A/N: Well hi! It's been a while eh? I'm actually sorry it's taken me this long to update but I hit such a busy patch in my life I just didn't have time. If you want an idea on what happened let me give you a quick lowdown. The first one is I got high speed(ish) internet way out in the country, so any attempt at writing has been suffocated by Netflix, Reddit, Youtube, and gaming. The second thing is I've made a decision to lose weight and get into better shape, in the time I've been gone I've lost over 30lbs, because I've decided to join the Canadian Military hopefully as a Combat Engineer, which is really exciting! Then there's the standard girl problem. I met someone who as far as I'm concerned is prefect, but as I got to know her and talk and text literately for hours every day I find she likes another guy at the place where we work, the problem is that this fuck head guy is a bit of a prick and isn't looking for a 'relationship' with her, if you know what I mean. So that's frustrating, but I don't doubt it'll work out, it's just going to take time for her to figure out he's a douche and then guess who now looks like the perfect man? If you guessed me, give yourself a pat on the back, you earned it! Then there were other little things that can go unmentioned. What is important is, I have returned and I have brought some more story for your eyes! Enjoy!

Chapter 25
-My Other Ear-

I wake up and rub my eyes, looking around at the lack of crew members in the sleeping quarters. I always seem to be the last person who gets out of bed, I get up around the same time but these goddamn busybodies are out of bed so fast. I don't mind though, anything for a few extra winks. I haul my ass out of the cot and pull out my clothes and take them into the men's bathroom.

I finally put on my clothes once I've taken a shower and done my morning routine, you know, brushing my teeth and putting on deodorant, all that good shit. After that I make my way into the mess hall, and I'm surprised to see nobody there.

"Where the fuck is everybody?" I think aloud, scratching my head as I scan the mess hall. "Maybe they're in the cargo bay." I say as I turn around and walk to the elevator.

The elevator opens up and shows me the vehicle bay, the majority of the ground crew standing around and half of them are armored up. I watch as Shepard, Wrex, Ashley, Kaidan, Art, and Liara get into the Mako. I walk over to Alex and nudge him on the shoulder, noting that he looks tired as shit.

"What's going on?" I ask as the door to the vehicle bay opens up, blasting me with freezing cold wind but I don't move and neither does Alex.

"They're getting Wrexs armor." he yawns, rubbing his face sluggishly. "Why they went so early I'll never fucking know."

"Hmm." I nod absent mindedly as I watch the Mako tear out into the sky. "Kinda glad I'm not going, I think this is the earliest mission so far."

"Yeah." He nods back.

We stand there as the icy wind tugs at us violently, not so much as squinting against the wind. To be honest the wind is helping me wake up, like a nice cold shower. The bay door finally closes and my skin goes numb as it warms back up.

"Ke-Keelah." Tali stutters as she rubs her arms as fast as she can. "H-h-how can you st-t-tand the cold?"

"Grew up with it." I shrug.

"Russia isn't exactly a spring break destination." Alex smirks. "Besides, it helps you wake up."

"You two are crazy." Tali mumbles as she walks off to engineering.

Alex and I watch Tali walk off and I turn to him and shrug. "I've been called worse."

"Fuck, I've called you worse!" he laughs. "I didn't think Freedoms Progress was that cold, does it snow often?"

"Uhh…" I groan dumbly. I don't know if it's cold on Freedoms Progress, I definitely don't know if it snows there. The mission in Mass Effect 2 made it look cold, I think. "Yeah, sure." I shake my head.

"Do you not know?" he asks with a confused smile.

"Nah." I shrug, laughing off the question.

"I… alright." He says unsurely. "Really fucking weird you don't know about your home."

"I know." I smile, causing him to be even more confused. "So what's going on?"

"You're being really fucking weird." he says blankly. "That's what's going on."

"Yeah, I know." I smile wider, enjoying Alex's confusion. "Did Shepard mention anything about helping Garrus?"

"Yeah." He says slowly, looking at me like I have a third eye. "They're going to track down Dr. Saleon, I heard you're helping. I take it Garrus doesn't want to put a bullet in you anymore?"

"Yeah, for now." I grin. "Turns out I brought up bad memories, I don't hold it against him though. I would probably have acted the same way."

"Bad memories?"

"Yeah, lots of people slipping through the cracks of the law." I explain. "I'm the most recent, so it just reminded him of the people who didn't get what they deserved. Pair that with the fact that one of them stole his best friend's girl and, well, you get it."

"Yeah." He says quietly, probably thinking about what we both know is on that ship. "You think she's still alive?"

"I hope so." I say honestly. "But something tells me it's not that simple." I continue, still keeping an honest tone.

We both stand there in silence for a second, thinking about what's going to happen later on today with dread. Alex quickly changes the subject though, for that I'm grateful.

"So what do you do around here?" he asks. "Everyone else does something to help the Normandy, you just meditate or drink all day."

"You nailed it man." I laugh. "There's not much for me to do, I'm no engineer."

"You're pretty useless then I guess." He says with a smirk.

"I make up for it on the ground team asshole!" I sneer back, laughing a bit as I do. "I'm the squads biotic remember?"

"I thought that was Kaidan, or Liara." He says back, still smirking. "Not you."

"Please." I scoff. "My biotics dwarf every other biotic on this ship, no sweat."

"Is that so?" he says as he raises his brow and crosses his arms.

I laugh as I raise my hand at Alex and when he starts swirl in biotics I see him start to get nervous.

"What are you doing?" he asks quickly.

I just smile evilly as my hand closes into a loose fist, causing Alex to be wrapped in biotics and slowly lift into the air.

"Ok!" he shouts. "I get it! You can lift shit, now put me down! Nine hells this feels weird!"

"I know, goose bumps right?" I ask, the question getting Alex to look at his arms and nod excitedly.

"Yeah!" he agrees in disbelief. "But put me down, right fucking now!"

I grin and consider lifting Alex around the room like a child would a toy, making airplane noises and twirling him around. In the end I put him down, deciding that making him a human action figure, while funny, would be degrading and childish.

"Thanks." He mutters as he shakes his limbs around.

"No problem." I smirk. "So you help in engineering, how's that?"

"It's interesting." He tells me. "It's confusing as shit but interesting, Tali's a good teacher. So is Adams."

"Yeah, I haven't talked to Tali much." I admit, a little disappointedly. "And the things I've said were pretty awkward."

"I know."

"What?" I cock my head. "How do you know?"

"She told me." he says, as if I should know. "She thinks you're weird, something about asking her to build a time machine or something."

"I, no…" I shake my head. "It was a joke, I know she can't actually build a time machine. You have no idea how many aliens don't get human idioms or jokes."

"Trust me, I know exactly what you're talking about!" He says. "I had a turian friend named Joe-"

"Joe?" I interrupt.

"Jorrun." He explains. "Guy's a smartass, but he helped me get on my feet. Gave me a job, taught me to shoot and even how to fight."

"No shit?" I exclaim, surprised even though I remember reading about his training. "Like actual martial arts?"

"Yeah, turian self-defense." He nods. "Doesn't work to well on turians though, they all fucking know it."

"Makes sense." I agree. "Does it hold up with other species though?"

"If they don't have training yeah." He says.

"I don't have formal training." I smirk, a mischievous smirk at that. "Do you think you could beat me?"

"Are you going to use biotics?" he asks, sounding nervous.

"No, that'd be cheating."

"Then yeah." He says, the nervousness fading and replaced with confidence. "I'd kick your fuckin' ass."

"Is that so?" I laugh, stretching me arms and shaking out my hands. "Care to dance little man?"

"Have you ever heard the story of David and Goliath?" he asks as we both immediately start to walk to the elevator, heading to the gym.

"Funny stuff." I grin. "Let's see what you've got Ivan, meet in the gym."

I walk into the gym after changing into something that I feel comfortable fighting in, my combat pants and one of the Alliance t-shirts that James wore in Mass Effect 3. Once I'm in the gym I see Alex standing in the pad covered clearing in the middle of the room, methodically wrapping boxing tape around his wrist and hand.

"Hey man, you ready?" I smirk as I stop a few feet from him.

Alex continues to tape up his last wrist and his flicker upwards, the lighting above casting wicked shadows down his face. "Are you?" he whispers as he flexes his fingers into a fist.

"Mmm, ominous." I note as I walk up and pick up a roll of tape, tossing it back and forth in my hands. "Your badass skill has increased by one Ivan."

"Awesome." He smirks as he motions for me to hold out my hands, taping them up for me once I comply. "That's what I was going for."

"Well it worked man, if I didn't know you I would think twice before tangling with you." I chuckle.

"Yeah?" he says hopefully as he moves on to my last hand.

"Oh yeah." I nod. "Then I would think man I'm like a foot taller than this guy and have biotics and then I would probably feel pretty confident." I smirk.

"Sure Dundee." Alex scoffs as he rolls his eyes. "Now are you all talk or are you gunna back up those big words?"

"Well then let's dance Ivan." I jeer as we square off in the center of the gym.

Alex and I circle each other for a few seconds, carefully examining each other's stance. I'm sure he notices my lack of professional stance because I notice his stance. His feet are set apart wider than usual which means he intends to throw me down to the ground or push away my hits, which makes sense if he was trained by a turian because they look pretty top heavy.

Eventually I get sick of walking circles so I take a quick step forward and send a jab at his face, oddly enough I feel a hard hit on my wrist and then a sharp tug on my arm. The next thing I feel is the gym floor slamming against my body, Alex successfully pulling me off balance and onto the floor. Instead of rolling on my back I scurry forward and twist my body to my feet.

"Still seeing a lot of talk." Alex smirks.

I ignore the cocky, yet earned remark and push forward, throwing another jab. Once again Alex grabs my wrist and tries to pull me off balance. Not this time though, this time I push into it or more specifically, into him and knock the two of us awkwardly to the ground. I try to crawl on top of him but a fist connects with my jaw, stunning me and letting him get away.

"Slippery little shit." I curse as I get back to my feet as quickly as I can, the previous punch making staying balanced slightly more difficult.

Alex smiles as he decides to go on the offensive, and I quickly figure out the turians fighting style. They hit fast and hard, if they can't do that they'll throw you off balance and rinse and repeat. Every strike is followed with another until there's a "return fire" or signs of recovery, then relocate and rinse and repeat. If they get cornered, they go for stuns and pressure points then go for an escape and if that doesn't work they rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat, rinse and fuckin' repeat. It's annoyingly strategic.

"Come on Dundee!" Alex cheers cockily as he dances back and fourth after escaping another hard earned grapple I got him in. "Maybe you should have used your biotics!"

"Wouldn't wanna hurt you now would we?" I smirk, trying to overcome the irritated anger I feel. Before he can say something I lunge forward again, a little because I want to win the fight and a little because I don't want to hear the arrogant, yet earned, jeer. Once again Alex redirects my fist but I snap my elbow towards his face and manage to catch him off guard, the very tip of my elbow painfully bouncing off his forehead.

The surprisingly painful tingling tears up my arm as I grasp at it with my free hand while Alex blinks like he's trying to warn the fort that the British are coming in Morse code. My head fortunately does not hurt and my left arm is very much pain free so I pump my fist into Alex's jaw, knocking him back further. I send another punch that narrowly skips of his cheek and Alex sends a sloppy yet accurate blow into my right ear.

"My ear!" I hiss as I recoil, winding up a half assed punch and sending it right into Alex's face again but just after it connects I feel another smack ring against my left ear. "My other ear!" I cry out as Alex and I crumple to the ground.

I see Alex moan something as his hands slide over his head as if he's trying to wipe the pain away but I don't hear it over the ringing in my ears.

"Oh I'm almost certainly deaf." I sob as I press my hands over my ears, praying that the painful ringing will go away. After a few minutes we both recover, looking at each other wearily.

"You want to just hit the bag around instead?" Alex sighs as he thumbs to the heavy punching bag hanging from the ceiling in the corner.

"That sounds like a great idea." I agree with a smirk.

I press my body against the punching bag as I hold it still, each hit Alex lands giving it a little jolt. "Come on!" I yell, as Alex's hits pick up the pace. "Are you hitting it or trying to get dust off of it? Hit fucking harder!" I yell again, bracing as the jolts get more assertive and are accompanied by grunts.

My Omni-tool beeps to life and I bark "Switch." and swing the bag to Alex before starting to hit the bag. I pace out my punches, mixing up jabs with crosses and throwing in a harder hit now and then. "Let's go, this isn't a massage parlor!" Alex shouts, causing me to punch harder and faster. "Put some effort into it!" Alex jeers, making me grunt after every punch. "Harder!" he shouts again and I grind my teeth as I put every ounce of muscle into each hit. "HARDER!"

I let out a small roar as my hand connects with the bag, jumping it forward almost a foot until it swings back and bats my hand away. "You've gotta hold the bag Ivan." I chuckle, stopping as I notice the wisp of blue fade from my hand. I instantly look around the bag to see Alex rubbing his stomach with a shocked smile on his face.

"Fucking hell!" he swears. "I fucking felt that one!"

"Sorry man!" I say with a nervous smile. "You ok?"

"Yeah I'm fine, I guess I'm just lucky there was a 20 kilogram bag between us!"

"Yeah most people aren't that lucky." I mutter, my smile fading away.

"What's up man?" Alex asks, grabbing the top of the bag and leaning on it.

"Nothing." I shrug. "Biotics aren't really as clean as I'd like them to be, I'll get used to it though don't worry."

"Alright." He says, bracing against the heavy bag again as I square up against it. The door opens as I start to hit the bag, returning to the slow methodical pace I started at. I keep going at the bag until I finally look to see who walked into the gym and I see Shepard and Liara talking in the corner but it's too quiet to hear. They keep looking back at me and Alex, at least I think they are, it's hard to make out exactly where they're looking from this far.

"Hey!" Alex shouts suddenly, making me jump and look at him. "Hit the bag, you still have two minutes left." He says, sounding a little annoyed that my attention drifted away from the workout.

I look back at Liara and smirk when we lock eyes before going back to punching, I hear a small giggle and Liara protest and I can't help but look back. I catch her face flush a deep purple and Shepard wearing a devilish smile like a badge of honor before Alex yells at me again. After a bit more time passes and Alex and I wrap up Shepard walks over without Liara.

"We'll be at Saleon's ship in thirty." She tells us. "You two are on the ground team, if I were you I'd suit up."

"You wish you were me." I say with a smug smile, flexing a little. Then I flex a lot, locking my hands and posing like an idiot. Why? Not sure, ever since my biotics made me look like an Olympian I've been a little cockier and I guess—

"Are you shitting?" Shepard asks, interrupting my thought and causing me to deflate as Alex to doubles over with a howling laugh.

"NO!" I yell childishly.

"Are you sure?" she chuckles. "Because it looks like you were about to shit your pants."

"Yes I'm sure!"

"Alright, just make sure you go before we leave." Shepard smirks as she walks out of the gym, leaving a flustered me and a wheezing Alex.

"It wasn't that funny man." I roll my eyes at him as he wipes away tears once he's standing.

"It was the way she said it!" he laughs, clutching his side as his smile gets wider. "Then I looked at you, and you totally looked like you were shitting your pants!" he cries, falling back into a fit of laughter.

"Yeah yeah, real funny man." I say, waving him off as I leave the gym and head to the shower.

I just get into the locker room when my Omni-tool goes off, I grab my clothes and see it's Pac so I accept the call.

"Hey Pac." I nod as I drape my clothes over my shoulder. "What's up man?"

"-A lot.-" Pac sighs. "-It's been nonstop since Icarus got off the ground, but I love every second of it.-"

"Sounds like fun, how the military going?"

"-Progress is driving forward like an angry varren, you wouldn't believe some of the things Saylem is working on.-" he says with a small chuckle. "-That salarian is going to get us all assassinated by Spectres.-"

"Seriously?" I ask as I walk into the shower. "What's he working on?"

"-I can't think of anything I can say over Omni-tool, but a few projects are being field tested as we speak.-" he tells me as I start to kick off my clothes which is getting me a weird look from Pac. "-What are you doing? -"

"I'm taking a shower." I say, taking off my shirt and turning on the water. "It's not the first time I've taken off my clothes in front of you."

"-That doesn't make it ok.-" Pac sighs as he shakes his head.

"What'd you call me for man?"

"-A few things. We have got a package waiting for you at Warehouse 01 on the Citadel, it's got some identification, a new Omni-tool, some clothes and a uniform, you're Wingstick, and some other small things. I also need your armor measurements and preferences.-"

"Alright, I should be able to grab that in a week or so." I nod as I grab some shampoo and squirt some in my hand, making sure to keep my Omni-tool pointed at my face. "I also have no idea what my armor measurements are, they should be on file at Gentleman's Finest or talk to Golum. I'd go with Golum unless suit measurements work the same way."

"-Ok, I'll contact Golum after this.-"

"And my preference is light, the more mobility the better but don't get me a skin suit either. Put as much armor on it as you can."

"-That's called medium armor Maverick.-"

"Sure, put me down for that then." I nod. "Jam tech in there too, as much as scientifically and physically possible."

"-We have some prototype armor, it's not done so it might have… problems.-" he says ominously.

"Lay it on me Pac, could work in my favor."

"-I'll be honest it probably won't.-"

"Do it anyway, it'll be a beta test." I shrug. "As long as I won't lose any limbs I'll try it."

"-You shouldn't lose any limbs. -" Pac assures me before hesitating. "-Probably.-"

"I'll take those odds, anything else?"

"-No, that was it.-" Pac says.

"Alright, cool." I say as I turn off the water in the shower. "Tell everyone I said hi." I tell him before ending the call.

I walk towards Shepard and the ground team who are waiting in the cockpit of the Normandy, Garrus, Ian, Tali, Alex, and Dylan make up the ground team. I step into the cockpit and look out the window of the Normandy, taking in the lightshow of FTL travel. Garrus takes an impatient step forward and rests his hands on Jokers chair.

"How much longer Joker?" he asks, one of his talons tapping on the metal.

"We're entering the system now." Joker nods, sliding his hand along the holographic panel making the lightshow fade to a darkness peppered with stars.

"Scan for ships." Shepard orders as she crosses her arms.

Joker makes a few hand gestures and waits for a moment before answering. "I've got one ship marked, IFF reads as MSV Fedele."

"That's him Shepard." Garrus nods, a spark of anger in his eye.

"Alright, everyone ready to board." Shepard says as she leads us to the decontamination port.

We all start to crowd into the small room and I can't help but look at Ian, sliding my helmet on to hide where I'm looking. He looks very stoic, his eyes aren't focused but at the same time he seems ready. He knows what he's going to find in there, and he's going to make himself see it even though he doesn't want to. I feel bad for him, I'm sure Alex and Dylan do too. We all know what's in there.

A muffled clank sounds in the room and the door opens to reveal an empty room, darkness coating the corners of the room and a hazing light barely illuminating the center. There are a few consoles along the sides of the room, the closest one dims off as we step into the entrance.

I hear Ians helmet click up to cover his face as we all scan the room, weapons at the ready. We all creep forward, making our way toe the first door slowly as if the creepy atmosphere is thick enough to slow us down. My hands grip tighter on my shotgun at every shadow cast along the walls, even though I'm surrounded by some of the best fighters in the galaxy and it's their shadows on the wall it still makes me uneasy.

"Hold up." Shepard whispers as she raises her fist. We all stop and look at her, following her gaze back to the door we came in.

"What is it Shepard?" Tali asks.

Shepard walks past us, ignoring us as she walks to the corner of the room and stops in front of a dead monitor.

"Shepard?"

Shepard reaches out her hand and touches the keyboard in front of the dead monitor, the second she does it wakes up and lights up Shepard's face. I raise my brow as I watch her look at the other monitors, the next one down the line dimming before turning off. She goes back to her computer and starts searching through settings until she finds what she's looking for, once she does she tenses and raises her pistol to the door leading to the rest of the ship.

"Someone's here." She tells us, stepping forward as we all start to look around the room. "The monitors are set to go to sleep after one minute of inactivity."

"Maybe it's Saleon." Dylan points out as another monitor goes out.

"They were wiped clean, there's nothing left on them at all." She says as she eyes the door, reaching for the button to open it. "Someone extracted everything from it, be ready."

Shepard presses the button and the door swishes open to reveal another door and a hallway leading to the right, but nobody is there. Lucky for them because they would've got the shit shot out of them.

Shepard takes a quick step through the door and something whips around the door frame and slams into her stomach. We all raise our weapons and watch as Shepard catches the blow and wrenches what I now see is a person to the ground, but as they fall something flies into the room.

"Flashba—"

A deafening crack and bright white light molest my senses, leaving me open for anything or anyone to kill me as I lie disorientated on the floor. The sound of yelling and struggles starts to bleed through the ringing in my ears as I start to make out people and other basic shapes. I rise to my feet and bring my shotgun to bear on the door, noting that there's someone seating on another person awkwardly as everyone else trains their weapons on them.

After a few blinks I realize its Shepard squatting over a lightly armored woman, Shepard holding a knife to the woman's throat as she points her pistol towards something down the hall. I take a look at the woman and notice the empty knife sheath on her collar bone, but I also notice that she has her own pistol pressed against Shepard's side.

"Shepard, are you ok?" I ask as I take a step forward.

"I've been better." She mutters, her eyes fixed to something down the hall.

"Drop it." A calm voice says, explaining what Shepard is pointing her pistol at. Everyone immediately makes a move for the door, me being the first to reach it. As I'm about to step out of the door I make out the person Shepard's aiming at until something hard impacts my helmet, the blow sending me sprawling back into the room.

"Mother fucker!" I curse as I push myself to my feet, moving faster as I hear arguing and the shuffling of feet. Once I'm on my feet I see four more armored figures in the room, each one standing tensely with their guns honed in like lasers on the rest of the squad who are mimicking their actions.

"Lower your weapons!" Dylan warns as he flexes his grip on his Mattock.

"Submit or be fired upon." One of the mystery soldiers says with a stone cold tone, his voice filtered with an icy robotic tone. "You have five seconds to comply."

I look around the room for the longest three seconds of my life, each one seemingly minutes long until one of the soldiers speaks up.

"Lincoln, a friendly is among the hostiles." The soldier on the left says with a nod to the center soldier, his voice filtered like the first one.

"Hold fire. You," The center soldier says as he motions to me. "identify yourself."

I feel all of the eyes in the room shift over to me, why would these guys care about me? Unless they're Icarus, but why would they be here? We cut ties with Saleon, there should be no reason they should be here unless we didn't. I suppose there's only one way to find out.

"I'm Captain James Matticks, ID is A-zero one-C." I respond officially, silently hoping that this means nothing to them.

"Sir." The main soldier nods, the one who I assume is Lincoln. "Are these men with you?"

I sigh as I realize they have to be Icarus, this might not go over well with Garrus and Ian. "Yes they are, I'm currently under command of Commander Shepard." I say as I point to the commander who is still straddling the woman, both of them still holding their own weapons to each other. It takes a second for it to sink in, but ones it does each soldier lowers their weapons and stands up straight.

Shepard lifts herself off the woman on the ground and flips the knife in her hand, offering her the handle of the blade. The woman takes the blade and sheathes it in its home before grabbing her rifle off the ground, Shepard must have knocked it away during their scuffle.

"Who are you?" I ask, looking at Lincoln.

Lincoln pauses for a moment before answering. "That's classified to non-Icarus personnel."

"Unclassify it." I respond.

"Regulation states that—"

"I'm not a fan of regulation." I interrupt. "What do you need? A clearance code?"

"Any A-level contractor clearance code would allow access, if you have a—"

"Zulu, niner, four, echo, november." I say, interrupting Lincoln again.

One of the soldiers on the right activates his Omni-tool and makes a few entries before nodding to Lincoln.

"We are Keatol squad, an Icarus TAC team in the special forces division." Lincoln answers immediately and professionally. "I am Keatols squad leader, Lincoln." He says, he then motions to the man on the far left and starts moving down the line. "This is Rook, Sigma, Fish, and York."

I stare at the soldiers and something clicks in my mind as I look them over. Their armor is very ridged, almost like a stealth bomber from my time. Their helmets remind me of the EOD helmet from Halo, their armor is rugged plates placed over important parts of the body. These are the soldiers Aila showed me on the Citadel.

"What are you doing here?" Garrus speaks up, shooting me a glare. "What does Icarus have to do with Saleon?"

"That's classified." Lincoln responds.

"Answer the question Lincoln, now." I order.

"We are here to recover primary and secondary VIPs and sensitive information, then purge the ship along with any staff onboard."

"Who's the VIP?" Garrus hisses, shifting his feet and gripping his rifle.

"Maverick do you know anything about this?" Shepard asks.

"Shepard I swear, I knew nothing about it." I try to assure her.

"Who is the VIP?!" Garrus asks again loudly.

"That's classified." Lincoln.

"Answer me!" Garrus yells, raising his rifle slightly as he takes a step forward.

"Watch yourself." Rook warns, easing the barrel of his shotgun towards Garrus.

"Do you know where Rebeca is?" a voice speaks up, quieting the other rumblings in the room.

We all turn to face Ian, who's now retracted his helmet and staring at Lincoln.

"Is she ok?" he asks hopefully.

"I don't know who that is." Lincoln answers. "If she is a VIP she will be helped."

Ian seems grateful to hear this, but there's a visible click of occurrence before he speaks again. "What if she's not a VIP?"

There is a split second of silence, enough for everyone to process the question when Lincoln answers him.

"She will be purged with the rest of the ship."

"No she will not." I speak up, raising my hand to Ian to let him know I've got it under control. "Do you understand me? If she is alive, she will remain alive. Got it?"

"Yes sir." Lincoln nods.

"Good." I say, put slightly at ease. These soldiers seem professional, almost perfectly so. Something about them is off though, I don't know what it is but it's definitely there. Whatever it is.

"So what do we do now?" Tali asks, her glowing eyes fixated on the dark intimidating TAC's.

Everyone looks to Shepard except for the TAC team, who all turn to me for orders.

"We will operate together." Shepard says, taking command of the situation. "Our objectives appear to be similar, none of them contradict each other yet so we might as well help each other."

"Shepard what about Saleon?" Garrus asks immediately

"What about Rebecca?" Ian says before Shepard can get a word out.

"We will sort it out when the situation arises, until then we work together." Shepard says firmly before looking among the TAC team. "Is this ok with you?"

"It's not up to us." Sigma says, her voice lighter than the men's but the filter makes it scary nonetheless.

"Captain?" Lincoln speaks up, getting my attention. "Are these orders acceptable to you?"

"Uhh." I stammer, thrown off a little by the sudden authority that was thrust upon me. "I guess so."

"My orders not good enough for you Maverick?" Shepard asks jokingly. "You're under my command, remember?"

"We're not though." Rook mutters, drawing everyone's attention.

"Rook." Lincoln warns.

"Guys got an attitude Mav." Alex snickers. "Best keep him in line or we'll have to take him out."

"The captain is the only thing keeping you alive right now." Rook sneers, causing Alex to tense and grip his rifle.

"Stow it." Lincoln orders. "Now."

"The orders are fine." I say, trying to quell the situation or at least move it along before it explodes. "Let's go."

Begrudgingly, everyone starts to move forward towards the door, spreading into the next room. The TAC team starts wiping computers and piling things into OSD's as Shepard's crew and I watch the hallway for any threats.

Lincoln lets me know that the room is clean and we start to work our way down the hallway, trying not to bump into each other due to the increase of people in the ship. We reach the door and everyone stacks up on the door, Normandy crew on one side and TAC team on the other. Lincoln grabs Shepard's attention and makes a small hand signal to her, she seems to do a double take but makes a sign of her own. Two or three quick exchanges later and Shepard activates the door panel and we quickly rush in the door into a warehouse filled with a labyrinth of boxes. We all come to a stop and Dylan speaks up.

"Does anyone hear that?" he whispers, his question causing everyone's head to tilt slightly as we stop moving. The sound is quiet and hard to make out, but it sounds like a person.

"It sounds like someone's crying." Tali adds, getting a few nods in agreement.

"Please help…" A soft whisper says, greeted instantly with the receiving ends of weapons. But they lower slowly, due to shock at what we see.

The thing that called for help looks human, or it did at one point. What's stood in front of us is an abomination, bits and pieces growing awkwardly where they shouldn't. A turian mandible hangs on its right cheek, but it's bloody and infected. A new set of batarian eyes, but they're sickly and askew. There are various limbs and features from different races all part of this thing, everything is infected and swollen.

"Saleon." Garrus mutters, but his normal anger is replaced with shock.

The creature hobbles forward and falls at the feat of one of the TAC's, the one Lincoln called Fish. Every movement is pained and labored, the skin shining with puss and blood.

"Make it stop…" It sobs, reaching a hand up to Fish. Fish hesitates for a moment but shrugs to himself and let's go of his rifle to help it up, grabbing its hand and hoisting it to its feet.

"Fish." Someone calls out, the last male TAC who must be York. He lowers his Omni-tool and looks to Lincoln. "Not cleared, they're Z level."

Lincoln looks at Fish as another creature crawls around the corner for help, Lincoln nods at him and turns around and the Normandy crew watches them start to move to the other side of the room. The Normandy crews attention is snapped back though as two shots ring out and we see Fish lowering the end of his smoking rifle, the two creatures dead on the floor.

"What the hell was that?" Shepard snaps, reaching out and spinning Fish around. "You assign someone a letter and that mean you just kill them? They needed help!"

More shots ring out in the warehouse, they echo away to leave a loud pained moan in its place. One more gunshot later and it goes away. Fish doesn't seem phased though as he starts to walk away.

"Yes that's what it means, the captain can tell you more." He says over his shoulder before walking around the corner.

Shepard turns and looks at me, clearly frustrated but not nearly as much as I am. How the fuck should I know what Z level means? I barely know how anything works in this company let alone little codes!

"What's Z level mean James?" Shepard asks calmly. "Tell me what special letter dictates who dies."

"I don't know." I tell her as I feverishly fly through the Icarus database on my Omni-tool. "Hold on."

"Who authorizes something like this?" Tali asks.

"Icarus does." Garrus answers, vinegar in his voice. "You said you have nothing to do with Saleon, yet there's an Icarus death squad roaming this ship killing innocents." He spits at me.

"I don't know what's going on." I snap back. "Here it is." I say, looking at the list of levels according to Icarus. "Each level has a meaning, it goes from A to Z. A being the highest level of security, protection, and authority. Z meaning a high level threat to Icarus or innocents, spies, enemies, double agents and they're to be shot on sight. And Garrus I don't see you running off to protect these things!" I growl after my explanation.

"They're people." Tali says quietly. "They're not things."

"Are they?" I say pointing to the mutated carcass on the ground. "Even if they were people, they're not now."

"Looks like I was right about you." Garrus says, shaking his head.

I'm about to come back at him but Dylan cuts me off before I can talk.

"Where's Ian?"

We all look around and sure enough Ian's nowhere to be found. everyone instantly starts to walk towards the cockpit of the ship, searching for the Brit as we walk over bodies. We catch up to the TAC team quickly, and they tell us that he went ahead of them. Then we find him, walking around and checking the faces of the creatures methodically, ignoring their soft pleas.

"Ian, what are you doing?" Shepard asks as we all gather behind her.

"I have to find her." he answers blankly, pushing a sobbing woman to the side "She's in here, she has to be."

Shepard looks back to us with a concerned look, she doesn't seem sure of how to help him and she's not finding any answers from us. We don't know what to do, none of the things he's going to find are going to be pretty but we can't stop him from looking. So we do what we can, follow him through the warehouse as gunshots end the wailing of the creatures.

We come around a corner and see a door, it has to be the one that eventually leads to Saleon. There are lots of bodies littered around and some of them start to stir when they notice us, slowly reaching and crawling towards us. I'm trying to sympathize with these things, I really am. But because of what they are now, the barely visible shade of humanity among the horror show on the surface isn't enough to make me want to help them. If anything I feel more compelled to help the TAC team with their objective, but I think it would sour the Normandy's already lowered opinion of me.

I feel something tug on my leg and I look down to see a turian-salarian creature grabbing at me, reactions breaking out all over its body due to the different levo systems that were smashed together. I pull away and it falls to the ground, bouncing lightly before its head snaps to the side and sickly green blood splats to the side.

"I wouldn't touch these things." Sigma warns as she lowers her rifle. "We don't know what kind of biological tampering was done."

"You wouldn't want to get one of those pesky randomly mutated super viruses, would we?" Fish asks from the other side of me.

"Not really, no." I shake my head. "I don't there are people lining up to get super viruses anyway."

"Why would someone do that?" Sigma wonders, he tone suggesting it was a real question.

"It was a joke Sig." Fish tells her before looking back to me. "Right?"

"Yeah." I nod, confused by their weird behavior. "It was a joke."

"You know I'm not good with jokes Fish." Sigma sighs as she roughly brushes past him, firing a shot and dropping another creature.

These guys seem a little off, and now it's starting to really bug me. Just the way they speak seems so forced I guess, like they don't like talking or English is their second language. I'm sure without their scary voice filters it would be worse so I'm not going to ask for them to turn them off.

I jog forward to Shepard who is watching Ian sift through bodies, slowly followed by Rook who is shooting each one Ian leaves behind. When I get to Shepard I see she's watching Rook run cleanup for lack of a better word.

"I take it he hasn't found her." I say as I stand next to her, watching as Rook thoughtlessly moves back and forth.

"No, I'm not sure I want him to find her either." She says as she looks down to her right at a dead creature on the floor. "Not if she's like this."

"You know that's a possibility right?" I say softly.

"Yeah." She sighs.

"Any thoughts on the TAC team?" I ask, switching the subject.

"They're good." she says, though it sounds like she doesn't want to. "The woman, Sigma? She's quick and was trained well but I can tell she lacks experience. I don't like that they blindly follow orders without any question."

"You think they shouldn't follow orders?" I ask.

"It depends." She hums. "Something like this, I don't think I could do it. But they didn't even think about it, they were told to kill and they did. That one there," she says, pointing out Fish. "he helped that person up, but then that person was classed a Z level and his opinion changed to the polar opposite and killed it without any hesitation."

"There's a reason these things are kill on sight Shepard." I say, looking at her. "Do I know why? No, I don't. But someone thought they were a threat to Icarus, if these are our special forces that means they were probably orders sent from high up. Maybe even from Pac, somebody whose judgment I trust."

"So if he told you to kill somebody, without any reason you would just do it?" Shepard asks judgingly.

"Yeah, I think I would." I nod.

"Why?"

"Because I know if I asked him to do it he would." I answer. "We helped each other before, and I know he's a good guy who has nothing but Icarus's best interests at heart."

Shepard nods slightly, understanding what I'm saying even though she might not agree with it. We watch Ian squat down and check the last body, examining the face before he falls back and sits on the ground and sinks his face into his hands. Shepard begins her walk up to him as Garrus does the same, the Normandy crew all watching silently. I think about going over to them to see what they're talking about but I find myself drawn to the TAC team, I want to see what else they have to do and how I can help.

A few quick steps and I'm next to Lincoln, tapping his shoulder to get his attention. "So this part of the ship is cleared, what else do you have to do?"

"York found some info on the computers in the second room." Lincoln says, nodding towards York as if to give him a pat on the back. "There's no more run off from the lab, the only thing left for us to do is secure the VIP's and finish the purge."

I look back at Ian who's being talked to by Shepard and Garrus, the rest of the Normandy crew gathered around him now but again I find myself more vested in Icarus's work, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. I turn back to Lincoln and give him a quick nod. "Let's get on with it then."

The TAC team and I head through the door to the front of the ship, and the second we are in the familiar hallway my eye is drawn to the door where Saleon's hiding. "What do you plan on doing with Saleon?"

"He's to be eliminated." Lincoln says simply. "Once we find him."

"I'll handle him." I mutter as I walk up to the door. "You do what you need to with the rest of the ship."

"Yes sir."

I open the door and am greeted with a few things, rows of computers that's screen are filled with charts and diagrams, a large monitor on the back wall that looks like a live feed of a weird glass tube with a naked unharmed asari in it, and Saleon looking at me with beady black eyes. I walk into the room and look around, messy medical gear laying around showing that Saleon has been working feverishly, which can't be good.

"Why are you here?" he demands. "I have work to be doing and I can't have you shooting up my ship and jeopardizing my work!"

"There's an Alliance team aboard the ship." I lie quickly and calmly. "They are here to arrest you and take you back for a trial, my team and I were sent to extract you. We're running clean up on you ship and moving you to a new facility."

"Hmm, I thought you were sent to kill me." he scoffs. "I'm surprised Jodin changed his tone."

The mention of Saylem sparks my interest, and a little anger. "CEO Jodin?" I ask. "I wasn't aware he was in charge of your… operation."

"Ha, he's the one that funded it!" he laughs. "I liked the new equipment and limitless credits, but near the end where I started my little side project, he found his conscience." He spits.

"What side project?" I ask, trying to keep my voice level. It's difficult too, the thought that Saylem approved of this is sending me into a confused rage but the mention of him 'finding his conscience' is keeping me calm for now.

"Genetics." He says, raising his finger at me. "Those people you saw on your way in are the result of splicing genes and some old fashioned surgery. I wanted to use the originals for a more real experience but they would eventually run dry, so I've resorted to cloning and piecing them together into interesting little pieces."

"And what's the point of this?"

"Well it's not for money." He smirks. "I suppose it's just a hobby of mine, a hobby Jodin wanted no part of. He says it doesn't meet Icarus standards and has no medical benefits, he didn't seem to understand that you have to talk a break from work and do something fun now and then."

"Fun?" I mutter. "You call this fun?"

"Don't tell me the thug has a conscience too?" he says in a mocking tone. "You probably have hobbies too, I'm sorry mine are more intellectual then shooting things and touching myself."

I'm about to snap when a calm cool feeling works its way down my body, and I feel all the anger drift way like a feather in a breeze. It's replaced with a focused urge, something new and foreign but at the same time enticing. I'm not sure what it is, but I'm going to find out what it is, I've got to.

"If you're ready, please load all of your information onto an OSD and I'll send you on your way." I reply calmly.

Saleon smirks at me smugly, raising his Omni-tool and tapping at it for a few seconds. I start to walk towards him as all of the monitors go blank except for one in the corner of the room that lets off a soft beep and green light.

"It's in the corner." Saleon says pointing to the computer. "Fetch it for me and get me off this ship."

I walk up to Saleon and a tingle of excitement rushes up my spine, my eye widening as I stare at him.

"Thank you for your time Doctor." I say as I offer my hand to him, waiting for him to shake it. As he reaches out to talk my hand and smirk spreads over my lips as I give it a firm shake, building a warp in my hand as my grip tightens.

Saleon instantly rips his hand from mine and starts to yell as it eats at his hand, dissolving flesh as it works its way to the bone. Before it starts to fade I reach to my knife and slip it out of the sheath, my other hand roughly grabbing his coat. With one quick push and pull my knife slams into his chest, angled up under his ribs as my face almost touches his. His breath shortens and his eyes flare open as I dig the blade deeper, a hot sensation spreading over my hand as I force it to the hilt.

"But your services are no longer required, Icarus wishes you luck in your future endeavors." I whisper softly before ripping the knife to the side with a wet tear. "Now die, you fucking pig." Another pull and the knife is free and I let Saleon fall to the ground in a heap.

I look down at his body, a small pool of blood gathering around it and I can't help but smile. Out of all of the people I've killed he might have deserved it the most, and I now regret not doing the same to Haynes. I look at my knife and see that it, and my hand, is covered in the slimy bastards puke green blood. I quickly find a sink and fix that, drying off my knife and putting it back in the sheath on my arm.

Once I grab the OSD I walk out of the room and across the hall, the room filled with glass tubes with people of various races and genders. York is at a console as the rest of the TAC team gathers respirators and oxygen tanks that are covered with emergency warnings.

"What are you doing?" I ask Lincoln.

"We are gathering the VIPs for a spacewalk to our ship." he explains. "Its holding twenty clicks form the Fedele, we're going to float towards it as York sends the Fedele into this systems sun."

"Good, how many are there total?" I ask, looking around at the tubes. "And how can I help?"

"There are eight VIPs," Lincoln says as he looks back to York. "York, how many are ready for transport?"

"Six." York replies over his shoulder. "Two won't survive through reanimation."

"Reanimation?" I ask.

"They're in induced comas." Lincoln responds. "You can grab a Survival Skin and respirator and help on of the VIPs into it, we're going to move them to the airlock and jump to the shuttle."

"Alright." I nod. "I'm on it."

I quickly grab one of the respirators and Survival Skins and note that it's similar to my ballistic gel armor but maybe a bit thicker. The pods give off a hiss and I walk up to one that reveals a naked human girl, she looks about my age, maybe a bit older. Her eyes flutter open as I slide her legs off the table and start to shimmy the suit on her.

"Where am I?" she asks softly, almost too quiet to hear.

"It doesn't matter." I say, trying to sound friendly about it as I guide her arms in the suit before zipping it up. "You're going to be ok now, we're going to take care of you and get you back to your old life. Sound good?"

"Yeah." She nods with a grateful sigh, grabbing onto me as I help her stand up.

"Then let's go." I smirk, before looking to the rest of the TAC team. "That goes for us too, next stops the airlock."

We start to work our way down the halls and enter the killing floor section of the ship, unwanted smells being reintroduced with my nose. The Normandy crew blocks us at the door though, seemingly on their way to Saleon. Shepard is right in front of me when she starts to talk.

"Who are these people?" she asks.

"They're the VIPs Shepard." I answer. "They're being taken back to Icarus for medical attention and then returned to their families."

"Good." She nods.

"What about Saleon?" Garrus speaks up. "Did you find him? Is he here?"

"Yeah." I chuckle. "I found him."

"Where is he?" Garrus demands angrily, checking his assault rifle.

"Garrus." Shepard says quickly. "He needs to be brought in."

"Shepard—" Garrus starts to protest, but Shepard cuts him off.

"It's the right thing to do." she says. "He needs to pay for what he's done I know that, but not like that."

"He's dead." I speak up, getting Garrus and Shepard's attention.

"What happened to him?" Garrus asked.

"He outlived his usefulness." I respond. "Something I thought happened a long time ago, but I guess I was wrong. Not anymore though."

"So that's it?" Garrus asks. "He's dead?"

"Yeah. He's dead." I nod.

I hear someone say something, followed by a small commotion as Ian pushes past Dylan and Alex.

"Rebecca!" Ian yells frantically as he rushes towards me, almost knocking me over as he wraps his arms around the girl I was holding.

"Ian?" she asks softly, disbelief in her voice.

"It's me." he says, tears welling in his eyes. "Don't worry, everything's going to be ok." he says as he hugs her tighter and rocks back and forth.

We all watch as the two reunite, smiles on all of our faces except for the TAC team who couldn't be bothered to hang around and went on to the airlock. Eventually there never ending hug parts and I explain to Ian that Rebecca will be taken care of, which promptly started another argument but it settled and Ian agreed. Once I agreed to give him a link to her at all times and that nothing would be done without her or his permission, which I was fine with. We left the TAC team and the VIPs in the ship as we left in the Normandy, the Fedele changing course into the sun after some 'debris' was ejected from the airlock.

After my armor is stripped from my body and I'm back in some comfortable clothes, a message is sent to my Omni-tool that we are on our way to Novaria. Novaria will be tough, and not because of the cold, the geth, the rachni, or the asari commandos. It'll be tough because of Benezia, and what will happen to her and more importantly Liara. It's not something I'm looking forward to, and I can't think of any way to avoid it. But it's going to happen, one way or the other. And I'll be ready.

[I]

ICARUS
-PERSONNEL DATABASE-

ID Code_A-01-M

Name: Pakiev Kratest
Position: Military CEO
Call Sign: Kingpin
Status: Active

Species: Turian
Height: 198cm
Weight: 98kg
Plate Color: Dark Brown
Skin Color: Light Brown
Paint Color: Cyan
Iris Color: Dark Orange
Paint Pattern: Full Mandibles, Center Fringe Plates

Strategic Proficiencies

Icarus employee A-01-M revels overseeing military operations and often reads military strategy novels to increase his skills. Due to time spent in the turian military, A-01-M is well versed in combat though his unorthodox style often got him demoted out of a position to lead multiple platoons of troops. A-01-M has called Adrien Victus his idol when it comes to leadership and strategic style. A-01-M was dishonorably discharged from the military when a risky operation he lead failed, resulting in the death of 90% of the troops under him.

Psychiatric Evaluation

Work Relations: A-01-M maintains a professional tone with all Icarus staff, often taking a militaristic view on situation even when not among personnel in the military branch which causes minor confusion. However when around other A ranked staff A-01-M takes on a more relaxed persona, making suggestions quietly and from a reserved standpoint, rarely getting angry. A-01-M shows great distain for D-02-C even though he points out D-02-C's ability to adapt to most soldiers as an example to strive for, though never brings up D-02-C's mannerisms.

Personal Mental State: A-01-M is very reserved when questioned about his discharge from the military, referring to it as "The uncontrollable spiral into the pile of shit my life was a few weeks ago." but easily puts it aside due to the recent turnaround of Icarus. Other than the clear regret over the loss of his soldiers, A-01-M is modestly head strong and appears to have properly mourned their deaths, allowing him to focus on the future of Icarus.

R/R

[Lanilen: Yeah, it tends to work most of the time and both ways. And I believe that awkwardness is one of the funniest things people can do, and for a girl it's just plain cute.

[general-joseph-dickson: Thanks man.

[toprichie97: I noticed too, so I'm going to add a little here and there even though its not my strong suit.

[Spiritstrike: Glad you liked the character interactions! The Garrus and Mav scene was very fun to write, so I'm glad it turned out as well as I'd hoped. Yeah Liara/Mav is something I had planned out since I've started MA, a lot of people are calling for Aila/Mav though which I didn't expect but toyed with once they started popping up. Lorin's profile was probably the easiest to write, probably because it had more Mav/Lorin shenanigans and I heard someone call someone else "swallow bottom' so I couldn't resist. Ah, don't mention the recommendation, you've earned it!

[OBSERVER01: I've actually not considered a RWBY insert, but it might not be a bad idea. If I do though it'll be way down the line when this series is done and the RWBY world is more evolved.

[Mayhem296: Thanks man, glad you're enjoying it!

[masterdude94: Thanks! Yeah it was worked out somewhat, if I'm honest I didn't want to close it completely because it adds some more friction to the story which I find interesting. Yeah, I thought the sex change was funny too, happy I'm not the only one.

[V-rcingetorix: Glad you approve of the Garrus/Mav cleanup, its been something I've thought out for a while now. Yeah, normally when I finish writing and rereading I miss a few things here and there, it makes me want to apply for a beta. I'm glad you agree with me on the qualityquantity part of the Icarus forces and you make a good point about the recruitment part, I'll rethink some plans I had. Thanks for the ideas man!

[Rfalzar: Hey man, glad you dropped a review and you're right, they do help a lot so thanks! Sorry about my update timing lately, I'll try to improve it but I can't promise anything even though I want to.

[BiowareSoilder: Thanks man, I appreciate the review! I also love hearing another vote towards a Mav/Liara pairing, so kudos!

[DavidJ647: Well thank you good sir! Thanks for the pat on the back about the interaction in this chapter, its honestly one of my biggest worries is making sure everyone is saying something that they would actually say. I'm happy you like the way things were "resolved" between Garrus and Mav, as well as the other relationships aboard the Normandy! I'll try to keep things up to snuff, and I hope this chapter does the trick!

[ForgottenPrince: Hey, no problem man! I can't give away secrets and plot points, you know that! Whatever love triangles or lack of love triangles are all kept under lock and key.

[tylerbamafan34: I'm not sure if I'll jam to much tech in from other games, and I've never played Crysis so I wouldn't bet on it. Happy to hear you're liking everything so far, I hope you keep liking it!

[The Paragade Gamer: Thanks man! Glad you like it, but I'm not sure all of the Garrus and Mav fighting is out of the way just yet.

[CrimsonKnight117: Yeah now that you mention it that's kinda what Shepard's little intervention was like! You Shepard's reaction was funny, obviously I think so but its nice to hear you and a few others enjoyed it as well. Shhh, stop pointing out mistakes and plot holes, I'm too lazy to go back and fix them!

[herbsandlemons: Yeah a couple people thought that, but if I'm honest I didn't even think about it being a possibility! Well I'll try not to disappoint!

[The Paragade Gamer: Yeah, that's one of my favourites too!

[Guest: Ahh, you're too kind man! I have plans, I'll stick with that for now! Hey, if it makes you feel better Mass Anomalies 2 features Mav and Lorin on their own ship with their own crew! Plus a cameo or two in this story!

[Tactus501st: Yeah, my spelling is terrible. You should see my handwriting, it's so god damn bad! Anyway, thanks for the review and I'm glad you like it!

[Michae1ange1o: Thanks man! I try to be funny as often as possible, it makes things generally better. You know, I did look that up and its fucking cool man! Wanna hear something else cool? Wrex and Aria used to "date"! Look it up Wrex and Aria on youtube and there should be a few videos, Wrex talking about an "Aleena" in ME1 and Aria basically quoting Wrexs story in ME2.

[Leonsk1997: Hey, thanks for reviewing! You're English isn't that bad man, I've seen and heard plenty worse!

[Guest2: Don't tell me how to live my life!

[PoptartProdigy: Glad you like it man!

[PoptartProdigy: Shhhhhh…

[BluePheonixGuy: Dylan Owens.

[Guest3: Yes, the fact that you're reading this means you're dreaming and should wake up, Leonardo DiCaprio is trying to plant thoughts in your head right now!

[ : Glad you're enjoying the story so far! Don't worry, I'll keep going with it no matter what happens. Unless I die, then you're kinda on your own.