A/N- Well if you guys didn't get it by now it's a Evil Within kind of thing we're going for. I know it doesn't make sense now, but it will! Seriously, read the chapter under me, it makes sense now. And props to Wanderer101 for spotting the GTA reference last chapter, didn't think anyone would spot that since I kinda butchered it.

Yeah other than that I gots nothins' elses'.


MASS MISCALCULATION

Episode 26 part 2- Not necessarily 'evil'


"Boss, wanna explain why the hell we're dive bombing the colony!?" Aaron screamed as the ship took a nosedive towards the docking bays to Krimson. It hadn't even been five minutes since Boss was acting all weird and told them to turn around, and already they were in danger.

Well…Aaron wasn't in danger, if the ship crashed and burned he'd survive and be good as new once he regenerated. Everyone else, not so much.

"Think, Aaron!" Boss shouted, holding on to Zinkle's shoulder. "What's one thing psychics are good at doing!?"

"Reading minds!?" Aaron guessed.

"No! What else!?"

"Um, levitating shit?"

"That's a no-no bro-bro!"

"Fuck I don't know, floating!?"

"It it possessin' da peeps?" Zinkle guessed, who was surprisingly calm given the situation. Then again it wasn't surprising given what he was.

"Exactly! You got beat by a alien with a burnt brain, Aaron" said virtual Saint huffed in annoyance. "Well look at the evidence! When Bau unhooded the dude he was all shocked and shit, why? Because that wasn't him! He said it was a psychic dude, which means he could have been mind-jackin' someone!"

"Okay…that's all we're going on?" a incredulous Aaron asked.

"No, there's more. Everyone said it was a chemical leak that put everyone in the hospital, yet I heard a doctor with a toxicology report say there was nothing abnormal in their bloodstream! Now who would be able to put that many people in a coma?"

"Psychic?" Aaron assumed, rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, one of those. Then there's the fact Bau said a program for super psychic soldiers had a human subject, what bullshit is that? Why would salarians use a different species for something like that? And then-!"

"I get it, I get it!" Aaron yelled, flailing his arms to interrupt Boss. Little did they know the docking bay was visible from the viewport, getting closer and closer. Aaron held a finger up, saying, "I get it, it's sketchy as shit. But that doesn't give much to reason, Boss"

"Not at break up ya rantin' homie mon, but we be landin now" Zinkle interrupted, the ship jolting to a halt as it landed on the ground, knocking everyone off their feet.

"Nice timing, Zinkle…" Boss groaned as he got up, then looked at Aaron, saying, "get Shaundie and meet me outside the ship. We're going to the hospital"

"Might be a little delayed…" Aaron noted at the fleeing crowd of citizens as they ran the opposite direction of the hospital.

"Yeah, what the hell is everyone running from?" he wondered, then saw Bau and a few agents run past them. "Hey, Bau!" he shouted, running towards him.

Bau whirled around, aiming a pistol at Boss, then sighed once he saw who it was. "Oh, it's just you. I thought you lot left"

"Well, we came back. And what's going on, everyone's acting like Paul's running amok" when Bau tilted his head Boss sighed. "Inside joke, look what's happening?"

"Contacts!" a agent yelled, the salarians responding by aiming their weapons down the streets, a horde of a hundred people with white, glowing eyes stumbling towards them, with the salarians opening fire.

"Hey what the fuck! Those people aren't even armed!" Shaundie yelled, tearing Bau's weapon away from his arm. Screaming alerted the Saints to one of the STG agents being killed by the people, using anything from pipes and shards of glass to their bear hands to tear him apart.

"Shaundie, give the man the gun back!" Boss ordered, taking his two zin pistols out, firing at the citizens while Shaundie gave the spectre his gun back, the STG and Saints killing the civvies.

"The hell, is our luck with zombies, first Aripice, then husks, now the town is turning into zombies!?" Aaron screamed, fending more of the zombies off with his sword.

"Their not zombies, they're…possessed, by the psychic" Bau explained.

Boss barked a laugh off. "Called it!"

"Wait, so does that mean we're killing innocent dudes, or what?" Shaundie asked.

"Believe me, their minds are gone. We might as well be fighting husks…only their more coordinated" a clip popped out of Bau's gun and he switched to his pistol, not bothering to reload. "It all started at the hospital, the comatose people. I believe your friend was there"

"Wait…Pierce?" Aaron asked, glaring at Bau. If his lying cost Pierce his life…

"He was in the hospital when it started, I doubt he-" Bau's words were cut off when a bus, one with actual wheels, crashed into the horde, cutting the 'haunted' individuals from the Saints and Bau, the other agents having fallen to the haunted.

The window to the driver seat to the bus rolled down, a head poking out to reveal…the grinning face of Pierce.

"Pierce! My man, you are a life-saver!" Boss said, fist-bumping the face of the Saints.

"But, I don't understand…" Bau stuttered, confused. "How did you-"

"I jumped out a window" he said as if that explained everything, holding a thumb up, everyone groaning.

"Pierce you failure, just…just open the damn door" Boss muttered, holding his face in his hand. Pierce frowned and opened the door, the Saints and Bau trudging in, the door closing.

"So, where to?" Pierce asked.

"I have a location for a outpost, we're going there" Bau ordered, pointing the direction of the outpost and giving directions.

"Whoa hey now, why are we listening to you?" Aaron poked a finger in Bau's chest, hand over his sword handle. "So far you've lied to us on what the hell is happening and have been so secretive and resentful towards us. So I think we deserve a explanation"

"And…and I will give one" Bau said, begrudgingly. By his tone he sounded like he really didn't want to admit what he was about to say. "Pierce, please drive us to the outpost. I'll explain there"

"M'kay" he nodded, driving away. While driving, he asked, "so why isn't this a actual hovercar? I feel vulnerable on the ground"

"Cheaper" Bau said simply as the rest of the gang sat down, everyone facing Bau. He sighed.

"It all started a few years ago," he began, "with a scientist named Ruben Victoriano, who worked at the mental hospital. From what I heard he had a…troubling past that resulted in the death of his family, but he grew up to be a prosperous doctor. But, since he was a child, he was pursuing a very…complicated project"

"And what exactly was that?" Boss asked, folding his arms.

"STEM"

"So…stem cells? Was it a cloning project?" Aaron guessed.

"No, STEM was a…machine, is the correct word to use. It was basically a device where someone was hooked into the center, their mind being loaded into the machine. Others would then be loaded in via pods, and their minds could interact with each other, the one in the center having slightly more mental power and ability to change things. He intended it to be a marvel in medicine, helping in mental cases crimes…despite his past he had the purest intentions for it, and it would have been a marvelous invention"

"But then!" Boss yelled, raising his hands.

"The…Dalatras knew of the project, she thought it was dangerous. That people could learn too many secrets. She had STG take the project over, and Ruben was taken prisoner. He was…disassembled to nothing but a brain, said brain being pricked and prodded, every experiment we could do to him was done, and he was still alive in the brain, and could feel every single thing we did to him, I wouldn't be surprised if the pain drove him mad, or the over stimulation, he felt every sense on overload I imagine, pain, pleasure, anxiety, ect…."

The Saints looked at him in horror. "So this guy makes a great thing and you do that? The hell…" Shaundie cursed, shaking her head.

"It…didn't end there" Bau said. "The Dalatras wanted to see the effect of his machine, and we poisoned the colony, sending everyone into comas"

"It was you that did that, not some chemical leak!" Aaron realized. "You dicks…"

"His brain was put in the machine, and we steadily sneaked people out of the hospital and into the lower basement, where the machine was stored, and put them in it. However, something went wrong"

"'Course it did" everyone said.

"In the machine, since Ruben, who had since changed his name, for whatever reason to Ruvik, was in the center, he…he pulled people into his own mind. I don't know what his mind looked like, but from what glimpses we saw on the monitors, well…thanks to the tests, the trauma of his family, the betrayal, his mind was torn asunder. It was a hellish place. People were taken into his mind and added to it, and…how can I explain it? Uh…you know how the rachni have telepathic abilities, such as a hive mind, possessing bodies?" the Saints nodded. "Well everyone has some form of psychic influence, only it's so low it has no effect on anything. However when people was added to his mind, not only did his influence and power in the STEM machine increase, it added more psychic power to him. It got to the point where he could manifest a psychic 'ghost' of himself in the real world, and pull people into his mind straight from their bodies. He grew so powerful he could manipulate others own bodies, forcing their own throats to open, then changing their bodies. Monsters created from his own broken psyche in his mind could be created in the real world, and we had no way to stop it. But then we found Leslie"

"Who's she?" Boss questioned.

"HE" Bau corrected, causing Boss to groan, "was a normal patient in the hospital. While Ruvik could manifest himself he couldn't go far from the machine, his own brain, so he was limited to anyone in the hospital. He pulled Leslie in, and…the boy found a way out. From the results, he had the same psychic influence that Ruvik had, which we calculated down to Leslies mental condition due to brain damage from a abusive family and dumb luck. We used the same psychic wavelength his brain held to repel Ruben back long enough to deactivate the machine, stopping him. He laid dormant for years, but somehow…somehow the machine was turned back on. He caused the plague of comas on the colonists to amass a army of haunted, he wanted to draw us here. Why, I don't know, revenge most likely. We're going to the outpost to call for help. You see we anticipated this might be the work of Ruvik and currently we have a ship full of personnel waiting with the boy we've held captive since the accident. We can use him to fight Ruvik back, maybe kill him once and for all. We just need to get him to the hospital"

"So let me get this straight" Boss said darkly, rising from his seat. "A man makes a wonder to modern medicine, and you STG assholes not only rip it away from him, you make him your own personal guinea pig and torture him while reducing him to a brain, trapping him in his own machine! Then you fucking FEED PEOPLE'S MINDS to him and he turns into this super psychic badass hell-bent on getting revenge on you all, you stopped him but now he's back! And now our only hope is some kid with a lame name, who you said you've been keeping captive, so he's got that on top of the brain damage and mental trauma, but he's our only hope for stopping him! So I ask, what the fuck does this have to do with the Saints!? He's not after us, he's after YOU asshats! You're the ones that did this to him, so we aren't involved in any way! So why the hell should we-"

"Because I'm begging you!" Bau yelled, interrupting Boss's rant, the salarian rising to meet his eye level. "You think any of us approved of what we did to Ruvik? It was on her's, the Dalatras's orders, we had no choice! Do you know what happens to STG agent that defy her? Experimentation. We had no choice in doing what he did, but we need to correct our mistake. Bur I can't do it without your help" he looked at the Saints with pleading eyes. "I'm pleading you, help us. We can't do it without you Saints"

Boss scoffed and looked at Aaron. "What do you think?" he asked.

Aaron sighed, glancing at Shaundie, who nodded her head. "…Boss, I know this isn't Ruvik's fault, but what he's doing to the colonists…we gotta stop it"

"Uh-huh, you think that too Shaundie?" she nodded again. "What about you Pierce?" he yelled into the driver's seat.

"Damn straight!" was his answer.

Satisfied, Boss glared at Bau yet again. "Look, what all you did was bullshit. But I guess we got to help you…for the greater good" Boss's omni-tool rang. "Hold on a minute" he activated it and held it up. "Yo" he spoke.

"'Ey Boss mon" Zinkle said on the other end, 'History of Jamaica' playing in the backround. "There be people scratchin' at da door to da ship, are dey mi smoking' buddeys?"

"What did I say to smoking on the job?" Boss asked into the 'tool.

"Blame Zinyak" was the pilot's answer. "Um, I'ma patch ya to Roberto, he been meanin' to hail ya" there were sounds of shuffling and someone else got on the horn.

"Boss, what the hell is going on!? There's a line of more people than I can count outside the ship trying to claw their way in!" a alarmed Robert reported.

"Robert?" Boss asked, "what are you doing there?"

"I'm the goddamn engineer to this ship, you never let me leave the engineering deck for Christ's sake"

"Oh yeah" Boss chuckled. "Well I did give you a literal room-full of coffee, shouldn't that keep you occupied"

"Yeah well there was a engine leak a while back and the room-full of coffee's contaminated, if I were to try and drink it I'd get radiation poisoning. Anyway long story short, there's a army of rabid people outside, so unless you got a way to take care of them you won't be able to get back on, and we ain't leaving"

"Fuck…thanks Robert" Boss closed the connection and looked at everyone. "Well looks like the ship's surrounded, we ain't leaving until Ruvik's dealt with anyways"

"So why'd we bitch about deciding what to do?" Shaundie wondered.

Boss shrugged. "I dunno, filler?"

While the people in back were talking, Pierce whistled to himself as he thought on current events. What the STG had done to Ruvik, yes that was bad. But what Ruvik was doing right now was bad, so they needed to stop him. But knowing Boss he would want to get back at the salarians, and if he said he was going to do something, he was going to do it. Zinyak's head was a example of this. Other than that he was wondering when this would all end and he could get some Saints Flow.

"Mmm mmm, Saints Flow! Can't wait to get more of that! Probably shouldn't release it on the market yet though, still working on the whole levo-dextro thing…"

Pierce was interrupted from his musings from screams up ahead on the road. He slowed the bus and saw a human couple surrounded by haunted, unable to get away. The hooded form of Ruvik then appeared, sticking a needle device in the back of both their heads. They crumpled to the ground, than rose up as new haunted. Ruvik looked at the bus and at Pierce, a small smile on his face, a face which Pierce noted had some burn marks. Ruvik looked at the haunted as they tackled each-other, ripping each other apart as they turned into clouds of blood orbs, a large, black, insect-like leg poking from the cloud.

"Hey, why'd we stop?" Aaron asked aloud when the bus stop, then he and everyone else was jerked in their spot when the bus turned around and drove away at high speed.

"Oh fuck oh shit oh fuck oh shit oh FUCK OH SHIT!" Pierce screamed at the drivers seat, hyperventilating.

"Pierce! What the hell's happening!?" Boss demanded, but was shut up when the bus stopped and a insect-like leg pierced the roof of the bus, peeling it back.

"OH SHIT IT'S ON US!" Pierce screamed, thrashing the wheel back and forth.

Boss was about to ask exactly what was on them when the entire roof was torn away, revealing a fat, boil-filled man's body covered in tubes, his mouth replaced by some tube-like device, and instead of arms or legs the large torso was held up by six, twenty-foot long spider legs.

"What the- what is that thing!?" Shaundie screamed as the spider-monster roared at them.

Somewhere in the back of Aaron's mind a unfamiliar voice spoke, sounding calm but…angry at the same time. But also having a slight hint of mirth, while a pain shot through his head.. "This one was…more broken when they connected him to STEM. He lost himself and gluttoned himself on the consciousness of others. Out of insanity or hoping to become like me, I don't know, but his consumption resulted in him becoming this. I trapped his broken mind long ago, but now I think it's time to turn him loose. I named him Heresy for trying to imitate me. No-one could have went through the pain I went through to be like me…"

The pain subsided and Aaron gasped as he held his head, looking up at Boss as he fired his zin rifle at Heresy, shaking the bus loose and prompting Pierce to floor it.

"Hey, uh…don't ask how but I think Ruvik's bringing out the minds of monsters from his mind and giving them identical bodies" Aaron informed, Bau looking at him with slight alarm.

"He talked to you. Didn't he?" he gravely asked.

"Wait, he can- oh right, psychic…" Boss muttered, slapping his head.

The bus horn honked and Pierce yelled, "guys it's still on us!"

Everyone looked back in shock as Heresy used it's legs to run after them, and shockingly was catching up. Everyone got their guns out and fired at it, Boss even bringing out a zin plasma launcher, but nothing worked.

"Fuck if this is the spikey shit the dude has in his head I don't even want to go there!" Boss yelled over the gunfire.

Aaron let out a nervous chuckle. "Yeah, about that…this actually was a normal dude who went insane and turned into this, he isn't one of his psyche monsters"

"Ah…great" Boss didn't show it, but now he was really terrified of what monsters Ruvik had.

Aaron looked around, than pulled his sword out. "Pierce! Drive it in circles around the block, I'ma do something stupid!"

"Right!" Pierce held a thumb up as Aaron jumped out of the bus, gliding away.

Heresy got close to the bus, slamming one leg on it, causing it to shake and tossing Boss into the air. Thankfully he grabbed the end of the bus just in the nick of time, one hand grasping the tailgate of the bus while the other gripped his rifle, his feet being dragged on the road.

"Oh come on, these shoes are vintage!" he screamed as he fired more at Heresy, who roared in response. It lifted the rear end of it's bulbous body as it ran alongside the bus, pores opening up as two foot long, maggot-like bugs wormed their way out, most falling on the road while a few clamped onto Boss, biting him.

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Little bitches, that- okay ow!" Boss punched as many bugs off of him as he could, shooting others.

At the end of the block, Aaron panted heavily as he cut through the last support to a large building. "There, that'll work" he sighed, and heard the sounds of the bus coming. Knowing what to do, he grabbed the building with his telekinesis as he pushed it slowly forward…

"What the…" Pierce looked past the window to see the building leaning towards them. "Holy hell he's bringing it down!" he yelled, flooring the bus. It managed to drive past the falling building as it fell completely, the entire thing falling on Heresy, crushing it in a massive splash of blood and killing it.

Boss pulled the last of the maggots off of him and climbed back on the bus, Aaron jumping back in. "Fool, your crazy" Boss said, grasping his knees as he breathed heavily.

"Yeah, well it worked" Aaron panted, doing the same.


The rest of the ride was uneventful, other than the screams of the city, but eventually they did reach a small building on a overlooking hill surrounded by STG. The group got out, Bau rushing in whilst giving orders to the agents. The Saints just milled about, minding their own business and chatting when a dropship came, two agents escorting a young human male, maybe about sixteen or eighteen, and was extremely pale with white hair and pink eyes, likely an albino. Aaron noted the bruises on his cheeks, a chipped tooth, and sleep-deprived, growling internally at how the STG treated him.

"So here's the plan" Bau said, stepping up to them. "There will be two dropships, one filled with me, agents, and Leslie, while the other will be filled by you. We'll touch down at the hospital and work out way to the sublevel, where the STEM machine is located. You'll touch down five minutes after us to provide support, are we clear"

The Saints grumbled. They didn't like taking orders, but if it was for the greater good…well they'd make the sacrifice. For now. They nodded in understanding.

And just like that, the Saints were in a dropship, tailing the first one. "So Aaron, opinion in this?" Boss asked as he tried to pass the time.

"…I don't like how that Leslie guy looked, he seemed mistreated" Aaron stated, crossing his arms.

"Eh, we'll liberate him from the tyranny of the lizard people later, we got a disaster to deal with right now"

Aaron sighed and looked out the window. The other dropship had already touched down and the team had went in, clearing out any haunted that stood in their ways. Five minutes later their ship touched down and the Saints exited, running into the hospital.


The interior was a eerie, dark place, blood caking the walls and furniture strewn about, bodies littering the floor everywhere. Pierce held his nose closed to try and hide the stench of the bodies while the others trudged on, mostly with sickened grimaces on their faces. It wasn't the best smell. Well, at least Boss seemed to be taking it better.

"Boss, how are you not affected by this?" Aaron questioned, gagging slightly.

"Aaron…there comes a point in a man's life when he's shoved in a puke and ant-filled panda suit and uses a chainsaw to cut apart dozens upon dozens of mascots as you fly from building to building. You get used to the gore"

"…The fuck does that even mean?" Aaron asked, throwing his arms up in confusion.

Before Boss could answer a groan emanated from the right, the Saints simultaneously cocking their heads to the sound. What the saw was the doctor, Jimmy, heavily bleeding, his body sticking out of a doorway which lead to a dark hallway, so dark they couldn't see beyond a few feet.

"Please…help me…" the doctor groaned.

"Hey, what the hell man!? You locked me up with crazy people!" Pierce shouted, the other Saint's eyes widening and lowering their hands to their guns.

"It…it wasn't my fault! Ruvik, it was Ruvik that made me do it…" he groaned more. "It was me that did all this, I found the machine, turned it on…I didn't know it would do this! I…I saw things. Things Ruvik knew…" Jimmy looked at the Saints with a pleading look, wanting them to understand. "Leslie, it's all about him!"

"The kid they're using to stop him?" Boss asked.

"No…No! You can't let Leslie near STEM! It's what he wants, his powers are restricted but if he were to find a way here…" Jimmy screamed out in pain, surprising and shocking the Saints when seemingly living, snake-like barbed wire wrapped around his body. "D-don't let Leslie near his brain! It's just what Ruvik wants! You don't know what will happeeeeeeen!" the doctor screamed as the wire dragged him away to the darkness, the door closing. Aaron ran up to it and tried to bang his way through, but a pool of crimson seeped under the door, signaling that the doctor was most likely dead.

"Let's…let's go" Boss advised, Aaron nodding slowly as he, Shaundie and Pierce followed him, going down a flight of stairs that lead to the sublevel.

They finally arrived in a large, circular room, the STEM machine standing before them, a column of machinery with a brain in the middle surrounded by pods and machinery. Bau, his agents, and Leslie each were in a pod, a chord going into the back of their heads and connecting them to the machine.

"I…guess we put these things in" Aaron guessed, grabbing a chord from e empty pod and stabbing it into the back of his head, causing him to crumple on the ground.

Pierce and Shaundie did the same with similar outcomes, Boss about to do the same when he saw a leather chair. He spent five minutes dragging it close enough than sat in it, spending another minute getting comfortable and then put the chord in him, falling under.


Boss gasped as he woke up, sitting up in seemingly the abandoned streets of Krimson…only all the buildings seemed to be in horrible condition. And slanting.

"'Bout time!" Aaron shouted. Boss looked behind him to see the Saints with Bau, minus the agents.

"Sorry" Boss apologized, getting up. "Found a chair I could pass out in comfort in"

"Dick" Aaron muttered, than said, "so here we are"

"We in Ruvik's head?" Boss asked, looking around.

"No" Bau explained, "our minds are just in the machine, all of us are connected. The only danger is Ruvik- his mind is in the center, and with his power he'll have full control here"

"So we screwed?" Boss asked. He looked around and saw a random, wooden crate in the middle of the street. "Crate, huh?" he wondered, stepping over to it and smashing it open, retrieving a .45 pistol. He looked at it in confusion.

"Ah, I see. Even though we have virtually no power here our subconscious can still minutely affect the world, in your case spawning items" Bau informed.

"Eh, not bad" Boss marveled, than looked up at the sky. "Yo, subconscious!" he yelled, "hook me up with a rocket launcher!"

Aaron face-palmed. "That's not how it-" Aaron choked on his words when another wooden crate appeared next to Boss, who broke it open to retrieve a rocket launcher. "'Course, why not…"

After using Boss's influence to arm everyone with old-school AK assault rifles and Aaron his lazor razor, they were armed to deal with anything Ruvik threw at them.

"Yo Bau, what happened to everyone that went in with you?" Aaron asked.

"It was strange, some…four-armed clawed woman crawled up to us, we tried shooting her but nothing worked. I hid while she ripped my men apart and dragged Leslie away"

"Fuck…" Boss murmured, shaking his head.

"I know, we need him to stop Ruvik" Bau said, nodding his head.

Aaron shook his head, confusing Bau. "No, we found that doctor Jimmy. He got dragged away, but before he died he said that bringing Leslie to Ruvik was a bad idea. But since he was dragged away…"

"Leslie has as much influence here as Ruvik, he may have gotten away but he just can't use it properly because of his mental conditions, but the two have compatible brain waves, why would Ruvik…oh no" Bau's head raised, his eyes widening.

"Oh no…what?" Shaundie asked.

"This…this is bad," Bau started pacing, the Saints rolling their eyes. "Look, here's the deal, even though Ruvik can manifest himself brain waves, regardless of psychic power, can only travel so far from the brain, since he can't operate outside of the machine, since he's just a brain, he's stuck there, can't get off the colony. Unless…"

"Nah fuck, I know where this is going, he's trying to find a way out isn't he?" Aaron guessed, Bau snapping his fingers and nodding.

"Yes! Leslie has a compatible brain wave with Ruvik, because of that Ruvik could easily, while the boy's here, swap bodies so to speak once Ruvik manages to drag him inside of his mind. Leslie will be trapped in Ruvik's brain, and Ruvik…Ruvik will inhabit Leslie's body, and could go anywhere he wants. And with a body his power would be even more powerful"

Boss held his ears, Aaron put his hands over his eyes, Shaundie coughed and Pierce kicked the ground.

Just then, there was a blinding light from the hospital a mile away, lights shining in it. "I vote we head there" Boss said, the rest nodding. Groans were heard as haunted poured through the buildings.

"Looks like we'll have to fight our way here" Aaron said, then wanted to try something and flicked his hand, sending a fireball away. "'Least my influence here is keeping my powers"


After thirty minutes of the group fighting there way to the hospital and making their way in, they ran towards the room with the STEM in it but when they rounded a corner Ruvik was standing there. Everyone armed their guns.

"Bau…" Ruvik muttered, his voice raspy, staring at the salarian, who gulped. "You were the one who captured me, watched me disassembled"

"I…had my orders" the STG defended.

"From who I wonder? Your superiors, the Dalatrass? Salarian scientists too jealous of my work and too pious in their ways to tolerate me? In the end it doesn't matter, nor do I care. You can't keep me in your prison any longer"

His eyes widened, and everyone stared at them, being felt drawn. They realize they made a mistake when they all crumpled to the ground.

Everyone groaned as their eyes opened, getting up. Though Aaron was slightly alarmed when he found himself laying in a few inches of some liquid.

"Man, where are we now?" Boss demanded, annoyed about having to keep blacking out.

"Now…" Bau stuttered, looking around, "now we're in Ruvik's mind"

They heard some pulse and turned around to see a large brain in the center of the endless room they were in, the giant brain wrapped in barbed wire and impaled with nails. Ruvik, naked except for a pair of boxers and revealing his burnt body gestured to a figure to come closer to him, the figure revealed to be Leslie. The group couldn't do anything as Leslie walked up to Ruvik, the man smailing as he touched Leslie, the boy dissolving into the liquid they were standing in.

Everyone had shocked looks on their faces as the brain drunk the fluids through tubes, growing bigger and bigger. There was a screech and it caused them to wake up.


The group woke back up in the STEM, the hospital shuttering as the entire world seemed to become inverted, everyone flying out the window. A large vortex appeared in the middle of the city, causing all the buildings in the city to fly everywhere as two giant brains appeared from nowhere, barbed wire connecting them. The group landed on one of the brains, the brain pulsing as a giant, fifty-foot monster burs out, having multiple limbs and grotesque body, the head having a glass scalp, Ruvik seen on the inside, fused to the brain.

"Shiiiiit" Boss swore as the monster roared, slamming it's foot down. Boss got his rocket launcher out, firing at the beast roared, the others getting their guns out, Aaron leaping up to the monster and swinging his sword. It swatted Aaron and sent him flying away, but he air-dashed and glided towards the monster, sending a fireblast at it to stagger it, and then slashed it's head, grabbing onto the glass scalp and stabbing the sword into it, piercing Ruvik's shoulder. He screamed and sent a pulse at Aaron, knocking him away and teleporting him somewhere else.

Aaron groaned as he got up in a dark, decrepit-looking tomb. "Great, where am I now?" he wondered aloud. He heard rumbling and looked upwards at the pipes as a purple gas flooded out of him, but being virtual the poison didn't effect Aaron.

"Yeah, uh…t-that's doing nothing for me!" he shouted, then heard a strange sound behind him, seeing a safe rise into the air, a body holding a large hammer and a bloody sack with nails appearing and using the safe as a head, walking towards him. The Safe Man swung his hammer, but Aaron caught it, having more strength, and while Safe Man struggled Aaron used his sword to cut him in half along the waist.

"That all ya got?" Aaron asked, then heard the sound again and looked behind him as Safe Man appeared in a different safe…but behind some bars. Seeing this, the Safe Man ripped his own head off to just respawn at the safe next to Aaron.

"Jeez, you ripped your own head off to get to me, that's dedication to the cause right there" he joked before lunging forward, stabbing his sword through the safe. It screeched and sent a pulse out, sending Aaron back to the giant brain the Saints were at, fighting the Amalgam of bodies used to make the monster Ruvik was in. Ruvik saw Aaron and screeched again, a pulse sending him away in a hospital building.

"Great, back in nightmare-land. Where to…oh" he muttered, seeing a body showered in blood as a lady's screech was heard, a naked, four-armed woman with claws crawling out and towards him. Aaron threw a fireblast at her and she screamed as she was set on fire, flailing about. Aaron ran to her and cut two of her arms off, enraging her and causing her to grab him with her remaining arms, throwing him out a window, but he dragged her with him, and tore a arm off and stabbed it to the building, holding him to it as he watched the monster lady fall to her death. He sighed, but then yelled in surprise when a weird, invisible squid-like monster revealed himself and grabbed Aaron, hurling him back into the hospital and through a door, the door portaling him back to the brain.

"Okay I'm done with the trippy teleporting thing, next thing you know some demon dog's gonna try and nibble me, Saints! Aim for the chrome dome, it's pissin' him off!" Aaron ordered and pointed, the Saints nodding as they fired everything they had at the Amalgam's head. It screeched in pain as it fell to the ground, the shock causing everyone to fall. The top of it's head transformed into another mouth, to the shock of everyone, and lunged towards Bau, who was too paralyzed to do anything. Everyone could only watch as the mouth bit him, sending him up into the air without his lower torso and missing a arm, before the creature lunged up and ate him whole.

Inside of the creature's mouth, while multiple clawed arms tore into Bau, Ruvik watches and chuckled, being fused into the creature.

"So how does it feel, Bau? Mutilated by your own creation?" Ruvik asked, smiling at Bau's demise. Soon, soon he'd be free of this world, be able to go into the real world…soon he'd have his revenge…

Shakily, Bau held up something that shocked Ruvik once he saw it; a grenade. Grimacing, Bau's last words were, "not as good as this" then activated it, the explosion destroying the creature's head.


Just like that, due to the extreme interference, the Saints were blasted back to the real world, everyone getting up from where they sat, Aaron slapping Boss once he saw the chair yelling "dick!"

Hearing the crackling of electricity, everyone turned to the brain in the middle of the STEM as it pulsed, everyone getting their guns out and firing everything they had into it, shattering the case and ending the brain.

They all breathed a sigh of relief, Pierce wondering aloud, "makes you wonder why they didn't just shoot it in the first place" everyone shrugged at this, figuring the STG would still want the brain for some reason.

Speaking of which, the Saints looked at the remains of the team, Bau included, they're minds were dead but bodies still alive in a vegative state. Aaron crouched down next to Bau's body.

"Bau…you were a bastard in life, but a smart and good one. But bastard nonetheless, one I could respect…so I'll do you this kindness" he muttered, shooting the body in the head, killing it, and doing the same for the rest.

The Saints staggered as the four exited the hospital, bodies everywhere as police tried to calm anyone that survived, the haunted having been shut down once Ruvik died. But it was over now. Finally it was all over.

"Hey, look. It's Leslie" Shaundie said, pointing in the distance as the albino walked off. Something was wrong though, his walk looked very different from the usual scuffle he did, he was walking normally, slowly…ominously.

"Leslie…?" Boss asked, and even though he was so far away, Leslie heard and turned around, smiling as his face dissolved and refigured itself into the face of Ruvik, minus the burns. The Saints looked at him in horror as he turned invisible, disappearing.

"Should…should we got after him?" Pierce asked.

Boss sighed, shaking his head. "Nah. Let him go"

"But Boss-" Shaundie protested, but Boss held a finger up.

"He ain't after us, he's after the STG, for what they did to him. In hindsight whatever he's going to do to them'll be the closest thing to justice, really. We don't have a right to interrupt that, and I don't want to. Let's just leave it"

The Saints begrudgingly nodded, following Boss as he walked back to the ship. With the haunted gone, Zinkle managed to get the ship in the air, piloting away from Krimson colony, for good this time.


As Aaron sat in a chair, he heard a high-pitched whining voice and held a hand to his head as he heard the voice of Ruvik in his head.

"I don't say this often," the voice said, "but thank you. Without you Saints creating the diversions and leading the STG to me I would have never become free. I won't come after you, I have no need to, my business is with the STG. I'll reap my vengeance unto them, and afterwards…I need some purpose to life. You lot seem successful in terms of technology. Maybe you'd accept me, allow me to continue my work…time will tell I suppose. I'm not humane, by any means after what they put me through, but if you could tolerate my methods, my…conditions of subjects, I'd be happy to join"

"Oh, and don't worry about Leslie. The brain you killed was a shell, his mind is in mine. I gave him a better home, he'll be…stable there. Until we meet again…Aaron"

The pain subsided as Aaron looked out the window, briefly seeing a ship passing by them.

"You as well, Ruvik" Aaron said, nodding at the window. "You as well. Good luck with your quest for vengeance. God knows the STG deserves it" with that, the Fleur De Lis sailed towards the Mass Relay, heading for home.


A/N- Super late! Yeah, sorry, but…okay I'll admit, this didn't turn out that well, it took me a long time just to get this out, and…yeah this is the last time I do something like this, I'm not good at it. There still might be references and stuff, but in terms of a full mini-crossover-chapter…nah I'm done with that. We tried it, it didn't work, moving on, next time we'll be back to Saint stuff. Doing whatever on the poll which I haven't looked at in forever. So yay. Cya.