The Wildcard

by Matalvis

In Plague's final moments, he flips the Enclave the bird, only to then end up in the Mass Effect univers. Mean while TIM makes Shepherd a new dossier of a man using antique weapons while giving Omegas lowlives a hard time.

18. Chapter 18 Close To Home

God the hell i went through to get this chapter up. Was so much shit going on that it wasn't even funny. If you guys want a full explination, then read the top of my one shot (Have You Got A Minute?) and lol if you like it. Ok I think it is time for us to move on. Guys Here is Chapter 18!

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The Wildcard

Chapter 18

"You're not going to get sick again, are you?" Shepard asked, sounding amused while at the same time being wary. Sitting across from her in the shuttle was Plague looking nauseas.

Watching his face develop an ill appearance, made Shepard smile a little. She had seen such things before. Man and women who had been in space for long periods of time were common in the Alliance. She herself had gone through it as well. And the small smirk on Jacobs face showed he was most likely thinking the same thing she was, having served.

The operative was dealing with the situation well, but she could practically feel the mixed emotions swimming around him. None of them knew what they would find on 2175 Aeia. Shepard hoped that whatever they find, either good or bad, would help the man. If she found out there was a chance that her own father was still alive, she would search for him without a second thought. Family was family, no matter the circumstances.

When the man said he had already buried the issue years ago, she couldn't believe what she was hearing. When her family was killed she acted like a zombie for well ever two years. She barely spoke. She hardly ate. Every night was filled with nightmares of that day. The cold kitchen floor. Her mother's corpse right next to her, while she held her dead baby brother in her arms.

She would jump when she heard a sudden noise, expecting it to be a slaver coming back for her. She saw her brother whenever she saw a child. Her mother when she saw herself in a mirror. And she saw her father whenever she saw someone with the same red hair.

It was small things like that making her go back into her shell. Every once in a while the scar on her arm where she was stabbed during the bombings with a knife would itch a little. She knew the scar was gone, but she still felt it like a phantom limb. No matter how many times she was rebuilt, she had a feeling it wouldn't change.

"Not my fault I have to… eat before a mission." Plague wheezed his defense. "When we land… watch were you step…" he warned while he seemed to go even paler then he already appeared at the thought.

The warning made Shepard snicker a little. It was a small improvement to the mood in the space.

"Just make sure you are not in here when you puke you're guts out." the Cerberus pilot in the front section of the shuttle shouted. "Took me for ever to get the smell out, no matter how many times I decontaminated the thing."

The man had been complaining since Plague had sat down.

"I said I was sorry." Plague shot back without turning his head. "We are going into a jungle right?" he asked Shepard.

When she nodded, he was surrounded by the light produced by his pip-boy. By now the flashes didn't faze Shepard much. When the light went away, her face was reflected back at her by a familiar scratched visor. He was wearing his stealth suit that looked like it had been repaired since Horizon. She could see where the material around his neck was a slightly different tint then the rest of the suit.

"Is that what you needed those materials for? " she asked as she saw that everywhere he had been burned was repaired as well.

"One amongst many." he answered as he lifted a dark revolver with a long barrel in his right hand. "Needed both ammunition and repairs." he explained as he started spinning the gun like a cowboy before holstering it.

How his guns worked against kinetic barriers confused her. Sure his weapons fired larger rounds, but it still would have done nothing to an enemies shields. As far as she could tell, Plague knew practically nothing about how the mass accelerated rounds were fired from the guns everyone else used. Sure the rounds were smaller, but they packed more of a punch. She was no gun expert, but it didn't take one to see that something was wrong with the picture.

She had asked both Garrus and Jacob how such a thing could be possible. They were just as confused as she was.

Back to her past train of thought, she noticed how Plague's behavior had changed. The Plague she had met on Omega was acting a little more depressed since he was briefed on the details of the mission. They were to go to the source of the delayed distress beacon and find out what happened to the crew, along with Jacob's father.

'Maybe this mission opened old wounds.' she said to herself.

The engines suddenly became a little quieter. That told her they were slowing down and preparing to land.

They were to land near the wrecked ship and then proceed on foot. The other two men sensed this as well and drew their respective weapons. Shepard held her Phalanx pistol in her hands. They had received some new weaponry the last time the Normandy refueled. Jacob was holding a rifle in his arms, and she could tell his grip was a little tighter then usual. Plague on the other hand looked calm as he drew his pistol while his left hand thumbed the handle of the machete hanging on his waist. At least he looked calm. It was hard to tell with that helmet of his.

Garrus told her that Plague explained how he learned to use a firearm. Going from a toy, to self teaching how to use, that which the man used today. She didn't fully believe him when he told her a little bit about his origins, but it was times like these that made her think. 'What kind of world would transform someone like Plague that dramatically?'

When he killed he reminded her of Jack. Both of them loved to kill. They both seemed to get a thrill out of the violence. Sure Plague was a little more disciplined and acted nicer to others, but he always looked as if he was expecting something. Another annoyance, argument, threat, confrontation. It was hard to notice, but the man distrusted everyone to the point that he expected everyone to stick a knife in his back.

Even then Plague acted kind and trusting. All a mask.

She let out a quiet sigh once she realized this. Was that trust he gave her when he first got on the ship the truth or a lie he instinctually said to lower her own defenses? Did he expect her to attack him as well at some point? Did he think of everyone that way? Even Kasumi, the one he seemed to become friends with? The more she thought about it, the more she heard Garrus's warning in the back of her mind.

She looked down at her armored hand as those thoughts bounced around. This was the first time she will use Plague's Tesla Armor in a mission. She had managed to convince Plague she was ready to use it in a fight, although she still hadn't tested how her biotics would react, so they made a compromise. She would use her amp for her biotics and only use the armors muscle enhancements. The teals coils on her shoulders were inactive at the moment. The helmet was hanging on the coil on her right shoulder. She hated helmets, but at least it looked better then her old one. If she needed it, she was able to quickly put it on.

It was then that she realized something. If Plague didn't trust her, then why did he let her use his armor? The man was a mystery sometimes.

When the shuttle doors opened, they were bathed in sunlight. It took her eyes a second to adapt to the new source of light. It was not as bad as the last planet she was on though. At least the sun was not frying her shields, and threatening to cook her alive.

The first thing Shepard saw as she stepped out was the sand under her feet. Looking around she saw they had landed on a rocky beach. The vegetation looked similar to green grass and tropical palm trees along with other plants you would see on an island back on Earth. Not that she had ever been on Earth before. She had only seen pictures of the homeworld of her species. Once she recovered from her family's death, at least she thought she recovered, she would always request to be moved to posts near spaceports, or act as a member of the crew on various Alliance ships. She never truly felt comfortable on a planet similar to home, and what happened on Akuze didn't really improve things much.

"Activating environmental countermeasures." an extremely familiar female voice announced before she felt the suit's feet adjusting automatically to compinsate for the sand that gave way under her armor's weight. The voice warmed her heart and brought a small smile to her face. "Countermeasures engaged. Going to surveillance mode."

When Shepard gave Plague a voice sample she had asked EDI to find over the extranet he was looked as if he was going to ask why she picked such an interesting vocal sample, but then just shrugged and recorded the sample on his pip-boy.

It wasn't that hard to find her voice. Over the one hundred and six years of the asari's life she had sent documentaries and audio notes over the extranet about her prothean archeological findings.

For a moment she wanted to hug Plague for managing to integrate the voice into the power armor. It was all she really had of Liara at the moment. Although she missed the original a little more. How she would become shy when talking to others, how she would say one thing and then realize what she said could have a double meaning or a hidden innuendo, thus making her start to backpedal. She was sweet, but she looked even better when turning a slightly purple shade while blushing as the asari tried to clear up a misunderstanding. This machine was a little different though. It had no emotion when speaking.

That did not mean she couldn't keep the original samples and listen to her love. Sure she had no idea what she was saying sometimes do to her not being a fellow prothean expert. But she still listened to it every night for the past six days.

She couldn't help but notice her nightmares had dwindled down to once every three nights.

The ocean was to her right while a near ten foot high cliff face was to her right. In the far distance she could see the only man made structure on the planet, being the large cruiser on the shore like a large metallic beached whale.

"I have run a scan of the ship." EDI announced as Shepard looked over to Plague, who jumped out of the Kodiak after Jacob. The helmeted man was, at the moment, looking down at his foot that was digging into the sand thanks to his heavier weight with what she guessed was curiosity. Clearly the terrain would end up being a disadvantage. "I detect no life signs, but there may be useful technology or information still inside."

"If they aren't on the ship, then they must be in the surrounding jungle." Plague voiced as he looked over to Jacob. "There's a chance."

"Thanks." the man sad back with a straight face.

"Before we move up, Plague." he looked to her as she continued. "You're sinking. Put some of you're stuff on the Kodiak."

"What?"

Shepard let out a sigh as she shook her head a little. "You're too heavy. The sand will slow you down. I'm not saying for you to put power armor on there or anything. Just get rid of something else of it."

She was expecting him to argue, but after a looked at his feet again he must have agreed. He turned back to the open doors of the shuttle and re atomized some of his melee weapons. A sludge hammer, a few more machetes, a wooden baseball bat, and a golf club of all things. Next was one of his ammo cases. He then placed his minigun next to it along with a rocket launcher.

She didn't expect him to put all of those away. And imagine the look on her face when three miniature warheads were added as well.

"EDI. I'm sending the Kodiak back with some extra weaponry. They are to be delivered straight to Plague's room." she ordered as she started walking and then paused to look back at the last added items. "Delicately…"

Plague POV

'Life is a beach.' Plague said to himself.

He had never actually walked on one. Now he understood the joke written on an old mug he had found inside of an office building a few years back. Sure he only saw it momentarily before he broke it in half on the edge of a desk so that he could drive a jagged fragment into a raider's face, but that didn't mean he didn't commit it to memory.

The small joke was brushed quickly to the side when he remembered why they were all there. There was a chance that Jacob's father was still alive.

Plague didn't know what to think of the situation. On the surface he was happy for him, but what he thought deep down was another story. Part of him envied the man. And another part thought the whole situation was unfair.

Plague had gone through hell to find his father, and once he did, his father was ripped away from him as if it was a cruel joke. 101 will never get a second chance. His father was gone, simple as that. He would never see him again. He would never here one of his lectures, never again participate as his medical assistant in the infirmary of vault 101, never get the chance to apologize for the arguments they had once he found him. He will never get anyone back. He will never see the allies he made over the years. And he will never hold Sarah in his arms again.

To see someone else be given back a loved one who was thought to be long deceased felt like an insult against him.

"Plague?" Shepard called making him realize he had drifted off into space thanks to his thoughts.

Apparently he had missed a part of the conversation. "Yes, Boss?"

"Nothing." she said back. "You were falling behind. Are you alright."

"I'm good." he lied as he picked up the pace. Thankfully she didn't notice and lead on.

They were now closer to the ship. It appeared highly damage. He could make out some materials and salvage on the shore.

"Looks like it was stripped after the crash." Jacob voiced Plague's thoughts. "They'd have tried to get a beacon up as soon as possible."

If what Plague heard was accurate, the ship vanished years ago. Something was wrong. Maybe some trouble with the wildlife? Water… Mirel…?

He mentally slapped himself at the thought.

'That was dumb.' he scolded.

Although, all he knew, maybe there was an alien species out there that resembled the mutated crustaceans back home… Not that he wanted to meet them. More like drop a nuke from orbit and see what happens. Think of it as a form of late revenge.

His thoughts were interrupted when he saw a hologram near the salvage. The avatar looked like a somewhat orange/pink human male with a bald head and was flickering on and off. A flickering flashlight low on batteries came to Plague's mind, leaving him to guess the environment was starting to have a negative effect on the projector.

"Repeat. Toxicology alert." it warned as they approached. "Danger of rapid neural decay."

"That is… rather unsettling." Plague mentioned as his vision wandered in the direction of the small manmade bridge from the shore, to an opening of the large ship in the water.

As he watched Shepard walk up to the hologram it was talking about how the plant life was to blame for the previously mentioned neural decay.

'Well… looks like I'm not picking any flowers anytime soon.' he thought to himself.

"From the look of it beacon's been here a while." she observed as she walked next the projection. "Why would they wait years to signal?"

To her words, the projection looked at her as if just noticing she was there and answered. "Pause in beacon protocol, eight years, 237 days, seven hours." Plague held himself from letting out a whistle at the amount of time between when the ship crashed, and them finding it. "Pause is recorded as: Record Deleted by acting Caption, Ronald Taylor."

"That's not right…" Jacob said. "My father was first officer."

"Ronald Taylor was promoted under emergency command protocols." the VI answered as it took what Jacob said as a question. "Other flagged issues: Unsafe deceleration. Local food and neural decay. Beacon activation protocols."

"Unsafe deceleration? Bit of an understatement." Plague mumbled quietly and was a little surprised when the hologram attempted to see where the statement had originated from.

"Error… Error…"it started to say as the projection flickered a little more.

"Damnit!" Jacob cursed as he brought up his Omni-tool and stabilized the machine after giving Plague a death glare.

"Hey. How was I supposed to know it would do that?" he defended as he took a few more steps back so the malfunction wouldn't be repeated.

Once the hologram came back up it spoke. "Encountering a visual malfunction. Please call technological support at your next convenience."

"What's the damage?" Shepard asked as she let the man work.

"I think I got it." he answered followed by him giving Plague another glare. "Just stay over there."

"Fine." the vault dweller shot back. "I didn't want to talk to the machine anyway."

He didn't know why he was giving Jacob such a hard time. Not that he knew the machine would try to look at him. The faster the situation was dealt with the better.

"It's not your fault, 101." Shepard told him as she activated her Omni-tool to try and help. "While we work on this, use that bridge and try to find out what happened."

"Sure, Boss." he answered as he turned on his heel after giving her a mock salute with the barrel of his revolver taking the place of his hand. Better then the glares being shot at him by the second male of the group.

Shepard POV

"It should work now." Jacob reported as they both took a few steps back.

As the projection materialized, Jacob kept his Omni-tool at the ready just in case.

Letting out a sigh, Shepard walked up to the VI. "Where are the survivors?"

The projection was a little shaky, but it managed to face her before answering. "The location of the remaining crew of the Hugo Gernsback is unknown. This beacon has been unattended for several maintenance cycles."

'Of course it wasn't going to be that easy.' Shepard said to herself before she remembered what the VI said earlier. "What was that about neural decay?" If the survivors were still alive, they could be in bad shape.

"Impairment of mental function due to chemical imbalance begins seven days of ingesting local flora, regardless of decontamination or preparation." the VI explained. Shepard was not a scientist, but she knew none of that sounded good. "Impact on higher cognitive abilities and long-term memory is cumulative, but significant within a standard month. It is not known if neural decay is permanent. Data collection is not completed."

"Why wasn't the beacon activated earlier if the survivors knew about the neural decay?" the Spectre asked in thought.

The VI took what she said as a question and started to answer. "This emergency beacon became functional after 358 days, 12 hours, following the unscheduled sub orbital decent of the Hugo Gernsback."

'What?' she asked mentally in shock. "That can't be right." she voiced as she looked over to Jacob who looked just as surprised as she did.

"Activation was triggered remotely after eight years, 237 days, seven hours, on the authority of acting captain Ronald Taylor."

She heard enough. "Come on, let's get going."

"My father had a working beacon but didn't signal for almost nine years. Maybe… the neural decay affected him." Jacob thought out loud.

"That makes the most sense." Shepard agreed as they started walking towards the man made bridge. "Maybe Plague found something. But first…" she started as she noticed a terminal that looked like it was still functional next to the bridge. "…lets see if this says anything."

She holstered her Phalanx pistol and let out a sigh of relief when the holographic display appeared when she placed a hand over it. She was surprised it still worked.

There were a few files. Most being maintenance reports that were recorded before the crash. The only recent files since then were some diagnostics for the beacon when they were trying to get it working and one audio recording.

"I might have something." she reported to Jacob who was watching her back.

When she activated it she could instantly tell some of the data was corrupted. But the recording still played.

"…along with this anymore." began a man's voice. Although parts of what he was saying were full of static. "We've done horrible things to the crew. The conditions they're in, they don't understand what we're doing to them. Distract them for two seconds and they forget what you did before the bruises show. It's got to stop. I'm talking to the others as soon as-"

Static was the only noise able to be heard for the next five seconds before it went dead, leaving the two humans in silence, both not liking what they heard.

"My, God." Shepard managed to say as she continued to look at where the hologram was.

The man was ok in the recording and that left her to believe there were others as well. Most likely lived off of the ship's food stores. There couldn't have been enough food on the ship for the whole crew to survive. But why was he talking about things happening to the crew? The way he spoke made it sound like those with neural decay were being treated poorly.

She looked up to Jacob who had the same expression on his face.

Before a word could be said between them, a loud crash was heard on the ship, making them both ready their weapons and run across the bridge.

When they got on the ship, Shepard expected some kind of hostile attacking Plague, or maybe EDI's scans had missed a survivor. What she didn't expect to see was a smashed terminal spraying sparks with an enraged Plague, now in his heavy set, pacing back and forth.

By the way he flexed his right hand Shepard guessed he had punched through it.

"What are you doing?" she almost shouted as she walked up to the terminal to see if anything could be salvaged with her Omni-tool.

"I am going to fucking kill them!" Plague shouted as if he hadn't heard the question, before suddenly punching the nearest wall.

Jacob was keeping his distance, but looked furious as he pointed a finger at 101.

"That terminal could have told us where to find the survivors!" he yelled.

101 waved him off before leaning against a wall and slammed his fist into his other hand.

"Both of you calm down." Shepard ordered as she turned away from the piece of scrap. Plague wasn't the type to do something without a reason, no matter how unorthodox his actions were sometimes. "Plague. What happened?"

"The things they did to these people…?" he yelled at her before lowering his voice and trying to calm himself. "Every terminal I have looked at had a recording. Each one was about people trying to remember who they were, the names of those they loved. And then I listen to…" he trailed of as he waved to the terminal he damaged before punching the wall next to him again. "They couldn't remember what the hell was done to them by those who were still healthy. One man documented how he repeatedly raped a woman!" he shouted, making Shepard's eyes widen in shock before her face showed a mix of anger and disgust. What she heard on the first recording made sense now. "Every time the woman looked at the man she didn't remember what he had done to her. She smiled at the piece of filth and saw no reason to fear him until he assaulted her every time." he switched back to his stealth set and had walked up to her when the light filled the space. He was now standing before Shepard, and when his visor opened she saw him gritting his teeth as his eyes narrowed.

"I would say "Maybe this was an isolated incident" if we hadn't heard a recording of a man talking about those with the decay being mistreated." she said back with venom in her voice. "At least we know there were people who were trying, and maybe still are trying, to do the right thing here." he seemed to focus on every word, but she didn't know if he was calming down or not. "The more time we spend standing here, the more time that this may be still going on."

There was a moment of silence before it was broken by the sound of Plague's visor closing and then leaning in a little, making her angered glare be reflected back at her, giving the man a slightly intimidating effect. If the armor she was wearing didn't make her almost a foot taller then the man, it would have had a larger effect on her state of mind.

To her relief, he brushed past her and started walking to the bridge. "Why are we still standing around?"

Plague POV

Adrenaline was pumping through his veins as he heard the beating of his mechanical heart in his chest.

If there was one thing Plague couldn't tolerate it was a rapist. Those who preyed on women and threw them to the side like a used rag, or killed when they were done with them.

Plague may have far different morals compared to other people, but he was taught by his father to hold women in a high regard. He respected those of the opposite gender greatly, and wouldn't harm a hair on their heads unless it was exceedingly necessary.

If he recognized that voice during the mission or in the future, he would kill the man seconds after he spoke his first words within proximity of Plague's hearing.

And that was a large distance.

Shepard and Jacob had caught up to him as he stepped on the beach and took a position at his employer's right side as the Cerberus operative took the left.

Shepard had put her helmet on before reaching him, and gave Plague a small surprise sense of security. He didn't know where that train of thought came from, but he had to admit him walking side by side someone with power armor had an effect on him. It was as if he momentarily developed a herd animal's way of thinking and followed the being as if she were the leader of the small herd.

In a way, she was.

It must have been his time amongst The Brotherhood of Steel that made him act this way. A small part of him felt like he was back home.

A small insignificant part.

Taylor Shepard POV

Plague's reaction surprised her. Sure she knew by now that Plague had a strong sense of respect and a chivalries attitude towards women, but somehow she couldn't stop thinking about what the man said.

His voice was full of irritation and disgust aimed at the man in the recording. She could see him resting his hand on the handle of his machete as if daring the rapist to pop up right in front of him so that he could cut him down.

She at least understood they shared that part of their individual mindsets. She didn't know what she would do if the man was right in front of her. The right thing for her to do would be to incapacitate the man and make him spend the rest of his life behind bars. And then there was what she wanted to do.

Break every bone in his body with her biotics. What she wouldn't give to see such a man's face when he realized he was being reduced to nothing by a member of the female community.

Not a lot of women were able to defend themselves properly when assaulted in such a manner. She however was an exception. She defended herself when her home was destroyed. If she was strong enough to fight back then before her military training, and the upgrades given to her by Cerberus, then she can sure as hell do it now.

As they walked, she saw stacks of crates and lockers littering the beach. The whole scene looked wasteful. If they had put up the effort to salvage their supplies and belongings, then why would they leave them here?

The neural decay didn't take effect that quickly, did it?

Before she could voice her thoughts she saw a small flicker of movement behind a close row of crates. It looked like a head with dark brown hair had popped up to look at them and quickly went back into hiding.

"It's a woman." Plague voiced next to her in a calm voice. How he was able to deduce such, and speak so calmly after his reaction on the wrecked ship was surprising. "She took a look at you before going back into hiding. Recommend no sudden movements. She is… scared."

That last piece of information made her saddened. What if this survivor was mistreated like the others mentioned in the recordings, or worse, the woman the man in Plague's recording was talking about.

She put her weapon away and walked around the row of crates slowly with her hands in the air to show she was unarmed.

The woman saw her and went still for a moment before trying to back up slowly. It was when she saw her wide teary eyes that she realized the armor she was wearing scared her. She had to admit it was not that subtle.

"Everything is going to be ok." she began and saw how the woman looked at her changed a little as she reached for her helmet. When the helmet hissed when depressurizing the member of the crew flinched. "I'm not going to hurt you."

When her face became visible, the woman showed signs of shock when she realized Shepard was a human like her.

Slowly she got up and started taking hesitant steps to the Commander before starting to talk.

"You are… like me?" she began as if she was still in disbelief that the heavily armored figure before her was both the same species and gender as herself. "You came… from the sky?" she asked while sounding like she was having a lot of difficulty forming her sentences. "The leader said someone would come! He delayed for so long, but he still has power."

As she talked, Shepard took in the shape she was in. She was wearing a mix of gray and brown civilian rags. They had some rips and looked filthy and covered in dirt. Some places she couldn't tell if it was naturally brown or just dirt stains.

Next she took in the woman's face. She still looked a little scared, but at the same time looked in awe. It was how those eyes reminded her of a child that she really felt a strong sense of sadness. Before her was a human who looked as if she was clawing at what memories she had left so she wouldn't lose them. Even now she looked deep in thought.

"Some lost faith." she explained before her eyes changed to fear again as her face looked as if in deep worry and panic. "The hunters! They will have seen your star. They will not let you help him."

The star part was easy to decipher as her talking about the shuttle. But this leader? Did she mean Jacob's father? And what was that about hunters?"

"Calm down." she said gently as she stepped closer. "What are you talking about?"

"I - I, uh… I don't remember how to say it." she sounded as if looking for the right thoughts were painful. "He's our leader, and we serve so… we can go home. But some want to fight him. They were - they were cast out. He exiled them, so they hunt his machines and those who help him. They don't believe that rescue will…"

Before she could finish, Sheperd heard a sound to her right as someone vaulted over the stack of crates to her left. When she heard a gunshot, she instinctively went for her pistol and moved to push the women to the ground to find Plague was holding her.

It took her a second to realize he had let his shields take a shot that would have killed the woman.

After that, she aimed to her right to see some men swarming for cover further up the path. Shepard dashed for cover behind a nearby crate, going lower then usual do to the slightly bulky frame of her armor, as Plague did the same with the woman still clinging onto him. She assumed Jacob was doing the same behind them.

"Hunters!" the woman in Plague's arms warned as her voice shook. "They won't stop until the leader is dead!"

"And us, I'm assuming." Plague voiced as he drew his revolver and aimed with his free left hand over the crate he used for cover as the other was wrapped around the woman he had saved protectively.

"Kill them!" a man ordered angrily as Shepard heard scuffled footsteps. "Agents of the liar! He will not escape!"

Rounds bounced off of her cover as she placed the power armor's helmet back on her head.

"Stand down!" she tried to shout over the gunfire.

She didn't want to kill them. They clearly were affected by the plant life like the woman with Plague. Her military training was kicking in as well, telling her not to kill the civilians, but she saw no other way.

She waited until there was a small pause in gunfire before aiming out of cover to shoot three quick rounds at a man aiming for Plague, and the woman's cover.

She had fired those three rounds so that the first two would take down his shields while the third would hopefully just wound him, but she instantly felt disgusted with herself when all three rounds encountered no resistance and tore into the mans chest.

They didn't even have kinetic barriers.

Before she could recover from the revelation, Plague shot at the men taking cover behind a large section of a pipe on its side that had to of come from the Gernsback.

One went down with a shot to the head, making the other go back down in cover.

She powered up her biotics before leaning out of cover again to send a singularity near the container to the left of the pipe and managed to hit two others who were using it for cover.

Jacob took this as an opportunity to bioticly lift the man Plague had missed. The sounds of gunfire paused as the two remaining men must have stopped to take in the sight. Their hesitation gave Shepard and Jacob the opportunity to take them out before they were able to take cover.

Before she or the operative could make their next move, they heard three fast gunshots that rang over the small battlefield.

Shepard followed the point of origin to the now spinning revolver in Plague's hand. The woman Plague was protecting was sitting next to the cover Plague had been using. He must have put her there so that he could have his other hand free to quickly pull back the hammer of the firearm in between shots.

When she looked back at the men she and Jacob had taken out of the fight with their biotics she saw nothing but floating bodies. All of which had one thing in common. One bullet in each of their heads. (Perk: Sniper)

Plague POV

Plague saw the hesitation by both Jacob and his employer. That told him they didn't like the idea of putting the dangerous men down. If they had been able to incapacitate them, there would have been a chance the small bit of mercy would get them killed later.

In Plague's mind if it was dangerous and at the moment trying to, or about to, or any variation of, try to kill you; you have to act quickly and either strike first, or find some form of compromise to avoid the battle.

"You alright?" he asked as he looked over to the woman sitting on the ground next to him. All of the hostiles were down at the moment anyway. She give him a skittish glance before nodding her head. "Good to hear." he replied as his visor opened so she could see his face. "Boss?"

He had turned away from the woman who appeared to be rooted to the spot to see Shepard walking up to the first man who died in the skirmish. When she kneeled down he thought she was doing what anyone back home would do. Look for ammunition on the corpse of the one who tried to kill you.

He remembered how different this existence was when the Commander reached down and closed the man's eyes before she lightly shook her helmeted head.

Such pity would have earned her no reword on his radioactive homeworld. If anything, someone would have saw the act as an opportunity to take what she had after she was shot in the back.

Jacob had walked up behind her while Plague was in his thoughts. As he walked up he heard the quiet conversation they started.

"My father wouldn't let this go on." Jacob said defensively a little louder then they had been talking. "Something is very wrong."

"At nightfall we shall see who hid the stars of destiny with their lights that shined the way for their own actions." Plague commented cryptically. At least he thought he sounded a little cryptic.

Sometimes he just rambled…

"What does that mean?" Jacob asked angrily. Apparently he wasn't being "cryptic" enough. "Are you implying something?"

Plague looked at the man with a calm look on his face before speaking. "The possibility of your father being a savior or wrongdoer is not on debate. It is good for you to naturally hold on to the hope that he is a good guy. But I think it would be a good idea for you to place those childhood memories away from your way of thinking, and use them as a drive to find out what is really happening. What I mean to say is "Don't keep your hopes up." and "We will find out eventually."

"Enough." Shepard ordered, trying to lower the hostility as she looked at them. "Plague. We can have this conversation later. For now, how is the girl doing?" she asked as she nodded her head in the direction Plague came from.

"She's a little shaken, but unharmed." he reported as his visor closed. "At least physically. I have no idea what state her mind is in."

She nodded at that and turned towards the path after they all looked back to see the woman glance over cover before disappearing again.

"Lets keep going." she said, not quite as an order, and sounded more like a suggestion.

Plague didn't need much persuading either way. "After you."

Taylor Shepard POV

'All these arguments.' she said to herself.

Why did 101 see it as necessary to antagonize Jacob? It didn't make much sense once you consider the small rule he had were he would respect those who showed respect to others.

Last she heard, the two men were neutral around each other on the ship. Only a small conversation here and there. They didn't even act like friends, and neither did they act like enemies. If anything they were just co-workers.

So why all the hostility?

Shepard stored those thoughts away and went back to the mission. It was then that she looked to her left. The path they were on showed a breathtaking view of the ocean. Another landmass in the distance, waves hit the rocks a little ways below.

If it wasn't for what happened here, she would have thought it looked beautiful. It was a disguise. Not intentionally, but was still able to make someone lower their guard.

As she looked at the ocean she saw Plague at the corner of her eye doing the same. He had started following her closely as if acting as a royal guard. This time he was walking to her left.

That wasn't what made her look at him though. It was the fact he was looking precisely in the same direction as herself. Before that train of thought could go any further a little screen popped up in her view.

"Synchronizing visual feed." the artificial voice announced into her ear. It still felt a little strange hearing Liara's voice speaking tech. "Synchronization complete."

The small black screen came to life and she saw the ocean again. Only this time it was at a different point of view. It had to be coming from Plague's helmet. He was zooming in on what looked like a small green bird with a long beak swooping down and snatching a small fish out of the water.

"Interesting." a voice said in her helmet. She knew who's voice it was, but she was a little surprised. "Most of the wildlife I have seen before joining up with you would attack me on sight. To see a naturally evolved ecosystem such as this is awe inspiring, really."

"Sorry to intrude." she apologized. "Not sure how I turned this on."

She heard a quiet chuckle at that. "When are we sure of anything that happens by mistake?" his voice told her he did not mind her looking through his eyes. "It's automatic. All my armors are synchronized. Comes in handy if I misplace something." he then looked away from the ocean to see an arching rock formation further up the path. She looked up as well and didn't see what grabbed his attention until he zoomed in.

"Is that a settlement?" Jacob asked next to them. Apparently he didn't hear their conversation. "They'd better be friendlier then the beach group. I need answers."

Plague POV

"Looks like just women." Plague observed when they were close enough. "They don't look violent. At least not now, anyway."

The group took in the image before them. There were tents, cooking fires, along with a poorly made structure in the distance. Once they walked under the rocky arch one of the women spotted them and signaled to some of the others. Before they knew it, they were being approached by over a dozen women who all looked at them curiously.

Some looked a little uneasy when they saw Shepard's armor. But that problem was rectified when she removed her helmet, making them all visibly relax.

"Maybe the decay affects genders differently." the only woman in the ground team guessed. "It could make men violent."

"Testosterone might play into a factor." Plague speculated as his more scientific side started to make itself known. "But the girl back on the beach said the men who were exiled became hunters."

"It doesn't matter right now. One of these people must know what my father has to do with this." Jacob said as he inserted himself into the conversation.

When Jacob stepped up, the looks on the women's faces went from curiosity and awe, to fear and shock as the gave them a wide berth.

"You have his face!" a woman said. Plague could hear some disappointment in her words. "He promised to call the sky, but he sends nothing."

Before any of them could ask that woman a question, another spoke.

"He forced us to eat… to… decay." she said as if thinking Jacob would do something to her. The fear was momentarily replaced with anger as she pointed at the man accusingly. "You are cursed with his face!"

"Not the best reaction to the family resemblance, Jacob." Shepard commented as the women started to move away from them and went back to what they were doing before, but still not daring to turn their backs on them as if they were unsure if they were a threat.

"Why would my father force his crew to eat toxic food?" Jacob asked no one in particular after letting a an exasperated sigh. "Whatever's happening here needs to stop."

"That's something I think we all could agree on." said Plague as he started walking to, what he guessed was a supply crate. Once he was close enough he could small some spoiled food before a even thought of opening it. "They had edible food here at one point. If that were the case, then they would have had something other to eat."

"And yet they have the decay." Shepard finished his train of thought.

"They've been eating only that toxic local food for who knows how long." Jacob voiced and then looked back to the women. "Like that wasn't obvious enough. And look at that structure. Somebody had to push them to make that. That's borderline… worship."

"Longer I am here, the more I want to shoot something." 101 confessed as they moved on. "Well… That's convenient." he said as a familiar sound reached his ears.

When they made it out of the group of tents they heard heavy foot stops. When Jacob and Shepard saw the trio of LOKI mechs coming from up the path in front of them, they both went for cover as Plague stayed and started firing.

Plague had taken down one of the machines quickly with two rounds in its head and started firing at the next. That one went down fast since both he and Shepard were aiming at it. The third was put down by Jacob.

He barely caught the synthetic voice saying "Your captain demands obedience. Weapons are forbidden." over the gunfire.

"They didn't really hesitate much, did they?" Plague said to himself as he started to approach a woman who was at the moment making herself as small as humanly possible. And once looking back the way they came, he saw the other women doing the same. "Why are those machines on a kill setting?"

Plague knew he was safe when fighting a machine, it was the chance of him or an innocent bystander getting hit in the crossfire.

"You… have his face… but you fight his… machines." the woman began when they were close enough. She gave them an awestruck look, but 101 could see she was focusing on Jacob with some surprise and relief. "You might stop this." she then hands Jacob a datapad before continuing. "This… I forget how to… read, but this… was the start. What he promised, and what they did to us." she then slipped past them and started backing away. "We need the sky." the woman confessed longingly as if returning home was a wonderful dream. Compared to what they had all gone through, Plague guessed that was an accurate way to describe it. "Take us back to the sky."

Plague watched her leave for a bit as Jacob read the data pad. He looked to the operative as the seconds ticked by. It was easy to see the man was becoming more and more disgusted with what he was reading.

"Jacob! What does it say?" Shepard asked in a voice that made it perfectly clear she almost didn't want to know.

The vault dweller agreed.

"It's a crew logbook. Some of them thought the beacon repair was taking too long." Jacob read after taking in a breath. "They were afraid they'd run out of supplies and loose their minds to the decay."

'Sounds like a perfectly reasonable concern.' Plague thought to himself.

He knew that kind of fear. To starve in the middle of nowhere. He had even starved enough to begin to think eating dirt could help.

"My father restricted the ship food for himself and the other officers so they wouldn't be affected." Jacob read on. "Everybody else had to eat the toxic food and hope for treatment later." he then lowered the pad and looked Shepard in the eyes. "The rest is a casualty list. A few mutinied over the decision. My father and his officers turned the mechs on them."

"Sounds like the fuck was feeling the pressure." Plague commented with scorn, causing Jacob and Shepard to look at him. "Weaklings go straight to violence, when the idea of power gets in their heads."

" It didn't stop there." Jacob explained as he looked back at the pad. "More incidents, harsh punishments. It's like they're cattle. Or toys." Plague's blood was boiling furiously at this point. If he didn't know any better, he would have worried if his heart would give out. On second thought… that could actually happen… He could find a replacement within the next seventeen years, so no hurry. "In a year, all the male crew members are flagged as "Exiled" or dead." Plague could see the man's grip tighten harder on the pad, turning the knuckles white as he continued. "They separated out the women. Assigned them out to officers like pets."

"Sack of filth!" Plague shouted as he began to pace with steady strides as his upper body visibly shook with rage. "This is perverse."

"After the beacon was fixed, the officers appear in the casualties, too. After. My father took control and didn't stop it." Jacob finished with a look of anger about him.

"Do you see an explanation for this?" Shepard asked with her arms crossed and a look of disgust on her face. "He's your…"

"Of curse there isn't an "Explanation" for this!" Plague practically exploded. "What kind of innocent individual would say this…" he hand waved in the direction of the female camp. "… was fucking necessary?"

Plague's outburst made his fellow members of the ground team give him a surprised look that also looked like it held some understanding as well.

"He is not my father." Jacob seethed, as he looked back to Shepard and started answering her question. "None of this fits. Maybe the initial decision, but the rest? Abuse of power doesn't get any clearer then this." he then stored the datapad away and looked back to Shepard. "I need to find this man."

'Me to.' Plague said to himself as he started to follow the two. 'Ronald Taylor, is a dead man!'

Taylor Shepard POV

By far, this was the first time Shepard started to hat her fist name. Jacob was probably thinking the exact same thing.

Plague had gone quiet as well. After that news, that would be understandable, but the way he was carrying himself made her start to worry. She was worried for both of the men in the small group.

Jacob had just found out his own flesh and blood condoned, and most likely participated in, raping.

And then there was Plague. She could actually see his shoulders shaking as he gripped his machete tightly at his waist.

After they used those deactivated mechs to blast through the small blockade, the man just completely isolated himself. She tried to synchronies their helmets again, but all she got was a red text saying Plague refused.

She let out a sigh as they continued. After having to deal with those mechs, no one really bothered to holster their weapons.

Phalanx pistol in hand, Shepard kept walking and paused for a moment when they saw a corpse.

The shapes told Shepard they were all men. The one that looked posed looked the oldest. Short hair, civilian cloths. Clearly all members of the lost crew.

"He's been here a while. Likely used as a warning. The rest are a little more recent." Plague commented before going quiet again.

"The hunters started fighting back." Jacob said as a man's voice was broadcast over a speaker nearby.

The look of hatred made Shepard realize who it was.

"This is Ronald Taylor. Thank god you're here! My crew went insane. I only just got free."

'Bastard.' Shepard thought to herself as she saw a clearing coming up.

"Careful. I automated my defenses after the crew turned violent." almost exactly when he finished giving the warning, Shepard practically heard a mass accelerated round go past her head. All three of them ran up and took cover behind a nearby crate. "They keep attacking! I had no choice."

On the other side of the cover, she saw a group of five LOKI mechs firing at their cover as they walked out of behind an unorganized stack of crates surrounding a dimly glowing generator.

"He had plenty of choices." Jacob said over the gunfire as he stepped out of cover to bioticly lift a mech into the air. "Little late to blame his victims."

The operative fired his machine gun pistol into the mech in the air before switching to the last one to exit cover. Shepard was taking down the shields on one of the first mechs as a mass ran right past her.

She was about to shoot it when she realized it was Plague running up on the machines with his machete out in a reverse grip.

The first one he got to was instantly decapitated. He then used the same fluid motion to hit the bottom of another mech's gun with the barrel of his revolver as it was firing and some how managed to make it go under the synthetic's head, making it practically commit suicide.

Shepard and Jacob fired at the last mech and it fell in a heap of metal.

She was about to run up and give Plague a lecture until she saw him aim his revolver to the right and fire three rounds before reloading, empty casings atomizing before they hit the ground.

Staying low, she saw that the small clearing was actually larger then she had thought. To the right of the generator was more space filled with crates.

The three additional mechs, who had been walking to the part of the clearing the ground team was in, were on the ground.

To the left there was nothing but a cliff with a view of the ocean below, as some more crates were lined against the cliff wall to the right.

She could see a crudely made tannery with a half finished hide hanging on it as well.

It was strange seeing the current day eezio generator, and the tannery, in the same setting. It was almost like they had gone back in time before metalworking was even considered an option.

"To the left!" Plague shouted before Shepard could talk.

She followed his advice and saw the five mechs walking into the area from a path along the side of the cliff. Without a second thought, she sent out a shockwave and dealt with them all in one fell swoop. They were all sent flying over the cliff to the ocean below.

"And then there were three." Plague commented hollowly as they started walking. "Three to cast the king from his throne, at which he himself should not own. For the people are enraged. No longer hail the tyrant who is now besieged."

Those words made Shepard quiet.

'What?' was the only word going through her mind at that moment.

Shepard and Jacob made eye contact in temporary confusion before looking forward.

"101? Are you alright?" she asked as she looked at the man to her right at the corner of her eye.

"Why would you ask, my Queen?" Plague asked back, making Shepard pause at the title. "For we are at the gates to partake in an execution."

"Only if I say so." Shepard said with surprise in her voice.

The words made them all stop.

"This man disserves worse!" he shouted as he faced her. "What do you plan on doing once we get to the piece of shit?"

"What I am going to do, and what I want to do, are two separate things." Shepard answered, receiving a tilt of the head. "In the end, the final decision is not up to us."

Again, the man just stared at her with that helmet. She didn't know if he was glaring at her, or seeing what else she would say.

After a few seconds ticked by, Plague spoke. "Like I said before, Boss. He disserves worse."

"I say we cross that road when we get to it." Jacob said. "We should move. No point being here longer then we have to."

After a silence, Shepard started walking again, and soon heard the two sets of footsteps following, one heavier then the other.

"God save the Queen." she heard behind her.

She let out another sigh.

With that conversation out of the way, she still had Plague's question drifting in her head.

'What would I do?'

Plague POV

'If Shepard wants to be a goody two shoes, then let her.' Plague thought to himself as old memories and emotions started to surface.

When the next group of mechs showed themselves in the next clearing that went away from the cliff, and back into the jungle, Plague didn't hesitate.

Shepard and Jacob took cover behind a crate, while Plague sprinted with his machete held at his side.

His shields were hit a little bit by the machines when Plague was momentarily between them and the other two members of the ground team.

Even then, they still had nothing to defend themselves with when the invisible being to them hit the group of three.

Plague's machete cleaved one's head in two while he shot another with his revolver in the torso. Both went down instantly.

The third didn't even seem to notice it's two mechanical brethren fall and continued firing at the humans returning fire from behind cover, That was until the arm holding the weapon was sliced off, and was shortly followed by the other.

It looked at it's arms for a moment before it looked ahead and started walking.

Before it could go far though, Plague put his weapons away and grabbed it by the neck.

The mech couldn't process what was happening until it was sent flying off of the cliff.

"Satisfying." Plague said to himself as he turned around to receive a glare. Well… with that helmet on it was hard to tell. Sure felt like a glare…

"Don't do that again." Shepard ordered as she stood before him.

He could feel the slight anger and irritation in her voice, but there was some other things in there as well. He quickly identified them as fear. Why fear? He didn't quite know.

He may have been able to identify it, but that didn't mean he understood the emotion completely. Funny now that he thought about it, however.

Fear was an emotion he knew well. He had both seen and felt it through his life. There was the sense of fear brought on by knowing your life was going to end. The fear that grips an individual when threatened by change. And there were many others.

Those were just the ones he was most familiar with.

After a few seconds something in his head ticked. At least he thought it was in his head. Would suck if something was in his helmet other then his own head.

Wouldn't that be interesting?

No… He had seen this sense of fear before.

Yes… when his father died… but that was out of fear of his own death.

It… was out of worry… for his son's life.

'Dad took death head on, and took some Enclave filth with him.' he said to himself.

He felt the same way towards Sarah when she died in almost the exact same way.

This whole train of thought only took a few seconds to him, so when he mimed tilting a hat to his employer, she seemed a little surprised.

"Yes, Boss."

Before any other words could be said, a round hit Plague's shields, making them all duck into cover.

"It took years to train my guards." Ronald said over the speakers. At least Plague knew mechs still couldn't see him. "I'm afraid you'll have to fight them to rescue me."

"Throwing people away." Jacob said furiously. "This… thing… is not my father."

"Plague. Move up!" he heard his employer shout as a blue light was seen on both sides. "Jacob. Covering fire!"

When the two stood out of cover and started firing, Plague bolted around the crate and took in what was before him as his pip-boy sent adrenalin to his brain. The battlefield slowed to a crawl as he saw a man out of cover, ramming another heat sink into his pistol.

If he had to describe the battlefield, he would have said it looked like a junkyard. Crates were everywhere, half made tents, hand made tools. All highly unorganized.

The man's thermal clip was now slid half way in as Plague's started to slowly slide behind a box while his right hand reached for his revolver.

The heat sink was now in, and the man had just saw him and started to raise the gun to aim.

Plague was faster though. In a small fraction of a second, Plague pulled his weapon out and just fired as soon as it was in front of him.

What happened would have been a little funny if this were a better time.

The round sailed through the air and clipped the left side of the gun. That was not the funny bit though.

You see, the force caused the small firearm to suddenly turn in the man's grip, and by the time he pulled the trigger, the gun was aimed right at his head.

Since the shot's point of origin was within his kinetic barrier, there was zero resistance.

To put it simply, the top of his head just fucking exploded.

'That is going in the album.' Plague thought to himself as his back hit his cover.

He looked over cover and could see a poorly made metal wall in the background, and a few yards in front of him was a small bridge like structure. Seemed like an odd place to put such a raised platform, but who was he to judge?

Back to the battlefield, multiple rounds slammed into his right side, making his barrier shimmer with it's rusty red before he went back into cover.

Jacob then stood up again and provided covering fire for Shepard, who then ran up and went next to Plague, pistol still in hand.

"Having fun?" Plague shouted.

"Who wouldn't want to be wearing an unnecessarily bulky set of armor in a fire fight?" she yelled back sarcastically before getting even lower.

Plague laughed a little at that and fired out of cover when there was a pause in rounds hitting his cover. He managed to clip a man's shoulder, making the individual drop his weapon and fall. Before he was completely out of view, Plague fired again and saw the round enter the chest.

"Ask me later, and I might be able to rebuild a custom set for you." he yelled as he want down again, and Shepard took his place and fired. "But we should test the tesla coils to see if they actually do anything for you."

She went back into cover before speaking. "As much as I appreciate the thought, maybe we should talk about this later. And how did you plan on testing it?"

"Simple." he then leaned in a little closer. "Tesla armor. Full power. Activate coils."

Taylor Shepard POV

"Tesla coils online." Liara's voice announced.

Before she could say a word, she suddenly felt a giant boost in her biotic power. Looking to her right, she saw the coils on her shoulders ark energy, but it wasn't red like when Plague had showed it to her.

The color was a dark blue.

She remembered when Plague told her the suit amplified the effects of energy based weapons, but now she was a little hesitant to see what it would do when the individual wearing it was technically categorized as a weapon. Her skin felt like it was tingling, making her wonder if it was tempering with her cybernetics.

As she stood up, lightning like biotic energy flowed to her hands as she waved at an enemy.

Instantly, the man behind the crate flew to the left and broke his neck when his head collided with another crate.

That wasn't what she wanted to do at all. The intention was to send out a biotic push so he would fly out of cover. She had used the same amount of effort, so maybe now she had to restrain herself a little.

"That my friend was beautiful." she heard to her right over the humming on her shoulders.

Shepard looked to the next target and visualized a warp as her hand aimed. She made sure to reduce the amount of power used, but still made the man's chest explode, making her stomach turn.

"Jacob. Move up!" she shouted as she ran forward to the next cover.

"Heavy mech!" Jacob Shouted.

She looked to her right and saw the TMIR mech stomp it's way into the clearing. Her eyes widened when she realized it's rocket arm was aiming right at her.

Reflexively, she made a biotic barrier around herself and felt the energy wash over her.

The next thing she heard was a muffled explosion when the light made her closer her eyes shut. Shepard felt an impact that made her slide back a little. If she hadn't have seen the rocket coming, the force would have taken her off of her feet.

When she opened her eyes she saw smoke and automatically sent out a shockwave with a waved hand.

Instantly grinding metal was heard as she went for the nearest cover.

She waited for another rocket to hit her cover, but it never came.

"All hostiles down." Plague shouted excitedly as if he had just seen fireworks.

When the commander looked over her cover her jaw dropped

Where she had been standing was untouched, but the direction she was facing was razed. A two foot wide, and a few inches deep, trench went from it's point of origin, to where the mech was standing. A little farther then that was the mech itself, gutted in front and on it's back.

"Plague." she called out hoarsely.

"Yeah, Boss?" he acknowledged as he came up next to her and appeared to be inspecting the armor.

"Maybe that's… too much power…"

Plague POV

'Beautiful! Just fucking beautiful!' he yelled in his mind as he watched the blue energy arc on the armor's shoulders.

This was exhilarating. Not only did the armor function properly when powered by a biotic's power, but it could harness it and amplify the effects as well.

And the destruction? Oh god, the destruction. She just ripped the motherfucker apar…

"Did you hear me?" Shepard said again, taking out of his thoughts. "It's too much."

"Yeah. I heard you. I'll deal with the power flow lat…"

"No. Deal with it now!" she almost yelled, making Plague look at her.

"Why?" he asked until he noticed she was focusing fixatedly on something else while he was talking. "What's wrong?"

When he followed her gaze, he saw one of the bodies that had been… Shit.

It was the man who's chest exploded.

Most of the damage was at the left shoulder. That told him she had been trying to incapacitate the man. Instead, it looked like a swallowed a firecracker.

"Are you alright, Shepard?" Jacob asked as he stepped next to Plague.

"Turn this thing off, Plague." she ordered as she started to take off the helmet.

When the helmet was off, it caused Jacob to take a sudden step back, while Plague did a double take.

"What… the… fuck…?" Plague said slowly as he took in the sight before him.

"What is it?" she asked them in a shaky voice.

"It's… something alright." Plague said weakly. "Are you alright?"

He then received a confused look from a pair of brightly glowing blue orbs.

Shepard's eyes were glowing… bright blue. But that was only a miner distraction to the vault dweller. What confused him was what the other two couldn't see. It was the small specks of light drifting around her head.

"Boss. Do you have any other mechanical devices on your person?" he asked as calculations flew around in his head.

"She has cybernetics." Jacob answered.

"That… would have been something I should have been told earlier." Plague said to himself as he turned and started walking to the gutted machine. 'Shit, shit, shit, shit.'

"Why?" Shepard asked in a voice that sounded as if she was going to be told she was going to die. Not as emotional, but still similar.

"Because…" he started as he looked at the cleanly ripped apart metal of the mech. "I think… I just… turned you into a human atomizer."

The statement seemed to make the others go silent as Plague closely examined the metal. Either if it was out of surprise or confuseion, he didn't know.

Nothing on the mech was gone, so that told him she didn't acquire the mass. Looked like she just weakened the casing of it's energy source, so it exploded.

"Tesla armor. Deactivate coils." he ordered as he turned back to Shepard.

Almost instantly, the specks vanished. 'Thank god.'

Last thing he wanted was for a nice woman to be ripped apart down to the atomic level.

Her eyes dimmed, but still gave off a soft glow.

"I'm sorry, Boss." he apologized as he walked up to her. "I should have asked for some kind of medical file, or something."

"What happened?" she asked, now sounding annoyed.

"We will talk about it later." he said as he started walking to the gate in the distance with a green holographic display. "Lets finish this first."

Taylor Shepard POV

'That by far had to be the strangest firefight I had ever been in.' Shepard thought to herself as she opened the doors.

Her skin still tingled under the suit. She didn't dare put the helmet back on, and just let it hang on one of the deactivated coils.

That was too much power. She was thankful for it when her biotic barrier absorbed the rocket's impact, but when she had a moment to look at what she had done, she shivered.

She swallowed as she walked through the path with Plague and Jacob behind her.

When the walked into a small clearing with a man made enclosure. She saw a man standing at the improvised balcony.

There was no doubt in her mind that this man was Ronald Taylor. The first reason was because he clearly was not experiencing any of the known symptoms the other crew members showed. The next, and maybe the most concrete evidence was the fact that he was a splitting image of Jacob. Nose, eyes, chin,… practically everything. Only difference was grey hair, and crows feet.

When the man looked at her team he seemed to look momentarily confused. She couldn't tell if it was her armor, or the luminescent light coming from her eyes. Either way she really didn't care what the man thought.

"You're here!" he acknowledged as he walked up to her, only for Shepard to pass him and look over the view. "I knew a real squad would blow through just fine. Sorry if the mechs scuffed your pads."

A quick glance back showed Jacob glaring at his father, while plague thumbed the machete's handle on his waist. Refraining from going any further then that must have been excruciatingly difficult on Plague's part.

"I'll get you something nice once we get back to Alliance space." Ronald offered in a friendly tone that made Shepard's eyes narrow in disgust as she looked at the trees in the distance. "I've got to have some back pay coming."

"What about your crew, Acting Captain?" Jacob asked with anger coating every word.

"Total loss. The toxic food turned them wild." he lied through his teeth. "They propped me up here in some kind of ritual behavior. "Waiting for a chance to signal has been hell."

Her fists tightened as she heard Jacob speak again. "That's the best you can do?"

"You let all your people talk back like that… uh… who are you exactly?" Ronald asked as she turned around.

"Commander Shepard of the Normandy." she introduced with venom as she crossed her arms. "I believe you are acquainted with Mr. Taylor."

In that instant she saw emotions from confusion, to fear go across the disgusting, now sweating, man's face.

"Taylor?" he said in confusion before turning to the son, Shepard didn't think he disserved. "Jacob? No, not Jacob."

"Why not me?" Jacob asked scornfully as he stepped forward. "Would ten years of this look better to anyone else in the galaxy?"

"You have to understand. This isn't me." the sorry excuse for a human tried to cover as he looked off of the balcony. Probably to avert his eyes from his son. "The realities of command, they change you. I wasn't ready for that."

"Clearly." Plague voiced emotionlessly from where they all came.

"I made sure you were taught right." Ronald continued, ignoring Plague's snide comment, and turned back to the glare Jacob was giving him. "Before I left. I hope to leave it at that."

"I'm not unreasonable Captain." Shepard started calmly and then started reprimanding. "But ten years? What happened?" she finished as she walked off of the balcony to stand next to Plague, as far away from the man as possible.

"Goddamnit, why did you do this to your own crew?" Jacob asked his father in a voice that clearly showed how disgusted he felt at the moment.

Suddnly Shepard heard something to her right and looked to see a group of men walking up the path. Most likely the hunters.

She nodded her head to Plague, who caught on to what she was thinking. In response, he took out his machete and held it in a threatening defensive manner while he aimed at the men with his revolver.

"There was resistance to the plan." Ronald started again. "Mutiny. We had to take a hard line to keep order. And things settled down." he then turned away to look over the balcony as his hands rested on the safety rails. "As the decay set in, we made sure the crew were comfortable. Some even seemed happier. Ignorance is bliss, right? And they were thankful for guidance, like an instinct. Pure authority was… easy. At first." Shepard could see more hunters joined those on the path as he kept talking. To be honest, Shepard couldn't stand his voice anymore. "Months in, the effect lowered inhibitions. They got territorial. Rank, protocol - they couldn't understand. We had to establish dominance." Shepard now turned away to the path and stood next to Jacob. "After a while the perks seemed… normal."

"That's it?" Jacob asked as he took a step forward. "You created a harem and played king! Ten years in a juvenile fantasy?"

"I can't point to were it all went wrong." Ronald remarked tiredly as he turned back to them and stood in front of the Cerberus operative. "But when the beacon was ready, revealing what happened didn't sound like a good idea."

Shepard was tired of this man. "We can help these people." she said to Jacob. "Cerberus could have ships here in days and pull everyone out"

Suddenly, Jacob draw his pistol and aimed at his father with a look of pure disgust and anger on his face, making the man raise his hands in surrender with eyes widened in shock.

"He's not worth the fuel to haul him out, or the air he's breathing." as Shepard triad to calm him down, she couldn't help but notice Plague, eying the seen with interest. "He's damned lucky I don't think he is worth pulling the trigger." he then put the weapon away and leaned in closer to his father. "I don't know who you are. Because you aren't any father I remember."

Shepard visibly relaxed at that. She didn't know what she would have done if Jacob fired. "We'll secure him for an Alliance court. For every year here, he'll have ten to think about…"

"No!" Plague suddenly shouted as he turned on them and quickly made it to Ronald and grabbed the front of his shirt. He then pushed him close to the balcony. Once the man's upper waist was ever the real, he instinctively clung onto the arm as his feet dangled off of the ground.

"You can't do this!" he shouted, fear washing over him.

"101. Stand down!" Shepard ordered as both she and Jacob approached.

"This piece of trash does not disserve your mercy, Boss." he said back with no emotion. "If you two are afraid of the consequences, then allow me to make the galaxy a better place."

"Please. Don't do this!" Ronald begged when Plague lifted him a little more. "I'll serve my time. I'll let them lock me up. Just please don't do this!"

Shepard was about to say something about Plague not sinking to his level, when a static was heard coming from him.

"… always said no." A man's voice spoke. "She even threatened a report if I didn't stop sending messages." at this point, Plague was getting his helmed head as close to the man in his grip as possible, making sure he heard every word. "But now she's so innocent." Shepard then realized it was the audio log Plague found on the Gurnsback. "They all are. And that look she gives when she smiles… It's sure easier now. What's the harm? We're stuck here anyway."

The log ended with Ronald's eyes practically bulging out of his head in both fear and shock. Shepard felt an even stronger sense of disgust while Jacob looked like he felt the same way she did.

"Innocence is bliss, right?" Plague quoted Ronald's earlier words with anger covering every syllable. "I want you to fucking beg for your pathetic life."

"Don't do it." Shepard ordered, causing him to look at her with what she guessed was a puzzled look.

"Why would you want such a sick individual to live?" he asked after a small silence.

At this point, Ronald's eyes were screwed shut as he started mumbling to himself. A little late to start praying.

"Like I said before. It is not our choice." she reminded, making Plague look to the only individual who should have a say at the moment.

"As much as I want him to pay…" Jacob started as he rubbed his temples briefly. "… he is still my father. No matter how much that fact disgusts me." he then looked back to Plague, and his shocked father. "I say he goes away for a long time. If by some miracle he is somehow still alive at the end of his sentence… I'll put him down myself."

That made everyone silent for a few minutes. Shepard thought Plague needed some more convincing until the heap of trash he was holding, was thrown to the ground before her.

"I'm… alive?" Ronald breathed, sounding relieved. Once he looked up to her he started crawling closer. "Thank you. Thank… Ahhh!"

His sentence was cut off by a round hitting the ground before him, preventing him from getting any closer to her. When she looked up, she saw the round came from Plague's revolver that was now aiming right at the man on the ground.

"Any closer to anyone, and I'll end you." he seethed as he fired again, this round going right into Ronald's right ankle, making him holler in pain. "A reminder." Plague finished as he walked past them and started walking down the path, the hunters giving him a wide birth.

Shepard started to walk away and stopped when Jacob did.

"I… I'm sorry, Jacob." Ronald started again, even with his fingers covering the gun wound. "I did the… best I… could."

Jacob started walking again. Shepard thought he wouldn't say anything back, until the man spoke.

"I'm ten years past believing that."

The track back to the shuttle after making sure the hunters wouldn't be hostile any more was quiet. At first they were all confused until they realized Shepard was telling them they were going to be taken home.

Plague and Jacob didn't say a word to on another as they sat across from each other.

It wasn't until Jacob spoke, that the silence ended.

"I'm sorry." he said quietly while looking downward.

"What for?" Plague asked back as he inspected his revolver in his hand.

"What you said earlier." he explained. "When you were preparing me for the worst. I… shouldn't have snapped at you when I did. You were right."

Plague had put his weapon away and looked at the man. "Just because I happened to be right, does not mean I did not disserve what you said."

Jacob suddenly let out a tired chuckle at that. "Why do I get the feeling you have been through something like this before?"

That surprised Shepard. She was wondering while Plague acted the way he did around Jacob, and now she somewhat understood his hidden intentions.

"The only similarities between what happened to you and me, are so miner and insignificant, that it is hardly worth mentioning." he said as his visor opened, showing a tired individual. "I will not lie. I somewhat envy you right now." that shocked the both of them. "Not many get a second chance."

Elsewhere

"How did he do this?" the Enclave soldier shouted as his armored hand slapped the woman before him.

The force of the blow, enhanced by the power armor he wore, made her head snap to the right. Anymore force and she would have broken her neck.

It had been like this for the last few days. She had been captured and tied to one of the seats within the vertibird. The tail end was gone as if it had been cut in half, letting the new world they found themselves in be visible through the large opening.

Outside looked beautiful to the woman. Lush vegetation, clear blue skies. If she looked hard enough she could see what looked like birds flying in the distance. Not carrion birds circling an old kill, but colorful ones that looked beautiful from a distance. First time she saw it she was dumbstruck.

Before her was not the hell given to her and her people by those who nearly destroyed the world with their bombs. Instead she saw beauty and life. Even though she had seen a few of the rare pictures that survived the years, she still had no idea what the plants were, and neither could the woman identify the birds and small animals in the distance.

The Enclave with her acted the same way. They, like her, were taken out of a familiar environment. The only difference was she was restrained and helpless when the men recovered and replaced their confusion with unguided rage. The first day on this world she was beaten by two of them while the other ten watched.

It took her everything she had to muffle the gasps and pain filled groans.

At first they did it because she couldn't defend herself. Her right arm was broken, while she had to guess the pain emanating from her ribs told her a few of them were in the same state. Once they stopped that day she had been drifting in and out of consciousness.

She wanted to see why they stopped and settled for staying motionless and listening to those around her. The pain going through her body made it difficult to pretend to be asleep. The wire holding her wrists and ankles to the seat bit into the flash. They were so tight she could feel a tingling sensation at her fingertips and toes telling her the wires were cutting off blood circulation. Her bad arm was throbbing in pain.

She tried to crack open her eyes and ended up only able to see out of one since the other was too swollen to allow any sight through it.

The armored footsteps were moving farther away to meet the other movements.

She hated the men around her. Every time she ever saw them; they looked at her with eyes that looked as if they saw you as inferior. Everyone was filthy to them, and she wanted nothing more but to give each and every one of them a bullet in the head. Well, eight in the head. Two had groped her when she was first tied to the seat while another had actually dared to rip her leather armor at the chest and fondled her breasts, leaving them exposed to the air. Those three disserved rounds in more painful places. The contact disgusted her and she made this clear when she actually bit his hand and drew blood. Thankfully he removed his gauntlets before she did so. They may act like they were purer then everyone else, but deep down they were just as foul and perverted as a raider. Only difference was the attire. That earned her another slap. Even though her cheek stung, she had a grin on her face before spitting out that metallic taste. Every ounce of pain and discomfort she could inflict upon her captors was like a rare sip of ice cold clean water.

They found her near New Vegas at night and took her by surprise. How they found her in the first place was unknown to her. One minute she was sitting at her campfire ready to drift to sleep, the next she awoke with an armored gauntlet covering her mouth as she was picked up from where she had been sleeping next to the road between two flipped cars. Her hands were held behind her back while her legs did nothing as she kicked them. After they had knocked her out she awoke in the seat. She had only heard of the Enclave before she was abducted, and from what she heard, she didn't really want to meet them in the first place.

At first they had interrogated her. She fought them of course, but one could only take so much pain before something slips. That one little slip made her feel disgusted with herself. They had broken her. She had killed someone she trusted and didn't know how to begin to deal with herself.

The whole reason she was here was simple. She knew the Courier, the vault dweller, the cannibal, the insane savage genius, the one who both freed and helped her with her revenge. The Enclave bogyman known by three numbers.

And she could only guess it was those three numbers that kept that one soldier from going any farther with her. The fear the Bogyman had inserted into the minds of him and his brothers in arms.

If her body was found by the one they feared, and him being the medical expert he was, he would know if she had been raped. Wounds like bruises were common in the world they lived in. It just meant she had survived another day in hell. But if he found out someone had taken advantage of someone he saw as a friend, he would no doubt search even harder to hunt down the ones responsible.

The odds of him finding her body back then were pretty low with the wildlife, but the Enclave still didn't like those odds.

Another slap sent her head to the left suddenly and forced her one useful eye to snap open in shock. She hadn't noticed the soldier in her blind spot.

"How the fucking hell did he get use here?" the man shouted in her face.

The bold man had been doing this since they had arrived a few days ago. Even though she didn't know the answer, she wasn't going to let him know that. She thought they would keep her alive if they thought she had answers to the questions shoved down her throat.

"F… uck… You!" she mumbled at first and yelled at the end once she found the strength to.

She hadn't eaten or drank in days and they knew it. The lack of sustenance was starting to have an effect on her, and occasionally her vision would blur. When they had used her to find 101 they forced her to eat their scraps to survive. Now they ate what rations they had right in front of her. They had even killed some animals they all had never seen before from the surrounding jungle and cooked the meat over a fire just outside. The smell made her mouth water, while her rage boiled.

The only thing that pushed her to fight was the regret of letting the one man she trusted down again. She thought he was dead when she had heard the explosion as her vision went dark. But the way the power armored men acted showed they were not sure if he was dead. She remembered a darkness. A void surrounding her. How long she had been there alone was unknown to her. The darkness, the loneliness. She screamed for what felt like hours to her. Eventually those hours felt like days. Days into weeks. Weeks into years. She wanted someone to be with her, someone to talk to her, someone to tell her she was still alive and that the void she was in was not hell. When she saw the light she had thought she was saved. She had thought God had heard her cries. When she woke up again she expected piece. Instead she got… this!

She could feel the sweat running down her scarred face. Her body ached. The wires cut deeper into her skin with every movement she made.

She looked up to the Enclave and his buddies and gave them what they didn't expect.

She smiled.

Her mind was filled with plans of how to escape, but they each had large flaws. She couldn't escape, but that didn't mean she couldn't relish the fear within the men. The fear left behind by the one and only, 1-O-1.

"He… is going… to kill you." she rasped quietly, making everyone listen carefully. The bold commander next to her simply scowled at what she had said, and slapped her again. This time she felt that familiar metallic taste in her mouth. Her lip was bleeding again. She spat out the blood in her mouth and groggily looked up at the man. "I.. bet… you'll be fir… GAHHH!"

In the middle of her sentence the bold man had jabbed a small baton in her stomach. Not even a second later she felt electricity surging through her body. The remains of the vertibird were filled with her screams and wails. The metal wire burned her flesh, filling the space with the smell of ozone it produced. She screamed until her voice finally cracked, reducing the sound to that of a forced silent cry of pain and misery.

When it stopped she was partially thankful she hadn't eaten or drank for a few days. For if she had, she would have no doubt soiled herself. And the idea of sitting with her leather armored pants full of her own filth almost disgusted her as much as the men who had taken her.

Her form was slouched in the seat and for a moment you could have thought she was dead.

After what felt like an eternity, a sound left her lips and sounded forced and hard to hear do to the strain on her voice box. But they all heard the words clearly before the woman slipped into unconscious.

"The… Plague is… coming… for you… all… And I will… be there… to watch…"

---

Bet you guys didn't see that coming. What could this all mean? Who is this mystory surviver trapped by the , thought to be dead, Enclave?What are the kinks in Shepard's armor? Well I can't tell you now. Sorry.

Anyway it is time for somthing we haven't had in a while. A QUIZ QUESTION!

What is the name of the woman Plague saved on the beach?

See you guys next time.