The Illusive man sat in his chair, hands folded, staring at the star his station currently orbited. He had just received a rapport from Miranda that she had extracted The Major, and some turian girl. He instructed the commandos to eliminate the turian at the earliest opportunity. He poured himself a glass of scotch and emptied it all in one draught. He was looking forward to seeing his old friend again.

To say Tania was nervous would be an understatement. She was currently sharing a shuttle with a human guilty of genocide, six commandoes whose allegiance she didn't know, and a raven-haired woman who really gave her the creeps. Some of the commandoes were chitchatting about their exploits, others were cleaning their weapons and armor, Gabriel however were sitting completely still in his seat, hands folded, and staring into the floor. Tania spent the first half of the trip glaring at Gabriel, while simultaneously fearing for her life. At some point during the trip she looked out the viewport and saw that they were approaching a spaceport. Seeing that her trip was almost at an end she finally worked up the courage to ask him the question that had been bothering her ever since she discovered his identity as the Scourge of Morran. The Scourge of Morran had become a legendary figure in turian culture ever since the relay 314 incident, the story of the Scourge had become one of those stories that turian mothers told tier children to scare them into obedience: "Why? Why did you do it?" She asked him.

"Did what?" He shrugged, sounding completely uninterested. "I've done so much to so many people so you'll need to be more specific."

"Morran, you nuked hundreds of thousands of innocents, WHY did you do it?"

Gabriel looked at her and said: "I did not nuke Morran, I crashed a Dreadnought into it yes, but I did not bring those nukes aboard, I suspect they were intended for a very different target altogether." Her eyes widened and her mandibles spread wide when she heard what he was insinuating, he chuckled a bit when he saw the look on her face.

The look on her face turned from one of shock to one of anger, she snarled at him and said: "HOW DARE you accuse the generals of intending to use nuclear…"

He leaned forward his face about 3 inches away from hers and said: "Do. Not. Growl. At. Me." His voice was cold as ice, yet dripping with venom. "Your kind came to my world, killed those under my protection. So yes I dare, I think I am entitled to do so. Now since you ask, the answer is simple: To teach your kind a lesson it would not forget anytime soon."

"What lesson? By the spirits what were we supposed to learn by getting nuked?" She asked confused.

Gabriel stared into her eyes, a stare that could send krogan running to their mothers and laughed: "Don't fuck with humanity."

When the shuttle landed Miranda heard a beeping sound coming from her arm, it was her omni-tool. On the screen flashed two words: no witnesses. She looked over at the soldier sitting next to Tania and nodded, he understood immediately. The soldier drew his knife and grabbed Tania, he didn't get any further. Gabriel was nothing if not observant.

The moment Gabriel saw the soldier reach for his knife he sprang into action. He jumped at the soldier and yanked the knife out of his hands. Gabriel put the soldier in a headlock and put the knife up against his throat. The unfortunate soldier yelped in pain. Gabriel reached into the soldier's belt and pulled out a grenade. He looked over at Tania and said: "Get in the back." She hesitated. "NOW." He yelled. She complied. Gabriel followed her over towards the rear hatch while keeping his hostage in a headlock.

The soldiers reacted predictably by rushing to their feet and aiming their weapons at Gabriel. Miranda however merely observed, with great interest. Gabriel positioned himself so that most of his body was in cover behind the unfortunate solder and so that should he get shot his fall would still cut the jugular of the soldier. He smiled, held up the grenade and pressed the activator. Gabriel glared at the soldiers, shook the grenade and said: "Dead man switch, so I wouldn't do that if I were you!" He looked over at Tania and yelled: "Open the door and get the hell out of here!"

Tania slammed her fist into a button on the side of the shuttle, the door opened, far too slowly in her mind. She didn't even wait for the door to open completely before she jumped out and ran. She looked back only to hear Gabriel yell: "Don't worry about me, RUN!"

With Tania safe Gabriel went into action. He backed up to the exit and let go of the knife to press the door button. He jumped back out of the shuttle while pushing the soldier and throwing the grenade back inside.

Miranda had seen enough and decided that it was time to intervene. She got up and without even blinking used her biotics to throw the grenade out of the shuttle and pull Gabriel back in. She opened the commlink to the pilot and said: "We have what we came for, take us back."

Gabriel flew through the doorway and crashed into the floor, face first. He wondered how this had happened, humans wasn't supposed to have biotics, she wasn't supposed to be that fast and he most certainly wasn't supposed to be lying on the floor in a shuttle surrounded by angry armed people he tried to kill mere moments ago. To him it felt like the universe had a really dark sense of humor, having him being literally inches away from freedom, just to snatch it all away at the last second, all because of a girl, a turian girl no less. He asked himself, hadn't he sworn that he would kill every single turian in existence back on Blackwater? He just had to pick this day to chivalrous. He tried to get back on his feet, but his back was met by an armored boot, all he managed to say before he felt something hit the back of his head was: "Ahh fuck."

Miranda met with The Illusive man in his inner sanctum to discuss the Major's immediate future. He sat in his chair reading mission rapports from his many agents across the galaxy, all while ingesting generous amount of scotch. As she entered he said: So tell me, how is the major?"

"Currently sedated otherwise he is fine." She replied with little emotion in her voice. "He will probably have a headache when we wake him up though."

"So Miranda, was he worth your time? Does he live up to your standards?" He said after drinking considerable amount of scotch.

Miranda thought long and hard about that question, on one hand had the Major certainly impressed her with his skill with arms. Escaping and Destroying The Necropolis was certainly evidence that he possessed the same godlike martial prowess as his daughter. It was however not the state of his body that worried her, it was the state of his mind. It was his actions toward that turian that made her question his mental health. Was it not footage of The Major declaring the turians to be enemies of the alliance, that every human racist group used whenever they wanted to incite hatred against the turians? And yet he had still defended that girl even after she had accused him of genocide, he had even been inches away from killing her and her team. "Frankly I don't think that he is fit for duty, I think that he has become unstable during his stay on The Necropolis. One moment he threatens the girl, the next he almost sacrifices himself for her."

The Illusive Man rubbed his chin and said: "Give your thoughts to doctor Swann, she will get him fit for duty." He proceeded to ignore her, leaned into his seat and stare into the twin stars that his station currently orbited. He had a pretty good idea why he had acted the way he did, Gabriel was a man of his word, and he would not let anyone make him a liar.

With a groan Gabriel awoke, on a metal slab, in a lab, with a splitting headache and he wasn't sure which was worse. He tried to rub his forehead, but something was preventing him from doing so, he was strapped to the metal slab. After two minutes of struggling against the restraints he heard a voice, female: "Relax Major, the restraints come when we've run a health check on you."

"Like hell you are, I'm not letting you touch me with anything." As she came close he tried to grab her but was stopped by the restraints.

The doctor sighed and said: "Major if you don't relax I am going to have to put you back under."

Gabriel merely growled at her, since he didn't know how to respond. As the doctor started to examine him, Miranda entered the room with a sigh. "Major if we wanted you hurt, why do you think we helped escape?"

"I was a big player in the alliance back in the day, if I had a penny for each classified project I worked on I would be a very wealthy man." He said with perhaps a bit of pride and nostalgia in his voice. "And what do mean your help? I didn't get squat help from you, so I'm not sharing credit for bringing down that hellhole."

She rolled her eyes at his sense of self-importance, it had been twenty six years since he had worked on any project for the alliance, practically all of the big pre-first contact projects had either been decommissioned or declassified. "Major don't get so full of yourself, all of your projects were declassified years ago. And by the way do you really think that you would have event attempted to escape if I hadn't showed up?"

She was right and he knew it, he would never had attempted an escape if she hadn't visited him, he would probably still be sitting in that cell if she hadn't given him a reason to escape. He shook his head and said with a laugh: "Tell me how did the turians react to the little gift I had been preparing for them in the Vault?"

Vault? What was the Vault? Miranda had no idea, and the way he said gift sounded like the villain in a movie when he reveals his master plan. She made a mental note that she would talk to The Illusive Man about this later. She might have been confused, but her only outward response was a raised eyebrow. However that raised eyebrow was all Gabriel needed to guess what had happened, he laughed. "They never revealed it, did they? I guess that I wouldn't either if I wanted them to sign a peace treaty."

The doctor was thankful for Miranda's intervention, as it distracted the Major for long enough for her to do her job, or perhaps it only calmed him down enough so he would let her do it without a fuss. When she was done Miranda started speaking again: "I'll be honest with you Major, I simply don't know what to do with you. I don't think that you are still fit for duty, that makes you worthless to me, and on my station worthless either gets useful." She paused for a moment. "Or it gets thrown out of the airlock."

Before she could continue he interrupted her. "Do it, I dare you. You'd be surprised how much trouble I can be." Considering what he had done to the Necropolis she honestly did not want to find that out.

She in annoyance and brushed a few hairs away from her eyes. "As I was saying, but my boss disagrees, he thinks that it would only piss you off. So to avoid any Shepard related accidents wants to offer you a job instead. We'll see whether or not his faith in you is justified."

"And if I refuse?"

She shrugged and said: "If you refuse I guess we could drop you off at Acturus or Shanxi or something, but not before you meet the boss."

Gabriel looked over at the doctor and said: "So what's the verdict doc?"

The doctor pulled up a data pad and said: "Considering that you have imprisoned for the better part of three decades I would say that you are in pretty good shape." She rubbed her chin for a moment and said: "Though the state of some of your bones is worrying, it seems like many of your breaks haven't healed right, if we had some more time I would like to…"

He interrupted her and said: "Doc will those breaks prevent me from doing my job?"

She hesitated for a moment before saying: "Well, no but…"

"Then we will look at it later." he said, dismissing the good doctor out of hand.

Once again Miranda interrupted: "Doctor Swann can you please release the major?"

The doctor complied, or at least she tried to, for when she reached the console controlling the restraints Gabriel was already free. Both women stared confused at him, in response he held up sliver of metal and with a sly smile he said: "Let's go see this illusive boss of yours."

Miranda had a feeling that she would either like or hate this man.

Authors note.

I'm sorry for not updating in a while, but real life had some other things it thought I should be doing. So he finally gets to meet the illusive man, that's going to get interesting for sure. I would genuinely like to know if any of you reading thinks that I have made him too overpowered or too much of an unstoppable force, and whether or not he needs to get a little hurt.

Edit: I finally discovered the fine art of making the layout of a story readable.

And as usual, if you read and don't review Gabriel kills a turian.