Thea stood impatiently outside the Overlook restaurant. The waiting line was impossibly long, which was to be expected. It was a very popular place after all. She looked longingly at the Premium line, which was completely empty. She contemplated paying for a premium room herself.

Where is this guy?Thea looked at her omni-tool. 19:00, exactly. Keeping your guests waiting in a line was a bad way to start a business.

Thea attempted to trace Lone Wolf's extranet address, but it was incredibly well encrypted. Kisa could probably hack through them though, but she had a hunch that Lone Wolf and Kisa had already met. She glanced up and saw Kisa walking towards her, wearing her favourite green dress. That was something special.

Yup, Mr Lone Wolf has met her. I wonder if he's cute. Thea thought. She was glad that she decided to go with the dress instead of her training gear. If she didn't, then she might have ruined her cousin's first date. She smiled cheerfully and waved at her cousin.

…

Kisa always wondered how Thea managed to stay so young. She was more than ten years older than her, and yet she seemed to have never grown tired of adventure. The only reason why she was on Nevos was to help her settle into a more peaceful life. In about a month's time, Thea will probably find herself wisped into another crazy heist. Kisa continuously fretted with her dress, trying to take out the tiny crease down the side.

"Hey! How are you? How is the hospital?" Thea asked.

"Okay, I guess. No problems, and I'm settling in quite well. I'm even making some friends!" Kisa answered, realising that the only person she considered a 'friend' in the hospital was Jackson. During his brief stay, he was always kind and well-mannered, attempting to help whenever he can. Other than his veiled nature, he was extremely likable.

"So who is this mysterious figure who's invited us into the most expensive restaurant in the city and left us to wait?" Thea seemed a little annoyed.

"A human male. I took care of him in the hospital. He was found in a gunship, half-dead." Kisa replied. "I thought he had left the system, but apparently not."

And I'm glad that he didn't.

"Hmm… I thought he was your new boyfriend or something." Thea suggested. She laughed when Kisa blushed. "So he is your new boyfriend?"

"No. Not yet."

Thea smiled. She was still a little worried, since this man knew about the Sorceress Group. However, if her cousin trusted him, then she could probably relax. Still, she checked her gun.

A salarian staff, who was guarding the premium line, walked up to them.

"Miss Sorac?"

They both turned towards him.

"Please come this way. Mr Wolf is already inside and is waiting for you."

Both asaris were surprised that Lone Wolf had booked a private room. He was clearly very rich.

A rich boyfriend, hu? Thea grinned. I never knew Kisa had such a good taste.

…

The whole team is dead. All because of him.

And the monsters were coming. Their destruction was inevitable.

They had to stop them. At all costs. If not for themselves, then for the lives in the future.

He needed to tell somebody. He needed help. He needed to fight. He needed a team.

But nobody will believe him.

Nobody.

Somebody knocked the door. Jackson jumped up in surprise. The blue mist that had surrounded his body quickly dissipated into thin air.

"Mr Wolf? Your guests are here."

"Please let them in."

Jackson stood up, being careful not to disturb the food that decorated the table. He smiled warmly at the two asaris that entered the room, his eyes lingering on Kisa and her admirable green dress.

She's more beautiful than I thought.

Both Kisa and Thea smiled back, although Thea's smile was a mask. He sensed that she was very tense, ready to fight. Jackson also sensed that she carried a gun.

"Hello, my name is Wolf." He welcomed them.

As soon as the door shut, he retracted his statement, "My name is actually Jackson. Liam Jackson. I would like to talk to you both about an important matter. But please, take a seat and make yourself comfortable. I have a long story to tell you."

…

The Soracs were shocked. The exquisite food that lay on the table was completely forgotten. His story was short, hidden and very brief. But it told of horrors and responsibility beyond anything they had ever imagined. Kisa knew that Jackson was unusual, but she had never imagined this.

He introduced himself as a commandeering soldier of the HIGHCOM Strike Group; a small, secret human task force formed merely three years ago. He didn't tell much about his job, or about HIGHCOM itself, except to mention that they were a strike team dedicated to taking down major and unusual threats to mankind. They had stumbled across a Prothean beacon three months years ago, the similar to the one that Commander Shepard, the legendary Spectre, had claimed to have seen. Unlike the Commander, Jackson's team managed to extract the information systematically, decoding the information one by one. After about a month's work, they had a working, human-friendly video.

Jackson reluctantly played it for them.

It showed destruction. Despair. Extinction. Giant machines hungry for life.

Reapers.

But the video also had something else: a set of galactic coordinates, pointing towards a location a week's journey away from Silean Nebula… just beyond the outer edge of the galaxy.

Jackson gathered a team and travelled to the location. There, he and his ship found a Mass Relay. It was a Beta-type relay, having only one other mass relay to which it connected. It was massive, its length was triple to that of Charon Relay and was powered by a core that was as large as a Size-2 star. Fittingly, someone from Jackson's team named it Beta-Two. Jackson ordered his ship to enter the relay, sending others back to report their findings.

"And?" Thea whispered.

Jackson hesitated before continuing.

"I won't say what is beyond Beta-Two. Not yet. What I will say is that I need another team to stop the Reapers. I need another team to go through Beta-Two again."

"But… what happened to the rest of your crew?" Kisa asked. She already knew the answer: he was the lone survivor. Somehow, whatever happened, he was the only one to escape alive in a gunship.

"I don't know." Jackson closed his eyes. "Look, if this is a complete suicide, then I won't ask anyone to come again. But I think I know a way to survive and win. A way-"

BANG!

The sound was muffled by the closed, near-soundproof walls, but the trio could still hear the gunshot. They flinched, but immediately got up, preparing to fight. Anybody could tell that they were well-trained soldiers.

Concussive round, incapacitation damage, most likely fired from a pistol using thermal clips. His thoughts came automaticaly. His reliance on stealth tactics (though his tactics usually ended in a loud gunfight) had taught him to assess the type of the enemy purely based on gunshot. He unclipped his pistol and threw it at Kisa, winking at her. She caught the gun and flipped off the safety. She wasn't surprised that Jackson was carrying a gun, but she was somewhat amused when her cousin drew out a shotgun.

I knew she always carried a gun, but ashotgun? Has she gone crazier?

"Crazier" was the right word. Thea was crazy already.

…

Thea was impressed at Jackson's readiness and the cool manner he responded. She wondered why the hell anybody would fire a gun in Overlook. Whoever they were, they chose the wrong night. She raised her eyebrow (an idiom she picked up from her past, human boyfriend) when she noticed that Jackson didn't produce a second gun. Instead, his whole body started to glow blue. Electric blue.

"Liam Jackson! Come out now! We are Eclipse! We have the whole restaurant surrounded! Surrender peacefully!" The deep, male voice outside boomed his demands. He sounded like a batarian. Poor bastard. Thea thought.

Thea turned her head to Jackson, her eyes still on the door. "Why the hell does Eclipse want you? How do they know that you are here?"

Jackson smirked. "They are probably annoyed that I took their frigate, but I don't know how they managed to trace me. Change to non-lethal rounds. We don't want blood here." He approached the doorway, arms raised towards it, and indicated the two asaris to take cover on either side.

"Alright. We can always talk later." Kisa said.

…

The door exploded. The two soldiers that were approaching the doorway was caught in the blast and were immediately knocked out. The others behind them fired blindly into the smoke. The batarian captain was sure that he already won.

His dreams were demolished along with his vision. A shockwave blasted out from the doorway, knocking almost everyone to the ground and destroying their kinetic barriers. Even those who were behind cover felt as if somebody had punched them. A quick, accurate bursts of gunfire from the doorway took out the reeling soldiers.

Jackson scanned the scene, right to left. There were twelve soldiers in total, six asari, five human and one batarian. They had taken up a position designed to maximise firepower. Unfortunately, that exposed most of them to his biotics.

Four of them were trying to get up. Jackson slammed every one of them with biotic powers, knocking them out completely.

There were too little. Far too little, considering the fact that they knew who they were dealing with.

Really? You need more than that to take me down.

…

"That was quick." Thea commented as she checked the soldiers for response. They were all cleanly knocked out. She was quite impressed, and almost surprised at Jackson's biotic prowess. Kisa was also surprised, but immediately linked his powers to his eezo bottle. She was sure that Jackson's powers came from him drinking eezo.

"Come on, let's get out of here. Is there any place to go to hide out?" Jackson asked as he picked up the batarian's assault rifle. He had already holstered a pistol from an asari, as well as five thermal clips. He always had a 'thing' towards asaris in general. They were quite attractive. But he had learned to not to pity his enemies.

"Perhaps in the Silverwoods, not far from here. Unless they send out a large search party, we should be able to blend in." Kisa answered. She also picked up a pistol and few thermal clips. She tried to give Jackson's pistol back, but he simply smiled and shook his head.

"Keep it. It's much better than the pistols that these guys have."

As they ran out of the restaurant, where most people were cowering down in fear, a gunship roared overhead. Its missile pods clicked into place, ready to fire.