A/N: Just a brief note. I can't remember but I think I referred to Ashley in the last chapter as a Sergeant rather then a Gunnery Chief. Just updating that I'm aware of her actual rank in this game and will refer to her as such moving forward. If there are any finer details about the tech in ME or the lore that you guys find lacking or incorrect don't be afraid to correct me. I like getting that stuff right, but somethings I find hard to research, like the real reason Saren is partly synthetic. Different theories on that one, especially considering his final look was likely something that wasn't supposed to be seen at the beginning of the game. Anyway, let's get on with it.

EDIT!: So I realized I had put Zeke's name in Cole's explanation later on in the chapter and I didn't want to do that for reasons. You'll find out later, it's removed now so Cole just refers to him as his best friend.

Eden Prime – 15 Hour Ago

Gunfire. My armoured foot was pressed on the outer shell of a Geth as I unloaded a few rounds into it's core processor. The metallic body went limp and the light in the centre of it's head faded out. Looking around, I had taken down about 10 Geth and 20 of those humans they were turning into husks.

It was unnerving. During the First Contact War, an ancient artifact known as the Arca Monolith was discovered under a human colony at Shanxi. The ones who found it thought they were uplifting Turians to immortality, but really it was corrupting them. Luckily, a Turian Spectre ordered bombardment on the temple on Palavan that the artifact was being used in.

It didn't matter now, after leaving the Normandy I had made some progress, but I could tell something was off. The Geth weren't focused around the excavation site. There were fewer and fewer of them the further I went, and it appeared they were relocating towards a spaceport that was nearby. I found it strange, but it was possible they had taken the beacon and moved it there, planning to load it onto a ship and then leave. I activated comms and contacted the Commander to inform her of the update.

"Change of plans, Shepard. There's a small space port up ahead. I want to check it out. I'll wait for you there." She didn't reply, probably too busy dealing with the Geth on her end. Regardless I was a spectre and had a job to do.

After a few minutes of moving quickly through the woods I made it to the space port. I spotted something walking around the front, inspecting something. It looked like the Geth at first glance so I quickly took cover.

Staying low, I approached, from cover to cover, slowly but surely making my way towards the hostile. Finally, I was about 15 feet away behind a waist high barricade. I readied my weapon, as I quickly stood and rounded the cover, my eyes focused and weapon trained on my target as I moved forward.

I all but stopped, slowly lowering my gun when I saw the person in question. It was no Geth, but a Turian. A familiar one at that.

"Saren?" I was surprised to see him. Saren was an old friend, and a fellow spectre. In fact he was the one that recruited me, being impressed with my military service. I didn't think he would have been sent here however, and I was thrown for a loop when I saw him turn to me.

Saren had been the one to order the bombing of Temple Palavan nearly 20 years prior. Not before he and is brother underwent some modification themselves it would seem. Though, I wasn't certain what I was seeing was how I remember Saren looking after those events. Maybe something happened to him since I saw him last? It's been about 5 years give or take.

"Nihlus." His voice was a slow drawl. Turians already have a distinctive flanging effect when we speak, but his voice seemed almost robotic. And his arm... it looked like a Geth arm was grafted to him.

He slowly approached me, never averting his gaze. He unnerved me, his eyes definitely no long organic, but rather replaced with cybernetic implants. I lowered my gun, though for whatever reason I felt I should be wary.

"This isn't your mission Saren. What are you doing here?" He nodded as he approached and placed his hand on my shoulder. I had the urge to flinch away, but I remained calm. This man was my friend and an ally. Although, he was ruthless, and if destroying this colony meant completing the mission he'd do it.

"The Council thought you could use some help with this one." He walked past me, and I thought I saw something move behind him. When I checked it turned out to be a human, trying to hide. Made sense, Humans and Turians don't always get along. Especially not after the First Contact War fiasco.

If he stayed out of harms way and felt safe back there, I had no reason to out him. We would be cleaning up this mess soon enough anyway. I kept my eyes on him though, just in case.

"I wasn't expecting to find the Geth here. The situations bad. More then I thought." The man almost seemed to be trying to signal me. What was he doing? He was putting his hands flat in front of his chest and swinging them horizontally outward. I couldn't quite read his lips, he was saying something about 'safe' and 'enemy'. What?

"Don't worry. I have it all under control." Saren's reassurance only confirmed my fears. I had a chill run through me, colder then any ice planet I've been to. It was almost like the confusion of today's events had cleared up in the briefest of moments. The Geth, that ship, the man trying to warn me about Saren.

I barely had time to register the sound of Saren's gun before my world went dark.

Back on The Normandy

My hand recoiled from the Turian's head, nearly passing out from the in depth memories.

Normally, when I did this, I would get maybe the last half an hour or so of somebodies life. Instead, I remembered everything from the time this... Turian... Nihlus... boarded the Normandy, all the way to his death.

It was... a lot. Not just his memories either, but the realization of when and where I was. I wasn't in New Marais anymore, let alone on Earth. I was in space. Eden Prime was a planet the humans colonized and was attacked by those Geth. The Prothean Beacon being what Nihlus and Shepard's crew were after.

And it had been 171 years since I charged the RFI.

That last one took my legs out from under me and I fell to my knees, hyperventilating.

"No... I c-can't be..." I couldn't get the words out. The vortex of emotions, and confusion over my current situation. How the Hell did I get here? Why me? Why can't I just die and have it stick?

As soon as the thought entered my mind, I forced it away. No time for self-pity, or wallowing in my grief. I was about to attempt regaining control of myself when a hand was placed on my shoulder. I almost threw an elbow up to catch whoever startled me in the jaw, but decided to just check who it was. Didn't want to hit Chakwas if the old woman had come to show some compassion.

Low and behold that's who it was.

"Are you alright? Breath, boy. Just breath. Relax" She was rubbing circles on my back and I assumed taking my pulse by the way she was holding my wrist. Remembering some breathing exercises that Trish had taught me a long time ago, I began steadying myself, and regaining composure.

"There you go. Now, will you please release the Commander?" Turning my head, I could see the three of us were not the only ones in the room. Alenko, Anderson, and another woman in a bun, wearing the same outfit as Shepard and Alenko, definitely another soldier, had entered the room. Alenko and the woman had guns trained on me, and Anderson was kneeling over Shepard, checking on her.

"I'm fine. It's my fault for being careless." Shepard's anger was palpable. I could tell if she was angry at herself, me, or both. I turned back to Chakwas and nodded as I stood up and walked over to Shepard.

Sticking out my hand slightly I spread my fingers, curled them slightly, and willed the arcs to be drained and reform in me. They danced off of Shepard and coiled around my fingers and up my arm before disappearing from view. Shepard, now free, hesitated to stand while I stood over her. Even though she shot me, I offered her my hand as an offering of peace, but she scowled and stood up on her own.

Retracting my hand I took a step back, finding myself unable to keep my gaze focused on the humans in front of me, turning back to Nihlus. I could only feel empathy, knowing what it's like to be betrayed by a friend. Though we eventually smoothed it over, I still felt what he felt. That was another thing, used to be just the thoughts, the images of what happened that I would get from a corpse. This time I felt his emotions. That was unnerving.

"When we entered the room you had just touched his body." Chakwas stated.

"Would have arrested you if it weren't for not knowing if you'd electrocute us while in that trance." Alenko interrupted.

"What were you doing anyway, freak?" Nice. The new girl reminded me of the old days. I opted to ignore her and kept staring at Nihlus, wondering what to do about the information I just gathered.

"Do you know how he died?" I asked. Chakwas I could hear start a sentence but Shepard interrupted.

"Pretty sure it was an execution. Didn't see it coming. Or was the bullet wound that mangled his face not making that obvious." I groaned and shook my head.

"I said... okay fine. That counts as how. Do you know who Saren is?" At the mention of his name they all perked up.

"How do you know that name?" Anderson's voice came booming across the room with a sense of urgency. He marched over to me, grabbing my shoulder and forcing me to face him. The old man was strong, I'll give him that, but if I had resisted at all he wouldn't have been able to pull that off.

"You know him? Guy's a Turian, only he's got a Geth arm grafted to his left side and has a bunch of synthetic and cybernetic enhancements on his body. He looks like an alien terminator now that I think about it." Anderson's brow wrinkled even further the more I spoke. He looked like he was about to blow a gasket, and I think Saren was the reason. Chakwas thankfully removed his hand from my shirt before I had to do anything about that, and walked him back a few inches to give me breathing room.

"Okay, how do you know all that. The only other person outside of this room with that information is that dock worker we questioned." The woman stated.

"Yeah, he tried warning Nihlus." They all looked at me with questioning looks again and I decided I was getting tired of it.

"Do we have some place we can talk that isn't holding a dead body?"

A few minutes later

After closing the cryo-pod, basically this era's version of a morgue freezer for Alliance ships on the move, and supplying it with some energy, Nihlus was back to being preserved until he was returned to Citadel Security, a.k.a C-Sec, for an autopsy. The reports Captain Anderson and his crew sent was enough cause for an investigation into the claims that Saren was guilty of going rogue and killing Nihlus.

They led me to a conference room, Chakwas deciding to follow, too curious about what would be discussed to be left out. The room was circular, not too large, but big enough for a crew meeting among the members with higher authority I suppose. They all took seats, as did I, and looked at me expectantly for answers.

"Look, you guys need to chill out with that staring crap it's unnerving. I'm not even the weirdest thing on this ship. That Turia-" Shepard interrupted me.

"Turians are a common thing for those of us who don't spend all our time on Earth or in human colonies. Alien yes, but we've been mingling with aliens and apart of galactic society for nearly a century now. You seemed totally unaware of all of this until about 5 minutes ago, and quite frankly, you produce golden electricity around your arms, shock people upon contact and can drain electrical equipment. Not to mention your advanced healing. You are the weirdest thing on this ship at the moment." She crossed her arms over her breasts as she angrily berated me. She had a point I suppose.

"Fair. So, let's get this out of the way so I don't have you looking at me sideways until you drop me off back home. I'm Cole MacGrath. I'm a Conduit." I then gestured my hands to the rest of the group.

"I'm Major Karen Chakwas with the Systems Alliance. Lead medical officer of the SSV Normandy. The ship you are on currently." I nodded and gave her a two finger salute. She smiled and returned it to me. I like her.

"I'm Lieutenant Kaiden Alenko, with the Systems Alliance. L2 Sentinel, second only to the Commander herself." I too gave him a two finger Salute, and he just waved. Weird, but didn't seem like a bad guy.

The woman who's name I didn't have hesitated before speaking, looking to Shepard, who gave her a nod. She turned back to me with professional look this time.

"I'm Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams with the Systems Alliance. You cause any more problems for us and I'll shoot you, and drop you out the airlock my self." I chuckled at her attempt at threatening me.

"Like to see you try kid." She growled at my response.

"I'm gonn-"

"Stand down Gunny." Anderson ordered. Williams did as she was told, though she didn't look to happy about it. I turned my head to the last one that I hadn't already been introduced to, given Anderson had given me his rank and title when I was still on the cot.

"Commander Natalie J. Shepard of the Systems Alliance." She paused, not adding anything else to that. Kaiden had already mentioned that the two of them were Sentinels, whatever that meant, and it appeared she was still miffed about our earlier altercation. I didn't bother saluting her either. Instead I sent her a wink which she definitely hated.

"So, Anderson, what did you manage to dig up in the short time I've been awake?" Everybody looked to the Captain save Shepard. She seemed annoyed at how I addressed her superior.

"That's Captain Anderson." I was about to respond to her indignant response but the good Captain beat me to it.

"It's alright Shepard. He isn't military." Pulling up his, holo-bracelet thing, he looked to the back wall of the room where a screen popped up.

Everybody else had their holo-bracelets out, making me want one so badly. I turned back to the 'screen', another hologram. It had a picture of me, a dossier that had files from all sorts of government branches, namely the FBI and DARPA and a news report about the bio-terrorists, Cole MacGrath and John White, were responsible for the destruction of most of the East Coast. A lot of it was redacted. That screen shrank a bit and up came another screen, an image of New Marais... post RFI.

Rage was rolling through me like a windstorm.

"What's Empire City? With a name like that it's hard to imagine I've never heard of it." Alenko spoke up. I couldn't believe they didn't know about it. Despite evidence of everything I had been through being somehow swept under the rug.

"Officially, it was destroyed by our new friend here. Even so, history doesn't remember it because everybody involved during that time wants their involvement forgotten for good. I always thought this was an urban legend." Anderson spoke.

"Like the Lizard people under Los Angeles?" Kaiden asked. Anderson nodded.

"That's right. After seeing this however, and seeing what Mr. MacGrath can do..." He let his words trail off rather then finishing his thought. He believed everything now.

"This is bullshit." Anderson pulled up more screens, all blog posts and news articles. All getting everything wrong. The last thing he pulled up was a picture of the Historic District in Empire City. Post Ray Sphere blast. The pictures didn't do the devastation justice.

"In 2009, a bike courier by the name of Cole MacGrath carried a package to the middle of the Historic district in Empire City. When he got there, he opened the package, revealing a bomb... and set it off?" Shepard was reading one of the articles. Clearly she was perturbed by the implication that I survived a bombing that I was allegedly responsible for. She turned to me. "How durable are you?"

"The blast wasn't a bomb, at least not the way your thinking, and I didn't know what the thing would do. I didn't even have my powers yet." I stopped before continuing. Did I really need to explain any of this? How would any of them believe me. There was no way to prove it. Unless I wanted to risk killing them. Giving them my memories the way Kessler gave me his, I don't know that a human could survive that.

"Wait a second. Are you saying your powers turned on like some comic book hero when you were caught up in that blast?" Kaiden piped in.

"No... I mean yes... I mean... it's complicated." Shepard seemed ready to press the issue further, but Anderson kept going.

"After the explosion, a plague swept through Empire City, released by MacGrath's actions. The whole city was put in quarantine for nearly three years. During that time, MacGrath, a man by the name of Alden Tate who lead the Dust Men, a woman only known as Sasha, leader of the Reapers, and Kessler, the mastermind behind MacGrath and the First Sons, caused utter mayhem." That caught my attention. Sasha wasn't well known to the public, she kept to herself and hidden in the sewers to avoid Kessler. Everybody had assumed The Reapers were operating of their own volition. She was never outed as their leader. Also, as far as I knew, nobody knew who Kessler was. Barely anybody in that city knew him. Just he major players, and they all died...

Except Alden. Motherfucker.

"It says sometime within the first few months those Major players, including you Cole, went missing. What happened?" Chakwas asked. The woman seemed kind hearted and unwilling to assume that I was the monster all this info claimed I was. I don't know why she decided to give me the benefit of the doubt, but I appreciated it none the less.

"Okay, so the blast gave me my powers. I'm not enplaning how, no way I'm risking that happening again. I was out cold for two weeks afterwards. In that time the city went to shit. When I woke up, I spent about a month getting a handle on my new abilities. Nearly blew up a car getting into it. Was handed a gun once to fend off some assholes trying to steal from me and my friends, ended up cooking the gunpowder and nearly losing my hand. At some point the government sent in an air drop of canned food. Me and... my best friend, went to go retrieve some for us. When we got there I had to dislodge the packages from a artistic monument in a park, and then fight off The Reapers from taking it all." I took a breath after squeezing that all out. I looked around to see if everybody was paying attention and boy did I have all of it. Didn't really like that so much but what was I going to do. Seeing as how nobody was interjecting I continued.

"Look, I'm not going to get into specifics, but I'll give you cliff notes. I was helping where I could. The other conduits were the ones causing problems. Sasha was nuts, had mind control powers through this weird tar shit she produced. If it got on you, you'd suffer hallucinations at her whim, she could read your mind, control your mind, and communicate telepathically. She had issues with me though. Conduits don't operate by the same rules. She escaped me and was arrested by a DARPA agent, but eventually I had to kill her. Alden Tate? Senile old bastard who lost everything to Kessler. Created a gang of homeless people and used magnetic powers. I don't think it was telekinesis because he only ever manipulated metal. He may have been able to evolve that power though. He went missing after I beat his ass. He offered a truce and wanted to work with me to fight Kessler. I considered it, and in that moment of hesitation he dove off a 20 story bridge. Never seen a conduit die from a fall so I know he was alive. He went missing though. Kessler... he had similar powers to mine. Only he was older and more powerful. He was a stupid old fool... I'd rather not think about him for too long so I'll just say I killed him to." Every time I would dwell on that bastard for too long my old rage for him would bubble to the surface. I didn't need to look like a crazy person at the moment though so I shoved it aside.

"So, you were actually helping people?" I nodded at Ashley's question. She seemed to take everything in, and accept my answer. I suppose it was easier given they saw what I could do, and none of that was mentioned in these files.

"So wait, you gave us a brief summary of what you did in Empire, but we don't know what a conduit is still. Or where you went afterwards. Alden was running around, but if Sasha and Kessler were dead, where were you two?" Kaiden asked.

"You know, thinking about it I never caught wind of what happened to Alden. I briefly heard rumours of an old man moving metal with his mind somewhere in the mid-west, but I was heading south east to New York for a more... pressing issue." I paused a moment, contemplating whether or not I wanted to explain all of that to them.

"Why New York?' Shepard interjected this time.

"Honestly, I'm not getting into that. The sooner that horror story is forgotten the better. Let's just say I have a habit of fighting things much stronger then me and coming out on top. If we become buddies maybe I'll tell you everything over a beer." I left no room for argument by answering their questions about Conduits.

"So, if you know what the X-Men are, one of you mentioned comics earlier, then you can kind of sorta think about Conduits in a similar manner. In the X-Men comics, mutants have an X-Gene which is their evolutionary marker for having powers. Conduits have a conduit-gene, and it gets activated... well it gets activated a specific way. Quite horrifying really. Don't want to talk about it." I took a moment to mull over how best to describe this next part, simply because I didn't really understand it completely myself.

"So the X-Men have a ridiculous variety of mutants with different powers. Some are physical, some energy, some cosmic, some telepathic or telekinetic, etc etc. Normally their powers are very focused, or maybe they have a combination of powers, like super strength and energy blasts. Conduits, from what I've seen, normally channel specific types of matter. I'm not talking Avatar The Last Air Bender either, I'm talking ice, napalm, metal, bio-organic, smoke, glass, paper, I've even seen a chick snipe some asshole from a distance with neon gas. She was turning it into hard-light. It would pierce her victims and stick around for awhile as a sold projectile. Like a sword or spear just sticking through you. It burned like a laser to." I made sure everybody was following along before continuing. Didn't want to repeat myself.

"From there, they find ways to dip into other powers you wouldn't normally associate with that matter manipulation. For example, the girl with Neon powers, she could, on a micro scale, manipulate time. Don't ask, all I know is that she was able to cause a form of stasis with one of her attacks. The effect wasn't lengthy by any stretch, but it was useful in a fight. Sasha, on the other hand, focused mostly on Mind control and telepathy, but it was channelled through the tar I mentioned earlier. Caused hallucinations to. A bitch to get off of my jacket and skin." I raise my hands, creating an electrical orb in one hand and start tossing it from one hand to the other like a baseball. The looks on their faces was priceless. I kind of enjoyed the mutual entertainment between me and first time observers when I did stuff like this with my powers. I eventually leaned back and started tossing the ball in the air and catching it as it came back down.

"Amazing." Chakwas muttered

"I have electrokinesis. So, you'd think, okay this guy is basically Thor, or Raiden from Mortal Kombat. To that I say, kind of? I can do a lot of things with this, but I'm only giving you this tidbit. Hey Doc, what are memories?" I turned to Chakwas. Her amused look and focus on my ball tossing switched to look at me with understanding.

"Electrical currents in the brain." I nodded.

"Exactly. So, when you have a new memory, let's say created for lack of a better term, your mind is sending specific electrical currents through specific paths in a specific signature. I can read those, because of the basis of my power. How the hell the science works for anybody else reading your mind I haven't really figured out yet but at this point I guess it doesn't really matter. To be fair, what I just said about how I read minds, isn't really science it's more a theory based on... well I'm grasping at straws." A few of the soldiers present gave each other knowing looks and I groaned thinking about what that could possibly mean.

"So, your saying you can read anybodies mind by touching them?" Ashley's query was sort of close but not quite.

"Well, no I can't just touch your hand or butt and get your memories. I have to be simultaneously discharging and absorbing the electrical currents. Best if my fingers are at your temples or touching the upper part of your skull, as close to the brain as possible. I've only ever done this with dead people though, don't try it with the living due to not wanting to risk causing amnesia or killing them. So I tend to get the last few moments of the lives of the dead. Right up to the moment they die." It was never fun delving through those memories. I'm remember now why I stopped doing it after New York. I didn't want to see the horrors others went through first hand.

"So you saw who killed Nihlus?" Shepard leaned forward, clearly hanging on every word more then she was with my explanations about Empire City and Conduits. Her question gave me an out for explaining everything else that was brought up about my powers, the other conduits and New Marais. Hopefully their personal stakes in what happened on Eden Prime and Saren's betrayal will keep them focused on anything but me for quite a while.

"Yeah, so Nihlus came across this other Turian he knew. Saren Arterius. Another Spectre. The one who recruited him actually. Poor bastard was shot by his friend. He even knew in the final moment of his life that he was going to die that way and just accepted it." Anderson jumped in immediately.

"Damn it!" Though he had been somewhat intense since he figured out who I was, Anderson kept his composure the entire time I had been talking. This however unbalanced him a bit. There was a story there.

"You know the guy?" I asked.

"He's trouble. Brutal, ruthless. He hates humans." I nodded.

"Does he have some obsession with ascension or something? Given his... upgrades?" I questioned and Anderson put his hand to his chin in thought.

"Last time I saw him he had one cybernetic eye due to losing his organic one in a fight. Both eyes, his mandibles and Geth arm... that's new." Anderson seemed disturbed by this news.

"Is it not normal in this era of space travel and galactic civilizations to have cybernetics?" Surely it was. There was no way I believed that it was basically none existent. Though, I could understand the complications of having a body reject such implants.

"In this era of space travel and galactic civilizations." Shepard repeated. Her cold amber eyes were bearing down on me now. That same quizzical look, studying a puzzle to be solved and put away. "Let's address the biggest elephant in the room. Out of the entire heard that's boarded this ship today."

"Yeah, this is probably the most pressing issue here." Kaiden stated. Everybody looked at me as Shepard continued.

"It would be different, let's say, if you had just lived on Earth until space travel became a thing, went to live on a colony, and stepped out of the shadows to help out with the attack. That would be less weird. Maybe chalk up that you can live as long as you have because you are an energy consuming conduit and it keeps you young..." Her mentioning this reminded me of how old Kessler was when he died. That man was over a hundred years old and he looked to be 80-90 years old when I killed him. I knew I wasn't going to be holding on to my youth for ever, even if my lifespan extended well past what a human could live to.

"...that would be fine. Also questions for later. Instead, you appear, out of a Prothean Beacon right after it activates and starts showing me visions of cities being destroyed and the destruction of entire galactic civilizations. I'm pretty sure I heard... never mind. Can you explain that one?" Shepard's arms were still crossed, a self soothing technique most people due subconsciously. A lot of people take it as a closed off I hate you stance because a lot of the times people who are angry are the ones that cross there arms. She was unnerved, and she wasn't the only one. I felt so uneasy about the implications of all that.

I cast my eyes to the ground, looking at my hands. They were there, not an illusion. I could feel things again, could talk, think clearly. I barely can remember my time as... whatever I was before the Beacon, so I didn't have any better answer then any of them could come up with. I was dead, and I should have stayed that way.

"I'm just a relic. Like that Beacon." It was then that I considered something. 171 years since New Marais. That city was destroyed, but humanity clearly survived. What I did worked.

So why was I hear. I hope Zeke made it out, even though I know it was unlikely, and that he would be dead now anyway, but still. I made that choice to save him. Something Kessler wouldn't be able to understand. I didn't do it for the common good. I did it for the only person that mattered to me. If he died anyway...

"Well, depending on how things play out, maybe you'll be a more useful relic then that Beacon was." Shepard stated. I growled at her. Something that surprised everybody, even myself. I jumped to my feet and loomed over her.

"I'm not your weapon." Shepard didn't flinch. She just stared daggers into me as I did her. Kaiden and Ashley stood up and got between the two of us.

"Yeah, well you aren't going to be set loose. It looks like destruction follows you everywhere you go. If you don't want to be locked away, I'm thinking you best make yourself useful to this crew." Shepard's tone was harsh and cold. Ruthless and calculating. The way I was right after Kessler showed me his past, and what he thought my future was supposed to be. The way I still sometimes can be.

"That isn't your call Commander." Chakwas stated matter-o-factly.

"No, it isn't. She is right, however." Anderson's affirmation of Shepard's logic didn't sit well with me. I would not become the military lap dog. It was then I decided I needed to escape as soon as possible. I just had to be patient. "We will decide that later MacGrath. Understandably, you aren't familiar with... well anything from this time, and don't even have the rudimentary knowledge to keep yourself from accidentally causing a war between humanity and any of the other council races. If you agree to cooperate, we will obviously help you where we can. We look out for our own." That I wasn't expecting. Zeke was just about the only person that treated me like a human being after I got my powers, even if at first he didn't really. Still, I didn't plan on sticking around.

"Captain? You read?" A voice came over some intercom system in the room. Anderson left the holographic screens up on the wall as he turned to leave.

"Loud and clear Joker." Anderson said.

"We will be docking at the Citadel shortly." The one identified as Joker exclaimed over the intercom.

"Good work as always Joker. Alenko, Williams, Shepard. Suit up. We'll meet with Ambassador Udina first, then proceed to the Council hearing." After giving his orders he approached the locked conference room door and unlocked it with a wave of his hand. I noticed it was the one that had the holographic gauntlet on it and wondered if they controlled all their devices with that thing.

"Aye aye, Captain." All three said in unison. All three took one last look at me, Kaiden looking between me and Shepard, before leaving they all left the room. I just let them walk past me, Shepard plowing her shoulder into me as she past. I barely budged, and refused to give her the satisfaction of retaliating so I ignored her. Anderson lingered a moment longer to address me.

"MacGrath... This has to be tough. Quite frankly I don't know how to make sense of it myself but your appearance isn't going to be believed by the Council. I don't know how to explain you to anybody, but you are from Earth. We will help-"

"Shut up." I didn't want to hear the hard sell of 'we have your back' when I knew it was just for their ease of mind. He grunted before turning to leave. The door closing behind him.

My focus now was on all the reports left up on the wall. I wanted to sift through them, so I lifted my hand and started waving at them as if I was Iron Man moving his holographic images in his first movie. That didn't work. I groaned in frustration. Probably needed that orange-holo thing to do anything.

"You know," I nearly jumped out of my skin. I had assumed Chakwas had left as well but it appeared she had stayed behind. "I can help you with that if you like?"

This woman. She didn't necessarily exude kind old lady vibes, but definitely had that caretaker air about her. She was a doctor so it made sense.

"Could I get one of those holo-things. They look cool." Chakwas chuckled at me.

"You are a precious one aren't you. It's called an Omni-tool." she smiled at me with a look of endearment and raised her arm and her omni-tool became visible. "You are correct that they are holographic in nature, and indeed, very cool. I however can't just give you a military grade omni-tool from our ship. We can get you a civilian one from the Citadel when we land if you like? Maybe some fresh clothes that don't make you look like one of us? Something tells me you don't like authority too much."

"Haha. I'm that obvious?" I joke.

"Yep." She popped the P.

"Karen, you are a true angel you know that. And your kind. So I appreciate it." The woman's smile turned to a smirk as she shook her head.

"I'm far too old for you to be hitting on me young man." She stated.

"Really? I'm pretty sure I'm the oldest person on this ship. I was 28, it's been a 171 years. So I'm basically 2 Centuries old." We had a laugh together. Better to laugh about something like that then anguish over it.

"Maybe in technical terms lad, but according to you, it wasn't a lived 171 years." She patted my cheek playfully before turning towards the screens. I decided that if this was the only friend I'd ever make in the future, I'd be happy about it.

"Thank you, Karen." She briefly looked back to me again with a soft expression. An understanding on her face. She winked at me with a smile and looked back at the screen.

"Don't mention it, Cole."