Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 6: Breaking Quarantine

"I am not going in there."

Shepard cast a glare at Revan as the former Jedi pulled his head back from around the corner of the corridor leading to the environmental controls for the quarantined section of the slums. The Vorcha had shut down the slum's life support and ironically the cure Mordin had created would need to be filtered through the air ducts and out across all sections of the slums to be effective.

"Why the Hell not?"Revan cast a glare back at Shepard before typing out a quick sequence with his Omni-tool, ducking back around the corner and coming back, several well-placed shots grazing the edge of his enhanced kinetic barrier.

"When I was training as a boy, my instructor would call this… well, cause for a SFG."

Revan quickly brought up a blue-white hologram of the corridor he'd just looked down, the alien appearance of the hologram drawing curious looks from his companions as he typed at his Omni-tool, highlighting the sniper positions he'd spotted.

"I may have a shield on me, Shepard; but I'd prefer not being shot by a sand-sized projectile moving at near the speed of light. I may be fast, but I'm not that fast."

Shepard frowned as he glanced at Lia and then Miranda who both shrugged at his questioning look. Jacob decided to voice the question on all their minds.

"What the Hell is an SFG?"

Revan glanced at his companions before sighing and pulling on his belt. A thoughtful look crossed Miranda's features as she recalled the odd device attached to the belt Revan had brought from his own galaxy.

"Stealth Field Generator. Makes you nice and invisible to waiting snipers so you can get up close and personal."

Thinking of the active camouflage many Alliance Scouts used that functioned along a similar principle, Shepard nodded understanding, looking between his squad and seeing that none were wearing the Infiltrator devices.

"Damn. Guess we'll have to do it the old fashioned way."

Revan nodded grimly at Shepard's assessment when he realized his very helpful suggestion was pointless with their current equipment layout. Drawing his SMG, the former Dark Lord of the Sith took in a deep breath and let it out slowly before casting a quick glance with Shepard.

"Cover, advance?"

Shepard nodded to Revan, motioning with his assault rifle for the man to get into position before he took in several deep breaths and shook out the stiffness in his joints. Revan waited until Shepard gave him a quick hand-signal and moved around the corner, opening fire with his SMG as the Commander broke cover and came around the corner, his N7 training kicking in when he realized what Revan had meant.

Shepard was on a raised walkway that overlooked a street, which would have been great if not for the fact that it was the middle point of a three tier chokepoint overlooked by a platform directly across from their entry point with a clear field of fire from what could only be described as excellent cover. By some odd stroke of luck there were crates stacked along the path Shepard was racing along as the vorcha sniper that had been concentrating on Revan's cover-fire spotted the former Spectre and began tracking him with its sniper rifle.

Hypervelocity rounds ripped up the walkway Shepard raced down and the Commander returned fire, his Assault Rifle roaring with a quick, controlled burst that sent the sniper scrambling for cover. Taking the opportunity, Shepard pressed forward, narrowly avoiding a second demise as he nearly stepped into a crossfire from two other snipers at other points on the walkway. Shouts and weapons fire echoed from the walkway below and the Commander felt sweat beading his forehead as his barriers collapsed the moment before he reached the cover of the railing overlooking the ground level of the section of the station.

"Not bad."

Jerking in surprise, Shepard stared in disbelief at the man crouched next to him, his head unconsciously turning to where he'd come from before turning back to Revan. Revan's expression was blank, though the Commander felt a hint of smugness in the other man's tone. Revan was eyeing his SMG is distaste before something attached to Shepard's N7 armor caught his eyes. Shepard looked down and spotted his combat knife, a diamond-hard ceramic blade coated in a layer of Teflon and titanium. Unconsciously grasping the handle of the deadly blade, Shepard shifted at the look Revan had given the weapon.

"Mind if I borrow something with a it more range and power?"

Pulling his hand from his knife, Shepard set his assault rifle on the ground and pulled his sniper rifle from his back. Checking the heatsink in the weapon, Shepard debated which weapon to part with before handing Revan the M-92 Mantis.

"Thanks."Revan glanced at Shepard expectantly, waiting for the man to give him some cover fire. The covering fire came when Miranda and Jacob tried a similar maneuver as Shepard and Revan had, the Operatives slowly stair-stepping their way between the cover from the scattered crates while Lia nervously glanced around the corner of the corridor they'd come from, her hand hovering over her Omni-tool. The quarian knew her shotgun would be useless at the range they were dealing with and double-checked her shields. The modifications she and Revan had made to their kinetic barriers would stand up to most weapons fire but she knew the entire point of the shields was to buy you time to get to cover, not to make you untouchable.

She wasn't wearing the right suit for combat. She had only come because Revan had gone and she'd sworn to Shepard she would help. If her suit was punctured from the battle or torn as she rushed to cover while the plague was still present…

"Keelah."

Lia sighed as she moved around the corner, deciding not to dwell on the negatives and jumping in surprise as her kinetic barrier flared, nearly failing from the shot that would have shattered her visor. A perfect headshot otherwise if it hadn't been for the modifications she and Revan had made. The Vorcha sniper dropped a moment later from a similar-placed shot from Revan's borrowed rifle. Shaking at the encounter, Lia pushed ahead and sank to the ground behind a crate on the right side of the chokepoint.

"Shepard, below!"

Jacob's voice was shouting to the Commander while Shepard shifted his fire from the sniper on the far right of the walkway above him to the Blood Pack approaching them from below. The Commander paused in his fire as he quickly replaced his spent heatsink and barely flinched at the boom that sounded beside his head as Revan turned the Sniper Rifle on the Vorcha front and center on the walkway overlooking their position.

"Reinforcements above. Who the Hell designed this piece of osik?"

Revan cursed the single-shot weapon in his hands as he operated the bolt to replace the spent heatsink. The weapon's recoil was irritating to the former Sith Lord and unlike the Aratech sniper rifles he'd trained with back in the Republic, this one was not semi-automatic and the recoil as well as the constant need to reload was throwing off his shots. Still, the power was preferable as it ripped through whatever armor the Vorcha were wearing and downed most with a single shot.

"Osik?"

Mangling the pronunciation of the word; Shepard glanced at his Omni-tool, making sure his translation program was still working before he came to the conclusion that it was some type of curse word in a different language from the one Revan was commonly speaking. A throwback to a first-spoken language, perhaps. Revan, with a frustrated expression glared at the Commander.

"Shit! You know, a piece of shit!"

Switching from Mando'a to Galactic Basic, Revan made a mental note to keep the spoken Mandalorian language to a minimum. This was a combat situation and not the place for a language lesson. Galactic Basic was the common human language of his galaxy and was easily translated as well as widely known by his galaxy's people. That very simple fact was the only reason he could communicate at all with the people in Lia and Shepard's galaxy. Galactic Basic was a language that was created to be simple, a slave's language that remained from the time of the Infinite Empire and their ancient, vast Empire.

"I need some cover up top, Shepard."

Revan was moving between reloading Shepard's Sniper Rifle, making sure they both weren't being flanked and wondering what the Hell he was sensing from Lia. The quarian's mind had gone silent a moment and he'd thought she was dead until a repetitive pattern had surfaced in his brief mental probe. Glancing back towards where Lia was huddled behind a stack of crates, Revan nearly fell over when a shot grazed his armor, draining his already taxed barriers and puncturing the hard suit of his Onyx Mark III Heavy armor. The blast was powerful, too powerful when the combined shots of the reinforcements fell upon the sniper that was wiping out their predecessors.

"Krogan charging!"

Miranda's accented voice shouted the warning and Shepard flinched as he dropped his assault rifle, forgoing the precious few moments he would need to retract and secure it and went immediately for his M-22 Eviscerator Shotgun that Cerberus had provided him. Turning, Shepard felt a catch on his shoulder and frowned down at the empty hilt where his knife had been a moment before. A blur of black armor moved from the abandoned sniper rifle to the charging alien. The massive Krogan was grinning viciously as it let out a roar and went to smash the human foolish enough to charge it.

Shepard could only look on in disbelief as Revan shifted around the Krogan with a speed he would never attribute to anything that required air to live. Revan's SMG was in his left hand while the right held the Commander's blade close. A point-blank burst from the weapon struck the Krogan's knee and it dropped to the ground hard, its armor rattling. It took only moments for the massive alien to recover but instead of taking the opportunity to spray more fire into the Krogan, Revan actually climbed onto the massive Blood Pack warrior's back and drew back his right arm, delivering a vicious and precise blow from the knife into the Krogan's eye.

Armor made no difference in such an unshielded spot and at the range Revan was working with, the kinetic barrier the Krogan was using was pointless. Howling as it thrashed, the Krogan's knee mended quickly, though not quickly enough for it to get to its feet before Revan drew back from his work and took the shotgun from the Krogan's hands. Firing a single blast into the unprotected face of the Krogan, Revan tossed the weapon and raised his SMG, peppering the upper walkways with rapid and precise fire. Part of the advantage to the recoil-modifications he'd spent precious days adding to the weapon.

Shepard saw the problem before Revan sensed it when a blue-white field of energy glowed around the prone Krogan.

"He's a Battlemaster!"

Had Revan known what a Krogan Battlemaster was, he would have understood the danger but as only a pit of rage stewed in the near-dead Krogan and biotics were so radically different from the Force, Revan only sensed the killing intent. Turning to stare at the Krogan that would have been dead if it were any other species and not a biotic, Revan reached for the Force and threw out his hand, a high-pitched whine sounding as the armor around the Krogan began to bend and fracture and it collapsed inward, crushing the beast as it howled and threw out a biotic assault on the former Jedi Knight.

The biotic warp struck Revan in the chest as the Force-attack pressed down on the Krogan, crushing the alien into a twisted pile of broken flesh bones and armor. Shepard looked on in nauseated surprise, his face paling as he looked from the crushed remains to Revan as the warp shredded the armor of his hard suit and dug in to his chest. The Force wouldn't repel the attack and Revan collapsed to the ground in pain, his eyes wide as he reached up with his hand and tried to pull the armor away. As the Krogan's life faded, so did the biotic assault, leaving a wounded and very surprised former Sith Lord in its wake.

"What the Hell was that?"

Shepard could only stare at the open surprise on Revan's face, a realization striking him as he recalled Miranda's description of the man's technology. It lacked any form of Element Zero. No Element Zero exposure meant no biotics… which meant whatever powers the man used were not some super-refined version of biotics… but a completely different and alien form of abilities. An unknown quantity, Shepard noted as he too wondered what the Hell it was Revan had used to… collapse the body of the Krogan, armor and all.

"A Biotic Warp… what the Hell was that?"

Shepard motioned with the shotgun to the remains of the Krogan Battlemaster, ducking his head and securing his shotgun before he went for the discarded Sniper Rifle Revan had left after spotting the Krogan. Taking up position where Revan had been, Shepard's blue eyes scanned the upper walkway and spotted a combustible canister sitting on the walkway just begging to be shot. Lining up the scope, Shepard took the shot and was rewarded with a distant howl from a Vorcha as it fell from the walkway, flailing and aflame. Reloading, Shepard moved to the next walkway and put a round square between the eyes of another Vorcha while Miranda took careful aim with her pistol and finished off the last of the reinforcements from the upper walkway. Glancing back at Revan, Shepard saw Lia had moved from her cover when she saw Revan go down and the quarian youth was placing an application of medi-gel over Revan's chest wound, her body tense with worry and shaking slightly from the combat around her.

"Whatever that was is bloody fantastic."

Revan commented as the medi-gel sealed his wound and augmented the healing process his nanites and the Force had already started. As he sat up with Lia's help, Revan quickly picked up his SMG and Shepard's knife where he'd dropped them after being hit by the biotic attack and moved to Shepard's side, wiping off the blade and handing it hilt-first to the Commander. Shepard accepted the weapon and nodded to Revan as he returned the blade to its holster.

Five trained fighters, despite their varying degrees of experience were able to make short work of the Blood Pack on the ground floor. Having the high ground after dealing with the snipers was enough to turn the tide and after close to ten minutes of sporadic fighting, Revan was standing outside of another set of doors in another aged corridor, reviewing the layout of the next room holding the control section for the district's air processors. Shepard had loaded the files to his Omni-tool mentioning something called EDI with decidedly mixed feelings. Revan was simply trying to keep his mind off of the biotic attack he'd been on the receiving end of, wondering how the Force had no affect on countering it. Of course, it went both ways as neither of the powers were compatible and Miranda watched Revan carefully through narrowed blue eyes, a near-permanent frown on her lips as she mentally catalogued the man's unorthodox and strange abilities.

Scavenging from slain foes was nothing new to Revan. He'd done so for weeks on Taris as the Jedi's reformed puppet and frankly it was a great way to make money depending on how many people wanted your head. All you had to do was kill them and take or sell what they had on them. As a result, Revan was the slightly bloody and sweating new owner of an M-97 Viper. While much weaker than the M-92 Mantis that Shepard was still carrying; what the Viper lacked in power it made up for in sustainable fire. Low recoil and the ability to fire twelve shots per heatsink was preferable to Revan. When they were out of combat, Revan planned to upgrade the weapon's strength and tune down its recoil as he had with his M-4 Shuriken.

"We ready for this?"

Jacob's calm voice drew Revan from his thoughts of weapons modification and the former Sith Lord used the modified program he'd designed in his Omni-tool to draw out a viable battle strategy for assaulting the enviro-control station.

"Lots of spots for snipers to hide, Commander."

Jacob commented as he looked at the layout Revan had created. The former Alliance Corsair frowned when Revan began adding small glowing red points to the blue-white hologram to mark hostiles. The man hadn't bothered to visually verify the targets and hadn't initiated any type of scan from his Omni-tool.

"I sense about two dozen targets in the room. Four immediately center of the control room, twelve divided on the vent controls on each side. Five on the left and seven on the right. Another two directly above our entry-point on the upper walkway and three more to the right on the upper walkways."

Shepard voiced Jacob's concerns, elevating the Cerberus Operative's respect for the Commander while Miranda quietly listened intently, trying to get an idea of Revan's various abilities and how they could help or harm her purpose.

"Wait a minute, you sensed? You can read their minds?"

Revan glanced up from his work on his Omni-tool and gave a blank-faced nod to Shepard, his voice flat and serious.

"Depending on how strong of a mind the individual has, yes. Mainly I just pick up intent and surface thoughts. I can tell if I am being lied to and… if the situation calls for it I can … force them to answer truthfully to questions they would otherwise not answer. It has very unpleasant side-effects, but it is possible."

Revan marked two more contacts on his map of the battleground they would soon enter and frowned thoughtfully at the display.

"If I may, Commander?"

The politeness was new from Revan and Shepard gave a surprised nod, watching as the former Jedi eyeing the strange hologram thoughtfully before he began making a, in Shepard's professional opinion; fairly decent battle-plan.

"Lia, Jacob. You both have the shotguns so I suggest you stay by our entry point in this cover and watch the side-passages for reinforcements from the lower corridors leading to the fan controls."

Revan highlighted two points on his map that would give whoever was at those points good elevation and cover from the lower walkways. Lia nodded firmly, trying to get over her earlier fears and feeling a relaxing sensation wash over her. Had she not been watching him, Lia wouldn't have seen the small gesture Revan made with one of his fingers before she was struck with the calming energy. Stiffening slightly, Lia ran Revan's hasty explanation of some of his mental abilities to Shepard and his people and frowned at the thought of being manipulated by the alien, even if it was for a good reason.

"That's a sound plan, but it leaves us exposed from the four targets protecting the control room and the snipers on the right walkway."

Revan nodded to Jacob's assessment while Shepard watched on in silence, drawing his own plans for the battle and comparing them to Revan's. With their numbers and firepower, he likely would have come to a similar conclusion and the Commander's respect of Revan's earlier rant of being a General rose slightly.

"Shepard takes lead, assault rifle out to draw their attention while Miranda pinpoints the right-side contacts. I'll take care of the two above the entry-point and then turn my attention to the sniper positions right-side. Jacob, Lia; if you both enter and help Shepard take out the center defenders before checking the sides we should be able to down them before the lower units can respond. I need Miranda's SMG keeping those hostiles high-right thinking twice about popping out. Once I deal with the two overhead I can hit them fast and hard."

Miranda reviewed Revan's strategy mentally before she frowned.

"All this hinges on you getting those two above our entry point. We could just hold off and ignore them, move in and hit the hostiles on the right and the center before getting them. It wouldn't be so dependant on those two dying."

Revan shook his head at Miranda's suggestion, voicing the thoughts going through Shepard's trained mind as he assessed the Operative's new strategy.

"It would take too long that way. We'd be under fire from the units at the fan control systems lower left and right. Plus we couldn't move forward with those units behind us and no cover from the front to the hostiles there."

Shepard nodded and looked over the battlefield hologram for another moment in silence before turning his eyes to Jacob."It'll work. Do it."

Jacob offered a quick salute to the Commander and pulled his pistol, activating its incendiary round upgrade before double-checking his shotgun. He'd hit the center first them move to cover and watch the left while Lia did the same on the right side. Motioning to the quarian, Jacob voiced his plan and Lia nodded as she checked her shotgun and fidgeted slightly, wondering how long the strategy would hold out in a combat situation.

Not long, it seemed when the five entered the control room and the Vorcha leader of their foes turned and began ranting about the Collectors wanting the plague and them trying to stop it. Revan listened for about three seconds before he used the Force to drag the two snipers above the entryway from their positions and threw them violently into the center of the room, right into the Vorcha leader. The force of the Force-attack killed the two snipers instantly, crushing bones and armor and temporarily knocking the leader out of commission.

To his credit, Shepard only gaped at Revan's control of his strange powers for a split-second before he let his assault rifle do the talking for him, the vibration of the M-8 Avenger's fire strafing the vorcha fighters staring in stunned silence at Revan's entrance into the battle.

Five quick shots ripped through the air from Revan's position by the doorway and Revan moved with inhuman speed between the targets on the walkway overlooking the area to his immediate right. Three more shots were fired when Revan noticed two of the Vorcha's armor had protected them from his Force-enhanced speed-shots. Scanning the walkway with his scope and using the Force to get a feel of the battleground, Revan shifted and stared at the walkways, squeezing off the rest of his heatsink's available shots and he reloaded, sneering as he took a shot from a vorcha sniper with a barrier and enough sense to time his shots.

Taking cover Revan considered his rifle for a moment before he shook his head, calling on the Force and pulling the sniper from its cover. The Vorcha hissed in surprise as invisible hands yanked it from its position and it flailed about uselessly before jolting as its barriers took three shots and failed. A fourth shot penetrated its armor, nearly severing its arm and a fifth ended the alien's life as it was dropped carelessly from its suspended position.

Lowering his sniper rifle and shifting to deal with a vorcha moving up from the lower right side, Revan smirked and nodded to himself when it dropped from a well-placed shot from Lia.

"Top cleared!"Revan called, retracting his sniper rifle and switching to his SMG. Shepard's voice called out that the center was clear and Revan turned to see the Commander advancing to the control room, Miranda at his side to bring the district's life support back online and release the cure.

"Revan, I could use some help here."

Spotting Jacob reloading his shotgun, Revan crept up to the other man's position, poking his head out and firing off four three-round bursts from his SMG before ducking back to replace his nearly spent heatsink. Getting a nod from Jacob that he could manage, Revan turned and was at a Force-enhanced sprint by the time his weapon was finished reloading.

Lia'Vael drew back from her firing position, her reloading her shotgun's spent heatsink and feeling a bit of pride at how her hands had stopped shaking. Spotting Revan moving to help Jacob, the quarian turned back to cover the ramp leading up from the lower level, failing to spot the Krogan that was approaching from the adjacent ramp. Keeping the Vorcha below in cover, Lia pulled back to reload and spotted a hint of red armor in her peripheral vision. Her heatsink spent and the replacement still in the pouch on her belt, Lia could only stare as the red-armored Krogan raised its shotgun, smirking viciously at her as it fired.

Snapping into action, Lia rolled out of the way, falling into the line of fire from the lower level as she quickly reloaded and backtracked up the ramp before leaning out and blasting the Krogan's last position, her shot hitting Revan square in the back as the former Dark Lord of the Sith stood over a twitching and prone Krogan body, his clenched fist coated in the alien's blood. Staggering as his taxed barriers fell, Revan dropped to the ground with a startled grunt, his vision darkening as he collapsed to the ground.

"Oh Keelah!"Lia looked between Revan's collapsed form and the vorcha still firing at her from the ramp below. The young woman's heart was hammering and she felt dread fill her at the misplaced shot. She'd only reacted, recalling the training she'd received before going on her pilgrimage and she had meant to hit the Krogan, not Revan. Partly the reason Revan had not sensed the danger and was bleeding on the ground.

"Revan?"

Firing at the Vorcha trying to take advantage of her misplaced fire Lia saw that Jacob's position was vacant and searched around frantically, her eyes spotting the man through her visor on the walkway below, oblivious to her plight as he moved with Shepard and Miranda to secure the fan controls on that side of the complex.

"Revan!"

Revan started from his daze, the taste of blood in his mouth as he turned in a daze to the visor staring down at him worriedly. Recalling delivering a Force-enhanced punch right into the brain of the Krogan he'd delivered, courtesy of a Hell of a lot of pent-up rage, Revan sat up slowly, hunched over and breathing heavily as he shook his head and stared down at his hand. He'd broken just about every one in it with that punch despite being strengthened by the Force and wearing a partially armored glove. Thinking longingly of his own armor and weapons that would have compensated for such a thing as a Krogan's remarkably thick skull, Revan reached his good right hand back, feeling the punctures in his armor's hard suit and the shattered casing that once held his kinetic barrier generator.

"Are you alright?"

Lia was breathless and Revan nodded shakily, fumbling with the latch at the neck of his hard suit. After a shot like that the armor was pretty much useless and even if it would provide some protection, it was still hanging half-off the former Jedi as he tried to stand, his blood smearing the railing he tried to use to stand.

"Just stay there, Revan. I'll- I'll get Shepard or- or one of the others to help."

Medi-gel could only do so much and she had no formal training or understanding of human or near-human anatomy. Revan shook his head to Lia's concern, standing to his feet and spitting a mixture of blood and saliva from his mouth with a half-groan.

"Have to hold this side so Shepard can get the fans running. Treatment is a moot point when we're all dead."

Several minutes later, Mordin Solus looked up from his work on an ill Batarian Shepard had told him about his rescued assistant the first to volunteer to retrieve the alien man. The vents were active again and recycled air began pumping into the clinic.

"Success! Must wait for effects of cure to spread, necessary to determine success. Also, need to wait for quarantine to be lifted, much speak to Aria once confirmed."

Turning back to his patient, Mordin smiled at the positive results flashing across his scanner's screen. Shepard had kept his word and Mordin would do the same. He'd need all the information he could find on the Collectors and while he waited for Shepard to return, he'd make a few anonymous inquiries with his old contacts in the STG over the attacks in the meantime.

Shari'a T'Nala made certain her pistol was in plain sight as she stepped from a transport onto Omega. Her only possessions aside from Revan's mask and the data pad Liara T'Soni had given her being a customized set of Serrice Council Phantom Mark X light armor that she'd only been able to afford after decades of honest work in C-Sec. The advanced red and black armor hugged the Asari's lithe frame as she cast a glance about the docking port before she slowly made her way to where her cousin would most likely be. Shaking her head as she entered Afterlife after being hassled by the Batarian Bouncer at the door, Shari'a spotted her cousin on a stage to her immediate left, gyrating to some unnamed music and dressed in a suggestive, formfitting outfit that glittered and drew attention to her feminine form.

"Tiana."

The dancer paused, glancing in Shari'a's direction and frowning at her older cousin before she smirked slowly and nodded to the Turian that oversaw the dancers working for Aria.

"Shari'a! Did you finally get bored sitting behind a desk on the Citadel and decide to live a little?"

Scowling slightly at her cousin, Shari'a shook her head slowly and pointed to the stage overlooking the ground floor of the club.

"You told me you could talk to Aria T'Loak for me get her to let me into the quarantine zone, remember?"

Tiana rolled her eyes and waved away her cousin's serious demeanor, trying to get her mother's sister's eldest child to relax.

"Come on, Shari'a, what's the rush? That place isn't going anywhere anytime soon and if you wait a few hours, Aria is going to pull her guards out. You'll only have to worry about the residents shooting at you then! If you wait a few hours I can go get my old Eclipse armor and we can teach a few Blue Suns or Blood Pack a lesson?"

Shari'a stared her cousin down, a frown firmly on her pale blue features before the Asari Maiden sighed, motioning to where Aria spent most of her time on Omega.

"I already put in a word. Don't mention the name Aleena and Aria will get you what you need."

Shaking her head at her cousin's attitude, Shari'a moved across the club, ignoring the annoyed frown that crossed her cousin at the brush off. She had important things to do and she'd talk to someone who knew how to keep a secret, not her airhead cousin. As she approached, Shari'a allowed the Batarian guard to scan her briefly before ascending the steps to Aria's loft, her expression neutral as she took in the features of the older Asari. Aria merely looked Shari'a over once before nodding to the vacant seat Shepard seemed to think was comfortable upon their first meeting.

"What can I do for my favorite niece?"

Smirking at Shari'a's discomfort, Aria leaned back, thinking of all the credits she'd save now that Shepard had helped Mordin take care of the plague issue. There were other things she could put those guards to work doing… more profitable things and she was sure the formerly dead Spectre wouldn't cause her any trouble.

"I need your help finding someone in the quarantine zone… Aria."

Rolling her eyes at the tone of her sister's daughter, Aria let out a bored sigh, eyeing the hardware the younger Asari was wearing with appreciation.

"Must have set you back quite a few credits to get that gear, Shari'a. You sure you can afford it now that you're unemployed? You know I could always use some more reliable talent here. It can be profitable and you can put that big detective brain of yours to use. What do you say?"

Shari'a shook her head at Aria's offer, knowing it was laced in mockery. She'd refused to work with Aria as a Maiden and that resolve had only strengthened when she'd entered the Matron stage of her life. Trying to remain stoic in the face of her aunt's teasing, Shari'a dug into her field pack, pulling out the data pad Liara had given her and bringing up the image the shuttle had captured of Revan after his haircut and shave.

"I'm looking for this man… It is very vital to… well, the continued existence of the Council that I see him…"

Aria had lost a shade of color to her skin and was looking from the data pad Shari'a had given her to one a guard had given her several hours before.

"His name is Revan, yes?"

Surprised, Shari'a nodded and frowned when she heard the next words, confused at the name her aunt spoke.

"He's with Commander Shepard and his little Cerberus dogs. He was part of the group that ended the plague in the slums. I had some spies down in there watching Shepard and his people and they reported some strange… abilities from this man. You sure you're willing to follow this one, Shari'a?"Concern had replaced cynicism and Shari'a nodded firmly, not even needing to think about the path she'd chosen. She had made her decision a month before on the Citadel and she wasn't about to give up when she was so close. Nodding grimly to her niece's response, Aria eyed the picture warily, trying to put the face to a man capable of causing the destruction and strange abilities her spies had told her of.

"Shepard rushed him to the Normandy after I lifted the quarantine, had that man being half-carried onto his Cerberus ship. He's actually coming here to talk to me about some vigilante he wants for his little mission against the Collectors. I'm sure we can arrange a meeting."

Shari'a leaned back into her seat, trying to relax as he aunt began filling her in on Shepard's mission. The more she heard of the Commander's mission and the more she learned of Revan, the more Shari'a wondered if she shouldn't just let Revan loose on the Council instead of trying to reason with him like she planned. They were really making a mess of things since Saren put the fear of Geth into them and the former C-Sec Officer socialized with her aunt as she awaited Shepard's return to Omega to recruit Archangel.

AN: Got sick/injured this week from… well, being run ass-end into the ground at work for the last few weeks so I took advantage of the extra time off. Hope you all enjoy how this story is progressing and my take on it all. Trying to make it… less ridiculous in terms of powers, but seriously, its Darth Freaking Revan here, not some random person from Star Wars. He is going to have a pretty high badass factor seeing as how he near-single-handedly took the Star Forge as a brainwashed and retrained Jedi puppet and bested Darth Malak, one of the best swordsmen of his time. Keep in mind Revan is still recovering from the plague and learning to use the tech/equipment of the Mass Effect universe. It's a learning experience and won't be easy for him, but he'd also a mechanical and military genius in Star Wars so it won't be impossible either.

Damned sticky B key, I hate this keyboard.