I can't decide wether I think this is a good, thrilling and exciting chapter, or if I'm losing passion, and thereby quality (I was pretty darn tired from the National Tests in math we had at school this morning.). Oh well, I'll let you decide! Reviews please!!! (Pretty, pretty please?)

Chapter 4

The elevator slowly hummed down towards engineering, carrying a most distraught Commander John Shepard. The revelations of the past few hours weighed heavily on his mind. Some concerns had been laid to rest, and some new once had awakened after the Illusive Man's message. Frankly, he didn't know what to believe, or what to do. The only situation even remotely similar to this was Grunt's, who was currently waiting for him down in the Starboard Cargo, along with Mordin and Tali.

She'd called him down just a few minutes ago, talking about new data found after decrypting a few of the first files. She said it had been too much to explain in detail over the comm., although Shepard seriously doubted anything more could surprise him today.

The cargo doors swooshed open, and the three members of Shepard's crew looked up as their Commander entered. Grunt nodded at him.

"Shepard."

"Grunt."

He moved over by Tali's side, who stood in front of the tank, her fingers swirling across her omni-tool. She looked up periodically to examine a blue-tinted holo-display on the tank's side, on which long streams of data raced across.

"Shepard, I'm glad you came so quickly. I found some references to training vids in the files you gave me. However, they also stated that, for some reason, they were stored in the tank itself. Beyond that, some rather obscure notes also mentioned more recent biology results, possibly about this… man's biotic abilities. I thought you'd be interested."

"I am, no doubt about that…"

Shepard glanced at the tank, frowned, and asked:

"Tali, if the encryption is this complex, why not just forward it to EDI?"

Tali shrugged her shoulders.

"For some reason, she couldn't interface with the files. Some sort of very advanced block. They were working with Proth… ean…"

Tali drifted off and stared at the tank.

"Tali, what is it?"

"Shepard… was the man's fist clenched before?"

Tali's left arm suddenly shot up and slammed against the side of the tank, causing a frightened shriek to escape her lips.

"Tali!"

Shepard rushed to her side and attempted to pry her arm off, along with Mordin. Grunt pulled out his massive shotgun and pointed it at the tank.

"Grunt, no…!"

"Who…?"

Shepard jumped at the sound, but still signaled at Grunt to lower his weapon. The korgan obeyed, reluctantly.

Shepard turned his eyes to the tank, and jolted when met by the man's open, piercing green eyes staring right at him. Both them and his gripped fist oozed with biotic force.

"Who…?", the voice inquired once again, though the lips of the man remained completely immobile. Instead, the voice sounded from Tali's omni-tool. The frightened Quarian stared dumbfounded at her forearm, chocked to silence. Shepard carefully started mouthing a response.

"My name is Commander John Shepard of the Normandy – SR2. Do you… remember anything?"

He couldn't come up with anything better to say, and it seemed like a logical stall for finding something else in his thoughts.

"… I… do… In my head… there are… pictures… memories… of you. Of me… my hands… on your… throat."

"Of you… killing me?"

Shepard didn't know quite what to feel at the moment. Everything he did feel already fitted the situation. Uneasiness, worry… fear. Those emotions were now elevated to new heights every quarter of an hour it seemed.

"What … they… wanted… They wanted… me… killing. Many… I… did not want… to kill. But they… made me… prepare…"

The blue holo-display on the side of the tank cleared for a slip-second, and then filled with the footage from three separate cameras, angled over an arena of sorts, cut out of rock.

In the middle stood the man in the tank, balancing on his left foot's toes, arching his right leg and his arms in an intricate fashion. Then suddenly, form all sides of the arena, mechs stormed in. They looked similar to regular LOKI models, though their lines were smoother. Their appendages were longer as well, and their torsos were shaped almost like that of a human skeleton.

They all stormed at the man in unison, still balancing on his left foot, eyes shut. Then suddenly, they burst open, and the man erupted into a flurry of motion. He move around the mechs at almost literary blinding speed, chopping, hacking, punching and kicking around him like in a exquisitely choreographed dance of horrificly effective death. Biotic power swirled around him, causing him to flash into slip-seconds of such speed that his arm or leg disappeared into a blue blur, these sending the mechs flying as far as they could go before hitting a wall.

As the metal bodies fell around him, more streamed at him. He fought them off with the same speed and power as before, keeping it up the same pace for several minutes. Then suddenly, at a slight respite, he swirled back, crouched, and clenched his hands by his sides. As the mechs charged at him again, he unclenched his hands, turned his palms up, and opened his eyes and mouth wide. All three of them gleamed with rays of biotic power. A force field appeared around him and burst out across the mechs, instantly shredding to pieces by the sheer pressure of the shockwave. The cameras shook violently, but held, obviously zooming in from a long distance so as not to get caught in the blast.

"I… did not en...joy… but I… did not dis...like… either… I was... confused."

Shepard stared at the holo-display, now showing men in white robes stepping over wrecked mechs on their way to the man. Just as the vid shut down, the men each pulled out a device from their coats and pointed it at the man, falling over, clenching his body in pain.

He tried to think of something reasonable to say about what he had just seen, but to no success. Instead, he asked a more obvious question.

"How can you speak through Tali's omni-tool, and how come you have difficulty doing so?"

The man remained silent for a while, his eyes still fixed on Shepard, then responded:

"How I speak through the… omni-tool… I do not… know…But this is… not my … ordinary… speak…"

He apparently started to struggle with the words and added: "Mean… speech…"

"Fascinating!", Mordin suddenly exclaimed, "Biotic capable of interacting with and affect tech. Would like chance to study."

"Mordin, I really doubt…", Shepard started protesting, but was cut off by the man.

"Will… get chance… Scientist… when I… leave… this state…"

Shepard frowned at the tank.

"I haven't decided weather to let you out yet."

"You don't… need… to…"

As Tali was able finally pull her arm away, the seals on the tank popped open with violent bursts of air, and the liquid inside started flood out through the drain in the bottom, soaking the floor of the cargo space. The man closed his eyes, and the front of the tank slid up, exposing him to the clear air outside it. With a simple statement, he then fell forward…

"Crap."

… And slammed into the floor. Shepard instinctively reached down to help him, but was stopped halfway by a biotic field.

The man pushed himself up on his hands, blood dripping from his crooked nose. He gagged, then vomited on the floor, mixing the contents of his stomach with his blood, and the liquid of the tank.

His eyes were foggy and had great trouble concentrating. A final phrase escaped his mouth before he passed out, obviously meant for himself:

"Don't faint in puke..."

He did.

Ha ha. I might go back to edit this when I get the willpower to do so. As irritating as it is, I only get the urge to write late in the evening, and as you all know, that's about the time when a simple poop-joke can make you giggle til' you fall asleep. Suffice to say, your judgemental skills are slightly affected. I'll look at this a bit more in the morning, see what I can change to clean up the writing.

Anyway, Cheers. And review!!! I seriously don't care what it's about, as long as it's some sort of response from the people on the site. I can't stand this frickin' silent treatment!

Again, Cheers. And Enjoy.

P.S: If you do decide to review, please keep in mind to correct me on grammar issues. Not that I'm bad at English, it's just that when you're writing when it's 20 minutes to midnight, your eyes rarely pick up all the little misses you make...