It had been a long time. And if she was being honest with herself, she had never wanted to see this place again. Jack, patient zero, these were just two names people called her. She didn't care much for the other names. After all, no one liked being called bitch. But she didn't really mind it. She was a bitch, but if anyone called her that... Well biotics weren't just good for crushing skulls.

She looked out the window of the transport ship, the reason she was here... Was she really here for payback? Or was it assurance? Assurance that this place could never hurt her again. She held the button in her hand. She just had to press it. One press of a small red button and the place that tortured her, both mentally and physically, would be gone forever. She felt a hand on her shoulder, and turned towards the source.

Commander Sabrina Shepherd. A tall Caucasian woman of twenty nine. She had raven black hair, was nearly flat-chested, and had a lean muscular look to her, as well as a-seemingly permanent-reassuring smile on her face. Though her smile threatened to falter as she watched jack turn around. Though jack put up an angry facade, it was just that; a facade. And as jack turned, she saw the pain in her eyes, though jacks features changed almost immediately. "Get your fuckin' hands off me Shephard" jack shrugged her ally-in-arms hand off. "Jack..." Shepherd trailed off, and was about to speak again, when jack came back with an angry "I don't need your pity shepherd." Sabrina sighed, what could she do? She knew that this woman was slowly tearing herself apart from the inside, but she didn't know... How was she supposed to help her? Should she even try? She simply didn't know.

"Maybe... No" shephard cut the thought off, almost before it had been fully formed, shuddering at what jack might do if she attempted to give her shore leave. She wasn't a soldier, but shepherds new that after this, jack was gonna need some serious alone time... Or did she? Shephard mentally ripped her hair out, she had never been good with people, and because of that, she joked a lot. Though she liked being around people-well, nice ones anyway- most times she simply didn't know what to say. So she joked. Shepherd laughed nervously, and reached back to scratch her head. A nervous tic she had picked up from some crazy spike-haired kid a few years back.

Shephard, the genius she was, was about to make one of her all-too-cheesey jokes, when suddenly an alert came over the comm. "commander Shephard" A voice that was obviously their AI companion EDI came over the communications system. "What?" Shepherd responded. "There is an object of unknown origin hurtling towards you as we speak." "What!" Shephard exclaimed. "There is-" EDI was cut off by jack " we need to get the fuck outta here!" And with that the shuttle they were currently on launched off towards their ship, which was currently in orbit around the planet.

(later on the Normandy)

"What is it?" A confused shephard asked the resident AI. "Magnifying now shephard" and with that, an image flickered to life seemingly from thin air. It was an image of a small archaic looking space ship. It was mostly square, but had small pieces fitted to it, most likely for aerodynamic purposes, though it looked more like a large chest than anything else.

"Have you checked inside of it yet EDI?" "No commander, would you like me to run a full analysis?" EDI questioned "Yes, thank you EDI." With a dismissive gesture shephard said "alert me when the sca-" "finished Shephard" "whuh?" Sabrina shephard was stupefied at the speed in which the AI completed her task. Instead of answering, EDI pulled up the details from what she had just learned of the mysterious box.

"It is a cube made of purely titanium alloy, it seems to be over twelve feet thick and seems to have taken massive amounts of damage from something, it also appears to be over a hundred and seventy-five years old." "Wow... That's old" shephard stated to the amusement of the un-shackled AI "Astute observation commander" EDI joked in her own way, and it brought a smile to shephards face. "Yeah yeah, real funny. Now, is there anything inside of it?" Shephard once again queried the AI "My scans indicate so, shephard. It seems to me a mass of organic matter. Though I cannot tell from which species, I would need a physical sample." "Well shit..." Shephard stated, her curiosity obviously getting the better of her. But did she really have time for this? She was trying to save the universe after all. Well... Maybe one quick peek... " EDI have the crew prep a shuttle. I'm going down there.

Hi! I'm a new writer, so thanks to anyone reading this, your awesome. Now I would like to state a few things. Firstly, I would appreciate any criticism as to things I could do better, I am after all doing this to improve myself... And to provide entertainment too, of course! Also, I am writing this from my iPad, so any spelling errors can be attributed to the fact that I can not see all of my writing at once, due to having to scroll up and down the page for forever. As I said earlier, I appreciate any and all criticism, as long as it's positive. Well, I guess I will see you guys later!

P.S: did anyone get the dragon ball reference? Cookies' n cream to anyone who did. Lol ttfn.