Kasumi

"You always take me to the nicest places, Shep," she said as she stepped off the shuttle.

Her tone was light, but she would be lying if she said she wasn't freaking out. The bulbous protrusions and walls lined with what looked like an insect's exoskeleton (she didn't have the courage to run her hands along it) gave the inside of the Collector's ship a hive-like quality. Kasumi had never been scared of bugs, but this ship was putting the fear in her.

"I've been in batarian prisons more welcoming than this goddamn place," Zaeed added.

While she couldn't speak for the batarian prison part, Kasumi agreed with the sentiment wholeheartedly.

"Then let's get what we need and get out of here. I don't want to be here anymore than you two do," Shepard said.

"And why are we here again? You kinda glossed over that point during the brief."

"To find any information we can find about the Collectors."

"Sounds vague."

Shepard didn't answer her as he led them deeper into the ship and away from the relative safety of the shuttle.

"Wonderful." She looked to Zaeed. "If I survive this, remind me to never sign up for a suicide mission again. It just isn't worth the money."

"Kasumi," Shepard warned.

"I mean look at this place. If this isn't creepy, I don't know what it is. I'm just waiting to hear buzzing-"

"Kasumi!" he said harsher. "Quiet. You don't want Collecters to start swarming us, do you?"

She stopped her babbling. It was weird for her to be talking so much. She was a thief. Her job required her to be invisible. Carrying on like she had been got people noticed and eventually caught.

She knew what caused the words to spill out of her mouth. She was scared. This place unnerved her, and Kasumi used the talking to keep her mind off the fear. Plus, her voice seemed to be a better substitute for the eerie silence they were suffering now, a silence only punctuated by unsettling noises off in the distance. So she was very grateful when Shepard finally broke the quiet. She just wished it was about a better subject.

"These are the pods the Collectors were putting the colonists in."

"These are empty. Wonder what those bugs did to them."

Zaeed mentioning the Collectors' close resemblance to bugs did nothing for Kasumi's growing disdain of all things insect at the moment. She looked away but instantly regretted it.

"Um, guys. I think I found them," she said as she pointed down the corridor.

Shepard made a grim sound and headed toward the direction of where she was pointing.

"Do we have to go over there?" she whined.

He didn't answer. Her head drooped, and she followed Zaeed to join Shepard next to the pile of human bodies. She was very appreciative for the mask over her nose and mouth and that it was connected to a personal oxygen supply so she didn't have to smell the stench she knew was in the air.

"Why would they do this?" she squeaked.

"I remember this one mission, got a job taking down some sick scientists testing on hanar. Found a bunch of the dead jellyfish, perfectly okay looking except for the fact they didn't move. Learned later the doctor used them as a standard. Maybe that's what these are."

Shepard nodded. "Control group. They were probably killed after whatever they were doing to them was finished. They're probably the lucky ones."

"That's a pleasant thought," Kasumi said. "Add this to my list of 'Why I should have never signed up.'"

They moved deeper into the ship. Kasumi was equal parts happy to get away from that gruesome sight and terrified about going further into what she could only describe as hell. This place reminded her of her obaa-san's stories of Yomi-no-kuni, the Japanese underworld. It was not a place the living belonged, and Kasumi preferred to stay among the living.

"Shepard," EDI said over their comm. Kasumi appreciated the AI's soothing voice. "I have compared the ship's EM signature to known Collector profiles. It is the vessel you encountered on Horizon."

"Maybe the defense towers softened it up for the turians," Shepard suggested.

"I think we've found the missing colonists already," Zaeed added.

Kasumi came to the conclusion that Zaeed could be an ass.

"EDI, stand by. I think we just found a terminal." Shepard pointed to it. "Kasumi, break through, and connect EDI. See what you two can get from it."

Kasumi blew through the protection easy enough. It was so simple, she wondered if the Collectors believed no one would be stupid enough to come here. Usually, they were right. But Shepard had been making a habit of doing stupid in the name of saving lives, and he didn't seem like he was about to stop any time soon. Another thing to add for that ever growing list of hers.

She opened the terminal for EDI, and the AI flooded in. She opened new pathways for her to follow and started to download megabytes of information to shift through later. One particular file caught Kasumi's attention.

"Shep, come take a look at this."

He moved from his cover and leaned over her shoulder, reading what was on the screen.

"Does this mean what I think it means?"

Kasumi nodded. "They are experimenting on themselves."

"Why the hell would they do that?" Zaeed asked, never looking away from downrange.

EDI filled in the blanks. "The Collectors were running baseline genetic comparisons between their species and humanity."

"Are they looking for similarities?"

"I have no hypothesis on their motivations. All I have are the preliminary results. They reveal something remarkable. A quad-strand genetic structure, identical to traces collected from ancient ruins. Only one race is known to have this structure: the protheans."

"The Reapers indoctrinated the protheans. They changed them to the Collectors," Shepard concluded.

"A likely possibility, yes. Their genes show distinct signs of extensive genetic rewrite."

"I wouldn't wish that fate on my worst enemy."

"Maybe that's what the Collectors are doing to the colonists they took," Zaeed said.

Kasumi changed what she previously thought about Zaeed. He was always an ass.

"Even more reason to stop them. Did you get what you need about the Collector homeworld?"

"No," EDI answered. "I do detect a terminal deeper in the ship that has access to the networks I need. If you set up a connection there, I will be able to get the information we need."

"You heard her. We're going in further."

Kasumi was afraid he would say that. They entered the next room, and their eyes were drawn upward.

"There must be hundreds of them," she marveled.

"Wonder how many of the goddamn things are full."

"Too many."

EDI kept the good news coming. "I am detecting no signs of life in the pods, Shepard."

"Must have died when the ship lost power in the attack," Zaeed reasoned.

If there was any doubt she wanted out of this place before, the hundreds of pods filled with dead people erased it.

They walked in silence through the hallways. Kasumi tried to keep her eyes on the exit and away from the pods hanging overhead. Then, their radios crackled to life again.

"Commander," Joker said. "You gotta hear this. On a hunch, I asked EDI to run an analysis on this ship."

"I compared the EM profile against the data recorded by the original Normandy two years ago. They are an exact match."

"The same ship has been dogging me for two years? That can't be a coincidence."

"Or it could be," Kasumi tried. "It could be a total coincidence."

She really didn't like the idea of being on a ship with a man that the Collectors have been hunting for over two years. She liked it better when she thought they were hunting them, not the other way around.

"Something doesn't add up, Commander. Watch your back."

That was a freaking understatement. Everything about this place was wrong: the structure, the pile of bodies, the easily hacked terminals, the billions of pods the just found in the main chamber, and the creepy lack of dead Collectors or any Collectors for that matter, a fact Zaeed just had to point out. It was all wrong.

So Kasumi was entirely unsurprised when the once stable floor began to move underneath them after EDI connected to the terminal she discovered earlier. She was even less surprised when other platforms with very alive and angry-looking Collectors approached them.

Terrified was the word she would use.

She took refuge behind the meager cover that was on their platform. She heard Shepard's and Zaeed's sniper rifles sound and peeked over to see Collectors falling to their fire. It made her feel better that, by the time the platform reached theirs, there was only one left, and it fell to more shots from Zaeed's assault rifle.

But the victory was short lived as two more came with even more enemies.

"EDI, get us out of here!"

"I am simultaneously fighting Collector firewalls in over eight thousand nodes. I am tasked to capacity."

The two men worked the incoming platforms, but there were four alive by the time they connected. The trio focused their fire on the glow-y one, and the Collector disintegrated into dust. Another with some beam weapon took a couple of bullets to the head from Zaeed and Kasumi while Shepard sniped the third. The last one threw up a barrier that none of their weapons could get through.

"Kasumi!" Shepard called.

He didn't have to say another word. "Got it!"

She activated her cloak and snuck around the platforms. Shepard and Zaeed did a good job of keeping the Collector's attention focused on them while she moved.

Kasumi got into a position that would knock the target from behind his cover and in direct line of her squadmate's fire. She primed her concussion program that she used for this trick. It drew a lot of power and cancelled her cloak for a moment, but the results were worth the risk.

She decloaked and deployed the blast, knocking the unsuspecting Collector out of cover and to the floor. She recloaked, just to be safe, while the other two shredded the alien with bullets. The thief decloaked again when she was next to them again.

Once that was done and they were sure there were no other surprises at the moment, Shepard contacted EDI.

"How you doing, EDI?"

"I have completed my download. Give me the word, and I'll transport you as close as I can to the shuttle."

"Now's good," Kasumi said.

Shepard agreed. As they moved, EDI explained what she had discovered, specifically about the Illusive Man knowingly sending them into this trap. It was safe to say Shepard was not happy.

Kasumi had never seen Shepard so focused or frenzied. He was a sight to see. Even the praetorian they ran into didn't last very long (he took it down with his sniper rifle, HIS SNIPER RIFLE! WITH LIKE THREE SHOTS!).

Soon enough, they were hopping back on the shuttle while keeping wave after wave of husks at bay. Eventually, the door closed, and the shuttle rocketed back into the Normandy. The trio didn't move, choosing to stay inside until the ship was safely away from the nearly powered up Collector ship.

When Kasumi felt the subtle shift that signaled FTL travel, she let out a sigh of relief.

"Next time you want to take me on a ship filled with Collectors, husks, and all things creepy, Shep, please don't. I think one trip is enough to last me a lifetime."

He didn't answer her. After a moment, he stood abruptly and stomped off toward the elevator. She had an idea who he was going to go see. She was really glad she wasn't in the Illusive Man's shoes right now.

Author's Note:

So Kasumi is an interesting conundrum. She doesn't have an extremely well-defined character like the others. Or I should say, we don't get to see her character because of how little conversation we get to have with her. So hopefully I didn't write her too far out of character for you. I personally like where I took her, so she'll probably stay that way.

Thank you for reading and please review. I always appreciate critiques.