AN: College kicked my fucking ass this semester. If you're looking into the full reason why, then my AN on Quirkless Vigilante will explain the clusterfuck that was my schedule. I don't want to copy and paste the whole thing again, it wastes too much space. Anyways, enjoy the chapter!

Shepard's Revenge (Prologue Finale, Part II)

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

"There'll be time to bemoan how badly the plan went later, Shepard! On your feet!" Michelle exclaimed, using her biotics to rip open a nearby door.

Unfolding his pistol, Whitley followed Wrex and Michelle as they began carving through the defenses.

As the slavers and mechs were distracted by the powerhouses decimating them, Whitley climbed a nearby ladder, intent on finding Balak.

I doubt Balak is going to stand back and escape while his men are being butchered. Where is he?

Whitley's answer, unfortunately, came with the sight of a laser scope zeroing in on Michelle's head.

Reacting quickly, Whitley aimed his pistol and emptied the clip where the laser originated. His shots hit true, causing Balak to curse and fall into cover. Looking quickly, he noticed the silver-haired Shepard. Growling in anger, Balak quickly aimed and fired in Whitley's direction.

Diving down behind cover, Whitley winced as he noticed Balak's shot had grazed his cybernetic arm. Unwilling to take a chance with the sniper, Whitley called out to his enemy.

"Balak, it's over! Your men are decimated, and your brother is dead! Surrender!"

"Surrender? To the son of the woman that murdered my father? To the child that murdered my brother? Never! If I die today, I will ensure you die with me, boy!" Balak exclaimed, throwing a grenade.

Whitley cursed, rolling out of the way of the grenade. As soon as he had rolled away from the grenade, Balak fired again. It was only through luck that his shot hit the pistol Whitley had held up at the last moment to protect his face.

Unfortunately, it also meant he was now down to one weapon.

"So, I can't convince you to come peacefully?" Whitley asked, scanning the remains of the grenade with his cybernetic eye.

Balak's answer was to prime another grenade.

"Good." Whitley snarled, popping out of cover and opening his omni-tool.

At that moment, Balak's luck turned for the worse. Because at that moment, his left hand held a primed grenade. If he fired at Whitley, he'd have to ditch the grenade. If he tried to throw the grenade and fire the rifle at the same time, his main hand would be significantly injured, if not broken.

It was also at that moment that Whitley had the specs for the grenades Balak was using.

It was a testament to how much Balak had come prepared for the battle that his armor and shield held up against the explosion released by three grenades that detonated simultaneously. The slaver flew backwards through the air, before slamming into a wall behind him, warping the metal, and falling to the ground.

Whitley, unwilling to waste time, quickly ran up to the fallen captain. As Balak was trying to lift himself, Whitley brought his foot down and stomped him on his back.

Whitley kept bringing his foot down on Balak's back, over and over again. As Balak groaned, Whitley grabbed his head from the ground and smashed it against the dented wall. Balak barely had any time to react before Whitley punched him in the face with his cybernetic hand. Unsatisfied with the damage already done to the slaver, Whitley kicked Balak's face in, further smashing it against the wall.

Unfortunately, with his anger overpowering his senses, Whitley failed to realize that Balak had been trying to grab a piece of debris. As he made the motion to kick Balak again, Balak grabbed Whitley's foot…

…And smashed the rusted pole he'd been able to grab at the last moment onto Whitley's knee.

Whitley shouted in pain, crashing down onto the floor. Balak chuckled weakly, grabbing a nearby railing and forcing himself upwards.

"A soldier wouldn't have bothered beating down his enemy. But you're not a soldier, are you, Shepard?"

Whitley cursed. He'd let himself get carried away. Now his enemy had the advantage.

However, as he felt the cold metal of his sister's weapon graze his chest, Whitley began to come up with a plan.

"Don't talk as if you're some noble warrior, Balak." Whitley growled, nursing his knee. "You're a madman so obsessed with revenge that you threw your men into a meat grinder just so you could get the chance to murder my mother. My mother and my sister fought to protect others from your family's rampage. They are soldiers. Warriors. You? You're just a slaver. A criminal constantly on the run because of your cowardice…"

Seeing the tense motions Balak was making, Whitley smirked, preparing to deliver a final insult.

"...A blind fool who let his father and brother get killed by my family because of your bruised ego!"

Balak roared, bringing the pipe down harshly on Whitley's body. Whitley quickly rolled to the left of Balak's attack, before unfolding Jane's shotgun from his coat.

"Smile." Whitley snarled, before unloading the shotgun on Balak's chest. Balak jerked back as Whitley continued to fire.

Once

Twice

Thrice.

Balak's armor, already heavily weakened by the shrapnel of the grenades Whitley detonated, shattered underneath the shotgun's blasts. Smirking, Whitley pressed the trigger again, and was met with a warning that the shotgun had overheated, the loud beeping almost mocking him.

Also, because the universe seemed to despise him, Balak was already getting up.

What the fu - What does it take to put this bugger down?! A nuclear missile?!

Whitley realized there was only one thing left to do.

Balak didn't have any time to react before the butt of the shotgun met his face. Whitley, taking a small bit of joy in seeing Balak's nose cartilage being smashed in, kept hitting him on the face. It was only after the shotgun broke that Whitley stopped his assault. Balak lay still.

"And stay down." Whitley spat, turning away from the slaver to see how his team was doing.

"Hey! You guys are still alive, right?" Whitley shouted, his voice echoing through the warehouse.

"We're alive! Gonna take a lot more than these pyjaks to take me down!" Wrex shouted back.

"Good! I was worried for a moment! Anyway, Balak is down, and both of my weapons are broken. Anyone want to finish the jo-"

That was as far as Whitley got before a pipe smashed onto his skull. While Balak's swing was very weak, it was enough to send the silver-haired Shepard crashing downwards.

Nursing his head, Whitley could only lay on the ground as he saw Balak limping away.

"You son of a bitch!" Whitley hissed, trying to force himself to get up from the ground. "Get back here!"

As Balak disappeared over a corner, a familiar red tinge began to greet his vision. He thought of Jane, of how she'd suffered under Balak's knife. He thought of his mother, who had almost died because of the madman's grudge.

"You…you're not getting away…"

And he thought of Hannah's son. The brother he could have had.

Whose life had been ruthlessly extinguished due to the efforts of the man running away from him.

"THAT EASILY!"

Whitley broke into a run, turning the corner. In the distance, he could see Balak applying medigel to his wounds. The slaver, noticing that Whitley was now chasing after him, turned and fled, heading to a nearby skycar.

Whitley snarled, continuing his chase after the slaver. Even as he saw Balak was activating the engine, Whitley refused to relent.

As the skycar lifted into the air, Whitley, in an act of either desperation or stupidity, jumped up and grabbed onto the bottom of the skycar with his cybernetic hand.

And as if things couldn't get any worse, the skycar suddenly began to flip and turn, as Balak was doing his best to shake off his pursuer. It was only through luck that Whitley was not thrown off the car or scorched by the afterburner.

If he keeps this up, he'll fling me off soon. I have to find a way to stop this car before that happens.

Seeing as he couldn't use his omni-tool without losing his grip, Whitley was forced to resort to a tool that he usually took for granted.

His cybernetic eye.

His vision distorted into a blue haze as his eye began to scan through the skycar, combing over the various internal parts of the vehicle. Looking above him, Whitley's eye revealed that the skycar's mass effect drive was right in front of him, near the afterburner. Without missing a beat, Whitley grabbed the stabilizer with his cybernetic hand and pulled. An explosion rocked the skycar, almost throwing Whitley off it. The car began to leak blue energy in droves as it began to descend. At that moment, Whitley coughed, as his eyes began to water.

What?! I know that all skycars are powered by Element Zero, but this is insane! What model even is this?!

Praying that he wasn't about to be turned into a toxic biohazard, Whitley continued to hold onto the skycar. With the wind obscuring his vision, Whitley had to keep relying on his other eye. Searching for the best way he could get off the skycar without splattering himself all over the ground, Whitley was rewarded by the sight of something that could break his fall without killing him. Taking a deep breath, Whitley released his grip, flying backward….

And landing on a tarp.

A tarp that was snapping free of its moorings.

Cursing heavily, the silver-haired Shepard hastily grabbed onto the tarp as it broke away, forcing Whitley to use it as a makeshift rope and jump to safety.

Meanwhile, the skycar finally hit the ground, and a massive roar of steel hit Whitley's ears.

Surprisingly, the skycar had not exploded.

"Highly unlikely that bastard survived." Whitley muttered. A skycar that was leaking that much eezo, hitting several steel beams after coming out of the fight that they had? No way the slaver was still alive.

But Whitley couldn't help but remember all the instances where Balak should have died in their fight, and had survived instead.

For a few minutes, Whitley was torn between wanting to make sure Balak was dead or just leaving the hazard zone.

Ultimately, self-preservation won out. Besides, Balak's physical prowess was useless here. Not even the best hazard suit in the galaxy could protect you from that much Element Zero leakage at point-blank range.

Activating his omni-tool, Whitley was greeted by the sight of Michelle's stern expression.

"Shepard, what's going on? Where are you?"

"I'm…" Whitley coughed. "I'm at some construction site near the Lower Wards. I brought down Balak's vehicle, but that comes with it's own problems. I don't know what kind of model he was driving, but it's pissing eezo all over the place. I need a pickup before C-Sec gets here."

"Understood. Wrex and I will get there soon. Try to get as far away as you can, though. Element Zero is-."

"Extremely toxic to organic matter, I know. Tell Wrex he might need to dig out hazard gear if he wants to deliver on Balak's bounty. He was caught point blank in the leakage."

Ending the call, Whitley began to walk as fast as he could out of the construction site. As he was walking, it slowly dawned on him that this would be the first time since this entire mess that he was without his team. Shaking off the uneasiness he felt, Whitley continued onward. He'd have to hurry if he didn't want to continue being exposed to one of the most dangerous elements on the periodic table.

However, before he could get outside, Whitley heard a loud clang echo through the construction site. He barely had any time to react before he was tackled to the ground.

Balak was, to put it bluntly, a complete mess. Blood was pouring out of the Batarian's eyes and nose, and his posture was ragged. All in all, Balak looked like he was on death's door.

Which made his iron grip on Whitley's neck even more of a surprise.

"My time may be coming to an end, Shepard. But at least I won't be dying alone." Balak smiled, squeezing down even harder.

Whitley struggled, trying to hit Balak's hands to dislodge the grip around his throat. A few moments passed, as his vision began to darken.

"It hasn't gone as well as I'd hoped, but I think we can still send that Alliance bitch a message."

"He took down three of our men before Romak was able to get close enough to slit his throat. By the time Shepard had arrived at Mindoir with reinforcements, her son was long dead."

"Oh, the galaxy is cruel indeed. If there was any justice in it, I would have been able to take her as my slave aboard my ship, where I would have exacted every single one of the revenge fantasies I had held for the past twenty-one years."

A red tinge began to appear in Whitley's vision.

I…I will not die here! Not before he pays for everything!

Suddenly, Whitley felt a strange sensation in his cybernetic arm. Acting on pure instinct, Whitley drove it into Balak's chest.

The hands squeezing his neck let go. Whitley coughed, desperately trying to force air back into his body. As his vision cleared, he brought his cybernetic arm close to his face, only to freeze in shock.

Red lightning seemed to arc between the arm, as if it was reacting to his hatred of the man that had caused his family so much trauma.

Was…was he a biotic? How was this even possible? Weren't biotics supposed to be blue? Didn't humans need implants to even try and use biotics? What was going on?!

Whitley grasped his head in pain as images began to flash through his eyes.

"You should probably give it up." a man with a handlebar mustache said.

Confusion. Rage. Sorrow. All these emotions warred through his head.

"Why?" He asked.

The man sighed. "You are Fractured. One of the few people born on Remnant who carry no connection to their Aura. You said you wanted to be a Huntsman, correct? Well, you have to give up on that dream now. No academy on Remnant is going to take a child that can't even use Aura."

He took a shuddering breath, trying to calm himself.

"Is…is there anything I can do?"

The man shook his head "No. A Fractured cannot force a connection to Aura, because the connection does not exist. Understand? You can't will something into existence."

Something inside him cracked and shattered at that moment.

"No. No! How is this possible?! Why won't you die?!" Balak roared. Picking up a steel bar, the Batarian rushed towards Whitley.

As the steel bar reached his face, a red glow surrounded it, stopping its momentum entirely.

Balak's eyes widened. He tried to tug the bar away from its frozen position, but to no avail.

Whitley's eyes opened, and the sight of what Balak saw caused him to freeze in horror.

A biotic glow emitted from the teenager's irises. However, instead of the usual blue that was common across all biotics in the galaxy, Whitley's eyes glowed an ominous red. And in the red glow, Balak saw only one thing.

Death

"This is for my brother, you bastard." Whitley growled. Reaching out with his newfound power, the silver-haired Shepard squeezed.

And Balak's body responded.

The scream that echoed through the site was loud enough to wake the dead. Then again, that kind of frequency could be expected from a man that had his right hand explode into literal chunks.

"This is for my mother…"

Another scream echoed out, as Balak's left hand joined his right hand in nothingness.

"This is for my sister…"

Another limb. Another scream.

"And this…this is for me."

Balak's throat constricted, as if a large pair of invisible hands was clamping down on his neck. He reached for his neck, but found himself unable to, as both of his hands had been turned into a pile of gore that now lay at Whitley's feet.

At that moment, the sound of a skycar could be heard landing nearby. Whitley ignored it. All he desired at that moment was watching the slaver in front of him choke to death.

Someone was calling out to him, but it didn't matter. He had won, and now this filth would pay for hurting his family.

Suddenly, he found himself being thrown against a wall. Groaning in pain, Whitley picked himself up.

"Took you long enough to snap out of it, runt!" Wrex exclaimed. He turned to face Balak. "Gotta admit, I'm impressed. I know a lotta mercs out there that wouldn't have the stomach for this."

"Get out of my way, Wrex. He needs to die." Whitley replied, his voice cold.

Wrex sighed. "Look, I understand how you're feeling right now. He killed your brother when he was just a kid. He tortured your sister. He almost succeeded in killing your mother. If anyone else had done even half of what this pyjak did to me, I'd be tearing them apart piece by piece. But, the fact of the matter is, he's got one of the largest bounties this side of space on him. One that's asking for him alive."

"Alive? What, so he can escape and kill more people? So he can enslave and murder children to his heart's desire?!" Whitley exclaimed.

"So he can be tortured more efficiently by people who know what they're doing." Wrex replied.

Whitley froze. "What?" he asked, confused.

"You weren't the only one that had family suffer on Elysium, runt. The contractor for this bounty lost his daughter when Balak invaded. He's made it clear he wants this pyjak alive. You still want to kill him? I won't stop you, but keep in mind that whatever you do will be a helluva lot quicker than what the other guy's thinking of doing."

Whitley stood there for a few moments, deep in thought, before sighing. He bent down to pick up a few metal pieces on the ground.

"Alright, fine. He's yours. If he somehow gets away after all this, then I'm holding you responsible."

Wrex laughed. "With how many pieces me and Lowry left of his men, I don't think anyone's going to bust him out. But, just in case…"

Wrex grabbed the Batarian, bringing his head down on the Batarian and knocking him unconscious, before slinging Balak over his shoulder.

Whitley smiled. "I'm never going to get tired of seeing that."

The two began to walk away from the construction site.

"Has C-Sec arrived at the base we raided yet? I need the slaver's omni-tools, in case they have any reinforcements hidden away from here. Under other circumstances, I'd be using Balak's omni-tool, but I seem to have shredded it on accident."

"Unfortunately, they did. Lowry expected them to arrive, though. She took the liberty of taking all their omni-tools with her before we left. She's probably got them waiting for you in the safehouse she's got."

"That's good. I'd hate to see us get setback now when we're so close to the finish line."

Looking at Wrex more closely, Whitley hummed. "I see that you took my advice on the hazard suit."

"In this line of work, you always gotta be ready for anything. One of Michelle's people got it out of my safehouse and dropped it for me nearby. To be honest, I was half expecting you to already be keeling over from the toxicity of this place when I arrived. Instead, I find you somehow developed biotic abilities powerful enough to destroy someone's body with minimal training."

Whitley sighed. "I don't know how it happened either. Hopefully, Michelle or Jane or someone will be able to get me checked out and explain what's going on."

"Any ideas?"

"None. This…it doesn't make any sense! People don't just spontaneously develop biotics when they're exposed to Element Zero! Their children, perhaps, but most of the time, they just develop tumors!"

"You could just be a latent biotic. I've heard stories that some humans who're exposed to eezo before they're born can end up developing biotic talents later on when they're exposed to eezo again."

"That theory might hold some merit. Still, if that was the case, why are my biotics red? Shouldn't they be blue, like everyone else's?"

"Don't know. Lowry might have an answer."

"Yes. It would be best to have a professional's opinion about all this. Where are you going to put Balak?"

"I've got a ship. I'll drop you off to Lowry to get you medical attention, then I'm gonna put him in the brig, head to the client, and get my bounty."

Whitley froze.

"So…you're leaving?"

Wrex sighed. "Job's done, runt. No point sticking around now, not when C-Sec's got their pants in a twist from all the chaos that's been going on the past few days. But…this ain't goodbye. You still got my number, right?"

Whitley nodded.

"Then keep in touch. You definitely need better friends than this old man, and I can't guarantee that I'll be available all the time, but I'll still be there, all the same."

"Thank you, Wrex. For what it's worth…I couldn't have asked for better company by my side these past few days, as chaotic as they were."

"Feeling's mutual, runt."

AN: Finally done with the chapter.

Looks like Whitley's picked up some new abilities and retained some old memories! The secret as to why will be revealed later, all I'll say for now is that it has a lot to do with the Element Zero that he was exposed to, and that said idea will be toyed with more in the future, especially when the Mass Effect 2 arc starts rolling around.

Also, I've decided on the next couple of chapter titles, so keep an eye out for these, but without the brackets

Empty Promise (Prologue Conclusion)

Torfan (Arc Epilogue)

Codename Butcher (Mass Effect 1 Arc Start)

I might sneak another interlude in there if I decide it's time to see how Remnant is doing.