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.

14. Take Some Time to Learn

So glad in seeing the reviews touching on the now unpredictability of the future in this story.

Yeah, it's not gonna go the way most would expect in both the KH side of things and the ME part.

Really then, let's just get on with it.

Rate Read and Review and as Always Have Nice Day.

I'm Nobody Chapter 14: Take Some Time to Learn

It was strange for one Jane Shepard, Commander of the Systems Alliance, first human Spectre and "Captain" of the Normandy SR-1.

Less than a few days ago, there was a strange sullen atmosphere that permeated the air in the Normandy.

Roxas having been gone left a noticeable absence that was really affecting the team. Not their performance for the most part. They still performed adequately and worked well together overall. Though they had encountered a few Heartless that they had struggled with several times.

They were encountering stronger Heartless. Had Roxas been there, the fight would have gone more smoothly.

No, it was mostly their mood that had shifted.

Ash and Tali were far less upbeat then their usual selves, Garrus didn't make as many comments as did Wrex and Kaidan and Liara was slightly downtrodden for the most part.

Shepard had worked and fought in many fire teams before but this was unusually different.

It was like they all felt on the same wavelength.

But now…

Roxas was back and with him came three additional members on the Normandy.

Sure, Della had joined them separately but Jane figured it'd be better to just chalk up her joining the crew the same time as Axel and Xion did upon Roxas' return. Though Jane did remember Della Duck telling her that once her ship was fixed, she'd be leaving as in her own words she had said she refuses to be a hassle to those who saved her skin.

The anthropomorphic duck had admitted that as much as she wanted to stick around to go on this crazy new adventure, she needed to get her ship fixed up and head back to see her Uncle Scrooge and her three sons: Huey, Dewey and Louie. She had at least hoped that she would be able to establish contact with her Uncle somehow, so she was hard at work in establishing a means of communicating with her family.

Other than that, she had been hard at work repairing her ship while having one Tali'Zorah over her shoulder learning everything she had to offer when it came to the knowledge of Gummi's.

Della was more than willing to teach about everything she knew with the Quarian having her Omni-Tool out and recording absolutely everything.

Tali had even shown her the Gummi pieces that she herself had collected after their many skirmishes and encounters with the Heartless.

With Della's help, she had identified and named many of the Gummi pieces Tali had in her possession and explained each piece's function.

When handling Gummi blocks and pieces, there was a great deal of thought and creativity that went into the creation of a ship. From the shields, to the weapons system to even where the cockpit would need to be placed.

It was quite a complicated process yet Tali made sure to review and constantly look over everything Della had instructed her on and showed.

Since then, aside from speaking with and becoming fast friends with Tali, Della had spent her time getting to know the crew a bit better.

The duck woman got along well enough with Kaidan, Ash, Wrex and Garrus for the most part though Ashley was still having trouble adjusting even though she said nothing would surprise her anymore.

Stitch didn't seem to mind her much until she helped with improvements on his own ship. That earned him a great deal of brownie points with the little furball.

Della had also struck up a fast friendship with Joker over their mutual love of flying ships and going out to explore in their own, respective ways.

Hearing this was certainly surprising for Shepard as she never pegged Joker for an adventurer.

Yet, a heartwarming comment that truly caught Shepard off guard was…

"Losing her leg didn't seem to affect her outlook on life. Why should these glass bones do the same for me?"

So Della had pretty much earned her spot on the Normandy brief as it more than likely will be.

Currently, Shepard had passed by the comms room and saw Della speaking with Hackett who was on call with her.

No surprise there since Hackett, like Tali, was very interested in what Della had to offer in terms of knowledge about Gummi's. Who wouldn't truthfully? A completely new means and method of traversing the stars that could perhaps outclass and outmatch what the rest of the galaxy had been using? Going beyond what any Mass Relays can take them within this galaxy and even further. Why wouldn't the Alliance Admiral jump at the chance of learning and perhaps integrating this new technology into the SA Navy?

Continuing down her path, Shepard eventually reached the Mako bay below and saw the usual occupants.

Wrex was in his corner but he wasn't alone.

Ashley was next to him, the two casually chatting with one another about whatever it was their topic of conversation was.

Over by the Mako was Garrus and Stitch were working together on a ship of some kind which Jane quickly recognized as the one that belonged to Della Duck.

"What do you think, Stitch? You think Della would appreciate a cannon that can blast through a Turian cruiser?" Garrus asked his blue helper with the little guy babbling about encouragingly.

"Alright, just need to make sure it's calibrated properly."

Stitch snorted, holding up his clawed fingers and made the quotation motion while tauntingly saying "calibrating".

"What, you want me to use another word that wouldn't fit what I'm going for?" Garrus asked with Stitch rolling his eyes, mumbling aloud.

"Oh I'm sorry, and what word would you use?"

"Enhance." Stitch retorted with a 'hmph' of triumph as he saw Garrus open and close his mouth several times.

"Well… that doesn't work." Garrus shot back. "Not enough syllables."

Stitch gaped, launching into a grumbling and growling tirade which Garrus ignored with a smug look on his face as he resumed his work on the Spear of Selene.

"Got a lively bunch here, Commander."

Jane nearly jumped out of her skin from the laid-back voice that came from behind her.

Whirling around, she saw that Axel was leaning against the wall near the doorway she had just walked down from with his arms crossed.

"What the- how did you-"

She cut herself off from seeing the amused smirk appear on her fellow green-eyed redhead, the Commander narrowing her eyes slightly at the newcomer to the ship.

"It's a gift of mine." Axel said with a cocky tone.

"Oh really? Sneaking up on people is a gift of yours?" Shepard remarked.

"Hey, gotta accumulate a set of skills in my line of work." Axel said.

"Clearly."

Axel huffed in amusement, pushing off the wall to walk away when Shepard stopped him.

"Hold on a second there, Axel." Jane said. "I wanted to talk to you."

"Oh?" No. VIII turned to the Commander. "What about?"

"Just wanted to speak with you is all." Jane said plainly. "Since you're gonna be staying with us here on the ship for a while, I wanna get to know my two newest crewmates."

"Really now?" Axel leaned back against the wall. "And what do you want to know?"

"Just a bit of a more general knowledge about you." Jane admitted. "Can't deny that you, Roxas and Xion are probably the most interesting people on this ship right now."

"Heh, glad you think so. It's nice to know my friends and I are at the center of attention." Axel remarked, cocky tone coming up once more. "Show's that we're memorized and ingrained into your heads."

Shepard tilted her head at the wording that Axel used. "You know, you use that word quite often. Memorized."

Axel silently nodded.

"What does it mean? To you, I mean." Shepard clarified.

Axel simply shrugged. "No particular reason."

"Really?"

The Flurry of Dancing Flames threw a hand up. "Just something I've picked up on in saying whenever introductions are made or important things needed memorizing."

Shepard was a bit unconvinced but decided to drop it for the time being.

"Well I know we won't be forgetting everything you told us anytime soon." Jane wryly commented earning a snort out of the Fiery Nobody.

Shepard felt her eye twitch slightly at the way the Nobody before her laughed. There was something… a bit unsettling about it.

Sure he laughed and sure it sounded genuine… but, there was a detachment to his voice that didn't sit well with Shepard. Taking a moment to look over his eyes, Jane found herself looking at a familiar sight if not a bit more troubling.

They were blank and devoid just like Roxas was but with the younger Nobody, there was a curiosity to them that replaced the usual emotions one would associate in someone as young as him. With Axel, there truly was a freaky sense that he really was emotionless as he claimed all "Nobodies" to be.

That was another thing that Shepard still was having a hard time understanding. The concept of the "shell" left behind from a Heartless, moving and having a will of its own.

About how the shell was not meant to be and how they exist nonetheless, devoid of the "Heart" and basic emotions.

She wanted to question Axel about all this but Jane figured this possibly wasn't the proper time for such a thing. He had literally only joined the crew two days ago.

"So Axel, what can you tell me about this Organization XIII?" Jane found herself asking the red head.

"Well I don't know, what can you tell me about that Vakarian fellow and his borderline obsession with calibrating." Axel shot back. "Even I don't say my thing that often."

Shepard couldn't help but guffaw at the rhetorical question, Axel's smirk growing as he watched the Commander lean on the wall next to him.

"That's a good question." Jane said. "But I'm afraid you'll have to ask Garrus for that one but he might not provide an answer."

"I'll take you up on that offer." Axel said, crossing his arms.

The two shared a calm moment of silence between them both.

"So… you didn't answer my earlier question." Jane brought up. "What can ya tell me about this Organization that I haven't already heard from Roxas before."

Axel shrugged. "What do you wanna know?"

Shepard shared his gesture. "Just the whole point of them really. I keep replaying that recording Roxas had that he got from there… where did Roxas go exactly?"

"To our world." Axel explained. "The World That Never Was."

"The World That Never… What?" Shepard repeated in bewilderment. "What kind of planet calls itself that?"

"Huh…" Axel scratched the side of his head. "I've noticed a few interesting things about where we come from and this place here. See, in our neck of the woods, we don't have many… planets per say. Each world is its own entity of sorts that operates on their own laws and such. Most of the time, travel between those worlds is very difficult unless you have your own work arounds. Like Gummi ships or the Corridors Roxas, Xion and I use."

"Wait, so there are… "Worlds" out there that don't have interstellar travel?" Shepard asked in fascination.

"Our place is a helluva lot more different then this galaxy here." Axel said in a vague tone. "I kinda understand some of it but it's probably better I bring you guys a book or something that explains it better than I do. What I do remember is how we were actually not allowed to talk about us being from other worlds."

"What? Why not?"

"Meh, something about not meddling or stuff like that. Like I said, Worlds' laws and orders. Never made any sense to me really but at the time, never really cared to understand why."

Shepard tilted her head. "But you're talking about it right now."

"In a galaxy where travel between planets is common." Axel countered. "No need to worry about any bogus world order law BS here."

Shepard nodded at his logic. "You still haven't told me much about the Organization that you, Roxas and Xion come from. That recording showed that they lied to you all."

At the mention of the recording, Jane noticed how the Fire-users expression darkened considerably.

"Yeah, they're a bunch of deceitful bastards alright." Axel said cynically. "Well, Xemnas and Xigbar turned out to be. Vexen too but…"

"But…?"

He didn't say anything, turning his head away.

"Forget about it. Just know that next time I see Xemnas and Xigbar, I'll make sure to remind them why I was also a part of their little gang." Axel declared with a fierce undertone. "I retained my human form because I had a strong heart once. Just cause my Heart is gone, doesn't mean my strength is."

Jane was stunned slightly at the sudden shift in tone by her fellow green-eyed redhead as it was a stark departure from the laid back persona.

The man appeared to notice his change, quickly shaking his head.

"Sorry about that." Axel said, slightly turning his head away.

Shepard frowned though her face conveyed understanding.

"It's alright." Jane said. "I can imagine what it's like getting betrayed like this."

"Maybe." Axel murmured.

"Did what they spoke about mean anything to you?" Jane asked. "One thing that stuck out to me is this whole vessel business."

"Got me." Axel admitted. "First I ever heard of such a thing. Your guess is as good as mine."

The pair remained there in silence for a few seconds until…

"What was it like?"

The fiery Nobody looked over to the Spectre who had an unusual expression he couldn't quite discern.

"What was what like?"

Jane hesitated for a momentum feeling an uncomfortable pit in her stomach before shaking her head.

"The first few days with Roxas." Jane asked quickly after. "You… mentioned something about him being a zombie?"

Axel didn't respond at first, instead taking a moment to gauge at the woman. There was something off for a moment about that question.

Like it wasn't the one she had wanted to ask. But he'd drop it for now.

"Well what else would you call a kid who was born with no memories, nothing in his mind to fall back on to form a personality?" Axel remarked. "Kid was a lost puppy. Hell, a lost puppy would at least find their way back to their mom. He literally wouldn't do anything unless you pointed in a direction and said, "do that". Even then, he'd just be on instinct."

"Sounds like he was a handful." Jane said with a light grin.

Axel shrugged. "Main problem was getting him up in the morning. Dusks may be one of the lower Nobodies but they just can't help messing with the new guy."

"What'd they do?"

"Face painted on him for the most part." Axel said, lightly chuckling. "Got annoying after a while but can't deny their creativity."

Shepard laughed. "Wouldn't mind having seen it."

"Yeah, shame I didn't have this Omni-Tool here." Axel said. "This takes videos and pictures right?"

She looked over to the one he pulled up on his arm and nodded. "Yeah, that model has it."

"Great. Maybe I could convince a few of my own to mess around with the crew."

"Your own?"

"I'll show ya later." Axel waved off, pushing himself off the wall. "Nice talkin' with ya Shep. I think we're gonna get along alright."

"Thanks for the vote in confidence." Shepard said wryly.

"What? Hard to believe this award winning smile?" Axel cheekily said, grinning widely.

Jane only snorted, watching the Nobody walk away and go up the steps she just came down from.

It was strange to her that she really didn't feel like she had gotten much out of him in their little conversation. Shepard would like to think she's a peoples person but how can you gauge someone who has "no" emotion.

She'd be watching him closely. Roxas seems to trust him so she'll put her faith in the teen who had become like a little brother to her.

-Scene Cut-

The Normandy departed from Earth soon after once the ship had been patched up and were on route back to the Citadel.

But first…

A few "pit stops" were needed along the way with some issues that needed to be sorted out.

Assignments to be clear.

The first assignment the crew had since departing Earth came upon Hackett's request. On the planet Chohe, in the Cacus system of the Hades Gamma cluster, a Sirta Foundation research facility has been attacked and taken over by Biotic fanatics. From what they learned from a few people who escaped, the captors used a psychotropic drug on the captives, thus rendering them insane. And given what's presented, Shepard had to be extra careful as the fanatics are essentially using the captives as human shields.

Joining Shepard on the assignment were Liara and surprisingly…

"Sounds like fun, mind if I tag along?" Came the confident request from one of the Normandy's newest recruits.

It was understood with the two biotics as their abilities could help hold off those who were running in the line of fire. As for Axel, the commander wanted to at least gauge his skills personally, hoping that while the drugged up people won't get attacked, Axel could take care of those responsible.

No. VIII complied with tagging along, saying it would be an interesting challenge for him. He had spoken with Roxas at one point with the younger Nobody briefly going over what Biotics were.

This naturally intrigued Axel who was now more curious than ever to see how these Biotics would do in battle.

Of course, the sight of the ground team Shepard had taken returning to the Normandy covered in singes was a bit of a comical sight.

From what Roxas was told, the mission went on without a hitch as the group was able to secure the base and neutralized the biotics without a single casualty. And by Axel's accounts, it was a little boring compared to what "thrill" he had in the past but didn't really complain.

Though the Flurry of Dancing Flames did say it was a little entertaining seeing the scientists being all loopy with how drugged up they were. Of course both Shepard and Liara chastised him for saying it out loud in front of the captives as they weren't in their right mind and acting in such a way.

But that didn't explain the singes at first.

That was until Garrus, who had gone along with the ground team as well, told of how one of the crazed Biotics would make sure that the galaxy would remember their "campaign" across the galaxy.

This of course prompted Axel into stepping forward and making sure they'd memorize what he was about to do to them.

To say that he put on an over excessive fire show would be like calling Tali not a ship fanatic.

One of the fanatics tried to go for the team from behind, only to be met with a literal fire disk that struck him and quite literally burnt him to ash.

Needless to say, Axel proved that he was more than capable of being useful in a fight.

If not a bit hard to control at times. It wasn't that he didn't follow orders it's just that he really wanted to put on a memorable first outing.

Needless to say, he delivered quite spectacularly.

So, his skills did not need any further evaluation. Save for subtlety.

The next assignment that took place was investigating the whereabouts of the MSV Majesty as it suddenly disappeared somewhere in the Traverse a few days ago. Either because of mechanical failure or they were attacked.

Upon some digging and following a radiation trail, the ship ended up on the planet Xawin, in the Strenuus system of the Horsehead Nebula.

As it turned out, the ship was taken by pirates and a number of the ground team had to go down to the base stationed there, take care of its occupants and hopefully find survivors of the MSV Majesty.

Though she was slightly hesitant, Shepard had requested Xion to join her alongside Ashley and Wrex as the commander thought it was time to see No. XIV was capable of. Jane hoped it wouldn't be too much for the teenage Nobody, but Xion assured her she'll do her best and run back if needed.

After all, if she was anything like Roxas or Axel then it would be relatively easy for the most part.

At the base, the team had a little bit of difficulty taking care of the pirates, due to them actually being members of the Blood Pack. Things, more or less, were handled at one point until a scrimmage of Heartless appeared at the base and took out the majority of the pirates. This really got Xion to give it her all to help protect the people Roxas was traveling with for weeks.

Once everything was taken care of, Xion was able to use her Keyblade to open up all sorts of safes. Most were from past pirate raids and the rest were from the MSV Majesty, due to what they found on some logs. While it was unfortunate they couldn't find any survivors, Shepard was able to send out a signal to the Alliance to pick up what remained of the MSV Majesty and her crew.

They got the assignment done and Xion more than proved herself to be a worthy addition to the team. That and she knew how to hold back unlike a certain fellow redhead.

Lastly there were a pair of distress signals sent out from the Alliance Listening Posts Alpha and Theta one after the other as they were being attacked by unidentified, hostile lifeforms. Upon reaching Alpha, the ground team learned that the base was attacked by Rachni.

Once again, Shepard brought along Axel with Wrex, Ashley, Tali and Stitch going along for the mission.

Wrex seemed to have a ball in more ways than one, due to him not only killing more Rachni but also stating it was still Shepard's fault of their presence here due to her actions. And this got a bit more bashing with Garrus as a result.

Once clearing Alpha of the problem surrounding their base, the team needed to take care of the root of it all as the Rachni were reported to have a nest in the nearby mine. Axel volunteered to go on ahead with Wrex to help resolve the issue, which Shepard had to comply due to their unique skills and weaponry.

As Jane and the others made sure everything in the base was secure for the most part, the telltale sounds of a raging Krogan and raging inferno was present for all to hear. Soon after, Shepard and company stood at the front of the mine and were met with quite the sight.

Surprisingly… actually, it wasn't that much of a surprise considering the two that went in there.

Suffice to say, the mine was scorched and completely leveled due to their actions; not that either Nobody nor Krogan really complained. In fact, they were pretty damn smug about it.

Before things could settle down, another distress signal coming from the neighboring star system was received from the Alliance Listening Post Theta. And it seemed they too were suffering from a Rachni infestation as the insectoid species had infiltrated the base and killed everyone stationed there.

Upon closer investigation, it seemed whatever supply ship had come to both Listening Posts was the connecting point with how the Rachni got there in the first place. And wanting to get to the bottom of this, they downloaded the logs of the base to backtrack the supply ship's course of origin from the Argos Rho Cluster.

It was rather quick for the Normandy to find the shipment facility freighter, Depot Sigma-23, only to find its crew were all killed as it was now taken up by the Rachni. While Listening Posts Alpha and Theta were a challenge, the ship was honestly a cakewalk. Granted they did have to be extra careful, due to the small size in comparison to the two bases, but it wasn't too big of a problem.

Wanting to figure out how this all went down, they combed through the data files they found from the freighter's commanding officer, Major Elena Flores.

As it turned out, Cerberus was involved as they were using the freighter to help transport "special goods" in order to be tested out against pirates on a neighboring system. Of course the crew ended up mishandling the Rachni they acquired, causing an outbreak to occur. They soon boarded the supply ships and deployed to random destinations as they soon spread across the cluster within a week.

Wrex found the situation rather hilariously ironic as history repeated itself.

A failed experiment with the Rachni, hoping to see they would be in control, only to realize they can't be controlled all that well. And Axel added more to the fire that people are just stupid and ignorant when not realizing when to hold oneself back on something.

Wanting to prevent further contamination, charges had to be set before everyone could board the Normandy. Once a safe distance away, the turned Cerberus facility was blown up before this had to be reported directly to the Alliance.

So that was all said and done, yet they still had more "pit stops" to attend to.

As of right now, Shepard, Xion and Tali were investigating the MSV Worthington after stumbling upon it drifting through the Ming system of the Gemini Sigma Cluster. It's in a shutdown state with the thrusters cold, but they can still read power being present.

Being that this was the fourth and last ground mission for the most part, Roxas would soon be allowed to rejoin the team on their usual endeavors with part of his punishment officially over. Then again, it was supposed to be after the third one but that appeared to "slip" the mind of the Commander with Roxas uncharacteristically swearing "revenge" the next chance he'd get.

Walking through the Normandy, Roxas was heading towards the cockpit as he wanted to relieve himself of some boredom before the ship made its return to the Citadel. The blonde Nobody wanted to converse with Joker as he was already exhausting the others of any conversation topics that came to mind. Either about the overall mission in hunting Saren down or about personal topics and insights.

He had wanted to talk and hangout with Axel but his friend was sleeping like a log and it appeared that Stitch had opted to join him.

Getting closer to the front of the ship, Roxas heard Joker was having a laugh as he was happily chatting with Della.

"You cheated and you know it." Came the reply of a jokingly insulted Della Duck.

"I'll have you know, Quackster, that was pure skill."

"Whatever you say, Glasscase, I still think it was phooey how you pulled off that last spin." Della retorted.

Walking into the cockpit, Roxas saw the two were engaged in a battle of wills via video games with both having controllers in hand and pressing buttons frantically.

It appeared to be some kind of fighting game that was rather graphic, one of the characters in a purple garb decimating another that was a dark skinned woman with power gauntlet on both arms.

"Now what was that Prince song that can work with my victory here?" Joker asked condescendingly before a smug grin broke out. "Oh yeah! Here comes the Purple Rain!" Joker exclaimed, performing a finishing move on Della's character with her fighter being decimated by water spikes.

"AH~" Della bemoaned in overexaggerated defeat, slumping down to the ground.

Joker's victorious grin only grew when he performed an exceptionally disturbing means of killing Della's character. It was literally water being ejected at such high pressure that the skin was grinded off with the body being sliced apart into pieces moments later.

Roxas really hopes Demyx never sees anything like this lest he wants to take inspiration.

"That looks really brutal." Roxas commented, momentarily drawing the two players away from the screen.

"Hey, Roxas." Della said with a bit of a grumble in her voice.

"Hiya, kid." Said the pilot, who basked in his bit of glory.

"What game were you two playing?"

"This old human game from the early 21st century called Mortal Kombat." Answered Joker. "Tis an ancient relic from a more civilized time."

"This qualifies as civilized?" Della said in disbelief.

"Can I give it a try?" Roxas asked.

Joker only shook his head, putting the game away. "Don't know if this is up your alley."

"Why not?" Inquired the Nobody.

"You don't seem like a person who's down for fighting games."

Della nodded and backed up Joker's argument. "I can probably see why with him literally fighting out there constantly."

"Maybe, maybe not." Roxas shrugged out. "Won't know unless I try."

"And have you tried any other games, kid?"

Roxas brought up his Omni-tool. "A number of them on my Omni-tool. Some I already finished off; others still got a bit to go as in order to complete them just need to reach the final score."

"Ah~ the 'mini-game' player. Sounds fair." Joker turned to Della and voiced a thought. "What do you suggest he play?"

"Racing games could be up his alley." Della stated.

"Isn't that your type of game?" Joker said flatly.

"It's not exclusive to me, Glasscase, and you know it." Della said in a huff.

"True as I enjoy my fair share and all but need some variety from time to time."

"Like what?"

"I occasionally play MMORPG's like Warcraft." Joker said proudly.

"Warcraft?" Della and Roxas repeated.

"If you want super nerd, give that a try." Joker said, pulling up what the game is towards the cockpit's other occupants.

"Huh, looks like something I play with Huey back home." Della murmured in interest.

"And what would that be?"

"Legends of Legend Quest."

"...What kind of title is that?"

"Sounds odd, yes, but the game had been a passion of mine since I was a teen." Della said. "You have your… elves, are those elves?"

"Those are elves."

"You have your elves and I have my Legend's quest." Della said with dramatic passion.

"I feel ya, Quackster."

"Well, I'm starved." Della declared. "A good thrashing like that works up and appetite. Roxas, wanna come?"

"Sure, why not."

"How bout you Joker?"

"Someone's gotta fly the ship."

"Good point."

"Not to mention need to be here in case Heartless show up out of nowhere again for a firefight." Joker said with a slight edge to his voice.

After what happened on Luna, Joker wanted to at least be a bit more attentive on his next encounter with the Gummi Heartless. And they had indeed popped up again when the Normandy was back in the Argos Rho Cluster for the extended mission with the stray Rachni.

At least he was getting better in combating them with Stitch by his side and Della giving pointers in how to better take them down.

"See ya later, Joker."

"You know where to find me."

Leaving the cockpit, the pair made their way to the mess hall and gathered up some food before sitting down.

"This food is alright, I guess." Della said, mouth full as she chowed down on her lunch.

"Ashley always told me it was meant to be edible, not flavorful." Roxas said with a shrug. "Something about how tech advances but military grub doesn't."

Della snorted. "I bet. My uncle Scrooge tried that once, but the food didn't exactly fit his expectations." She briefly adopted a thoughtful look. "If I remember correctly, he plans on opening a restaurant. Though I have no idea where."

Roxas nodded as he continued eating his meal with the duck woman. At some point, something came to mind. Something that had left him curious for some time now.

"Della."

"Hmmm?"

"... you said that I looked like someone you met before when we first met. Someone from ten years ago named Ven."

Della halted in her eating, looking over at Roxas before averting her gaze a moment later.

"Stitch said the same thing to me when we encountered him on Feros." Roxas revealed. "Who was he?"

"So even Stitch met him." Della murmured with a small smile.

"Della?"

"Oh? Oh! Sorry about that, just thinking about the past." Della said apologetically.

"About Ven?"

She chuckled. "Am I that easy to read?"

"Kinda obvious."

The Duck snorted. "Well you're a lot more blunt and brooding then Ven, that's for sure. That's easy enough to tell you two apart. Sorta. Anyways, you wanna know about Ven. then I guess I'll start from the beginning. Back on the planet Disna, I met Ven when he came to Disney Town for the Dream Festival Queen Minnie was hosting ten years ago."

There was a strange feeling that welled up within Roxas.

A strange feeling of longing that appeared as quickly as it went away while Della continued to speak on her first meeting with this Ventus.

"I met him when I was working on the ice-cream machine my uncle Scrooge had commissioned for the event. Had some trouble working the blasted thing as Scrooge ended up having it too difficult to operate. Yet Ven was quick in figuring out the controls, either by sheer dumb luck or catching onto an oversight and correcting it."

"Was there anything else?"

"Ven… Ventus was a kind soul." Della said with a somber smile. "I never knew what became of him aside from what King Mickey told me."

"King Mickey knew Ven?" Roxas asked in surprise.

Della blinked. "You know King Mickey?"

"Yeah, I ran into him when I met Sora, Donald and Goofy." Roxas stated.

"Really? And he didn't say anything?"

Roxas only shook his head, confusing Della. "That's strange. Mickey had known Ven and fought alongside him from what he told me."

"Wait, what did King Mickey tell you about what happened to Ven?"

Della shook her head with a small frown. "Just that he had to… heal his heart."

"Heal his heart?"

The adventurer ran a hand through her hair before scratching her scalp. "There… There was an incident that happened that led to Ventus having to be needed to be put somewhere safe for healing. That's all his majesty ever told me." Della then became downtrodden. "And what was worse, no one knows where he's being kept as the one who took him there, Aqua I believe, turned up missing shortly after."

"Aqua." Roxas murmured, the name feeling familiar. A bit too familiar.

He wanted to know more now.

"Can you tell me anything else about Ven?"

"Oh yeah there was one other thing." Della scoffed. "Ven had to deal with Pete, who was going around town and was messing around with many of the stalls. Ven helped clean up his mess with the ice-cream machine before he left the festival to find Aqua and some other friend of his."

Roxas nodded before bringing up a couple of questions. "Who's Pete? And why did he do that?"

"Pete used to be an old friend of my brother's friend, Goofy, as their sons PJ and Max have been best friends since diapers. Things were good and all but as years went by, Pete's relationship with everyone else started to strain. More so when his wife, Peggy, was considering leaving Pete altogether with how he just kept stirring up trouble."

Della remembered the times interacting with Peggy when she was still married to Pete. She clearly saw the angsty atmosphere at the Pete residence whenever she visited Goofy and his son as Goofy and Pete were neighbors. And she was glad the kids didn't hear the arguments the former married couple had as they often occurred when said kids were out for school.

"As for why, well we found out Pete was messing around with the stalls and trying to win the title of 'Million Dreamer' in order to possibly win back his wife. Of course that didn't work out and he was banished because of the number of actions he caused. This caused Peggy to not only get their daughter, Pistol, but also their son as an end result."

"And do you know where Pete is now?"

"Sorry, Roxas, but I haven't the foggiest on his whereabouts."

"Commander Shepard on Deck." The Normandy's VI suddenly announced aloud.

"Oh, Shepherd's back." Della said, looking up at the ceiling.

Turning his head back, he saw Shepard walk in with Tali and a rather somber looking Xion.

The Greater Nobody momentarily locked eyes with Tali though the Quarian turned away soon after with Roxas' expression dropping.

"Heya Commander." Della hopped up from her seat and approached the human Spectre. "How'd it go down there?"

Jane looked back to the two despondent teammates and turned back to Della.

"Swimmingly." The Commander said in false cheer. "Now if you'll excuse me."

Shepard walked away, Tali heading to the engine core room a moment later leaving Xion to stand there on her own.

"Xion, honey," Della looked up at the young girl in concern. "Are you alright?"

"I'm… I'm fine." Xion said quietly.

Della wanted to ask what had happened but she was interrupted by the sound of pattering on the ceiling.

A blue fur ball fell from above and landed on Xion's shoulder.

"Xion." Stitch said happily, drawing a smile out of her face.

"Hey Stitch." Xion said, giving him a kind smile before her face fell again.

Seeing how really troubled Xion seemed to be, Roxas walked up to her. "Hey, Xion, how'd it go?"

No. XIV turned to him and regarded him with a soft, sad look. "It was alright."

Seeing her expression, he asked the obvious. "Did something bad happen?"

"You can say that." Xion said.

Stitch hopped over to Roxas' shoulder, giving him a slobbering lick that managed to lighten up the mood between the two. Della by this point had a small smile on her face, opting to walk away to allow the two to talk.

"You wanna talk about it?" Roxas asked, gesturing his head over to the table he just sat at.

Xion didn't reply at first before slowly nodding. "I probably should."

Going over to the nearby table, they sat down, Stitch curling up into his ball form and rolling off Roxas' shoulder and table and heading off to wherever it was he was rolling to.

"So what happened?" Roxas asked straight away.

Xion had her head down, deep in thought as she went over their recent mission.

"We thought the ship was abandoned, but when looking into it further, life support was the only thing remaining on." Xion began. "When we were checking further in, we heard footsteps. I ended up going ahead and tripped a sensor of sorts, setting off a placed charge."

Roxas leaned forward with his expression changing into one of concern. "Did you get hurt?"

Xion smiled at him. "Only a little, nothing a simple Cure can't fix."

Roxas nodded before voicing an inquiry. "But if the ship seemed abandoned, why have the charges set?"

"Someone placed them there. The reason why is to protect someone." Xion then explained further in detail. "The person we found was labeled 'brain dead' by Tali."

"Brain dead?"

Xion grimaced. "It's when the mind is no longer giving out any activity and functionality. While the brain was 'dead' the body was still alive… somewhat… as Tali said the person was just an empty shell."

"...Like us." Roxas said, referring to himself, Xion and Axel.

"More or less." Xion folded her hands together with a slight tremble. "The man we found was in all intents and purposes dead with only life support keeping him alive."

"So… what happened?" Roxas asked quietly.

"Shepard wanted to shut the machine down as it was a merciful way for him. She didn't want the man to live any longer in such a state." Xion informed. "Before we did, we wanted to at least know more on what was going on with why there was no one else on the ship."

"What did you find?"

"Reading through some logs, it showed us the brain dead man was named Jacob. He had an accident and without getting enough oxygen in his brain soon enough, it ceased to function. There was nothing the medical staff could do, only wanting to let him die with dignity as Jacob's previous wishes."

"Yet that didn't exactly happen, did it?"

Xion nodded. "Jacob had a friend, a really close one at that named Julia. She didn't exactly come to terms with his wishes. As a result, she lashed out and… killed everyone else on board, in order to prevent them from killing him."

Suffice to say, Roxas was surprised when hearing this. "But why, why would she do that?"

"I didn't understand at first but Shepard told me she didn't want to lose him. The only friend she had left in the world. She wanted to find a way to save him, but it was too late." Xion exhaled a sigh. "When we returned to where Jacob was at, we found Julia as she was guarding him. She lashed out at us, not wanting us to take out the life support. It wasn't pretty on what went on. But in the fight, the life support machine was wrecked, effectively killing Jacob and making Julia become furious. We tried talking her down and stand down peacefully, saying that Jacob wouldn't have wanted this; but without her friend anymore, she just wanted to die."

It was clear to Roxas that Xion was a bit distraught at what she had witnessed. Seeing someone who was so like them while also the death of someone that cared for them to such a rapid degree. It didn't make sense.

He had seen Shepard and co take out mercenaries and such. Hell, he had even participated in a few of those actions.

But when he saw Benezia perish right before Liara… that troubled him greatly. It was still something that he was trying to understand. And now Xion was going through a similar ordeal.

Instinctively, Roxas reached out and placed a hand over both of hers, with Xion looking up at him.

"I know it's hard and I wish I knew what to say but…" Roxas frowned, thinking for a moment. "But maybe you should talk to somebody who does understand."

Xion blinked. "Like who?"

"Well, everyone on this ship seems to have an idea." Roxas said. "I've been meaning to talk to them about it honestly just… didn't get around to it."

"Why not?"

Roxas gazed at her before chuckling slightly. "I had two friends I wanted to see first."

Xion stared at him until she broke into a small giggle. "Thanks Roxas."

"Hey~"

The two turned to see Axel approaching them.

"Had a nice nap?" Roxas asked good naturedly.

"Slept like a log." Axel said, plopping down next to Xion. "Then my sleeping partner up and left me."

"Yeah Stitch was here a moment ago." Roxas said when he heard the little guy's gibberish speech, announcing his return.

Roxas glanced over to see Stitch carrying a set of chocolate cakes.

"Stitch, where do you keep getting these cakes from?" Roxas asked in utter bewilderment.

"Me." Stitch declared proudly, placing all the cakes on the table.

"You?" Roxas blinked. "Wait, you made these?"

Stitch made his sound of confirmation, hopping up on the table to dig into his own cake while the others looked at the large stack.

"There's probably enough for most of the crew to have… unless Stitch eats it all." Roxas noted. "Don't wanna have him be momentarily comatose again like last time."

"Last time?" Xion repeated in confusion.

"Yeah, he ate at least twenty of these." Roxas said, pulling his cake out of the way without looking just as Stitch was about to chomp down on it.

"Makes you wonder how such a little guy can handle so much food without dying from an overdose." Axel muttered, swiping his gloved finger across some frosting for a little taste. "Mmm, not bad."

The trio of friends had their little treat while ignoring Stitch devouring the other cakes all in one sitting.

With the blue fur ball eventually leaving, the trio saw him pat his stomach and loudly belching before disappearing from view.

"Where does it all go?" Xion couldn't help but ask. "He's smaller than Wrex."

"Who knows. Something I don't really wanna figure out." Said the redhead, leaning on his fist. "So, Roxas. What's the deal between you and Tali?"

"Huh?"

"You heard me." Axel said with a waggle of his eyebrows. "I've noticed she's been rather avoiding you still."

"She has." Roxas' expression fell slightly. "I wish I knew why."

"What, you don't remember the whole 'switch' conversation?"

"I do but… what does it even mean?"

"Have you tried talking to her?" Xion asked.

Roxas opened his mouth only to close it. "I…"

He had wanted to speak with her on a number of occasions but she kept looking away, walking away or both. She was avoiding him and it was really starting to affect him.

Out of everyone on this crew, since coming to this place, Tali was the first friend he made here. To not be able to converse or spend time with her like he used to… it was really beginning to bother him.

Shaking his head, Roxas stood from his seat with a determined look to him now.

"I'm gonna go talk to her and set things straight."

"Atta boy, Roxas." Axel cheered on.

Seeing Roxas walk off with a purposeful strut, Xion momentarily thought back to what she and him were talking about a few minutes ago.

"Axel?"

"Hmmm?"

"There's… something that's been bothering me." Xion said slowly, watching as her close friend regarded her to indicate she had his attention. "It's from the last mission."

"Yeah, the one you came back from with Tali and Shepard." Axel recalled. "What about it?"

"Well… something happened there and… I was hoping you'd be able to explain what it all means."

As Xion began speaking with Axel about her most recent mission, Roxas made his way over to the engine core room.

It took the teen a split second to find Tali in her usual spot, diligently working on the engines with several Gummi pieces on the panel.

"Tali." Roxas said aloud, making the Quarian jump a bit from hearing her name be called out.

She turned to No. XIII, eyes widening slightly at seeing him approach her.

"R-Roxas?"

"Tali, can we talk?" Roxas asked straight away, not beating around the bush.

Tali jerked back slightly, now looking away to continue whatever it was she was working on.

"What's there to talk about?" She said, trying to dissuade the conversation.

"Why have you been avoiding me?" Roxas bluntly asked.

"I haven't been avoiding you." Tali said though she saw the disbelieving look Roxas sent her way.

"Then why haven't we talked like we used to before I left?"

Tali clamped her mouth shut, having stopped her work.

Silence permeated between the two with Roxas' expression looking slightly desperate for an answer.

He was about to reach out to her when she spoke in a quiet voice.

"...Do you honestly not know how worried I was? How much it hurt with you departing all of a sudden, without me preparing for it?"

"Tali-"

"It hurt… so much… I tried… I tried to focus on everything else, so I could distract myself with what I was feeling. Yet it wasn't enough as I always kept thinking of that moment of you leaving."

The Quarian wanted to say more, telling him she cried herself to sleep. Thinking it must've been her fault in driving him away from her and everyone else. But it would be too much on admitting it with how… angry she was feeling right now.

And that's what constantly bothered her.

She had known Roxas for over a month by now and yet she had forged a strong connection with him without realizing it.

Thinking back to that meld that everyone got dragged into, Tali saw her "portrait" on that glass rendition of Roxas. While she didn't verbalize it, she felt it. How she was someone close to Roxas just had he had become close to hers.

"Tali… I had to know about myself." Roxas said. "About who I am. Why I exist. Why I have this."

Roxas' Keyblade flashed into his hand.

Tali looked at and had a small double take.

It changed.

Roxas' Keyblade wasn't like it was before.

Now that she thought about it, she might've seen a glance of it beforehand when she and the others were in that odd mind meld, but she thought it was something else. When she thought about it for a second, she saw Xion wielding her own Keyblade that was exactly like Roxas' on their recent mission.

Did Roxas pass it on to her?

Quickly shaking her head, Tali regained her thoughts.

"You lied to me, Roxas. I trusted you."

Roxas was unsure as to what she was referring to.

"Lied to you? Lied to you about what?"

"About who you are. What you are." Tali actually didn't feel comfortable about stating this. It felt like the wrong thing to say. "You could've told me the truth."

"But would you have believed me on the first few days since we met?"

Tali was silent, trying to come up with an answer.

"I… don't exactly know for sure. I might've… called you crazy or… something…"

Roxas couldn't help but laugh lightly. "Well, I wouldn't blame you."

Tali was unable to fight back the small giggle that escaped from her lips.

"Ok… it's just… I hated that you left me so suddenly." Tali said softly. "I just wish you had told me or gave us some time. You left so suddenly; you scared the crew without realizing it. You scared Shepard, Ashley, Garrus, Wrex even if he denies it. You scared me."

At that, Roxas couldn't really think of anything to dispute this statement. She had a point. He did leave without prompt and left her right in her face.

Even he realized that he messed up there.

"Just… we understand more about the place you come from." Tali stated. "So next time something comes up that means you have to leave, tell us."

"I will." Roxas assured.

Tali's expression brightened with Roxas seeing her eyes have that same glint that always managed to bring a smile to his face.

Her posture suddenly changed, hands on her hips with a slight sassy sway to her. "In all honesty, you will need to make up to me for this. A whole lot of it."

"...I understand." Roxas said with a small smile.

"And first on the list: no more lies." Tali declared.

He gave a firm nod, no doubt promising to make it so.

Unbeknownst to him, Tali didn't mean that literally, only a means of making him more open to her.

"Anything else?"

"Nothing much else comes to mind… for now." Even though Roxas can't see her face, she wore the best teasing smile she could muster. "But~ you can maybe give me something that's truly memorable and I might fully forgive you for your actions."

"It's a deal."

"And it better be out of this world." Tali said, lightly poking his chest with a faux serious tone. "Out of every world."

"I promise." Roxas assured, unaware that she didn't quite mean it.

"Good."

Tali then surprised the Nobody by pulling him into a tight hug. He didn't know how to react at first but he remembered what Shepard did.

He wrapped his arms around her in return with the Quarian being quite glad he couldn't see her face right about now. She was blushing up a storm under her helmet but she refused to pull away.

To her, she started to feel at peace now, or at least getting there. Some lingering feelings of her anger and sadness were still present within her but give it time and things will be right as rain.

"You know, about me lying to you…" Roxas began, who still kept up with the embracing hug. "I think I only withheld the truth… and avoided-"

"Roxas."

"Yeah?"

"Stop talking." she said softly.

"...Shutting up now."

-Scene Cut-

The Normandy soon returned to the Citadel once more, needing a bit more supplies as they had endured a lot more in terms of events then they had cared to admit.

Currently, a majority of the Normandy crew were out and about on the Citadel with only a few members remaining in the ship.

Della Duck for obvious starters as she still was working on repairing her ship.

Much as she wanted to explore the Citadel, the capital of Council space, Commander Shepard had convinced her that for the time being, it was best she remained out of sight and out of mind. Stitch was "passable" at best to be a mutated dog but even the human Spectre was pretty confident that this station wasn't ready for an anthropomorphic talking duck that was from another galaxy.

Then again, with all the madness that has been growing on the Citadel and across the galaxy, Della Duck may be able to experience the Citadel yet.

The last one staying behind was Liara, due to a couple of things.

The first involved her still questioning Della about her home galaxy and wanting to learn everything about it and what the duck woman knows about her neighboring one, Andromeda. Liara took up the opportunity to do a proper First Contact with Della upon their original meet up for the sake of the Citadel races. And since Della didn't exactly have a data packet, composed of everything there is of the Ōkoku galaxy, Liara had to make one for her friend's sake.

Asides from that, she was assisting Della in helping repair her Gummi ship in terms of payment for the requested information. More so when Liara got into the awkward territory of asking her certain questions on accident, due to her over excitedness.

Currently, Roxas had at first wished to show Xion and Axel around the Citadel but one fashionista caught wind of their return and had called them over to cash in the favor they owed her.

So the trio of Nobody's along with Shepard, Ashley and Tali made their way over to one Edna Mode's shop that she aptly titled, The Mode.

"Whoa." Jane remarked at the store. "She's been busy."

The store had since doubled in size and it appears the owner was having a much larger stream of customers.

"How are we supposed to find this Edna person in all this?" Tali asked aloud.

"Jeez." Axel looked around, taking note of the variety of aliens here with them all looking over the multiple racks and shelves of clothing.

"Oh, that top looks great." Ashley murmured, eyeing a nice smoking blue shirt.

"Hey." Axel pointed ahead. "That her?"

The group looked ahead and spotted a short and stout lady with her looking between several clothing pieces that were being presented to her by her assistants.

"Tell me darling, would a Krogan wear that?" Edna asked aloud to the Salarian holding up a rough set of clothing.

"I-I am not sure."

"Then I wouldn't be caught dead with it." Edna waved off.

She turned to address the next piece of cloth when out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a few familiar faces.

"Darling!" Edna exclaimed, small frame bounding up to Roxas while leaving her assistants behind.

Once in front of him, she had somehow tugged Roxas down to her and pecked him on both cheeks, patting them a moment later.

"Oh it is so good to see you once again. Come, come, come, let me get a look at you."

Edna hummed in thought, going over the clothes that she herself had placed on him.

"Yes, yes darling this is one of my finest works." Edna declared. "But there is always room for improvement."

"There is?" Roxas asked in surprise.

"Always my dear." Edna said, turning to the others. "Shepard, darling, it is wonderful to see you once more."

"Edna." Jane nodded her head, looking up at the store. "You've been busy."

Edna scoffed. "Please Commander, you praise me too much. I make people look like their best selves while you and your crew go out and about saving lives."

"Well, wouldn't mind looking good while doing it." Shepard said with a joking tone.

"Then you have come to the right place, my child." Edna said. "But first…"

"Your favor." Shepard said expectantly.

"Favor?" Axel asked aloud, gaining Edna's attention with the short stylist taking note of the black cloaks both her and Xion wore.

"Oh, from the same place I see." Edna mused in interest.

The others were confused by this comment but Axel however looks at the shorter woman in suspicion.

Edna turned back to Roxas a moment later. "Come my dear, let us get to work."

"What exactly is it that she's gonna do with him?" Ash found herself asking.

"I'll tell you about it later." Shepard said, following after the confused boy. "Ash, Tali, make sure you have Xion here get her some clothes and Axel…"

"I'm gonna go check this place out." Axel abruptly turned, walking away while waving his hand in goodbye.

"Well… he's gone." Ashley said in a deadpan, turning to Xion who looked a bit nervous in being in such a crowded place without her two closest friends.

Frowning slightly, Ashley quickly put on a kind smile, placing a hand on the young Nobody's shoulder.

"Come on Xion." Ash said in a sisterly manner. "Let's give you your first time shopping."

Xion only looked up at the Gunnery Chief curiously, craning her head back to Tali who only shrugged before gesturing her hand in an encouraging manner.

Soon enough, Xion was pulled into quite the unfamiliar scenario.

"Alright, let's see here." Ashley hummed in thought. "We need something that will help really bring out the you factor."

"The you factor?" Xion said in bewilderment.

"A style that works with you Xion." Ashley elaborated. "See, everyone has something unique to them when it comes to having their own look."

"Like you with pink?" Xion innocently asked, Ashley's brow twitched with Tali chortling aloud.

"Yeah." Ashley said through gritted teeth. "Pink."

She was rather glad right about now for being here right about now. She'd been meaning to get a new suit of armor. And surprisingly, this place sold some.

"Shouldn't we get something for Xion first?" Tali asked.

The Alliance marine sighed, pushing down her own wants for the time being.

"Yeah, you're right." Ashley said. "Come on Xion."

As they began sifting through the clothes, Xion began to notice something rather strange and off putting.

Tali looked through the multiple racks of clothing but she didn't appear to be planning to get anything.

That was the first thing.

The second was the multitude of suspicious to outright hostile looks that the Quarian kept receiving. It didn't seem to bother Tali at all but it was starting to slightly bother Xion. Did Tali do something to those people or something?

Why would they keep giving her those strange looks?

"What do you think of this Xion?"

No. XIV turned her head back to Ashley who was holding up a white skirt in one hand and black pants in the other.

"Do you feel you're more of a skirts or pants type of gal?" Ashley inquired.

"Skirts or pants?" Xion repeated in slight wonder.

"Yeah, there's gotta be something that calls to ya." Ashley stated, holding out the clothing for Xion to take. "Just take these and we'll have you try them out in the dressing room."

Xion only nodded along with Ash's suggestion.

As this went on, several times Xion saw Tali inspect clothing before putting it back with people giving the occasional glare.

She was honestly beginning to worry if she were being honest with herself. Why did they keep doing that?

Upon seeing Tali put another shirt back in its place, Xion finally couldn't help herself.

"Tali?"

"Hmmm?"

"You're not going to get anything?" Xion asked with Tali shaking her head.

"No point in doing so."

"Why not?"

The Quarian looked at the blue-eyed girl when she realized something.

Aside from their interactions on the mission and first initial meeting, they haven't really spoken much to one another.

Now was the time to change that.

"I can't." Tali said plainly. "I'm a Quarian. Which means I'm relegated to this suit at all times."

"Why?"

"Because my race has a severely weak immune system." Tali revealed. "Something that we suffered from when the Geth drove us off our home world."

"Weak immune system? So you get sick easily?"

Tali nodded. "Yes. It's why we have to wear these suits all the time. To prevent us from getting sick and dying. We rarely get any other suits as nowhere else sells them. So we must do careful suit repairs or risk coming down with the simplest of colds."

Xion's expression became despondent. "That's terrible."

Tali blinked at the young girl's response but found herself smiling underneath her helmet.

"You're sweet, Xion." Tali said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.

Xion experienced something she had never felt before.

Being flustered.

Something that Ash picked up on as she had a beaming grin and proceeded to muss up the younger Nobody's hair.

"Come on Xion, let's find you something good." Ashley said, leading the young girl over to another rack of clothing.

Though it was a bit of a process, eventually Tali and Ashley found the clothing the Xion was the most drawn to.

Xion now wore a sleeveless double buttoned, collared shirt with a hood attached and a black belt, a short white pleated skirt and black boots that reach her mid-shin with beige color to the upper fifth.

Ashley found the hood to be a strange piece, pointing out that her own Organization cloak already had one.

When asking about it, Xion simply replied with the hood reminding her of Tali's which she found pretty.

To say that Tali was flattered by such a statement would be underselling it. She went and made a small squeal of her own, grabbing Xion in a crushing hug and swinging her around.

Though Xion was still a bit new to the whole idea of physical interaction (not really), she happily returned the gesture.

"Good to see you're all getting along so well."

The group of girls turned to see a slightly amused Shepard and a completely confused Roxas.

"Heya Skipper." Ashley with a two-finger salute. "What'd that fashion lady want with you and Roxas?"

"Nothing special." Shepard said with a coy smile, side-eyeing Roxas. "But~ I figure our little superhuman here is gonna get a lot of fans pretty soon."

"I don't follow." Roxas said.

"Me either." Xion added with a shrug.

"...Oh you two…"

Tali was a bit out of the loop herself. "Shepard, what did you do exactly?"

Rather than answering her, Jane opted to send Tali what it was that Edna needed Roxas for.

Upon hearing a ping on her Omni-Tool, Tali gave Jane a confused look whilst she gestured for her to open up what she had just sent.

Bringing up her Omni-tool, Tali blinked at the images she saw. It was of Roxas in some very nice looking clothes. Nothing to cra-.

'Is that him with no shirt?!' Tali internally yelled.

He may have a thin frame but to put it plainly, Roxas was defined.

Steam began wafting out from underneath Tali's hood as she gazed at the last few images.

"Tali… are you alright?" Roxas asked, earning a little squeak from her.

The Quarian started stammering. "I-I'm f-fine. No-Nothing to worry about."

Roxas, oblivious on the way she acted, shrugged and didn't push for more.

The others, however, noticed.

Xion was similar to Roxas' reaction as she didn't understand things all that well. Ashley and Shepard merely wore teasing smiles, knowing they got some good material to use later on.

"Where is Axel anyways?" Shepard asked, looking around. "Haven't seen him."

"He just kinda… wandered off, remember?"

"You think he'll wait for us?" Ash asked, looking to the two that knew him best.

"Despite not knowing him very long, doubt it." Xion declared.

-Scene Cut-

With a Dark Corridor closing behind him, Axel saw the sign reading "Flux" with a flight of stairs nearby.

"This must be the place."

During his whole wardrobe shopping experience, something he hasn't gone through since he was a Somebody, he got a message from some of the guys as they wanted to hit the bar for some drinks. He was quick to accept the request and once dropping off his new "civilian" attires back on the Normandy, he came directly here.

"Now where would they be?" Axel murmured to himself.

Before having the chance to climb the stairs, he saw a Salarian tumbling down by them. Moments later, the salamander-like alien got up and dusted himself off like it was nothing.

Feeling curious, Axel approached him. "You okay there?"

"Yes, I'm fine."

There was a slight disbelieving look to No. VIII's face. "Then what was it that got you thrown out of there?"

Axel could probably understand if the guy was harassing some people or too drunk to stay in the establishment. The first idea seemed the more likely option as the second wasn't plausible. Unless his newly learned knowledge on Salarians updated without him knowing, then the guy didn't appear drunk at all.

"Doran didn't have a clue what I was doing. He assumed I was cheating."

"Cheating? On what exactly?"

"Just tipping the scales in my favor. Only as an experiment on the machines."

It took a few moments for Axel to realize what was going on.

Not only does Flux serve as a club, but a small casino as well. Nothing as large and extravagant as the one over at the Silversun Strip, if he heard correctly. But this place is quite the lucrative business.

And this Salarian was doing something on their machines in order to win.

"Why do you say it's an experiment? Still sounds like cheating to me."

"To you, maybe. But this device I have is merely intended to simulate situations and record results." The Salarian waved off a little. "Recording losses is easy, of course. Nobody notices those."

"Depends on the situation you're doing it in."

"Exactly."

"So why go through all this? What's the point in recording these outcomes?"

"Ah~ now you're getting into the heart of it." The Salarian said with an excited gleam in his eyes. "I've spent the last five years developing a system that can accurately predict wins and losses on the quasar. I just need a few more recorded wins and I can complete the algorithm."

"Really now?" Axel remarked with an intrigued look. "So you found out how to cheat the system?"

"It's not that I cheated the system." The Salarian huffed indignantly. "It's just illegal to use my system. But I won't use it, I'll sell it to others. I just need a few more wins recorded."

Feeling curious, Axel wanted to know more on this device. He didn't know where the others were so he figured he might as well kill some time.

"Can it give me more wins?"

"Most certainly."

"How?"

"The device is set to emit a frequency that will slightly increase your odds. Nothing like my system eventually will, but enough to allow you to record your wins more quickly."

"Then why not sell your device as it is?"

"What? No. This device is archaic. It uses brute force to achieve its goal. Besides, you saw how easily it was detected."

'More like staying too long to end up getting caught.' Thought Axel, narrowing his eyes a little.

"Once my system is complete, it will be far more efficient and completely undetectable."

No. VIII nodded as he voiced an inquiry. "Say if I do this for you, what's in it for me?"

The Salarian brightened a little. "Keep your winnings. That should be enough payment, I think."

Nodding once more, Axel gave his response. "How about I do this for ya? Try it out and whatever."

The Salarian nodded and handed the device over to the red haired Nobody. "Here you go. When you've recorded enough wins, it will let you know. Of course, if you get caught with the device, well, you saw what happened to me."

"Only the aftermath, not what led up to it."

"Right, well off you go. That data won't collect itself."

Walking past the Salarian, Axel made his way into the club and saw what was going on around him. The beat of the music, the dance floor nearby and a bar at the other side of the establishment.

Looking over in said area, Axel saw none of the guys have shown up yet.

'Seems I'm early, or they're late.' Green eyes wandered towards the casino on the upper floor. 'Got some time to kill before they arrive, then.'

Making his way to the machines upstairs, Axel came across one of the quasar machines.

Not knowing what to do, he pulled up the 'help' tab to learn how to play.

Essentially, the game was like Blackjack, but instead of reaching or getting close to '21' without going over, this one was with '20'. And instead of cards, it was with some buttons to add or subtract from the consecutive numbers.

Getting a little understanding of this, Axel inserted some Munny that converted itself into credits and started playing with the one device turned on.

Even without the given device, Axel somewhat wanted to focus on how he played. With most forms of gambling, it all dealt with predicting and counting numbers. The rest was just sheer dumb luck. And sadly for him, he wasn't all that great with the math concept.

As he carefully played this quasar game out, his mind briefly wandered towards Luxord, No. X of the Organization.

Outside of being in charge of the Gambler Nobodies, he seemed to have a number of quirks pertaining to his title as "Gambler of Fate". One dealt with manipulating some fights to go in his favor if he so chose. Another dealt with nearly everything coming out of his mouth, one way or another, dealt with some gambling phrases or terms being spouted out. Some were cleverly used while the rest could honestly use some work. He even had some philosophies here and there which Axel never really could "memorize".

Outside of all that, Luxord was a damn lucky bastard when it came to legit gambling.

Put him up on some bets, he guesses the winning outcome correctly. Get him inside of a casino, he can clear it out of nearly every bit of Munny the establishment had.

That last one was honestly legit as Axel saw it firsthand.

Before he could dwell down memory lane, he heard the device on his person sounding out. Taking a look, he saw he ended up going through a number of wins and got a few losses with a generous amount of credits received in the end.

Seeing as he was done, Axel headed on out and checked to see if the guys had finally shown up or not.

Once again, they haven't shown up.

"What's taking so long?" Axel said a bit impatiently. "They forget to memorize the place they asked me to meet up at?"

Heading towards the bar, he sat at one of the stools and waited for a little bit.

"Hello there, can I help you with something?"

Axel looked over and saw the barkeeper smiling at him. For a moment, he thought the smile she wore was out of business courtesy. Yet he looked past that and saw the little colorization on her cheeks.

'Oh~' Axel mused internally. 'Well, well, haven't seen that look since Radiant Garden.'

"I dunno miss." Axel said with a coy smirk. "What can you do for me?"

He leaned forward, presenting himself with a disarming smile that seemed to fluster the barkeeper.

"Is-Is there anything you'd like to drink?" She stammered out.

"Well that's just it." Axel said. "I'm a bit new here so I need to be going off your suggestions, milady. What would you suggest?"

The barkeeper brought up the menu, suggesting one of the finer drinks that the establishment had while pointing out a reasonably priced one for beginners.

"I have some scotches, wines, vodkas and cocktails that could be of your taste."

Axel nodded as he looked through the selection.

"Do you have anything better, perhaps?" He asked, the barkeep nodding as she changed the menu to some of the pricier brands that she had in stock. One quickly stood out as it cost 1,000 credits for a full bottle, far less for individual glasses.

"I'll have a Serrice Ice Brandy." Axel said, the name sticking out to him.

"Coming right up."

Retrieving the bottle, she eventually poured the contents into a small glass with some rocks. Sliding it over to him, Axel grasped the cup before bringing it up to his lips. He took a small whiff and liked the smell that came from it. Before long, he drank some of it down.

"Mmm, tastes good. Not much of a chilled drink person, but this works splendidly." He said, sliding a credit chit over. When she went to do the withdrawal on it, he spoke up. "Keep what's on it. A tip for fine service with a fine lady such as yourself."

The barkeeper blushed once more. "Thank you."

He nodded as he proceeded to drink more of the iced brandy.

"If you don't mind me asking sir…" The barkeeper looked a bit nervous. "But that coat. Where did you get it?"

Axel's brow quirked upwards. "That's a bit of a complicated story but who's asking?"

"It's just that… I encountered this boy who wore nearly the exact same coat not too long ago."

It didn't take much work for him to realize who she was talking about. "Let me guess, sandy blonde, blue eyes, curious about everything?"

The barkeeper blinked. "You know him?"

"Roxas? Yeah, he's my friend." Axel revealed making the woman gasp in delighted surprise.

"Is he doing well for himself? Do you know a Garrus Vakarian and Kaidan Alenko by any chance?"

"I do, traveling with them actually."

"That's wonderful to hear you are all doing so well.

"In fact, I'm just waiting for them right now. Taking too long if you ask me."

The barkeeper nodded. "Perhaps they're held up on something."

"Who knows." Axel then asked her something. "What's your name?"

"Rita."

"Axel. Got it memorized?"

Rita found the last comment rather strange but nodded all the same.

"Hey, do you perhaps know someone named Doran?" Axel asked suddenly.

"What do you need with my boss?"

"Just wanna have a word with him. Nothing bad at all, I assure you, Sweet Rita."

She stammered a little before heading out as he downed the rest of his drink.

It took a minute later for Rita to come back with a Volus beside her.

"This him, Rita?" He rasped out.

"Yes sir."

"Thank you."

With Rita heading back to resume her work, the owner of Flux addressed the red haired Nobody.

"Rita tells me you wanted to speak to me."

"You Doran?"

"I am." Answered the Volus. "Can I help you?"

"Yeah, I've got something you might be interested in."

Pulling out the device, he presented it to Doran.

"Let me see… You got this from Schell's, didn't you?"

"Schell's? You mean the Salarian?" Axel asked, earning a confirming nod.

"I saw him using it earlier. Tossed him out on his ass for it, too. Thanks for bringing this for me."

"No problem." Before he gave it to the Volus, he retrieved it back a little. "I think this tool should be worth something to you."

The Volus wheezed a little. "I suppose it is. I could offer you a few tries of quasar, on the house."

"Nah, I'm not a gambler at all." Said No. VIII. "Maybe give me and my pals a few rounds and we'll call it even. They aren't here yet, but I'll let you know when you do."

"Sounds fair. Just none of the really expensive drinks. I'll inform Rita on the limit."

"You got it. Oh and if you're looking for Schell's, he's outside waiting for me to show back up."

"Then I'll send some men to take care of him."

"Good to know. Guy should honestly put his skills to better use than that."

"Axel."

The tall red head turned to see Kaidan and Garrus walking up to him.

"There you two are, what took ya? Having trouble remembering time and place?" Axel asked straight away."

"Just had to buy a few things here and there." Garrus said, silently thumbing back to the bar for the trio to go and get a drink.

"And where's Wrex?" Axel asked, walking by the two.

"Using the restroom."

Axel snorted. "Hope he doesn't break the toilet."

"They're made out of strong stuff, Axel. I doubt they can break that easily from his weight." Kaidan stated.

"If you say so." Axel said, making eye contact with Rita with a small wink.

Rita averted her eyes briefly, before spotting the two that had come up with Axel.

"Hello there Detective Vakarian." Rita greeted the Turian with a pleasant smile. "Good to see you again."

"Hey Rita. Good to see you as well. Is Jenna still doing alright?"

"She is, thanks for asking."

Seeing this, Axel couldn't help but ask. "So what went on with you two?"

"Helped her sister out as she was roped in on an investigation." Garrus summarized.

"Tali, Roxas and I helped out too, you know." Kaidan added in.

"And you did good work and didn't mess up like some novices out there."

The lieutenant was about to say something back when a couple of glasses were placed before them with Rita pouring them drinks.

"But… But we didn't order anything yet." Kaidan said in surprise.

"Don't worry about it guys, the first couple of rounds are on me." Rita said with a kind smile while sending a flirtatious look in Axel's direction.

"That's rather generous of you." Garrus remarked.

"Not the expensive ones though." Rita quickly pointed out.

"Thought as much." Alenko and Vakarian said in unison.

"Of course, I got a few more for ya from me as well." Axel added in. "And like Rita said, nothing expensive."

Rita shared one last wink to Axel before she went to help out the other customers in the establishment.

"So… already charmed her, didn't you?" Kaidan asked in a dry tone.

"I have no idea to what you are referring to." Axel played off innocently.

"Didn't you say something about not having hearts and emotion or some crap like that?" Garrus pointed out.

"Well, just cause I don't have a heart doesn't mean I can't remember how to show ladies a good time." Axel said in a suave tone.

"I bet you had all the ladies."

"Ha! I wish." Axel guffawed.

"But what about that Organization you left?" Kaidan asked.

"Asides from Xion, only had one other woman in the group."

"And any luck on her?"

Axel almost choked on his drink. "Oh god. Do not think I would want to get anywhere close to that crazy Nymph."

"Nymph? Is that short for nymphomaniac?" Kaidan asked, causing both Garrus and Axel to choke on their drinks.

"Spirits Kaidan, where'd that come from?!"

"She's got a temper tantrum a couple miles long with a rather loose trigger that gets set off by anything."

"So… she's one of those types."

"Yeah, those types." Axel confirmed. "Crazy lightning bitch she is."

"Lightning?"

"That's her natural affinity." Axel revealed. "Like me with fire, Demyx with water, Lexaeus with Earth and all, Larxene is the lightning specialist. And bitch."

"She can't be that bad, right?"

"Tell that to Demyx." Axel retorted. "The few times he tried to be cordial to her, he got electrocuted badly while he was minding his own business. None of us knows what the hell is going on in her head that makes her that way."

Kaidan hummed. "Perhaps brain chemistry or perhaps those lightning powers are part of the cause."

The piqued Axel's interest. "...Go on…"

"With her exposed to her electro-kinetic powers for so long, she probably hasn't controlled them effectively. Thus her nervous system is getting altered by the uncontrolled electrical impulses. Starts harmless enough to become worse from mild twitches to worse. With her neurons and glia degrading over time, she could become a victim to her own abilities."

"Huh…" Axel rubbed his chin in thought. "Never thought of it that way."

"Well, I figured that from Biotics and worked around from there." Kaidan said, knowing from experience on many biotics he interacted with over the years.

"Very impressive, Kaidan." Axel praised. "But no. She's just a bitch."

"But-"

"Nope, she's a bitch. Let's leave it at that."

Even if Axel could understand most of the scientific jargon aimed his way. But being Nobodies, they were a bit of a special case. And the way Larxene was, probably retaining that personality from her old life.

Possibly. He's not entirely sure. Never bothered to ask.

Kaidan couldn't help but puff a cheek out at his rather sound and reasoned explanation being thrown out the window by the Nobody. It didn't help that Garrus openly chuckled at such dismissal.

"What are you Pyjaks talkin' about?"

"Nothin' big guy, just women." Axel said plainly, not even turning to the Krogan Battlemaster that sat down next to him.

Wrex only grunted, waved his hand over with a large glass of alcohol being slid his way.

"I didn't-"

"First number of rounds are on Rita and Axel." Garrus said quickly. "Red here wooed her quite effectively."

"Huh." Wrex chuckled out. "Earning another few notches, Axel."

"I aim to please, my good hammerlord."

The four men sat around and had themselves a good time, drinking and eating some food. Shooting the shit and talking about all sorts of stories on their own personal experiences.

"-Sounds like this Xigbar guy is rather dangerous to me." Kaidan commented.

"Yeah, he does most of the time." No. VIII leaned back as he had to lick his fingers to clean them off from the chicken wing sauce still on them. "Old Xiggy Stardust-"

Garrus snorted as he was eating through his Turian style nachos. "You got that from David Bowie, didn't you?"

"What can I say, the guy has musical talent, far better than Demyx." Axel admittedly laughed out. Upon coming to this galaxy, the music here was quite diverse but to him, Bowie stood out. That and rock and roll. "Anyways, Xiggy often plays off for laughs and misdirect things, but I can tell he's just hiding something and that makes him dangerous."

"Aren't the rest of the Organization?" Wrex pointed out, chewing on a large drum-stick.

"True, but behind Xemnas, Xigbar is the worst of the bunch, in my opinion." Leaning back forward, Axel looked towards the Turian. "Alright, your turn Garrus."

"What's there to talk about?"

"C'mon, you got plenty of cases under your belt. There's gotta be something interesting."

"Well… I do remember this one guy that got away." Garrus said reminiscently.

"There's always a guy that gets away, buddy." Axel pointed out. "Can't be a perfect guy all the time."

"Sadly sounds boring if you are." Wrex said, before belching.

"So who's this guy that got away." Kaidan asked curiously before snacking on one of the last mozzarella sticks on the table.

"His name is Saleon." Garrus said with a bit of a slur. "And his case was disturbing."

"Sounds like a real stand up guy." Kaidan joked.

"Oh you have no idea." The C-Sec detective then went on with the details. "I was following a black market trade on the Citadel. Most of it's harmless. Nothing I needed to pursue, at first. You see, during the course of my investigation, I noticed an increase in the trade of body parts. Organs, mostly."

"Jesus, what the hell?"

"In all honesty, we get a few of those because of Vorcha."

"What, did the Vorcha have a mafia or something with that being their main trade?"

"Actually, Kaidan, they do."

"...Okay I was just joking, but seriously?"

"What, you thought it was mostly with humans, asari, Batarians and Turians?"

"...Yes."

"Okay can we go back to Garrus' case already?"

"Yes, please."

Garrus coughed into his hand before resuming. "Well asides from the small cases, this one had numbers that were rising exponentially. A number of us detectives weren't sure if there was a new black market lab or if some freak was harvesting organs from citizens."

"Sounds like a Hannibal Lecter to me." Axel suggested, remembering watching that movie the other night.

"These aren't being eaten, if you were wondering."

"But these labs, how many did you come across?" Kaidan inquired.

"A good dozen in my line of work so far, some selling experimental stimulants and drugs, others unwanted prototypes through the black market. But they aren't as bad as the psychos." Garrus soon drank a bit more of his Turian brandy. "I remember this one Elcor diplomat we caught in my first year on the job. Hacking people up and selling their organs, had the station in a bit of a panic."

"No shit it would."

"And Elcor? How does that work, with their stubby limbs and all?"

"You'd be surprised." Wrex jotted in as was listening to Garrus' tale.

"Anyways, my one case wasn't as clear cut as we thought. We first got a hold of a sample and ran DNA tests to see who could've turned up missing and dead. The weird thing about it was the match led us to a Turian who was still alive and was very convinced he'd never lost his liver. After a bit of digging, I discovered this Turian worked briefly for Dr. Saleon, the geneticist. Tracked down his lab, hoping to find evidence of cloned organ development, given the hunch I got when interviewing the Turian."

"Is cloned organs a thing here?" Axel asked.

"It is, but it's rather expensive depending on the body part in question." Kaidan brought up. "Most hospitals have to do that for typical skin grafts for most species to plating for Turians, being the cheapest option of them all. Cloning an entire person, however, not only is it extremely pricy, but it's also illegal."

"He's right." Garrus said, confirming Kaidan's bit of info. "Yet when I came to the lab, I found nothing. No Salarian hearts, no Turian livers, not one Krogan testicle."

Axel and Kaidan formed gross expressions on their faces, glad they weren't eating else anymore at the mention of this.

"You're kidding, right?"

"Why the hell would anyone want Krogan testicles?"

Wrex came in and filled in the little blank. "Most of my kind believe that getting another set of quads can increase their virility, hoping it'll counteract the effects of the genophage." The Krogan scoffed. "Doesn't work at all. Heard it myself in passing from a number I used to know."

"And how much did they pay for them?" Garrus asked. "Cause the ones I know of usually pay up to 10,000 credits for each with 40, 000 for a full set."

"Full set on the stupid Pyjaks."

"Can we not talk about private parts while we're digesting? I don't wanna throw it back up anytime soon." Axel asked aloud, with Kaidan nodding in utter agreement.

"So what ya do with the Salarian geneticist?" Asked Wrex.

"I brought in some of his employees for interrogation. To see if I get them to talk and form something solid to put Saleon away. But when I was interviewing one of them, I noticed something suspicious."

"Like what?"

"It started out as a simple nosebleed, but then it couldn't stop at all. We got some medics to take care of it. When they were checking on him further, especially when his clothes started staining with blood nowhere near his head, he started freaking out. So I ordered a full examination to see what's going on. And sure enough, our medics found incisions all over his body. Some of them are even fresh, resulting in our big break when we saw the same thing on the other employees."

"Which was what exactly?"

"These people weren't just Dr. Saleon's employees, they were test tubes. Walking, living test tubes."

"...So glad I'm not eating anymore cause I just lost any further appetite." Kaidan muttered out.

Axel reeled back in disgust. "Damn, growing body parts inside his own staff? What the hell was he thinking?"

"Honestly wished I knew. Him growing cloned organs, harvesting them from his employees and selling them off."

"Didn't they get a say in the matter?"

"They did, but they were desperate given how poor they were. He'd pay them each a small percentage of the sales, but only if the organs were good." Garrus growled with his anger slowly rising. "Sometimes he won't pay when the organ didn't grow properly or just leaves them in just for kicks."

"And you said he got away, right? How did that happen?"

"He ran obviously, blew his lab as a distraction, grabbed some of his test tube employees and headed for the nearest space dock. By the time I found out and got to the dock, his ship was already leaving, threatening to kill his hostages if we tried to stop him."

"But you went after him anyways, right?"

"Would've been too late if I tried. So I ordered Citadel defense to shoot him down, but C-Sec headquarters countermanded my order. They were worried about the hostages. Worried about civilian casualties if the ship was destroyed so close to the station. And I told them those hostages were dead anyways. He'd just use them to make more organs, but they wouldn't listen and were forced to let him flee."

"It's not worth the risk, Garrus." Kaidan stated. "You could've pursued after his vehicle and disable it, that's the best choice with the least casualties."

"I know, Kaidan. Even the military went out after him and he still got away in the end. They just took too long to be deployed in order to stop the bastard." Garrus leaned back in his seat as he looked towards the ceiling. "I went to Pallin, my boss, and told him what I thought of him and his policies after that whole mess. He said if I didn't like it, I could quit. I almost did."

"If you didn't really care for the hostages, you might as well be stooped to Saleon's level." Axel stated, earning a small glare from the Turian. "You would just be a terrorist with a badge in the end."

The glare soon ceased, having Garrus exhale a tired sigh. "You're probably right. But it still doesn't make it any easier. I just wished I could've stopped him back then."

"I can understand what you're feeling. Back when I was part of the Organization, I had to do all these 'icky' jobs."

"Like what?"

"Some are better left unsaid." Axel said enigmatically.

It was one of those rare instances where a group collectively felt a subtle shift in one of their companions and decided to go along with their last statement.

Their time together went on, a few more drinks going around when...

"You know, I got a favor to ask of ya, Axel." Wrex said, downing his third… Fourth? Maybe his eighth drink after the free rounds came and went.

"And what would that be?" Axel asked, swirling his drink around.

Wrex didn't respond at first, silently contemplating on whether or not he should say anything. But, since he began…

"Got this personal 'errand' I need taken care of." Wrex said. "I figured with your help, it'll be cakewalk, as that human saying goes."

"So what is it?"

"There's this… armor of mine." Wrex said. "A family armor from my clan that I recently found the location of."

"Need help getting it back, I take it?" Axel deduced with Wrex nodding.

"Not too far from here actually." Wrex revealed. "Somewhere down in the wards. This Turian bastard by the name of Tonn Actus has it."

"Tonn Actus, you say?" Garrus perked up.

"Know him, Vakarian?"

"He's a wanted man by C-sec due to his black market contraband dealings he's had in the Citadel for the past few years." Garrus stated. "Never worked his case but was always kept up to speed on big names in the market and he's one of them."

"So then… I take it we have something to do now to work off our drinks and food?" Kaidan asked.

"I'd rather not pass up the opportunity in helping the elderly." Garrus said with Wrex glaring half-heartedly at the Turian.

"Watch it Garrus."

-Scene Cut-

Liara T'soni was having a grand time right about now.

Though the majority of the Normandy crew had departed, Liara had opted to stay behind and provide company for one of their newest companions aboard the ship.

Della Duck had become a wonderful new friend to Liara, the anthropomorphic duck regaling the Asari with tales of her many adventures from her galaxy.

That was still an astonishing thought for Liara to wrap her head around.

It wasn't hard to consider that there were other forms of life in the universe overall considering how much was here in the Milky Way galaxy itself.

But to think someone from another galaxy would come to them rather than the species in her native galaxy…

On top of that, Della had traversed both her own galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy.

To her, it showed how much they still had to learn.

Currently, the topic of discussion was the comparison of their technology.

Specifically, the Gummi Tech Della utilized compared to the Element Zero centric technology that completely dominated the way of life here in her native galaxy.

"I don't know about this whole Eezo stuff, Liara." Della admitted, adjusting a flap on her ship. "Stitch, move that there. It seems so limiting."

"Is it?"

"Liara, I got to this galaxy with my technology." Della said, nodding at the blue fur ball who was helping her. "And I didn't even mean to do that. Once I get my ship patched up, I'll head back home and find my Uncle."

Liara only nodded, mulling over the circumstances as to how Della got here. She was right. It was an accident since she had admitted that much.

"Though I do need to ask this, Liara, hope that it isn't too much for you to answer." Della spoke up, breaking her out from her internal thoughts.

"I'll do my best."

"Okay, so it's just my personal thought but I find this galaxy to be a bit… strange."

"Strange?"

"For one, my galaxy is pretty populated." Della held up a finger. "Granted the majority of the planets or Worlds really can be considered dwarf planets while the rest are normal sized like my home planet, Disna. But in terms of comparison, over in Andromeda there are hundreds of sentient species populating a third of every planet they have. Here, there's maybe what fifteen that settled on a tenth. Another deals with the evolutionary diversity seems stunted with the developmental timeline seeming way too slow."

"What are you talking about?" Liara questioned, pondering for a few moments before quickly coming to a possible answer. "Is it about our technology?"

"That and your genetic diversity and even your cultures. They seem too young given how old the respective homeworlds of each species are. Even the odd branch of humanity here in the Milky Way when comparing them to the ones back in the Ōkoku and Andromeda galaxies seems rather odd." Della pulled out her data pad and started scrolling through some files before bringing up something to back up her claim. "Take for example your race."

The asari blinked in confusion. "My race, what about them?"

"Was your race engineered in some way by an outside force?"

Liara adopted a shocked silence, not knowing how to respond to that.

Della carried on. "I mean, for the life of me I can't figure out this gaping hole in your race's evolutionary development. When you look at the traits your race developed and compared them alongside Thessia's environmental conditions, even taking into account every major catastrophe and climate shift in the past hundred thousand years. I mean c'mon there's the Asari's ability to mate with any race or gender; sharing physical traits that enamors you to nearly every spacefaring culture there is. Not to mention this boggling technological leap your race took several thousand years ago. Now I'm not much of a biomechanic or anything in that field of study, but I know basic evolution. So unless your people cracked their own genetic code when they were still using sticks as tools then it doesn't make sense at all. It should only really happen over millions, if not billions of years of natural genetic evolution; not a fraction of that time."

Liara stared at Della with her trying to wrap her mind around how rather well constructed of a statement and critique that was of her race and planet.

"Ho-How do you-"

"I gotta occupy myself with something." Della stated. "While you guys are out and about doin' your thing, I've been busy learning everything I can about your galaxy… but it's been mostly your race actually. I haven't gotten to Salarian, Turians or Quarians yet… and Krogan. Got a few with Elcor, Humans and Volus. There's everyone else but we're getting off topic."

"Yes, yes." Liara said, rubbing her head as her mind felt a bit overwhelmed by Della's "comments" if that's what she could call it.

"Now… with your Eezo based technology, after all these years of using them, haven't the races in this galaxy considered going beyond those limits; trying new things and expanding them?" Della continued on. "I can understand some people not liking change but this stagnant state in your technological change seems problematic."

Liara nodded as she was silently digesting the information presented to her.

In all her life, she never really dwelled into such topics. She probably could have, but she was just more focused on Prothean culture and never bothered focusing on anything else.

Sad to say, she regrets that now as Della did in fact bring up good points.

When thinking more about her race's progression, it was a little unsettling. Could her race have been manipulated in their early years of life in their central homeworld? If so, then by whom and for what purpose.

Her mind briefly wandered towards the Prothean device Roxas gave to her and the details Shepard spoke to her when the artifact went off.

Perhaps the Protheans were involved in jumpstarting her race's evolution by some thousand years at some point. Who knows for sure as there are no other records she was able to find.

As for technology…

"Hasn't there been other means of technological diversity?" Della asked. "Without the use of this Eezo?"

Liara opened her mouth only to close it a moment later.

"No." Liara shook her head. "Everything that has been advanced revolves around Mass Effect and Element Zero. All that we have achieved is because of what we have."

"Such a shame. There seems to be so many ideas that can be done with some of the technology I was able to look up. Heck, I bet Gyro could enhance a good number of things if he got his hands on them."

"With what you told me about him, I probably guess you would be right."

"No kidding. Always holed up in his lab and coming up with so many odd inventions. I even remember the simplest of them being these little lightbulb droids acting as little assistants."

This got Liara to voice an inquiry.

"What's it like then? Synthetics in the other galaxies." Liara clarified.

"From what I remember, Andromeda doesn't frown upon synthetic life as a number of them are treated equally with organics." Della informed her. "Okay, not entirely as there's still a lot who are prejudiced."

Liara was confused by this statement. "I thought you didn't know about AI's until you met Shepard and the others on Earth's moon."

"Mostly because AI wasn't seen as such. They were just seen as ordinary people really." Della said with a shrug. "Even my son, Huey, is friends with one."

"Truly?" Liara asked in slight astonishment. "How did you all achieve this?"

"I dunno." Della said, throwing her hands up. "It's just something that was always there really."

"So AI is just acceptable from where you come from."

"Pretty much."

Now Liara really felt like her galaxy was behind in terms of technology and even societal standards.

Liara rubbed the side of her head. "Somewhat glad Tali isn't here hearing this."

"Why would she- Oh yeah, with her Geth problem and all."

"Yes, it's still an uneasy subject to bring up towards her with how they got exiled from their home planet. Because of what occurred, studies on AI have become illegal as they're seen as destructive forces. They probably might be the same over in-"

"Hey, I just have you know that not all synthetic life in both of our galaxies are benevolent. I've had to tear apart my fair share back home due to some crazy scientist or an invasion. There are even synthetic criminals out there doing who knows what."

"I can understand how passionately you are defending the idea of them."

"You bet I do." Della huffed out before working more on a circuit board she pulled out before inserting it into the ship.

"Makes me believe your home is rather simplistic on many factors."

"It's honestly not all that simple really in my home galaxy." Della admitted.

"What do you mean?"

"See, we have this thing called the "World Order" that's a bit of a weird thing that dominates how things work back home."

"World Order?"

"Back in my galaxy, there's a large number of dwarf Worlds that have never ventured outside of their atmosphere. They are too developmentally stunted or not technologically advanced to properly meet and open dialogue with."

"I see, anything else?"

"In case of world travel, those who go to Worlds unaware of the outside ones must acquiesce and obey the laws of that specific World unless otherwise." Della said. "Then again… it's kinda ignored sometimes. Which can be… annoying."

"I take it you're not really fond of this rule then?"

"Pretty much." Della chuckled. "Of course don't try to bring it up with Donald as he's always been stingy with those particular rules."

Liara nodded as Della resumed back into her work until-

"YES!" Della whooped in victory, jumping up in place. "I finally got it working!"

"What?"

Rather than answering her, Della immediately began punching in several commands.

"Come on, come on." Della murmured to herself. "Work dang it."

After a few seconds of baited anticipation, the static that she saw on the screen before her cleared at long last to reveal…

"Uncle Scrooge!" Della said aloud in relief and triumph.

"Bless me bagpipes, Della!" Scrooge shared her relief from his side of the transmission. "What in the bloody world happened? You were travelling all fine and-"

"Heartless, Uncle Scrooge." Della revealed by cutting him off.

The aged entrepreneur, adventurer and businessman opened and closed his mouth several times until finding his voice.

"Glad you're alright my dear." Scrooge said with a relieved sigh. "Where in the blue blazes did you end up in? I've been trying to locate yer ship but-"

"I'm in another galaxy." Della cut him off again. "The Heartless were really adamant about shooting me down and my Gummi navigations were all screwy. I'm alright now."

"Oh, so you over in Andromeda or-?"

"This place is called the Milky Way, the next galaxy over."

"Milky- MILKY WAY GALAXY!" Scrooge exclaimed. "My word Della, are you truly alright?!"

"I'm alive, my ship's being repaired and it's a long process." Della listed off. "Besides, I got good company with me."

"At least you aren't waiting for years until coming into contact with someone else like last time." Scrooge said in a knowing tone.

"Tell me about it." Della said, smirking slightly.

"What's it like there dear? The Milky Way is so far off and all."

"Well there's life for beginners, getting the obvious out of the way. Humans here and all with other species and they're all for the most part, appear to be on the same technological scale."

"Interstellar travel available?"

"Yeah, but not in the way we're used to." Della stated. "Also been chatting with an admiral of theirs to possibly start technological trade or whatever between our two galaxies before trying to chat with this group called the Citadel Council, the supposed leaders of this galaxy. Would somewhat say he's a leader of the human military here, but he's just more influential."

"I wouldn't say Admiral Hackett is that high up in the Alliance military." Liara cut in, making Della look to her.

"Who would that be, Della? Are you with someone right now?"

"Oh, right. Let me introduce you to one of my new friends." Della ushered Liara to come closer, letting the asari to be greeted with the sight of another anthropomorphic duck in a top hat, a cane and in a red outfit. "Uncle Scrooge, let me introduce you to Dr. Liara T'Soni. Liara, my Uncle Scrooge McDuck, the richest man on our home planet and possibly the Ōkoku galaxy."

"Hello." Liara said pleasantly enough.

"It's a pleasure to meet ya, darlin'. Has my dear niece been well in your company?"

"We've been making sure she has all the accommodations she needs here."

"Liara is downplaying that, Uncle." Della said with a beaming grin. "They've done a lot for me since saving my hide from the Heartless."

"Oh ya bonny lass, I can't thank ye enough after hearin' such a thing." Scrooge said, taking his top hat off and bowing at the Asari.

"You are most certainly welcome." Liara said, smiling at the elderly duck.

"Hopefully once the others return, you can give their thanks to them as well."

"And where would they be now, exactly?"

"Out of the ship I'm currently living at this moment. They're on shore leave and Liara's keeping me company in the meantime."

"Shore leave? You're with a bunch of army folks?"

"Somewhat. The Normandy is a military vessel and they're currently assigned in taking down this major villain and bringing him to justice, who's somewhere out in the galaxy as we speak doing who knows what."

"I see." Scrooge thrummed his fingers over his beard. "I know one thing, Della."

"And what's that Uncle?"

"Next time I'm making sure you go with Balthier and Fran. I'd rather you three troublemakers stick together than going off gallivanting on yer own."

"Of course." Della said, smirking at her Uncle's proclamation. Not that she would mind seeing her old friends again.

"And hopefully you'll make it back safe and soon. The others are terribly worried, yer boys especially."

Della bore a sad smile upon hearing this. "I know, uncle Scrooge. I'm worried about them as well."

"Then look no further." Scrooge looked off screen. "Boys I have her! She's calling me now."

"What?!'

"Mom!"

"Finally!"

The screen was soon assaulted with a trio of duckling children as they were easily distinguished with the colored apparel they wore. The one in red had a t-shirt and cap combo, the one in blue had a dual layer shirt and the one in green wore a hoodie.

"Huey, Dewey, Louie!" Della said with a loving glee in her voice.

However, rather than greeting their mother, the trio of ducks instead spotted Liara.

"Ah, sweet an alien!" Dewey said with a bright smile.

"Wonder if she's as uptight as Penny when we first met her." Louie shrugged out.

"Nah, this one's more pleasant." Huey stated in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Penny?" Liara muttered out. "Oh you mean Penumbra."

"You know her?"

"Somewhat." Liara informed them. "You mother has been telling me and the others stories from back home."

"What's she said?"

"Where'd you guys go!" Spoke a feminine voice.

Soon enough, a little duckling girl came into the screen as she had a pink/blue attire being worn.

"Talking to mom." Louie pointed out, causing the girl to turn over and gasp to see Della once more before noticing Liara beside her.

"Oh hello there, I'm Webby!"

"What's it like in… Where are ya mom?"

"Another galaxy."

"WHOAAAA~"

Eventually Liara -and Stitch, who came over soon after- was greeted with a whole number of individuals as she became entertained for goddess knows how long.

-Scene Cut-

Tracking Tonn Actus down was a bit of a challenge for Axel.

Don't get him wrong and label him a racist or anything, but No. VIII was still having a hard time trying to differentiate between Turians. Garrus took no offence when this was brought up as he educated the red haired Nobody on the details like "barefaced" and "marked".

After finding the man in question, Axel had followed him down to a warehouse in the Zakara Wards before reporting it in with the others for their initial raid. From some of the layout to the estimated numbers of the mercenaries that were presently there to guard the premises.

What the Flurry of Dancing Flames learned more when tracking the Turian down, Wrex had been looking for his family armor for many years after the Turian Military acquired it during the Krogan wars.

In Krogan tradition, the family armor was passed down from one generation to the next, adding something new to it to show family progression in some manner from the new head of the Krogan clan. With it, said head would have a better influential impact when they were back on Tuchanka in order to retrieve all lands and titles.

Yet before Wrex could properly acquire it and add his own mark to it, it was taken from his family and now in the possession of a Turian who profits off of antiquities of other species. And Krogan was the most common one he sells at a very hefty sum of credits, millions in fact.

Now originally the collector and black market trader was originally located in the Argos Rho Cluster -Tuntau to be exact- but from what Wrex learned when tracking him down, he moved back to the Citadel when the Rachni started showing up all over the star cluster and didn't want to part ways with his "property".

Hopefully, their little raid to retrieve Wrex's family armor could be done soon before it gets moved elsewhere. Either by a new owner via purchase or before Tonn Actus relocates it at his new residence on some Turian populated world after cataloging everything. Said place would be heavily fortified with round-the-clock guards that would make things rather difficult to infiltrate.

Now everything was fine and dandy on the initial planning.

Yet not everything can never go exactly as planned.

In fact, things were currently going sideways upon their raid at Tonn Actus' warehouse.

"Can I at least say I'm sorry for not doing a more thorough inspection?" Axel called out, throwing his fiery chakrams at an unfortunate mercenary.

"Maybe if we survive this Pyjak-shit of a mess, Axel." Garrus yelled over the comms, quickly firing down some deployed drones sent by the opposing force.

"Oh I'm actually fine with it." Wrex said, batting a Blue Sun merc with his gravity hammer and sending the poor bastard flying across the area. "Gives me more of a thrill and has my blood racing for when I finally smash Actus' head in."

"Yeah, keep that murder boner of yours down for all of our sakes." Kaidan quipped, throwing a biotic warp on a couple of LOKI mechs and tossing them to their owners. "I mean, does anyone want to see your genitals dangling out in the open once breaking through your armor?"

"Fuck that."

"I'd rather burn my eyes out."

"I can provide the fire if you want Garrus."

"Much appreciated."

"You guys are no fun." Said the Krogan, slamming his weapon down to send a small shockwave out in the small area, knocking some mercenaries off their feet.

"Should've realized the kind of scum we were going after." Axel muttered to himself, blasting a couple of mercs away with a large ball of Fira.

"There are different kinds of scum?" Kaidan asked, firing his assault rifle from behind cover.

"A good number of them." Said Garrus, tossing one of Della's EMP grenades to shut down some more mechs, along with some armors the mercenaries were wearing. "But the general rule with scum is that when they're in danger, they burrow and put everything that could stop those wanting to harm them with some obstacles while making their initial escape."

"At this rate, we're most likely dealing with a whole lot more mercenaries than we initially thought." Kaidan pointed out.

"And he would probably have himself fortified in some bunker here." Axel surmised. "His office or a separate safe room, most likely.

"Don't forget, there's a universal factor with scum: they often hire shit for guards, believing anything the guards will tell them to get hired." Vakarian reminded the group.

"So if we kill enough of these Pyjaks, they would no doubt up and leave their client behind."

"Basically, yes." Garrus confirmed.

"Super." Axel's fiery powers flared around his chakrams. "Let's get started."

The fiery Nobody crouched down, eyes darting about the area as he observed the multiple enemies coming their way. Once a few managed to get in close despite the other three firing at them, Axel made his move.

Quite literally gliding around the battlefield in an arching curve, he managed to get right behind a group of the mercenaries who didn't even register what was about to happen.

"BURN!"

Axel threw his Chakrams forward, the spinning disk-like weapons cleaving through the grouping of mercs and completely incinerating them into ash.

"Jesus." Kaidan couldn't help but comment.

"Focus." Garrus said, shooting down a human merc that had moved out in the open.

The group fought on, methodically clearing out the mercs though Garrus took note of the unusually powerful weaponry the mercs had at their disposal that forced them on the defensive several times.

Looks like the Black Market is able to provide high end weapons and resources when one has the credits for it.

"Where is this bastard supposed to be?" Axel asked, getting a bit impatient at just going around taking out mercs without the main man coming out to greet them as a good host should.

"Look at what you freaks have done to my property!" yelled a furious voice.

Oh, there he was.

Seemed they were finally able to find the poor Turian bastard they were after. He was in a full black and red colored armor set as he stood nearby what looked like a large pile of scrap metal.

Neither of the Normandy team knew if it was just garbage or just some "unique" piece of art.

"You bastards are gonna pay for interfering with my business." Tonn Actus in an enraged manner.

"How much?" Axel asked tauntingly. "Five or ten credits?"

Tonn snarled like a savage animal, pulling out his gun only for him to be shot repeatedly by the group in front of him.

His shields barely lasted, his body flailing until he fell over.

The group stared at the body that didn't move.

"Well, that was easy." Axel remarked.

"Come on, let's get Wrex's armor and leave." Garrus said, the group turning to leave.

As they did, they failed to see the downed Turian raise his arms with the last of his strength.

On his left wrist was a tac-pad separate from his Omni-tool that held a series of immediate activation functions in case of emergencies.

Typing down the sequence, he finished off his command before collapsing his arm to the floor with him finally dying.

Not far away from the group, something happened with the "unique" piece of art.

What was a large pile of scrap metal, turned out to be nothing of the sort. They wished they didn't dismiss it all that easily as the lights suddenly flared to life with a couple resembling its central optics.

"Get back!" Warned the Nobody.

The pile of scrap turned out to have been in an offline mode as it was collapsed onto the ground. Once it became active, it soon got up onto its feet, resembling some sort of crustacean-like mech. A big, ugly crab to be exact.

Kaidan and Garrus got out of the way in time as the newly awakened mech fired its weapons. The band of four dove for cover, not seeing that coming.

"Alright, that's new."

-Insert Final Fantasy VII Remake: Those Who Fight-

"Where the hell did he get this thing?!" Kaidan called out, rushing towards another area for cover. "This ain't like any mech I've ever seen!"

"We find out later, Alenko!" Wrex roared out, firing his pulse rifle at the mech before throwing a biotic attack at it. "Is that all you've got, you stinking pile of Pyjak shit!?"

The mech rolled forward as it's armaments aimed and fired at its four opponents.

"Target those legs!" Garrus pointed out, his rifle shifting into what he's dubbed high gear mode. "It's slow and if we take those out, we can have the advantage."

Garrus' gun whirred to life, charging up the shot as he targeted the leg closest to him, shooting at the joint. It jolted violently but remained standing.

"We can't underestimate it guys. It can be slow like a Geth Armature, but it'll pack a really hard punch." Kaidan pointed out.

"Agreed." Garrus then issued out some commands. "Wrex, attack it up close with your gravity hammer and shotgun while occasionally backing off to fire with your biotics. Axel, you're our all field man here. Kaidan, you and I will have to fire from afar."

The other three were quick to comply and went into action.

Wrex ran forward, brandishing his hammer while Kaidan and Garrus fired at the optics of the crab-like mech to keep it blind.

As the Krogan went in for the swing, Axel threw one of his Chakrams at Wrex's hammer. The hammer caught the chakram on the flat part of its surface, the top part being engulfed in a brilliant flourish of flames.

The hammer/Chakram combo was brought down on the right front leg of the crab-mech, completely shattering it.

As for the rest of its body, the armor was rather tough. It proved that Garrus' earlier order on the legs were proving crucial.

The crab-mech unleashed a hail of bullets from the machine-guns attached to its sides along with its central turret, causing the group to disburse from their present spots on the battlefield. Once at better areas, the group resumed their assault as another leg eventually received some serious damage.

When it was downed, a covering of sort opened up, revealing the Mass Effect generator, the crab-mech's central core to be precise.

Seeing this, the group was quick to target it right away that once destroyed it will defeat their mechanized opponent for good.

Yet when enough damage was dealt, the crab-mech was back on its feet with the cover closed back up with the lights on its body switched colors from blue to yellow.

Not wanting to deal with whatever came their way, Garrus pulled out one of the last EMP grenades he got from Della and activated it.

"Take cover guys!"

The moment Wrex and Kaidan dove for cover, Garrus primed it and tossed it overhead. It rolled across the floor and smacked against one of its legs. Seconds later, a large EMP field went off and encompassed the mech's form, causing it to collapse.

With the core exposed once more, the group went at it. Sad to say, this time of attack came to a quick end as the large mech got back up onto its feet.

"Damn. Would've thought one of Della's EMP grenades could've taken care of it."

It was from here did these drones pop out of the crab-mech, gilded overhead and began their assault on the band of four, causing more problems than there should be.

Kaidan and Garrus were quick to switch from the large mech to the drones hovering overhead. Even Wrex had to momentarily help the pair out by throwing a biotic stasis to keep them in place.

Seeing the smaller little drones proving to be a bit of a hassle, Axel called upon his fire.

Hovering slightly in the air, he held one Chakram out towards the ground and the other pointed behind him in an upwards angle. Flames danced around him, entered his Chakrams and were shot up into the air and into the ground.

The floor around him became molten which spread out quickly, soon encompassing the entire floor.

Garrus, Kaidan and Wrex saw this and momentarily freaked out by this display of power when they realized that they weren't being burnt whatsoever.

The Crab-mech however was greatly being affected by the ever present fiery floor that was now beginning to heat up the lower portion of its body.

The drones now converged in on Axel which is exactly what he wanted.

Jumping back, Axel literally disappeared in a flash of flames which confused the optics of the drones.

A moment later, the Flurry of Dancing Flames appeared above them in a straight line with explosions of fire pillars coming out from the floor in his wake.

The drones were quickly caught in the flames and melted down to a gooey metal. And from this assault, the mech was down for the count… momentarily.

Sparks flared to life on its legs. Bringing most of them high as it could, the mech slammed them down and electrified the floor which clashed with the fiery surface Axel laid out. The band of four received a powerful electrical shock in response, due to them not getting away in time. And if that wasn't enough, the mech opened fire on the lot, damaging their respective shields to break, exposing them to life threatening damage.

The onslaught was halted thanks to a fiery sphere that smashed into the front of the mech, stunning it.

"Take it down!" Alenko yelled out, seeing the opportunity Axel gave them.

Kaidan, Garrus and Wrex unloaded on the mech, riddling it with bullets whilst Axel had flames surround his body with the room slightly darkening.

"Hope you're ready for this one." Axel said aloud.

He began flinging his inflamed Chakrams, each one bashing against the mech before returning to their owner's hand. This went on for several more seconds until Axel finished his attack off with a dual throw that resulted in a twin pillar that erupted from both weapons.

The Mech slumped over, completely overwhelmed by all the fire power it received.

It lay there, unmoving with sparks flying about and small fire littering its form.

Suddenly, it's yellow optics then flared with a fiery red.

When it got back up, more sparks encompassed the mech and the group could hear gears whirring to life at high speeds.

Without notice, the crab-mech sped forward, a whole lot faster than what they were used to.

Wrex tackled Garrus to the ground while Axel did the same to Kaidan in order to avoid having them run over.

"Thanks." Said the human and Turian, respectively.

"No problem/You owe me one." Responded the Nobody and Krogan all the same.

Seeing the mech seemingly aiming it's utter hatred at them, the group had to quickly get ready for what's to come.

"Now what?" Wrex called out as he and Axel charged at the mech.

"It could be a system error." Kaidan theorized firing at the mech from afar alongside Garrus.

"Maybe, maybe not." Axel threw his fiery chakrams at the mech as he dived away from a hail of bullets. "The thing is busted with all the shit we hit it with."

Once close enough, Wrex swung his gravity hammer around and smashed against the plating a number of times before switching out to his shotgun. Activating its special function, he fired off a couple of mines from its side barrel at some exposed parts. Backing some distance away, he set off the mines, causing significant damage onto the crab-mech.

Once more electrical currents encompassed the mech as it traveled from its central body to its legs.

"Oh not again!"

"Break for it!"

Learning from their mistake this time, the four fighters ran away just in time when the electrical discharge shocked the floor within a certain radius.

When the currents died down, the group went back in and resumed their assault.

"Damn, this thing is sturdy as hell!"

"What do we do?"

"Need to expose its core."

"Leave that to me!"

Charging at the mech, a trail of flames followed Axel as they were contained yet grew exponentially in heat. After a number of quickened laps around the mech, the Flurry of Dancing Flames leapt into the air and let out a roar. Flames exploded from his form as every bit of fire and heat momentarily disappeared from the surrounding area.

Wrex, Kaidan and Garrus wondered what happened until they suddenly felt the temperature in the warehouse skyrocketed.

Like a bomb, the crab-mech exploded as a large torrent of flames shot out from underneath. More pillars appeared around their opponent as Axel landed not far away. Slamming his chakrams together, the fiery pillars merged together into an inferno with it exploding soon after.

After said explosion, the four saw the mech collapse onto the ground with its core exposed.

"Give it everything you got!" Garrus ordered.

The others didn't delay as they used what else they had on them.

Wrex had his gravity hammer fully activated and delivered an overarching swing right towards the exposed core, or at least remotely close. Kaidan compacted as much biotic energy he could muster before throwing it as fast as he could. Garrus tossed whatever grenades he had on hand and Axel threw his chakrams one last time.

With enough damage received, the power core broke and exploded, causing the crab-mech to no longer function with flames encompassing it's form.

"And stay down." Garrus spat out.

Seeing the mech down for the count, Kaidan hunched over and did his best to calm his beating heart. "Damn that was intense."

"Almost as much as that one Heartless back at Noveria." Wrex commented, earning nods from the human and Turian.

"Need some help?"

The others looked and saw something tossed over their way. The three were quick to catch the incoming object and saw it was a Hi-Potion.

"Thanks Axel."

"No problem."

Consuming the liquid from their respective bottles, the group took a moment or two to rest after that excruciating fight.

With Tonn Actus dead, along with his deployed mech a permanent pile of scrap, the group made their way towards where they assumed was the man's office.

And boy once entering it, they saw all sorts of paintings on display.

Axel released a loud whistle from his lips. "Boy this guy sure loves scenery."

Along the walls of the large office, there were all sorts of paintings hung up. Looking by the holographic plaques, the four saw they seemed to depict scenes from the different homeworlds of this galaxy's species.

"Guy must've paid a hefty sum to get these."

"I see one from a famous artist from Palavin. And an..." Garrus commented before gazing at another. "Spirits, I didn't know there was one that got off Rannoch before the Quarians got exiled."

"Let me see." Kaidan said, walking over and was in a small state of awe.

Once more Axel whistled as he saw a rocky landscape with a beautiful sunset painted on the canvas.

"Damn, almost puts the sunset back in Twilight Town to shame. If only this wasn't a painting."

"They look nice and all, but where exactly is it?" Wrex demanded. "I don't see my armor."

Garrus briefly looked around before pointing to a far off wall. "I can give you one guess."

Looking over, the group saw a metal door built into the room. It was rather sophisticated and heavily made with all sorts of hinges made on it.

"I think your armor would be behind this vault door." Said Kaidan, whipping out his Omni-tool. "If you give me a minute or so, I can get it open."

"Or I can just melt the hinges off and either you or Wrex can pry it out with biotics."

"I think it's better to do it the old fashion way, Axel. Don't know if the guy rigged the vault to do something drastic if opened incorrectly." Garrus piped in. "Wouldn't really put it past the dead man to do so with how valuable all his more 'treasured' property is."

"Your call, Wrex."

Wrex nodded as he soon gave the order. "Hack the door, don't want my armor damaged because of something stupid."

As Kaidan was working through hacking the vault door, Garrus made his way towards Tonn Actus' computer.

"Whaddya doing?" Axel asked aloud.

"Pulling up records on this place." He said, fingers flying through the keyboard with his Omni-tool out. "Need to be sure on a number of things. Record and credit transfers, emails to specific clientele, the whole nine yards as the humans say. Even want to be sure Wrex's armor is in the vault."

"It better be, Vakarian." Wrex spoke out from the other side of the room, who was pacing back and forth as he waited for Kaidan to open up the vault door. "I do not want to fly across the galaxy to find it anywhere else."

"I know, reason why I'm double checking here and now on Actus' computer." Garrus soon pulled up the logs and found what he was looking for. "Yup, it's here alright. Labeled as ceremonial armor for some reason."

"Because it mostly is in some cases."

"Not gonna argue on that." Said the Turian as he started scrolling through some emails. "Huh, seems we now have a possible lead as to where that giant mech came from."

"Where?"

"Some scientist who helped design it or whatever under the moniker of 'The Professor'. Sold it to Actus as a means of testing a new line of mechs for other mercenary groups to have. And he got the prototype -labeled the Crab Warden- as a last line of defense."

"Damn, if that mech we fought out there was a prototype, don't wanna see how the later models work out."

"Agreed. It was a tough son of a bitch." Kaidan spoke aloud as he was carefully aligning the digital tumbler and breaking through some barriers.

"Now just need to download all of these other files so I can send it to C-Sec so they can-"

Suddenly, Garrus stopped talking upon pulling up a peculiar email.

"...You've gotta be kidding me." The C-sec detective said in disbelief.

"What is it?" Kaidan said, looking over to him.

"I… I think I found him."

"Who?" Wrex asked.

"Saleon."

"Really? How?" Axel walked over and saw the recipient of the email. "It says here it came from Dr. Heart."

"Dr. Heart is one of his aliases a contact of mine was able to scrounge up." Garrus informed him. "Says here on this email, Tonn was starting to experience some organ failure, due to his many years of 'getting busy'."

This got Kaidan to momentarily break away from cracking the large safe. "Getting busy? Wait… you don't mean-"

"Yeah he caught all sorts of diseases and they were slowly killing him. So he wanted a full organ transplant in hopes of ridding himself of his ailment." Garrus said, tone shifting. "Of course that ain't no longer happening."

"Damn, that's a rather pricey procedure." Kaidan muttered out before resuming his hacking.

"No kidding." Axel said. "So are you able to backtrack where Saleon is currently at?"

"Unless he decides to change Omni-tool IPs really soon, then I most certainly can."

"Great. We can probably tell Shepard this and do this right away once we get off the Citadel." Axel said, clapping his Turian comrade on the shoulder.

"I most certainly plan on doing that." Garrus muttered out with utmost conviction.

Right as this was spoken, Kaidan spoke. "Alright, I got it."

The lieutenant marine went over to the handle on the vault door and pried it open. It creaked open rather loudly, before it went wide enough for them to file in two by two.

Upon entering the vault, they saw a number of artifacts on display from all sorts of cultures. Something that would probably make Liara drool in utter delight of the museum-like space.

There were some Asari of some old cave paintings, a couple of Drell with something pertaining to their religion apparently, and there were a number of Krogan ones that were quickly seen right away. Oh and there were a good number of Prothean artifacts as well.

Yet all that seemed pale in comparison with what lied in the center of the vault room.

Displayed in a glass covered pedestal was the family armor they came here for in the first place.

With how it was displayed, it looked rather grand, definitely befitting of clan Urdnot as there was some regal look to it.

*SMASH*

Okay, despite the glass breaking -courtesy of Wrex- the armor was still intact with no further scratches whatsoever.

"Give us a warning next time you do that." Garrus said in a flat voice.

Using a bit of biotics to lift the armor from its placement, Wrex soon grabbed his ancestral armor before giving it a good inspection, no doubt wanting to see if everything was there. Soon enough, his hands grazed over the surface with almost a nostalgic look across his visage.

He looked at his companions with a smile on his face. "Thank you, all of you. You have no idea what this means to me."

Garrus smiled. "Ah~ You're not getting misty eyed on us, right?"

Suddenly the smile shifted into a snarl. "Say one more word, Vakarian and I'll hit you across the warehouse with my hammer."

The Turian held up his hands in surrender with the others chuckling.

To further add more to the odd atmosphere around them, Axel couldn't help but voice his present thoughts.

"So~"

"What?"

"That armor has a very… unique design."

"You all have somethin' to say about it?" Wrex growled out.

"It's very pink if you want me to be honest about it." Axel stated bluntly.

"No one asked for your opinion, Axel."

"No, no, observation."

"For argument's sake, Wrex, the armor was probably not kept in the best conditions." Stated Garrus. "One factor being the coloration having it from a red color to becoming… lightish-red."

Wrex grunted, acknowledging the argued factor. "I do remember my father telling me he had painted over the armor when he first got it as some Pyjak-shit excuse of a clean slate or whatever. Became a bit of a disgrace in my clan because of it."

"Do you remember what color it originally was?" Kaidan asked, looking at the armor with his head angled to get a different perspective of it.

"Yeah, it was white as the sands of our grandest desert if I got it right from the old clan records." Wrex grumbled, knowing it's gonna be a pain to clean his father's stupid mess on his own and restore it in it's old, grand glory.

"If it helps, I think you could take that armor to this place called The Mode and have the owner properly touch it up for you." Axel informed the Krogan Battlemaster.

"Isn't that the place where Roxas got his new clothes at?" Kaidan asked.

"Yeup."

"Ah~ Yeah been meaning to go over there and check out their stuff after what Shepard and Ashley told me. Can make armor refitting's better than what Mosh did for some of ours."

The Krogan hummed before voicing a thought. "In all honesty, I was just gonna get this thing cleaned up and put it somewhere secure before I head back to Tuchanka at some point. But I think it wouldn't hurt to get a proper tune up or whatever. Make it worthy for Clan Urdnot once again."

Wrex carefully placed the armor on the floor before turning back to them. "Still, thanks again on what you did. I owe you a lot for this. More than you would ever know."

"Hey, no problem man." Kaidan said with an assuring smile.

"It's the least we could do for ya." Garrus firmly said.

"Had to at least pull my contributing weight into the crew."

"I say you rightfully earned it in my book, Axel." Wrex declared.

"Such kind words warms my non-existent heart." Axel said in a dramatic fashion.

"Been meaning to ask you about that." Garrus said, the group beginning to walk back to the Normandy. "Is this Heart business a figurative or literal thing of you not having one?"

"You know, I haven't ever really figured that out." Axel admitted, the group making their way out of the vault.

Before leaving the office, Axel went back to the Rannoch painting with a smirk on his face.

"Wait till we bring this painting to Tali." Axel chuckled out, plucking the Quarian painting off the wall. "She's gonna flip."

"You won't be wrong on that."

Opening up a Dark Corridor, he carefully tossed the painting through and had it land in the Normandy's hangar.

"You wanna keep dragging your armor all over the Citadel till we get back to the ship or what?"

Wrex shook his head a little and handed his ancestral armor over. Yet before it left his hands, he snarled at Axel.

"If you wreck this, then I'm gonna fucking kill you."

"Don't worry~ it'll be good like the way we found it."

-In the Normandy-

Liara, Della and Stitch were conversing with the others on the video call when a Dark Corridor appeared next to them.

They looked over to it, expecting either of the three Nobodies to appear when they saw a multitude of items come through it instead.

First was an extremely gorgeous painting of a sunset as it carefully came right out of the Dark Corridor right before it plopped onto the ground.

"What in the world?" Della said in utter bewilderment.

The next thing that came through was a Krogan armor… as it sailed across the room and struck the crates on the other side.

Before long, a number of artifacts came spewing out.

Wanting to take a closer look, while pulling the painting away in the process so it won't get broken on accident, Liara almost had a very unique panic attack when she saw the number of Prothean artifacts lying in front of her.

-Back with Axel's group-

Axel was "dusting" his hands off as the corridor closed down.

"Alright, all done." Axel declared. "Let's head back."

Eventually, the group of four made their way out of the carnage filled warehouse with the sounds of sirens barely being heard in the air. By the time they left the area, C-Sec started showing up due to the reported commotion that took place here.

Not wanting to forget, Garrus sent what data he pulled from Tonn Actus' computer and sent it over to the station and let the others handle it from there.

By the time the group made it back to the docking station where the Normandy was being kept, they were soon greeted with familiar faces.

"Hey Axel." Roxas said, he and Xion going over to their friend.

"Hey you two." Axel said with a smirk. "Commander, ladies."

"Axel." Jane nodded. "Boys. Where have you guys been?"

"Oh this new place called Mercenary Avenue and we decided to take a long ass stroll through it." Axel quipped.

"What now?"

"Just taking care of some business for our good pal Wrexy." Axel said with a smirk, while earning an annoyed grumble from the Krogan. "Not to mention finding some stuff for Gary here."

This got Kaidan to stifle a laugh on hearing Axel's little nicknames for his two companions.

The Turian rolled his eyes before addressing the commander. "About that, Shepard, when we have a moment, I need to talk to you about something."

"Alright. Let's get settled back on the ship and we can talk things over."

Making their way through the airlock, the group waited in the decontamination chamber and waited through the grueling process.

As they waited, Axel looked at the bags in the Commander's and Gunnery Chief's hands.

"So what you got there?"

"Aside from some new clothes, I got a new armor set." Said Shepard, gesturing to the big case in her one hand. "Gonna need to see if Mosh can get it upgraded."

"Same here. And I would've gotten some of Edna's new lightweight armor clothing, but she's still trying to fine tune it for public consumption." Ashley informed them. "Though I did pre-order some of her upcoming lines."

When looking over the schematics, Ashley was honestly impressed with the idea of the material being at least partly segmented into lightweight armor-like plating, shown with the intricate honeycomb like patterns seen on the cloth. Being bulletproof with the material reflexively compacts and solidifies when anything attempts to penetrate the outer layer. And it can be blast proof to some degree while reducing inflicting damage effects from blunt trauma, cutting and/or slashing attacks. And if providing more funds for customization when being made, the clothing can provide some protection from an EMP assault.

"Would've ordered one as well, but I somewhat don't see myself in combat clothing. Been more used to wearing regular armor for most of my life." Said the commander. "That, and the clothing wouldn't help protect my head from any incoming bullets while filtering any airborne gases and whatnot."

The others nodded as the decontamination chamber opened and let the assembled group properly enter the ship.

It wouldn't be much longer when a number of things would occur. From witnessing Liara's crazy panic attack in the hangar with an odd laughter filling the air, Wrex wanting to kill Axel for his little mistreatment on his family armor, and Della happily informing them on her finally contacting home after so long.

But what seemed more important to some was Tali seeing something from her home world.

Upon seeing the painting, she couldn't quite believe what she was looking at until Wrex, Garrus and Kaidan all confirmed to her the authenticity of this piece.

Tali practically broke down in tears and couldn't help but hug Axel and thank him profusely on one of the greatest gifts she could ever get.

Axel was certainly surprised by such a gesture but even he eventually patted the Quarian softly on the back with the others looking on with their own expressions of happiness at seeing Tali in such an overjoyed state.

As this went on, Roxas glanced over to the painting that evoked such a response out of his friend to the point of tears.

Gazing at it intently, slowly, an idea began to form in Roxas' mind as Tali began giddily admiring her newest gift.

-Scene Cut-

Sora craned his eyes open, momentarily shutting them as his pupils readjusted themselves from the light.

Sitting up from the bed he was sleeping in, he looked over to see Riku was resting as well.

Vaguely, he recalled that Riku along with their friends had come to the Mysterious Tower where the King's teacher, Yen Sid, resided.

Once arriving, they were greeted by the sage Wizard who had trained Mickey up to be the Keyblade master that he is today.

Now, Sora and Riku were under his tutelage.

At first, Sora was surprised by the hesitation Riku possessed when Yen Sid spoke of his potential of one day wielding his own Keyblade. Though he didn't voice it, it was clear to Sora and the others that Riku had undergone a drastic change since they last saw them.

Yen Sid however was confident and adamant about having Riku be trained with Mickey and Sora convincing him.

Since then, they had found themselves in relative relaxation but had the occasional lecture and "assignments" so to speak but Yen Sid left them to their own devices.

That was until they were sent out to the Olympus Coliseum as the Wizard detected a growing darkness there.

The five of them together encountered a large slew of Heartless in a more local area outside from the Coliseum. Much as Sora, Donald and Goofy wanted to see their old friends Phil and Hercules, the priority of the Heartless came first.

Once that was taken care of, they were surprised when they had met a swordsman of considerable skill by the name of Zack Fair.

He had apparently taken out a large number of Heartless himself before they arrived and asked if they were heroes in training here as well.

Junior heroes.

After meeting with the swordsmen, the team returned to the Mysterious Tower with Yen Sid congratulating them on eliminating the Heartless.

Since then, he hadn't really instructed them in the traditional sense, from what King Mickey had told them. Rather, Master Yen Sid had stated that the trial by fire that Sora and Riku had endured in getting this far shows their aptitude for combat and being Keyblade masters.

He would only instruct them when necessary, instead stating that the path before them is their next trial in their journey.

So, they had been here since, traveling and fighting Heartless across the worlds.

They had even returned to Deep Jungle recently and reunited with Jane and Tarzan. It was good seeing them again. Namine had even joined them, beginning to display an aptitude for magic that was on a fast track to matching their own.

Donald had taken to showing her a few tricks and spells with the platinum blond haired teen taking to them after a few tries and adjustments from King Mickey's royal court Wizard.

But right now, those recent memories weren't on Sora's mind.

What was plaguing the Keyblade wielder's mind was the very vivid dream he just had.

The vivid dream of seeing Roxas, Axel and Xion in a completely alien ship where they were speaking with several humans but the others present were anything but.

And yet… somehow, Sora knew the names of each of those species. And after that dream, all of their names.

The last thing he recalled and felt was a feeling of warmth spread through his chest as the alien girl who appeared to be the closest one to Roxas pulled him in for a tender, warm hug.

Sora didn't know why he felt comforted by this… what was her name again? Tali, right?

But the embrace just felt… nice. And… something more.

There was a hue of red that appeared on Sora's cheeks which made him hold both hands up his face, rubbing it away.

"Roxas…" Sora had his head down, deep in thought. "What was that supposed to be?"

This honestly confused him on what he was feeling now. He never met this Tali person, yet she feels special to him like the way Kairi is.

He needed to figure this stuff out before he went crazy down the line.

AN

Phew, alright, this one was gigantic to say the least.

So, Axel and Xion are now beginning their stint with the Normandy crew with missions and interactions and we got Della Duck questioning the galaxy at large.

Jebest4781: And very soon, more like the next chapter, we are finally tackling Virmire!

FMW: And be prepared for all the insanity that is to come during and after Virmire. A reviewer said that the first set of chapters was basically the long tutorial that would set up the large story to come. You're absolutely right in that regard. While we have done a lot in these first fourteen chapters, come the next one, that's when off the wall lunacy ensues.

Jeb: Even after that, we got some more interesting surprises to help wrap up ME1 events. You'll just have to wait and see what we got planned for you readers.

Indeed. In the words of Illidan Stormrage of Warcraft.

You are not prepared!

Rate Read and Review and as Always Have Nice Day.