Jane moaned as she turned to look at Liara in her beautiful blue face. She reached out to trance the contours of the Asari's smooth round face before moving down to her hips. Her very… attractive… her mind began to turn fifthly again. How she would pound that blue ass again and again and again. The thought made her run her tongue along her lips with a predatory gaze. Seeing how she could end up with a little bump in that muscular belly of hers.

She shuddered at the thought as she began to lean in to kiss her.

Jane opened her eyes to find herself inches from a grey skinned Asari who was clearly head and had a distractive lack of eyes. She froze as the image in front of her, her mind slowly processing what she was looking at.

"Ahhhhhhh!" she yelled as she jumped up and scurried back into a wall.

Frowning, she looked up to see an old stone building that was bombed out by something. It reminded her of old World War 2 images. With that thought in mind, she began to look around and take in where she was. While she couldn't place it, the single moon above her made it clear that she was on Earth. But something seemed off, still. She couldn't place it, but soon saw the other four stand. Seeing them, she followed them, groaning as she did.

"Hey," she called out. "Where are we?"

"Earth," Yasuke muttered looking around. "But I'm not sure…" he began before Shion spoke up.

"London," she pointed to a large clock tower in the distance. "That's Big Ben,"

Jane looked to see the tower still standing despite the destruction of the city.

"You do know that Big Ben is the bell, right?" Ajax asked.

The idol shrugged. "Yeah, but it's a common enough name that people know what you are talking about, despite being the wrong thing,"

The cyborg opened his mouth to argue before closing it. "Fair enough, right John?" a silence followed making all eyes turn to the man who had frozen in place. "John?" Ajax asked again.

John said nothing. Instead, he turned toward the tower and broke into a run. The four looked to each other before following him.

"John wait," Jane yelled but he kept running and running.

"Holy shit," Ajax said followed by curses in Japanese and Korean.

Jane stopped to look to them before following their wide eyes to fix on a Reaper in the distance. Her breathing slowed; her mind raced. She wasn't prepared for this; she wasn't ready to face one. Not now, not yet. Fear, dread and terror filled her as she took in the sight of a Reaper in London, destroying the city. She swallowed waiting for its eye to come over and blast her into oblivion. Something that didn't happen.

"It's not moving," Yasuke noted.

Jane looked again and indeed it wasn't moving. In fact, the more she looked at the scene around her, nothing was. Everything looked like a picture, frozen in time. Fighters frozen in mid-flight, firefights looking like pictures and vehicles frozen as they churn up gravel. Nothing moved. Jane shook her head.

"We'll figure that out later," she said and the four nodded and followed her as they chased after John.

Thankfully he didn't get far. He was down the street that they followed him down, kneeling between a pair of mobile rocket launchers looking over a body. The street was a mess with bodies of Humans, Turians, Asari, Salarian and husks scattered around. As the four slowed and took in the sight before them, the damage, the chaos, the sheer hopeless feeling about everything before them. It was hard to take it all in, especially the Reaper bodies.

"Hey guys," Shion spoke up as she pointed to a body dressed in a white outfit.

It wasn't hard to see who it was. "Liara," Jane muttered keeping the feeling of her heart pounding to the side. This wasn't 'her' Liara, this one was John's, but that didn't make it feel any better.

Ajax walked up to John and looked at the body he was kneeling next to and almost looked away. Ashley Williams was a sight for sore eyes, but her death was messy. One of her legs was gone along with part of her lower torso. Blood covered her and leaked from her smiling mouth. Despite her lifeless form, it was clear that she was at least happy in her final moments.

As the others joined the two, Ajax knelt next to John placing his hand on the engineer's shoulder. "Your world?" he asked in a soft tone with a nod in the affirmative. "Future?" again he nodded.

At that, Jane took everything around her again seeing everything in a new light. This is what her 'brother' was facing, and he lost if his actions and lack of words were any indicator. He did everything in his power to save his Earth but failed. Her mind began to wonder why and how.

"I suppose this is the reason why you acted that way in front of Saren," Yauske muttered and John nodded, still not speaking.

Silence filled the air as the group couldn't find anything to say and looks to one another didn't provide anything to add. Shion was about to say something, but someone took that point to interrupted.

"How the holy fuck did you five end up here?" a new voice asked causing all of them to turn quickly, guns raised, at a cloaked figure with short hair and glasses.

"Darkstar?" Ajax asked.

The watcher was about to wave when John came running up and grabbing him by the collar before lifting him in the air, choaking him. "Why are where here? What did you do?" he growled.

"Nothing," Darkstar gagged. "I swear. This isn't my doing. I'm just as confused as you,"

Ajax walked up and placed his hand on John's shoulder. "John, they don't lie," he said calmly. "Let him go,"

John hesitated for a moment, before nodding and setting Darkstar down who regained his breath. "I only came here as I detected something that shouldn't be here. Looks like that's you five, which means I need to increase the barriers to this timeline,

"What happened? Or at least, what do you think happened?" Shion asked.

The Watcher paused, considering the question. "I… I'm not sure. Normally, this kind of thing is triggered when you… well release a 'Core moment'. Basically, it's a defining moment in a timeline that can go either way. Like a multiple-choice option in a video game with branching paths. The problem is that restarting the oxygen generator isn't one. So I have no idea a…."

"Nwod teg drapehs," a voice said and all six of them turned as watched as Liara's body began to flicker, like she was glitching out.

Time seemed to be reversing along which her speech as her body moved from being shot and falling to the ground, to coming back up from the ground and standing. Her body seemed to settle into a biotic stance with her hand up and her pistol to the side as if she had a barrier up. A second later, that's exactly what she had up.

"Shepard, get…." she began turning to look to a spot where she expected to see him, only to find the space empty. "John?" she asked as she looked around before taking in the six newcomers and reacted. "Who are…" she began dropping her shield and raising her pistol.

Her arm didn't make it all the way up as John came in and pulled her into a tight hug. "Hey Shepard…" she muttered with a blush. "Wha…

"Just stay quiet Liara," he said as tears began to fall.

Unable to object, the blue skinned asari wrapped her arms around John as well. But to Jane it seemed that she did it for more out of hidden feelings than friendship. An awkward silence filled the area as the other Shepards and Darkstar waited as the two separated.

"John what's going…." She began before someone interrupted.

"What the fuck is going on? Wait maybe, yes… that could me it… maybe..,." Darkstar muttered before noticing the odd looks. "Sorry, need to go, and so do you,"

"Hey wait…." John began only for the scene around them to that of the atmosphere generator.

After a look around to see everyone assembled, they then proceeded to vomit. Liara let out more than the others before she recovered.

"John, what in the Goddess's name is going on?" she practically yelled looking at him.

"I…. one sec," he muttered for vomiting and whipping his mouth. "Ok, I… I think I'm done," he said as he straightened up.

"I really fucking hate it when he does that," Ajax muttered.

Jane only grunted in agreement.

"Liara, there's a lot to explain, but I'll start with the basics," John said as he helped her up and indicated to the others. "This is Ajax, Shion, Yasuke and the asari fetishist Jane,"

"Hey," she snapped, giving him an evil look.

"For lack of a better word, we're all Shepard," Liara's jaw dropped open.

OOOOO

The three Normandies swerved between the spires of Omega, targeting the fighter squadrons first before targeting the smooth frigates. They fired, taking out one of them while the others moved out of the way. The fighters, however, were fast and managed to get out of the way of the incoming fire aimed at them. Several more ships, fights and picket ships, seemed to come out of nowhere and began to attack the three forcing them to break off and split.

"God damn these guys are though," Joker muttered with his two siblings nodded.

"Fuckers come out of fucking nowhere," Harlequin agreed as she split her Normandy from the three leading a fight group away from them.

"Understatement," Jester agreed as he did the same thing. "A dishonourable tactic, but I can be even more dishonourable," he smiled as he flew into an industrial section of the underside of the station.

The fighters followed him closely, tying to target the engines. But the way he moved counter that plant, annoying the enemy fighter pilots. They had to move out of the way of the incoming spires to try and get a shot at Jester. But the way that he moved his Normandy made it difficult to get a solid lock until they reached a gap. They closed in with target locked the Normandy dived at such a speed that the fighters couldn't match in time and slammed into a large blocky section taking out the wing.

He smiled before moving to assist Joker, but broke off as two frigates target him. "Kuso, we're outnumbered!" he yelled as he avoided the fire from the two ships.

"I've got three on my tail," Harlequin yelled. "ED-I is doing his best to feed me data to counter them,"

"Got more incoming," Joker added as several icons indicating cruisers came on the LADAR. "They're the same design as the frigates,"

Jester swore again. "Who are these guys?" he asked no one in particular.

"Not a clue, but they brought a fleet with them," Harlequin added as she moved her ship avoiding a kinetic round that narrowly missed her.

Jester agreed as he continued to fly though the industrial sector, avoiding the fire from the frigates chasing him. But it wasn't easy as several shots managed to nick up as he moved. He grunted in annoyance and changed tactic by taking a hard right and trying to move out of range of their weapons. But there was a noticeable dip with his controls.

"That last shot took out some of our momentum," the mechanical voice of the Advanced Kombat Intelligence said. "Thrust is down 3%," her feminine voice echoing in Jester's ears.

"Damn it," Jester practically yelled as he flipped the ship and moved in for a strafing run against the frigates. "AKI, TARGTING DATA!"

"Sending," the AI said as Jester got in close and fired all weapons at the three, focusing on one target.

The rockets and kinetic rounds hit their targets, but did little damage. As he sped passed them, the ships turned slowly trying to track Jester but slowly. While the attack did little, it did affect their manoeuvrability options making them slow to turn. Despite his thrusters being damaged, Jester's knack for being the best pilot in the Japanese Imperial Star Fleet wasn't for nothing. He turned the ship, moving it into a wide circle around the frigates as they tried to turn on the spot. That allowed Jester to stagger his shots at them, but not all hit which was the idea. He needed to force them to fall back an reassess.

But they seemed to be aware of the plan as they managed to time a shot that hit one of his engines making him yell out as the ship shook.

"Kuso, didn't see that coming," he muttered as he pulled off.

"You ok there Jester?" Harlequin asked.

"Git clipped," he replied. "Lost one of my engines,"

"You still ok to fight and fly?" Joker joined in; his voice filled with concern.

After a quick check, Jester cursed again. "Negative, down to three engines. Speed and manoeuvrability compromised. I can duck and dodge but not much more," cursing again, he sighed. "I can still attack, but they will be limited attacks. That captain got a good shot,"

"Don't beat yourself up," Joker said trying to ease his 'brother'. "W…" he started but was interrupted by several contact icons.

"Multiple contacts," EDI said over the radio. "Mr Moreau, they just appeared out of nowhere,"

"Just like the Normandy's and John," Joker muttered. "How many ships are we talking about?"

"25 in total," Harlequin spoke up, her image blinking in confusion. "Wait, I know this formation…"

As she spoke an asari Captain came up, her dark blue skin standing out from her black and red NSS uniform. "This is Tela Vasir, Normandy do you copy? I'm reading three IFF signatures. Please confirm," she asked, her expression not betraying anything other than a stoic calm.

Josephine sighed with relief. "Confirmed Tela, they are alternate versions of the Normandy. We are under attack by unidentified hostiles and need assistance,"

That seemed to break her focus but she shook her head. "Understood. Targeting the other ships," as she spoke several angular ships sped passed Jester and targeted the sleek silver ships.

It seemed that the tide was turning.

OOOOO

"BRACE!" Kadian yelled as a bombardment of biotics hit the barricade.

As they recovered, they watched the Kodiak that had arrived moved to target the Eclipse Biotic vanguard units who were trying to move up and break the barricade. Despite moving into cover, the Eclipse mercs tried to target the Kodiak with little success. The only thing that they managed to do was push it away allowing for more Blood Pack and Eclipse to advance forward.

The street in front of the clinic had become a no-mans-land as the NSS troopers managed to keep the mercs at bay. But they were getting tired and running out of momentum. Even with the Mirandas, Jacobs and Garrus' there, they weren't getting far as the Mercs seemed to have an endless supply. The Korgan and Eclipse mechs were the biggest problem as they took a lot of hits before going down. They also had a lot of firepower giving as much as they took. It meant that the NSS and allies were effectively trapped unable to escape.

One of the soldiers called out how that had to break though but Clover called back. "Easier said than done," she called out as she threw a singularity staggering out a group of mechs that got too close.

The others finished them off as several Korgan moved up, taking that moment to take an opportunity to open fire at the barricade with their heavy weapons. The NSS ducked into cover avoiding the fire, but one soldier wasn't luck as their head exploded as they tried to pop out of cover to try and take a shot. Kadian cursed under his breath as he threw a warp ball followed by a grenade in anger. Both missed, but did force the mercs to get their heads down.

"Shit we need backup!" he yelled as the doors opened and an asari in a white outfit stepped up to the wall and brought up a barrier.

"I got you, get the wounded inside," she yelled making Kadian blink.

"L…Liara?" he asked earning a shocked looked from young biotic.

"Kadian? Ho…" she began but shook her head. "Wait, alternate version?"

He chuckled. "Maybe in your eyes,"

She just sighed and nodded. "Yeah, I can see that,"

As she spoke, several NSS soldiers pulled their wounded partners into the clinic.

"So what's the…" Kadian began when a guitar riff cut him off.

He looked up to the roof above the clinic door to see Shion standing there with a holographic guitar in hand. "May not be the same as a real one, but still useful," she muttered as she continued to play.

As she played, she began to sing in Korean confusing some of the non-human combatants. She began to smile as she reached a chorus section and switched to English.

"Feel that sonic…." She pulled back before yelling into her microphone. "BOOOOOOM,"

Sound waves shot from her amps, causing the mercs to cover their ears in pain. Some of them were bleeding from their ears while others collapsed trying to get their breathing back under control. Liara looked on in surprise what the effect of the sonic weapons that the idol had just used.

"Cover fire!" Ajax yelled as he and the other Shepard came up to the barricade and began to fire at the mercs who were trying to get up.

It didn't take long to finish the remnants off giving the crew breathing room. "Come on," John said. "We have to find their leaders,"

The other Shepards nodded as they vaulted over the barricade. Liara was about to follow, but John gave her a shake of the head before moving off. She hated that she couldn't help, but then again, this was something that only the Shepards could do. Watching the five up down the street, her heart ached slightly with how she wanted to tell him but couldn't. Maybe sometime, maybe.

The five followed the bath of supplies and dead bodies up to a warehouse where the mercs had seemed to set up their command centre. Ajax activated his cloak and was the first to move up. The other four held back as they kept an eye on the permitter of the warehouse. The cyborg pressed up against the wall of the building, inching up to the doors before unlocking them.

With no alerts, he moved into the building and scanned the area. No one was around. After decloaking, he indicated for the others to come and join him. They followed quickly, but as he turned, it was hard to ignore the several guns from the mercs on the upper level aimed at him. He raised his hands in surrender as the others came in and did the same.

"It's a trap," Jane muttered.

"I've noticed," Ajax replied in a deadpan tone.

2 Salarian Eclipse commanders stood either side of 3 Korgan commanders. It wasn't hard to see that they were variations of one another. But they weren't sure if that applied to the mercs around them as well.

"Any ideas?" Yasuke asked.

"None," John replied but noticed Shion adjust her amps.

"Look at this," one pf the Korgan leaders said. "5 Shepards all for the taking,"

"I still want Archangel," one of the Salarians said with the other nodding.

The Krogan grunted in agreement as they looked to the five humans. "Shouldn't be a problem. We deal with these five first, then take the Turrian,"

"I'd like to see you TRRRRYYYYYYYYYY!" Shin cried out into her mic, sending sonic soundwaves into the mercs.

They screamed as their ears began to bleed. She stopped before the five opened up with their weapons. The three Korgan were the first to recover as they jumped down and charged at the five. The Shepards dived out of the way letting the Korgan crash into the walls and break them down.

"Shion, Yasuke, Jane, you take the Korgan. Me and John will take the Salarians!" Ajax yelled.

There was no reply, but nods as the three nodded moved out to take on the three Korgan while the two Salarian commanders got up and began to flee. The two Shepards jumped onto he crates leading up to the upper level and began to chase them.

Outside the three Shepards readied themselves as the three Krogan recovered and turned to face them.

"Annoying little human," the cyborg said looking to Shion.

She blinked. "Ya know, that kinda works," she muttered as she clicked her fingers to an unheard beat. "Annoying little human, annoying little human, I'll break your bones, eat your skin…" Shion moved out of the way as the Krogan yelled out and charged at her.

He slammed into a wall dazing him, but recovered quickly as he turned to face her. Shion had already brough up her dual pistols and began to fire. While she was in the middle of that, Yasuke and his Krogan were having a dual. Yasuke kept his distance while the Krogan just yelled out and tried to swung his hammer to knock the Samurai off his feet. Despite his hight, the Samurai moved with a well-practiced speed and grace. Donging the Krogan's attack like they were little more but the movements of the wind.

Jane was similar in how she moved, but used her biotcs to weak the Korgan she faced. He came in with a charge and she used a bench to slam into his face. Yelling in pain she moved around him throwing a singularly at him causing him to stumble back. She followed up with a warp ball picking him up allowing her to get a few shots in with her pistol. As he landed, she threw a grenade under him. He didn't have time to get away before it blew.

His guts painted the road like a bad street paint job. She turned to see Yasuke move in on the attack, despite his broken blade. The Samurai used his sped to move around the Krogan leader before driving his blade deep into the non-human. The Krogan roared as the Samurai pulled out and moved before moving to stab him more and more. Soon the Krogan fell to his knees only for Yasuke to finish him off with a pistol shot through the eyes.

Shion, however, just used her sonic amps to pin him down before unloading fire rounds into him. But it wasn't simple, she had to move out of the way each time he charged. But on the final attack, she missed the opportunity to move and was tackled into a wall. Spitting out blood, she groaned as the Krogan pulled away and kicked her making her spit out blood.

"Puny hu…" he began before she screamed into her mic, her amps set to the max.

The krogan yelled out in pain as he backed up away from her. She stopped and fired at the Krogan's head, this time killing him as hr ignited and set ablaze. With all three dead, Yasuke and Jane moved over to administer aid to their 'younger sister'.

The two Salarians had gotten a head start on Ajax and John despite the two moving with speed. The reached the far end of the warehouse and stopped to see their targets running towards a gunship.

"Think you can take them?" John asked as Ajax pulled out his sniper rifle.

"I'll try," the cyborg said as he readied the rifle only for a pair of mercs to drop down on top of them.

John reacted quickly and kicked his attacker off while Ajax activated his omni-blade and removed his attacker's arm. The attacker screamed as she pulled himself off only for the cyborg Shepard to slam his fist though their head. Recovering his sniper rifle, he aimed trying to get the gunship in sight.

The attacker John faced moved quickly, getting a wild haymaker to the face and a kick to the gut sending him back into the corridor. John grabbed the second kick and puled the attacker close before activating his omni-blade and cut the attacker's leg. The attacker screamed as they fell to the floor before John finished them off with a shot to the head. As he walked back up to Ajax, John watched as the cyborg shot the fuel cells on the gunship.

It began to explode but it seemed to happen in slow motion with reality seeming to flicker before them.

OOOOO

Aira looked at the five humans who stood before her in her private booth. Her expression unreadable from years upon years of practice. But that wasn't going to last long. The story they had given her wasn't just fanciful, it was something that sounded like a downright impossible. Looking to the pad in her hands, however, she couldn't deny the evidence before her. All five of them shared the same DNA. Despite the 5% difference between them, they all shared the same genes which would be impossible. She sighed.

"So, I'm expected to believe that Omega, my station, was on the bring of collapsing into the void, but you five stopped it?" she asked rubbing her head feeling a headache come on.

The five nodded with the one in white and pink armour being a little more eager than the others. How she could have such energy and optimism the asari wasn't sure, but it was better than the hungered lust looks the red headed human was giving her. She was hiding it well, but Aria recognised the look regardless of how well it was hidden.

"I would ask how or why, but I'm sure that the answer wouldn't make much sense to me," she admitted. "However, I will admit you saved me from removing Eclipse, Blood Pack and Blue suns myself. So, I'm at a loss as to what to do with you,"

John stepped forward. "If you are fine with it, we wish to make some urgent repairs to one of our ships before we head out. We would also appreciate it if you… well didn't ban us from the station,"

She eyed him. "The first part I can do. But as for the second, I'm not sure about. While you have saved me from the mercs, you did cause a lot of problems and damage to the station. Even if it's unintentional,"

John nodded as he grabbed a data slate and handed it to Aria. She took it and after having a quick glance looked up with a mix of emotions.

"How did you get this?" she asked, her tone carefully neutral.

John just shrugged. "I have my sources. But this should be more than enough payment to allow us to stay and come back,"

Aria looked at the tablet again and nodded. "More than enough," she relaxed setting it aside. "I must admit, I'm impressed Shepard. I would have thought this sort of thing would take time to gather. Your source must be very well connected,"

He smirked. "Oh, they are," a hint of mischief entered his tone. "Very well connected,"

The Asari smiled as she looked at the five. "Seems that it would be better to have you five as an ally than enemy," she muttered before waving her hand. "Fine, you can come and go as you please. Just try not to test my patience,"

After a series of 'thank you' the five left and stepped onto afterlife. "By all the gods out there, that woman is terrifying," Shion muttered as she stretched her arms out, cracking them.

"Still fuckable though," Jane said earning looks from the others. "What?"

"Asari fetishist," John muttered earning him a death glare from the red head.

"Anyway," Ajax said quickly, trying to move the subject. "What did you give her John? And don't pretend to not know,"

The engineer looked to him and sighed. "I suppose it cannot hurt, I gave her locations for pirate stashes, people she wants dead and unknown strategic resources she can use. How I got it, that I'm keeping to myself," before the cyborg could ask, John held up his hand. "Future stuff," he clarified.

"Ah," was all the cyborg said.

"Why can't you talk about the future?" Yasuke asked. "Giving us the information could help us,"

John was about to speak before Ajax took the opportunity to do so. "If we knew part of our future it can change the outcome. Like if we knew that either Ashley or Kadian was going to die on Vermire, how would the outcome change? Would it be good or bad? How would the future change because of it? Too many unknowns,"

Yasuke didn't look convinced but nodded. "I can talk about the future if something changes, like the merc attack on Aria. Anything else…" he shrugged. "Not happening,"

The samurai nodded, but still looked unconvinced about that as they moved on. "So, what's the plan?"

"We have Kasumi, Jack and Oker to pick up next," Jane said as she pulled up her omni-toll with the dossiers coming up. "We could put it to a vote,"

"If I may," a new voice added with the five looking up to see Darkstar in front of them. "You should go after Jack,"

He didn't get a good look from John. "Why?" the engineer asked.

"You'll find someone you'll need," he said before vanishing.

"Cryptic," Ajax muttered.

"Ok, Jack next," Jane said before sighing. "Who's up for a drink?"

No one object to that.