I'm Nobody

by free man writer

He didn't have anything when he was born. Just a name and number. But over time, what he had grew. He, with his friends began to understand that there was more to their existence then just their name and number. They will prove that they were meant to be real. To exist. To become something more than just a Nobody. Co-written and created with Jebest4781. Fem Shepard. Now on Ao3.

3. A New Goal

I think it's easy to say that Jebest and I are on a bit of a roll with this one. This is a crossover the two of us have really wanted to do but I know it's also one of the crazier and far out ideas that not many people would consider giving a try.

But dammit, when I said that I want to try out new and very out there crossovers, I meant it.

This is something I know overtime will become special and one of a kind.

Considering this is the only one of its kind aside from one other crossover.

J and I wanna set the standard for this one.

He has A Song Of Fire Ice and Hearts on his profile and I have this story in mine. Both are different from most other KH crossovers as well as ME and GoT.

And since there's not really a standard, we get to set it for ourselves.

We hope that you all enjoy this wild ride we have planned out for you guys.

Also, in the poll that I have set up, one of the choices is for those that vote to leave their three choices in terms of pairings for Roxas. So please leave your reviews and who'd you like to see with him.

Giving it a lot of time so there will be many votes to come in. I think… like ten chapters should do it.

Then I'll have another poll after that one, once done.

Other than that, let's get to it.

Rate Read and Review and as Always Have Nice Day.

I'm Nobody Chapter 3: A New Goal.

Commander Jane Shepard of the Systems Alliance was rightfully tired.

She had just come from Eden Prime from what could be called a harrowing experience to put lightly.

From dead colonists to losing both a Spectre and a crewmate in one day while getting hit with the mother of all headaches in regard to visions.

Jane really wanted to take a nap right about now. One that wasn't induced forcefully.

But she knew now wouldn't be the time for that unfortunately.

Right now, she needed to get to the Citadel and fast.

There was a lot that needed to be discussed with what had transpired on Eden Prime to the Citadel Council.

She was walking through the Normandy, walking right up to the cockpit.

"Good timing, Commander. I was just about to bring us to the Citadel." Said Jeff "Joker" Morreau, the pilot of the SSV Normandy SR-1. "See that taxpayer money at work."

Once going through the Mass Relay, the transition from darkness to light was done rather quickly and it showed once coming across the Citadel, the capital space station of Citadel Space.

Drawing near the station, Sergeant Ashley Williams and Shepard herself rushed the cockpit viewport in order to catch a glimpse of it in all in its magnificence. Lieutenant Kaiden Alenko, meanwhile, calmly looked on as he didn't want to invade the personal space of the two women.

Each of them, respectively, had their own forms of stunned awes when seeing the Citadel for the first time. And who wouldn't? It was massive!

After basking in the awe of said station, one could comment it looked more like a metallic starfish with each pointed end being more rectangular in shape. And in the center of it all was a circular, hollow ring connecting each of the station's arms. But when moving past the bright sun behind the Citadel, you could see a faint line moving upwards with something sticking out. If you were knowledgeable on the Citadel Station, that thing would be the Citadel Tower, where the Council chambers are located.

As the Normandy-SR1 drew closer to the station, the occupants in the cockpit saw a huge dreadnought cruise into view.

"Wow! Look at the size of that ship!" Ashley exclaimed in surprise.

"The Destiny Ascension, flagship of the Citadel Fleet." Kaiden helpfully explained.

When taking a closer look of it, Shepard couldn't help but snicker at the giant hole in the middle of the starship. It looked like a giant donut with four pointed ends.

Still though, it was nonetheless pretty damn impressive.

"Well, size isn't everything." Joker said rather defensively.

"Why so touchy, Joker." Ashley asked teasingly.

Shepard couldn't help but smirk as she thought of the same thing.

"Just saying you need firepower." Joker said snippily.

"And nearly everyone knows that superior firepower trumps size." Threw out the Commander.

"Just look at that monster! It's main gun could rip through the barriers of any ship in the Alliance Fleet. That's superior firepower aplenty!" Retorted the Gunnery Chief, still looking out of the window in wonderment.

"Good thing it's on our side then." Kaidan commented.

"That's if they can aim something that large." Shepard pointed out with a scoff.

There was one thing she knew from experience: the heavier the weapon, the harder the aim. Learned that the hard way when using rocket launchers for the first time.

Joker nodded in agreement, happy to hear the commander supporting him twice on this peculiar topic. "And most of our smaller ships can run laps around that thing anyways."

"If you can outmaneuver it, you can outshoot your opponent." Shepard added in, hammering in their pilot's argument as the Destiny Ascension veered out of their line of sight. "Besides, bigger ain't always better."

"Talking from experience, Commander?" Joker amusingly said, earning a playful glare in return. Chuckling to himself, he typed a series of commands before speaking up. "Citadel Control, this is the SSV Normandy, requesting permission to land."

"Stand by for clearance, Normandy." Instructed the Citadel Control operator over the comm unit. "Clearance granted." Came the voice a few moments later. "You may begin your approach. Transferring you to an Alliance Operator now."

"Roger, Citadel Control. Normandy out."

Once Joker ended the transmission to Citadel Control, he soon received one from the Alliance. "Normandy, this is Alliance tower, please proceed to Dock 422."

Receiving their designated destination, the Normandy glided along the way with no further problems.

Seeing as they will be docking soon, Shepard needed to get suited up for what she and the others will need to do really soon.

-Scene Cut-

Day 32

A young human teen was walking around an area called the Sirta Foundation, surrounded by ships of multiple shapes and sizes.

Up ahead of him was a Quarian female just a few years older than him that was looking around with an excited air around her. Her hooded helmet was moving about in every direction as she kept going from one ship to the other, openly gushing about anything and everything that the ship is supposedly capable of.

Walking to keep up with her, Roxas momentarily paused as he gazed upon one ship in particular.

It was similar to most of the ships around here but at the same time… the shape of it was much more angular and boxy with emphasis on the geometrical appearance.

On top of that, it had an orange tint to it that really made it stand out.

In fact…

He could swear he could hear it.

The familiar sound of engines thrusting while traversing the endless void, flying through asteroids, fighting off other enemy ships and…

He wasn't alone.

He was sure of it.

Taking a step forward, Roxas wordlessly placed a hand against the ship with a blank look but his eyes told a different story.

They weren't as empty as they usually were compared to most days.

Right now, there was a glimmer. A sense of longing.

Why was he…?

"Roxas?"

A soft hand on his shoulder and familiar voice jolted him out of his daze.

He looked up slightly at Tali who was looking between him and the ship. Noting his hand, she tilted her head.

"You wanna buy that ship?"

"Hmmm?" Roxas blinked. "Oh, uh… no."

"Is something wrong?" she asked.

"No… just… thinking about something." Roxas said blandly.

Tali was unsure of what to say or ask. In the short time that she had gotten to know Roxas, he was a bit of a literal person.

Always speaking plainly, whatever's on his mind, regardless of who it is or how they react to him. This young human was as straightforward as they come from what she understands at least.

She decided not to focus on that right now, instead returning her attention back to the ships around them.

"It would be nice to get a ship." Tali said with a wistful sigh.

"Really? How so?"

"For most people, just a typical means of flying through space and going to planet to planet. But for Quarians, it's often seen as a good Pilgrimage gift."

Roxas was silent but understood where she was going with that.

He learned a bit more of her people yesterday and even some parts today, more so once stepping foot into this establishment.

When her people vacated Rannoch and took to the stars, their entire population had been living in ships for practically all their lives. And in order to expand it more and more, they needed to gain ships.

This meant they had to either purchase or salvage them, more so towards the latter in many cases. With the former option, it's often already used ships as the unused ones are rather expensive.

Now while purchasing previously owned ships isn't much of a hassle, dealing with the ship registry is.

In some cases, previous owners would suddenly call out and say their ship was stolen and a whole legal matter was brought in-in order to get back what was theirs. In reality, it's just wanting to screw with the Quarians in one way or another.

Another issue is… because of the ship's name.

Many ship names are often made due to a specific person or a culture or race as they wanted to honor something or someone. While that is good and all, most scenarios are not.

With a Quarian taking on the ship's name as their own, it becomes that for the rest of their days… or when they are granted a ship transfer. So when a newly procured ship has a "unique" name, a simple means of changing it requires working through the ship registry.

Sometimes the attempt is successful, sometimes it's not. When it's not, it becomes a bit of a stigma of sorts which some take it in pride… while in reality it's just an utter embarrassment.

"How often is it that used ships are made into pilgrimage gifts?"

"If I'm honest, it's not all that often." She responded as they strolled through the various ships on display. "When a ship is brought into the fleet, many of my people are ecstatic as we have more space to possibly live in."

"But won't that mean you have to do more work?"

"Depends on what that's needed to be done on the ship before officially 'moving in'. From modifications to all sorts of repairs to meet our specifications. One ship could become a living vessel while another could be used for our fighters while another is solely used to help produce our food and fuel."

"Thought as much, given what you told me."

"Yes. And sure enough, whoever goes in for the transfers for the 'new ship' have to be part of the workforce for what I just mentioned."

"I think that sounds fair."

"Some naive and stupid Quarians think otherwise."

Hearing this caused Tali to momentarily halt in her step before moving a little faster. Seeing this, Roxas turned around and located the source of this little problem coming from a Turian.

"Excuse me, but what did you say?" Tali asked as politely as she could muster.

"I don't think you misheard me, vagrant." The Turian said scornfully. "You should just crawl back into the hole you came from and stay there."

Tali fumed internally but at the same time…

'Keelah.' She couldn't help but squirm. 'Why?'

Before she was able to respond, Roxas stood in front of her with a scrunched up expression into one of tense annoyance.

The Turian looked down at him with a scoff.

"What's your problem with her?"

"These suit-rats are nothing more than thieves and vagrants that should treasure their own existence then trying to leech off of others." Responded the Turian.

"...What?"

The cold tone that came out of Roxas was one that made both Tali and the Turian jolt.

Tali was especially put off by such a drastic shift in her new friend's demeanor. For the majority of the time, there was usually a blankness laced with curiosity to his voice whenever he speaks. Sometimes logical, sometimes unsure of what to say.

But what she had just heard?

That… was rage.

And she needed to de-escalate the situation before it got out of hand.

"Come on Roxas, let's just get out of here." Tali said, grabbing the boy's hand.

He resisted at first. "No, I wanna know what-"

"Roxas." His friend stressed out. "Please."

Roxas was about to do something in response to this growing feeling inside of him, but it didn't surface when the distance between him, Tali and the offensive Turian grew more and more.

When leaving the Sirta Foundation, their jolly mood became soured with what just occurred.

"What's his deal anyway?" Roxas finally asked.

"He's just being prejudiced."

"But why, Tali?"

"Because not everyone likes my people, let alone standing their presence."

"Why?" Roxas asked again, not fully understanding. "What'd you even do? Or… your people?"

"It's been like this ever since our exile. People blame us for the Geth and it merely progressed from there. With us scavenging everything we can get our hands on to survive, a lot of people soon compared us to rats doing such an act; thus the suit-rat slander. And with us being labeled as thieves… we've been good people and excellent in our fields. When we seek jobs outside of the Migrant Fleet, we end up taking the really good ones and others think we're stealing their forms of employment. And don't get me started on the other forms of thievery we've been accused of."

Tali's explanation started to make Roxas sick to his stomach upon hearing such… things.

"Just trying to validate our own existence in the galaxy is a struggle." Tali said morosely, rubbing her arm. "No matter how hard we try, practically everyone wishes us to be gone from the galaxy."

Roxas's expression soon fell when seeing Tali in such a depressed state. She appeared so happy just a few minutes ago. And now, after that moment with that jerk Turian…

His head was down for a moment in thought until he slowly reached out and gently took her hand into his with the Quarian looking at him in surprise.

"But you're not like that, Tali. None of that." Roxas said in a low voice. "You… are kind. And deserve to exist. More than a nothing like me."

Though she had no clue as to what Roxas meant by the nothing part, the sincerity in his voice as well as him holding her hand like that and telling her she meant something certainly had quite the effect on her. Her suit just became really hot and she felt herself stammer momentarily.

Oh no, her helmet was fogging up!

"U-Um, come on." Tali retracted her hand and began walking ahead at a fast pace. "Let's find something to eat. I'm feeling a little hungry now."

Roxas was thrown off by her change in mood and could only jog to catch up to her.

For the remainder of the day, Roxas had noticed that Tali had gone to great lengths in avoiding eye contact with him.

For some little instance, Tali had occasionally activated her Omni-tool to check if it was in working order. A meaningless task as it's been done several times over.

This went on until Roxas began fiddling with his own Omni-tool, trying to figure out how to make it work properly.

When they returned to Chora's Den yesterday in order to stay there for the night, Tali helped Roxas out in properly setting up his Omni-tool and finally looking him in the eyes even though they were always brief moments.

Properly registering it in his name was the first thing that needed to be done. For one reason, it was so that if he were to lose it or have it stolen, someone could inform him through other means that it's been found/retrieved and he can pick it up when possible.

Another would be so that he could finally have something called 'contact information' so others can message or call him through his device. Even setting up an electronic mailing address or 'email' for short.

Tali was the first person in his 'contacts list' as they soon went through a small series of 'calls' through both audio, video and holographic to help him gain some experience in knowing the ins and outs of that particular Omni-tool feature.

After that little training session, Tali finally went through all of the features on what standard Omni-tools have to what additions his -in particular- has.

Being versatile and reliable, omni-tools can be used to analyze and adjust the functionality of most standard equipment, including weapons and armors, from a distance via scanning. This allows for field repairs and modifications to most things, such as reusing salvaged equipment. Even going so far to help out on programming to even hacking.

There were other functions that are generally used in omni-tools such as a flashlight and a camera to even disburse medi-gel for first aid purposes. For some personal use, there's a function to read books to write journal entries for… reasons. And for more entertainment purposes, one can even download and play movies, songs and games.

Roxas seemed to enjoy that last one as he ended up downloading a whole plethora of games. One noteworthy of all was something called Classic Kingdom.

He has been playing said game throughout most of the night as there's a lot of content in it. And there seemed to be something tied to the game that if he reached the high score in all twenty-three entries of Classic Kingdom, then he would win a very exclusive prize.

Granted, the high-scores are ludicrously high on each and every one of them as the levels are progressively getting harder and harder as he goes. But it does serve its purpose in entertaining and distracting him.

Getting away from the standard functions, there are the more unique ones that are given towards soldiers in the military and first-in colonists, even mercenaries as well.

There are an assortment of them, often pertaining to one's field they are trained into what has been added in through "upgrades" to modifications. For example in most melee-combat applications, there's a thing called an Omni-blade and an Omni-shield for offensive and defensive means, respectively.

There's that and a whole lot more and they were all within Roxas' device.

...No. XIII had the clear indication that if either Vexen or Zexion or both get wind of this device, they would probably want to have one and see what limits can be pushed on them.

The pair eventually made it back to the Stand Ramen shop they ate yesterday. The Chef greeted them once again as they ordered for their meal.

Instead of being very happy for her delicious ramen, Tali was rather… somber and tired.

Looking at his friend, Roxas wondered what he could try to do to cheer her up.

Taking a shot in the dark, the Nobody spoke something which was on his mind.

"Did you talk to your friends yet back at the Flotilla? What of your father?" Roxas asked with Tali becoming a bit downtrodden and nervous. "I've been meaning to ask."

"No." She admitted with a sad tone. "I just… don't want to put them or the Flotilla in danger. They could be tracking me without us even knowing about it."

Roxas frowned at seeing her like this again.

It was strange that it bothered him when he saw her become so unlike her usual cheerful self. Seeing that just didn't sit right with him.

And he didn't know why.

He found his fists clenching up and without realizing it, snapped his chopsticks in two.

Tali's head jerked up at the sound, turning to see the piece of Roxas's chopsticks fall from his hand.

"Um… Roxas?" She spoke up in concern.

Seeing what he had done, Roxas's expression became rather sheepish.

"Sorry." He said to both her and to the chef who was slightly surprised by what he saw.

"No worries." The Chef said, moving to pass him some new chopsticks which he accepted graciously.

As the chef moved to toss the chopsticks out he muttered to himself.

"This is made of metal."

Soon after, once they finished their lunch, Roxas and Tali departed from the Stand returning to their small apartment where they had stayed these past two days that Fist had set up for them.

Tali was quick to go to bed, wanting to take a nap so she may be in better spirits for the exchange happening later today. As the Quarian tried to sleep, Roxas had remained awake with him sitting on his bed while using his Omni-Tool.

Since he had learned the overall basics of this device, now that he had the time, he was quick to transfer all of his personal journal entries he had written out during his first month of existence with the Organization.

Now, he can add a new entry. A much longer one that detailed a great amount of everything he had experienced these past two days, especially on his time with Tali and his hopes of bringing Axel and Xion here.

There was a small shuffling on the bed beside his own, him seeing Tali move about with her blanket falling off a bit.

Quietly, he moved from his bed and gently moved to place the blanket back over her before sitting back down on his bed and returning to his work on his Omni-Tool.

As he was working on his device, he thought back on what's about to be happening later today.

This morning, Fist told them he got in contact with the Shadow Broker in order to tell them where the exchange will take place. It just so happened to be in an alleyway some distance away from Chora's Den at the designated time.

Presently, both he and Tali needed to get over there in a little more than an hour from now. And they had already killed enough time today as it is with what they were doing up till now.

Fist had offered to take what Tali had on her so he could do the trade-off instead of her, but she outright refused. She didn't want handing the information to anyone else but the representative the Shadow Broker was sending their way.

Then came an odd bomb being dropped on them, the Shadow Broker himself will come deal with it personally.

While both Roxas and Tali were surprised on hearing this, the Nobody soon felt suspicious all of a sudden. He didn't know why, but something was off. Way off.

"Hey Tali."

Tali groaned a little, shifting in her bed before answering back. "Yes, Roxas?"

"I've been thinking… something is off." Roxas said with his face contorting into one of concentration.

This of course threw Tali off slightly.

"Off? Off how?" She asked in concern.

"I… I don't know but… let's be careful at the exchange." Roxas said, gazing at her with a serious expression.

That was one of the most emotive moments she had seen out of the young human so rather than object, she simply nodded in agreement before resuming to take her nap.

After a small period of time, the alarm clock feature on her Omni-tool went off, causing her to come out of her brief slumber. Sitting up on the mattress, Tali gazed at her device, seeing it was almost time.

"Come on Roxas." She said in a more subdued manner.

He only nodded, following after her as they headed out of their temporary abode and right towards the skycar in order to reach back towards the Presidium before going towards the spot Fist told them to go for the hand-off.

Passing through Chora's Den, Tali followed the coordinates to the meetup spot from her Omni-Tool.

Entering a rather discreet alleyway, Roxas felt his senses heighten as he saw a Turian and two well armored Salarians waiting for them.

From what Roxas recalled, they were only supposed to be expecting one person being here, not three.

And when he moved his head ever so slightly, he saw a few more people situated on the higher levels… looking right down on them.

'Oh yeah, something was definitely off here.' He thought before seeing the Turian approaching Tali.

Without even saying a word, Roxas stepped in between Tali and the Turian with the scaly alien looking down at him a small snort.

"Are you the one's Fist told us to wait for?" The Turian asked condescendingly. "Did you bring-"

"Where's the Shadow Broker?" Tali coolly interrupted him. "Where's Fist?"

"They'll be here." The Turian assured and moved forward only for the human between them to move to Tali's side.

Grasping her hand, Roxas pulled her away. "We're leaving."

"What?" Chorused both Tali and the Turian.

"You heard me. We're leaving. Deal's off." Roxas said, beginning to tug her along with Tali quickly obliging.

Behind them, the Turian only growled as he reached back for his rifle.

"Like hell you are, kid." The Turian snarled, pulling out his weapon.

Just as he was ready to run, Roxas froze on the spot with his eyes wide and the sharp inhale of his breath.

"Roxas?"

Before he had the chance to act, he saw the secluded alleyway suddenly getting darker. Not because of the red lights dimming, but something else.

The pair heard screams and yells coming from up above, causing both them and the Turian nearby to look up in utter confusion.

"What the hell's going on?" The Turian then glared at the kid and the 'suit-rat'. "Are you behind this?"

Roxas didn't answer his question

From the alleyway, there was the sound of rather distorted movement. Suddenly, a human stumbled out from the alleyway without a helmet allowing for them to see the absolutely terrified expression on his face.

Suddenly, right before their eyes, the human gasped and began to fall over.

Yet…

Before his body could even touch the ground, he literally vanished in front of their very eyes. In his place, a small glowing heart floated up into the air until it was seemingly consumed by wisps of darkness.

Tali jolted back, completely stunned and rather horrified by what she had just seen.

The Turian had a similar response, fumbling his gun up to aim at the alleyway.

"The fuck-"

Suddenly, a dark figure landed on top of the Turian, causing him to thrash wildly as claws sunk into his chest.

"AURGH!" The Turian cried out in utter agony, trying to get the dark figure off of him.

Then, without warning, rising from the ground itself were other dark figures that came in two shapes.

Some were small and stubby with jagged antennae, large feet and small claw like arms.

The other was more humanoid in appearance with the antennae being quite long and jagged. It was more muscular, and the hands were very large, each one sporting five clawed fingers. The feet are long and lack digits, slightly resembling boots. The bodies were also lined by several faint, blue veins of color.

They were around the Turian who soon ceased his struggling and a moment later, suffered the same fate as the human they just saw a moment ago.

From his chest, a glowing red heart came out and his body vanished a moment later. No sooner did that happen did the shadowy creatures turn their heads towards Roxas and Tali, the latter of whom was greatly frightened by what she had just seen.

"Wh-What are these things?" She asked, staying close to Roxas who glared at them with a fierce look in his eyes.

"Heartless."

Tali practically whipped her head right towards her friend. "What?"

"Heartless." He repeated. "Get your weapons out now. I'll need your help."

Before she had the chance to say anything, a bright white light flashed in her vision. It was gone in an instant and before she knew it, the Quarian saw Roxas was suddenly some distance away from her as a bunch of dark wisps filled the area around them with glowing hearts disappearing into thin air.

When he turned towards her, Tali saw the oddest thing in Roxas' grasp. It resembled an oversized skeleton key which measured about 3.5 ft. long and he was wielding it like a sword of all things.

"Tali!"

In another instant, he was behind her as he cleaved through another couple of Heartless with ease.

"Get behind me and get ready to shoot." Roxas said, striking down one of the smaller Heartless before cutting down another.

Shaking her head, Tali quickly grabbed her Geth shotgun and quickly primed it as one of the stubby ones leapt forward at her.

Instinctively, she fired at the shadowy creature, her gun managing to destroy the Heartless into black wisps.

"Keep your distance Tali." Roxas ordered, jumping in front of her with him throwing up his weapon.

Silently casting Fire, a ball of flame shot out of his Keyblade and struck a couple of Shadows. With part of the space clear, he bounded off the nearby wall and casted Thunder, electrocuting a few Neoshadows before striking them down.

Tali's went bug-eyed underneath her helmet, shocked beyond compare as to what she was witnessing.

She had a feeling from the very beginning that Roxas was a bit of a special case among humans but this?

Nowhere near in her imagination that the human that she had befriended since coming to the Citadel could do all this!

He literally shot fire out of that key-shaped thing! And thunder coming down from the sky!

What was happening right now?!

Roxas all the while stood before Tali in a protective manner, eyeing the Heartless rapidly.

There weren't much left and there were clustered groups of them.

Four in total.

He didn't know where this was coming from nor what it was but Roxas simply allowed his body to naturally move on its own as he reared his Keyblade back behind him…

"STRIKE RAID!"

Before flinging it at full speed towards one of the clusters of Heartless with his Keyblade spinning and glowing.

The Keyblade cleaved right through the first cluster, a large plume of black wisps dispersing up into the air.

But Roxas was not done.

Rearing his hand back once again, his Keyblade reappeared in his hand with him tossing his weapon at the next cluster and repeated the motion twice more until all the remaining Heartless were gone.

Getting into his usual stance, Roxas made a quick scan of their surrounding areas to make sure no other Heartless appeared.

Seeing that no more were appearing, his Keyblade vanished from his hand in a flash of light and he rounded about to Tali with a worried expression.

"Are you alright?"

Tali didn't say anything at first. No doubt shocked with what just happened. But when she was coming down from it…

Roxas jerked his head back with how close Tali suddenly was to him.

"Whatwasthat?!How'dyoudothatthingwiththefireandtheelectricity?!Andwhere'dyougetthatweapon?!"

Roxas blinked as he was outright confused as he couldn't get what Tali was speaking. She was talking so fast that all of her words seemed meshed together as she spoke all in one breath of air.

"Yeah… I think we'd all like to know that." said an utterly stunned female voice.

The pair suddenly whirled around upon hearing the sudden voice. There they saw a group of five people standing by the flight of stairs.

In an instant, Roxas jumped in front of Tali and once again called out his Keyblade. He didn't know who these people were.

For all he knows, they could be enemies.

The one who stood at the front of the group was a woman in her mid to late twenties with red hair and wearing armor that had the emblem N7 on the right side of her chest piece.

She quickly held up her hands in a placating manner.

"Whoa, easy there kid." she spoke in a calmer voice now, though there was still a tinge of disbelief as she looked at him and the weapon in his hand. "We're not here for a fight, trust us."

The rest of the group nodded in agreement with the red-haired woman.

One was a dark haired woman with her hair tied in the back as she presently wore white and pink armor. One was a dark haired man wearing what Roxas assumed was cobalt blue as it was sunk into the black. There was a Turian with them as he wore a blue eye visor which matched his blue armor.

The fifth member of this small group however...

"Wait a minute." A Krogan in red armor stepped forward, standing right in front of Roxas who clenched his Keyblade tightly.

"I know you." The Krogan remarked. "I saw you a few days ago."

Roxas blinked and rose a brow at the large reptilian man. "Oh yeah… It's you."

"You know this kid Wrex?" The Red-haired woman asked with Wrex looking back at her.

"Somewhat." the Krogan named Wrex apparently said with a shrug.

"You told me I was an idiot." Roxas remarked bluntly.

The rest just stared at the teen and his straightforward statement towards the largest species of the group.

"You were standing around like one, runt." Wrex said looking back at him.

"I was just looking around." The boy said though… he didn't appear to be all that offended.

"While not moving in the middle of the walkways." Wrex countered.

"Alright, can we not with this right now." The Red-haired woman said sharply. "Listen, we're not here to hurt either of you. We had a bit of a scuffle with a guy by the name of Fist who told us about the exchange here. We came here as fast as we could to help."

"Seems like it wasn't needed in the end." The woman in the pink and white armor said, eyeing Roxas warily.

"So Fist set us up." Tali said bitterly. "We shouldn't have trusted him."

"Well, you turned out alright for the most part." The red-haired woman remarked.

"Yeah…" Tali glanced at Roxas who was still holding his Keyblade. "I did."

She placed a comforting and graceful hand on Roxas's shoulder with him looking at her.

"It's alright Roxas, we can trust them." She assured him.

He gazed at her momentarily before nodding, his Keyblade flashing out of his hand like it did just a few minutes ago.

Once more, the group gazed at the boy before the red-haired woman cleared her throat.

"Are you both alright?" She asked.

Tali nodded. "Yes. As you just saw, we and especially Roxas here, can handle ourselves."

"Yeah, clearly." The brunette haired human commented.

"Who are all of you?" Tali asked.

"I'm Commander Jane Shepard." The N7 armored woman said. "This is Kaidan, Ashley, Garrus and Wrex."

"I'm Tali'Zorah."

"Roxas."

"Yeah, we heard." Ash quipped. "I gotta ask kid, what the hell was that just now?"

Shepard however, had other plans in mind. "We can talk about all that later. Right now, we need to find the evidence that proves Saren is a traitor."

"What?" Tali asked in surprise. "That's what I have here on my Omni-Tool. Is it true about Eden Prime?"

"We're in luck, Shepard." Kaidan said with a triumphant grin.

"The human embassy is nearby." Garrus stated, gesturing up ahead with an excited tone now. "I'm pretty sure your ambassador will want to hear about this."

"Let's go, people." Shepard said, the group walking off.

Save for…

Tali halted and looked back to see Roxas had not moved from his spot.

Instead, he was now gazing at the alleyway where the human who disappeared ran out from.

"Roxas?" Tali called out to him with the group up ahead halting in their tracks as they turned back to see Tali walking towards the unusual boy.

Standing beside him, she glanced over to the alleyway that had his attention and saw that it was still rather dark in appearance which made her squirm.

"Roxas." Tali said aloud, breaking him out of daze. "Are you alright?"

He didn't answer at first, simply keeping his eyes locked onto hers.

"I… yeah… yeah, I'm fine." he replied after a few seconds though it was clear to Tali that he wasn't entirely sure himself.

Something was troubling him and she had a good guess as to what it probably was.

"Come on." Tali said gently. "Let's leave this place."

Not seeing a reason to argue that, Roxas complied as he and Tali went to join the group that was patiently waiting for them.

-Scene Cut-

The human embassy was a rather small office, with a desk close by the door. As Roxas entered behind everyone else, while staying relatively close to Tali, he saw two rather dark-skinned men standing there. One of them looked considerably rugged and the other just looking… old.

Not because of age, but out of stress.

The old looking guy looked particularly angry and he sent a rather frightened glare at Shepard the instant she entered the room with the others.

"You're not making my life easy, Shepard." The older-looking man said, voice straining with barely-contained rage. "Firefights in the wards? An all-out assault on Chora's Den? How many-" The man then gazed upon both him and Tali, blinking in surprise. All of his rage seemed to evaporate and disburse immediately. "Who's this? A Quarian? What are you up to, Shepard?"

She crossed her arms confidently with a small grin. "Making your day, ambassador. Saren's a traitor, Udina, and she has the proof."

"Really?" Hummed the now identified Udina. "Maybe you better start at the beginning, Miss…?"

"My name is Tali. Tali'Zorah Nar Rayya."

"We don't see many Quarians here. Why did you leave the Flotilla?"

"She's currently here on her Pilgrimage." Roxas said on Tali's behalf.

Both Udina and the rugged man looked at him before the Ambassador gazed back at the commander. "Why's a civilian here, Shepard?"

"He is Tali's friend. But we can come back to him later."

Udina quickly understood Shepard's words as she didn't want things deviating from the purpose of Tali's presence here.

"Miss Zorah, would you mind telling us what you found?" Asked the rugged man.

Tali complied and began to explain in detail.

As Tali talked about the evidence involved, Roxas found himself tuning out of the conversation. He already heard most of the relevant information from the Quarian herself beforehand. He doubted she needed everything explained to him again at that point.

Thus his mind and eyes wandered away from the conversation to everyone around him.

As Tali's explanation went on, due to Shepard asking a number of questions here and there, Roxas concentrated his attention on the more rugged-looking man as he contributed a line or so to the bundles of dialogue. No. XIII noticed that he was wearing some kind of military uniform all in blue, an Alliance uniform if he remembered.

Soon enough, Roxas' attention went back into the conversation when he heard the audio recording from Tali's findings.

"Eden Prime was a major victor. The Beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit."

"That's Saren's voice." Spoke the man from the Alliance in utter shock. "This proves he was involved in the attack!"

Shepard then spoke next. "He said Eden Prime brought him one step closer to finding the Conduit. Any idea what that means, Anderson?"

Roxas, meanwhile, wondered the same thing. On occasion after hearing the recording, Roxas pondered what this Conduit was.

Anderson, of the Alliance military, gave his guess. "The Conduit must have something to do with the beacon. Maybe it's some kind of Prothean technology… like a weapon."

As much as Roxas wanted to ask a number of questions floating in his mind, he spoke up. "There's actually more to the recording."

Tali nodded as she played back her salvaged evidence from the beginning.

"Eden Prime was a major victor. The Beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit." Spoke the now identified Saren.

"And one step closer to the return of the Reapers…"

Udina was silent for a few moments, scrunching his eyes. "I don't recognize that other voice. The one talking about Reapers."

"Are they some kind of new alien species?" Shepard asked.

Tali had an answer for that.

"According to the memory core, the Reapers were a hyper-advanced machine race that existed 50,000 years ago that hunted the Protheans down to extinction." Tali said. "Then they just up and vanished… at least, that's what the Geth appear to believe."

"Sounds a little far-fetched." Udina commented.

Shepard however grew tense. "The vision on Eden Prime… I understand it now. I saw the Protheans being wiped out by the Reapers."

Upon hearing this Roxas shared a look with the other non-humans present in the embassy as they were no doubt curious about the details.

'Vision.' Roxas mentally thought to himself. Like… the ones he's had?

"The Geth revered the Reapers as gods, the pinnacle of non-organic life." Informed the Quarian. "And they believe Saren knows how to bring the Reapers back.

"So that crooked bastard wants to bring a race of genocidal machines back?" Garrus asked scathingly. "Bare-faced bastard."

"The council is just going to love this." Udina grumbled aloud.

"We just found out that Saren is going to bring about an extinction level event with the Reapers." Shepard adamantly stated. "They wiped out the Protheans and if they could do that to them, they could do that to us as well. They're a threat to every species in Citadel Space. We have to tell them." Shepard urged her plea.

"It doesn't matter what the Council may think on this, those audio files prove that Saren is a traitor." The uniformed man said triumphantly.

"At least it's a start, Shepard." Roxas said offhandedly. "You can't win everything all at once."

Shepard looked over at Roxas and couldn't help but grin at him. "I agree with the kid."

"Who even are you?" Udina finally asked. "Civilians should not trifle with matters that don't concern them."

"Like I said earlier, he's Tali's friend and was protecting her from-"

"Assassins." Tali quickly answered, making the others look at her in bewilderment in interrupting Shepard's line of dialogue.

She looked at them with her eyes silently imploring them to play along.

"Ye-yeah." Kaidan quickly jumped on to the ploy.

"Right, he's a fighter." Shepard added.

"Could have fooled me." Wrex mumbled with a small snort.

Honestly, they should've tried to ask beforehand on what happened prior to their arrival. Because now they looked a little… off puttingly foolish.

Well some of them.

Tali explained her prior situation. "Fist sent men after us, wanting the evidence you just heard. Roxas here made sure that it would be delivered."

"It was more like Saren's men at that point." Garrus interjected. "Saren paid Fist to eliminate you and your friend, Tali. The amount apparently had to be enough to persuade him to betray the Shadow Broker."

"Which eventually got me roped into joining these lot." Wrex said as he gazed at the others around him.

The uniformed man hummed aloud thoughtfully.

Gazing at his subordinates, the high ranking officer already had a feeling there was… more to what is being mentioned. But it was more truthful.

As much as he'd want to question them now on the actual truth, the Alliance Captain decided to push that aside… for now and focus on the important matters at hand.

"It appears we owe you a debt, son." he stepped in front of the teen who gazed up at him. "Had it not been for you and your friend here, we may never have caught Saren red-handed."

Roxas only looked up at the man with slight interest until he saw him stick his hand out.

"Captain David Anderson." He introduced himself. "And your name is Roxas, I'm guessing."

The sandy-blond haired teen simply nodded and looked at the hand offered to him for a moment.

Why was he holding it out agai-

'Oh right.' Roxas internally recalled seeing people throughout the Citadel shaking hands.

He reached out and grasped the older man's hand with a firm shake between them.

"Nice grip you got there." Anderson noted with a small smirk.

"Thanks."

"If you two are done dilly dallying, we need to present this evidence to the Council right away." Spoke the human ambassador.

"What about her?" Wrex asked, jabbing a thumb to Tali. "The Quarian."

"My name is Tali."

"Shepard, I may not have been able to do much down in the wards, but I can handle myself." Tali said confidently. "Please, allow me to prove myself."

"This is gonna be dangerous." Shepard countered. "And what about your Pilgrimage? Won't this just get in the way?"

"The whole point of the Pilgrimage is to serve for the betterment of others." Tali explained. "And… may I see your weapon?"

Quirking a brow at such a strange request, Jane was unsure of where she was going with this but decided to trust her gut and handed her rifle to the Quarian.

The group blinked in surprise as Tali proceeded to dismantle the gun only to reassemble it in a matter of seconds. She held it out for Shepard to take with a sly look under her helmet.

"I could do that to the Geth in a cinch."

Jane had a broad smirk in place now. "Welcome aboard."

Tali nodded happily, until she looked at Roxas. He seemed… contemplative.

He didn't say anything to her about joining up with Shepard.

Udina all the while spoke once more.

"Anderson and I will go on ahead to get things set up with the council." he said. "Take some time to collect yourselves and then meet us at the tower afterwards."

As the two elderly gentlemen walked away, the rest of the group remained behind.

"So now wha-"

"Um… Shepard."

The group looked at Roxas who had his head down for a moment before he gazed up at the Commander.

"Can… Can I come with you?" he asked hesitantly.

Wait, what?

"..."

"..."

"...er, yeah, sure." Shepard responded after a few moments of unclear silence.

-Scene Cut-

Roxas looked all around once departing from the elevator with everyone else as he saw himself looking down a long hallway. Said hallway opened up to an antechamber of sorts.

"What's with all those stairs?" Roxas asked suddenly.

"I thought it was symbolic." Came Kaiden's response. "Of the Council's position and power."

Ashley scoffed. "I still think that's total bull. Those stairs make great defensive positions in the event of an invasion."

"For me… makes me think of how painful it'll be to fall down its length." Shepard commented.

Roxas took the time to analyze his environment as his training already kicked in moments later. With several ideas flowing in his head, his mouth became the outlet.

"I don't think so." Roxas blurted out.

"Huh?"

The others in their group briefly looked at Roxas with a curious look.

Roxas pointed up to the catwalks above. "I can make the jump and take care of the defensive forces stationed there."

Ashley looked at the boy in disbelief, scoffing dismissively a moment later.

"I highly doubt it."

Roxas ignored the little dismissal as they ascended the long flight of stairs. When reaching the top ever more, he saw something quite obvious.

"One could even break through the giant plane of glass and cause all sorts of trouble."

"Like anyone could get close enough from the outside."

Knowing it would take a lot longer to take the stairs, Roxas focused in on the catwalk and crouched down.

Tali and Garrus were the first to notice this.

"Ro-"

In a sudden display of astonishing strength and athletic ability, Roxas jumped high into the air, reaching the catwalk before proceeding to run up the wall.

The entire group saw this with many other passersby seeing this display and many jaws falling to the ground.

He eventually reached the top and casually stood there, turning to look down at the new companions he had been walking with.

"See?" Roxas said with a smile.

Eventually, the group made it up to where Roxas was waiting for them, all staring.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"What?"

"...Really? What? That's all you have to say?"

"...Uh…"

"...Okay, I'll say it. What the fuck was that, kid?"

Roxas shrugged. "I have a particular set of skills."

"Don't be quoting Taken on us, Roxas."

"Taken?"

"...Never mind."

The assemblage of species quickly resumed their pace, trying their best to ignore all the looks of bewilderment and astonishment from the many civilians and C-sec nearby who saw the boy pull off an astonishing feat.

When they finally reached the top, the group saw Udina standing by a podium as the Citadel Council, stationed over yonder, were hearing the recording Tali found for their evidence.

"Eden Prime was a major victor. The Beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit."

"And one step closer to the return of the Reapers…"

With the recording ending, Udina practically wore a smug, triumvirate look on his features. "You wanted proof. There it is!" He said, thrusting his finger at the Council before him.

"This evidence is irrefutable, ambassador." The Turian councilor admittedly. "Saren will be stripped of his Spectre status and all efforts will be made to bring him to answer for his crimes."

"I recognize the other voice," the Asari councilor added in, "the one speaking with Saren. Matriarch Benezia."

"So she's working with Saren and the Geth then." Shepard concluded rather quickly. "Who is she, then?"

The Asari councilor nodded. "Matriarch Benezia is a powerful biotic with many followers. She will make a formidable ally to Saren."

"I'm more interested in the Reapers," interjected the Salarian councilor. "What do you know about them?"

Captain Anderson supplied the answer. "Only what was extracted from the Geth's memory core. The Reapers were an ancient race of machines that wiped out the Protheans. Then they vanished."

"The Geth believe that the Reapers are gods and that Saren is the prophet for their return." Shepard added in-in a somber tone.

Anderson nodded. "We think the Conduit is the key to bringing them back. Saren's searching for it. That's why he attacked Eden Prime."

"Do we even know what this Conduit is?" Asked the Salarian councilor.

Shepard merely shook her head. "Saren thinks it can bring back the Reapers. That's bad enough."

The Turian councilor scoffed. "Listen to what you're saying! Saren wants to bring back the machines that wiped out all life in the galaxy? Impossible. It has to be. Where did the Reapers go? Why did they vanish? How come we've found no trace of their existence? If they were real, we'd have found something!"

From his spot, Roxas was processing what was just said. As much as he wanted to possibly argue, he had to agree that the Turian brought up some good arguable questions.

Shepard, meanwhile, wanted to walk up to the councilor who recently dismissed the claim and slap him.

"I tried to warn you about Saren, and you refused to face the truth. Don't make the same mistake again."

"This is different, Commander Shepard." Said the Asari. "You proved Saren betrayed the Council. We can all agree that he's using the Geth to search for the Conduit, but we don't really know why."

"The Reapers are obviously a myth, Commander." The Salarian said with a hint of disdain. "A convenient lie to cover Saren's true purpose. A legend he is using to bend the Geth to his will."

Roxas, along with the rest of the entourage standing a respectable distance away from the initial proceeding, was bewildered by the Council's response.

"Why are they so stubborn?" Roxas asked.

"You have no idea." Garrus muttered out.

As the meeting dragged on and seemingly went nowhere on the existence of the Reaper threat, Roxas found himself growing rather disinterested at what had been transpiring. He turned to walk away and as he descended down the stairs, Roxas spotted Wrex hanging back here.

The Krogan saw him a moment later and snorted aloud.

"What's the matter kid, got bored of that bullshit already?" Wrex asked with a rumble in his voice.

Roxas simply nodded, getting a small bark of laughter out of the Krogan.

"Yeah, annoying drivel ain't it?" Wrex rhetorically asked. "Hear it once, you hear it all."

Before Roxas could respond once more, he heard someone from behind.

"Hey kid!"

Since this is a nickname that had become synonymous with him by this point, Roxas turned to see a rather familiar face.

"You're…"

"Good to see you again kid." It was the Turian General Septimus Oraka from Chora's Den he had met the other day.

"Hi." Roxas said plainly, Septimus chortling in response.

"Hi? That's the greeting I get from the human who helped get me out of my rut?" Oraka asked with a joking tone.

Roxas didn't know how to respond to that.

"I just saw you over here kid and just had to come and thank you personally." Septimus stated. "You really helped me out the other day with everything."

"No problem." Roxas replied.

"No problem he says." Septimus chortled. "You have no idea how much you've helped me out with my own problems."

Before the Turian could go on or the Nobody could respond, an Asari walked up next to him with an expectant look.

"Oraka? Mind telling me what caught your attention so suddenly that you practically ran away?" The Asari asked in a patient manner.

The Turian appeared flustered suddenly, turning to the Asari.

"Oh, apologies Sha'ira." Septimus said sheepishly. "It's just that I saw the human who helped me correct my mistakes towards you and well…"

"Oh?" Sha'ira turned to the young human boy before her with an interested gaze. "You are quite young for someone to be assisting those who have experienced much more in their lifetime."

The Nobody was a bit unsure of how to respond here when he saw the Asari smile kindly at him.

"You have done me a great deal of kindness without having ever met me." Sha'ira said, her voice oozing a serene calm. "I wish to thank you personally for this."

She gently placed a finger under Roxas's chin and tilted his head up so she could hold his gaze.

"Uh… what are you doing?"

"When you have the time, please come by my establishment for a proper thanks and reward." Sha'ira said, her tone becoming hard for him to discern.

"I recommend you do so, Roxas. Out of courtesy, of course." Oraka said to the Nobody.

"Er… ok?"

"Splendid." Sha'ira said, pulling back. "I expect to see you soon young man."

She placed a hand upon Oraka's shoulder a moment later as a silent gesture of goodbye before departing with the Turian gazing at her the entire way.

"She's something, isn't she?" Septimus said with a breath taken tone.

"I guess."

Oraka laughed at hearing that. "Ah, can't believe I'm missing my youth." he patted Roxas on the shoulder. "Take care of yourself, Roxas. If you ever need a favor, you can get one from me."

No. XIII simply nodded in response.

With that, Septimus walked off.

Roxas only stood there, unsure of how to exactly process the interaction he had just now.

He heard slightly heavy footsteps come up from his side, seeing Wrex's large frame out of the corner of his eyes.

"How the hell did you know a general?" Asked the Krogan, who quickly recognized the Turian's status due to the type of uniform he wore and specific add-ons. "A high ranking one at that."

"I just talked to him."

"You just "talked" to him?" Wrex said in a dry voice.

"Yeah."

The Krogan gazed at the Nobody for a few seconds until he sighed.

"Figured I'd somehow get wrapped up with a whole circus of weird humans."

"...Sorry?"

Wrex chuckled wryly. "Don't worry about it kid. Least I know it's not gonna be boring being around you and Shepard now."

Before the greater Nobody could comment about it, he and Wrex heard someone speak up from behind.

"There you are, Roxas. We missed you up there." Kaiden said as the others were descending the flight of stairs.

"Yeah, you missed a historic event." Said Ashley, practically shaking with anticipation.

"Of what?"

"Shepard here became a Spectre, the first human one at that." Garrus responded, patting the newly minted Spectre on the back.

"...Okay."

"..."

"..."

"Wow, it feels like I accomplished absolutely nothing." Jane jokingly quipped with a flat tone.

"Sorry."

"Don't worry about it, Roxas." Shepard said, ruffling his hair without even thinking about it. "Should have known you'd react like that. Becoming Spectre must mean nothing to a guy who runs up walls for fun."

"Not to mention you haven't done anything so far." Wrex added in.

"Can't argue with that. Udina didn't seem all that grateful when he left with Anderson." Shepard remarked.

"So what now, Shepard?" Asked the Nobody.

"Now? Now we need to get ourselves ready. Supplies, food, the works." Shepard listed off. "We're gonna be out for a while and don't exactly know when we'll come back to the Citadel for restock."

"Maybe you should stop by that Consort." Wrex remarked slyly. "Heard she's really good at her job."

"Consort?" Ashley repeated. "What Consort?"

"What, the kid didn't mention her?" Wrex said, a large grin in place. "Roxas here is apparently a bit of a lady killer."

"What?" Was the answer of several of the team with them looking at the blue eyed blonde.

"What's this about, Roxas?" Tali inquired.

"I dunno." Roxas shrugged. "She was with Septimus…"

Tali blinked until she recalled the encounter two days ago.

"Oh, him!" Tali remembered now. "You saw him again?"

"Yeah he was with an Asari." Roxas elaborated. "It was the one that he was upset about."

"Septimus… Oraka Septimus…" Garrus muttered. "The general of the Turian Hierarchy?"

"You know him?" Tali asked.

"Have to. Many Turians need to know the current higher ups in our military."

"Seemed awfully friendly with him." Wrex noted.

"How'd you become friends with a Turian General?" Garrus inquired.

"I just-"

"Talked to him." Wrex interrupted with a small huff of amusement.

Garrus looked between Roxas and Wrex, seeing the former nod at the latter in confirmation.

"That's all?" The C-sec detective asked disbelievingly.

"Trust me, Vakarian, I had the same reaction." Wrex waved off. "Kid's an oddball."

"You're telling us." Kaidan remarked.

"Well c'mon people. While we're gonna be in the Presidium, C-Sec is one of our stops." Shepard declared.

"What for?"

"I need to speak with the requisitions officer there and get a number of things." Jane explained.

With Shepard now a Spectre of the Citadel Council, she wanted to make sure she used her newest position to its most effective means possible.

That means being able to stock up a number of resources and weapons she originally would not have access to. With their goal in mind, the rag tag squadron she had assembled here on the Citadel were told to go about their business in getting what they needed before reporting to the Normandy.

The only two that had stuck with her was Tali and Roxas as she herself personally requested they come with her.

If she were to have these two under her command, she needed to know them both a bit more than just their initial meetings.

Walking away from the C-sec precinct once her business was concluded with them, Shepard looked over to Roxas for a moment.

Now that she had the time for a proper look at him, the more she thought about it, the more this young kid seemed to stand out from just about everyone else on the Citadel.

His hair for instance seemed to defy gravity and his crystal blue eyes were unnaturally… she didn't know how to describe it but, they appeared as though they were devoid of emotion.

Like she was staring at two blank canvases.

Now that wasn't entirely the case as she did see occasional sparks of interest within those two blue orbs. But still, Jane couldn't help but be put off by someone so young being so dead in the eyes if she were using more honest words.

And then there was his age.

Apparently he was fifteen.

Now, normally, Shepard wouldn't even dream of taking someone that young along with her for any mission or operation.

That would be the case unless of course this teen happened to have the ability to call for a weapon in his hand and can apparently pull off what could only be described as literal magic!

Not exactly something she was willing to turn down.

And then of course there was the clothing he wore.

They were entirely black and quite frankly, unlike any she had ever seen anyone else wear.

Shepard has seen people wear hoods and trench coats and such but those were usually more of fashion statements and preference.

What Roxas wore felt distinctly different from anything else.

Juxtaposed to this walking question mark was another one that seemed easier to unravel.

Tali was much more bubbly and open compared to her friend.

Jane had never met a Quarian before, much less fought alongside one so this will turn into quite the experience.

Not to mention it would be good to have a Geth expert on the team cause Saren had a whole damn Geth army at his beck and call.

However, one burning matter that was on her mind above all else was to put it plainly, everything involving Roxas.

That key-shaped weapon she saw.

The magic.

Those creatures!

What were they?

She knew that she had to ask eventually.

But right now isn't the time for that.

Right now… they were apparently gonna go speak with an Asari consort that wished to speak with Roxas.

Something about her repaying a debt to the boy.

Whatever that was.

There was a sudden spark within Jane about the grim thought of this Asari possibly popping the boy's cherry and she had a swell of defensive feelings in that regard.

He was too young!

Eventually, they made their way down to the Consort Chambers of the Citadel where they saw an Asari standing at the entrance to greet them.

"Welcome." The Asari said with a polite smile. "I am Nelyna. I… don't recognize you as one of our expected clients today. Would you like me to see when the Consort will be able to see you?"

"No need." Shepard said. "Your consort is expecting one of us. She just spoke with him not too long ago."

"Really? And who might this person be?"

As this was asked, the eyes of Shepard and the others rebounded right towards Roxas. The moment that happened, he gently swerved his head as he received all of the attention.

"This is Roxas." Shepard introduced him. "The Consort told him she wished to thank him for-"

"Oh, this is the human that has done so much for her before even meeting her." Nelyna said in recognition.

"Excuse me?"

"Right, you probably wouldn't know of this as we were trying to be hush hush on the issue before it all blew over. But that didn't seem to be the case." Nelyna explained. "It had to do with a disgruntled Turian General and an Elcor diplomat that was spreading slanders of the Consort."

Shepard blinked at that and raised a brow soon after. Tali stifled a slight giggle, now seeing that what she and Roxas had gone through to be a bit silly all things considered.

"But soon after, the Turian and Elcor made amends with the Mistress, citing a young human boy in black with blue eyes being the source of their turnabout."

Nelyna regarded the teen with a kind smile. "You have done a great service to the Consort, young man. Please, she is expecting you. Just walk all the way to the end of the lounge and up the stairs on the right."

The door to the chambers opened with Roxas staring ahead inside with him briefly looking back at Jane and Tali, the former of whom clumsily egged him on.

The moment Roxas left them, the air around them was a little awkward.

"So… anyone wanna ask the obvious."

"About what?" Tali responded.

"With this whole Consort business." Wrex then turned to the Quarian. "Mind informing us on how this all started?"

"I'm rather curious myself." Garrus muttered in agreement.

Tali nodded, seeing as they needed some time to kill before her friend's return. "Ah, right… Well it began when Roxas and I were at Chora's Den to talk to Fist…"

No. XIII all the while strolled through the lounge at a casual pace, taking the time to observe the area and the patrons inside.

There were humans, Volus, Salarians and Turian all around with all the Asari wearing matching uniforms of sorts. Small conversations were heard here and there though Roxas really didn't pay attention to them all that much as he went straight towards his directed destination.

He saw another Asari standing beside a set of stairs with her giving him a smile and holding her hand towards the staircase.

"Once you reach the top, please press on the panel at the door to announce your arrival." The Asari instructed with Roxas only nodding.

Arriving at his destination, he pressed the button beside the door.

"Hello." He spoke up. "This is Roxas. You wanted to see me?"

Moments after, the door automatically parted ways, granting the Nobody entry into the room.

Stepping inside, Roxas saw the spacious room had a couch, a strange pod of some kind and the Consort standing at the center.

"Ah, Roxas." Sha'ira said with a small smile. "So glad you were able to come by sooner than later."

Roxas only shrugged. "You wanted to see me?"

"Yes I most certainly did." Sha'ira said, walking over to him. "I wish to personally thank you for the great deeds you have done for me. You have no idea how much it means to me."

"It's really no problem." Roxas said plainly.

"Modest as you are straightforward." Sha'ira said with a pleasant smile. "Septimus told me of your nature and I can see you are one who wears your heart on your sleeve, as humans tend to say."

Upon hearing the whole matter of the heart, Roxas found himself abruptly drawn in.

"What do you mean?" He found himself asking.

Sha'ira took note of his response, humming aloud with intrigue.

"You seem like a young man who has much to do right now. Something that speaks of an individual burdened with purpose he has yet to realize."

There was a strange tingle going through Roxas, feeling it the most in his right hand. He almost felt like calling for his Keyblade.

Almost…

"Now I wouldn't dream of letting you go without payment. I do not make a habit of incurring debts."

"Um...I don't really need anything." Roxas admitted.

"Yes, but this is something different from materialism." Sha'ira stated. "I insist."

Not seeing anything wrong with that, Roxas complied. "What are you offering, then?"

"First is a gift of words. An affirmation of who you are and what you will become…"

She now stood directly in front of him, with her eyes locked on to his own and her soft hand placed on either side of his face.

"I see the sadness behind your eyes. A void seeking to be filled. A story that makes me want to weep. But it drives you, makes you strong. You never hid it either. It serves you well. Terrifies your foes. Few will dare to stand against you. And even when you're alone, you will not be in actuality as your allies will always be with you."

Roxas nodded upon hearing all this coming from her. Made him want to think about a number of things.

"Now this may be who you are, but it is not who you will become. You are in the formative times of your life as the man you shall become in the end will be the man you shall be until the end of your existence. You are a Blank Canvas and the galaxy is at your fingertips, waiting for you to add the brushstrokes that will define who you are for all to see."

Now that was an apt description.

He truly was blank.

A month of existence wasn't really much to begin with.

No memories of who he was prior to becoming a Nobody nor much to have to begin with.

Sha'ira went on.

"Remember these words when doubt descends, Roxas. For they will give you strength."

"I'll do what I can to remember them."

In actuality, he might just write them down on his Omni-tool.

Sha'ira only smiled once more.

"And now, for my second gift."

She knelt down and gently placed a chaste kiss atop his forehead which made the teen feel a flurry of… things within.

"Wha-What was that?" Roxas asked in bewilderment.

"The kindness of something I believe you have not experienced." Sha'ira said, pulling him in for a gentle hug. "I feel that you are one who has never understood or experienced gestures such as these. As time goes on, remember these actions for they may serve you in their own ways when the time comes."

"...ok." he said softly as she pulled back.

"And for my final gift, I would like you to have this small trinket." Sha'ira said, taking something from her table nearby and holding it out for Roxas to take.

"A trinket? What is it?"

"A small mystery. I have never learned its use or purpose, but I sense it is time for me to pass it on." Sha'ira said enigmatically. "With you and the journey you are about to undertake, I feel it will reveal to you the answers it holds."

The Nobody examined the trinket for a few moments before pocketing it with a nod.

"I've done everything I can to help you for what you've done for me. Now I must ask you to leave, I have other matters to attend to today." Sha'ira said until she gently ran her hand through his hair in an affectionate manner.

"Er…"

Sha'ira merely smiled, retrieving her hand in the process.

"We shall see each other again." Sha'ira said.

With that said and done, Roxas left her chambers in order to rejoin the others in the lobby. When he made it back down, he saw the group was sitting on the couches as they seemed to be in some discussion of some kind.

That came to a quick end when they saw his return.

"So…" Shepard spoke in a delicate manner. "How'd things go?"

Roxas shrugged. "She said a few things about how I'm not alone and all. And she gave me this."

He held up the trinket for both Jane and Tali to analyze.

"Wonder what it is."

"Beats me, Shepard."

The Spectre threw her hands up. "Well, I think we have that taken care of here. Let's go. The Normandy is waiting."

"But aren't we supposed to-"

"Already taken care of."

Roxas didn't say anything else as he had to quickly follow after her and soon rejoined with the others.

They were all on their way to the Normandy, and they had called on an elevator to get them down to the docking bay.

The elevator…

Was abysmally slow.

Roxas should have taken a corridor to get down faster.

It was strangely quiet among all seven of its occupants with none of them not really saying anything to each other.

It was getting kinda weird.

"So…" Shepard began, with a small whistle. "What'd you all get?"

"..."

"..."

"Alright, fine, don't say anything."

The rest of them found themselves chuckling with Roxas looking at them all curiously.

"Say… Tali." Garrus spoke up, the Quarian looking at the C-sec detective. "How did you meet Roxas here?"

"Oh." Tali blinked. "Uh, well, you see, after I got the evidence on Saren I kinda had to run for my life for a while."

"Why?" Jane asked, glancing back at her.

"Saren didn't want to get exposed of course." Tali said. "I was pursued by some of his personal assassins and they had taken out several of my friends who were with me at the start of my Pilgrimage."

She hung her head at the memory of them who died to keep her alive.

"I was struck…" Tali said, subconsciously rubbing the spot that was shot at. "And I didn't know if I was gonna make it."

The Quarian then turned her gaze to Roxas who was already looking at her, Tali shooting him a look of pure gratitude.

"But then this blond, blue eyed human just comes up to me and saves my life."

"Daw, your knight in shining armor sweeps in to whisk you away." Ashley couldn't help but tease.

"Kinda reminds me of Fleet and Flotilla." Garrus said aloud which in turn got a small squeak out of the Quarian making her try to hide herself from the rest of the group who all laughed at her plight save for Wrex who only rolled his eyes at what he believed to be pointless drivel and Roxas who did not understand what was so funny.

When the elevator came to a halt, its doors opened out to some docking area. Exiting it, he glanced all over the place as everyone filled out with Shepard crossing her arms.

"Keelah…"

"Tali?"

"It's… It's… beautiful."

Roxas rose a brow on what she just said before turning his head towards where she was looking at.

There, clamped to the dock through something magnetic, was a ship unlike he had ever seen before. The hull was in a rather sleek shape, with a series of thrusters jutting out of the side of the ship like the wings of a bird of prey. The ship's nose was curved and the lettering 'SR-1' was displayed rather prominently on the side of the hull.

Roxas surprisingly found himself rushing over to the guard raid to get a better look with Tali standing right beside him soon after.

The ship was actually quite large, soon comparing them to a number of ships he saw with Tali earlier today. Though he was still a novice, he had noticed that each ship had a particular design to them that allowed them to be distinguished from one another and easily identifiable with the species that had created the ship.

"Turian?" He muttered out. "Maybe."

"What are you going on about, Roxas?" Kaidan asked.

"Just trying to think of what the designs for this ship are from."

The lieutenant nodded. "It's actually Turian and human." He said, drawing in the attention from both Nobody and Quarian. "A joint project by both the Turian Hierarchy and the Alliance."

"Really? What for?"

"Testing grounds for the simplest of explanations."

Roxas nodded before gazing back at the Normandy. "It looks so unreal."

"Never seen anything like this, huh?"

Roxas only shook his head as he stared at the Normandy.

"I was practically on the same boat when I first saw this ship." Ashley said as she came up to Kaidan and Roxas. "Sadly, it was not all that grand as you and Tali have now as we were on a bit of a bind when I first boarded it."

"We did have to bring Shepard in after the Beacon exploded."

Roxas wondered what they were talking about but figured he could ask more later. More so when they departed from the Citadel.

When the others were boarding the Normandy, Roxas saw Shepard was talking to Anderson and Udina about something. Not wanting to intrude on their discussion, he walked over the ramp and entered the ship.

The moment he stepped inside of the Normandy; his sights were assaulted with all sorts of activities. There were people running around holding datapads, there were holograms everywhere, the interior was slick. From what he can quickly tell, this was probably the normal hub of sorts for this ship.

It was way, way more livelier than the lounge of the Organization back in the World that Never Was.

Next to him, Tali appeared to be shaking with complete and utter glee with her barely being able to contain herself.

"I'mgonnacheckouttheenginecoreroom!" she blurted out with Roxas being able to catch maybe one or two words out of that. He watched her practically skip away, leaving him momentarily alone.

Strolling along the way, Roxas briefly looked back and saw a row of holographic panels all surrounding a holographic display of the Citadel itself. Soon enough, the image disbursed and took the form of the Milky Way galaxy. And right by it was a little ramp, leading to a spot which stood overhead of said holographic display… for some reason.

His thoughts went back to Vexen and Zexion, how the two would love to be a part of all this and study everything aboard the ship.

"Seems someone is distracted."

Roxas looked over and saw Garrus standing beside him now.

"What's the matter Roxas, first time on an Alliance Ship that wasn't your usual ship?" Garrus asked cheekily.

"You can say that." Roxas stated, eyes returning to the activity around them.

His gaze lingered over what appeared to be the mess hall, where everyone would be eating if they so choose. Nearby was what looked like the medical bay and over yonder seemed to have a number of pods lining up the walls, big enough to fit a whole person inside.

It wasn't long before Roxas rose a brow on something.

"There's an elevator on this ship?"

Garrus took note of it. "There is. There's a few floors to this ship. Might as well check each of them and see what's what… well except for the top one."

"Why's that?"

"Because that's the captain's quarters. No one's allowed to enter it unless given permission."

Roxas nodded as they walked through the area.

"Oh, they have a forward gun here?" Garrus said to himself with intrigue. "Hmmm, wonder how it's calibrated."

Before Garrus was able to walk off, Roxas called out to him.

"Um… where's the engine core room?"

The Turian looked at the human with confusion.

"Why do you wanna go there?"

"Tali probably went over there."

"Ah." Garrus nodded understandingly. "Hmmm, since this is a Human-Turian ship, my guess it's connected to the hangar bay, which is on the bottom level."

Parting ways from the Turian, Roxas soon saw there was a flight of stairs nearby the elevator. Deciding to take that route, he descended it. After some passing moments, he found his next destination.

The hangar bay was a very spacious place and Roxas suspected that they would have been able to hold quite a bit more inside. As it was, though, he noticed there was a massive vehicle that looked like a mess between a tank and something else. And spread out through various spots here and there were a number of crates.

Over on the one side, Roxas saw Ashely was working with a number of weapons on a maintenance table before storing some in a weapons locker nearby. Wrex was leaning against a large stack of crates, seeming to have one of those 'thousand yard stares' everyone spoke of.

It wasn't long before he spotted where the engine room resided and once stepping inside, he was amazed.

There was some kind of metallic wall in front of him that was adorned with many varieties of light. The wall seemed to focus on a central point which blue light seemed to emanate out. Stepping closer to it, he saw a row of computers right in front of a guard-rail that separated the engineers from the wall by what he guessed was at least four yards. And once right up to the guard-rail, the Nobody gazed up at the light of the drive core.

"Keelah, can you believe this place Roxas?!" Tali was practically gushing. "This is the most advanced ship in the galaxy! And we're on it!"

Though Roxas was unfamiliar with ships for the most part, seeing Tali be so joyful brought out a small smile on his face.

"It's… pretty cool."

"Pretty cool? Pretty cool?!" Tali abruptly shook him by his shoulders, rattling his head slightly. "This is amazing! I never would have thought I'd get an opportunity like this! And Commander Shepard let me come! I won't let her down."

Roxas could only nodded shakily as he could as his head was slightly spinning as Tali returned to talking rapidly about everything the ship had to offer, not content with just settling on one thing.

Seeing her like this, Roxas couldn't help but have his smile return to him and he pulled out something he managed to discreetly snag by himself.

"I guess… us being here deserves the icing on the cake."

Tali blinked upon seeing a small cup of ice cream in one hand and a stick of the same one in the other.

"R-Roxas, where did you-? How did you-?"

She looked up at him who wore a small smile with her only smiling back after a few seconds taking the cup of sea-salt ice cream out of his hands.

"Thanks Roxas."

"You're welcome."

Beforehand, Roxas used a Corridor to acquire a bunch of Sea-Salt ice cream from the Zakara Ward and stored it somewhere on the Normandy. After all, he didn't know when they'd make it back to the Citadel to purchase more. And the only other place to get it was from Twilight Town.

Just as they were about to eat their ice cream, the voice of Jane Shepard was heard over the intercoms.

"This is Commander Shepard speaking." Jane's calm and confident voice reverberated across the Normandy. "We have our orders: find Saren before he gets to the conduit."

From many points on the ship, many halted in their actions to intently listen to the new captain of the ship.

"I won't lie to you, crew," she continued. "This mission isn't going to be easy. For too long, humanity has stood apart from the others. Now it's time for humanity to step up and do our part for the rest of the galaxy! Time to show them what humans are made of!"

After a few moments of silence, allowing the ship's occupants to digest what was said, Shepard spoke more. "Our enemy knows we're coming. When we go into the Traverse, Saren's followers will be waiting for us. But we'll be ready for them, too. Humanity needs to do this. Not just for its own sake, but for the sake of every other species out there. Saren must be stopped, and I promise you… We will stop him!"

After some more moments of dramatic effect, Shepard spoke once more. "It started in the Traverse when he attacked Eden Prime and he has an entire army of Geth waiting for us. That won't deter us in the slightest. If he thinks he can get away with bringing about extinction for all, he's dead wrong. Wherever he goes, we'll follow. We'll pursue him to the ends of the galaxy and bring him to justice. I'm counting on all of you just as the galaxy is counting on us. We will succeed!"

With Shepard in the cockpit, she pulled away from the intercom with Joker looking up at her.

"Well said Commander." Jeff commended. "Anderson would be proud."

"The Captain gave up everything so I could have this chance." Jane said resolutely. "I won't fail him. We can't fail."

"Yes sir." Joker said.

Back in the engine room, Tali was gazing up in slight awe at the passion Jane projected but Roxas was having a different reaction.

He was thinking on him being on this ship, him being a part of this crew now.

By this point, there was a strange feeling coming over him on him now being here.

Though he has only existed a little over a month now, he's starting to experience so much.

His time with the Organization has introduced him to Xion and Axel who he still wanted to see again.

But after arriving here?

It may have been an accident.

It may have been the Heartless, who knows?

But what he does know is that he wants to continue to be here. With these people around him who are far more expressive than anyone back in the Organization, maybe he can learn the secrets of the heart.

The secrets the Organization is after.

And Roxas figured that rather than spending time around those who have no Hearts…

It was better that he learned directly from those that have them.

With these people.

Soon after, he slightly felt the ship budge, signifying its departure from the Citadel.

That means there was no turning back now.

So we're going a bit crazy right now with the speed in which we're throwing these out there.

Jebest4781: Staying up late and having very little amount of sleep hours. Doesn't really affect me all that much later in the workday but trying to get out of bed is a hassle these past few days.

FMW: Agreed. Thankfully, being used to such short sleeping hours is both a blessing and a curse. But mostly a curse.

Jeb: Lucky you. I'm not all that great on it on weekdays but weekends are a different matter.

FMW: Indeed. So, few things. Love the excited reviews, those picking up on you know who at the ice-cream vendor, excellent eyes. Second, the poll I have up. I removed a choice cause well those who voted were not also taking the secondary step in leaving a review. So that's gone cause well… laziness.

There's a lot that we have to cover here, the important thing being the blending of these two drastically different universes. J and I have several ideas and scenarios in mind where we will eventually get to a sort of exposition chapter that explains the nature of both these universes and how both will affect one another.

But until that time, we shall leave it off here.

Rate Read and Review and as Always Have Nice Day.