Zenna leaned back in her chair and looked up to the blue sky of earth. The minotaur had taken two weeks off to get her mind back in order before they get back to the mission. So, she decided to call up her old friends, they did say that she didn't contact them for a few years. Now was the best time to get back in touch with them. As she cracked her neck, Zach appeared beside her with a big evil smile.

"Hello," he said, but Zenna just looked at him unimpressed.

"Do you want me to hit you?" she asked showing him her first.

The nekomata just let a sweat drop as he looked at her. "Errr no thanks," he said shying away and onto one of the chairs. "How have you been?"

"Have you seen the news?" Zenna asked as she took a drink.

"Yeah, I have to admit I would have done the same," he said as he called over a waitress. "The others are running late due to trains,"

"Yeah, not surprised," the minotaur smiled. "After all that's going on, I'm amazed that the three of you can join me for a coffee,"

"Even if you hate the stuff?" Zach asked with a laugh.

"Yeah," Zenna smiled. "You guys can have coffee, I can have water,"

"Good plan," the nekomata nodded. "Should we get something to eat while the others are on their way?"

But the minotaur shook her head. "Nah, it's not fair, plus we'd fill ourselves up before they get here,"

"I was thinking about you," Zach defended. "You have a bottomless pit for a stomach. If you leave it too long, you're going to eat me,"

"I doubt you'd taste any good," Zenna countered. "You're too stringy for my liking,"

"Oi," he muttered in embarrassment.

"Either way, how are the kids?" she asked diverting the conversation.

"Oh, they're doing fine," he said as he pulled up his omni-tool and showed a picture of two nekomata children in sailor fuku (Japanese school sailor like uniforms).

"Ahh they are so…." Zenna tired to say when a scaly tail appeared over her eyes. "Alexia, I'm not impressed,"

"Ahhh you're no fun," the Lamia said as she moved to an open seat. "I thought the military opened you up a bit,"

"What are you talking about?" Jann asked as he took a seat. "It's kept her more guarded than normal,"

"And where's the fun in that?" the Lamia asked.

"Making new friends, and seeing new worlds," Zenna quoted with a smile making the four laughs.

OOOOO 2 years later.

Alarms rang through the station as a Zenna lay on an operating table unconscious. But as a blast shook the station, she began to stir.

"Shepard, wake up!" a voice screeched over the room's speaker. "I need you to wake up! This facility is under attack!" the voice was female, but not one she remembered.

Zenna's eyes slowly opened as pain shot through her body. The pain wasn't as bad as when she became a Chimera, but it was still bad. She sat up gritting her teeth as that woman came back on.

"Your scars haven't healed yet, Shepard. You need to grab your armour and weapon from the locker next to you," the voice said.

She jumped of and pulled open the locker. Inside was the standard Onyx armour with the arms gone and a larger left shoulder padas well as a predator pistol. She grabbed the armour and opened it up. It fit her like a glove, whoever her benefactor was clearly knew her size. Once on she then turned to the pistol in the locker and pulled it out

She examined the pistol and groaned, "You gave me a pistol without a thermal clip," The minotaur yelled.

"It's a med bay-" It looked like the woman was viewing the room remotely because she noticed the gas canisters that were on fire. "Shit! Get to some cover!"

Shepard ignored the waring as the canisters exploded. The impact on the shield did little, and on her. Once the flames died down Zenna just cracked her neck. As she did a smell met her nose, she sniffed the air but couldn't place it.

"Call that an explosion?" that was a pat on the back.

"Ok Just try and find a thermal clip," the woman said.

Luckily there happened to be a thermal clip on the other side of the hole. Shepard picked it up and loaded it into her pistol. She entered the next room and saw a barricade which she jumped over quickly. Almost immediately pistol shots landed near her. Looking to the stairs she saw two mechs firing at her. She didn't hesitate and dived for cover.

"Shepard, mechs are closing in on your position! Don't take any chances. Get to some cover."

"I figured that!" Zenna said as she came out of cover and fired a few rounds at them.

The rounds hit harmlessly off their armour as more arrived. As more fire came in her direction, she ducked behind cover and reloaded.

"Mech's have a power core at the back, like a tank along with the coolant," she muttered to herself as she took careful aim.

She fired three rounds, two of them missed but one hit a pipe and began to leak a gas. Switching to fire rounds, she fried again. The round hit the back tank of the machine blowing it. It detonated taking out parts of the other mechs around it. Zenna then moved out of cover and fired taking the others out. Once the last mech fell, Shepard moved forward, seeing the battle go on around the station.

Something went wrong here that she couldn't figure out. As she moved further into the station, she entered a room and found herself on an overlook. A grenade launcher lay next to a dead body, since there was no one else there she picked it up and smiled on the hefty weapon. She pulled the bolt back to see a grenade in the breach.

"Here come the mechs!" the voice notified her. "Use that grenade launcher against them,"

"I'm not dumb!" the minotaur moaned as a door opened with a few mechs emerging to fire at her.

The rounds impacted harmlessly against her shield as she fired a grenade.

"Ok let me make something clear, alerting me is fine but telling me how to kill a group of mechs… you are well on the way to a boot up the ass," she growled as she walked onto the elevator. "But the help I require is which way to go,"

"Very well. I apologize. You are heading the ri…. I have mechs closing in on me!" The radio went quiet.

The way she said that confused the minotaur. It sounded both organic and mechanical. And that smell still remained, that strange smell was still there. Inwardly groaning, she doubled time it until she discovered a battle under way. A soldier was taking cover, firing at some mechs. Shepard fired the pistol in hand and a round took the head of one of the mechs as she moved next to the soldier.

"Shepard?" he gasped. "What are you doing here? I thought you were a work in progress,"

"Work in progress?" she asked but shook her head. "Never mind, I just woke up. You probably have a better grasp on the situation than I do,"

"Right, sorry about that," he apologized. "I'm Jacob Taylor. I've been stationed here-"

A round skid across his cover barely missing him. "Damn it!" he cursed. Jacob jumped out of cover and blew the head off of one of the mechs with his pistol. "Things must be worst off if Miranda has you running around. I'll fill you in, but first we should get you to the shuttle,"

"It's your station, I'll follow you," Zenna agreed.

"First step—let's finish off these metal bastards," Jacob said as he stood and threw a warp ball at the mechs.

"Right," she said before popping up and double tapping on a mech as Jacob threw another warp making the rest of the mechs lose their gravity allowing the two to finish them off.

Once they were down, the two stood and Jacob holstered his pistol. "You ready to get the hell off of this station?"

"What's the quickest way to those shuttles?" the minotaur asked.

Jacob shrugged. "Depends where the mechs are thickest. It's probably bets if we-"

A voice over the radio interrupted him. "Check. Check. Anyone on this frequency? Anybody still out there? Hello?"

"Wilson?" Jacob answered. "This is Jacob. I'm here with Commander Shepard. Just took out a wave of mechs in D wing,"

"Shepard's awake?" there was a hesitation in his voice and something sounded off. "Good, good. You need to get her the hell out of there. Get to the service tunnels and head for the network control room,"

"Roger that, Wilson. Stay on this frequency," Jacob said before turning back to the commander.

"Let's get out of here," Shepard said.

Jacob nodded at that. "Right. The service tunnel is right through this door," he said leading the way.

Zenna followed the soldier as they walked through the door and found the room filled with mechs.

"Sonofa!" Jacob cursed as the two shot the mechs before them. "Wilson this room is crawling with mechs!"

"The whole station is crawling with mechs!" he yelled back. "I'm doing the best I can,"

"Find us another route. Preferably one without mechs," Jacob complained as he and Zenna kept on moving.

"Oh god they found me!" Wilson yelled in panic over the comm. "Help!"

"Wilson, where are you?" Jacob asked while Shepard and he exited the room.

"Server room B. Hurry! They're out of control!" his voice cut as a bang sounded in their ears.

Jacob and Shepard looked to each other, before they doubled timed it up the stairs. Server room B was right at the top of the stairs. Wilson was sitting up against a crate.

"Jacob! Shepard! Down here! Bastards got me in the leg," he said.

"Hold on, I'll get you some medi-gel," Zenna said as she walked over to the medical locker.

She took out several vials of medi-gel while Jacob covered the door. Once she got them, Shepard went to Wilson and applied some medi-gel to his wound.

"Thanks, Shepard," he sighed as he got to his feet. "I guess that makes us even. I was trying to see if I could deactivate the security mechs from here when the mech got me in the leg,"

"We weren't asking what you doing," Jacob said in an accusing tone. "You don't even have security mech clearance. You were in the bio-wing,"

"Weren't you listening? I was trying to fix this. Besides, I was shot! How do you explain that?" as he spoke, Shepard smelled BS.

Wilson was hiding something, either way they needed to get out.

"I don't know who either of you are, so frankly you both suspicious to me," Shepard interrupted. "For now, we get the hell out of here and then we sort things out,"

"We need to find Miranda first," Jacob said firmly.

"Forget about Miranda!" Wilson said with a little too much panic in his voice for Jacobs liking. "She was over in D wing. The mechs were all over that sector. There's no way she survived,"

"A bunch of mechs won't drop Miranda. She's alive," Jacob insisted.

"Then, where is she? Why haven't we heard from her? There are only two explanations. Either she's dead or she's a traitor," Wilson assumed.

"She was guiding me earlier to safety, so that rules out traitor," Zenna said.

"Okay, maybe not traitor, but the chances of her being alive are slim. You're more important to get out alive than Miranda. We shouldn't risk going to look for-" The doors on the other side of the room opened revealing a group of mechs. "Ah, shit!"

The three ducked into cover. Wilson activated his omni-tool and overloaded the canisters, destroying the group of mechs.

"Come on, let's get out of here," Shepard ordered as she was walking to the door when Jacob chirped in.

"We took them down, but this is getting intense. Shepard, if I tell you who we're working for, will you trust us?"

"This really isn't the time, Jacob," Wilson cautioned.

"We're not going to get through this if he's expecting to be shot in the back," Jacob defended

"If you want to piss off the boss, then it's your head," Wilson shrugged crossing his arms.

"The Lazarus project, the program that rebuilt you... Is a Cerberus initiative,"

"I know," Shepard said in an irritated grumble as she pointed to one of dozens of Cerberus emblems that littered the building. "You guys really need to know the term 'secret', not to mention I've killed many Cerberus agents who were trying to make Chimeras,"

"Right..." Jacob sweated. "The Alliance gave you up for dead. Cerberus spent a fortune to bring you back. Look, I'd be suspicious too. But right now, we need to work together. I just thought you deserved to know. Apparently, I was too slow to tell you. Once we're off the station, we'll take you to the Illusive Man. He'll explain everything. I promise,"

"Dead?….." Zenna shook her head. "Let's just get out of here,"

The three went into the shuttle bay. With the crates scattered all around. Jacob was able to use the crates with his biotics to crush a group of mechs effortlessly. While this happened both Wilson and Kira started to take out the mechs with shock rounds, they short circuited the mechs causing them to shut down. When the last mech they went towards the launch room.

"Come on, the shuttle is right through-" The doors opened before him a white white-blue haired woman stood there with an angry look on her face. "Miranda, I thought you were de-" Bang! Miranda fired a round in his neck.

"Dead?" she asked looking at his dead body.

Zenna moved quickly at Miranda and pinned her to the wall, fangs bared.

"What the hell are you doing?" Jacob demanded aiming his weapon at Kira.

"My job," she replied plainly. "Wilson betrayed us all,"

Shepard said nothing as she sniffed the air. "You smell weird," she said as she focused on Miranda. "Like a Golem,"

"That's because I am," Miranda said, earning an unimpressed look

"We should have taken him in for questioning," Shepard said letting go of the Agent.

"Too risky. I spent two years on this project, and I wasn't about to risk it to bring him in," she said with a little more emotion.

"And you further risked it by not," Shepard pointed out. "Now we have no idea if he was working for someone, if there are more agents, or what his motivations were. But then again nether can you when you report to the Illusive Man,"

Miranda turned to her partner. "Jacob. I should have known your conscious would get the better of you."

"Actually, she figured it out on her own," Jacob said.

"How?" Mrianda asked looking to the minotaur

"Your trademarks are all over the station, Cerberus is not known for subtlety. Let's get out of here." said moving to the ship.

Codex:

Golem:

A very rare and unique demi-human, Golems aren't naturally made. They are an artificial demi-human breed who are created during the act of cloning. Because all humans have the Demi-human virus in their DNA, most of it being inactive, any tampering with human DNA will activate the virus. However, because it's not being directly targeted the effect doesn't turn the clone into a Chimera, but into a Golem.

While Golems appear to be human, their outward appearance tend to give their true nature away. As does their voice tone which makes them seem mechanical, rather than a person. Even Golems who have lived around humans all their lives cannot break this habit. They are occasionally referred to as 'Vulcans' due to their emotionless voice. While it is meant as a joke, it can come off as an insult.

Due to their rarity, Golems don't have an overarching culture like the minotaurs. But because of their active brains, they tend to have high ranking jobs which involve micromanagement as they can deal with large amounts of information. In terms of military, they are known to be fierce tacticians. They can organise multiple ambushes and more making the enemy's life hell.

Despite all this, Golems are rare due to their infertility. While this has been countered with treatments, this only applies to 5% of the Golem population and due to the heavy restrictions on DNA modifications, Golems are a dying breed.