A/N: Alright people, new chapter! Not too long of a wait on this one, I've had longer waits. On an unrelated note, RAGE is a pretty good game and I'll probably incorporate some of the tech into Mass Anomalies. Nothing big, just wingsticks really, because they're fucking awesome! Only one more thing to tell you before we get going, a teaser for things to come really. I had an idea that will happen in the next chapter, it's called: Icarus Database and it will be short little files or dossiers on Icarus staff, milestones, tech, and other Icarus related things. I think it'll help paint a better picture of the things Icarus will be doing/creating/destroying in the future and add depth and insight on your favourite Icarus employees! Maverick will be first, but I might as well ask who you would like to see next? So let me know who you'd like to learn more about in a review or PM, I'll be getting to everyone but I think I'll give you guys the reins on the order they come out. Now then, here's the next chapter!

Chapter 20
-A Nightmare-

"I'm fine." I grunt as I start to shuffle to the elevator, brushing Art off as he tries to help me.

"You are clearly not fine." Art counters as he grabs my shoulder, annoyed that I don't want his help.

"I didn't get shot in the leg, I can walk." I grumble, shrugging Arts hand off of me.

"Anybody who is wounded," Shepard calls out, sudden authority booming in her voice. "head directly to the med bay. People who are not wounded, we will meet in debriefing in five."

I start to make my way through the crowd of crew members, most of them still talking about the mission and the others heading to the elevator to go to the med bay. We all crowd in and I take in a deep breath, immediately regretting it as my stomach flares in agony.

"Uhh, are you alright?" I hear Alex ask from my left.

"…fine…" I wince as I press my hand harder against my stomach in an effort to quell the pain, it doesn't quite work.

"He's not fine, he's stubborn." Art says as he crosses his arms, making sure to keep one hand on his bullet wound.

"I'm fine…" I mutter, shooting an irritated glance at Art.

"I've gotta go with Art on this one." Alex says as he wipes the blood from his brow, pointing at my feet. "You're leaking."

I look down and narrow my eyes at the dots of blood littering the floor at my feet. "Ah shit…" I grimace as I look at the blood. I notice that some of the pouches have holes torn through them, the folds of ripped fabric are blown inward. My bloodied glove starts to pull grenades out of my pouches, by the time I'm done I find that five of my remaining grenades are ruined and one of my flashbangs is torn up. I guess these saved my life, they could have just have easily exploded and ripped me apart like a piece of meat but they didn't.

The elevator ride is slow, hell the door just closed. Ashley and Ian didn't come with us, it's just Art Alex and I, I suppose they weren't bleeding so they fit into the 'walk it off' section of wounded people. Fuck standing here, I need to take a look at the damage done to my already fucked up body.

I unclasp my chest plate and let it fall to the ground, the dented metal clanging loudly of the elevators steel. I start to take off my vest and try not to agitate the pains growing in my abdomen, good god this pain is unbearable, it feels like something is trying to burn its way inside of me. My brain doesn't like this, I know because I can feel it trying to knock me out, weighing down my eyelids and slowing my breathing. Either that or it's trying to kill me so I won't have to feel this pain, I can't be sure though so I fight it.

"What are you doing?" Art asks as he watches me methodically removing my armor.

"Taking off my armor." I reply as I my hand starts to slide along the seals of my under armor. "Try not to get all hot and bothered." I laugh, the laugh stuttering away as my wounds make sure I know they are there by frying my nerves.

"Oh yeah," Art says dryly as he rolls his eyes. "I'll try to contain myself."

My one arm slips free of the armor and quickly pulls the armor off my body, sliding it down past my scars, bruises, and bleeding wounds to bunch around my waist.

"Jesus Christ…" Art whispers as he notices me.

"I know." I mutter through clenched teeth as I poke at the holes in my gut, the meaty entry wounds letting deep red blood escape from my body.

"Fuck, you're a mess." Alex says, squinting as he looks me over.

He's not lying, I don't think I've ever looked like this before. A few inches right of my heart is a white scar that holds the shape of the blade from the turian. Under that is where the bruises from the explosion lay, the yellow fading into my skin slowly but surely. Amongst the bruises is another knife scar, another reminder of the headless turian. Now I can count five holes in me, each one letting blood run down into the waistband of my pants. There's blood on my left wrist and my eyes trace up the winding path to my third knife wound currently sits, the deep red gash acting as a tunnel through my bicep.

Then it hits me like a wave, knocking me out of my fantasy land and into the shithole that is reality. Every time I do something in this universe I get hurt, no matter how big or small I have some sort of scar to show for my good deeds. I like to think I'm tough, I like to think that my new found biotics makes me stronger and I am, and they do. But it's just… bravado, it's me tricking me into thinking I am better than I am. I want to be better, but instead of getting better I Stockholm myself into believing I'm better.

Maybe I'm just losing a lot of blood, I'm not thinking straight. That must be it, there's nothing wrong with me except my blood pressure. I… I need to rest.

I reach my hand out and grasp the railing as my body starts to tilt to the side, quickly correcting my stance so I don't fall. I see Alex notice me struggling but I ignore that as my knee wavers to the ground, trying to get me to rest but I won't let it and I lock my knees.

"Hey are you ok?" Alex asks, or was it Art? I… I can't…

The elevator doors open and my eyes slink towards the med bay, I have to get there, now. I try to walk forward but the ground rises too fast and meets my knee, I try to push myself back up but I fall forward and pass out before I hit the ground.

My eyes lazily open to see florescent lights hovering over top of my head, blinding me until my eyes adjust. When they do adjust, the first place they look is down and they see… nothing. My wounds are healed, if didn't know I had been shot I would have been none the wiser to my injuries. My fingers trace where the scars are, carefully touching the skin as if expecting pain.

But there's no pain, in fact I feel great! My head swivels to the sound of a door opening and I see Shepard walk in, Liara, Ashley, Tali, and Chakwas in tow. They all circle around me, Shepard sitting at the foot of my bed and the rest scattering around the room randomly.

"Hey Shepard!" I smile, pushing myself up onto my elbows so I can see everybody.

"Maverick." Shepard nods with a warm smile. "How are you feeling?"

"Great!" I smile wider, turning to Chakwas. "I don't know what you did but it worked, thank you."

"Just doing my job." She says modestly.

"Well you're very good at your job." I say, nodding a thank you.

"Maverick," Shepard says, getting my attention. "we need to talk."

Shit, she sounds serious. "What about?"

"You." She says with that serious tone in her voice.

"What about me?" I ask nervously.

"We know why you're here, how you got here." She says as she places an understanding hand on my knee.

"W-what, I, uhh, what are you, what do you…" I stammer uncontrollably. She couldn't possibly know, I haven't told any—

"You talk in your sleep." She explains. "We all heard you talk about your other life, back on earth. How all this was just a game."

I can't believe it, this is how people find out? I tell them in my sleep? This isn't how I thought it would go, not at all. I wanted to ease them into this, nice and slow, not shock their system. I don't know how they will react to me knowing this stuff, they could freak out that I knew what was happening and didn't do anything or they could understand why I let things happen. I guess I'm about to find out.

"Ok." I nod to myself before turning back to Shepard. "What's next, now that you know?"

"I don't know." Shepard shakes her head. "You know a lot, I can't be sure it's all true. I didn't believe it was true until I brought it up with Ian, but when I did he caved. He told me the exact same story you told in your sleep."

"He did?"

"Yes, so did Art, and Alex, and Dylan." She lists off. "I can't be sure it's true but I believe you all think it's true."

"So we start preparing?" I ask. "Sharing what we know to make things go smoother?"

"Eventually." She says, her face telling me there's something else she wants to tell me. "There is something else though." I knew it.

"What is it?" I ask, confused at what else she could have to talk about.

I hear the door to the med bay open and Shepard looks at me remorsefully. I look at who walked in and my heart stops, my whole fucking world stops.

It's Miranda, cat suit and all. Her long strides coincide with the clicks of her heels as she strides up to me. Why is she here, is she taking me away?

"What's going on?" I ask, looking back at Shepard wide eyed. "What did you do?"

"Don't struggle." Miranda answers for Shepard as she activates her Omni-tool. "This will be over soon."

"Shepard." I say quietly, drawing her guilty gaze. "What is this?"

"It's ok Maverick." A familiar voice answers.

I turn to see Aila walking out of Liaras room.

"Aila?" I stammer. "How did you get on the Normandy? Why are you on the Normandy?"

"Who gives a fuck?" a crass female voice snaps from behind Aila, a tattooed body matching up with the voice.

"Jack?!" I almost yell, shocked by her mere presence.

"Yes, that is her." a smooth calm voice says. I manage to pry my eyes off of Jack and my jaw drops when I see who spoke. It's Samara.

"You guys freaked him out." A quiet playful voice says and I turn to see Kasumi sitting cross-legged on my bed, her tactical cloak fading away with an electric sheen. "I think he might be broken."

Before I can say a word I hear a dark snicker from the corner of the room followed by a groan of disapproval.

I look to see two guys standing in the corner of the room, watching this insanity unfold. They look remarkably the same, yet there aura suggests they couldn't be further apart. They wear the same clothes, black pants and a leather jacket. They have the same face and the same colored hair, a dusty blonde.

But they wear the clothes differently, the one has the jacket zipped up fully and has neat hair and a clean shave. The other one has the jacket undone with the color popped, his hair is disheveled and his facial hair is rough and unkempt.

"Who the hell are th—" I start to ask but a finger is gently placed over my mouth to hush me. I turn my eyes to see Shepard with her finger over my mouth and her face uncomfortably close to mine, so close I can smell the perfume on her.

"Shh…" she breathes, her eyes half closed as she inches forward. Then her finger leaves my lips and is replaced by Shepard's lips, softly opening and closing, catching my own lips gently. Our lips part and I open my eyes to see Shepard looking back at me, smiling a coy smile. "Let's make love." She whispers.

"What?" I barely whisper, still taken aback by the sudden kiss.

"All of us!" she says giddily as she turns to the other women in the room.

"Shepard what the hell is going on… here…" my voice trails off and my eyes pop open with my jaw. Everyone in the room starts to take their clothes off, revealing skimpy underwear that looks like it belongs in a Victoria's Secret commercial. Even Tali pops of her mask and slides her suit down her lavender-grey skin. My brain tries to get me to say something, to do anything but it can't because of the lack of blood. Blood that has quickly rushed elsewhere.

"I don't…" I stammer as the room full of rapidly undressing women surround me, their hands playing across my body. "How is this even possible?"

"How is any of it?" Aila whispers before her tongue dives into my mouth. I feel hands wrap around my wrists and ankles and pin them down.

"What are you doing?" I say, managing to pull away from Aila.

"Holding you down silly!" Tali giggles, bright lavender blush glowing on her cheeks.

"Not really my thing," I admit, and then I look around at the room of women and decide it doesn't really matter. "but ok."

"Don't do this." I hear someone say from the corner, specifically the nice looking twin.

"Shut up." The other snaps. "It's funny!"

"It's mean." The twin pouts.

I'm about to ask the twins just who the hell they are, they look familiar but I can't quite place it even though I feel like I should know, when a hand turn my face to meet another.

"Are you ready?" Samara asks, her hand still resting on my face while her thumb toys with the corner of my mouth.

"Yeah." I nod mindlessly, immediately forgetting about the twins in the corner of the room.

"Good!" A loud deep voice booms, jarring me from my stupor.

Wrex stands at the foot of my bed, a menacing grin smeared across his face. My eyes widen as I feel the hands weigh my limbs down, Wrex snapping his thumb down and unclicking his chest plate with an impossibly loud clack.

"AAAUUUUUGGGGHHHHHH!" I scream at the top of my lungs as my eyes fly open to see darkness. I barely have time to see the little safety lights and floor guides before they jolt up as I fall from the cot I'm in. The ground slams into my side and pain erupts across my body, causing me to scream louder and my hands press against the bandages wrapped around my mid-section.

"GAHHH FUCKIN' A!" I yell as I writhe on the ground in pure agony, IV drips crashing down over my body as I feel a pinprick tug on the inside of my elbow. "What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck, what the fuck, whatthefuckwhatthefuckfuckfuckfuckfuckFUCK!" I yell as I get tangled in the IV as I thrash around, a loud obnoxious laughter erupting in my thoughts.

[Holy shit! Haha! That was fucking priceless! Did you see his face? He was like 'Waht? Shepurd? Oh kay, naked ladies yaah! Rex? Nooooo!' hahahaaaa!]

"YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE!" I scream aloud, mad at the dickhead in my brain and the fact that the IV stand raked against my abs causing a pain to flare across my nerve endings.

[The meds made it so much easier! He was so damn high his brain was like clay! Hahahaaa!]

"Goddess are you ok?" I hear Liara say sleepily.

"AAUGHH!" I scream as I kick away from her and grasp at my side, scared by her sudden presence. Liara jumps back and lets out a gasp of fright when I yell, I probably am scaring her more then she scared me. "FUCK!" I curse as I pound my fist on the side of the bed "I'm sorry, I just, I had a nightmare."

"It's ok." she says as she presses her hand on her chest, her breathing still a bit staggered.

"What's going on in here?" Dr. Chakwas says as she rubs her eyes, the door to the med bay closing behind her.

"He had a nightmare." Liara tells her as she tries to help me up, but I shrug away and force myself to my feet by myself.

"Yeah." I sigh as I run my hand over my face, collecting cold sweat in my palm. "I'm fine doctor, I just fell of the bed."

"How are your injuries?" she asks as she waves her Omni-tool over me. "Would you like more pain medication?"

"NO!" I snap, taking a defensive step back before composing myself. "I mean, no thanks."

"Are you sure?" she asks, still looking over her Omni-tool.

"Positive." I nod, taking a seat on the cot while trying not to wince.

"Alright, well you seem to be fine from what I can tell." Chakwas yawns. "We can talk about what happened in the morning."

"Good night doc." I wave as Chakwas walks back out of the med bay, leaving me with Liara. "Sorry for waking you." I say to Liara, my hand pressing against my bandages.

"It's ok." she smiles, albeit a tired smile. "You should get some sleep."

"I don't think I'll ever sleep again." I sigh. Liara opens the door to her room but I call out to stop her. "Hey Liara? Did I… was I talking in my sleep? You know, before the screaming."

"Not that I am aware of." She shakes her head, somewhat confused at the question.

"Good." I say to myself, I decide to ask another question before she walks away. "Umm, was Wrex in here? Do you know?"

"I don't know." She says slowly, now completely confused by my questions. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason." I respond quickly, shaking my head at her. "Good night." I say as I turn away from her and pull a thin sheet over my body.

"Good night." She says, probably giving me a confused sidelong stare.

I wake up in the morning, still tired from the lack of sleep. I slowly peel the covers off of me and swing my feet to touch the cold steel floor. Hmm, I'm not wearing pants, at least I still have boxers though. So that's nice.

"Good morning." A feminine voice says from behind me, causing me to freeze mid-stand.

"Oh no." I whisper under my breath, not daring to look behind me. "Not again."

"Dr. Chakwas told me you had trouble sleeping, I just wanted to make sure you were ok."

I turn slowly to face the voice and see Shepard sitting on the cot one over from mine, leaning on her knees and looking at me with a hint of concern.

"I'm fine." I nod slowly as I back away from Shepard. "Go away."

"I'm sorry?" she cocks her head, a faint smile on her face do to my odd behavior.

"How did you sleep?" A soft voice says from behind me.

I turn quickly to see Liara standing in her door frame, a smile playing on her lips as she stretches out her morning stiffness. I scuttle backwards away from Liara, causing her to frown slightly and me to knock over a few medical instruments off a counter.

"Are you alright?" Shepard asks as she rises from her cot.

"I'm fine!" I assure her nervously as I try to put as much distance as I can between the three of us. Liara and Shepard exchange nervous glances as I reach around the counter to try and find something sharp and or pointy. I finally find what I'm looking for, a small scalpel, and jab it into my palm. Good, it's bleeding which means I'm not dreaming. However I do look like a crazy person, judging by the looks I'm getting from Shepard and Liara. "Just making sure I'm not dreaming." I say as I examine the small shallow cut on my palm.

"Why?" Shepard asks cautiously.

"Had a bad dream last night. Well it started as a bad dream, then a good one, a really good one. But then it got bad, god it got so bad so fast." I say in a hollow voice, shuddering at the thought of what would happen if I didn't wake up. "Anyway, you wanted to talk to me?"

"Yes." Shepard says slowly, still giving me an odd look. "Dr. Chakwas said you had some trouble sleeping, I just wanted to make sure you were ok and then you started to act… I don't actually know what that was."

"You don't want to know." I shake my head. "I'm fine though, if I'm standing up then I assume the operation went well?"

"Surprisingly, it did." She says as she slides off the bed. "Whatever pellets made it through your barriers where stopped by the grenades strapped to your stomach except for seven, five of those made it through your gel armor, and two of those had enough power left to hit your intestines. The others just chewed you up pretty bad."

"Oh well that's ok then." I say casually. "They just maimed my stomach so that I would bleed out, how nice."

"Most people would be grateful to survive a fight with a krogan Battlemaster." Shepard smirks, her brow raised at me as she crosses her arms.

"Yeah well," I sigh as I pick up my combat pants off a table, some dried blood chipping off when I hold them. "I'm not most people, so I tend to complain when I almost bleed to death."

"I'm sure you'll get over it." Shepard rolls her eyes.

"Oh gee, I don't know Shepard, I might need physical therapy or something." I chuckle, pulling up my pants and tightening the built in belt. "So when's the next mission?"

"For everyone else it should be a day from now, for you I would say a week."

"A week? Why?"

"You are hurt." She says slowly, emphasizing the word hurt. "You almost bled out. Unless Dr. Chakwas says otherwise then it's a week."

"Great." I pout. "Where are we headed, well where are you headed?" I ask, curious to what mission I'll be missing. Even though the last mission messed me up pretty badly I still want to go to both Novaria and Feros, despite the thorian creepers and rachni.

"We are making a few stops on our way back to the Citadel, some things the Alliance needs help with." She tells me. "Once we are done that we are going back to the Citadel for a refuel, rearm, and new Mako. After that I'm thinking we should head to Feros first, there's a small colony that might need our help."

"How long do you think it'll take for Feros to come around?" I ask hopefully.

"Should be six days." she says with a smile. "So if you're lucky you can be joining us on the ground."

"Nice." I say, clenching my fist in victory. "Don't know what I'll do until then but I'm sure I can find something."

"Everyone else has managed to find something to do to help the ship out." Shepard says, almost sounding critical.

"Like what?"

"Well, Alex is helping out Adams in engineering. Ian's helping Garrus out, or will be when we get the new Mako. Dylan is helping Ashley with weapon and armor maintenance, you should talk to them about your armor now that I mention it. And I think Art is helping Kaidan with the cooking, I'm not sure that's all they're doing though." She says, shaking her head to herself.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Every time I walk up to them they always go quite, like there talking about something they don't want me to know about." She says, trying to figure out the odd behavior on the spot. "When I ask them what's going on Art gets defensive and Kaidan won't look at me."

"Maybe they're talking about you." I shrug. I then come to the realization that that's exactly what they are talking about, Art's fucking around with the ships romances like he did in Vexations. Who knows what else he'll do with all of these fanfiction characters running around, that meddling kid.

"You think so?" Shepard asks, sounding a bit worried. "Why would they be doing that?"

"How should I know?" I shrug again, lying right to Shepard's face. She nods at this, sighing as she looks up at me. Then she does a double take and furrows her brow as she looks at me, staring so intently that it makes me uncomfortable. "What are you looking at?"

"You're lying." Shepard says quickly, almost cutting me off.

"I don't know what you're talking about." I stutter nervously, shifting my eyes away from Shepard.

"What are they saying about me?" she says, taking a step towards me that makes me press against the counter.

"No idea." I say quickly, leaning back further and bending my back over the counter.

"Tell me." she demands, now standing right in front me though I don't dare to make eye contact.

"Tell you what?" I ask innocently. I feel Shepard finger press against my jaw and she forces me to look at her, the accusing scowl on her face making me feel guilty and uneasy. How the hell is she doing this? I can keep a straight face through the most ridiculous situations and lie through my teeth to just about anyone, but somehow Shepard has managed to make me crack and send me running with my tail between my legs.

"Tell me what I want to know." Shepard's orders, her eyes burning a hole through my own.

"You look very pretty today?" I eventually say, lamely at that.

"That's not it." She shakes her head. "But thank you." She adds.

"Oh no problem." I nod enthusiastically, worming my way off the counter and towards the door. "You're really pretty, beautiful even! You've got those big emerald green eyes…" I say, backing up slowly as Shepard follows me with a deadly glare. "…that fiery red hair, those curves! How old are you? Twenty?"

"This isn't over Maverick." She warns as I desperately pat the side of the med bay door, looking for the open button.

"Because you look twenty!" I say as I find the button and back out of the door. "And pretty!" I add as the door closes on Shepard, her arms crossed in disapproval and her eyes pouring guilt into me.

I breathe a sigh of relief as I leave Shepard in the med bay, I have no doubt in my mind that her interrogation is far from over but I think I can get away from it again if I have to. I might have to think of a better excuse then 'you're pretty', I don't think that will work again, hell it barely worked this time.

"Maverick?" I hear Liara say from behind me. I turn around to see her standing a few feet from me, looking a little guilty by the way she's looking at me with her head hung low.

"Hey Liara." I smile. "What's up?"

"I just wanted to apologize." She says, rubbing her bicep as if she's trying to rub off guilt.

"Apologize for what?" I ask. "We just met." Technically…

"I want to apologize for your injuries." She says. "When the fighting started on Therum I froze, I don't know why but I did and it almost cost you your life."

"Oh." I nod. "Don't worry about that, I'll be fine."

"But you might not have been fine." She goes on, getting flustered. "I should have helped you, I had no reason not to help you! You tried to fight a krogan Battlemaster just to help someone you've never met but I didn't even have the courage to stand."

"Liara." I stop her, grabbing her shoulders to get her attention. "It happens, it's even happened to me. You've got nothing to be sorry about, nothing bad happened and everybody is ok."

"You're not ok." she points out, looking at the bandages wrapped around my midsection.

"Just a scratch." I smirk. "It'll heal." I say as I let go of her and take a step back. "Besides, I couldn't let a pretty girl like you get taken away by some krogan." I smile as I start to walk away. A streak of purple blush radiates on Liaras face at the complement and I try not to laugh at her awkward stammering. "See ya Liara!" I wave behind me as I turn the corner.

I make my way into the locker room and grab my regular clothes, quickly injecting a shot of cancer medication after I make sure I'm alone. I preload another dose and pack the kit into the back of my locker, heading off to the showers.

I find out that it's early enough in the morning that the majority of the male crew members are getting ready, Kaidan, Dylan, Art, and Alex to be specific. Kaidan is shaving his face, Art's using a urinal and Dylan and Alex are taking a shower, separately of course. I grab a towel and toss my clothes on a little table next to the shower before finding a nozzle sticking off the wall.

Once I'm done my shower I grab a towel and dry off, putting on clean boxers and my unbloodied pants after I'm nice and dry. I walk back into the bathroom portion of the crew quarters and see that everyone is now staring at themselves in the mirror, each one doing a bit of grooming and maintenance. I look around a find a disposable razor and a handful of shaving cream.

I start to shave my face alongside Art, Dylan and Alex, Alex looks like he's going to try out some sort of goatee. I think I'll go with Art and Dylan and go for a clean shave.

"Your armor is kinda messed up." Dylan speaks up as he cranes his neck for a closer shave.

"Yeah," I sigh as run the razor over my face. "Shepard mentioned you took a look at it. How bad is it?"

"Could have been worse." He shrugs. "Your chest plate just has a few dents and your helmet needs a new casing but the electronics are fine. Your under armor is toast though and your vest is a bit shredded, you need new ones if you want to hold grenades, or have a sealed suit. You know, nothing too important."

"Oh yeah." I chuckle. "Just some minor stuff. So where were you guys when I was getting my ass kicked by the Battlemaster?"

"Just fighting off legions of geth." Art says casually as he pulls his hair into a ponytail.

"It wasn't as fun as it sounds." Alex muses and he wipes shaving cream off his face. "It was actually pretty shitty."

"I probably would have traded if you asked." I say as I clean the razor. "So next time this happens feel free to speak up."

"I think I'll pass." Kaidan laughs. "You can fight all the krogan you want, I'll stick with the geth." Everyone else mumbles in agreement, much to my disappointment.

"Pansies." I smirk. "Speaking of pansies, how'd you like to HALO jump Alex?"

"Well asshole, I'll have you know it was actually fun." He says back, bothered that I called him a pansy.

"Really?" I exclaim. "I seem to recall you screaming uncontrollably before we even jumped!"

"We were jumping out of a fucking space ship!" he yells. "Yelling is a perfectly reasonable response!"

"I wish I could have done the HALO jump." Dylan sighs. "It couldn't have been worse than Shepard's driving, I almost threw up."

"It couldn't have been that bad." Art says.

"It was like we were on a rollercoaster that was floating in rough seas."

"That sounds terrible." I chuckle.

"It sounds accurate." Kaidan corrects me with a slight smirk. "Shepard was always a terrible driver, it's not getting any better."

We all finish getting ready, Kaidan spending an unnatural amount of time on his hair and they all go their separate ways, leaving me alone to do nothing.

I end up spending almost half an hour sitting at the table trying to start a singularity, getting a little closer but I still have a ways to go. I can only get the ball as small as a marble, it's better but not good enough. I hear footsteps behind me and the chair next to me is pulled out and filled with Liara.

"Hey Liara." I say over my shoulder, trying to focus on the singularity.

"Hi, are you having trouble?" Liara asks. "I could help you if you'd like."

"It's ok." I mutter as I squint at the ball of biotics in my hand. "I just need to practice more."

"Do you meditate?"

"No."

"You should try it." She says, sounding helpful. "It helps clear your mind and focus on the task at hand, that how I learned how to make a singularity."

I look over and she holds out her hand, a small swirl of biotics spins in her hand and collects into a small ball and then implodes into a perfect round orb of blackness, her hand holding it softly like it's holding a baby bird unlike my hand that's shaking as it tries to crush the biotics like a caveman.

"Huh." I say as I look at how easily she made the singularity. The black ball shrinks and the biotics fade into nothing, her hand not moving in the slightest. "Ok, how do I meditate?"

She looks at me oddly, as if meditation should be common knowledge. "You've never meditated before?"

"No." I shake my head. "I'll figure it out though, I'll just balance on stuff until it feels right."

"I could show you if you want." She offers. "I want to spend today getting settled but I have time tomorrow."

Normally I would say no, I'd much rather try to figure this out on my own but it might be nice to get to know Liara. I've talked to pretty much everyone on this ship except for Wrex and Tali.

"Yeah sure." I smile. "Sounds good!"

"It's the least I can do for you helping me." she says sheepishly.

"I told you not to worry about it," I smirk as I shake my head at her. "But if that's what you want then that's fine with me."

"Thank you." She smiles. "It might make me feel better."

I'm about to say something when my Omni-tool beeps with a video call, I swear if this is Harper again I'm going to lose it. That guy won't leave me alone, maybe I should have let him take me, it would have been less annoying. Oh, never mind, it's Aila.

"I gotta take this, give me a second Liara." I say as I accept the call, Aila's smiling face popping up on screen.

"-Hi Maverick!-" she says cheerily. "-How are you doing on the Normandy?-"

"Not bad." I lie, feeling the bandages on my skin. "People here are really nice… for the most part."

"-Are you bugging people again?-" she scowls with a playful smirk.

"No!" I shout. "It's not me I swear!"

"-Mmm hmm.-" She hums, not believing me. "-Ok.-"

"Aila," I say seriously. "I promise it's not me."

"-Sure.-" she rolls her eyes.

"Aila!" I whine. "It's true! Fuck it, I'm changing the subject. How's Icarus going? Lorin driving you crazy yet?"

"-No he's off working with Pakiev, driving him crazy.-" She laughs. "-He mostly works on his own now, working with a small squad doing Contracting for us.-"

"Oh yeah? What's he doing?"

"-He just tracked down the man who attacked us at the warehouse's partner.-" She says, sounding thankful. "-He was on Bekenstein, apparently he was less cooperative then his friend.-" she says softly, hinting at the mans death.

"That's too bad." I shake my head. "I wish we could help people like him but I suppose not all of them can be helped."

There is a moment of silence before Aila speaks up again. "-There are a lot of other things about the company we should talk about.-"

"Well I'll be back on the Citadel in a few days." I shrug. "Why don't we meet up then?"

"-Alright, just give me a heads up so I can clear some space.-" she says as she flips over something in her Omni-tool, then she looks at me and seems to get nervous. "-Do you… want to go for lunch?-" she asks, shyly flinching as she asks.

"Yeah sure." I nod. Aila beams a wide grin when I agree to lunch, seeming very happy and relieved for some reason.

"-Great!-" she exclaims giddily. "-So I guess I'll talk to you later?-"

"Count on it." I smile. "I'll let you know when we're a day out, take care Aila."

"-Goodbye Maverick.-" She waves, then the Omni-tool disconnects.

"Who was that?" Liara asks as my Omni-tool fades.

"Another CEO in Icarus," I tell her. "and more importantly she's a good friend."

"I could tell." She smiles softly and nods. "If you don't mind me asking, why was she calling you? Is she ok?"

"Yeah, she's fine." I assure her. "Just wanted to ask how I'm doing and to let me know about a change in the company, I'm not sure what though."

"You said she was a CEO in Icarus?"

"Yeah, one of five." I explain. "Myself included."

"You're a CEO of a company?" she asks in surprise. "I just assumed you were a mercenary."

I instantly deflate and hang my head, sighing at being called a mercenary. "I'm not a merc." I whisper to myself.

R/R

Kaiya Smith: I think that being pushed out of a building would be more fun than hugging a krogan, and possibly less painful. I was thinking of that mission, it would be a perfect time for more forced base jumping!

I want to put in Harper where it is the least convenient, it seems like his style to just call people up at the most inopportune moment. Icarus is similar to Cerberus in quite a few ways, some obvious like the type of names and logo, others a bit less obvious.

I'm sure tearing off the krogans plate would be effective, but in a moment like that all rational thinking goes out the window, you're right. He almost made it to the med bay, he didn't make it but he was close!

Spiritstrike: Glad you liked it! I'm sure it was a good operation although Mav would know, he was preoccupied in dreamland! I'm happy you didn't think it was longer then it was worth, and that you liked the action! I was worried about SI interaction but if you're right then I guess I'm not doing too bad eh?

I'm still waiting on that chapter, but if you're writing it then I'm sure it will be great! I'm sure the Mako will work out fine, you're really good at character interactions and the action is better than you think it is.

Thanks, you're too kind! I'm not sure how I will break it to everyone but I already have the first reveal planned out, so writing that should be fun! Good luck with your chapter too!

toprichie97: I guess I'm just evil like that, either way I hope this chapter satisfies you needs!

Yurie Hanatsuki: Enlighten me on the redundancies, if it'll help patch up holes or make the story better then shoot me a PM. Glad you think it's a good story though!

Yeah, Herr Wozzeck filled me in on the Mary Sue phenomenon. Not sure if we'll go to the moon, I don't see why not.

Orchidellia: Thanks! The hopper battle was fun to write as well as the dialogue. Happy to hear it's working out for you, a lot of people were unsure of the new SI additions but I think I'm doing alright Yeah, Brazil played horribly. I truly felt embarrassed for them.

cmitts93: I just wanted to say I'm happy you're enjoying it! Good to know I'm not butchering your favourite characters, canon or otherwise!

OBSERVER01: Sorry man, can't see myself throwing in RWBY weaponry. I did watch the season premier though, did you? I thought it was pretty good and can say I'm honestly curious about the new characters.

TheRev28: Thanks! Glad the chapter didn't drag on, that's what I was worried about the most when I put it out. You gotta have filler now and then, the most I can do is make it interesting or make hints of things to come, but I've quickly found it's just something that has to happen when writing.

I suppose I was just excited to get it out and didn't proof read it thoroughly, but that's just an excuse so I apologize. I'm over that though, what bugged me was when you said I misspelt Kaidan. When I read that I immediately rolled my eyes and looked it up as I acted like a pompous ass, only to find out that you were right. So I fixed that now and thanks for bringing it to my attention.

Thanks for the complements, it means a lot coming from you man!

CrimsonKnight117: Haha, yeah it was pretty sweet eh? Glad you thought it was funny! Yeah no face melting today, and Garrus might be a jerk for a while longer unfortunately.

general-joseph-dickson: Yeah, shotguns aren't known for superficial wounds.

ForgottenPrince: Thanks man, hope you liked it!

The True Overlord: Thank you! You'll have to wait to find out my friend!

Guest1: Yeah I actually finished it in a few days, it wasn't bad. I felt the character was a bit over powered but the writing was good, not to mention sexy times but those are always fun.

Guest2: You think so? I might see Alex joining Icarus more than the rest. Yeah Hero, I am Not was decent, worth a read in my opinion but some parts were a little ridiculous.

DelVarO: Thanks man! Yeah I purposely left it out until this chapter, so don't worry! Thanks man, I love cliffhangers, though they might be annoying when you have to wait for them. Didn't message you about this chapter because lines were kept to a minimum, next chapter will need your input but I thought this one was fine. Hope you don't mind, or Herr Wozzeck if he's reading this.

V-rcingetorix: Yup, I know exactly what you're talking about. Everybody is vulnerable but writing that is difficult, Mav shares the same attitude as myself (Thus the name self-insert) and I was never one to cry about things that didn't go my way. I'd be bummed about it but why would I want to feel that way all of the time, just push past it.

Thanks man, it makes me feel good seeing people are interested in the story enough to drop a follow or favourite.

Not sure to be honest, though being choked is draining. Not sure if you've been put in a sleeper hold but it is not fun and you definitely don't recover right away. No matter though. And thanks, I'll try!

Hollow Choice: I thought about it, enough so that I had the story have five or six extra chapters before meeting Shepard but I thought there would be time for that in between ME1 and ME2. I wanted to make it so that the Icarus character would be familiar faces when you see them again but I also wanted to get to Shepard. Trust me, there will be lots of Icarus time in the next MA and even a little in this one, new characters, the start of an AU, the works man! You just gotta wait a bit, its coming though.

Niras91: Haha! I thought you would like it and don't worry about swearing, I swear like a sailor anyway. I think this chapter added a nice funny moment, hopefully you like it!

Really? I love heights, it give me a huge adrenaline rush!

Yup, post-secondary tends to do that. One day it will be worth it but until that day it will suck. Can't wait to read it by the way, I'm curious to see how you'll use it!

No probably not, happy belated birthday though!

Lfan8: Glad you think it's awesome! Oh yes my friend, ass kicking will be had that much is certain! Mav biotics will get better, and the amp… well… you'll see.

I do plan on having a Mav/? romance in the future, I already know who it will be with but you'll have to wait. It won't be Shepard though, so sorry about that. There will actually be a lot of romances on the Normandy with all of the SI characters running around!

Thanks, I'll try!