A/N: Hey everyone, couple things before we start this chapter. First I'd like to thank Herr Wozzeck and DelVarO for helping me out with their dialogue so far and anything else about their characters. The next is this chapter is a bit longer than the others, no reason really, it just is. I suppose I wanted to get to Therum quicker. The next is I have started to read a new story that I really like, if you like Mass Effect and Fallout then give it a try, it's From the Ashes by erttheking. It's got a great AU and a sweet cast of new OC's to hang out with Shepard and the gang, even if you've never played Fallout give it a try! Next thing, do you guys like the Review Response? I like it and will probably keep doing it no matter what you say but I am curious. Last thing is, enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 18
-I'm Not A Merc-

There it is, the Normandy. I slowly walk up to the railing and place my things on the ground, I hear Art do the same as I lean against the railing. I smile as my eyes trace across the beautiful ship, 'Normandy' etched in black against the white hull.

"Wow." Art whispers in awe.

"Yeah." I say back, to busy taking in the Normandy to say more.

We stand there in silence, just looking at the Normandy. The ship that will take us to Feros, Therum, Novaria, Virmire, and Ilos until we catch Saren. This ship will protect us and fight with us, drop us in hot zones and get us from hot zones, and it will do that until the day it dies. That's going to be a tough day, but that day isn't here yet so I don't worry about it. For now, let's test the waters.

"Have you ever seen a ship like this?" I ask, turning to Art.

He pauses for a second before answering. "No, have you?"

"Nope, hell I've only been on two ships in my life." I shrug.

"Really? Only two?"

"Yeah, the last one I was on brought me here." I say, motioning my hands around. "The Citadel."

"And the other?"

I sigh as I remember the other ship, it was on that ship that everything changed, it gave me a new life but it took the old. "A slave barge." I mutter.

Art was about to say something but stopped when I said slave barge, shit he thinks I'm being mopey because of being a slave. I wasn't really a slave but I made it sound like I was, great now I've got him pitying me.

"But that's behind me." I say, cheering up a bit. "Now I've got my own company, great friends and now I'm going on this ship." I say pointing at the Normandy.

Art just smiles at me and nods before turning back to the ship. I hate it when people pity me or treat me differently, I hate special treatment. It's the reason why I haven't told anybody about the cancer, I don't need them treating me differently. I don't even like wearing casts or bandages, anything that makes someone stop and say oh, what happened?

I hear a door open and I turn to see an Udina and Captain Anderson walk out of the elevator and over to the Normandy, standing next to the Normandy's docking cradle to wait for Shepard. Anderson looks at Art and me but doesn't give us a second glance. The Udina however, keeps giving us dirty looks.

Jesus he's a prick. I'm about to give him the finger when I hear the elevator open and turn to see Shepard. The rest of the crew are packed tightly into the elevator and pour out after Shepard, it reminds me of those Japanese train videos where they have to push people into the train to make them fit.

I walk in behind Shepard after grabbing my cases, here we go, onto the Normandy! Shepard motions for us to all go into the Normandy while she talked to Anderson and Udina. I see Shepard and Anderson talk for a bit, then she talks to Udina and I can see she's annoyed but doesn't say anything. After that she packs into the decontamination chamber with the rest of us.

I look around in awe as the wave of white washes over us, it feels great to be here, like going back to your public school after a few years. I notice that Ian, Art, Alex are all doing the same thing, Dylan isn't though because he's been on the ship before. I should ask him what Eden Prime was like, that must have been crazy to be dropped into a warzone.

The decontamination cycle ends and everybody starts to make their way into the Normandy, surprisingly quietly. I'm the last one out and I can't help but look into the cockpit, searching for Joker. I catch him turn back to the Normandy's controls, muttering something about a clown car which makes me smile.

Everybody comes to a stop and I bump into Alex, causing him to turn and glare at me. I ignore him and look over everyone top see Shepard standing in front of the galaxy map, facing everyone with her arms tucked behind her back.

"Welcome to the Normandy." She starts. "This is the CIC, it's where we plot a course and run most of the ships defenses and other systems. Our pilot Joker is in the bridge, which you passed on your way in. Behind me is the galaxy map and behind that is debriefing and communications."

Shepard motions for us to follow her and we all do, like a herd of sheep. She leads us to the doorway to the crew quarters and takes us down the stairs. "This is the crew quarters." Shepard says as she motions to the door in between the two staircases… where the hell did that come from? That wasn't in the game, then again they never needed to have a crew quarters. "Once you're in the door there is your personal lockers and then it separates into the men and women's sleeping quarters and their respective bathrooms, after that is a small gym."

Huh, that's handy. I quickly open the door and set my things down on the ground before sliding them to the lockers, motioning for Art to do the same. He did and we moved on, Shepard showing everyone the rest of the ship. We went through the med bay, mess hall, and more sleeping pods. We rounded the corner and headed down to the vehicle bay and engineering.

"And that's the Normandy." Shepard smiles. "Kaiden and Ashley have their respective posts, the rest of you are free to explore the ship and assist how you see fit. Any questions?"

I see Alex, Art, Ian, and Dylan all raise their hands, but I decide to just yell out. "Where are we headed?"

"We are looking for an asari archeologist, Liara T'Soni." She says, raising her brow at the sudden flow of raised hands. "She's somewhere in the Artemis Tau cluster, we should find her in a day or two. Anything else?" We all shake our heads. "Then you're dismissed."

Everyone heads off on their own, Wrex goes to his crates, Ashley and Dylan go to the lockers, Garrus and Ian go to the Mako, Alex and Kaiden head to the elevator and Tali shyly walks into engineering with Shepard. Leaving me with Art.

"I'm going to go put my shit away, you can come if you want." I sigh. "You don't have to come up though, I'll be back soon." I tell him, hoping he stays here.

"I'm sure I'll find something to do." Art smirks, I nod at him and chase after Kaiden and Alex, just barely getting into the elevator.

"Where's your friend?" Alex snickers, Kaiden smirking as I furrow my brow.

"Yeah yeah." I moan as I wave him off. "You're just pissed because if the whole 'Blue Suns' incident, which you never thanked me for by the way."

"Thanked you?!" Alex gapes in disbelief and anger. "You threw me out of a window, asshole!" he yells, pointing at me. "Then you fucking left me there while I was bleeding out!"

"I saved you out the window!" I snap back. "You were going to use bed sheets! The building was exploding, you weren't sneaking out after curfew!"

"I would have repelled down! Jumping down is so much worse than that, especially with the injury I had!"

"No its not!" I scoff, suddenly remembering what happens in his story. "You would've fallen on your ass!"

"Hey." Kaiden cuts in.

"You don't know that! And at least a small warning would've been so much nicer to have!" Alex yells, ignoring Kaiden.

"I said ground floor!"

"Enough!" Kaiden growls, grabbing Alex and pulling him back while shoving me away. He glares at the two of us, not angry but disappointed. "You have been on this ship less than half an hour and you're already fighting. If there is one thing I know about Shepard, it's she wants her crew to get along. If you're fighting up here I can't imagine what would happen down there."

Kaiden's right, Shepard brought us here to help not to argue like a bunch of kids. Great, now I feel like an ass. I look at Alex and see he looks like me, he looks a little bit guilty and ashamed.

"Act like you belong here." He says as the elevator door opens and he walks out.

I look at Alex, not quite sure what to say so I don't say anything. I walk out of the elevator and head into the locker room, grabbing my things as I do. I find a locker and start to place my things in it, starting with my clothes and ending with my scotch. I keep the meds out though, I really should take it before I forget. I load a dose into the needle and put the rest away, taking the needle through the sleeping quarters and into the bathroom.

I take off my chest plate and vest, unsealing the under armor enough to get an arm out. I run the needle along my arm until the light goes green and with a small sharp hiss, I'm done. I place the needle on the counter and stretch my arm back into my armor. I think I'll leave the vest and plate off, not really a need for it on the ship. I'd change into my clothes but I don't want to keep Art waiting so I just hold my vest and plate.

I make sure I have my needle and go back into the locker room, shit which locker did I put my stuff in? probably the one with a blank name plate, how do I put my name in there? I start looking for a button, tapping things until a display pops up. I enter 'Maverick' and open the door, quickly stashing the needle back in its home and tucking the case behind everything else. There, that should keep it hidden.

I turn around and take half a step before I run into someone.

"Jesus Christ!" I yell as I jump back. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Jumpy are we?" Garrus sneers. "I wonder why?"

"Damn it, Garrus." I say snidely. "I'm not doing this, I've got places to be."

I try to go around him but he sidesteps into my way, blocking me from getting to the door. "I've got a question for you." He goes on, pressing be back with the tips of his talons as I look down at his hand. "Something that's been on my mind for a while now, just what were you doing at Saleon's clinic?"

"First thing." I say, still staring at his hand on my chest. "Get your fucking claw off of me." I seethe as I look at him, peeling his hand off me and dropping it at his side. "Second, what I do is my business, if you don't like it then you can fuck off." I push past him, shoving him aside with my shoulder.

The door closes behind me and I hit the button to call up the elevator, muttering 'asshole' as I wait. I hear footsteps behind me and I turn around to tell Garrus to go away but I see Alex standing there.

"Garrus?" he asks in a knowing tone.

"Yeah man." I sigh, running my hand over my face and through my hair. "Did he question you too?"

"Yeah." He nods as the elevator opens, we both walk inside and he leans on the bar as I hit the button. "Asking about the explosion, and the Suns. What was he harassing you about?"

"He saw me at Saleon's clinic." I explain. "Don't know why he gives a shit though." I add, pretending I don't know what Saleon will do. Alex immediately picks up on Saleon's name though and starts to stare at me suspiciously.

"Saleon?" he asks, trying to be casual about it and it would have worked if I didn't know that he knew. "Who's that?"

"Some doctor, did some really interesting work with genetics so Icarus was planning on acquiring him." I tell him, bending the truth. "But he just left, we never heard from him so we left it." I shrug. I decide to change the subject. "How's the girl?"

"Girl?"

"I was there remember?" I smirk. "Security cams on the top floor, I saw you and the turian come in the lobby. Is she ok?"

Alex raises his brow at me, pausing before he smiles. "Yeah, she's fine. A bit shook up but nothing more."

The door to the elevator opens and we both walk out, Alex starts to head to engineering but I call out and make him stop. "Hey!" he turns to me and I sigh and shake my head. "I'm sorry, for leaving you in that alley."

He seems to think about my apology, torn on whether or not to accept it. He finally looks up to me and nods his head. "It's fine. Besides, if I heard right it was your friends idea. Still, a little warning would be nice next time. Not that I want a next time." He quickly adds with a smirk.

"Yeah." I laugh as I extend my hand, Alex taking it and giving it a firm shake. "Besides Ivan, us criminals have to stick together!" I wink with a grin. Alex laughs his agreement as he walks off into engineering.

I turn to walk up to Art who is standing next to Ashley, talking to her about something. Great, it's poetry, I'm not a huge fan of poetry, why the hell would you write about something when you could go out and see it. Maybe I'm just ignorant… but I'm sure as hell not going to write about it though.

"Hey!" I yell sharply behind Art causing him to jump as he turns around. I snap my rifle off of my chest plate and shove it into his arms. "Story time's over Dr. Seuss, time to get you combat ready."

"Dr. Seuss?" he remarks at me pre Mass Effect reference.

"Yeah, green eggs and ham?" I shake my head as I pack my chest piece, helmet, and vest into an empty locker next to Ashley's station.

"I… was talking about Lorca, actually…"

"Lorca?" I ask, cocking my head at him.

"You know, Federico Garcia Lorca?"

"No." I shake my head. "I don't know."

"Spanish poet?"

I stare at Art blankly, my mouth slightly agape. He sighs to the side, annoyed but not surprised I don't know about this Lorca guy. I tap him on the shoulder and smile, moving past my lack of knowledge about dead poets.

"Tell me later. But for now baby bird, it's time to learn how to fly!"

"Baby bird?" his head cocks to the side, unsure of the nickname.

"Ha!" Ashley laughs. "I've never seen a merc train anyone before, should be worth a laugh."

"I'm not a merc." I correct as I point at her, my finger quickly scans over to Art. "You, let's go."

We walk over to the center of the vehicle bay and I turn around to face Art. "Point the gun at me." I say as I motion to myself.

"W-what?"

"Point the gun at me." I say slowly, still pointing at myself.

"Uh… Ooookaaaaay…" Art starts to point my Lancer at me, very slowly and hesitantly, making sure his finger is off the trigger. I take a look at the way he is holding the gun, it looks like he's got the gist of it but there are still a few problems. Nothing serious thankfully.

"Not bad." I nod, slowly circling him as he stays in his stance. "You have your back arched though, fix that. If you don't the recoil of your shot will point your gun at the sky."

Art quickly hunches his back over, closer to the correct stance but it's a bit off. "Give me this for a second." I say as I take the Lancer, placing it on the ground before I hold both of my hands up at him. "Grab my hands." I say as I flex my hands at him.

"Why?"

"Just do it." I sigh. He grabs my hands and stares at me with a confused look. "Good." I start to push on his hands and he quickly adjusts his stance so he won't fall, he hunches his back over slightly as he plants his feet in a wide brace, resisting my pushing hands. "Perfect, stay like that."

I reach down and pick up the Lancer and place it back in his hands, pushing the stock into his shoulder. "Now when there's recoil," I slam my hand against the barrel of the gun and for the most part it stays pointed forward. "it will be absorbed into your body, not flung up to the ceiling because of your arched back. Now, let's shoot some stuff!"

Art is a pretty good shot, I didn't expect him to do as well as he did to be honest. We quickly moved past that and I showed him how to take apart the rifle, showing him all of the internals and inner workings of the gun. Again to my surprise, he picks this up pretty quickly too. I quickly start to put him into pressured shooting, which is him trying to shoot targets while I scream Full Metal Jacket quotes into his ears. At one point I lobbed a flashbang down the course, just to see how he would react. As it turns out, Ashley was more pissed at this then Art, I should have probably warned her.

"Well, you should be good with your guns." I shrug, taking back my Lancer and packing it into my locker. "Time to move on."

"I'm ready, what is it?" he says, full of determination.

I smile evilly as I walk up to him, staring down from my six feet, five inches to his five feet seven inches. "Sparring."

I see Arts determination waver slightly as he looks up at me. He's almost a foot shorter than me, actually all of the story people are short. Maybe I'm just tall, that's all I fucking heard back home anyway.

"Ok." he nods, mentally preparing himself to fight. "What style?"

I chuckle darkly as I grin from ear to ear. "You ever been in a bar fight?"

"Um… I haven't even stepped into a bar before." he shakes his head, taking my question out of context.

I'm about to berate Art for never being in bar when I hear snickering from behind me and I turn to see Ashley looking at me like I'm an idiot. "I think I'll take it from here seeing as I actually know how to fight." She says as she walks over to us.

"I know how to fight." I defend, crossing my arms.

"No, you've been in fights, you don't know how to fight." She says smugly. "Wouldn't want him to pick up any bad merc habits, besides you've been called to the med bay for a physical."

"I'm not a merc." I tell her sternly before turning back to Art. "I've got one more thing for you after this, something little miss sunshine here couldn't dream of teaching you."

Ashley rolls her eyes as she waves for Art to follow her as I walk off, Ashley is probably better to teach him that anyway, she was right in a sense.

I walk up to the elevator and head up to the med bay, watching Art and Ashley train as the door closes. The ride up is excruciatingly long, with nobody to talk to I'm reminded how slow the elevators are in Mass Effect. This ship is full of people, including extra people that shouldn't be here, how is there nobody in this elevator?

The door opens and I'm greeted by Shepard, she looks at me and smiles warmly. Then she looks around and frowns before an evil smirk crosses her face. "Where's Art?"

"Training hand to hand with Williams." I shrug. "It's probably for the best, she knows some sort of technique and I'm more of a brawler, plus I need to get a physical."

"How is Art doing?"

"Better than I thought, he's actually a pretty good shot." I nod. "He says it's something to do with playing the viola. Don't ask him about it though, he loves that shit so he doesn't stop talking about it."

"I'll try to remember that." Shepard rolls her eyes. "Enjoy your physical."

"Yeah." I scoff as I walk away from Shepard. "Enjoy… whatever it is that you're doing." I wave as I walk to the med bay. The walk is short and when I get to the med bay to see Dylan walk out. He nods at me as we pass and I walk in to see Dr. Chakwas.

"Mr. Matticks I presume?" Chakwas asks as she looks at a datapad.

"That is correct!" I smile as I walk up to her. "You're Dr. Chakwas right?"

"That is correct." She says as she continues to look over the datapad. "You're going to have to remove your armor, do you have something underneath?"

"Yeah." I chuckle. "You do this with every new guy?"

"Much to my enjoyment Mr. Matticks." She smiles dryly as I strip down to my boxers. "Now we have a few… oh dear." She says in shock as she looks at me.

Why is she looking at me like that? I follow her gaze down at my body and finally see what the problem is. My bruises from the explosion are now a sickly yellow, I can still see the outlines of my pouches and plates and even around my shin plates and leg pouches. Top that all off with the gunshot wound on my arm and I'm a fucking mess. "Yeaaaah…" I sigh as I rub the back of my neck. "I may or may not have survived and explosion."

"It seems to be the former." She says as she walks up and pokes at my bruised chest. "There are no burst blood vessels so there shouldn't be any internal damage, we might as well check while you're here. Better safe than sorry."

"I'm fine really." I tell her as I walk over to a table Chakwas is motioning to. "You don't need to worry about it."

"Nonsense Mr. Matticks." She says, dismissing me completely as she rests her hand on my shoulder to get me to lie down. "It's my job to worry about it, now, how did this happen?"

"I was in a building, and it exploded." I say casually. "Knocked my ass up a whole floor too, I got out alive."

"Clearly." She smirks, she pushes a button and a fancy MRI like arm starts to scan over me. After a minute the arm comes to a stop and I sit up.

"Well, what's the word doc?" I smile.

"Well there's no internal hemorrhaging, you are extremely lucky to have only escaped with some bruises." She says as she looks through the datapad. "I'm not going to ask about the gunshot wound on your arm, I'll only say that it should be healed in a week or two."

"Sounds good." I nod. "What's next?"

"I'm just going to confirm some things noted here in your file."

The next few minutes are me answering questions about things like allergies and broken bones, simple medical history. Chakwas is nice throughout the whole thing, I enjoy her dry British wit. Then it gets to the point that I'm not looking forward to.

"Is there any other things I should know about Mr. Matticks?" she asks with a smile.

"Well, sometimes I stub my toe and the nails a bit messed up, I drink constantly but not a lot, I've been diagnosed with ADB cancer a couple weeks ago, I smoke cigars now and then but not religiously so I think I'm fine, aaaaaand that's about it." I nod as I list off things about myself.

I look up at Chakwas and see I have failed to hide my cancer from her, I don't know how it's not on my file, maybe it's only on my biotic file right now and they haven't updated my personal file. Lazy office administration if you ask me, it's the future, that stuff should be instant.

"You have ADB cancer?" she asks softly, getting a nod from me. "I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry about." I shrug. "You had nothing to do with it."

"Does the commander know about your… condition?"

"No." I say quickly. "Nobody knows about this except for you, me, and the doctor who told me. I want to keep it that way."

"Are you sure?" she asks. "There are many support groups to help you get through this and it always helps to have your friends support."

"Support comes with pity." I tell her. "I don't want that to tell you the truth, I don't need people looking down on me even if it's to help me up. I can do this on my own."

"I'm sure the commander would be…"

"No." I interrupt. "Please, I… I don't need help. You can't tell anybody about this, ok?"

Dr. Chakwas gives me a look of disapproval before sighing. "If that's what you really want I won't stand in your way."

"Thank you." I say as I stand up. "I appreciate it."

"Have gotten the medication to prep for the surgery?"

"Yes, I'm taking it daily." I say as I start to pull on my armor. "One year and then I can get rid of this."

"I wish you luck." She smiles. "Just one last thing, which implant do you have installed? I would assume the L3?"

"You know what they say about assuming." I smirk as I tighten my pants around my waist. "I don't have an implant, and before you say anything, it would be easier for you to read it in my biotic alert file, thing… I don't actually know what it's called." I admit, slightly embarrassed. "Long story short, a ships eezo core leaked on me and due to my unique immune system I developed biotics without dying."

"Have you considered an implant?"

"I… no, I guess I haven't." How the hell have I not gotten an implant yet? I've been here for how long and have been using my biotics for how long? "I would like to though, I would like that very much so."

"Alright. There can be complications, like any surgery, but most of them are a rarity." She says as she starts playing on her Omni-tool. "I will look through your files and look over the tests I've run today, I will let you know in a few days."

"Cool, let me know." I say as I check myself to make sure I have everything. "Take care doc."

"You too Matticks."

I walk out of the med bay and pass Alex on the way in. I give him a quick nod and make my way to the elevator.

It took me a while to find Art and Ashley, I ended up having to make my way back up the elevator and into the gym behind the crew quarters. I walk in and see the two sparring, Art mimicking the jabs Ashley throws as she talks him through it.

"How's it going?" I ask as I take a seat on a bench press.

"Good." Ashley grunts as she throws another punch. "He learns quickly."

"Well you're a good teacher." Art compliments as he throws a right hook, missing Ashley by inches.

"That's good that you're learning." I say honestly.

"What about you?" Ashley says as she blocks a hit from Art.

"What about me?" I ask.

"Do you want to learn how to fight?"

"I know how to fight." I sneer.

Ashley smirks as she dances around Art. "There's that merc charm, you think pretty highly of yourself don't you?"

"Uhh yeah, I do." I say cockily. "And I'm not a merc."

Ashley and Art stop sparring and look at me, Ashley with a smug grin on her face and Art just looks plain tired. "You think you're good enough to take me?" she asks, a smirk tugging at her mouth

"Yeah." I nod at her with a smug grin. "I can take you."

"Why do you say it like that?" she asks, seemingly offended. "Because I'm a girl?"

"Please Williams." I scoff as I shake off my shoulders and shift my weight left to right. "I've fought way deadlier chicks then you." I say, running my fingers along my throat as I remember tangling with Miranda.

Ashley rolls her eyes and she brings up her fists, I mimic her actions as I bob up and down. We square off on each other and the mood suddenly shifts to a serious tone.

I decide to wait for Ashley to make the first move and it doesn't take long for her to make it. She throws a series of quick jabs, the first two smacking off of my forearm before I dance backwards out of the way only to quickly jump forward into a jab of my own. I feel my fist brush against her hair just as a series of blows collide with my exposed ribs.

Instead of backing off I step forward, pushing Ashley back with a rough shoulder. Normally those hits wouldn't hurt, well, they would hurt it just wouldn't be something worth complaining about. But with my bruises it stings, apparently enough for me to make a face because Ashley has a shit eating grin on her face.

"What's wrong?" she teases as she starts to quickly strafe around me. "The big bad merc can't take a hit?"

"I'm not a merc." I say, my body pivoting on my heel so I am constantly facing Ashley. "And trust me, I've been hit way worse than that."

"I can tell." She smiles.

"Take notes baby bird." I say off to the side to Art. I quickly launch myself forward, throwing a jab into Ashley's defending arms. She continues to skirt around but I follow her, throwing punch after punch into her defense, searching for a crack in her defense.

Ashley suddenly swipes my right hand to the side, launching her hand into my jaw. Jesus she actually hits pretty hard, like being hit with a little hammer. I have to keep pressing though so instead of tucking my right hand back in to defend my face I swing it hard into Ashley, my thumb sliding under her armpit and my fingers griping her shoulder. With a yell I shift all of my weight and toss Ashley to the side, knocking her off balance.

She rolls to her feet as I scurry towards her, throwing another punch in her face's general direction. She sidesteps and fires off a few more shots into my ribs, I flinch with a snarl as I pull back my right arm and send my fist smashing into her arms. My blow manages to roll off of her arm and connect, I'm not sure where it hit and it didn't have nearly the power I wanted but it got through.

Unfortunately this only seems to anger Ashley because she fires off immediately and sends a hailstorm of punches, each one getting closer to my head then the last. Finally one breaks through and claps off my cheek. I stumble back and another blow worms its way around my forearms and into my face, each one clouding my vision. It takes every ounce of effort on my part not to use biotics, that would be cheating and I already have her beat in weight, height, and reach.

This doesn't stop her from attacking me relentlessly though, finally she swings in a wide right hook and leaves herself open. I tuck my head under her arm and growl as I slam my right hand into her stomach causing Ashley to double over with a grunt. I spin around and shove her onto her back and jump on top of her, attempting to straddle her waist but unfortunately she brings up her knee…

Right into my groin.

A small squeak escapes my mouth as pain tears through my… manhood, causing me to fall to the side with the help of Ashley's palm smacking against my ear. With the pain in my crotch and the ringing in my ear I am reduced to taking up the fetal position, desperately trying to fend Ashley off. I raise my arm up, trying to slow the salvo.

Suddenly to my surprise my hand closes around Ashley's fist and without wasting anytime I rip her down to her knee and launch my other hand upwards. I feel it crack against something hard and hear Ashley's body crumple down to the ground next to me, a soft moan letting me know I hit something good.

We both lay there, groaning and writhing in pain. Each of us trying to get off our feet but having no luck, just lying on the ground and rolling around.

"Umm, are you two ok?" Art asks, it sounds like he's standing over us.

"I've… got him… on the ropes Art… don't worry..."

"Don't listen to her… uhh, baby bird… ya hear that… it's the, ugh, comeback train baby… woo woo…"

"Sure, and I'm the king of England." he scoffs. "You done? 'Cause I'm pretty sure you are."

"No way man… I just gotta… get up… then she's done for…"

"Yeah right… you just a merc… I'm a marine… it was over before it, mnmm, started…"

"Yeah, yeah, keep talking you two," Art huffs, looking shamefully at Ashley and me. "I'm going to get you two some water. Just… just stay here."

"You better… bring a body bag… baby bird…"

"Get a big one… the merc is a big boy… who hits like a salarian…"

"Not… a merc…"

I hear Art breathe a heavy sigh. "Behave." He says sternly as he walks out of the room.

Ashley and I lay there for a minute, breathing heavily before we rise slowly to our feet. Ashley wipes the sweat off her forehead and then her upper lip, a smear of red stretching from the corner of her mouth. I wearily bring my fists up, spiting phlegm and blood onto the clean steel floor. She looks at me and raises her own fists, beckoning me to attack.

I stumble forward, determined to beat her but I hear a voice shout out.

"Oh, Jesus Christ on—are you two serious?" Art moans. "That's enough!" he shouts as he pulls me back, almost knocking me back down to the ground. He places a bottle of water in each of our hands and walks off into the locker room.

Ashley and I quickly relax and drink until there's no water, by the time we are done we seem to have more energy. Ashley seems to have recovered from my haymaker and the ringing in my ear has faded, though the pain down below still lingers.

I toss my water bottle to the side and look at the Alliance marine before me, I expect her to take up arms against me again but she holds out her hand with a smirk. "Not bad, for a merc." She says slyly.

"Not bad." I reply with a smirk, grasping her hand and giving it a firm shake. "For a girl."

After I shower and change into my regular clothes I make my way down into the vehicle bay, Art standing next to Ian and Garrus by the Mako. Great, I really don't want to have to put up with Garrus's shit right now, I motion for Art to come over to me but he lifts his finger for me to wait.

I walk over past Wrex to put away my armor and boots, once I'm done with that I double back to Wrex.

"Hey Wrex." I say cheerily as I walk up to him.

"Heard you got beat by a girl." He says bluntly.

"It was a draw." I scoff, I turn my head and yell my next words so Ashley could hear. "The only reason I didn't win is because she hit below the belt!"

Ashley rolls her eyes and goes back to cleaning her weapon and Wrex grunts.

"You shouldn't have let her." he shrugs. "Only a whelp forgets to protect his quad."

"Then I guess that makes me a whelp doesn't it?"

"Yeah, it does." Wrex agrees.

"Then I guess I have to prove myself, again." I smirk, I turn to see Art waiting for me in the middle of the vehicle bay, waiting for me. "That'll have to wait." I say as I walk to Art.

"Alright baby bird." I say as a clap my hand together eagerly. "Are you ready?"

"Are you always gonna call me that?" Art sighs as he shakes his head. "And you still haven't told me what we're doing here."

"Who are we going to be fighting?"

"The geth." He says simply.

"Who else?"

He thinks for a moment, probably thinking back to Mass Effect 1. "Matriarch Benezia."

"You got it baby bird." I smile. "And what does Benezia have?"

"Comman..." He replies instantly, dread streaking over his face. "Shit."

"Yeah, shit is right. So I'm going to train you how to avoid biotics." I smile.

"Avoid?"

"Yeah, like dodge ball." I laugh. "Because we all know that you can't overpower biotics, but there are quirks and ways to get around it that will help you get a shot off."

"Uh… Okay..." Art says, determined as always.

"Good." I say as I walk around him. I start to flick my hands around the room, each flick tossing a pull into a crate. After a few seconds, the whole vehicle bay is littered with crates. I jog my way over to the far end and turn around to face Art. "Now, if you can tag me without getting hit, then I can personally guarantee you that you can get a shot off on a commando!"

"Yeah, I really don't think this'll help, you masochist!" He calls back.

"You can't hide behind your big words baby bird! Now, pay attention to how the biotics bend, when they can and can't bend and when I need to pause to rest! This will help you move at the right times and not get hit with, god forbid, a warp!" I shout, remembering what a warp can do to the human body. "Your combat readiness is my first priority! The fact that I will enjoy this is a bonus!"

Two days later, two long fucking days of training Art, shooting with Art, throwing crates at Art, it is finally time. Shepard came down to check on Art and approved his combat readiness, it actually made me feel pretty good about myself but I bet you any money that that was the happiest day of Arts life. The guy couldn't stop smiling when Shepard said he was good to go and gave him his own armor and weapons.

I was in the middle of taking a shower when my Omni-tool lit up, it was Shepard saying to report to the briefing room. I quickly washed the soap and shampoo off of me and pull on my clothes, I jog through the crew quarters and rifle threw my locker. I look around to make sure I'm alone before loading a dose into the auto needle and injecting it into my arm.

I make my way upstairs, finding out I'm the last one to get into the briefing room. I look around awkwardly as everybody stares at me.

"Nice of you to join us Maverick." Shepard smirks. "As I was saying, Dr. Liara T'Soni has been located on Therum, the planet has multiple hazards including geth resistance. I will lead a small team to Liaras location via the Mako, the team will be Garrus, Ian, Tali, Dylan, and myself. We will move quickly and quietly and strike with accuracy. Any questions?"

What? I'm not going? This… this sucks, I've been training and getting Art ready to fight. I look over to him and see he looks just as disappointed as I am, he nods at me slowly and I nod back. I feel his pain, we were so ready for this. Maybe next time, until then I guess I'll have to keep training art.

A chorus of no ma'am's ring out and with that the meeting is adjourned, we all walk out, some of us ready to fight and some of us disappointed we can't fight. Either way, we head to the lockers. Once we get down there everyone else armors up, and I stand next to Alex and Art.

"This sucks man." I shake my head. "I want to go down there."

"I'm with you." Alex nods as he crosses his arms. "I joined with crew to kick ass and take names. To help out the ground team. Instead I'm sitting on my ass here, doing nothing."

"Shepard has her reasons, notice who she picked." Art says as he points to the people getting ready. "They are infiltrators, people who move fast and precisely, snipers and hackers. She wants to get in and out quickly and quietly, you aren't the people to bring for that."

"And what do you mean by that?" Alex shoots at Art, glaring at him.

"Yeah baby bird." I say, crossing my arms as I side with Alex. "Enlighten us."

Art looks at the two of us and thinks to find the right words. "You two are good fighters, but you lack… finesse. You're reckless."

"I prefer the term aggressive." I nod.

"I suppose he's right... somewhat. I'm sure I can be sneaky if I need to be." Alex sighs. "We all have strengths, she needs a strength we don't have. This totally sucks."

"Yeah." I nod. "Can you picture Wrex tip toeing around, hacking through doors and crawling through vents?"

The two smirk at this as we watch everyone else pack into the Mako, and in another minute the doors to the Normandy open and it drives out into the ashy void of Therum.

Less than thirty minutes in, Kaiden rushes over towards me. "Get your armor on."

"Why?" I ask, now jogging next to him towards the lockers.

"The Mako was lost, something about using it at a bridge to cross a lava river."

"Oh, ok." I remember Ian doing that in his story, I can't remember why but it's not important now.

"You're not surprised?" Kaiden asks, pulling his under armor on as I do the same.

"No." I deadpan. "How do we get down there?"

"Shepard's bogged down by geth, if she had the Mako," Kaiden seems irked at the loss of the tank. "she would have no problem but on foot she wants insurance."

"We're the insurance." I finish, clicking my boots to my shin guards.

"Yeah." Kaiden rasps. "The LZ she chose is a geth base they are clearing out but there are too many drop ships for the Normandy to land, we're going to HALO jump in."

I click my chest plate on and grab my helmet, turning to Kaiden to see Ashley and the rest of the crew walk up to us. I've heard of a HALO jump, but I quite can't remember what it is.

"What's a HALO jump?"

I see Kaiden turn to Ashley and Ashley's face twists into a smile.

"What?" I ask looking at Ashley, not sure why she is smiling. "Why are you smiling?"

"What's up? Something happened?" Alex interrupts as he walks up to us, wearing standard Alliance armor.

"Do you know what a HALO jump is?" I ask, ignoring the snickering Alliance troops.

"No! Just… no!" the color drains from his face rapidly and he turns to the alliance troops. "You realize this planet has lava lakes and lava rivers, right? Lava planet! What if we… miss?"

"What are you talking about?" I ask but Alex turns to yell at Kaiden and Ashley to yell at them about the HALO jump.

"Why is Alex yelling at Kaiden and Ashley?" Art asks as he jogs up to me.

"Something about a HALO jump." I shrug. "Do you know what that is?"

"It sounds familiar." Art nods. "But I can't put two and two together, I'm sure it'll be fine."

"Alex doesn't seem to think so." I chuckle pointing at Alex.

"ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY?!"

Art shrugs at this as he smirks. "Come on, what's the worst that could happen?"

"Aww don't say that." I moan, shaking my head slightly. "Nothing good ever happens when people say that."

Well, time to go to Therum… somehow.

R/R

V-rcingetorix: Semi-pro huh? Got any samples somewhere, I'll give any type of music a try. Some of my friends don't listen to Canadian music, and they're Canadian! I don't like anything just because it's Canadian though, I'm not a fan of Celine Dion but I know what you mean. Not all music is good, most of it is good and people don't like it so they call it bad, which irritates me. Back to the story then, yeah I thought it would be an interesting idea especially the way the characters decisions conflict with one another. Thank you my good sir, to be honest I'm a two finger typist, pecking at the keys like a bird!

CrimsonKnight117: For sure! Garrus despises any criminal, thus why he became archangel. I haven't planned any prolonged conversations with Joker but there might be some short ones here and there!

XRaiderV1: Thanks man, hope you like this chapter too!

Sprirtstrike: I love SI's personally, just the way different people react to the same situations, it probably explains how I can still play Mass Effect today, I just pick what I've never done before! Yeah, you can thank Herr Wozzeck himself for the name, I thought it was pretty badass! Not quite sure what the Mav/Art relationship is right now but next to Mav/Lorin they get along well enough, Mav doesn't have many friends on the Normandy if you step back and look at it, hell he probably has more enemies then friends! Yeah the whole Garrus situation won't be getting any better any time soon, Garrus isn't one to drop things like that. I really liked each of these SI's, try to give them another read if you can, but nothing is for everybody.

general-joseph-dickson: You think it deludes it? Maybe at this point but I have big plans for each character, good and bad, and each one will effect Mav in a way that the ME story could never do. The focus will always be on Mav, don't you worry sir, though I see how you could.

.77: I honestly thought of having Mav shoot Lorin, but I decided against it in the end. Plus Lorin's one of my favorite characters (he seems to be quite popular with everybody) so I couldn't kill him. Thanks man, I will try my hardest!

Kalikedeshi Terminal Velocity: I have no idea, it really bugged me in the other stories. Just make up a damn name! I did! Well the last name anyway, but to each his own. I have a plan for the fade, I've got a plan for everything and everyone and by the end of this story you will either love me or hate me for what I did, probably both.

In caverns dark: I see where you're coming from, but honestly it's a logical move. Obviously it's going to suck but it's about the bigger picture in the end. What's that saying? The ends justify the means? Rather fitting if I do say so myself! I can promise you there will be no 2 years of faffing, Icarus has big things in its future and Mav will help take it there!

OBSERVER01: There's a little action for ya, the next chapter will have a few good firefights, scouts honor! Probably paragon with a bit of renegade here and there, I'll be writing Shepard how I played her.

Kaiya Smith: Trust me, I will show you just how hard Garrus's head can be! Reading that now though, that could be taken out of context but fuck it, I'm leaving it in. Possibly, Art's a smart cookie who is also a ME fan. One can only make comparisons. I'm sure it will get lumped with monster until we actually find alien life, hopefully we find them and they don't find us, the law of nature dictates a fight so let's hope we're the big dog!

Triggs: Thanks man, if you want to see a truly overpowered character read the first chapter of Mass Effect: Parallel Realities. A good idea but it's a Mary Sue if I've ever seen one, even though I just recently learned what that meant. Thanks, I look forward to hearing what you think!

Guest1: Great idea! Surprisingly Mass Vexations is the only one that's done (Welcome to the Family is technically done but that's a slippery slope, it's sad it wasn't finished entirely) so I look forward to reading the rest when they come out. Don't know when Mav will tell them, probably later then you'd think.

Guest2: It's all in the plan my friend, I've got Mass Anomalies 1 planed out entirely and the rest have some pretty solid bulletins. Ahh so much planning, if you could only see my authors notes for the story, you would probably be upset and happy at the same time. You are wise to keep the spoilers to a minimum, that's a great story that everyone should read!

new reader: Glad you're hooked man! Like I've told people before you, it all planned out my friend! Just sit back and enjoy the ride! I will definitely try!

DelVarO: Yes, let it begin! Haha, thank Wozzeck for that man, Arturo Rodriguez was all him! You shall my friend, not all of those things will be good though! ;)

Niras91: I'm sure I have some flaws somewhere, my ego is too big to see them but I'm sure other have noticed! Let me know where you use it, if it's on this site I will check it out! Thanks for the play-by-play! It made me laugh!

Mikle Silver: Glad you like it!

Mikle Silver: To much time is wasted on paranoia, Mav lives on a "Fuck it" diet and you're not the first to call him a moron! Naw Mavs not stupid, maybe ignorant but he knows his shit when it matters! Thanks man!