AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hey, sorry guys, process of moving is a busy one, and while it's currently 3AM on a Tuesday for me, I've been working through the day on the chapter with every moment of free time I've had. Hope you enjoy!

Commander John Shepard

The journey to the Nubian expanse wasn't exactly the shortest of our recent trips, but not the longest either. It was along the outer rim of the galaxy but still in the Traverse, if at the border. Took about two days in transit, and in a fit of nerves, I had left the recently installed decon unit offline. We should give the very recent and pleasant sleeping arrangement some time to settle in before that little reveal. There had been no complaints at all by the time we had arrived by Pragia, fortunately. And as the time came for the crew to set out, Jack was ready and geared up before even myself. While Miranda I had specifically selected for the team, per Jack's request, Zaeed and Samara had both requested to join as well. I remembered Samara's request to attempt mentorship of her. Perhaps this is the start of that. And I know Zaeed has a soft spot for Jack, not in a creepy way, at least. Not like she'd really let that happen; I think. Finally, Garrus, so he could stream the wreckage of the facility and Jack's memories, and Grunt just in case there was heavy lifting to be done. True, the biotics here might be able to handle it fine, but ideally maybe without cleaning out the pantry when we get back to the ship.

As for the explosive that David had lent us, he had managed to secure a low-yield mining nuke. The kind generally used to crack open medium sized asteroids for a quick mining run. And no modern nukes use fission anymore, so no chance of further mutating Pragia's already mutant plant life. Plus, the bomb can just be strapped to Grunt's back. And so long as it's not primed, it's not going to detonate. It just isn't. So far, Miranda hadn't asked about what she was doing for the squad here. Or what it was. Or why we had what was clearly an explosives device strapped to the back of our Krogan. She was the only one in the dark at all. And that was just because I didn't care to explain for her. Not yet, at any rate.

Anyways, Joker gave us the all clear that we were in orbit and by the facility, so the shuttle, piloted by myself, with Jack acting as a guide, at her insistence, was in the cockpit with me, and Zaeed had squeezed in of his own volition as the shuttle began its descent.

"I remember the place all too well," Jack murmured, breaking the silence. "The landing pad had to be on top of the shithole, or the plants will just grow over it."

"Yeah, I've been here before. Civilization here is fuck all. Smugglers and other shitheads use it as a hideout from time to time. Few stay long, though," Zaeed shrugged. "Plant life is fucking wild. I swear I saw some man-eating plant when I took a shit in the jungle once."

I'm inclined to believe him.

"Commander," EDI began. "I am detecting thermal signatures everywhere within the facility and along its perimeter, but not at the landing pad."

"Ain't surprising. Look at this fucking planet," Zaeed grumbled.

"Could be squatters, though," I reminded. "Or just local wildlife." We were close now, and the facility was coming into view. As barely visible as it might be, there was still a couple dozen or so feet showing over the canopy of the jungle. This side of the planet was in its night cycle, and in addition, it was raining, on the heavier side, which wasn't exactly surprising.

"It was a mistake coming back here," Jack murmured.

"Oi," Zaeed put a hand on her shoulder. Her head shot in his direction, an instinctively aggressive movement, but she relaxed. "You blew up a prison ship with your fucking mind. We can turn an abandoned lab to ash and atoms." He spoke surprisingly softly. Jack took a breath.

"Yeah. Yeah, ok. Let's just get this over with." I held our course and landed the shuttle atop the facility. Structurally, the place was still intact, though the plant-life was in the process still of engulfing it. And fortunately, there still seems to be a path inside.

"Where do you want the bomb?" I asked as the lot of us disembarked.

"My cell," Jack answered, taking a spot beside me.

"Poetic," I remarked. "Lead the way." I gave Garrus a glance and he replied with a nod, and a quick point to his visor. As I shared the glance with Garrus, Jack taking position in front of the group, Zaeed staying beside me now as I was following right behind her, Miranda started her questions.

"Your cell?"

"Yeah, Cheerleader. Welcome to the little house of horrors Cerberus used to make me," Jack didn't turn to answer.

"And we're here to blow up an abandoned Cerberus facility?" Miranda continued. "Is this an attempt to get under my skin?"

"Something like that. I want to see if you can justify this shit." I heard Miranda sigh, but she stayed quiet for now. The path led us inside the facility, there wasn't even a door in the doorway. Scavenged or destroyed during Jack's escape? The room doesn't exactly qualify as trashed, but there is wear and tear, some of the flooring had been upturned, crates and supplies had been left behind, Cerberus logos on the walls, while still present, the paint had long began to peel and fade, the same goes for some painted words that say 'Processing.' Some of the walls, however, were a kind of glass. More than bulletproof to have stayed intact here for so long, that's obvious. On the outer walls, plant life was growing over, only a little light managing to creep through. Interior windows were scratched, but intact and uncovered. It appeared to look down into a hallway, mostly closed doors with what were probably nameplates once to the side of them.

"Don't remember this place," Jack murmured. "Processing, huh? Must have been where they brought the kids. Remember them saying that they came in big crates, packed together. Starving, bruised, but alive. Mostly." I looked to the side. There were two large crates, like shipping containers waiting, unopened. My mouth went dry, fearing the worst.

"Crates like that?" I pointed at them. Jack looked over and shrugged. "Probably."

"Shit…" I murmured, debating. Yeah, we need to see. "Grunt, help me open this." The Krogan huffed and followed me over. I looked for a control panel, but it was busted. Drained of power long ago. Same went for the other. I started looking for a secondary, sealed panel that should reveal the batteries it uses. I should be able to transfer enough power to get them to open, not unlike the overload program. It wasn't on the front of the crate; my guess is that it would be at the side that's facing the other crate. Same should go for the other. Cerberus does like its own protocols, and that would probably mean following that of leaving the batteries accessible without needing heavy equipment to pull these out. Lo and behold, I was right. And why use tools to open the latches with how rusted they might be when I have a Krogan? I gave the panel a knock, and Grunt slammed his fists into the metal beside the panel, successfully leaving a dent that let him grab the underside of said panel and yanked it out, exposing the battery. He repeated the process with the adjacent crate while I gave some charge back to the battery.

"Panel's lighting up. It's working," Garrus informed.

"Get it open for me?" I asked. Garrus didn't respond, but I heard his footsteps and began to power up the other battery. I heard metal creak and groan as it struggled against wear and tear, opening outward.

"Fucking hell…" Zaeed murmured. Damn it. I glanced over at the rest. Miranda was frozen in place; her left foot having taken a step back. I couldn't read her expression through her helmet, but considering her body language? Shock. Samara was standing stoic as ever, but staring in. Jack hadn't appeared to react at all. The second crate had been powered now, but before opening it, I had to look into them. The metal keeping the shipping crates sealed even by a vacuum hadn't been pierced to break the seal, and they were all sterilized. While the bacteria in their own bodies had been decomposing them, inside was around twenty, twenty-five small, mummified corpses. My stomach churned, threatening to turn itself inside out. I gulped, took a deep breath, and approached the other crate, using the now powered panel to open it. A small body slumped out and onto the floor, more skeleton than mummy. What little flesh remained showed clear signs of cannibalism. The other children driven desperate by hunger and thirst. Of course, it didn't save them. I threw off my helmet, just dropping it somewhere on the floor, moved outside, and emptied my stomach over the railing. Grasping it with all my might, knowing my knuckles had gone white, but not seeing it.

When it felt like the last of it had come up, I released the rail. My grip, probably thanks to the enhancements, had actually dented in the railing. I need to shoot something. I returned into the facility, picking my helmet up off the floor and putting it back on. Miranda and Zaeed had similar reactions and were still recovering.

"Justify that," I stated plainly, coldly, as I passed by Miranda. "Get us away from this," I continued, speaking to Jack now. She just started walking out of 'processing,' through a half open doorway. It was a security room. Decrepit scanners, a screen lining the wall cracked along the middle with a chair on its side in front of it. Probably where someone watched security monitors. One of the security consoles was actually still online. And flickering. Some power remains, if it can't get around very well. It apparently was stuck on playback. Like whoever was using it was listening to an audio file.

"The Illusive Man is starting to ask questions," a man's voice stated. "When he gets results, he won't care what we did. But if we knew…" the file's static then garbled out a few other words. Corrupted. The message played back from the start. Using my pistol, I shot the console, the message stopping. Closest I could get to shooting a motherfucker responsible.

"Sounds like the facility went rogue," Miranda let out a breath. Jack scoffed.

"Yeah, you'd like to think that, wouldn't you? Didn't say what they were hiding." The next door had been blown open from the other side. "I remember this. And the next place," she began. I took a peek through. It was a large room that trees had broken through the flooring to take root, growing up to the ceiling, and one through one of the now shattered windows. For what remained in its place, it seemed like some kind of obstacle course. "Yeah. I fought here, at the end of my escape. Saw sunlight through the cracks in the ceiling. I saw some guards run into the security room. Blew open the doors, killed them, blasted a crate through the window that tree went through. One of those guards died from the door. The other was half dead, between me and freedom. I remember he was begging for his life." Obviously, she didn't grant it. We continued through, passing through the obstacle course. There were catwalks above, likely for instructors and guards to monitor them. Those had broken down. Then, there was a roar. It wasn't exactly unfamiliar. It was that of a Varren. And they aren't locals. Those of us with shotguns, myself, Garrus, Grunt, and Zaeed quickly swapped to them, already recognizing the noise as up ahead, a pack of about five of the reptiles scrambled along the corner, hungry, skinny. Shotguns made quick work of them. The biotics didn't even have to make use of their abilities.

"Looked hungry. Been here a while, I guess. Think they were strays from some smugglers or other?" Garrus asked.

"Maybe. Generally, if people have them, they like to keep them around. They ain't cheap," Zaeed answered. We turned the corner the Varren had been around. There were concrete blockers that had once formed a circle, three of those closest to us had been overturned. The inside of this ring was pock-marked with dried blood. Long dried blood. Just staining the ground and never cleaned.

"The ring. They staged fights here. Pit me against the other kids. Saw em swap credits all the time. I loved it. Only time they ever let me out of my cell." I looked back at the bloodstains.

"And how… far did they go?"

"I was a kid filled with drugs," Jack shrugged. "Got a shock if I ever hesitated. Narcotics when I attacked," Jack stretched. "Still get the warm feelings when I fight."

"Christ," I muttered. "Why the hell would they do that?"

"Dunno. Maybe it's how they had fun here," Jack shrugged. "I never understood shit here."

"How often?" Zaeed asked.

"Hell if I know. I was in a cell for my whole damned memory. Sometimes they took me out and made me fight. Filled me with drugs. Other shit. Time gets funny in a cell. Go figure. Can we keep moving?" I let her lead the way, clenching my fist in my hand as we moved on. There was another set of blown open doors. To the right, a window outside, partially cracked, a hole in the ceiling, and some crates piled along the wall. Strange. Another scanner. Like it was a security checkpoint. A console with power. It flickered to life and it went to playback the last entry. The hologram of a guard, Cerberus armor, but long outdated. The kind you'd see as surplus that D tier merc gangs might be able to use today.

"Security Officer Zemkl, Teltin facility. The subjects are out of their cells! They're tearing the place up! Subject Zero is going to get loose. I need permission to terminate! Repeat: permission to terminate!" He got a response.

"All subjects beside Zero are expendable. Keep her alive!"

"Understood. I'll begin the-" Jack stepped beside me and turned off the console.

"Bullshit, that's not what happened. I broke out when my guards disappeared. I started that riot," she countered angrily.

"Seems like there were some things you didn't see," I responded.

"Shepard, the other kids attacked me. The guards attacked me. Hell the automated systems attacked me. How else should I interpret that?" she questioned, staring me down, then continuing. Down a stairwell. And at the midpoint, a pair of Varren corpses. Still red blood pooled around them. Fresh kills. "The fuck? Who the fuck would be here?"

"Weapons ready. Watch for scavs. Give them a chance to move on," I ordered. "Jack, I'm taking point. Just direct us to your old cell." I took position ahead of her while she stayed close behind. We made our way to the base of the stairwell and to the right, a cracked open window and another blown open door. There was a tree about ten feet ahead of it growing up to the roof, breaking through the floor and some crates that it had pushed up and aside. In the center of the room, Vorcha picking through scrap. A Krogan in red armor acting as an overseer. The symbol of the blood pack adorned his pauldron.

"Blood pack scavengers. Somehow, I doubt they're going to move on. Biotics, get a detonation on the Krogan. We'll clean up the rest.

"I shall prime him," Samara spoke for the first time this mission. Stepping forward and past me, towards the center portion of this room, glowing a deep blue. With a flick of her wrist, a ball of biotic energy launched out and towards the Krogan, as Jack followed up with a run, and with a punch to the air, a biotic shockwave before any of the Vorcha or the Krogan could make sense of what was going on. The biotics detonated, and the rest of us turned the corner and opened fire. The Krogan was just gone, as were two of the Vorcha I had seen earlier. Gunfire mowed down the rest, and gave us a chance to take a closer look at the room. The center had tables, some turned over, some moved about. They were bloodstained. And along the walls of the whole room, not the smaller, thinner dividing walls, there were slots. Some open, some closed. All of the opened ones were empty, save for slabs that had slid out. A morgue. And a sizeable one. The bodies more than likely taken by the blood pack, as rotten as they might be, as Vorcha and Varren food.

"A lot of people had to be dying to warrant a morgue this size," Garrus murmured.

"Bullshit. I got the worst of it, and I survived," Jack growled. Storming ahead. I was about to order her to slow down, but the still intact door had power. And was locked. That only frustrated her further. I stepped beside her to open the door myself, giving her a glance.

"Steady." I got the door open as she took a deep breath. Another catwalk over… I'd just assume this to be some sort of… transition hall.

"It's weird being back here. I feel like… I'm pissed off. I'm a dangerous bitch, then just a little girl again," Jack murmured. "Shit… can we just plant that damn bomb?" I gave no answer. We just kept moving, down another stairwell. Keeping our eyes and ears open for more Blood Pack. Two Vorcha attempted an ambush from a balcony, but a pair of bullets found their brains, as their rounds hit only shields. The rest of the stairwell just went to a hallway, doors alongside each wall. The doors were all just absent. They were like prison cells. A bunk bed in each, a toilet, and a sink. All about twelve feet across. At most.

"They kept kids here? It's like a fuckin prison. Juvey had better rooms then this!" Zaeed exclaimed. At the end of the hallway, there was another door we passed through. It was a catwalk over… what appeared to be the equivalent to the yard, once upon a time. Though there were no objects left to help with that theory. Just a tree bursting through the ground and to the ceiling. At the far end, right by where the catwalk passed by, a completely black window.

"Wait, wait… It's a two-way mirror? My cell is right on the other side. I could see all the kids out here." She ran ahead, trying to see inside, squinting, most likely.

"I screamed at them for hours and hours. They always ignored me."

"You mistook their ignorance of your pleas for indifference," Samara added softly. Jack was quiet. She just shook her head, and we moved on. The catwalk led to a pair of rooms, the peeled and old paint at the entryway just read "labs."

"Weird. I must have come through here when I broke out. But I don't remember it," Jack spoke. We checked left first, as it wasn't along the path. Most of the room had been overturned, emptied. But in the back, there was a chair with a light over it. "This is a bad place," she murmured. Memories must have been coming back. The chair had metal clamps for the wrists, at the forehead, and the legs. Keeping whoever would be in completely in place, still. Nothing more to go off of. Just a chill down the spine. To the right lab, which still showed another door to go through, the lab had an identical chair to the other, but this had a console. A voice played. Older, human.

"Entry 1054, Teltin facility. The latest iteration of PergNim went poorly. Subjects One, Four, and Six died. No biotic change among the survivors. We lowered core temperatures of surviving subjects, but no biotically beneficial reactions occurred. As a side effect, all subjects died. So we'll not try that on Zero. I hope our supply of biotic potential subjects holds up. We are going through them fast," he remarked, absolutely no hint of regret. Subjects, he calls them. They're goddamn kids.

"No, they weren't experimenting on the other kids for my safety!"

"It ain't on ya. It's on them," Zaeed reassured, his voice low.

"You don't get it!" she shot back, staring at the old merc. "I survived this place because I was the strongest. That's who I am!"

"And so, you continue along your path, and grow ever stronger from your hardships. Not consumed by them, but coming past them," Samara added. I focused back at the console, plenty was corrupted, but I got another file. The most recent. The same voice as the earlier log.

"It's all fallen to pieces. The subjects are rampaging, and Zero is loose. We're shutting Teltin down. What a disaster… We'll infiltrate and piggyback onto the Alliance's Ascension program. Hopefully that will-who are? Zero, wait!" There was the sound of a screaming little girl, and the cry of pain from the man as static enveloped the log, and it came to an end. These sons of bitches got into Ascension?! That's a conversation I need to have with Anderson after this.

"Shepard, they started up somewhere else? They're doing this all over again?" Jack asked, surprisingly concerned.

"The Ascension program is nothing like Teltin. They don't torture kids. But if any of these motherfuckers escaped and snuck in, I'll send word to the Alliance as soon as we're back on the ship." Jack put a hand to her forehead.

"A lot of this… isn't how I remember it," Jack sighed, starting to pace anxiously.

"This place was nothing short of a traumatic experience. It's not uncommon for the mind to cope by just forgetting things," I explained. She shook her head. "I was dumb. I keep my eyes open now, and I always shoot first." She sighed again. "We're almost at my cell." So, we kept on going. Through the next door, and Blood pack were there, weapons raised, but not firing yet. Some Vorcha with Flamethrowers, I count… ten. And three Krogan. One of whom was wearing newer armor, with red lights at the shoulder and chest, the armor itself a silver color. While all the others had their eyes and weapons trained on us, the Krogan only had the one, his hand at his equivalent of an ear. A commlink.

"Aresh, it's Kureck," he paused for a response. "The intruders are here. You want them dead, talk creds. You promised a lot of salvage, but this is a fucking waste." The Krogan growled, now taking a glance at us. "Fine, we'll put em down, then-" Immediately, I used the overload program to detonate the fuel tanks that the Flamer Vorcha were wearing. Garrus and Miranda followed suit. There were three total with the flamers, and an additional five bathed in flame, screaming and writhing as the flames ate away at their flesh. Fire and their regeneration don't mix well.

"Still think the pay's worth it?" I called out.

"Aresh? You're on your fucking own."

"Glad you saw some sense. Now, get the hell out of here. This place is going to be a crater soon," I warned. The Krogan grumbled under his breath.

"Pack up boys." I gave a mock salute and we passed them by. One of the two surviving Vorcha started complaining, wanting fresh meat. Kureck just shot him straight through the head. Jack just led us to her cell. Through a door, to a hallway with a spattered dent and bloodstain on the wall.

"Yeah, my first kill without being drugged up. Guard was terrified," she remarked, taking off her helmet and just dropping it to the ground. We just stepped right into her cell. Bigger than any of the others. A bed, a desk, bookshelf, toilet, shower, and sink. No sign of anyone yet.

"We know you're here." I called out. A man, young, with ragged clothing stood from behind some crates that had been placed in the room. Hands in the air.

"Who the fuck are you?" Jack asked, staring at him.

"Aresh. And you're breaking into my home." He studied Jack's face for a moment. "Subject Zero. So many years have passed, and I thought I was the only survivor." He stepped closer to Jack, who's biotics glowed and flared.

"My name is Jack," she growled. "How the fuck do you know me?"

"We all knew your face," he shrugged. "They tortured us so their experiments wouldn't kill you. You were the question. I'm still looking for the answer."

"So, both of you were drawn back here," I remarked.

"I tried to forget this. But a place like Teltin doesn't forget you. It follows you." He couldn't take his eyes off of Jack. "I hired the mercs almost a solar year ago. We're rebuilding. Piece by piece. I'm going to find out what they knew. How to unlock true biotic potential in humans. I'm restarting Teltin." This man is broken. Desperate for some answer to his suffering. "It'll be beautiful."

"What… the fuck are you thinking?!" Jack exclaimed. "I want a fucking hole in the ground. He wants to justify this by using it?!"

"You'd commit the same monstrosities onto new children?" I asked.

"Some were bought from poor families, or kidnapped from Colonies. Most ended up here the way I did. Batarian pirates. Fucking hell was the head of this facility named Halsey? "They did such horrible things to us… They must have had good reasons."

"There's no reason good enough!" Jack screamed. "You lived it!"

"How did you escape?" Garrus asked.

"Everyone attacked when they were taking us to the lab. Would have put us down, but then Jack got loose. When I came to, it was all over. Everyone was dead. Guard, scientist, kid. You were gone.

"I stopped it, all of it. Maybe… Maybe the others did have it bad, but you're batshit!"

"Everything we went through, all the pain, the suffering… it must have been worth something!" Aresh argued.

"So what do we do with you, Aresh? This place is going to become a crater."

"Just leave me here. This is where I belong," Aresh murmured.

"I've a better idea," Jack growled. She knocked Aresh to the ground with his biotics, and pulled a pistol, aiming at his skull. She was breathing. Heavily. Her teeth gritted.

"Jack, he's trapped in the past. You need to move on from it. Or you'll live through it all every moment of every day for the rest of your life. Just… move on," I stated quietly. She looked up.

"He's right. I'm not getting those twenty years back. And I had a person on my list. You have… a thing. You try and kill that, and you'll never see the end," Zaeed murmured.

"He wants to restart this place… He needs to die!"

"He's broken, Jack. He'd never be able to restart it. Let it go," I encouraged gently. "Don't let your past control you." Jack's breathing quickened, almost like hyperventilating.

"FUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCKKKK" She screamed, and emptied the clip. But not into Aresh. But the ceiling. "Go! Get the fuck out of here!" He just broke into a panicked run. "He's not worth chasing. None of it is," she murmured. Zaeed stepped over.

"You did the right thing," Zaeed put his hand on her shoulder. She looked around.

"This room was my childhood. Give me a minute to look around."

"Take all the time you want." She started with the desk.

"I used it for everything. Like a best friend. I'd crawl under it to cry. I was pathetic… The bed?" she nodded in its direction. "Sometimes I dream I'm back in it being tortured. Used to tie sheets around my wrists and rip them off. I want to stop coming back here…" Jack took another breath. "Alright. Fuck it. We're blowing this place to hell."

"About time," Grunt grumbled, and unstrapped the bomb, setting it down. I went ahead and set it up properly. It's armed. And I've got the detonator. Sealed and blocked and at my belt.

"Let's make this quick." Without wasting any time at all, we hurried back to the shuttle, and made our way up back towards the Normandy in a holding pattern over the planet. When we reached the minimum safe distance, I activated a viewscreen on the console showing the rearview, and handed Jack the detonator. She stared at it for a moment. Flicked open the plastic casing blocking the trigger. Then closed it. Flicked it open again, and closed. She repeated the process a few times.

Her thumb pressed down on the button.