"And you're sure that this is the way out?"

Gillian waved Warren towards a console and, with a few quick button presses, a door on the far side of the room had opened up. He quickly raised his looted pistol and crept towards the open door and the corridor on the other side. He saw nothing and signalled to Grayson, and the girl hurried forwards. They had passed through two more empty security stations, and Warren had picked up several spare thermal clips for his pistol, but the girl had refused any weapons.

Considering what her biotics had done to the guards, he wasn't surprised.

"Stick behind me, just like before. If you remember the layout correctly, we should be able to reach a secondary shuttle hangar further along this corridor." Warren walked out into the corridor, keeping his eye out for movement. Again, the corridor was long, with nothing to use for cover if anyone stumbled upon them. It was both a smart and a stupid idea. Anyone attacking this facility would find little to protect them from the defender's weaponry, but at the same time, the defenders couldn't set up defensive positions along the corridors.

Not that they'd have to worry so much. If Gillian had the biotic power that Warren suspected she did, she could easily clear the way with a biotic push or even a singularity. There was that nagging feeling again, Warren realised. How the hell do I even know what biotics are? he thought. He didn't know where all of this information was coming from.

They walked in silence through the corridor, passing by several junctions and checking and clearing them with speed and care. Warren had tried small-talk with Gillian, trying to figure out who she was and why she was in this facility, but he had gotten nothing from her. She seemed very quiet, but also very calm for a girl who was fighting her way out of a detainment facility.

Either that, or she simply had yet to register what was going on. He couldn't tell. It did seem like she wasn't all that aware of her situation.

"Wait," he whispered, holding out an arm to stop her and signalling for them both to drop to their knees. The corridor extended out over a larger room below, and the walls turned from metal to glass. He hadn't realized, through the schematics that Gillian had brought up, that it would have been so.

He crept along until the wall ended and poked his head very carefully around the edge. Below, there was a much larger, open room that struck him to be some kind of warehouse or storage facility. Mechs, weapons, supplies, all were arranged throughout, but that was a minor detail at the moment; the battle raging throughout the room caught Warren's attention more.

The men in the white armour, who Warren had already come across, were fighting a pitched battle against people flooding in from a large hole torn into one wall. The white-armoured force were clearly the defenders in this battle, having set up stationary defences, but the people who were flooding in were gaining the upper-hand. Rockets flew across the warehouse and sent the defenders flying, and more and more soldiers came in through the hole.

Warren tried to get a closer look at their armour. Mostly blue, with a symbol that he vaguely recognised.

"Alliance."

Warren turned to the girl. She had craned around him to see below, and was pointing to the attacking soldiers.

"I take it they don't like whoever this Cerberus group is," Warren chuckled. "Well, we know where those explosions came from, and these Alliance people are probably responsible for cutting the power to our cells. Let's go, while everyone is distracted."

Warren hurried forward, breaking into a run across the glass corridor, Gillian following behind. He could only hope that, as horrendously exposed as they were, no one was going to notice them-

And, of course, they did.

"The prisoners are escaping!" echoed a soldier below. Warren turned to look and saw a number of the white-armoured troops below looking and pointing up. "Take that corridor out!" Warren saw a group of soldiers turn their weapons on the corridor and swore.

He grabbed Gillian's hand as the girl stopped to see what he was looking at and ran, dragging her with him, as bullets and rounds began to pierce the glass, shattering it and sending shards and shrapnel flying through the corridor. Keeping ahead of the weapons fire, Warren could see where the corridor turned to metal once again, and pushed Gillian ahead of him, trying to get her closer to safety.

Something exploded behind him and the glass beneath his feet cracked. He leapt forward as the sheets beneath him broke apart and cluttered down towards the ground, hitting the hard metal of the corridor ahead with his shoulder as he rolled into the landing. Gillian had been knocked down by the explosion and he helped her up as he passed by.

"Are you alright?" he asked, as he led her along the corridor. She nodded grimly, but still, rather infuriatingly, seemed to have no emotional response whatsoever.

The corridor broke into a junction, and Warren struggled to bring up the schematics in his mind's eye. He turned this way and that, trying to remember, until he turned to Gillian… who was gone. She had already begun to hurry down the left fork, and so he hurried after her. She had been the one to tell him where to go and had confirmed it with a set of hacked building schematics; he could only assume she knew what she was doing.

"Gillian, wait," he said, grabbing her shoulder. She shrugged him off but stopped. "If those soldiers below saw us, they probably warned other guards in the facility. Let me go ahead. If we run into anyone unexpected I'm better equipped to deal with them."

She nodded and fell behind. He had expected complaints or protests, but there were none. Warren had to admit it was mildly annoying; he was feeling anxious, his heart was thudding through his ribcage and he was more and more worried as the situation worsened, but this girl didn't even seem to care. He would get her onto a shuttle, and then he would leave her be. She obviously didn't like having company.

A signpost nearby advertised the directions to the shuttle bay, and Warren led Gillian along until they reached another sealed door. Gillian took one side and he the other, and once they were ready he waved his hand over the entrance console and waited for the doors to slide open with a hiss before he swung himself around the frame and into the room beyond.

A larger room, split into two sections by a small rise and a pair of staircases. The half they were in held tables, computer consoles and electronic equipment, whereas the other held stasis chambers, examination tables and sample storage units.

A laboratory of some sort, then.

"We should- hey, wait!" Warren began, heading towards the far door before he noticed Gillian heading for a console nearby. "We need to leave now, Gillian. We don't have time to be looking for anything." She waved him away and tapped away at the keys, staring at the screen. To be frank, the prospect of leaving her was tempting, but he needed her to get out of the facility. Her biotics were far too useful.

"What are you looking for?" he asked, craning to see.

"This."

The screen crackled into life. It was a communication log, between whoever had used the console, and a recipient whose image had been blurred. There was no date or time on the recording, and no name either; it was obvious that this log had not been intended to be used for official purposes.

"I take it that the sample has arrived on schedule?"

"Sample? If that's what you could call him. We've taken whatever we could from his cells and sent them to the labs for recreation and extraction. The boy will be taken into the Lazarus labs as soon as they have the equipment ready."

"Good. Take all the precautions you need to; your facility cannot be detected by any outside parties or the entire cell could be compromised."

"With respect, sir, why bother with Lazarus? Cloning should do, surely?"

"Cerberus never abandons a potential resource, Doctor. Especially one as potent as the boy. Once your work has been completed send two samples to our people in the Terminus Systems, and two to those in Citadel Space. They will need them."

"And what of the girl, sir? She has nearly escaped four times now. Every time we find a new way to lock down the shuttle bay, she breaks through it."

"Have you been able to perfect our own biotic improvement process using her yet?"

"No. The work is too complicated to replicate quickly."

"Then continue to contain her, and use more extreme measures if necessary. Do not kill her, yet. Once you have completed your work, have her put into the Lazarus labs, and ensure that she is brought back with a control chip. She could be useful, on our side."

"Yes sir."

Assuming that 'the girl' was Gillian, this explained why she knew the layout of the facility; escaping from her cell four times was impressive, that was no mistake. Still, Warren was quite worried; first of all, was he this 'sample' that the log talked of, and what were these Lazarus labs that the recording spoke of?

"What were you looking for in that recording?"

"A system. Now I know where their bases are."

"Good," Warren said, turning towards the door. "So you can avoid them."

"No."

Alright, so, that was rather creepy. Still, Warren led Gillian towards the door, checking his pistol. Putting all thoughts of who he was and what this Lazarus thing meant, he opened up the door and hurried through it into another larger room.

"That's the door to the shuttle bay, if I'm not mistaken," Warren said, pointing. "Is that right?"

"Yes. There should be some escape shuttles there."

"Alright then, we'll just have to-"

"Our orders are to wait here until the two escapees appear and apprehend them." Warren cursed and dropped to the ground, dragging Grayson down with him. They crawled forward until they could see the group of armoured soldiers ahead. "Remember, they are incredibly dangerous. Don't let the girl use her biotics and for god's sake, do not take your eyes off of the boy."

"How can children be dangerous, sir?"

"They're hardly children, just young, and you haven't seen what they're capable of, soldier. Just keep your eye out for them."

"How many do you count?" Warren whispered.

"Nine," Gillian answered.

"Can you trap a few with your biotics?"

"Maybe four or five."

"Alright. Hit them with something, and I'll skirt around to the side while they don't expect it. The moment you've hit them with a biotic attack, drop down into cover behind the wall and don't come out again until I say its clear." Warren didn't give her chance to argue. He raised and cocked his pistol and rolled towards a crate across the floor, and Gillian attacked.

Summoning up dark energy around her, she gave a yell and flung it out into the crowd of Cerberus troopers. A few of them felt the pressure build up as an orb of energy started to form in their centre. Suddenly, the singularity took its shape; a tiny black hole, churning the air and gravity around it. Two soldiers tried to grab onto poles and walls but were pulled into the vortex, and five soldiers in total were carried off their feet and sent sailing through the air.

Warren sprung up from his position behind the soldiers. As the few who hadn't been caught in the singularity turned to fire at Grayson, he darted forward, closing the gap and firing as he did so. His first few shots tore through the kinetic barriers on the closest soldier's armour and punctured through some vital points, and before the next soldier could turn Warren had picked up a fallen submachine gun and unloaded a full clip into him.

Swinging himself over a table, he slammed his foot into the chest of a Cerberus soldier as the man shifted his aim, ejecting the pistol's spent thermal clip as he flew through the air. The Cerberus trooper had an electric blade stored in a harness at his back, and Warren ripped it free before the winded man could fight back and slid it through the armour at the man's neck.

The last man standing fired at Warren with his submachine gun, but found his skewered comrade in the way of the bullets; Warren had flung the body across at the last soldier, and he slotted a fresh thermal clip into the pistol and blasted a round through the last man's visor before more shots could come his way.

The singularity still in play, Warren turned to the men floating helplessly through the air and picked them off quickly and easily; all he had to do was take his time and put a round through each man's had as he sailed by. Loading a new thermal clip after the last man grew still, he signalled to Gillian. The singularity died, her concentration shifted from the continued channelling of dark energy, and she hurried over to his side as he headed for the shuttle bay door.

He wasn't sure, but there might have been fear in her expression as she caught up with him.

"Good work; just as we planned," he said reassuringly. They opened the door to the shuttles and found themselves confronted with a full load of transport vessels. Oddly, none of them bore the marks and emblems of Cerberus that they had found around the facility, but Warren wasn't too concerned about that. It made life easier. "Pick one. Can you fly a shuttle?"

"Yes. I learned from Quarians."

"Alright. Get in." Warren covered the door with his pistol while she worked on opening up one of the shuttles, waiting to see if any more soldiers followed. He heard her feverishly working away behind him, but he couldn't help but feel uneasy.

The door to the shuttle swung open and Gillian hurried inside, running to the pilot's chair. Warren kept the door open, his pistol still trained on the shuttle bay doors, but now he used the shuttle's armoured hull as cover. "Can you access the controls?" he asked, calling across the shuttle.

"Yes, but it will take time."

"Don't take too long."

"I need to open the hangar bay doors to get out."

"Can you?"

"Eventually."

"Well then-"

"There they are! Shuttle three!"

More Cerberus soldiers, and these ones weren't going to fall for a surprise attack. Warren cursed and ducked behind the hull as the shots began to rain down on them. Some struck the hull, others flew through the open door, and some slammed into the front of the shuttle, threatening to break through the kinetic barriers.

"Get those doors open now!" Warren shouted, turning and firing. The pistol was bloody inaccurate, but he compensated, aiming at chest-height into a group of soldiers and unloading a clip. Three of them stumbled or went down as bullets slammed into barriers and armour or into flesh, but more poured in, taking cover behind shuttles, crates, ammunition boxes and other handy pieces of cover that had been left lying about. Warren had two thermal clips left, and he slotted a fresh one in knowing he would have to be more conservative.

Two had taken cover behind a nearby shuttle, and he focused on those first. He swung back out from cover and aimed at the shuttle, ignoring the oncoming bullets and waiting until one of the soldiers poked their head out. Warren fired two rounds off and one of them hit home; the soldier fell back behind the shuttle and didn't come out again. The other lost his nerve and tried sprinting for another shuttle. Warren sent his next shot through the man's kneecap and another through his neck as he fell.

"How are the doors coming along?" Warren asked conversationally.

"Twenty seconds."

"Oh, swell."

Warren fired off another few rounds, mostly just to scare soldiers back into cover. He saw another soldier behind a crate, which, by luck, was next to a large box of missiles. Warren shifted his fire and hit the closest missile with a few rounds until they exploded, sending flames and shrapnel spewing out over the shuttle bay; the man who had been hiding nearby ran out from cover, streaming fire and screaming. He wasn't going to be a problem.

Sunlight flooded the shuttle bay as the large hangar doors opened at the far side of the room. The shuttle's engines burst into life and Warren struggled to keep himself stood up as the force of jolting off of the ground nearly sent him flying.

"I thought you said you knew how to fly?" he shouted.

"Shut up!"

The shuttle turned, offering only its back to the Cerberus troopers, but Warren couldn't just leave it at that. Keeping a hand on the overhead railing he leaned out of the open door and fired the last few rounds of his clip at the troops below. One went down and another clutched his leg in pain, and that was enough of a goodbye for him.

Sealing the door, Warren threw the pistol down onto a seat and dropped into the co-pilots chair next to Gillian.

"Can you take us out of here?"

"Yes."

"Do you know where we are?"

"Eden Prime."

Warren didn't know where that was, but inquiring would be useless; he didn't know where anything was at the moment. Gillian had turned on the shuttle's virtual windows, and he could see why; they weren't flying across a plain or skies, they were flying through a series of underground tunnels. There was sunlight, off in the distance, but it took a long time to reach there, and even then, the exit was nothing more than a small, easily concealed hole in a rock formation.

Now they were out, on the surface of the planet. Gillian pressed a few buttons, and a display console opened up, showing them the view from the cameras on the rear of the shuttle. A huge ship, most likely a cruiser or a frigate, was dropping shuttles down over a patch of land not too far away from their shuttle. It was flying the Alliance colours and emblem; no doubt that was where the soldiers had been pouring out of.

"I suppose we escaped just in time," he laughed. "Get us somewhere safe, and fast. And don't let that ship detect us."

"Who said you could be the boss?" Gillian asked, and for once, it seemed like she was actually smiling.

"Do you have a better idea?"

"No."

"Then I'm the boss." Warren settled back into his chair as the shuttle flew on.