AN: Been a while, huh?

I already spoke about it in the last story I updated, but basically, a bunch of stuff happened, including me turning 21, a paid IT internship and a few summer courses. I hope I get back to a more regular schedule. No promises, though.

Shepard's Justice (Prologue Finale, Part I)

As Wrex and Michelle began to prepare themselves for the mission ahead, Jane pulled aside her brother.

"Look, I wish you were as far away from this as possible, but since you're such a stubborn bastard…"

"Thank you, sis. Feeling the love here."

"Lemme finish! While I wish you distanced yourself from this, I know you too well to even think that could happen. So instead, I'm gonna give you this."

At this, Jane unholstered an item from her back. She flipped it around, offering it to Whitley.

Whitley stared at it.

"What is it?" he asked.

"An M23 Katana Shotgun. Alliance Issue. Don't lose it." Jane replied.

Whitley stared at it for a few more moments, before taking it from Jane's hand.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome. As I said, don't lose it. It's already gonna be difficult enough explaining all this to my superiors once they catch wind of this. I don't need them realizing that I'm collaborating with terrorists or handing out Alliance equipment to civilians."

As Whitley packed away the shotgun, Jane took a moment to look over Whitley's outfit. He had finally discarded the C-Sec uniform and was now sporting a black hooded jacket, as well as a black turtleneck and black pants with old-school military-style combat boots.

"Where'd you dig your outfit out of?" Jane asked.

Whitley shrugged. "You'd be surprised how much good stuff you find in donation bins."

"And you're not worried it'll be traced back to you?"

"I made sure to wear gloves." Whitley replied.

Jane took a few more moments to inspect her brother's outfit before a thought suddenly struck her.

"Not gonna wear any armor?" she asked, pointedly.

"Couldn't find any in the donation bins. Besides, if there was armor in a bin, would you trust it to protect you?"

Jane shrugged. "Fair point. You didn't want to use Cerberus contacts to get some, or you couldn't invent your own?"

Whitley sighed, exasperated."I was too busy creating a shield, and there wasn't any time to contact the terrorists. Dammit, Jane, trust me, if I'm not wearing armor, it's not because it's a fashion statement!" Whitley exclaimed. "I've got Michelle and Wrex with me, and I'm also carrying a shield I made myself. It should be enough."

"And if it isn't? Then what?" Jane couldn't help but think.

"Runt, we gotta go! Hurry up!" Wrex exclaimed.

"On my way!" Whitley replied. He turned to Jane.

Jane laid a hand on Whitley's shoulder

"You better be careful out there, otherwise I'll kick your ass."

Whitley smiled. "You'd have to get in line. Pretty sure mom would want to know what I've been up to if I come home with bruises."

The two siblings left in opposite directions. As Whitley boarded the skycar that Michelle was piloting, Jane stepped into another skycar, one that was heading to a rendezvous point with the other members of her squad.

As Michelle's skycar left the apartment and began to enter Citadel skyspace, Whitley turned to Wrex.

"Runt? Where did that come from?" Whitley asked.

"In a clan, our youngest warriors graduate from 'kids' to 'runts' once they manage to get their first kill against an opponent, although, to be honest, that could just be a 'me' thing. My father never did that with me or my brother." Wrex stated.

Whitley's vision went completely red.

At that moment, everything faded away. The only thing that mattered was stopping that sniper, by any means necessary.

Forcing himself to shake away the memory, Whitley focused on the conversation with Wrex.

"Now that we're close to our goal, what'll you do, once this is all finished?"

Wrex hummed. "I don't know. Probably just keep going around and take bounties. Been drifting from every corner of the galaxy for a long time now."

"W-" At this Whitley felt rather foolish, but he soldiered on. "Would you mind if I kept in touch with you?" he asked.

Wrex looked at him, surprised. "Me? Why'd you want to keep in touch with an old man that's chasing after bounties? Don't you have any friends that are closer to your age?"

"Because…nothing. Forget it."

Whitley sighed, looking out the window.

Wrex looked at him pointedly. "Runt, you didn't answer my question."

At this, Whitley lost his temper.

"I don't have any fucking friends, you old bastard! There! Are you happy?! All I've got is you and Michelle, and I guarantee that both of you will be gone by the end of this week!"

Whitley sighed again, trying to focus on not looking in Wrex's general direction.

A few moments later, Whitley's omni-tool pinged.

Whitley, tearing his eyes off the floor, opened the omni tool. Emblazoned in his messages was a small series of numbers, along with a message.

Can't guarantee that I'll be available all the time. Also, you need better friends.

- W

Whitley chuckled, looking at Wrex.

"Who says you're my friend, old man? Maybe I just want to make sure everything you own goes to me when you keel over out there."

Wrex laughed. "Runt, all I got is this armor and my shotgun, and you'll have to peel that from my corpse. And even then, good luck, because I'll have probably welded it to my corpse, anyway."

"In that case, I'll be sure to get the welder." Michelle replied.

As the skycar touched down on the roof of a nearby building, Michelle chose that moment to speak up, turning to the others in the back of the car.

"Shepard, Wrex, I'm not sure if I'll get this opportunity to speak to you after all this, so I want you to know, out of all the people I've worked with in my career." Michelle paused, almost struggling to say the words. "...you're not the worst I've worked with."

"From you, Michelle? I almost feel that's a declaration of love." Whitley replied.

"Sorry to disappoint you, human, but I'm already spoken for." Wrex stated.

Michelle's lips quirked the tiniest bit upwards before she turned away to face the front.

"Time we get to work, gentlemen." Michelle stated, before opening the skycar doors.

Wrex unfolded his shotgun and hopped out of the skycar. Whitley followed suit, grabbing ahold of the back of Michelle's seat and boosting himself out. Michelle came out last, simply stepping out of the car.

Whitley tapped a few buttons on his omni-tool, opening a private line to his sister.

"Jane, it's Whitley. How're things going on your end?"

"My team and I haven't run into any issues so far. We're outside the warehouse right now. What's the status of the other teams?"

"My team hasn't run into any issues yet. I'm checking on our friends at C-Sec."

Adding heavy voice filters on Jane's call, Whitey opened a line to Garrus.

He didn't answer.

Frowning, Whitley tried again. Again, Garrus didn't answer.

Growing frustrated at the Turian's lack of response, Whitley sent a text instead.

Garrus, answer my call right now before I decide to leak your extranet history to your father.

- WS

Whitley only had to wait a few moments before his omni-tool notified him that someone was calling him.

"Garrus, it's me. Before you freak out, know that the line I've opened up is secure enough to avoid any inquiries you could face in the future. And before you ask, yes, that also extends to the text message."

"You're sure none of this will get traced back to us?"

"C-Sec's physical security is top-notch, Garrus, but your cybersecurity is… to put it bluntly, utter rubbish."

Garrus sighed. "Of course it is. No matter how many times I bring it up with the brass, they never want to bring in new people to IT."

Whitley smiled."Maybe what I'm about to tell you next will brighten up your spirit. Thanks to Romak and his omni to-"

"Who's Romak?" Garrus asked.

"Balak's brother and second in command. Look, that's not important. What's important is that, thanks to Romak's omni-tool. I have a layout of the warehouse's security."

There was a pause on Garrus's end.

"...Go on." Garrus stated.

"There are alarms located across the warehouse. They run on a complex system that ensures that, even if you take out a majority of them, one will always go off, surrounding the attackers with turrets, mechs, and whatever forces are inside the warehouse, as well as sending a signal to the other warehouses. However, with the omni-tool I acquired, we can circumvent most of the security. Check your mail. See the attachment I sent you? Don't open it. It contains the strongest virus I could assemble in the time frame that we had. If we insert it into their systems, the automated security won't just be disabled. It'll aim all their weapons at the slavers instead."

"Sounds…promising. Too promising. Are you sure there aren't any drawbacks to this plan of yours?"

"I'm getting to that, officer. Unfortunately, since the warehouse security system has been so tightly woven across all the warehouses, if one system goes down, the others will lock down, and we'll be unable to use the virus on the other warehouses. That means we'll have to coordinate with each other on this if we want to resolve this situation with minimal losses. I'm opening a video feed now."

After putting heavy censors on his sister's armor and face, he opened a video feed between him, Garrus, and Jane.

Whitley approached the side of the warehouse, looking in both directions. He turned to Michelle and Wrex.

"Keep watch. I have to disable the systems. Now, watch what I do. Carefully."

For the next fifteen minutes, the three teams worked together to take down the system.

Finally, the moment of truth came.

"Alright, everyone. This is it. Attach the virus to the system. Be quick. We only have a margin for error of around five seconds, and that's being optimistic."

Garrus was the first to insert the virus. As the system glowed red, Whitley could hear the slavers inside the warehouse shout in surprise.

Jane was next. However, as she was about to insert the virus in, an explosion hit. A large cloud, big enough that Whitley could see it from his location, bellowed upwards.

"Jesus! What the hell was that?!" Whitley shouted, shutting down Garrus's video feed and disabling the censors on Jane's end. The first thing he noticed was the look of shock on Jane's face, as well as a large amount of fire surrounding the area.

"MOM'S ATTACKING MY BASE!" Jane shouted back, unslinging her rifle and ending the call.

At that moment, several alarms began to blare in the warehouse.

"Oh, you got to be fucking kidding me." Whitley muttered, as Wrex began to laugh maniacally.

AN: For anyone wondering what Whitley's outfit is like, it's Nero's outfit from Devil May Cry 5, except black instead of blue, and the torn shirt's been replaced with a turtleneck.

Originally, this chapter was gonna be much longer, spanning on until Balak was defeated. It's only after I went past 3k words did I realize that maybe splitting it into two parts would be a better idea. Anyways, just for fun, I wanted to put the chapter titles of the next few chapters of this fic (They may be subject to change, though)

Shepard's Revenge (Prologue Finale, Part II)

The Butcher of Torfan

Interlude III: Jacques

Chapter 1: Eden Prime

Hope you enjoyed the chapter!