**Author's Notes**-From this point on, if you're going to leave a review, please don't leave it as a guest. If you want to voice your opinion, I respect that, but I will delete all anonymous reviews. Thank you.

Chapter Five

Undisclosed location, Milky Way Galaxy, 2132h

"Turn the lights on in there, please. I'd like to visit the prisoner," the Illusive Man told the outside guards, who complied.

Red overhead lamps flickered on momentarily later, and it caused Jack to stir from her cot. She got up and tried to look outside at her captor, but her eyes had not yet adjusted to the light. As the door opened, two soldiers journeyed inside with the Illusive Man, who lit a cigarette and brought in a bottle of scotch. "Care for a drink, Jack?" he asked after taking a swig.

She turned her back on him silently and sat down on the cot.

"Need a glass, then? Thought that wouldn't matter to you," he tried again.

Jack leaned her back against the wall and hugged her knees to her chest. Her body language told him that she was closed for negotiations. He considered another tactic a while ago and decided to bring it up now. "I'm afraid that I owe you a very sincerely overdue apology for what happened to you out there in our Teltin facility." She stared straight ahead at the wall. "You must understand that sometimes, operations with good intentions can go horribly wrong if left unchecked, and I should've…been more alert than I was to the reports."

This time, she did look at him, but it told him that he was going to say something better than that to talk.

"The mission report said that you armed the whole complex with an H-22x. Good choice...wish I could've given you the detonator myself to blow that mistake into the ground."

"Be glad your little dog collar's working, asshole. Or I would've made you eat that fucking bottle two minutes ago," Jack snapped.

He smiled wryly. "So how about that drink?"

"Leave me alone, dick head."

"I'm not going anywhere for a while until I get a couple of answers from you." He took a long drag from his cigarette.

"Heard that those things used to be bad for you," she referred to the cigarette hanging in between his fingers.

"Quite right. Used to cause something called emphysema and lung cancer, if you smoked enough of them during a lifetime, of course. Those cures were discovered long before either of us were born, though."

"What do you want, fuckhole?"

"I have two questions. One of them is simple, and the other isn't. Why did you stay on the Normandy after the Collectors were defeated? And the next one…how far would you go for Shepard?"

"Shove your cigarettes and your goddamn scotch where the sun don't fuckin' shine," Jack barked.

"Would you stay on with Shepard if he were somehow…a little different?"

"I don't get it. What do you mean by that?" A knock came to the door and drew the Illusive Man's attention away from the serial killer. "Excuse me. Pleasant dreams, Subject Zero." He left the bottle of scotch on the floor in front of her, and she threw it violently with her own arm against the closing door.


Normandy SR-2 Captain's Quarters, 2337h

Miranda organized her thoughts and settled on the few questions she had about Watson. The first priority was definitely to find out about that mission where he disappeared in Syria, the second was why his Spectre induction was not public knowledge, and just as the elevator doors opened, the two asari mercenaries that Zaeed and Thane had brought aboard nearly ran into Miranda.

She eyed them suspiciously as she tried to put clues together why they would've been in Shepard's cabin. After they both gave her crude long winks with promiscuous grins, she marched right into the quarters. Dean Watson was in the bed with a drink in his hand, giving her a cat that ate the canary smile. She frowned and snatched the top sheet off of the bed revealing him au natural. "Just what in the hell do you think you're doing here?!" she coldly spat.

"Unless I misheard you, weren't you calling me Commander a few hours ago? Well, these do happen to be the captain's quarters," he responded casually.

"If I'd known what kind of sleazy things you'd be doing in here, I never would have cast my vote towards you to be the Normandy's commander. I can't believe I saw anything in you back in college."

Watson laughed derisively, poured another drink in another glass, and offered it to her. He arose from the bed, reclaimed the sheet from her trembling hands, and wrapped it around his waist. "Join me."

"Those are just about the most filthy sheets I've ever seen, and you're asking me to defile them with you? If you know what's good for you, you'll get dressed, get downstairs, and stay in that observation room down on the goddamned crew deck!" She still held the drink in shock, even though the ice was melting away fast.

"There's no bed. What do you suggest I do, drag this one down there?" After a beat, he continued. "Why'd you come up here, anyway?"

"I came to feed the fish." Miranda shrugged.

"Mmmm…right. All good deck officers look after their captain's pets while he's been kidnapped." That still wouldn't break down her barriers, so he put down his beverage and opened one of Shepard's desk drawers.

"You've no right to be going through his-"

"I already did. I'm just showing you that I know why you really came up here." Watson took out a perfume bottle. "The scent's a little too feminine for me, but, maybe Shepard's got interesting tastes…oh, you don't think so?" He watched her face change emotions: from anger to depression.

"Why here?" her voice trembled. "I can understand wanting to feel good and give into passion, but…" she trailed off.

"Shh…" He placed a finger to her lips and took the drink from her. "It doesn't have to be in the bed."

"This isn't right, I can't…no…" She shook her head as he inched closer to her lips.

"Just imagine I'm him for the night," he whispered. "Let me be Shepard. Let me give you what he'd want to."

Miranda felt herself getting slightly warm and feverish under his words. His charms were starting to become hard to resist. She nearly felt as if he had some kind of control over her.

"I'm here to give what you want…a man in your life during these dark and uncertain times. A rock to cling to, someone to steady your step. Let me honor your body the way he would."

Just as he was about to make contact with her mouth, she turned her head, and placed her fingers on her temple. "Sorry…I'm not feeling so well…don't know what's…" She felt herself suddenly lose her equilibrium, and he steadied her.

"Want the doctor to have a look at you?"

"Not a bad idea…-I-" Miranda's legs instantly buckled, and he caught her just before she could fall on the floor. Her eyes snapped shut as she lost consciousness.


Binary Helix Headquarters, Noveria, 814h

"Good morning," Liara announced as she strolled through several aisles of scientific equipment to get to Mordin's station. "How did you sleep?"

"Will sleep later today, must run more tests. Think I've made some real headway!" He held up his fist triumphantly as she came within one foot of the table, and his expression changed to terror two seconds later. "Oh dear." The container that he had placed the Ochrana bracelet in was violently shaking and not calming down. "Get down!" he yelled and leapt to the side of the desk, covering his ears. Liara instinctively did the same, and soon thereafter, there was a loud thump, a flash of brilliant white light, and a foul stench in the air. Seconds after the explosion cleared, they both arose to survey the damage.

The bureau's computer, microscope, and scales were charred beyond the point of recognition. "Most unsatisfactory," Mordin sighed to himself. "Will have to start from square one again. Good thing I made a backup on omni-tool before arming test. Should definitely decrease power of laser; five watts is much too high." He brought up his data and typed in his observations. "Radiation levels of laboratory are currently…oh, that's not very safe. Reminder to take decontamination shower before consuming breakfast this morning."

Liara's expression change to concern."Will I need to take one as well?"

"No, asari are much more resilient to radiation than salarians. Perhaps that explains the long lifespans…hmm…uncertain. Anyway, much to do, much to do."

"The reason why I came, Dr. Solus, was to ask you if you've been having any other equipment malfunctions. What I mean, is that I tried to get in touch with the Normandy earlier, and there was no response. I was hypothesizing that perhaps the reason why was because of the dreadful weather that's outside." She pointed to the unbelievably strong winds blowing across the mountaintops beside them. "And I'm sure I don't need to tell you this, but we are most likely running out of time."

"Yes, yes, that is true. Isn't that odd how we can never add to time? Always running out of it...can't buy more of it from a store somewhere like you can food or drink. Attempting to contact the Normandy using my own personal device…" Mordin typed in the address and frowned. "Suppose it could be storm's interference…but it looks like something else is causing our signals to be blocked."

"Is there any way to find out for sure?"

"Affirmative." He deleted the previous address and dialed another one. "Hmm…got through to Sur'Kesh, the salarian home world perfectly. Do not like this."

"Something's not right on the Normandy; we must go back. I cannot just sit and wait here. At the very least, we need to investigate what's wrong!"

Mordin coolly scanned his omni-tool around his former workstation and found the remains of the container that had the Ochrana bracelet in it. The device was sitting on top of the rubble, but it was no longer emanating a red pulse! "Ah, this does look promising," he smiled.

"Are you listening to me?!" She shook his arm, and he stiffened up to face her.

"Yes, Dr. T'Soni, am always listening. However, without the measure to this countermeasure," he gestured to the bracelet, "cannot hope to possibly go up against Cerberus and survive! Just give me a little more time. Will also need to perform a few more tests…eventually upon something organic."

She sighed impatiently and went back to her office. Liara called up her omni-tool's connection to the Broker network and made contact with Agent Serena Longoria, who had just been typing on her holographic keyboard. "Oh, I was just going to send you my report in a moment. You have good timing," Longoria commented.

It took a moment for Liara to remember to turn the voice filter on; she had been calling the Normandy for hours and forgotten all about it. "Summarize your report, Agent Longoria."

"The first thing you asked me about, Broker, the Ochrana device, I have a smidgen of information on that, if you're interested. Don't worry, I also have been working on the other objectives."

"Good."

"I've come across some schematics for the Ochrana weapon. I'm not precisely sure what they all mean, since I'm not a biotic engineer, but I have forwarded them to you…the attached notes at the bottom suggest that this technology does not belong to Cerberus."

"You mean that this is not human technology?"

"That's what my conclusions are, yes." Longoria nodded and sent the electronic information to Liara.

"Well done, Agent Longoria. How would you feel about being part of an experiment?" Liara quickly forwarded these schematics to Mordin's omni-tool. There, that'll hurry things along.

"What kind of experiment, Shadow Broker?"

"Binary Helix on Noveria is attempting to counteract the effects of the Ochrana weapon. Since you do have biotic powers, Agent Longoria, this would most likely be beneficial for you. Do you have the L5x implants?"

"Most definitely. I didn't know that the Ochrana could also disable these kinds of implants since the technology is pretty new."

"I've seen it in action." Liara thought back to when she saw Jack powerless and was also reminded of the havoc that the bracelet wreaked upon her own body. It was the first time in her life that she had been truly terrified; she had had no defenses whatsoever.

"When will this experiment take place?"

"You will need to make arrangements to come to Noveria as soon as possible. The executives from Binary Helix have also selected the Normandy for the same kind of prototype. You will need to escort an asari administrator and a salarian biotic engineer aboard. Their safety is a priority. The sum of five thousand credits have been allocated to your account for this service in advance."

"Thank you, Shadow Broker. I will find an excuse to get away from Cerberus...at least for a while. Shall I give my real name to the security services or a pseudonym?"

"Your real name will be required to pass on through. Meet the asari administrator Dr. Liara T'Soni and Dr. Mordin Solus at the Peak 15 research station. However, I must warn you that the weather in the Aleutsk Valleys will be severe. Take a durable vehicle with you."

"How far is Peak 15 from Port Hanshan?"

"Five point five kilometers. There will be a human waiting in the hotel bar to speak with you regarding transportation. Her name is Gianna Parasini, from Noveria Internal Affairs."

"As you say. Agent Longoria out."

Liara disconnected the channel and brought up another one on her omni-tool. "Dr. Solus, this is Dr. T'Soni. Pardon the interruption, but-"

"Where did you get these?"

"I can't say, actually, sorry."

"Oh, right," he nodded. "Anyhow, with these schematics, a measure to the countermeasure is most definitely within hours, perhaps minutes should I receive all of the materials I've asked for!"

"That's wonderful! Did you happen to glance at the notations upon the bottom?"

"Hmm…haven't had time yet but can look while PC boards are being constructed. Oh, must go now, materials have arrived. How excellent...almost as exciting as working on the countermeasure to the Collector seeker swarms!"


Normandy SR-2, Armory, 912h

Several thoughts were plaguing Jacob Taylor's mind at the moment. The best way to focus them all was to do a little working out. He took off his shirt and activated his personal stereo system. As the beat of the music started off slowly, he began with some push-ups on his knuckles. Only two crew members voted for him-two-Legion and Chambers! Out of the entire damned crew, only the shrink and some freaking geth believe in me? How damned pathetic is that?

Something isn't right about this Dean Watson spectre guy. I got a bad feeling about him when we first met, and it still hasn't gone away. In fact, he and Miranda were the only ones not at breakfast in the mess this morning. That can't be a coincidence. Thought she was falling in love with Shepard.

I miss him. He would eat every morning with all of us at seven-thirty without fail.

Once he counted 100, Jacob repositioned himself on the floor so he could do some crunches.

Okay, maybe once a week, Shepard would sleep in until eight. But he still wouldn't miss breakfast with the crew. He always was interested in each of our dreams, our hopes, our fears. Eh, maybe I'm being too hard on Watson because I'm comparing him to Shepard too much. I can't expect anyone to measure up to him. Watson sounds like a good leader. Only problem is…me, I guess. Why is everyone else so quick to jump on his bandwagon, though? Just because he's a good speaker? That doesn't cut it for me. He's gonna have to prove himself more than that for my loyalty.

Sweat began to bead itself down Jacob's torso, arms and head as he gradually picked up speed.

I can feel that his charms are starting to win over Chambers, too! This morning, all she could talk about was how Watson was just as good of a commander as Shepard. Yesterday, she voted for me! Something's wrong here-she wouldn't just change her mind like that without some help. Well, I'll give him a chance. One chance.

Jacob stopped his exercise and arose from the floor. He began to type at his holographic keyboard and sent the message to Shepard's terminal. "There. If he doesn't respond to this, this'll prove my theory."


Two hours later…

Jacob came back from his shower and shave to his terminal. He had flagged the message as important and asked for a return receipt. Watson hadn't even read it. "This tears it," he told himself and thumped his fist against the table his computer rested upon. With complete determination, he walked out of the armory and pressed the elevator button in the CIC.

"Good morning, Operative Taylor," Kelly Chambers greeted him with a smile.

"Hey, Chambers. It's just Jacob, okay?" The elevator seemed to be taking its own sweet time, so he leaned up against the wall to face her.

"As you'd like, Jacob. What do you think of our new commander?"

"What made you suddenly change your tune? Thought you voted for me yesterday."

"Well, that was because I knew you better and you were technically next in line. But now, I think I should've voted for him. I hope you don't take offense, Jacob, but I think he's just what the Normandy needs right now."

"He can talk for sure and yeah, he's a Spectre. But I've never seen him lead a squad or a mission. I'll reserve judgment till I see him in action." Jacob shrugged, and thankfully, the lift opened up. It emptied out with a few excited crew members in it talking amongst themselves. They were praising Watson already!

The elevator could not have moved any slower this morning. Finally, it reached the captain's quarters, and Jacob knocked first.

"Come," a voice called from inside.

Jacob journeyed inside to find Watson on the floor doing sit-ups. "Ah, Taylor, you all right?" Watson cheerily greeted him.

The shower was running full-blast, and Jacob noticed the steam seeping out from underneath the closed bathroom door. It was circumstantial, but the revelation hit him like the poison from a thresher maw's venom as he noticed a familiar suit of clothes with the Cerberus logo lying upon the floor. "Morning, sir." He couldn't bring it upon himself to call this man "commander" or "captain". At least not yet.

"You need something?" Watson breathed heavily as he closed his eyes in concentration.

"I don't mean to rush you, sir, but did you check your messages this morning?"

"Haven't had the chance to do so, no. What is it?"

Jacob inwardly sighed. At least it didn't sound like a complete lie of omission. "I wanted to see if I could assist you with any plans to rescue Shepard. Or rather, sir, if I may be so bold, I was wondering what your thoughts were on the matter."

"We're waiting to hear back from this Dr. T'Soni and Dr. Solus from Noveria before we do anything grand. This weapon that Cerberus made seems to be a real ass kicker," Watson replied and opened his eyes.

"I know Mordin's address. Would you like me to call him, sir?"

"Not necessary, Taylor, I'll do it myself."

"With all due respect, sir…" Jacob began. The door to the bathroom opened, and Miranda emerged wearing only a towel. The ex-Alliance corsair cleared his throat and averted his eyes.

"Morning, Jacob," she said and went to retrieve one of her spare outfits from Shepard's closet. The other one lay crumpled in a pile on the floor. "Still a gentleman, I see. You know, Watson, a few years ago, Jacob and I used to date."

"Ancient history, sir," Jacob butted in.

"No doubts there," Watson smirked and watched Miranda retreat back into the bathroom and close the door. "As you were saying, Taylor…with all due respect?"

"Yes, sir. With all due respect, I can wait, but how long can Shepard? Who knows what the Illusive Man wants with him? What if he's already dead?"

"That possibly remains unlikely, Jacob. Miranda told me how it all played out. Why send an assassin to capture Shepard if killing him's all the Illusive Man's got in store for Shepard?"

"You're right, sir." It hurt Jacob to admit it, but he had to show respect for his new superior. The best way he knew to do what he wanted secretly was to play along with the boss. It suited him doing that a few times in the Alliance, and this time, the situation was no different. "Do you need me, sir?"

"Not at the moment, no. Carry on, Mr. Taylor."

Jacob saluted Watson and took off with a purpose. He went down in the elevator back to the second floor, then traveled through the CIC and the armory, making his way into the communication room. "Enough is enough. It's time to do something...can't just sit on my ass and wait," he muttered.


Undisclosed location in Milky Way galaxy, 1304h

The Illusive Man slid his access card into the secure laboratory and made his way into the chamber towards Garrus. The turian was anchored down to a chair, his hands and feet bound with clamps to it securely. He lifted his head groggily to try and look at who was here but was so overpowered by the drugs they were giving him that he could not. Morrison handed him a data pad. "We'll pull him off of the painkillers later this afternoon," she informed him. "He's pretty resilient to pain, though. Turians are harder to kill than they look."

He gave the data pad a perfunctory glance and returned it to her. "What've you been doing to him?"

"Replacing some of his cybernetic parts. What happened to him, if I might ask, sir?"

"He went up against a gunship a while ago. It surprised him and fortunately, Shepard was able to recruit this alien for his mission. We had our best people on the Normandy patch him up some months ago. How bad were the recent damages?"

"We sent some nanites into his cybernetic implants to do some repairs. Would you like for us to continue the experiments?"

"Hmm…" He considered her question. "Pull him off the drugs now. I want to talk to him. And leave us."

"Sir…?"

"Yes, you have my permission to continue. Now do as I say, Morrison."

"Yes, sir." She obeyed him immediately and motioned to the other scientists that they were to exit the lab.

The Illusive Man waited a few moments until they were gone and for Garrus to open his eyes. "So, you're him," Garrus said weakly. "The Illusive Man in flesh and blood."

"I have some questions for you, Archangel."

"The name's Vakarian. Archangel doesn't exist any more."

"We'll play it your way for now, then." He nodded and put his hands behind his back. "So, Vakarian, Cerberus paid you a great deal of money to serve under Shepard. What made you stay with him after you defeated the Collectors? You could've gone back to your previous life of fighting crime."

"The desire to live the life of a vigilante left me after I got nailed by that Blue Suns' gunship. That's a good enough reason as any."

"Not really. I've read your dossier; you tried to train as a Spectre. Clearly, you thought that you could make a difference to the galaxy by being a lapdog to the Council. Did Shepard's death encourage you to take that action, or was there another motivation?"

"Since when did you start to care about aliens?" Garrus slurred.

"If that were not entirely true, do you think I'd be wasting Cerberus resources on repairing your cybernetics and improving your immune system?"

"I'm just a lab rat to you, nothing more," the turian coughed.

"You are useful to Cerberus, indeed. But back to my original question, Vakarian. Why did you stay with Shepard after the mission was over?"

"Shepard…gives me hope. Nothing more than a sliver, but…his courage under fire is remarkable." He hesitated to lift his head up and found that he was able to do so. "Why do you want to know?"

"I'm planning on giving Shepard some more hope…for everyone. There might, however…be a few changes in his personality as a result. This eventuality is one that we cannot avoid; even Saren could not completely deny himself to the Reapers when he allied himself with them."

"Why do you…say that?" Garrus' head was still on cloud 9; he couldn't quite make sense of what the Illusive Man was saying. "One day, you're going to pay for all that you've done to all of us, all of your sins."

"You are a short-sighted fool, Vakarian. You cannot even begin to comprehend what doing this will mean for humanity and your race, let alone all races." He shook his head and walked out of the lab.