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.

16. The Etherium

The reviews have had many guesses and suggestions as to where the Normandy had ended up in and well… it's time for the reveal.

I don't think I need say much other than this is a place that I've always wanted to go to in a KH game and now, we get to do it here.

I think for those of you who will read the opener, it'll be enough to get the message across.

Rate Read and Review and as Always Have Nice Day.

I'm Nobody Chapter 16: The Etherium

The cosmos that was the backdrop for this voyage was as endless as it was inviting. Cosmic clouds littered the landscape as did the stars far beyond in the distance.

Through this cosmos, a ship drifted across the endless cosmos.

"On the clearest of nights when the winds of the Etherium were calm and peaceful…"

The ship was large, looking old and Victorian in appearance. It's thrusters/engines were steady as it charted its course through the Etherium.

"The great merchant ships with their cargoes of Arcturian sura crystals felt safe and secure. Little did they suspect that they were pursued by…"

Following closely behind however was a smaller, more mobile ship that quickly gained upon the larger vessel.

"Pirates!"

The crew of the smaller ship were roaming about, preparing for their assault on the larger one with one individual analyzing their target.

"And the most feared of all these pirates was the notorious Captain Nathaniel Flint"

The tall man was an alien with a long snout and six eyes, looking over to his crew.

"Fire!"

The pirate ships blasted the large merchant vessel with its cannons, the denizens inside frightened and terrified by the sudden attack. All the while, the guards rushed to defense of the ship, firing at the pirates.

"Like a Candarian zap-wing overtaking its prey, Flint and his band of renegades swooped in out of nowhere."

However, the pirates proved to be too fierce and overwhelmed the ship in a matter of minutes.

Soon after, the multitude of chests that held the hordes of treasures by the merchant vessels were now being held within the manically laughing hands of Nathaniel Flint.

The pirate ship pivoted away, flying at full speeds as the Merchant Vessel burned. As it flew away, a green light encompassed the ship...

"And then, gathering up their spoils… vanished without a trace."

Across the cosmos, Captain Flint continued his raids, hoarding his treasures until...

"Flint's secret trove was never found, but stories have persisted that it remains hidden somewhere at the farthest reaches of the galaxy stowed with riches beyond imagination- the loot of a thousand worlds: Treasure Planet."

"There are nights when the winds of the Etherium are so inviting in their promise of freedom and flight that made one's spirit Soar."

-Scene Cut-

The Normandy SR1 sailed through the seemingly endless array of white and blue for what felt like days.

In reality, it was only a few hours since entering this endless tunnel of lights.

The crew of the Normandy had no idea as to what had happened.

All they can surmise was that they had survived the nuclear detonation that had gone off at Virmire, otherwise they wouldn't be here right about now.

Whilst everyone else was basically trying to figure out what in the world happened, Roxas was sitting by the side of Tali who was still laying in her bed and being treated by Chakwas. He hadn't moved since, watching intently at the sight of his friends face who he had never seen before.

Tali's face was pale-ish white with a very slightly noticeable violet tint. She came across as looking practically completely human save for the two lines that started at the edge of her brows towards the center of her heads that trailed upwards in the opposite direction.

There she remained, silent and unmoving with only deep breaths from the medical, ventilation mask to signify that she was still alive and hopefully well.

It was beyond nerve racking to see someone he called a close friend in such a vulnerable state.

"Hey Roxas."

He tilted his head slightly to see Xion standing next to him, the girl looking at Tali with clear worry upon her face.

"How is she?" She asked softly.

Roxas only looked forward, expression somber and forlorn.

"She's still sleeping." Roxas said in a whisper, Xion barely being able to hear him.

Wordlessly, Xion placed a hand upon Roxas' shoulder which made him look up to her entirely with the two locking eyes until they both turned back to their friend.

"There you two are."

They didn't need to look up to know who it was that had entered the medbay.

"Hey Axel." Both said in a despondent manner.

"Geez, didn't know I'd get such a depressed greeting." Axel remarked, though he wasn't an idiot as to why.

He walked around them both, standing on the opposite end of the hospital bed, gazing at his two friends rather than the comrade still resting and recovering.

"You know she won't be going anywhere anytime soon." Axel said after a few moments of silence. "We've all seen how tough she is."

"We know." Roxas muttered. "I… I just want to be there for her."

Axel frowned. "She won't blame you for leaving her side. You do need to eat, rest and use the restroom at some point."

"Chakwas is resting." Roxas said. "I promised I'd look after her and call her if anything."

"You know, her being the ship's doctor, I'm amazed she didn't force either of you two to take a breather yourselves." Axel said with a joking tone that didn't affect either of the two.

Sighing, Axel gazed down at Tali, taking in her features noting how she basically looked human for all intents and purposes.

"She holdin' up alright?"

Roxas shook his head. "I don't know. I'm not a doctor."

Axel snorted. "That you are not. But you don't need to worry like this you know?"

"What if she doesn't wake up?" Xion asked fearfully.

"She will, alright. You guys will see." Axel said. "You think this is the type of crew where a light fever is gonna bring 'em down after what we've gone through?"

Roxas and Xion shook their heads.

"Well there ya have it." Axel declared. "Nothing to fret over."

As they remained around Tali for a brief few seconds, yet another individual entered the medbay.

"There ya are Kupo, I've been looking everywhere for ya."

The trio of Nobodies looked over to see Mosh the Moogle in his own small variation of the Organization's black cloak floating over to them.

"Mosh?" Axel quirked a brow at the Moogle that floated over to Roxas and Xion.

Mosh momentarily gazed at Tali, gently floating down to land near her head.

"How is she Kupo?" Mosh asked in a kind manner.

"She's alive." Axel bluntly said. "We should be happy enough for that."

Mosh nodded. "Agreed on that end, Kupo. But… I am unsure of whether or not this will help at all but," reaching behind, Mosh pulled out a golden teardrop glass. "Do you think this might help?"

The three Nobodies blinked and recognized what was in the Moogles hand.

It was an Elixir.

Gently taking it out of Mosh's hand, Roxas gazed at it, looking between the item and Tali. Expression morphing into one of determination, using a sterile syringe, he retrieved some of the Elixir and injected it into Tali's IV drip.

"Think this'll work?" Axel asked.

"We have to give it a try." Roxas stated firmly.

The transparent liquid soon shifted to a golden color as it traveled onward from the bag through the tube. It eventually entered the Quarian's bloodstream with a faint glow coming through the injection site before dying down.

Though only a few seconds had passed, Tali suddenly inhaled deeply with Roxas jolting and immediately hovered over her in concern.

At first, that's all that she did, exhaling calmly a moment later.

However, a visibly unusual change happened right before their eyes. The pale face of the Quarian began to shift, getting a slightly prominent hue of violet.

Tali's eyes cracked open, with the Quarian beginning to regain consciousness.

Her medical, ventilation mask kept fogging up, due to her rapid breathing. Her head whipped around as her eyes moved frantically.

"Easy, Tali, easy." Roxas's voice pierced through her panicked state.

"R-Roxas?" Tali's voice was slightly raspy, panicked even. "Wh-What happened? Where are we?"

"We're back on the Normandy." Roxas said calmly, a comforting hand on her shoulder to gently make sure she wouldn't sit up suddenly. "Just keep still."

"Where's my mask?" She asked in fear.

Xion wordlessly pulled out her damaged face plate that showed the visible crack and missing piece that had fallen

"It's broken. We will need to either repair it or get a new one." Said No. XIV. "For now, you're wearing a ventilation mask as you're breathing filtered oxygen."

Tali brought her hand to the mask she presently wore before nodding a little. Out of the corner of her eyes, she noticed her IV had a strange golden liquid which made her trail up to the golden IV bag she was hooked up to.

"What… is that?" Tali asked in slight alarm.

"Elixir." Axel answered. "Mosh here gave us one and figured it would help ya out. Suffice to say…"

Tali only nodded again, still unsure as to how this Elixir works but if it's magical in nature, she's learned it was best not to question these sorts of things.

"Hmmm." Mosh hummed aloud, floating over to the mask in Xion's hands and held out his own as a gesture for her to give it to him.

Handing the mask over to the Moogles small hands, Mosh inspecting it on all sides before nodding.

"I could fix this up in a jiffy, Kupo." Mosh stated confidently.

"You can?" Tali asked in surprise.

"Yup." Mosh said with a demeanor that gave off that he was smiling. "I have the proper synthesis materials to patch this up and make it more durable. If you can provide me the specs of your initial helmet…"

Tali smiled, carefully holding up her hand to bring up her Omni-tool. "Of course."

"Wonderful." Mosh said. "I'll have it done soon. Be back in a few Kupo."

"...You think he could make me a new suit while he's at it?" Tali said aloud. "Since he's basically making me a new helmet…"

Axel shrugged. "Moogles can improve just about everything. Don't see why not."

"Just never bothered to do so… till now. Only have my one suit and nothing else."

With that said, things were nearly silent in the medbay with the heart monitor beeping filled the air.

"What… happened, by the way?" Tali questioned. "I vaguely remember us escaping Virmire but after that…"

"Let's just say we're in a bit of a predicament." Axel plainly answered. "And we have no idea if it's gonna end on a good note, bad note, or in the middle type of note."

Tali turned her gaze to Roxas and Xion. "What?"

"The ship is alright but we're on a course we have no idea how to get out of." Roxas said plainly. "We're gonna have to wait and see what happens."

"I don't understand."

"Maybe it has something to do with the Gummi's in the ship." Xion abruptly spoke up. "This way of travelling feels… familiar."

"The Gummi blocks did this?" Tali and Axel asked at the same time.

Roxas frowned, thinking on this idea and the more he thought about it, the more plausible the idea had become. There was a serious feeling of familiarity in all of this and the more he thought about it, the more the "feeling" of the means in which the Normandy was currently traveling began to make him think he had done this before.

Yet, before anyone was able to say anything else, the door to the medbay opened up having Dr. Chakwas stepping through.

First thing she saw was the Quarian was wide awake now.

"Ah, good to see your conscious, Miss Zorah." Chakwas said in relief. "And good coloring on your skin too. Must mean you're…"

Karen then noticed the IV.

"Wh-What is this?!" Chakwas asked aloud in alarm at the glowing IV bag.

She then looked at the three Nobodies around the bed and saw that the redhead cringed slightly which was enough of a reason for her conclusion.

"Did you all tamper with it?!"

Tali blinked as she watched all three Nobodies seize up upon hearing the danger in the Doctors tone.

"Er… yes…" Roxas admitted nervously after a few moments.

"You are in serious trouble, young man." Chakwas said, placing her hands on her hips.

"And that is my cue to leave." Axel said, quickly grabbing Xion and hoisting her over his shoulder. "If you need us-"

"You're not going anywhere." Chakwas shouted at them both only for it to be in vain as Axel and Xion had already cleared out of the room leaving Roxas on his own.

Roxas was ready to run only for Chakwas to round upon him with her nostrils flaring, the boy promptly plopping back down in his seat.

This whole scene made Tali giggle aloud, causing to break some of the mounting tension in the room.

Seeing the Quarian like this caused the Dr. to deflate slightly, letting go of that anger that had built up in that moment.

"We're gonna have a serious talk after this, Roxas." Chakwas warned, going over to her desk to grab several tools with the Nobody only nodding his head. "What you did was unwarranted and had no permission to proceed with whatever you injected into Miss Zorah's cocktail of an IV drip."

He suddenly felt a three fingered hand gently taking his own. Looking up, he saw Tali with a kind smile having the same spark in her eyes he usually would see whenever he was with her. Roxas couldn't help but smile back, now feeling less guilty and just glad that his friend was alright and awake again.

He didn't see Chakwas watching this with the Doctor shaking her head, muttering to herself about the youth being so difficult to handle sometimes. Still, seeing the two like this, she couldn't help but let go entirely of that anger she had just a few short seconds ago.

Roxas didn't need that after going through so much with the rest of the crew back on Virmire.

But he was still gonna get a lecture.

Of that she was certain.

Elsewhere on the ship, Commander Jane Shepard stood by Executive Officer Charles Pressley as they overlooked a display of their galaxy.

"Still no readings?" the Spectre asked.

"Won't be able to give you a proper diagnostics report until we get out of whatever we're in now." Pressley informed the Commander. "Whatever this anomaly we're traveling through is messing with your initial readings."

"Once we get out, I want the report immediately. I need to know the extent of the damage my ship went through since Virmire." Jane ordered getting a "yes sir" from Pressley as she left to the front of the ship.

Stepping into the cockpit, she was greeted to the sight of Joker in his usual seat with Kaidan acting as co-pilot.

"Shepard." Kaidan greeted.

"Hey Commander."

"Joker. Kaidan."

"What are you guys up to?"

Kaidan looked at the Commander in slight bewilderment at the question though Joker took it in stride.

"Finding myself a little bit of entertainment."

"With what?" Shepard asked in bemusement.

The pilot gestured to what's happening outside of the ship. "This."

"...Are you that bored? How does this," she gestured to the light travel they were presently in, "entertain you?"

"I mean, whenever we use a Mass Relay, we see purple, blue, red and sometimes orange lights. This time it's just blue and white light." Joker responded.

"How is it that you find this entertaining while I find it maddening?" Kaidan asked with Joker shrugging.

"I'm more easily entertained I guess." Joker said. "Do you see all these pretty lights? And it's such a change of pace. Much less coloring and a lot more simple." the Pilot of the Normandy became more impassioned now. "I mean when I saw those particular lights when traveling via Mass Relays for the first time, I thought I was rewatching that psychedelic drip from 2001: A Space Odyssey for the first time again."

Shepard snorted. "Right. Figured that's what you'd go to."

The Commander glanced over to Kaidan who seemed a bit silent now, the Lieutenant appearing to focus more on his task then speaking with her and Joker.

"Alright there Kaidan?" Shepard asked.

"Hmm? Oh, oh yeah, yeah, I'm fine Commander." Kaidan quickly said.

Jane gave him a flat look. "C'mon, you don't need to hide it, Kaidan."

After several moments, the lieutenant exhaled a sigh. "I'm just worried. Worried about how everyone else is."

Shepard blinked at that before she had a small smile appear on her face.

"Really? Well go figure, I am too Kaidan." Shepard stated. "We all are."

"I know it's just…" Kaidan sighed, slumping back in his seat. "Last we heard, Liara was hurt. We don't know how much. We don't even know if the others left Virmire after Della picked them up."

"They did make it off." Jane said with complete confidence. "Della told us she got them all and I know she got them outta there."

"But did she?" Kaidan stressed. "I just would rather know now than later."

"Hey," Shepard walked over to him, making the LT glance up at her. "They're alive and well. I know it. I could feel it."

"You could feel it huh?" Kaidan was a bit unconvinced. "How can you be sure?"

"I trust them is all." Jane stated. "I know in my heart and gut they made it off Virmire. We have nothing to worry about for them."

"Lotta belief going off of a feeling Commander." Joker pointed out teasingly. "Did they teach that in N7 training?"

"As a matter of fact Joker, yes, they did." Shepard said in a false-haughty manner. "So while you fly boys trust your gut in the air, us ground folks know our way on the field."

"Whatever you say, Shepard." Joker said with a small grin.

"Asides from your 'entertainment', have you been keeping yourself busy?" Jane asked, casually leaning on the backseat of Joker's chair.

"Kept running diagnostics and can't get accurate results until we get out of this thing we're in."

"Then what can you tell me?"

"That we're in a system of FTL I don't recognize? Nothing." Joker Deadpanned. "Nothing like none of us have ever seen before."

Jane frowned, chewing the inside of her cheek.

"Remember what we saw before we entered this thing?" Joker brought up getting a nod from the Commander. "That's the only thing that I can think of that led us in here. It was basically a portal that just opened up in front of us and we flew straight in without even realizing it."

Jane adopted a thinking pose.

"What if it's something else?" Shepard asked after a few moments making Kaidan and Joker look at her.

"What's that Commander?" Kaidan asked for clarification.

"Perhaps we're in one of those 'Lanes' Della spoke of." Shepard stated. "Remember her talking about how Gummi tech and ships operate on different means of FTL? Maybe it's one of these "lanes" that Gummi ships use."

"Shouldn't we need Gummi tech integrated into our ship to safely travel through those Lanes?" Kaidan asked.

"From what Della informed us, yes. But I don't know what's going on with our present situation." Joker said. "But… maybe in the last patch up, Della integrated some Gummi tech into the Normandy. She did mention that Tali collected a few over the past few weeks."

"So the Normandy likely has these Gummi's in the ship now." Shepard surmised with Joker shrugging but nodding along all the same. "Wish Della was here now to help clarify things. All we can do now is guesswork."

In a moment's notice, the ship lurched forward and the lights coming through the cockpit's windows darkened significantly.

"What the hell was that?" Kaidan asked, quickly checking over the ship's functions and its crew.

"Status report."

"Ships rattled." Joker stated. "It's holding together but oh boy, ship could use one hell of a tune up."

"What happened?" Shepard asked in alarm.

"The systems aren't functioning to their full capacity." Kaidan added. "Whatever we just went through made the whole ship shotty to say the least."

"Great." Shepard grumbled under her breath.

She quickly ran back to the map, seeing Pressly work rapidly on the galactic map.

"Presley?"

"Nothing yet Commander." Charles said in quick response.

"Shepard." Joker shouted back for her, the Spectre making an about face and returned to the cockpit.

Looking from outside of the window, Jane saw a crescent moon in the distance before glancing down at Joker.

"Got anything from our star charts?" Jane asked, Joker sifting through them until...

"...Nope."

"Nope?" Jane repeated.

"Nope." Joker said with finality.

"What do you mean 'nope'?" Jane asked with a frown.

"I mean I can't find anything matching with our galaxy map, Commander." Joker said, turning to her. "All those stars and that moon there? None of them match anything we have in our Galaxy."

"What the hell is…?" a sense of unsure realization began to dawn upon the Spectre as she took a few seconds to process what Joker had just told her.

Jane had taken a guess that they had perhaps entered into a Gummi lane earlier as that was currently the only option that they could really think of. And Della has stated to them all that she is from a different galaxy. Gummi tech apparently had the capability of intergalactic travel.

Did that mean…

Jane shook her head, trying to stave off the oncoming headache as she looked ahead, gazing upon the crescent shaped moon far off in the distance.

"Plot a course to that moon. We could figure things out from there so we can land and start repairs." She ordered out.

"You got it, Commander."

Joker adjusted the current trajectory of the Normandy and soon enough, the ship was making its way towards the crescent moon in the distance.

Cosmic winds blew about, stars in its wake until a ship blew by and stopping with the clouds forming to spell…

The Etherium

Reaching the destination closer and closer, Joker started noticing a few things.

First off, the moon's crescent light didn't shift at all when he was coming nearer. Then came some little star specs barely surrounding the moon that seemed to move instead of being stationary. Then he started noticing the shape was all wrong.

Soon enough, the pilot started to realize something.

"Commander… that's not a moon."

"What is it then?"

"...That's a space station."

This alarmed both Kaidan and Shepard immensely.

Both looked out the window of the ship, straining their eyes to get a look as to what was going in, our and around the moon.

As they drew nearer, the small dots from afar became much more clearer to discern.

"Are those… are those sail ships?" Kaidan muttered in complete and utter disbelief.

"Pardon?" Joker looked up from his controls.

"Look!"

Nearing the window as best as she could, Shepard blinked in surprise on what she was seeing. Closing her eyes and rubbing them with her fingers, she opened them back up and saw she wasn't imagining things.

What she was looking at now was Earth's 17th-18th century styled sail boats… floating through space.

"...What the hell is going on here…"

"At least one thing's for sure…" Joker said, slumping back into his seat.

"What is it, Joker?"

"That station ain't no Death Star."

Both Kaidan and Shepard gave him a deadpanned look.

"Hey, this is a legitimate excuse in pointing that out. A moon shaped station, floating in the middle of nowhere and is offley deceiving upon first glance. Tell me I'm wrong."

Neither of them spoke as they couldn't say it outright.

"...As long as it's not gonna fire a death laser at us, then I can be fine with it." Joker added, making Jane's brow twitch a bit. "What about you two?"

"But still… a space station?" Kaidan murmured.

"We'll need to inform everyone else on this now." Jane stated, looking to Joker who activated the intercom.

"Attention Normandy crew, this is Commander Shepard. Emergency meeting around the galactic map, stat."

Jane gestured her head for Kaidan to follow, the LT simply nodding as the Normandy crew in full gathered at the galactic map.

After a few minutes, a majority of the Normandy crew was here, including all of the ground team save for their three missing friends that were with Della.

"Okay, everyone's more or less here. Not gonna wait for any stragglers." Jane said, clapping her hands together for all the attention to turn to her. "So some bit of news, we're out of the odd FTL anomaly for starters. Not to mention we're pulling up to a station."

"That's good." Said one of the crewmembers.

"Wait for it." Axel began.

"Yet we can't seem to pull up communications with said station."

"There it is." Garrus finished for the red head.

"And not wanting everyone to rush towards the cockpit to see what station we're heading towards, given how small and cramped it can be with everyone there, I'm just gonna pull this up."

Getting up towards the galactic map, Jane typed down a few commands and pulled up a holo-image of the station where they were heading towards.

This ended up confusing the whole Normandy roster entirely.

"Yeah, my thoughts exactly." Shepard said evenly as the murmurs soon surfaced from the ship's staff.

"I've never seen anything like it."

"Does anyone know what that station is?"

"Beats me."

"Why is it shaped like a crescent moon?"

"Are those… sail ships?" Said a crew member, pointing towards some of the moving objects moving to and from from said station. "Like from the old British empire type of shit?"

"All we know, is that we're here now and we need to figure out how we're gonna get out of this situation." Shepard spoke up, halting the discussion amongst the crew.

"Roxas, Axel, Xion, the three of you are resident experts in… weird stuff." Jane said, feeling a bit dumb in saying that. "What do you make of this?"

Roxas and Xion exchanged looks whilst Axel merely shrugged.

"Another world I guess." Axel remarked. "We ain't back in your galaxy, that's for sure."

Once more, murmurs started surfacing.

"Okay, settle down everyone." Jane ordered slightly. "Now… I guess the idea of suddenly ending up in another galaxy is rather exciting, but we are truly in unfamiliar territory. We need to approach this cautiously and-"

"Commander!" Joker's voice abruptly chimed in through the comms.

"What is it?" Shepard asked, looking up.

"So… I docked at the nearest available spot and-"

"You what?! Joker why did you- urgh, Nevermind." Jane rubbed her face.

"If you'd let me finish…" The pilot coughed into his hand before continuing. "Right, I docked and… well…"

"Well what?"

"...the locals are surrounding the Normandy."

"...Figured as much."

"Yeah and… wow, we really aren't as diverse as we thought." Joker commented, coughing into his hand.

"How much are we talkin'?"

"...Let's just say a lot." Joker commented. "Why aren't they wearing helmets? Aren't we still in space?"

"What now, Commander?" Garrus questioned, unanimously voicing everyone's present thought.

"Now?" Shepard arched a wry brow. "What else? We go greet the locals."

She ordered the crew to return to their positions whilst gesturing to the ground crew to follow her.

"Hey, wait for me!"

The ground team turned to see Tali with a fresh new looking helmet that seemed to have a bright shine to it. Granted most of its surface was covered up from her hood, but still...

"Tali." Shepard said in a warning voice. "You were just in the medbay resting from critical condition."

"And she's all better."

The team glanced over Tali's shoulder to see Chakwas approaching with a slightly relieved but also annoyed face.

"Whatever it was these three troublemakers gave her has returned Tali to full health." Chakwas admitted begrudgingly. "Possibly even better."

"What did you- you know what, not now." Jane threw her hands up. "Let's just see the situation we're in."

The Normandy's ground team soon exited the ship when they all realized something.

"Wait!" Kaidan said in alarm. "What about helmets? How are we supposed to-"

Kaidan didn't get to finish his question as the door opened and rather than getting sucked out into space or into the space station, the team found themselves being able to breath without any issue.

"What in the-"

"Spirits dammit, I almost had a damn heart attack there." Garrus whispered, holding up his hand over his chest.

"Huh, a breathable atmosphere." Alenko said in a low voice, still finding it stunning. "How is this possible?"

"Almost was gonna consider using a stick of Oxy-chew… until you suddenly opened the damn door!" Axel said with an aggravated tone.

Shepard nervously scratched the back of her head and released a chuckle.

The crew then looked out onto the port and saw just how diverse the denizens of this space station were from Joker's earlier comments.

"Holy shit." Several of the team muttered out, just taking not how legitimately diverse the species before them were.

Outside of seeing some humans here and there… it was greatly overshadowed on the dozens of species they were seeing before them.

In all honesty, it was rather hard trying to describe them all, let alone a few.

The fact that there humans here was also extremely jarring.

But again, there were the multitude of other species that quite literally came in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

"Clear the way!"

"Move along. Move along." Came an authoritative voice. "Nothing to see here."

Looking over, the Normandy crew saw what appeared to be-

"Synthetics?" Tali murmured in slight fear.

"Why are they wearing old constable outfits?" Alenko asked in bewilderment.

A pair of synthetics were moving the surrounding populous away. And indeed they were wearing what vaguely looked like police uniforms from 19th-20th century England.

"Nothing to see here, people." The robotic cop said in his automated voice.

"Nothin' to see? Are ya daft?" Said one of the many aliens in the crowd.

"I've never seen a ship like it."

"Where'd it come from?"

"Look! There's folks comin' out!"

"What do we do Shepard?" Garrus asked.

The Commander was a bit unsure until Roxas walked out with Xion and Axel following after him a moment later. Stitch had gone with them since he was standing upon Roxas' shoulder.

Rolling her eyes then, Jane quickly moved to catch up to the trio with the rest following suit.

"Hello there." Jane said aloud, causing a moment of silence to befall the crowd of aliens. "I'm Commander Jane Shepard of the Systems Alliance. This here is my ship the Normandy SR1. We are here, well, to put it frankly, by unknown and accidental means. We're hoping that we can have a peaceful first meeting with you all and that there are no incidents from this exchange."

"We're from another galaxy." Axel blurted out, causing many more manic whispers among the crowd. "So we could really use some help right about now."

Jane looked back to Axel with a glare which he responded with a shrug that conveyed 'better to be honest here'.

She wanted to retort on this but the robotic cops wheeled up in front of the Commander and proceeded to salute here.

"Commander Shepard. I am officer TX-35 and this is my partner, HN-72." The two apparent "heads" of these robo-cops introduced themselves. "If you would come with us, we can escort you to our government officials here on the Crescentia station."

"About that… Where are we exactly?" Jane couldn't believe she was about to ask this question. "Like… what galaxy..."

"You're presently in the Etherium galaxy." HN-72 responded. "If you and your crew would follow us Commander."

The team could only nod along.

"One moment." Jane held up her hand. "I need to speak with my crew before I leave."

The Cop-bots nodded understandingly as the ground team reentered the Normandy.

"What do we do now while you're gone, Commander?" Joker asked, who had entered the map room after making sure the Normandy was secure in her position on this dock.

"Probably start fixing up this ship, for starters." Presley said aloud for the rest of the crew to hear him. "Everyone who has mechanical experience for repairs, you will need to report to your stations immediately to get the Normandy in tip top shape. I want to have proper diagnostic reports post haste so we may get further repairs underway."

"That means most of us, then." Garrus said as he looked at Tali, Kaidan and Stitch.

Axel then chuckled. "Then that means the three of us," pointed towards himself and his fellow Nobodies, "are in the clear."

This was true. No matter how long they've been on the Alliance vessel -Roxas more than the other two- neither of them had a proper maintenance duty to perform. All they were really tasked for, aside from ground missions, was cleaning and assisting other crew members on mild tasks.

"Then that means it'll be you three coming with me." Shepard said. "This feels more like your field of expertise as is."

"Yes, intergalactic travel is totally our expertise. Not like we were part of a group that discouraged interference with other worlds." Axel quipped, making Jane lightly punch him in the shoulder though even she couldn't contain her small smirk.

"Do try to play nice, Axel." Jane implored. Heavily emphasizing on 'try'.

"I sadly can't make any promises."

"We'll hold him in line, Shepard." Xion said reassuringly.

"Good." Shepard nodded.

"Ah, already betraying me, Xion? How could you!"

"Come on." Jane said in amusement.

"Souvenirs would be welcomed, thank you." Joker called out to them before the foursome departed from the Normandy.

Shepard, Roxas, Axel and Xion followed after the robotic officers, taking in all the sights and sounds of this new place.

It felt weird for Shepard to be mostly unarmed. She figured it'd be more diplomatic if she came in as unarmed as possible with this potential first meeting with whomever it was these robots would take them to meet.

But she wasn't entirely defenseless.

At the moment, she only had her pistol on her and her biotics. However she was not in her armor, which made her feel nearly naked, but knowing this also to be necessary.

They needed to come across as peaceful and non-threatening.

Granted… They came in a stealth warship but that was beside the point.

Right now, it was time to meet some government officials.

Joy.

She already had enough to deal with the Citadel Council.

Hopefully, these ones she's about to meet will be better. Fingers crossed.

The robo-cops led them to a particularly large and distinct building that appeared to be the center of this space station.

Shepard took note of the clear Victorian style architecture and even clothing that seemed to be the main constant here on this space station.

It was a truly bizarre sight to say the least.

To Shepard, it was basically she jumped forward through time by also bringing a specific era of history with her.

That was honestly as best as a description as she could come up with given their present circumstances.

What was the word that she was looking for?

'Steampunk.' Shepard internally mused as they were gestured by the robot officers to enter the large building before them.

Once inside, they were met with a lavish atrium, far more so than the Citadel itself.

Chandeliers decorated the ceilings with the Victorian style architecture truly being shown off on the inside, especially with the clothing most of the people within wore.

"Are you the one they call Shepard?" Asked an individual that looked as though he was a werewolf of some kind.

"Er… yes?"

"Captain Gandry." The Wolf-like aliens saluted her out of respect. "This way please. The Parliamentary meeting is underway."

"A meeting?" Jane was unsure. "Wouldn't it be better that we wait until it is over?"

"This is a pressing matter." Gandry replied. "Besides. I believe her majesty would enjoy a distraction from her usual routines."

Axel snorted at that.

It didn't take long for the foursome to enter a large chamber where a meeting took place. The walls were lined with men and women of various species clamoring about, trying to have their voice heard among the rest.

They were soon silenced upon Gandry's appearance with the four Normandy crew members following close behind.

"Is there a reason for this intrusion on this meeting today?" asked one of those seated in the chamber.

"Pardon for the intrusion, but we've had some unexpected developments in the docks." Said Captain Gandry, standing straight and hands behind his back.

"And why not go through proper channels?"

Jane took this as the cue to step forward.

"Mostly because of my ship making an emergency dock and as compared to the rest of your vessels, mine is rather unique appearance wise."

"Who is this, Captain Gandry?" a lady seated just above them inquired.

"Delegates, my lady." Gandry nodded to the single woman seated in the center of the chamber. "May I introduce you all to Commander…"

That was her cue.

"Commander Jane Shepard." the Spectre introduced herself. "Systems Alliance N7 marines. My companions and I along with the rest of my crew have come here abruptly after we experienced a recent battle."

"And where do you come from?"

"The Milky Way galaxy."

The woman in the center of the chamber perked up, eyes glinting with interest and curiosity.

"Truly? Individuals from another galaxy? Why, we haven't had that in some time." she said in surprise.

This floored Jane slightly, trying to process what she had just heard.

"And… how many galaxies have you been in contact with till today?"

"Quite a few but certainly, we have never met individuals such as yourselves." the lady in the center said with a pleasant smile.

"But… we're humans." Jane said in bewilderment.

"That means little here." The Lady said with a light smile. "We come from all corners of the universe after all."

Shepard momentarily glanced behind her with the Nobodies only shrugging.

She looked back to the woman she had spoken to. "And who is it that I'm addressing here?"

Captain Gandry straightened up, clearing his throat while bowing slightly with his arm outstretched in the ladies direction.

"Her Majesty Queen Illysa the Second of the Terran Empire."

"...Oh goody, bigshot is honestly here." Axel murmured under his breath with Shepard elbowing his ribs in response.

"Granted I did not expect my arrival at this parliament meeting to have something interesting to uphold for me today." Queen Illysa said offhandedly. "Usually those come up back over by Corona V."

"But how is it that we are certain that they come from another galaxy?" Another member of parliament asked in a more inquisitive manner than one of disbelief.

"Is there some way to clarify that you come from another galaxy?" The queen asked.

"Asides from checking out my ship at the docks." Shepard soon activated her Omni-tool, earning surprised reactions from the native occupants from within the parliament room. "My crew and I have these."

The three Nobodies followed suit, bringing up their own Omni-tools to add to Shepard's display.

The looks of wonder and awe were littered across the Parliamentary chamber with many leaning or standing up out of their seats to get a look at the Omni-tools that were being shown.

"I take it your people don't have anything like this?" Jane inquired with the queen shaking her head.

"Honestly, no." Illysa said, greatly intrigued by what she was looking at. "We do have holographic technology, but it's very limited in number. Some of the more common ones we have are for our differing message log devices."

"What are these things exactly?" Captain Gandry inquired, rubbing his furry chin while gazing upon the device.

Before any from the group were able to answer any of these questions, another alien in a uniform burst through the doors of the chamber, his form frantic and slightly disheveled.

"Your majesty! They're back!" The officer yelled aloud, ignoring everyone else within the room, looking only to the Queen in the chamber. "They're attacking once more!"

"No." The Queen muttered in fear. "Not now."

Those who seemed to be in the loop began whispering and moving about in fear whilst others could only look around in confusion.

The group of intergalactic travelers in the chamber only looked about, trying to make heads or tails as to what they were all so worried about.

"Wait, what's going on?" Shepard asked. "Who's back?"

"A recent adversary that we have been facing." Gandry said in grim countenance. "Creatures of black, beady yellow eyes, people disappearing without a trace left behind. All that is last seen of them are glowing hearts and-"

"Heartless!" Roxas and Xion exclaimed immediately in realization.

"They have a weird shaped back and red heart emblem on some of them, right?" Roxas quickly asked for clarity.

Gandry blinked. "You know of them?"

That question basically confirmed it.

"Where would they be at exactly?" Xion asked.

Gandry gazed at them in bewilderment with his mouth opening and closing without any answer, prompting Shepard to act.

"Roxas, Xion, Axel, go." Shepard shouted. "Just follow the screams. That usually works."

"Got it."

The Nobody trio quickly ran out of the meeting chamber leaving only Shepard behind.

Seeing her left behind, the queen asked the Systems Alliance commander a question.

"What do you know of these 'Heartless'?" Gandry inquired.

"Far more than you can ever know." Shepard said, running out a moment later while sending a message to the Normandy.

Rushing outside of the Parliament Building, the trio heard the many yells and screams of terror. Brandishing their respective weapons, they ran towards where the commotion was taking place.

Soon enough, they managed to push through a fleeing crowd and saw multiple soldiers wielding flint-lock pistols that shoot energy beams at the Heartless that were terrorizing the civilians of this space port.

And to Roxas, they were a very familiar, collective bunch.

Pirates, Air Pirates, Aerial Vikings and several Battleships littered the area.

"Well, here's the official welcoming party." Axel jokes, getting into his battle stance, spinning his left Chakram in his hand while the right one dangled idly between his fingers.

"Let's get started." Roxas stated, crouching down into his fighting stance with Xion following suit.

"Right."

The trio rushed in, the Heartless having seen them by this point and charging straight back at them.

Xion's feet left the ground by an inch, hovering slightly in the air as she threw her Keyblade up.

"Thundara!"

Lightning bolts reigned down around and on the Heartless, destroying some while Paralyzing a few others.

Roxas and Axel cleaved through the stunned Heartless, taking them out left and right while Xion took care of any stragglers they left behind or those they left for her.

The Pirates and Air Pirates attacked first, the former of the Heartless swinging their enlarged swords around.

Roxas clashed with multiple Pirates, swatting and deflecting their swords out of his way whilst also eliminating any Pirates that were open.

Axel all the while jumped about the area, vanishing in a flurry of flames before appearing near Air Pirates and Aerial Vikings to deal devastating fiery damage on them.

Xion dashed towards one of the larger Heartless, going straight for a Battleship. Jumping on high, she quickly fired a Blizzard spell at one of the cannons of the floating ship.

Sealing the cannon, the fire that was supposed to come out caused an implosion, destroying the cannon. The flying ship rocked back and forth in the air until it was destroyed with Xion spinning about in the air, slashing through the head.

More Heartless however appeared to replace the loss in numbers.

Yet no sooner did they show did several of them get quickly destroyed by shots that did not come from the Nobody trio.

Axel looked over and had a wide grin appear at the sight of Shepard rushing in with Stitch on her shoulders firing away at the Heartless. Right behind her was Kaidan, Garrus and Tali, the large group rushing in to help their friends.

Kaidan immediately threw out a warp with Tali sending an Omni-bolt which broke through the new Heartless formation that had just appeared.

Shepard called upon her Biotics, focusing on her fist whilst Stitch jumped up and curled into a ball.

With a Biotic infused punch, Shepard sent the little blue experiment head on colliding with an Aerial Viking in the air, the force of the impact destroying the Heartless.

Garrus shot out a singular beam that burst into multiple smaller ones that riddled the Heartless that were within the vicinity of the shot. In a couple of moments, he did have to switch out his sniper rifle for his pistol and rapidly fired on those trying to attack civilians. He yelled at them to flee before resuming his work.

Kaidan focused on some biotic power, performing a Stasis hold on a number of enemies trying to get close to some civilians. When said vagrants saw their would-be attackers halted, neither spared any further second to wait any longer and fled. With things temporarily in the clear, Kaidan primed a grenade and chucked it into the air before pulling and throwing his captured Heartless in its intended path. The explosion destroyed the Heartless, letting Lieutenant Alenko to charge forward with his biotics flaring. With the build up at its peak, he slammed his fist down onto a contingent of Pirate Heartless and whipped them out in a single blow.

With some assistance from Xion and Kaidan, Tali was able to use her shotgun skills more effectively. Both of her teammates either knocked or threw the Heartless her way and with precision timed shots, she was able to decimate them one by one. She did have some difficulty when confronting a larger group, but she back rolled out of the way once dropping an explosive where she once stood.

As this went on, a woman with feline features watched the fight from afar. She was amazed by the fighting prowess coming from the three black coat worn individuals. It was rather fascinating to her witnessing what she could possibly describe as technologically advanced weapons. Yet a small part of her argued it was magic.

And for the others taking part of this confrontation, she witnessed some well-oiled teamwork with experience under their belt with how coordinated they were.

Shaking her head of such details, she had to act and help defend the people.

Taking out her pistol, she fired a number of shots at the surrounding invaders. Her weaponry proved not as efficient at the fighters from afar, but they proved some merit.

The Heartless were either stunned or, if damaged enough, destroyed.

Her actions drew the attention of Kaidan and Tali, the former of which called out to her.

"You need to get outta here. It's not safe-"

"I can handle myself, thank you very much."

To emphasize her point, she shot a Pirate repeatedly before it was destroyed. Charging right towards another one, she leaped into the air, hurled herself into a corkscrew like maneuver to shoot some more Heartless prior to landing on an Aerial Viking. She thus jammed her pistol into its head and shot several more times. Once it disbursed, she broke her landing on a Pirate Heartless and possibly breaking it's back with feline finesse.

"Alright, stay back at least." Kaidan conceded. "Your weapon isn't as effective as ours."

To prove his point, Kaidan used his Biotic burst rifle to fire a Biotic stasis field that ensnared several Heartless at once giving Tali the chance to utilize her Omni-bolts to obliterate the captured Heartless.

The feline-like humanoid blinked at just how quickly and efficiently these two took care of the Heartless, making her feel like her flare for the dramatic to be sorta pointless.

Shaking her head, the woman cocked her rifle and fired at her next target whilst the others continued to take out the other Heartless, keeping any nearby civilian safe.

"Then perhaps you can liberate one of your weapons to me for the time being?"

Alenko was about to respond when Roxas swooped in, destroying the last few Heartless with light pillars bursting around him.

"Well… maybe next time." The Feline woman said disappointedly.

"Maybe." Said the lieutenant. "You did good so far, ma'am. Military?"

"More or less now. I mostly do commission work for the Royal Navy these days." Formally said the feline woman.

"Looks clear." Garrus said aloud, the group of intergalactic visitors putting or recalling their weapons away.

The feline woman gazed upon them with open intrigue and astonishment.

"All of you managed to beat back these dastardly creatures with ease." She commented, gaining the attention of the entire team.

"Oh, we didn't see you there." The female red headed human said, walking up to her. "Are you an officer?"

"Commissionary. I am Captain Amelia Thompson." The feline woman introduced herself. "I must ask, but how is it that you are all so adept in engaging these blasted creatures?"

"The Heartless?"

"Is that what they are called? Heartless?" She said with a curious, thoughtful look. "Name sounds awfully appropriate with how I've seen them conduct themselves around here."

"They're a bit of a specialty of ours." The other red head in the black cloak said, leaning his elbow atop the young teen girl with the black hair.

"May I ask you for your names?"

The group introduced themselves shortly after with Amelia humming aloud with clear intrigue.

"Forgive me, but I don't recognize your two species." Amelia said, gesturing towards Garrus and Tali.

"We aren't from your neck of the woods, captain."

"Oh?" Amelia's curiosity was piqued. "Intergalactic travelers perhaps?"

"Travelers yes, but intergalactic… we recently went into that territory." Shepard clarified. "Recent accident, mind you."

"Ah, so this is truly a grand step for you all." Amelia frowned. "Pardon me, but you mentioned that these Heartless as you call them are your specialty, yes?" she received nods from them all. "So I take it that they are present in your galaxy as well."

"Unfortunately." Garrus remarked.

"Now if you'll excuse me, we're gonna need to get back to this one meeting some of us had to quickly leave from." Shepard stated apologetically.

"Because of these Heartless?" Amelia asked.

"Yeup." Axel chimed in. "Had to abruptly leave queeny Illy high and dry because of 'em."

"Queeny Illy? You don't mean Queen Illysa?"

"That's the one." Axel said with a nod.

"Then don't let me hold you up." Amelia said with an incline of her head.

No sooner had she said that did a familiar humanoid wolf run up to them.

"Ah, Captain Gandry." Amelia greeted.

"Amelia!" Gandry said with a large grin. "A pleasure to see you once more. I see you've met our newest visitors."

"We briefly touched base on them being new, per say." Said the feline woman. "I dare say they were quite remarkable in their fighting capabilities against these Heartless monstrosities."

"Perhaps you can come with us as we make our way back to the Parliament building." Gendry suggested. "No doubt the queen will want to hear your account on seeing Shepard and her people in action."

"I'll be delighted to. Besides, I'm rather curious about them anyways." Amelia openly admitted.

The large collection of individuals broke off with Garrus, Tali, Stitch and Kaidan being told to return to the ship for the time being whilst Shepard, Amelia, Roxas, Axel, Xion and Gandry went back to the Parliamentary building in the center of the space port.

Upon their return, Queen Illysa and those within that initial meeting room received the field report from Captain Amelia on her witness accounts of the Normandy ground team combating the Heartless. How effective they were on both their combat and teamwork.

When it came down to some particular details during the confrontation, Shepard had to help clarify some information like her and Kaidan's biotic capabilities to some of their weaponry and technology. And when it came down to it, the Nobody trio had to contribute as well on giving more information on the Heartless.

At its end, Queen Illysa dismissed the new arrivals so they could make it back to their ship. It was no doubt for her and those within the meeting room to digest the recently received information.

Shepard and co were soon back on the Normandy, the ground crew with Chakwas, Joker and Pressly being called in for a meeting.

"Alright, so, we're in a bind." Shepard said. "That's the obvious. The main thing we need to figure out is what to do next and how we can get home."

Neither crew member knew what was happening back in their native galaxy. Saren and Sovereign were still at large and the Citadel Council needed to be warned of the danger they greatly pose to the galaxy at large. And any further delay from making their return could spell disaster.

"Ship is intact but the functions and controls are shotty." Joker said with a sad and frustrated demeanor.

"I've made a few scans of the ship." Tali said, bringing out her Omni-tool. "And I had a hunch that proved to be true. Gummi Tech has been integrated into the Normandy."

"So what does that mean for us and the ship?" Garrus asked, arms crossed in thought.

"Good question." Jane murmured, looking to the ship specialist of the team. "Tali."

The Quarian simply nodded, going over the tech of the ship and comparing it to the Gummi's she had been extensively studying for weeks now.

"If we can properly install more onto the Normandy, we can have a safer chance of making it back to our galaxy. No ship problems when traversing through that FTL anomaly if we somehow encounter it again."

"Do you think it's possible, Tali?" Joker asked.

"I have everything Della informed me on Gummi tech and their applications. We can use that knowledge to help guide us along our repair process."

"We still have a considerable amount of it in storage." Presley informed the Commander. "Originally we were going to send it back to the Alliance after this mess with Saren is done and over with for further study, but now I'm afraid we'll have no choice but to use most, if not all that we have in our possession."

"See to it that it's integrated into the ship, Pressly." Jane stated.

"Of course, Commander."

"What about that offer that cat chick gave us?" Axel brought up, sitting on one of the chairs in a backwards manner.

"What about it?"

Prior to heading back to the Normandy, Captain Amelia wanted to have a discussion with Shepard on a voyage she was about to undertake two days from now. Something about a number of Normandy crew members taking part of it.

Amelia said she was fine if they refused, but the offer was placed on the table with a small time window for further details.

"Well, I dunno about you, but I'm not one to sit still for long in a single location." Axel admitted. "I'd rather be out doin' something then just waiting for the ship to get fixed up."

"And yet getting our ship back up and repaired is our top priority at this time."

"And how long would that take?" Axel shot back.

"Shepard, this may take a very long process." Tali spoke up. "I'm barely starting to understand how Gummi's work even with what Della has given us. We don't know what else needs to be used to get the ship in working order."

"And we're talking about integration, Commander." Joker said. "Who knows if the Normandy's original makeup will gel with these Gummi blocks."

Shepard exhaled a sigh, rubbing her eyes from the bits of frustration slowly rising to the surface.

"Alright, let's find Captain Amelia and have a chat with her."

-Scene Cut-

Stepping into nicely designed taverns, Shepard looked around the place to find the feline Captain.

When being told of discussing things with Amelia, the human Spectre was told where she would be at for the next couple of hours.

It didn't take long for Jane to find her, or rather it was the other way around.

"Ah, Commander Shepard." Captain Amelia gestured her over to join her at her booth at the far corner of the establishment.

"Amelia." the Spectre nodded in respect, taking a seat in front of the feline officer.

"Glad we are able to meet on such short circumstances." Amelia said straight away. "I understand your need to be with your crew and take care of your matters."

"Well I figure this to be important enough since it doesn't look like we'll be going anywhere, anytime soon."

"It seems you are in a dire situation."

"You are not wrong on that one."

"You can inform me if you want, I won't hold it against you if you don't."

Shepard snorted softly. "I won't bore you with all of the details. But to sum it up, my crew and I are hunting down a dangerous criminal, who is in league with a far dangerous being who is a galactic threat back home."

"I see. And does this involve your abrupt arrival?"

"Yeup. Had to escape what was a nuclear explosion going off." Shepard revealed. "A Twenty kiloton bomb that would have destroyed us had it not been for out "accident" in the ship."

"Do you have an idea as to what caused this?"

"We don't exactly know for sure what happened, but we entered this FTL anomaly and it sent us here." Jane said with her form slumping slightly.

"FTL?"

"Faster-than-light travel."

"Really?"

The two were momentarily interrupted when a waitress came on by and dropped off a fresh pot of tea on the table with a small basket of sandwiches.

"Thank you." Amelia said to the tavern employee before turning over to Shepard. "Sorry. Hope you don't mind me ordering us some refreshments as I take it. We might be here for a while."

"None at all."

"Good. Then I hope you enjoy earl grey." Said the captain, who poured them a cup of tea. "So what's it like with this FTL travel of yours? I admit the ships we have here don't have such a luxury."

"It has its ups and downs, Amelia."

"There always are."

Taking a sip of the tea, Jane hummed a little on the pleasant taste. "So what is it that you're requesting of us?"

Amelia nodded, beginning to explain to her of a planned upcoming voyage within the next two days where an astrophysicist by the name of Doctor Delbert Doppler from the nearby planet of Montressor had funded a voyage across the galaxy.

Their destination?

The fabled location where the legendary Pirate Captain Nathaniel Flint stored all of the treasure he and his crew had collected many years ago. The Loot of a Thousand Worlds.

Treasure Planet.

Apparently, someone the Doctor personally knew had discovered a map and shortly afterwards, the person's family home and place of business was destroyed in a pirate raid. After an extensive communication with his bank, the University of Montressor -which is who the doctor works for- and the Interstellar Academy itself, he was soon referred to the Admiralty board and was given sponsorship.

The Navy's side of the funding would be to supply the vessel for the expedition and it's commanding officer.

This was where Amelia came in.

Now normally such an expedition would be rather fascinating for Amelia to take part of. Yet she was awfully skeptical on taking part, even with being assigned as the captain of said voyage through the Admiralty Board.

For one, she rarely does exploration trips anymore ever since she freshly graduated from the Interstellar Academy over at Port Ivy. She was more inclined on any other assignments ever since. Asides from assisting the Interstellar Academy in their lessons, such as participating in occasional drills and exercises, her commission work is primarily escort voyages, shipping of tender and goods and voyages of scientific significance.

This odd assignment, while an odd refreshing take of things, didn't entirely sit well with her. And Amelia was even less thrilled upon seeing the roster of the ship's crew she'll be having aboard the R.L.S. Legacy, her loyal vessel for many years.

Now here they were, preparing for what is basically the adventurous voyage of a lifetime.

"I know what that's like, having a bad crew that is." Shepard said as she nibbled on the last bit of the one sandwich she just ate. "Had to deal with some annoying people when I was still a rookie. So what's so bad about them?"

"The one who had sold me on this is quite the wordsmith." Amelia remarked. "A cyborg by the name of John Silver met our financier first and got him and his companions signed on immediately. Afterwards, I met Mr. Silver to get a good impression on him. Even if I have to fully say on the bulk of the initial crew, I wanted to at least gauge the man. At first I had believed him to be a mere finesser of words. But his fellow crewmates worked well together and when my first mate Mr. Arrow approved of them, I knew I couldn't truly deny them."

"But you don't trust them."

"I trust they will do their jobs well enough." Amelia said. "It's what may come after arriving at our destination is what I don't trust. Our goal is treasure that has the moniker of a thousand worlds. Heavens knows how much treasure we might truly find if this planet truly exists."

"Then tell me, despite some of these problems, why do you want to take on this expedition?"

"Asides from the little sense of adventure, I believe the treasure from our destination could be used for far better purposes rather than collecting dust. I had brought this up with the Queen herself after you and some of your crew returned to your ship. She likes the idea of having Flint's infamous treasure being used to pay off taxes across the galaxy for a good number of decades."

"And you believe she'll be true to her word?"

"She most certainly will." Amelia said with utter conviction. "Queen Illysa has never thought of personal gain, only the good will of her people once she took the throne from her mother, the former queen, and what nasty details went on with the previous king, Illysa's uncle."

"I think I'd rather not know what details are at the moment."

"Of course not, it would be a whole nother discussion that could take longer than it should if we were to talk about it here."

"Right. Now what is it that you're offering?"

"Two things. First, I would humbly request having you and a number of your crew join me on this expedition. It would be good to have honest and loyal men to help outweigh the distrustful lot I'm more or less forced to take on the coming voyage.

"And the second?"

"It would be this."

Shepard gazed upon the letter that Amelia had handed to her that had the Queen's word ensuring that the Normandy would be provided for during its stay should the Commander accept the initial proposal. From food, possible shelter and supplies for repairing the Normandy… depending if some materials could be provided.

Mulling over the proposition, Jane eventually let out a sigh, folding the letter up and placing it in her pocket.

"When do we ship out?"

Amelia blinked in surprise. "Then you'll join me?"

"The opportunity is good and we need all the help we can get. The sooner my ship is repaired, the sooner we can get back home and save it from our present threat."

Amelia smiled, holding out her hand across the table. Shepard was quick to grasp it as a firm handshake was made to solidify the agreement.

-Scene cut-

From one of the various ports and docks of the Montressor Spaceport, a ferry arrived with multiple individuals exiting the ship.

Of these was a young human male of fifteen years with brown hair, brown jacket, greyish pants with brown boots and a bag slung over his shoulder.

He was gazing around the port with wonder, taking in all the sights and sounds as this was a first for him.

"Jim. Oh Jim! Wait for me."

And that moment's ruined.

Out from the ferry walked the canine man who was responsible for bringing him here in a rather gaudy, pressurized space suit that made him far bigger than he was with a helmet that had its own flapping lid. It was clearly unsuitable for modern spacing as compared to what's in the market these days.

How quaint.

This was Doctor Delbert Doppler, astrophysicist from the University of Montressor and old family friend of his mom's.

"W-well Jim this should be a wonderful opportunity for the two of us to bond and get to know one another." Doppler said with awkward enthusiasm. "You know what they say, familiarity breeds… well contempt but-"

"Look, let's just find the ship." Jim Hawkins interrupted the man in amusement, walking off as the lid closed on Delbert's face.

Before leaving the initial dock, they saw something truly outstanding. A ship like nothing either has ever seen before in their lives.

To sum it up, it was rather beautiful in its rather large, yet slick design.

"Wow… What is that?" Jim whispered in utter awe as he read the ship's name across its hull. "Normandy SR-1…"

"My word. I have never seen anything like that."

"Do you think that's the ship we're supposed to be on?"

"I don't believe so." Doppler said, much to his and Jim's disappointment. "We're supposed to board the R.L.S. Legacy."

Seeing this, the doctor patted him on the shoulder. "Come on Jim, let's now dawdle. We have a ship to get to and a treasure to find."

Hearing this made Jim smirk, nodding at Doppler as the duo resumed their walk trying to find their ship.

Eventually, they were having difficulties finding their port so Jim opted to ask for directions.

"Second berth on the right." A robot atop a ladder pointed.

Down below, a short, stout and furry alien added, "You can't miss it."

"Ok, thanks." Jim said.

"It's the suit, isn't it?" Doppler exclaimed. "I should never have listened to that pushy two-handed saleswoman. This one said it fit, that one said it was my color. I didn't know what to do. I get so flustered- Ooh!"

On accident, he bumped into his young charge, who abruptly stopped in the middle of the walkway as he was ranting.

"Oh! Here she is Jim, the R.L.S Legacy!"

Jim grinned at the sight of the solar Galleon, approaching the ramp that would lead them aboard the ship.

Slowly climbing up the ramp, the two heard firm authoritative voice shouting orders aboard the ship.

"Slow those casks forward!" Yelled out a giant of a man, who was in all intents and purposes a rock-man. He presently wore a red officers uniform jacket, a white button vestment and pants combo and a black sailors hat with a gold trim to finish off the look. "Heave together now!"

"How cool is this?" Jim muttered aloud before bumping into someone on accident.

"Oh sorry about that. I didn't mean-" Jim quickly said, noticing that the one he had bumped into was someone that was probably around his age though perhaps slightly younger.

He wore garments that were entirely black and had sandy-blond hair and blue eyes.

"Hey, it's no problem. It was an accident." The teen said pleasantly.

Jim smirked a bit at the teen dismissal of his little bump in with him. "Right, uh…"

"I'm Roxas." The blue-eyed teen introduced himself, holding out a hand which was taken by the brown haired teen.

"Jim Hawkins."

The two shook hands.

Roxas blinked a moment later, looking over Jim's shoulder at the sight of Doppler in his oversized suit. Something Jim noticed, cringing slightly as he trailed a hand over his face.

Dr. Doppler soon greeted the rock-man, who was still spouting out orders to the ship's crew. "Good morning, Captain. Everything shipshape?"

"Shipshape it is, sir, but I'm not the captain." The rock-man looked upwards and directed Doppler to the intended direction. "The captain's aloft."

At this point, Amelia -who was now in her captain's uniform- was running across the masts and performing a series of acrobatic maneuvers with her eyes making quick notes with everything she gazed upon. Before long, she landed back onto the ship's deck with a smile on her face.

This earned a confused, yet amazed look from both Doppler and Jim.

Amelia walked up to the rock-man with a stern look on her face when she strode past him. "Mr. Arrow, I've checked this miserable ship from stem to stern and, as usual, it's spot on." She finished off with a pleasant look on her face. "Can you get nothing wrong?"

The now identified Mr. Arrow gave out a smile as he tipped his hat towards her. "You flatter me, Captain."

Turning away from her first officer, Amelia came face to face with Doppler, an amused grin appearing on her face.

"Ah~ Dr. Doppler, I presume." She said in a coy voice.

"Uh… Yes, I-"

"Hello?" Amelia cut him off by knocking on his glass face plate, figuring the large suit was cutting off his hearing. "Can you hear me?"

"Yes I can, stop that banging!" Doppler exclaimed in aggravation, attempting to remove his helmet.

And off course, it was stuck on. Why bother purchasing such a thing if he didn't know how to properly operate it?

"If I may, Doctor," Amelia grabbed the square-like contraption with a red button on its center, twisting it. "This works so much better when it's right-way up and plugged in." She proceeded to pull the square piece, spun the doctor around, plugged it into an outlet on the back of Delbert's suit.

"Lovely, there you go!"

Doppler, in a fit of embarrassment, pried off his suit's helmet, whirled around and confronted the feline captain. "If you don't mind, I can manage my own plugging!"

Amelia took no offence as she was in a really good mood up to this point. She ignored the statement as she quickly took the man's hand for a firm shake. "I'm Captain Amelia, late of a few run-ins with the Protean Armada. Nasty business, but I won't bore you with my scars." She then addressed the good doctor and Jim to her first officer. "You've met Mr. Arrow, my first officer. Sterling, tough, dependable, honest, brave and true."

"Please, Captain." He said with a slight bashful tone.

"Shut up, Arrow. You know I don't mean a word of it." Amelia jokingly said.

The pair had been together for many years, working all so very well that they practically became a team. A package deal if it were. You can't get one without the other. Even says so in their contract with the Royal Navy for every voyage they must undertake.

"And somewhere around here is my second officer of our voyage."

"Second?"

"I believe she's referring to me."

The pair turned over and saw a redhead woman in a black space suit with a number of weapons strapped onto her person. There were some red highlights painted onto it with the N7 Logo placed near her collar with a symbol on the other side to signify her status as 'Commander'.

"Roxas, got everything you need?" The 'second officer' said to the blue eyed, blonde teen.

"Yeah, all set Shepard." Roxas nodded.

"Are the others here yet?" Jane inquired.

"Axel went back with Xion and Garrus to get the rest of the supplies we need." Roxas stated. "Tali's down below getting herself situated."

"And Kaidan and Stitch?"

"All set back aboard the Normandy."

"Good, good." Shepard then looked over at Doppler and Jim. "Who are they?"

Doppler coughed into his hand before introducing himself.

"Right, right, the guy who made this all happen." Jane nodded. "I'm Commander Jane Shepard, Amelia's second-second in command. Dr. Doppler, I presume."

Doppler nodded, finding his brow twitch at the similar wording this Commander had with the Captain, before placing a hand on the back of his companion.

"And may I introduce you to Jim Hawkins?" The dog-man said with a grand smile. "Jim, you see, is the boy who found the treas-"

Before he could continue further, Amelia quickly silenced him with her hand covering his mouth.

"Doctor, please!" She hissed, silencing him with a fierce glare.

Looking back, she saw a number of crew members looking towards them. Yet they quickly turned away when both she and Shepard gave them a combined fierce glare to have them return to their duties.

With them leaving, the ship's captain readdressed the finance of this voyage.

"I'd like a word with you in my stateroom." Amelia said, poking Doppler's nose.

The feline Captain led the group away into her personal quarters aboard the ship, locking the door behind her.

"Doctor, to muse and blabber about a treasure map in front of this particular crew," Amelia stressed out. "Demonstrates a level of ineptitude that borders on the imbecilic, and I mean that in a very caring way."

"Imbecilic?" Doppler repeated with a scoff. "I should have you know-"

"You should realize, doctor, that by seeing the unsavory looks of the crew here, most, if not nearly all of the people you hired onto the R.L.S. Legacy are dirty lowlifes." Shepard said aloud, earning nods from Mr. Arrow and Amelia. "So you best be careful on what you say or else things might turn for the worse."

When discussing further details of the upcoming mission, Shepard and Amelia had to be careful on what to say. If word ever got out that there was a treasure hunt practically sponsored by the Royal Navy itself, there would be a string of pirate and merchant vessels alike shadowing their trail.

The dog-man wished to find a means to retort only for Amelia to continue where she left off.

"May I see the map?"

"Wait, why can the crew not see it but this young man can?" Doppler asked, gesturing to Roxas who had joined them in the Captain's stateroom.

"Because Roxas is a valued member of Shepard's team who I had personally recruited for insurance for this voyage." Amelia stated. "He is a young lad that I can trust."

Unsure on what to do exactly, Jim soon pulled out the map from his jacket's pocket and tossed it over to the ship's captain. It was quickly caught and the map was revealed to be a spherical object.

Taking a look over, the feline captain along with the human commander inspected the bronze/copper colored object with lines and circles spread across its surface.

Amelia's eyes even dilated slightly at the shiny bronze orb in a cat-like manner.

"Fascinating." Amelia said truthfully, never seeing anything truly sophisticated in all of her years of travel. Her gaze shifted back to Doppler and Hawkins with slightly narrowed eyes.

"Mr. Hawkins, in the future, you will address me as "Captain" or "ma'am". Is that understood?" Amelia inquired as she opened her cabinet and placed it inside a box.

She heard the man groan.

"Mr. Hawkins?" The captain said sharply, patience slowly waning.

Jim faced her, sighed and reigned in compliance. "Yes Ma'am."

"That'll do for now." Amelia said, locking the cabinet and tucking the key into her coat pocket.

"And what of them?" Doppler asked.

"Mr. Arrow or 'sir' will suffice. And as for Shepard, you may call her as such or 'Commander'."

"And you can just call me Roxas."

"Yes, we can." Amelia quipped, pinching his cheek with him pulling away with a light pout while rubbing his face.

She gave him a small grin, before speaking with Doppler and Jim.

"Gentlemen, this must be kept under lock and key when not in use. And, Doctor, again, with the greatest possible respect, zip your howling screamer."

Shepard snorted a little on seeing the literal fight between a cat and a dog person right in front of her. She can already imagine Joker's response when he learns about this.

"Captain, I assure you I-"

Yet Amelia interrupted him as she sat down at her desk. "Let me make this as monosyllabic as possible. I… don't care much for this crew you hired. They're…" Amelia then turned to her first office with a questionable look on her face. "How did I describe them, Arrow? I said something rather good this morning before coffee."

"A ludicrous parcel of driveling galoots, ma'am." Arrow quoted, earning a smile from the captain.

"There you go. Poetry."

"Not to mention a few more colorful wordings not long afterwards." Shepard reminded Amelia as she too was present for the breakfast meeting with her and Mr. Arrow for proper introductions this morning.

"Ah, yes, quite."

Doppler slammed his hands onto the table as he was rather annoyed at this point. "Now see here-!"

"Doctor, I'd love to chat, tea, cake, the whole shebang, but I have a ship to launch and you've got your outfit to buff up." Amelia interrupted him before he could start barraging the insults and foolish comments. She then began tapping her claw onto the poor excuse of a space suit as she said all that before addressing her first officer. "Mr. Arrow, please escort Roxas and these two neophytes down to the galley straightaway. Young Hawkins and Roxas will be working for our cook, Mr. Silver."

Over on the other side of the stateroom, Jim was toying around with a chart tool when he suddenly stopped upon hearing what his assignment will be while on the R.L.S Legacy.

"What? The cook?" Jim gaped in disbelief.

Just before they were able to even make another step or movement, there was a knock on the door outside the room.

Quirking a brow, Amelia approached the door, unlocking and opening it to reveal…

"Ah, Tali, I take it your preparations are well and ready?" Amelia greeted with a small smile.

Jim and Doppler stared at an alien woman who was covered in head to toe by a suit of some kind with her face being obscured as well.

The only visible part of her body, and they would use visible loosely, was the glowing eyes beneath the helmet. They were unsure as to whether or not that was her natural eyes or it was just amplified like that due to the helmet.

"Just about, Captain." Said the Quarian before spotting the doctor and the human teen. "Oh, didn't know you had company."

"I was getting a bit more acquainted with our financier and his guest." Said the feline woman.

Tali merely nodded as she stepped inside with the captain closing the door behind her.

"Gentlemen, this is my assistant and one of the best engineers you will find in this or any galaxy." Amelia said gesturing to the helmeted alien. "This is Tali'Zorah Nar Rayya. My chief engineer and assistant aboard the ship."

"Hello." Tali said kindly enough with Doppler and Jim nodding back to her while introducing themselves in the process.

"Oh so is he the one with the map?" Tali said, gesturing to Jim making both he and the Doctor blink.

"...Okay, she wasn't there when the map was brought up. How did she-"

"I keep no secrets from my crew." Shepard said to the doctor.

"As don't I from individuals that have garnered my trust." Amelia added. "Know that out of all the individuals aboard this crew, Shepard's have thus far displayed the one I can put my faith into absolutely. Aside Mr. Arrow of course. I need my lapdog by my side at all times of course." She then turned to her first officer. "No offense."

Arrow smirked in amusement. "None taken, Captain."

Tali then approached the pair with a curious expression hidden behind her helmet. "Tell me, how was it that you two were able to deduce the map to be of this infamous treasure trove? We haven't been here for long, but we've heard this place doesn't even exist."

"That's just an excuse for those who are unwilling to take the risk." Doppler stated emphatically.

Amelia, however, wasn't really convinced.

"Actually…" She approached her cabinet, opening it up to retrieve the map that she had put away no less than a few minutes ago.

"Now that I think about it, Miss Zorah does bring up a fair point. How were you able to tell if the map was genuine or not? Was it you, doctor, who opened it? You being a man of science and whatnot."

Doppler snorted. "Much as I would love to take all of the credit, this accomplishment is for Jim and Jim alone."

"...Young Hawkins?"

"Go on Jim, show them." Doppler encouraged.

Amelia gazed to the others and with a shrug from Jane, the feline officer tossed the bronze orb over to Jim.

Taking a moment to look it over, he began pressing several buttons and nodes upon the sphere before twisting it around in several directions until a click and snap was heard.

The attention was then carried off onto something else. To be exact, many thousands of somethings.

The bronze orb glowed an ethereal green aura that spread out and encompassed the entire stateroom. Thousands of tiny little green lights, like buzzing fireflies to the natives to the Etherium galaxy. For its present guests, it was quite the holographic display.

This quickly startled the captain and first officer as they watched as the holographic images took better shape to form precise models of a dozen different planets, stars and nebulae materializing before their eyes. And encompassing all this was even some illuminated gridlines, drawn out like quadrants on an old globe map.

If it weren't for the open windows in the stateroom, the holograms would've been brighter.

"Incredible…" Mr. Arrow muttered as Amelia's voice died in her throat.

To the feline captain, this was honestly far better than any charts and maps she had studied throughout her entire life. The display she was presently looking at was far more accurate, for starters

"You ain't seen nothing yet."

The astrophysicist went over to the holographic model of the Crescentia space port. With a delicate tap on the hologram, the entire map shifted.

There was a sudden wave and the hologram began to move. Lines formed and began attaching certain worlds to others.

In an instant, the occupants in the stateroom realized they were indeed looking at a map as a chart was being drawn out.

Things rushed forward, almost sweeping most of the room's occupants off their feet with planets and stars flowing past them up to a point when something prominent formed before them all with the route line coming at its end.

Their intended destination.

"There it is." Doppler said, gesturing to a planet that had two rings around it with the rings intersecting to make an X. "The loot of a thousand worlds."

"Whoa." Roxas murmured, gazing at the planet with wonder, a sentiment shared with him by Tali and Jane the latter of whom snorted aloud.

"Well, guess we can genuinely cross off the search for buried treasure off our bucket list." Shepard said with a wry grin. "Mom is never gonna believe this."

Though it went unnoticed, Jim's visage became more solemn and determined at the Commander speaking of her mother. His own mom was waiting for him back home. And he wasn't gonna let her down this time.

"How did you figure this out?" Tali asked, causing the others to turn to him.

Just in time as the map receded back into the sphere, letting out a hiss to indicate it had resealed itself as if it were on a timer after its intended release.

"I've always had a knack for machinery since I was a kid." Jim admitted. "I just picked it up, fiddled around with it and it just came to me."

"Truly?" Amelia rubbed her chin in thought. It seemed to be that Jim could be some kind of engineering prodigy.

Perhaps he would come to greater use than she had initially anticipated.

Clearing her throat, Amelia returned to her more professional persona.

"Now then, much as we would all enjoy blathering about treasures and maps to unsolved mysteries we have a voyage to undertake." Amelia said. "Mr. Arrow, please escort our newest crewmates here to the kitchen. Commander Shepard, a word with you."

Mr. Arrow nodded at the captain before all but one of the group filed out of the stateroom, leaving Jane and Amelia alone.

"What do you think of our financier?" Amelia asked straight away, placing the map back into her cabinet.

"Hearing about him is one thing, seeing him is another." Shepard said with a shrug. "He seems good enough if not… naive."

"In most cases, they often account for the same thing."

"No kidding." Jane ran her hand through her red hair with a shake of her head. "Just hope his bits of arrogance get the better of him."

"I agree." Amelia exhaled a sigh. "To think I was excited to be heading out on an interesting voyage for once, rather than the mundane routine ones I've grown accustomed to, only for Dr. Doppler to ruin it."

"I've met worse people." Jane said. "He's just over excited. You get used to people like him."

"I shall take your word for it." The Captain conceded. "But it'll take some merit for me to overlook things. After all, despite him hiring a crew, he did an insufficient job filling every role. I mean there's no carpenter, no purser, a boatswain, not even a surgeon for heaven's sake."

At the mention of all this, Amelia had to rub her head to help take care of this headache that wanted to form.

"You have no idea how much of a saving grace you and your men are, Shepard. You lot can be able to help fill most of those duties."

"You're welcome, Amelia."

In all honesty, Shepard can share the same stress the feline captain was experiencing now. What person doesn't properly hire the right amount of people to fill the right stations? A novice, that's who. Jane could scarcely imagine how bad things could be without her team's presence here on the ship.

"Now then, what do you think of Hawkins?"

"Troubled kid." Shepard said quickly. "I almost would've figured he was raised on the streets if it weren't for reading his file that his mother is still around."

"It's something I hope will be ironed out while he's on my ship, given his attitude so far." Amelia stated, taking a seat behind her desk to look over her map and chart the course that would take them to their destination.

"With the right influence, that will probably happen." Shepard said knowingly, with Amelia locking eyes with hers.

"Personal experience?"

"In a manner of speaking." Jane admitted, leaning on Amelia's desk. "After an… incident in my youth, I was more or less acting the same way as him. My mom was constantly out as she was in the military and I resented her, for the most part, due to her not being there for me. But we came to terms sometime afterwards. The only saving grace that helped mend our relationship was my father figure who was an old friend of my family, who, by the way, is also in the military."

Shepard already made a mental note to have Roxas befriend him and try to get the new cabin boy to open up.

"So perhaps Hawkins is not a lost cause after all." Amelia remarked.

"You think Doppler won't make it far?"

Amelia didn't respond though that was enough of an answer for the human Spectre.

"Prior to joining my crew, Tali was just a civilian going out on her rite of passage to adulthood." Shepard abruptly revealed, making Amelia look up from her work. "Now she's proving her worth time and time again with the various assignments she took part in. One hell of an engineer."

"Yes, with us knowing young Hawkins's skills, I assume you'll want him to study under Miss Zorah at some point?"

"If it wouldn't be too much to ask."

"Depending on how things go, I just might. And there was an archeologist you spoke of? Liara T'Soni?"

"Liara is like the polar opposite to Doppler, if you could imagine at first glance. Shy, timid and rather reserved due to what she went through prior to rescuing her from the ruins on Therum. Over time she's opened up more and can hold her own when it comes to the safety of her friends." Shepard said.

"Shame they are not here right now for this voyage."

"Yeah… a shame. It would've put my nerves at ease knowing they were indeed alright back home.

Amelia only nodded in understanding, going back to her work.

"I'm not saying to expect them to quickly change right away but give Doppler and Jim some time to adjust. We might be surprised with what they might be capable of." Jane said after a few seconds of silence.

Amelia paused, glancing back up at the Commander. "I'll take your advice to consideration. Along with Mr. Arrow, your insight is much appreciated to listen to."

"That's all I ask." Shepard's green eyes traveled towards the cabinet where the map to Flints Trove was being kept. "So… about the map…"

"You're just as curious as I am." Amelia saw the commander nod before continuing. "My family has a rich history in all kinds of exploration, travel and adventure. As a child, I remember listening to all kinds of tales from my extensive family, even up to the time of my great grandfather, who was a survivor from one of Nathanial Flint's final raids. In my family's collection in our ancestral estate, there are all kinds of objects and artifacts from all corners of the galaxy, even some from our neighbors. I am able to distinguish an object's species origin from a number of glances, even on what materials used to some degree. Yet for all my knowledge and experience, I've never come across something so unique."

"I don't follow." Jane said with a tilt of her head.

"I assumed Flint's map was made of copper or bronze when I first held it, yet it shows no sign of corrosion. It's heavier than it's supposed to be with its size, making me think there's more to it than meets the eye. And the lines and circles on it makes me believe the right button and tumbler sequence needs to be used to open up the map."

"Sounds to me it would've been a toy if nothing else."

"Exactly. But after seeing your Omni-tool in action, makes me think otherwise."

"And when do you plan on having Jim be brought back here to open up the map to properly chart the course? Because, in all honesty, I could not keep track on the route the map gave out."

"If I can't figure out how to open it soon on my own, I'll have him brought back here from whatever task Mr. Silver has for him after we sail past the Magellanic Cloud. I refuse to travel another mile further beyond it without me knowing the exact location we must undertake." Amelia said firmly as she barely recollected the route up to that point before she was lost in wonderment. "For now, I'd rather have the map be kept under wraps though I wouldn't put it past these Galoots to already have a gander at where it is we are going."

"Then I'll be sure to inform my men on what to expect."

All the while…

Descending the steps towards the galley below, the doctor scrunched up his face in utter annoyance.

"That woman! That feline!" Doppler cursed. "Who does she think is working for whom?!"

"It's my map, and she's got me bussin' tables?" Hawkins complained.

"I'll not tolerate a cross word about our captain!" Mr. Arrow said sternly towards the pair. "There's no finer officer in this or any galaxy."

'More or less compete with certain individuals.' Roxas thought to himself as that while Captain Amelia is a good woman, he's known Shepard a whole lot longer.

Tali thought along the same thing as Roxas, but more of a wider scope with some of the leaders from the Migrant Fleet.

They were approaching the kitchen, the sound of a man casually whistling, their noses being hit with multiple different scents.

Within the confines of the kitchen, they saw mist obscuring a large individual that appeared to be preparing the first meal for the voyage.

"Mr. Silver!"

"Why Mr. Arrow, sir!" The large, portly man greeted in an exuberant and jovial manner, wiping his hands on his apron. "Bringing such fine lookin' distinguished ladies and gents to grace my humble galley." As Silver said all this, he bowed down graciously with his movements revealing a set of a robotic arm, leg and eye.

"Had I known; I'd have tucked in me shirt." As the cook of the ship stated, he tucked in his shirt and apron into his pants with a laugh.

Roxas and Tali gazed upon the individual with wonder and intrigue, the latter of which to a must larger degree.

Their new crewmate however…

"A cyborg." Jim whispered.

Roxas gazed upon Jim with a curious look.

"This is Dr. Doppler." Mr. Arrow introduced the dog man. The financier of our voyage."

"Love the outfit, doc." Silver remarked, his cybernetic eye shooting out a laser that trailed over the overly sized suit.

"Yes, thank you, um… Love, love the eye." Delbert said as he covered his hand over the spots the beam trailed over.

Quickly, he reached out to Jim and pushed him forward.

"This young man is Jim Hawkins."

Jim was unsure as to what Doppler was doing but he saw as Silver held out his multi knifed robotic hand.

"Jimbo." Silver greeted with a mischievous look, laughing at himself as he switched his hand back to normal.

Jim however gazed upon the man suspiciously.

"And who are these fine two young lad and lady?"

"Roxas and Tali." Mr. Arrow said to the cook. "They are personal recruits of the Captain."

Silver saw Tali fidget slightly as she gazed upon his robotic prosthetics whilst Roxas looked on with a curious expression.

"Now, don't be too put off by this hunk of hardware." Silver remarked with a casual grin.

Walking off to the side, the cook started cooking up a meal, pulling off ingredients left and right along that were hanging from the rafters above. In a matter of seconds, his robotic arm started reconfiguring all sorts of attachments from a pair of cutters to snip away through some sea-food looking animals, a cleaver to chop away on the vegetables before seemingly cutting his organic hand off.

"WHOA!" He bellowed, showing off a missing hand, only for the sleeve to roll back down to show that it was fine. He chuckled soon after with his robotic hand switching once more to several claw-like attachments.

"These gears have been tough getting used to," he picked up a couple of eggs and tossed them into the air, letting the claws snatch onto them, "but they do come in mighty handy from time to time."

Squeezing the eggs, the contents entered the dish he was working on. Tossing the pan up in the air, he switched his attachment once more into an impromptu flamethrower to quickly hard boil the skillet. With the flames dying down, he dumped the skillet's contents into a large pot set over a heater.

A pinch of salt was added and he pulled out a spoon to quickly stir before tasting his concoction.

"Mmmm." Silver hummed with satisfaction.

"...Keelah…" was Tali's response at the display before her.

The cook quickly pulled out four bowls, pouring in his soup to each of them.

"Here, now, have a taste of me famous bonzabeast stew." Silver said with pride, holding out the bowl for them to take.

The four were a little unsure at first, but Roxas was the first to try it out when he procured a spoon.

"Hmm… tastes really good." Roxas said with a smile.

"Why thank you, lad." Silver said, patting the lads shoulder.

Tali was a little hesitant, not knowing if the food would exactly work with her digestion. Taking a chance, she pulled out her *cough* straw *cough* and slurped up the broth with little bits of meat into the mix.

"Wow! This is really tasty!" Tali admitted.

Hearing this, Doppler took a few experimental licks.

"Mmm! Delightfully tangy, yet robust."

"Old family recipe."

Going in for a second helping, Doppler recoiled in shock at the sight of a floating eyeball in his stew.

"In fact, that was part of the old family!" Silver exclaimed, bellowing out a hearty laugh, wiping a tear out of his good eye.

Roxas and Tali recoiled at the sight before gazing into their bowls to see if there were any "extremities" placed in there. Yet they let out a sigh of relief when there were none.

It seemed the good cook placed it in Doppler's bowl on purpose.

Silver plucked the eye out and tossed it into his own mouth and swallowed it whole.

"Just kidding, doc. I'm nothing if not a kidder."

He then glanced over to Jim who had yet to take a taste of his stew.

"Go on, Jimbo, have a swig." Silver encouraged

Jim was a little hesitant, but was ready to try it out.

Yet something seemed amiss when he scooped his first spoonful.

The spoon's texture started shifting into something else. A bit transparent with a pink hue to it. Not to mention the eyes popping out soon after.

"What the-"

"Morph!" The cook said in recognition. "You jiggle-headed' blob of mischief! So that's where you've been hiding!"

In an instant, Morph shifted into a straw before inserting himself into Jim's bowl and slurped it all in one go. Once done, the 'straw' reformed into the floating pink blob before plopping itself into the bowl with a satisfied look on its face.

*BELCH*

It was from there that Morph flew out of Jim's bowl and floated around him, Roxas and Tali as it started playfully rubbing itself against their faces.

"What is that thing?" Jim asked.

"What is that thing?" Morph quoted, right before exploding into little particles.

Before their eyes, the little creature morphed into a miniature version of Jim.

"He's a morph." Silver answered. "I rescued the little shape-shifter on Proteus 1."

Morph demonstrated more of its abilities before the three by shifting into Roxas' and Tali's form and mimicked their movements.

"He's rather cute." Tali admitted, stroking the little creature once it reverted back to its original form.

Morph mewed under her touch before floating back to Silver's side, who cooed soon after with the little pink blob caressing his face with utter love. "He took a shine to me and vice versa. Been with me ever since. Right? Yeah. Nice boy."

*Ding Ding* *Ding Ding*

The sound of the ship's bell rang out, signaling that the ship was ready to launch.

"We're about to get underway. Would you like to observe the launch, Doctor?"

"Would I?" Doppler said excitedly. "Does an active galactic nucleus have superluminal jets?"

The vice-captain only gave him a dry look.

"Does it?" Roxas asked his Quarian friend.

She only shrugged, not knowing what the Doctor was talking about.

"I'm an engineer, not an astrophysicist." Tali whispered back.

"...I'll follow you." Doppler said dejectedly.

As they moved to leave, Arrow turned back lightly pushing Jim and Roxas back.

"Mr. Hawkins and Mr. Roxas shall be staying down here in your charge, Mr. Silver."

The moment this was said, Silver was taking another sip of the stew he prepared for later, when he started choking from utter surprise. Slamming his fist into his chest, he was able to clear himself up before addressing the first officer.

"Beggin' your pardon sir, but uh-"

"Captain's Orders." Mr. Arrow cut the cook off sharply. "See to it our new Cabin Boys are kept busy."

As Silver and Jim were trying to talk, hoping to dissuade Mr. Silver in order to change assignments, Roxas merely kept quiet for the most part.

"I don't see the problem with that." Said the Nobody.

Both Silver and Jim looked to the Nobody, their mouths comically gaping at the teen with the Vice-Captain smirking in approval.

"There we have it then."

Tali looked between them and Roxas had managed to pick up on what she wanted to do.

"I'll see ya later Tali." Roxas said with a small smile, making Tali smile back with a nod.

"Try to stay out of trouble, Roxas." Tali said jokingly, quickly following Arrow out of the galley not giving him a chance to retort.

After some brief moments of silence, Silver looked towards his two new charges. "So, Captain's put you two with me, eh?"

"Whatever." Jim drawled out.

"Yeah." Roxas simply said.

Silver sighed before giving them both a disarming smile.

"Well, who be a humble cyborg to argue with a captain?"

"Yeah…" Jim looked over to a large barrel of purple fruits. "You know, these purps, they're kind of like the ones back home on Montressor."

Roxas looked at Jim and wondered why he was bringing this up all of a sudden. An odd topic to start things out.

"You've ever been there?" Jim asked the cyborg, grabbing one of the purps.

"I can't say as I have, Jimbo." Silver said casually.

Taking a bite from the purp fruit, Jim continued to speak as clearly as he could. "Come to think of it, just before I left, I met this old guy who was, um… He was kind of looking for a cyborg buddy of his."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah. What was that old salamander's name? Oh yeah, Bones. Billy Bones."

"Bones? Boooones~?" Silver repeated with a scrunched up face in thought as he poured boiled water into a large bowl. "Mmm, mmm, T'aint ringin' any bells. Must've been another Cyborg. There's a slew of cyborgs roamin' this port."

"You thought Silver would know this Bones guy, Jim?"

"It was worth a shot." Jim shrugged out.

"That seems a bit of a stretch really." Roxas said with his arms crossed.

"Hey, he said Cyborg." Jim said defensively.

"Ah, don't mind him lad." Silver cut in with a laugh, patting Roxas' back. "Jimbo's right to be suspicious of coincidental meetins'. Learned that in me travels. Will serve him well in life."

Soon a loud whistling sound filled the air.

"Prepare to cast off!" Arrow bellowed out from above.

Silver smirked, lightly pushing them two towards the exit. "Eh~ Off with you two, and watch the launch. They'll be plenty work-a-waitin' for you afterwards."

As the two teens left the galley, Silver looked back with an even look on his face while Morph floated beside his head.

"We best be keepin' a sharp eye on these ones, eh, Morph?" He said to his most loyal companion as he fetched out a little bisket for the critter to munch on. "We wouldn't want 'em strayin' into things 'ey shouldn't."

Back above deck, a multi eyed alien positioned at the crow's nest yelled out his report to the captain below. "We're all clear, Captain!"

At the bridge, Amelia, Arrow and Shepard were standing by as they awaited for the R.L.S. Legacy to take off as they were given a proper clear to depart. And leaning against the side was Dr. Doppler, who kept whooshing around as he gazed in awe at the ship's navigational controls.

Amelia had to restrain herself from kicking the man over the ledge for ruining her moment. The launch is one of her most personal moments of spacing.

The feeling as one slips away from gravity's pull, the looming excitement of freedom and adventure, the absolute thrill as thrusters pushes you out into open space. All these things stirred an immense feeling of primal euphoria within the feline woman.

The last thing she wanted was for it to be stained by the sounds of loose bolts, unoiled metal creaking and the blabbering buffoonery the astrophysicist was spouting out under his breath.

Though if Amelia had to be honest, it was a little refreshing to see a financier actually wanting to witness a launch instead of staying in their cabin. So she can let things slide… for now.

Controlling her emotions, the ship's captain addressed her first officer. "Well, my friend. Are we ready to raise this creaking tub?"

"My pleasure, Captain." Arrow said evenly before bellowing out an order. "All hands to stations!"

In mere moments, the ship's crew scrambled about, climbing up to the sails of the ship.

"Loose all solar sails." Arrow bellowed out with the crew doing just that as the white sails with hexagonal patterns were released.

Down below, Jim and Roxas watched all this action and motion with the former looking out over the edge of the ship.

"Brace up!" Arrow shouted, the solar sails taking in the light of the nearby sun which began charging up the ships engines.

Before long, the R.L.S. Legacy started floating up into the air. This got Jim and Roxas to rush towards the edge and peer down to see how higher they were getting. And other orders were being spouted out from Mr. Arrow's mouth as things were getting ready for the initial launch.

Suddenly, everyone aboard the ship began lightly floating upwards as they were drifting away from the space port.

For Jim, it honestly felt rather great. A sense of weightlessness like the times when he rode his solar sailor in the past. A little sense of freedom before any dire circumstances arose.

For Roxas, it almost reminded him of initially flying for the first time when he made his brief appearance in Neverland.

Now that he thought about it, he should probably start practicing his flying skills really soon with this given opportunity.

"Mr. Zuff!" Amelia called out to a large slug-like alien with a swanky hat nearby a control switch. "Engage artificial gravity."

Zuff saluted the Captain and responded to basically… fart language, or flatula as it was called. Pressing down on the nearby switch, a purple ray shot out across the ship with all landing back down upon the floor save for Doppler who crashed down headfirst with nuts and bolts flying out.

Amelia glanced down with a slight smirk of amusement. Shepard had a bigger one with her shaking her head.

"South by southwest, Mr. Turnbuckle." Amelia instructed the helmsman of the ship. "Heading 2-1-0-0."

"Aye Captain." Turnbuckle replied, rotating the steering wheel of the ship. "2-1-0-0."

Once the ship reached its elevation out of the space port with its energy charged up...

"All set?" Shepard asked with Amelia nodding.

"Full speed Mr. Arrow, if you'd please."

The rock-man vice-captain spoke into a tube that connected itself to the engines down below.

"Take her away!"

As they were about to head off at full speed, Amelia decided to give Dr. Doppler a small warning to brace himself.

Sadly, the warning went in from one ear and out the other as he merely ignored her.

While the doctor ignored the warning, Shepard took it to heart. Bracing herself a little with her biotics flaring, the ship's thrusters blasted them forward.

As a result, Shepard was kept in place…

"AHHHHH-" *CRASH*

While Doppler sailed past them and crashed to the far off wall with a clattering and rattling being heard soon after.

Even though Amelia wanted to look back and see the ridiculous display of the financier, she fought the urge to do so.

She wanted to keep her composure.

It was briefly broken when Amelia caught a slight flash from the corner of her eye.

"What was that?" She asked Jane, who had her Omni-tool out.

Jane merely smiled and presented a recently taken photo to the captain.

This caused the feline woman to actually snort in utter amusement.

"I would like a copy of that later."

When they were away, those within the bridge looked around and saw the celestial weather was perfectly clear, a good sign to start this voyage to Treasure Planet. The sunlight was strong and a gentle solar breeze carried them all out with Crescentia eventually becoming nothing more than a speck in the distance as they found themselves joining a migration of space whales.

As this went on, Roxas and Jim were enthralled by the sight as they hung off the ship's shrouds.

Not wanting to stay on them for too long, they got off and had their feet firmly planted on the ship's wooden floor.

"Roxas."

Both Jim and Roxas turned to see two other individuals, both of whom had the same black cloak that Roxas wore.

"Axel, Xion." No. XIII greeted with a bright smile, going over to them. "You guys ready?"

"Sure thing. Garrus got the rest of our stuff down in the barracks." Axel said with a wide grin. "This'll be a new one for all of us."

"I wonder what we'll see on the way?" Xion asked aloud in open thought.

"Maybe some interstellar seashells for your collection." Axel joked, mussing up Xion's hair with the younger Nobody puffing her cheeks up and beat her fists against the taller redheads chest.

Chortling, No. VIII glanced over to the other teen next to Roxas who was gazing at them awkwardly.

"And you are?" The Flurry of dancing flames asked.

"Uh, Jim, Jim Hawkins."

"Name's Axel. Got it Memorized?"

"...Sure."

"I'm Xion." No XIV greeted him with a friendly smile. "Have you already met Roxas?"

"Er yeah, uh… we're gonna be getting to know each other a lot more."

Axel quirked a brow. "Why's that?"

Jim groaned slightly as he remembered his new position aboard the ship. "Cabin boys."

Axel blinked before he gained a more mischievous smile. "Are ya now?"

Jim didn't get a chance to say anything when Tali came up next to them.

"Can you believe this?!" Tali said, waving her arms about excitedly. "I never thought my Pilgrimage would lead me to see all this!"

"Careful, Tali." Came another, more amused voice. Looking back, Jim saw an avian-plated alien in a blue space suit with a blue visor over his left eye. "We don't want you to pass out on us from sheer excitement."

Tali however didn't care for the comment, simply gushing about where they were and what they were experiencing. Not to mention with everyone supposedly not choking to death from lack of oxygen while still on the ship.

"Oh like you're one to talk, Gary." Axel said, nudging the man with his elbow. "I can see that twinkle in your eyes. Or is it just your visor acting up again?"

"I'll get you back for that nickname one day, Axel." Garrus swore in mock dramatic seriousness. "This I swear. Get it memorized."

Axel chortled. "Coming from you, Garrus? Will be hard not to."

Over with Amelia and Shepard, the two were looking out into the endless expanse, the latter of which finding herself enraptured by the sight.

It's not every day one could just stand out in the vacuum of space and gaze upon its brilliance without the need of assistance.

Well… not from her galaxy at least.

Not yet… least until they try out that Oxy-chew.

"Tis a grand day for sailin', Captain."

Both ladies looked down from their post to see Silver, garbed in a black trench coat and hat with the little blob Morph floating around him. Jane couldn't help but take a moment to make sure she wasn't seeing things when she gazed at the floating pink blob.

"And look at you. You're as trim and as bonny as a sloop with new sails and a fresh coat of paint." Silver finished, taking off his hat to bow while giving a small grin at the captain. "And you, Ms. Shepard. Why your fierce looks would cower a raging boulder beast in an instant."

Shepard's lip twitched upwards at the praise but it appeared Amelia was a hard one to flatter.

"You can keep that sort of flim-flammery for your spaceport floozies, Mr. Silver." Amelia retorted, making the crew's cook slump in defeat.

Morph however shifted into a miniature version of the Captain and began to tauntingly say,

"Spaceport floozies, spaceport floozies-"

The shape-shifter was abruptly cut off by Silver snagging the little guy with his hat and trapping him beneath as he placed it on his head.

"You cut me to the quick, Captain." Silver said in a "heartbroken" fashion. "I speak nothing but me heart at all times."

As Silver said this, Morph imitated the comment as he floated up with the cooks hat before he was caught again and placed back atop Silver's head.

Amelia looked up and saw the group that had come along with Shepard speaking with one another with Jim engaged in the conversation as well.

"And, by the way, are those not your cabin boys aimlessly walking about and conversing with the rest of the crew in a meaningless fashion?"

Silver looked over and saw he was in a bit of a tight spot now. Turning over, he addressed the captain. "A momentary aberration, Cap'n, soon to be addressed."

Whipping around, Mr. Silver addressed his two cabin boys.

"Jimbo! Rocky!"

The two aforementioned teens looked over at the cook with confusion plastered on their faces.

"...Rocky?"

"Rocky!" Axel guffawed next to him, with the Normandy crew next to him chuckling at the nickname for the sandy-blond hair.

"It's a start." Garrus said with a smirk.

Silver ignored all the banter, addressing his two wards directly.

"If you and yer friends would excuse us, I have two new friends of my own to introduce the both of you two." Silver said with a sly look.

The word 'friends' echoed in Jim's head. He didn't know if the people surrounding him would be considered friends right away. But… they were friendly enough…

"I'd like the two of you to meet the lovely couples of Misters Mops and Misses Buckets." Silver said, tossing both boys a mop and a bucket in each hand.

Axel and Garrus laughed aloud at that with Roxas only holding up both tools in bewilderment whilst Jim gave the flattest look he could muster.

"Yippee." Jim said blandly.

The little group dispersed, Xion going with Tali, Axel heading up to speak with Shepard and Garrus muttering something about calibrating the ship's cannons.

Roxas and Jim all the while got to work on mopping the deck of the ship.

"Yeah, I got your Mr. Mop right here." Jim muttered in annoyance, leaving a moist trail with Roxas by his side who was idly doing the same task.

"It can't be that bad, Jim." Roxas remarked.

"Oh yeah?" Jim said in challenge. "How would you know that?"

Roxas shrugged. "I've done these things before."

Jim only sighed in defeat when he was abruptly shoved in a rough manner by a large four armed alien with a rather red face.

"What it, twerp!" Growled the large, four-armed alien.

Jim stared at the crewmate in bewilderment, sharing a look with his fellow Cabin boy as they wondered what the hell was that about.

"That was rather rude."

"You're tellin' me."

The duo then heard some murmuring from nearby. Looking over on the other side of the deck, both saw three of the crew speaking with one another in low voices and in a rather conspiratorial manner. One was the multi-eyed alien that served in the crow's nest, a one fellow with his dreadlock beard spread everywhere and a rather plump alien.

They kept chattering until the largest of them quickly saw the duo watching them, clamping his mouth shut with the others following suit as they now eyed the two Cabin Boys.

"What are you looking at, weirdo?" the one with the bandanna and multiple dreadlocks asked in a challenging tone.

The head suddenly detached itself from the body and crawled off the body with its "dreads" in fact being legs and rested on the nearby barrel. Soon after the "body" moved its arms around to reveal the face beneath.

"Yeah, weirdo." it said in a condescending manner.

Jim winced while Roxas just stared, having never seen something like that before.

Both in his travels and through Sora's memories. That one was certainly a first.

Hissing was soon heard, causing the pair to look upwards.

Crawling down the shrouds was an arachnid-like alien with a pair of dimmed yellow eyes.

"Cabin boys should learn to mind their own business." the Yellow-eyed alien threatened.

"Why? You got something to hide, bright eyes?" Jim asked offhandedly, trying to resume his work..

Roxas was quick to follow as he spoke his mind. "I mean… if you got something to hide, it's probably better to do that not in the open."

In an instant, the scruffs of their necks were seized by the arachnid shipmate and hoisted into the air.

"Maybe your ears don't work so well." the Arachnid-like alien hissed angrily.

"Yeah." Jim grunted out. "Too bad my nose works just fine."

"And if you're trying to be threatening, I gotta tell ya, you're doing a rather poor attempt." Roxas said evenly, glaring at the man.

This made the arachnid shipmate to hoist them higher. "Why, you impudent little-"

Before the arachnid could slam the cabin boys to the mast, he felt something pressed against his head.

"I wouldn't do anything too hasty if I were you, Mr. Scroop."

Taking a glance back, the arachnid alien saw Garrus holding his pistol against his head with the safety off. The rest of the crew was rather shocked at just how quick and sudden the appearance of the Turian was and how he went straight for his pistol rather than attempting to restrain the multi legged alien.

The C-sec detective pressed his pistol harder up against Scroops head.

"Now then, please put down my friends there if you would be so kind." Garrus asked in a deadly tone.

Scroop let out a tiny snarl, leering at Garrus who gazed back unflinchingly.

"Don't make this easy." Garrus warned, his gun making whirring sounds as he prepared to fire.

"Then let's find out who's faster." Scroop snarled, preparing to tighten his hold around both teens. "Your pistol or my-URGH!"

Abruptly, a metallic pincer clamped down on the hand that was holding Jim.

Everyone then turned to see Silver casually holding Scroop in place with his robotic hand whilst holding a purp in the other.

"Mr. Scroop." Silver began with a small smile, taking a bite out of his fruit. "You ever seen what happens to a fresh Purp when you squeeze it real hard!"

Scroop visibly winced in pain, clenching his wrist tightly. This caused him to drop the cabin boys.

Suddenly the deck was silenced upon Mr. Arrow's voice cutting the tension.

"What's all this, then?" Questioned the first officer, gazing at the assembly of crew mates. "You know the rules. There'll be no brawling on this ship."

The crew voiced their compliance, all except for Mr. Scroop.

"Any further offenders will be confined to the brig for the remainder of the voyage." Mr. Arrow warned them all before sternly glaring at the arachnid shipmate. "Am I clear, Mr. Scroop?"

Said shipmate growled at the first officer and wanted to lash out. Yet he was stopped when his vision was met with red. Not of his own volition, but because of someone else.

Gazing to the side, Mr. Scroop saw John Silver activating his cybernetic eye as the light coming from it intensified as he glared upon him.

Knowing what exact threat is being silently spoken about, Mr. Scroop stood down.

"Transparently."

Hearing the growled response, Mr. Arrow walked away, not seeing the utter hate filled aimed towards him by the arachnid shipmate.

Everyone disbursed, going on with their tasks. Before going back to his, Garrus put away his pistol and gave the two cabin bows a firm nod, which was received in kind by Roxas with a confused, hesitant one from Jim.

"Well done, Mr. Arrow, sir." Mr. Silver called out to the first officer. "A tight ship's a happy ship, sir." Once out of earshot, he whirled around to the cabin boys. "Jimbo, Rocky, I gave you two a job." Silver said, pointing to the mop in his hand.

"Hey, we were doing it until that spider-freak-" Jim began.

"And we were just minding our own business and-" Roxas, a moment later.

"Belay that!" Silver cut them off. "Now, I want this deck swabbed spotless, and heaven help you if I come back and it's not done." the cook looked behind him. "Morph?" The little blob appeared by the cyborg's side. "Keep an eye on these pups and let me know if there be any more distractions."

The moment Silver walked away, Morph enlarged his eyes to comical proportions and peered down at the pair.

"That's not gonna get annoying." Jim muttered out.

"What happened here?"

Jim and Roxas looked over to see Axel walking over to them.

"Axel? Where were you?" Roxas inquired.

"Talking to Shepard." Axel said. "Gonna pop over to the Normandy in a moment, see how Kaidan and the rest of the crew is holding up."

Jim merely rose a brow on what they were talking about.

"Uh… wait, you're leaving?" Jim surmised.

"Only for a bit."

"But… But we're so far out already. And using the longboats would take too long." Jim said.

"I have my methods." Axel said in an enigmatic tone.

This only gave Jim a little migraine. After one look from Roxas, basically telling him to drop it, the Hawkins boy complied and let it go or else drive himself mad.

"Whelp, be sure to swab the poop deck properly Rocky." Axel said, sly grin in place.

Roxas gave him a dull look. "Can you please, not."

"Huh? What's that Cabin Boy? I can't hear you over your chores." Axel mocked, laughing at his friend's plight.

"Your hair is awful." Roxas shouted, making Axel halt and turn back to him slowly.

"I take offence to that, Rocky Mountain."

"Mountain? Where'd that one come from?" Roxas asked in bewilderment. "Did you pull that one out of your head or your hair?"

The fiery Nobody only snorted, walking away from the two, leaving them to their devices with Morph still watching them with his enlarged eyes.

"What's his deal?" Jim asked.

"Axel means well. It just takes some time getting used to."

Jim nodded as he swabbed the deck as several inquiries slowly formed in his head.

As the two cabin boys went about their tasks, the crew's cook made his way down below.

He heard light chatter coming down from the kitchen, signifying they were present.

Upon entering the galley below, Silver was utterly silent. He breathed in evenly as he soon gazed upon the others present before him.

"So, we're all here, then."

He then heard someone scurry past him, quickly seeing it was the multi-eyed alien, Onus, who is stationed at the crow's nest. "Excuse me."

Once plopped onto his seat, Silver nodded.

"Fine."

Silver began walking amongst the group with a calm smile though the faces of the others conveyed nervousness.

"Now, if you pardon my plain speaking, gentlemen, are you all…"

Silver's robotic arm then shifted into that of a cutlass blade as he bellowed out, "STARK-RAVING, TOTALLY BLINKING DAFT?!"

He swung his sword arm around with those closest to him dodging his blade with Onus narrowly missing it with his hat being torn in two.

"After all me finagling getting us hired as an upstanding crew, you want to blow the whole mutiny before it's time?"

"The cabin boys were sniffing about."

"You just stick to the plan, you bug-brained twit." Silver harshly said to the man who caused this bit of a mess in the first place. "As for the boys, I'll run 'em so ragged, 'ey won't have time to think."

"But what about that woman's people." One of the crewmates asked.

"Yeah, they look like they have some fighters on their side." Another said.

"How can they match up our big guy here?"

The four-armed alien huffed smugly.

"Don't go doing anything idiotic." Silver snapped. "You all saw just how quickly one of them was ready to blast Mr. Scroop here in an instant. We best keep an eye on them, for now. Plan accordingly and tread lightly ya daft fools. Those individuals are dangerous to the plan."

An hour had passed with night starting falling all around and the deck was fully cleaned.

Roxas and Jim were no longer alone, having Xion join them though she simply sat upon the railing nearby with her gazing up at the stars.

Ringing the mops overboard, they briefly saw Morph in the form of another mop as he swabbed their footwear in a playful manner. Once done, the little alien floated up and returned to normal, belching a little and releasing soap filled bubbles.

"That's probably not sanitary." Roxas pointed out to the pink sentient blob.

Xion only giggled aloud, hopping down from railing to walk over to them.

"At least you both are done."

"Well, this has been a fun day then, huh?" Jim said, resting on his mop. "Making new friends, like that spider psycho."

In an instant, Morph shifted into a miniature appearance of Mr. Scroop.

"Spider psycho, spider psycho."

Jim laughed.

"Heh~ A little uglier."

Morph adopted a thoughtful look before shifting his present form into an exaggerated appearance, almost cartoonish.

"MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

The trio shared a laugh at that.

"...Pretty close." Jim complimented.

The trio then heard someone walking up the steps. And given the little wheezing of the mechanical nature, they realized it was John Silver.

"Well, thank heavens for little miracles." He walked to the side and dumped over the food waste he collected from the galley. "Up here an hour, and the deck's still in one piece."

Plopping the pot onto the deck flooring, the ship's cook addressed No. XIV.

"Ah, I don't think we had the time or pleasure of meeting, lass." Silver said, giving the young teen girl an elaborate bow. "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance miss…?"

"Xion." The rich brunette introduced herself in a friendly manner.

"Lovely name for a lovely lass. You can call me Silver." The Cyborg said, making Xion smile slightly. "I take it you and Rocky here know each other personally then?"

"Yeah, she's my friend." Roxas said.

As Silver made light banter with the two black cloaked teens, Jim made an awkward cough and drew attention towards him.

"Hey… Look, I… about earlier… thanks." Jim admitted after a few moments.

Silver gazed upon the young lad with mixed emotions. He glanced over to Roxas and Xion who were unsure as to what to do.

"Did your pop ever teach you to pick your fights a bit more carefully?" Silver asked, getting a more dour look from the brown haired teen.

"Your father not the teachin' sort?" he asked a moment later

"No. He was more the 'taking off and never coming back' sort." Jim said in a bitter tone.

"Oooooh… Sorry, lad." Silver voiced apologetically.

He looked back at the two Keybearers beside him.

"And the two of ye?" Silver asked. "Did you have proper parents to show ya how to conduct yerselves and all?"

There was a slightly awkward air between the Nobodies as Xion shifted about whilst Roxas looked down.

"Neither of us… ever had parents." Xion shyly said, gazing away from the Cyborg with the older gentlemen now cringing at his lack of tact.

"Aw, sorry me Lass." Silver said understandingly. "Didn't mean to bring up something like that for either you's."

"Hey, no big deal. I'm doing just fine." Jim quickly said offhandedly, though it was clear to Silver that that wasn't quite the case.

"Is that so?" Mused the cook. After a couple moments of silence, his lips quirked upward. "Well, since the captain has put you two in my charge, like it or not, I'll be pounding a few skills into these thick heads of yours to keep you out of trouble."

This earned a surprised look from Hawkins, with Roxas flinching slightly at having his forehead poked. "What?"

"From now on, I'm not letting either of you out of me sight." Silver cut him off. "As a matter of fact lass, whenever I catch you dallying about, you'll be joining these two in their duties."

"Excuse me?" Xion asked in bemusement.

"You can't do-"

"You won't so much as eat, sleep, or scratch your bum without my say-so." Silver said, emphatically slamming his fist down to get his point across.

"Don't do us any favors!" Jim shot back with Silver laughing as he brought in all three of the young teens and tussled with their hairs before shoving them away.

"You can be sure of that, my lad. You can be sure of that."

-Scene Cut-

Where one part of the crew of the Normandy ground team was off on a literal intergalactic adventure across the cosmos, the ones that had been left behind due to unforeseen circumstances were currently standing before the Citadel Council.

Their reason being here was to explain what in the hell happened on Virmire that resulted in the disappearance of Shepard, the Normandy and the entirety of her crew.

Save for the trio of Ashely, Liara and Wrex.

Of the three… all three really didn't want to be here right about now.

Thankfully, they weren't alone.

Captain Kirrahe of the STG was there with them as well as Della Duck, the oddball group standing together as they addressed the Council. And not far away was Ambassador Udina and Captain Anderson.

After the initial discussion with what went down on Virmire, topics shifted onto the more pressing matters once Captain Kirrahe was dismissed.

"What would you like us to explain, Councilor?" Ashley asked carefully, keeping her voice evenly calm. It was the best she could do with the inner turmoil and anxiety churning inside.

Sparatus growled with anger at the human's impudence. "How about why you saw fit to keep the discovery of a new species to yourself?!"

"Not the first time." Ashley muttered under her breath.

"What was that?!" Snapped the Turian councilor.

"Sparatus! Stand down!" Tevos hissed at the man beside her.

The way how this was said caused everyone else present to step back. The calm and collected councilor of the trio acted in such a way that it was a little shocking. And it didn't help with the building tension the council chamber held.

"Ashley." Della said towards her friend. "I can handle this."

"You sure?"

"Positive. Not the first time I have to deal with someone like Sparatus here."

Ashley stepped back, allowing more focus to be placed on Della.

"Hello there. My name is Della Duck and I come from the Ōkoku galaxy. And yes, the Normandy team did make first contact with me."

"Another galaxy?" Spartacus scoffed. "You expect us to believe-"

Della growled, dropping whatever bits of civility she was trying to have to act professionally. "Hey! You accept me being from out of this galaxy but the notion of Reapers, which we saw one in person, is out of the question for you?!"

"You dare?!"

"I'm not part of your galaxy or Council nonsense in case you haven't noticed!"

The Turian Councilor was positively fuming by this point but his Asari compatriot interjected again.

"Sparatus, enough!" Tevos hissed once more. "This is a first contact meeting with a species from another galaxy. Compose yourself for Goddess sake."

Sparatus breathed heavily until he somehow managed to reign himself in, putting on a more stoic visage that failed to impress Della Duck who crossed her arms.

"Okay, gotta ask this, but is he in a mood or something?"

"It's typically how he is at times." Valern said offhandedly, earning a look from his Turian counterpart. "You know it's true, Sparatus."

Della sighed before looking at the asari councilor. "My apologies, but I honestly don't appreciate being called a liar. Especially in this scenario."

"Of course not." Responded the Salarian councilor, sending a meaningful glance towards his Turian colleague. "Please continue, Della. Would you kindly inform us how the Normandy came into contact with you?"

"Thank you." Della then smirked at the Turian in the room. "See? You should take some lessons from your buddy. Can save you quite a lot of arguments."

Spartacus merely growled, clenching his hands a little but had to hold his emotions down for the time being.

"Right." Della clapped her hands and gave a brief summary on what happened. "So I was test piloting one of our new Gummi-ships when the Heartless attacked. A malfunction occurred in the attack and I unintentionally warped my way to your neck of the woods. I crash landed on Earth's moon, Luna, and fend them off until the Normandy was able to catch wind of my distress signal."

"If you were indeed rescued, why didn't the Normandy report of your discovery, Miss Duck?"

"If you mean to you three, well in my opinion, two of your species didn't exactly have a good track record on first contact scenarios from what I've read up on recently." Della retorted with a distrustful gaze. "From the Krogan on the Salarian side to the humans on the Turians. And from what I believe, the humans learned from the past mistakes and went in a far better approach."

"You're evading the question, Miss Duck." Spartacus said evenly.

"Am I?" Della snarky said. "Let me get down on a few things about the aforementioned races. With the Krogan, the Salarians uplifted them and 'knew what was best for them'." The anthropomorphic duck woman used air quotes on the last bit. "All you did was use them against the Rachni. Sure they complied but when the whole thing was settled, you used the genophage on them when the Salarians saw no longer use for them."

"The genophage was the only way to keep their 'urges' in check." Valern defended, only earning a growl from Wrex not far away.

"I think it's best you apologize to my friend, Councilor Valern." Della gritted out.

"Sorry, but my apologies won't change the truth on the matter. My ancestors uplifted them to wage war against the Rachni. Sadly, it was all they wanted the Krogan to know." Valern said without missing a beat.

Della snorted. "Your people should've thought the matter a whole lot better. I mean, was it much of a surprise the Krogan revolted on your people's actions?"

"I admit, we made a rash decision back then, turning to the Krogan in our time of utter desperation."

"By basically neutering them and having so many children be stillborn as an ending result. The Krogan back then paid for their mistakes, so let the ones in the present get better treatment." Della said with Wrex sneering at council.

Wrex soon spoke out with his gravelly voice being heard in the Council Chamber. "One thousand, four hundred, and seventy-four years, if you're keeping track."

Before Councilor Valern could say anything, Della continued. "As for the Turians, they should have acted more civilly instead of 'shooting first and asking questions later', which resulted in the Relay 314 Incident."

"The humans should've known the rules regarding activating the Mass Relays." Sparatus said to her.

"Yet they didn't. The humans nearly thirty years ago had no idea of your Council laws. The Turians who witnessed them about to activate the relay acted too rashly. Instead of giving out a warning, they instead attacked, resulting in the war."

Tevos soon had to step in and hopefully calm things down before things go overboard. "Miss Duck, I understand what you're trying to bring up here. The Salarians and Turians didn't have a good track record on the Krogan and humans respectively with their first contacts. But can we please get back to the matter at hand?"

Della sighed. "Look, the point is the Normandy had to make port back on Earth and Admiral Hackett was present to retrieve data on the tampered training facility on Luna. We met and cordially converted to have a proper bit of first contact. Granted I didn't have a data package for me to exchange with so Dr. T'Soni here has been helping me out in compiling information from my neck in the universe before giving said package to you three. And another reason why I wasn't addressed sooner was that Shepard felt it would've hindered her pursuit on Saren."

"Be that as it may, this was a first contact scenario of another species." Valern insisted.

"Don't you guys have ducks that don't talk here?" Della questioned.

"On earth, yes, but this is a different circumstance altogether." Sparatus pointed out.

"...Okay, should probably check on that when I get the chance." The duck woman muttered to herself.

"You seemed awfully calm in making first contact." Tevos pointed out.

"Well it ain't the first time as my galaxy had actually made contact with Andromeda." Della said with a shrug.

Silence befell the chamber with it being so quiet, a pin drop could have been heard.

"You mean to tell us you also made contact with Andromeda?" Valern said with utter interest. "Is that true, Chief Williams?"

"We didn't make contact with Andromeda, councilor." Ashley clarified. "Just Ōkoku. Della's people did."

"And how was that possible?"

"We have our methods." Della said vaguely. "But we made better contact through our Gummi-tech. And before you ask, Gummi-tech helped us communicate and travel between galaxies in the time you travel between star systems. Worlds a fraction of the time."

"So you're telling me you've achieved intergalactic travel outside of the means we are familiar with?" Valern asked in astonishment.

"Do you perhaps have Mass Effect technology where you're from?" Sparatus inquired.

Della shook her head. "Nope, nothing like what you all have. First time I came into contact with your tech was when I first met the Normandy."

"Fascinating..." Valern muttered aloud. "What of your Gummi-tech as you call it? Is there anything else about them?"

"Yeah. Despite not having a proper data package to hand out, I was willing to do the tech portion. So I was able to send schematics on your Mass Effect technology back home via transmission quite recently while I gave what knowledge I know towards the Systems Alliance with a portion of the Gummi-tech I was willing to part with."

"You what?!" Sparatus yelled once more.

"...Do we need to tape his mouth shut or something? Cause this is getting annoying."

"Sorry, but Sparatus' behavior is unbecoming of a council member."

"I will not settle down!" Sparatus roared. "Are you telling me you've been exchanging knowledge with the Systems Alliance this whole time?! Why have we not heard of this?!"

"I think you reacting like this is a dead giveaway as to why." Wrex couldn't help but speak up with him receiving a furious glare from the Turian councilor.

"This was a chance for the entire galaxy to get a new technological boon and humanity hoarded it for itself." Sparatus growled out.

"You mean not having the tech delivered right to your feet." Udina spoke out in the chamber. "We have every right to see the technology just as much as you. And yet you would claim more power over them than anyone else."

"We ourselves don't even understand the technology." Anderson chipped in.

"Maybe you should have given the rest of us a chance at learning about this technology Ms. Della Duck has." Valern stated.

"To be fair, Councilors, the materials I gave them are extremely rare in your galaxy, even in my own." Della said quickly. "I hoped the Alliance could figure out a way to make close variants to Gummi-tech through reverse engineering, but that would take a while."

"She is indeed right, councilors." Anderson said in confirmation. "Our scientists and engineers are barely scratching the surface on their capabilities, and that is without discussing it all with Ms. Duck as a consultant."

"Then is there a way to procure more?" Tevos inquired.

"One of the easier methods is harvesting them from the Gummi Heartless as they 'drop' raw Gummi materials. Other variants of getting other raw gummi material are rather hard and time consuming."

"Gummi Heartless?" Sparatus repeated. "Are you telling us these vile creatures have space fairing capabilities?"

"Trust me, there's a whole rainbow of them." Ashley said in a flat tone.

"Most definitely." Liara gave a quick nod.

"It's not only frustrating, but also rather fun to see them get blasted out of the skies."

"Once again, only you would find fighting 'em fun, Wrex." Ashley said with a sigh.

"At least I admit it unlike most who honestly can't."

Della sighed as discussions were starting to get off tangent. Wanting things to get back on track, she whistled loudly to get everyone's attention.

"Now that I've established that I'm not a liar, how about we start talking about the Reapers."

Even without Shepard there, Della wanted to at least put her part in-in hopes of bringing up a dire situation to the forefront of this meeting.

While everyone was back out on Virmire, Della tapped into the Distraction and Shadow teams in order to know how things were progressing on their respective tasks. It was nerve racking, but it was far better than waiting in silence while helping Kaidan out with the bomb.

In that time, she was able to hear a number of details over on Shadow team's end, especially upon hearing most of their conversation with the Reaper Sovereign.

If Shepard wasn't here to give her report on them, Della promised to do so in her place.

The asari councilor shook her head. "Della, I'm afraid it's not as simple as that. This is a very… unique predicament that we now find ourselves in that we have no prior precedence or protocol for."

"What?! Why?!"

"Despite Captain Kirrahe's testimony, we are still left hanging without Commander Shepard's side of things. She probably has more information on what was found within Saren's stronghold, but without her, things can only go so far."

"That feels more like an excuse than anything." Anderson said aloud with a fierce expression. "Captain Kirrahe and his STG crew themselves can attest to seeing a Reaper on Virmire."

"That begs the question, where is the Normandy? Did Shepard and the rest of her crew perish or run off?" Spartacus questioned, earning an air of frustration from the Normandy crew.

"They didn't run off." Liara declared.

"And where, pray tell, are they?" Sparatus asked in a condescending manner.

"I know how they left or at least the rougher method of their departure." Della brought up.

"Would you be so kind to enlighten us?"

"Yeah, they went through a Lane."

"..."

"..."

"...We don't follow."

Della exhaled a frustrated sigh. "A Lane is what some of my people call some of our routes in getting around to other Worlds. Basically, it's our version of FTL. With whatever happened when the bomb that went off, the Normandy somehow entered it and is probably out somewhere in another galaxy with no way of returning immediately."

"And are you sure you're correct on that matter?"

"I'm pretty positive. I can recognize that little phenomenon anywhere."

The Council was silent for a moment before turning towards each other for a private chat. After nearly a minute, Councilor Valern spoke up.

"Miss Della… We're going to have to ask you to come with us for further questioning."

Della blinked, briefly registering what was said to her.

This resulted in her scoffing. "Further questioning? You mean interrogation? Don't insult my intelligence, bub."

"Please don't misunderstand." Tevos replied hastily. "We would just like to learn more about you and your people and the galaxy you come from."

The duck woman rolled her eyes. "Yeah, how about no. I've got plenty of experience in that scenario. I'm not gonna be put into a room where none of my friends knows where I'll be at for my stay here. And there is no way I'm gonna be picked and prodded for information for who knows how long. I have a family to get back to in Ōkoku. Your little interests in learning about me and my galaxy means nothing to me."

"Miss Duck please." Tevos pleaded.

Della saw that the Council wasn't going to relent on this matter so she sighed.

"Look, the closest compromise I can see here is a place of my own choosing or at least some place where my friends here know where I'm at."

The three councilors looked at each other with their mics off so no one else can listen in. After some bit more debate, they turned their attention back to Della.

"And where, pray tell, do you suggest?" Said the asari councilor.

"I was told Captain Anderson's place has a nice accommodating space."

David Anderson merely facepalmed upon hearing this.

"Take it or leave it. Any other place is gonna be on the Normandy."

The council now looked to the Alliance Captain who only groaned before nodding slowly in defeat.

"She can stay at my place if she so chooses." Anderson droned out, almost mechanically.

"...Very well." Valern said relentingly. "You all may go now."

Della smiled triumphantly at this before sending a thumbs up to her friends not far behind.

Before moving very far, Della spoke one final thing to the council.

"You do know I'm leaving as soon as I'm ready." Della said informingly. "And cause of how annoying you guys are, I'm not gonna tell you. I'll just leave. I don't owe any of you yahoos anything, only those on the Normandy."

Once they left the Council Chamber, Wrex let out a bellow of a laugh and whipped his eye a little from a crocodile tear. "Ah~ Something I needed to hear. I owe you a lot, Della."

"No problem, Wrex." Della remarked, the Normandy crew leaving the Council tower.

From the far corner of the Council Chamber, Miranda Lawson ended the video recording and slinked away unnoticed in order to send this latest development to the Illusive Man.

Things were definitely changing for the galaxy as a whole and she didn't know if this latest development will truly benefit humanity as a whole in the end.

But for now, she was happy about it.

-Scene Cut-

The bleak and perpetual night sky of the World That Never Was hung over the castle that served as the backdrop of the Organization's headquarters.

Within its many halls, a man with silvery grey hair that obscured his right eye was walking at a steady pace.

Zexion had completed his initial mission earlier today, having gone back to Castle Oblivion in hopes of perhaps finding clues or picking up the trail of where the group of traitors and enemies up and disappeared off to only to come back empty handed.

Though it was to be expected.

Wherever it was that the wayward traitors to the Organization had disappeared off to, they were very thorough about it.

So they had to do it the old fashioned way.

Well… as old fashioned as they can conduct their search considering the types of beings they were and resources they had at their disposal.

Making a turn into the room that was the primary laboratory of the castle, Zexion halted in his tracks at the sight of a familiar head of pink hair that stood before the main computer of their HQ.

"Marluxia?" Zexion spoke up in suspicion, narrowing his eyes at the Graceful Assassin of the Organization.

No. XI tilted his head before fully facing the Cloaked Schemer.

"Ah, Zexion." Marluxia greeted cordially. "I didn't know you had returned from your mission."

"It wasn't as difficult as the Superior made it out to be." Zexion stated, taking a few steps forward into the lab.

"Good to hear then." Marluxia said, voice oh so calm.

"And what of you, Marluxia?" Zexion questioned back. "If I recall correctly, Lexaeus accompanied you on your own mission today."

"Indeed he did." Marluxia confirmed. "Though I am unsurprised as to why he came with me."

"It's astonishing the level of arrogance you display after your failed attempt at a coup." Zexion dryly pointed out.

The pink haired Nobody had one of his brows twitch in slight anger at his reminder before his calm and confident visage returned.

"I admit, my intentions for overthrowing the Organization's leader had been foiled." No. XI freely stated without any shame. "But I find myself in a bit of an ironic position."

"And what would that be?"

Marluxia "hmphed" in amusement, his eyes closed and a smirk present for Zexion to see.

"Aside from myself and Larxene, I had originally hoped to recruit Axel into our plan." Marluxia revealed, making No. VI blink at this tidbit.

"What?" Zexion said in bewilderment. "Why Axel?"

"Much as he would have been a risk, he would have been a calculated one." Marluxia stated. "In the time I have known him, aside from Saix, Axel hardly ever interacted with most of the other members for the most part. He was always known as being hard to read and figure out his own thoughts. A true wild card. If Larxene and I had gotten him to join our cause in getting the Keyblade master under our control, I believe we would have been unstoppable. Axel has an acute mind that is never to be underestimated. He is as wild and unpredictable as the flames he wields."

Zexion wasn't exactly sure how to process this. He was certainly not expecting Marluxia to nearly flaunt his original intended plan of staging a coup against the Organization.

But he did not expect that out of all the people Marluxia had planned on involving in this coup was Axel.

"However," Marluxia chortled aloud with a shake of his head. "It appears that Axel beat me to it. I never would have expected both he and our two Keyblade wielders would up and betray us so suddenly."

Zexion frowned at the mention of them, recalling how handily they had worked with the Keyblade's chosen one with the King and the hero of Darkness in defeating himself, Vexen and the Riku Replica. That defeat was still fresh on his mind.

"I wonder," Marluxia mused aloud. "What could have caused such an abrupt betrayal by three of our numbers in such a sudden manner to betray the Organization."

No. VI couldn't really deny his own interest in such a question. Raising a hand up to his chin, Zexion hummed aloud as he thought it over.

"It may have come suddenly… but there is something that we have not truly examined that is undoubtedly a key aspect that led to where we are right now." Zexion pondered, making No. XI turn to him.

"And that would be…?"

"Roxas' sudden and abrupt disappearance." Zexion pointed out with No. XI's expression scrunching up into that of deep thought.

"When Roxas vanished for that long month, you, aside from myself and Axel were left behind in Castle Oblivion." Zexion went on. "We stayed there for the entire duration of that time whilst Roxas was lost into the endless cosmos somewhere. Where he ended up, we could only speculate. But wherever it was had a fundamental and profound effect on him to the point that when he returned, he made sure to take both No. VIII and the Puppet Vexen had created. The fact that both Sora, Riku and King Mickey were there by happenstance didn't truly feel like such a thing. We are missing a crucial piece of information that would be able to help us figure out just where everything had gone wrong."

Marluxia was silent, thinking hard on Zexion's words. Something was indeed missing here.

For Roxas, a Nobody with no memory to have such a paradigm change in a literal two month span.

No. XI had his eyes shift over to the computer momentarily, wishing to return to his own work that he had been conducting but it appears Zexion had plans on staying.

The Cloaked Schemer approached the computer and began to pull up multiple files for display.

"What's this? Personal project?" Marluxia inquired, not recognizing any of the files that Zexion was opening.

"Perhaps." Zexion said vaguely.

Marluxia squinted his eyes slightly, managing to read off some of the titles of certain reports that Zexion was reading.

"What is all this for?" Marluxia asked in confusion.

"Personal Project." Zexion retorted flatly garnering an unamused look from the scythe wielding Nobody.

"What does this personal project have to do with Ansem? And what is this Radiant Garden?" Marluxia asked, having managed to catch a few of those words.

Zexion looked at Marluxia out of the corner of his eyes, though it went unnoticed by the Graceful Assassin.

"If you wish to know so badly, this may hold a clue to Axel's betrayal."

Marluxia blinked at that tidbit, turning to No. VI. "What could you possibly find in these reports that would tell you why Axel betrayed the Organization?"

"That's what I wish to find out myself." Zexion admitted.

"You do not even know yourself?"

"Even memories fade and delude over time, Marluxia. No one is immune to it. You should best remember that." Zexion relented. "There's information in my memory that perhaps holds clues to certain details; ones I do wish to remember."

Marluxia felt himself twitch, a light glare being directed at the silver-grey haired Nobody who ignored him, continuing to sift through multiple files in the computer. The Flower based Nobody managed to calm himself a moment later.

"So you believe at least a clue may be found here?"

"Again, I am not sure myself." Zexion stated. "But…" He seemed hesitant at first to tell him this but he figured there was no harm in it. "One of the last conversations I had with Axel was about the world we came from. It was rather sudden and abrupt as to why it was brought up because… Axel never truly spoke of his past. Most of us don't yet he always seemed adamant about not referring to it. So for him to bring it up so suddenly…"

"The past may hold the answers."

Zexion only nodded.

There were of course many other particular reasons that compounded on what he just told Marluxia, but he'd rather not tell the man who had planned a coup against the Organization. Though he was caught and basically prevented from this plan altogether, Numbers XI and XII were now always to be monitored and gazed at with suspicious and skewed eyes.

They had lost a great deal of trust from everyone and it was already bad enough that they had three traitors running about somewhere free of consequences.

Of course that would be rectified in time but still, two potential traitors in their midst were worse than three that got away in Zexion's mind.

It meant that they would now have to constantly look over their shoulder for these two as these snakes remained in their den.

No. VI was confident that should they step out of line, Xemnas or any other member within the Organization would put them back in their place but they're dealing with sneaks and those with ambitions not aligned with the Organization.

Any number of things may happen.

AN

To sum things up, we are hitting the events of Treasure Planet.

Jebest4781: If you guys are wondering about some of the details, we were mostly pulling info out from the Treasure Planet wiki as some of the expanded stuff came from it's one sequel, Battle of Procyon; a video game set 5 years after the movie. Don't hate us on this, but we were honestly trying our best here before finally getting to the good stuff.

FMW: Yeah, essentially, a great deal of the establishment of this world was improvised and made up so it would better fit into what we have made here.

Jeb: Fun fact on a bit why we're choosing this world on this story. You see, Treasure Planet was supposed to be a planned world to visit in Dream Drop Distance with several models already made, yet the idea had to be shoved away for some reasons. It honestly would've been interesting to see what could've been done on that adaptation in the game. But for now, it'll suffice with what free man and I will do here and we'll do our best to make it right.

FMW: In essence, this is our tribute to what could and really should have been. Treasure Planet would have been a great world to explore in the KH series which is a serious wonder as to why they never went through with it. This is undoubtedly one of our most giant chapters we have ever written and both are brains kinda fried themselves at several points but dammit, we got it done.

So thanks again for reading this mammoth of a chapter and this large growing story.

Till next time.

Rate Read and Review and as Always Have Nice Day.