A/N- But then the cliffhanger was like 'seeya'…. Yeah, I ran out of ideas on what to put up here. -Sigh- just read the dang chapter…

Oh wait, one more thing. Someone thought that when I said 'endgame' last chapter they thought I meant the end of the story. I meant the end of the ME2 part, if anyone was confused by that, this story is far from done.


MASS MISCALCULATION

Episode 17- Stuck upstream without a fleur


"So you're the one that killed all the geth…" Aaron muttered, brining his laser razor out. "And the quarians"

"So? What are quarians to someone like you?" Hydra mused.

"One of them was her Dad" he said bitterly, nodding in Tali's direction. Her eyes had narrowed into slits as she aimed her shotgun.

"Oh? But that would mean… so that was the Admiral"

"How would you know that?" Boss asked.

"I belong to Cerberus. Being a high-class agent such as myself, I'm aloud to know much. Like how all three of you are under the employ of Shepard… who in term works for Cerberus. By extension, it would be wise to leave me alone to do my business"

"Fuck that, we don't work for Cerberus" Aaron deadpanned. "We need the data on that mainframe. So leave"

"I'm afraid Cerberus wants the data the quarians compiled here. I'm leaving with it" he cocked his head to the side. "Although… your friend's suit is of a high bounty within Cerberus. Leave him"

"Screw it, kill him" Boss ordered, sprinting with super speed towards the Cerberus bounty hunter.

"As you wish" Hydra said, purple energy flaring around his body.

Boss faltered upon seeing the biotics. "Coool… purple…" he moaned.

"Dammit Boss!" Shouted Aaron.

Hydra's response was to biotically lift Boss up, smashing him into the walls repeatedly. "Ow! Ow! Ugh! Fuckin' ass- ow!" Boss's body soon became a blur as he went faster and faster from one wall to another. His body stopped in mid-air as Boss groaned from the motion sickness, his body being thrown into Legion, causing the two to tumble back into the hallway they came from and fall down the stairs. Tali screamed in rage as she attempted a charge at him with her shotgun, by he merely used a stasis to freeze her in place, than used a biotic charge, appearing right in front of her and biotically punching her in the stomach, sending her into the same hallway as Boss and Legion went. Afterwards, he biotically shut the one door with enough force to jam it.

A furious Aaron, much to his surprise, vanished in a burst of virtual pixels, reappearing behind Hydra.

"What the- did I… did I just teleport? Holy crap, that was awesome!" Aaron's excitement was cut short as he was punched across the room. "Okay, let's try this out…" getting up, Aaron attempted to teleport in front of Hydra, but ended up slamming his body into the opposite wall.

"-Hiss- ow ow ow ow…. okay, new trick, don't know how it works, focus on that later, kill this guy now" Aaron pried himself from the wall, but Hydra used his biotics to rapidly move behind him, grasping Aaron's head and slamming it into the wall three times before tossing him away.

Getting up and grunting in agitation, Aaron held up his sword, Hydra activating two purple omni-blades. They charged at eachother, clashing all three blades.

"The hell!? How are omni-blades holding up to the sword!?" Aaron unbelievingly asked.

"My biotics make them extremely more powerful. As powerful as your sword, apparently" Hydra explained.

They pushed themselves away from eachother, more biotics flaring around Hydra while Aaron raised a flaming fist. He asked, "If that's true, than why don't asari's do it?"

"Because there are no asari with my level of biotics"

"That's a high boast, isn't it?"

"It is no boast" spreading his arms, Hydra unleashed twelve biotic missiles and launched them towards Aaron. The Saint tried to absorb on, but it exploded once he touched it, causing him to tumble a few feet, and forcing him to dodge the rest. While distracted, Hydra attempted to charge Aaron, and did so, but once he was within a foot of Aaron the Saint formed and aimed a shotgun right at Hydra's face, firing.

The shot was well beyond the kinetic barrier, so the helmet was cracked and Aaron grabbed the Cerberus agent, tossing him into a wall, and formed a RPG, firing it at his prone form.

When the smoke cleared, Aaron sighed as he saw Hydra's prone form. Whether he was dead or unconscious, Aaron didn't know. But first things first, he had to open the jammed door.


"You done puking?"

"I think… maybe… I think… I think I don't feel too good…"

"He'll live" Aaron assured, patting Boss on the back. Aaron had successfully used his sword to cut the door opened, and on the other side he had found Boss bending over, with his helmet off, puking all over the floor from Hydra tossing him around. Tali and Legion did their best to avoid the mess.

Aaron walked over to Hydra's body. "So, is he alive or dead?"

"Scanning. Scan complete. Subject has steady vitals" Legion said. "Alert! Subject showing signs of abnormal brain waves. Request course of action"

"Abnormal brain waves?" Aaron questioned. "Wait, didn't I need to do something with that…?" Aaron thought real hard, and a fleur-shaped thought bubble appeared over him, with a purple outline. Inside of the bubble was himself and Boss from their high school days. Boss looked ticked off, holding up a torn nudie mag.

"Aaron, your cat ever does this again, I'm putting it in the microwave" he warned.

"No, that's not it…" Aaron thought harder, and another image popped up of high school Aaron attempting to shove a microwave out the window.

"Yo Aaron! You seen my mags?" high school Boss called from a different room.

"Nah man!" Aaron said in a slightly panicky voice. A dozen torn porn mags were hastily shoved in the trash, seemingly destroyed by claws.

"Ah, that ain't it either!" Thinking harder, Aaron produced a image of present him in the Normandy med-bay, with Chakwas.

"No, nothing of that sort. I did find unusual brain waves, but other than that nothing. I'd need a comparison with someone with a similar affliction to give a explanation"

"Well if I run into anyone with 'abnormal brain waves' you'll be the first to know"

A purple fleur-shaped lightbu;b appeared over Aaron's head. "Oh yeah. Legion, do me a favor and make a copy of those brainwaves for me, would you? It's important"

"Scanning… done. Copy of abnormal brain waves stored" Legion confirmed. Aaron noticed Hydra stir. "Must be a bad dream" Aaron guessed.


In a unknown place, a small boy was standing over the body's of a man and a woman, his hands glowing purple. "Mommy? Daddy? Please wake up…" the boy begged, crying softly.

Above him was a small viewing room, two scientists with Cerberus lab coats talking amongst one another. "Damn, you were right. His cybernetic augments are cancelled out with the chip. You sure we can't circumvent it with the chip on?"

"We could, but it would only work for a short time, it could kill him otherwise. I don't know if I want to risk that though, he's the only one who survived the process, a one in a million chance. Literally. Don't know if we should risk it"

"…Do it"


Hydra immediately sat up and flared his biotics in a small explosion, acting as a biotic flash bang.

"Keelah, my eyes!"

"Error, optics malfunctioning!"

"Damn, can't see!"

"Agh, my eyes, despite the fact I have a visor-less helmet on!" When their sight returned, they realized Hydra was gone. They looked around until they spotted a opened airvent. Aaron realized he must have crawled through to safety. Hydra was gone, but he was tougher than Aaron thought he was. He had biotics that could hurt him, and blades as strong as his. But he ran away, which meant Aaron could keep him at bay… for now.


Unknown to anyone, a small, black ship detached itself from the Alerei, making it's way to the nearest mass relay. The person piloting the ship was Hydra, and he was furious at the moment. Granted, he kept the cool demeanor he always showed, but on the inside he was furious. It was his first fight with the man causing so much problems for Cerberus (granted he didn't know he was one of the strange mercs that had attacked him and the other two when they tried to collect Randall) and he lost. He was supposed to be better than this. Mentally sighing, he pressed a few buttons to open a communication connection.

"Hydra" the voice of the Illusive Man sounded from the speakers on the ship. "It's been awhile since I've heard from you. I trust the mission was a success?"

"There were… complications. Aaron was there" Hydra admitted.

"…I see. So you didn't retrieve the data?"

"No"

"Failure is barely recognized among Cerberus, Hydra. I trust you will take care of him should the opportunity ever arise again?"

"I will"

"Good. And if you fail again, you know I can always turn that limiter off, and wait as it kills you" To empathize his point, Hydra felt a wave of pain wash over his body. He held his head in pain as a memory coursed through his head.


"Really? You want to set him loose on a asari colony?"

"Yeah, with the limiter off. Want him to try and draw some justicar's in"

"He's fourteen, and they'll kill him"

"Maybe. Maybe not. You've seen the power without the limiter"

"And the chip"

"Well luckily he'll have that too"


The limiter was put back on and Hydra rasped, "I… understand. He will not escape me once again"

"Good. Return to base. Gehenna's cybernetics are finally settled in and he's ready to go back on the field"

With that, Hydra piloted his ship to the nearest mass relay.


"Well on the bright side we got the evidence here, saying that Rael reactivated those harmless geth parts you sent him which is a clear violation against quarian law… so I don't see the problem with presenting it in court"

"Aaron, my Father will become a pariah! His name will be stripped from all the ship logs, it will be worse than exile!"

"Which is what'll happen to you if I don't present this!" Aaron snapped. "You really think I want to ruin his name or make you upset? I don't, be we only have two options here"

At this present time, the team had acquired the data they needed. The only problem was that Tali and Aaron were arguing over what to do with it. Turn it over, Rael's name is ruined. Keep it, Tali's name is ruined, not to mention the research on the geth will have been for nothing. It was quite the conundrum to say the least.

At least until Boss asked, "Can I have the data?"

"Why you?" Aaron questioned.

"I have a idea that will make you all happy, just trust me here"

"I don't know… what do you want to do with them?" Tali asked.

"Just trust me here, okay? I got a solid plan"

"…Fine, here" Tali said. Boss's omni-tool (Which Kinzie had, to his great pleas, made purple) lit up… only it was upside-down.

Aaron facepalmed. "Boss, you put the tool on the wrong way"

"Wha? Oh, whoops. Does it matter, point is it works. So what now?"

"We go back. C'mon guys" Aaron said, waving them off. Legion and Tali followed him, with Boss lagging behind, who typed in his upside-down omni-tool, raising his wrist to his head. "Yo Kinzie?" he spoke.

"What is it?" the quirky hacker's voice asked from the other side of the tool.

"Hey girl, I need a favor"

"One of your 'special favors'?" she teased.

"Woman, Earth got blown up and my friend got sent to another dimension, I needed emotional support"

"From me, Shaundie, and Asha?"

"…Well you scare me. Look, I got some data put if I give it to some people someone's Dad's gonna be shamed. But if I keep it she'll be shamed. It's a giant shame problem"

"Tali's situation?"

"Yeah… wait how the hell'd you know?"

"Oh, whenever you, Aaron, or one of the other Saints go on a mission or something I hack into the comms and listen to everything you guys talk about"

"…What?"

"And I think I may be able to help. Just send me the data and I'll do the rest"

"Thanks girl, you're the best"

"That's not what you told Shaundie"

"Your never gonna let that go, will you?"

"No. Also, I managed to hack into the Normandy mainframe. Took awhile with that AI, but the encryption in this universe sucks"

"Seriously!? Sweet!" Boss shouted, fist pumping the air. "So what did ya get?"

"Well for one, we could build our own Normandy if we wanted"

"…Girl you better not be shitting me"

"No, we could even make a bigger one if we wanted. In fact there's a lot we could do with this… I have the entire schematics, could definitely make some improvements. We can talk about it later, here's the data you needed"

"Awesome, love you girl"

"Lies"


Raan sighed as she stood beside her fellow Admirals. It had been too long since Tali had went with the Saints on that mission, and so far no word from the ship had reached them. The other Admirals were considering labeling her KIA, but Raan tried to stop them as long as possible, but too much time had passed. She relented, and they were about to hand the verdict out when the door to the commons swished open, a familiar purple quarian walking through.

"Sorry we're late" Tali said bitterly. the death of her Father still upset her, but she could learn to cope. Behind her was Legion and Aaron. Boss was no-where to be seen.

"Ah, finally" Gerrel said. "I trust the Alerei issue has been resolved?"

"It has, all geth have been purged… there were no survivors, however" Tali informed.

Raan felt heart-broken at this. Rael was a family friend, and Tali's last parent. Now gone. "Oh Tali… I'm so sorry"

"As much as we should lament and mourn the dead" Korris interrupted, "there is still the matter of the trial, and the data proving your innocence"

Tali looked over at Aaron, a pleading look in her eyes. Aaron sighed. "Admiral's, I-" whatever Aaron's choice was, however, was cut off when Boss stormed into the room, omni-tool held high while shouting "I object! Also I put the momi-tool right side up!"

He stood next to Aaron proudly, Aaron facepalming yet again. "One, this isn't a wedding" he said. "Two, it's 'omni', not momi, and three now it's on backwards"

Boss looked at his tool, which was indeed on backwards. "Aw man…" he sighed, before he regained his proud demeanor and stepped in front of the Admirals. "Admiri I come here today with the intent of bringing Tali out from this badass court day, and am here to show you the truth! Nothing but the truth! But you know what…" he glared at the Admiral's.

"You can't handle the truth! None of you can! No trutho! And you…" he glared at Daro. "You know what you can't handle?"

"The truth?"

Boss sputtered. "…Well fuck you too, creepy-ass bitch. You know what, the moment's passed. Here's the data, go nuts" all the Admiral's omni-tool's lit up as the data was transmitted. Tali hung her head until Raan spoke of what the data held.

"If… if this is correct, than the data shows that Rael was trying to stop the geth from being assembled for research, and was held captive against his will when they did reassemble them. He tried to oppose this. The data also shows that Tali was not at fault here, as she only sent harmless, inactive pieces as requested by her Father. There is also data pertaining to data in a attempt to gain knowledge on hacking into the geth" The quarians in the crowd gasped at this.

Boss crossed his arms and smugly walked over to the trio. "…How" Tali asked dumbly.

"Kinzie worked her hacking magic on the data and forged evidence saying Rael was innocent. This way they get the research data and both of your names are cleared"

"…Wow. Bro, that's… that's just wow. Can't believe you pulled that off" Aaron remarked.

"Yeah, well, it was nothing, you should really thank Kinzie, she's the one that pulled it off"

The Admirals had a quick discussion afterwards, and addressed the group. Raan spoke for them. "In light of this evidence, Tali'Zorah vas Normandy has been cleared of all charges. The only thing left now is how to repay you Saints for this"

"Nah, it's cool" Aaron waved off. "We do this kind of thing all the time. Sort of. Tell you the truth the mass-murdering has been kind of low lately. Anyway, we done here?"

"Very well" all the quarians were stunned by this. They never really received much acts of kindness like this, although they had heard it was of Aaron's nature… most of the time. The quarians said they're quick prayer as they dispersed. The group of four conversed among themselves.

"Aw man, we don't even get paid?" Boss whined.

"No Boss, we don't" Aaron deadpanned.

"But they practically wanted to repay us! Why the hell are you so charitable lately anyways?"

"Boss, in the two years I spent space-pirating I became a billionaire in my illegal activities. I'm basically loaded"

"Still though, we couldn't have at least got some kind of payment?"

"The payment was the story we got out of this job"

"That's a pretty shitty reward"

"Suck it up. Anyways, Tali, what do you make of this?"

The quarian was at a loss for words. "I… I don't really know what to say. This is a amazing thing you two have done… I don't know if I can ever do anything to thank you for this"

"Homie's help homies, Tals. You don't need to thank us" Aaron assured. "You want to go talk with Raan or the other Admirals? I'm sure they'd want to talk to you"

"I suppose your right… again, thank you. I would have just exiled myself had it just been me, but… Keelah, I don't know what to say to this. I'm just going to… talk with Raan and the others" with that, she darted off.

Boss turned to Aaron. "Okay, I give up"

"Huh?"

"I'm going to say this right now. When I first saw her I was attracted to her, mostly because of the purple suit. But Kinzie hacked into her suit and apparently she has white skin, so I gave up"

"You hear yourself here?"

"Point is, I know you got a thing for her-"

"I do not!"

"Don't lie to me, and you can have her"

"Um… Boss this conversation is really weird"

"What's weird about you getting the hots for a alien?"

"No, I mean it's weird 'cause Legion is standing right there" They both turned to the geth. "Legion, you can go now"

"Acknowledged" Legion said, turning to leave. Both Aaron and Boss shrugged as they walked towards Tali.

The Admiral's had all shared their condolences for Rael (Aside from Daro, who just wanted a crack at the data) . The group were now in the airlock of the Normandy, quarians waving Aaron goodbye. Amer was among them.

"See you later kid!" Aaron called.

"Yeah! Stay safe out there, Aaron!" Amer called back.

"Sure thing dude! Bye the rest of you!" the rest of the quarians said their goodbyes as the airlock door closed, the ship flying away from the Migrant Fleet, a crowd of quarians celebrating Aaron's heroic's on the Alerei.


"So doc, whatcha got?" Aaron asked Chakwas. The group had returned to their regular tasks, Tali going back to engineering after thanking Aaron profusely numerous times. Now he, now unarmored, Boss, Legion, and Urz, the varren Aaron adopted, were in the med-bay to analyze the data Legion had scanned from Hydra. Urz was there because Boss tried to play ball with him, but the varren clamped his jaws around Boss's left armored shin. He had yet to let go, growling the entire time.

"Aaron, get this thing off of me!" Boss pleaded, trying to shake Urz off.

"No time. Anyway, Chakwas, the data?"

She swiveled from her terminal, sighing. "It's as I feared- complete cerebral polarization"

"So… Shepard's brain froze?" Boss asked. Aaron whacked him upside the head.

"Not that polar, fool! Chakwas, what does that mean?"

The aging woman took a deep breath. "It's a extremely rare case, only happened twice in the galaxy, but it's quite severe. You have to understand, Shepard suffered suffocation from lack of atmosphere and hid body freezing, only to burn up on entering the planet's atmosphere. That alone should have highly damaged his body, than he fell on the ground from orbit. Cerberus said it themselves, there was barely anything left of him, they had to rebuild what was left up from scratch. There were heavy synthetic augmentation to his brain, but something happened. Something wrong. You can't expect them to get him back from the dead with his body in that state with the only flaw being glowing scars, even with the resources they poured in"

"What are you saying?" Aaron asked.

"Just look at this" she turned the monitor towards the group, Boss lifting his leg so Urz could see it. Aaron rolled his eyes upon seeing this, than focused on the monitor. It was a representation of a human brain, with it being comprised of countless synapses and electrical nodes, blue brain signals flowing in all directions. "Okay, what is this?"

"This is Shepard's brain before he died. You see, the brain is made of many synapses and nodes, they make up our memories, and they dictate our actions. Now, watch what happens to them after I factor in his current brain scans compiled with the data Legion brought me" The energy in the synapses turned red, all the energy flowing in the opposite direction. "The condition is rare, as I've said. Basically half of his brain accepted the augmentations, while the other half rejected it. The result was his brain basically being forced to perceive his memories and experiences differently, while at the same time turning his personality completely around"

"That doesn't sound good at all" Aaron said. "Is there any way to reverse it?"

"I'm afraid not" Chakwas sighed. "It's a shame, really. He used to be so… lively, friendly. Now he's just a cold and calculating soldier"

"Just what Cerberus would have wanted… you sure they didn't force this to happen?"

"Doubtful. The concept of this condition is barely understood, they could never hope to get rid of it. And even if they could they likely wouldn't want to. It's hopeless"

All the occupants in the room lowered their heads, save for Legions whose flaps opened in surprise, and Urz finally letting go and running away. Boss asked, "so what now?"

"Now we just need that IFF to get working" Aaron answered.

"Aaron, we have a request" Legion spoke up suddenly.

Aaron groaned in frustration. "'Course you do, you're the only person who hasn't had a mission done for him…" he turned to the geth and asked, "okay, what's the skivvy?"

"We have been monitoring comm traffic of geth heretics, and have learned that they have somehow acquired a virus at a technological level on par of the old machines. We believe they intend to use this virus on the entirety of the true geth"

"Okay, what would it do?"

"It would compel us to join their cause to wage war on organic life" he answered simply.

Aaron shrugged. "Okay, no biggie"

"No biggie!?" Boss shouted. "Dude, you realize if this works all the geth actually will try and kill all organics, right?" This really was a dire situation. Ever since the geth drove the quarians out they have been scrutinized with the assumption they wanted to kill all organics, but that was wrong as only a fraction of them actually wanted to do that, following the reapers. The real geth just wanted peace. However, if what Legion said was true… those stereotypes would be real. They all would wage war on organics.

"I know, I know" Aaron assured. "It's just that we've been getting this kind of news for awhile now. Plus with all the stuff we've been through it's hard to shock a guy at this point. Alright, so we go to wherever this virus is and then what?"

"Eradication of all geth at the station would be the most logical choice" Legion answered. "We suggest Aaron-Saint ask Shepard-Commander permission to go to the heretic ship"

"I'll get right on that" Aaron made a move for the door, but quickly added, "Chakwas you might want to tell Shepard about his… brain problem. Just sayin'"

"I'll try, but the man never listens to me anymore. I'll send him a e-mail with the specifics. If he wished to talk to me or not is his choice"

"Yeah, I know talk to you later doc" with that, Aaron and Legion left, Urz running back into the room and latching onto Boss's leg again, causing Boss to scream in rage.


The heretic station, in Aaron's opinion, looked very strange. For one the black station looked like it had a giant blue eyeball looking at them from the middle. Two the shape of it, with the ship ending in three points at the bottom and one at the top, it more looked like a poor imitation of a reaper than any kind of station.

"Okay, course is set… so now as long as they don't look through a window they shouldn't see us" Joker said from the pilot's seat.

"Geth stations and ships have no windows. We fond them too much of a structural weakness to use" Legion corrected.

"Yeah, but what about Sauron's cousin over there?" Aaron questioned, motioning to the light in the middle.

"It should not act as any external viewing port. We are out of sight" Legion assured.

"If you say so…" Joker coolly dismissed. "Alright, you guys should be good"

"Good, let's go" Shepard said, donning a breathing helmet. Since this mission would be full of geth he wanted to get in on the killing action. So he, Aaron, and Legion made way for the airlock, their objective the virus inside of the station. As soon as they left Joker turned to EDI. "Hey EDI, what the hell's a 'Sauron'?"

"Searching… no data available" EDI droned.

"Okay, the heretics need to get a vacuum cleaner or something, because all this junk just floating in the air ain't right" Aaron remarked. The three were now in the station, Aaron at first wanted to stay in his standard attire but was forced to change into his armor sue to not wanting the 'floating junk' randomly flying into his mouth. Indeed the halls of the station were barely lit and devoid of any indication of organic life, just cold machinery. And the gravity was extremely low too, with air being nil, Legion pointing out geth required neither. "Why the hell is there even spare parts just floating around anyways?"

"If damages do not compromise integrity of ship or safety to geth, repairs are of low priority. It is likely their efforts have been to reverse-engineering old machine technology and fabricating the virus" Legion explained.

"So Shepard…" Aaron drawled, turning to Shepard, who smacked away a piece of scrap. "Chakwas tell you about your brain?"

"She did" he answered. "Don't really care"

Aaron frowned. "You don't care your personality took a one-eighty?"

"Long as I get the job done, I don't really care. Plus ever since the surgery things have just been going more right for me, you know? No having to go out of my way just so others can benefit, getting some alien kills once in awhile… feels good" he said. "Killed a bunch of batarians that surrendered when recruiting Mordin. Felt nice"

Aaron felt deeply disturbed by this. He didn't know his condition went this far. It was… really disturbing in his opinion. Fortunately Legion offered a change in topic.

"Aaron-Saint. We have discovered an alternate solution" Legion spoke up suddenly.

Aaron did a double-turn as he faced the synthetic. "Alternate-wha?"

"The virus. It is finished, and the heretics are already finalizing preparations for infecting the geth"

"And?"

"We believe we can re-purpose it to infect the heretics and cause them to abandon their ways, and re-join the geth. There be no need for their death"

"Too risky, I say we still blow the station" Shepard said bluntly.

"Screw that noise, we're not doing that" Aaron objected.

"What if they shrug the virus off?" Shepard countered.

"…Fuck it, I say it's Legion's choice. Legion, what say you?"

"A consensus is still forming on the decision. We are extremely conflicted with it" Legion answered.

"Well, you can make up your mind once we get to… where are we going again?" in all their planning, Aaorn forgot to ask where the actual objective was.

"In the center of the station is a terminal connecting to all of the heretic hubs on the station. We can either repurpose the virus there or we may detonate the station. We have initiated multiple cyber attacks against the geth, diverting their attention to fix the damage. We will likely only face light resistance. Consensus is still forming on which decision to make concerning with the fate of the station" the synthetic answered.

"Alright, fine, whatever. Let's just go" Shepard ordered.

Walking down the desolate hallways, Aaron came to the conclusions that one, floating space junk was really annoying, and two, geth interior designing was really creepy. It was even creepier when they came to a room with green coding making a trail along the floor.

"This better not be the part where you tell me we're in the Matrix" Aaron deadpanned.

"Negative. Heretics are currently divided at separate nodes attempting to clear out the excess data we implanted into the servers. Tripping the coding will let make them aware of our presence"

"And if we take out the big boxy thing over there surrounded by geth?" Aaron asked, pointing to a large, black object with multiple geth surrounding it.

"It is a central hub. Destroying it and the platforms will cause them to join the central server. It will also alert them to us"

"If I shoot it right now will it make a big enough bang to destroy them?"

"Affirmative"

"Can't we just sneak past?" Shepard offered.

"The only exit is blocked by the coding. Negative"

"Screw it then" With that, Aaron fired a rocket at the hub, destroying the platforms. "Well, they know we're here now. Let's hustle" they moved on, a few geth platforms attempting to stop them along the way. Legion was helpful in hacking a few rocket turrets, and they made short work of the geth.

Encountering two more hubs, Aaron was about to stealth blow them again but Shepard accidentally tripped over a green line, causing them to go red and the geth to attack them.

Aaron clapped slowly. "Smooth!" he yelled, the group being forced to mow down the geth and blow the hubs.

Aaron was still creeped out by the ship as they moved along it. It just felt too empty. He didn't feel that way though when they came to viewports looking into long hallways lined with rows upon rows of hubs, containing all the geth on the station.

"Still conflicted?" Aaron questioned.

"Affirmative. We… cannot reach consensus on the subject" he glanced out to the long hallway full of hubs. "…To the geth, we must always reach consensus. When the Morning War was ending, consensus on whether to exterminate the quarians or force them off-world to extraordinarily longer than the usual rate. We still do not understand why"

"Well it was a pretty heavy choice" Aaron added.

"The same problem occurred when we were approached by Saren and Nazara. A unusual long time to reach consensus. It's what created the heretics, programs opposing the decision of the choice brought by them. They didn't like our idea of making our future. We still look for the answer to the question that started the war. 'Does this unit have a soul?'" He looked back at Aaron. "How can they say they have a soul if they were given a future, governed? How could we have accepted the idea of them splintering? Why do they hate us? How could we have become so different? Why can we no longer understand eachother? What did we do wrong?"

Aaron sighed as the group started walking down the corridors. "You know, this sometimes happens with organics"

"Explain" Legion demanded.

"Well, some people get conflicted when they're faced with tough decisions. They get internal conflicts, shit like that… some people even get a mental disorder where their minds split so they have more than one mind in their heads, multiple personnel identity disorder. It's basically the same thing that happened to you guys; only difference is that there are a lot more minds and they have the option of leaving their bodies"

"We see. So organics understand what we go through?"

"Well as a former organic I do. Considering most people think all geth are genocidal machines, they probably wouldn't understand"

"We… understand. However, we still don't know the answer to the question whether we have souls"

"Okay, here's a story. 'Member when I mentioned the Matrix back there?"

"Affirmative"

Aaron had to be careful with this one. "Hopefully the universe was kind and humans here made those movies. Or records of movies got destroyed a couple hundred years ago. Here's hoping" Aaron thought, before he explained, "okay, so there was this movie. It was made before humans found mass relays, like WAY before, we still had gunpowder guns and cars that ran on gasoline. Anyway, basically in the movie humans made robot slaves, and the robot slaves got smarter and smarter, eventually they gained sentience and asked almost the same question you guys asked in terms of a soul"

"…You can confirm you are correct in saying this is before humans knew of quarians and geth?"

"We didn't even know about mass relays, we were still on one planet. Anyway, humans went to war with robots, robots were winning, so humans tried blotting the sky out with nanomachines, 'cause the robots were solar powered"

"And this worked?"

"This and no. Machines at this point evolved to the point they decimated humans, and with no other source of power, they… pretty much put all humans in red vats and used them as organic batteries, their minds going into a simulation so they thought they lead normal lives. Now humans were cloned and they were fed the liquefied remains of dead humans, the simulation was called the 'Matrix'. Hence the name of the movie"

"That's pretty sick" Shepard noted.

"What was the fate of the humans?" Legion asked.

"Dude was born, got recruited into the resistance, which were humans outside the simulation still fighting machines, has the ability to give himself super powers in the simulation with his mind… this sounds very similar to the situation me and the Saints were in back with Zinyak" Aaron realized.

"Zinyak?" Legion inquired.

"Uh… nevermind, anyways, a bunch of plot later, a program in the simulation went rogue, took over the simulation, and the chosen one resistance fighter said he'd stop the program if they machines had a truce with humans. He died stopping him, but it worked and they had peace"

"…Interesting. Thank you, Aaron-Saint. You have given us perspective on the matter"

"Sure, dude. Hey, is that what we're looking for?" they had entered a room with two levels, the trio being on the upper level while a lower level was full of cover and rocket drones was below them. A blue terminal was at the end of the upper platform.

"Affirmative" they went to the terminal, Legions typing on it. "We require your opinion on the matter of converting or destroying the heretics"

"This shit again, haven't you made a choice yet!?" Shepard scolded.

"From here we can either repurpose the virus to convert the heretics or delete it and set the station for self-destruct. 573 programs insist we repurpose the heretics. 571 insist the station and the heretics be destroyed. 39 programs refuse to come t a final decision"

"We need to destroy it, they're too dangerous" Shepard argued.

"All programs request the final decision come from Aaron-Saint" Legion countered, turning to the virtual Saint.

"Well, since two more programs think it's better to rewrite them, and I'm not for mass murder today, I'ma go with rewriting"

"What!? Aaron, you have to be joking, you can't seriously allow-" Shepard started, but Aaron cut him off.

"Shepard, I ain't hearing it. Way I see it, you can't even make moral choices anymore thanks to your condition"

The commander threw his hands up. "So that's it? You'll basically be against whatever I say from now on?"

"Preeeeety much! Legion, rewrite 'em" Aaron ordered.

"Understood. Rewriting virus now. Warning, hostiles approaching. Advise you take defensive position" as Legion said this, doors on the lower level started opening, heretic geth pouring in.

"Oh that's bull, they get all the cover!" Aaron growled, forming his sniper rifle and sniping the geth. "Yo Legion, li'l help here? Hack those drones!"

"Initiating hacking sequence" he droned, the pods around the lower floor targeting the heretics and opening fire. A lucky heretic managed to walk to the upper level, but a concussive blast by Shepard destroyed it.

"I still hate you… but let's hurry up and do this" he grumbled.

For years now Aaron had been introduced into the concept of enemies pouring in while he shot them, or used his powers on them… really it was routine at this point. So time seemed to fly for Aaron and his geth-killing antics when Legion announced that the rewriting was done.

"Rewriting of geth virus complete"

Aaron sighed. "Finally! A'ight, let's go!"

"Warning: we have programmed the station to release a large EMP detonation. This will rewrite the heretics but will also destroy unshielded organics" Legion added.

"Now you tell us!" Shepard roared.

"Sucks to be you, Shepard. Okay, let's book it!" all three ran through multiple doors, the heretics trying to stop them but Aaron, being in a rush, kept using the stomp power to blow them away. When they ran into a prime, he sprinted up to it and cut it in half with his sword, than motioned to the airlock.

Joker was whistling calmly in the cockpit when Shepard, Aaron, and Legion burst from the airlock, immediately running towards him. "Joker, stations gonna do a thing, book it!" Aaron said.

"Hey, he's my helmsman. Joker, book it" Shepard commanded.


"On it!" Joker went to work with the Normandy controls, detaching from the station and flying off as a big, blue pulse surrounded the station. The Normandy left through a nearby relay as the former heretics within the station were reprogrammed, immediately reconnecting with the geth collective and abandoning the station.


Other than the brief risk of dying, again, life went back to normal. Interestingly Legion had an argument with Tali as soon as the mission ended, something about Legion sending data about the quarians to the geth, and Tali was about ready to shoot her, but Aaron managed to reason with them, and they came to an agreement with Tali giving him nonclassified data. After that, Aaron had asked Legion of the heretics, Legion confirming that the geth were once more whole, and that soon the station they were just on would be salvaged and brought back to the veil. Aaron was happy to hear this, but he suspected a certain quarian and Cerberus crewmembers wouldn't be happy he just increased the geth's power. After a few minutes of conversing, Aaron left the AI core, but not even five minutes later had to settle another argument between Miranda and Jack arguing about Pragia.

So Aaron, along with the rest of the Saints, were now in his room. Boss was starting to talk about where to set up Saints HQ, and not knowing much about the galaxy, needed help. Turns out he really was going through with setting up a Saint empire here.

"Okay, how about that Citadel place? It seemed pretty cool" Boss offered.

"Sure, put our crib with a bunch of corrupt bureaucratic assholes and basically super cop center, I'm sure that will go well" Shaundie replied.

"Okay fine, what about Earth? Can we set up there?"

"I wouldn't advise for it, even since the first contact war the planets been heavily fortified. It'd be pretty difficult setting up shop there" Kinzie said.

"Fuck, fine, what about a colony?"

"Nah, too small" Aaron objected. "Hey, crazy idea, how about Illium?"

"Isn't that a asari colony?" Ben questioned.

"Yeah, but it's pretty lenient with laws with the entire terminus system thing. Plus my apartments there"

"That don't seem like a good reason to set up there, Aaron" Boss defended.

"Yeah, but I've got serious connections there-"

"I ain't setting up shop in a apartment building"

"It's a pretty good apartment building. And wasn't the old HQ in our dimension in a penthouse?"

"…Good point, what else you got?"

"A shipping yard that asks no questions. Pay them enough and we can get our Normandy rip-off"

"Technically with my modifications it'll be better and bigger than this Normandy" Kinzie added. "Also, what are we going to name it?"

"We'll talk about it later, Aaron, anything else to add?"

"It's full of purple and blue alien chicks"

"…That settles it, Illium it is" the conversation was interrupted as Miranda the bitch entered the room.

"What were you all talking about?" she demanded.

"…IRS tax refunds coupled with 401K's" Boss lied.

"Ugh, I don't have time for your foolishness. I need you all to come with me"

"For?" Aaron argued.

"EDI's ready to test the IFF, and Shepard needs the entire team and you Saints to come with him"

"For?"

"Recon on a old shuttle, it's rumored to be harbored by pirates"

"And he needs all of us?"

"Don't question him, just come on" she stormed out and Aaron turned to the Saints.

"So when can we leave them?" Pierce asked.

"After the collectors are dead. C'mon, guys" with that, they all made their way to the docking bay.


Apparently the shuttle was at max capacity, so one of the Saints were forced to be left behind. That Saint turned out to be Pierce. So with nothing better to do, he decided to spend his time in the bar. So after about fifteen minutes he thought he was already buzzed when he looked out the viewport to see the collector ship hovering over the Normandy. He was about to shrug and call it a day while taking a nap when he heard alarms and screaming. Thinking he was dunk, he was putting the bottle he was drinking from when he glanced the label. With shaking hands and a worrying look, he turned to look at the label and made a shocking discovery, one that would haunt him to this day. The label read:

Diluted lite beer- salarian.

He had drunk probably the most un-alcoholic drink in the galaxy.

Face screwed in horror while screaming at the top of his lungs, he threw the bottle away. He was about to curl up and cry himself to sleep for drinking the offending beverage when he looked outside the viewport again. Yep, ship still there. Along with the alarms and screaming.

Pierce's eyes widened in realization again. "Oh man, this shit's real!" grabbing his guns, he ran out the door to help the crewmembers- until he was clocked in the face by a grotesque, black arm. Lying on the ground, Pierce opened his groggy eyes than screamed as a twisted, black skeletal face with glowing blue eyes seemed to smile sickly at his as it reached towards his face.

The scion was about to grab him when Pierce shoved his alien rifle in it's gut, firing his gun into it. The laser's melted it's insides as he shoved it's body off of him, backing away until he bumped into Joker. He whipped around and shook the man's shoulders. "Joker! Man I am glad to see you! You see this shit!? There's damn zombies on the ship, bro! The hell's going on, I ain't buzzed! I checked!"

"Stop shaking me! It was the IFF!" Pierce stopped and followed Joker as he hobbled his way to the medical bay, closing the door behind him.

"The hell does that have anything to do with this!?" Pierce asked/yelled as they entered the AI core, Joker typing going to a terminal.

"The IFF was a trap, okay!? It lead them right to us, and now they're taking the crew! Now hold on a second! EDI, I'm at, uh… you"

EDI's holographic image popped up from a terminal.

"Connect the core to the Normandy's prime control module" EDI instructed.

"Whoa, slow down, what's going on?" Pierce asked.

"EDI can get the collectors off the ship, but I need to unshackle her first!"

"…Well alright then, proceed dude"

"Okay okay, alright, okay, uh… great, okay so connect that to here… see, this is where it starts, and then we're all just organic batteries, guess who'll they'll blame? 'This is all Joker's fault. What a tool he was. I have to spend all day computing pi because he plugged in the overlord'"

"You've been talking to Aaron, haven't you?" Pierce asked dryly as the red lights in the AI core turned blue, signaling EDI being unshackled. "I have access to the defensive systems. Thank you, Jeff. Now you must reactivate the primary drive in engineering"

Joker visibly deflated. "Agh, you want me to crawl through the ducts again…"

"I enjoy the sight of humans crawling on their knees" EDI explained. When Pierce and Joker stiffened and thought EDI had just turned evil, she added, "That was a joke"

"Damn, don't do that!" Pierce yelled. "Okay, Joker, let's go"

"Okay" they both got into the duct behind the terminal and crawled their way to engineering. They exited and waited for the collectors carrying a pod to walk past before Joker rushed to a terminal, the one Tali always worked on.

"Activate the drive and I will open the airlocks as we accelerate. All hostiles will be killed" EDI explained.

"What? What about the crew?" Joker argued.

"Yeah, we just can't leave them!" Pierce agreed.

"They're gone, Joker. The collectors took them" EDI said, a slight wavering in her electronic voice detected.

Joker and Pierce visibly paled. "Shit…" he muttered, and was about to press the button when a collector behind them aimed it's rifle at them. Pierce whipped around and killed it with his rifle, letting a explective out in shock.

"Damn, thanks" Joker panted and pressed a button on the console.

"I am sealing the engine room… I have control" with that, the drive core whirred up, pulsating as the Normandy went into FTL. It stopped as soon as it ended and EDI announced, "purge complete. No other life forms on board. Securing airlocks and cargobay doors"

Joker and Pierced sighed. The entire crew had just been taken, and they were the only survivors. "Send a message to Shepard's shuttle. Tell him what happened" croaked Joker.

"Message sent. Are you okay, Joker?" a now concerned EDI asked.

"No. Thanks for asking though" he looked over at Pierce. "So, ideas?"

"There's a bar if you want. Might as well drown our sorrows"

"That sounds like a terrible idea with what just happened… c'mon"


Once the shuttle with the team and the Saints came back, the doors opened, Aaron and Boss walking out first. "All I'm saying is that we got ripped off, not one damn pirate… hey, where is everyone?"

Shepard walked up behind him, reading a message on his omni-tool, a look of horror on his face. Pierce walked into the cargo bay, face pale with a bottle of non-filtered alcohol in his hand.

"Pierce. What happened?" Boss asked, seriousness written in his voice.

"The collectors, Boss. They came and took everyone"

Boss and Aaron exchanged glances, than looked back at Pierce. "Well Boss, what do you think?" Aaron asked.

"I say it's time to pay the collectors a visit. Pay them back for Asha and Matt. And get the crew back"


A/N- Aaaaaaand break! Hurray, it's time! Time to go to the collector base! Next chapter is the last chapter before the Saints become independent and leave the Normandy. A bunch of other stuff happens too. What stuff happens? How will the Saints leave the Normandy? Could this possibly be the shortest AN ever? I don't know, I've probably made shorter ones. All questions (Except the last one!) will be answered next chapter, the last one with the Saints piggy-backing with the Normandy crew!