We were on our way to the Citadel. Of course, I knew that, but I kinda hadn't thought about it. A stupid smile made its way to my face. I have to admit, I was looking forward to it. Even though the thing was a massive trap set up by the reapers to lure all sentients into their fold and annihilate them in one fell swoop. But hey, maybe we'd find a way to stop it, assuming I could somewhat tell Shepard about everything I knew without the ghosty white AI getting in the way.

Come to think of it, I hadn't had any more out-of-body experiences with her. Wait, that sounded all wrong. Again.

A snapping of fingers brought me out of my reverie. Shepard was snapping them in front of my face.

"Back with us?" she said. I shrugged, and she smirked at that. "You have the strangest habit of spacing out in the middle of a conversation."

"Sorry," I said sheepishly. "Kinda have a lot in my mind. Never thought I'd see the Citadel."

"Center of the galaxy, heart of civilization, yadda yadda," Shepard replied.

"What, you don't like it?"

"Not really. There's something wrong about the place, I can't quite put my finger on what."

Smart girl.

We were now at the CIC, with the map of the galaxy floating in the middle and a whole lot of activity already under way. There were a lot of sleepy faces, but everyone was clean cut and professional looking. I just realized that I had followed Shepard up for absolutely no reason. She nodded as people greeted her, which meant most were ignoring me, and made it to the cockpit.

Outside, all I could see was a cloud of purple. Very strange. I was in freaking space though.

SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!

"Commander, I'm about to bring us in," Joker said. He then looked back and saw me behind Shepard, probably drooling like an idiot as I looked out. "Did he follow you home?"

"Yeah, and the Captain's letting me keep him!" Shepard replied, big silly smile on her face.

"Well fine, but you have to feed him and take him out for walks."

"Aww, okay."

I came into the middle of the conversation, so I missed what they were saying, but still, I did notice the way they were looking at me.

"What? I don't think I've ever seen space like this," I said, completely missing the conversation.

"So how did you get to Eden Prime?" Shepard replied, not missing a beat.

"I... There wasn't a window view, trust me."

Apparently I wasn't the only one excited about the view, because both Ashley and Alenko had made their way to the cabin, and were looking out the window. The purple haze seemed to thin a bit, and out of the mist, approaching very quickly, appeared the Citadel.

It's hard to gauge size in space, but when I finally spotted which one of the distant dots was the Destiny Ascension, I realized how freaking big the Citadel really was. Once we were closer, Ash and Alenko both started Oohing and Aahing at the ship.

"Look at the size of that thing!" Ash said.

"And the guns," I added.

"What, jealous much?" she said.

"Me?" I said. I was genuinely surprised, because that didn't make any sense. "Ask the pilot, I don't really care."

"Pfft!"

"Hey, size ain't everything, you need firepower too!" Joker chimed in.

I ignored the rest of the conversation and turned to Shepard. Nihlus had come up to the cabin as well, and the two of them were exchanging some jokes about us. Well, it was mostly Shepard saying we were like schoolgirls, which apparently was flying over the turian's head, much to the commander's amusement.

"Shepard?" I said.

"Yeah?"

"What's the plan once we get to the Citadel?"

"Nihlus' got to report to the Council," she said, pointing at the Turian with her thumb. "And we're going to talk to my favourite person in the galaxy, ambassador Udina."

"Right away?"

"Yeah, why? There'll be time for sightseeing later."

"Well, I was thinking of finding a gun shop and see if I could trade that geth rifle I got for a decent shotgun." I stopped to think. "And give the armor I've got a new coat of paint."

"Huh? I thought we fixed it."

"No, that's not it. It's mostly so that I don't go around showing Alliance colours I don't own," I said. I wasn't sure if Ash was listening, and didn't bother turning to check.

"Bring the gear with you then," Shepard said. "You can go after we're done with Udina."

"All righty. And speaking of, you guys know a good shop for that in the citadel?"

"Yeah," Nihlus said. He raised his omni-tool, typed a few things, and a moment later my own omni-tool pinged with an incoming message. "Guy's called Serrus, he owes me a favour or two. Show him the message and he'll give you a good deal."

"Awesome, thanks."

The light coming from the outside dimmed for a moment, and I turned to see we were getting very close to the docking bay. Damn, I had missed the approach.

"Go get your stuff," Shepard said. "We're here."

I made my way to the back, and very slowly down to the cargo bay. The armor was right where I had left it, and I had it in its casing in no time. What I didn't have was a case for the assault rifle, so I just folded it, and hung it over my shoulder using the harness that was supposed to be for my pistol and kinetic barrier.

It didn't cross my mind that it may raise a few questions when I went through C-sec, since in-game you go around in full combat gear and nobody bats an eyelash, but I did have to have Nihlus clear me to go through.

I also noticed that the rest of the squad were looking from the other side of the C-sec security line with barely disguised smiles as this all happened.

"I'll get in touch once I've talked to the Council," Nihlus said once we got to the Presidium.

The place was freaking amazing. I heard Ashley say something about being a little too perfect, which wasn't too far by half, and then I lost half the conversation because Nihlus started speaking turian. The futuristic construction was amazing, but most of all, it was the freaking space.

SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE.

No, not that one, although the purple haze that could be seen between the arms of the Citadel was quite striking too. But the fact that it was an artificial construct, and it had so much open space, was breathtaking.

Seeing the business end of the conduit standing by the lake, however, did break the spell a little bit. The thing was really imposing, a perfect replica of a mass relay. I knew it was a real one, but apparently, in two thousand years or so, nobody had noticed.

"Captain Anderson," Udina greeted us when we entered his office. "I see you brought your whole crew with you." He gave me a disgusted look, looking me up and down, and apparently decided I wasn't worth spending his breath on.

Yes, he was an ass, and it showed from the first second he opened his mouth. And the way Shepard was looking at him, her quip about him being her favourite person in the galaxy was put into proper context.

"Just the ground team and material witness, in case you had any questions."

"I saw the report, I assume it's accurate."

"It is," Anderson replied. Yeah, he didn't like Udina either.

Wait a minute, wasn't he supposed to be screaming at the Council when we walked in? I had spent some time thinking about the original Mass Effect and trying to remember details, and this was one of the ones that really jumped at me. Udina shouting and the Council scratching their collective a-

"Commander Shepard," Udina said, interrupting my train of thought. His voice was dripping with sarcasm, and I saw Shepard tensing ever so slightly.

"Ambassador," she replied.

"I see your record for messing up pickup missions continues to improve."

"What can I say, a girl's gotta make her job fun," she said, and grinned. The kind of grin one sees on a wolf before he devours a helpless bunny. "I just couldn't resist the chance to have a planetary invasion and a rogue Spectre."

"This is your idea of fun?" he snorted.

"Not exactly, but since I can't legally rip your eyes out and there are witnesses, it'll have to do," she said.

That got Udina's attention, and for a moment I thought the two of them were about to come to blows. For the record, I'd have fifty credits on Shepard, if I had had any credits to my name at all.

"Enough you two," Anderson said, stepping between the two of them. "This is not the time for pissing contests." Woah, that was Anderson? Nice. I really was having a great positive impact in the galaxy. I didn't even have to open my mouth this time.

"You don't even realize the situation you've put me in! Humanity looks weak, we lost a prothean beacon within days of finding it! And geth? Really? How do you think that's going to go down? The Council demanded I explain what we did to provoke them to leave the Veil!"

"Yeah, I'll be sure to remind them it was my fault," Shepard said.

"Shepard," Anderson grunted, getting the silence he demanded in return. "The geth were being led by Saren, and he has gotten his hands on a dreadnought that makes our Everest-class look like a canoe."

"So you mentioned. I've seen the footage, and I didn't see Saren anywhere."

"Nihlus did, pretty damn close," Shepard said. She then gestured at me. "And so did Roy."

"With all due respect to this... individual," Udina said, giving me the same kind of glance one gives to a piece of chewing gum stuck to the bottom of one's shoe, "the council won't take something like this on their top Spectre just on their word."

"I knew I should have asked Saren for his autograph," Shepard said.

Udina looked like he was about to blow a gasket again, which made me wonder just how awesome hypertension medication had to be in the future, but they were interrupted by a series of pings. First Udina's omni-tool, then Anderson's and Shepard's.

"The Council has agreed to a hearing about this," Udina said.

"Yeah, you can thank Nihlus for that. Oh wait, you don't know what that word means," Shepard said.

"You better save your limited smarts for the Council," Udina said. "Because I can tell you they won't lift a finger with the evidence you have."

"We'll see about that," Shepard said. Without another word, she turned around, and the three of us – Ash, Kaidan, and I – took after her like ducklings after the duck mother.

"And that's why I hate politicians," Ash said as soon as the door closed behind her.

"You know Shepard, I have an unlicensed geth rifle, and I'm not in any Alliance database. I could probably get away with it," I said.

She chuckled at that. "Don't tempt me," she said, and kept walking down towards the presidium. "We'll be meeting with the council in one hour, so until then feel free to do your own thing."

"I should probably go shopping then," I said.

"Commander Shepard!"

There was a man by the embassy wing entrance calling Shepard, so she just gave me a nod and made towards him. I took off, while Shepard and the others stopped to talk to him, and went for Avina's terminal.

"Welcome to the Citadel, I am AVINA. I-"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm looking for Serrus Guns, how can I get there from here?"

"Serrus Guns is located at the markets of Zakera ward. A Rapid Transport shuttle would be able to take you to your destination in four minutes and twenty seconds."

"I don't have money for that," I said.

"Take the lift to the C-sec academy, then follow the marked path," Avina replied. A map appeared on the VI's display, showing a long blue line twisting and turning through the bowels of the Citadel.

There was a "Download to omni-tool" option, which Avina was kind enough to explain without any snide remarks, and soon I was on my way. It was quite a long way, and it took me the best part of thirty minutes to get there.

The markets of Zakera ward looked very different from what I remembered in-game. If I recalled it correctly, it was just a collection of tiny stalls with NPCs acting as shops, but here there were real shops. And holy hell but there were a lot of them. And they were loud too, I got quite a few people shouting at me that they had what I needed, which pretty much meant I either looked like a customer, or someone had stapled the word sucker to my back.

I did check my back to make sure there was nothing there. I wouldn't put it past Ash.

The shop wasn't too hard to find, and it was one of the biggest shops in the markets. There were guns and armor suits lined up on the walls behind locked glass displays, and a dark-skinned turian with blue facepaint in a simple, asymmetric pattern was behind the counter.

He growled something unintelligible, which gave me a pause for about a second.

"Sorry, I don't have a translator implant, do you-"

Without missing a beat, he fiddled with something on his omni-tool, and the next time he talked, his voice echoed through it, translated into English. Damn, that's handy.

"Can I help you?" he said, interrupting me. Jeez, he didn't sound too friendly. Did I remember to shower this morning? I thought I did.

"I hope so," I replied, hauling the armor case up to the counter, and dropping the rifle on top of it. "I'm looking to trade this rifle for a decent shotgun, and a new paintjob for my armor. Nihlus said you'd give me a good deal."

"Nihlus," he deadpanned.

"Yeah. Big bad Spectre, white facepaint," I said, as I opened my omni-tool. I flicked to the message he had sent me, and showed it to him.

Now, as I have said repeatedly, I wasn't too good at reading turian facial expressions, but the look of amazement he had was pretty easy to spot.

"What the s'kak?" he growled. "What did he... and you..."

I was about to answer when I realized I probably shouldn't discuss Spectre problems out in the open.

"Spectre stuff, so I probably can't tell you. Suffice to say, he was at the business end of a gun at the wrong time, and I managed to save his ass."

"Turians don't have asses," he said.

"Figure of speech."

"Let me get this right. Nihlus, Nihlus, owes you a favour," he pointed at my omni-tool for emphasis, "because you saved his life?"

"That's the gist of it."

For a moment I had no idea what he was about to do, then he basically cracked up laughing, so much so that he had to sit down on the stool behind the counter.

"By... by you? Seriously?" he said between laughts.

"Yeah I know, I don't really look the part, do I?" I deadpanned.

"Aw that's rich!" he said, and had to stop talking to laugh some more. "Oh he's going to pay for it the next time I see him. Bwa-ha-ha-ha!"

I waited patiently for him to stop laughing, and when he finally did, he simply waved me closer as he looked at my pile of gear.

"Right, so what do we have here?" he rumbled. He picked up the rifle, and unfolded it all business-like. "A geth pulse rifle," he said immediately. "Spirits, you don't see these very often. Working?"

"Sure is," I said, and the right quote came to mind right there. "Never been fired, only dropped once."

Serrus looked up at me, and a moment later started chuckling. With a shake of his head, he went to the back of the shop, and disappeared past the door there. A few seconds later I heard the telltale sound of the geth rifle being fired, and his voice rumbling something I couldn't understand.

When he came back, he was cradling the rifle in a perfectly relaxed grip, muzzle pointed down and looking as if it was exactly where the gun belonged. Damn turians, even a shopkeeper was capable of making me look like an amateur.

Come to think of it, I was an amateur.

"Very nice. These are always in demand with R&D for guns manufacturers, I'll give you ninety thousand for it. Just this once," he said, and his mandibles clicked once in amusement.

"Great!" I replied. I had been looking at the prices of the guns in his shop, and that was quite a chunk of money.

"So what are you after?" he said, taking the armor case and opening it.

"Well, I've got that as a hands-me-down, so I was thinking of giving it a new coat of paint. Though it may be better to just get a new one... I'm also after a shotgun."

"Let's see. Hm, Alliance standard. Kinetic barriers on these are s'kak, but the plates are pretty good," he said, and gave the ceramic plates on the armor a tap with his knuckles for emphasis. "Best use of credits would be to get an upgrade for the electronics. You want it painted too?"

"Yeah."

"Just use the terminal there," he said, pointing at it. "Choose the pattern and it does it automatically."

"Sweet," I replied, and went to said terminal.

It was much easier to use than the freaking omni-tool, and the amount of available patterns was just mindblowing. However, I didn't really have time to get elaborate, nevermind the fact that my artistic abilities are next to non-existent, so I decided to cut to the chase.

"What pattern would you recommend to look less like a tasty target?" I said.

Once again, Serrus chuckled rather loudly, and this time he came around the counter to get his hands on the terminal. He started flicking through the options, and finished on a grey/green/black pattern, with broken edges on the paint blotches and a very strange look.

"Here you go. This is the standard for hierarchy military, for small unit ground combat."

"It's... weird," I said.

"That's the idea. Melds well with a wide array of terrains and situations, breaks your silhouette, all the good stuff."

"Ok, sounds good. I'll take it."

"Good. Now, take a look at this."

He showed me the different upgrade options I had for the armor. While it was designed to have only one augmentation, there were aftermarket parts that could be used to add an extra interface to a suit of that design. Apparently they were popular enough as military surplus that there was a good market for modifications.

I settled for a straight kinetic barrier – which gave me two layers, very different from how things worked in the game – and a medi-gel dispensing medical interface. It was a fairly basic one, but better than nothing. The more advanced medical interfaces couldn't be jury-rigged like that, and they were expensive to boot.

Total was twenty thousand credits, which was 50% off the listed price. When it came to shotgun, the choice was rather easy. Human manufacturers fit best when I tested them on the small range at the back of the shop, and credits available dictated what I was going to get. I ended up with a basic Armageddon, from Kassa Fabrication, with a rail extension to narrow the spread of the shots. With the modifications it felt very familiar in my hands, and the feedback was excellent too. Not much of a kick, and felt solid all around.

I had enough left over to grab a cheap pistol (Elanus Striker, which Serrus promised was miles better than the crap pistol I had liberated back on Eden Prime), and even to walk out with five thousand credits. He also threw in a tungsten ammo block for each weapon for free, which was quite nice of him.

"I'll have the armor and your shotgun ready in about an hour or so," Serrus said, handing me the pistol.

"Thanks. I've got stuff to do, so I'll be back later." I put the pistol in its holster, and secured it in place.

"Anything else? Next time it'll be full price," he said, chuckling.

"Nah, it should do for now. Thanks a lot, I appreciate it."

"Don't sweat it, you humans get all stinky when you do," the turian said. "And tell Nihlus he's not getting out of explaining how he ended up needing you to bail his fringe," he added with another chuckle.

"Will do."

I checked the time as I left, and realized I had but fifteen minutes before the Council would see us. With money in my pocket – well, in my chit, but you get the gist of it – I rushed to the nearest pharmacy, and got myself some toiletries. After that, with ten minutes to go, I just went to the rapid transit station and got myself a ride to the tower.

The first thing that weirded me out was that there was no pilot. The second thing was how fucking fast the thing moved, and how damn close to everything – including other rapid transit shuttles – it flew. We're talking fast enough the outside world was a blur, and near enough to everything I felt vibrations through the hull whenever we passed something. As we zipped up between lanes of traffic, I held onto my seat and closed my eyes, cursing internally at the freaking white-skinned mysterious AI that had decided to throw me into the Mass Effect universe.

When the shuttle finally came to a stop, and Avina announced we had arrived, I bolted out of the thing like it was on fire. So much so that I stumbled on my way out and faceplanted in a very unbecoming way.

And yeah, the Council tower is always packed with people, so it was a hell of an entrance. I counted fifteen different pairs of eyes looking at me before I gave up, and one of them was Captain Anderson.

He chuckled and came to give me a hand, but I was already up when he did.

"Are you okay Roy?" he said.

"Yeah," I replied, giving the shuttle the stinkeye. "Who the hell programmed those things? I thought I was going to get killed!"

"Yeah," Anderson laughed softly. "There's a reason why the embassies are so close to the tower."

"… You're kidding."

"Oh no, not at all. When the human embassy opened here first, it was on a different arm of the citadel. After the first official meeting with the Council, it got changed in a hurry."

As he spoke, the shuttle lifted off again, and shot off through the top access at a ridiculous speed, the wind of it wafting noticeably around the chamber. Damn crazy contraptions.

"I see you have been shopping," Anderson said, eyeing the pistol. He raised his hand to stop me right when I was about to reach for it, and shook his head. "This is not the best place to brandish weapons around."

"Ah, good point," I replied sheepishly. "Yeah, got this, a shotgun, and a new painjob for the armor I'm borrowing."

"New paintjob?" he said.

The question was innocent enough, but my spider senses started tingling immediately. Of course, most of the time they tingle for absolutely no reason. Call me paranoid.

I think I just stole Joker's line.

"Yeah. I'm not Alliance, so it makes sense to paint over the alliance colours," I replied, as non-chalant as I could. "Though if you'd rather I give it back, let me know."

Anderson gave me a glare, which made me clench my butt, and keep repeating 'don't flinch, don't flinch' in my head, but after a few seconds he just relaxed and shook his head.

"We already discussed this with Williams," he said, looking away towards the lifts. Udina had just arrived, and was making his way towards us.

Wait, was he testing me to see if I'd complain and rat her out? Jeez, I really have to stay on my toes here with these people.

"Where is Shepard?" Udina said, in his particularly annoying, grating voice.

"She'll be here," I replied, a little snappish.

Udina snorted. "Reliable as always," he said. "Not that it will make much difference."

"Really? I bet you a million credits it will," I said, annoyed.

Udina ignored me and turned to Anderson. "Make sure you send her up as soon as she arrives... If she arrives." He then left, grumbling to himself. "Damn woman, and I get stuck with the political shitstorm."

I shook my head, biting my tongue trying not to say anything. The Council was in session, and while we were far enough that I couldn't really hear them, I could see them up on their "pedestals". And Udina was already shouting at them. I also saw that Nihlus was there, and the way he was looking at Udina, he wasn't too happy with him either.

"Does anyone like that guy?" I said.

"Udina is a political animal," Anderson replied. "He can be useful."

"If you say so, Captain."

After a few minutes, I saw the gigantic holographic projection of Saren come to life, and boy did that liven up the proceedings. I actually heard the turian councillor shouting this time – only it was in Turian, so I had no idea what he was saying – and finally manage to get the shouting match under control.

I was starting to wonder if Shepard was going to make it when a Rapid Transit shuttle shot inside the building, to land next to us. Shortly after, the Commander made her way out of it, followed by a pair of somewhat sickly looking Alliance officers.

Shepard, on the other hand, was giggling.

"These shuttles never get old," she said, and slapped Alenko on the back. "Are we late? Fashionably so, no?"

"Come on, the Council meeting has already started."

Anderson led the way, and the four of us followed him up the stairs. Now that we were closer, I could hear the discussion. Nihlus and Saren were shouting at each other, and heavens knows what they were saying. After a few seconds, the Asari councillor called to order.

"Is this the video you are referring to?" she said, talking to Udina, and waved her hand over her terminal. As she did, a large holoscreen appeared in the space between us and the Council, and started playing a cam-view of a firefight.

I made out Nihlus voice, and him shouting "Saren!" There was more, but hey, no translator. It didn't take long to realize it was the video from the Eden Prime docks. The cam-view was showing Nihlus trying to shoot from behind cover, but didn't manage to get a single shot of Saren.

And Saren wasn't speaking, so he couldn't be identified via voice either.

Once the camera dropped to the ground, the image paused.

"As you can see, your claims are not corroborated by your recording," the Asari – Tevos? I think her name was Tevos – said. The argument continued, with me missing half of it. The fact that Nihlus had only started recording when the firefight with Saren started didn't help.

So, since I didn't have much to do, I looked at the recording screen. It was actually showing a HUD. It was in Turian, so I couldn't tell what it said, but it was familiar enough. Armor status, some counter on the side, a couple of gauges, probably for weapon heat, and a red dot down on the corner.

Red dot.

Wait a goddamn minute.

"Psht, Alenko," I whispered.

"Yeah?"

"What's the red dot there on the corner?" I suspected what it was, but I'd better confirm it.

"Just the indicator that the camera was recording," he replied.

"Oh shit," I said, a little too loud. I got a cross look from Shepard, but everyone else ignored me. I brought up my omni-tool, and started to frantically go through the options, looking for anything resembling a media collection.

"There's the matter of the Prothean beacon," Shepard said.

"What, am I supposed to defend myself against visions and prophecies? This is ridiculous!" Saren replied, in English. For effect I bet. What an ass.

"They are not visions," Shepard replied. "Roy?"

Huh? What?

I looked up, and saw all eyes on me. Luckily my brain got in gear fast enough, so I was able to make a passable argument.

"Visions is a misnomer," I said, and for some reason decided to raise my right index finger for emphasis. "Prothean beacons work like an Asari mind-meld, placing recorded information directly into the user's brain. But since Nihlus here isn't a prothean, it all came up a little jumbled. That, and the beacon was apparently quite damaged."

"That's right," Nihlus said, looking at me, and then turned to Saren. "I saw the ship, Saren. Your ship."

I zoned out again, until I felt a sharp elbow on my ribs.

"What the hell are you doing?" Shepard said in a low voice. She sounded pissed.

"I think I have a recording of Eden Prime in my omni-tool."

She didn't answer, so I looked up at her, and was treated to a close view of Shepard looking completely surprised. Now that's something you don't see every day.

"What the hell? Why didn't you mention it!"

"I didn't know," I replied. "It just clicked now, I think I had my helmet cam on."

Without warning, she yanked my arm towards her, and started browsing through my omni-tool. We were making a bit of a ruckus, so much so that Tevos seemed to get annoyed.

"Do you have any further evidence to present?" she said. I swear she sounded like a teacher telling her student to share with the class.

"Yes!" Shepard replied, not looking up. She flicked very quickly through the various menus, and then, with a rather theatrical swipe, she sent the video from my omni-tool to the large holoscreen.

The video started playing, and it was indeed my helmet-cam. I was about to say something akin to fuck yea!, but then I realized it had started recording when I was still trying to put my armor on.

"Shit, Shepard! Fast forward this part!" I said.

Too late. The me on the screen fumbled putting the lower part of the armor on, and with a very heartfelt curse, the armored pants fell to the ground. And thus, the Council was treated to a view of my underwear from my own point of view.

I heard Ash start laughing, and she wasn't the only one. The reaction was mixed, however, with Saren being the loudest one.

"What is this? A joke? What are these humans-"

"Oh shut up!" I yelled, trying very hard to ignore the burning on my face. I had found the controls, so I proceeded to fast forward past the boring bits, until I got to the tram docks.

That did the trick.

I heard myself shouting "Nihlus!", then saw how I drew the pistol, and started shooting. Shepard gave a whistle of appreciation when the first shot hit Saren on the arm at something like fifty metres range, and then, the gray-skinned turian turned to look at me.

Oh yeah. Full frontal shot of his ugly mug.

"You wanted proof? There it is!" Udina shouted, not missing a beat. Man, the asshole sounded so supremely smug that I wanted to punch him, even if he was rubbing Saren's face on it. Take a moment to consider that.

"What is this, some doctored video? This is fake! That's not even me!" Saren shouted, going for the throw everything at the wall and see what sticks approach.

Shepard grabbed my arm, pulled the omni-tool to herself, and started messing with the video. She went back to the frontal shot, paused it, then zoomed in to his face. And to my surprise, instead of a pixelated mess, the zoomed in image was perfectly clear, showing Saren in all his glory.

Or unglory. Infamy. Whatever.

Nice resolution, by the way. Cameras of the future sure are awesome.

"That is not doctored in any shape or form," Shepard replied, and pointed at my omni-tool. "It was recorded with standard alliance military encoding, you can verify the subchannel. Unless you are suggesting we broke the council's own encryptions just to plant you attacking Eden Prime."

"This is ridiculous! I will not stand here and be insulted!" Saren shouted.

"Spectre," Tevos said, her voice calm. Way too calm, considering we had just rubbed her favourite Spectre's face on the dirt. She was looking at her console, and fiddling with something on it. "This evidence is irrefutable. The encryption codes are indeed standard alliance, this video has not been tampered with." She looked up at the holographic projection of Saren. "You have one last chance to explain your actions, and are commanded to return to the Citadel at once."

There was a pause, like the entire chamber was holding its breath. Of all the people there, Saren had chosen me to glare at. which was a lot less unsettling than you may think, thanks to him just being a holographic projection.

"You are all fools!" he finally shouted. "You have no idea what you are doing, I am trying to save the Galaxy!"

"By attacking Eden Prime? Killing innocent people?" Shepard said.

"By trying to kill me?" Nihlus added.

"Necessary sacrifices," he said dismissively. "Do not stand in my way, Nihlus. This is the only warning I will give you."

"I'll do more than stand in your way," Nihlus replied, and the growl was eloquent enough.

They switched back to turian, which left me out of the loop, but not the others. I decided to see how they were all taking the news. As far as the council went, Tevos looked... Damn, I really couldn't read alien expressions at all, even if they're supposed to be almost human. She had her eyes a little bit closed, and looked like she was not just listening to the discussion, but to some faraway voice speaking only to her. The Salarian councillor, whose name, to date, I still can't remember, was blinking at a fast pace and looking around as much as I was, only ten times faster.

The turian councillor... Um... Sparatus? Well, as I said, I wasn't too good at reading aliens, but he did look obvious enough. He looked like he was going to blow a gasket. Whatever the outcome, it wasn't going to be good for him. Two turian spectres fighting, and one of them sounding like he had gone off the deep end? Yeah, not a good day for the hierarchy.

I became aware that everyone was looking at me, including Saren.

"What's his problem now?" I said. "I don't have a translator."

"Oh, nothing, he just threatened you," Shepard replied, smirking.

"Right." I looked at him and shrugged. Maybe this was a good time to slide one in. "Cool story, bro. We don't really care about you though, so whatever."

That got a reaction, and not just from Saren. It was Shepard who went first.

"What are you talking about?"

"He's just a brainwashed idiot," I said, pointing at Saren while looking at Shepard. I was going to say more, but my vision started to go wavy, while the colour drained from the world.

Oh crap.

It turned out to be just a warning, because I wasn't yanked to the faraway place with the floating AI and all that jazz, but it sure put a dampener on my spirits. Damn, I can't get away with nothin'! Anyway, Shepard was still looking at me, and so was everyone else. I decided to play it by ear and stop spilling the beans for now.

"Point is," I said, and looked at Saren, "Saren, you aren't doing this to save the galaxy You really think you're going to save anyone by working with the clankers?"

"You dimwitted-"

"Can you just cut the crap already?" I said, going for the "I'm pissed so stop asking uncomfortable questions and focus on the turian" approach. Which worked only because he wasn't there, and it was just a hologram. "Do you really think nobody has tried the same before? What exactly makes you so unique?"

He didn't answer, which wasn't a good sign. I wanted everyone focused on him, but given that he wasn't saying a word, way too many eyes were fixed on me. Then, without another word, the connection was cut, and Saren's holographic projection disappeared.

Well, crap.

Author's notes: Well, there you have it. Udina's an ass, Shepard's got some history with him, and I meet a Turian shopkeeper.

Oh, and somewhat we skip the trial and fastforward it to the point that everyone knows Saren's gone cuckoo. Details! You did remember how I mentioned the blinking red dot on my HUD when I first tried to put my armor on, didn't you? Yep, I was recording! Remember, I'm a big fan of Chekov's gun, you never know what detail from how early may show up how late in the story!

(I know, that didn't make much sense. Read it three times out loud without catching your breath).

Mizuki00, turns out this Shepard's a spacer! And I never saw anything in-game about Shep's dad, so there you go :) Thanks a lot for the compliments!

DrStache, three internets for you for the grue reference :D

Archer83, thanks a lot! I intend to have some fun with Shepard for the time being, so yeah, she's got some personality. Then again, she's a sole survivor, that can't have happened without leaving something dark beneath the surface.

Michae1ange1o, you're catching on! As I said in the introduction, it won't be more than four or five chapters before you feel an urge to stab Roy through the face. "Good lord!" is a perfectly acceptable reaction!

In our next episode! Will the council keep its track record of incompetence? Will Shepard be made Spectre? Will Roy have lunch? Tune in to My Effect: Convergence to find out! Tell your friends and family, and thank you for reading and/or reviewing! :D