Chapter two.

Arrival.

Green eyes slowly opened. Shepard groaned as she lifted a hand to her head and slowly sat up. Not to fast, her head was already killing her. It felt as though a Krogan used her head for practicing the drums. Standing up she steadied herself and focused on the surroundings.

Behind her was a large glass window and on the other side of it were plants, and fish and.. water. It looked like a huge aquarium on the other side of the glass. Shepard turned to the sound of dripping water. It looked like the ceiling was dripping. There was a desk that was rotting because of the exposure to the dripping water. She wondered just how long that ceiling had been dripping.

Then remembering what had happened she looked around for her teammates. Leaning up against a bookshelf was Samara. Shepard hurried over to her and gently shook her away. Opaque blue eyes slowly opened and focused in on Shepard's face. Gently lifting Samara to her feet Shepard turned to the sound of shuffling. It was Jack. She was moving towards them rubbing her head.

"What the fuck happened?" she asked as she looked at Shepard and Samara.

Shepard simply shook her head. " I have no idea. Last thing I remember was taking down those mercs and then touching that... that.. what was it called." she said rubbing her temple.

"Plasmid." Samara said simply as both Shepard and Jack nodded remembering the vial of glowing liquid. " It seems after coming in contact with it we were teleported to this location." Samara stated as she too, took in their surroundings.

"That's one big fish tank." Jack said as she approached the glass with the fish and plants on the other side. The other two stepped up beside her and marveled at what was before them as well. " You can''t see the back or, the top." she stated as she pressed her hands up against the glass and looked into it.

Shepard instantly turned on her heel at the sounds of voices outside the door to, what appeared to be an office, that they were in. " I hear someone." she said as Jack moved away from the glass and Samara turned towards the door. " It sounds like they're coming this way." she said judging by the sound of the footsteps getting closer.

"Perhaps we should go and ask for some help." Samara suggested looking at her Commander.

"Hold on. You just want to walk up to some random person in some random place that we were teleported to, and ask for help? How do we know they're not coming here to finish us off." Jack stated crossing her arms.

" Jack's right. We're in unknown territory and the person coming through that door could be dangerous. Although, we don't know where we are and it's imparitive we find out and get out of here." Shepard said as the footsteps stopped just outside the door. " Find cover for now." she instructed ducking down behind the desk. Samara moved to the side of the bookshelf and Jack took cover behind a stack of books.

The door slid open. Standing in the doorway was a woman. " Why do I always have to do these stupid things. Go get this, go do that. " she sighed. " I swear if it wasn't for these little brats none of this would be happening." the voice said as her high heels echoed the more she stepped into the room, the door closing behind her.

Shepard heard the voice and slowly got out from cover looking at the woman in front of her. The woman stopped dead in her tracks and stared at Shepard with a deer in the head lights look and took a step back. " I uh, got lost and was wondering if you could answer a few questions for me." Shepard said as she looked at the woman. The woman wasn't in the greatest of ligths so Shepard couldn't make out her features perfectly.

"Shepard what are you doing?" Jack hissed from behind the books. Shepard ignored her.

"You.. you're not like the rest of us.. but you're not like them either. What are you?" the woman said examining Shepard.

"My name is Commander Shepard. Me and my team got lost and we just need some direction and information. Like, where we are and.. what a plasmid is." Shepard said taking a step closer so she could see the woman better.

The woman's eyes shot open." You're...you're from above! You've come to take over, to destroy us!" she shouted as she pointed her weapon towards Shepard.

"Above? Wait what, no I'm not here to destroy anything I just need some-" Shepard was cut short as the woman pulled the trigger on her weapon and bullets fired at her. She quickly dove to the side and pulled out her handgun aiming it towards the woman. But the woman was outlined in blue and lifted off of her feet. Looking to her left she saw that Samara had come out from her cover and was using her biotics to hold the woman in place.

"For fuck sakes lady we just wanted to ask you some questions!" Jack said as she moved from her cover and approached the woman suspended in the air. Her eyes widened and she took a step back in shock as she took in the full appearance of the woman. There were areas on the woman's body that were bubbled and discoloured. Her jaw also looked larger than normal and her teeth looked as though they were fighting to escape it. Her eyes were bulging. She didn't look normal. " What are you?" Jack asked taking another step back.

Shepard and Samara both saw Jack's reaction and Shepard motioned for Samara to bring her closer. Once the woman was brought into the light both Shepard and Samara nearly winced at the sight of the woman. " What happened to you?" Samara asked examining the woman.

The woman tried to struggle against the biotic force but it was no use. " You'll never survive down here! Never! She's watching, she's always watching! You'll be killed! Surfacers have no place down here!" she shouted.

Shepard took out her pistol and aimed it at the woman. " Alright, I've had enough of this bulshit! What the hell are you talking about! Where are we and why the hell do you keep calling us surfacers!" Shepard said in a deathly tone, obviously frustrated.

The woman smirked. " You're in Rapture. The great underwater utopia! Surfacers like you don't belong here! Same with that.. that thing!" she said referring to Samara.

"Underwater..." Shepard said softly as she looked away then back to the woman. " Who's in charge here? Who do I talk to about leaving this place?"

The woman smirked. " Leave? You're never going to leave. You're going to die here! She's watching!"

"Who is? Who' s watching!" Shepard said more aggressively.

"You'll see." the woman said

There were more voices and footsteps coming from outside the room. The door slid open and two men along with another woman stood there. " Hey, what the hell!" the man yelled as he opened fire on them. Jack and Shepard dove for cover. Samara threw the woman she held suspended above the ground at the four people and then moved into cover as well.

" What now?" Jack asked pulling out her shotgun. " Do we kill 'em?"

Shepard thought about it for a moment and then nodded. " They shot at us. Take them down ." she ordered. Jack smirked and Samara nodded her head.

Shepard peered out of cover and fired her pistol at the persons in front of them. Shepard took out the two men with perfect head shots while Jack tore one of the women apart with her biotics and Samara emptied a clip from her assault rifle into the other woman. Their opposition lay dead in front of them.

Coming out of cover they all gathered by the large window again. "So if what she's saying is true..." Jack started.

"Then that's no fish tank." Shepard finished putting her hands on her hips as she sighed.

"I've never heard of a planet that had an underwater colony..." Samara said as she thought back to all the missions she's been on." Perhaps a Drell colony?" she suggested.

" No, those were clearly humans and Thane never mentioned anything like this before." Shepard said moving away from the window and towards the fresh corpses on the ground. Pressing a few buttons on her omni tool she scanned the bodies. " There's high readings of an unknown element in these bodies." Shepard informed her team.

"Could that be the reason for their disfigurement?" Jack asked crossing her arms.

"It's hard to say. It could be, but we'll need more evidence to go on. " Shepard said taking a sample of one of the corpse's blood. " We'll get this back to Mordin and see what he can make of it." If we get back. But Shepard didn't say that out loud, she didn't want to bring down her team anymore. " Well, search for any supplies and let's move out. We're not going to find any answers sitting around. We need to find out who's in charge of this place and get the hell out of here." Shepard said standing up.

"Shepard..." Samara said slowly staring at the window.

"What is it?" Shepard asked turning around with Jack. They froze as they saw what Samara was looking at. On the other side of the class was some kind of.. creature. If that's what one could call it. It had a cage like helmet on its head with a small window that would be where the creature looked out of, presumably. On the left hand there was a long sharp weapon.

The creature looked at them and then let out a high pitched scream and then swam away.

"What the fuck was that?" Jack asked looking from the glass to her teammates.

" I don't know, but whatever it was didn't look like it wanted to be friends." Shepard said turning to Jack. " Let's get out of here before more of them show up. " she suggested and the others nodded following her out.