24 Hours Ago

Pain. Something I'm all too familiar with. I think at this point I'd call it an old friend. Not the kind that calls you to check in to see if you're okay, but the kind that pushes you towards the path of self-destruction.

This was not that pain. This was not pain caused by bullets, biotics, a fist in the jaw, or a Batarian raiding party slaughtering your friends and family. Taking the rest as slaves.

This pain, burns your soul.

I see visions, of massive metal machines destroying organic life the galaxy over. I see hell, I see the end of every cycle. I just can't make sense of what's actually happening.

Death and destruction is all around me, and there is nothing I can do to stop it. Each image flashes rapidly, leaving it's mark on my mind. My psyche will be haunted by these images forever.

I love you.

What is that? That was a woman.

You too.

A man now. They seem... scared. Of what?

You ever been called a terrorist

Yeah, actually. Only by the.. wait what, who is this?

My best friend, looks me in the eye... then makes his second mistake.

What is happening?

I watched her fall, and despite all my powers, there was nothing I could do to save her

Who is talking?!

I can see things now. Images. An explosion, engulfing 5 to 6 city blocks and I'm in the middle of it. I wake up and I need to move. I can move? What happened to... oh no.

All around me is rubble and destruction. The crater I'm in, is made of everything that was around me mashed together and merged with the ground. I can see some human arms and legs sticking out of various things. A few face- I throw up. I need to leave.

Memories? They become jumbled. I'm all over. Shooting lightning out of my hands at demented lunatics and junky gangs drunk on power. I fight, I protect, and I lose everything I love. I can't make it out. I just... feel, what is that?

In the distance I see a large man, made of stone and fire. His eyes burn like a red sun, and his body burns the area around him. Plants, grass, trees, critters, animals, humans, burn away. He ignites, engulfing everything in flames, creating a vortex of hellfire, bringing it into himself, until it builds up and he explodes.

The moon is shattered.

Then the memories shift again. Is this... what is this.

Every time I close my eyes I see the memories of a thousand dead men as I take their lives. Moments I'll relive forever.

Fear! I'm TERRIFIED! GET ME OUT OF HERE!

I'm coming! I'll BE THERE SOON

Dontdiedontdiedontdie

Visions gone, now only darkness, with a light. I don't want to go. Not yet

Must become whole again.

I don't want to die

Cole Relax or you'll fry her mind YES! I'm Cole! I AM COLE MACGRATH'S

The light is getting brighter as the voice is getting louder. Who's Cole MacGrath?

Prothean Beacon? I don't like this mind meld-

SHUT UP! CAN YOU HEAR ME SHUT UP!

Just kill me.

...was it honestly worse then what I have to live with

No, no it isn't.

The light blinds me, I feel an impact, and the beacon releases it's hold. I feel nothing, hear nothing, see nothing. My last thought is of the woman, Trish. Whoever that is. Before I fade into unconsciousness.

Just Outside C-Sec

"You alright commander?" I shake my head from my thoughts and address Kaiden.

"I'm fine LT. Just lost in thought is all." He didn't buy it. He let me be though.

We were currently heading to Chora's Den. The Council voted that Saren was not guilty of treason, stating that we'd need more evidence if we wanted them to act. Typical. The humans are just bumbling idiots to the council races, just stumbling into our space faring tech. I'd be lying if we hadn't made great strides in such a short time, but it makes sense given how tenacious we are.

Luckily for us, Captain Anderson had intel stating that the volus financial expert, Barla Von, was an agent of the Shadow Broker. They also mentioned meeting up with the C-Sec Agent in charge of the investigation to help out, but by the time I had reached Barla Von, Officer Garrus Vakarian had apparently took Cole MacGrath into custody.

What the hell did that idiot do?

I knew I shouldn't have left him alone. When Dr. Chakwas was reported to have made it back to the Normandy without MacGrath, the Captain and I were less then thrilled. In fact, I've been getting more and more irritated the more people I hear talking about him. Chorban for example, explained how it would be helpful to have two people working on his little Keeper scanning project. Stating that my friend Cole, was helping out in the Wards.

Then there was that rumour of a biotic taking down three mercs, two injured, one KIA. Knocked over a ledge and plummeted until his body hit a public transit shuttle. Something tells me that isn't the truth. Call it a gut feeling.

I don't know what C-Sec wants with MacGrath, but they would have sent word to us if he was in trouble. I still don't like it though.

Not to mention everything involving his appearance on Eden Prime, coming through a prothean beacon, and being a human Tesla Coil... everything about him screams wrong. I can even feel him sending out... signals, or something, every so often. I think that's what he was doing when he was channelling through the beacon, but I'm not sure. My mind of that agonizing moment was a haze. I definitely felt it after he woke up, causing him to collapse. When I caught him I felt... heat, energy, coming off of him. It was almost like the feeling I got from my biotics, or when others use their biotics, but with him it was different.

He wasn't channelling, dark energy, and that's all I could chalk it up to in terms of why it felt different. After we left the room though, I felt it again. It was definitely coming from him. I felt it like an approaching wave, then it hit me, washing over me and going past me, before coming back. That was the reason why I grabbed my gun and went back to confront him. I knew he was up to something and low and behold he was.

I wasn't expecting to be taken down so easily though. Rookie move, approaching an unknown like that assuming I knew anything about how he'd react to getting shot. Hell, I had no idea you could restrain people with electricity, without causing severe, or fatal injuries. Yet there he was, doing it.

I shook my head. The files on him, heavily redacted and lies about him spread through the media back in the late 2000's and early 2010's. His being nearly 200 years old also gives me a headache. Time travel? Conduits just have extremely long life spans in comparison to the life expectancy from a century ago?

All I knew, if he became a threat, I'd take him down whatever the cost.

Now however, was time to focus on my mission.

Once we got the info we needed, Barla Von mentioned a krogan bounty hunter by the name of Wrex who had been taken to the C-Sec academy for questioning. Apparently he was hired to kill Fist for the Broker, after Fist and Saren betrayed the clandestine information broker. Whatever they betrayed one of the most dangerous people in the galaxy for, had to be capable of pinning Saren to the wall.

I was going to get it no matter what.

Luckily, Wrex wasn't getting arrested and agreed to help us so long as he got to whack Fist. Now, we are seconds away from entering the gentleman's club.

"Look alive. Whatever information Fist has I want, so don't just kill him immediately Wrex. Copy?" I didn't even look back at the krogan as I drew my Kessler III, and trained it on the door. My Squad waiting up behind me waiting for the signal.

"I'll do my best, Shepard." His tone was slightly sarcastic, and it made me worry that I might have to fight him to. I gave Kaiden a look, and he just nodded his understanding. I nodded back and gave the signal to enter.

"Fire at will." Kaiden opens the door to the bar and immediately a gun fight pops off.

He and I take a few hits, our biotic barriers momentarily protecting us as we give covering fire and rush to cover. This bar is actually terrible. Some tables are flipped over, but those would barely do anything, and the bar itself was a circular piece in the middle of the damn room, blocking line of sight directly across the bar.

Wrex didn't rush to cover, instead opting to launch a biotic shock wave towards a group on our left, knocking about three mercenaries over tables, one of which slamming against a wall and hopefully knocking him out. He placed his hand back on his shotgun, which he was firing one handed, and kept unloading until the thermal clip ran out. That was the moment he took cover, while switching clips.

Kaiden had started shooting at another group on the right, every so often throwing them around the room with biotics like they were play things. L2's are something else. Feeling left out, I steady my breath and popped up from the bar, strafing down Kaiden's side, believing the new krogan ally had his side covered, firing one round at a time. The shields of these guys were a little tougher then you'd expect from thugs, but these thugs were working for the Shadow Broker at one point in their lives, so I suppose Fist kept them well equipped.

It didn't take long however for my warp rounds to make short work of some of their shields. I used my omni-tool's latest upgrade to sabatoge the weapons of a few of the mercs, causing the heat ports to over load and vent all at once, causing the thermal clips to pop off the guns and burn the hands of 2 mercs. The other I lifted into the air, leaving him helpless as Kaiden hit him with some juice of his own and slammed him into the wall, killing him on impact. Though, the rapid flux in his mass due to our biotic powers would have done a lasting number on him if he had survived.

Much of the fight went on like this, not much resistance and us just wiping the floor with Fist's men. At some point, Wrex actually put his shotgun away and charged the poor saps, headbutting them and punching them until they stopped moving. Using his biotics every so often. Clearing the front of the Den, we moved on to the next area of the bar, which led us into a hallway where two warehouse workers drew on us.

"Stop right there! Don't come any closer!" Idiots, they were trying to act tough but I could see the looks on their faces before they pulled their weapons that they were terrified. I may be known for being ruthless...

"Listen, I can drop you both, or you can go home, find another job with less hazardous working conditions." I kept my gun trained on them just in case.

Both men looked at each other, hands trembling, before one shook his head and lowered his gun. The other followed his example. I used my left hand to jam my thumb in the direction of the exit and they thanked me before leaving.

The next room was the office of Fist himself.

"You fucked with the wrong man!" Fist was hiding behind his desk, having activated to turrets that were hidden in the floor on either side of said desk. We all took cover as he and his turrets opened fire on us. We rolled our eyes, this wasn't going to be much of a fight.

Both Kaiden and I used our tech prowess to overload the circuitry of the turrets, causing them to malfunction. Fist yelped as Wrex came storming around the corner, which made me follow a few steps worried he'd just beat Fist to death, but he had just grabbed one of the turret encampments, ripped it out of the ground, and launched it through the other one with the aid of his biotics.

"I was not expecting to see that today." Kaiden muttered.

"Me neither. Glad he's on our side." Wrex went behind the desk, Fist firing a few rounds into his barrier before he smacked the gun away and lifted the lowlife high above his head before slamming him into his desk. I could hear a cracking sound as some of his ribs broke.

"Please tell me his lungs aren't pierced." Wrex shrugged.

"Ask your questions." He demanded. I walked up to Fist, putting my gun against his head.

"You have info for me about Saren. Talk." I almost whispered it my voice was so low. He definitely wet himself, I wasn't sure if it was because of me, the rampaging krogan, or both.

"I don't know wha-aaaAAAH!" Wrex began putting pressure on his ribs.

"If you don't know what I'm talking about Fist, then why does the Shadow Broker want you both dead?" Fist wailed a bit longer in agony before I signal for Wrex to relent a bit. He grunted in disapproval but obliged my request.

"Okay, okay! Saren asked me to take care of a quarian. She wanted to sell her info tot he Shadow Broker, but would only deal with the Shadow Broker in person." The man, if you can call him that, was pathetic to behold. He was shaking like a leaf and sounded like a whining child in the middle of a scolding.

"That's impossible. The Shadow Broker only deals through their agents." Kaiden retorted. I fired my gun off to the side and pressed the scalding barrel against his head. Wrex chuckled.

"She doesn't know! Nobody meets the Broker. Even I don't know his true identity. But she doesn't know that, and I told her I'd set a meeting up. Only when she shows, Saren's men will be the ones waiting for her." I grab him by the throat and drag him off the desk, Wrex letting go of him when he sees my attempts. Putting him on his feet, he cries in pain from the rough treatment while suffering from broken ribs.

"LOCATION! NOW!" Spit is coming off my face. This was our only chance to catch Saren, and I could feel it slipping through my grasp.

"Behind the market in the Wards not far from here! If you hurry, you can make it! Please, I told you everything. Let me go!" I sneer at him as I toss his ass on the ground and turn around to leave. He sounds like he's about to thank me before I hear a shotgun blast and squelching sounds.

"He was unarmed Wrex." Kaiden was a bit of a softy sometimes. Though his anger can get the better of him, the guy didn't care for shooting those who had surrendered or were unarmed. It depended for me.

"I was paid to kill him, by the Shadow Broker no less. I don't leave jobs half done." He stated as he caught up to us. We had all broken out into a jog.

"He had it coming. Now focus up!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

The alley behind the markets wasn't very far. It only took us about 5 minutes to make it there and take cover to stay out of sight from some mercs that are guarding the entrance. I can see into the alley, and I see the woman I'm looking for.

She's standing in front of a turian with white face markings that cover almost his whole face, and in a turian style hood and armour. He has men all over this wide alley, along with men covering the exits. This was going to be dicey.

"Did you bring it?" The turian stepped menacingly towards the quarian. Her guard goes up as she looks around, probably realizing her mistake.

"Where's the Shadow Broker? Where's Fist?" The girl stands her ground. Brave, stupid.

"They'll be here. Where's the evidence?" The turian is now feeling up the girl, my teeth are on edge and my hand is still holding my Kessler III and I'm ready to jump out and start shooting. The girl then swats the turian's hand away.

"No way. The deal's off." As she backs away from him she turns and sees two salarians pull their weapons. Smart girl is thinking on her feet and is prepared for this. Throwing a grenade and detonating it as it reaches the two.

Then I see golden-yellow sparking through the alley as a large fight breaks out.