Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Mass Effect, or anything much, for that matter.

A/N: What is up guys, I'm glad to release another chapter. I'm so sorry for the delays. Here we go, ladies[?] and gentlemen.

Normandy SR-1.

February 11th, 2183. 4 P.M.

The trip back was muted, different revelations affecting everyone. We sit now in the comms room, going over the official debrief.

"Samples were sent back to the Alliance and the Council, along with those we took alive, so we can get more information on what we were dealing with on Binthu. Once the data encryption is broken, We'll lead the charge against the Cerberus base." Shepard finishes. "Anything anybody would like to add?" Liara stands rather uneasily, nervous at the sets of eyes on her.

"Um, Ec- Echo had somebody alive, down on Binthu," She looks at me, but my eyes hold no emotion for her to fear. "But he shot them. The man had said something beforehand." She adds, quickly sitting down and looking anywhere but my direction. Shepard locks eyes with me before speaking.

"Does this have something to do with what we discussed?" He asks simply, and my confirmation is an even simpler nod. "Unless there is anything else, dismissed." He says to the gathered individuals. As they filter out, Shepard takes a seat next to me.

"You look tired, Shepard." He chuckles at this.

"That obvious?"

"Nah, I'm just better at reading people than most." He looks at the door a moment, then slumps a little from his ridged posture.

"You know, I never asked for this stuff," He gestures at the the ship in general. "Command, power. Never asked for any of it."

"Then why take it?" I ask.

"Because Anderson felt I was good at it." He shrugs. "He changed my life back on Earth. Gave me the chance to become something more than a thug. But for all of it, I never wanted to be an officer. I'm awful at regulations, at desk-work. If I came under review, I'm sure I would lose my pension." He says jokingly.

"Maybe that's why you are a commander then." I state, and he looks at me as if to say 'continue.' " You have that ability to walk into a room, and take the attention of everyone in it. You've drawn together a team that in any other circumstances would be at eachother's throats, with knives in some cases." He nods. "Commanders, officers have regulations down, sure. But leaders? Leaders can bring a Krogan and a Turian into the same room without them killing eachother. A leader can look past someone's race and see their skill. Hell, If I had asked to join anyone else's ship, I would've been killed on the spot." I finish.

"To be fair, I already tried that." He says, and I raise an eyebrow. "Remember that N7 team sent to kill you?" My eyes widen at that. 'He was apart of that..?'

"Um.. Sorry about that." I mumble.

"I saw your skill first hand back then," He continues. "And I got access to files on you that most of the Alliance can't see. You have the kind of talent that a mission like this needs, and I knew from Hackett you weren't just an assassin." He looks me in the eyes. "So why are you trying to prove him wrong?" I sigh at this.

"He knew me, Shepard. And I knew him." I explain. "He was one of the numerous guards at Titan."

"Then why did you kill him? He could have given you information." Shepard reasons.

"He was a grunt Shepard. But he was Decker's main grunt. Which means Decker is involved with these people. One doesn't go anywhere without the other."

"Then we'll be able to find out more when we take these people down." Shepard states, and I nod. "Just next time, keep him alive until we know we don't need him, okay?"

"No promises, but I'll try."

"For now, we have a lead. The Geth have units out in the Armstrong Nebula. It could be scouts, or it could the precursor to an invasion force. We're gonna make sure it goes away, whatever the purpose."

"Sounds good, Shep." I make to get up and move away, only for Shepard to stop me.

"One more thing, Cory."

"Sure, what?" The next words catch me off-guard, a novel experience.

"Are you interested in Tali?"

"Ajsdnyhfru?" Shepard laughs.

"What the hell was that?"

"Nevermind that. Why do you ask?" I'm decidedly uncomfortable with the first question.

"Well, you two seem to get along, whereas Tali is fairly uncomfortable in speaking with anyone else on the ship. Plus, you've done more for her than anybody else probably would've done. "

"That's just the kind of person I am, Shepard." I start.

"Hmm. Just seems like you put more effort into it, for her." He smirks.

"Heh... To be honest Shepard, I couldn't get into a relationship like that," I say, and he looks confused. " Not because of race, or lack of intimacy, or whatever. Where I lived, Quarians weren't hated." Or known of, mostly, but I omit this detail. " I never grew up with any prejudice towards them. And there are ways to make those things work."

"The problem," I continue. "Is that I've never had much luck in this department. Tali is a good person, and there aren't too many of those left. But she reminds me way too much of somebody I used to know."

"Ana?" Shepard asks, catching entirely off-guard.

"You're more perceptive than I give you credit for." I say evenly.

"You know, you can talk about it if you want." Shepard offers.

"To be fair, I've told all of two people about her," I state. "And I'm not likely to tell anybody else, sorry."

"Okay, I understand." Shepard nods.

"Thanks." I say as the first beats of a song eminate from my Omni-Tool. " I'm gonna head down to the cargo bay, get Wrex's new toy ready for him. Cheers." As I walk out of the comms room and toward the elevator, the lyrics fire up.

'You can tell ev'ryone I'm a down disgrace, drag my name all over the place. I don't care anymore.'

"Wrex!" The Krogan looks at me, and his eyes brighten with interest at the case in my hands. "It's ready."

"Show me what you got then." He says, and I pop the clasps.

"Meet Grohiik." I say proudly, brandishing a weapon that, despite my best efforts, still looks like a block with a pistol grip. Ah well.

"Grohiik?" Wrex asks. "That didn't translate for me."

"It wouldn't. It means Wolf." I explain. "A revolver-style weapon, with some special skills." I smirk. "I could explain, but just try it out on the target I set up." I motion towards the bulls-eye at the end of the bay, and he takes a stance as I cover my ears.

The resulting crack is enormous, and has the added bonus of scaring the living hell out of Garrus and Ashley. Amazingly, the Requisitions guy looks completely unfazed. Wrex looks to me. "Surprising amount of power." He says.

"Take a look at the target." I say simply, and he does.

"Seven marks." He says, mildly surprised. "Very tight spread."

"About the size of a fist," I confirm. "With each pellet packing a nasty punch. They're slightly delayed from one another, so the first few can take the shields with the rest hitting the target full force."

"Not bad, Echo." Wrex says.

"But wait, there's more."

"Eh?"

"... Nevermind. Just give me the weapon." He does, and I hit the sink release. It pops open on the side, revealing a cylinder with six separate pistol sinks. "The power of the shot overheats the sink pretty much instantly, so rather than finding a workaround that every military in the Galaxy is pouring credits into finding, I just added more." I say with a smirk. "Each pull of the trigger also cycles a new sink into place."

"Clever." Wrex admits.

"Ah, but that's only half of it." I reply. "The most recently-fired sink is sprayed with a coolant of my own design. It cuts the overheat time in half. By the time You've fired the sixth shot, The first is ready. That only works once if you're firing it one right after the other, though. But that's twelve straight shots, or more if you pace yourself." I chuckle at Wrex's surprised face. "I take it you like?" He nods."The design also uses a rather archaic heat monitoring system, but that prevents it being sabotaged." His eyes show approval at this. " Okay, ready to hear the drawbacks?" He nods again, albeit less enthusiastically.

"Well," I start. "The fire rate is fairly low, with the sinks having to cycle right, and the power drops off at range. It'll hit at medium range, but the shots won't do as much damage. It's still far more powerful than a pistol at that range though. Because of it's design, it doesn't fold up, and the recoil would snap my wrists if I tried to fire it."

"I felt that." Wrex says.

"Yup. Also, the coolant should be cleaned off the sinks every once in a while, cos it tends to not burn off completely. Maybe once every few days, if you use it a lot." I finish. "So, what do you think?"

"It's perfect." He says, and I smile.

"I'm glad you like it. Cannibalized a few different weapons to put that thing together, so use it well. No charge." I add with a wink. "Call it a favor."

"I can live with that." Wrex nods. "I was wrong about you, Echo. You know what you're doing. Well enough, at least."

"High praise, from a Battlemaster." I chuckle again.

"You better believe it." He returns the chuckle. "And don't expect it often. Or at all. You may just disappoint yourself."

"I'm full of surprises, big man." I say. "Now come here. Let's get the grip molded."

AN: (Trigger Warning! Rant) Okay, once again I am so sorry for the delays. If you want to come egg my house or something, I'd have it coming. I'll even give you my address if you P.M. me. I hate this chapter. It's ungodly short, and does absolutely nothing for the story, but I had to give you guys something, so consider it Ch. 19.1, and the rest will come later as an update to this chapter, rather than separate. The good news is I've found a bit of a muse in Noisestorm, so I should start making stuff a bit more. for this morning (8:30 A.M. Central U.S. Standard Time) I have a doctor's appointment. Busted ribs are a b*tch. Once more, I beg your collective forgiveness. This was so not worth the wait, but hang in there folks. This story will never die. I promise that. And thank you guys! 50 reviews, and 100 followers was a lot more than I expected at this point, and it's really cheered me up. You guys makes this story =]