own gun and continues "He's been hiding right under our noses. I can't exactly tell you where your going, but we'll get you there." He finished.

"Where do we go?" Berserk asks.

"Just head over to the transport depot just outside the club. One our boys will take you from there." He answers as he foes back to typing "Send in the next one" he orders the other Blue Suns outside.

Shepard and Berserk turn around to leave as the doors open. A young man enters the room. Light skinned with a yellow beanie. White sleeveless shirt with grey and black highlights and a yellow sleeveless jacket over his shirt. Green pants and black boots. He has a pistol strapped to his black belt on his right hip.

Has he passes by, Shepard can see Berserk has a look of surprise and familiarity with the kid. Almost like he knows him, but the kid clearly had no clue who he was as he walked past the duo.

"Hey, is this where I sign up?" the kid asked the merc and sounding almost eager.

Shepard looked the kid over and she could tell that he was as green as they come. He was going to get killed after the five minutes on the job. Less, since Shepard and the Samaritans will be raining on the mercs parade.

"You look a little young to be freelancing as a merc." Shepard commented.

"(grunt) The dumb ass wouldn't last a day" Berserk muttered.

The kid turns to confront the due. Not appreciating the comments.

"I'm old enough" kid says." I grew up on Omega. I know how to use a gun."

"Any brainless pyjak can hold a gun and shoot it. Doesn't make them a badass kid." Berserk said. Shepard can see that he knows the kid, but the kid doesn't know him.

Kid didn't take to kindly to that comment.

"I can handle myself" the kid says as he pulls out his pistol. "Besides, I just spent fifty credits on this pistol and I want to use it-"

Shepard was about to act but Berserk beat her to it and did what she intended to do. He grabbed the kids vest and brings him to his face with angry look

"Idiot! Don't be in such a hurry to die!" Berserk growled as he took the kids weapon and throws it into the ground hard, damaging it.

"HEY! WH-" the kid protested but the glare from the krogan silenced him, and Berserk released him and walked away, leaving the kid stunned by what just happened.

Truth be told Shepard was surprised that the krogan cared so much, not even Wrex would have bothered to do something that Shepard would usually do herself.

She looks at the kid "Trust me kid, he did you a favor, you'll thank him later." She said to the kid as she walked away for the kid who was looking down.

She caught up with Berserk as they both left the bar and walked I the direction of the depot.

"So, you know the kid?" Shepard asks. Clearly, he knew him, but it didn't make sense to her why he cares if the kid got himself killed or not when they apparently weren't even friends.

Berserk seems to ponder what to say and eventually grunts and sighs before answering.

"His name is Jonn Whitson" Berserk answered. "He's a friend of a friend of mine. And I promised I do something if I see him act like an idiot. Let's just leave it at that." He answers, not wanting to elaborate further.

Shepard decided that she wouldn't get any further with that question and decided to change the subject to something else.

"How did you meet the Samaritans?" She asked.

The krogan once again on a look of pondering before he answered

"I was in a bad place when they found me, I had no home, no clan, no purpose, just meaningless fighting. Usually that's more than enough for krogan who only care about satisfying their desire to fight, but not for me." He paused for a moment. He looked at Shepard who had a look of curiosity that asked for him to continue. "Four Arms saw something in me and asked if I wanted to help make a difference on Omega. I had no reason to say no, so I took him up on his offer. Now I wander around Omega and listen in for anything that would require a Samaritans aid. And occasionally I would step in and take care of something myself."

"Like with Patriarch" Shepard asked. Berserk nodded.

"He's one of the few krogan on Omega I respect. I stop by from time to time and listen to his stories. They're…inspiring to say the least."

"But what does Aria have to do with it. I've seen how she looked at you when you stepped into Afterlife." Shepard asked.

Berserk looked at her with a look that said he did not wish to talk about it but the look from Shepard said that she wanted something.

"(grunt) She made us aware of the Blood Packs price on Patriarch's head and we have an agreement to look out for him." That was all he said on the matter and gave her the same look that said he was not going to elaborate any further.

"I thought the Samaritans were vague on details" Shepard though as she softly signed. "So, what about the other helpers." Shepard asked, hoping she get more.

"Helpers?" he asked amusingly "That what you call us? (soft deep chuckle) Guess it fits. Well, I never really ask about them much. I don't even see them most of the time. We're mostly spread out throughout the station and providing information to the Samaritans. Better that no one ever catches us together. I assume there like me and they had no where to go until one of the Samaritans offered them a chance to make a difference." He finished.

Shepard wanted to ask more questions. Didn't they live at the Samaritans hideout? Wouldn't they have talked to each other? And how did they convince a freaking vorcha to become a helper?!

"There's the car" Berserk says before she could even ask another. Guess her questions can wait. They approached the Blue Sun batarian standing next to the red car. Shepard and Berserk approached the Sun.

"We're on the mission" Shepard stated to the batarian driver.

"I hope you're ready" The Blue Sun replied, "Archangels been annihilating you freelancers."

Berserk had a barely visible smirked. Shepard figured he was glad to hear his friend giving the merc hell.

"We're ready." Shepard said to the driver.

"Get in" the batarian said as he moved towards the driver side of the car and the duo got into the passenger seats. Shepard messaged Zaeed that they were on their way as the car took off.

---

Shepard- Archangels Hideout/Merc Base

The car eventually slows down and begins to land in the middle of the street that seems to have been outfitted to be a part of the mercs base operations as there were mercs, freelancers and supplies all over the area.

The car doors opened. Shepard and Berserk stepped out and were approached by another batarian blue sun. He eyed the duo with a somewhat impressed look.

"It's about time they sent me someone who looks like they can actually fight." The merc stated. "They tell you what we're up against" he asked the duo.

"The recruiter was a little vague" Shepard answered.

"We wouldn't get many hires if everyone knew the truth…"

"There with me Salkie, I can fill them in on the rest." The voice of Zaeed interrupted as the bounty hunter came down the steps of the streets and approached the group.

"Good. When you guys are ready, go talk to sergeant Cathka" Salkie replied as he walked off, leaving Zaeed and the duo to talk.

"Berserk, good to see you again, you crazy reptile." Zaeed greeted in a friendly manner

"Zaeed, it's been a while hasn't it?" Berserk asked.

"Heh, haven't seen you since that time we chased that pack of vorcha out of the sewer pipes." The bounty hunter amusingly mentioned.

"(Berserk snorted) Never going through that shit again. No pun intended…well maybe a little intended" Berserk replied. Shepard could tell these two could go on for a while if she didn't step in.

"I hate to interrupt the trip down memory lane, but we got a turian vigilante to save." Shepard interrupted despite how amusing the conversation was getting. The helper and the bounty hunter turned their attention to her, and they refocused. She turned to Zaeed "What do you got for us Zaeed?" she asked hoping he got some information on the situation.

"Archangel is holding up in a building at the end of the boulevard. He collapsed all the underground passageways and sealed the doors to the lower levels. They have people trying to dig through, but the bosses are getting impatient. Now the only way in or out is a narrow bridge that is so bloody exposed, its become a killing ground filled with the bodies of any poor saps who thought they could outrun the turians bullets." Zaeed looked at Berserk and smirked in amusement. "He might even be crazier than you and the Samaritans, the son of a bitch managed to ground their gunship with a single bloody shot."

"That's Archangel for you." Berserk said with glee as he heard Zaeed speak of Archangels carnage against the mercs.

"They used a gunship for one guy?" Shepard asked, surprised by all the trouble the mercs are going through to kill a single turian.

"They were probably expecting the Samaritans to come in and help by now" Zaeed guessed as he looked back at Berserk "Speaking of, where they hell are those guys?"

"There around, waiting for us to give the signal" Berserk replied, and not giving any clear details as usual.

"So, anyone made it across the bridge?" Shepard asked Zaeed.

"They got a few over to get close enough that they could start breaking into his hideout, but they need a distraction to keep Archangel occupied.

"I'm guessing that where we freelancers come in." She asked already seeing where this is going.

"Yep" Zaeed replied. "They want us to run straight across the damn bridge and keep his attention while their guys break in. (Snorts in disapproval) Its god damn suicide is what it is." Zaeed explains.

["Shepard, I've scanned the area."] EDI spoke through the comms ["But I am unable to plot any other paths to Archangel"]

"Guess we're going with the mercs." Shepard stated in annoyance.

"Archangel knows me." Berserk chimed in." He won't fire when he sees me."

"Well at least we have that going for us." Shepard replied.

"Getting in will be easy." Berserk spoke. "The bitch will be getting out without getting killed."

"Especially with most of the Samaritans out of commission." Shepard said as she sighed

"Our odd aren't looking to good right now, and I've done some wild shit in my time." Zaeed said.

["The heavy mechs and gunship possess considerable fire power."] EDI added. ["Weakening them before leaving will improve your chances."]

That wasn't a bad idea. It would make this mission easier if they took out the big guns.

"Copy that EDI, thanks" Shepard said before turning to her team. "All right, let's go have some fun with the mercs toys before we get started." She said with a mischievous smile.

Zaeed and Berserk nodded with their own diabolical smiles. Clearly, they liked where this was going.

---

Berserk-Archangels hideout/Merc Base/Eclipses section

Berserk and Zaeed followed the Commander into the Eclipse section of the Merc base. Shepard was currently talking to a red-skinned salarian with white face markings, Jaroth, leader of Omega's Eclipse.

"Seems like this is personal for you" Shepard said to Jaroth.

"He raided one of my transports last month." He rounded angrily. "Killed two of my best operatives. One of them was my BROTHER, so yeah I find it very damn personal." He continued with fury in his eyes. "I would have killed him already if that damn Samaritan, Feedback, hadn't showed up and helped him get away."

"Hehe. Bet that pissed you off even more?" Berserk thought to himself amusingly.

"I'm surprised the Samaritans haven't showed up yet, given their alliance with Archangel, then we could have annihilated them along with Archangel and his pathetic ragtag team. (Berserk subtly glared at the salarian) No matter, once Archangel's corpse is feed to the vorcha, we'll go out hunting for them and their hideout as well." He finished with a hint of a sadistic tone.

Berserk wanted to kill him there and now but a glance from Shepard told him to keep his cool and not blow their cover just yet. Berserk grunted as he calmed himself while Shepard continued to talk to him. After finishing her conversation with the Eclipse leader, the trio began to subtly search around the area. Shepard found something on a table and signaled for Berserk and Zaeed to follow her out of the room to see what she found.

"Looks like this isn't the end of the merc groups little arrangement with each other." Shepard said as she showed the datapad she found.

Shepard came upon a message from Jaroth to Tarak about how they plan to team up with Garm and use their forces to hunt done the Samaritans and then take on Aria. Getting rid of the biggest threats to their control on Omega. Oh, Berserk knew that Aria was going to just love this. Maybe it would even get her to lay off with the blackmail, because Berserk was getting sick of being her unwilling bodyguard.

"I thought Tarak was acting crazy before, but this is too insane and suicidal even for him." Zaeed stated.

"You know Tarak." Shepard asked curiously.

"We go way back to the early days of the Blue Suns, another story for another time thought." Zaeed replied with a hint of bitterness at mentioning early times. Berserk knew this story as Zaeed told him before, and he knew it wasn't a good idea to get Zaeed talking about it unless they want him to break cover early and try slaughtering the Suns.

"Aria might wind up owning us a favor is we show this to her." Berserk added in, hoping that this would change the subject. And he hoped this information keep a grateful Aria from revealing the big secret about the Samaritans.

"I like the way you think Berserk" Shepard replied as she sent the message from her omni-tool to Aria. Then turn to Berserk and Zaeed. "Let's check out their mechs" Shepard added as they headed for a door that opened to reveal a deactivated standard mechs and one heavy mech.

"Oh, the things I could do with this…" Berserk musingly thought as he wished he currently had the right skill set for turning this mech into the ultimate merc killer. He watched Shepard as she began to hack and reprogram the heavy mech.

"Almost done and… (sound of bypassing security.)there" Shepard stated with a satisfied sigh. "That should slow them down."

"Nice" Zaeed commented "Anyone who activates that thing will be blown the hell up. (Zaeed smirking) Friend or foe."

Berserk was impressed with her tech skills, "Not bad" he commented. She could give Archangel's tech guy a run for his money…Berserk had a look of sad nostalgia that turned to anger than back to neutral as Shepard turned around. He mourns for the others later, right now he needed to focus on Archangel, and he would avenge them by killing every merc here.

---

Shepard-Archangel hideout/Merc Base/Blood Pack section

Shepard and her team made their way into the Blood Pack section and were greeted by a krogan in red armor with skull markings on his shoulder pads, Garm, the Blood Pack leader. And a vorcha on his right snarling at the trio as they entered.

"You're in the wrong place freelancers." Came the reply of Garm.

"You the Blood Pack leader?" Shepard asked

"Names Garm. That's all you need to know." He said to Shepard but then he turned to Berserk who was standing beside Shepard on her right. Garm had a look of interest and disgust. "(To Berserk) Why are you following this human, young one?" he asked the younger krogan.

"Why not? Berserk asks as he looks at Shepard "She's the strongest warrior I've seen." the Samaritan helper answered. Shepard was a little surprised by the comment, since he only seen her take down one Blood Pack assassin and only heard what Frankenstrike told him.

"You should be learning from your own kind" the Blood Pack leader replied with a disapproving tone.

Berserk narrowed his eyes at the leader. Shepard had to wonder what goes through the mind of the atypical krogan helper.

"And what more could I learn from my kind that I don't already know now?" Bersek asked.

"How to live and die without fear" the leader replied as he aimed his gun at the unsuspecting vorcha near him who turned around and his head was blasted off and landed on a table in the back of the room next to two vorcha, who were unfazed by the death of their fellow vorcha. Shepard couldn't help but think "Hardcore" at the scene. "How to put that fear in the hearts of your enemies." Garm finished.

"Shepard does that and more, so I think I'm good where I am right now. But thanks for the advice" Berserk responded.

"If you say so, but there is a place among your own kind when you find out otherwise about this human." Garm said. Still had the disapproving tone and still tried to get Berserk to join.

Shepard noticed how Berserk talked like he was there when they fought the vorcha in the quarantine zone. This is the kind of praise the Samaritan gave her, but to here from someone who barley seen her fight. Maybe he's heard about Shepard before and was just impressed by what he heard? Questions for later as Garm turned his attention back to Shepard.

"I'm stuck here waiting till you freelancers are done playing war." Garm said to Shepard. "Ask you questions and go." He finished.

Shepard began to ask question about the plan of attack and about the Blood Pack and Garm answered. Than the topic changed to Archangel.

"…everybody loves us, and everybody hates us."

"I'm guessing Archangel and the Samaritans mostly just hates you." Shepard said and she could tell that mentioning the vigilantes annoyed the leader.

"Archangel's just an uptight asshole and the Samaritans are just a pack of asshole freakshows." Garm replied. "I don't really care what they think. But the turian and his freak friends are costing me men and making me work for my money." He than had a look of homicidal glee "I'll be the one to take Archangel out today and any Samaritans than are stupid enough to come help him…you watch. I'm the only one here who's fought with Archangel and a Samaritan." He finished.

"So, you've had some personal experience with the vigilantes?" Shepard asked, but she already knew from the videos that Garm fought against Four Arms once. Berserk looked like he wanted to tear apart the leader, but Shepard again gave him the look that said, 'Stand down' and he kept his cool afterwards.

"Archangel tried to take me down once." Garm answered "Waited till I was alone. Longest damn fight in my life, but I held him off till my men showed up. He wasn't so tough after that…" His face took on an annoyed look "Than that damned four armed Samaritan showed up and slaughtered most of my men and nearly killed me before he leaped out of the fight with Archangel. Damn bastard." He finished. Berserk had a look that said he was satisfied with the Blood Pack leader's annoyance. Shepard decide it was time to leave before Garm noticed Berserk's shit-eating grin.

"i should go." Came Shepard's usual statement when she wanted to end a conversation.

"'Bout time." Came the leaders reply before he looked at Berserk again, who thankfully returned to his neutral expression. "Think about what I said kid." He said to Berserk.

"Oh, I intend to, and thanks for the tip about fear" Berserk said with faux appreciation.

They left the room as one of the vorcha in the firefight with Archangel got sniped right in front of them. "The guys a hell of a shot, almost like…" Shepard quickly refocused and returned to the objective. There was no way it was him…

---

Berserk- Archangel's hideout/Merc Base/Blue Suns

"Jentha! Get these freelancers scum out of here. I don't have time for this shit!" came the order from Tarak, Blue Suns leader, as soon as Berserk and Shepard stepped into the Blue Suns command center.

"Tarak!" Zaeed said as he stepped into the room, crossing his arms "What's eating you ass!?"

"Zaeed?" Tarak said confused and surprised. Than he realized that Zaeed was here with the duo "(pointing at Zaeed) Since when you work for so little?" he asked in disbelief.

"Since when are you a god damn mad man?" Zaeed responded.

"Its Archangel and those fucking Samaritans!". Tarak said as he started to get livid and almost sounded like he was going half-crazy and paranoid. "These freaks are gonna to kill me, almost did already."

"That bad huh?" Zaeed asked as he looked at Shepard than at Tarak. He sounded slightly surprised at how on edge the Suns leader sounded.

Berserk already knew why and he was happy to see the results of that little adventure with Archangel on the Blue Sun "(quietly mutters) Eat shit you little pyjak" he said to the Suns leader who didn't hear, but an amused look from Shepard told him she heard him.

"Jentha, talked to these guys. Answer whatever questions they have." Tarak ordered to a tanned skin redhead who nodded to his order. He turned back to Zaeed. "Good to see you. And who knows? Maybe you'll solve my problem for me" he finished with a slightly lighter tone.

"Anything's possible" Zaeed said with a sly smirk to Berserk and Shepard. Oh, they were going to have fun fucking their shit up.

"Good thing you know him." Jentha said to the trio as they approached her. "Tarak hates having to hire freelancers. He doesn't trust anyone outside of the Blue Suns."

"You don't say?" Zaeed sarcastically asked

Shepard began to ask the Blue Sun questions about the organization and how they operate on Omega until Archangel and the Samaritans came up.

"How did Archangel and the Samaritans get the Blue Suns so mad at them?" Shepard asked.

"They harass and hound us constantly" Jentha said sounding annoyed. Berserk had his shit-eating grin on as he continued to listen. "We worry that every job is a trap now. Tarak's had enough and I don't blame him." She said. Berserk can tell that it's not just Archangel and the Samaritans, Taraks probably driving her crazy as well. "They show up usually at the worst possible time and screws with our work. They can't die soon enough."

"Sounds like you really want them dead yourself" Berserk stated. He knew why but he wanted to keep up the appearance as a clueless freelancer.

"Taraks been on edge since Archangel and the diamond Samaritan attacked him in his home." She said and got more annoyed "And he's making my life a living hell, second guesses every damn thing I do. Getting the other merc bands to help us shows you just how desperate he is." She finished. And Shepard asked her more question about their plan of attack. How Tarak doesn't trust the other mercs and wants to wait and attack after them.

"What if Archangel survives all those attacks. Than you Suns are on your own. And what about when the Samaritans show up and help Archangel." Shepard questioned.

"(light chuckle) Doubt you got any fire power that can take out guys that can tank rocket launchers." Berserk comments

Jenoth looked annoyed at Berserks comment but continued "We haven't sighted any Samaritans in the area, so all we can do now is have everyone alert for them to show up while we take out Archangel with the gunship. We were lucky it wasn't beyond repair when the Samaritan damaged it, now we have to wait for Cathka to fix it again and blast Archangel to pieces with it. Than we can focus all our resources into hunting down the Samaritans." She finished with a smirk.

"You think you can take them out now after months of them fucking you over?" Berserk asked, doubting that they could back up that claim.

"They've never had all the merc groups teaming up on them with all their fire power. Archangel and his team learned that the hard way." She said with satisfaction at the vigilante team's deaths. Berserk kept his typical krogan expression on his face, but on the inside, he was ready to live up to his name and go BERSERK.

"We better get going." Shepard's reply knocked him out of his raging thoughts and led him away from the area before he could snap.

"We'll make them pay soon big guy." Shepard promised Berserk. He grunted and nodded as they made their way outside where the freelancers are hiding behind barricades and trading shots with Archangel. When Shepard asked one where Cathka was, he pointed them toward the gunship, and the trio headed toward it. Berserk couldn't see any sign of damage, but he knew Archangel did a number on it, he always was a crack shot. They approached four human freelancers standing by the gunship.

"Cathka?" Shepard asked the closet one. He pointed toward the back of the gunship that was being worked on by a Blue Sun batarian. The trio approached the batarian.

"Sergeant Cathka" the helmeted Blue Sun corrected as he faced the trio and depolarized his visor. "You must be the group Salkie mentioned."

"I'm surprised he bothered to mention a couple extra freelancers" Shepard stated.

"He said you three kind of stand out from most of the other freelancers, and he's right." He sadi as he looked a the three with an impressed look. "Anyway, the infiltration team is about to give us the signal. Archangel won't know what hit him." He said as he walked toward his work bench and terminal and picked up a cigarette and lit it. "Got any questions? This might be your last chance?" he asked as he inhaled his cigarette.

Shepard began to ask him questions about the plan of the attack. How Taraks the only one who us the gunship but its not ready yet. Cathka explains how he coordinates the freelancers and oversees fixing the gunship. How the infiltration team will trap Archangel and either face him or use their explosives. How the trio just needs to keep Archangels attention while they break through his barricade.

"So, the bridge is the only way in?" Shepard asked again.

"(exhaling smoke) Until the gunship's working again or the blasters finish with the tunnels." Cathka said (taking another drag from his cigarette) "Look, we got a plan, we don't need you trying to come up with any great ideas, just do your damn job. Collect your credits and go home." He said with annoyance.

"So the plan is just to just jump the wall and hope we don't get killed as we dodge Archangels bullets (scoffs) Great plan." Berserk sarcastically remarked.

"You don't have to make all the way across." Cathka said, not appreciating the krogan's tone "Just keep Archangel watching that bridge." He took another puff of his cigarette. Shepard's nose cringed and she waved the smoke out her face.

"Are you leading the assault?" Shepard asked the Sergeant.

"Ha!" Cathka laughed. "Tarak doesn't pay me to fight. I just plan the attacks and fix the damn gunship. You freelancers get the privilege of-"

He was cut off as his terminal came to life. Cathka goes up to it while the trio listens in. "Check. Bravo team GO, GO!" he ordered, and the four freelancers nearby responded and ran by the trio. Cathka looked at the trio "Archangels got quite a surprise waiting for him." He then polarized his visor. "But that means no more waiting for me." He walked back to work on the gunship. "Gotta get her back to a hundred percent before Tarak decides he needs her again." He finishes as he gets back to work.

Berserk saw Shepard eye a tool on the work bench that was still sparking. She looked at Berserk and Zaeed, giving them a devious smile. She picked up the tool and approached Cathka from behind.

"Your working to hard." Shepard said to the Blue Sun who gasped in pain as Shepard stabbed the tool into his back and he continued to scream in pain as the tool started to electrocute him. She approached the duo as Cathka dropped dead behind the gunship. "Let's get going boys" she said cheerily as she casually walked by them as if she didn't just brutally kill a guy from behind. The duo looked at each other than back to the body than back to each other than back to Shepard walking away.

"The lady can be scary when she wants to be." Zaeed noted as he started to follow her.

"You have no idea" Berserk stated as he too followed. He was not looking forward to giving her the answers she demanded. Because she just might manage to kill him if he held out on her any longer, and he has survived some hardcore killers.

They approached the barricade of the bridge and watched the freelancers jump over.

"Archangel doesn't have long, we need to get him out of there fast." Berserk stated.

"Then what the hell are we waiting for?" Zaeed asked, sounding ready to make some bodies drop.

Shepard looked at them and gave them that spine chilling smile again "Come on, let's give these guys a surprise of our own…"

---

Archangel- Archangels hideout.

"Well, this is it." Archangel though to himself. The mercs weren't giving up anytime soon, no matter how many they lost. Eventually he'll run out of ammo, he could try and sneak out and grab guns off the bodies outside, but the exposed bridge wouldn't work in his favor for that and they were watching his position like a hawk. Was that the right human saying? He could never remember. What is a hawk anyway? Maybe Kickin Hawk knows? It's been a very long time since he heard a quip from his favorite human. But by the looks of things, he might be joining her in the afterlife very soon. Assuming turians and humans go to the same afterlife. Speaking of Kickin Hawk, he was hoping the Samaritan would come and turn the tables by now, but Archangel was one of the few people who called him friend. And he knew better than anyone that the Samaritan couldn't be everywhere at once, despite popular belief.

"Probably dealing with the Plague" he said to himself. The Samaritan has been on the case on the Plague since it started. Its probably too chaotic now. Besides, he couldn't reach him anyway, something was blocking his communications to the Samaritan. He thought the mercs at first but that couldn't be it because he managed to get a signal out to communicate wit his father, so it was something on Samaritan's end. "Damn device is probably acting up again." He told himself.

Speaking of dad, if this was going to be his last moments alive, he might as well contact his estranged father so they could at least bury the hatch before the end. Even than as Archangel was trapped within his own hideout with the corpses of his fallen team downstairs, he was at peace with the fact he died doing what he believed was right. He just wish he didn't drag the others down with him. He just hoped Samaritan would figure out where that bastard Sidonis went and make him pay for betraying them.

He apologized to his father over his communicator as more freelancers hopped over the bridge. His father, realizing his son's situation, told him to forget about that and told his son to finish up his 'target practice' and get back home so they can have sort this out in person. Before he could respond he saw something that caught his eye. A black-armored krogan with emerald eyes and a green bandanna. "Berserk" Archangel said than he told his father he called him back as the odds just got back into his favor.

"Well better late than never…" he trailed off as he saw a pale-skinned redhead human with emerald eyes. "…Gwen!?" He said to himself in disbelief, eyes widening under his helmet. His brain couldn't process what he was seeing, Shepard back from the dead!? It couldn't be, he had to be hallucinating. He's so stressed he's starting to see things. But he could see her as clear as day and she was even with Berserk and along with another individual that Archangel knew was Zaeed Massani. They acknowledged her presence, confirming she was real. "Gwen…" was all he could say as he heard a rocket being fired at his position.

He quickly dodged it and returned to his position to fire at the freelancer, hitting him in the heart. He killed a s second. Then Shepard flared her biotics and threw the next two off the balcony and to their deaths. The trio than made their way across the bridge. Archangel took a few concussion shots at them as they entered the building. He figured she was pretending to be a freelancer to get to him, so he decided to sell it with a few shots. He knew that she couldn't possibly know who he was under his helmet. "Knowing her, she heard the grand tells of the bad boy turian who declared a one-man war again the mercenaries Omega, thinking to herself that a badass vigilante like that couldn't end here…and probably heard about the Samaritans too as they were amazing and all too." He sheepishly thought as he heard the gunfire and biotics downstairs killing the freelancers that managed to get by him. Sloppy, but live and learn. He wondered if the Samaritan told her his big secret yet? Doubt he can keep it for long from someone like Shepard…he still couldn't believe that she was back, like the attack never happened. He had so many questions for her when this is all over. "Boy, won't she be surprised when she finds out who's handsome face is under here." He amusingly thought to himself as he heard a merc by the door behind him yell in pain as gunshots were heard. Figuring that is was safe on the other side, Archangel decided to open the door with his omni-tool as he was still scoping out the bridge.

He turned to see Shepard, Berserk and Zaeed move in with their guns aiming

"Archangel!" Berserk said in relief. The others lowered their weapons.

Archangel held up his left hand telling them to wait a minute as he was still watching the bridge. There was still one merc left hiding behind the pillar on his left. He waited for him to cautiously look over from his cover than Archangel sent a round in his neck and he fell to the ground choking as he died.

"Not bad" he heard from Zaeed.

"Nice to see you haven't lost your touch." Berserk commented.

"So, your Archangel?" he heard from Shepard.

"Time for the big dramatic face reveal" Archangel amusingly thought to himself as he stood up to face the trio and walked toward them. He couldn't help but notice some obvious changes in Shepard's appearance. Specifically, the corpse-like skin complexion and orange glowing scars on the left side of her face. What the hell happened to her?

He sat down on a crate rifle still in hand and removed his helmet. The shocked look on Shepard's face was priceless. He imagined he had that same look when he first saw her alive again. Then he remembered the moment he was told she died. He was at a lose for words.

"Shepard…I thought you were dead…" Was all he could say.

---

Shepard- Archangels hideout

Shepard couldn't stop staring at him. Her brain was on overload. Was she seeing things or was it really him? The grey skinned Turian with blue face markings, blues armor and iconic light blue visor over is left eye. sniper rifle in his hand.

"Garrus…" she said in disbelief

Garrus Vakarian, her friend. One of the few who listened to her when she said Saren was bad news, in fact she only just confirmed his own disdain for the turian spectre.

She slowly approached Garrus who gave her his own turian equivalent of uncertainty, he probably finding it hard to believe that it was her and she couldn't blame him. She than surprised him and herself by engulfing him in a hug. She could tell she caught him off guard as he sat them awkwardly for a moment. She just lightly laughed. Like when she was reunited with Tali on Freedoms Progress and when she found out that Joker and Doctor Chawkas were on the Normandy. She was happy to see more of their old crew alive and well…but Garrus wasn't exactly out of the woods yet since he managed to get all of Omegas mercenaries gunning for him. She eventually ended the hug not caring that anyone saw her Commander persona drop for a moment.

"What are you doing here?" was all Shepard could really say, she still couldn't believe that the mysterious turian they came to get would be one of her best friends. Garrus looked at her and lightly chuckled himself.

"heh. Just keeping my skills sharp. A little target practice…" Garrus said tiredly.

"You okay?" She asked in concern.

"Been better" Garrus answered. "But it sure is good to see friendly faces. Killing mercs is hard work. Especially on my own." He added as he looked as Berserk with a friendly face.

"Berserk, a little late for the party don't you think?" he said jokingly

"(grunt) Good to see you too you crazy pyjak." Berserk said humorously.

"And the others?" Garrus said that in a tone that sounded like he was trying to convey a hidden message to the krogan.

"…Most of them are down for now. What's left is waiting outside as backup." Berserk said with a similar tone to Garrus.

"(sign) Well, guess there's always a complication when superheroes come to save the day." Garrus said

Was he in on this big secret the Samaritans have been keeping? "That's it. When this is over, I'm getting answers, even if I have to kick this krogan's ass to get it." She thought irritably. "But for now…"

"How did you manage to piss off every mercenary organization in the terminus system?" she asked.

"It wasn't easy" Garrus said with a humorously. "I really had to work at it. I am amazed that they teamed up to fight me. They must either really hate me, or they their counting the Samaritans to come bail me out and hit them with everything they got."

"Probably both." Berserk mused.

"Definitely both, you guys have drove Tarak nearly mad." Zaeed says with an impressed tone.

"Glad to hear it." Garrus replied

"Since when did you start calling yourself Archangel?" Shepard teased with a smirk

Garrus rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly and chuckled. "Just a name the locals gave me for…all my good deeds (chuckle/clears throat) I don't mind it but please, it's a (clears throat) Just Garrus to you." He said with a flustered tone. Shepard smiled wider at his flustered tone. Than her look changed to curiosity.

"So…Omega?" She asked curiously.

"Not the first place you imagined finding me I take it" Garrus joked than became more serious. "I got tired of all the red tape and bureaucratic crap on the citadel…I figured I could do more good on my own. 'Least it's not hard to find criminals here. All I have to do is point my gun and shoot." He finished

"Speaking of "Shepard thought.

"You managed to nail me good, a couple time by the way." She stated as she worked soreness from the spots where he shot her. Not mad but just liked to get a reaction out of him.

"You definitely took a lot of shots at me, you damn bastard." Berserk said with a faux angry tone.

"Concussive rounds only. No harm done. Didn't want the merc to getting suspicious." He tried to play it off cool, but he is trying hard not to smirk.

"Uh huh. Sure…" she said with a fake 'I believe you' tone.

"(chuckled) If I wanted to do more than take your shields down, I would have…Beside you were taking your sweet time, I needed to get you moving." Garrus jokingly said.

"Well, we're here and now we need to get you out before they bring out the big guns." Berserk said

"That won't be easy, the bridge doesn't work in our favor as an exit." Zaeed chimed in.

"Right, while its good for bringing those witless idiots out in the open, it works both ways, we'll get slaughtered going out that way." Garrus explained.

"Think its time I call Magister and have his Samaritans help out." Shepard said as she activated her omni-tool. She noticed that both Garrus and Berserk shared a look, she wondered about it has the line was open. "Magister, we got Archangel, we could use the Samaritans help in making a quick exit." She waited for a response, but no one responded. This was not a good sign. "Magister?" She called him again. "Magister!" She raised her voice. "Answer damn it!" She said only to get nothing but static. Seriously, this guy calls us and asks for our help, but he gives us the silent treatment the moment we ask for help!? She looked at Berserk who kept a neutral facial expression. "Why the hell isn't he picking up?" she asked the krogan irritably.

The krogan looked at her and he just grunted "I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?" Shepard asked getting more irritated.

"I mean I don't know." Berserk said with his own irritation. "They don't tell us helpers everything. Whatever's going on, it doesn't involve us being in the loop. Why? I don't know!" he said irritated.

Both stared each other down until Garrus stepped in between them and tried to ease the tension.

"We can argue about this later" Garrus intervened. "Right now, we need to focus on getting out of here, preferably alive if that's okay with everyone." He said.

"Heads up, I see movement across the bridge" Zaeed warned as he looked down the bridge.

Everyone looked in Zaeed's direction than back at each other. Shepard glared at the krogan a little bit longer than sighed and turned her attention to the bridge where Garrus now looking down with the scope of his rifle.

"They know their infiltration team failed" Garrus informed as he lowered his rifle and handed it to Shepard "Take a look." he said. "Scouts. Eclipse, I think."

Shepard looked down the scope and saw that mechs were the first to drop down, followed by Eclipse mercs. Deciding to vent her anger, Shepard took a shot at the first mech she saw and blew its head off.

"More than scouts" Shepard said as she handed back Garrus rifle. "One less now though."

"Indeed" Garrus responded. "We better get ready. I stay up here, I can do a lot of damage from this vantage point." He looks at her "You…just do what you do best." He said and managed to get Shepard to smile. "It will be like old times Shepard."

"When we get out of this, your buying me a drink for saving your ass." She said with a smile as she got her weapons.

"(chuckle) Of course, it's only the gentlemanly thing a guy can do for a pretty lady." Garrus quipped

She smiled but then turned her attention to Zaeed and Berserk.

"You guys head down stairs and keep them away from the front door, I'll stay up here and shoot from above with Garrus." She ordered the pair.

"On it." Zaeed responded and went for the stairs.

"Fine." Berserk grunted and followed

Shepard looked at Berserk as he left. She wasn't as mad as before since she can't blame him for Magister's silent treatment. But she was still annoyed that he won't reveal what he does know about the Samaritans. She was brought out of her thoughts as her comms came to life.

["Shepard" came the voice Miranda "We're at the merc base, so far no ones looking at us with suspicion, I'm guessing all their attention are on you at the moment."]

"You guessed right." Shepard replied.

["Want us to start making noise on our end?" Jacob asked]

"No." Shepard answered. "Hang back until their numbers start to dwindle. Which shouldn't take long given how many dumbass mercs they throw at us."

["Copy that Commander." Miranda replied. "We'll stay out of sight until then."]

"Copy" Shepard answered as she looked back at Garrus. "We got friendly's in the merc base, they'll start causing havoc once we knock down a couple mercs."

"Hope they're as good at causing mayhem and chaos as you are." He said teasingly.

"Their no crazy vigilante sniper, but they can get the job done." She teased back. Though now she had to explain to him later why she is working with a pair of Cerberus agents.

Garrus: "Let's give these bastards everything we got."

---

Berserk- Archangels hideout

Berserk knew the Magister problem would come up eventually, but he just didn't know what to do about it, and it's not like the mercs gave him a lot of time to think this shit through. Well, he'll have to tell her now, but that can wait since it won't do them any good now. Telling her how limited he is now may not help the situation. Especially now, when they're in the middle of a fire fight.

Berserk killed a Salarian Eclipse that got to close to the door with a head shot. Leaving six Eclipse troopers remaining. None of them made it to the door with the mixture of bullets from above and below. Berserk manage to get two more in the chest. Zaeed fired a concussive shot at the final helmeted human Eclipse and than head shot him. None of the mercs made it inside.

To add insult to injury Garrus fired a shot across the bridge barricade. The sound of it nailing someone along with the pained shout of a female merc told Berserk that he got one. Eventually a mechanical claw holding the Eclipse a heavy mech came across the barricade and drooped the mech won the ground and it began to activate. Twenty Eclipse troopers emerged from the barricade with Jaroth in the back with a smug look on his face.

"You won't be smiling for long pyjak." Berserk said out loud, while smiling.

"Oh, this ought to be good." Zaeed stated with anticipation and a smile.

They looked at each other and nodded in agreement to just sit back and watch the show from cover by the entrance.

["Dammit, there sending out the heavy mechs." Garrus said warily over the comm.]

["That problem should take care of itself." Shepard said with glee.]

["What are you…Oh…Oh you didn't" Garrus said, with his own glee tone"]

Eventually the mech turned around and greeted the confused Jaroth whose face turned to shock and anger as the heavy mech open fired on the Eclipse. Two were gunned down immediately and one was hit by a rocket. Two managed to sneak by and ran for the entrance but were gunned down by Berserk and Zaeed the moment they ran by their cover. The mercs fired at their own mech and started to drain its shields. One got two close and was swatted away by the mechs left arm and sent over the bridge. It grabbed a salarian Eclipse by his head and slammed him into the ground. It fired a rocket to its right and hit three merc who and blew them to pieces. Eventually, the mech's shields were gone and began to take damage.

"Should probably get back to shooting them while their distracted." Zaeed said to Berserk

"Agreed." Berserk said as they broke cover and began firing at the mechs. Shepard and Garrus continued as well. The mech was busy killing the last three mercs, while Jaroth tried to hop back over the other side of the bridge. But was shot with a cryo shot from Shepard and was shattered by a bullet from Garrus. Garrus than fired a precise headshot at the mech before it could turn on them and it exploded into pieces.

["Looks like that's all of them." Garrus said "You guys are kicking ass Shepard, even managed to get Jaroth in the process. I been hunting that little bastard for months."]

["We still got the Blue Suns and Blood Pack to deal with. Think we can make run for it?" Shepard asked]

["Maybe. Let's see what they're up to." Garrus replied]

Berserk and Zaeed looked over from cover but saw no one coming over the bridge.

"It's quiet" Berserk said "Too quiet. That's never a good sign."

"Tarak is too mad to be stealthy right now" Zaeed said "And Garm doesn't strike me as the stealthy type. Something else is going on."

The building starts to shake, and an explosion is heard coming from under good.

"That can't be good." Berserk commented.

["Damn it! They breached the lower level." Garrus exclaimed]

"God dammit, I knew it was too easy." Zaeed commented with annoyance.

["Well, they had to use their brains eventually." Garrus stated "You three better get down there, I'll keep the bridge clear."]

["Lets split up two and two. Keep someone here with you Garrus." Shepard suggested]

["You sure? Who knows what you'll find down there." Garrus responded]

[Berserk. Stay with Garrus keep him safe." Shepard ordered]

"Don't need to tell me twice" Berserk acknowledged. He lost too many friends today, he was not going to lose another one.

["Thanks Shepard…you better get going."] Garrus Sounded almost hesitant to let her go.

["Stay safe Garrus"] Shepard sounded concerned and hesitant about leaving his side,

["Good luck." Garrus said]

Shepard came down the stairs and motioned for Zaeed to follow. She looked at Berserk before they left for the lower levels.

"Try not to get your head blown off, you crazy reptile." Zaeed said to Berserk jokingly. The krogan snorted in amusement.

"Keep him safe big guy." Shepard said softly, not sounding as irritated as the last time she talked to him.

"(sigh) I'll make sure none of them get to him." Berserk promised the commander. She nodded as she and Zaeed left for the lower levels.

Berserk turned back to the entrance and waited for another idiot to try crossing the bridge. After a few moments of silence however…

["So, you've kept the big secret from her?"] Garrus said over the comm, on a private channel only they use.

"It's not something I just share with everyone I meet." Berserk answered.

["You shared it with me when I first met you"]

"(grunt) I got careless and had no choice but to tell you. Plus, it was helpful to have someone who knew. It made asking for help easier…when I actually needed help it that is." Berserk explained.

["No shame in asking for help from an awesome badass vigilante like yours truly."] Garrus joked.

"Heh. Who had to bail who out every time they tried to go take on a merc boss and nearly got their ass handed to them?" Berserk said mockingly.

["…It was all part of the plan…. I had them right where I wanted, you just showed up before I could spring my trap."]

"Keep telling yourself that." Berserk said while amusingly shaking his head.

["Knowing Shepard, she has some insane mission that involves the fate of the galaxy and she's looking for people to help out. I plan on joining. What about you?"]

Berserk thought about it and he had to admit, he was kind of anxious of thinking about leaving Omega. He hasn't been anywhere else since arriving and he didn't know what to except. Especially how the rest of the galaxy would react to the Samaritans. But he knew the stories of the Shepard, the savoir of the galaxy. And not just what he heard in news stories. Garrus shared his adventures with Shepard and the threat they faced…the Reapers. The rest of the galaxy may have been fine with leaving them as myths, but he knew that he couldn't ignore a threat like that. "Grandpa wouldn't ignore this…" Berserk shook himself from his thoughts.

"Shepard said the Collectors are up to something big and I can't let them get away with it, so yes I'm going to join." He answered honestly.

["The Collectors are involved? You think it has to do with that trafficking operation we caught them in last time they were here?"] Garrus asked

"It's possible, never know unless I go find out." Berserk answered.

["You know that means you have to tell her, right? Can't exactly hide it on a ship, its not like hiding on Omega."]

He hated it when he was right. "I know, I'll tell her over when this crap is over and done with."

Berserk eventually spotted ten vorcha and a krogan crossing bridge and charging. "Heads up we got company." He alerted Garrus as he aimed his pistol and fired at them and shot two lead vorcha in the chest, both dropped dead. Shots from the top floor went off and two more went down. Berserk fired again and hit one vorcha in the head. As they got closer, he got behind cover to avoid their shots. He than switched to his shotgun and waited…the first one to pass by got shot in the back. The next got smashed the face with the butt of Berserk's gun. Two more vorcha out in the open got downed by Garrus.

Berserk came out of cover and fired his shotgun at the last vorcha, killing him. The krogan continued to fire at Berserk who went into cover again. Once the krogan got close. Berserk came out of cover and shot him twice, draining his shields. Then Berserk charged at him and activated his omni-tool, and a transparent emerald blade emerged from his wrist. Berserk yelled as he stabbed the blade through the other krogan's head, right through his mask and the krogan went stiff as slid to the ground. As he deactivated his blade, Berserk heard more explosions, only this time it came from the merc base. It sounded like someone was tossing grenades and firing rockets all over the place.

["Sounds like more of Shepard's team causing a disturbance from within merc HQ. That should help take the heat off us."] Garrus said in a relieved tone.

Well looks like those Cerberus agents were helpful after all. He never thought he would be grateful for someone from that organization to get involved.

---

Garrus- Archangel Hideout

Garrus sniped another vorcha across the bridge when he got an alert from his omni-tool that Shepard succeeded in locking off the tunnels. But just than he heard one of the doors being breached behind him on the first floor.

"Berserk, heads up they're coming from behind!" he shouted to the krogan who turned and nodded as he went to the door that was being breached. Garrus than activated his comm.

"Get back here Shepard. They're coming in through the door!"

["Copy, be there as soon as I can… (shooting in the background) Son of…I'll be there soon. Zaeed fall back!"] sounds like Shepard still dealing with the stragglers that got through.

Garrus attention was brought back to the door downstairs as they opened and a pissed off Garm cam marching in with a pack of five vorcha, and two varren being held on leashes by another korgan.

"Argh, rip them to shreds!" Garm shouted.

Garrus sniped a vorcha on Garm's right and ducked back in cover on top of the stairs as they opened fired on Garrus.

"Watch my back, I'll deal with Archangel" he heard Garm order his men. Then he heard a shotgun blast and a vorcha gasping in pain and a thud. He looked over the top of his cover and saw Berserk standing between Garm and the stairs. Garm held up his hand to have his men stand down. He looked surprised to see the younger krogan but than shifted back to his angry facial expression.

"Out of my way kid." Garm growled as he warned the younger krogan.

"That ain't happening." Berserk said, not at all threatened by the older krogan.

"First the human, and now Archangel." He snarled. "You couldn't be more of a disappointment."

Berserk smirked "For once, I'm happy to disappoint." He said mockingly.

"Think you can take me on?" Garm asks "(scoffs) You got a lot to learn boy, provided you actually live."

"Then show me what you got to teach old man" Berserk taunted.

Garm looked at the younger krogan with anger and disappointment "Kill him" he ordered his men.

Berserk got a shot off at one of the vorcha who dropped dead. The Blood Pack krogan released the varren and they charged at Berserk. Garrus managed to get one in the eye but the other pounced on Berserk and started biting him. Garrus couldn't shoot it without hurting Berserk. Shots from the other Blood Pack got his attention and shot another vorcha in the neck. Berserk managed to pull the varren off and slammed it into the ground hard. Then he noticed Garm charging at him and threw the varren corpse at the Blood Pack Leader, who swatted it away and tackled the younger krogan to the ground. Garm was on top of Berserk as he tried to hit him in the face with the butt of his gun. Berserk grabbed the gun and used it to hit Garm in the face and give him the chance to kick Garm off. When he got back up to his feet, he tried to slam his right fist into Garm but the older krogan caught his fist and then his other fist, and they struggled to push each other back.

While they were fighting, the Blood Pack krogan and the last vorcha made their way up the stairs and tried to shoot at Garrus with their rifles. Garrus managed to hit the vorcha in the left eye but the korgan got too close, so he had to retreat into the other room and get some distance. He managed to snag an inferno grenade from a nearby crate and tossed it at the krogan who immediately burst into flames as the grenade went off , but the krogan kept coming.

"Damn redundant nervous system!" Garrus mentally shouted

As the flaming krogan charged, Garrus managed to dodge out to his left and let the krogan smash into a wall. He then aimed and waited for the krogan to turn around and shot him in is right eye, killing him.

Garrus made it back to the stairs to see Berserk headbutt Garm, forcing him to back away. Berserk than activated his omni-blade and tried to stab Garm, but the Blood Pack leader dodged to his right and grabbed Berserk's arm and punched Berserk in the face, dazing him and then proceeded to lift the younger off the ground and threw him into a nearby pillar.

Before he could further attack the younger krogan, Garrus took a shot at Garm's back and he turned around to glare at Garrus. Apparently, he hasn't forgotten the hell Archangel has given him and started to charge toward the stairs. Garrus tried to shoot him but the krogan tanked the shots as he was dead set on killing the turian. Garm regenerates faster than any krogan Garrus has ever fought!. Garrus was momentarily distracted by flashing lights coming from the ground floor (reminded him of a camera flash) but was brought back to reality as Garm was close enough to grab the sniper rifle and tossed it over the balcony and back to the ground floor. Than he punches Garrus in the face and the turian, his shield toook most of the damage, but got thrown back into the other room and hitting the balcony he's been using to watch the bridge.

Garm entered the room and was towering over Garrus with the intent to kill...until they both heard something crash through the door behind them. They both looked back to see the door was smashed through to make it larger and wider with all the metal bent inward into the room. But that's not what caught their attention. It was the giant red Samaritan, Four Arms, that got their attention as he towered over Garm.

"Pick on someone your own size!" The Samaritan said to Garm who then charged at the Samaritan. Four Arms managed to grab hold of Garm who tried to push him back, but the Samaritan proved strong enough to bring them to a standstill. Four Arms used his two lower arms to strike Garm in the sides multiple times and weakened him enough to lift him with his upper arms and toss him into the wall on his left, trapping Garm in the now hole wall. Four Arms than reared back his two right arms as he ran to the trapped krogan and smashed into his face, completely obliterating it. Blood and mulched flesh coated the red giants face.

He then approached Garrus who looked amazed at what he saw. Sure, he's seen the Samaritan in action a few times now, but it's always surprising to see him take on krogan like its easy.

"You okay Garrus?" Four Arms asked in concern.

Garrus nodded, thankfully his shields took most of the damage. Four Arms offered his lower right hand and Garrus accepted and was hoisted back to his feet. "Nice to see you back in action, wish it was before I got punched across the room, but I'm not complaining."

"Well, now all that's left is the Blue Suns, I think now is a good time to go on the offensive." Four Arms said as he cracked his knuckles."

"You read my mind" Garrus said with a turian smirk. "He's expecting the Samaritans to show up from the other side, he's not expecting them to be in the building already, so he may not see you…

Both were alerted by the sounds of the gunship hovering over the right side of the building and shooting out the window. Four Arms gets in front of Garrus and acts as cover from the gunship and takes all the bullets in his back. He grunts in discomfort of the bullets hitting him, but it doesn't him.

"Damn it, I thought I already took care of that gunship!" Garrus exclaimed

"They fixed it but not completely, Shepard took care of that when she killed the mechanic." Four Amr's explained.

"Heh, well I have a feeling you can take care of it any way." Garrus replied.

"Samaritan?!" Tarak shouted from the speakers of his gunship "How the hell you get past us?! UGH!" he said as Jentha and four men with rocket launchers came in. "Kill those motherfuckers!?" He shouts.

Jentha and the mercs open fire and the rockets are hurling toward the duo. Four Arms pushes Garrus to cover and tanks the first rocket and takes a step back but then surprises everyone by grabbing the other four in each arm and then hurls them back at the mercs who take cover but all but two manages to escape the explosion.

As Jentha gets up to fire another round she is lifted by biotics and thrown out the window where she yells as she falls to her death.

Garrus and Four Arms turn around as they notice Shepard and Zaeed walk in and both are surprised to see Four Arms, well Garrus can see where this is going.

---

Shepard- Archangels Hideout

["Shepard we're giving the mercs hell on our end" Jacob said. "But most of the Blue Suns are heading for the building, and the gunship keeps showing up to stop us from moving up."]

["Its looks like they haven't completely fixed it judging from the smoke." Miranda spoke up. "I take you had a hand in that" She asked amusingly]

"I thought the mechanic was working too hard so I gave him a well needed break" Shepard said as she re-entered the hideout and was going up the stairs "He wasn't on board with that at first, but I can be persuasive." She said with a smirk. Jacob chuckled on the comm that Miranda chimed in.

["Well its going to be difficult to get to you with the gunship doing flybys and a few Blue Suns stayed behind with a few remaining freelancers to push us back."] Miranda explained.

"Copy, well do what we can on our own for now." Shepard ended the call and made it to the door…

What she wasn't expecting was the Samaritan, Four Arms, hurling rockets at a squad of Blue Suns and nailing two of them. Jentha was getting back up to fire another rocket but Shepard decided to step in and grabbed the Sun with her biotics and hurl her outside. The last two got up but Zaeed got a incendiary shot at one and set him ablaze while Garrus shot the last one. Four Arms than turned to Shepard

"Hey Shepard, just in time for the party." Four Arms said. What confused Shepard was how he said that like he knows her, but they just met. And this guy was supposedly injured, yet he's fine and fighting like he was never injured to begin with! And how the hell did he get here so quick! Miranda and Jacob never said they spotted him, yet he's here, like he was just here to begin with. And where the hell is Berserk? She didn't see him downstairs.

Shepard than look to Garrus "Garrus when did…how did…where's…" She was at a lost at what's going on.

"Well uh Shepard...its, well it's an interesting and long story" Garrus stuttered as he tried to think of an explanation. Than the gunship showed and forced the two humans and turian to take cover while the Samaritan just stood his ground. Ten Suns came through the window and the gunship disappeared. "But it can wait for later, after we kill all the Suns." Garrus said as he fired a shot and killed a batarian Sun.

Shepard had really no choice has she shot at a turian Sun from her cover behind the door while Zaeed was behind a crate near the door and shot another Sun in the chest.

"I got these guys." Four Arms said as he charged at the eight mercs. He punched the one in front straight out the window than grabbed another batarian sun on his lefts and threw him into another sun both hit the wall. He reared his right fists to punch two Suns on his right-

What happened next made Shepard's jaw drop. White flashing camera-like lights happened around Four Arms and the surrounding area had a photo negative appearance as the lights flashed… and Fours Arms was morphing!

Everyone's eyes widen in shock. Even the five merc paused as they were unable to take their eyes of the scene in front of them. The flashing lights stopped and standing between the mercs was…was…a Quarrian!?

What was a red four-armed giant was now the quarrian helper that Shepard recognized from the video…and he was still in the middle of his punch when it happened. When he hit the mercs armor he gasped in slight pain and shook his hand to ease the pain. When he looked at his hand, he stared at it than looked at the rest of his body, then he noticed the position he was in now.

"Aww man…" the Quarian said (A/N: Greg Cipes voice" Beast Boy Voice from Teen Titans/Kevin 11's voice from Alien Force/Ultimate/Omniverse)

The mercs eventually snapped out of their daze and aimed at the quarrian but a shot from Garrus got their attention as one hit a mercs.

"Take cover Kid!" Garrus shouted. Shepard and Zaeed also broke from their stupor and continued to fire giving the quarrian a chance to run and jump behind a couch in the middle of the room. Shepard glanced at the quarrian and saw him lift his poncho to reveal the hourglass symbol located on the left side of his suit, where his heart would be.

"Come on, come on already…" he said to the symbol of his chest which was sparking for a moment but then it stopped. "Uhg! Great…" he said giving up on the device.

To say Shepard had a lot of questions right now was putting it mildly. However, the mercs that were about to swarm the place gave her little time to feel the migraine growing in her head as she tried to process what the hell she witnessed. For now, all she could do was shoot first and ask questions later.

She looked back at the quarrian has he was now on his omni-tool, then a green combat drone appeared and attacked the mercs.

"Get them Rusty!" the quarrian shouted as the drone started to shock the mercs. Distracting them while Shepard and the others gunned down the three of the mercs but one managed to jump over the couch and aimed his gun at the quarrian. Before he could shoot, the flashing happened again happened again…now it was the turian helper! Who than charged a biotic attack and sent the merc into the celling and denting the celling and killing the merc.

"Nice try merc." The turian said in his duel tone voice (A/N: Khary Payton voice/Cyborg voice from Teen Titans) (A closer look at his face revealed that the dark green markings in the middle of his face resembled an hourglass while a circle went around his face creating the iconic hourglass symbol)

Before anyone could respond, five more propelled into the room and opened fired, destroying the drone.

"Look out!" Garrus called out to the turian…and as if on que the flashing happened again and the turian morphs. Wings grown from his back and his shape becomes a family moth alien who immediately turns intangible and then flies over to the mercs and encases them in ice as he passes by them.

"These guys really need to chill out." Came the eerie voice of Big Chill.

"Please don't start with the puns." Garrus groaned, has he broken cover to shot one of the mercs to pieces. Shepard and Zaeed followed his lead as they shot the others to pieces as well.

---

Garrus- Archangel's Hideout

The area near the window had become piled in bodies by the time they were done. No other mercs came through the window. They had a moment to rest but Big Chill immediately morphed into a creature only Garrus has seen before. A velociraptor-like humanoid with a black uniform, with a white stripe front that goes down from his neck to his waist. His head is cover in a cone-shaped helmet that convers his entire head and a visor that covers his entire face. He has a black tail with five blue strips and seems to have black balls on his feet. Three sharp scissors like fingers on each hand with sharp pointed elbows. The hourglass symbol was on his chest. This being was called XLR8.

"Yes finally" XLR8 said in a fast-raspy voice as the others looked at him in awe. "Now I can get us all out of here before more Suns show up and-"

He never finished as his body began to morph again and now in his place was the salarian transformation, who after looking at himself, let his arms fall to his sides and he hunched over dejectedly while the others just had a 'WTF' look.

"Sometimes I loathe this device" he said in a fast manner (Like Mordin) (A/N: Rob Paulsen Voice/Donatello TMNT 2012)

Everyone could hear footstep of mercs that were entering the base and the shouts of people outside who were crossing the bridge.

"Very problematic…" the Samaritan commented

Well, this was not looking too good, the Blue Suns are swarming the base, Samaritan is glitching out, and Shepard looks like she wants to shout in annoyance at the bizarre scenes that unfolded with his shapeshifting friend.

But Shepard face quickly schooled itself back. Perhaps finding out about genocidal machines made it easier for her to accept this. Or she reached her point of handling all this insanity and just decided to focus on what she knew best. Fighting and being Commander Shepard the badass.

Garrus looked out his vantage point of the bridge. He counted ten Suns climbing over the barricade and were crossing the bridge. The gunship flew over the merc base shooting rockets, probably trying to hit Shepard's backup team.

"I count a dozen already inside." He heard Shepard's voice and looked at her from his vantage point.

"There's at least ten on the bridge." Garrus revealed.

"Alright" Shepard said "Me and Zaeed will deal with the ones down stairs" she then pointed to the Samaritan "You and…him…stay here and take out any more that try to come in." she ordered.

"Got it." Garrus.

"Let's go Zaeed" Shepard said as she charged her biotic and jumped off the balcony of the second floor and slammed into the ground to take on the Blue Suns inside.

"This day just keeps getting more mental by the minute." Zaeed mutter to himself as he went to the door and made his way to the stairs.

Garrus turned to his perch and sniped the lead Sun in the head while the rest opened fired. Garrus ducked back into cover. Samaritan took cover with Garrus on his left as they waited for the mercs to stop and reload.

"Well, she took it better than I thought." Garrus commented as he got up to fire at the mercs than duck back down.

"Multiple situations occurring all at once. Probably no time to process the anomaly that is currently me. Will most likely bombard me with demands for answers when crises had been averted." Samaritan said rapidly as he picked up a discarded pistol from. Garrus forgot how fast this guy talks as a salarian.

"Well, she's seen and done some weird things at this point, so I think it will work out. After all I handled your secret pretty well." Garrus said as the duo stood up and fired, each hitting a merc.

"You stared at me stupefied for ten minutes. Made no movement in that time. Then asked yourself if you were experiencing early stages of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Began to assume you were seeing hallucinations. Then came to conclusion you were dreaming. Asked me to punch you to wake you" Samaritan said with a fast-deadpan reply.

"…Now you just exaggerating…my reaction wasn't that bad." Garrus defended.

"Keep telling yourself that." Came Samaritans simple reply as he returned fire with the Suns.

Both were altered to the sound of a small object rolling between them…A GRENADE!

Both jumped away from the edge as the grenade exploded. Garrus was face first on the ground and slowly got up. His ears where still wringing and has he got up he noticed five Suns near the broken window and were taking their aim.

"Crap…" was all Garrus could say…than three diamond shards penetrated the chest armor of the three mercs in front, all drooping dead while the last two, a turian and a batarian, stared stunned.

"Special delivery!" came the voice of Diamondhead, who ran past Garrus and fired two more shards. The turian merc got hit through the helmet while the batarian was shot in the heart. He went back to Garrus and helped him up. "Sometimes I love this device." He remarked as he patted the dial, which still didn't respond.

"How much longer until you can control it again." Garrus asked, hoping that he could go XLR8 again and get us out of here.

"No clue…at least no clue in this form." Diamondhead Shrugged.

The duo heard glass shattering from the other side of the room as five more Suns came propelling in. Garrus aimed and shot the middle batarian Sun in the neck while Diamondhead shot the two on the down batarians right. And of course, Samaritan morphs again, this time into the batarian transformation.

"Ugh, really getting tired of this…" The Samaritan replied (A/N: Clancy Brown's voice/Mr. Krabs/The Dragon's Voice from Alien Force/ETC.) as he charged his biotics and charged at the mercs, dodging their shots and got close enough he activated his emerald omni-blade and impaled the merc on the left than he turned to the last one who aimed his gun but the Samaritan he grabbed it and wrestled it out of the mercs hands and hit him with the butt of the gun. As the merc fell on his back, the Samaritan planted a foot on his chest and shot the down merc with his own gun.

The room was clear again and Garrus could hear the fighting downstairs getting quieter. Shepard's clearing them out, now they just need to take care of the one's on the bridge-

"ARCHANGEL!"

"Crap, forgot about the gunship…"

---

Samaritan- Archangel's Hideout

Samaritan turned to see the gunship in the broken window behind the duo. Garrus turned around fast, hoping to take a shot at the cockpit. But the turrets opened fired and nailed Garrus who gasped in pain and collapsed to the ground.

"Garrus!" Samaritan shouted and tried to get to Garrus

Tarak turned his turrets on Samaritan.

The Samaritan had to get behind cover on the other side of the room across from Garrus. The turian managed to crawl to cover. Samaritan could see that the wounds weren't fatal; however, it'd be difficult to walk without medical treatment.

"You think you can screw with the Blue Suns!" Tarak shouted out as he deactivates the turrets and prepared the rocket launchers.

"This ends NOW!" Tarka shouted as he was about fired on Garrus.

"NO!" The Samaritan shouted. Time slowed down for the Samaritan. Garrus was trying to get up and dodge but he was too hurt to move fast-

Then he felt it. The Samaritan could feel another transformation was about to happen. Without thinking, the Samaritan acted on instinct and jumped out of cover as his body began to contort and grow. He was on Garrus as the rocket fired and got in front of his friend and took the hit.

---

Shepard- Archangel's

"ARCHANGEL!"

Shepard could hear Tarak shouting from down the stairs and turrets being fired.

"Garrus!" She heard an unknown voice shout his name and the turrets continued.

Shepard used her biotics to slam the last merc into the ground. But as she finished him, she felt a shot hit and her shields flared, taking the hit. She turned to see six more Suns enter the front. Jesus, these guys don't stop!

"You think you can screw with the Blue Suns!" Tarak shouted from his gunship.

Shepard downs a turian Sun and looked as the stairs for a moment in concern, wanting to go help her friend.

She didn't see the batarian Sun sneak up on her until a shot went off and the batarian dropped dead and on fire due to an incendiary bullet from Zaeed who was across the room.

"Go on ahead Shepard, I got these bastards" Zaeed shouted as he fired another round and hit another Sun in the gut.

Shepard nodded in appreciation and made her way halfway up the stairs when the turrets stopped.

"This ends NOW!" Tarak shouted

"NO!" the unknown voice shouted.

She heard a rocket being shot and an explosion in the next room as she sprinted the rest of the way. Once inside she was greeted by a familiar hulking figure with coils in his back. He was facing away from the busted window where the gunship just fired. He was in a knelling position and crouched over as if he was covering something. When he sat up straight, her were eyes drawn to the cradled form of Garrus…the right side of his face was burned.

"Garrus!" Shepard shouted in concern as she knelled beside him while Frankenstrike placed him behind cover and Shepard started to do what she could to help him.

"SAMARITAN!" Tarak shouted in rage and annoyance.

Frankenstrike got up and faced the gunship as another rocket was launched but he shot is midair with electricity.

"I HAD ENOUGH OF THIS FUCKING FREAKSHOW!"

Eventually the gunship ran out of rockets and switched back to bullets. Frankenstrike was unfazed by the bullets. Frankenstrike than roared as he charged at the gunship but then the flashing happens again and Frankenstrike's form began to shrink as he leaped at the gunship. From Shepard's perspective, it looked like he just shrunk out of existence.

Shepard was confused, and then concerned as the gunship started to take aim…than it just jerked wildly to its right.

"What the…what's going on!?" Tarak shouted in confusion, apparently, he lost control of the gunship...it started to behave erratically, and the guns started to go off randomly. Shepard watched as it jerked to the front of the building and faced the remining Suns on the bridge who tried to run as the random bullets rained uncontrollably.

While flabbergasted by the scene her attention was brought to the coughing of her injured friend who opened his and looked at Shepard.

"(cough) Hey Shepard (groan in pain)"

"Garrus!" Shepard exclaimed in joy and relief to see he was awake. While tempted to hug him again, she was worried that would hurt him more, so she decided to activate her omni-tool and begin treatment with medi-gel. His vitals were stable, and scan showed that the bullet wounds aren't as bad. It looks like the explosion from the rocket only burned his face but nothing that required serious medical attention, Chakwas can just bandage it up.

"My face feels numb." Garrus instead. Shepard smiled.

"I know I gave you something for the burns." She explained

"How bad is it" he asked.

"No worse than usual" She joked. "You're going to have one hell of a scar though."

"(light chuckle) Well, some women find facial scars attractive…mind you, most those women are korgan." He replied humorously.

Shepard laughed and shook her head in amusement.

Their attention was brought back to the gunship which suddenly stooped firing, and was now hovering steadily.

Then unexpectedly, it started to become coated in a black substance and green circuitry followed. The windshield that showed a panicked Tarak was coated as well. A glowing green circle covered the windshield and the cockpit turned its attention to duo in the building. What caught Shepard's eye was the hourglass symbol on the top of the cockpit. The duo stared at the gunship for a good ten second before the cockpit opened and launched Tarak out and face first on the floor near Shepard and Garrus.

Just as he was getting up, he looked toward the duo "You fu-"Gunshots from Shepard's pistol interrupted as she gunned down the Blue Sun.

"Good riddance" Garrus said as he spat on the Suns corpse. Zaeed came into the room a few seconds later and saw the body.

"Well, looks like that it for Tar-What the hell is that thing!" Zaeed said as he looked at the tricked-out gunship

The gunships 'eye' focused on the trio and the next thing they knew a giant blob hand emerged from the right wing and gave a thumbs up, then it turned and headed for the merc base. The only one who wasn't shocked to fazed even a little was Garrus. Like this was just a regular Tuesday for him.

"Garrus…"

"…Yeah?"

"…We need to talk"

"…heh, I figured…"

---

Miranda- Merc Base

Most of the mercenaries went after Shepard and Archangel across the bridged and only a handful of the mercs remained. Miranda and Jacob were currently hunkered down near the Blue Suns command center. They figured that it was the best place to hit first with the hope of getting Tarak, but he managed to slip away and get the gunship before they could get to him. After some time, they had a moment where no one entered the area.

"Think the coast is clear?" Jacob asked

"Not sure, but most of them are focused on Archangel and Shepard, we should be able to take sneak out and deal with any stragglers." Miranda answered.

Once they left the command center, they were confronted by 4 freelancers and 2 suns, led by the batarian Salkie. Jacob used his biotics to light 2 freelancers into the air allowing Miranda to shoot them from her cover. Miranda than used her biotics to grab a blue sun and slam him into the ground. One of the freelancers get too close and Jacob breaks cover to fire his shotgun at the mercs head, obliterating it.

Salkie and the last two opened fired on Jacob but he activated his barrier and deflected the bullets. Miranda fired an overload at the mercs and hit the last freelancer, shorted out his shields and finished him off with a shot to the head. When the last two needed to reload Jacob biotically pulled them into the air and used his shotgun to kill the helpless mercs.

Just before they could catch their breath more shots were fired, and Jacob got in front of Miranda to pull up a barrier. Now there were over 3 dozen mercs about to swarm the duo, all composed of stragglers from the Eclipse, Blood Pack and Blue Suns.

"That a lot of stragglers. (sigh) Where's Frankenstrike when you need him." Jacob commented.

Neither Swampfire to Kickin Hawk showed up to assist as planned. Shepard told her that Magister was unresponsive, but if they were in the area they would have jumped in by now. "Guess will have to hold out until Shepard and the others can find another way to escape." She said to Jacob.

"I was really hoping the Samaritans would show up by now." Jacob commented, disappointed that the 'Superheroes' were a no show.

"Alright, I'll throw couple inferno grenades to distract them so we can head back for cover than will use our biotics to-"

A green beam came from the direction of Archangels hideout and obliterated all but half of the mercs, who were in the back of the group. All that's left of the front of the group were charred corpses.

When Miranda and Jacob looked up, they were stunned by what they saw

"What the hell?" Jacob said

The gunship hovered above the group, but now it was black with green circuitry. Miranda recognized the circuitry from on of the videos, even the giant circle in middle of the bloody cockpit was the same. What stood out was the hourglass symbol above the 'eye'.

"A Samaritan?" She asked. How was that even possible? Their transportation technology was unbelievable, but this... How did they take control of the gunship and modify it so fast? "This was incredible!" Miranda though to herself.

It made a frowning expression as it turned its 'eye' to the remaining thirteen mercenaries. The turrets at the bottom of the cockpit where large and instead of bullets they fire laser blast that incinerated the remainder of the mercenaries (half tried shooting it while the other half tried running) None survived.

Once the mercs were dead, it focused its 'eye' on the duo who stood there dumbfounded by what they were looking at, but what happened next made both their jaws drop (Miranda only slightly dropped her jaw, as she tried to hide her facial expressions)

As the gunship landed in front of them it began to shrink and melt into a liquid state…" What the…" was all Miranda could say as the liquid began to rise and take a humanoid shape, turning solid as well.

What stood in front of them was a humanoid with a round black head with no facial features except for the green circle in the middle of its face. The front part of its body, legs and under areas of its long arms were white. Its back was black and covered in the green circuity pattern. The hourglass symbol was on its chest.

"Holy shit." Jacob said in amazement

One would mistake this being for a form of advanced geth, with the single 'eye' and the technological appearance. Was this a synthetic from the Samaritan's home world? Tt wore the symbol so it must belong to them. Or...could it actually be Magister, the supposed leader? Well, it saved them so Miranda might as well ask.

"Magister?" Miranda asked.

The being looked at them for a moment before the familiar green flash went off forcing the duo to cover their eyes. When they looked back, they were expecting the being to be simply gone like with Frankenstrike…while the big was gone, someone else was in its place. Now standing before them was the Samaritan Feedback who looked at the duo with a friendly smile.

"Hey guys, good to see you again, sorry it took so long to come help, the mercs were relentless." He said in a manner that sounded like he met them before. But they never met him until now. If he said Frankenstrike told him about them that be one thing. And what exactly happen to the synthetic being?

"Wait you were in the hideout?" Miranda asked incredulously and Feedback nodded.

"But we never saw you pass the bridge, where did you come from?" Jacob asked, just as confused.

Feedback than raised his right hand.

"Okay, okay, easy guys" Feedback said calmly "I know this is a lot to take in and I'll answer all your questions soon, but first you might wanna call Shepard, they probably cleared all the mercs inside by now." He suggested.

---

Samaritan

Feedback watched as Miranda and Jacob got in touch with Shepard and told them the situation at the merc base. Eventually they hanged up and turned their attention back to Feedback.

"Shepard called in a shuttle to take us back to our ship" Miranda said but still seemed a little stunned by his entrance and big reveal. "Will you be joining us?" She asked.

Feedback thought about what he was going to say. He did already decide that he was going help. After what the Collectors did last time they were here, he couldn't just let them do it to other humans. And if what Garrus said about the reapers were true than working with Shepard might be his best chance to find a way of stopping them. No one else but Shepard, Garrus and a handful of others believed the reapers existed, and there was noting Feedback could've done on his own. While working with Cerberus was not ideal, it was the best chance he had at finding a way to take them down before they could attack.

"Yeah, I'll come along, I've been meaning to take a trip of the galaxy anyway." Feedback said with a cheery tone.

"Alright let's head to the bridge and we'll meet Shepard in the middle. Miranda said.

Jacob and Feedback nodded and followed her to the middle of the bride that was still littered with merc corpses.

"I'm really glad I kept Jonn from signing up." He didn't see his body, so he didn't just come here afterwards, he's probably getting drunk at Afterlife.

The shuttle came into view and it landed in the middle of the bridge. Shepard and Zaeed had Garrus with his arms over their shoulders and carried him to the shuttle as the doors opened. Jacob went up to give them a hand with loading Garrus.

Feedback approached the shuttle with Miranda as they finished strapping in Garrus. And now Shepard and the others had all their eyes on Feedback. If Feedback was in his original form, he'd be sweating up a storm right now.

While Feedback did reveal a secret to Garrus, he didn't share ALL his secrets. He told some truth and some…not so much. Well, telling someone he was a shapeshifter was big, but telling the rest of his story was out of the question. The king of things that happened to him back home aren't as common here, and the last thing he needed was to overload someone's mind with the entire truth.

"Would they even believe the entire truth?" He thought to himself "Or would they just think I'm crazy and was driven mad by my powers." He seen what this power can do to a mind, a certain energy absorbing individual came to mind and he was crazy after absorbing the watch's power.

"Aw man, this is going to be tough." He muttered to himself as he approached the shuttle. Shepard looked at him in his single eye and Feedback knew the obvious message "I know, I know. I've got a lot of explaining to do." He said wearily as he got in the shuttle. "Is it too late to turn back?" he thought as the shuttle lifted off the ground. Shepard didn't say a word the whole ride and never took her eyes off of Feedback. It sent a chill down his spine "It's too late…"

---

Author: I got a little sloppy at the end but i managed to get this part over with. I'm sure none of you were surprised that everyone found out Ben was a shapeshifer. However, that's only one of his secrets. He's still got a few more to keep. The question is when will he be honest about everything?

Telling someone your from another universe is a lot to take in, especially in an universe where that kind of thing doesn't happen as often as in the Ben 10 Universe.

I didn't reveal the names of the other Mass Effect transformations because I'm still unsure if I want to use the names I have for them. If anyone wants to pitch names, I'd considered using any that sound good. Not all the transformations are biotics, it depends on who he got the samples from. Some are just from random unnamed individuals, while others are from specific people in Omega. He collects more as he travels the galaxy.

As for other Ben 10 Characters. I have four bad guys planned to appear later. You already know one if you read the stories description. More might make an appearance. As for allies. I'm thinking either one, two or three as the maximum. Why? Because he had Max and Gwen in original series. Gwen and Kevin in Alien Force and Ultimate Alien. Rook in Omniverse. I know that occasionally others would join up on adventures, but these were the main teammates.

Why am I waiting to explain how Ben got in the Mass Effect Universe? Because I'm not hundred percent sure which scenario I want to use. I have a list of scenarios that could have sent him there and this way gives me time to decide how I want this to go. And I wanted to get to the part where he meet Shepard immediately so I did this way, and he'll just tell how he got here later. I was thinking of Arrow when I made that decision. They showed Green Arrow as a bad ass in the first episode and used flashbacks throughout the series to explain how he got to that point.

Questions for readers:

Should I put Kaiden or Ashley in this story?

Who should be Shepard's love interest?

Should I give Ben the Leviathan Transformation earlier than the DLC (like he finds a fossil somewhere or he gets taken into the past by Paradox and collects a sample)?