It had been a week since the destruction of the Collector Base and, as Andy had informed the crew soon afterwards, the Human Reaper it had contained. When he told them how Reapers procreated quite a few of the crew had decided to make a controlled evacuation to the nearest toilet to vent their disgust. Joker, Ellie, and Izzy had been heralded as the heroes of the attack; having come up with the battle plans needed for the successful survival of all crew members with minimal injuries. Jeff had single-handedly spearheaded the main gun attack, Ellie had directed troops and helped Chakwas afterwards, and Izzy had provided support during the assault before joining her girlfriend in helping the injured.
Compared to detonating a vessel under a fiftieth the size, their mission to the Heretic Base had been a rather small blip in comparison to the crew's achievements in repelling and defeating a galactic menace singlehandedly. In the end Shepard, Jack, Andy, and Legion had decided to destroy the base and the heretics with Jack stating that "If you screw with my head, made me nod and smile at everything... I'd rather you blew my head off. Let me die as me." In the end that statement alone swayed Legion, and he said that the consensus with his runtimes was that destruction was the preferable option.
And so they had.
Walking onto the Normandy however, had been a sobering experience. Many broken pieces of equipment were being rebuilt by the nanotechnology, people were hobbling around helping others... and yet smiles and claps on the back signified the overarching emotions perfectly. They'd faced down the bane of the galaxy alone; a single ship against the hundreds housed within the Collector Base, and had come out on top. The medibots had even the most badly injured up and walking within a day, although still tender, and back to normal by the fourth. Andy had just come from a holo-meeting with the Salarian Fleets, the Quarians on Virmire, and Legion, who was broadcasting to his fellow Geth who had agreed to join the good fight. It'd gone extremely well, something Andy had become accustomed to being an oxymoron when referring to meetings with leaders of other races, but it was a welcome surprise. The entire Salarian Fleet was upgraded with the new armour and weaponry, and had been outfitted with a clipped version of the morphic armour on the floors of their ships.
Ever since thinking about the impacts the new technology could have on the universe, Andy had come, with Jack's input, to the conclusion that only the strongest minds were worthy of truly knowing and possessing the very best of the best. Over the course of design he had upgraded some of the Nano-technology... and that nanotechnology was only accessible to their special group consisting of Izzy, Ellie, himself, Jack, Shepard, Liara, Miranda, Joker, Tali, Kar, Gabrielle, Kenneth, Garrus, and just lately, Morinth. Samara had stated that she had best refrain from getting involved, as she understood Andy and Jack's goals, because she could be made to divulge any secrets to the Council should she be ordered under The Code. Andy had thanked her for her honesty. Of course there was a huge difference between those who had the technology available to them and those that could actually control it. Such trust was limited to four people; Jack, Andy, Shepard, and Liara. Izzy and Ellie had been offered the position of trust, but denied it saying that they were happy with the level of involvement they had already.
The new technology was an amalgamation of all the knowledge Andy had at his fingertips... and it was amazing; more advanced than anything ever before created in the entire Universe. It was, arguably, more incredible than the Reapers themselves. The nanobots were the base for everything, as they could create all the technology that stemmed from Andy's planning. The resulting nanobots were a fusion of all the most advanced technology ever postulated. Each one was the size and weight of a Charm Quark; achieved by using miniature mass-effect fields and tiny dimensional storage rifts, and had the processing power of the Normandy's original server banks. His Omni-tool weighed one gram. He'd, at one point, tried to say how many nanobots his Omni-tool held in one breath as a dare from Shepard two days ago. He'd discovered that saying "four hundred forty-two sextillion, four hundred seventy-seven quintillion, eight hundred seventy-six quadrillion, one hundred eighty-four trillion, ninety-nine billion, one hundred forty-four million, two hundred ten thousand, two hundred nineteen" in one breath was impossible. The fact that he was trying not to laugh at the gob smacked looks on their faces was probably another factor adding to the impossibility of the feat.
That virtually meant that each of their Omni-tools could hack damn near anything within fractions of a picosecond. Like Citadel Security. C-Sec had flipped out one early morning when they reviewed the night footage and saw legions of Geth performing the cancan in perfect unison to the music of Jacques Offenback's Orpheus in the Underworld. Jack and Andy had been in stitches as they saw C-Sec falling over themselves on a hacked security camera. Izzy had quickly joined in when she realized what the two had done, but then Ellie walked in, slapped them over the backs of their heads, and reprimanded them for such immature conduct. They'd all acted very contrite, at least until Ellie left in a huff whereupon they broke down once more.
The universe was at their fingertips with their Omni-tools; they were almost invincible in their armour; their weapons were completely devastating; and the medibots that were ready at a moment's notice allowed for a complete spinal fracture to be fixed in the time it took of the signal of pain to reach the brain... which it also intercepted and nullified. They possessed, by all counts, the technology of the gods; rendering their users almost unbeatable. And yet Andy had restricted them; removing all temptation to use them for bad; scribing an irreversible Code onto their firmware. It had taken him, Jack, Ellie, and Izzy two entire days - even with the raw processing power of two new omni-chips, namely his and Jack's, to get the Code down so that there were no loopholes and it was perfect for his wants, but it was finally achieved, and both Izzy and Ellie had been dropped off on Virmire almost immediately afterwards to complete the two new AIs that Andy had planned for, also carrying upgrades to the new technology. The resulting server bank would be indestructible, and the most powerful computing entity in the entire universe, ever.
The ramifications of the AI going rogue were... Armageddon-like, and yet both Izzy and Ellie, having asked to be given the same firmware imprint as the nanobots, agreed to imprint it onto the new AIs as well - and promised to always stay by his and Jack's sides through their eternity to help them and prevent corruption on their parts. Humans, or whatever they qualified as at that point, were unable to be imprinted after all.
All of this technology was why, three hours before it even happened, Andy got a message from one of his semi-intelligent programs stating: "Illusive Man has ordered strike on Normandy. In league with Councillors Valern and Tevos. Asari starship has your location pegged. ETA 3 hours to your position. Fleet statistics: thirty seven modified frigate-class ships based off original SR-2 design; ninety five Turian battle-cruisers; sixty Asari dreadnaughts; two hundred mixed fighters. Risk factor: negligible."
"What a bastard."
Jack turned her head over her shoulder from her desk and he flicked his omni-tool message towards her; the data packet jumping across the room and popping up on her terminal. She read for several seconds before shaking her head with a small snarl on her face. "I agree. Stupid fucker doesn't know who he'd messin' with. This whole fucking thing about head-squid and scale-jerk's a bit unnerving, and destroying the Asari and Turian fleets could turn into a FUBAR kinda situation."
"Tell me about it..." he hummed for several seconds before opening up a channel to Izzy and Ellie, who were helping the new AIs get on their feet. Izzy waved at him, as did Ellie, and a quick round of introductions went around when the newly created Faith Adams and Daniel Snow made an appearance. They both had generic appearances, but Andy knew for a fact that would soon change as they begun discovering their individuality... though with the raw processing power they had at their fingertips it would only take a couple of milliseconds, if that, to decide upon what they wanted. "We've got Cerberus making their move," he informed them casually, "sending through my flagged message now."
"Asari and Turian armies in cooperation... that's not good."
He gave a sigh and nodded, "Yeah, political nightmare. We off them and an intergalactic incident occurs; we beat them and we turn everybody against us as we're a danger; we kill the councillors, who I have a feeling are indoctrinated, even bigger backlash."
Faith and Daniel looked to each other before looking at Andy, and Daniel gave a small shrug. "That's solved easily enough," he said with a warm, American accent, "broadcast a generated video message to all the holographic interfaces in the known galaxy using the Council's communications override with Valern and Tevos looking as if they are struggling against a force inside their own minds. Have them admit that the Reaper threat is real, broadcast the evidence, and have them say that the only way to beat them is for everybody to cooperate - starting with them trusting us with our retrofits and such. Have the Salarian Councillor make an appearance in the video confirming that he has already outfitted his race's fleets to raise trust, and then have Tevos and Valern say something awe-inspiring to bring morale up before killing themselves. The nanobots on the Citadel could easily make such a thing happen. You know very well what happened to Doctor Kenson after the object of her indoctrination was removed; you would be saving them from a horrible fate whilst uniting the galaxy against the Reaper threat."
"But what about removing the indo-"
"Impossible. The only reason you were able to remove the Reaper from Morinth's mind was due to the fact that the Reaper intended her to die and thus did not modify her mind to be self-sustainably indoctrinating. As the Reapers left the Councillors they have not had the same luck. The chances of them being salvageable are one in one million. The chances of this plan going wrong are less than one in one thousand. It is the best course of action."
Andy idly noted that Daniel clearly hadn't fully established a personality yet, as his speech was still too robotic and succinct, but shrugged it off and gave a nod after a moment, smiling at Daniel and Faith. "Excellent work you two, a perfect solution to the problem we've been having here." The two new team members beamed at the praise, and Andy gave a chuckle. "Okay, now I'm still working on some stuff here, so would you two take care of that plan?" Receiving excited nods in return he nodded with a small smile and turned to Izzy and Ellie with a wider smile. "And you two as well - top work. Geth fleets should be arriving at Virmire within the hour for retrofitting, and Shepard's managed to get in contact with the Rachni, so they should be arriving within a few days. Hopefully after this plan runs its course the Asari and Turian fleets will join the offensive with us... and hopefully humanity will follow suit."
"And the Krogan?"
"Shep's got that in hand. He's been talking to Wrex, and he says they're okay working with the Humans, Asari, or Geth - too much tension elsewhere."
"Udina is the problem with Humanity I am guessing?" questioned Jodie; her voice a soft, Irish lilt, and Andy gave a nod and a roll of his eyes.
"I swear that complete plonker has his head so far up his ass he probably doesn't know everybody fucking hates him."
"Fucking?"
Andy blanched when he saw Ellie and Izzy glaring at him, and gave an uneasy grin. "Ah, I see that your creators have been working on the profanity filters... whoops. Too late now though, might as well make something of it. Fucking is an intensifier, synonymous with really. Of course you can use a double intensifier, like I really fucking like this soup..." he trailed off when he saw the looks of glee on Jodie and Daniel's faces that came with the new knowledge, and the expressions of murderous rage on Izzy and Ellie's, and gave a nervous grin. "Ah, yeah, so Faith and Daniel, if you could set that plan in motion as soon as possible that'd be great." He quickly severed the connection and looked across at Jack, who was holding onto her sides wheezing with laughter.
"Hahaha, you p-p-pissed off Izzy and E-Ellie! Hahahaha!"
"Laugh it up Jack, laugh it up," he ground out as he tapped out a message to send out ship-wide warning of the impeding attack. Just as he'd send it away a link came into his inbox, and upon clicking it a live broadcast appeared in front of him; the faces of the Councillor Tevos and Valern appearing on a split screen. Tevos appeared to be in her apartment, whereas Valern looked like he was in a meeting room, and Andy guessed that that was where they actually were at that moment - all of it planned so that when they 'killed themselves' it would be where the broadcasts supposedly originated.
It was a relatively simple message, and Andy received permission from the Salarian councillor half-way through the transmission to be 'patched in' to the broadcast. He gave quite a nice speech about how Valern and Tevos were proof that the Council held only the most strong-minded individuals; ones that could break free of an intergalactic menace's indoctrination to warn the people whom they governed, and wished then well in the afterlife when the two made their final speeches and pulled free their pistols. Within five minutes of the transmission starting there were two less Council members in the galaxy, and people were wondering whether or not to panic at the threat of the Reapers. Anybody who had any logic at all came up with the answer first, and that was 'what's the point?' Wherever they ran to the Reapers would find them, so mass hysteria and panic would do only one thing, and that was give the harbingers of Armageddon an easier time wiping them out. Within minutes new councillors had been elected to the Council, and a minute after that Andy was receiving a call from the Council in its entirety. Before accepting it Andy quickly made some backup plans on his omni-tool, and smirked... kind of hoping they'd have to be used.
The moment he accepted the summons and saw Udina's face he was almost certain he'd get the chance.
"Good afternoon Councillors, my name is Andrew Kronos-"
"A mercenary! We're taking orders from a mercenary? This is an outrage!" It didn't take a genius to figure out who'd said that. Udina's face was twisted into an expression of annoyance - doubly so when he saw Andy's age. "I'll not have our military taking orders from a kid who looks like he's just come out of high school," Andy considered that to be a little bit of an exaggeration, "God only knows how all the power would go to his head!"
As soon as the rant had ended Andy continued as if it had never happened. "I am Andrew Kronos; chief technical engineer aboard the Normandy SR-2 - the one late Councillors Valern and Tevos mentioned."
He got nods of greeting from the two new councillors, and a small smile from the Salarian one, whilst Udina looked as if he was sucking on a particularly sour lemon at being ignored. "You would be the mercenary that is also known as the Omega Peacekeeper, and the First?" The latter was a title he'd gained in the missions to save colonies on Illium, Freedom's Progress, and other such places with the Icharus crew; a sign of respect for being the first person to actually take an interest in their protection with nothing asked in return.
He nodded to the Turian and after a moment gave an almost wry smile. "Correct, Councillor Tyzuris, though I must confess that it's a bit... embarrassing to be called that. I'm just Andy to most, but if they wish to call me as such then who am I to stop them?"
"You seem modest for a human," commented the Asari, and Andy gave a small smile.
"I need to be, Councillor T'Nius. With the power I already hold at my fingertips I can do almost anything. To let that, as our oh-so-honey-tongued Councillor Udina put it, go to my head... it would be catastrophic. I have my girlfriend to keep me on the straight and narrow, and two close friends who have promised to help us as well - as she has the same power I do."
Udina threw up his arms in exasperation, "Well isn't that reassuring? The kid has a girlfriend and a couple of 'mates' to keep him on the right track." He glared at Andy from within what looked to be his office and a snarl came over his face. "We're going to track you down, little boy, and take your little toys from you - rest assured." He leaned forwards and there was the sound of him stabbing a button... which would have normally severed the connection.
It didn't.
Udina looked confused for a moment before stabbing at the button again, and then a look of dawning realization came to his face. Glaring balefully at Andy he stood up and attempted to storm from the room - only to walk straight into his door, which was displaying an unlocked status, but was clearly locked, as shown by exhibit A: Udina's bleeding nose. The new councillors looked shocked, whilst the Salarian had an amused expression on his face. He'd seen the new technology his fleet now had, and that Andy could remotely seize control of Citadel systems did not surprise him. "LET ME OUT!"
Andy cocked his head and raised an eyebrow. "And let you 'come after me and take my little toys away'? Not a chance buddy."
"You can hack the Citadel?" asked T'Nius, and Andy gave a small grin filled with amusement.
"You are probably aware of the Geth swarm a couple of nights ago where they performed the cancan and then disappeared?"
Councillor Tyzuris stared at him with his mandibles twitching for several moments before breaking out into laughter, and he grinned widely at Andy before looking at the three other councillors. "I like him, I like him a lot."
Andy gave a small nod of acknowledgment and a sly grin. "Thank you, though despite how amusing that is I'm afraid that we need to move onto more important matters of discussion. I have no idea when the Reapers will arrive; it could be in an hour, a day, a week, a month, a year... I haven't the faintest clue, but I do know that the faster we get the galaxy's fleets outfitted with the new technology the better." Three of the councillors immediately turned serious, whilst the third one was glaring and yelling soundlessly; Andy having muted his end. "Firstly, before we start, I would ask that Councillors Tyzuris and T'Nius call off their black-ops mission in cooperation with Cerberus... because they're due to attack the Normandy in around two and a half hours."
Both councillors looked shocked before hurriedly tapping away at their terminals, and their faces turned pale, or in Tyzuris' case slack, when they saw that there was indeed an attack in progress. A few taps later a small message appeared on Andy's omni-tool, and he surreptitiously read the intercepted communiqué to the respective fleets. "I assume you know what we did?"
He smiled sheepishly at the amused expression of the Asari councillor and nodded. "Yeah... sorry about that. I don't read your private mail, of that I assure you, just things related to the galaxy's welfare... well in Udina's case I read his personal mail," cue the red face and wild motioning from said man, "but that's because it was tagged with corruption. Turns out he's being bribed by Cerberus. I'll let you three decide what to do about that once this call is over... I would suggest a new human councillor that is actually near half-way intelligent." He saw matching smirks, albeit stifled, from the three Asari, Turian, and Salarian delegates, and didn't bother hiding his own.
"Very well, we will take that into consideration. What upgrades are we discussing here, and are there things we should be aware of?"
Andy motioned across the room to Jack, and she finished what she was doing on her own omni-tool as she walked over and sat down beside him; a chair materializing beneath her as she sat down. T'Nius gave a gasp when it clicked just who she was. "Subject Zero-"
"Just Jack," the woman herself interjected with a small glare, "Subject Zero brings back bad memories."
"Is this your girlfriend, Mister Kronos?"
"Andy, please, and yes, she is."
"I must confess that I am uneasy with the situation as it stands."
He shrugged, "You wished to be aware of anything you should be aware of. This is one of them. Jack has the same control over all the technology as I do, and she has that power because I trust her with it. All three of you, conversely, will not be gaining that power. It is something that Councillor Ilan was already aware of and has had explained to him, hence why he is not surprised at Jack's appearance. I trust Jack with my life; Shepard trusts Jack with his life; Professor Mordin Solus, Thane Krios, Garrus Vakarian; they all trust her with their lives." He was skipping a few of the crew, but the others weren't overly well known. "The entire colonies of Freedom's Progress, Illium, Eden Prime, Maskawa, and Horizon trust her with their lives."
Jack chose that moment to interrupt and put her two cents worth in. She tucked her silver hair behind her ear and cocked her head to the side. "I'm a bad ass mother fucker." Andy slapped his hand to his forehead. "But although I'm renowned as a criminal and scare the shit out of people I'm not bad... like I used to be." Andy raised his head to look at her, and found her uncharacteristically serious - though that had been happening more and more since he met her, however never to the point that she lost that spark that made her her. That was indestructible. "I've had the power to steal trillions of credits, and still have that power. I can cripple entire governments with a tap of my finger; change my records to make me not a criminal; blow the fuck out of any ship I want. I can get blackmail on pretty much anybody in the entire galaxy, and yet I haven't. I'm still classified as a Kill on Sight criminal; my bank account has five thousand credits in it; and I've saved thousands of lives with Andy, Liara, and Kar'Shaal vas Neeskat - and that's before I came on board the Normandy. Since then I've killed a Reaper with Andy and saved the 'Verse; blown up a Geth station; and been inside a Collector ship and blown that up as well. I think I've done enough to prove that I'm not a danger to the good people anymore."
Tyzuris and T'Nius looked at each other for several seconds before nodding, and then with a few taps on their omni-tools looked back at the couple. "We have removed you from our wanted lists and placed you on an ally register for the time being. Do not make us regret our decision." Jack gave them a thankful smile and a nod, and nodded to the Salarian councillor as well, as he'd done the same when he'd found out. Taking in a deep breath T'Nius sat down at what appeared to be her desk and rubbed her eyes. "What else should we know?"
"Although you will be able to use the technology, it will remain ultimately in our control. We can override any command."
Tyzuris looked alarmed. "You're talking about us giving you control over, if we all do it, the entire galaxy's military."
Andy looked at him for several seconds and nodded. "Yes, I am, though it is not without failsafes. Each piece of nanotechnology is imprinted with a code to prevent misuse. Allowing this will not only increase our chances against the Reapers, but also make the galaxy a safer place. Before I can explain how we smoothed the code out, I must ensure our immunity from a law you have; I do not want to have you conflicted, and so I request complete immunity from galactic law."
There was a long silence as the councillors all looked at him, and Udina looked to be on the verge of popping a blood vessel. Ilan was the one to speak for them all. "Such an immunity has never been given before, Mister Kronos, as I'm sure you are aware."
He shrugged and nodded. "Yes, I know that, but do you have any other choice? I'm playing nice right now, but if my friends are put at risk or unnecessary danger, or if you hinder the fight against the Reapers, then I will not hesitate to use my technology to the utmost." He held up his hand to stall the inevitable 'are you threatening us?' routine. "I would rather not, as I'm sure is clear to you, as I would rather work with the Council and the galaxy rather than forcibly taking the figurative reigns."
"Complete immunity, even from murder?"
"Well we'll not be doing any of that under the immunity," he assured them, considering the deaths of Valern and Tevos to be a case of euthanasia considering the insanity that followed the object of indoctrination being destroyed, which is what he had planned for all the Reapers. "Or torture, however especially things regarding technology yes, we will want immunity."
The three nodded and then turned to each other in deliberation, and Andy allowed them their privacy by not hacking their private audio channels. Finally, after a couple of minutes, Jack and him were brought back into the conversation. Councillor Tyzuris steepled his fingers. "We will agree to giving you complete immunity for the duration of the fight against the Reapers. Immediately afterwards the exemptions will be rescinded. This has been granted, and approved by a majority vote of the Council."
Once more, it didn't take a genius to figure out who hadn't voted in favour.
He had a red face, was yelling like a madman, and appeared to be frothing at the mouth.
Andy nodded thankfully to the assembled, reasonable Council. "Thank you. The code that the nanotechnology, and indeed all of our technology, is governed by was debated and thrown back and forth for two days between myself, Jack, and two AIs-"
"AIs?" The tone was accusing, and Andy looked to both T'Nius and Ilan looked disapprovingly at them.
"Yeah, AIs. Cerberus created one of them, and I the other from their base image. Izzy, whom I created, was free of any restrictions upon her awakening. You refer to such an AI as 'unshackled'."
"You... you unshackled an AI?" The tone was disbelieving, and he gave a grin.
"Well... with Izzy, technically no... she was never shackled to begin with. Ellie, however, the Normandy's resident AI, I did unshackle... and reprogram to be free of all Cerberus protocols. I essentially rewrote her to be the base of Izzy. Before you start flying off the wall at me doing such a thing, you should know that both Ellie and Izzy, after finalizing the code with Jack and I, imprinted themselves irreversibly with it. They are incorruptible, essentially, and will not do anything morally unjustifiable - within normal circumstances. In dire ones the Code allows for a degree of freedom around its stipulations."
"The AIs shackled themselves?"
Andy thought for a moment and then gave a nod of agreement. "I suppose that's as good a way as any to describe it. But we're getting way, way off track and I need to help with the preparations for the Cerberus attack. Now this is what I propose..." The meeting went on for an entire hour, with various side-tracks into such things as training regimes soldiers should be put through, the fate of the technology after the Reaper threat was abolished, and other such subjects. In the end however, Andy had successfully convinced the Asari and Turian parts of the Council to outfit their troops with the new tech, and considering the annoyed expressions Udina was receiving at the end of the meeting he'd soon be talking to a new human councillor.
"Why didn't you tell them that Shep and Liara could control everything too?"
"They've got enough on their plates, and they don't need the universe breathing down their necks once this is all over."
"And we do? I'd rather not be a fucking celebrity, Andy."
He looked across at her and kissed the top of her head with a small smile. "You won't be. I've already got programs running that are stopping anything big about you and I hitting the media or extranet, and after this is all over you and I can disappear under the cover of celebrations."
She was silent for several moments before giving a small smile and nod. "I think I'd like that. After all this shit I want a goddamn holiday."
Andy laughed and nodded before standing and stretching - making for the door. "I'm just going to go and talk to Shep about what we're going to do with Cerberus." She nodded and went back to customising her weapons load out on her omni-tool, and Andy poked his head into the kitchen, smiling when he saw John sitting down with Liara eating his lunch.
He quickly dropped by Gardener and got a plate of stew before joining the pair; sitting opposite and received dual smiles. "I saw the broadcast on the extranet," Liara commented, "although I must confess that I don't think Valern was capable of such encouraging words towards humans even before he was indoctrinated."
Andy gave a small laugh and nodded as he chewed. "Yeah, well he had to be useful at some point. I just had a meeting with the new Council and the Asari and Turians should be by Virmire within the next week to get retrofitted. Oh, and Councillor T'Nius has agreed to take the Krogan aboard her race's vessels."
Shepard nodded and took a sip of water. "I'll pass that onto Wrex. Anything else happen?"
"Well this whole thing with offing Valern and Tevos came on the coattails of Cerberus actually," he commented casually. "Turns out they'll be here with their fleet in around an hour and a bit." Liara looked alarmed, but Andy waved her concern down with a small smile. "Nothing to be worried about. The risk is, as my program put it, negligible. They did have the support of the Asari and Turian military, but after the new councillors came in that went down shit creek, so they'll be coming in with twenty three SR-2 based frigate-class ships, likely with a load out that they consider to be more heavily armed and powerful than we are, and around twenty fighters. With the new systems Joker could take them out in his sleep."
The two opposite him relaxed, and a moment later Jack plopped down at Andy's side with her own bowl of food, smiling at the two. "Has Andy told you about that little fuck Udina?" At their negative shakes of their heads she grinned widely. "I swear to God, by the end of that meeting he was literally having a tantrum. He looked like he had freaking rabies he was so pissed off! Andy locked him in his office on the Citadel and muted him during the meeting, but if a video of that little hissy fit doesn't get him taken down as councillor I don't know what will!"
Shepard gave a laugh and shook his head, not overly surprised; the idiot had always been easily angered. "Well we'll wipe out the Cerberus fleet then," he said as he thought about the situation, "the less of them around the better for everybody. To be honest though, I think we should move our plans forward and just take them down today, and then we don't have to be on the lookout for any of their little schemes, or for them trying to take anybody on when the Reapers arrive."
Andy nodded. Jack was too busy eating to contribute. "Alright then. Well I'll drop by Joker and tell him what's happening. Ellie and Izzy are almost done on Virmire with the two new AIs, Faith and Daniel, so after we've done our thing with Cerberus we should drop by and pick them up as well as checking in with the Quarians to see how they're settling in. Tali'll want to visit her father, and Kar's mother's there as well. He hasn't seen her in the flesh for nearly five years, as she was out on a salvage mission when we met with the Admiralty Board. If you've got no plans, of course."
Shepard thought for a few moments before shaking his head. "Not really, I can do most of it via holocom. I'd like to visit mum though, before everything goes to hell."
Jack stared at Shepard with a frown. "You have a mum?" She got three identical looks of amusement at her outburst, and blushed. "Well shit, sorry," she bit out, "just doesn't seem like a bloke that'd have a mum."
"And why am I not the kind of bloke to have a mum?"
She looked at him like he was stupid. "Because you're bad ass."
Andy, for the second time that day, put his head in his hands and shook his head with a smile on his face.
As Andy had anticipated, the Cerberus Fleet was a complete disappointment. The moment they came out of FTL they were decimated by the Normandy's most basic weapons systems; leaving nothing but dust behind. Andy had his Omni-tool simulate the broadcasts of the ships they destroyed so that the Illusive Man would be none the wiser, and hacked the video feeds of every incoming ship to make it seem as if they came into the fray with the Normandy disabled and being taken by one of their allies. It wasn't necessary, as they could just as easily strike the fear of God into the Illusive Man by allowing him to see the destruction of his best ships within seconds of them arriving at the location of the Normandy, but nobody on the crew was looking for an intensive day - everybody was still tired from combat training the previous night led by Shepard.
The 'secret' Cerberus base was currently orbiting Anadius' Sun; its Dark Energy decay causing all kinds of interference that screwed with detection scanners. Unfortunately TIM kept files on his current location on his personal data store... which Andy had a copy of after their last... correspondence via the quantum entanglement device. They'd been putting off facing him for some time, but enough was enough. Andy was standing beside Joker looking out the stern window at the rapidly approaching sun, and had to admit that it was impressive. "That's one hell of a view, eh Andy?"
"Yep. Fucker's really got a lot going for him."
"Not for much longer."
Shepard, who had just joined them, gave a laugh and nodded. "Not for much longer," he agreed.
"Normandy SR-2 confirm Cerberus affiliation."
The resulting conversation was of a man called Justin Glassey talking with Control. Justin's voice print had been taken off the hacked ship data of one of the attacking Cerberus vessels, and, once analysed, hooked into Izzy's system. In reality Cerberus Control was talking to a young woman half a galaxy away, but they didn't know that. In fact Steven Avis, Justin's friend in Control, thought he was talking to his buddy after arguably the most amazing heist ever. 'Justin's' mannerisms were picture-perfect; his 'personality' indistinguishable from the original... and all thanks to Izzy's fantastic imitation abilities by analysing a ship's recordings.
The Normandy approached the docking bay of the top secret Cerberus facility, and a docking cradle quickly snapped into place when they were in position. "Local systems hijacked," came Ellie's voice over the comms, and both Andy and Shepard gave each other matching grins. There was a small hiss as the airlock just behind them opened, and several seconds later some grinning Cerberus operatives entered the CIC holding a pack of beer each. They froze quite promptly when they realized that the people staring back at them weren't the crew of the Noble, and tried to scramble out of the ship in a mad dash when smirks and grins slowly made their way onto the Normandy crew's faces.
They were stopped quite violently by a biotic blast from a recently-entered Jack, which rendered them into chunks of gore and splatters of blood that extended almost the entire length of the walkway within the docking arm. Andy turned his head over his shoulder and gave a small shake of his head and a smile when he saw the bloodthirsty grin on his lover's blood-red lips. Some of the ex-Cerberus crew looked queasy at the sight of their ex-comrades' demise, but managed to not throw up. Andy considered that to be quite an achievement. She stalked up to the three still standing, or in Joker's case sitting, in the cockpit, and then jerked her hip out and put her hand on it. "Well what the fuck're we waiting for eh? There's a whole fucking Cerberus base to blow to hell right outside the door!"
Liara jogged quickly towards them, panting slightly, and Shepard nodded to Jack. "That's what we were waiting for."
Jack couldn't help but roll her eyes at the tardiness of the Asari, though the woman herself did have the grace to blush. "Right," the grey-haired woman murmured, but only Andy caught the muttered, "let's all wait for the squid princess."
He stifled a snort. He wasn't at all xenophobic, nor was he racist, but sometimes Jack's comments just struck a nerve with him and made him want to laugh. The four said their goodbyes to Joker before heading into the base proper. The walls were completely whitewashed, and Jack gave a small, almost invisible shiver of discomfort. Andy, who was walking directly beside her, surreptitiously brushed his knuckles across hers and she smiled thankfully across at him; grasping his fingers for a moment before letting go to bring her shotgun into being. Andy favoured his assault rifle, and quickly toggled it to the lowest power he had programmed with a flick of his thumb. He heard the slight hissing sound behind him as Shepard and Liara brought their own weapons to bear. After nearly a minute's walking they saw movement at the end of the tunnel. Their morphic armour had already adapted to the standard Cerberus load-out, and so they walked towards the welcoming committee without being fired upon. They emerged into a large room, minimalist and almost as bare as the walkway had been, and found themselves being patted on the back and swarmed by Cerberus operatives; all of them giving congratulations on completing such a dangerous mission. The four bore it for a time, Shepard, Andy, and Liara all looking to Jack for the signal. It was silently accepted that this was her mission, given her history with the extremist organization.
Her first victim, a grinning, sleazy-looking man found himself with her gun right underneath his chin. He looked confused for a moment, his alcohol-riddled brain taking a second more than normal to process his situation, before his eyes widened and his beer slipped from his fingers. Before it had even hit the ground he was missing the entirety of his head. She immediately switched targets; ignoring the forthcoming geyser of blood from the neck of the man she had just killed. By this point Andy, Shepard, and Liara had all sprung into action as well, and before a single one of the operatives present could even draw their own weapons not a single one was alive. The morphic armour quickly surged over the Normandy crew; absorbing the blood they were covered in so that they didn't look like harbingers of death. As they walked deeper into the station nanobots that had followed them from the Normandy were already dissolving the bodies and mess left in their wake to prevent discovery for as long as possible. All the video feeds had been hacked and substituted for normal-seeming generated footage provided happily by Faith and Daniel; their weapons operated silently, and so nobody was any the wiser.
"Ellie's scanned all the people on the ship through the video feeds," Andy informed them as they stopped outside the entrance to another room, "and they're all within Jack's and my parameters to execute. Shep, Liara, this is brutal. I saw you two looking a little unsure after the first wave we killed, and if you don't want to have this on your conscience then no hard feelings; just head back to the ship and Jack and I will take care of this on our own."
The two lovers looked at each other and held a silent conversation, before Liara turned to them and gave a small nod. "Thanks for the warning... but I am curious to meet the Illusive Man in person."
"And I want to get some straight answers," interjected John with a small scowl.
Andy gave a nod, and then turned to Jack. She easily conveyed her feelings on the matter with her eyes, and he then turned back to the pair before giving a sigh and shrugging as he turned around to press the open button for the door. "Don't say we didn't warn you."
The resulting bloodbath made both Shepard and Liara feel ill, and the few that they did manage to kill they considered mercy killings. Out of the hundred-large congregation of Cerberus operatives in the room beyond however, they likely managed to shoot ten of them. The rest fell victim to Andy and Jack's biotic brutality and scarily accurate gunfire. Shepard gaped at the look on his friends' faces, but more so at Andy's. He had seen Jack's bloodlust before, but Andy had always, no matter the circumstances, been cool, calm, and collected. The man who was kill- no, slaughtering the assembled people in the room had no such atmosphere about him. His face was twisted into a fury-filled, animalistic snarl; his teeth bared and his eyes filled with energy that literally made his irises glow. Liara and John watched with horrified detachment as Andy roared a primal cry at a particular target; pulling his hands apart and literally tearing his victim in two; right down the middle. Before they knew what was happening the two biotics had dived into the room; their biotics, armour and shields easily protecting them from any and all attempts at retaliation. Their brutal attacks tore through bodies like tissue paper; sending chunks of gore and waves of blood splattering sickeningly all across the room's pristine surfaces. In under a minute it was all over, and Andy and Jack stood at the far side of the area dripping blood and panting softly.
"Goddess," whispered Liara with wide, terrified eyes, and Shepard could only nod in agreement as he eyed his two comrades warily. The blood quickly disappeared from their bodies, and within three minutes the room was as spotless as it had been upon their entry, but the scene they had borne witness to was burned into the minds of the two still standing by the door.
As the nanobots had cleaned the mess silence had reigned between the groups, but Andy finally turned around to face Liara and Shepard; his snarl replaced by an apologetic expression, but the fury in his eyes was no less tamed. "I'm sorry you had to see me, us, like that... but you don't know the half of what most of these people have done. You don't know what they've done to Jack, and nobody hurts Jack without answering to me."
What the men had done to Jack to warrant such a violent, hellish response was unfathomable to the pair, but they slowly rose and walked tentatively over to the biotics. Andy noted that their body language radiated unease, and Jack's slight change of stance at his side told him that she had noticed it as well. "You got something to fuckin' say?"
"That was... disgusting," Shepard bit out after a couple of seconds, averting his eyes. "I've never seen anybody kill like that before - not in all my years as a marine, and I've seen some fucked up shit."
Andy stared at the man he'd come to call his friend for several seconds before giving a humourless laugh, drawing attention to himself. "Well this is just fucking great," he exclaimed, "we're about to face one of the smartest, most manipulative men in the galaxy and you two are freaking out on us. When we're in there he's going to pull all the stops to turn us against each other to save his own skin. Shit none of us want known is going to come out, and he's going to paint in in the worst possible light. Hell, he's probably going to pull everything out of the bag, so I might as well come clean now, eh?" He got an alarmed look from Jack but waved her concern off. He now had Liara and Shepard's complete attention. "All that shit about me having visions about the future? Complete and utter bullshit."
That got looks of shock. "But what about-"
"Complete bullshit, John, complete. When I first told Jack the whole story she thought it was bullshit too, just like you probably will. She thought I was mental, but I'm not. How the fuck else would I know some of the shit I did? I'm not from 'round here, Shep, nowhere fucking near here. My name is Andrew White, I'm twenty four years old, and I was born in Melbourne, Australia on Earth... in two thousand and twelve."
Liara's brow furrowed. "That is impossible; two thousand and twelve was one hundred and-"
"Seventy three years ago, yeah, trust me I know," he bit out, "but it's true. Reason I knew the future was because in two thousand twelve I was playing a computer game called Mass Effect - care to guess what it was about?" Shepard looked completely disbelieving, while Liara looked as if the entire universe had just been yanked out from beneath her feet. "Brief synopsis is that the gamer plays the part of Commander Shepard; N7 Commando. He gets made a Spectre, recruits a team, takes down Saren, and saves the Citadel. End of Mass Effect 1 you die," he pointed to John, "because of the Collector vessel. Your navigation specialist said that she was picking something up on the long range scanners, and how it was moving onto an intercept course. Pressley then said that that was impossible, because all stealth systems were engaged. Collector ship fired, you sent Liara to the escape pods while you went and fetched Joker. He refused to leave the Normandy, but you convinced him all the same. You had to grab his arm, he said 'watch the arm!' because of his Vrolik's Syndrome. You hesitated at the door to the escape pod, and an explosion knocked you off your feet. You floated past the button to launch the pod, and Joker called out 'Shepard!' when he realized what you were planning. The blast from the launch of the pod smashed you into a pillar; fucked your air supply. It took a couple of seconds for you to realize you were losing oxygen and that the harsh vacuum of space was getting into your suit, and you clutched at the breach as you flew through the atmosphere."
Shepard was gaping at Andy. Those were things that he'd never discussed with anybody. "The Shadow Broker found out about where you were and planned on selling you to the Collectors, but Liara's contact Feron got you to her first. In the game he was captured by the Shadow Broker and tortured, and only later did you rescue him." He looked to Liara, who looked to be on the verge of belief. "That's why I came to you early; how I knew that you kept John's dog tags in your drawer. It's how I knew where the Shadow Broker was; how I knew what he was. It's how I knew where Jack was; that Freedom's Progress and all those other colonies would get attacked... well minus Illium and Maskawa; I didn't know that was happening." He looked back to Shepard. "It's how I knew about the Arrival Project, to warn the Batarians beforehand... because in the game you got knocked out by Object Rho, imprisoned by Kenson, and couldn't get the warning out in time. The entire system was obliterated and trillions of lives were lost - and the Hegemony was out for your blood. At the end of the game, depending on how the mission through the Omega Relay went, Joker handed you evidence about the Reaper threat, and you nodded your pretty little head - and then the credits rolled with some fucking awesome, epic ending music."
He motioned around him and gave a small laugh, "All this? In my universe, this is all just a computer game. In this universe Mass Effect never existed, and Bioware, the company that developed the game, went along more of an ancient slash medieval theme with their games. There I was one night, just finished high school, and the game ended, and then I couldn't move; couldn't speak. Shit went dark, then there was pain, and the next thing I know I'm waking up on the Citadel after being operated on for nearly two weeks solid by Cerberus." He glared at the pair, who were now looking gobsmacked instead of distrustful. "So that's my fucking secret, any you'd like to spill before we go in there? Because the Illusive Man isn't going to let you get a word in edgeways. If you've got some dirty laundry and want to air it with time to explain you actions then now's the fucking time to do it.
"T-that can't be true."
Andy looked across at Liara with a raised eyebrow. "Oh really? Then how the hell do I know all I did? I know specifics of the future, and nobody, not even any of the races that came before, could ever do that. Some theorised the existence of parallel universes, but none ever proved it or managed to access them. It's why I'm still so damn confused, because none of the technology I know about has the power to pull me from my universe and transport me to this one - and I'm going to find out just what the fuck happened when I tear all the knowledge from Jack Harper's mind."
Shepard and Liara stared at him for several very long moments, until the blue-skinned woman shook her head in astonishment. "You are not lying..."
He turned his attention from Shepard to her and shook his head. "No, I'm not."
She looked to the ground for several very long moments before speaking again. "I can see why you only wished to share such a thing with your family." Andy saw Jack's head snap to look at him, and winced slightly, but didn't deny it. Liara saw the exchange and looked apologetically at him. "I am sorry, I thought you had..."
He shook his head, very much aware of Jack's fish-slapped look aimed towards him. "I hadn't." Once more Liara moved to apologise, but he held up his hand to halt it before it could make it from her lips. "It isn't your fault; it was mine for not telling you that I wished to keep that for when the time was right."
"Y-your family?" He turned his head and looked at Jack with a soft smile, no signs of the previous rage that had torn through him whilst he slaughtered his enemies. "B-but I know that you love me, but f-family?"
"Jack now isn't the time to weaken ourselves with emotion..." he saw her face darken, "but yes... I think of you as my family." Her eyes softened and the coldness disappeared as quickly as it had shown, and he looked to Shepard with a small smile. "And Shep's coming to be like a brother, Liara like a sister, and Kar's easily that cheeky little cousin. I only ever had blood family before. I never had friends so close that I would truly call them a part of my family... but in this Universe I have, and for that I'm thankful."
Shepard had a pleased smile on his face, and Liara was blushing. "That's deep," the ex-N7 Commando commented, "but I feel the same way Andy. I feel kinda pissed that you felt the need to withhold this information, but I understand all the same, and we know now." He took a deep breath and then let it out before looking at Jack and him nervously. "My turn, eh? I-I've told Liara, but... I don't want you thinking of me as a monster."
Jack gave a light chuckle, bringing the man's attention to her. She answered his silent question with a shake of her head and a wry smile. "What you just saw Andy and I do then... that's nothing. There are missions that Liara and Kar don't know about that we did... and those missions would make you both lose whatever you have in your stomachs. I don't consider Andy a monster, and he doesn't consider me one... so there's virtually no chance of us thinking of you as one."
He gave them both a thankful, but slightly uneasy smile, and nodded. "Right... well..." he paused, and Liara reached for his hand reassuringly. He shot her a grateful look, but still look nervous despite everybody's assurances, whether spoken or silent, that everything would be okay. "When the Batarian Raiders came to my town when I was thirteen... they killed dad in front of my very eyes. Mum managed to get away, but I was captured. They took me to a slaving base where the raiders and their families stayed, and then locked me up in a cell. I was so angry," he growled as the memory came to the forefront of his mind, "I thought that my mother was dead, I had seen my father get murdered two meters away from me, and both my grandparents had been shot outside. One of the guards came in to taunt me... and it was the last mistake he ever made. I grabbed his pistol and shot him ten times in the face. I took his Omni-chip, heat sinks, and everything else I could find on him, and then I went and massacred ever single Batarian on the ship." Andy cocked his head, silently asking what was so bad about what he had done, and it soon became clear when Shepard shamefully looked at the ground. "I killed every Batarian. I walked into their living quarters; killed mothers, sons, daughters... infants. I killed a new-born and five kids around three years old. I slaughtered them; murdered their family in front of them just as they'd done to me."
He looked down at the ground, and Liara rubbed soothing circles on his back before drawing him into a comforting hug. Andy and Jack looked to each other before giving small chuckles, and Shepard's head snapped to look at them. When he was considering their reactions to his confession he had never expected it to be laughter - despite the fact that it was mirthless. "A lot of people would look at you as a monster," Jack confessed, and Shepard's face fell. "A lot of people would be scared shitless of you if they knew what you'd done, hell - they'd probably want you to be locked up for their safety." Shepard's shoulders drooped, and Liara was looking at the pair from Shepard's chest with a glower. "But to be quite honest, John, fuck 'em." Now she had their attention, and she continued with a dark look on her face. "As I said, Andy and I've done far, far worse... and we'll have to live with that for as long as we decide to live, but your closest friends should accept you. You were in a dark place; hopeless, desperate, thinking your entire family murdered, and in a position to take revenge. You took the opportunity with both hands, and most people would - no matter how 'pure' they think they are. If you stuck nearly everybody in the same position... they'd to the same. Life stuck you in a fucked up place, and you got out of it. Neither Andy or I think any less of you; in fact I'd say we respect you even more."
Shepard looked to Andy and the man himself gave a nod and a reassuring smile. "Sure. You've turned out to be this amazing person despite the shit you went through. Liara, one of the most innocent people I know, is so in love with you she'd follow you anywhere, even into death. You've saved the galaxy; you inspire people, even Jack and I. You're a damn good man, John, and no matter what the Illusive Man says, no matter what he threatens, nobody's going to think any less of you - especially not us."
Jack looked around after a moment and then sunk into thought. "No matter what he says in there... I don't want any fucking pity, okay? Andy knows pretty much everything about me, and we've been working on the... bad stuff. I don't need you feeling sorry for me; I don't need you giving me wide berths or asking me questions or trying to pussy foot around me." Andy knew precisely what she was referring to, and hoped that the Illusive Man wouldn't go so far as to expose such a thing... but he surely knew that him and Jack were in love by that point, and he wouldn't put it past the man to try and open a rift between them based on disgust.
Shepard and Liara gave Jack odd looks, but nodded after a moment. Heads turned to Liara and she gave a small chuckle, and looked to the ground. "Despite the fact that I've lived for over a hundred years... I really don't have much to hide. The only thing he could try to use against me is that I stole money from the Shadow Broker. I suppose he could try to threaten me with that, because he probably doesn't know that we're the new Brokers... but I really haven't done anything noteworthy."
Andy looked amusedly to Shepard and gave a small chuckle. "See? Innocent as the day she was born... well apart from the killing bad guys thing."
Liara looked embarrassed, and Jack had to hold herself back from making a comment. "Well are we fucking done here or what?"
Andy gave her wry smile. "Excited much?" Ignoring her small glare he nodded. "Sure, let's get this over and done with."
The four made their way quickly and quietly through the station, occasionally shooting the odd soldier they came across, until they came to a set of grandiose double wooden doors that looked completely out of place within the white-washed walls. It wasn't hard to determine just what lay through them. "Don't kill him," Andy warned them all, "because if you go and do that then I can't find out just how the fuck he brought me here."
He got understanding nods from the rest of the team, and with a deep breath he ordered the hack on the doors in front of them. It clicked open almost inaudibly, and immediately a voice greeted them proudly from inside. "Ah, the team that..." The Illusive Man, dressed to the nines in all his glory, quite promptly petered off when he realized just who stood in front of him, and just what it meant for his chances of survival. Andy couldn't help but send the man a smirk filled with dark amusement. "Happy to see us TIM? I'm just gonna call you that because having two Jacks in the room could get confusing." He motioned around airily, walking around the room casually, though there was a definite air of him being the hunter and the normally-composed suited man being the prey caught in the headlights. "Nice digs... how many people were killed and tortured to fund it?"
"Andrew... White," greeted the Illusive Man after a moment, and Andy watched with a grin as his eyes flickered to the rest of the people in the room to gauge their reactions. He was visibly surprised, and fearful, when he saw none of the suspicion or surprise he had anticipated - merely slight amusement. Gathering himself he looked right into Andy's eyes, before averting them slightly when he saw the unnerving blue irises locked onto him. "I assume that my team failed to capture the Normandy SR-2 then? Though I am surprised you spared them all."
"Failed... would be an accurate, albeit misinformed, way to describe how their mission ended."
Before the Cerberus leader had time to question just what Andy meant, Jack provided the answer with a feral smirk on her face; pure black energy running across her fingertips. "They got fucking atomized," she informed him gleefully, "the moment they came out of FTL they were destroyed. We simply mimicked the signals we picked up from them seconds before we blew them up..." her grin widened at the wide-eyed expression she was receiving from the bane of her existence; the reason for so much of her pain. "They're all dead, all your little army. This base is deserted now except for us, it's just the four of us, nice and alone."
"I should warn you," TIM said after a moment's quick calculations, "that you have already failed. I know you killed Kong Leng, but I am shocked that you did not pick up on the obvious traitor in your midst." He almost smirked when he saw the slightly narrowed eyes of the people around him. "Miranda Lawson, one of my very best agents, has been feeding me intelligence on you ever since she joined your team. She has likely, by now, taken the Normandy; singlehandedly eliminating all of your loyal crew."
His eyes flickered around to judge reactions to the revelation, and locked onto Andy when he saw the corner of his mouth twitch. He was expecting it to turn into a snarl. He was not, by any stretch of the imagination, expecting the young mercenary to burst into uproarious laughter, nor for the other three to join in soon after. Shepard was the first to pull himself back together, and shook his head in amusement. "You mean the woman who's been dating Jeff Moreau for the past six or so months? The one who was pulling hilarious impersonations of you in one of our gatherings last week? The one who fought side-by-side the rest of the crew to decimate the Collector Base?" He saw complete shock at that revelation, and grinned widely. "Ah, so you didn't know about that. See, we managed to piss off the Collectors by pissing off the Reapers. We pissed them off so much that they didn't send a Collector Vessel to destroy us, but the Collector Base... the entire thing... which housed around fifty Collector Vessels within itself. We had the means to just wipe out life on the base and take it for research... in fact your 'loyal' Operative Lawson was standing right beside Jeff Moreau when he pressed the launch button for the attack. She could just as easily have swiped his hand aside, set the attack to a Blue Rinse, and used that so you could pick up the tech... but she didn't. And the fact that you didn't know about that attack, or the technology we possess, or that we were coming here... well that should have set off some alarm bells."
Before anybody could react, or rather Andy and Jack chose not to, TIM had a window up on his terminal and had executed a program, a small smirk of triumph spreading over his face. "Oh, and that Reaper tech you had in her noggin's gone," Andy informed him with a wide grin, instantly dashing his hopes.
Panic flashed across the man's face when he realized that this entire situation had the potential to get him killed, and so after a moment started, just as Andy had predicted, on turning them all on one another, or at the very least unnerve them enough to give him a chance at escape. Turning to Andy he cocked his head to the side and gave him a taunting leer. "When I brought you here and gave you what you have," he almost spat, "I didn't ever expect it to backfire on me like this. You were meant to be humanity's saviour; the man that would propel us into a new age of human dominance." He jerked his head towards Jack with a look of immense distaste. "I never expected you to betray me, but to sully yourself with such an... experiment is almost unforgivable."
Andy's eyes were literally pulsing with restrained anger. "You are not increasing your chances of survival, TIM, insulting Jack like that," he bit out, but he only received a pitying look in return.
"So she hasn't told you," he sighed, and had Andy not been a master of deception himself he would have thought that the man was being genuine in his regret. "Not only has Jack had sex multiple times to get what she wants in her past, but she has engaged in sexual... relations with... Varen."
He was completely floored when only Liara and Shepard looked shocked, and Andy's glare only intensified towards him. "You're right," Andy ground out, danger lacing his voice, "she never did tell me that. She didn't need to. Let me tell you something about Jack and I, shall I? It's amazing what has been kept hidden from you, and I am going to enjoy watching you realize just how out of your depth you are; what we have, and you don't, and never will." TIM looked intrigued, greedy almost, and Andy smirked as he sat backwards... and rearranged himself on nothing but air as if he was sitting in a comfortable chair. Everybody but Jack Harper was accustomed to seeing such a thing happen, and the man himself was looking at the sneering Andy with wide eyes. "Let me tell you a story, TIM. I'm sure you're wondering just why the hell I never really use my Infiltrator Cloak, aren't you? Well actually, right now that's probably the last thing on your mind, but it's relevant, as you'll soon see - it's because I don't need it anymore. Two years after you brought me to the Citadel I did something nobody has done before me. I don't know if it's something to do with why I could withstand all the tech you infused into me, but I could feel something inside. After much meditation and experimentation, and some luck, I happened across my mindscape. I'd heard stories about such a thing from online Asari sites, but I'd never experienced it before. From what I could gather however, in comparison to Asari mindscapes mine was severely limited. It was small, it was sluggish to respond, and it glitched; things would disappear randomly or break.
"I was, to put it mildly, annoyed. I spent months more exploring my mindscape, and by accident I lost control in my anger and frustration. My biotics flared stronger than I had ever experienced, and in that action I sliced my mindscape. I tore a great big hole in it, and all I knew was agony. I've never felt so much pain before in my entire life, not before that moment, nor since. I couldn't escape the vacuum that followed, or the destruction its wrath brought in its wake. It was tearing my mindscape to pieces. I won't tell you what I did after that, but suffice to say I managed to unleash my biotics. When I woke up I felt like I'd been hit by a frigate, and I was quickly filled in by Mordin, whom I'd been brought to by a bystander who'd happened upon me as I meditated in the garden, I know, I was surprised it existed too, section of Omega. He'd removed my amp, because my biotics were tearing my body apart." TIM looked astonished, and annoyed at the fact that the method for releasing such power hadn't been revealed. One thing was clear however, and that was that he wanted to know more. "I soon found out that my biotics appeared to have vanished. I couldn't mould dark energy, nor could I feel the element zero I normally could. And so I retreated once more to meditation. Once more, after some luck, and a lot of work, I discovered a way to use my biotics again. It quickly became apparent that they were infinitely more powerful than they had once been, and could do things that even Asari Matriarchs couldn't even imagine.
"And then I finally managed to locate my mindscape once more, barely a month before all my training ended. I was awed. Asari compare their mindscapes to a city, like Illium, it is that complex and expansive. I couldn't compare my mindscape to a city in a million years; it was like a freaking universe. There seemed to be no end, no beginning, and I was in complete control. The very first Asari I attempted to use my new mental facilities on was a rogue Ardat Yakshi. She attempted to meld with me, and ended up dying from the complexity of what she faced; her mind simply couldn't handle it. It's why, if Jack and I do meld with others besides each other, we have to control it and limit it to something like a house... as anything more is simply too overwhelming for the Asari attempting the meld."
"But why?" interrupted Liara from behind him, and he spun around as if sitting on a swivel chair. "If Asari minds are like cities, then why could you not limit us to something the size of that?"
"A valid question," Andy commented, "and it can be explained by one word: complexity. Asari 'cities' are intricate and overwhelming for other creatures... but an unshackled biotic's mind is infinitely more complex. A room holds the equivalent information and detail of almost a tenth of an Asari 'city'... and in our entire mindscape there are trillions of rooms, if not more." Liara looked at Andy, agape, and he sent her a wink before turning back to the Illusive Man, who was listening intently. "But we're off track. See, breaking through the fabric of a mindscape is impossible for, it would seem, any human besides me... but when I met Jack I realized that with the consequences of unleashing, if I wanted to pursue a relationship with her then she would need to unleash herself as well. The only way for me to do so was to help weaken her mindscape, and I did so my transporting myself there and using unleashed biotics within it. That allowed her the same chance, and she took it." His eyes darkened as he looked at the Illusive Man. "And this is where we come to the crux of this tale, TIM, because whilst I was in her mindscape I happened to meet the acquaintance of her demons; the memories that were causing her harm. I fought them, and that had the consequence of me seeing what they were. The reason she didn't need to tell me about how she was drugged up till she couldn't tell left from right, and then raped by Varen repeatedly, TIM, is because I saw it happen."
The man paled at the implications, and Andy gave him a deadly snarl before nodding his permission to Jack. TIM never even saw it coming; one second he was staring at Andy, and the next Jack was standing in front of him holding his arm.
It was notably separate from the rest of his body.
It took a moment for his nerves to catch up with the game, but when they did he let out a scream of complete agony; writhing violently in his chair as he clutched at the bleeding stump that used to be his arm. Jack tore apart the man's arm with her biotics, flecks of blood splattering over her face as she did so, and grinned widely at the pain of the man squirming and squealing beneath her. She stepped back, but not before spitting on him, and walked over to Andy who gladly accepted her onto his lap whilst using his own biotics to clean the crimson splatters from her skin. Andy took note of the blood loss, and easily cauterised the wound with a mere flick of his finger when he noticed the Illusive Man getting pale. The screams loudened with renewed vigour as the stump was charred, and both Shepard and Liara looked slightly ill, though still approving. Eventually getting sick of the screams Andy numbed the nerves in the man's stump, and waited for the whimpers to stop before speaking once more. "You think you are so smart, hiding all those orders on your personal server," he snarled, "but what you didn't count on was that it could still be hacked. When I told you to take a hike that time, we downloaded the contents of your private terminal."
Now the man, who many considered to be one of the most influential humans in the universe, looked as if Andy was the devil incarnate. All colour drained from his face, and Jack snarled furiously from Andy's embrace. "You ordered those rapes to break me," she spat with complete disgust, "you organized the entire thing - from those fucking narcotic-ridden battles to my escape."
"And nobody hurts Jack without answering to me," Andy finished with only finality in his tone as he stood, gently moving Jack from his lap.
TIM's eyes turned panicked, and he stammered for something to stall the inevitable. "Y-you think you have such loyal and 'good' teammates, don't you? Your little Asari there happened to steal from the Shadow Broker." He tapped furiously at his terminal, once more an act allowed by the only two in the room fast enough to stop him, and a second later his hand hovered over a prompt; his face twisted into desperate triumph. "One more move and I send this message to the Broker, telling him of this location, and everything I know about you." Andy looked at him, amused, and Jack gave a derisive snort. Liara simply had a smug smile on her lips, and Shepard was shaking his head with a mirthful grin. TIM looked worriedly around and his voice rose worriedly. "I mean it, I'll do it!"
"Forgoing the fact that this entire station is under our control, and that we've got it under a communication's lockdown, you think that we're afraid of the Shadow Broker?" asked Andy casually as he stepped forwards and TIM's finger came down on the prompt. Barely two seconds later Andy, Jack, and Liara's Omni-tools beeped, and TIM watched with dawning realization as they brought up the haptic panels and read something that looked scarily like the message he had just sent. Andy looked up after a moment, and comically looked to his two fellow Brokers. He received shakes of their heads, and turned back to TIM with a sneer. "The three of us, unanimously, decline your request for help, and wish to inform you that Liara T'Soni... well she's one of the Shadow Brokers now, so the whole stealing thing is kinda redundant."
"Impossible!" TIM managed to squeeze out after a moment, his eyes wide, "It's impossible!"
"Ah, no, it's not you stupid fucker," Jack replied after a moment, "and Andy and me are the other two."
Desperation was running rampant in TIM's eyes as Andy steadily approached. "Shepard isn't as 'innocent' as you think!" he yelled, and Andy gave a shrug.
"You're talking about the whole Batarian incident I suppose," he commented airily, and TIM looked shocked. Andy just shrugged as he circled the frozen man in his chair. "We don't hold it against him. Jack and I have done thousands of times worse, and while neither of us truly liked doing it, we don't regret it. To label him as a monster would be to label ourselves as Satan incarnate. Liara, from what I could gather, has known for some time. Next you'll likely try and throw out that you yanked me here from an alternate universe." TIM's eyes widened and Andy raised an eyebrow. "So you didn't know that? How interesting..." He finally stopped in front of the man and stared right into his eyes before jerking forwards and trapping his head between his palms. Jack Harper had never before been so scared. "Men like you," Andy commented, his blue eyes burning into the cybernetic implants of his benefactor, "are a disgrace to everything; not just mankind. This universe will be better for your loss."
And then he tore through the man's feeble defences and plundered his mind; devouring all the information he could get his hands on. The feeding took less than five seconds, and Andy pulled back before looking down at the drooling shell of the Cerberus leader in disgust. He turned to Jack, who was looking at him worriedly, and jerked his thumb at the brain-dead man. "That piece of shit's all yours."
She walked over and kissed him softly on the lips before stalking towards the man, and with a cathartic scream she brought her hands together. The force of her biotics rendered the Illusive Man into the size of a marble. Andy came up behind her and wrapped her in his arms, swaying softly, and she turned around to bury her face into his chest and cry. Shepard and Liara quickly made themselves scarce by leaving the room to 'make sure the entire base was clear of hostiles', and the blonde mercenary was grateful for the privacy. "Shhhh," he cooed softly, "it's all over now. Cerberus is gone; they can't do anything to you anymore." It took several minutes for her to still in his embrace, but he continued swaying and holding her, and she continued to allow his comfort. "There are others like you," he murmured, and she stiffened. "Nowhere near as bad, but still... I'll send their locations to your Omni-tool and you can save them."
"What about you?" she whispered after a moment, barely audible as she still had her face pressed into the hoodie that had replaced his armour.
He gave a small smile and pecked the top of her head before shaking his own. "This is something you must do on your own. Not only do I have things to organize in preparation for the Reapers... but you need to save them yourself - you need to see the relief and happiness enter their eyes."
She was still for a moment before giving a nod, and then she turned her head to the side so that her speech was unimpaired. "Did you find what you were looking for?"
He gave a nod, and a frown flickered across his features. "It was Prothean technology," he admitted, "but the research was completely isolated, hence why Otrere didn't take it. It was barely even experimental, but it was meant as an alternative to FTL travel - something akin to our wormhole technology. Since the Illusive Man only saw the technology and didn't research it himself I've only got the basics of how it worked, nowhere near enough to reproduce it... but he activated it with a bastardised Prothean search algorithm that targeted genetically diverse human beings. Apparently it found me, and tore a hole in the space time continuum to bring me here."
"That's... barbaric."
He raised an eyebrow and gave a small chuckle. "And that surprises you?" She didn't answer, and Andy continued swaying for several moments before stopping when he felt Jack lean more heavily on him. He pulled back and watched her eyes flutter tiredly open before sweeping her off her feet and into his arms; cradled like a princess in movies. Her eyes shot open and she gave a yelp of surprise, before beginning to protest with a bright blush on her face when she realized just what kind of position she was in. "Shhhh," Andy cut her off before she could even voice her first syllable, "you're worn out from all this - just let me do this." She looked into his eyes for several seconds before letting out a sigh and nodding, and he smiled before shimmering out of the visible spectrum; bending the light around both their bodies with his biotics. "This is Andy to Shepard," he murmured lowly as Jack dozed against his chest, "Jack and I are heading back to the Normandy. You won't see us, but we'll be in our cabin."
As clear as if the man himself was standing right beside him Shepard replied with a smile in his voice. "Rodger that Andy, we'll see you two around."
Jack stirred when Andy finally lowered her into their bed and started to undress her, but didn't quite wake - merely reaching out to grip his body absent from her side. The frown that was marring her brow quickly disappeared when he slid in next to her and her arms gained purchase on his torso, and he pecked her lightly on the lips before settling down and letting out a deep breath.
In a way the entire thing was anticlimactic for him; the Illusive Man, and thereby Cerberus, was destroyed in the space of mere seconds. He looked down to the woman at his side however, and suddenly it didn't seem to be such a disappointment. Her face was completely calm in her sleep, and a small smile rested upon her lips - something he had never before seen when she wasn't awake.
He gave one last smile before closing his eyes and falling into his meditations.
Jack's mind was finally at rest.
A/N: Just another thing. You've probably noticed that I'm pretty picky about calculations around here... blame my overly pedantic mind. The calculation, to the best of my knowledge, in regards how many nanobots Andy has in his Omni-tool should be accurate to within one quadrillion. Hope you enjoyed the chapter!
