M-Angel: Ah, it's another chapter to our little hero's story. Sadly this also marks the final chapters to come. 10 more and it's over. So, that means a lot has to happen.

Knight: Looking forward to it. :D

M-Angel: So many questions have yet to be answered. Like how she got here, will she see her Joker ever again, and will she ever get back home.

Knight: You are such a tease. XD

M-Angel: Also I'm sad to say this, but once Surviving Hero is done Knight and I will be going separate ways. He has his stories that he's been ignoring because of Surviving Hero.

Knight: Well, I sound like a dick, put that way. Sorry, guys!

M-Angel: Now let's get back to the story.

Chapter 17: Bloody...

As Ashley, Kaiden (who was carrying Ashley's bags), Tali, and I walked out of the weapons department I spotted Garrus. He was talking with a human, who shoved Garrus' shoulder. Thinking this punk was trying to start something, I turned to the others.

"I'm gonna check something out." I said this as I was handing my bags to Ashley, who looked over my shoulder at what was going on with Garrus and gave me the do-you-want-backup kind of look. I shook my head.

"I'll catch up with you guys." I said heading over to Garrus' position to back him up.

As I got closer several things that could happen ran through my mind. I also began sizing this guy up. Five foot seven, blonde, curly long hair pulled back, blue eyes, and athletic build... It was when I was about twelve feet from them that I saw the C-Sec badge on the guys hip, so I put on a smile; replacing the I'll-kill-you-if-you-mess-with-my-friend look.

"Hey Garrus!" I shouted, which startled the turian. He turned around and gave me an annoyed look.

The human looked at me, eyes going from my face down to the floor and back to my face. "Aw Garrus, you didn't say you had a girlfriend," He teased, causing me to smile at his british accent.

I watched as the turian's fringe became a darker color. "She's not my...," He began. "She's the team field medic, Ian," He growled as his eyes narrowed at this Ian guy.

Deciding to play a little I wrapped an arm around his waist and said, "Oh, but Garrus, dear, that's not what you said last night, when we tested each others' reach and flexibility,"

Garrus' mandibles went wide in shock while Ian burst out laughing so hard he grabbed onto a table to keep standing upright.

"I like this one!" He laughed and held out his hand as he calmed down. "Ian Shaw, C-Sec Officer and Garrus' partner."

"Serena Lavargus, Normandy Chief Field Medic." I said as I shook his hand.

When our hands touched I felt a jolt of electricity run through me and his eyes then widened. He was about to say something when my omni-tool beeped. I looked down at it and read the message.

"Ah, bloody hell..." I paused when I heard Ian laughing. "Uh, sorry, I've been around Carolyn too long. Picking up her phrases now. Looks like I've gotta go," I turned to Garrus. "You gonna join us at the De' Lux later? Everybody will be there."

He groaned and rolled his shoulders. "I don't know..." He began.

"Come on, it'll be fun." I looked at Ian. "You can come too!" I then looked back at him. "Besides it's better than calibrating the Mako and playing with your gun all day."

Garrus' jaw fell open again at my sexual inuendo, while Ian laughed. "Yeah, I'll be there" Ian said.

"Great! Talk Garrus into it too! He needs to socialize." I said, giggling.

"I social-" he began.

"Yeah, only if it's a game of poker, or shooting something." I said causing Ian to look away as his shoulder started shaking in laughter. I then took this as my exit and quickly ran off to see what Carolyn wanted.

Ian Shaw's POV

As the young woman left, I looked at my hand. What was that? I silently wondered. When Garrus had come back an hour ago, I had been ready to punch the tar out of him. He'd told me he was now working for the Commander John Shepard on the Normandy. Of course that had been before Serena Lavargus had showed up. I'd seen that look to kill on her face, when she'd seen me jokingly push Garrus. I was glad my old partner had made a friend. I'd even caught Ash's look. I don't know, but maybe it seemed she was just as worried about Garrus as Serena had been. Of course Serena's evil eye had quickly changed as soon as she saw my badge. This crew seemed different from the crew of the SSV Normandy from the game that I had played. Maybe me being here did something that I didn't realize. I was knocked out of my thoughts by Garrus clearing his throat.

"Okay, I want in on this."

"You sure, Ian?"He asked, his eyebrow plates raising in worry. "I still haven't even found Saleon or asked Shepard-"

"The bastard took Rebecca and I just can't sit here doing nothing anymore!" I yelled. I knew there was a very high chance that she was dead. That is, dead or a husk. I had hope, even if it was false hope. She's alive. I know it! "Palin has had me working a desk since you left!"

I watched Garrus give me a heavy sigh before nodding. "Alright. I'll talk to Shepard. Gather your things quickly, can never tell when we'll need to leave."

"Well, since you've got shore leave, we could have some fun." I said with a smile causing him to laugh.

"Fun to you is starting a fist fight. And I'm not saving you from Wrex," He laughed.

"Oh yeah, I just love going around starting fight and getting punched and shot at." I said sarcastically while rolling my eyes. "Not my fault that the fists are usually already flying around when I get there,"

"Sure...," Garrus chuckles.

Serena's POV

As I walk into medbay, I am greeted by Carolyn hugging me. "What the..." I began.

"Now why didn't you say that today is your birthday?" she inquired.

"Uh...huh?" I asked. She rolled her eyes at me and tapped my omni-tool to show me the date. Sure enough it showed that today was my birthday. I've been in the Mass Effect universes for a year?

"So you're 25, right?" She asked as she brought out a bottle of Sierra Ice Brandy. "A toast to another year of life." She said, handing me a cup.

I swear I tried not to make a face while drinking it, but failed. She looked up when I began coughing. She laughed slightly. "Sorry dear, I forget how you Yanks can't hold your liquor very well,"

"Cough I can... cough...hold my liquor. Jesus, is this brandy or tequila?" I said as she raised an eyebrow at me. "Ryncol, had that last time with a krogan friend named Urdnot Grunt," I laughed at the memory. "I drank half of the second cup when I passed out...you then practically hit me over the head when I ended up in medbay." I laughed harder. "Course then you just shook your head when Commander Ann Shepard ended up passed out right next to me from having drank both cups and kept mumbling how Wrex owed her two hundred credits…,"

"Ah yes...my elder double," She chuckled. "Joker did say that you are from another dimension," She chuckled. "Said his double got lucky with you."

I blushed. "That braggart sonfofabitch," I mumbled as I drank the rest of the brandy in my cup.

"I've know Jeff for years now...," She began.

"Doc, if this is about asking how the sex was; please don't." I said causing my blush to deepen.

She chuckled. "As long as you didn't break anything..." She trailed off.

"No." By now my face was as red as cherry.

"Ah. Good, then," She said, smiling at my discomfort. "You can leave if you want to,"

"Thanks," I said, and left as quickly as possible, only to see Joker. He was out in the hall leaning against the wall with an evil smirk on his face, causing me to groan.

"Does it really bother you that much to talk like that about 'him', or should I say, older me?" He asked.

"Hmph...you two are nothing alike," I said, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Sweetheart, we're practically the same person," He said smiling.

"Maybe, but I've seen your medical chart. And compared to his, you come up short in some...er...sensitive areas," His eyes widened and suddenly he was doing a fish out of water impersonation. I smiled. Me: 1 Joker: 0. I thought with a smile. "Besides that, he did things you never could do or at least not until you get some enhancements,"

I then left him standing there gaping.

After a nice cool shower, I went to my locker two find a bag of clothes with a note attached to it.

To: Serena Lavargus

From: Ashley and Tali

Girl, you have a body. Let somebody see it. Maybe you'll get 'lucky' with somebody tonight.

Your Joker is long gone, and you'll most likely never see him again. You need to get a hold of yourself and start living a little. I know if Tali could get out of that suit of hers she'd be having some fun too!
~Ash

Serena, is it wrong for me wanting to use my shotgun on Chief Williams?
~Tali

I giggled at my two friends and opened the package. It was a spaghetti strapped silver sequenced shirt and knee high black flowing skirt, with a pair of toe showing high heels. I shook my head and chuckled. Kasumi and Kelly would love this outfit. I thought as I dressed.

As I walked into the bar, both Tali and Ash were standing next to me. It was then that Ash took off to the bar, while Tali went to the dance floor and began dancing with another quarian. I decided to go over to a table and wait for Ash to come back with our drinks. It wasn't even a minute after I had sat down when somebody tapped on my shoulder. I sighed, thinking it was some loser who was gonna ask me to dance. I turned around and was shocked to see Ian, standing there by himself with a friendly smile. He was dressed in a pair of black pants and a white shirt, with a black open buttoned shirt over it. He looked...nice...very nice.

"Hey, looks like I'm early," He said as he sat down across from me.

"Eh...most of the crew is here," I said. "John'll probably show up soon,"

"So you know the Commander well?" He asked.

"Why, are you an undercover reporter?" I said jokingly.

"Yeah, can't you tell? I work for the Westerlund News," he said sarcastically, causing me to laugh. "Maybe you can tell; I'm not the best undercover reporter,"

"Oh, that's a good one!" I said clutching my side as I laughed.

"What's a good one?" Came a voice from the font of our table.

I turned and saw John standing there in his usual attire. "Ian was just making a funny," I said with a smile.

"Oh, so you know one of our new recruits?" He asked.

Knowing what he meant I shook my head. "Barely," I said. "Garrus introduced us this afternoon."

He nodded as he sat down, just as a man walked up and sat down next to him. "This is Aberdeen Edwards. He's a friend of mine from the N7 program," He said as he lightly punched the guy's arms in a friendly gesture.

I looked at the man and my eyes widened. His left eye was the normal brown color, but his right eyes was cybernetic and red...blood red. He had a scar that went vertically down the right side of his face; dissecting his right eye. Neck length black hair. Had it not been for the scar and the eye he would've been quite handsome. I quickly got over my shock of his appearance and gave him a friendly smile.

"I'm Serena Lavargus, pleasure to meet you." I said.

He chuckled.

"Same here, ma'am," He said in a southern voice as he shook my hand.

I looked at John. "You said Ian is one of your new recruits?" He nodded. "Who else?"

He smiled and scratched the back of his neck. "Well I took those blueprint designs you had for the SR-2 Normandy...," He began, out of the side of my eyes I saw Ian's eyes widen as the mention of the ship,"...to Captain Anderson and he sent them to Admiral Hackett. They say, those who wait get what they want," He looked at me. "As soon as I saw those designs, I wanted that ship. It's perfect for a Spectre. Anderson then brought it before the Councilors and...get this, Spectre Nihlus and some other Spectre named 'Blasto' are both willing to help pay for it to be built with the option of one or two more being built just like it," He took a sip of his beer. "So within six to thirteen months two Normandy SR-2 class ships will be built and completed. Plus because they're your design, you get to name 'em,"

My and Ian's mouths were wide.

"Me?"

"Her?" We both blurted out at the same time.

He chuckled. "Yep." He then drank more. "Oh and the second recruit is Aberdeen and the last is that Jacob Taylor fella you told me about,"

I was about to reply when I heard somebody fall out of their chair and looked down to see Ian, who was now on the floor looking a bit dazed. "You alright?" I asked with concern.

"Yeah." He said. His voice was an octave higher than it had been a few minutes ago.

"Hot chick!" I heard Aberdeen say as he whistled. I looked over to see Ash dancing with Liara a bit clumsily. My mouth fell open. Gah! She's drunk! I heard John chuckled as Aberdeen walked up to her and whispered something in her ear. Ash then grinned and began dancing with him. A moment later John walked over and began dancing with Liara.

"What the hell just happened here?" Ian asked sounding a bit angry. I turned to see him glaring at me.

"What do you mean?" I asked with a frown.

"How the fuck do you know about the Normandy SR-2!" He demanded.

"How did you know about it?" I threw back at him.

"I...it..." He growled "None of your damn business, woman. Just answer the question," His eyes were wide with concern.

I sighed. "Well, I guess since you're part of the crew now, you'll eventually find out from Joker. But it's a secret and you can't say anything." he nodded. "My named is Serena Lavargus and before I met John I was part of Commander Ann Shepard's team on a Cerberus frigate known as the Normandy SR-2 and our mission was to stop...,"

"...the Reaper's and Collectors," He finished, causing my eyes to widen.

"Bloody hell...," We both said at once and again I realized this just got even more complicated.

In a dark room, the Illusive Man sat with his jaw gaping at what he'd just heard. On the floor was his shattered glass of expensive brandy, while his cigar had long gone out on an ash-tray. His eyes were wide from shock of the knowledge he'd obtained. Serena Lavargus had just saved him a great deal of time, work, and money. The disk Zi'ara had gave him, had everything on it. All her memories were intact from the retrieval from Spectre Ya'lara's mind. Every detail of every mission, conversation and intimacy she had done, was there. He smiled. Yes, it was now time to find and talk to Miss Lavargus.

Ian had grabbed my wrist and taken me to his and Garrus' apartment. He was pacing back and forth. After I had told him everything; he then told me his story. We were both relieved that one another was from the same universe or dimension. While he had come to this ME universe in 2181, I had gone to Ann's universe in the fall of 2184.

"Well it explains why I never knew you in Ann's universe," I said.

This caused him to pause in midstep. "Okay, what missions have you done so far?" he asked

"Missions?" I asked with a frown.

"From the game!" He yelled impatiently. I flinched.

"I don't know!" I yelled back. "I never played the damn game!"

His eyed widened. "You're telling me you've been doing this without knowing what the hell you're doing?" He asked, causing me to nod slowly. "Holy mother...,"

Yes, things had just gotten a bit more complicated.

Knight: Well, I'm off to destroy ebay.

M-Angel: Why?

Knight: My replacement for my laptop charger still isn't here! I had to steal-er, I mean borrow-my sister's new charger! FYI, that's why the chapter is so ridiculously late. Sorry, guys and gals. Mah bad.

M-Angel: Hmm.

Knight: Want anything?

M-Angel: From what?

Knight: Ebay. Once I've scattered its ashes, I'm sure there'll be a ton of cheap crap… in a warehouse… or somewhere. Where is ebay, anyway?

M-Angel: Well… huh…