Wraith
Mass Effect 2
Zaeed Massani, Renegade Earthborn Shepard
Zaeed Massani considered himself a good judge of character. Ironic, since his ex-partner Vido had blown off half his goddamn face and Zaeed had never seen it coming. But that had been different. Zaeed had known Vido was a bastard, it was what kind of bastard that he had guessed incorrectly.
Now he knew better. He knew any other species was not to be trusted and humans; he could read their motivations right there in their face.
Problem was, the red-headed ghost advancing upon him was not human.
Commander Shepard was an excellent mockery of what passed as human, but Zaeed knew better. He doubted even the Commander knew how much of her was her own flesh and blood and how much was all Cerberus tech.
She was fresh off the lab table, all sickly pale and unmuscled. He had called bullshit when Cerberus had offered him the job and told him that the Commander Shepard would be leading the team. And, frankly, Zaeed thought he'd been right. This was not the paragon on the Citadel memorial posters, all imperial and righteous. Bright-eyed with a healthy glow and infamous for her rousing pre-battle speeches.
Well, there was a definitely still a shine to her eyes, but it, like the rest of her, was harsh and synthetic.
He wasn't certain what was before him, though he vowed to find out. He would not be led into hell by one already dead.
She doesn't impress him in battle, at first. When they go to retrieve the doc she fights like any other soldier and it makes him curious to know what Cerberus had thought was so goddamn special about her that they'd spend an astronomical amount of credits to try and bring her back.
From Shepard's file Zaeed learned that she had been a former gang member and thought to put the skills she had learned there to use in the military. So she had been originally classed as an infiltrator until the Alliance learned of her biotic potential that the poor earth kid had no idea of. It was an unusual mix of skillsets. Zaeed didn't get to see them in action until Horizon.
The Collectors were not two-bit mercs who happened to be in the wrong place (aka in Shepard's way) at the wrong time. They were the real enemy, they were evil.
They worked with the reapers.
She disappears, cloaked on the battlefield, until she reappears close enough to the enemy to send a biotic punch down his throat. That halo of red hair is only visible when she's about to bring death to her enemies. She continues to fight this way, vanishing and using her biotics to savage every Collector that attempted to engage her.
She doesn't fire her gun once.
And when it's done, and that Alenko approaches her, Zaeed observes as she dismisses the last remnant of her humanity and watches him walk away.
When Shepard turns and looks at him there is no regret or loss in her face. There is only a dead sort of purpose in her gaze.
"We're going to destroy the Collector's homeworld."
That was that. She stated the impossible with a fierce sort of hatred in her eyes and their path was set.
And at that moment he thought, Cerberus should have known better. A paragon died on Alchera; a wraith rose in her stead.
It is also then that Zaeed knows he will follow no one else into the Collector's homeworld. The only person who could lead them into hell and back is one who has done it before.