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

11. Chapter 11 simmer

Ch. 11

Simmer

-/-

Jenny 'Jack' Nought POV

Rage.

I know the feeling all too well. It was fused into me through drugs and combat, through hatred and fear, I am a being of rage.

Inferno Rage. I burn the galaxy around me so everyone can feel it, to hear it scream.

But not his.

His was cold, rigid, and unmoving, it froze the air around us.

The galaxy held its breath.

-/-

Nick gently nudged me. "You, okay?"

I tsked, "I'm fine, just want to get this over with." I looked out the Kodiak's window.

Pragia.

Where it all began. Still a hell hole with an overgrown forest eating everything in sight, fucked up weather patterns, and all kinds of monstrous plants growing in the dark. Someone should have nuked this place from orbit years ago. Kinda grateful they didn't, now I get the chance.

"This place is overgrown to hell, this can't be normal," Shepard spoke up also looking out the window.

I shook my head. "It's not, dumbass Batarians introduced some kind of super mutated plant and it got out of control, shit got crazy, plants would grow back in days instead of years, and some would even eat people. This planet was abandoned and the Batarians blamed everyone else for their stupidity."

"What else is new~," The cheerleader muttered, standing next to Shepard playing that right-hand-man bullshit. Ever since the magic globe trotters showed up, she has been trying to look relevant, ordering people around, demanding shit, all-around just a bitch. Nick and Shepard were confused about why I wanted her here, the answer was simple, I wanted her to see what her 'precious' Cerberus truly was.

Our team wasn't very big, just me, Nick, Ava, Shepard, Dogmeat, and the bitch. I thought about bringing Jacob, but he already didn't trust Cerberus, bringing him here wouldn't do anything.

It took us a bit to find the landing pad, damn trees were crawling all over it.

"Something's wrong," Ava called out. Ava was a tough woman to read, always having a calm neutral look, only occasionally having a tiny smirk or blush when she was being pampered by her lovers. At first, I thought she was just a stuck-up bitch like the cheerleader, but it turned out she was just like that because she just wanted to look like a strong role model for Lyna, I guess it kinda just stuck as she got older. "My teeth are itchy."

"What is that?" Shepard asked, licking his teeth like a red sand addict going through withdrawal.

"Oh no," Ava whispered, her eyes glowing gold, as a frown crossed her face, something I'd never seen before.

Suddenly everything went quiet, I couldn't even hear the rain. The hairs on the back of my neck stood at attention, nature only grows quiet when there is a predator around. I turned to find...

...Something...

Standing next to me. It looked like a living shadow with glowing blue orbs for eyes. It wasn't natural, it didn't belong to this world, it didn't belong to any world. It felt and looked like a black hole, eating everything around it, sound, warmth, cold, the very Eezo from my body.

For a moment, I thought my body jumped away from the monster out of pure instinct, but it turned out to be Ava pulling me out of the way. I couldn't even feel her, I couldn't feel anything, not the rain hitting me in the face, not the floor Ava tackled me onto, not even the intoxicating feeling I get when I enter a fight.

...Nothing...

"JACK!" Ava's yell brought everything back, the rain, the cold wet floor, the spark of eezo in my body. Not wasting a second, I unleashed a Shockwave at the monster only for it to eat the wave without flinching, it didn't even look over at me, it just stood there looking at nothing.

"What is that thing!?"

Ava just looked at the monster. "It's Nick."

-/-

Ava POV

"What the hell is going on!?" Jenny roared, jumping to her feet. Never looking away from Nick.

"Souls litter this place," I answered, unlike us, Dogmeat stood right next to Nick, not flinching at his power, in fact, he looked just as angry, growing in size as his barbaric rage kicked in, standing shoulder to shoulder with Nick, Dogmeat didn't have a lot of skills, mostly because Nick didn't want to give Dogmeat something that would hurt him, but the one's he does know are well passed Journeyman in rank.

"So? Who cares about some-"

"They're children," Shepard cut Jenny off, his eyes burning a golden yellow. "They're the souls of children. I don't understand, I thought only gods messed with souls?"

"You are correct, only gods should handle the souls of the departed." I took a deep breath, the world dimming, "Lady Andruil, she who hunts, she of fortune, your paladin calls for your assistance, we have found the souls of children trapped in this place, barred entry to the Beyond, why?"

A soft humming came from the forest "Ohhhh~, my cute little hunter~, I'm so happy to hear from you~." A woman with brown skin, glowing freckles dotting her face, green eyes the color of the forest, hair made of the galaxy itself, and a pair of dragon horns on her head, all wrapped up in a rather scandalous hunting outfit. "You should call on me more often!" she huffed like a petulant child. "Makey already has another follower, that smug little brat is riding that one hard~."

"Andruil... the children."

"Ahh~, right." she gave the Forest a once over, "Mmm, this forest isn't natural, some dumbass made it in a lab with no understanding of what they were making." she tsked. "There used to be a people here, they weren't great with magic but in a dimension like this, that still makes them leaps and bounds better than most, someone invaded their world and so they cursed the land to spite their invaders. The Trees absorbed the curse and are trapping any soul that died here. This is some real nasty stuff."

"Can we break it?"

"Mmm, you're planning on blowing this place to smithereens, right?"

"Yes."

"That would give the souls here a chance to escape. Don't worry, Makey and I will make sure the souls get out of here, but I think you have bigger dragons to hunt."

The dim world started to return to normal as Andruil faded away.

Nick finally made a move, stepping forward, it almost seemed like he was glitching out of reality, the realm not handling his power well. He came to a stop, crouched down, and reached out for something.

"What's he doing?" Miranda asked.

Suddenly a light glow stretched out from his fingers, as the spirit of a little girl no older than 7 materialized holding onto Nick's hand. Her eyes were puffy as if she were crying, she seemed to start hyperventilating, not saying anything, she ran into Nick's chest and just cried. Nick just kneeled there, arms slowly hugging the young child.

His power tripled, his silhouette disappeared in an aura of black that stretched out to the sky, everything started to vibrate, the crying child only made his anger worse. I felt sick, my stomach was churning, my breathing was heavy, a headache was coming on, and my muscles were getting heavy. His soul, which was always a perfect sphere, tempered by Gamer's mind and Gamer's body, had a long thin crack running through it.

I've only seen Nick this angry once.

"Nick! The children are trapped! We need to destroy the facility! But we can't do it with you like this! FOCUS!" I ordered.

The raving shadow froze, slowly it retracted, centimeter by centimeter, then by inches followed by feet, all of it crushing back into Nick, sealing itself back into his body. The Shadow that was Nick was still holding the child. The little girl held him tight, more scared of the facility than Nick.

He didn't say a word, just started walking into the building, child in arm. More and more children appeared holding on to his hands, or Dogmeat.

Some of the children were horribly mutilated, used for experiments, and probably dumped in some massive grave. This place was a horror dungeon, with cramped locations, shattered walls and equipment, dried blood, cages where children were held in, and all made worse with Jenny's detailed explanations of what happened here.

I hate this place.

Strangely enough, varren showed up only to immediately be turned to a bloody mist, courtesy of a pissed-off Nick, the varren were followed by a few Vorcha and Krogan Blood pack members, which were torn from the ground by Nick's telekinesis and crushed together into the size of a soccer ball and launched so hard that it tore the head off a krogan. He would shoot Chain lightning so hot it would flash fry the first three people it hit and caused anyone else it touched to burst into flames, he condensed his firebolts to the size of copper coin piercing anyone in front of him with hot plasma. Nick didn't stop for anything, any locked doors were torn from the walls, shattered stairs were rebuilt instantly, and any fool who got in his way was reduced to atoms.

This was Nick at his worst, the man I loved was being protected by his rage and sorrow. He always kept in mind that most people who tried to kill him had families and loved ones who were waiting for them, but not now, not anymore. too many children died here, and so many lives were snuffed out before they got to live, Gamer's mind must be going crazy trying to keep him sane.

"RAHHH!" a Krogan rushed forward trying to blitz Nick, only to get his head violently introduced to his chest courtesy of one of Nick's overhead blows.

"Fucking A," Jenny cursed, "since when can he do all this!?"

"Since forever," I shrugged.

"Then why doesn't he use it!?" she looked at him with a longing look, "With that sort of power no one would fuck with him, no one can hurt him."

"...and then what?" I asked.

She blinked at me. "What?"

"And, then, what? What's the end game? To have power? To be strong? What is the point of power?" I asked following the ungodly noise of the facility being torn apart and screaming Blood Pack mercs.

"I don't know, live like a king, rule the galaxy, who cares?"

"Nick cares," I answered checking my corners. "Power makes people nervous, just look at Miranda, the Illusive man, the Council, Anderson, The Alliance, major powers don't like 'loose' cannons, but they sure do love their cannons. At the moment, Nick is throwing our lot with Shepard, why do you think the Alliance is being all buddy-buddy, and why the council has backed off, they think Nick is on their side."

"And you're not?" Miranda asked.

"You need to pay attention," I let an arrow fly right into a Vorcha's eye socket, "We are on Shepard's side. At least as long as the Alliance plays ball, if not we still have the Geth and Krogan."

"Geth and Krogan?" Shepard asked.

"The Geth and Krogan are taking the Reapers seriously. The Geth are interested in magic and the Krogan clans are desperate for help, and after seeing Nick's power up front, they are more than happy to make some deals."

"Not the Quarians?" Shepard asked. "I thought the Ancient Tablets would make you some friends."

"The Quarians are an option, but Nick doesn't think they would be a good fit, at least not until they make peace with the Geth," I explained.

"Fat chance~," Jenny huffed.

"It's a long shot, but what choice do they have?" I asked. "Continue to live in space? Go back to the council? Fight the Geth? That's suicide, and with the Reapers coming, staying in Space is death, they can run to the Council, but we know the Council would just laugh at them and leave them to the monsters. No. Peace is their only option, they're just bloody stubborn. And Nick is getting more and more impatient with their stonewalling."

"Hold," Shepard called out getting us to check our perimeter. "I don't hear anything." The building was quiet, moving forward, we found the halls littered with corpses and blood. It didn't take long for us to find Nick standing in front of a door, for a moment I thought Nick couldn't tear down the door before he turned to look past me. Following his gaze, I came face to face with a nervous Jenny.

"The lab room," Jenny hissed, "This is where those bastards experimented on me. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!? DESTROY IT! DESTROY IT ALL!" but Nick didn't, there was no powerful telekinetic wave that would turn the lab to rubble, or no fireball that would turn it to ash, or no earthquake that would swallow the room whole, just a long look. "WHAT!?" Nick reached out and brushed the tears running down Jenny's face.

"The children will not pass this point, you must lead, I shall stay with them." He looked down at the petrified ghostly children, hiding behind him as if his body would shield them from the monster behind that door.

Jenny stood in front of the door for over a minute, it took Dogmeat gently pressing his head to her leg to get her to press the holographic button, revealing a lab, Dogmeat stuck close to her as we walked in. It was trashed, beyond repair, something happened here, an occasional hologram flickered on and off illuminating skeletons, but none of them were children.

"Morgue," Shepard called out, pointing to a sign.

"They experimented on the corpses after the children died? this... this is wrong," Miranda muttered.

"This is Cerberus," Jenny corrected, "This is what they do, they never care about 'should', just 'can'. They used to show me the bodies of the other children, warning me what could happen if I tried to run. Come on." She led us through the morgue to another Lab, and just like the morgue it was also a wreck. "This is where they did tests on me." as we passed by a Hologram came to life.

"-went poorly-ly-ly S-S- subject O-one, Four, a-and 21 died. No biotic Change among the survivors. we lowered core temperatures on surviving test subjects, but no biotically beneficial reactions occurred. As a side effect, all subjects died," The scientist huffed, uncaring about the children he slaughtered. I'm a little relieved Nick didn't follow us in here, he would have destroyed the building with us in it, I wanna destroy this building with us in it. "We will not try that on Zero. I hope our supply of biotic-potential subjects holds up. We are going through them fast~."

"Ava," Shepard called out. My gaze snapped at him. "You're glowing."

"You're one to talk," I hissed. Shepard also had a holy light irradiating off of him. I took a deep breath trying to calm my nerves, but it wasn't working.

"This is Bullshit! They weren't experimenting on other children for my safety!" Jenny hissed playing with the Hologram trying to get more information.

I placed my hand on her shoulder. "...Jenny. These people are sick monsters, and you were a little girl, there was nothing you could have done."

"You can't help what they did to others," Shepard added.

She shrugged my hand away, "You don't get it! I survived because I was tougher than the rest. That's who I am!" She kicked the hologram causing it to wink out. Clearly, there was more to this but right now wasn't the best time to dig into it, not with all the reasons to be what she is all around us.

I looked at her. "Jack... fuck Cerberus."

She gave me a long look, before laughing. "Yeah, fuck Cerberus."

"-f-f-fallen to p-pieces!" another hologram barked, the same scientist was typing away at a console, the sound of explosions coming from the audio. "The subjects are rampaging, Zero is on the loose, and everything is on fire! We are shutting it all down, what a goddamn mess, all my hard work for nothing! The Alliance is already on the way, we're piggybacking everything into the Alliance's ascension program, The Illusive Man can collect the data from there, I've encrypted it, code 9-3-0-" an explosion cut him off. "Who? What? Zero wait!" He was cut off as a little girl wreathed in biotic power punched the scientist in the face, turning his skull into shrapnel. Tiny Jenny was covered in blood, looking lost and panicked, but I could still see the same will to live she had now, burning hot in her eyes.

"Shepard!?" Jenny turned in a panic, "They started somewhere else." Oh? So much for the badass loner who only cared about herself.

"Relax, Ascension is an Alliance program, it's a school program for Biotic children. It's fine, I went there when I was a kid, the Alliance has that place under heavy protection, especially after what happened at BAAT," Shepard explained.

"I didn't know you were a biotic," Miranda spoke up.

Shepard shrugged, "Ma got a dose of Eezo radiation when she was pregnant with me, but nothing came from it. The teachers at Grissom Academy concluded that I had Biotic potential, but I never manifested the power to use any biotics, they said they had some tests that might bring it to the surface, but Ma and Pa rejected it. Biotics weren't exactly well known back then, and I was already a happy accident, they weren't going to push their luck."

Jenny was quietly looking at her younger self in the hologram.

"Jenny?" I called out.

"... A lot of this... wasn't how I remembered it."

"How could it be? Survival was your goal, you were tortured, beaten, and experimented on, anything that got in your way of that survival was an obstacle. You didn't see people or children, not even walls" I pointed to an old destroyed wall small enough for a child. "You saw freedom, and you took it."

"Yeah well..." she gave the room another look over, looking back to the morgue for a moment. "My eyes are open now." she walked over to a door on the far side of the room, like most of the rooms it was smashed open. "This is my cell, let's plant this bomb."

Jenny was right, this was a cell. Three sterile white walls with a two-way mirror, showing the shadowy specter that Nick had become, with a flood of ghost children standing on a catwalk. It was a bit disconcerting as they just looked at us through the window.

Dogmeat gave a gutter growl.

"Come out," I ordered, "You have nowhere to go." a man in his early 30s came up behind the turned-over bed.

"No gun, no armor, hiding behind a bed, clearly, you're not a merc," Miranda huffed.

"Who are you?" Jenny barked.

"Subject 121, but people call me Aresh, Subject Zero."

"That's not my name," Jenny growled.

Aresh shook his head. "We don't have names. We don't need names; we are better than names!"

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

He had a crazed look in his eye, "We were subjects for the next step in human evolution."

"... Are you stupid, or maybe a new class of moron? We aren't the next step of anything! We were tortured, beaten, and experimented on like fucking lab rats! We were some fuck's pet projects!"

"...no, no, No, NOO!" Aresh yelled unleashing a small biotic push, "WE'RE SPECIAL! WE HAVE TO BE! THEY CHOSE US!" everything now had a biotic glow, even us, as a rather large singularity appeared over Aresh's head, I felt gravity pull me down.

"THEY STOLE US! THEY STOLE OUR FUTURE! OUR HOMES! OUR FAMILIES!" Jenny roared punching him in the face, dropping him to the floor, crossing the singularity to lose stability and fade. "They took everything from me... they took whoever I could have been... and left... THIS!" she gestured to herself, tears rolling off her face.

"A perfect being," Aresh whispered in awe, spitting out a tooth. "Can't you see, you're perfect! Power without limit, you are what humans will be. They made you perfect, we can do this for everyone else."

"You're fucking insane." she looked over at us, "He's fucking insane, right."

I nodded, "He's not all there."

"Aresh, what are you doing here?" Shepard asked.

The manic look in Aresh's eyes made me tense. "Are you not paying attention? Not surprising for a failed human like you, but don't worry, when I rebuild the facility, I can fix you, make you perfect."

"You want to remake this hell hole!?" Jenny hissed.

"Yes, I thought of other places, other buildings, other planets, but it was here where we were made, it must be here where we must make more."

"Looks like you weren't the only one pulled back here, Jenny," Shepard sighed.

"The only reason I'm here is to blow this place back to hell," Jenny growled.

"WHAT!? NO! You can't! Th-" he was cut off by Jenny's fist clocking him on the jaw.

She spit on him, "I wasn't asking, you fuck."

"The things we went through, IT HAS TO MEAN SOMETHING!" he spit out, blood dribbling from his mouth.

"NO IT DOESN'T! YOU JUST WANT TO FEEL SPECIAL! YOU WANT... you want the galaxy to owe you something... it doesn't... you..." she took a deep breath, "you don't get to use what happened here as an excuse to do whatever you want... not anymore. You have to move on... we have to move on."

I walked over to the window giving it a light knock, trying to get Nick's attention.

"That's not going to-" Jenny was cut off as the glass shattered outward, showering the loading bay with glass, Nick tore out a piece of the catwalk, using it as a makeshift bridge to walk into the room.

He gave Aresh a single look before ignoring him and placing the bomb in the center of the room. It was huge, Tali, Lyna, Garrus, and Mordin worked hard to make it to Jenny's deadly expectations.

"Please... don't do this," Aresh begged. "We don't belong with them. We're different. We deserve more."

"No, we really don't." Jenny walked past him, "Stay or run, I don't care, but I'm getting rid of this building, I won't have this place hold me back anymore. We're leaving." The ghostly children followed her and Nick toward the exit.

"Are we going to just leave him here?" Miranda asked, pointing to Aresh.

"He wants to rebuild a place that killed hundreds of children, I won't kill him, but I'm not going to save him," Shepard huffed.

"What if he messes with the bomb?" I asked.

"Tali built that thing; he's not going to stop it." He walked out the window and towards the exit, I followed behind him.

I'm tired of this place.

-/-

Shepard POV

The Kodiak was quiet, only the shuttle's engines buzzing around us, and the constant flicking of the detonator Jenny was playing with. Nick was still a black mass looking at the Cerberus facility getting farther and farther away. Ava and Dogmeat were next to him, keeping him calm, Miranda was looking over her omni-tool making sure we were out of the blast area. It took another second before she nodded to me, and I nodded to Jenny who pressed the detonator, as I warned the pilot about the incoming shockwave heading our way.

By the way, due to popular demand, I got a pilot for the new Kodiak... kinda. After our old Kodiak was destroyed in the Collector ship and nearly caused our doom if not for Legion, I had EDI become our Kodiak pilot. At first, I was a little nervous we were spreading her thin, but she reassured me that time didn't work the same way for her as it does for us. Like Legion, she can do millions of complex calculations in seconds, splitting her time between The Normandy, her human body, and the Kodiak wouldn't be problem. I didn't really understand it, but from what I could understand, it was like she had three consciences at the same time, talking to each other, and thinking as one, all in a matter of moments.

The shockwave hit us causing us to shake but we were fine, the same couldn't be said for the forest. It wasn't a nuke but everything within 3 kilometers was turned to ash and everything within 5 was on fire.

"Thank you," a soft voice called out. The little girl was here, she gave us one last wave before she faded away.

"Thank you."

"Thank you."

"Thank you."

"Thank you."

Dozens of children waved at us as they faded into nothing. The world slowed and dulled, across from me a glowing figure, that I just knew had to be the Maker, sat calmly.

Well done John

He didn't have a mouth, at least I didn't think he did.

You have saved the souls of the innocent on this day

For this great achievement, you shall be rewarded

He stood up and walked over to me and pressed his thumb to my forehead

You will fight powerful enemies in the coming future, my Paladin

But that doesn't mean you have to fight them alone

You have friends in this world

and the next

The Maker faded and the world returned to normal, but I was too focused on the information that flooded my mind.

Guardian of Faith – Call upon an ally from beyond, Beware, John, they must come willingly, you cannot force the unwilling, less you wish to incur their wrath.

You can summon one Ally for 30 minutes, every 8 hours.

They will disappear if damaged enough or if time runs out.

As the information faded, I was able to get a read of the area. The children were still coming and going, Nick was back to normal, the shadows finally retreating, revealing a small smile, with tears falling from his face, Ava and Dogmeat were by his side. Jenny wasn't saying anything but was watching the kids fade one by one, Miranda was looking at her Omni-tool, but I could tell she was paying attention.

This continued until we got to the Normandy in space, the souls finally stopped coming and the day's battle fatigue hit full force, causing us to slump, Dogmeat even walked over to Jenny and just flopped on her lap, she didn't even complain, just petted his fur. We took a second allowing the shuttle's disinfection program to clean us, taking a break. The door opened to the engineering crew looking over the Kodiak like the grease monkeys they were.

"... you know... I knew this mission was going to suck, but gods damn man," Nick sighed, wiping his face, "I'm going to hit the medical bay, take a shower, and sleep."

"Get some rest, we're hitting Omega next," I called out.

"HEY!? What about this hairy mutt!?" Jenny called out.

"He's your problem!" Nick called back.

"I'll throw him out the Airlock!" Nick didn't hear her; he and Ava were already going up the elevator. "Ugh, that bastard. Hey, get off," she ordered.

"Meat~," Dogmeat chuffed.

"I'm not giving you half my dinner."

"Meat~."

"Who the hell do you think you are~?" Jenny huffed, playfully rubbing his face.

"You understand him?" Miranda asked.

"Duh~. Unlike you, who can't even look at him, I've taken care of him. At first, it didn't make any sense, damn mutt only says one word, but you quickly realize it's mostly body language. Why do you think the Quarians on the ship were the first to understand him?"

"I'm more of a cat person," Miranda countered.

"Meat."

"Ha!" Jenny laughed, "you are prissy."

"Prissy, really~? Are you sure he didn't call me another P-word?" Miranda drawled.

"Meat."

"He's right, Pussies are warm and givers of life, you're cold and have no life."

"Oh good, the dog thinks he's funny~." Miranda huffed, getting up and out of the shuttle.

"Glad you're in good spirits," I complimented.

She shrugged, "What else am I supposed to be, upset we blew up an evil abandoned facility that trapped the souls of children? A facility, mind you, that I wanted to destroy to begin with?" she started playing with Dogmeat's face, "Is that why you're here? You big softy?"

"Meat."

"I'm still not giving you my dinner, it's sloppy joe night."

"Meat, meat."

"Hog my bed all you want, it has no back support, blankets, or pillows, you might as well be sleeping on the floor."

"Meat."

"I don't need your pity, just my sloppy joes~," she shoved dogmeat off her lap.

"MEAT!?"

"What the hell are you talking about!? You're not a puppy anymore, you fat bastard!" she huffed getting out of the shuttle.

"Meat!"

"Muscle my ass, you have a dad bod, all doughy and fat. The fact that Pancake sees you as attractive is a miracle."

"Meat."

"Getting a dad bod is not hard work-" the closing elevator cut off their conversation.

"Alright~. Ken, how's the Shuttle?" As commander, it was my job to write up a report and make sure everything was ready for the next mission.

"Looking good commander, she's working well, and the new stealth system is holding up just fine." the engineering crew put it upon themself to recreate the Normandy's stealth system onto the Kodiak's flight system, so far thing seemed to be working fine, the Kodiak can hide from most sensors for about a minute, just enough time to drop off a team and escape.

"If things keep going this way, we can start adding runes soon," Gabby added, looking over her notes. "We are getting royalties for this right? I have a few Nieces and Nephews I have to put through college~."

"Bah, I say you should let them work," Ken huffed.

"Are you still angry Drake bit you? You need to get over that."

"He was eight, he should know not to bite people!"

I let them argue, Ken and Gabby worked great together, like an old married couple, they knew each other like the back of their hands, and they were masters in their field, the fact that the Alliance let them slip through their fingers actually makes me a little mad, Adams would have killed to have them on his team.

"Humans bite each other?" Lia asked, checking one of the thrusters.

"No, not unless someone is reaching for your burger~," Gabby drawled at Ken.

"I ASKED IF IT BELONGED TO SOMEONE!"

"You know he embarrassed about lisp," Gabby hissed.

"Then he should have just raised his hand, or tapped my shoulder, or just coughed! You don't just jump to biting!"

"God you're such a baby~," Gabby teased

"He broke skin! What if he had Rabies or bit a vital artery!?"

Gabby rolled her eyes, "Oh, I'm so sorry I didn't know your fingers had 'Vital arteries'."

"It was my favorite pointing finger!"

"You have like a hundred fingers, so you lose one, who cares~?" Zura huffed, playing with her Omni-tool. I'm happy Zura and Lia have successfully integrated with the rest of the engineering crew, it was a little rocky at first, but Ken and Gabby won them over. It helped that they joined more out of loyalty to me and fighting the reapers than Cerberus.

"Rough ride?" Tali asked.

"Mental hell ride."

She patted me on the back. "Take a shower and get some sleep, we got this handled."

"Thanks."

I left the Engineering team to their work. It took less than a minute to get back to my room. "EDI, how long until we reach Omega?" I asked the room.

"We are running low on Palladium, Platinum, and Element Zero for Dr. Solus's experiments. Bannik, the closest planet to this system's star, is rich in Palladium and Platinum, we will mine until we run out of probes. We will arrive in Omega within two days at the latest, where we will restock on Element Zero."

"Thank you EDI, I'm going to get some sleep, hold any calls for the next 8 hours."

"Confirmed commander, logging you out."

I slumped onto my new couch and just looked up at my models floating across my ceiling.

.

.

.

"I call you, my friend, to stand at my side against the evils that wish to harm the innocent." I felt something tickle at the back of my mind, I needed a name, "Kaiden Alenko."

A bright light filled my room and across from me a figure appeared, he had a heavenly golden glow, his armor a bright white with golden accents, it took a second for the glow to die down revealing a smirking Kaiden.

"Hey, Commander~."

-/-

Nick POV

You have slept in your bed

HP, MP, and CP at Max

All Ailments cured

I basket in the warmth of my bed. I'm never getting up, never, ever, e-. My Rogue Instincts kicked in, reaching, I grabbed an arm, and pulled the person under the covers, making sure I didn't cause any pain as I put them in the mating press.

"Mmm?" with wasn't Nat or Neria, I gave a firm squeeze, getting a gasp. It didn't sound like Ayla or Jak, Sky, Ava, and Julee were next to me, Sereda had a morning date with Lyna and Dagna, and Astral was in the vault. I let my hands travel up her body. Leather? No, it didn't have the smell, but they had the hips. Pulling back, I allowed my blanket to fall, revealing a rather flustered Kasumi.

.

.

.

I blinked, "...Morning."

"...Hey."

"Here to steal the key for my secret closet Vault?"

"... yep."

"couldn't unlock the runic seal, so you had to steal the key from around my neck?"

"Yep."

"Got a little cocky?"

"Yep."

"Are you going to slap me the moment I let you go?"

"... Are you naked?"

"... Yep. Would it help if I thought you were Nat? That little she-devil enjoys waking me up in the morning."

"... so that's not a blade rubbing against my crotch?"

"Nope~." We looked over to a smirking Julee.

"Nnnnn~!" Sky gave a long moan, stretching like a cat showing off her naked body in all its glory. "Kasy?" she looked over to Kasumi. "Good, it's important to remember old love, but it is also important to find new love." She got up and gave me a spank, causing me to jerk forward, in turn causing Kasumi to give a tiny meep.

I locked every muscle in my body. I couldn't look away from Kasumi's blushing face.

"I'm uhhhh, gonna go, uhhh, okay?" I muttered.

"... Okay," she squeaked.

I tactically flopped off her and onto the floor, before quickly jumping to my feet. "I'm okay!"

"And at attention, I see~," Ava teased. I quickly covered my junk and ran out of the room. "Wait! I didn't get my morning pinch~!" she called out, but I was already out of the room.

Gods, that was embarrassing.

-/-

Gods, this is embarrassing.

"Kasumi," I stated to Kasumi across the breakfast table.

"Nick," she replied.

"...you look nice."

"...thank you."

"...Nice space weather we are having."

"...Yeah, little chance of... asteroids."

"The hell is wrong with you two?" Jenny huffed, through her mouthful of bacon.

"Nothing," we said at the same time.

"...you saw each other naked, didn't you?" Jenny drawled.

"WHAT!? No, naked? What's that!?" Kasumi stuttered.

"... Mmm, so you saw him naked, but you didn't see her naked. Awkward... was he big?"

"Jennifer 'Jenny' 'Jack' Walters nee Nought! You will not talk such crass words at the breakfast table!" I huffed.

"First of all, screw you, I can talk any way I want, fuck face! Second, I'm not your sister, I didn't sign that stupid contract of yours so don't just give me your last name. Lastly, screw you again!" she flipped me the bird.

"What~, I'll have you know those adoption papers are legitimate."

"No, they weren't! I had my lawyer go over them."

"You don't have a lawyer!"

"Think again! SEREDA!? Teach this fool a lesson!" Sereda came over, in a very sexy lawyer outfit, with my adoption papers. Oh no.

"Mr. Walters, I'm here representing my client Ms. Nought," she slammed the documents on the table. "I've seen some shady contracts in my day, but this one, there's a place for people like you in the Endless Void. You sicken me!"

I kept my poker face on. "I have no idea what you're talking about, I'm a legitimate businessman."

"You don't fool me, Walters! Page 2 paragraph 5 line 1. The newly named Jennifer Walters will be brought into the Walters Clan, giving her a piece of all property, companies, and lands the clan possesses."

"What's wrong with that?" I asked, like butter wouldn't melt in my mouth.

"Line 2. All Walters are responsible for the well-being of the Clan, duties will be assigned by the head of the clan. You were planning on pawning off all your work on her!"

"What~," I gasped. "That's crazy. I would never."

Jenny slammed her hand on the table, "BULLSHIT! You lazy bastard, you're the type of Dirtbag who would run off to space forcing me to pick up the slack!"

"Slander and Lies!"

"You called yourself a lazy bastard!" Jenny roared.

"And you believed me!? Clearly, I can't be trusted!

"What!? that doesn't make any sense!" she reared back her fist to give me a knuckle sandwich.

"JENNY STOP!" Sereda called out holding back her fist.

"What!? WHY!?"

"Another way to give consent to the contract is if you punch him in the face!" Sereda warned.

"WHAT!? What kind of contract is that!?" Jenny was now fuming, looking over the contract. "If punched in the face by Jennifer Nought, she agrees to become Nick Walters's younger sister AS WRITTEN IN THIS CONTRACT!? This can't be legal!?"

"Oh, it's legal alright," Sereda tapped the bottom of the paper where Anderson's signature was located. "Signed off by the highest law of the land."

"You crazy bastard," Jenny hissed.

I leaned back, and put on my smuggest, punchable, face. "What are you going to do about it? Punch me in the face? Do it, you coward!"

"I'll kill you!" Her fist was wreathed in biotic blue, but she was held back by Sereda.

"STOP! He wants you to punch him! The second your fist touches his face all his responsibilities will become yours!"

"Then I'll just kill him in one blow!" she wiggled in Sereda's arms.

"Doesn't matter! Nick has been punched by crazy blood mages, Dragons, and Gods. If you touch him, you become everything in that contract. You have to go to all his Noble, business, and mundane obligations, you would have to go to Balls, Dances, long boring Business meetings, building openings, Landsmeets, political soirees, having to listen to dozens of people's complaints, PAPERWORK! You, need, to, calm, down."

Jenny took some angry breaths, "I wanna punch him so bad. Look at his stupid face!" I somehow made my face even more punchable.

"Relax, relax. That's his only card. Ignore it, we can counter with a better contract, I'll send it to Telsa, she'll have something."

"What!? I still need to sign it? I don't want to be that dipstick's little sister!"

"Yes, you do," Sereda countered, "Nick has already adopted you in all but law, and blood, I guess. All that matters now, is you getting the upper hand in negotiations before you're cornered."

"What are you talking about?"

Sereda huffed, "Sooner or later, you're going to need his help. I'm not sure for what or why, but you're going to need him, he's going to catch you at your worst possible time, and this contract will be the least of your worries. You need to come around to the fact that you're already his younger sister, you just got to milk it for whatever you want."

"This is stupid and unfair."

"Yes it is, but we caught it early, we'll get you a better deal, but you might need to wear a shirt from now on."

"GAH~!" Jenny huffed. She pointed at me, "This isn't over."

"I hope you like big puffy dresses with cages!" I laughed, Telsa may like-like Sereda, but she loves business.

She flipped me off, "Talk to my Lawyer!" she stormed off.

"Maybe I will!?" I screamed at her retreating back. "What is it going to cost me to have her wear a dress?"

Sereda gave me a long look, before reaching into her bag of holding, pulling out red lipstick, a pair of glasses, and a scrunchy. Applying the lipstick, put her hair into a ponytail, and put the right ear of the glasses in her mouth. "Nicky~, won't you let me win this~? I'm willing to... compensate you."

"Uhhhhh, well, you did ask- NO!" I pulled away. "Nice try, but Telsa taught me to resist sexy lawyers."

Sereda tisked, somehow, she made it sexy. "That's fine, you won't last long anyway~." she gently pushed a strand of misplaced hair behind her ear. Oh damn, she was beautiful. She gave a princess huff and walked away, swaying her hips with every step.

I watched as she disappeared around the corner, "... I'm doomed." I looked back at Kasumi and took a deep breath. "I'm not going to apologize, you snuck into my room, and I reacted, did I squeeze? Yes. Did I enjoy it? Also, yes. You are a beautiful woman, Kasumi Goto, I'm not going to pretend what happened this morning didn't happen."

"... Your hands lingered."

"Damn straight they did, I have 11 lovers, and they don't like it when I hesitate. They enjoy a strong firm grip, and I'd be damned if I don't deliver."

"... I didn't say I didn't like it. It was just a little, abrupt. I didn't think you would catch me red-handed, I also didn't think you slept in the nude."

"Do you have any idea how expensive those Cloud Sheep blankets are? You better believe I sleep in the nude."

"Do I wanna know what you're talking about?" Tali huffed sitting next to us with her plate of eggs and extra bacon and sausage.

"Nick doesn't know how to treat a delicate flower like myself, pawing at me like an animal with his big meaty paws. It's called romance Nick," Kasumi teased.

I smiled a bit before acting appalled, "How dare you~, Sky loves my touch."

"She's a dragon!"

"I've once seen you sucker punch a man so hard he died," I countered.

"Are you calling me a brute?" she hissed.

I huffed, "I'm calling you a strong independent woman who needs no man~."

"It is not about the need, Nick, it's about the want. I don't need love to live, I want love in my life, I want to be taken on romantic dates, I want to sit around the house eating ramen and watching TV with another person, I want to be gently and lovingly, plowed like a field."

That got me to laugh, while Tali choked on her eggs.

"Kasumi!?" Tali gasped.

"What?" Kasumi teased, "I'm a hot-blooded woman who needs some action, not all of us can be a saint like you~."

"A Saint? Tali?" I laughed harder. "Every time I see her, she's going at it with Julee, or Sky, or Lyna, or-"

She elbowed me, "Shut up! They're just being... friendly."

"Friendly~?" Kasumi teased, "Aren't we friends?" she puckered her lips.

"Do it, Tali! We can finally tell if she's wearing lipstick or a tattoo."

She punched me, "Why don't you do it!?"

"Because Kasy isn't after my luscious lips," I pulled down my shirt, showing off the Runic key around my neck. "She wants this~, the key to my secret closet Vault."

"Why do you have a secret Vault?" Tali sighed.

"I have over a dozen secret vaults throughout the Normandy," I shrugged.

"WHY~!?" she hissed.

"Because, silly. I love Kasumi, and more importantly, my things." She gave me a confused look. "Tali~, my sweet chocolate destroyer, Kasy is a woman of refined taste, a vault will tickle her interest, a secret vault will catch her attention, but a secret magical vault~? That'll get her engines running. Can you imagine being friends with a space wizard and them not having something as crazy as magical vaults? Kasy would lose it, you can see it in her eyes," we looked over at Kasumi, who was smirking at us. "The eyes of madness."

"Oi!?" she threw some eggs at me, which I caught in my mouth, "I'm an innocent loving person! I won't stand for your slander!"

"Just because the police can't find any evidence doesn't mean you didn't do it," I huffed.

"Nick, where are these 'vaults'?" Tali asked.

"Mmm? Oh, you don't have to worry they aren't anywhere that might damage the ship."

"What's in them?"

I shrugged, "Some ancient books, tomes, fancy suits of armor, magic jewelry, stuff Kasy would like to decorate her room."

"What kind of armor?" Kasumi asked.

"You know~, medieval Knights, samurai, elven, bikini, the classics."

"Bikini isn't an armor!" Tali huffed.

"It is if it's magic bikini armor, made of the softest silks~." I passed her a patch of the material I used.

"Whoa~, this is nice," Tali nodded. "What kind of tomes are we talking about?"

"Mmm, I had to think of things Kasy would want and use. Detect trap, prestidigitation, Fade step, Shatter, Knock, Blur, spells a thief would find useful, but weak enough to cast without running out of steam."

"Spells that might open a magical lock maybe~?" Kasy drawled.

"I'm sure you've noticed that the lock to the liquor vault has four locks, but there are only 3 keys~. The spell Knock is the Fourth key."

"I need to learn the spell to open the vault," Kasumi summarized

"Correct~."

"I'm guessing you're not going to tell me where the vaults are?"

"Only 3 people know where all the vaults are, EDI, Shepard, and myself. You can ask, but I can't guarantee they'll tell you the truth," I smirked.

Kasumi narrowed her eyes, "... How many others know about the vaults?"

"Enough~. valuables are nice, but only if they are worth something. At the moment only you know about the closet vault, but as time continues, more and more vaults will be found, the treasures stolen, making it nearly impossible to get that saké~. Aren't time quest fun~?"

She got up from her seat, cracked her knuckles, and rolled her shoulders, "Looks like I have my work cut out for me." She grabbed my face and laid one on me, taking my breath away, she had the faint taste of Ramen broth, shrimp, I think. "Thanks~," she pulled away with my key wrapped around her finger. "Do you have some kind of kissing magic?"

"You wanna try again?"

She flicked me in the nose, "Don't get cocky Walters, it was only one kiss."

"We all have to start somewhere," I teased as she walked away.

"... You know," Tali spoke up, "I never thought I would say this, but you should learn to keep your legs closed."

"What~?"

"People are calling you the Ship's bunny~."

"The what?"

"The ship's bunny, you know, cuz you hop from room to room. Like an Earth rabbit." she made ears with her hands. "You're a whore~," she teased.

"Madam!? Such language!?" I gasped, holding my chest.

"Learn to close your legs then~."

"Are you upset because I haven't hopped into your room?

"Pah-lease~, the day I let a mammal like you hop into my room will be the day I kick my father in the nuts."

I blinked, "... So, you want me to hop into your room?"

A blush grew across her cheeks, "NO! What are you talking about?"

I shrugged, "From what I understand, your father is a bit of a controlling asshole and deserves a solid kicking to the nuts."

"He's... a tough man to please."

"He's an asshole, you are, by all definitions, a Quarian superhero. You saved the Galaxy, gave the Quarian people good PR, and are trying to negotiate peace between Quarians and the Geth. You are what every Quarian wants to be. If he is not drowning with pride, you deserve to kick him right between the legs, as hard as you physically can."

"You can't just kick an admiral between the legs!"

"... Tali... yes you can. When was the last time he told you he loved you?"

"..."

"Gave you a pat on the back?"

"..."

"Nodded in thanks?"

"... What are you getting at?"

"You, Tali'Zorah vas Neema nar Rayya, deserve to kick him in the nuts."

"...You're insane."

"But am I wrong, though? You have sacrificed everything; you have thrown yourself into the lion's den for the Quarian people time and time again. You deserve more, but you are too kind, too generous, too selfless."

"... I like being those things, I enjoy helping others," she whispered.

"Yeah, well, I like it when my friends don't put themself in Death's way for some jackass who can't take 30 seconds out of his day to tell you how much he loves and cares for you. Even Shepard's crazy mom calls him to tell him how much she cares. You know what? Cuz you're my friend, the next time we meet your father, I am going to kick him in the nuts."

"Nick~," she sighed.

"I am, and I'm going to make it hurt, just enough to pulverize his testicles, but not kill him."

"Nick," she warned.

"OR."

"Or?"

"Or, you do it."

"I'm not going to kick my father in the nuts."

"And that will be your choice, but understand, only you can save your father's testicles by kicking him yourself, because there is nothing in this galaxy that's going to stop me from firmly and painfully lodging my foot between his legs, but you."

She gave a long sigh, "Why are you like this?"

I cupped her face, "Because, you, are, my, friend, and I am a selfish jerk who will choose you over the Quarian people. I don't care how angry Shepard or Anderson or the council or even you get at me. I, do not, like it when my friends get hurt."

She squished my face, "You're an idiot."

"Maybe, But I'd rather be an idiot with a backbone than a mindless sheep led to slaughter," I huffed, leaning back in my seat.

"...You're going to cause a major political incident, aren't you?"

"...Probably."

She rubbed her face. "...How hard do I have to kick him?"

"Enough to drop him," I smirked.

"Get that stupid smirk off your face, the chances of you meeting my father are astronomical."

"But there is still a chance."

"A tiny one."

I created an Illusion of bunny ears over my head. "This bunny will be ready." she elbowed me again.

"Don't get too cocky ya perv," she huffed, shoving bacon into her mouth.

"You like my meat in your mouth?"

She elbowed me again, "You're asking for it~."

"As long as it's consensual~."

This time she put me in a headlock.

I had to bribe her with chocolate to escape, Quarians are no joke.

-/-

Lyna POV

Omega was... rough, but I'm no stranger to the dark underbelly of society. You don't get to make magical equipment in a world that hates magic and be an elf without getting a little dirty. Nick on the other hand.

"NO!" he was a bit of a drama queen.

"What?" Shepard asked.

"I said NO," he huffed.

"No to what?"

"EVERYTHING!" Oh boy, he was hamming it up. I love Nick, I really do, but when he gets like this, things start getting... weird. "Are we not in the future with spaceships and laser weapons!?"

"I... guess," Shepard shrugged.

"Then what the hell is that!?" He pointed to a pile of shit in the middle of the street.

"Shit," Shepard answered nonchalantly.

"WHY!? It doesn't make any sense! You live in the future! Are toilets and public restrooms no longer made? You can't build a goddamn Space Roomba to clean up after you!?"

"Why are you taking this so seriously?" Tali asked.

"Because~, this is the future! Is it impossible to build cleaning robots?" Nick drawled.

"What, you don't have dark underbellies in your magic world?" Jenny asked.

"... Jenny, my world is a dark underbelly, Witch trials, Crazy religious organizations, Cults, Corrupted Leaders, there is even an entire country of crazy mask-wearing lunatics who believe killing each other is a fun pass time, it is not a great place, but God damn we are trying, one step at a time we make our world a little better. But here?" he waved to Omega. "You just gave the fuck up~. Shit on the street, rampant homelessness, criminals on the loose!? No." he hissed, taking a step out of the Normandy shuttle ramp and into Omega proper.

"Nicky~," I warned.

"Don't worry, I'll keep it small," he snapped his fingers summoning 4 Robo-golems, 6 Knight-golems, 8 Fembots, 12 Maid-golems, and over a hundred fairy-cleaning golems.

"This is small?" Jenny asked.

"It was either this or I use prestidigitation at full power and clean the whole station at once, but since we need to keep a low profile, this will do... for now." he waved to the station in front of him, "Clean my path." The golems jumped into action, Robo and knight-golems moved to defense positions allowing the maids and fairy-golems to get to work, as the Fembot disappeared, moving to flanking positions. Nick gave a happy clap, "alright~, let's go exploring."

We watched him skip into the station, "Tali... keep an eye on him," Shepard ordered.

"... Do I have to?"

"No, but if you don't, there's a good chance we're going to fight our way out of here."

"Aren't we already going to do that?" she teased.

"Just keep an eye on him~."

"Check it out!" Nick called out holding up a large rock, "It's part of the asteroid, this stuff is strong, why not refine it? The Nickel and Iron are pretty well balanced, you don't see this in nature very often. Let me just add a little steel and aluminum~." The rock gained a light glow before Nick's magic transformed it into a bar of metal. "Oh yeah~, it's no titanium but it's better than the regular stainless steel I use. Alright! Let's mine this place!" he earthbent a large amount of earth from a space window until it ran empty and showed the stars outside, I'm grateful for the station's mass effect fields. "Mmm, fresh out~," he put the earth into his inventory, "Come on let's go looking for more!"

"... This is what you call keeping an eye on him?" Shepard hissed.

Tali took off after him, "STOP YOU BOSH'TET!"

I better go after them.

-/-

Oh yeah, I was back.

"10 credits," I huffed.

"10! Have you lost your mind!? these is top-of-the-line omni-tools!" the Batarian hissed.

"Top of the line my ass! That shit is at least 20 years old."

"... 200."

"That one still has blood on it." I pointed to one with blood on it.

"... 100."

"Listen, I'll give you 180 for the 15 here."

"... that's a rip-off."

"It's not my fault you're trying to sell bloody equipment."

The Batarian gave a tsk, "Fine." I transfer the credits. Not the first time I bought bloody equipment, you need to clean your loot if you want to sell it for a high price. Giving the shop one last look, seeing if he had something I might use, but this was a secondhand store, usually only good for cheap broken things or lucky diamonds in the rough, there is no in-between.

I put away my purchase and walked out of the shop.

"MORE MY MINIONS! GET ME MORE!" Nick ordered the street urchins he hired. Nick was using the kids to collect old broken-down equipment that he would repair, he had no idea what half the things he repaired did but Tali seemed to.

"Yo, got you Omni-tools!" I called out passing him the Omni-tools I bought.

"Perfect!" he quickly repaired them and passed them over to Tali. "Please clean these and have Va'ko-" a young Asari girl, no older than 40, "pass them out."

We made shop around Tuhi District; it was a large commercial area with a bunch of shops and businesses. This whole place was a black market and everything was for sale, even slaves, well, used to. One of the first things Nick did walking into the market was ransack the Slave markets, killing every slaver within sight and freeing the slaves, this got the attention of some of the gangs that got protection money from the slave shops, Nick beat them to a bloody pulp.

This was the double edge blade that comes with places like this, might makes right, and Nick was mighty, when Sky and Astral got involved things got a little wild, well wilder, Sky claimed the district, which started a small gang war, well it was all the gangs versus her, Astral, and a few thousand Earth golems, they were making quite a ruckus. Nick then claimed the district was under Ferelden's protection and unleashed a second wave of a few thousand more earth golems, I'm still not sure he could legally do that.

Strangely enough, most of the people weren't really bothered that much, I guessed Gangs fought over territory all the time and chalked the Golems as fancy mechs. Since then, Nick has made it his goal to fuck with Omega's status quo, by making the district a miniature fortress.

"Sir Walters! we found one!" A group of young Quarian boys Nick cured came running up to him with a couple of Golems carrying a large machine.

Water filter

Durability 0/500

-Broken

A large list of broken objects filtered through my vision.

"Good job boys!" Nick cheered, giving them a receipt. "Talk to Legion to get your reward."

The Quarians gained an uneasy look.

"Do we, uh, have to? Can't you just give it to us?" one of them nervously asked, looking over to Legion who had a line of people waiting to get paid.

"Life is a strange ride boys, yesterday's enemy can be today's ally, you want your 40,000 credits? You got to swallow your fear," Nick teased. "Don't worry, he doesn't bite."

The boys still looked worried, but the money was too much to pass on. That sort of money can get them off Omega and somewhere a little less... lawless.

Nick immediately got to work on fixing the water filter. Once he gets it working this district wouldn't be beholden to the Doru district which controlled the water treatment facility. we already built a Co2 scrubber and oxygen producer to break away from the main ventilation system, the whole 'Vorcha turning off the only vent in Gozu district' incident didn't sit well with Nick. It was kinda strange having trees in space, but it looked nice, in fact, the whole district was something to look at, the golems were working overtime, it almost looked like the citadel, with clean floors, no rust, it even had a nice smell.

With the filter, He immediately got started working on magical water towers that would produce fresh water holding around a million gallons of water, refilling every 24 hours, Tuhi Districted housed about 400,000 people of all races, if each person used an average of about 10 gallons a day Nick would have to make at least 4 to make even, but things rarely worked that way, so he was making 6, just in case.

Unlike the ones in Denerim and Sky Valley, the Water towers were made small and magically expanded to hold the water. It didn't take long for the towers to come online.

Next, we installed the New AA guns on top of the buildings all around the district along with another two thousand earth golems to reinforce the new land gained. Sky already got a title, 'The Dragon of the North' gaining control of most of the district, most gangs just gave up when she marched into their territory hoping to survive, any that got in her way were beaten until they complied.

Nick slapped the tiny gangs together making a poor district Guard. Many of them still hated each other. Nick had to get their leaders to come together, he did that by beating the hell out of all of them and then picking them back up. Most gangs just respected power, others loyalty, and some just existed out of sheer hopelessness, no one was going to help them, so they grouped together, many of the Carta started just like that back in Denerim. So, after Nick was done wiping the floor with them, he opened a small clinic, where Ayla and Thane started healing people, with a little help from Grunt and Dagna.

People needed more than a place to sleep, they needed a place to live, a place where they could let down their guard, they needed hope. So, Nick enhanced some of the Gang leaders and had them march with Sky and Astral, they had them fight in some of the most dangerous locations in the district forcing them to work together.

They still had problems, but enough bullets can make even the bitterest of enemies into decent Allies, Jenny and Miranda showed that. Some of the gang leaders even got nicknames.

An Asari 'Jes'moo the biotic bull' a former slave. Jes was one of the people Nick saved from slavery at the beginning of his campaign, she used to be some kind of Commando but got captured at some point. She was enslaved nearly 50 years ago, her previous owner died recently, and their children were here to sell her for some quick creds, they're dead now. With nowhere to go, she joined Nick's growing District guard.

A female turian 'Clovia Dragon Talon' the old leader of the Scarlet Daggers. The Scarlet Daggers were less of a gang and more of an assassin guild, working for the highest bidder, they worked a lot like the Antivian Crows. Unlike the Black Fang, the Scarlet Daggers knew which way the wind was blowing and joined willingly.

A male Krogan 'Sagor the Fair' the old leader of the Black Fang. He was once part of the Blood Pack but broke apart after an argument with Gram which ended with the loss of his arm, which I helped with by making him a new magical prosthetic, but truly joined after Nick cured the genophage in his system. Where Gram was a ruthless tyrant who would just kill at random, Sagor was more of a Carta boss, valuing loyalty over power.

A male human 'Gentleman Joel' strangely enough, he was never part of a gang, just a freelancer who wanted a steady paycheck. Quick with wit and a pistol, he's well known for getting the job done with minimal collateral damage and trying to sleep with any pretty face he came across, man or woman.

Even a female Quarian 'Ground Shaker Rala'Fellon' she was also not part of a gang, well not on paper, Rala completed her pilgrimage years ago but decided to return to Omega, knowing that her people would need help if they wound up there. She had a rather large group of people following her due to her being the only one who helped them at the worst point in their lives.

These five rose through the ranks pretty quick, the subjugation of the district came quickly afterward.

This was going to catch some attention.

-/-

Tali POV

"Two days~, I left you alone for two days~," Shepard huffed at us. "What the hell happened!?"

"Okay, listen, things may have gotten a bit out of hand," I started.

"A BIT!?" he waved at the shining Tuhi district. Nick's golems really cleaned the place, he even made an artificial day-night cycle by creating some kind of illusionary star that would cross over the district for 12 hours every day. Nick was still making thousands of golems out of the asteroid every hour or so and having them reinforce an area. Most of the gangs have been pacified and converted into the O-force or Omega force, it was a dumb name but some of the children in the district named them, and it just stuck. Nick started outfitting them with decent armor, weapons, and uniforms, he even created a guard station out of one of the old drug dens.

It was just a wanna-be C-sec, if C-sec was more diverse and the corruption wasn't swept under the table and instead shown to the public. People still had to pay protection money, that money was sent back to HQ where it was then paid out to the people in the gang... it was a job, it was literally a job. They went to work, worked, got paid, it was a job. But I guess they didn't care because no one was complaining... much, some people were still annoyed that they still had to work, but isn't that everyone? Very few people got to work jobs they loved.

Nick was an old hat at bureaucracy, I was certain it had to be some kind of magic. I have never seen people work so well in my life, and I'm including the Migrant Fleet. Even we had problems sometimes, ships getting better treatment because of the size of their crew, captains not getting along, ships getting skipped over on repairs, that kind of stuff. It creates animosity, but not here, people almost seemed to go with it, maybe this is just something that happened on Omega, leaders die, and people just have to switch teams in order to survive. Still, it was weird to see there's so many different species laughing and working together.

Nick said it was the fact that they didn't have their governments backing them, the citadel was powerful because of its backers, entire civilizations, out here, there are no governments to fight for your rights or dictate how you live. That could be both incredibly terrifying and freeing at the same time, you either had the option to live with the people around you or die alone, most people are willing to let go of old grudges if it meant survival.

"Shepard-commander," Legion nodded walking by with a small line of children with one of Nick's Robo-Golems at the rear. "This is Shepard-Commander, he is part of the Systems Alliance of the Human Government and a Spectre of the Citadel Council." All the children booed. "Shepard-Commander is one of the most dangerous soldiers alive, fighting overwhelming odds to stop the Reapers and Heretic Geth from invading the Galaxy two years ago." The children oh-ed and awe-ed. "Shepard-Commander has recently become a Paladin in his fight against the collectors. The paladin is a holy knight, crusading in the name of good and order, and is a divine spellcaster." A little human girl raised her hand, "Yes, Peppi, you have a Question?"

"Spellcaster? Like MAGIC!? Like Mr. Nick!?" She was super excited.

"Correct, Shepard-commander was given holy energy by his god, The Maker, to help him fight the Reapers."

The children started jumping around and demanding Shepard to do a magic trick. "I feel like a zoo animal," he still cast a spell that lit up the children in a holy aura. That just made the kids cheer and frenzy harder.

"Magic is still an unknown ability in our dimension. You will be studying it in your class, Magic 101. Now, come along children, we still have to tour Omega Force HQ, before class ends." The Geth led them away.

We watched them leave, still overly excited trying to cast spells.

Shepard just looked over at me.

"Orphans," I explained, "Nick created a school for the kids in the district and staffed them with his Golems and Mechs." They weren't perfect, but they were installed with a basic teaching program that helped the kids learn to read and write Galactic basic. "They even got basic Omni-tools."

"... Two days. I left you alone for two days, and you built a government."

I shrugged, "It's not like we wanted to, we were just going to get some equipment and check the shops, But Nick found a crying child and when a slaver tried to take them, Nick kinda lost it." I pointed over to the hanging bodies with signs over their necks spelling slaver.

"He had to know that would have escalated."

"And it did, first was some minor gang that got protection money from the slavers, so Nick beat them down, somehow this made him their leader. That got another gang to take notice and attack thinking Nick was exhausted from fighting the first gang, only to get their asses kicked, absorbing them into his new gang. That quickly blew out of control, I was there John, I saw it. It took just under an hour for Nick to have control over 15 minor gangs, which in turn made some crime lords a bit jumpy, and that's when things got really bad." I showed him Nick's wanted poster.

"42 million!? What the hell?"

"When Nick found out that defeating Crime bosses raised his bounty, he went crazy! Before, where he would fight because he was attacked, this time he was looking for a fight, before we could do anything Nick was at the center of a gang war," I waved to the district. "You can see how that's going."

"So much for low profile," he sighed. "This is going to attract attention."

"Maybe that's what we need," Samara called out walking over to Shepard, she was wearing a full-body cloak, apparently the criminal she was chasing knew what she looked like. To be fair she was wearing a rather... memorable outfit. A cloaked individual actually gained less attention.

"Oh?"

"Morinth is attracted to danger by nature, Walters might tickle her fancy enough to get her to come out of hiding."

"So I'm guessing you found your criminal?" I asked.

"We know where she hunts, but the place is only opened on the last day of the week, some sort of VIP club," Shepard sighed.

"So, we have 4 more days to make a big enough splash to get her attention?" I hummed, "You know... Zeta district is right next to us, they used to be controlled by the blue suns but after your little... culling, and the plague, it's been a rather chaotic hot spot, most of the people who lived there moved to other districts causing problems throughout the station, if we're able to take control of the district, we might be able to ease the pressure on the rest of the station."

"Two districts in one week?" Shepard gave the idea a moment.

"Morinth wouldn't be able to resist," Samara added.

"Neither would Aria," Shepard hummed, "If we do this, she might see this as a threat to her power."

"Would she even care?" I asked. "Aria seems not to care as long as it doesn't affect her."

"I don't know about you but a powerful gang suddenly appearing and taking over two districts would catch anyone's attention," Shepard pointed out.

"What's stopping Nick from just killing her?" I asked.

Shepard shook his head, "For starters, The chaos it would create, don't let Aria's ego fool you, she has some serious power in the station, killing her would cause a power vacuum that would threaten to collapse the station."

"Walters would have to control far more than just two Districts to keep everything in place," Samara added.

"And that's not adding the outside factor, Omega still has plenty of Eezo, and no end of people who want it," Shepard finished.

"Then I think we should start doing some power plays of our own," Nick interrupted, walking over to us, his armor was transformed into a three-piece black suit with a red tie and trench coat. He was signing a tablet before passing it off to his little Asari assistant, causing her to run off.

"What's with the suit?" Shepard teased.

Nick sighed, "Just falling back into 'Business Nick', Telsa hammered it into my head that my workers wanted a boss who gave off some level of... Responsibility. 'Look how successful I am, my suit and tie show my wealth, my glare shows my power, and my calloused hands show my hard work', blah, blah, blah, you get the point." I'll never say it out loud but... he looked okay~. "Thank you~," he teased.

"I didn't say anything," I hissed.

"No, but the way you were undressing me with your eyes told me plenty~."

"I was putting more clothes on you," I hissed

"My oh my, you're already picking out my wardrobe? I didn't think we were at that part of our relationship~," he teased.

"Just tell us what you have in mind," I huffed. Bosh'tet, taking pleasure in making me blush.

"It's time we got the Geth involved," he answered.

"The Geth!?" Shepard and I asked at the same time.

"Not only them but also the Quarians. I've been thinking." he crossed his arms and scowled. "We have no eyes or ears in the terminus, this could be a backway for the Reapers to attack the galaxy. The Rachni stopped any kind of exploration, something I'm chalking up to Reaper interference if what you told me about the Rachni was true. The Reapers may have dozens of Mass Relays at the edge of the galaxy ready to use to blitz us."

"That's... disconcerting," Samara whispered.

"Not only that, but they also know that the Terminus is lawless, they could strike here gaining foot soldiers before attacking the rest of the galaxy."

"You're not making me feel better Nick," Shepard groaned.

"Keeps getting worse," Nick warned.

"When it Rains~," Shepard sighed.

"I thought Earth and Palaven would be the first planets hit but I was wrong. I thought the Reapers would destroy their biggest threats first, but that's not how predators hunt. They go after either the weakest, youngest, oldest, or the stragglers. With Humans, Turians, Asari, and Salarians in Alliance with other races under them, the Krogan inability to leave their planet makes them a nonthreat, and the Quarians having the ability to run at a moment's notice, I had to think of a race that was alone, stubborn, hated by everyone else, and too proud to ask for help," he pointed to the slavers hanging on a noose.

"Batarians~," Shepard sighed.

"Batarians," Nick confirmed, "Not only that, Batarians own millions of slaves, many of different races. At the moment the Reapers are focused on humans, but I doubt they'll be that picky when they get here, and I doubt they're all going to be close-quarters combatants, you've seen the Collectors, they can use guns and Biotics. What's stopping them from doing that to the other races? What if humans are meant for close combat?"

"Have you talked to Anderson about this?" Shepard asked.

"I have, he and Hackett have already come to a similar conclusion. So, we need the Geth and the Quarians to end their stalemate. The Quarians have over 50,000 ships and the Geth haven't stopped building since the Morning war, they are the strongest armies in the galaxy."

I shook my head, "Nick... it's not that simple."

"I don't care how complicated it is!" he roared, getting me to back off, I've never seen him yell like that. "Get me a meeting with the Admiralty board, or the captains, or whoever the fuck makes decisions, and tell them I'm willing to make a deal, they want magic? Super soldiers? Repairs!? I don't care, just get them to the meeting table, and warn them that I'm going to give the Geth the same deal."

"Nick... That will make you an enemy of the Quarian people!" He can't be serious! Most of the migrant fleet sees him as a hero for finding the Tablets, to do this... he'd burn every bridge he made.

"Tali... If your people ever want to see Rannoch again, to feel the earth underneath their toes, they need to stop, they have been running for the last 300 years, they can't run anymore, the reapers will blow them into space dust. They have no other options, and they know it, you know it, everybody knows it."

"Are you really willing to make a deal like that? Even if you have to cure every Quarian in the migrant fleet?" I asked.

"Whatever it takes. Telsa was right, I can't pussy foot anymore, we are getting closer and closer to reaching the Collectors, and when we destroy them, the Reapers will stop playing around, they will blitz us, Billions of people are going to die, that's not a theory, it's a fact. For all we know the Collectors are just here to distract us as they get closer. We are unprepared with our pants down; I'll be damned if I don't try something."

He was serious. "And here I thought you were just a selfish bosh'tet," I teased, but Nick kept his serious look.

"I am selfish, I care about my friends and loved ones, and I'm willing to put billions of lives in front of them to keep you safe."

His eyes were very blue. "I'll... see what I can do."

"Shepard, did you find Morinth?" Nick asked.

Shepard gave Nick the run-down of our plan, and Nick seemed to go along with it.

"It sounds good, but you can't just be sitting on your hands, Jacob still has a mission for you and the collectors aren't just going to wait. We're going to have to split up if we want to cut down on time, handle Jacob's mission while I gain Morinth's attention."

"Aeia isn't connected to a mass relay, it's going to take us 2 days to get to the planet and 2 more just to get back, we might miss our window."

"It's fine. I'll create a portal here, when you finish there, you can just portal here and have Joker meet us back here," Nick answered.

Shepard looked over to Samara, "Is that ok with you Samara? If you want, you can stay here but you're going to have to keep a low profile."

"Worry not Shepard, I've been around for a long time and Commando training doesn't just fade."

Shepard gave a nod, "Alright, will meet up in two days, 3 at max."

"Good, that will give me some time to make some calls of my own."

I didn't like that look on Nick's face.

-/-

Nick POV

New Quest: Demon Hunter

Samara's daughter, Morrith, hunts the people of Omega. Samara has asked you for your help to bring her to justice.

Gain control or destroy Tuhi and Zeta's Gangs (37/45)

Gain the approval rating of at least 80% of the people in both Districts (60%)

Defeat all crime bosses in the Zeta District (9/12)

Create 50,000 earth-Golems or higher to keep the streets safe (38,750/ 50,000)

Increase Omega force by 25,000 troops (17,483/25,000)

Reward: 40,000 XP, 50,000 Credits, New title: King Pin, 1 gold loot box, 2 gacha tokens

Time remaining: 2 days 13 hours.

Like Tuhi, Zeta was another gang-infested hellhole. I started by taking over the hallway that connected the districts and taking over the Nearest gang. I decided to follow Alexander the Great's school of war, defeat the enemy, treat them with respect, and add them to my army. This kept the hierarchy intact, just put me on top, with easier integration, keeping me from just wiping out gangs, losing potential recruits, and approving my rating, gangs aren't just about power, they're protection and safety, people don't just join gangs because it's 'cool', they join them because it's the only way to survive. So, by providing protection and a bigger group, most gangs are happy to join.

Of course, this didn't go unnoticed, Tuhi was way too close for the Crime lords of Zeta not to know what was happening a single district over, so they started grouping together, thinking numbers would make them a harder target. It didn't, not after I enhanced Zaeed, Thane, Kasumi, Garrus, and Jenny.

I learned that Biotic Points, or BP, came from a mixture of Str and Int, it was an interesting combination, they were kinda like Muscle Wizards. Chi and Magic worked great with Biotics, Magic needing Int and Wis, and Chi using Str, Vit, and Dex, which just streamlined her biotic powers. Jenny and Thane were throwing mechs and gangsters around like they were helium balloons, one of the drawbacks was the Wild magic Jenny was throwing around, she accidentally turned a few people into different genders and one salarian into a female krogan. Dagna started teaching her how to focus her power, surprisingly enough it didn't take long for her to get a good grip on her new abilities, apparently, Biotics and Magic had the same 'weight' whatever that meant. She was throwing around fireballs by the end of the day.

We carved a large chunk of Zeta within the first 24 hours, this gave O-Force space to move in and gain a foothold in the district. I made use of Gamer's body to work without sleep and create golems in mass, the asteroid Omega was made of, made great golems, and unlike before in the Deep Roads, I was 30 levels higher, and my Golem Skill was at Master Rank. So with my troops pushing forward, I stayed behind, making over 1,500 golems every hour, which I cut in half by meditating to regain my MP faster, using them to reinforce my troops as mobile defense platforms and close-quarter fighters, I'm not sure about you but being punched by a fist made of stone would put just about anyone on the ground. I would add one of my more advanced knight-golems to lead them with a Robo-golem with a mini-gun as a heavy. Behind them, a small army of Fairy cleaners and Maid-golems kept the halls clean and topickp any weapons and armor I could repair and use to enhance my growing army.

Keeping people happy wasn't hard, most people who lived in Omega were already at rock bottom, so, clean water, protection, and work were heaven-sent to them. Astral got to her old antics collecting the homeless and putting them to work under her to keep the districts clean, creating an Omega Chapter for the Cleaners. I fixed up an old, abandoned warehouse, making it their HQ with barracks and rooms for them to sleep in, along with food and a decent budget. I've seen Omega, Cleaners will make a killing here, they just need a start.

I also had more clinics open, at the moment it was only staffed by Nurse-golems with basic healing runes, and with Sereda and Ava's holy protection, it kinda became a neutral zone, it wasn't perfect, but it would give us time to at least get some competent people. Mordin told me he still had contacts in Omega, whether they were STG or just some doctors down on their luck was up in the air, but beggars can't be choosers.

With the clinics came schools, the fact Omega had any children was horrific to me, but it kinda made some kind of sense, you can't have a group of people living in such tight confined places and not expect something to happen, the dozens of Brothels didn't help. Many children were just dumped on the street, or ran away from home, or were even sold to slavers. So, I made the schools into boarding houses, making sure the children were off the streets, had a place to sleep, and 3 solid meals every day. Unsurprisingly this gave me decent approval with the districts, most of the gangsters were orphans who joined gangs to survive.

With my troops making good progress taking over the district, I used this time to play around with my Golem-creation skill in between making earth-golems. One of the golems was made of Eezo ore, this place was lousy with it, the golem cost me nearly 5,000 MP and for good reason, it could control the Eezo it was made of, teleporting around the room and changing the gravity of objects. The problem, other than the fact that it was crazy expensive to make, was that it was rather fragile with the durability of 50, the Eezo in its body made it weaker than its normal Earth brothers, so I gave them a runic shield, using them more for hit-and-runs, pairing them with my fembots for assassinations.

The fact the Eezo could be made into a golem, I began thinking about adding Biotic powers to my regular Golems. The Collectors kinda use Biotics and they were mostly machines, there had to be a way. Maybe some kind of Eezo heart or maybe the Collector was already a biotic before they were turned. I'll ask Mordin later, no doubt the idea of giving mechs the ability to use Biotics has already been thought of.

I also made five dozen, 4-foot-sized, Gundam bots out of recycled scrap and old guns, it was decent, costing me 600 MP with a durability of 300, they had jetpacks, swords, and shoulder rifles, while I always wanted to make some, the cost-to-benefit ratio never really balanced out, maybe if I used some stronger material and make it bigger it might work out, but at that point I could just make a regular Robo-golem with nearly 4 times the durability. I'll move it to a side project, something me and the engineering crew can make for fun. I had them guard the new schools and clinics.

"Nick, we've taken Zeta's docking bay," Rala called over my omni-tool.

"Perfect, I'm sending Golems to reinforce the area. Leave the golems you have there and take your team to the rendezvous point." Zeta's docking bay was a neutral zone the Gang lords in the district used to get supplies. Omega isn't really a place to grow food in, it needs constant traffic bringing in food otherwise people will start starving in less than a week. Control the food, control the people. The crime lords could get food from other districts but that would cost them an arm and a leg and make them look weak. They're going to get desperate, making a hard push for the dock leaving their backs open to attack, we'll push them out the airlock.

"Roger that, Rala out."

My makeshift Generals were doing great. I hardly knew any of them to be honest, but my observation skill told me that they were trustworthy, well at least as far as Omega went, I doubt they would go out and fight the collectors. I did tell them about the Reapers, and while they may have not really believed me, they did understand that if the Geth could create Sovereign they would just make more than just one. Geth aren't like other living species, they don't need to eat, they don't need to sleep, they can make as many of themselves as they want, and they don't need money, so what was stopping them from just making more Reapers? The answer was simple... they couldn't. How a bunch of criminals in the ass end of nowhere could easily figure that out, where the Council, with their billions and billions of credits and then near infinite number of spies couldn't was beyond me.

I started sending out my Earth-golems by the hundreds making as much noise as possible, I had to make it seem like we were reinforcing the dock, and even if they didn't fall for the trap, we'd crush them in a pincer maneuver. I had about 7 and a half more hours of golem-making to reach my goal, I might as well get started.

-/-

Shepard POV

Maker's glowing butt cheeks. There's just never an easy mission! I made the mistake of thinking that this was going to be a simple operation, Jacob would come, see the grave of his father, say his last goodbyes, and get closure, so thought bringing Ayla and Miranda would be enough, leaving the rest of the ground crew with Nick.

I really should stop assuming.

We got to Aeia within the first 2 days, we were making good time, the Hugo Gernsback, an old Alliance heavy frigate retrofitted as a colony ship, was easy to find, half of it crashed into an archipelago the size of Hawaii. The first clue something was wrong was the fact that the beacon was fixed but then purposely turned off, that was already a red flag, I feared pirates or slavers may have gotten to the crash site first, but that wasn't the case. Literally 5 minutes from the crash site we ran into a girl no older than 8... she... looked a lot like Jacob, didn't say a word, just hid behind us as a bunch of crazed men holding spears and handguns came around the corner.

I ordered them to stop but they were completely feral, throwing spears and shooting at us. They were unarmored so I just popped them on the knees, we tried talking to them, but they only spoke in barely understandable English, my translator couldn't even pick up a quarter of what they were saying. It didn't take long for us to realize these people were eating the local toxic fauna the VI at the crash site warned us about.

Ayla was able to heal some of their mental faculties, but they were still confused. She concluded that whatever they ate must still be in their system and needed to be purged. The men, having gained some of their wits back told us that Ronald Taylor, Jacob's father, and some of the staff officers controlled the island with metal men, but lately, the Officers have been disappearing. Thinking Ronald was losing power they were making a move.

I was able to convince them to call off their attack and that I was going to get help to get them off the planet. I think they understood, they nodded at least. I gave Joker a quick call to Hackett to get some transport out here and get these people back to Earth or the nearest colony that could help them, Hackett was all in, they wanted to test the Puma X-8's long-distance jumps and use the portal to get the people back to the Everest, they gave me an estimated time of about an hour, which was insane! The Normandy was the fastest ship in the galaxy going just over 30 light-years in a single day, even if they took the mass relays to get to the Rosetta Nebula, the Alpha Draconis System was still 62 light years from the Relay. They would have to be going 70-something times faster than the Normandy, and that's if I knew anything about space engines, which I don't, that's why I have Quarians.

Getting back to the matter at hand, we had the little girl to lead us back to her home. Where we were attacked by some first-generation Loki mechs. They could barely walk right, some of them didn't even have legs, just propped against some rocks pointing down the road. There were a couple of corpses lying not too far away, some were fresh, others were just bones. The mechs didn't last long; years of wear and tear made them more into scarecrows than actual threats.

The girl led us to a camp... with only women and children, most of them were completely naked. Yeah... this was like the 4th red flag. Again... a lot of the children looked like Jacob.

"Jacob... this isn't looking good," I whispered to him. The way the women looked at us made me feel... disgusting, like I was some kind of sick monster... no, they weren't looking at me. I followed their gazes to Jacob. "Okay, so this is happening."

"Excuse me?" Jacob called out causing the woman to cower away, only for seconds later to forget what happened and get along with her business.

Ayla patted Jacob on the back, "Let me handle this. May the Maker's light clear your mind's fog." a glowing aura covered most of the women around us. Like before they were frightened, but after seeing that nothing happened, they calmed down.

"Who... you are?" one of the women asked, she seemed to have trouble with her language structure.

"Sky people~," The little girl spoke up for the first time.

That opened the floodgate, they started touching and pulling at us making sure we were real, some just started crying and throwing themself at our feet.

"Home! Home! Back to the Sky! Back to the Sky!" they started chanting.

Nope. Nonononono. They dragged us over to a tent. I could hear the crying of an infant come from inside.

"HEALER! HEALER!" the child we found ran into the tent, "Sky people! Sky People!"

"Enough! Baby born, talk outside," Came another voice. A woman no older than 45 came out from the tent wearing a doctor's cloak, only a doctor's coat. She gave us a long look, "You not hunters, not from here. Sky People?"

"I, uh, I guess, I'm John Shepard, Special Tactics and Reconnaissance, and Commander of the System Alliance military. We heard your distress signal."

The healer nodded. "Leader Ron" she hissed the name, "Said you come, but you not come, not for many years, why?"

"We just got the signal less than a week ago, when we investigated, we found out someone turned off the beacon, someone didn't want to be found."

"RON~!" she hissed.

"Ron? As in Ronald Taylor?" Jacob asked.

The healer spit on the floor. "You are cursed with his face." Maker be kind, I don't know why but that was a mean insult. She reached down and patted the child, wiping away dirt and grim. "More people he said. Need more people if we want Sky People to come. So we make more people, but Sky people no come. Ron kill other men or drive them off, so we need more people, more babies, but food not safe. Many not survive. But he not care, he just make more." she looked over the tent to a large number of headstones.

"Shit," I muttered under my breath, "I... am sorry this happened to you, but we've called for rescue, we will get you out of here." She gave me a bear hug and cried into my chest, thanking me profusely. "Healer... um?"

"Tina, Healer Tina, I no remember much, but I know how cure sick."

I nodded, "Okay, healer Tina, can you tell me where Ron is."

Tina gave another hiss before pointing down a path and then up to a cliff overlooking the camp, "He hind with his metal men, he only come to make baby."

"Thank you, Healer Tina. Ayla, can you look after them?"

"Of course, Healer Tina, can you lead me to the sick?"

Tina nodded vigorously, leading Ayla toward the tent. I led the rest of the team towards the path Tina pointed to.

"Shepard," Jacob called out, "If my father did this... Please let me handle this."

I gave him a long look, before nodding, "Take lead."

-/-

Jacob POV

This was wrong, it was all wrong.

Part of me just wanted to fly over the 'battlefield', just a bunch of empty food crates, my father created, but we really didn't know where we were going, for all I knew his camp could be under some kind of camouflage or maybe there was some 'malfunctioning' AA guns. But that wasn't the real reason... who was at the end of this path? Passed all the corpses that should have been buried and busted up mechs that should have been scrapped. Who is waiting for me at the end of this path?

We had to scrap 7 more Loki mechs and incapacitate four more people, no doubt Ronald's loyal enforcers. They were half-crazed, screaming about the glory of 'leader Ron', all while Ronald was talking over some speakers, going on and on about how his crew went crazy, dressing him up like a god, how the planet did something to their minds, all this just made me sick.

Did he really think we wouldn't pass through the female camp? Did he think just because he was in the Terminus system he was outside the law? It didn't take long to reach his camp, we were slowed down by some large mech made of other recycle mechs, but it turned out it could only move its hands up and down, covered in palm leaves, with a recording of a tiger's roar. Just a scarecrow, clearly, he already killed or driven off the engineer, Tali or Lyna would have made it into a real Mech.

He was old, had a nasty matted beard down to his chest, and was balding. He was wearing a raggedy patched-up flight uniform.

"You're here, thank-"

I headbutted him, dropping him. I probably shouldn't have done that, it was going to be annoying to hear him talk through his broken nose, but just this once, I'll push through it. Shepard didn't even blink, just walked past the moaning man on the floor and looked out to the decent view Ronald's camp had of the coast and the camp below us.

"FUCK!?" he cried, holding on to his broken face. "WHY DID YOU DO THAT?"

Shepard sighed, still looking out to the camp below, "Names Commander Shepard of the System Alliance and the Council's special tactics in reconnaissance." He nodded to me, "I'm sure you know my Weapons Chief... Jacob Taylor."

Ronald froze at my name, "Jacob? No, not Jacob."

"Why not me!? Is it wrong for me to visit my extended family? I'll admit, not getting an invitation to the family reunion, is making me a bit upset, but I'm sure we can work things out!" Grabbed and threw him to his feet.

"NO! Listen! It isn't like that. The crash, the death of the captain, the responsibility! It was too much, we needed to fix the beacon, so the crew officers had priority, people didn't like that, they knew what the plants would do, they mutinied. We had to take a hard line."

"But you got the beacon working over 8 years ago, I'm a reasonable man Ron, but that's way too long. What happened?" Shepard hissed looking back to the path we came up. He raised his hand causing the hunter that followed behind us to slow. They looked ready to rush us. "I'm guessing some of the women in the camp were married?"

"Things got... easy. As the mental decay set in, we made them comfortable, some were even happy. Ignorance is bliss, but that led to trouble, if not for us they would have lit themself on fire, I had to put some of them out myself! It took about a month before the decay set in, the men got angry at the smallest things, we had to establish dominance! The women... they were just so... submissive. It... just felt normal."

"You make me sick," I hissed, "Ten years, you raped your crew, for ten years! Up here playing fucking king!? Like a horned-up juvenile with no self-control!?"

He couldn't even look at me. "I don't know when it went wrong-"

"I DO!" I lifted him by the collar, "It went wrong when someone thought you were worth a damn! When you got on that ship! when you were put in charge! When you started raping your innocent crew! When you started trading people like cards! When you killed your crew! THERE WERE A MILLION MOMENTS! YOU JUST DIDN'T WANT TO SEE THEM!" I threw him to the floor. "You're just a fucking coward. Now that you're running out of food, with the hunters closing in, with your mechs falling apart... you couldn't run anymore, so you threw this last Hail Mary, hoping someone would come and save you from your own failures."

"I was good to them," he barked.

"YOU USED THEM!" I kicked him in the ribs. "You were never good to anyone, I had this whole make-believe fantasy about you, that you were this great Space Captain, off to help people. I grew out of that after I found mom crying in the kitchen alone. You're just a goddamn con man who runs from the problems he creates."

"What do you want to do with him?" Shepard asked.

"...I wanna throw him over the cliff, I wanna shoot him between his eyes and let the worms eat him, I wanna let the hunters get their hands on him, but I don't want them to sully their hands with his filthy blood. But most of all, I wanted him to be a good person."

Shepard patted me on the back, "Come on, we need to get the hunters and get people ready for takeoff." he walked over to Ron and cuffed him to the railing, as the tell-tell sound of a spaceship came over the Sky's as the Puma flew over us, "God damn, that is one fast ship. Come on, the acting captain can wait for his crew to get off the planet first before he gets fitted for a new orange jumpsuit."

"W-wait! Don't leave me! Please!"

I left that... thing, behind... I had a galaxy to save.

-/-

Shepard POV

"Vega, Cortez," I called out to the parked ship.

"Commander," they saluted as the shuttle door opened.

"At ease. Is the portal working?"

"It is commander," Hackett called out walking down the ramp.

"Admiral!?" I gave a sloppy salute. "What are you doing here?"

"At ease commander, I'm only here to give you this." He passed me a badge and a sheet of real paper.

"Sir?" I gave the badge a look over as Vega started looking people over and getting them ready for transport. The paper was a list of demands.

"Walters gave us a call, he's trying to make peace between the Geth and Quarians, the Alliance Systems want to be there. The Geth have been an unknown for over 300 years, and if what he told us about the Heretic Geth is true, we don't know anything about the true Geth. If we can we want peace with the True Geth and permission to enter Geth space to look for Heretic Geth."

"That's... a tall order. From what Legion told me about the True Geth, they like their space and are kinda... Suspicious of council races."

"Yes, making their very existence a crime doesn't really make any friends, but nearly killing all the Quarians doesn't leave a good impression," Hackett hummed.

"...You don't know?" I asked. He didn't say anything just raised his eyebrow, "Nick showed us visions that the Geth may have not killed all the Quarians in Geth space. Legion is a bit tight-lipped but constantly denying to answer isn't helping their case."

"Can you confirm this?"

"Maybe, Nick believes the Geth are acting as overbearing protectors to the Quarian people, fearing that the Council would kill them for breaking their laws if they found out about them, and I can't really blame them."

"And the way the council treats the Migrant fleet, the Krogans, the Rachni, even humanity, probably isn't showing them in a good light," he answered. "This doesn't change that we want to be at that meeting, so, congratulations commander, you've been promoted to... ambassador."

"Does that come with a pay raise?" I teased.

"You get some Tax breaks."

"I'll take it." I looked over some of the demands the Alliance wanted, some were straight-up ridiculous. "Uh, Admiral..."

"I know," he huffed, "Brass wants you to... Negotiate."

"How the hell am I going to negotiate 'complete access to Geth space'? What? do they also want blowjobs every time they walk into their offices. They're insane!? Look at this one, 'all information on their evolution'!? They might as well ask for an off switch to all the Geth."

"I understand Commander, I read the demands, ignore them, some politicians are... complete idiots, what we truly want is some kind of cooperation in hunting the final remains of the Heretic Geth in the Attican Traverse, even if that means just coloring the color of their ship. I don't care, we just want visible proof that they're willing to talk."

"Mmm, I think I could do that."

"Good to hear."

"Admiral, now that I have you here, how is the Hyperspace engine treating you? Making a 62-light-year journey in about an hour is... insane."

Hackett gave a nod. "The engine has the boys in R and D losing their minds. The hyperspace matter alone has stumped them, there are other things, like the shield it creates to protect the ship while in Hyperspace, the Cronau radiation that comes with exiting Hyperspace, and even the stasis field the engine provides. The boys have read Nick's book on what and how a Hyperdrive engine works cover to cover dozens of times, but it still has them stumped, watching it in action still didn't explain how it worked, what Hyperspace is, or how the safety mechanisms know when the ship gets close to a planet's gravity well. They believe the magic Nick infused into the Ship may be affecting the engine."

"Sounds complicated."

"In the two weeks we had this ship, there's already been 6 breakdowns and 14 dissertations, and that's just about the engine, the magic is something else entirely. They've chalked it up to some kind of exotic energy that is used by 'Mages' by filtering it through their bodies, Runes are just that energy trapped in an object, like radiation after a dirty bomb, just not as dangerous. They've tried making their own runes and having Catherine infuse magic into it."

"That's a bad idea! Nick made it very clear that making Runes was like playing with a nuke."

Hackett sighed, "Yes, I remember Nickolas's 2-hour lecture and test, but you know scientists. Luckily no one died just burned off some eyebrows."

"You think they learned their lesson?"

"No, but I can't blame them too harshly, we don't know exactly how long we'll have the Puma X-8. They think that if we can find coaxium in our dimension, or at least find a way to replicate it, we would no longer be reliant solely on Eezo. They calculated that the Puma could fly from one side of the galaxy to the other in less than a week."

"A WEEK!?"

He nodded, "We've been testing it within Alliance space checking stars and planets 5000 lightyears of any relay. We've found 3 habitable worlds so far."

"5,000 lightyears? That's like... 5 months of constant travel."

"All done within a day. We have been getting calls from every Minor and Major astrologist with the telescope asking us to search some star or another. We've been using old NASA star charts to plot our course. Alec is calling me every other hour demanding a Hyperdrive for the Andromeda initiative, something about not waiting for Relays to be built."

"Being friends with Nick tends to be a double-edged blade. He has the coolest toys, but everybody wants the toys," I sighed. "Can you send the data the Puma has gathered and pass it on to EDI, I want to install a hyperdrive on the Normandy, but EDI won't budge until she has irrefutable proof that everything's gonna be okay, I'll try and get Nick to extend your time with the Puma."

"Much appreciated commander, Robert will send the data after he's finished here." He gave me a salute, "God's speed Commander."

I saluted back, "Thank you, sir."

Giving our final goodbyes to the Puma crew we headed back to the Normandy. Jacob was quiet, clearly, Aeia wasn't the closure he thought he was going to get, but it did seem to focus him on what was coming up next.

"Ayla, Is the portal ready for use?" I asked as the Normandy jumped into FTL.

Ayla nodded, "Yes, it was one of the first things Nick set up. It's connected to the Pit Stop."

"Pit Stop?" Miranda asked.

"It's the dimension Nick discovered; it is a realm between realms. It's kinda weird but its very existence makes it easy for us to open new portals to other dimensions, how do you think we got here?" she teased leading us into her room. I've only ever been here once, when Nick was giving me the tour. It was still weird walking into a homey log cabin in the middle of space, but it was nice, there were new krogan tapestries they probably got from Tuchanka, the krogan statue he got from Hock's vault, paintings from Nassana's train, the guitar we used for our music lessons, a picture of a pissed off Miranda and smirking Orianna who was wearing her crown and cape, with a good amount of the Ground crew photo bombing them, just small mementos from our journey so far.

Walking through the portal wasn't as fantastical as I thought it was going to be. Kinda thought I was going to see eternity or jump through the 4th dimension or something equally crazy. Nope, it was walking through a door, at least the Pit Stop was decorated to the tens. It was like their room in the Normandy, ramped up to the millions. Armor sets lined the walls, rugs covered the floors, low relief sculptures of monsters and heroes depicted stories on the walls and ceilings, colorful banners from unknown Kingdoms hung in the air by magic, Pictures of family and friends were everywhere, and of course Portals leading to worlds unknown, probably with rules of their own that would warp my sense of self.

This place was the Wizard Tower I always wanted as a child.

"Over here!" Ayla called out, snapping me and the others out of our awe. She was standing next to a portal with the mathematical symbol for Omega hanging over the portal.

"When did you go see Elcor Hamlet with Mordin?" Jacob asked pointing to a picture with Ayla, Thane, Kolyat, Natia, and Mordin standing next to an Elcor in a doublet.

Ayla shrugged, "When you guys were running around looking for the Fenris mech. Thane wanted to spend time with his son, Mordin knew the stage director and got us some tickets. It was a good show."

"I heard good things," Miranda drawled, "Can we go now. The longer we stay here the more I feel like something is watching me."

"That's because something is. The armors, statues, even some of the Paintings are Golems." I looked over to a painting of an Asari Nick stole, it gave me a wink and returned to normal, "but as long as you don't take anything... or leave anything," she looked at Miranda, "They won't attack. Nick kinda made the Pit Stop into a mini sanctuary, a place away from all the dangers and stress of the multiverse." She pointed to some stairs leading up to the second floor. "Now come on. We left Nick at a construction site with an unlimited budget and free reign to gain as much attention as possible."

"Is that bad?" I asked.

"There's a good chance half of Omega is filled with Castles."

"Right~, let's move people."

Hopefully, Nick hasn't gone crazy.

-/-

"So~, Nick went a little crazy~," Tali started. She was dressed like a 1940s gangster, hat and all.

That was an understatement, walking out of Nick's safe house we came face to face with Fantasy Omega. There was farmland with wheat being tended to by different races, with some kind of illusion of the daytime sky overhead, Nick must have upgraded his first design. Walking through the Tuhi district, I noticed the clean shops, Golems every 30 feet, everything was well lit, and there was the smell of... nothing, which for Omega was insane. People walked the streets without looking ready to start shooting, children laughed and ran down the street to what looked like a... park? Fairy cleaners ran around cleaning up scraps and helping people make repairs to older buildings.

"Where the hell are we?" Miranda asked.

Tali sighed, "Like I said, we kinda lost control of Nick about 2 days in. We just took control of Zeta's dock and had the Crime lords in the district by the throat, only for a Gang from the Gozu District to launch a surprise attack on Zeta trying to gain a foothold in the district. Nick took offense to that. Long story short we now control 80% of Gozu."

I facepalmed, "Maker~, we agreed on one district!?"

"We got Zeta under control! We just didn't stop at Zeta." she shyly answered, "If it means anything, Gozu was pretty much abandoned after the whole Plague incident."

"At least tell me he's stopping at Gozu." I huffed.

"Have you called Jak?" Ayla asked. "She usually has a handle on him."

"She's helping Garrus lead Grunt's rough riders."

"Grunt's Rough Riders?" I asked.

Tali just shook her head, "It's just the rest of the ground crew. They got bored waiting for you and joined Nick's 'remodeling' adventure."

"What about Dagna? She's next on the list of people who tend to know where he might be," Ayla asked.

"She's with Lyna adding runes to the districts," Tali answered.

"Okay~, so Nick is missing and the only people who might know where he is, lost him," Miranda summarized.

"Don't be so dramatic, I'll just use the tracker he placed on his armor," Ayla huffed, checking her omni-tool.

"He put a tracker on his armor?" Jacob asked.

"Yeah, we all have one, Nick puts them on all his armor, you never know when someone might be separated from the rest of the crew. Horror movie rules man~," Ayla teased. "Mmm, he's... on the other side of omega? 300 feet off the floor?"

"Right~, Nick made the district a little bigger," Tali answered.

"How much bigger?"

-/-

Nick POV

Alright, just a few more Runes, and add a little Mana to start the reaction, and... the artificial sun is working.

Congratulations! You have created a Master level rune matrix!

Grandmaster Rank requirements:

Grandmaster ranked Projects: 0/1

Master rank Projects: 13/25

Expert rank Projects: 39/50

Journeyman rank Projects: 75/75

Intermediate rank projects: 100/100

Novice Rank Projects: 200/200

Initiate Rank Project: 500/500

Perfect.

In order for me to gain a Grandmaster rank in anything I need to complete certain requirements. I need to move over a million tons of earth, or about 150,000 fully grown African elephants worth, to reach Grandmaster in Earthbending. Healing hands requires me to save 50 people from the brink of death, Fisticuffs needs me to make my own fighting style and teach 100 people, Cooking needs me to feed a hundred thousand people in one sitting, and Golem crafting needs me to create a Warforge.

"NICK!?" Ayla called out below me.

"Honey~!" I called back, using Feather fall I gently floated down to her. I lifted her off the ground and twirled her. I loved Ayla, but more importantly, I liked Ayla. I always thought 'Like' was just as important as love, love is a hot passionate emotion that burns bright, but you can't live on love, it's too draining, and the body just can't keep up, it's like living on hatred, it's not healthy. To 'like' someone though~, that's different. It's a milder form of love that can go the distance, just standing around them makes you happy, it makes arguments silly, and silly conversations meaningful.

I heard her giggling, "Why are we dancing~?" We were swaying back and forth to invisible music.

"I don't know~, but I blame you. Every time I see you, I just want to dance, to hold you close, to feel your hips~. We have a date coming up, how about we go dancing~?" I whispered.

She leaned onto me, "And where would we go?"

"I don't know, but I do know that I want to hold you close."

She pulled me into a kiss, "You're such a dork~," she giggled as we swayed. It sounded like the summer wind chimes my mother bought for the front porch when I was a child. After what happened in Pragia it eased my soul.

"Ahem~." I looked over, finding an unimpressed Miranda, annoyed Shepard, and-

"Oh damn~," I gently let go of Ayla and brought Jacob into a brotherly hug.

"Uh, Nick?" Jacob asked.

"Yeah, bud?"

"Why are you hugging me?"

"... Dude... you look like you just shot your dog. I can only imagine something went horribly wrong. Shepard's too 'manly' to notice, and Miranda is as warm as an icicle, so you don't want her to touch you, and the fact that you're wearing a scarf means Ayla's already tried cheering you up, but it didn't work. My family was never shy about showing care, we men aren't unfeeling machines, we also need love, to know we're cared for."

He gave me a pat on the back, getting me to release him, "Thanks."

I nodded, "I'm guessing things didn't go the way you were planning."

He rubbed his face "... No, I'll... tell you about it later, but maybe you want to explain what happened here in the meantime."

"HAHA! You like it!? This place was way too cramped for my taste and nutrient paste tastes like sadness, so I made it a little bigger and created some farmland. There's even a ranch!"

"Yes, we saw the Cows. Why were they so big?" Jacob asked.

"I'm not sure, they're from another dimension, I call them Dragon Cows," I answered.

"Can you even eat them?" Miranda asked.

I shrugged, "For Levo base species, I guess. Krogans seem to like them, they've pretty much taken over raising them." I gave them all cowboy hats, they were perfect.

"I thought you didn't like shit? Cows shit, a lot," Miranda pointed out.

"Yes, but they can't help it, they're cows. Why do you think I've created these guys?" I pointed to my Fairy Golems, running around cleaning the floors.

"All this is very fascinating, but we are on a mission," Shepard huffed. "Nick, why did you take over Gozu?"

"I didn't, well at least I didn't try to. Some gang called The Talons~, attacked just as I was going to take over the Zeta district, when we beat them back, we noticed that most of Gozu was abandoned due to the plague, so we sort of just... moved in."

"But we already cured that," Shepard hummed.

I shook my head, "Doesn't matter, people are still scared that it might have lingered, some Gangs tried taking over the area but since there weren't that many people living there, it wasn't very profitable, so they tried their luck with Zeta... it didn't work out for them."

Shepard sighed, "At least tell me you've gained enough of a reputation to attract Morinth."

Quest: Demon Hunter

Samara's daughter, Morrith, hunts the people of Omega. Samara has asked you for your help to bring her to justice.

Gain control or destroy Tuhi and Zeta's Gangs (45/45) -Complete

Gain the approval or fear rating of at least 60% of the people in both Districts (75% approval) - Complete

Defeat all crime bosses in the Zeta District (12/12) -Complete

Create 50,000 earth-Golems or higher to keep the streets safe (63,234/ 50,000) - Complete

Increase the Omega force by 25,000 troops (34,342/25,000) - Complete

New

The Talons are trying to take over the Zeta district, stop them – complete

Take control of the Gozu District

Take control of Gozu's docks – Complete

Gangs destroyed or absorbed (3/5)

District approval or fear rating of at least 60% (80% approval) - Complete

Create 10,000 Earth-Golems or greater to keep Gozu safe (7,032/10,000)

New Reward: 50,000 XP, 70,000 Credits, New title: King Pin, 1 gold loot box, 4 gacha tokens

Time remaining: 1 day 16 hours.

I nodded at my progress, "I think I'm decently well known, at least in the districts, I haven't really explored the rest of Omega."

"You are," Tali called out. "People are calling you Merlin."

"Merlin? You can't just name me after another Wizard! That is some lazy name-giving," I huffed.

"It was either Merlin or Outworlder."

"What the Hell!? Outworlder sounds way cooler!"

Tali smirked at me, "I know."

"GASP! You gave me a dorky nickname!?"

"It's not my fault you tend to wander off, ignoring rumors and building impossible structures. Someone had to spread your name~, why? Don't you like it?" she asked, acting like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.

"You do understand that I'll get you back for this, right?" I threatened

"Oh~, I'm shaking in my new crocodile leather boots," She teased, shaking her boots in my face.

"When did you get so sassy?" I huffed.

Tali shrugged, "It's Omega, you have to be mean, or you'll be eaten alive,"

"I kinda like it," Ayla spoke up.

"See what you've done, corrupting the innocent, you've been hanging out with Dagna too much," I huffed.

"Focus~," Shepard ordered, "Do you have Morinth attention?"

I snapped my finger at him, "I can do you one better. I've had Legion rip into Omega's cyber security, it was super easy, mostly because Omega didn't have one, and try and find Morinth. It didn't take long for us to find her, mostly because she was living the good life. Fancy apartment in Doru district, fresh food from the markets, high-end drugs, partying in Omega's VIP dance club, she's not subtle, meaning she's had this hideout for some time, probably with dozens of escape routes."

"Can you track her if she gets away?"

"I'm not sure, Legion found over 50 aliases leading back to her, with thousands of stocks in different companies throughout the galaxy, and that's what we can find, if she escapes, she'll go to ground, and if we lose her she can disappear for a century, maybe longer, who knows how much liquid capital she has."

Shepard tsked. "Has Samara given you the debriefing on her?"

"Yeah, Club opens up in two days, I already had Tali get me, you, and Sky on the list, password: flapjacks. As you can tell I got Tali to subtly spread my name throughout Omega, making it clear that we are going to the club, Kasumi, Thane, and Nat are going ahead of us to scoop out the area and give us backup if she picks one of us, the rest of us will be coming in with Samara far behind."

Shepard gave a nod, "Tali, I want you and Legion to be with them. No doubt Morinth has some sort of security system to alert her about new people in her block." Tali gave a nod. "Alright, we got a day and a half, make sure you have your dance shoes ready."

"... You can dance?"

"No lady can resist the Shepard Shuffle. My father used it on my mother and here I am."

"Your mother was also a mafia boss," I pointed out.

"And she fell in love with my dad. Point proven."

"That circumstantial evidence at best," I huffed.

"Ashly loved my dancing."

Tali shook her head, "She was laughing at you, not with you."

"Oh, what do you guys know about dancing~," Shepard huffed and walked away.

"I know it doesn't involve nearly punching out a Krogan~," Tali laughed following after him, with Miranda close behind.

"So... what are you doing out here?" Jacob asked.

I smirked at him, "I'm happy you asked. You have your guns, right? I feel like you need to work out some aggression." I led him and Ayla down the main hall toward Gozu.

-/-

I looked myself over in the living room mirror in my new safe house in Omega. The ladies sat around me giving me their approval.

"You look like a shady good-for-nothing smuggler~," Jak teased dusting off my armor, which was currently looking like Han Solo's iconic smuggler look.

"And yet you keep me around?"

"Well, I need someone to pick up my dirty laundry and cook my meals," She teased.

"That's a good story, but I think you can't bear to let a gorgeous man like me out of your sight~."

"I don't know where you get your delusions."

Dagna giggled at our acting.

"Laugh it up Tiny~, but you didn't see us alone in the library I built last night. She did things to me that I can't say out loud, not even in Omega~," I huffed.

"Ha! Why you stuck up, half-witted, scruffy-looking, Druffalo-herder!" Jak huffed.

"GASP! Who's scruffy looking?" I played with my hair, making sure it was smooth. "If the way you touch me means anything, I must be pretty close to the mark, huh Ayla?"

Jak pinched my behind, "Well I guess you don't know everything about women yet~," she teased giving Ayla a deep kiss, before taking a seat next to her.

Ayla just gave me a smirk and leaned back, kicking her feet up on the ottoman that once belonged to the Queen of England, if Hock's little plaque was telling the truth.

"I don't know why you're so cocky, Luke was a space virgin," I huffed.

"That just makes me better than Luke~," Ayla teased.

"Blasphemy, in my own home~? What kind of evil have I invited into my life?" I joked.

"IT IS TIME!" Sky called out, walking out of the vault wearing parts of samurai armor, mostly just the chest piece and shoulder guards, that were doing very little to cover her body.

"...Wow~," I muttered.

Sky gave a smug huff and put on an Oni mask; it was a bit much but Morinth was a history nut so it might catch her attention.

"Alright~," Nat huffed, patting my chest. "Kasumi and I will be close by," she comforted.

"Thank you," I grabbed and kissed her hands. "I'll be in your care."

She nodded, "I'll take good care of you~." She pulled me into a kiss and walked out to meet up with Kasumi and Thane.

"Ready Sky?" I asked.

"Yes!" She let go of a thoroughly smooched Lyna and Ava and readjusted her mask. The sisters had to sit down, their legs shaking like newborn fawns.

"Wish us luck~," I waved goodbye escorting Sky out of the room, finding Shepard, Tali, Legion, and Samara ready for us.

"Sky... what are you wearing?" Tali asked.

Sky looked at her outfit. "History. My prey enjoys the pleasure of the past, while she is distracted, I will kill her."

"Sky brings up a good point, we can just kill her if we get the chance, right?" I asked. "Or is this personal?"

Samara shook her head, "No. She may be my daughter, but if you have the chance, dispose of her. Make sure you have proof of the death."

Cold, but I kind of get it, she's been hunting Morinth for nearly 400 years, who knows how many people she's killed.

"We'll try and keep the collateral damage to a minimum, but from what you told us about Morinth, things might get ugly," I pointed out.

Samara nodded, "I understand, and thank you for helping."

"Alright," Shepard gained our attention, "Natia, Thane, and Kasumi have already moved out, we'll give them a bit of time to get into position, in the meantime we should go over what we know about Morinth and her likes."

-/-

I've never been much of a clubgoer, never liked the loud music, the drugs, or the drunk assholes. I've been to parties, kinda had to, being a noble and all, but those were always more political get-togethers. Getting into the VIP section of the club came with very little fan fair, apparently everyone here was a bunch of self-absorbed high rollers, powerful warlords, or friends of Aria, so they didn't care about us, thinking they were the best thing since sliced bread.

We entered separately, not wanting to look like a crew, Morinth was more likely to attack one person thinking she had the upper hand.

It was time to get to work.

Quest: Demon Hunter

Samara's daughter, Morrith, hunts the people of Omega. Samara has asked you for your help to bring her to justice.

New: get Morinth's attention

Get 60% of the Club's approval or respect (25%)

Mmm~, it looks like just getting in got me some respect or at least they knew me. Let's get some easy points. I snapped my fingers getting my Smugglers outfit to slowly morph into a pure white three-piece suit. Walking over to the bar I smoothly fading past the crowd, I sat down next to a krogan nursing a glass of alcohol.

"Human," The Krogan hissed.

"Krogan," I smirked back.

Krogan Warlord

Chaash 'Patriarch' Weyak

Age: 1,543

Lvl: 55

HP: 1,350/1,350

CP: 3/3

Ailments:

Genophage (1,000MP)

The Patriarch is the krogan adviser, "trophy" of Aria T'Loak, and the former ruler of Omega.

Patriarch claims to have been around since during the Krogan Rebellions. According to the story he tells the Asari Jinn, he remembers the hordes at their peak strength and numbers, and younglings in breeding pools picking up their first weapons to murder their weaker siblings. Asked if he's really that old, Patriarch asserts it wouldn't have been an interesting story if he wasn't.

He was the ruling crime lord of the Omega space station, having come to power by killing the turian who controlled the station before him. When Aria arrived at Omega, the Patriarch hired her to work for him as an exotic dancer, oblivious to her ambition. Aria quickly climbed through the ranks, becoming one of the Patriarch's most trusted lieutenants, and you know where that ended.

He finds you unimpressive.

"Aren't you a little too young to drink?" He huffed.

"Aren't you a little too old not to be in a retirement home?" I joked.

He tsked, "No respect for your elders. That's the problem with you pups."

"Don't growl at me you old war hound," I summoned a bottle of Maraas-Lok, getting his attention, and apparently the bartender's.

"Hey, no outside drinks," the bartender growled.

I transferred a hundred thousand credits to the register, causing the bartender to gawk. "you're doing your job, I respect that. Can you make sure everyone here gets a drink, on me?" I transferred another ten thousand, "To the staff. They're gonna be very busy giving out drinks, and ignoring me," I smiled.

"Never seen you in my life," the bartender walked away.

"Wanna drink?" I asked, passing Patriarch the bottle.

"You're that weirdo from the lower districts," the krogan hummed, taking a sniff of the bottle.

"People call me-"

"Merlin, yeah, I heard." he took a swig of the alcohol, missing my annoyed face. He gave a grunt, "This is some good shit."

"Maraas-Lok, Qunari in origin, when you want to put some chest on your chest," I teased. "I'm 90% positive the species doesn't have taste buds, or at least burned them off," I joked, summoning a bottle of Quarian beer, I needed to be sober for this mission and this stuff was flavored water.

"It has a nice kick to it. Mined if I keep it?" The way he held the bottle told me I would have to pry it from his cold dead fingers.

I waved away his concerns, "Be my guest, Krogan are the only people I know that can drink it without dropping after a single sip."

"You drank with Krogan?"

"On Tuchanka, one of my Krantt needed me to help him with his Rite of Passage."

This got some people's attention. "Oh?" the elder Krogan questioned. "What Clan?"

"Urdnot. It was going pretty well-"

"And then the Thresher Maw attacked," Patriarch interrupted.

"Oh, you know about that?" I asked. I didn't know that info had gotten off planet, but I shouldn't be too surprised, they had space internet.

"HA! Who doesn't? Ever since that punk, Wrex, regained control of Urdnot and expanded his territory, people have been keeping an eye on him..." He gave me a hard look, "There are rumors, that he's suddenly found a cure to the Genophage... almost like magic~. Clans are running over each other to get on his good side."

I took a sip of my drink. "I can only imagine the council's faces at hearing those rumors," I smirked.

He matched my grin, "I'm sure they shit themselves with the highest of smugness!" he laughed. "I'm guessing Tuchanka treated you well?"

"She did throw The Mother of All Thresher Maws at me, but I'm pretty sure that means she likes me. Most of the women in my life tend to punch first and kiss later. At least the other Krogans think so, but that's not what made my trip to the DMZ."

"Oh?"

I gave a smirk and pulled up a picture on my omni-tool. It was a drawings of Gorda standing on top of me, her brothers, and a bunch of Thresher Maws, holding my bloody heart. "Nice, right?"

"A picture of a little krogan girl ripping out your heart?" he shrugged, "Could use some shading."

I shook my head, "Nah man~, it's not the picture, it's the fact that it is a picture! This is real Krogan art! Made for me as a threat! Can you imagine~. The first krogan art in over a thousand, and I'm in it!? I'm pretty sure this is the highest honor I have ever been given~."

Patriarch gave the picture a long look, letting it sink in, before smirking. "You're a weird human."

"Thanks." I felt my Intuition skill buzz up my spine, turning I found a couple of Krogan marching over to us. "Friends of yours?" Patriarch gave a growl at the three krogan walking up to us. "I'll take that as a no," I took a step forward blocking them from getting face-to-face with the old Krogan. "Do you have a problem, runts?" I growled, letting out some intimidation.

The krogans froze for a second, before growling, "Get out of the way human, before-"

"Before what!?" I got right into the krogans face, "I'll give you this, you Pyjak-loving-milk-drinkers, you have a quad just walking up here bold as brass. But you just stepped up to my Krantt like you thought you were something? News flash, you're not. So let me give you some advice. Walk away."

"Who-" I didn't let him finish.

Haki + minimum STR + backstab + Fisticuffs = 534 points of bludgeoning damage! Your blow has broken Kharri's forehead crest +25% to damage! You have dealt 668 points of bludgeoning Damage.

My headbutt laid him out flat. I wiped the krogan's blood from my forehead, showing my pristine skin. "What about you boys? You wanna be stupid today? Maybe teach you how to respect your elders?" they reached down to grab Kharri, "Not so fast!" They looked at us, and I looked over at Patriarch. The old krogan fell back into his warlord role, giving the young krogan a death glare before he waved them away. "YOU HEARD THE MAN! GET!" I hissed them away, getting them to run carrying their friend away.

I walked back to the bar and took a sip of my alcohol and sat there in silence before Patriarch started chuckling lowly, getting me to giggle, breaking into full-blown laughter moments later.

"DID YOU SEE THE LOOK ON THEIR FACES!?" Patriarch laughed.

"I'm pretty sure one of them pissed themselves!" I laughed.

"AH~, that was some good shit, I feel 500 years younger! You're not bad, Human."

"Nick Walters~." I offered my hand.

"Chaash Weyak, but people call me Patriarch." we shook.

We were interrupted as Shepard walked into the room. Everyone froze. It was as if Death walked into the party. Shepard just waved his hand showing he wasn't here for anyone and everything when back to normal.

Damn, I forgot who Shepard was for a moment. Man has a crazy amount of Charisma, pretty much everyone in the Galaxy knew him, well... at least in this room. Only the stupidest criminal disregarded the man who had been ripping apart the Collectors in their own backyard.

Shepard didn't waste a moment, walking into the room like he owned the place, slapping around a turian that was getting a little too handsy with a dancer, doing the infamous Shepard Shuffle, getting a group of women to dance around him, before he nonchalantly danced his way out of the group and over to the bar, somehow taking the Bartender into giving everyone a free drink. Who the hell is this guy?

If Shepard gained everyone's attention, Sky demanded it. During our time here Sky was nothing short of a warlord, her name was whispered in fear by street thugs and crime lords alike. Unlike Shepard who removes problems that get in front of him, Sky tends to hunt down anyone who might cause some problems, no matter the size.

Sky was kind of a late Hail Mary move, Morinth was attracted to danger and Sky fit that description to a 'T'. She split the crowd of people like the Red Sea, everyone giving her space, some following her like love-struck fools. She didn't say anything, just walked over to an empty chair, it didn't take long before there was a line of slack-jawed yokels trying to get her attention with drinks and conversation, she was breaking hearts left and right.

My approval rate was at 59%, the drinks and helping Patriarch gave me a boost to my reputation, but I was just short. I needed just one more thing to push me over the top.

"Excuse me?" I turned to find a young human woman with a mic to my face.

"Yes~?"

"Merlin, right? Hello, my name is Moirall and I'm making a documentary on the gangs of Omega, I'm hoping to talk with you."

"Please don't call me that~," I sighed, "Names Nick Walters, Dimensional traveler, Mage, and Crime lord... apparently, how may I be of service?"

She blinked at me, "Uh, What?"

"You know Ms. Moirall, you're the first Reporter to have ever come to me for an interview~," I teased, summoning a table and chairs straight out of the medieval age.

"Whoa~," She gawked.

"It's probably my fault, I usually don't stick around in one place long enough for people to track me down." I took a seat, gesturing to the chair across from me.

"You're really going to give her an interview?" Patriarch huffed.

"Patriarch, Patriarch, Patriarch~," I tsked, "People are naturally curious, they want to know things, and let's face it, how many reporters are you going to meet in a VIP night club in the seediest station in the Galaxy? She has a major quad, she's earned some questions, whether the answers are true is up to me."

Patriarch gave the reporter another look-over, before shrugging and returning to his drink.

I turned to the woman, "So, Ms. Moirall, you got three questions." I summoned a perfectly prepared steak and potatoes and slid them over to her.

"I... uh."

I smiled at her, "You seem like the type of woman who throws herself to her work and forgets to eat."

"How do I know this isn't poisoned?"

I quirked an eyebrow at her, before passing over the steak to Patriarch, who didn't hesitate to dig in. "Damn~, if it's poisoned, it's the most delicious poison I've ever eaten~. What are these?" he pointed to the potatoes.

"Potatoes," I answered. "I'm happy you like them~, I helped plant a few on tuchanka, with any luck the humble potato will be a cornerstone to the krogan diet."

"It's damn good, almost wants me to go back home and see them grow."

"Don't worry, I have some growing in the Tuhi District, with the holy soil Omega-force created, they should be ready to harvest in 2-3 weeks."

"Holy soil?" Moirall asked.

I sadly nodded at her, "The gods are very real Ms. Moirall. Not 2 months ago, I met the Krogan God Protector of Tuchanka," I waved my hand creating an illusion of Vaul the Protector in all his holy galactic glory sitting in his chair made of stardust looking down at us.

I made it lean forward at us, "Show me your will to live," he growled, I used a bit of Thaumaturgy to dim the lights and vibrate the floor before he faded, and the world returned to normal. Again, it was nothing like the real thing, but it still made an impact.

"I've met other gods in my adventures." I created an illusion of the Maker's glowing silhouette, Andruil's smirking face, and the giant blue heart that was The Stone. "They can bestow powers to their chosen champions to affect the material realm, one of those powers is to cleanse and enhance soil."

"I-"

"This is your third question," I cut her off, "Make it count."

"That's not fair," She huffed.

"Never said I was fair," I smirked.

She squinted her eyes at me. "... Why did you take over three districts in lower Omega?"

I blinked at her, "... It wasn't like I planned on becoming a criminal kingpin. I just found a young child no older than 9, alone on the street, little punk tried mugging me~," I laughed, "She had moxie, a slaver tried kidnapping her, and I took offense to that. Slavery is a serious crime back in my home, standard punishment if found trying to buy or sell people is to be skinned alive, covered in salt, and hung where people could see them scream." she gave me a mortified look, I shrugged "It works. Ferelden is a country built by Barbarians who held freedom and honor to the highest respect. You don't want to cross a bunch of Barbarians Ms. Moirall, they tend to hold grudges. Anyway, after I handled the slaver, things kinda spiraled out of control, gang after gang kept showing up trying to make a name for themselves, and since I didn't want to have a pile of corpses scaring innocent people, I only beat the gangster into submission. Apparently, that was enough for them to make me their boss."

Patriarch hummed, "That would do it."

I shrugged, "Feeling responsible for them, I decided to clean up the district a bit, I'm talking in the literal sense here, Omega is disgusting, seriously you guys, you have robots, build one that cleans after you, it's not that hard. The one clean place on Omega gained a lot of attention, so like moths to a flame, Gangs appeared out of every crack and crevice trying to take over, before I knew it, I was in control of half the district with a small army of gangsters."

"...That's it? All this for a little girl?" Moirall asked.

I raised my eyebrow at her, "... Do I need another reason? Is not one child in danger, reason enough to lay down the law? To bring order to the chaos?" I stood up, "I think so, and so does Omega force, they're criminals and rogues, not monsters, they have an honor code. No children, no cheating your fellow members, no sexual assault, no slavery, and that is just the overall rules, most individual members have their own personal creeds. Now if you will excuse me, I need to hit the John."

I didn't go too far before I felt a hand tug at my suit. Turning I came face to face with Morinth, I didn't even have to use observation her, that jawline was proof enough.

Asari Energy Vampire

Mirala 'Morinth' Sejah

Age: 446

Lvl: 43

HP: 900/1,200

BP: 1,300/2,300

Str: weak muscles, strong biotics

Vit: she does a lot of running

Dex: was once an exotic dancer

Int: Brain damage

Wis: Brain damage

Cha: she has a strong jawline

Luk: she was able to evade a Justicar for 400 years

Ailments:

Ardat-Yakshi (7,000 MP and 3,200 CP)

Serious nerve damage (Can't be cured until the Ardat-Yakshi ailment is removed)

Sterile (Can't be cured until the Ardat-Yakshi ailment is removed)

Melding Addiction (Can't be cured until the Ardat-Yakshi ailment is removed)

Morinth is an Ardat-Yakshi, an Asari suffering from a rare genetic disorder that causes her to kill her mates while joining minds with them. In turn, she becomes smarter, more powerful, and deadlier after each coupling. She has spent centuries as a fugitive from Asari justice, surviving by her wits and cunning. Her powerful biotic abilities, and talent for dominating the minds of others, have kept her alive despite the odds.

She finds you to be... interesting

"Yes?" I asked.

"Hi~," she greeted way too breathily, I could smell the little alcohol she's drank so far. "Names Morinth. I've been watching you-" super creepy, "-you're the most interesting person in this place." That's your pick-up line? Good lord, she must have some kind of mind control. "I've got a booth over here in the shadows, why don't you come sit with me?"

Holy... Macaroni. Who says that!? What, is her ride a flying white van with the words 'free candy' written on the side!?

"My~, I usually don't get asked out so brazenly. Names Nick Walters, explorer, man of mysteries, lover of fine art. I hope you don't find me less of a man for finding invitation to be a little... Intimate~," I teased.

"Scare of a little... Intimacy, Nick?" She flirted back.

"From my experience, a little fear can go a long way. It really gets the blood pumping. Please lead the way~." I followed her to her booth. I felt Thane's magical signal not too far away, no doubt hiding in the shadows.

"Didn't think a man who parties with Krogan would have fear?" she teased taking a seat across from me.

"Fear is important to have, otherwise what's the fun? Without fear, we wouldn't know danger, and without danger, there is no... Excitement," I smirk at her, unleashing as much Charisma as I had.

"Too true~, sounds like you enjoy danger?"

"I like having fun~, the fact that most of that fun is found in dangerous life-threatening locations is hardly my fault."

"And talking with me in a VIP club is dangerous?" She gave me a cheeky smile.

"I've been on Omega long enough to know that nothing is safe here, especially the beautiful people."

She smirked at me, "Oh my~, should I take that as a compliment or an insult?"

"Everybody loves a femme fatale Morinth, power and beauty, all in one woman, who can resist?" I answered.

She giggled at my answer, "What is a man like you doing in a place like this?"

"A little bit of this, a little bit of that, but I mostly came for the music. Word around the grapevine was this place had strong beats that shake the body."

"And does it meet your expectations?"

I shrugged, "It's not the worst music in the galaxy, it has some nice rhythms, but when you hear the thumping music of a group of Krogan drummers play thresher maw skinned barrels while chanting, not much compares, the best I could find was a band named Expel 10, thought about going to one of their concerts."

That seemed to catch her attention, "You heard of them!?" she gave a moan, "They get in my head and tear it to pieces. You know, maybe you haven't gotten that thrill of music because you haven't enhanced it. You know~?" She wiggled her... face... she didn't have eyebrows... she was really hitting that uncanny valley hard.

I gave a noncommittal shrug, "It's possible, but most drugs are either too short or not strong enough, I have been hearing some things about a drug named Hallex, you know it?"

She smirked at me, "It'll blow you away, all your senses dialed to 11," she leaned forward, "All your senses~. There's an Expel 10 concert coming up, I could use a date~."

"Oh my Ms. Morinth, so forward, we barely know each other~."

"Oh~? And what might you want to know?"

I gave a shrug, "I'm a bit of a lover of the arts, from Artists like William Blake and Forta to films like Vaenia and... Blasto~."

That made her burst out laughing, "Blasto!? May I ask why?" she giggled.

"Because it never not manages to make someone laugh~," I teased. "I learned pretty quick that a laugh will always work better than just brooding, ladies love a man who can make them laugh."

"My~, look who's being forward now?"

"Tit for tat my lady~."

She leaned forward, "How long are you planning on staying on Omega?"

I shrugged, "Not long I fear, I've had my fun here, fought a few gangs, made a bit of a name for myself, but I don't want to be tied to this place, see where the cosmic winds take me~."

"... Are you looking for company?"

"Maybe~, you are offering?"

She gave me a saucy smirk, "... Why don't we talk in a more... private setting, I have a place near here."

I smirked back, "Lead the way, my lady." I offered my hand as she led me out of the club.

Magic signatures followed us out.

-/-

Morinth's place wasn't half bad. It was cleaner than most of Omega at least. She had a couple of artifacts and sentimental stuff.

"Nice place~."

"Thanks, I've had it for some time, I kinda use it as a pit stop."

"Oh? A fellow adventurer? You have the artifact style down."

"Adventurer?"

"It's not as nerdy as 'archaeologist' and not as damning as 'Grave robber', it hits that sweet spot that makes people like you enough, not to get in your way," I teased.

"Adventurer~, I like it."

"Most people do, now before anything happens~," I made my eyebrows dance, getting her to smirk, "We should talk about your contract, I've learned that I tend to make bad decisions after a passionate night."

"Are you tempting me Walters~, what kind of Captain sleeps with his crew?" she teased.

"A loose one, if what any of the ladies in my crew is to be believed, they called me the ship's bunny~, can you believe that?"

"Mmm~," she looked around her apartment, "I did just meet you and you're already in my house. So, they might have a point~."

"Well, I'd like to think of myself more of a varren than a bunny, make me sound fiercer~."

"Oh~, then come over here and show me your... wild nature~." she gestured to the couch next to her.

I smirked and sat next to her, "Maybe later, but first some business." I summoned a sheet of paper much to her awe.

"How did-"

"Magic~," I teased, "So let's talk about some dos and don'ts. You don't have to answer this one if you don't want to, but do you have anyone hunting you?" she gave a frown, "It's okay, you don't have to answer, I'm wanted by most of the Asari Republic."

"Well-"

The rest of the crew used that moment to blow the door open. A fully powered Samara walked into the room. I played along and jumped behind the couch, "SORRY! This might be for me!" I cried out moving around closer to Morinth.

"Morinth." Samara didn't hesitate, unleashing a powerful push throwing Morinth up against the wall, slamming the wind out of her.

"Mother," Morinth gasped.

Samara unleashed another push causing the wall to create a Morinth-size imprint. "Don't call me that!"

"I can't choose to stop being your daughter, MOTHER!"

"You made your choice long ago."

That struck a cord, Morinth unleashing a biotic pulse, destroying most of the living room and pushing Samara away.

"What choice!? You threw me away, I was just a mistake to you, a monster that hurt your image!" she unleashed another pulse. "ME, FALERE, RILA! Just a bunch of freaks that deserve to be killed or locked up because we're different!"

"ENOUGH!" Samara fought back unleashing a powerful push at her daughter throwing her on her back. Biotics were crazy, the very gravity in the room was fluctuating like mad. The couch I was hiding behind was crushed to splinters before flying up to the ceiling. The table was turned to dust, and the room was becoming a shrapnel hurricane the longer the fight went on.

"I am-"

Haki + Backstab + Max STR + fisticuffs + Quivering palm = 1,948 points of bludgeoning damage! Quivering Palm has changed the lethal blow to an incapacitating strike! Morinth has lost consciousness for one hour.

A timer appeared over her body with little birds circling her head.

Morinth gave a grunt and flopped to the floor like a dead fish.

"Alright then~," I huffed. Everyone just looked at the Asari on the floor. Samara took a step forward to end her hunt. "Whoa there, dommy mommy!" I stepped in front of her.

"Walters-"

"I'm not going to stop you, Morinth has killed a lot of people, many of them innocent, I know that, but so has Jenny and she's my little sister. Give me a chance to cure her." Samara gritted her teeth, looking down at her daughter, "Just one chance."

She looked at me, tears running down her face. "It's cruel to give someone hope."

"Hope is all we have when all options are gone. One chance," I begged.

-/-

Samara POV

Walter's armor disappeared and was replaced with some kind of medical outfit.

"Oh boy~," Natia whispered.

Before anyone got to ask any questions, Walters exploded into light. I have trained with Walters and the other magic users in the Normandy, I know what magic felt like, but this... this was something... different.

As the light dimmed, a glowing Nickolas remained, his body vibrating with power it couldn't contain, glowing scars appeared on his face before they healed over, his eyes were a pure glowing white, wisps of power escaping from his pours, his magic was almost suffocating, he didn't even look human, he looked like a being not meant for this realm.

The being reached out to Morinth, to Mirala... to my daughter. A hand gripped my arm locking me in place.

"Don't," Natia ordered. "If you try to intervene, Nick's magic will act on its own, seeing you as a threat. Trust Nick, he'll save your daughter."

I looked back to Mirala as Nick touched her face. Power coursed through her body, I could see every one of her nerves clearly through her skin and clothes, glowing bright gold. It felt like hours, watching Mirala glow like a beacon, but in truth, it was less than a moment, the second Walters was done he threw himself away for Mirala, removing the outfit he had on leaving him completely nude, flopping to the floor, gasping for breath.

His body was covered in glowing scars that were slowly healing over, it almost looked like he was coming apart at the seams.

Nat was the first to move, reaching his side in less than a second. "NICK!? Talk to me you idiot!" she gently moved him to a more comfortable position.

"Mana and Chi crash... give me a moment~," he hissed. His body slowly healed the tears on his flesh leaving perfectly unblemished skin behind. Making it look as if nothing happened.

"Here," Thane came over and draped a blanket over Nick's body.

"What did you do?" Shepard asked.

"The genetic disorder Morinth had, affected her nervous system, sensitive organs like that need more power to cure, but I don't think that's where the problem lay. Morinth has made her condition worse by melding with other people for the last 400 years, many of her nerves were shot, whatever her body did to absorb energy from her victims tore up her insides." he slowly gestured to himself. "It was like what you just saw, My Doctor's Outfit overclocks my body, giving stupid amounts of energy, but my body can't contain it, so I begin to fall apart, but unlike me, Morinth doesn't have magic and chi to heal herself. As time went on, more of her nerves got damaged as she melded, and with fewer nerves, she needed to meld more to feel the same high, only making it worse, I'm surprised she's even alive. The Asari are a hardy people."

"What do we do with her now?" Shepard asked, checking Morinth's pulse.

Walters started giggling.

"I don't like the sound of that," Tali huffed.

-/-

Morinth POV

I'm alive.

The beeping and pain from the side of my head told me so. Am I in a hospital? No that's stupid, Omega doesn't have hospitals, they barely have clinics.

"How long are you planning on lying there?" Mother's voice called out. Maybe I'm in human hell, I did kill a few of them. "I know you're awake, the monitor is giving you away."

I slowly opened my eyes, revealing a white room, mother was sitting across from me, in her stupid strawberry armor. I can't not laugh every time I eat one. "Mother."

"...Mirala."

... I looked at her, "... What did you just call me?"

"Mirala... your name, I gave it to you when you were born."

"... Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why am I alive? Why are you calling me that? Where are we? Why does my head hurt?"

"In order? I didn't kill you. Mirala is your name. We're in Omega's first hospital," she took a deep breath, "Butt-Hurt Memorial Hospital," she hissed, "and you were struck in the back of the head."

"...Butt-Hurt Memorial Hospital?" What kind of stupid name is that?

"Walters is a... eccentric individual, he also renamed all the ambulances to Wham-Bulances. I'm coming to conclude that he's just a crazy person with too much power and wealth, with no one to keep him in check."

"Why didn't you kill me?"

"...Death isn't an apology. Your death will not bring the people you killed back. I was ready to kill you and bring our hunt to an end, but Walters thought you could atone for all your mistakes, 400 years of mistakes."

"Why the hell would I do that?"

"...I asked the same question," she pulled up a hand mirror, showing off the similar headband my mother wore.

"What the hell?" I tried taking it off only for it to slip through my fingers, every time I would touch it the band would become liquid and dance away from my fingers only to morph back into a headband. "WHAT IS THIS!? GET IT OFF!"

"OH, MY OH MY!" Nick's voice called out walking into the room, holding a clipboard and followed by bunch of med-students close behind. "If it isn't the little baby with a little boo-boo~," he teased, walking into the room.

"Nick~," I hissed.

"That's Doctor Professor Walters Esquire to you young lady~." he turned to his students, "Jeiry!?" he pointed to the Asari in the group. "Why is Ms. Sejah here?"

The Asari panicked a bit looking at her Omni-tool, "Umm, Ms. Sejah was involved in a confrontation with Justicar Samara three days prior, causing significant damage to her nervous system. As a result, we have placed her in an artificial coma due to..." she scrolled through her Omni-tool, "excessive use of her Biotics."

"Very good Jeiry, Cagas," he pointed to the krogan, "Explain it to Ms. Sejah."

The krogan huffed, "You cooked your nerves dumbass, if it reached your brain we would be dissecting you right now, the reason you're alive is nothing short of a goddamn miracle."

Nick nodded, "Very good Cargas! Jeiry your professionalism is appreciated, but we are in Omega, half the idiots here can't read, you need to make sure they understand why they are here." he looked at his omni-tool, "Alright you Wanna-Be Healers, your shift has come to an end, so unless you're about to do a double shift I want you out!" Nick hissed shooing them away. The 'healers' were quick to run off. "AND REMEMBER YOU GOT ROUNDS WITH DR. LAIN TOMORROW! SHE'S THE ONLY DRELL ON STAFF!" he called out after them. "Punks~, all of them." he joked walking back into the room.

"Nick," I hissed.

"Doctor pro-"

"I'm not calling you that! What did you do to me, traitor."

"Okay~, calm down, you were going to sex kill me, you don't have any ground to stand on, you ridiculous space succubus, how did you seduce anyone? You triggered every red flag in the book. Come to my dark corner where no one can see us? What was that!? Do Asari find that sexy?"

"Nickolas," Mother called out.

"Right. Let's cut to the chase. You are no longer an Ardat-Yakshi and have been conscripted into the Justicar order. Congratulations," he cheered with the enthusiasm of a dead fish.

"...What?"

"We also may have bumped your head on a few doorways times... okay, every time we walked through a door... we were not gentle."

I massage my head, feeling the bump. "Asshole."

"Anyways, the band you're wearing is infused with holy energy, so expect to get some holy orders."

"...are you-"

There is a young turian man by the name Juliannus Bellitis in the hospital, he is downstairs planning on stealing medical supplies for his sick sister, help him peacefully acquire the necessary supplies.

0/1 - dextro antibiotics

0/1 - 20oz Medi-gel canisters

0/5 - canisters of Dextro nutrient paste

"MOTHERFUCKER!?" it burns! "What the hell!?" I tried taking off the headband.

"Yeah~, you're not exactly what we would call good in the alignment chart. So, every time someone like the Maker asks you to do something, it's probably going to hurt. Andruil or the Stone might be more your wheelhouse," Nick explained.

"Get this thing off!"

Nick shrugged, "Can't~. It's been attuned to your very soul through divine energy. I can remove it, but it will just come back later, you're stuck with it until the gods think you've served your sentence."

"And when is that?"

He tapped his head, "Ask."

I rubbed my forehead "Uh, how long-"

450 years or personally helped 2.5 billion people.

0/450 years

or

0/2,500,000,000 people helped.

"FUCK YOU!?"

"Oof~, that doesn't sound good~," Nick laughed. I didn't think, I just swung right to his stupid face, only for my fist to gently pat his face.

"Wha?" was all I got to say before I was struck by a bolt of lightning, "NAAAAHHH!? FUCK!?"

Nick just laughed harder. "Look at your dumb face! What's running through your mind!? Seriously, I just told you gods were looking over your shoulder and the first thing you do is try and cave in my face. What did you think? you were above punishment? Congrats, this might be your first real job, and you got the worst bosses this side of the galaxy." he teased. "Also, your pay is dismal, I would recommend taking that Justicar job. Alright have fun getting reacquainted, I have other patients." He waved goodbye and walked out of the room.

"...I hate that guy," I hissed.

"Yes... Nickolas is an... acquired flavor."

"Yeah... like poison. So... this is the rest of my life? A slave to unknown gods?"

"Look at the bright side... you can meld now... and I'm not going to hunt you down." I just looked at my mother, who gave me a pitiable face.

My stomach felt empty and somehow full to bursting at the same time, "Why do I feel sick?"

"...Nick told me you may have had some brain damage from all the melding, which messed with your anterior insular cortex and amygdala."

"What does that mean?"

"I'm not exactly sure, but Nick told me you might be feeling new emotions, two of which might be empathy and kindness. Nick believes that an Ardat-Yakshi's first melding may shortcircuited that part of the brain due to the very nature of melding, making them not care about what they did to their partners. He told me that... as you heal you might get visions of those moments, and with your healed brain, it can... be rather shocking, it may make you sick, uncomfortable, and even give you the phantom pain of your victims' final moments."

I gulp, "You can't be serious?"

She was stone-faced as usual. "You're no longer an Ardat-Yakshi, meaning you're no longer my prey, Justicar Niala is downstairs, you don't have to go with her, I have no doubt you have a dozen ways to escape this room already, but I would recommend you go with her, you have a long way for redemption, the Justicars will help you along the path." she stood up, "Mirala... be careful. I fear the galaxy is going to get very dangerous in a short time." She turned to leave, but I snatched her hand.

I don't know why, I just... she can't just walk away... not anymore. She didn't pull away, for the first time in nearly 420 years... she hugged me, and sang my favorite lullaby, the one I thought I would never hear again.

I couldn't control myself... I just cried on her shoulder.

Damn it.

-/-

Nick POV

With the Normandy arriving in morning, we're ready to move out, Legion got some news about a possible heretic base near the galactic edge in Geth space, but got some troubling reports about some weapon the Heretics were using. They've been communicating with the larger Geth Consensus trying to understand what was happening and how to counter it.

So, I've been using the time I had here to make sure Omega Force could work without me, it helped that Patriarch liked me, Even Aria seemed to like us, mostly because Omega Force kept the peace. Before, gangs would rise and fall before they could make any offerings to Aria. Omega Force put a stop to most gang fights, fearing that if they looked weak Omega Force would take that moment to strike. While I wouldn't put it past my generals to take advantage of a weakened force, they knew they needed to reinforce the districts they already had and not stretch themselves thin.

Morinth, or Mirala, left with Justicar Niala yesterday, Samara has been a bit distant, spending most of her time looking out to space on the observation deck. She did tell me that she was getting into contact with the Asari republic and trying to get my bounty dismissed, or at least buried, she also wanted me to try and cure the rest of the Ardat-Yakshi in the monasteries she knew of. I was iffy about going into Asari Space but if she was able to get me pardon, I wouldn't say no, the banshees in ME 3 were a pain to fight, the less of them the better.

"Alright~," I called out to the group in front of me, it was finally time. Shepard, Miranda, Jacob, Samara, and Mordin stood in front of me waiting for their upgrade. "You ready?"

"Just hurry up," Miranda huffed, she tried to hide her eagerness, but she couldn't stop her foot and finger tapping, this is why she never won a game of poker. "I also want magic. Jenny got it, it's only fair."

"A little greedy there Miranda~," Jacob teased.

"Shut up."

Jacob rolled his eyes. "I'm happy with just Chi, I feel like magic will only open a can of worms, and i don't want to be distracted, especially with the derelict Reaper around the corner."

I placed my hand on Jacob's shoulder.

Do you wish to bestow power to Jacob Taylor?

Warning! You can only enhance once!

Cost: 300 MP and 1,000 CP

Gain: 800 CP, 400 BP, 15 points to all stats, +5 levels

Reward: 2,000 exp

Do you wish to bestow Jacob Taylor with power?

Yes

Jacob lit up like a beacon for a moment. Like the rest Jacob shot up about 6 inches and his muscles matched his new frame. He wasn't no James Vega, but he wasn't no slouch either, he kinda looked like a prime Mike Tyson but taller, ready to knock any fool who thought they could step up to him.

"Why do you have dreadlocks?" Miranda asked.

Jacob touched his head, "Sweet baby Jesus, I haven't had dreads since my 20s, they were a nightmare to take care of, but to be fair I was a little shit back then, thought my 'natural musk' would attract the ladies~. It did not. Smelling like soap and deodorant did though," he joked, putting his hair in a ponytail. "Yo Ken! Can you give me a cut?" Ken just gave him a thumbs-up. Man was a master engineer and cheap, he learned to cut his hair from his mother when he was younger.

"My turn," Miranda stepped forward.

"Give me a second, this is why you can't keep a boyfriend Miri, we're muskets, not pump-action shotguns~," I teased, meditating, helping my MP and CP to max out.

"Really~, you kinda come across as a one-pump chump~."

"HOOOOO~! Miri got jokes~, it took me nearly four months, but I got you to joke." I placed my hand on top of her head.

Do you wish to bestow power to Miranda Lawson?

Warning! You can only enhance once!

Cost: 1000 MP and 1,000 CP

Gain: 400 CP, 400 MP, 200 BP, 10 points to all stats, +5 levels

Reward: 2,000 exp

Do you wish to bestow Miranda Lawson with power?

Yes

Interestingly enough Miranda didn't get any taller, she was already the perfect human woman, it would have been strange if she did get bigger, but it did look like she gained some muscle but nothing too crazy.

I dug my fingers into her hair and messed it up, much to her annoyance.

"HEY!?" she slapped my hand away, trying to save her hair. "Do you have any idea how long it takes to make up my hair in the morning?"

"No, I have magic elven soap that fashions my hair for me and magical conditioner that keeps my hair smooth with plenty of volume. Cuz I'm worth it," I teased, running my fingers through my hair.

"You're the worst~," Miranda hissed.

I ignored her and walked over to Mordin. "Are you ready doctor?"

"Yes, have a long list of experiments to run."

"And a long time to complete them." Magic tends to double the life span of a species, Chi doubles that. A salarian usually lives up to about 40 years, with chi and mana, Mordin is looking at about 160 years, and that's if he doesn't train his powers. But since Mordin isn't the type of man who would leave a project half-done, I could see him living to the ripe old age of 400, or become an all-powerful lich, one or the other.

Do you wish to bestow power to Mordin Solus?

Warning! You can only enhance once!

Cost: 800 MP and 800 CP

Gain: 400 CP, 400 MP, 10 points to all stats, +5 levels

Reward: 2,000 exp

Do you wish to bestow Mordin Solus with power?

Yes

Mordin didn't change at all, well, his horn grew back, but other than that he looked the same. He did gain this weird far-out look. He summoned some magic in his hand before shaping it into a representation of a 4-dimensional object in a three-dimensional space, before he banished it.

"Interesting." Suddenly another Mordin broke away from the original Mordin. "Mmm, replication by dividing mana into a magical construct."

"Not perfect, I have no organs, and very sluggish," Mordin 2 commented. Only for another clone to break apart from Mordin 2.

"Mana severely depleted," Mordin 3 grunted, "I can't keep form." the clone turned to glowing dust disappearing.

"Mmm, no mana or memories returned," Mordin 2 commented before he also disappeared.

"Mmm, power needed to create a clone is not worth the clone created, need to fix that," Mordin muttered.

"You're either going to be the greatest wizard that ever lived, or destroy the universe, aren't you," I teased.

"...Probably," he smirked.

I took a moment to allow my MP and CP to max off, I walked over to Samara. I tested my power on a few Asari in Omega-force, I paid them of course, experimentation should come with some reward. All the Asari I worked with showed great biotic growth, even those who didn't train their Biotics, they said it came almost like second nature. Their face patterned darkened a bit but otherwise, they looked completely normal.

Do you wish to bestow power to Samara Sejah?

Warning! You can only enhance once!

Cost: 300 MP and 1,600 CP

Gain: 800 CP, 900 BP, 10 points to all stats, +5 levels

Reward: 2,000 exp

Do you wish to bestow Samara Sejah with power?

Yes

Like the rest of the Asari, Samara didn't really change, looking like she always did, a spark of Biotic power traveled from one hand to another, before she gently lifted herself off the ground and floated around the room.

"I always desired to do this, but the control needed to accomplish this feat was never worth the training," she gave a tiny smirk, enjoying her new power.

"Alright~," I turned to Shepard, "last but not least."

Do you wish to bestow power to John Shepard?

Warning! You can only enhance once!

Cost: 1,200 MP and 1,200 CP

Gain: 600MP, 600 CP, 300 BP, 10 points to all stats, +5 levels

Reward: 2,000 exp

Do you wish to bestow John Shepard with power?

Yes

Shepard didn't grow much, standing around 6'1. He was muscular, built for endurance rather than strength. His eyes had a slight glow to them, we went over the idea that being enhanced might unlock his biotic potential, Jenny, Samara, and Miranda agreed to provide some training

And with that the rest of the ground crew was in peak condition, well, other than legion, due to him being a mech, but Lyna and Dagna were already making up some designs.

The rest of the day was filled up with me throwing food at them. It was crazy, Never in my wildest dreams would I think to see Samara and Mordin eat like starved wolves, but even they couldn't keep their composure after the hunger pains kicked in.

"SHEPARD!" Tali came running into the room with Lia and Zura, "We've been accused of treason."

I'm going to kick Tali's father's nuts into a star.

-/-

A/N: Alright~. Another chapter down.

This one got away from me a bit but I like to think it came out ok

Jack's loyalty mission was… a difficult mission to write. I wanted to show that Nick becomes when he's pushed too far and give Jack some character growth. I also made Aresh a little crazier but also showed that he had some power, but the mission was less about combat and more about past trauma and what it can make people into. I also made a random species that died some time ago, probably due to the reapers, that had magic, even if it's only a little. I mean all Asari are Biotics why can't there be a species that can use magic.

I also didn't have Miranda and Jack fight; it didn't make any sense for Miranda to argue with Jack especially if you take her on Jack's loyalty mission. Miranda always came off as an intelligent woman that wouldn't just piss people off for no reason, the fact that the devs made her fight Jack was asinine and pointless, and hurt her character.

I hope I did Jacob's mission some good. Jacob wasn't well written in mass effect, but I feel like that's because he doesn't really talk about himself, so that kinda made him a clean slate, I feel like he's just short of being an NPC, so I got to play with his background a bit, Also I found it weird that there weren't children in this mission. I mean… 10 years, no protection? Why not give Jacob a family?

Samara's loyalty mission was less about combat and more about character and I hope I did it some justice but like Jacob, we don't get much background on her or Morinth. I also didn't want to kill Morinth, I wanna see if I could do some with her in the future.

Anyway, Tali and Legion's missions are coming up next. Let's have some fun with that.

Like always sorry for any grammar mistakes, I'm only human

Review if you feel like it.

And I have a DeviantArt page where I put up art of my fic, Link in bio.