M-Angel: Okay, so I've been called a lot of things, but boring has never been one of them.

Knight: Uh-oh... Brace for impact!

M-Angel: So I'm sorry to the reviewer that called my story boring. So I will try to make my story less boring.

Knight: I hope you know how lucky you are!

M-Angel: So without further ado, here's the next chapter.

Chapter 15: Heart

My eyes snapped open as I heard the door to the debriefing room open. I turned to see John standing there with a cup of coffee in one hand and a smirk on his face.

"Fell asleep, I see," He said, sounding amused. "I've done that before,"

As I yawned I noticed that I still had a dozen datapads strewn about the new debriefing table.

"Yeah, I guess I did, didn't I?" I said, rubbing the back of my neck.

He handed me the cup of coffee. "You need this more than I do," He said, reading one of the datapads.

"What is all of this anyway?" He asked as he picked the one he'd been reading up and handed it to me.

I looked at it and blushed as I smiled.

"It's the SR-2 Normandy," I smiled again. "Jeff would go on and on about the size of the ship, Mass Effect core room, weapon systems, armor, and shields all the time," I rubbed my face as the last of sleep vanished.

"I guess I retained more of that information than I thought." I chuckled. "Ann would complain about the wasted space of her quarters. She'd say as soon as I'm done with Cerberus I'm gonna have the Navigation Officer's Room, Flight Lieutenants Room and Executive Officer's Room built up here, and perhaps an Officer's bathroom, too," I smiled at the memory. I could still hear her voice and Garrus' laughter as she said that.

"Of course Jack would say 'why have an officer's room when you're already fucking each other's brains out.'"

John coughed and looked at me with wide eyes.

"Then Ann said at least the guy I'm with knows how to test our 'reach' and 'flexibility' better than yours," I laughed at John's confused look.

"Course that'd just piss Jack off and she'd leave...sometimes,"

John picked up another datapad as he sat down next to me. "So who're all these names?" He asked.

"Each name has information attached to it. Just have to tap it," I said as I stretched my muscles, causing my shirt to ride up and my belly to show.

"Nice," He commented with a smirk.

Thinking he was talking about the names I smiled. "They're Ann's crew,"

"Really, and they exist here?" He asked.

"Yes," I said with a nod. I touched a name on the datapad causing a picture and information to appear on that person. "Jacob Taylor. Twenty-five. Biotic. Alliance Marine. Was last known to be on Eden Prime," I paused and looked at him. "You can trust him. Ann said she thought of him as her brother,"

John nodded as he touched another name. "Jack. A.k.a. Project Zero. Was kidnapped as a child by Cerberus, who made her into a biotic monstrosity. She's got a bad temper and trust issues. Has murdered. Swindled drugs. Killed in self defense. Currently in cryo-freeze at Purgatory," He raised an eyebrow.

"You can trust her...once you've gained her trust that is," He touched another name. "Thane Krios. Unknown age. Drell Assasin. Excellent hand to hand combatant, Garrus couldn't even beat him."

John snorted.

"Also a limited biotic. Excellent stealth abilities. Excellent sniper capabilities. Has a son named Kolyat, but his wife was killed. Has a lung disease that's killing him, and sees it as his punishment for killing so many people,"

He clicked another name. "Yeoman Kelly Chambers. She's basically the ship head doctor. She takes care of incoming messages and determines which is a high priority and which ain't."

I saw John smile. "Could use her," He said with a smile. "Sounds like Ann has the best."

He said as he clicked on Garrus' name. His eyes widening at the info. He then frowned as he scanned the names. "What about Kaiden and Ash?"

"Left after Saren." I lied. He nodded.

"So I get the best to kill these...Reapers?" He questioned.

"Virmire is when you'll find out that Sovereign-Saren's ship-is a Reaper," I paused. "But first you need to go to Feros...uh...Zhu's Hope...it's a human colony. You'll need the Cipher, which you'll get from an asari named Shiala, after you've defeated the Thorian, which is a plant-like creature that you'll have to destroy because it's doing something to the colonists," I paused to take a deep breath.

"I forget, but I think it's like indoctrination, or something. Ann explained it to me but I didn't pay attention," I said, shaking my head.

"Sorry," I then remembered something. "Um, Garrus, he's after Dr. Saleon. I'd go help him, if I were you. He...well, he basically was using his employees as living incubators for organ harvesting. I think Ann said that she now suspects he was selling the organs to the Collectors who work for the Reapers," John eyes were wide.

"He's in the Kepler Verge in the MSV Fedele. Everybody onboard is dead, except for himself, and have turned into husks. They are dangerous...,"

"Husks?" He asked. "It's the name Ann and her crew gave to those zombie-like things," I saw his eyes widen and he nodded.

"We've encountered them on Eden Prime," He said. "The Geth, they did something to the colonists there,"

"Dragon's Teeth. They turned the colonists into husks," I said grimly.

I then began picking up my datapads, leaving John with the datapad with the names on it. I paused and turned back to him as he continued to read the names on the list.

"Noveria," I said.

"Hmm?" Came his reply, as he looked up.

"Noveria...it's where Benezia is. She's on...uh...Peak 15?" I rubbed my temple. "Yeah, peak 15. She also doing experiments on some sort of insectoid creatures. I forget what they're called, but they supposedly died off thousands of years ago," I then thought for a moment.

"You may want to stop at TunTau too, for Wrex,"

"Why?" He asked.

"A turian named Tonn Actus stole the Urdnot Family Armor," I said. "You can probably get more information out of Wrex, if you play nice a bit,"

He chuckled. "Okay, I'll play nice," He said with a smile as I walked out and down, to the ladies locker rooms. I had just placed my things in the locker when I had two arms wrap around me in a hug. I turned to attack and was mildly surprised to see Tali standing there. I blinked at her.

"Tali, what-" I was cut off by another hug from the Quarian.

"Thank you so much for the new omni-tool you gave me the other day. I've never had anything this new and clean before in my entire life!" She said, sounding as if she was going to start crying at any moment. I smiled at her.

"Oh Keelah, I'm just so overwhelmed. When I saw you go in here I just...I hope you didn't mind,"

Now she was looking down and twiddling her fingers nervously.

I smiled. "Tali Zorah nar Rayya, you are the brightest person in this galaxy that I've met, besides Mordin Solus, and the bravest Quarian I have ever met." I hugged her back.

"I hope you don't mind but I'm now considering you my new adoptive sister."

The Quarian girl was silent for a moment. "Keelah, I don't- I mean-you and I...Keelah!" she hugged me back.

"I've always wanted an older sister!"

I laughed as I shut my locker and the two of us walked out of the room.

Ann grimly looked over the new SR-3 Normandy. After the battle for Earth, the SR-2 was beginning to fail on her. Thankfully Admiral Hackett and Councilor Anderson had known that she'd need a new ship soon. So the SR-2 Normandy had been retired, refitted, and sent off to the turian military, while she got the SR-3. It was the size of a small cruiser, and could fit five times the amount of people that the original had, had back in 2183.

With Legion's help, they had been able to get EDI successfully transferred aboard. Joker had complained that he'd be lonely without her and would go nuts when he would start to think about Serena.

Ann sighed. Nobody had really realized how much of an impact that girl had had on their lives, and for the last year after her death nobody had really said much about her. The Reapers had begun their attacks, and with the entire galaxy fighting together, they'd been able to succeed where the Protheans, and every species before them, had failed. From what they could tell, so far, they were winning. The Citadel was closed and evacuated. Colonies closest to the Citadel had been evacuated, mostly closer to human space. Palavon, Sur'kesh and few other home worlds had been saved, including Earth. However, the Reapers were still there. Still coming back to fight. Only last month they had to fight for Tuchanka. The krogan had fought bravely. Under Urdnot alone had been sixteen clans, most of which were safe from the Reaper invasion. Seeker Swam frequencies now were on every colonized planet and homeworld. Ann was knocked out of her thoughts by a voice.

"Commander?" Came Joker's voice over the com system of the SR-3.

"Yeah Joker," She said, feeling a taloned hand wrap around her waist. She looked over her shoulder to see Garrus' face and smiled.

"Admiral Hackett just sent us our newest mission. Seems Vigil on Ilos just reactivated itself. It's transmitting an SOS to all nearby ships," He said.

"Head to the Mu Relay for Ilos, Joker," She said as she activated a video comm. A scarred krogan face appeared.

"Shepard." It said.

"Wrex," She said. "We may need your help at Ilos,"

The large krogan nodded his head.

"I'll be there," Was all he said as he disconnected.

In a dark room, with the galaxy map hanging in the background, a man sat in his chair. The Illusive Man smiled as he looked upon his new datastream. He'd sent out a few stealth probes into dark space, only for them to bring up images of what he most feared. Serena Lavargus was right about the Reapers. By his count, so far, almost five hundred thousand were waiting in dark space. Each ship looked different from the last. Each one had different weapons on it. So much technology, so much knowledge. What he would give to get that, to harness that power. His cybernetic eyes glowed with each line of data that the stealth probes had sent to him. There was a danger here, not just to humanity, but to every species. Just then he heard footsteps approach him. "Well?" He asked.

"Specter Ya'lara has been taken care of." Came the aussie voice.

"And the information?" He asked as he turned to see his best informant.

"On this disk," She said, raising it up and handing it to him. He greedily snatched it from her, like a dog foaming at the mouth.

"However, there were some things on it that even our contact couldn't quite understand,"

"Inter-dimensional travel is hard to understand," He said. "Even the best minds, be it human, asari, or salarian, cannot quite grasp it, just yet,"

"That's not what I meant," She said, causing him to look at her. "She said that it was as if this inter-dimensional travel has happened more than once to this girl, maybe even more than twice," She paused. "She also believes that Miss Lavargus isn't even human. She looks human. She had human blood and whatnot, but it's her mind isn't quite human. She said that Miss Lavargus' mind is far too old in many ways. There are memories that don't correlate with others. Some are blocked out completely-and not the ones you'd expect. The earliest memory Ya'lara was able to get was possibly age four or five. She should've been able to see the moment of birth, first contact with her mother, first thoughts, first everything; but it's like it's been erased,"

The Illusive Man frowned. "Keep an eye on Miss Lavargus and Shepard." He said. "I want to know everything about them. When the time comes we'll pay Miss Lavargus a bit of a visit,"

"Yes sir." She said and went to turn around.

"And Miranda?" He said, causing her to pause. "Don't disappoint me."

He then turned around and pressed a button. A woman appeared in a hologram. Her eyes looking defiantly at him.

"Who are you really, Miss Lavargus? That's the real question," The image, of course, didn't answer. But it didn't stop him from now getting infuriated with the lack of information as he placed the disk in a holder and pressed play, to see what secrets this young woman was withholding.

M-Angel: Ah, the plot thickens. I know, I know not long enough...

Knight: Well, I wasn't gonna say anything...

M-Angel: Like last night? *wink, wink*

Knight: You are an evil little woman.

M-Angel: Haha...lmbo!

Knight: On a side note, guys, it's my fault that this is late. With my normal life(Work, friends, and stuff), plus this and two stories, I got overwhelmed. So… Yankee Knights is now on standby. Hopefully chapter sixteen with be up by Sunday.