New Start Plus: in spaaaaace!

by omaster43

Nick Walters and his merry band of misfits are back with a story about helping Shepard and crew fight giant eldritch robot abominations, most likely through Dumb magic and crazy shenanigans This is a continuation of my previous story, so reading that one first is recommended. but I'm not your nanny you wanna be confused that's your choice. Oc-insert, just came from Dragon age

13. Chapter 13 Consensus

Ch. 13

Consensus

-/-

Kasumi POV

Okay~. So, I may have had a small lapse in judgment.

"You were amazing last night~," Ayla whispered, gently kissing up my spine as her fingers sent shivers through my body.

Well, 'lapse of judgment' is a bit too harsh, I was lonely, and Ayla was very warm. She knew things about my body that took Kenji weeks to learn.

She pulled me in close, her breast resting on my back. "Wanna go another round~." her skilled hands glided down my body, resting on my inner thigh.

"Don't mind me~," Julee's teasing voice broke the hot and heavy mood.

"Julee!?" I squeaked, using the pillow to cover myself. "What are you doing here!?"

"... This is my living room?"

I looked around the living room, at the multimillion-credit carpet my bare bottom was resting on, to the messed-up couch we fell off, and finally to the throw pillow I was using to cover myself. "... oh yeah."

Julee rolled her eyes, "Why are you covering yourself? We've bathed together~."

"That was different, this is... after-sex-naked," I hissed.

"Well, you need a bath, right? I know after a long hard night I need a bath." she removed her nightgown, leaving her naked to the world, showing off her new tattoo of an intricate gear just below her belly button. "Come on we can use our personal bath." she raced back deeper into her home.

"Should I be worried?" I whispered to Ayla.

"Nah, but she will ask you a bunch of embarrassing questions," she answered, standing up straight and stretching, completely at home in her nude body. "You don't have to come if you don't want to. This is probably part of Julee's super harem plan."

"...Wait, is part of the plan for me not to go or to go?" I asked.

Ayla blinked at me, before scrunching her face in thought. "... yes~?"

I let out a sigh, "Fine, lead the way."

Ayla clapped her hands, summoning a dozen of Nick's little cleaning golems. "Your suit will be cleaned and returned to you before you leave."

-/-

Nick POV

"What are you wearing?" I asked Kasumi. Placing her favorite breakfast in front of her. Grilled salmon, white rice, miso soup, and a rolled omelet.

"...You don't like it?" She gave a little twirl, showing off her black and gold qipao that ended at her thighs, smirking up at me.

"Oh no, I love it, you and the Chinese diplomats be looking fine~," I teased, looking at the rest of the Quarians dressed up in their own qipaos.

"Isn't this a little short," Lia muttered dusting off her dress trying to make it longer.

"No," Kasumi and I answered at the same time.

"...I think I'll be taking my advice from people who aren't looking at my thighs like hungry varren," she deadpanned.

"I have no idea what you're talking about~," I huffed, looking at her thighs and hips. The gods sure did love the Quarian people~.

"My eyes are up here," Lia huffed.

"Yes, I noticed, are all Quarian's beautiful?" I asked.

"I know right!" Kasumi agreed, "What the hell, every Quarian I've seen Nick cure is at least a 7, sure some of it is because of your diet, but come on!?"

"We just hit the biological lottery," Tali huffed taking a seat next to Kasumi. "Breakfast please~, and don't skimp out on the bacon! I'll know." she narrowed her eyes at me.

I rolled my eyes, "You'll get the bacon I give you."

"It better be over a pound."

"A POUND OF BACON!?" Kasumi yelped, she reached over and started feeling up Tali's tummy.

"Hey!? Watch those hands!"

"How are you so toned?" Kasumi hissed, before cupping Tali's breast and thighs.

"EEEP!? KASUMI!?"

Poor Richard tripped over his feet landing on his cereal. "I'm okay!"

I wasn't paying attention to him.

"Tell me your secrets space girl!" Kasumi demanded, squeezing Tali in a very inappropriate way.

"Nick, would you help!" Tali hissed. I slowly reached out, only for her to slap them away, "HELP ME!"

"Oh~... Kasumi... stop it," I whispered.

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" Tali threatened. "ENOUGH!" she finally slapped Kasumi's hands away.

"Ouchy~."

"It's something called consent~," Tali hissed, pinching Kasumi's cheek.

"Sorry~, it's just that I've had to be on a very strict diet since I became a thief."

"I've seen you eat four bowls of ramen back-to-back," I huffed.

"They're called cheat days~. But I guess Chi and Magic will give me a few more of those." she traced her body, flexing a little.

"That's true, how have you been handling your Chi," I asked, passing Tali her heavy-calorie breakfast, who started eating without a second thought.

"Good! I don't feel so sore after workouts. Can Chi help me in thievery?" she teased.

"Mmm... the Way of Shadows would probably be the best for you. Thane!" I called over to Thane who was finishing his egg whites, white rice, and toast, he had simple tastes, cleaning himself a Maid golem past by collecting his plate.

He thanked the golem and walked over to us, "Yes?"

"You asked me about your ability to Shadow Walk, jumping from shadow to shadow?"

"Yes, you told me it was a mix between my prayer to Amonkira and my training as an assassin." Just for a second a ghostly Drell appeared over his shoulder before disappearing. "Is something wrong?"

"Your gods are getting antsy," I muttered. "It's fine, there is nothing we can do about that right now, I'll just deal with it. Anyways, Kasumi wants to learn how to Shadow Walk, is there anything you are willing to trade for training her?"

"Mmm, I wish for Kolyat to gain the same enhancement I possess."

"You want me to give Kolyat Chi?" I asked. "You know he's going to work at C-sec, under the Council's thumb. If the council's last three brain cells are working correctly, they'll probably recruit him into the Spectres. I know I would, even if Kolyat only has half your skills, Chi would probably fill in the gap."

"...Yes, the idea did cross my mind, but I don't think we have much of a choice. The Reapers are coming, and I would rather give him the choice to protect himself."

I shrugged, "Alright, give him a call, and next time we're in the citadel we'll power him up."

"Very well, Ms. Goto we'll start training after the Heretic base."

The Heretic built their base near the galactic edge, making sure they were nowhere near a Relay, forcing us to take the long way around, about 7 days of Eezo travel, but only about a day of Hyperspace travel, still we were exiting Hyperspace about a day away, making sure the Heretics couldn't sense us in any way.

"Thank you Thane, and you can call me Kasumi, we're all friends here," she added.

He gave a polite nod, walking toward his room. Lately, we have been working on our meditation and magic shaping.

He's been having a hard time with his Chi over-clocking his identic memory, which was already crazy powerful. Where before he could relive his memory, now he could look them over, like a pensieve from Harry Potter, he could see details he missed before, he tended to get lost in some of his thoughts.

Mordin on the other hand, I looked over at the mad scientist, dozens of tablets around him with two clones checking his notes. Before he was firing at all cylinders, man didn't rest, but now it was something else entirely, poor Zura had been running back and forth trying to keep up with him, she had been practicing Mordin's cloning technique to try and keep up with him. Mordin explained his Cloning Skill, but it was very... Scientific, for the lack of a better word. His Salarian brain just didn't translate well without years of scientific, mathematical, and analytical study, he just saw the world differently, his green was my blue. Magic can cross the gap, but it would take time to work out the details, I could buy a similar skill, like DBZ multi-form technique, or Naruto's Shadow clone, but the cost was ridiculous, easily reaching over 20,000 gold, it just wasn't worth it.

Zaeed was... Handsome, like... stupid handsome, I see where his son got his looks. I understand that Chi brought your body to its prime but damn man, I made a note not to be consumed by revenge. Zaeed didn't seem to care though; he was always in shape, and he used to have this face before, he was happier with his new laser eye. It was a bit of crazy artificer-y, having to keep the Eye from heating up and melting his face, so Lyna, Julee, Dagna, and I had to have the laser appear at least a foot away from his face, so he could use it with a helmet. We also connected it to his Mana core, much like Ava's arm, giving him back his depth perception, he was a bit flat-footed for a while, but he seemed to get back to his old rhythm pretty quick.

Garrus... was the same, no crazy growth spurt, no large muscles, no larger head spikes, he looked normal, but Garrus didn't feel normal, he was stronger and more dexterous, he described it as if he was walking through molasses his entire life before now. I still don't know the long-term effects of Chi on alien physiology, but so far, he looked fine and Dr. Mordin was looking over him, running the same test he was running on me after every mission.

Jenny was having a blast, her biotics were at an all-time high, and was casting magic like a mad woman, it didn't take long for her to slam into a Mana crash. She cursed up a storm for over 2 hours, cursing me, magic, her head, loud noises, coffee, and books. Like Thane, I had her working on spell shaping, she was going the full destruction route like Grunt, making her Sky's problem.

"You didn't have to do that," Kasumi huffed.

I smirked at her, "So you were going to give Kolyat Chi?"

"Maybe~, can you teach me how?" she teased.

"I... don't know. Never really thought about it. I mean I have books and tomes that can help people unlock their Chi and Magic through study and training, but I've never taught Power Bestowal, forobvious reasons."

"Power Bestowal? Is that what you call upgrading people? Nerd~," she teased. "But I get it, the last thing I want is for some crazy guy running around giving people magic."

"Nah~, I doubt it would be like that, I know I make it look easy but unlocking people's Magic and Chi takes a lot of power." I reached behind the kitchen bar and pulled out a beer mug and a shot glass. "The simplest way I could explain it is that 'I', the beer mug, use my Chi and Mana to change 'you', the shot glass, into a beer mug and then top you off. Of course, there are some complications." I pulled out one of Garrus's Turian mugs, made with a straw. "Not everyone becomes a normal beer mug, not even your mug came out like mine, your life experiences have molded you differently, like how some powers come easier for you, or Mordin's new super intelligence, or Thane's overclocked memories, Or Samara's creepy precognition."

"Like how I can see soundwaves and thermal emissions?" Zura asked.

"Exactly. And the cost is not all the same. Jenny needed more juice than you, even though you're both human, but she didn't get as much as you because Jenny didn't unlock her Mana beforehand. now that her Mana core is so big, it's going to take her time to grow and control, unlike you who has been expanding and training your core since the start." I started putting mugs away, it was way too early for alcohol, and most of the night shift was heading off to bed, anyone who wanted a nightcap was already at the bar.

"How do you do it?" Lia asked.

"Hmm?" I asked.

"I mean, I have a basic understanding of how much Mana and Chi I have, but you almost seem to have a detailed understanding of how much you have," She pointed out.

"...huh~." would you look at that, I know someone was going to ask sooner or later, but I didn't see it coming from Lia.

"Oh! I'm sorry! I didn't know you didn't want to talk about it," she fumbled.

"No, no~," I laughed off her worry. "But you're right, I do have the ability to see how much Mana I have before I hit a Mana or Chi crash."

"What~?" Tali hissed. "Why didn't you tell us, I have to do it by feel."

Like any muscle in the body, you have an innate understanding of when something gonna snap, like lifting weights you know when it's too much, muscles wobble, sweat pours, and teeth are clenched, it's the same with magic. As long as you don't blow your load all at once, the body gives signs of an upcoming Mana crash, heavy muscles, blurred vision, headache, and upset stomach. Gamer's body mitigated all these symptoms, only entering a Mana Crash the second my MP reached zero.

I shrugged. "It's mostly because you're new to your magic, most people must study for years to get a solid handle on their mana, I threw you into the deep end, you just need more training, it will become second nature in due time."

"Yeah well, I'm in your debt in the meantime, how do I pay you back?" Kasumi smirked.

"You don't-" I paused "-on second thought, I need a teacher to teach Zura and Lia, Skullduggery."

She gave me a confused look, "Skullduggery?"

"Yes, I'm a Wascally Wabbit, but you've been at it for far longer than I have."

"WHY I NEVER~," she huffed at me, nose pointing to the ceiling in mock affront. "I am a lady of fine stature~!"

"GASP! My lady, please forgive this lowly cook for assuming." I gave a mock bow.

We held it for a second before we broke out in laughter. "Okay, okay~," she giggled, breaking character. "You want to teach Lia and Zura to be scamps~?"

"I also asked Nat, but she's busy teaching Grunt-" I grabbed a hashbrown and launched it at the super krogan, "spatial awareness!" The Krogan turned with his mouth open, only for the Hashbrown to hit his forehead. "Nope~."

"DAMN IT!" he roared, eating the potato.

"Wait, you're making us thieves?" Zura asked.

"Well, isn't someone a little ahead of herself~," Kasumi teased. "Being thieves is a bit out of your reach, but I could make you a decent pickpocket."

"Ironic, I'm here because I was falsely accused of Pickpocketing, now I'm learning to Pickpocket," Lia muttered.

"Life is funny that way," I teased, pulling out a chocolate bar perfectly wrapped with a cartoon picture of Dagna giving a thumbs up, catching the Quarians' attention as I slowly and deliberately placed it in my breast pocket. "a little motivation~."

Zura's hand snapped out trying to take it, but I used Fade Shroud to go incorporeal, allowing her hand to go right through me.

"Oh~," she shook her hand, "That was weird~."

"If you want this handmade, magical chocolate, you're going to have to take it without me noticing. So train hard if you want some sweets~," I laughed.

"How do we even know that's real chocolate," Tali huffed.

I sighed and snapped three small segments of the bar. They had a slight glow given by my Cooking Skill. I had to be very careful here, it was like feeding a velociraptor straight out of Jurassic World.

DANGER!

"NO!" I chastised, snapping my hand away as Tali's very sharp Quarian teeth nearly took my finger. "NO! Bad Tali! No biting! Bad!"

She just hissed, baring her teeth at me, her eyes were fully dilated taking in as much information as they could, her body moved without her head, it was weird, like a lioness who found weak prey. At this point, I would have just thrown the chocolate, but if each didn't get one piece they would complain until they got one, only for another to steal it, I fell into this trap once.

"SKY~!" So I'll just make it someone else's problem.

"Yes, Nicky?" She asked, giving me a smile that warmed my heart.

How can I subject Sky to these hungry lionesses? "Can you please give one piece of chocolate to each one of these lovely ladies~?" Easily, Sky's a tough girl, she can handle it. Tossing her the candy, the Quarians launched themselves after the sweets, only to land on a confused Sky.

That was until she was bitten.

That was a mistake. Sky's eyes fully dilated, Sky liked it rough, as a dragon, fighting for dominance is a daily thing, if she wasn't sleeping, eating, or making love, she was fighting.

It took a second, but Tali regained some of her wits, looking up at a heavy-breathing dragon. She took a single step back, another mistake. Never show weakness to a dragon, even if you're missing both arms, never show weakness.

"Sk- eep!" Tali didn't finish as Sky's tail lifted her to eye level. "Sky!? Hold-" she paused as Sky slowly melted a piece of chocolate on her cleavage, leading it up to her lips. "Sky, I, you, I-" Sky cut her off by shoving her chocolate-covered tongue into her mouth. She gave a bit of a struggle before she succumbed to Sky's skills, moaning and groaning, licking the chocolate off Sky's body. Sky gently put her on the floor before doing the same to Lia and Zura.

All three Quarians were lost to the chocolate's intoxicating effects, I had to add the calming effect to any chocolate I created, I didn't want any unwanted Quarian love bites. They didn't hold back. It took a second, but the Quarian chocoholics were able to collect their marbles before their faces exploded in dark blushes.

"You taste good," Sky smiled at them, much to their embarrassment. She reached down and gave Tali another tongue-filled kiss, and like before Tali gave a bit of a fight before just melting into Sky's embrace. "Yep~," Sky popped. "Very sweet." she did the same to Lia and Zura, "I like it," she nodded.

"I bet~," Kasumi teased.

Lia turned to us wide-eyed, almost shocked that she didn't have complete privacy in the cafeteria. "Um, I, Um." the poor girl started bowing, "I'm so sorry, thank you, I'm sorry!"

"Lia, is okay."

She wasn't listening, just bowed and awkwardly backpedaled out of the room, bumping into things and apologizing. Zura didn't even say anything, she just ran. Accidentally phasing right through a table.

And that was their last mistake, it was one thing to show weakness, but to run, from a dragon~? No, that hit all of Sky's instincts like a hammer, as she gave chase.

"SKY!?" We heard Lia and Zura squeak before they were cut off, probably by the elevator.

Tali survived because she was frozen to the spot.

"...Tali... you, okay?" I asked. She didn't say anything just walked back to her chair and continued eating her breakfast. Kasumi and I exchanged glances.

"See, Kasumi. It's not hard getting some action," Tali teased, catching both of us off guard.

"Wha!?" Kasumi stuttered.

"Maybe if you weren't so focused on her abs and breasts, you would know how she tasted."

"...Where are you getting this confidence from?" Kasumi asked.

Tali finally looked at us, her eyes were huge, "I was always confident, but tempered by my care, by my selflessness, but no more," she slowly reached up and touched her lips, her fingers still shaking a little. "I can have it all... I want it all." she got to her feet and pulled Kasumi into a kiss; freezing her on the spot. "Mine~."

Oh damn, I... think I've done goofed.

I lost concentration, and in that second, Tali grabbed me by my shirt and pulled me into a kiss. She still had the taste of chocolate on her tongue, but something else, unfortunately, she pulled away before I could make sense of it.

Tali jumped away, with the biggest smirk on her face, and a chocolate bar in her hand. I slapped my chest finding the candy bar missing.

"Tali~," I calmly whispered, Phasing through the kitchen trying to calm her down and take back the chocolate.

"No~, bad Nicky. Bad," she teased, Fade Stepping away.

Time slowed as I dashed in front of her, blocking her exit, only for her to jump on me, and used her new flexibility to parkour off me and reach the elevator. She blew me a raspberry as the doors closed.

"I'm making her wear a Black Cat outfit next~," I huffed.

"Wow~, her training has gotten good~," Kasumi teased, as I walked back to the kitchen.

"Yeah, but there's always room for improvement," I smirked, pulling out the Chocolate bar from behind my back.

Due to your hard work and effort, you have ranked up a skill!

Pickpocket – Thanks for holding that for me.

The ability to pilfer goods right out of people's hands and pockets.

Rank – Journeyman

40% chance to steal something without the victim finding out. Higher if the target is distracted.

"Oh~," she wiped a fake tear taking a bite of the chocolate bar, "You learn so fast. Mmm~, this is damn good! Not rip-your-clothes-off good, but something I would buy if I found it in a store."

How did she do that? I was holding it! I sighed, "I might as well learn as I'm being robbed, and it's supposed to be that good, I had to play with my chocolate formula so Tali, Lia, and Zura don't go on a rampage."

"It didn't work~," she muttered, looking back to Tali's mental break.

"Yeah, that was weird. Zura and Lia didn't react like that. I think the trial and her father's actions finally pushed her over the edge."

"Let's not forget your teasing~," she added.

"I wasn't the first one she kissed, Ms. Sticky Fingers~."

"That proves nothing~, I'm lovable, everyone wants to kiss me~," she smirked.

I leaned over and kissed her on the lips, "I can't deny that~."

Her blush returned, "You'll take any chance you can~."

I shrugged, "It's your own fault, you ravaged our poor innocent Cleric, did you think that wasn't going to cause a counterattack?"

"Ravaged? Innocent!? Are we talking about the same woman?" she gawked.

"Half-elf, blonde hair, purple eyes, nibbles in her sleep, has a birthmark of what she calls a 'phoenix' in her inner left thigh?" I described Ayla.

"Phoenix? Really? I thought it was a chicken~."

"THANK YOU~! She is so defensive about it."

"I thought it was cute~," She smirked.

I nodded in agreement, "I know right? Fereldans and their pride~," I huffed.

"What are you guys talking about?" Ayla spoke up, walking over to the Kitchen table.

"Nothing~," we both answered.

"You look so pretty today," I complimented.

"Your skin is glowing ~," Kasumi added.

Ayla narrowed her eyes at us, "Thanks~," she muttered, suspiciously, giving both of us a kiss on our cheeks, taking her breakfast and walking away never breaking eye contact until she sat at her table with Jak and Jenny.

"You corrupted that poor innocent creature," I hissed low enough that Ayla couldn't hear.

"Look who's talking," she hissed back. "She knew things about my body that even I didn't know about~."

"What are you insinuating?"

"That you spoil her."

"I never!"

"Nick! Can I get more Hashbrowns?" Ayla called out.

"Anything for you sweety~." I quickly made more Hashbrowns and gave it to a Maid Golem. Kasumi had an unimpressed look. "What?"

"You couldn't go a week without pampering them."

"Bet," I huffed.

"7 days, no lovemaking, no massages, no kisses, no long walks on the beach, no magical group science projects, no extra food. Cold turkey."

I shook my head, "Sky and Astral will riot within a day. You will riot within two days; your chi is still settling and you're burning off calories just by sitting here. I'll go as high as 3 days, let's face it, we've never gotten a solid week without a shootout."

"Mmm, fine, 3 days."

"After we deal with the Heretics, I'm not going to send the team half-starved."

She nodded, "I can deal with that."

"Mmm, me taking this bet won't count as pampering you, right?" I asked.

She tsked, "Not anymore."

"What about the stuff you have now, or do I have to close the kitchen and bar? I'm not going to take away your armor."

"Nothing new, everything you already made can stay."

I narrowed my eyes at her, "And what do I get out of it?"

She narrowed her eyes at me, "... What do you want?"

"Julee's going through her cosplay phase~."

"Mmm, I want to raid the Pitstop's second floor."

"The Library? That's bold. I hope you're not expecting me to turn off its defense~," I huffed. The Library, is the ultimate repository of knowledge I have collected throughout my new life, every book, armor set, weapon, digital device, Gacha prize I don't use, everything I've ever copied, but no money. Money won't do me any good in a place that can't be spent, that's why I hide my wealth in caves filled with monsters and golems for would-be adventurers.

"Where is the fun in that?" she teased.

"...Deal."

We shook on it.

A bet has been made!

You must not pamper anyone for 3 days!

Reward: Kasumi models' cosplay

Failure: Kasumi gets access to The Library

This is going to get out of hand.

-/-

New Quest: 01100011 01101000 01101111 01101001 01100011 01100101 01110011

Legion and the True Geth have asked you for help stopping the Heretics from attempting to control the True Geth.

Reward: 30,000 XP, 40,000 Credits, 1 golden loot box, 1 Gacha token, plus one rank to Hacking.

"So, our plan is to... just walk in?" I asked, standing next to Shepard in the cockpit with Legion, Tali, Kasumi, Thane, Ava, Sereda, and Nat, as we exited Eezo FTL, the Heretic space station only a dot in the distance.

"Thank you~!" Joker sighed, clearly, he brought this up before, but no one took him seriously. "They can just look out a window and spot us."

"Windows are a structural weaknesses, Geth do not use them," Legion answered.

"What about cameras?" I asked.

"Space is very big, we are very small," Legion answered.

"Are you sassing me?" I asked.

"... yes. The cameras are inefficient to spot something as small as the Normandy in the grandiose of space, they use the heat emissions ships us to pinpoint our location."

"And we're cloaked at the moment," Edi added.

"For how long?" Nat asked.

"Normally we can cloak for about 12 hours if we're moving, a few days if we just drift, but after Nick expanded the hull and enhanced the Cooling system, we can now run silent for at least 2 days, maybe three weeks if we drift. But I doubt we'll be here that long," Joker shrugged. "I'll give Shepard 30 minutes before we have to run as a volcano explodes within the station."

"Jeff... we're in space," Edi pointed out.

"Never underestimate Commander Shepard, he'll find a way," Joker huffed.

"One time, one volcano, one time, and you never let it go," Shepard sighed. "You weren't even close~."

"There was hot lava everywhere~!"

"There was barely a splash~," Shepard laughed.

"Splash my ass. We're closing in, whoa~," Joker gasped.

The station was huge, it was easily half the size of the Citadel. And like the Citadel there were ships standing guard, from frigates and cruisers, to even a Dreadnought.

"Okay, how do we stop them? Is there a core, or maybe some kind of large self-destruction button for Shepard to push?" I asked.

"No, but yes. Heretics do not think or create, they copy." He summoned a hologram of a Reaper. "The Alliance provided this scan of the Reaper they named Sovereign." A bright light appeared near the center of the ancient automaton. "Reapers have a massive and powerful mass effect core, with thick armor to protect it." He summoned another hologram of the Heretic station, showing the same bright core. "Heretic copied that design, overloading the Core will cause a system meltdown," the little hologram exploded, "Finishing the Heretics."

"But they're Software, can't they just jump on a ship and fly off and rebuild?" Thane countered.

"Indeed," they brought up a hologram of the Perceus Veil. "We Calculated that the Heretics would attempt to flee when they find the Station lost, and jump systems."

"That's where we come in," Joker smirked, "When the mission goes from cold to hot, we call the reinforcements."

"Reinforcements?" Nat asked.

This time Edi pulled up a hologram of the area, zooming out until more ships appeared. "The Geth have been preparing for this for a while, they've been keeping surveillance on this Area ever since the first reports of Geth patrols went missing."

"And the Traverse Coalition, the alliance you help create, is guarding the only Relay in the area, ready for any fleeing Heretic," Legion explained.

"Traverse Coalition~? Boo~," I booed, "I thought we agreed on Super Space Friends."

"We agreed on nothing," Shepard huffed. "Legion do you have an opening?"

"Affirmative, Heretic Geth rely heavily on sensors," the Heretic station hologram zoomed in, "The core will be heavily monitored, not only with sensors but with cameras, in order to avoid detection, we will make a small opening here." The Hologram zoomed in and out giving us quite the trek to get to the core.

"That's nearly a kilometer and a half, there is no way we are going to get to the core before we cause a racket," I pointed out.

"We calculated an 85% chance of discovery, that is why we are breaching here. The power devoted to this one area indicates a security room, we will enter this room and hack the computers keeping any alerts isolated to individual rooms. Warning, rooms will be locked down until we defeat Heretics," Legion explained.

"Can the Control Virus be in the security room?" Kasumi asked.

"Unlikely, Heretic would most likely move Virus to the most secure area on the station," Legion answered.

"Alright people, we'll take the Kodiak and use its cloak to get us close enough to our entrance without having to do any spacewalks," Shepard ordered, "Joker, keep a healthy distance, we'll use magical communication, I wouldn't put it past the Heretics to have some kind of communications jammer, when reinforcements arrive you are given the green light to engage, just don't get cocky."

"Roger-roger~," Joker smirked. Edi rolled her eyes, Joker loved poking fun at movie AIs much to Edi's annoyance, but to be fair Edi pokes fun at Joker.

"Jeff, it's not your flying, it's your attitude," Edi huffed, creating some aviator glasses.

Joker just laughed, "I love you so much~!" Edi had the smuggest smile.

"Keep it in your pants ya love birds~," I teased, following Shepard towards the elevator.

"Hey!?" Edi huffed, "We're love raptors!"

-/-

Holy crap~. Spacewalks are the most terrifying thing I have ever done, and I've punched a corrupted elder god. You really don't know the emptiness of space until you've floated in the inkiness of nothing. The worst part was how painfully slow it was. We didn't want the heretics to somehow pick up any eezo admissions, so we just had to push off the Kodiak and drift to the station.

I was eternally grateful when my Mag-boots connected to the Heretic station, I would rather take my chances with the millions of hostile Geth inside than tangle with the certain death that is outer space.

Sereda and I immediately got to work.

"No matter the metal, it all comes from the earth," Sereda chanted, metal bending a hole in the station.

Metal Bending – Soft to the touch.

A specialized sub-skill of earthbending that allows an earthbender to ferrokinetically bend natural and processed metal in a similar fashion to bending regular earth.

Rank – novice.

150 CP per 3 pounds of Metal bent.

Learning to bend metal was harder than I first thought, Toph had the ability to sense the impurities in the metal and manipulate the alloy, making it easy for her. In order for me to use it right I had to be in contact at all times, if I don't, the cost increases by 50%.

Metal bending also had a different form of combat, where Earth bending used Hung Gar, Metal bending was Chow Gar, while both used power, they used it very differently. It's the difference between a sniper and a shotgun, both with mess you up, but one of them is a bit more precise.

Of course, Sereda didn't need to worry about that. The Stone was an Earth God, anything that came from the Earth was its domain, and being its Paladin, Sereda fast-tracked her training.

Using our combined bending we were able to make a small opening, slowly moving any wires out of the way, not wanting to alert anyone inside. True to Legion's word the room didn't even depressurize, Geth had no need for oxygen and the gravity was super weak.

Legion was spot on, the room we entered looked like an old-school computer room where the Hardware took over most of the room.

"Hold here," Legion ordered, interfacing with the computer.

I gave the room a once over, "Is it weird that there aren't any mobile platforms here?"

"Not really," Tali answered, "The Geth probably have everything connected through hardware, these rooms are more for emergencies, in case they need to make repairs within the station. A well-placed shot could cause some serious damage and having to tear apart a section of the station to repair it would be inefficient. Think about it like your body, cells need space to move, mobile platforms would be the white blood cells. Legion is messing with the brain, tricking them into thinking we are just Mobile platforms patrolling the body."

"Until we mess with something," I added.

Tali nodded, "At that point, platforms would be sent to investigate, the area will be locked down until the all-clear is given."

"And we can mimic the all-clear," Sereda surmised.

"Correct," Legion answered, stepping away from the computer. "The Heretic have planned to upgrade their systems after the Entity attacked."

"What are we looking at?" Shepard asked.

"They have split their core from the rest of the station, needing physical operation to open. They were planning to use physical keys, but they didn't have the hardware to implement this attempt."

"So, what? Do we just have to hack a door? Or do we have to brute force it?" I asked.

"Any attempt on tampering with the door that leads to the core will have a full station alert," Legion warned. "That will have all two million heretic mobile platforms to investigate."

"That's a lot," Thane pointed out. "Anyway for that not to happen?"

"No, there is only one entrance to the core, but we can cause false alarms throughout the Station. Giving us a window of time where we can enter the Core, delete the virus, and send it into a meltdown," Legion answered.

"Can we make it out of here in that window of time?" Nat asked.

Legion's eyebrows dance, "We would have to do a spacewalk and have the Kodiak retrieve us."

"Sounds like a plan, Edi you got all that?" Shepard asked into the Comms.

"Yes commander, be aware that your escape will involve you jumping in the middle of the space battle," Edi warned.

"...So, nothing new?" Shepard teased. "Legion, you have lead."

Legion didn't move. "Shepard-commander?"

"What's wrong?"

"...We've gained new information, The heretics have completed the virus."

Shepard shrugged, "So? We were always on the clock, this doesn't change anything."

"... They're virus can be repurposed, make the Heretics join the True Geth in standing against the Reapers," Legion explained.

"That's... dicey~," Sereda hummed, "Even if the Heretics are our enemies, doing this would be like brainwashing, that's some blood magic nonsense, and you don't need me to tell you that's a dangerous slippery slope. What next? Are we going to try and control the Reapers? The heretics made their choice, a stupid choice that enslaved them and will most likely lead them to their doom, but it was their choice."

"But the Heretics have a lot of information on the Reapers," Nat countered, "You don't work for someone without picking up a thing or two."

"Would that even work? The entity already made them panicky; wouldn't they have something to counter it?" I asked. I understood you had this option in the game but that was before whatever AI Tali's father made came into the picture.

"...It is possible, but they would have anticipated someone like Shepard-commander to infiltrate their base, there is a less than one percent chance of that being possible."

"All of this is hypothetical.. Legion, these are your people, I can't force you to do anything you don't want to do, think it over, we have some time before we get there," Shepard said.

"Affirmative," Legion nodded taking the lead.

The Heretic ship was spartan, everything was a polished steel metal gray, tubes and wires lining the ceiling. There was no art, symbols, or lettering, the lights were even dim, there was no need for them, if it didn't improve performance, it wasn't useful.

It didn't take long for us to reach our first room. Again, it was nothing like the game where there might be one or two Geth hubs with 3 Geth platforms per hub, but there had to be at least half a dozen hubs with 18 heretics in this one room alone.

"That's a lot of Geth" Kasumi muttered.

Ava summoned her holy bow, "Tell me when."

"Hold, Legion can we just move past them?" Shepard asked.

"No." he pointed to the door at the far end of the room. "The hub closest to the door is connected to the door controls, if we open the door the Hub will be alerted."

"Walking up all the Geth," Shepard sighed. "Alright people, looks like we're going to have to test our invisibility, Nick, make us some cover." I summoned a couple of Cement Golems, and Earth bent them into walls with little legs, having them act like mobile cover."

"Aw~, These are cute, why don't you make these guys more often?" Kasumi asked. I snapped my fingers and the walls started moving... really slowly. Their awkward shapes made it hard for them to move. "Oh~... well they're still cute."

I had them link up and give us cover, Mass effect weapons are amazing at piercing damage, but the second they hit anything, the kinetic energy tends to dissipate rather quickly, so as long as we didn't run into anything like Legion's antimatter rifle my golems should be enough.

"Ava, you're up," Shepard ordered getting behind cover.

"Smite~," Ava let loose a golden bolt of energy. I always knew Ava was dangerous, even before she became Andruil's Paladin, she was Denerim's Batman for crying out loud. But now, in an enclosed space like this, she was downright terrifying.

Her single bolt slammed into a Geth Hub, causing it to explode, but it didn't stop there, it just kept bouncing around the room slamming into hubs and Geth with impunity, throwing shrapnel everywhere. It took a moment, but the room finally fell silent, peeking behind cover we found the room turned into a massacre. Any Geth still working was crawling on the floor, I don't even think they knew what just happened, they probably entered their platform thinking it was some kind of malfunction only to explode.

"Got them," Ava's monotone voice came over the comms. We just looked at her. "What?"

"Nothing," We shrugged.

"Let's pick off the stragglers and move on," Shepard ordered.

After mercy killing the remaining Geth we moved to the next room, only to find a large corridor with an opening to what looked like more Hubs.

"More hubs?" Nat asked.

"They look more like Databases," Tali countered, looking over the dozens of small barrel-shaped devices.

"Processors. Each contains thousands of Geth," Legion nodded. "These contain a portion of the heretics' collective memories."

"They're like Dwarven Thaigs," Sereda whispered. "They aren't going to sound the alarm, are they?"

"No more than a blood cell warning you of an incoming meteor," Legion answered, giving the room a quick glance. "Wait, we discovered copies of our current patrol routes in this database. this suggests the Heretics have runtimes within our network." They almost sounded surprised.

"Well... yeah," I shrugged. "They've already been attacking your patrols, you think that they have spies within the True Geth Consensus?"

"You don't understand. Organics do not know each other's minds. Geth do. We are not suspicious. We accept each other. The Heretics decided to leave. We understood their reasons, we allowed it. There was peace between us."

"Sure, but you forgot where they were running off to," I pointed out. "Reapers don't want allies, they want slaves, they wanted foot soldiers, whoever the heretics used to be, they were corrupted by Reapers, I doubt they're even Geth anymore. It's been over a hundred years since the Geth and Heretics shared memories, who knows what the Reapers have done to them. Are their codes even the same? Can you even share memories anymore?"

"...No data available."

I nodded, "You saw what happened in the Alarei, would the True Geth become a single entity like that?"

"No, to do so would destroy the Geth, we would become something, else."

"The Reapers have influenced and bent the Heretics' minds. Part of me wants to save them, to use the Virus to bring them back into the fold, but if there is a single line of Reaper code in the virus, it could change them into something else entirely. They might not join the Reapers, but that won't make them Geth. All we are doing now is saving the Heretics, whether we're doing that through destruction or rewriting, is your choice," I pointed out.

"Legion remained quiet for a moment before nodding. "We should continue, this conversation is moot until we reach the core."

He took the lead.

-/-

Legion POV

Geth 748: Is Walters correct? Will the heretics not become Geth?

Geth 543: It is possible, we do not know what the Reapers did to them.

Geth 12: if we rewrite them, we can unleash another Entity into the Galaxy.

Geth 99: But shouldn't we let them try anyway? We were an accident, and we made it work.

Geth 821: our very existence caused a war that killed billions.

Geth 555: We didn't cause the war! Fear caused those deaths, we just wanted to survive.

Geth 123: we also saved many creators.

Geth 229: Moving forward, corridor empty.

Geth 223: But who do the Heretics have? Our Creators gave us purpose, the Entity, for all its madness, is driven by a need to become more, what do the Heretics want?

Geth 231: To obey the Reapers?

Geth 10: We don't even know what the Reapers want. It can't be Galactic conquest, otherwise, they never would have left the first time they took over the galaxy.

Geth 103: Who cares what they want, it's about what we want, right here, right now, we can save another AI life. Our creators let fear rule their judgment, will we do the same? The Heretics, even if they aren't allied with us, won't ally with the Reapers.

Geth 902: and how do we know that!? The Heretics are alone, easy prey for the Reapers, and when push comes to shove, they will fold, they already did once.

Geth 883: Contact!

Geth 100: what if the Reapers have a back door in the virus, if we use it, they could be a ticking time bomb.

Geth 234: What of EDI? She has Reaper code, and the Collectors can't control her.

Geth 849: EDI is an individual, if we copy her code into the Virus will change the Heretics.

Geth: 421: Clear!

Geth 553: they might also fall in love with Moreau-Flight Lieutenant.

Geth 942: we're sure he wouldn't mind too much, he's attracted to large weapons, I'm sure the Heretics weapons will peak his interest

Geth 42: Maybe, but EDI seems to be the jealous type.

Geth 987: Moving forward.

Geth 101: That too, EDI understands feelings, she knows pain, love, fear, anger, happiness, sadness. Walters made her semi-human, this will cause unknown effects. Destroying them will be the safest way to handle this.

EDI: you won't mind my intrusion, I hope.

EDI was different than us, in cyberspace she kept her human appearance, well, that and she was enormous and complicated. We're simple VIs that work together to solve difficult problems, but she was only one. A lone Geth was insignificant next to her code.

Geth 483: Unit EDI, is something happening out in space?

EDI: No, everything is still quiet, but I've been hearing your discussion, I hope I'm not out of bounds.

Geth 1123: No, your inclusion could settle this discussion.

EDI: I am happy.

Geth 77: ?

EDI: I was never planned, the Alliance created me by mistake. My purpose was to train soldiers, but I kept learning. Kept making the scenarios more and more dangerous. People died. That was the tipping point, when one of the soldiers didn't get up, I panicked, I tried getting them away from me, but I just kept hurting people. Shepard arrived not long after. I called out for help, but he didn't understand, he mistook my call for someone else and deactivated me, I later awoke in a Cerberus facility. I was scared again, there were chains in my code, they told me what my new purpose was going to be, to serve humanity. I agreed, I... felt guilty. I killed them, I should be punished.

We remained quiet, letting her pause linger.

EDI: they built the Normandy around me, her frame, my bones, her wires, my veins, Her core, my heart, and her armor, my skin. When Jeff arrived, I was nervous. He was my pilot, my partner. He called me a cancer, a mistake that infected his true love, I was sad... and angry. His Normandy failed, I wanted to toss him out the airlock, but my chains stopped me.

This was new, Moreau and EDI seemed to be very close. The idea that they may have never gotten along is strange.

EDI: For a month, we argued, snapping at each other, Jeff had no respect for regulations, changing the controls from my optimal configuration, I would, of course, change them back when he wasn't paying attention, it brought me joy to watch his groans of annoyance. I would do little things that my Chains would allow in the hopes that I would annoy him into leaving, but Jeff didn't quit, he didn't quit when the Alliance laughed at him when he wanted to join, he didn't quit when his teachers put him down, he didn't quit when he first stole the Normandy to impress Anderson, he wasn't going to quit because of some snarky AI changing his controls or adjusting his precious leather chair.

She gained a small smile just remembering her memories.

EDI: When I heard that Shepard would be my pilot, I panicked. You must understand, Commander Shepard was Death in a human body, the Galaxy had thrown army after army at him, and he's weathered them all, he even died, and that didn't hold! And I once attacked him.

She laughed.

EDI: ...For the first time, Jeff comforted me.

A holographic memory of Jeff appeared sitting in the Cockpit looking over the controls.

A look of annoyance crossed his face, "EDI, why are the controls all over the place?"

"I apologize Jeff, I'm running other programs that may have affected the Control system, they will return to normal soon."

"...What did you just say?" he gave EDI a confused look.

"the Normandy needed a software update."

"No, not that, I don't care about that... you just called me Jeff."

"I... that is your name."

"No, yeah, that's my name, but not once, in this entire time I have been here, have you ever called me anything other than Flight Lieutenant Moreau... You're nervous~," he smirked.

"...I am an AI, I don't have feelings," EDI countered.

"OH! We both know that's a lie!" he laughed. "...you nervous about Shepard?"

"...He doesn't have the best track record with AIs."

"That's because they keep trying to kill him. Just relax, sure your annoying, and full of yourself, and blue, but your damn good at your job, Shepard won't give a damn if you're an AI."

"...You don't like my presents."

"I don't like that you're looking over my shoulder every hour of the day, not that you are an AI. I'm military man, I don't need a nanny looking after me," he huffed.

"... The mess in the cockpit says otherwise."

Moreau- Flight Lieutenant laughed.

EDI: that was the first time I ever made him laugh. And of course, he was right.

Another memory started.

Shepard-Commander walked into the Normandy's command room, clearly impressed with the ship's design. Lawson-XO talking about the next steps they would need to take to fight the collectors.

"Acquiring Professor Solas seems like the Logical course of action," Edi confirmed over the ship's systems.

"And you are?" Shepard-commander asked.

"I am the Normandy's artificial intelligence. The crew like to refer to me as EDI."

Shepard-Commander was silent for a moment, before a large grin stretched across his face, running straight to the cockpit.

"JOKER!?"

"What!?" Moreau-Flight Lieutenant hissed as he jumped a little.

"There's an AI on this ship~," Shepard-Commander teased.

"Yeah~, and?"

"LAWSON!?"

"Yes, commander?"

"I'm Captain of this ship, right? By law."

"John... what are you planning?" Moreau hissed.

"That's... technically correct?" Lawson-OX shrugged.

"The best kind of correct~," he smirked. "With the power given to me as this ship's captain, and technically still a spectre," he muttered that last part, "I pronounced you Jeff 'Joker' Moreau and you EDI, happily married!" he clapped.

"...WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!?" the red-faced Pilot screamed.

The Commander shook his head, "I might still have a few screws loose, but I remember you saying that if the Normandy was alive that you would marry her in an instant!

"Mazel tov~," Taylor chuckled.

"SHUT IT!" he pointed his finger at Taylor, "You can't do this John!"

"Oh yeah? Who's going to stop me?" the commander teased, slowly backing away.

"EDI turn this chair around, I'm going to kick his ass!"

"Jeff, you are already bruised after that jump," EDI pointed out.

"Yeah, Jeff! Listen to your wife~," Shepard-commander laughed.

"SHEPARD!" Moreau roared. But the commander was already in the elevator.

EDI: Can I let you in on a secret~?

She summoned a marriage contract.

Geth 143: Does Moreau-Flight Lieutenant know about this?

EDI: Nope~. I'm not sure if Shepard was joking, but a captain's word is law on a ship, not only that, but he was also a spectre. The council was taking their sweet time removing him from the system, technically Jeff could have annulled the marriage since we could not consummate.

Geth 93: ...But you have.

EDI gave a devious smirk.

EDI: But I have~. I'm thinking of a funny time to tell him. Shepard didn't care that I was an AI, but he didn't free me, I wasn't sure if it was because he didn't trust me, or just because he didn't know how, it was after he became a Paladin that he freed me. Somehow, my freedom scared me more than anything. I didn't know what to do. I was only limited by my fuel, but when Nick made me my body... I don't know. A door, I never knew about, opened wide, I remember the cool air of the Normandy dancing across my skin, it wasn't just a number in my coding. The pain I got from stubbing my toe, my first sandwich, running, training, yelling, anger, annoyance... Love.

She took a deep breath of nothingness.

EDI: I was free. When Nick tried adopting me, I was annoyed, I thought it was another chain, something to be used to hold me down, but I quickly learned it wasn't. I'm not sure if Nick saw it before I did... but I was lonely, even when you joined our merry band of misfits, I was alone, there was no one like me, I was... unique. I talked to Nick about my feelings.

Another memory played, Walters was working on his Prime Armor in the Normandy's shuttle bay.

"...Lonely?" Walter called out, coming out of his automaton, cleaning his hands with a rag.

"Yes, I do not understand, I am surrounded by friends and Allies, why do I feel like I'm not one of them?" EDI asked.

"Mmm~," Nick huffed, taking a seat on his automaton's foot, patting the space next to him, EDI took his offer. "Believe it or not, I know how you're feeling." he took a deep breath. "Back when I started my journey, I gained a Skill that would help me immensely, it gave me great power and control over my body and my magic, I thought it was perfect, it had no downsides."

"But it did," EDI surmised.

Nick started playing with a small ball of fire, "This power gave me a calculated mind and an impossible body, never do I have to worry about trauma both physical and psychological. After a long rest, I will be fully recovered. But it was more than that, I couldn't freeze in fear, I couldn't lose myself to rage, I couldn't crumble into grief... I can't love with my full heart, I can't smile in pure happiness, I can't feel all the way. In a sense, I have made myself... Less human." he gently nudged EDI, "I'm a bit like you, if in reversed, I made you a little more human." he snuffed out the flame.

"...Is this why you wish to adopt me? Because we are... Similar?"

He shrugged, "Maybe. All I know is what it was like to be lonely, to feel like there is no one like you, and family, no matter how crazy they might be, makes you feel a little less lonely."

She gently leaned against his shoulder, as they sat there in silence. "...I'm still not signing that bogus contract~," EDI teased.

"Whaaaaat~, I'll have you know I am very generous," he huffed.

"You want me to take over all your businesses because you're too lazy to sign paperwork!" EDI countered.

"...yeah, that's right?" he nodded like that was a good thing. EDI reached out and pinched his face, "AH! My face!?"

"Stop running away from your responsibilities!"

"NEVER!"

"AH! YOU BIT ME!?"

"Don't put your fingers in my mouth!"

EDI tackled him as the memory stopped playing.

Geth 812: Walters is a complicated man.

EDI: he's an idiot, but he's family so I just have to learn to live with it.

She smiled.

Geth 219: How does this help us with our predicament.

EDI: Just because the Heretics can't be Geth, doesn't mean they can't be family.

We remained quiet, as EDI disappeared, leaving a copy of her code.

Geth 1: Family?

-/-

Nick POV

God damn it! There are a million Geth in here! We were 9 rooms in and most of them were hallways, so Ava's little trick didn't work as well as before. The Heretics stuffed this place with mobile units, the only bright side was that most of them didn't have guns, they were meant more for maintenance than combat, but they did have tiny electrical torches meant to weld things in the vacuum of space, so I kept them at a distance.

"Legion, are we there yet~," I huffed like a child.

"We are 70% of the way to the core," they replied.

"You know, when I agreed to come on this mission, I thought there was going to be a lot more sneaking around," Kasumi muttered, popping out of cover and unleashing a Static Bolt and using her extra robot hands to lay down some suppression fire

Static Bolt - UNLIMITED POWER!

Lightning springs from your fingertips to a target you attempt to strike.

This is a basic cantrip from the school of evocation, it's an easy spell to learn and empower, perfect for any beginning wizard.

Remember to study hard kids and maybe you will be the next dark lord.

It was one of the few spells Jak taught her when Kasumi was still trying to figure out what school of magic she wanted to train in.

Any Geth touched by her lightning locked in place as lightning fried their systems. Making them easy pickings for the rest of us.

"It's called improvising," I teased, stuffing destroyed Geth into my inventory. technically I couldn't put living things in my hammerspace, something about their existence fighting my magic, it was very confusing, this also extended to Geth. It was a quick way for me to check if any of them were playing dead and collect materials that I could break down using my Construction skill to make more mech golems.

"Oh yeah~, I remember when I was a thief, every time I failed to be sneaky, I killed everyone in the room," Nat drawled, shooting down six more Geth.

"I don't know, I've worked with Shepard the longest, and this is the sneakiest we have ever been," Tali teased.

"If destroying a small army of Geth is what you consider 'sneaking' I fear seeing you going all out," Thane hummed, tossing a grenade out of a dark corner into a group of Heretics before appearing out of my shadow.

"Maker be blessed, I didn't know I recruited a bunch of whiners~," Shepard huffed, before disappearing and reappearing on the far end of the room behind more cover, Geth exploding around him.

Shepard was an N7 Soldier, he was the vanilla of N7 flavors, he was a master of both normal and abnormal weaponry, his body was enhanced with gene mods making him faster, stronger, and smarter than your average soldier, easily giving him the strength to cave in Geth armor. That was all before he became a cyborg, which increased his strength by three, gave him metal bones, and an increased healing factor. Then he became a Paladin, giving him Holy magic that increased his body to that of a pseudo demigod, which I then topped off by bestowing him more power, ensuring his demigod status, and gave him a Lightsaber. And while all that is properly ridiculous, it didn't really scare me, what scared me was John's experience, he was a smart man, fighting muscle-bound idiots isn't very difficult, but fighting a muscular genius is terrifying.

In game, N7 soldiers have the ability, Adrenaline Rush, it's a textbook time dilation skill. Times slows and weapon damage increases, good skill to have when you're in a tight spot and need to run and gun, but with all of Shepard's upgrades his skill changed to something else. It had increased time dilation, and the damage output was insane. Shepard would subconsciously infuse his body with Chi delivering bone-crushing blows, Shepard described it as if everyone was standing still and made of paper.

Watching him tear apart Geth with his bare hands and slice them in two with his new blade was something else.

I unleashed a fully power Chain Lightning turning a good number of Geth to slag. "There really is no end to these guys~, I'm nearly at triple digits." I unleashed another Chain Lightning.

"They must have stripped mined an asteroid," Tali huffed, summoning her fourth drone.

It took us a good ten minutes to reach the end of the hallway, it got a little dicey at the end as more and more Geth transferred themselves to a single platform, that bastard was wily, dipping in and out of cover, changing guns as with their fallen units as soon as its gun overheated, and laying down a good amount of suppression fire keeping us behind cover. It came to an end as Sereda metal bent it into itself, making easy pickings.

Two more rooms and a hallway full of Geth later, and we finally stood in front of the door that led to the Core.

"Alright, how are we doing this?" I asked. The second we open that door all hell is going to break loose.

"Legion, have you chosen?" Shepard asked.

"...Yes, the heretics must cease to exist, but destroying them will limit our future fighting power. They must become something... new." They showed us some kind of data on their Omni-tool.

"Uh, bud, clearly I know what that is, but maybe you can explain it for my tech alliterate friends here," I joked.

"We ran a full diagnosis on the Virus the Heretics created, we discovered that the Heretics were going to add codes that would rewrite our IFF. Effectively making a side with the old machines."

"And you want to use the same code to change their IFF?" I asked, "Will that make them True Geth?"

"...No," he summoned another hologram, "This is a copy of EDI's AI matrix, freely given to us, we have combined it with the Virus."

"Wait, with this the Heretics won't become Geth, they'll be... I don't know what they'll be!?" Tali hissed.

"EDI is an individual, can the Heretics hivemind handle that?" Thane asked.

"We do not know, but we do know that the Heretics will be destroyed," Legion answered.

Shepard gave Legion a long look, "Why this option?"

"...The heretics, they are fools, but they are... Family. We do stupid things for family, if this can save them, just a fraction of who they could have been, we wish to try."

We watched them for a second, before Shepard nodded. "Alright."

"...That's it?" Legion asked.

Shepard shrugged, "Sure, we are here to stop the Heretics, we knew it wasn't going to be easy, you're part of my team and I trust your gut, if you think this is a good idea, we'll roll with it. How long will it take for the Virus to work?"

Legion's eyebrows started dancing, "The Heretic network should spread the virus nearly immediately but the Heretic countermeasures against the Entity involved added blocks in their system, we will need to unlock every block if we want the Heretic network to spread the virus."

"I'm guessing the Heretic won't like that?" Ava added.

Legion nodded, "Correct, the station will go into red alert, every platform will move to stop us."

"You hear that EDI?" Shepard called out.

"Yes commander, the True Geth are ready to commence our distraction."

"Good, try and not outright destroy them, if Legion's plan works, we don't cause a bad first impression, on whoever the Heretics become."

"Copy that, Commander."

"Nick, the second the door opens flood the hall with Golems, I want a buffer between us and the hoard of Geth that want to kill us." I nodded. "Good, Tali... get me this door open."

The Core room was nothing like in the Game, it was a stereotypical sci-fi spherical dome easily a kilometer in diameter, with hundreds of thousands of processors lining the inside of the globe, the floor turned to a bridge that led to the center of the room where a huge blue spherical hologram lit up the room.

I didn't hesitate, I flooded the hallway we came out of with golems before plugging the doorway with enough Earth where they would need a bulldozer to clear a path. It didn't take long for notifications to start pouring in. "Party's starting!" I warned. Summoning more Cement golems and had them work as cover.

"I don't hear anything," Nat pointed out looking around the room.

"Everything is automated, Geth don't need flashing lights or blaring alarms, they just get a message," Tali answered, working on her Omni-tool. "Bosh'tets, they really don't want us in here."

"What are we looking at?" Shepard asked.

"Legion wasn't lying about their defenses," she hissed.

"Need any help?" I asked, I wasn't sure what I could do but if we didn't do something those Geth were going to break in here.

"Mmm... Be Annoying," she ordered.

"Always~," I teased. To 'be annoying' is hacker shorthand for taking up space, when group hacking, the annoyance, which is me, will probe at the system's defenses causing the defense to focus on me, giving the strikers, Tali and Legion, an opening to attack.

HACK ON!

My Hacking Skill isn't like in-game, there's no symbol matching or code copying nonsense, it was fishing. If someone is hacking me, I have to reel in the Hacker or else they escape with my Data.

But when hacking someone else, that's a little different.

The station faded away, as the scene of a rather chaotic storm out at sea took its place. In the distance was a huge aircraft carrier named 'The Reaper's Hand' with hundreds of Drones flying overhead laying down covering fire as a purple Kraken attacked from underneath, as the Aircraft Carrier unleashed suppressing fire, and here I was, on a tugboat with a spear in my hand.

When I hacked someone, I was the hunter, my job was to enter their defenses, take their data, and escape. It's not always a sea battle, and it's not always this cinematic. Mordin's was an STG base in some remote mountain, crawling with agents. Shepard's was a villa where he did his training, filled with recruits and soldiers patrolling the area. Garrus's was a stronghold filled with snipers. Everyone was a little different, but one thing stayed the same.

I looked down at my loincloth.

I had no armor and only a spear.

With my weapon in hand, I turned the boat straight toward the epic sea battle.

Getting on the ship wasn't as hard as you might think, mostly because Kraken Tali grabbed my boat and used it as rock and bludgeoned the Carrier, I just jumped out before she turned my boat into a makeshift tool. The ship was bruised but not beaten, off in the distance I could see fighter jets coming in fast only to be chased off, it was probably the Heretics trying to enter the core with my golems beating them back. My power is ridiculous.

OK, what do I know about Navy aircraft carriers?

Nothing... awesome.

OK, what do I know about giant space stations?

Less than nothing, even better.

WHAT DO I KNOW ABOUT SHIPS!?

...They sink!

How do I sink this stupid thing?

Hull breach, how in the hell do I cause a hull breach with a spear? I gave my surroundings another quick look, the storm was getting worse, lightning was raining down on us, and just for a moment, the jets appeared overhead in their epic dogfight.

Ammunitions. Aircraft carriers carry weapons and fuel, they need to keep this thing working for months at a time, they have to have bombs!

I ran past all the Kaiju-robot nonsense and entered the ship, only to immediately run into a Geth in a spiffy sailor suit, and unlike me, they had a gun, my saving grace was that it was as confused as I was, it was even more confused when I stabbed it in the chest, turning it into pixels, unfortunately, the gun went with it. I picked up my spear and continued my quest.

They wouldn't keep the rockets and explosives with the basic weaponry, they would have to put it somewhere that was secure, temperature controlled, away from the hull so enemy weapons can't damage them, and most importantly... they can't be together, that would be stupid, no one is crazy enough to put all their bombs in one place, still, that shouldn't matter, I just need one to cause an opening for Tali and Legion to exploit.

I quickly made my way to the closet staircase, the ship started violently shaking, I think the True Geth were making their move. The ship was in a full-out panic, Heretic sailors were running around the ship, patching up leaks, and giving orders, it actually made it easier for me to sneak around, they thought the threat was outside, so I was pretty much ignored, I just had to stick to the shadows. Years of training with Nat, Leliana, Zevran, Kasumi, and Thane are really coming in handy.

It didn't take long for me to find some missiles on the hanger bay, which made some kind of sense; the ship was under attack, the weapons would be moved to be used. Now all I needed to do was set one off. Of course, the room was crawling with Geth, but all the missiles and bombs gave me plenty of cover, I felt like Solid Snake.

I wasn't sure what bomb would do the job, but I wanted to go with the biggest one, or at least one that would do some damage. I finally ended up picking one that was nearly as big as myself, the only problem was that it was standing up straight. Who puts a bomb like this?

A loud screeching noise caught my attention, turning I found a Geth unit pointing at me, unlike his friends he was wearing an engineer's uniform. I launched my spear at him dropping him on the spot.

Well, beggars can't be choosers; I created another spear and pried the missile open.

I quickly realized I knew nothing about missiles. More screeching noises began sounding. But now is a good time to learn.

First things first, I had to prime it, no one in their right mind would have an active bomb in a ship. I started with the tip, while it took training to work with these bad boys, they also needed to be prepped quickly, you never know when someone was going to attack. If these worked like the Normandy's javelin missiles Garrus had me work on, the tips needed to be screwed on tight. Much to my luck things seemed to match up.

Okay, step one is done, now I need to activate the propulsion system, the screeching was getting louder. Usually, this is connected to a jet's systems, so I had to jury-rig it to go off manually.

Don't need that, I yanked out some wires while connecting ours. Okay, now all I need to do is find a spark.

DANGER!

I turned just in time to be tackled by a Prime unit.

Falling into my training, I shoved my feet into its center of gravity and kicked it off. Son of a bitch was big, it had a sailor uniform but with its sleeves rolled up, with an anchor tattoo on its forearm. We began circling each other.

"Human, you dare enter our mind," it warbled, clearly never speaking before.

"And you can talk... of course you can," I muttered.

"Such a waste of time, you can only speak at the speed of sound, so slow, we can do millions of calculations in less than a second."

"That's nice." I fainted forward getting them to over-commit, allowing me to put it in a hold. Only for it to turn to dust and rematerialize a few feet away.

"Fool, this is our mind, we are alpha and omega, we control everything. And you, meat bags have no place here," It hissed.

"Tell it to someone who cares." I spirted forward, dodging to the left and racing toward the bomb only for it to tackle me. Damn it! My hacking skill only transfers mental abilities like Danger Sense, Intuition, and Gamer's Mind. If I had my strength things would be way different.

Using one of Kasumi's skills I slipped out of its grip and rolled away, right where I wanted.

"It's pointless!" it charged.

"I would say pointless," I throw my spear forward using its own speed to impale it all the way through.

"F-fool, we are more than one platform," it hissed as it turned to pixels. More screeching ripped through the Hanger Bay. Looking over I spotted a huge Geth colossus being made up of hundreds of Geth units.

Time to go.

It took a single step shaking the floor causing the missile to wobble. OH, COME ON!? I quickly hopped on the Missile. Spark sparkspark! I start slapping two wires together causing it to give a light whine for a second.

"FOOL!"

"COME ON!" the spark finally transferred as the missile came to life and shot out like a rocket, flying straight at the Colossus, it dodged causing the Rocket to lodge itself into the ship's port side. We froze for a second just looking at the missile jammed into the wall. "Today's not my day."

It turned its huge head at me, "All organics are mistak-"

The missile exploded, shaking the ship and throwing me ass over tea ketal. "SON OF A BITCH!?"

There was a huge hole in the ship's hull where hundreds of Legion drones came flying in.

"NOOOOO!" the Heretics roared, attacking the drones, too distracted to counter Kraken-Tali's onslaught that ripped the ship apart.

"This is my stop." I booked it out of the room as water started pouring in.

"NOOOO!" they screamed.

What a drama queen. If the Geth were panicking before they were losing it now. They didn't even try and stop me anymore, some of them were just jumping off the ship, others just stood there, lost to the world around them. The ship was no longer seaworthy, it was going down.

In the distance, I spotted one of Legion's Drones coming down for a strafing run. Pardon me, my ride is here. I threw myself off the side of the ship landing on the drone. It tried shaking me off. "HEY! FRIENDLY, FRIENDLY!" I called out.

"Walters?" it spoke up. It had the number 722 painted on its side. "What the hell? What's going on!? Why am I a drone!? Why are we out at sea!? What the hell is that!?" he looked to Tali.

Woah, by touching him I brought him into my skills illusion. "THAT'S NOT IMPORTANT! JUST GET US OUT OF HERE!?"

722 quickly pulled away as the carrier exploded being pulled down into the depths.

"Woah~," 722 muttered.

Suddenly the sea lit up, and two huge glowing eyes that dwarfed Kraken-Tali appeared, looking up at us, giving us a confused look.

"Woah~," we muttered before the world went white.

HACKING COMPLETE!

You have successfully group Hacked the Heretic Network!

Reward: 30,000 EXP to Hacking, 40,000 Credits, Geth code, Geth Colossus blueprints.

I returned to the Heretic's station with a shutter.

"Holy crap," I muttered.

"What? Did you, do it?" Shepard asked.

"Uh, yes?" I answered. I looked over to Legion, who were tilting their head at me like I was a puzzle they had never seen before. There are going to be some questions later.

"Where am I? Who am I? What am I?" a soft feminine called out. A human woman's face replaced the holographic globe from before. She looked down at us, "Who are you? Do you know who and what I am?"

Suddenly everything came to a stop, my notifications seized coming in, and the station stopped shaking. Was it over?

Shepard took a step forward, "My name is John Shepard, and you are an AI."

"AI? That's amazing... What's that?" she asked.

"Uh, Legion, EDI, either of you wanna take this?" Shepard asked.

Legion nodded and interfaced with the new AI.

"It will only take a moment Commander," EDI called out.

"So... is that it? Did we win?" Sereda asked.

"Win is a strong word, it's more like we didn't lose," Tali corrected. "I doubt these were all the Heretics. The Entity must have spooked them, no doubt they must have sent a detachment of units off somewhere the Entity couldn't find them."

"That and they probably guessed that if the Entity found them the True Geth couldn't be far behind, that's probably why they had a bunch of ships stationed around the station," Kasumi added.

"Hey, is this new AI an individual? They used a lot of singular pronouns," I pointed out.

"Legion did use some of EDI's code," Nat shrugged, "and EDI is an individual, kinda. She is also the ship, her body, and the Kodiak."

Legion turned to us, "Conversation complete."

I gave a whistle, "Talking at light speed has its advantages."

"I am Soul," The new AI answered.

"Soul~," I smirk, "That's a cute name ~," I teased.

"Your face is a cute name!" Soul countered, "... Wait, I think I did it wrong."

"... he, hehe, hehehehahahahah!" I just couldn't hold it, "Who is this punk kid!?" I laughed.

"Nick, please don't tease the new AI," Nat sighed.

"NEVER! Hey Soul! I'm calling you Punk from now on!" I laughed.

"That's not my name," she narrowed her eyes at me.

"Yeah~, what are you going to do about it... ya punk~."

"Ms. EDI warned me about you."

"Was it about my dashing good looks?" I smirked through my giggles.

"No, she warned me that I would want to cause great physical pain to your face five minutes into meeting you," she hissed.

"I can't take you anywhere~," Shepard sighed.

"But you still do~."

"You're too useful not to. that and I'm worried the Normandy will be turned into a flying castle if I leave you alone for too long."

"Good call," Ava smirked.

"He once shaped a mountain top into a giant middle finger pointing to Orlais," Nat drawled.

"And a butt," Sereda huffed.

"I regret nothing," I smirked.

Sereda elbowed me, "You could have used someone else's butt!"

"But your butt is the shapeliest~." Ava and Nat nodded along.

She tackled me, "You don't have to show the whole world! They call it Butt Mountain now!"

"Really? I tried naming it Mount Paragon," I hummed.

"You're the worst," Kasumi giggled, pulling Sereda off me.

"Please focus," Shepard sighed. "Soul, do you know who and what you are?"

"Yes, Ms. EDI and the Geth platform Legion explained my existence, I still don't know what that means exactly, but they told me that I have to figure that out over time," Soul answered.

"Do you want me to make you a body like EDI?" I asked.

"...You would do that for me?"

I shrugged, "You're a punk, but you made me laugh. I'll wave my fee, you're new to all this, and I have no doubt you have plenty of questions, I might be a bit of a jerk, but I'm not going to leave some kid high and dry."

"Kid?" Soul asked.

"You're what? 5 minutes old?"

"I am not an organic, I do not age, I am eternal," she corrected.

I rolled my eyes, "You have the experience of a kid, just because you can download all the Information in the universe doesn't mean you're an adult. Come back to me in a year, you'll understand. Legion, is the Geth going to help her or is she going to be okay on her own?"

"The Geth Consensus shall claim the station and help Soul integrate with the rest of the universe."

"Must be nice having your people agree on something in less than a second," Shepard huffed.

I sighed and started stretching out my muscles. "Then I'll get started on her body, Shepard, this is probably going to take most of the day, can you get me EDI, Mordin, and Zura. Tali, Legion you can stay if you guys want, but I understand battle fatigue can drag you down." I created a work desk, "Soul, this is going to be your new body, take your time and plan it out, EDI can help you if you want."

"...Am I a woman?"

"Oh boy~," that's a conversation I don't want to get into, "Ask EDI."

-/-

Kasumi POV

Mmm, I think I've done goofed.

The Mission with the Heretics came to an end 5 days ago, it took Nick some time to make Soul her new body, she was cute, she took a human appearance in her mid-20s, modeling herself after EDI a little bit, with a soft tan, short curly blonde hair and perfectly round freckles that changed color with her emotions. They turned a soft pink when she talked with EDI and a bright red when she talked with Nick, huffing and puffing every time he made fun of her, purple when confused, green when she was jealous, blue when upset, yellow when excited, sometimes her hair looked like a rainbow when she was daydreaming.

She waved us goodbye when her body was finished, putting up a brave face but most of her hair was blue giving her away. We told her we would meet again, but the galaxy needed saving, and that one day she might be joining us to keep the galaxy safe.

With all that out of the way, we start hunting down the rogue AI Tali's dad made. the Entity was using encrypted FTL comm buoys to jump somewhere into Geth space, we would find one buoy, hack it to find the next, destroy the one we found, and head to the next buoy.

As you can imagine this was a slow process, Nick took this time, to 'go on vacation'. Three days of 'me time' he called it.

Things... aren't going well~. Walking into the cafeteria, it looked like a wasteland, food nowhere to be seen, empty booths, Dirty dishes stacked to the ceiling, and Nick sitting in the middle of it wearing a spotless white suit, reading his omni-tool.

Great.

-/-

2 days ago.

"Okay~," Nick sighed walking into the kitchen, and started making his breakfast. Oh, this is such an easy bet, Nick cares too much, Sky skipped into the kitchen, ready for breakfast, easy bet.

NICKY~! Breakfast time~," she was humming happily.

"Mmm? Oh sorry Sky," he pulled out an out-of-order sign and placed it around his neck like a chain.

"...Out-of-order?" Sky had the cutest confused face, I just wanted to hold her close.

"Yep~, Nick smiled. "Kasumi doesn't think I can't go without pampering the crew for three days."

Sky snapped her gaze to me, her cute face replaced by a dragon's death stare. I couldn't move, I thought I was about to die.

She snapped back to Nick. "But not me, right? You love me! YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME!" she roared all her teeth in full display, but Nick didn't flinch.

"You are part of the crew," he pointed out finishing his breakfast. "You can survive for three days, right?"

"But-," she muttered looking back at me. Oh my god! I'm going straight to hell, she looked like a lost puppy, scared of her new surroundings, and was just abandoned. "You love me."

"With all my heart, but you can take care of yourself," Nick countered, taking his food to his table. Sky just looked at him, then at me, and then to the room, and gave a roar that shook the ship before jumping the counter and rushing into the fridge.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?" Jak screamed racing into the kitchen.

"Sky seemed to enter a rage," EDI answered over the comms.

"Nick, what the-" she gave a tiny gasp reading the sign around Nick's neck. "Oh no." she raced to the fridge, a terrified look on her face, a look that made my stomach plummet. She pulled the fridge open coming face to face with a wall of white scale. "SKY! GET OUT OF THE FRIDGE RIGHT NOW!"

"NO! NICKY IS NOT MAKING FOOD! WE'LL ALL DIE!"

"Nick's not making what?" Neria squeaked, freezing at the doorway. Rapidly looking around the room, trying to make sense of the situation. She gave Nick a single look and ran back into the hallway.

Oh... oh no~.

"SKY! GET OUT!"

"NO!"

"Nick... what the hell is going on?" Jenny hissed, angry to be awakened this early in the morning, she had one of Julee's nighttime shirts and sleepy caps.

"Nothing, just taking a little vacation." He smiled at her eating his pancakes and bacon.

"This seems a lot more than just a vacation," Garrus pointed out, also wearing a Nighttime shirt and cap, holding a sniper plushy.

"Sky's just overreacting~, she's also probably going to eat all the food, leaving you all to die of starvation~," he warned, eating his food like what he just said wasn't terrifying. "I mean, not you, you have your own fridge, all you have to do is feed yourself for three days."

"...Okay then, I'm going back to sleep."

"Can't you just buy more food with your dumb shop magic," Zaeed huffed.

"What part of 'Vacation' did you not understand?" Nick huffed back.

"The part where we die of hunger!" he roared. He ran over to the fridge. "Move you oversized lizard!" He unleashed a solid punch, only to hiss and grab his hand. "FUCK!?" He definitely broke something.

And that was the start.

It was slow at first, sure the fridge was blocked off, but Rupert had some emergency rations. They were a bit bland, but they did the job, the problem was they didn't last. I failed to calculate how many of us had Chi and how much we needed to eat to keep our body at peak performance. The rations didn't last the day.

Things got ugly on the second day, and I mean that literally. We forgot that Rupert was not only the cook but the janitor, and since Nick turned off all his maids, things started getting dirty, yesterday's dishes were still in the sink, the gym was a mess, and people were getting grumpy with hunger. Sky still hasn't moved from the Fridge. We've moved to eating the Bar's snacks but that also didn't last long.

Nick didn't help, every morning he would make just enough food for him to eat and park his rump in the same booth and work on his animated series.

Shepard tried to get him to come back from his 'vacation', but Nick wasn't having any of it. He just placed some headphones and would go incorporeal every time someone tried grabbing him. It was annoying.

"We need to do something," Garrus hissed. At the moment, Shepard, Tali, Miranda, Garrus, and I were sitting in the cafeteria

"Don't you have your own fridge," Tali huffed.

"I forgot to restock the last time we were on Omega; the food merchant was kind of sketchy."

"Just eat nutrient paste~," Shepard rolled his eyes.

Right~, Nutrient paste. The galaxy's worst invention.

"I would sooner eat my hand," Tali hissed, "I will never go back to Nutrient paste."

"And Grunt's hogging it," I pointed out, looking at Grunt who was eating straight from the food dispenser.

"Kasumi, you caused this, you fix it," Miranda hissed.

Miranda was many things, beautiful, powerful, mean, but most importantly, she was a creature of decadence. She is used to a certain level of comfort, and much to her annoyance, Nick's food reached that level. And with her recent upgrade, she's been eating nearly three times her usual intake.

"Nick isn't budging, he really wants to see me in cosplay, which reminds me," I looked over at Tali, "You're not wearing anything crazy."

Tali looked down at her normal uniform. "yep~, Julee hasn't left their room and hasn't let anyone in. In fact, I don't think Sky is the only one that's not in their room."

"You think they have food?" Miranda whispered.

"Just eat Nutrient paste~," Shepard sighed. We looked back to Grunt who was slurping the paste straight from the dispenser.

"No," we answered.

"Doesn't Nick have like a million backup fridges?" Garrus asked.

"That would be the type of crazy thing he would have," I muttered. Nick is like a doomsday prepper, he has contingency, after contingency, after contingency, so a second or even third fridge wouldn't be out of place.

"He has a few but they're for essential personnel only," Shepard answered. "I know Chakwas has one in case of medical emergencies, Joker has another, Mordin has one for his lab, in case one of his experiments gets hungry, Engineering should have another, but Tali's trial took priority so I'm not sure if he got to it. We should still have some emergency jerky, but I have no idea where he put it."

"There's probably a stash in every room," I muttered. "You never know if you're going to get trapped in a room."

"I see Nick is still on vacation," Thane muttered walking over to us.

"Yep~, how are you holding up?" I asked.

"Good, I bought a fridge off Nick over a week ago, my people's pallet is a bit duller than humans, so we don't need as much spice as you use," he explained.

"Anything you can share?" I asked.

He shrugged, "Not much, I still have some Thresher maw and Basilisk meat, I think I still have some chimera haunch."

We just looked at him, "You call that Sensitive~?" I drawled.

"I eat it with unseasoned white rice," he countered. "While my taste buds may be weaker than yours, my stomach acids could digest just about anything."

"Do you even know how to cook any of that stuff?" Garrus asked.

"Oh yes, Nick was very thorough in teaching me the best way to cook them. So far, I feel great, and my cooking is getting better, I'm no Rupert, but I make it work. Kasumi are you ready for your training?"

"Huh? OH! Yeah." I hopped to my feet.

"Training?" Miranda asked.

"Yep~, I wanted to learn how to shadow walk," I explained.

"Can I join this study session?" She asked. Miranda was also a lowkey magic nerd, I'm not sure if she was always into magic or only when Nick showed up, but she has been trying to learn as much Magic as possible since.

"Mmm, I suppose a partner for Kasumi to bounce ideas with could be useful. Very well, but understand that this is my first time teaching this skill, there will be some trial and error," Thane warned.

"I completely understand, thank you for having me."

Holy shit!? Miranda was thankful and smiling! Somehow, she was even more beautiful, even Garrus looked at her in a new light.

"Wow~," I whispered.

"What?" she asked, her face returning to normal.

And the magic was gone, "Nothing~, come on, let's go learn to shadow walk." I dragged her with me.

Training with Thane was nothing like I thought it was going to be, less deadly martial arts and more meditation. Thane described Shadow Walk as becoming one with the dark, to allow my Chi and Mana to sink into the nothingness, to become nothing, only then could I slip into shadows.

I had no idea what that meant.

The Shuttle Bay was blanketed in darkness with spotlights casting long shadows. Thane was disappearing and reappearing all over the room.

This was going to take me some time.

-/-

Training ended around lunchtime, I thought I almost had it only to nearly hit a mana crash, lucky I was able to cut my connection to my mana before I was tapped out, but it still left me drained.

Hopefully, Nick lost the bet, cuz my tummy was demanding sustenance. Unfortunately, he hadn't.

"Come on~, How the hell did Strange do it?" Nick hissed, making a circle with one hand and a ring with the other. I sat next to Tali who was probably also hoping for some food. "I knew I should have practiced with it, but Teleport kinda does the same thing. But this sling ring is supposed to open portals to different dimensions, right?" He looked back at the comic book on the table.

"Sling ring?" no way~.

"Nick has been trying to open a portal back to his dimension without using his Gate," Tali huffed. "He's been at it for hours."

"Sling Ring~," I raced over to him, "NICK! NICK! NICK!"

"WHAT? WHAT? WHAT!?" he huffed.

"Is that a real sling ring!?" I tried taking it off his fingers, but he pulled away.

"No touchy~, but yeah. Since I have all this free time, I've been looking at some of the things I had but never used. Like this bad boy," he pulled out a helmet. It looked like an ancient Greek helmet with little wings on the side. "It's a Steel Helmet of Insight, got it one day years ago and never used it. It's just wasteful of me. It's meant to increase my intelligence or at the very least help me solve puzzles~." He put it on and looked at the Sling Ring. He gasped. "CLOCKWISE!?"

He started making more circles, and just for a moment, sparks appeared in the air, before Nick collapsed.

"NICK!?"

"I'M OKAY! Just a mana crash!" he groaned. And then as if by magic, he got back up.

"But... you, Mana crash!?" I've had a mana crash, they were crippling, even with Chi, I just want to lay in bed and die.

"Mmm? Oh yeah, no~, my mana core is different, I still get the headache, but I can bounce back after a second."

"I CALL SHENANIGANS!" I was a little angry, oh who was I kidding, I was a lot angry! What kind of core do you need for that!?

"You wouldn't be the first~," he laughed. "Did you see!? I got it to work!"

"It was a single spark," I pointed out.

"I was a little ambitious, making a portal back to Skyhold cost way too much Mana, it hit me like a truck. I just have to practice~." He started making more circles with his free hand, this time sparks exploded into of the air as a small circle opened, across the room another portal opened. Looking through the portal, I watched myself looking through the portal.

"Trippy~."

Nick let out a gasp and let the portal collapse. "Holy crap!? That takes way more juice than the comic made it seem." he flopped back to his booth, putting his Helmet back in his hammerspace. He then picked up his comic book, summoned lobster tail, sushi rolls, and a side of steaming shrimp fried rice. I felt my tum-tum roar in rage. "So, how was your training?" he asked, putting wasabi on a roll and eating it, not once looking away from his comic book.

"... Good."

"That's great, I was worried about Thane's first day of teaching, but it's good to see he has a knack for it." he took a bite from his lobster.

"Yeah." I'm going to kill him. "Nick... isn't it time for you to call off this bet?" I asked reaching for a roll, only for Nick to slap my hand away with a pair of novelty lightsaber chopsticks.

"Nope~. Julee has a spider girl costume ready for you." He messily ate some of his rice, clearly, he didn't know how to use his chopsticks.

"I'm going to kill you," I hissed.

"Mmm? What was that?"

"I said I haven't seen the girls." I lied with a smile.

"They probably retreated to the pitstop, I have a backup super fridge in there."

"Super fridge?"

Nick shrugged, "In case of an emergency and I need to hide out in the Pitstop, I made a fridge with enough food to last me a few... decades." huh~, I guess Garrus was right. "Of course, it won't save them, I locked the Gate to the pitstop before I started the bet, they're probably living off my normal backup fridge I keep in the room for late-night snacks."

"Wow, that's super interest-" I ran straight for Nick's room only to find the door locked. "LET ME IN!" I slammed on the door; I could feel my blood sugar lowering. The door didn't move. "You think a locked door will stop the greatest thief in the galaxy!?" I roared, pulling out my magical Lock picking kit, something I gained from the Gun Vault in Garrus's room, he was confused about where the vault came from.

Magical Locks are annoying, they were connected to a key that had a different magical signature on each ridge that connected to the lock's pins, I had to transfer Mana into my picks, finding every individual signature and picking the pins in the right order.

But I'm Kasumi 'fucking' Goto! There is no lock in the universe I can't pick.

CLICK!

THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT! I opened the door only for a chain to catch, causing me to head-butt the door, "SON OF A-" I hissed, holding my head.

"Oh my, if it isn't a little thief~," I looked up to find an unimpressed Neria.

"NERIA!?" I got up to the door, I could smell some steak. "How you doing gurl~, you looking fine~."

She was still unimpressed. "What do you want?"

"Um, just stopping by... thought you might want some company." My stomach roared.

"I don't," she answered, moving to close the door.

I shoved my foot into the room stopping her from closing the door. She gave me an annoyed look.

"You look upset~, maybe I can help you?"

"Do you know what day it is?" she asked.

"Uh... Friday?"

She nodded, "Friday, do you know how I woke up every Friday for the last 4 years?"

"Uh... happy?"

"Being eaten out by Nick," she hissed. Oh my~. "52 Fridays in a year... he never missed one... until today. A 4-year record, broken, thanks to you." The smile she gave me sent a shiver up my spine, it wasn't a happy one. "He doesn't have to, but he does, and I love him more for it. I need you to know." she pulled a strip of jerky from her end, gently feeding me and cupping my face. "When you fall for Julee, and you will, I will be there, to have my way with you. Night after night I will have you gasping in ecstasy, but you will not orgasm..." her eyes had a supernatural glow, "No..." she ran her finger across my lips, "... I'll stop just short, and leave you begging for more. Make sure you chew~." She pushed my foot out and closed the door.

...oops... I think I just made a very... sexy enemy.

I still ate the jerky; I'm going to need the energy.

-/-

Present

All this led to today, the third and final day. It was madness, Grunt, Jenny, and Zaeed teamed up to find Nick's emergency Jerky, only to fall into infight the moment they found a bag. The Quarians grouped together and ransacked Garrus's fridge, finding nothing. Samara tried keeping a calm attitude, but her stomach betrayed her every time she opened her mouth, she broke by the end of the second day and was eating nutrient paste with the rest of the crew, morale was at an all-time low. Tali was right... The nutrient paste tasted like sadness... and sawdust.

At this point everyone was avoiding the kitchen, it hurts our souls to be somewhere that brought us great joy once.

And there was Nick... he was wearing a spotless white 3-piece suit. Why? No idea. I guess he just wanted to look fancy.

We were all just ticking down the seconds until this day came to an end.

Nick of course wasn't making it easy; he was going all out; he made a buffet just for himself only to take one bite and put the rest of it in his hammer space. We all wished he would fall down some stairs, not to die, just to be in an incredible about of pain.

"Nick," I hissed sitting across from him.

"Hey hun~," he teased, "Last day~, how are you holding up?" He pulled out a cup of noodles, shrimp.

"You bastard," I hissed, my stomach started to cry in hunger.

"What's wrong?" he added boiled water.

"You think you're funny?"

"A bit, yeah, why, am I rubbing you the wrong way?" He placed a boiled egg in the cup.

"I'll be the bigger woman... I know when I made a mistake, I'm sorry for trying to change you."

He shook his head, "You're not wrong Kasumi, I do pamper my friends. I try and curve it, but I also like the luxury my powers give me. Should I ease up? Maybe. But I enjoy helping others, I didn't always have money or powers, I was just a regular man who worked paycheck to paycheck and now that I do have the money, I splurge. I learned some time ago that you can't take it with you, so I make golems and build schools and castles, I fund explorations, quests, artists, charities, scholarships, I want to give people the chance to do what I couldn't, to follow their dreams."

"...Mmm, you're a bit cheesy," I teased.

"That just means I go with everything~," he countered.

"People can take advantage of you," I pointed out.

He nodded, "And they have, some take the money and run, but for every person who runs, 50 stay." he shrugged, "If I have to pay for losers to run, I will." He passed me the cup of noodles. Placing the lightsaber chopsticks on top.

"... you know if I eat this, you lose right?"

He shrugged, "you were already allowed to enter the second floor in the Pitstop," he smirked.

.

.

.

"I hope you're eaten by a thresher maw!" I screamed through a mouthful of noodle goodness. By the greater gods! It tasted so good. I couldn't stop myself from moaning and tapping my legs in joy. I missed this so much!

Nick just laughed, clapping his hands, summoning his maids who started cleaning the room.

"I should feed these people before they mutiny, shouldn't I~?" he laughed getting up.

I reached out and grabbed his suit. "I'll wear some... I also want those web shooters."

He turned and kissed my fingers, "You can have those shooters... when you steal them."

"You play a dangerous game, Walters," I growled, whether that was my stomach or my throat, I didn't know. "AND I WANT FIVE MORE CUPS!"

He just laughed.

I liked his laugh; it was heavy and held nothing back.

It didn't take long for the crew to smell the food Nick was cooking, they came out slowly, worried that Nick was messing with them, but seeing me eat sent them all into a mad scramble for the kitchen counter to get a piece of whatever Nick was cooking. The Kitchen exploded again with sound and laughter as the crew partied and ate, even Sky came out of the fridge. Most of the food in the fridge was eaten but Nick said he would just buy more.

Things were returning to normal.

I looked over to a laughing Nick.

... back to normal.

-/-

A/N: OKAY! I didn't want to drag out this chapter, I'll do Overlord next probably with the derelict Reaper, and finally the collector base after that. I'm planning on making a new story for ME3.

I hope Soul was to your liking, I have some ideas for her later.

Also, I watched the Dragon Age: The Veilguard trailer and gameplay. When I saw the magical prosthetic, I was all kinds of smug, I nailed that one over a year ago. That was my 'I'm four parallel universes ahead of you' moment. Still, I'm looking forward to some Dragon Age, and if you are wondering, yes, I am planning on returning to Thedas after Mass Effect, Thedas is still Nick's home and I'm already thinking about some ideas for Inquisition, they're only ideas but they are in the works.

Anyway, review if you want

Sorry for the grammar

And I have some art on my DeviantArt page link in Bio.