A/N: I was watching 'Skyline' movie over the weekend and the best part was the stealth bomber evading dozens of aliens and nuking the alien mothership. Why did 'turk' have to die? Anyways I was getting stuck on how to continue the story in interesting angles and not bore my audience; so I went to my rooftop toilet and had an epiphany about the Reapers. Now it is coming all together and I will have the next chapter to you soon. Let me know what you think of the story so far in the reviews.

Chapter 5: To defeat your enemy, know your enemy.

6000 BCE

Seeking to escape the imminent explosion of their sun, an alien race constructs an AI-managed starship equipped with supercomputers containing a virtual world, into which some one billion of the aliens transfer their consciousnesses. The starship begins a journey throughout the galaxy which lasts for the next 8,000 years. Source- Stolen Reaper Data Records

Born in 2161, Jack was abducted by Cerberus operatives in 2165 from Eden Prime, although it is unknown whether that was her birthplace. Cerberus' motives pertained to her newly discovered biotic potential, a result of accidental exposure to element zero in the womb. As a cover for her abduction, her mother was told that she had died due to complications of her eezo exposure. After initial tests, Jack became the prime subject of a sizable Cerberus experiment on Pragia's Teltin facility, with the goal of enhancing biotic potential in humans, regardless of the cost. The project was a typical Cerberus operation: lavishly funded, highly efficient, and morally indifferent, with a heavy reliance on brutal human experimentation and conditioning techniques in an attempt to maximize results.

Referred to as Subject Zero, Jack was the core of the project, with every successful biotic enhancement applied to her. Many other children of lesser biotic ability were also kept as part of the experiment and treated as expendable lab animals, with many dying in trial runs of treatments to ensure that they would be successful on Zero. Any enhancements that proved lethal were not applied to Jack. She was tortured frequently, both psychologically and physically, in various experiments to test how pain and distress affected her biotic abilities. As she grew in both age and hatred for her captors, her powers eventually advanced to such a level that she became a serious threat to the staff, easily killing one by blasting him into a wall. Kept separate from other children, she grew up believing that the entire world was what she could see outside her window and repeatedly screamed herself hoarse while trying to communicate with others through her soundproofed cell. In reality, the window was a one-way mirror, intended as just another form of psychological torture.

As they were regularly and remorselessly killed in various experiments designed solely to advance Jack's biotic abilities, the other kids grew to despise her as the source of all their suffering. This was only made worse by the fact that (on account of the one-way mirror) the only time they ever saw her was when the staff forced her to fight the other students gladiator-style in order to monitor her biotic progress and condition her to love the act of killing; she would even be injected with narcotic drugs during the fights to further associate killing with euphoria in her mind.

Eventually, while being led to another deadly experiment, the children rioted and attacked the guards. Backed up by their biotics, the riot caused damage to the facility and Zero was freed. At this point her powers had grown so great that nothing could stop her. She would later have difficulty remembering those events for the next years in her life, due to her age at the time and the chaos. She would claim the guards and children attacked her, forcing her to kill them all. When she returned to Teltin, recorded logs rendered it more likely that the children were attempting either to get close to her for safety, since the guards had been ordered to keep Jack alive, or were trying to kill her as a measure of revenge. In either case, Jack's pent-up rage and sudden release from captivity caused her to fly into a fury, killing almost everyone in the facility in a furious biotic rampage before stealing a shuttle and flying off Pragia into the Dakka system, where it was picked up by another ship after several days. Rather than helping her, the crew "used" her before selling her off as a slave.

After her escape, Subject Zero went on to live a predictably violent and bloody life. In order to sever ties with her past she took on the name Jack, and reacts violently whenever addressed by her former designation. She ran with various gangs, became a pirate, crashed a space station into a hanar moon (becoming wanted for vandalism in the process), and at one point joined a cult, keeping her head shaved even after her departure.

Eventually she was captured, and imprisoned in the Blue Suns operated prison ship, Purgatory. During her time there, she was attacked by a group of guards and prisoners who raped her, despite her efforts at fighting back. Their victory was short-lived however, as Jack personally murdered every one of her attackers as soon as she healed. The incident led the warden, eager for the amount of credits Jack could bring him from Cerberus and other buyers, to lock Jack in cryostasis, for both her and others' safety until Shepard's team came to buy her freedom. Source- Cerberus Classified Records

Team Alpha managed to infiltrate the Reaper, place the audio resonators in their ears to prevent the indoctrination and now were awaiting to see how Shepard felt. Jack had stopped crying and lay on Shepard's chest thinking how scared she had been.

"What if Shepard had died?" her mind asked. Her eyes watered again and she wiped them gently. Shepard was a friend to her, despite her tantrums and her bad behavior. She didn't have many friends aboard the Normandy and had made only a few in her whole miserable life. Being "Project Zero" and on the run from the past Cerberus organization, never did allow much room to make friends.

Losing Shepard would have been devastating, not just to her, but everyone. Everyone depended and looked up to him. It was saddening to see him hurt and at a weak moment. It reminded her how weak a human body really was.

She had once been weak and the whole galaxy had taken advantage of her. She had been experimented on, raped, beaten and sold off as a slave. She wondered how much pain Shepard had gone through to make himself as strong as he was, what made him such a great leader, and liked by everyone.

She had almost lost Shepard and not found out. She made a mental note to find out about his past. He was the one always chatting and asking everyone about theirs, but he never really talked about himself much. Jack wanted to change that.

She would ask him about his childhood, his victories and defeats. The more she had flirted seductively with him, the more she had pushed him away. She wondered if he didn't like her body and if that was why he always avoided her advances.

Her tattoos were pretty. If she had acted or looked feminine she would've never survived in prison or traveling with mercenaries. Her tough look and attitude had kept her alive before, but now they were being an obstacle to get the guy she wanted to love her.

Love? She surprised herself when the word came up in her mind. It is true she lusted after Shepard and a few girls, but with Shepard it was different. She felt different, comfortable and happy. Shepard's injury had made an impact on her, of how much he was worth to her.

She wanted his attention, to think about her and called her to his cabin to make love. She had been hurt once, but she sensed Shepard would love her forever if only she could get him. She had to try.

Her only other goal in life had been to destroy Cerberus completely for all the pain they caused her, she blamed them for destroying the only life she could've had, but for some reason that goal seemed distant and not as important as before.

For now she would focus on making Shepard fall in love with her.

"I got the looks, if Shepard really wants me to be feminine I'll wear a dress and a wig and seduce him. He won't be able to resist me," she told herself smiling.

She turned her face and rested on his chest hearing the beating heart of her love. That calmed her and she soon felt asleep.

Across from them Legion observed the humans with curiosity. In his few months of traveling with Shepard-Commander he felt surprised at the randomness of humans. Their unpredictability had been the reason the rogue Geth had been no match for Shepard-Commander.

He was learning so much from organics yet sometimes he felt left out, like they regarded him different, just because of how he was made. However Shepard was different from others. Shepard had called him a living specie, like organics. Perhaps helping organics had been a good idea.

Legion felt that as long as Shepard lived the Geth would finally stop being viewed as a threat. One day he and other Geth would be allowed to walk along organics without being threatened or stared at.

He longed for that day. Today had been a close call. Shepard was the only human that understood us and Legion was going to make sure he survived even if this Legion-unit did not. He waited a few hours before he decided to wake up the humans.

In an undisclosed location near a red dwarf...

The cross-shaped Cerberus Station Selene467, was a stealth station. It monitored hacking satellites across the Salarian network. The best spy network in the galaxy. The Illusive Man was studying fresh information coming from the Normandy.

He leaned forward reading the log of their stealth mission. The holograms showed the latest video footage of the capsules cutting their way when the images began to rumble. He could see the scorpion looking Reaper moved his tail then the Normandy began firing, Shepard's capsule rebounded away from the Reaper.

"God damn it!" He growled getting up from his chair.

"Pick him up!" Illusive man protested. The images showed the Normandy circling around head of the Reaper and the rumbling increased as more Reapers had picked up the heat emissions from the Normandy.

Lasers from approaching Reapers showered around the Normandy increasing the rumbling on the cameras around the Normandy.

The Normandy needed to go to back to stealth mode, but Reapers had already locked on to it and followed the ship around the moon, trying desperately to shoot it down. Another Reaper rushed its claws at the Normandy trying to crush it, leaving crater size impacts in the moon surface.

The Normandy approached two reapers that were destroying the moon. Rubble colliding around the Normandy making the Illusive man stared with suspense. Meteors and moon rocks rained down on the Normandy.

It bobbed and flipped avoiding the meteors then a gigantic moon rock impacted the moon floor fifty feet away. The Normandy climbed to avoid it escaping the explosions near it. Sensing the losing battle the Normandy was surrounded in blue light into FLT speed, leaving Shepard and company behind.

Static filled the screen and the Illusive Man sigh dropping down on his chair. He took a smoke out and lit it, taking a long strained puff.

He let the smoke slither out his mouth and nostrils, thinking hard at what he has just witnessed. Shepard was most likely abandoned in the moon surface, if not dead. He doubt it that the rest of the team would complete the mission without Shepard.

He thought if making new clones of Shepard again would be a wise decision. He had tried it in the past had failed to achieve a Shepard with the determination and passion the real one had. That was why he had revived him again in the "project Lazarus". He begin to think of the possibilities he had if he had to mount a search and retrieve mission for Shepard's remains.

It was a critical time in the war and two years to revive him again would have to be spent in a hidden bunker facility to outlast the Reaper invasion.

He typed information to be sent to the Normandy to deny entry to anyone except him who knew the ten passwords to enter the system, then he sent it to the Normandy.

He locked the system and stood up. He was exhausted from the stress this Reaper invasion was causing him. He had to admit that he was safe where he was at the moment, but he would feel better once he knew how much did the Reapers knew about Cerberus.

He stared at the background hologram in his office of the red dwarf and wondered how long he would manage to stay alive with the Reaper threat. He was part cyborg after all. Half of his brain and most of his body had been replaced by bionic and cybernetic implants from the last assassination attempt by the Alliance.

The politicians of the Alliance had tried to eliminate him after his Cerberus Manifesto. He used to be a corporate giant, Alexander III J.P. Morgan, who dominated many of the politicians in Washington.

All he had to do is buy them a few vacations here and yachts there. Despite his growing popularity and control, his enemies had chosen to assassinate him because he wanted them to halt mining "Eezo" element Zero and take a slow cautionary approach to using the Mass Accelerators.

After his moon shuttle exploded half of his face had been burnt and he had lost his left arm, part of his torso, and his left leg. He had lost his family then. To take his revenge he faked his death and started, along with other crazy individuals, the Cerberus cells to kill politicians and Alliance military personnel and do advance research that the military deemed illegal.

Being behind the scenes was a more fitting job and the Illusive man sought scientists with individual characteristics, like pushing research no matter the cost.

The Illusive felt reviving Shepard without any type of control had been the right choice at first, but now he wasn't so sure. He had opposed him on the tough choices always opting to do the kind thing instead of the right thing. Sometimes sacrifices had to be made and Shepard did not have the foresight to do them.

Ever since he had destroyed the human Reaper that had been created, the installation where the human Reaper had been made was destroyed and its secrets had been lost. Now Shepard was probably dead again. He had to make a choice whether to take the new Normandy away from Shepard's group, without a leader it was worthless to continue.

He was going to give it a few days and if Shepard did not appear he was going to use the backdoor operating system he had inside EDI and take control of the Normandy and disband Shepard's team. He sighed exasperated at the new turn of events. He took another puff from his smoke and crushed it on the ashtray. He pulled up the file on Shepard's DNA.

Outside the Cerberus station Selene467, a long undulating beast slithered across the space and glided head first into the cross-shaped station. The station shook in a big tremor sweeping the Illusive Man off his feet. The signal had brought the Reaper here.

Excelsior, the Reaper wrapped around the station and bit down the armor of the station. The fangs dug deep releasing troops of collectors inside the base, through the fangs. Cerberus' armored droids responded to the chaos and began attacking the Collector troops.

The Illusive Man typed fiercely trying to figure out how to get out of this situation. He saw the security cameras around the station and was shocked at the huge viper Reaper around the station. The station map showed intruders overflowing it. He clicked the a switch and a wall turned over showing his reserve guns.

He went for them limping with his cybernetic leg. He loaded a rifle and press a chamber on his left arm. He inserted a Element Zero capsule that would allow him to use biotic fields during combat. He pressed another switch and a secret door opened up. It would lead him to the hangar and it was up to him to battle his way to a escape pod.

Hours later...

"Wake up Shepard!" a distant voice called, he felt his face numb and his hearing distant and unclear. He raised his hands to his face and felt he did not have his helmet anymore. He slowly regained consciousness and felt something cold and wet in his ears. "It's blood don't touch it." replied Jack. "You had a concussion and a severe wound on your head. He bandaged your head... You jackass! you gave us quite a scare. Good thing Legion is versed in human anatomy. He fixed you up and I helped a little."

"There is air here?"

"Affirmative Shepard-Commander, Composition Oxygen, Carbon and Helium. My readings indicate it is secreted from an internal source and not natural to this habitat. I will analyze data and send my concessus to our servers." explained Legion.

"Yea it is very thin. Like breathing in a tall mountain." explained Jack in layman's term.

"Thank you for saving me Legion, you may not know how to interact with humans, but you all ready know about loyalty and helping. Those are qualities of a living specie."

Legion stared at him, unable to express what he thought in words.

"Will Shepard-Commander be our ambassador to forge ties with organic species?" Legion blurted out, calculating now was a good time.

Shepard figured it was the least he could do for someone who had saved his life. Plus he could use his influence for a good cause.

"You got it." Shepard agreed.

"My Legion congregation thanks you, Legion unit will relay your message." Legion replied.

"Wait." said Shepard to Legion. "Don't send messages to the Normandy, I don't want our frequencies hacked and used against us."

"As you wish Shepard-Commander." replied Legion after his excitement subsided a little.

"Does he always have to call you that?" asked Jack.

"Leave him alone Jack. It shows respect, something you could learn some more of." Shepard told her. Jack grunted but helped him up. He kept his hand on his head, he had a splitting headache, but he had to finish the mission first.

Shepard held Jack's hand and Jack turned to face him with a frown.

"Thanks for saving me." he replied with sincerity. Jack smiled blushing slightly.

"You owe me." she said. "Anything, except what you are thinking now." Shepard told her. Jack rolled her eyes, but agreed and lowered her devious smile.

"Fine. How do you feel?"

"My body is OK, but I have splitting headache. What did Legion do to me?"

"Um it's better you don't know the details. Let's just say he and I saved you. Feeling well enough to discuss some things?"

"As long as it is not overly complicated."

"I don't get you Shepard, you could have any human female you want. You are a bloody legend back in Earth. I bet they have your face on bills already. Yet you go after an alien and her race are outcasts."

"I said not overly complicated. Can we not discuss this now?"

"No! I want to know Shepard, you owe me and I want to collect, I want to know everything about you...This could be our last mission together." Jack replied in a sad tone.

Her eyes were red and began to water. Shepard noticed for the first time, she had been crying. He looked down thinking what to do. Perhaps this was his last mission. It was already looking sour. "Fine."

"To answer your question, She is quiet and shy, but very loving once you get to meet her. I can tell her anything and she won't judge me. She doesn't care about my abilities or my medals. She loves me for who I am."

She lowered her eyes and was quiet for a moment. Shepard gathered and checked his gear. He typed a message to Liara.

"Tell everyone I'm fine. Just a bump in the head. We are inside. I will contact you when we have released the hack program. Tell Joker to make a distraction while the other teams infiltrate their Reaper. By the way, to answer your question from earlier, seems everyone wants to know for some reason, I love her because she is sweet."

They began walking towards the bowels of the Reaper, while Jack asked him questions about his past. Personally he didn't feel like talking, but he felt obligated since he owed her.

Back in the Normandy they had studied the plans from the first destroyed Reaper Liara had provided them as well as the files they had recovered from the Collector's base.

It seemed all Reaper had been created in similar ways. The walls pulsated with raw genetic paste of a now extinct race. They examined the walls while Legion was gathering samples. The "old machines" as dubbed by the Geth, were mysterious and amazing in their eyes. But Legion's Geth congregation, knew how devious and destructive the Reapers really were.

Legion paused a moment feeling the wall.

"Commander-Shepard, vibrations of marching and winged beasts approaching." Legion informed them. If they faced them they would take a long while to reach their destination.

He took mines he had chosen for this mission and lay them on the hidden on the ground. He tossed grenades around the sides for added explosion. All he needed was a lure.

Jack and Legion retreated behind an moist alien pillar with bumps and a weird design in the formation. The whole structure seemed to be a living sentient entity.

Shepard looked inside his omni-tool files and found what he was looking for, the Shepard VI, courtesy of a swindler from the Citadel. The hologram popped up, it was Shepard dressed in a white and red Alliance combat armor.

He muted it and downloaded it to a wrist hologram projector. The hologram was turned off and set to auto-play when he decided, repeating the same message again. The trio took cover behind the pillar and awaited the incoming small army. Legion had said they were around a hundred.

The small army turned the corner looking for intruders, they were collectors. Somehow they knew of their presence and had come down to ambush Shepard and company.

They had the same triangular skull with multiple eye sockets. Their DNA had been rewritten to make their bodies a natural armor of dark bone with long dark claws for close combat. Shepard was not looking forward to more battles with them. But he knew their weaknesses.

Flying scouts came down and looked for traces and scent of humans. If the Collectors decided to use their stunning bees, Jack would shelter them in a biotic field. Dozens of collectors gathered searching around for them.

A collector picked up Shepard's wrist holograph projector and Shepard appeared out of it. It shocked the collector even more when the VI spoke out loud.

"I'm Commander Shepard, put your hands up Saren scum!" In horror dozen collectors did drop their weapons. Many more opened fire on the holograph.

They exchanged loud cricket noises and stopped firing, They all gather to see it and the VI spoke.

"You are going to have to do better than that." then the VI roared in laughter, then Shepard pressed the switch and the mines went off in blinding white light engulfing the small collector army in flames. The surrounding small army was thrown back by the blast and Shepard's group charged in.

Jack used her biotic slam on flying collectors while Legion and Shepard gunned the other ones down. The Collectors used to be the Prothean Race until they were modified into what the collectors were, they were nothing but mindless puppets now, Puppets of the Reapers.

"Hey Shepard, this is too big an army to be a random patrol." Jack mentioned her suspicion and Shepard was already thinking of possible suspects who would've warned the Reapers. The Illusive man kept popping up at the top of the list for some reason.

"Let's move out!"

Shepard received another message. "The Asari are pushing through, and the Turians have begun to destroy a few Reapers, seems they are waiting for something though. Half of the Reaper army still awaits near the moon. I'm glad you are okay when I saw those vids of you escaping your capsule I panicked. I didn't picture you for a sentimentalist dear. I am sweet too, why didn't you come back to me?"

Shepard tried to type as he walked, Legion led the way. "Tell the council to fire up their Citadel main weapon. We may need that as a warning shot. Seems the reapers are looking for something in the moon and then they will bombard the earth with its remains. Also someone warned the Reapers about us. I trust you so I won't suspect you, but you may have a leak. If not can you find out who warned them?...If you really want to know...you've changed. You are different from the girl I was in love two years ago."

They climbed a tunnel that would direct them towards the inner organs of the Reaper.

Nothing could have prepared them for the sight they witnessed when they climbed out. It front of them was a loud pulsating beating heart, it was made of metal, flesh and rubber hoses. Shepard did not stare long as he began to feel nauseous again from his headache.

"If we killed that? will it die?" asked Jack, looking stunned.

"Highly improbable, it is likely there are many beating units like this providing power to the main brain unit." Legion explained.