Mass Effect 1. Beginning Again

The Lost Ones  


by Alpenwolf

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Mass Effect, but I like to play quite a bit with the Mass Effect Universe. I hope you won't hold that against me.

_Torn from time, torn from home, they are all lost in a world similar to their own, but at the same time so very different. The universe is up to some ride and its passengers are vastly unaware of it. Thrown into the ride, into this new world, they have no choice but to find their own way. Otherwise survival might not be possible. Not for them and not for everyone else.  
_

Before we go to the warnings that I feel are appropriate for this story there are some other things I want to say. The warnings aren't anything drastic I assure you. Just some basic things I feel like you should know. About the other things ... well ... I will be referencing some stories I have come across in this story. I think about them as some kind of tributes to those stories. While most tributes will have been written with the knowledge of them being tributes I'm pretty sure that some will happen coincidentally.

I'm not going to publish any chapter of this story "hot off the press" as they like to say. The time span between first finishing a chapter and actually publishing it can take a few weeks. I'm using the time inbetween to edit and correct any mistakes I might find. I do hope you can understand my reasoning, since most of you are fellow writers as well.

Another thing I want to say is that I'm thanking the wonderful **Graceyn **once again for introducing yWriter to me. It greatly helps me with keeping track of my own story. Read the story and you will know what I mean, I hope.

Last but not least, this chapter was written without a beta. Without anyone looking at my work beforehand. So any and all mistakes are all but of my own doing.

**Warnings:**

First of all, I consider this story AU. While many situations will be canon some others will be hard to consider canon. So I suggest you consider this story to be AU, just to be on the safe side.

Second, there will be OCs. Some might say that the home of OCs are AU stories. That certainly is true, to some degree, but I assure you that this isn't the case everytime. If you imagine and give Councilor Tevos a secretary this person will certainly be an OC, but it doesn't mean that the story has to be AU.

Third, I have some strange habits while writing. Not what you might think by that now. In some cases I'm just very good at delaying some things, like not giving the reader the name of some characters. In some cases it will take several chapter between introducing a new character and learning the characters name.

Fourth, what's in a name? Nothing and everything. People have birth names and nicknames of sorts, some even have chosen names. I do hope you keep that in mind while reading it, because some people have a few ways to be addressed. Meaning multiple nicknames and/or second names.

Fifth, I am going to switch between perspectives and places quite often. Places and people will change in a chapter but also between chapters sometimes. For example from Omega to the Citadel and back to Omega. I try to have everything lined up in time, but sometimes two or more events and/or viewpoints will happen at the same time or as close to it as it gets.

Sixth, while english is not my first language I do have learned quite a bit in the last years. I just want you to be aware of the possibilites that I might be mixing US english and UK english somewhat. I do not mean harm or offence in any way, but since both variants of english are influencing my life I have probably learned to use them without noticing the difference anymore.

Anyway, without further ado the story starts now.

* * *

**Exodus Cluster, Utopia System, Eden Prime**

A bird was singing in the trees around her, finally waking her but her eyes stayed closed. Denying the world's suggestion that it was about time to stand up and start the day in all its youthfullness. A few seconds later another bird answered the first one. One after another more and more birds started singing before they started to fly away. Her hands were caressed by the touch of the morning dew on the grass. A butterfly was sitting on her nose, greeting and tickling her at the same time. She didn't care and stayed in her position, lying down in the grass and liked the feeling of the sun's first shafts of sunlight on this beautiful morning. She silently sighed in bless. It felt good to lie down in the grass and doing nothing for once.

Though it felt good something bothered her. Was it the butterfly on her nose?

No, she found she quite liked the tickling. Was it the morning dew on her hands?

No, the cool breeze of the wind and the water felt good on her. It gave her the feeling that it would become a beautiful day later on. Was it the absence of sounds?

She thought about it for a few minutes and afterwards the answer was clear to her. While she was used to silence in her workline, which sometimes bothered her a bit, she wasn't bothered by it now. What it was then that bothered her? Was it because she was doing nothing? Was she supposed to do something? No, this was one of her free days, she had no plans for today that she could remember.

Frustrated she opened her eyes for the first time on this day and closed them almost immediately again.

"Too damn bright." she mumbled standing up, ignoring the angry buzzing of the butterfly who had to let go of her. "Where is the damn button to stop the simulation? Come to me. Come to mama you damn button." she mumbled while slowly going in the direction she remembered where it was. Her eyes were still closed as she started searching.

* * *

**Exodus Cluster, Utopia System, SSV Normandy SR-1**

"All systems are reading normal, Internal Emission Sinks are active, drift is ... just under 1500 kilometers."

"1500 is good. Your captain will be pleased." A low, slightly tingling and alien voice, that somehow suggested some kind of deeper meaning to him, replied. Nihlus Kryik, a turian. A guest on this ship and also a Spectre. A special group of individuals that were selected by the Citadel Council, the governing body of the Citadel, the largest and most important space station ever built in space.

To Jeff 'Joker' Moreau it was little more than a place with the most self-important, most stuck-up people in existence. While he knew that getting on the bad side of the Council wasn't a good move in itself, it didn't stop him from distrusting anything that screamed 'Bullshit Politics' to him, which the Council clearly did. Of course he also knew he was biased having never ever had to do with them directly and he clearly hoped it would stay this way. Except the order of his higher ups to let this one Spectre on board, which clearly was an order from the Council otherwise he suspected that he would have never been allowed on board, even with his 'Spectre-can-go-and-do-anything'-wild card.

The thick silence that had followed the turians disappearance was going on his nerves and so he said the first thing that came to his mind. "I hate that guy."

The human male sitting next to him raised his eyebrows and replied. "Nihlus pays you a compliment and you hate him? Sounds reasonable."

Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko. In Jeff's eyes he was one of the few decent marines he had ever met. Calm and professional and he didn't look at him with pity in his eyes. He hated pity. He was no helpless little baby. His bones may be weak and break at the slightest touch, but he was still no helpless baby. He had shown himself and everyone else that it wasn't just mindful wishing. He was the best damn pilot in the galaxy and he was damn proud of it.

"Compliment? 1500 isn't just good, it's amazing. It's like - "And so he began a colourful and long elaboration of why it was amazing and at the same time to annoy and bore the Lieutenant next to him, who was way to polite to interrupt him. The only thing that stopped him was as the intercom lit up and the voice of the Captain told him to inform Commander Richford-Shepard that he was needed in the comm room.

Following the order, he searched for the life signs of the Commander. Surprisingly, he was standing next to their navigation officer, Charles Pressly. Opening a comm link with the Commander he told him that he was being expected in the comm room. He thanked Jeff, before closing the comm link and exchanging a few words. Jeff didn't know what he exactly said to Pressly, but he guessed that he was excusing himself by the way he left him shortly afterwards.

"Don't you have the distinct feeling that something is missing here? I have quite the feeling that we should have been interrupted some time earlier." Kaidan suddenly spoke up.

"We have a Spectre on board, of course something is amiss." Jeff replied off-handedly.

Kaidan rolled his eyes. "Maybe, but I have the feeling there is more."

Jeff made no reply to that. He felt the same way. While it was true that the Spectre on board unnerved him, it shouldn't be enough to make him feel so ... so defenceless. Like he was sent into a firefight on a cold, freezing planet with only a pistol and beach clothes for protection. He had the distinct feeling that this was mission, whatever it really was, was going to end bigger than anyone could imagine.

He didn't know at that time, but he was right. This was just the beginning and they would need all the help they could get and help they would get, but in very unexpected ways.

* * *

**Exodus Cluster, Utopia System, Eden Prime**

The human female growled at herself and at her surroundings in frustration. While the simulated nature had felt good to wake up in she would like to go back to her world, the confinements of her work room where she would like to continue the work on her latest essay.

Gulping down the latest curses that threatened to leave her mouth, she focused on the more pressing matter. Why couldn't she find the damn button or any wall at all? Had she accidently changed the settings of the simulation before going to bed last night? That could explain why she wasn't finding any wall. Tech was so advanced that a simulation of any sort could make the 'room' larger than it was in real life, but she yanked back that thought where it belonged. Into the bin. She never had changed the settings of the simulations in such a way and her siblings -

_The door to her room suddenly bursted open, more like exploded with the force behind the biotic push behind it. She turned angrily at having to pay once again for repairs to her home. The target of her ever growing ire hadn't had even the slightest intention of hiding, the blue biotic aura shone easily through the dust that the assault on the door had produced and was just about to settle down. She immediately and easily recognized the door-assassin and that sparked her ire even higher, but the door-assassin made no movement to stop or apologize like she usually did, rather she moved her hands, still alighted by the blue biotic aura, towards her and the last thing she saw was blue before everything faded to black._

_"What was that?"_ she wondered as she stumbled back as those pictures had left her mind as fast as they had suddenly invaded her. A memory of sorts? Recalling the first pictures in her mind she actually recognized her work room before the door had been blown up by her sister. Even though she was covered in dust and in combination with the biotic aura made it hard to see details she certainly recognized the petite form of her sister. Which made her wonder why her sister had been barging in like that.

While she and her siblings were very different and her being by far the youngest of the lot, they loved each other greatly. They wouldn't do something drastic like destroying her doors without any good reason. They just wanted to protect her since unlike them she wasn't a figher and didn't have an ounce of biotic abilites.

That also explained why she didn't find the button to end the simulation or any wall. She wasn't in her home anymore. They had brought her somewhere else though she didn't know why or where. She still trusted them, unconditionally.

Sighing loudly she looked around and took, for the first time in this day, her surrounds really in. The wild growing grass beneath her feet. The singing and flying birds in the sky. The white trees behind her and the snowy mountains in horizon. She sighed in relief, because she knew where she was. She had recognized the trees, the birds and most important of all the shape of the mountains on the horizon. She was still on Eden Prime, her birth and home planet. This outcome really flooded her veins with relief, they hadn't taken her custody to some other planet while she was unsconscious. They had dared to do that once and she hadn't been amused to having been waken up just a feet away from a stream of hot and scourching magma. She still could somewhat recall her little rant about that one morning. Her parents had also made it quite clear what they had thought about it.

That hadn't been one of her best days. Even now, some years later, the memory of that day frightened her and she fought to put it quickly back in one of her mental cages. Once it was put back where it couldn't hurt or scare her anymore, her eyes were drawn to the horizon.

She didn't knew why, but something about the mountains was starting to bother her. It felt as if something was amiss, as if she had overlooked something important. Something her senses had noticed but her mind had refused to acknowledge. This inner fight was what had alarmed her and now she was trying her best in finding out what bothered her now. Or was it what still bothered her? She didn't know but it certainly had something to do with the mountains. Though were they the solution, the question or both at once? She didn't know but her researcher mind was hell-bent on finding the answer.

* * *

**Omega Nebula, Sahrabarik System, Omega**

A lone person was lying on a roof, looking through the scope of a newly acquired sniper rifle. Her targets, completely unaware of her intentions or her position were leisurely going their ways, since the roof she was lying on was hidden in the shadows. The shadow of the buildings next to it made it hard to spot her, but she never made a move to pull the trigger. This was after all Omega and while one could find targets easily here, it also meant that many of them were armed and armoured. Especially in districts that were run by one of the bigger mercenary groups, like the one she was in now.

From her position in the shadows she could see at least three Blue Suns snipers that were observing this district, but those weren't the only ones. Before she had gone hiding she had seen two others and she was certain there was another one she hadn't seen yet. A feeling of sorts and she had learned to trust her feelings in this.

Those three she could see from her position were good. She had seen those three in particular in action once and she was still somewhat amazed by their abilities.

Someone from a minor rival mercenary group had a few days ago started trouble in this district. He had been her target and she had been following him through the crowd. Hoping to get to some place with less audience and less casualties if something went wrong, but suddenly he pulled out his pistol and started shooting on a passing Vorcha.

It had taken her five seconds to close the distance to a firing range, but by then he had already been dead. Not that he wouldn't have died anyway, but the speed of the death was astounding, even more so were the three holes in his armour. Each one of them was deadly alone, combined even more so. She had looked up, like some others in the crowd. Her experience and age had helped that day to find the shooters. Even if the snipers had closely watched him since he entered the district it was still a very damn good work in her mind. Ever since then she had been stalking them and had started to be wary of them, as they probably were now. Which would explain the higher sniper concentration and the higher concentration of Blue Suns in this district.

She didn't make a move to pull the trigger, because she wasn't sure if she could get out of there fast enough. Her death or any injury at all were at this time unacceptable. It was already 2183 CE after all, the year in which it all would start. She couldn't afford to be out of the game even if it meant letting her targets go. Stowing the sniper away and shifting further back into the shadows the asari silently vowed to start paying more attention to the news. She needed to know when it was time to play her part.

* * *

**Exodus Cluster, Utopia System, Eden Prime**

"This can't be!" The human exclaimed loudly to the world. She had found the answer, the reason why she had been so bothered by the mountains. It wasn't like her earlier deductions were wrong. She was on Eden Prime, there was no doubt about that. The point she couldn't explain and that scared her to death was that here, exactly were she stood was supposed to be a house. Her house to be precise, but it wasn't there. Neither her house nor the houses of her neighbours. As if they never had been here at all. There was only nature around her. Not a sign of civilisation at all.

She had one conclusion, one answer, and it scared her. It scared her to death, almost. Her answer was scientifically impossible after all. It was just impossible, but somehow it had happened anyway. The reason, the only possible, but still very impossible conclusion was that she had left her timeline. Or in other words, she had travelled through the times, though the question was future or past? How far into the past or into the future? Was there a civilization on this planet? Was it human, prothean or something else? Something even more foreign?

In whichever timeline she was now, the universe must have decided to give her an answer to at least two of her questions. Something was descending from the sky. Something she had only seen in pictures or in vids. Something she had only heard about in stories. The same something that had replaced the boogeyman in her generation.

A lone Reaper was descending from the sky. Like a silent roar, a sound pierced through her mind, interrupting and stopping any and all thoughts. It was strong, unmoving like a rock and at the same time unseizable. And of course it was over as soon as it had started, but it was so strong, so imposing that it took her half a minute to even notice that it was over.

As soon as she noticed it, she started moving. She hadn't any plan, but she had the distinct feeling that she needed to get moving now, if she wanted to have a chance of ever leaving this planet alive. And so she was running and the direction she choose to run to was one that most people wouldn't even dare to think about. She was running straight to the Reaper. Whatever it wanted here it was her goal. Scratch that thought. There was a high probality that it was here to do but one thing. The one thing Reapers were made for. Decimating, killing and harvesting one and any civilization that was developed high enough. In conclusion that meant this civilization, whatever it actually was, was a spare-faring civilization and therefore she would have a means to leave this planet.

She knew that this plan, if one wanted to call it that, wasn't very good. But she had her reasons. Possibly a bad reason, very possible so but that wouldn't stop her. This was maybe the only proof that she was her parent's child and as such she would go down fighting and not waiting for death to creep up upon her. That would've been insulting.

* * *

**A/N:** I know this wasn't exactly much to begin with, but if it helps think of this as a prologue of sorts.

Fun fact: The chapter title "Beginning again" was the title of an AMV(Anime Music Video) and a song that I've recently found. I have found myself growing to like it. I do think it fits the chapter quite well.

The last sentence, was obviously stolen from Kal'Reegar on Haestrom, and once again I found it quite fitting.

Your thoughts? I would appreciate hearing them.


	2. Say Hello to the alien

**Exodus Cluster, Utopia System, Eden Prime**

Occasionally she could hear a bird cry or the zirping of some insects or the sounds of some native animals, but she didn't pay them any mind. They were not dangerous to humans. They prefered to stay away from human settlings and so the settlers, most of them farmers, didn't make a habit of hunting them down. Those that did would face heavy punishment and reconcillation for endangering the wild life of Eden Prime. Most people on this planet tended to think highly of nature's rights, protecting the animals rights and giving those a sound beating that didn't respect nature enough. Even the local laws were highly in favor of nature. Making Eden Prime not only one of the most idyllic agrarian worlds, but also a heaven for the animals living on it.

The natural sounds of Eden Prime, sounds she was accustomed to, never made her stop in her run, but something else did. Something that she had heard before, on some other planets, occasionally on some space stations, but never ever here. While it sounded familiar, while she knew exactly what she was hearing, it still sounded alien to her. Like it was not supposed to be here.

_"Trust your instincts."_

Another memory had invaded her mind, though thankfully this time it was a short one. A single and simple phrase. While she was more of a logic person, she had met enough instinct people in basic. Most of them getting in trouble ever so often and - she shook her head slightly. This was not the time for those thoughts, since her instincts were practically **yelling** at her. They yelled danger ahead to her. While she couldn't see any danger ahead, she still adjusted her track and went to hide behind the nearest tree she could see. Save was save after all.

Hiding behind it, she waited for this ominous feeling of danger creeping up on her to leave her alone, but that didn't happen. It rather got stronger she longer she stood there. Out of pure instinct she put her pistol in her hands and enlarged it, just as something entered her peripheral view. Out of pure instinct, she jumped away and pulled the trigger again and again and again.

Landing ungracefully in the dirt she finally saw what had her instincts running into overdrive. A geth. A single geth was lying there, next to the tree, equipped with an old type of an assault rifle and holes in his armour. Holes she had made. All lights on the geth were out, indicating that he Had died.

She had seen geth earlier, but never on a human colony. Even after the end of the quarian-geth war and after the end of the reaper war, they still kept to themselves. On Rannoch and other old quarian colonies. Some of them were present at space stations at all times, but neither on any not-quarian colony. Not even during the fight for Earth and the Citadel. Even then they choose to stay in space and fight the Reaper ships as far as she knew.

Maybe it had something to do with her uncle not only destroying the Reapers, but also destroying the geth when the Crucible had fired? She didn't know, but seeing a dead geth next to her made her uneasy. Probably because both of them didn't belong here, were not supposed to be here, but were still there nonetheless.

She slowly approached the geth, pistol ready to shoot at a moments notice. Even with all the lights out she figured it was better to be safe then sorry. While her adrenaline and her instincts were slowing down, she still was wary of it. She shot it a few more times, just for goods measure before she decided to leave this place. Wary of other geth on their way or something else what might be lurking around here.

Why was a geth here anyway? Did she awake in a time where the geth had become hostile again? Had they started to kill all civilizations of? But why had she seen a Reaper then? Had the geth collective repaired them? Had they been indoctrinated again? What was going on here?

Those were the thoughts of the human as she made her way through the forest, more wary and aware of her surroundings than she was used to. She wasn't sure if she liked it or not.

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

Everyone was looking at him expectantly, waiting for him to start his speech, when suddenly an asari in the crowd collapsed. He didn't thought much about it at first. She probably hadn't slept enough and neglected to eat, while she had been waiting for him. Wasn't the first time something like this had happened. But then another asari fell down to her knees. Like a domino effect the other asari were all slowly falling to their knees. Once all of them were down, the other races followed suit. Beginning with the drell and ending with the batarians. As soon as everyone was onto their knees he saw the first asari opening her mouth and closing again, like a gasping fish. All the others quickly followed suit.

He looked incomprehensible at them, wondering what was happening here, when all of a sudden they started screaming, loudly. And as if the screams were a starting signal, some beings he had never ever encountered or heard about suddenly entered the place. Everyone of them were clothed similar to asari in c-sec clothes and it made sense, in some bizarre way of thinking. Those beings looked similar to asari, if one exchanged the blue skin to a brown tone and exchanged the fringe-like things on their head with some kind of fur. To top it off, all of those aliens were equipped with heavy pistols or rifles, trained solely on him.

They slowly surrounded him and once the circle shrank to a certain size the screaming stopped as abruptly as it had started. One of these aliens then started to talk, but he didn't understand him, or was it her? The speaking alien reminded him of an asari, with the way its chest had some kind of hills, while some of the other aliens lacked them. One of the other aliens responded and he still couldn't understand, but he had the feeling he wouldn't have liked it anyway. The first one spoke again and glared in his direction.

"I don't understand." he replied, trying to be polite and helpful. He would like to get out of here alive and possibly with a stable mind, unlike those others on their knees next to him and them. But he had the feeling that he had said the wrong thing, the glare of the female intensified as she barked something at him, or was it at them?, as he could hear the tell-tale of a few pulled triggers.

The feeling that something was very wrong was intensified as soon as he felt the bullets enter his body. Red blood puring out of the wounds inflicted by the aliens was the last thing he saw before he lost consciousness.

"Stupid dream." he mumbled angrily as he woke up. He didn't get why he had been dreaming so bad lately. In the last few weeks his dreams were in one aspekt similar. He died in them. Blusted to smitherens by a krogan shotgun, strangled to death by a hanar, stabbed to death by a drell from behind, tortured for hours and then finally killed by his own people. Pulverized by a biotic attack from a group of asari, a coordinated group attack of quarians and geths, or a chivvy by the turians. There were others of course, but those were the most reappearing ones. Though the last dream was disconcerting.

"Am I now starting to imagine new races to kill me in my dreams?" he asked the silent room as he dressed himself.

He sighed inwardly. This wasn't the time to be musing about dreams or about his mind or his dream-deaths. He had a meeting to attend to in, what was the time?, just thirty minutes. He had no time to dwell on it nor on the fact that he had slept way too long. Maybe he should go to a someone who specialised in bad dreams?

"Na." he thought. That would make him only a target for mockery and he had a certain image to uphold anyway if he ever wanted to be his father's legacy. And being that was his one and only goal in his life, failing it wasn't acceptable. Not in the least.

Looking at the clock again, he saw that the meeting was due in twenty eight minutes. He quickly refocused his thoughts on the task at hand and left his bedroom, entered the bathroom for a quick morning session before purposefully striding through the hall towards the door to his apartment when said door opened itself and two of the aliens from his dreams, both of them clothed in official c-sec uniforms, entered his apartment.

Blinking and gobsmacked he stopped midway and just stared at them uncomprehendingly. One of them moved its mouth and sounds escaped it, but they never reached his ears. At least nothing he could understand anyway.

Like in his dream he noticed the differences between them, marking them as a female and a male in his mind. A second later he wondered if he was caught up in another dream of his right now. There was only one way to find out and so he moved one of his hands slightly. He noticed that the female alien had enlarged her pistol and trained it on him, but he paid it no mind as he started to pinch himself again and again as the aliens in front of him dared to stay where they were.

Strange noises entered his ears and looking back at the aliens, he figured that they were speaking to him. They wanted something from him, but unfortunately he didn't understand even one word they uttered.

"I'm sorry." He said honestly. "But I have no idea what you are saying."

To his surprise the female alien barked something angrily at him, while her partner just looked at him confused and a bit ... was that a hint of hatred in his eyes? He hadn't ever seen those aliens beforehand, how could they hate him? That was absurd, even without considering that those aliens had just marshed into his apartment. Even without considering that he didn't understand the situation he was in at all. Which was a question he liked to indulge further, but he had no time for that now. There was a meeting he had to attend to in ... in twenty three minutes. An important one at that, one he couldn't dare to miss even with strange aliens barging into his apartment. Aliens that had obviously stolen c-sec uniforms and weapons from some hard working officers.

"I'm sorry, but I have a meeting to attent to ... in twenty two minutes. I will have to take my leave now." he said, but he never got to move a step since an asari entered at this moment the apartment. The same asari that he had seen in his last dream. The one that had been the first one to fall on her knees and to scream at him.

"What takes so long to take this criminal out of my apartment? And why isn't he in handcuffs already?" She demanded to know, glaring at him and at the two aliens angrily.

"What do you mean? Your apartment? This apartment is mine. It's my home. I have been living here for the last five years and I don't have the slightest intention of giving it up!" he replied rather harshly. The aliens themselves were confusing and irritating, but this ... this asari took it to another level. He had been patient and polite, but his patience had run out now. He would not let this asari and her pets, for nothing else they could be, take this apartment from him. This apartment had been given to him by his father once the latter had given way for a new Councilor in his place.

That last thought made him think. It also provided him with an explanation. This wasn't about his apartment or him, or at best it was just indirectly about him. This was about his father, and this asari, probably hired by the salarian or asari Councilor, was paid to find dirt on the former batarian Councilor or the batarian hegemony. To make the batarian position weaker and the others stronger?

While he knew how dirty politics could be, had learned all of it from his father, he never had to descend to that level in his career. Oh, he could do it if he needed to, but he didn't wanted to. He wanted to show the galaxy that politics could be honest and true and not some just backhanded deals no one made any effort to actually comply. Sometimes it was no wonder why the galaxy was slowly growing apart with that mindset. They didn't even made any effort to stop from growing apart. Oh, sure they talked about peace all day, talked about compromises every other day, but at the same time he just knew that they were secretly building more and more ships. Preparing for war. All of them.

He never had paid any heed to those tactics since it was open secret that the turians feared the batarian progress, or at least military-wise. Feeling threatened by them and that they might lose their position as the galaxies primal defender. The batarian hegemony didn't want the position, but the turians didn't need to know it and so he and the batarian Councilor played their part in the galactic politic.

But now ... now they had gone too far and he would show them not only how dirty politic could be, but also how bloody.

* * *

**Exodus Cluster, Utopia System, Eden Prime**

It was eerily silent, though one could occasionally hear the characteristic beeping of a geth while they worked on a glas tank, trying to get it open. One female human was observing them and was wondering about a few things. Why was a heavily encripted glas tank that even gave the geth pause on Eden Prime? What was in it? Why were the geth trying to get it open? Where were the humans? The one who were alive anyway?

She had come across a few human corpses on her way which answered some of her earlier question, but not all of them. Not all civilizations had been eridicated, that proved the human corpses she had seen. Though she still didn't know where she was. Future or past? She didn't even know what she considered the worse option, since both of them had their disadvantages. But one of the more pressing questions was how she could save whatever was inside the glas tank. Her view was a bit obscured by the geth.

That was the moment a long and loud hiss could be heard. Startled she took a step out of her hiding spot and saw steam coming out of the glas tank. The liquid inside it was also leaving the capsule inside, making the ground near the geth wet. She knew that she hadn't had so much time left anymore. It was now or never. It was definitely now or never as the tank slowly started to open up.

She hoped, really hoped, that her basic training and the moment of surprise would be enough to protect whatever was inside it. With those thoughts in her head she trained her pistol on the geth and pulled the trigger.

* * *

**A/N: **And there we have Chapter Two. One person more in the loop. The poor batarian.

I have not really much to say this time. Except that there are two stories I would like to recommend to you. :) The first one is **HugoCogs** "Once More Unto The Breach". A story that deals with a Control ending, alive FemShepard and changing reapers. That's all I'm saying for now. :) The second one would be **Graceyn's** "If It Meant Living"-Series. This series starts before Mass Effect and goes even beyond Mass Effect 3.

Your thoughts about the story so far? I would appreciate hearing them.


	3. What's a suit rat?

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

Somewhere in the lower wards of the Zakera district a lone quarian was walking with precision and determination. She had a goal. A goal that was no different from the usual day to day live from the others around her. She was going to work. To feel alive, to feel useful to the galactic society and community. There was nothing more she desired. That was all she had ever wanted and now picture her surprise and utter confusion as she was greeted by someone she knew in unexptected ways. Someone she even had had feelings for at some other time.

"Suit rat! What the heck are you thinking you are doing down here?"

The quarian blinked behind her visor at the turian, who was staying now in front of her. Disgust clearly visible on his face. She knew that at the end she was the one ... who had ended their blossoming relationship. She was confused at how fast his emotions must have changed. He had been still friendly with her yesterday and now he looked at her ... like she was some kind of disease? ... but there was something more important she felt she needed to know. And so she decided to voice it.

"What's a suit rat?"

The turian blinked. He didn't think he would ever hear this question. He had never anticipated the ... the possibility of this question. It was just a word. An insult. A word used precisely for ... for those beggars and thieves. A word to show that they weren't worth the time. A word to show that they didn't deserve to be trusted. A word to show what they thought of them. A word that had been invented decades ago. Somewhere close to the begin of the quarian exile. Somewhere around the first two decades, as far as he knew.

"You are a suit rat, suit rat. Filthy quarian. Beggar. Thief. Not worth our time. Go. Shoo! Lest we call C-Sec. Prison cell. Only acceptable place for your kind on Citadel. " A salarian said to her. He had been showing up from a door that was just a short way in front of her. Apparently her question had called him out. The answer in itself was ... troublesome in the least. Had the quarian Councilor somehow made a stupid move? Made them somehow all lose their place on the Citadel and she hadn't got the memo? Was that kind of thing even possible she wondered? She didn't knew. She had never paid much attention to politics. She went to elections as most other quarians did, looked a little more closely at the ... projected goals of the eligible candidates at those times. But apart of that, she continued, much to the dismay of her family, to stay away from politics as best as she could. Concentrating on other parts of her life. So it wouldn't be so ... surprising if she actually missed the memo.

"Ten Seconds. Then you will be not here. Hopefully elsewhere. Possibly in custody of c-sec. Matters not. Just away." The salarian, whom she didn't know, said or better ordered her. That she didn't know him was also odd to her. She had thought she had gotten to know everyone in this little company, but apparently she was wrong. Regardless, she had no intention of giving her parents more trouble and so she left. In search for an answer. In search for the answer to this situation. She wanted to know what had happened and what she had missed.

* * *

**Exodus Cluster, Utopia System, Eden Prime**

Commander Richford-Shepard was livid. He had seen many things in his life, but nothing, really nothing, had prepared him for this situation. Nothing at all. Seeing people, humans, pierced by some kind of ... god-forbidden metallic devices that had turned them into some kind of husks. Empty shells of their former self. Shells that had started to attack him and his men as soon as they saw them. Confused, utterly confused, at their first meeting they had hesitated to attack. And this hesitation gave those husks a chance, a chance that they otherwise might have never gotten.

The husks used their deformed hands that now sprouted razor sharp claws to not only kill Corporal Richard Lewis Jenkins but also Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko. It was just pure luck that he had gotten his shotgun in position in time, before they could have the chance to gouge his eyes out or do something more ... finishing-ly. Ending his life with carving out his heart for one.

No intel about the enemy and now two marines under his command were dead. He should really start to refuse those missions. Akuze had been ... similar and at the same time different. No real intel until they got slaughtered and he alone survived. Eden Prime seemed to evolve in the same direction.

Granted, he hadn't known Jenkins and Alenko well. They only had exchanged a few words, not enough to really know them. On Akuze, he hadn't been the Commanding Officer but he had known the group. He had been part of the troop for quite same time. Had gotten to know them, something those ... those husks had taken from him. And whoever was behind those transformations was to be blamed for the death of the marines next to him and they would pay. Heavily. Of that he would make sure.

But for now he would do something else. He would make sure that they hadn't died in vain. He would make sure that their deaths would be honored. In the only way he knew. By completing the mission he had gotten from Captain Anderson. Getting to the beacon and making sure it was safely transported to the Normandy before whatever ... before someone else could steal it. Everything else had to wait. At least for now.

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

People on the Presidium stopped momentarly in their doing as they watched something unusal going on. A group of c-sec officers were dragging a batarian in a suit, a highly educated and very costly suit, away. The suit alone was confusing, but the more confusing part was the batarian himself. There weren't many batarians at any time on the Citadel due to their self-exposed exile. Due to the batarian hegemony losing any trust in the Council and cutting all ties with the council races, most batarians went back to batarian space. If forced or on their own, was a matter of speculation.

If one had watched early and closely enough, when the batarian was still conscious. One could have heard him spouting some nonsense. Utterly insane and crazy nonsense. Most people looked at him in some kind of ... fascination. The presidium was usually quiet and ... proper, but for this one moment, for this one minute or two or five, it wasn't. As soon as the batarian was out of their personal view people resumed their former pace and forgot about it all in the space of a few seconds. All but one single person. One single person that belonged to a race that also was not often seen on the presidium, but no one paid any mind to her since she was good in hiding. There was only one salarian, a former STG agent, who sensed her presence for a second. A second later she had vanished and the salarian was left wondering if he was getting paranoid.

* * *

**Exodus Cluster, Utopia System, Eden Prime**

She couldn't believe it and yet, she had seen it happen. Out of the glas tank had stepped a woman, a human woman, and as soon as she had noticed the geth ... well, in the lack of a better word, she had ... she had started to terminate them. The first geth had lost an arm because the tank woman ripped, **ripped!**, it out of the joint socket. Then she had pulled the rifle out of the arm, put it into her other hand and used both weapons at the same time. With her left hand she beat the geth next to her with it's own arm to death. Her right hand trained the rifle on the other two geth and pulled the trigger. Not one bullet had missed it's target.

In mere seconds the glas tank woman had erased the threat from the geth with a cold precision that reminded the other woman of ... Samara. The old justicar and a member of her extended family. Was it any surprise that she was frightened as the other woman came to her? But those feelings had turned quickly into surprise and confusion the moment that woman saluted and started to talk.

"Private First Class, Prototype Soldier Number 37, Overall soldier Number 3 067 331, reports to duty, Service Chief. May I request your name, Ma'am?"

"Name? Mine?" the woman replied, completely flubbergasted at this point by this ... this situation she had found herself in.

_"Happy Birthday, Doreen!" her father said as he came forward and congratulated her. A big strawberry cake in his big hands, with burning candles on top. Just as she liked it. Her mother stood nearby, arms crossed in front of her chest as if to say 'I don't support this, but I will play along for now' but Doreen could still see the smile on her face and in her eyes. Even her siblings and her extended family were there. All of her friends were there too. All of them were there to celebrate her birthday and for that she was very thankful and grateful._

Doreen blinked once. Twice. Thrice. Trying to get the remains of the memory out of her head, for now at least. Once she was successfull enough to see the impassive stare of the woman before her, she was about to respond, but decided to wait nonetheless. She first took the woman really in. Her skin was pale, very pale, as if she hadn't seen enough sun, or any for a long time, and having been in that glas tank for who knows how long it probably wasn't even very far from the truth. The armour she was wearing reminded her of the standard armour used for the standing troups, but something was definitely different. Maybe it was the fact that it was shining so brightly, as if she never had been in a fight, except with the three geth a minute ago. Maybe it was the absence of all colours, since it was completely black. Maybe it was the private first class signs on her shoulders or just maybe it was a combination of all three or something else entirely that she couldn't put her finger on.

The eyes of the private were purple unlike anything she had ever seen. They were void of any emotion, just staring at her and waiting for ... what for? Her name? Orders?

The hair of that other woman sprouted a multitude of colours. Doreen couldn't say what her base colour was, but if she would have to guess ... well, even then she couldn't say anything about it. Black, red, silver, white, yellow, brown and even blue and purple streaks were the colours of her hair. The hair going whatever direction they wanted to. A tropical nightmare for a every hairdresser she suspected.

"Service Chief Dr. Doreen Vega." she finally replied, giving in to the stare of the other woman. Also acknowledging the other woman's salute by saluting herself.

If her sudden appeareance in this world didn't make her a part of this universe, this one meeting, giving the universe her name surely did it. Now her fate totally rested in this universe. So alike to her home but at the same time ... alien.

* * *

**A/N:** Alright, that was Chapter Three. The shortest chapter so far. With just below 2000 words, excluding this last part of course.

Hoping that I still have a few readers by this point I should probably say something about this chapter. About scene two and four I guess. I can already see people hating me for killing Kaidan off so early. We didn't even leave Eden Prime, didn't even met Ashley so far, and I still killed one of the more important people of the cast. Why? Part of it was simply because I could, another part of it was that this Universe demanded that he should be replaced.

Scene Four, the glas tank woman. I can also see people shaking their heads at me. I only want to say one thing about that or better, about her. She is in some ways similar to Grunt. Both of them were born and made in glas tanks. Bred for war. While Okeer failed in his "programming" of Grunt, the ones behind the woman's programming did not fail. She may be not where she was supposed to be, but she is following her "center programming". At all costs. Nothing more, nothing less.

And last but not least, Dr. Doreen Vega. Yes, that's her name. The name of the first introduced OC in this story. One part of her parentage should be pretty obvious, but the other one shouldn't be so obvious. I wonder who will be the first one to tell me her parent's name correctly?

Your thoughts? I would appreciate hearing them.


	4. Prison Break

**Exodus Cluster, Utopia System, Eden Prime**

Spectre Saren Arterius knew that plans could go haywire at a moment's notice. He had experienced that often enough, in his military career and later in his work as a Spectre. He didn't like it, but he was experienced enough to ... go with the flow ... as humans tended to say. He fought the urge to bash himself for using a human phrase, even if it had been appropriate. And so he did just that as suddenly Nihlus Kryik appeared in front of him. He holds back his surprise and frustration. He didn't like to kill his colleague, but there was no way he could be spared. None whatsoever.

Saren had enough training to neither show his real feelings on his face nor in his voice, subvocals included. It also didn't show on his body language.

"Don't worry about the geth. I've got everything under control." He told him. It was a lie. Saren deep down knew he had nothing under control anymore but he was also in no shape to actually change something about it. Either his plan worked or they were all doomed, and that was unacceptable. He wouldn't allow it. He wouldn't allow the races of the galaxy to be doomed. To become ghosts of extinct races for the next cycle like the protheans did. He couldn't allow that. He just couldn't.

Ever since he knew what had really happened to the protheans, he had tried to find a way around it. Going to the Council about that hadn't been an option, still wasn't and would never be. He knew how they would have reacted. Silently he would have been taken out of the picture, or if that had failed they would have made him look like a madman. Losing any and every credibility he had would have been lost. And that's why ever since then he had been on his own. Trying to find a way without having to alert the Council and thanks to him being a Spectre it had worked so far. He had found a way. A way he would follow till the end. A way for his people and the other races to survive. Even humans. As much as he disliked them, they were a part of this cycle. They were a part of this galaxy and he was a good Spectre. Being a Spectre was something he took pride in. Whatever his feelings about some specific races in the galaxy were, his work ethic told him to protect them all. Humanity included.

'I've got everything under control.' Maybe it was a lie, maybe it wasn't a lie. At best it probably wasn't the complete truth. He didn't have everything under control, but he had some things under control, and he needed to act now to let it stay this way. Nihlus had forced his hand and he said ... goodbye, silently, as he trained his pistol on his head. On the back of his old friend's head, like a coward, but a coward he must be to go through this all.

And then Nihlus moved his arms, upwards, the right arm to shield his eyes from the sun, the left arm pointed at something. Something on a hill and before Saren could even see what Nihlus was pointing at, his body had already moved on its own. His instincts had been screaming at him. Danger ahead. Danger ahead. And so he had obeyed. He ducked and moved in a direction so that Nihlus was between him and whatever was on that hill.

His pistol was still trained on the younger turian's head when Nihlus' head suddenly exploded. He didn't dare to let the surprise get to him and jumped immediately into cover and even then it had been almost too late. A shot pierced his left arm.

A sniper. A damn sniper, and a damn good one at that. That sniper was pinning him down here. If a sniper was up there, then his time was almost over. He had to move fast or it would have been all for nothing. He couldn't allow that. He wouldn't allow that.

"Get that sniper!" he bellowed at the geth around him.

They obeyed and trained fire on the sniper's position, but Saren was still cautious. He moved from cover to cover until he was on his way to that second platform of the spaceport. Only then he would allow himself to let his wariness go, but not by much. He knew he had to act fast now and so he went and gave the remaining geth platform's orders. Counting on them to follow them as fast as they could, which was fast, and hopefully fast enough. He didn't want to have more casualties then there needed to be, though he couldn't deny that another part of him didn't care since it was a human colony.

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

Everything was silent and dark, with there being barely enough light to see the way around here. The c-sec officers were silently doing their patrols. The prisoners were either sleeping or were just very silent, thinking about this and that. It was hard to tell in the absence of light. The lone c-sec patrol disappeared around a corner and the drell made her move. Jumping down to the floor, without making a sound, like she had been trained to do. She could have killed all of the prisoners and the c-sec officers as well, but she wasn't here to kill anyone, she was here to rescue someone. A certain someone who was thrown into prison without good reason, at least to her. And her job was it to bring justice to this world, in one way or another. This was one of those times she had to do something outrageous to keep the galaxy from war, sometimes against the orders of her superiors.

"Charros Pazness," she said in the darkness. Her voice barely above a whisper, but the figure in the cell in the front of her stirred. "Charros Pazness," she said again, coming closer. The figure stirred again, but didn't wake up. Not yet, but he needed to wake up before the next patrol would pass his cell. "Charros Pazness," she said for the third time as she opened with often practiced movements the door to his cell. This time he didn't just stir. This time he woke up from his slumber.

"Whaa?" he croaked groggily as he began to wake up in the dark.

The drell waited for him to wake completely up. She needed him awake for what was to come. If that meant waiting a few seconds until he was accustomed to the lack of light, so be it. In that short time span she noticed how his eyes widened with fear and how he tried to get as far away as he could, which with him being a small cell wasn't very much. But then his eyes slowly accustomed to the light and she could finally see recognition in them.

"Spectre Krios?" he asked, surprised.

She nodded slightly when she heard the question. It wasn't that uncommon for a Councilor or those close to one to keep tabs on some Spectres, which is why it didn't surprise her that he recognized her. He was after all the son of a former batarian Councilor. But she also noticed the obvious surprise in his stance. He probably never entertained the thought of being rescued by a Spectre, and even those that entertained that thought were never rescued by one the drell told herself. Most Spectres eliminated some specific people before they could become a threat. While she occasionally did it too, she would rather rescue someone, which made the batarian a very lucky guy in her eyes. Most other Spectres would have let him rot without an order from the Council. She just rescued him.

"Not so loud," she admonished him as she looked around, ready for everything going haywire at a moment's notice. Nothing ever goes as planned. She knew this and silently hoped that he knew this also. The only question left was just which part of her simple plan would fail.

"What are you doing here?"

"Doing my job and that means getting you out of here," she answered his whispered question. His question had been very silent, but thankfully the drell had a good natural hearing which she had strengthened by an operation a few years ago.

She took another look around and a look on her special watch. Seeing the time she knew that they needed to move, fast, before this escape would get ... messy. She wanted to get as much space between them and his prison cell as possible by the time C-sec would notice his escape and start a station wide search for him.

And so she mouthed 'follow me' to the batarian and started moving, hoping that he caught on, which he did. She constantly looked around, ever aware that at every corner trouble could appear and should be expected.

* * *

**Exodus Cluster, Utopia System, Eden Prime**

"I can't get a good shot out of this position, ma'am. The geth are blocking me."

Doreen Vega only listened half-way to the lower ranking marine. She was still trying to get a read on this situation, as having seen Saren or what she assumed had to be him confused and scared the hell out of her. It had been the latest piece of evidence that she had left her time and was now in the past, as crazy as it sounded. It matched all the stories she had heard, read and written about. The giant Reaper, countless geth and two turians on Eden Prime. Except the soldier next to her. She had never been present in one of those stories.

She still couldn't fathom why she was here in the first place. How she had ended up here. Her memory was still fuzzy. There were so many things she still couldn't remember. The names of her parents and siblings, their looks, their careers, their birthdates. Not even her own she could remember, at least not exactly. She only remembered that she was born after the war with the Reapers had been over. Since she had been the youngest she supposed it had to be quite the time difference. All of her siblings had been born after the war.

She had heard so many stories about Eden Prime, it was her home planet after all. She had been born here, like her mother. But there never had been a story where a tank soldier on Eden Prime had been mentioned. She wondered if the geth had killed her in the past and that only her sudden presence in this timeline had changed this outcome. She didn't know, but it was entirely possible. Very possible even, though that left other questions to solve. Who was she? She had called herself 'Prototype Soldier Number 37'. She had never offered a name. Did she have one? Or didn't she? Every time Doreen had asked the answer was the same. 'Number 37' or the other collection of numbers. In the end she figured it didn't matter if she had one or not. She couldn't or wouldn't tell it anyway, so Doreen would have to make up a name for her. Not now, but later. As soon as they had safely left this planet.

"Come on." Doreen said as she stood up, keeping her presence hidden from the shooting geth. "I think I know where he wants to go, and I definitely know how to get there."

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

The female quarian was sitting alone in a booth of the Dark Star. She had gotten the answers she had wanted, but they confused her even more. No quarian Councilor? No quarian ambassador? No freaking home planet anymore? Just a flotilla of thousands and thousands of ships flying through the galaxy trying to find another planet to settle on? FOR ALMOST THREE HUNDRED YEARS?! That didn't make any sense to her. None whatsoever.

Her race was getting along just fine with the geth, the geth even had an ambassador while the quarians had a Councilor. They were all well respected ... not hated and discriminated like she was here. It didn't make any sense!

And there was another thing that didn't make any sense to her. A few dozen or a few thousand or a few million or a billion things. She didn't know how many of them were there, but what the fuck were they and why were there so many of them? Everywhere she looked she saw some of them. That wasn't even the worst of it. She couldn't understand a word those strange bipedal creatures said. Not one damn word, but all the others? All the other races? They could, only she was unable to.

And so she could only imagine what those alien females, at least she thought they were females, were doing in the middle of the bar. They had entered a few minutes earlier, one of them was wearing an official C-sec uniform, while the other one was wearing something that resembled the clothes of the other aliens around. Some kind of military uniform? As soon as they were in the bar they had started to immediately shout at the bar fights that had been going on then. She had thought the C-sec alien would be arresting them, being apparently with C-sec and all, but no, she just stood there in the midst of the fighters, talking, together with the other one.

Turians, a few batarians and more of those strange aliens were centered around them, intently listening to what they had to say. She could only imagine what they had to say to them. Probably something about her, as often as one of them was looking over to her.

Confused, frightened and frustrated she just ordered another dextro-beer. Thankful for the fact that the bartenders were nice to her or at least nice enough to gave her what she wanted without any comment.

* * *

**A/N:** Yes, it's a female Drell Spectre named Krios. No, she is not a female Thane Krios. Thane is an assassin, she isn't, though she has the abilities and the training to be one. So be cautious around her.

And finally a big thanks to my beta **DavidJ647** for beta-reading this chapter and correcting some of my mistakes.

Your thoughts to this chapter? I would appreciate hearing it.


	5. Welcome to the Dark Star

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

The quarian was bewildered and that probably was an understatement in itself.

She had no idea whatsoever what the aliens had said to the others, but not a minute after they were apparently done, the bar fight had started anew. Though it might be her imagination but she thought it was less agitated and more... like some sort of sport now? Like they were trying something new out. Both of the aliens ordered themselves something to drink and went around, said something to the fighting pairs while the C-Sec officer was making her way to the quarian.

The quarian didn't understand any of what was going on here and neither did she understand why that alien was coming to her. She didn't want to fight, she wasn't even good. She never had been good in fighting to begin with. She was an engineer with little to no fighting experiences, she wasn't one for the frontlines. She liked to work hard behind the scenes, near heavy, difficult and therefore dangerous machines. Her left arm was a very good proof of that.

Strange sounds entered her ears and tore her from her thoughts. The alien C-Sec officer was now sitting in front of her and talking to her. Though she still didn't understand one word she said and said so after a few minutes in which the alien tried to get her to talk apparently.

The aliens eyebrows curled up in confusion at the quarian words. It seemed she could understand her. The alien looked at her for a few seconds, opened her mouth and closed it again in confusion. But then her eyes suddenly seemed to lit up. She made another round of her strange sounds and words and, a batarian began to approach them.

He looked at the alien in a confused way, unsure of what to do or why he was even there. The quarian was equally confused. What did the alien have in mind? Or even better why was she here with her when no one else seemed to want to do anything with her? Well, it wasn't that surprising if she thought about it. Her race apparently was seen as nothing more than a bunch of beggars or thieves, though that still didn't make any sense to her.

The alien uttered another few words and the batarian sighed, but seemed to accept his fate. He looked at the quarian strangely and seemed to ponder about something. About what she could only speculate, but it certainly wasn't what it happened to be.

"Do you understand me?" he finally asked.

The quarian tilted her head a bit in confusion at the words, the batarian sighed and made a gesture as if to say 'I tried my best' to the alien. "She doesn't understand - "

"Yes."

"Wait! What?" the batarian said in a surprised tone, turning around to face the young quarian once again.

"Yes. Yes, I do understand you." the quarian replied.

All of four of his eyes blinked at that. "Why didn't you answer then?"

"I did."

"No, you didn't." he said getting agitated. "You just tilted your head in confusion!"

"I didn't understand why you asked me that question." she defended herself. In all honesty she really didn't get why he had asked her that and neither did she now, but she didn't think it would be wise to articulate that question now. Maybe at a later date would be more appropriate?

"You stu- "

Another bunch of angry sounding words left the aliens mouth, directed at the batarian. The words and the look she gave him stopped him. The quarian might not have understand the words but she sure saw the look. A look that promised hell if he would dare to finish whatever he wanted to say. For some reason the young quarian figured that this alien was a bit protective of her. She just wondered why.

"Alright, alright. No need for that. I'll just do as you say." He mumbled and held his hands up in a non-threatening manner as other people started to come closer to look what was going on in this little booth. Nothing seemed to be more interesting to them than the curious little discussion found here.

"You don't understand her, do you?" It wasn't a question the batarian had asked. It was more of a statement that everyone knew was true, but still were waiting for confirmation.

"No. I don't even know what she is." And that was the truth. She didn't even have a name for them and just alien seemed to be a bit insufficient in the long run.

"'I don't even know what she is'?" some near-by male turian with black markings repeated in confusion and shock. "How can you not know what she is? Have you been living under a stone the last twenty-six years?"

"I'm sure she will explain everything to you once she had a look at your omni-tool." the batarian hastily said before the turian could provoke a fight and therefore making his job more difficult then it needed to be. He just wanted his peace, the sooner it came the better.

"Who made you important enough to interrupt me, four-eyes?" the turian demanded to know.

"She did!" he said, pointing to the alien frantically.

"My omni-tool? Why?" the quarian asked in confusion, ignoring the starting banter between the batarian and turian. "What does she intend to do with my omni-tool?"

"Probably checking your auto-translation program." an asari next to the turian from earlier said. She also was ignoring the two bickering males.

Confused, but at the same time thrilled at the prospect of the probability to learn something new she started her omni-tool. She didn't actually take it off, but she pointed it at the alien who looked at her questioningly. At a nod from the quarian she stood up and sat next to her, and started her own omni-tool. And then started to work on both of them simultaniously, comparing them all the time.

The quarian observed the alien as she worked. Though the alien had to read the words and symbols upside down she didn't seem to mind and didn't stop in her work at all. She just typed things in it that went above the quarians minds. She had somewhat of an understanding of the inner workings of an omni-tool but not good enough to correct or edit some of the more difficult or more complex programs. The easy and simple ones were not a problem, but apart of that she couldn't really do much on her own.

While she saw the alien working and typing she couldn't be sure if the alien wouldn't insert a virus in it, but for the moment, she had to trust it. At least she thought that until the C-Sec alien threw her hands up in defeat and yelled some words in the direction of the bar. A few seconds later the one alien she had entered the Dark Star with appeared in the midst of the crowd, looking questioningly at them. Now that they were closer the quarian took the time to look at them closer.

The C-Sec alien had a dark brown skin or fur tone, while her head fur was a dark red. Her eyes were black. The other alien life form had a much softer skin or fur tone, while her head fur was black and her eyes red.

The brown skinned or furred alien, she really couldn't tell if it was short fur or skin or something entirely different, said a few things to the other alien before they switched places and the pale skinned one was sitting in front of her now. Starting her own omni-tool as a reference. She immediately began working on the quarian's omni-tool while the other one was standing next to them and looking expectantly at them.

The pale skinned one was concentrating hard on the work, often mumbling something that appeared to be swear words while typing too fast for the quarian to follow with her eyes. The alien also seemed frustrated and that in return made the quarian somehow sad. She dropped her head down. She had hoped that she would be able to understand those aliens and by understanding them she would come closer to understanding in what kind of situation she was in. Though it seemed likely now that it just shouldn't be.

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

"What do you mean, _he's gone?_" Executor Pallin yelled at one of his underlings, the young turian C-Sec officer who had the unfortunate duty to go the executor's office and tell him the bad news. "He was in one of our _most guarded_ cells and you are telling me he _escaped_? And we have no, I repeat, no way of telling_ how_ he pulled that off? That the only reason we even noticed this was because he wasn't in his cell when one of you went to bring him his _breakfast_?"

"Eh ... yes sir, that's about correct!" the turian replied weakly, not used to having someone breath him down like that. He hadn't actually excelled in his basic training, but he hadn't been so bad either to have one of the instructors tear him down. But now here was one of them and he could do nothing but hoping he would survive it.

**"YOU ARE INCOMPETENT!"** Pallin yelled at him, frustrated and angry at this situation. He would never be able to understand how his own people could just be so incompetent to allow someone so obviously delusional to just leave the confinements of a cell used to foster the more dangerous, crazy and delusional people that the good people of the galaxy should never ever see or hear about. "Go and leave me alone. I need to figure out how I can best save this delicate situation."

The young turian nodded and left the office so fast that it seemed as if he was fleeing, and if the executor hadn't been so deep in thought about this situation his own men had put him in he would have noticed that the young one had been fleeing from his office. Scared of receiving the bad end of the executor's righteous anger.

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

"There. That ought to do it." The alien said while shutting down both omni-tools.

Surprised by the words all the hopelessness the quarian had felt in the last few minutes were forgotten and with new found hope she looked up to the alien.

"I take it you understand me now?" it said with something that resembled a smile, but she couldn't be sure if that really was a smile and not something different. Different races and cultures and such, but since every race she knows so far thinks of a smile as a smile there was a high probability this other race did so too.

The quarian simply nodded in awe. The alien did so too, but in her case it seemed to be satisfaction. With a nod to the other alien, she turned around to their little audience. "Don't you have something better to do? Like doing something productive for once instead of ganging up on one young quarian girl?!"

"And how about no?" the turian from before replied. "I like my prey ripe and fresh and occassionally ... dirty."

"Bad choice. Very bad choice indeed. Will regret choice of words. Definitely." an emerald skinned young salarian woman said next to the quarian. Seeing as the quarian hadn't noticed her presence at all she was surprised by the sudden words and jumped a bit away from her. More wary about her than anything else for the moment.

"Thank you." The alien that wasn't a C-Sec officer said as she took a picture of the turian, while giving him a very dangerous smile.

"Huh? What are you thanking me for? Are you dead in the brain? And why did you make a picture of me? Wanking material?"

_"What was wanking material?"_ the quarian thought bewildered

"Nope. I'm feeling fine, thank you, and now I have to ask you to leave this club." Completely ignoring the latest parts of his questions. The quarian wasn't sure if she even wanted to hear her giving him a reply to that part.

"I'm not going anywhere." he replied, looking as sternly as he could. Trying to glare a hole in the woman's head.

"In that case I have no choice but to throw you out myself." the woman replied seemingly pleased confusing the listening quarian. Why would she be pleased by that?

The turian just laughed at that, not taking her the least bit serious. Not taking into account that she was seemingly wearing official army clothes as far as the quarian could tell. "You and which army?"

"This one." the woman simply said as she suddenly turned blue. The young quarian gasped at the sudden display of biotic powers this alien demonstrated and was now openly showing.

"Hey! Biotics aren't allowed in a club. Especially not in this one!" The turian remarked immediately, who suddenly became frightened. Of what, the quarian couldn't say.

"Terrarn is right, Romeo. You made the rule yourself." the other alien, the one with C-Sec, suddenly pointed out, looking at the other woman sternly until she finally diminished her biotic aura. Only then she returned her attention to the turian. "And Terrarn, please leave the Dark Star peaceful and quietly. Otherwise I would have no choice and try to throw you out myself. Which could possibly lead to an arrest and I should probably do it anyway for your implied rape."

"For my what? Implied rape? Are you drunk, officer?" Terrarn replied slightly confused.

"I quote 'I like my prey ripe and fresh and occasionally dirty.' To me and her" she said pointing at the alien who openly glared at the turian. "it's a message that you have some ulterior moves with this young woman here or any other quarian you may meet today here or somewhere else."

"You know you two are rotten, don't you?" the batarian from before remarked from his new position inside the crowd.

"Of course I am. I'm a former marine and she is an active one. Believe me when I say we have seen our share of situations we would very much like to forget. Unspeakable ones included."

"Shouldn't you be then, I don't know, hardened by that then?" a curious asari asked. "You don't look like that at all."

"We are. Believe me, we are. But even so there are things that just aren't done. Simple as that. And of course there is one other thing. Training. Simple training." The black haired alien started to explain. "All marines learn how to act in between civilists. How and why to not threaten them, not shout at them as if they were some fucking new guys, how and why to gulp down the vile jokes and such. Even in what I would call a club that is used to hosting military parties there are things that simply aren't done. Even in a place like this were harsher jokes and many more things are allowed and tolerated, there are still things where I'm simply drawing the line. Things I can't - and won't - ever tolerate." She sighed. "Maybe we - I mean I - saw something where there was nothing, but nevertheless I would ask you to leave for tonight. Otherwise I have the feeling that something might happen that we both will regret at a later date. You can take one free drink with you as an apology from me, but please leave in the next five minutes."

Terrarn seemed to regard her sceptically and also seemed ready to bark at the aliens. Ignoring the fact all eyes were drawn to him and the marine, as far as the young quarian could tell from her position. He took a few seemingly entless moments in which he glared at them before he just turned around to walk to one of the barkeeper. There he simply ordered himself another dextro beer which he promptly got. He drowned it in one go and left the Dark Star immediately afterwards without another word. As soon as he was gone the marine regarded the rest of the club. "And all of you, scatter, work on those skills, dance or just have some fun instead of just standing here and bothering the young quarian. That includes you too, Alpha. Otherwise I might have to close the club early."

"Alright." replied the C-Sec alien easily, standing up and wishing the young quarian a good night. The salarian followed the human to the bar where they stood and talked for a while. The pale skinned alien disappeared to ancestor's know where. The crowd dispersed slowly and everything went as it was supposed to be. Or at least the quarian guessed it was that way now. While she had had some experiences with some pubs and clubs she couldn't really tell it if it was so. It looked like ordinary club behaviour to her, but she dared not to think that. Her day had been crazy enough already.

So she was sitting alone in her booth, trying to figure out what the best course of action now was. While she was deep in thought she barely noticed that here and there sometimes a bar fight would break out. It usually ended shortly afterwards with both of them drinking a beer. Only when one fighter made a bad move, knowingly or unknowingly trying to permanently maim his opponent one old turian went between them with throwing the offender, another turian, against the wall. The loud clang of that sound as wall met turian broke the young quarians concentration. Looking at the fight she suddenly knew with an impossible clarity what she needed to do next. With her next goal or step etched firmly into her head, she stood up and got moving. Taking faith in her own hands.

* * *

**A/N:** I'm sorry! I'm really sorry for the long wait! I sure hope that I won't take another three and a half month break between two updates anymore ...

To my quest reviewer: **Quest Q**: You are forgetting one person in your list, but seeing as she appeared only once so far you are forgiven.

And now on the new chapter, which was one of the hardest chapters to write to date. I really don't know how often I rewrote it, but I had to so mostly because of two things. One, were the 'aliens', the humans as you probably guessed by now. In the beginning it was only alien that entered the club, the one that was with C-Sec, but then I remembered that this particular character wasn't that good with tech, therefore I needed another OC who was. Second, the auto-translating. It is my believe that the omni-tools are used for everything, including automatic translation of languages, spoken and unspoken ones. But seeing as the omni-tool isn't opening itself to show a spoken word to written word translation whenever someone from another race talks to you, it isn't enough. I also believe - and think to remember - that there also implants near the ear. Those implants might also help or do the biggest part of the work, but I sincerely believe that the basic programs of translation are saved in the omni-tools and are working hand in hand with the implants and their tech.

Beta read by DavidJ647, any last minutes changes and mistakes are entirely of my own doing.

Your thoughts to this chapter? I would appreciate hearing them


	6. The theory

**Omega Nebula, Sahrabarik System, Omega**

She had a feeling or just a hunch, and coupled with her experience and knowledge of the past, or better her universe's past. She knew and feared that the time had come, the time where it all began, or that it was at least very close now. She couldn't remember the exact date, but knew that this was right month and it was probably better if she were on the Citadel.

Somewhat frustrated that she had to leave Omega, that she had to stop killing mercenaries in her free time, she sighed but she knew that she had to go now. She would still have the chance to change something if she would go now and so she had went to her apartment, packed all of her more important things in a few bags. While she had lived for quite a while on Omega she had made sure she was ready at any time for every or at least most kind of emergencies. And this was going to be an emergency, the galaxy just didn't know it yet. Therefore packing all of her things, or at least most of them, didn't take long. Just as soon she was ready she opened the door to only find a group of two turians and a batarian in front of her door. Waiting apparently impatiently for her.

"What do you want?" She asked the batarian, the one who was closest to her door and therefore to her. She also suspected that he was their leader. Aria liked batarians after all. No that was wrong, Aria had an unhealthy obsession with them.

"Aria wants to talk to you. Now." He simply said proving that her last thought was correct. This was a goup of Aria's men. She started to smirk slighty when one idea entered her mind.

"Does she want now? Well then. Let's go, but you are all going to carry my bags." She said thinking if the self-titled Queen of Omega wants to see her she can take advantage of it. For what other purpose would she have sent a messenger and his friends to her apartment anyway? A single person could have taken care of that as easily. Or was Aria just paranoid enough to think that she might shoot them all for just standing there? In that case she should have sent a dozen, but then the asari figured, she would have killed them all without asking any questions. So three men were actually quite a good move from her she concluded.

"Who do you take us for?"

"For one of Aria's lackeys." she simply replied, not batting an eye to the batarians rising anger. She wasn't afraid in the slightest. Not of him, not of his friends and definitely not of Aria. She had learned enough of Aria's secrets in her own time to not be scared of her. And then there was of course her own fighting ability and training. Leagues above Aria's as far as she was concerned. "I don't know what Aria wants, but I'm going to leave Omega today. Not even she will be able change that fact. So, either you will help me carry this to the Afterlife or I will kill you all here and now and leave Omega without seeing her. Your choice, and it's quite an easy one."

"Who do you take us for?" He repeated, his anger now clearly shown on his face. His friends readied their weapons and pointed them at her.

"A corpse if you keep asking that." She said to him before turning to the turians. "And if even one of you _thinks_ of pulling the trigger you _will_ die." Her voice didn't change in the slightest. She was used to death after all. Having killed more men and monsters than she could count. It was her line of work after all, in both universes. "Now start carrying them or die. Your choice."

The asari could see that they weren't happy about this situation. Not like she really cared. She had no business with the self-titled Queen of Omega even if the latter one seemed to think so, but even so she didn't immediately pull the trigger and got done with them. Even in a place like Omega she had some sort of moral. Waiting for them to make her choice. Either way she would win.

She could imagine their thoughts. If they didn't bring her to Aria she would be furious and that scared them, but if they refused to take the bags they would die. Though if they agreed to take the bags they would be made the laughing stocks in Aria's gang. In the mind of the asari there was only one solution and it seemed that the batarian had finally gotten to the same one.

"Aria will hear of this." The leader grumbled as he finally bend down, deciding for the team that facing Aria's possible wrath was better than facing certain death. As soon as he had found a good position to carry the heavy bag in, he glared at his two companions. They sighed at each other but complied and took the other two bags after taking their rifles away.

"Of course she will." The asari replied easily. "I will probably tell her this myself. Maybe it will amuse her, I know it amuses me. And now, get moving!"

Aria's lackeys grumbled and mumbled things that the asari decided to not hear under their breath but they complied and got moving, one of them in the front, two of them behind her. She didn't mind. She could have carried all of the bags herself or could have called a taxi to help her carry it to the docks, but one shouldn't let hospitality go to waste she thought smirking. Not if it comes at such a convenient time. Though it also was far from convenient. Time was something they didn't have amass, not anymore. Probably never had, but she was the only one who knew it, except Saren and his lackeys maybe she presumed. And she would do her damnest to make sure that this universe wouldn't face the same consequences and ends that her home universe had. She still didn't know why she was here or how she ended up here. Neither did she know why she ended up here, confused, a few decades ago and she had a feeling she would never know. Her memories of her past were still a bit fuzzy but they had getting better and were still getting better even after this long time. It was like the universe decided which memory, which knowledge was important to know and which could wait. It frustrated the hell out of her sometimes but there was really nothing she could do except trying to remember. And trying to remember things of her past life ... well, wasn't going to work. She knew that from experience. Waiting was all she could. Waiting for her memories to come back to her.

XXXXXXXXXX

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

"H-h-hello?" the young quarian stammered, as she tried to get the attention of either the emerald skinned salarian or the dark skinned alien next to her or both of them. She had searched for them quite a while until she found the c-sec alien in this both, talking with the salarian about ancestors know what.

"Yes?" the alien said as she turned around to face her. As soon as she saw her face brightened slightly, but nonetheless was openly curious.

The young quarian looked somewhat shyly but still pointedly at the salarian. Thankfully the alien understood it easily enough.

"Morya? Would you be so kind to leave us alone? We can talk again at a later date."

The female salarian simply nodded and disappeared into the midst of the crowd. The Dark Star was by now very full. To full for any fight to break out and the quarian thought that no one was dumb enough anyway to try something stupid with that old turian bartender around. The old guy existed also in her alien-free world and she knew what he was capable of. No one dared to argue with him, unless they were prepared to die or to get sent into the hospital at least.

"Why don't you sit down and tell me what you have on your mind?" the alien gently asked, getting the quarian back on track.

The quarian nodded and sat down, oposite of the alien, wringing her hands in nervousness. Not sure how to really start the discussion she really wanted to have with the alien. The woman in the uniform of Citadel security seemed to notice her nervousness because she opened it.

"Well, why don't we start with introducing us? You can call me Kallian Tabris if you like."

"Kallian Tabris?" the quarian tried saying the unfamiliar name. At the nod from the now alien now known as Kallian she continued. "I'm R-ti. I mean my name is Ti'Zhernah nar Valna."

In the midst of her sentence the quarian decided to follow an advice an old friend had given her. _"Give people, foremost not-quarians, a fake name, if you aren't at least two hundred percent sure that you can trust them."_ The aliens eyebrows furrowed a bit, but otherwise nothing happened. She didn't say anything, she just nodded and waited. Waited for the questions Ti certainly had. She didn't had to wait for long.

"What are you?" Ti bluntly asked after a while. Subtetly had never been one of her stronger points. One of the reasons she really never had many friends and all of her relationships usually ended early.

"I'm what is known as a human." Kallian replied calm, she didn't seem to be offended in the least and even offered an explanation on her own. "Our history with this universe is a short one, but it all started with a war."

"A war?" the quarian asked confused and a bit intrigued. Why hadn't she heard about a war? She should have heard about a war, shouldn't she?

"A war." She confirmed. "A war known by humanity -"

"Hu - what?" the quarian interrupted at the new and unknown word.

"Hu-ma-ni-ty. I'm a human, but the large entity of us is called humanity." the human explained patiently. "Anyway, it was a war that was known by humanity as the First Contact War, though the turians have another word for it. The Relay 314 Incident."

"You've had a war with the turians and survived?" Ti asked bewildered and confused. Everyone knew that the turians followed the total destruction doctrine in wars. Killing and slaying every enemy before the Council could get wind of it. Sometimes they got wind of it, but most of the times it was way too late by then. Hundreds of years or at least some dozen years to late. Turians were really fast, efficient and totally determinated to exterminate any possible threat if they could get away with it, which they usually did, unfortunately. Unfortunately for the universe, the Council and the victim race.

"Don't take the Alliance lightly." Kallian chided her. "We are a force to be reckoned with."

"Alliance?" asked Ti, not really understanding what the human meant with that word. Alliance? An alliance between her people and some other council race? An alliance between council races against the turians? What exactly did she mean with that word?

"The Systems Alliance or Alliance for short is the chosen name for the military and political arm of humanity, the one arm that represents us officially in the universe and on the Citadel in the name of earth and all her colonies."

"So you survived long enough for the Council to notice the turians waging war on you? Sending their own armies to stop the slaughter?"

"Oh no. The Council never did sent any armies. As soon as they noticed the turian preparations for a total war, they sent a few diplomats over to stop the fighting."

"How long did the Council take to notice it? A century?" She asked. She supposed the Council could have sent diplomatic ships if a race survived the turians slaughter long enough to be noticed.

"A century? God forbid, no. It was only a few months until they acted but by then the turians had occupied Shanxi and we had liberated it from them. Both sides were preparing for a full out war by then."

"Wait, what? The Council for once acted fast?" Nothing was as shocking as this to the young quarian. Even with all of her reluctance to take politics for real, she still knew a few things. It was a by-product of her parents often whining about the Council and their slow ways of acting. If she was honest to herself this was also the major reason she never took politics serious and probably never would.

"Waiting for months isn't fast in my opinion." Kallian simply declared.

"You wish! The Council takes at least a decade discussing one law! By the time it is approved of, it is most of the time not longer needed, indicating that the Council is going to discuss it for another ten years to abolish it. I can only imagine how long it would take it them discussing a war!"

"That makes no sense, you know? The Council has adopted three laws this year!"

"You're the one who makes no sense!" yelled Ti at her by now.

"You're both being ridiculous." someone simply declared, interrupting the quarreling duo. Looking around they noticed that the salarian and the other human female were standing next to them. For how long neither of the sitting could say, since they hadn't even noticed them approaching.

"Why are you saying that, Romeo?" the human asked and raising one of her strands of fur above their eyes.

"Morya, could you tell them?" Romeo instead said, ignoring her old friend and looking at the salarian next to her. Who looked confused herself at the question. "Oh, come on. Don't give me that look. I have seen your eyes litting up a while ago. You know what's going on here, but restricted yourself because Alpha here wanted to talk alone with her guest."

"Is that true?" Kallian asked Morya. Ti herself was looking for an answer for herself. At best one that would make sense of this discussion she just had with Kallian. All of those colliding points and she still didn't knew why her own people were living on ships and not on Rannoch or on one of their many colonies. Like Valna. The one colony she had named herself even if she hadn't been born on it.

Morya looked into Kallian's eyes for a full ten seconds before she simply nodded.

"Then let's hear it." The human marine ordered.

"Only one possible solution." Morya began, but correct herself immediately. "Correction, most possible and logical conclusion. Different home universes."

"Sorry, I didn't catch that." Romeo said with a raised fur-above-eye.

"Different home universes. Fundamentally different home universes. This one with humans, hers without."

"That's ... that's ridiculous!"

"I do think it makes sense, Romeo. Just look at our little family. It ... it would explain a few things."

"I ... yes ... but"

"Yes, I know."

"Care for an explanation?" Ti asked not liking to be left out of the loop. Though right at this moment Kallian's omni-tool peeped. With a frown the human opened the incoming message. It was a short one if one considered the reading time, but the officer's frown had clearly deepened by the end of that short time.

"Trouble?" the other human had asked as soon as Kallian had looked away from her omni-tool.

"I'm not entirely sure, but I think so. The executor wants to see me, as soon as possible. I'm afraid I have to get going now."

"Aren't you forgetting something, Alpha?" The marine stopped the c-sec officer as soon as she started to get away.

"Huh?" She said looking back at the scowling marine. Romeo just nodded at the quarian after a moment.

"Oh. Right." she said a bit sheepishly.

"What?" Ti asked, suddenly feeling a bit scared. Was this the moment were the happy and friendly gestures would end?

"I don't know if you are trusting us or not, but if you need a place to stay for this night just ask Morya here. She can show you the way. I really have to get going now. Take care."

"You too, Alpha." The marine said as she looked at the retreating back of the c-sec officer before she herself disappeared to ancestor's know where.

Rati'Zorah vas Citadel, or better known as Ti'Zhernah nar Valna in this universe, found herself confused about this sudden change. So she just sat there for a few minutes in silence. No one said a word. After what seemed an eternity to her Ti turned around to face the salarian. Or at least where she should have been, but the salarian wasn't there anymore. Instead there was a datapad lying. Intrigued and confused the quarian took it and began reading.

_"Have a bit fun. The night is still young. I'll be near-by if you need me. Morya"  
_  
Ti blinked once before a little smile adorned her face. She hadn't had a party for a long while. And considering her own fears and insecurities about the young salarian's theory it was probably the last chance for a party. So she decided to stay a bit and to have fun. And if she wanted to go

Morya would be here. That she was sure of. She trusted her. She didn't know why or how but the young loyal salarian had made an impression on her. A good one.

XXXXXXXXXX

**Omega Nebula, Sahrabarik System, Omega**

"What do you want Aria?" The asari demanded to know with her arms crossed in front of her chest. Aria's men who had accompanied her where sitting at the bar below them, drinking and eathing. And occasionally rubbing their wrists or backs and eyeing the asari warily who had forced them to carry her bags.

"Oh, nothing much, but I just hadn't had the chance to talk to you for such a long time. Can't I just talk to my favourite independent asari mercenary?"

"You probably could Aria, but you simply don't. So tell me what you want or I'll get moving and make those lackeys carry my bags again. They are quite heavy I assure you, so they might need the break."

"You - what?" Aria replied, blinking at her. It wasn't quite easy to make Aria lose composure, but she had just done it. "You are using my men as if they were yours?"

"You wanted to see me, I didn't, so I offered them a compromise. They accepted and so I'm here, otherwise I would have left Omega already. And you would have three men less."

"You haven't left Omega for I don't know how many years. Why now?" Aria inquired.

"Do you really think I will tell you my goals?"

"Oh, I would certainly like to hear what they are, but I don't expect to hear them. It's much more fun to keep guessing what you have in mind." Aria said playfully.

"What am I to you? A game?" The asari asked incredolously.

"A very fascinating game indeed, but that's not why I have called you over, Oshara. Omega needs your help."

"A few dozen nuclear bombs and Omega's problems would be all but gone." The asari known as Oshara simply replied. She had never made a habit of disguising her dislike of Omega. She hates Omega with a passion, but still lives there. No one ever understood this and no one will probably ever understand it, except Oshara herself.

"I don't want Omega destroyed, Oshara!"

"In that case, just burn all districts down. That should work also." The asari simply replied, offering another one of her ideas.

"No! No nuclear bombs! No burning districts! And before you start telling me your other ridiculous ideas, I'll tell why I wanted to see you. I want you to go and find a human couple, namely Elisa and Louise Parker and deliver them, unharmed, to the Citadel."

"Never heard of them." Oshara bluntly said. It was the truth and that in itself was saying something. She knew quite the amount of people. One of the perks of having a very long life span and having lived in two different universes.

"Neither had I, but the DDSC insists that they are on Omega and they want them, alive. And they are offering quite the amount of credits for their wellbeing."

"The DDSC, huh? And where is their messenger?" The asari asked, not buying it in the least. The DDSC was known for a few things. Among them was their infamous rule to never set foot on Omega ever again. If they had a message for the self titled Queen of Omega they always used a messenger. A person who was paid for delivering the message and taking whatever the DDSC needed with her or him, back to the exchange place.

"I'm here, witch." A deep and dangerous sounding voice replied. Oshara turned around to only find an asari of an azure blue skin tone standing behind her. She was a head taller than her and a few scars were defacing her beautiful body, even for asari standards. Her right eye was dead, A few scar lines were crossing right where her eye once was. She had never told anyone why or how it happened. That wasn't all of course. There were more scars found about all parts of her body, even a few of her tentacles had been cut short. Nausea Z'Rala's life was a mystery to all but herself. Similar to Oshara's own life.

"Nausea." Oshara simply said, acknowledging the other asari.

"Witch." Nausea said, refering to Oshara's nickname that one human had inventend two decades ago. 'The witch of Oz'. Neither knew the origins of it, but everyone had found it fitting and so it just kept stuck to her.

"So, you are once again working for the DDSC, huh?"

Nausea just shrugged as if saying 'What does it matter to you?'. "They are paying good." She just replied. And that was the truth. The DDSC was paying damn well as Oshara had once seen herself.

"Back to business, lovebirds." Aria interrupted, earning a glare from both of the other asari, making the Queen of Omega smirk at them. "They want this couple, alive and unharmed, to be brought to the Citadel. You still have one hundred and sixty hours left, otherwise they might make good of their promises."

All three of knew what Aria was refering to. There was no need to articulate that. The leading part of the DDSC had never broken a promise. Not even once. They were famous for staying true to their words. So they took the threat serious. Very serious. Even Oshara who had no kind feelings for Omega at all didn't take it lightly. So they just went going, but Oshara stopped at the bar, next to her bags.

"What's the matter, witch? Gotten cold feet suddenly?"

Oshara just glanced at her angrily, before turning back to face Aria's back. "Hey, Aria! I'm going to borrow your men for a bit!"

The three men who carried the mercenaries bags down to the Afterlife looked between the two asari with emotions that were difficult to point out. Aria half-turned around and barked angrily. "You are NOT ordering my men around! They are staying here!"

Oz just shrugged when Aria's men sighed in bliss, thankful for their boss' decision.

"Someone else up for getting a few credits for just carrying my bags for me?" The mercenary asked the club at large. Most of the customers just shook their heads, but three helpers appeared next to her anyway. Two turians, a female and a male, and one human female. As soon as each of them took a bag, Oshara asked Nausea a question. "So, where is your ship parked, or shall we take mine?"

XXXXXXXXXX

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

"You wanted to see me, sir?" a female human asked as soon as she entered the executor's office.

"Yes." he simply said. His eyes were glued on some displays in front of him, working on a few controls while she came nearer and stood in front of his desk, arms clasped neatly behind her back. As soon as he was finished with whatever he was doing, he focused on her. "Did you get that illusional batarian out of his cell? Yes or no?"

She blinked at him. "What batarian?

"Don't play with me. Yes or no?"

"With all due respect, sir, I have no idea what you are talking about."

"I said **don't play with me, human**. I know that you and your little crew are going out of their ways to 'rescue' some people." making air quotes at rescue. "Most of the time I'm somewhat thankful for that, but I will deny all of that if asked." He sighed. "I just want to know if you let that one batarian who called himself the son of a former batarian Councilor out of his prison cell. Yes or no?"

"Son of a former batarian Councilor? That's ... new to me, sir. There have been batarian Councilors before?"

"**OF COURSE NOT!**" Pallin yelled so loud at her, that she had to restrain herself from flinching.

"Strange. Why would he say that then?" she asked confused. She played the confused human quite good, while she thought about Morya's theory. Did this batarian also jump into this universe? Was the helper also a jumper? Or had it been one of Rhian's men? Or was it someone else entirely?

"I don't know. Maybe he is wrong in his head, all the more reason to imprison him. To make him stay away from our citizens. There are enough crazy people out there already."

"I'll agree with you there, sir, but to answer your questions. I haven't even been informed til now that we have, or better had, an imprisoned batarian."

"So you claim to deny having been involved with his escape?"

"I claim that I am wrongly accused." Very wrongly accused. Her 'crew' as Pallin called it consisted only of herself and four others. Morya was among them. The other three hadn't been on the Citadel for a few months. But they came to her whenever they visited the Citadel. What Pallin was thinking of wasn't Kallian's friends or something, but her mate's little organisation aboard the Citadel. The c-sec officer was no part of it. She had almost no knowledge about their members, and would never ever tell people about this. She would never betray Rhian's trust. Never ever. She loved her after all.

The human stood still as Pallin didn't reply immediately and began to study her. What he saw she couldn't say, but she just knew that he was in some way comparing her to Harkin. She tried not to grith her teeth too much at that thought. She knew it wasn't personal after all. He did that to every human under his command. Harkin had been the first human in c-sec after all ... and a very bad example of humanity at that. She didn't like to be compared to that drunkard and hoped that someday he would finally get fired. Hopefully changing the executor's sight on human's afterwards.

"This time I believe you." He finally replied. "This reeks more of Spectre work than yours, Shepard. Though I don't get why one would do that."

The woman shrugged. "I have no idea, sir. I have never understood how they think."

"And I do hope it stays that way." Pallin quietly mumbled, but Alpha heard him nonetheless but decided to not say anything about that.

"Was that all, sir?"

"No. There is still one more thing." He frowned. "The Council has just informed me that a person involved with the Death Dancers will be visiting the Citadel in the near future, which means unsurprisingly tomorrow." Both of them knew how the Council sometimes or more like most of the times informed C-Sec on very short notice." This person will be apparently staying for a while and you will accompany her or him to make sure that she or he stays out of trouble. Is that clear?"

_"And once again Im going to have to play the babysitter for one of your men, Papa. Thanks for the warning."_ Shepard thought dryly and nodded.

"And now get yourself out here." he growled at her, which she took as her cue to leave.

XXXXXXXXXX

**A/N:** Well, now we know what's going on here, don't we? If that theory of little Morya is correct, I mean. I'm not saying she is right, neither am I saying that she is wrong. That's for you to decide and learn in the next chapters and by the way, this was the longest chapter to date.

And the asari from the first chapter appears again, I'm pretty sure that most of you have forgotten her already, alas two appearances in one chapter. May the goddess now grant you the ability to remember her for a longer time.

The bar fights in the last two chapters were just my quiet tribute to "Manipulations", one of the best written stories I have seen so far.

There is a limit, a limit of how many "Jumpers"/"Dimensional travelers" I will include in this story and that limit will be 15 and not one more, there can be less, but never more than 15. Though I only include those that can remember bits of their past life and/or universe and believe it or not but Number 37 can remember bits of her past universe. So far we got: Doreen Vega, Oshara, Charros Pazness (the batarian), Rati'Zorah aka Ti'Zhernah, Number 37 (the tankborn human), Spectre Krios (the drell), which makes six so far.

This chapter is un-betaed, because I was recently informed by my former beta that he won't find the time for beta-work anymore. Therefore all mistakes are of my own doing.

Your thoughts to this chapter? I would appreciate hearing them.


	7. Morya's death

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

A pair of two adult females were in a small bedroom sitting on the even smaller bed, just big enough for the two of them to sleep in it. The first female was telling a story, the second female was simply listening to her.

"That's ridiculous and you know it." A female turian simply stated after her girlfriend had finished her tale. A story so unbelievable that no one in their right mind would have supported it, but she knew that her mate wouldn't do something without a reason, even if she would refrain from explaining her reasons.

"Maybe." The only other person in the room, a female human answered. "But until I have heard a better theory I'm going to believe Morya. Which of course reminds me, do you happen to know where she is?"

"No, I don't. Why?"

"I haven't heard of her since yesterday evening."

"That's unusual for her, isn't it?" The turian asked, getting a bit concerned for the sake of her friend. Knowing quite well how fond she was of the young salarian. Ever since she had found her all those years ago in a very deplorable condition and therefore all of her alarms were somewhat tingling. A dead Morya would equal a very sad girlfriend and the turian hated to see her crying or sad or devastated.

"Yes. Yes, it is, but I'm probably just overreacting a bit. She does know how to get around alone after all." The human said trying to sound convincing, which she did, for the most part. Only those that knew her well would have heard the hidden emotions in her voice. She was feeling insecure, she wasn't sure if Morya really was alright, she loved the young salarian like a mother would love her daughter after all. While she did believe in her young charge, she was also very frightened. Countless 'what if'-questions bombarding her mind restlessly, despite all that she was projecting a strong imagine, not that it managed to convince the turian.

"Morya is a big girl, Didi." The turian said, trying to ease the humans worries a bit. "You made sure yourself that she can take care of herself. Ever since you have found her and taken her in, you have made sure of it. Let her have fun for one night. You will see, everything's gonna be alright."

"Yeah. You're probably right, Rhi." Didi replied, looking her girlfriend in the eyes with all of her hope and her love apparent.

"Of course I am." Rhi replied, taking her face in her hands. Careful to not scar her beautiful dark skin with her sharp white talons. Rhi loved the dark skin tone of her girlfriend. It reminded her of the endless vast sky of the galaxy. All those places to find and explore and Rhi loved to explore, the galaxy and the body of her girlfriend. So it was with love that she looked into her girlfriends seemingly endless black eyes, dangerous and beautiful like black holes. An impulse following she bent forward, kissing Didi. Parts of a second later the human followed suit and kissed her back.

This was another thing Rhi loved, the human custom of kissing. Hard plates of part turian exosceleton and human soft flesh were nothing alike, but that was part of the thrill. They were just so incompatible, in more than one way but they didn't care. They loved each other. They simply loved each other. Greatly. And that was all that mattered to them.

"Beep."

The human's omni-tool beeped, loudly, interrupting the kissing session of the two lovers. With reluctance the turian let go of the human's hair. The softness of her long dark red hair on her mostly plated skin. The feeling was just unbelievable, at least to her. Some people, most of them turian would scowl or laugh at her, but she didn't care. Rhian was sure about one thing. As soon as they would feel the touch of hair on their skin they would be quite as mesmerized as by it. Just like her. There was no doubt about it in her mind.

"I'm sorry. Work calls." Didi said with the same regret Rhian felt, but they both had enough discipline in them to know when to let go. Years of military duties had drilled that into them, and their work now, even though it was as different as night and day, was still based on discipline and military duties.

Rhi watched closely as the human searched and found the clothes she had been looking for. She took any of those exotic and intoxicating curves that were so foreign to her own race in. Neither did say a word. It wasn't necessary to say something. They both knew that they would be continuing were they had left off in a few hours. Going from there to whereever they wanted to go.

"Bye bye my love and don't forget to wake the little dragon later." Didi called when she finally left the apartment. Grinning back at the turian before closing the door.

Awakened by those words Rhi was a bit embarassed to have been caught in a day dream. A beautiful day dream, but still ...

"Take care, Deidre, my love, my Vima" the turian softly called after her, all of her love apparent in her voice and using a word she hadn't ever used with the human around. Even though she loved her, she couldn't find the courage to use that word with her around. And because of her love for Kallian she stood up and made her way to her little own work interface. Informing her sister of the situation and asking her to tell her men to search for Morya while she did it with her own men as well. Before she started making breakfast for herself and their daughter.

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, SSV Normandy-SR1**

Captain David Edward Anderson sat alone in his cabin abord the SSV Normandy-SR1. His cabin was very dark, sometimes he really thought that the whole ship was too damn dark. The room also was small, there was only a bed, a terminal, two chairs and a simple desk in it. Someone who feared small places would have a panic attack just at the thought of entering that room, but they wouldn't be in the Alliance anyway. Anderson scoffed at his thoughts and turned back to the terminal in front of him, which was the only thing in this room that gave away a bit of light. He was sitting there and still writing the report about the mission on Eden Prime and occassionaly thinking again about the failed mission, the marines they had lost, the dead Spectre, that traitorus Saren and the three people who had carried the unconscious commander on board.

It was hard. It was hard to take in the losses for the crew. After such a short time they had lost already two marines, with the XO being unconscious but otherwise mostly uninjured. Corporal Richard Lewis Jenkins and Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko had died and Commander Lionell Archimedes Richford-Shepard was still unconscious as he had been for the last fourteen hours, still counting.

The crew hadn't been working together for a long time, but they still had taken a liking to the lost members. Most of all, Jenkins, who was quick, eager, helpful and a really nice guy. His carefreeness was so unlike the most hardened marines that it felt refreshing. Marines like Jenkins were hard to come by. They were a special kind. Which made the loss even more ... frustrating and hard.

Alenko. Marine Detail Commander Kaidan Alenko. While he had been big on discipline like anticipated for a Marine Detail Commander, he had never gone over the top. The crew had appreciated that. He also was known to be friendly to everyone. He had learned everyone's name by heart and he could even call the twins apart. The crew had definitely liked that, even Joker had liked him and that was saying something.

Shepard, no, Richford-Shepard. To just call him Shepard would be wrong ... inaccurate and improper. Commander Richford-Shepard. Commander Lionell Archimedes Richford-Shepard. The executive officer of the Normandy. Out of the three he had been the least liked, but Anderson was sure that regardless of their personal feelings the crew wouldn't take it lightly to also lose their XO on their first mission. On their shakedown run even. And as far as shakedown runs went, this one had been a total disaster. Though he also knew that no one could have anticipated this. This mission had been supposed to be easy. A simple mission of just finding this beacon and bringing it safely to the Citadel, but then the colony had suddenly been under attack by the geth. The beacon had been destroyed and two of his men were dead now.

He had gotten some information from their guests, about what had happened on Eden Prime. Though he didn't know what to make out of it or them. He really didn't know if he should believe even one word the woman had uttered. It all sounded like gibberish to him. On top of it all he hadn't found even one ounce of information about her and her friend. There was no Dr. Doreen Vega. Not in any military record and neither in any other official record, birth records included, and neither in any other unofficial record he could find in the short time. The same went to the other soldier, they both were like ghosts in that regard making him wonder who they really were. Though he hadn't known that by the time he had welcomed them on board. Of the third he had finally been able to find some informations.

Gunnery Chief Ashley Madeline Williams. While he knew exactly who her family was, it was also true that she had survived the sudden onslaught of the geth attack. Meaning that she either had a very lucky streak or had some fine talent as a soldier. He tended to think it was a bit of both, but with more parts of the latter. She also provided him with some useful information. Apparently a dock worker had seen it all. A turian had commanded the geth, and not just your usual generic turian. No, it had to be a Spectre, one very specific turian Spectre at that, a Spectre to which he had a long and hateful relationship.

Anderson just knew that the involvement of the turian Spectre would be a hindrance to their work, he just knew it. Apart of the dock worker they hadn't even an ounce of another proof, but everything else would have surprised him. If Saren was good at something then it was to cover his trackes.

Saren Arterius, turian Spectre, soldier extraordinaire and rumored to be the youngest member ever of Nightwatch and he was also very well known for his hatred towards mankind. Though even with this situation pinned on him Anderson had to do what he could to make sure he would get the punishment he deserved. And so he had sent every bit of information he had to the human ambadassor on the Citadel, Donnel Udina. Anderson didn't like him even one bit, but he was good in his job. He promised to do his job as best as he could in the short time he had, but both of them knew without outright saying it that only a miracle could help them. Anderson didn't believe in miracles, but in hard work, and the fact that Saren got a bit sloppy gave him a small bit of hope, but nothing more.

Miracle. He grimaced at his thoughts, but even so it was true. It was somewhat a miracle that the gunnery chief was a good replacement for Jenkins. The other two supposed marines? He didn't know yet, but he didn't think so. And following the replacement thought ... they still needed a new Marine Detail Commander. While he or the commander could do that, considering he ever woke up again, they still had other duties to attend to. So they would need a new one. Thankfully he still had his old list of the possible candidates for the post. One of them would be lucky and get the now open position. The request had already been sent to high command. He hoped he would get an answer in the next few hours. Depending on the personal situations of the candidates.

"Commander Richford-Shepard has just woken up." The VI onboard the Normandy informed him.

Anderson nodded to himself. Maybe now he would get a few answers. Answers that could help him understand the situation better or answers that would help their case. Nevertheless, it was good that the commander was awake again. For more than one reason.

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

A group of three aliens, each one belonging to a different race, were sitting in some dark corner in the lower wardens. There was almost no light there and it was so far away from the usual ways that no one would bother them. And the quietness of this place was what they had needed, and still needed and probably would need for a long time.

"You still stouldn't have done that, Spectre." A young quarian said, accusing one of the most trusted agents of the Council to have done something wrong. She hadn't accused the Spectre for the first time and it probably wouldn't be for the last time. The drell just eyed her strangely once again and refrained from saying something back and that probably angered and confused the quarian probably the most. She just couldn't understand why she didn't reply at all, it was almost like she didn't care that she had taken a live, a very young one even at that.

"Could we please change the subject and think about our situation for a moment?" The third person in the room asked, interrupting the silent stare down between the two females.

They stared at him, before one nodded and the other just looked away. The quarian knew of them of course, but that didn't make liking them any easier. They had killed Morya after all. Simply because the young salarian had a loyalty stronger than the universe itself to that alien woman. Ti hadn't had any place to sleep and so she had asked Morya after a while, who had stayed close but still far enough to not be imposing or penetrating her little bubble of privacy. This way Ti hadn't had to search for long for the petite salarian. Once found, Morya simply nodded and made her way through the Citadel. The quarian world jumper didn't know where to, but she trusted her. But in the end they had had the misfortune of meeting this batarian and this drell on their way. The biggest part of this misfortunate meeting, at least in Ti'Zhernah nar Valna's eyes would be her responding to seeing them. The drell and the batarian. The Spectre and the batarian ambadassor, from her world, from her universe. She would forever regret it, having had killed Morya. Maybe indirectly, but for her it was still murder, simple as that. And she didn't know what to do. What to do to reprent, but she was sure she would find something. Suicide was not something she or her race were akin to.

"And what would you like to talk about instead, ambadassor?" The Spectre asked after a few seconds of strained silence. She didn't seem to like this situation any better the quarian thought. Which was not really surprising. They didn't knew each other well enough to trust each other implicitily.

"I ... How ..." The ambadassor tried saying, but failed. Expressing his inability to fathom this situation. Trying to get his mind around the core of the problem and to not damage his imagie somehow. He was a politician after all. Image. Preserving ones image was something that was akin to politicians after all. And he was failing that. Not that the quarian had had any good image of politicians to begin with.

The drell and the quarian said nothing, giving him the time he needed to vocalize the problems. In some way he was their leader after all. The drell being a Spectre, working for the Citadel, the Council and most important of all for the drell for the people.

The quarian on the other hand was just a simple worker in a company that worked with difficult and dangerous machines to produce material and other products that were needed to build or repair sky cars. Politics and plans had never been her strong point. Her plans were usually bad. Very bad, or even worse, way worse and therefore she had learned to let other people plan, she just decided to go with those or not.

She had just lived her life, going to work and having fun in her free time, ignoring politics mostly, but she couldn't afford to do that now. This world was so strange and foreign to her after all. And after talking with that human she knew that this Council was also different, faster. Ignoring politics could be her downfall in this world and so she had decided in her way to keep close tabs on them, if she could.

Since their situations was not optimal they choose to stay together, something they wouldn't have done in their world, but sometimes it was better to stay close to things they knew. While they didn't knew each other, the quarian had shown to have recognized them and stayed close to them. Even after the death of the salarian, simply because they were some parts of her home and she didn't know anyone else except the two humans from earlier, but only the ancestors knew where they were now.

And because of this situation the quarian and drell well waited for the batarian to find their next move, to make a decision.

"Where are we?" Charros finally asked.

"On the Citadel." The drell replied in an even tone.

Ti was envious of the drell a bit. She wasn't sure if she would have managed to keep her tone even, so completely void of any emotion.

"Yes, it's the Citadel but on the same time it's not!" the batarian replied, getting agitated. Venting out his frustrations which were finally getting to him. "It's like a whole new world and all those strange aliens! What the heck is going on?"

"Well ..." The quarian said, unsure of how to say it or if she should say it at all, but at the glares of the other two, she quickly made her mind up. "This one salarian, the one I was with earlier until you had killed her, had a theory about it."

"Then, let's hear it." Charros demanded and Ti gladly did so.

"She thought that I - or better we now - were coming from different home universes." At the questioning glances she continued. "Morya, that was the salarian's name, thought that I had somehow jumped from our home universe to this one. It would explain why we can't understand those humans -"

"Humans?"

The question came from the drell. She sounded confused. Which was not that surprising to the young quarian but with so many of them around on the Citadel and her being a Spectre it was kind of confusing. Shouldn't she have connected the dots?

"Is that the name of those strange creatures we see running around everywhere?" Charros asked, to which Ti just nodded. Happy that at least he had figured it out. Probably because he needed a fast mind in his line as a politician, but didn't Spectres need that kind of mind also? Ti was confused now, but continued anyway.

"Yes, ambadassor. They are called humans and because of some means they are alive here while in our universe they aren't."

"And how did you get those informations?"

The question of the drell made the quarian a bit nervous. "I - eh - met some of them in the Dark Star the last night and they explained some things to me." She responded a bit lamely, nervously fidgeting with her hands, real and quarian-made.

"But ... but ... but how?" Charros managed to say. Ever the image of the all-powerful and cunning politicians. "All they say is gibberish. I couldn't even understand one word when they arrested me!"

"Well - eh - I couldn't also. At least in the beginning ... I mean for me it was also just some gibberish but then someone figured that my auto-translation programm was off or was missing something. And so ... one of them managed to get it working again ... or is it now that they added humanish to it?" she finished a bit lamely, not knowing how the human language was called. She had never asked her or gotten the chance to do it. And it really wasn't important anyway. Or at least it hadn't been so far and still wasn't.

"Great!" The batarian exclaimed somewhat happily and with new found energy. "Then you can be our spokesperson!"

There was just one little problem to that impromptu plan of the ambadassor and Ti quickly decided to voice it, before withholding it would get her into an embarassing situation, once again.

"There's just ... a little problem. Quarians are seen here ... as nothing more than ... beggars and thieves."

"Wait? What?" Both of the others replied in shock.

"How could they have done that? They even let the geth on the station!" The Spectre exclaimed. Never hiding her disgust and mistrust about the synthethic creation of the quarians.

Ti just merely nodded weakly. "As ... as far as I know ... the geth here forced my race to leave our worlds. We have gone into exile. That was almost three hundred years ago. And now the geth are occupying our worlds while my race has none."

"That's ridiculous!" Charros Pazness decided and dared anyone to defy him.

"I'm afraid it's not, sir. Another universe, you remember?" the quarian replied quietly, not liking it anymore than he did. But it was either the truth or the biggest joke show she had ever the misfortune to be a part of. And with all those humans around she figured it was the former.

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, SSV Normandy-SR1**

Richford-Shepard left the infirmary after he had finished his quick discussion with Captain Anderson about the mission on Eden Prime and was greeted with a room that was just as dark as the room he had just left, the few lights here and there were dim, not really giving the room a feeling of staying for long in it. Not that he had any preferences for light or dark rooms, as long as he found his way through it he didn't care about the lighting.

He didn't care about the lighting, but the cared about the unknown trio in front of him. "Who the heck are you?" Commander Richford-Shepard asked them quite unfriendly, harsh even. The deaths of Alenko, Jenkins and Nihlus were still heavily on his mind. The death of the former ones more so than the latter one. To him human lives mattered more than turian or any other alien live, but he also figured that most people thought this way.

One of them stepped forward, looking a little hurt, but the look was gone so fast that he thought he had just imagined it. "Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, to your service. We met on Eden Prime and ever since then I had accompanied you, Commander. Helping you fighting the geth and getting you to that beacon."

"Ah. Right. I remember. You were the soldier in that hideous white and pink armour!" he replied as the memory came back to him. Dr. Chakwas had mentioned that some of his memories may be missing for the moment and may only be back once the right input came. Or just naturally after some time had gone by.

Only time would tell she had said and she probably was true, Richford-Shepard figured. While it was not a memory he loved to re-live because of some situations it contained, the words and presence of the chief had triggered it, there was no doubt about that.

"Yes." Williams simply replied. He was a bit put-off that her voice and face was void of anything, not showing any emotions or whatever, when he clearly said it to see those. Grumbling a bit he turned to the next one in line.

"And who are you?" he asked stepping forward, while Williams stepped away from him a bit.

"I'm Dr. Doreen Vega and this is Jane Doe." the shortest woman of the trio replied quite eagerly, while the one with the rainbow-hair remained silent. Where the chief hid her emotions behind a mask, this tall one seemed to be unable to feel anything, so perfect was her mask of indifference. Richford-Shepard didn't knew if he should respect it or be scared of it, but at the very least he was sure that he couldn't trust her.

"'Jane Doe'? Are you kidding me, girl?" He said glaring at the woman in front of him.

"I'm afraid not, sir. I don't know her name and she doesn't bother telling me, so I just call her that until I get her real name or find a better one."

"Is that so?" he asked, turning his glare to the tallest one of the three women, who hadn't even moved a muscle since he saw her. He was damn sure of that.

"Commander!" the voice of Captain Anderson cut through the air. Immediately getting the attention of anyone on this deck. "Stop harassing our guests and go upwards to Joker and wait there for me. We've got a meeting with the Council and our ambadassor later and I want you to accompany me."

"Aye, aye, sir." He easily replied, and went upwards. Every thought he had about their guests were quickly forgotten or send to the back of his mind.

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

A turian sat alone in a control room of sorts. It was crambed with screens everywhere, from the table she sat on to the walls and ceiling, which showed many different kinds of informations. On some of them was a batch of information visable which she was currently looking at, looking for something she could use for her advantage, looking for some kind of loophole in all that data. Some other screens were automatically and autonomously comparing huge amounts of informations with each other and some some others were just updating very specific informationes. And the rest of them were just blank, usually, until they began to blink repeatedly, which one of the many screens just did.

With an incoherent voice she stopped looking at the other screens and tapped on the offending screen once. It stopped blinking immediately and after a pause of a two seconds it showed a red-ish salarian looking at her. His background seemed to be some sort of dark tunnel or something similar.

"We've found her." He said instead of a greeting.

"Who?" Serafina Osdra asked, wanting clarification who he had found. There were a few standing orders at every time after all. To look out for certain people and to inform her immediately if spotted.

"Morya." The salarian on the other end of the call clarified immediately.

"Morya?" she repeated confused. Who the heck was Morya again?

"You had asked us all a while ago to go looking for her. Morya. The salarian charge of Kallian Tabris or otherwise known as -" He reminded her.

"Right." She interrupted him. She remembered now how her sister had told her about her lover and how the human had been concerned for her little charge. How she hadn't heard from her for far longer than she was used to. How her sister had tried to ease her human mate's mind a bit. And as soon as the human had went to work her sister had given her all the informations she had and had asked her to sent the order to look for her. "Where is she?" she finally asked.

"Dead." Came the crisp and short reply.

"What?"

"Dead. Morya is dead, boss. Body hidden in a mace. Keeper highways. Halfway between HQ and the Dark Star." he tried to clarify things as cleanly as he could in his salarian way of speaking.

"How did she die?" Only the experience in the military and in her work afterwards had hardened her enough to throw the questions out without stopping or hesitating. She did need the information. As fast as possible. Not for herself, but for her sister and her sister's human lover. She wanted to protect her sister and therefore she had also to protect her lover, and that also included emotional turmoil.

"Simple bullet. Hole between her eyes. Didn't seen it coming. Surprise still noticeable in her eyes and body language."

Serafina could hear the unsaid 'pitiful and pathetic' at the end of the sentence, but choose against asking 'why'. She wasn't in the mood for dragging this out unneccessarily.

"Any sign of a quarian next to her?"

"No one here. Not even a keeper. Just me. Though blood starts to reek. Guess keepers will be coming shortly."

"When?"

"One hour. Two hours at most." He paused. "In three hours, no trails will be left of her if kept alone. Courtesy of the keepers."

"Alright." Serafina sighed and hated herself a bit for the things she was going to say now. "Preserve the body. Call others for help if needed but don't - I repeat - don't call Kallian or Rhian! Don't tell her you found Morya's lifeless body! And don't let the Keepers take it either!"

"Understood." He simply said and terminated the call. The turian loved this about the salarian. He did what he was told. He didn't ask for more information than he needed to know. He was loyal and efficient in his work, making him one of her best men. And efficient they all needed to be. Herself also and so she just gulped down her feelings for a bit and called another one of her men. There was still so much more to be done.

* * *

**A/N:** Not really much happened here, huh? The Normandy is still not on the Citadel, but the death counter still went a bit higher. Morya died as three dimensional jumpers met for the first time. I actually never planned her death when I made her up, but this universe demanded her death and that quite early. I only hope she can forgive me, or you, as the reader can. o.O

"Vima" is a word that "Actually-Fen-Harel" invented and means as much as bondmate. I have her permission to use that word and therefore the credit for that word goes to her.

Your thoughts to this chapter? I would appreciate hearing them.


	8. Joker and Doreen

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

It was eerily silent. No. Actually it wasn't, but the human had long ago learned to ignore and tune out chatter of all kinds if she needed to, which she was actively doing so now. She was ignoring the otherwise loud open docking area as she called it. It was bright here and had some small plattforms, but not for cruisers, destroyers and such, only for some shuttles to land. Shuttles that were coming down from some bigger space worthy ships. There were some companies that concentrated on transporting small shuttles that otherwise wouldn't make it, either in time or because they were easy prey, among other reasons.

Her presence in the docking area with a C-Sec uniform got her the occasional wary glance, but she ignored them. She wasn't there because of them, neither because she wanted to be there. She was standing there, because she was ordered to wait for a specific shuttle, one that she had just spotted. It was steadily getting closer. It was a bit bigger than the usual shuttle and almost completely black, reminding the the C-Sec officer a bit about a black hole. There was only one thing that wasn't black and that was the name of the ship, _DDSC Transporter Nebula 34_. It was clad in a darker red, reminding her of the colour of blood.

She watched it closely, turning to it once it had started the last phase of it's landing protocols. She observed and wondered quite strongly what kind of individual would step outside it and unto the Citadel. By the time she reached the shuttle, it had already opened the only door to the small but still space worthy ship and the last person Alpha had expected to see was moving through the open shuttle door, towards her. She didn't really know what or who she had expected, but it was definitely not this.

"Consider me surprised, Papa." she said to the newcomer, who just shrugged and grinned down at the officer, before turning around to close and lock the ship. A mercenary ship was always high on the list of thieves and others to steal, though rumours said that no one who had tried had succeeded in getting away with a DDSC ship, regardless of class. Some people speculated that it was because there was always someone left in the ships, that there was some sort of self-destruction process integrated into the ship or that there was some kind of tracking device hidden in every ship and that they were supposed to follow a certain protocol. One way or another, it seemed that there was no shuttle or ship from the DDSC running loose, at least not for long. It was said that any stolen ship from them was ruthlessly hunted down and destroyed and the thief executed, and since the DDSC was known to stay true to their words it stopped possible ship thieves right at the beginning. Still, not locking down the ship was a bad move and therefore the officer gave the mercenary the time she needed.

Once she was done, she turned around and replied amused, "And why would that be, Kallian?" A second later she hugged the officer closely for a few seconds. Afterwards she took two steps as if that hug had never happened to begin with. The first human took it with stride, she was used to it after all.

"While the Executor had told me to expect a Death Dancer today I just didn't think that it would be you. You_ are_ being wanted by more then one goverment and you know as much as me that you are unable to hide, even if you wanted to." The officer replied equally amused, but also with a hint of seriousness and sadness because she _had_ said the truth.

The Death Dancer was a sight of herself. She was a natural beauty and automatically every pair of eyes were drawn to her, it didn't matter where she was or what she did. It was like the universe wanted everybody to take notice of her, which they did, humans and all the others. And Kallian had to agree with them, Papa was a beauty, one she would have tried to get for herself if she weren't in love with Rhian already, curves in all the right places, long blonde hair that went past her shoulders and ocean blue eyes. Even in an uniform, which she was wearing now, she looked more like a supermodel than a soldier or mercenary and that was precisely what she was. One of the most dangerous mercenaries that this galaxy had ever seen and there was proof to that fact. Every military in the galaxy had a bounty for her, even the batarians and Aria T'Loak had one for her.

"I do what I do." Papa simply said while grinning and waved playfully at the few other people in the dock, who promptly looked away, making the mercenary's grin even wider. Kallian just shook her head at this display and silently led her away.

"The Alliance should be happy that I hadn't killed or maimed more that day." The Death Dancer continued and scoffed, remembering that incident that had led to her leaving the Alliance which had been the start of her mercenary days. "And yes to your question, normally that would be true, but this time it's way too important for one of my men to take care of it."

"That sounds serious." Kallian Tabris replied, while mouthing 'not here' to her. The Death Dancer merely nodded and followed her through ways that were not supposed to be seen by the public. Thankfully the earlier display of the blonde mercenary had the people look away, which they used to their advantage to disapper unseen.

The C-Sec officer was guiding the mercenary through a labyrinth of silvery walls that were mostly dark, the lighting in the labyrinth wasn't good and was mostly used by the Keepers. Those ways were found all over the Citadel, and not every officer knew about them. Some even ignored them because of the Citadel law to not 'bother the Keepers in any way' and they thought that included using those hidden ways, who were also called the 'Keeper highway' by some.

Kallian had an idea where their special guest wanted to be and so taking a short cut there wasn't really so bad in her opinion. Even more so if it gave her the possibility to talk with her without someone listening to them, which would be impossible in any other way except possibly in a sky car but that would have made the way even longer and that probably wasn't wise with the DDSC involved in whatever it was.

As soon as they were way into the maze that the keeper highways were, way away from any other person, she stopped and turned around to face the human accompanying her. "Is it really so serious as you make it sound?"

"Without going into details -

"But I'm your sister!" Kallian yelled a bit frustrated at her. Another question was hanging in the air. Accusing the second human of something. Both of them knew it without any need to actually voice it.

"I know that, Deidre." Papa said seriously. For the first time in a very long time using her birth name. Which in return turned down Alpha's anger quite a bit. The simple use of her birth name told her just how serious this situation actually was. Since Papa had made it her own move or tick to never use their birth names. "I know that you are my sister, even if I don't actually act like it every time. I do love you. I do love all of you. Please believe that."

"Yes. Yes, I know that, Barbara." replied Deidre sincerely. "But it doesn't make this any easier since it's just so frustrating that I can't do anything to help any of you anymore."

Kallian knew that she despised that name and so the expression on the other human's face wasn't a surprise. She also knew that no one, but her and her three other sisters could get away with using that name. Everyone else died, except one person, but there was a reason surrounding that event and that explained why that one was still alive. Not that she would have missed him.

"I can imagine it, I really can, but you had chosen this sort of life for yourself. Don't try to deny it, you know I'm right and my case is way different."

"How is your case different than mine? We both have left the Alliance and don't start with that you wouldn't have left it anyway, because you know that you would have done it someday anyway, no matter what any of us would have said!"

"Yeah, you're right, I would have left it someday, but not this early. Definitely not this early."

"What do you mean?" Alpha asked, sensing the hesitation and the withholding of information in the other woman's mind.

"I have seen and sensed glimpse of things, of very bad things. I actually tried to find more information, but then 'Mother' had to force my hand." The Death Dancer spat the word Mother like it was venom, which it probably was, at least for her. "Now I can hardly find any clues about it but at the same time I can counter them a bit better. It's both a blessing and a curse."

"You're not making any sense." The C-Sec officer replied a bit bitter.

"I'm not trying to, Kallian. Have you ever wondered why I founded the Death Dancers?"

"Bullshit." The dark skinned human snapped instead of answering the question. "Feed that lie to the others if you must for security reasons, but not to me. You are not the leader of the DDSC! Granted, I don't know who the real leader is, but you aren't it and you also certainly didn't found it."

"And how did you figure that out?" she asked with her hands crossed in front of her chest, not even trying to deny it.

Kallian smirked at her. "I had a feeling, but now you've gone and confirmed it."

Papa just groaned at that, having been beaten at her own game, which made Alpha smile briefly, but it was gone after a second.

"And now back to you not making any sense." Kallian said trying to direct the discussion back to their previous point.

"What? Oh! No! No no no. Just no! That is solely my business!" Alpha just glared at her. "You are not going to get any informations out of me, Kallian!" The woman's glare intensified. "No Kallian, just no!" Once again the glare intensified and the Death Dancer sighed. "ABO."

"What?" Alpha replied taken aback, not having thought that she would really succeed.

"A. B.O., that's all you are getting from me, no matter how strongly you are going to glare at me."

Alpha nodded hesitantly, she wasn't happy about it but it was a start at least. Something she could do in her free time, possibly helping her sister if she found and connected the dots. "So, now that this is out of the way, why are you actually here?"

"Oh no, Kallian. That won't work a second time, but nice try. Why I am here is my sole business. Not yours, not Natia's and definitely not Anora's. It's my business alone. I would tell you something if you could help me. But you can't, at least not this time and not with this. I'm sorry, but Leliana should be able to help me."

Kallian stared at her sister, processing and thinking about the words of her sister for a few seconds.

"But you will ask me for help?" Kallian finally replied, a bit unsure of the possible answers.

"Yes, Kallian." She sighed. "I will ask you for help if I need it and if I know that you can help me, but only then."

"Alright." The dark skinned woman replied sighing. She knew that this was best she was going to get out her.

"Yeah." The blonde supermodel finished. "So, how is your little charge?"

"My little charge?" The dark red haired woman replied confused at the sudden change of topic.

"You know whom I mean. That young salarian who you keep as your pet."

"Morya is NOT my pet! She is my friend!" She said getting agitated. She clearly knew what Papa was hinting at and wasn't amused.

"If you say so." The Death Dancer replied smirking agitating the officer even more.

* * *

**Omega Nebula, Sahrabarik System, Omega**

Oz cursed lowly as she observed one particular building through the scope of her sniper rifle. She didn't like still being here, but ignoring the DDSC was a bad move. Omega was still needed, wether she liked it or not, and so she reluctantly took the job of searching those humans. Elisa and Louise Parker if her memory was correct. That's why she was still here, on Omega, a day after she had actually wanted to leave it for a long time, or possible forever. But it was as humans tended to say, 'fate's a bitch'.

"Understatement of the century." she muttered as she looked once again through her scope and saw quite a huge amount of mercs scattered around a large building. A sort of old warehouse or prison she guessed from the structure and colour of it, spots of black and brown could be seen and also a few signs of the owning company. Or at last she thought that were the origins of those strange blue signs here and there, all of them incomplete, probably destroyed by time or just just signs of negligence. She knew about Omega's different 'levels', but so far she never had a reason to go that far down and therefore this was all new territory to her. She was very cautious and slow, scouting the foreign area cautiously, but she really had no choice but to go forward. According to the informations she had gathered in the last few hours this place seemed to be her goal. The place where those two humans most possibly were and that's where her real problem started.

There were a few dozen mercenaries between them and her and that was just what she could see outside of that building. Who knew what was hidden inside or who or how many other mercenaries were inside? Probably even more, way more but this huge amount of mercs on one spot was definitely something else. They were seemingly expecting someone or a few someones to attack, otherwise the concentration of mercs wouldn't be so high. And there was something else, they were all humans. While they could have also been batarians or asari she hadn't seen any weapon that either asari or batarians prefer, that of course could have been a trick to confuse enemies, but she didn't believe it. Most people didn't use weapons from other races they weren't accustomed to. As far as Oshara was concerned it was a mix of stupidity, pride and possibly a law that even mercs tended to obey. She hadn't heard about such a law, but knowing a few lawyers and the overall stupidity of laws and people it wouldn't surprise her if such a law actually existed.

What was the point of showing the others what you were fighting? Though she was also aware of the fact that only the veterans of war could see from a single weapon what race they were fighting, or from they way they moved. Each race had a distinct way to move and if one lived long to acknowledge and learn them, the probability of surviving skyrocketed. To her, a veteran of war, it was just as easy as breathing to see what she was fighting and she planned accordingly.

The only problem was that she couldn't tell which organisation they belonged to. The emblems they spotted didn't belong to any of the major organisations, which was a plus in itself, she wasn't as crazy as that archangel guy from her world's past, who had been fighting all three major mercenary organisations in the terminus systems. But they also didn't belong to any other merc group she ever had the (mis)fortune to meet. Either this was a new group or they had managed to stay under her radar, her earlier deduction about them being all human didn't help her also. Either way she had no intel about them and no intel was definitely bad. She still had a bit time left for this assignment and so she decided to wait. Trying to get more intel about the mercenaries and the building and about the human couple she was looking for. It never hurt to be informed.

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

"So, here we are" Kallian said as she opened the door to what they had once unceremoniously dubbed 'the family apartment'. The biggest apartment in the whole building. It also had other names of course, among them was 'the legendary apartment'.

She slowly shook her head as she remembered the reason to it. The highest floors of the building weren't accessible by one of the three regular evalators inside the tower. You had to use an extra evalator that was very well hidden and not in the building itself. She speculated that not even the manager of the building knew the way to it or if he did he had gotten orders to not ask and to never visit which he or she followed. Whatever it really was the C-Sec officer didn't knew but she also suspected that he or she thought that it was probably better this way and didn't try to delve deeper into this mystery.

As far as she knew or hoped at least only a dozen people knew the way to her little second home. Half of them were the actual residents, who were half of the time not even there but somewhere in the galaxy, the other six had been handpicked and trusted enough to clean the apartments. Apart of the workers of course, but she was sure that they knew what was best for them and stayed silent or were actually deposed of. She really didn't wanted to know and never asked even though as a C-Sec officer she should have.

It had once been her primary home, but that was before she had found the little dragon. The moment where she had met the little dragon had changed everything for ever. Half of her immediate goals and most of her larger life plans had forever changed in that one single moment, but she never regretted it. She would do it all again in a heartbeat even if it meant abandonding her sisters. Some part of her still thought that she should do more for her sisters, while another part insisted that she couldn't do more for them even if she tried, even if she hadn't dropped her former job before finding her.

It had taken most of the residents and many others a few weeks to notice that the highest accessible floor hadn't been the highest at all in the tower. Then the media got news of it and some journalists had made it undoubtly their mission to find out more about the building and the ones behind the scenes. They interviewed everyone they could find and even more. No one they found had had any information that could help them in their case, since they really didn't know anything. Even now, a few years later, Alpha strongly suspected that there were still a few journalists out there who were determined to find their way in, hoping for the one big story to advance their careers.

Papa just nodded as they entered the lowest of the six floors. The lowest floor was something like a huge living room. With a few couches, sofas and more in it. There was also a huge deal table to play poker or some other games on this floor. A small hidden case behind a wall in the game room for some light fire arms and a rather big kitchen in the middle of the room. There was also a staircase and a evalator hidden in the room, which were the only ways to get to the other five floors. Each floor belonged to one specific person.

Instead of going to their respective floors Alpha and Papa chose the closest couch to the door to sit on. "Rhian is on her way."

"When did you call her?" The Death Dancer inquired surprised at that one simple sentence.

"I have my ways." was the cryptic reply.

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, SSV Normandy SR-1**

"So. What's the deal with you?" Joker asked just as he sat down in the ship mess with something that he had found in one of the cupboards in said mess. It had said pasta, but didn't look anything like it. It didn't even look eatable at all to him, but seeing as they hadn't anything better on the ship for the moment it would have to do anyway. He could eat or wait for someone to buy something that looked eatable or wait for someone who could actually cook. Which was the same as choosing to starve, since a real cook on a military ship was just a fairy tale and starving was definitely not an option. If he ever died, it wouldn't be by simply starving but because of a heavy and very dangerous space fight ... or of old age. Which would be so anti-climatic that Joker sincerely hoped that he would have been by then in a badass fight and lived to tell the tale.

The person on the other side of the table stirred at his words. She had been sitting there, with her head lying down on the table and mumbling words to herself until he had called out to her. It was strange enough to see one like this. No one nowadays was wearing a lab coat, but there she was, wearing a blue lab coat that spotted the signs of Alliance R&amp;D. Not even Chakwas was wearing a coat and she was the Chief Medical Officer on board. In the end Joker concluded that it was just her style or something.

The woman's head turned up from her strange position until she was in a normal sitting position directly opposite of him. "What do you mean?" The black haired woman said, looking at him strangely.

"I mean" he said after taking a bite and grimassing at the taste a bit. It really didn't taste anything like it promised, more like bacon turned bad or at least he assumed bad bacon would taste like this. "The Captain has taken the Commander and even that new soldier, the one in pink, in pink!, with him to meet the ambadassor and the Council. Why didn't he take you with him?"

"He doesn't trust us."

Joker jumped at the sudden words. It hadn't been the words per se that had made him jump, it was more the fact that he hadn't seen anyone else besides the woman in the lab coat in the mess. So, the moment someone else spoke up he reacted strongly and looked at his left hand a bit concerned. His left hand had been under the table when the other person had spoken up. As he jumped, his left hand went up and hit the table. While he was sure that he hadn't hit the table that hard it was probably better to let the doctor check it, not that he would like that. The good doctor liked to lecture one quite a bit and sometimes, or at least most of the times, he had the feeling that he was her favourite in that regard. Which was bad, very bad, since she insisted on lecturing him again and again about the smallest mistakes, his medicine not taken or taken a wrong dose, a little injury or something else. She just needed an excuse to lecture him and she took it every damn time, much to his chargrin. Which continued to be translated to pity in his mind and he hated pity!

He turned around to take a good look at the person who had spooked him. He was quite surprised at her and wondered just how he hadn't noticed her earlier. That glob of hair with so many different colours was a sure sign and so was her height. She was definitely taller than any other person on the ship. The purple eyes of her were looking at him without any emotion at all.

"And who are you?"

"Private First Class, Prototype Soldier Number 37, Overall soldier Number 3 067 331." she replied in a voice that was as emotionless as was her entire posture.

"If you don't wanna tell me, then just say so." Joker replied, trying to get a reaction from her, but without avail.

"Don't bother. She doesn't tell anyone her real name."

The pilot turned around again to face the lab coat woman again. "And what do you call her then?"

"Jane Doe." came the prompt reply. At least, Joker figured, the woman in front of him had enough sense to look a bit sheepish at that. "I know it's stupid and such, but I can't find a better name for her. Was never good at making up names anyway."

"Itzel."

"Excuse me?"

"Itzel. That means rainbow lady."

"And how do you know something like that?" A new voice wanted to know.

Joker turned around and groaned at the sight of Dr. Karin Chakwas coming closer. While he didn't outright hate her, since she was way better than any other doctor he had the misfortune to ever meet, he really wasn't in the mood for it now. Granted, he was never in the mood for one of her lectures. He didn't think anyone ever was in the mood for a lecture at all, except maybe the turians? Didn't they make it mandatory for every citizen to attend basic training? That must mean that they liked lectures of some kind, right?

"Joker?" she said, breaking his inner debate and making him focuse on reality again.

"Yes?"

"You don't come over as someone who likes to read books about the meanings of names. So why do you know something like that?" Chakwas inquired, who had sat down next to him, looking as curious as the other woman did. Jeff didn't turn around to see how the tall woman did look at him. He figured that she still looked disinterested and emotionless.

"Yeah, you are right. I don't like books that much. They usually bore me, probably because I had nothing better to do than to read books most of my early years." He replied. "Anyway, Itzel is the name of a jellyfish type on Tiptree."

"And how did you figure it meant rainbow lady?" the woman with the lab coat asked.

"I didn't. A friend of my sister told us that one evening." He explained. He didn't have to tell them that that had been about ten years ago. "He apparently liked to know things like these."

"Huh." The two of them simply made, to which he silently agreed.

"Itzel would probably work well as a last name. It doesn't work so well as a first name. At least in my opinion, but it's worth a few thoughts I guess."

Joker just shrugged. He wasn't going to be able to help them any further in this matter anyway. His sister would be, since ever then she had made it her hobby to know the meanings behind the names. Even though she had changed friends, this one habit of that one had stuck with her. She was quite good at it. Knew the meaning of many names at heart, for the others she had a document where she wrote down any name and it's meaning. Alphabetically ordered. "Speaking of names. You still didn't tell me who you are."

"Oh. Right. I'm Dr. Doreen Vega. It's a pleasure finally meeting you, Jeff Moreau."

Joker's eyes narrowed at that. "And how do you know my name?"

"My parent's told me about you. They said you were the best pilot in the entire universe and that no one ever came close."

"That's nice to know." Jeff said, for once more serious than sarcastic. "And who are your parents?"

"I - I - I don't remember."

"You don't remember who your parent's are, but you know what they told you about me? Yeah, right. And I'm the next human Councilor, wearing an all pink outfit and I'm singing and dancing all day."

"Joker!" Chakwas said rather sternly.

Joker ignored her and still stared with narrowed eyes at the lady with the lab coat.

"Alright! I'll tell you." Doreen replied, unable to look Joker in the eyes any further. "I'm from the future!"

Joker sighed exasperated and stood up. "No wonder the Captain didn't trust you enough to bring you with him on the Citadel. You are spouting even more nonsense than even I do and that's saying something!"

"But - but it's truth!" the apparently crazy woman said to Joker's retreating back. He didn't care what she said or thought and he was thankful that she wasn't his concern. It was the Captain's concern what would happen to her. To them, he correct himself silently. He just didn't wanted anything to do with them anymore.

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

"So, what did you wanted to talk about?" Serafina Osdra asked a few minutes after Kallian had left them alone, but the human woman looked up and did hold up a hand as if saying 'not yet'. The female turian made the turian equivalent of rolling her eyes at her. "Don't give me that, Morrigan. Either make sure that she is out of earshot or let's go somewhere else, but don't leave me waiting. I have something more important to do than just wait for you."

"Does sleeping with my sister make that list?" the human asked while turning around.

"That would make my sister's list, not mine." The turian replied in an unamused voice.

"Riiiight." Morrigan replied, lengthening the word unnecessary, showing that she didn't believe a word, but let it go nonetheless. "And she still hasn't figured it out?"

"No. She only ever meets my sister and while I'm the boss she has a few men herself. It just works." She shrugged. "So, what's the reason you are here? On the Citadel I mean. I haven't expected any of you for a while."

"I also didn't expect to be here so early again, but something happened that forced our hand or better my hand."

"Was it something the Council did?"

Rhian's twin saw the human stop at that question before looking down at the floor in wonder.

"Now that's an interesting question. I don't know, maybe. If they are - wow, that would make this way more difficult then it already is."

Looked like Morrigan really hadn't thought about that possible. She just shook her head at the naivety of the younger woman. She knew that the woman was very important but the naive side of her never ceased to amaze the turian, considering the burden the woman decided to shoulder all on her own it was a miracle that she was still alive and nothing bad had happened so far.

"It's definitely worth looking into it." The turian continued, sensing more than seeing the inner turmoil of the human. For all of her faults Morrigan had herself under control, mostly. Even in the most gruelsome fights and events she had herself under control, if the rumours were true. Even if they were exaggerated she still wouldn't underestimate her. There was a reason why the Alliance among others were willing to pay a bounty for her, even if she didn't knew why and didn't care enough to find out why. "But that doesn't explain why you are here. I mean you could have contacted the Council from wherever you where, couldn't you?"

"Yes. Yes, I could have called them, but I'm not here because of them. Or at least as far as I know I'm not here because of them."

"Why are you here then?" This entire maybe, maybe not talk was about to give her a spirit forsaken headache if she didn't get some real answers soon. And even then she might get it she suspected, talking with Morrigan gave her a headache everytime after all.

The human turned around to look at the turian and stared at her for a good ten seconds before finally answering.

"Emile Parker."

"Who?" the turian asked, getting the feeling that he was important without even knowing why.

"Emile Parker isn't a criminal per se, unlike you and me, and for the time being he listens to me, but if I don't get his sole daughter back to him, things might get messy."

"What kind of messy? And what makes him so special that you are responding to his whims and not just take him out instead like I assume you did with many others?"

Morrigan just shook her in frustration. "You all think, that I could rule this world, this galaxy all alone. Maybe that's true, but I'm not delusional enough to think that it could last for more then a few years. Uprising, rebellions, revolutions and wars would follow. No, Not-Leliana -"

"Don't call me 'Not-Leliana'!" Serafina Osdra growled at her, but once again was ignored. She hated that nickname Morrigan had invented all those years ago. She had no idea what a "Leliana" was, but the sole fact that she used that name to refer to her, while "Leliana" was her sister irritated her to no end. Couldn't she have find another and better nickname for her?

"- I have no choice, but listen to him. He is backed up by a few countries on earth who still feel strongly about the First Contact War."

"Like all humans do!"

"And what about you turians?! You hate us for killing your brothers, sisters, father, mothers and whatever else they were!"

"Because you killed them!"

"We only retaliated because you attacked first!"

"You activated a dormant relay! You broke one of the strictest rules of the Council!"

"How were we supposed to know?!"

"I don't know! You just should have known!"

"Once again: HOW?"

* * *

**A/N: **More people introduced, more talk, no action apart of this last scene I guess. And I'm afraid it will stay this way until we get to Fist. One way or another this is the first part of what I like to call the 'Citadel Arc'. It should take at least 7 more chapters, meaning that we probably go to Saren hunting(Noveria, Feros, Therum) at Chapter 15, at best.**  
**

As you might have noticed by now I really like to use many different names when talking about certain people. So many codenames for one person and many of those codenames are taken from 'Dragon Age', like Leliana, Morrigan, Kallian, Anora. I really hope this won't confuse you too much, otherwise I can write it down for you at the end of the chapters.

If my writing speed doesn't evolve to something that starts to resemble speed, my best guess is that the next chapter will be out in three months. I'm sorry.

Your thoughts to this chapter? I would appreciate hearing them!


	9. Papa and Not-Leliana

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

Serafina and Morrigan were taking a break after they had yelled at each other for the better part of an hour. Each one nursing some kind of minor bruises from the fight that had followed the yelling part while taking turns at emptying the kitchen. Giving each other a bit of space to cool down after their usual ritual to get their frustrations out of their systems. Some might think that this was stupid and such, but Serafina knew that anyone needed a way to went his or her frustrations at one point, otherwise they might do it at a time where it will give them a less than satisfactory outcome.

After they had cooled down, they began anew. Not exactly where they had left off, but somewhere else, since Serafina had another question for a long time and decided now to actually voice it.

"There is something I have been wondering about for a very long time." The turian began, not sure how to actually phrase it.

"Yes?" Morrigan asked from her position in the game room, not looking even remotely in the direction of the other speaker, much to the turians chargrin. Morrigan was looking at the games collected there and looked at the decoration and all the changes since her last visit.

"At every first contact there was a kind of hate and fear and usually uncertainity of how to go further, while the last one wasn't present by your first contact as far as I know, the other two were present so much stronger. Why is that? I don't think it's only because of the short war between our two races."

"'When faced with extinction, every other outcome is preferable.'" replied the human easily, still not looking at the turian, but rather looking interestedly at the real paper books that were displayed everywhere in the room. Sometimes Serafina wondered how and where they found so many books, but now wasn't the time to voice that and Morrigan was definitely not the one to ask.

"Wait, what? You though we wanted to annihilate your race?" Serafina asked shocked at that statement.

"Some of us feared that and still fear it." Morrigan replied easily, apparently unfaced by Serafina's shock. "Being attacked out of nowhere, not aware of the rules of the galaxy, not aware that there were others out there, certainly strengthened that believe. A believe that is based on an old game, or several, I think."

"You think we wanted to drive your race to extinction because of a_ game_?" Leliana's twin asked incredolously.

"_I_ don't and I never did, though I know that some others did. And it's not one game, it's _several_ games. Games and books and movies that had shown us how first contact could have been. Most of them were quite bad. From abductions of humans, to terror attacks to simply plain extinction wars. Without giving us a reason they wanted to erase humanity from the face of the galaxy. It certainly wasn't pretty and then there the was the real First Contact War and that fear skyrocket again. Many people strengthened that fear even, by shows, by books or newsletters or by some other means. Yes, we do fear our own extinction and we are willing to do every thing to prevent that from happening. If we have to play nice on one hand and put a dagger to your throats on the other hand to make sure we survive, then we will do so."

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

Commander Richford-Shepard felt his mood going down the river. His mood was probably very similar to the one the human ambassador Donnel Udina had, if he interpreted his facial movements correctly. The memory of the deaths of his fellow soldiers still fresh on his mind and then the Council didn't think it was likely that one of their men, Spectre Saren Arterius, was behind the geth attack on Eden Prime. No amount of proof that the ambadassor had found in the short time had been enough to convince the Council that he had been behind it, which in turn gave him new work. Finding proof that Saren was behind it and convince the Council about it. He wasn't a detective, he was a soldier, simple as that, and there was a big difference, but of course the Council didn't care about that and one look of Captain Anderson stopped him from actually voicing it.

So, having no other choice but to do grunt work he wondered how he should start this. Without having any other starting points he thought about asking Udina and Anderson, who probably knew more about this kind of work than he did, and they did. They gave him a few pointers and so he decided to follow them, or at least one of them. The one he was most personally comfortable with.

He hadn't trusted turians so much before, but now, now he was trusting them even less. After all that happened on Eden Prime he feels as if he can't trust them and would be foolish to even try it. So he ignored the ideas about searching for that turian C-Sec officer and neither did he go look for that volus Barla Von. Volus were nothing more than the pets of the turian hierarchy after all. He decided to go to where this Harkin person was supposed to be. The female soldier in that eye-burning pink armour was silently following him by the order of Captain Anderson, otherwise he would have made sure that she didn't come nowhere near him, at least not with that armour colouring.

He had nothing against the woman per se, but the armour burned itself so strongly in his eyes that he only could see pink whenever he looked at her. He didn't even remember her name or how she looked like or how good she was with the assault rifle or with the sniper or any other weapon for that matter. There was only pink. And seeing pink stopped his thought processes almost to a standstill. Not being able to think while seeing pink was not something that he liked. And it also was not something he would ever tell anyone, not even while being tortured. That was a secret he was prepared to take with him to the grave, and that was the only reason why he didn't wanted that woman beside or in front of him.

If she ever did get rid of it maybe then he could finally remember who she was or how she looked like. Or maybe even take a look under her armor, which wasn't so far from reality after all if she stayed on the ship. Depending on what kind of missions they were going on he could clearly see them putting on armours together. And he knew first hand how good a marine's body could look like, and he didn't mean himself, though he had a very good body. Of that he was certain and_ very_ proud.

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

Kallian Tabris looked concerned at the plain silvery door that led from her apartment floor to the staircase and elevator that connected all of the floors in the family apartment. They were closed, as they usually were when Rhian and Papa were talking about things she was probably better off not knowing. She knew that and accepted it, but that still didn't make waiting any easier. Add to that the fact that she was actually locked up in here. Not even being able to leave on her own until they were finished.

Of course, the other's weren't at fault for that. At least not really. This had been her idea in the beginning and her lover and her sister had looked at each other before they went to work. Programming a simple VI whose only task was to lock her in until the two down below were finished with their setting and that it was safe for her to come out again.

And that wasn't even the problem here. The problem was, at least for her, that she was _still_ locked up. Usually by this time they were finished. And that made her a bit giddy, they never took so long in discussing things, whatever they actually were, but the fact that they needed so long this time didn't bode well with the C-Sec officer. It smelled of trouble, trouble that she and her fellow C-Sec mates would have to clear and for this she felt already sorry. She liked most of her colleagues, most of them were really trying to make the Citadel a better place and so the possibility of making their lives harder didn't bode well with the dark skinned C-Sec officer. It may have been an order from the executor, but it still didn't help. Some might say that this wasn't their fault, it was the executor's fault, but Alpha had never thought that way. One should stay true to their faults and believes, and that she did. She had never run from her duties and alone the thought of abadonding them made her feel ill. She simply couldn't understand those who didn't stay true to their vows and duties.

And if that wasn't bad enough, she _still_ hadn't gotten even a tiny message from Morya. Not one word. Simply nothing from her favourite salarian. She struggled hard to not be overcome by fear, fear for the young and loyal salarian.

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

Anderson looked at his fellow soldiers as they left the Council rooms, entering the elevator down to the presidium, searching for evidence that Saren was a traitor. Saren was a heartless bastard, that much was for certain, but unfortunately it didn't mean that he was also stupid and careless. Far from it actually, Saren knew how to play this game and was quite good at it. Anderson remembered it all too well, the old hatred once again showing up in him, as strong as ever. How the turian Spectre had played with him, and to his chargrin, the Council had believed Saren. While it wasn't that surprising, when one thought about it, it still sparked his ire. The turian was the Spectre, he had the trust of the Council, they had named him a Spectre becaused they trusted his judgement and his abilities to do the work they weren't able to do or didn't wanted to do themselves. While he, the human, was just a candidate of a race new to the Council and the galaxy at large and therefore an unknown variable. Saren's words and report was everything they needed to kick him from the list of possible new Spectres.

"We have work to do." The ambassador reminded him, breaking his little tirade in the marine's head. Anderson just nodded and followed the ambassador to the elevator, hoping that somehow Commander Richford-Shepard would find a miracle and get the evidence they needed to proof that Saren was working against the Council now and not for them, that he was behind the attack on Eden Prime and should therefore being brought to justice. It was a lot to ask for, but he trusted him.

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

After the Death Dancer's last sentences the turian had gone silent, for a seemingly long time. Thinking about it, wondering how or if to reply to that bit information that wasn't common to her people, and probably to any other race out there. In the end she decided it wasn't worth it and choose trying to get other informations out of her. The sort of information that could help her in really understanding those words instead of asking questions that may leave her even more confused than she was now.

"Emile Parker." The turian began after they had gone back to the couches they had sit on earlier before they gone from talking to yelling to trading blows. The human just nodded and prompted her to simply continue. "What do you plan to do about him?"

"About him personally? Nothing, for now. About his request? Apart of asking people to search for them, I can't do much."

"And why is that?" she inquired, before she suddenly realized the real problem here. "This isn't a sanctioned mission for the Death Dancers, but for yourself!"

"Of course it isn't a Death Dancer mission!" the human rebuked angrily. "Armies content on defending Earth and possible their colonies and the Death Dancers Space Company have nothing in common after all!"

"So, what stops you?" she asked clearly intrigued. Nothing had ever stopped the young human woman before, as far as the turian knew, so she was quite confused why the human didn't take a more active role in whatever needed to be done about this other human.

"You know what stops me." The human said through clenched teeth, her anger still apparent.

"I do?" The turian asked while looking curiously and confused from her spot in the kitchen to the small library where Morrigan still stood looking at the books her sister had acquired in the last years and placed in the bookshells.

"You do." Morrigan confirmed, her anger slowly dissipating, but frustration instead started to show.

Serafina watched the human closely, how she was irritatingly clenching her teeth. Her overall posture was stiff and her eyes, in her blue eyes was a shadow of something. She tried to look closer and must have stirred Morrigan because the human turned around and took control of her facial muscles until she only showed a risen eyebrow as if to say 'Seriously? You still don't know what I am talking about?'. Similar to the force of a rocket to her face the turian finally understood what the human had been hinting at the whole time.

"Omega."

"Omega." The Death Dancer confirmed. "The only place I kind of can't visit, even if it weren't for being part of the Death Dancers."

"What? Did Aria gave you a death sentence or something?" Serafina asked laughing.

"As a matter of fact, yes, she did." The one knowns as Morrigan replied immediately, with a hint of an unspoken question, taking the turian by surprise.

Serafina blinked. "Are you serious?"

"Yes." she replied without a hint of a doubt in her voice, just pure ... seriousness.

"What did you do? Broke one of Aria's bones?"

"If I did that I would have been dead for a long time now, no doubt." she snorted.

"True." The turian amended. Aria would have killed her then just for trying to mess with her. "Then what did you do?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know?" Serafina asked astounded and incredulous. She didn't believe it. The human had gotten a death sentence by Aria, who didn't really care one way or the other if you didn't mess with her, and the human simply said that she didn't know why.

"I don't know." Morrigan repeated. "I have done quite a bit when I had been on Omega, and after some time I kept getting ambushed. Once I had enough, I tried to maim some of them instead of killing. Didn't succeed in the beginning, but some time later, a day later I think, I finally had one surviver of an ambush. He told me what I wanted to know, or at least almost everything." She conceded. "He didn't knew what I did to get that sentence, but Aria apparently had hours before I was first ambushed announced that my body should be brought to her, dead or alive, and whoever managed that would get a heavy payment. The rest of the day I killed people left and right trying to get out of Omega, knowing that staying would be very foolish. And I almost didn't make it since by then at least half of Omega had learned about my bounty and was willing to kill their own family to get my dead body to Aria!"

The turian had listened intently. She had known her for a long time, she had heard lies and was used to her not being entirely truthful at times, but this time? She couldn't even hear the tiniest of lies in her words and even her instinct told her that she was being truthful. Serafina also wasn't even sure if she wanted to know what exactly the human had done on Omega or why she had been there in the first place. It certainly couldn't have been good, if the outcome was a bounty given by the pirate queen herself. So, instead of asking that she decided to query something else.

"Damn, how high was your bounty?"

"One million credits, five times that much alive."

Serafina was unimpressed by that number, having seen higher bounties. "A million credits?"

"You forgot, that was Omega, people are happy when they get 10 credits for a simple job. A million is such a large margin that the poor people there would have done everything to get it, even more for me being alive, which enabled me to flee Omega in the end."

"And what now?"

"Now we just wait."

"What? You are not going to do anything about it?"

"I personally have done everything I can do, now I only can wait for the results."

The turian blinked confused, before she really understood the last sentence. "So, you have got a few people searching for them?"

"Yes."

"Care to enlighten me who you got working for you this time?"

"Oshara, Rilea Scorpus, Zaeed Massani, Jondum Bau -"

"You've got a Spectre working for you? How did you manage that?" The turian interrupted the human recognizing the name of one salarian Spectre. She was very amazed at that. The personal network of the Death Dancer in front of her and the official network of the Death Dancer Space Company never ceased to amaze her.

"Normally he wouldn't." Papa conceded. "But because he has something to do on Omega he promised to keep an eye open for them."

"So, it's just pure luck that he also joined the search?"

"Pretty much." Somehow that easened Serafina's heart and soul a bit. The salarian Spectre wasn't on Morrigan's payroll, which spoke for the salarian quite well. She silently wondered how they had met and how they got the contact data of each other and then decided it was probably better left unknown.

"And how long is the deadline?"

"Less then a week."

"And if the deadline is not met?"

"That's my biggest problem, I don't have a solution for that, yet. While I hope that this mission will go smoothly, bin ich mir schon bewusst auf was für einem Pulverfass ich hier sitze."

"I'm sorry, what?" The turian said frustrated at the human having switched midsentences to another language that the translator refused to pick up, much to her chargrin.

"I said 'I certainly know what kind of powder kegg I'm sitting on.'" She replied without feeling the need to apologize, which she never did to anyone as much as Serafina knew.

"That you are." The turian agreed once she understood what the human had said and repeated it once again for greater emphasis on the 'powder kegg' point. "That you are."

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

Kallian Tabris locked up as soon as she heard how the door to the staircase and elevator opened up. She actually didn't hear the door moving, it was build in such a way that the door was practically soundless. She rather heard the sound of the door unlocking itself, which meant that the other two were finally finished with their talk and that Alpha could finally leave her floor. She blinked a few times and even poked herself for a few times to make sure that she wasn't dreaming. The little bits of pain told her quite clearly that she wasn't dreaming and that the long talk between her lover and her sister had finally ended and now she was, finally, allowed to leave her apartment and to join whoever was still downstairs if anyone was even still down there. Often enough they had already left when they or the VI, according to its programming, had let her out of her gilded cage.

She closed the reports she had been reading this morning. None of them were that surprising with the only exception being the Eden Prime one. Why anyone would attack Eden Prime was beyond her. Eden Prime was a nice human colony, there was nothing of worth there. Except the tons and tons of farming products that were produced and sold to trading companies that brought those products to all human worlds. And even to some space stations like Arcturus, Grissom Academy or the Citadel. As far as she knew even some asari and salarian worlds bought them.

While there was the possible of thieves trying to steal the food, they had to be a huge group and be armoured enough to take on a garnison of Alliance soldiers on the ground and a possible fleet in the space around Eden Prime. No stealing of food brought enough profite to make it worth a fight against seasoned soldiers. So Eden Prime was safe. As safe as a colony out there could actually be. Which considering the Skyllian Blitz wasn't that much, but the batarian forces and terminus forces had never been as strong as they had been then.

With those thoughts the former Alliance marine descended the stairs to the lowest floor, hoping to see at least one of the two who had, with her consent, caged her, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. Rhian and also Papa were gone, to do God knows what.

*Beep*

Surprised by the tone, she looked at her omni-tool, somehow hoping that it was a message from the emerald skinned salarian, but no, it was just a reminder for -

"Scheiße! Das hatte ich ja total vergessen!" she yelled into the empty apartment and took off as fast as she could. It wouldn't do her any good to come late to that, again.

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

Udina was silently thinking in his office on the presidium. Unlike some other offices his was a very plain one, with just a simple desk and a chair for him, a personal line to the councillors - a projection of them into his office - and otherwise there was nothing. Not a flower, not a bed, simply nothing, just like he wanted it. There was only one thing that bothered him in his office and that was the presence of one Captain Anderson. One very bored marine, that only spoke of disaster in Udina's mind, since a bored marine was never a good thing, wether the marine in question is a Captain, a Corporal or an Admiral. Thankfully the ambassador noticed it early enough and had time to think about a counter, something for him to do or think about.

"How about a bet?"

"A bet?" Anderson replied confused, looking strangely at Udina. "Where did that suddenly came from?"

Udina considered the question carefully, it wouldn't do any good giving an answer that might make him think that he wasn't fit for his job after all.

"Well." The ambadassor said slowly. "I'm definitely not one for bets, but you are as far as I know. And while I usually wouldn't even lower myself to even say those words or to even acknowledge that I know it and you know that I know that you know you love bets. I'm going to do you a favor now, Anderson, one that you won't even begin to properly appreciate. I can quite clearly see through you and my verdict isn't pretty in the least. You are bored and having a bored marine in my rooms without something to do won't end well, therefore I'm giving you something to think about, just so that I can spare my room the feelings of your fists."

Instead of addressing that last point, like Udina knew he wouldn't, or at least he wouldn't even dignify that with a response if the same situation would happen to him instead of Anderson, he choose to regard the sentence that had started it all. "What kind of bet?"

"Got you." Udina thought, but his expression didn't change in the slightest. "Who do you think your protege will search out to find the turian who might have some lead on Saren? Barla Von or Harkin?"

"Barla Von." Anderson replied immediately, not a hint of a doubt in his voice.

"Then I'll take the other one, Harkin." Udina replied easily. While he certainly thought that the commander was more likely to go to Harkin than to the volus, didn't mean that he had to give a reason to the marine in his office or to belittle the marine by pointing out that the Commander wasn't likely to trust anything that even remotely smelled like turian and Barla Von being a volus certainly smelled like a turian, almost at least. At any event it was close enough that it was quite probable to think that the Commander would be searching for Harkin, even if he was a hopeless drunkard and prone to bribery. No, he decided, such thoughts were better not articulated in the presence of the Captain who was quite proud of his protege, understandable, but also naive. The bet was just a decoy anyway, a decoy from having the Captain wander around aimlessly and destroy something, like the reputation of the Alliance or even worse, his reputation. No, he couldn't allow that and so, he was quite thankful that his little game worked, so far. He just needed to apply the finishing touch to make the deal perfect and complete, giving the Captain no choice but to come along with his plan.

"And what does the winner get?" Anderson finally asked.

"Why don't you think about it while I go and pay some visits? Unlike you, I have a job, besides waiting for the Commander, but keep in mind that I am a civilian and that anything and everything even reproaching bodily harm will not be accepted!" Udina said quite sternly, making his point and giving the marine something to ponder about, which in turn would protect his office from Anderson's possible rage at having nothing to do. Knowing the marine it would take him quite a while to find something appropriate to be their wager, if he even found one before former - or was it still? - Spectre candidate came back, with or without evidence.

* * *

A/N: Well, here we are, chapter nine. There really isn't much to talk about here. We see some of Udina's thoughts, how Papa and Not-Leliana interact with each other and get a few background informations.

Fun Fact: Rhian Tabris was the name of my first ever Dragon Age Char.

**Translations:**

"Scheiße! Das hatte ich ja total vergessen!" - "Shit!/Crap! I totally forgot about that!"

The next chapter will probably uploaded and published somewhere around the end of January or at Christmas. Can't really say for now.

Your thoughts to this chapter? I would appreciate hearing them.


	10. Entry, Garrus

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

Romeo was bored and that in and of itself was never a good thing. At least not for anyone around her, but she was on her way to change that, to keep the possible following carnage to a minimum. She was going to a pub down in the wards. She had heard that she could drink down there, endlessly, while watching some asari dance - not that she was a real fan of dancing asari or asari or aliens in general, that wasn't her thing - and that no one would care if she would join a fist fight or ended one, except her superiors but they would never know since she was wearing civilian clothes now. Unfortunately fate seemed to have other plans for her, plans that plainly materialized in front of her in the form of a battered and bloody body of an unconscious female human in an alliance armour, who promptly fell against the next wall and slowly crumbled to the floor.

Romeo just shook her head at this display, disapprovement clearly shown on her face, but she was also aware of the possibilites. The possibilities of going away, ignoring the body completely. One, a criminal would find her and rob her of everything, which might actually be worth it, for the thief. Two, a C-Sec officer might find her and apart from her sister any of them would make her life hell. Projecting in their minds a crime that had never happened, questioning the marine endlessly until they were assured that she was nutcase and either sending a request to the Alliance, who won't recognize her, or just send her to prison, assured that she was just another criminal who had gotten lucky enough to win a fight with a marine and managed to steal the armor. Three, and this was one actually the one that irritated Romeo the most, was that the universe or whatever kind of power choose to materilize her right there and then, could rematerilize her again and again until she took care of her. Knowing her own luck, she just succumbed to the obvious task and began to sigh at no one in particular. "I deserved that, didn't I? I never should say the words 'I'm bored' again, or at least not out loud. I'm just jinxing myself."

As she accepted her own fate she crouched down next to her, intent on inspecting the woman thoroughly and by the end of it she had a few things to add to her list of 'probably impossible'. One of the newest additions to that list were the holes all over her armor, with entry and exit spots but the the flesh underneath wasn't hurt in any way. No injury whatsoever even though the punctured armor suggested otherwise. Did the universe just decide to erase any and all injuries of that woman before sending her away, sending her straight in her path?

"Robbing a marine in broad daylight now, are we?" someone suddenly asked behind, stopping any and all thought processes of Romeo.

Romeo blinked and looked behind her. Two humans were standing there, looking down on her and the unscionscious woman for who knows how long which probably wasn't even that long. After all fate had sent that woman here not that long ago. Romeo blinked once again as she looked at the two humans while standing up. One of them was a woman, the other one was a man. The woman hadn't said anything yet, but looked on with a raised eyebrow. The man, well, there was something wrong about him and when she noticed his eye colour, which was an unusual violet, she knew what was wrong.

"Fuck you, Lars." she spat as an answer to his question. "Don't accuse of me anything if you have no evidence to back it up! And besides, who of us two is a freaking motherfucker?"

"I'm not a motherfucker!"

"Then why are you sleeping with mother?"

"Mother?" He blinked, momentarily taken aback. "My mother is dead and has been - ah, you must be one of Vio-"

He never managed to finish that sentence because Romeo punched him as hard and fast in the gut as she could, forcefully drenching out the air in his lungs, all of it and then knocking him unconscious by a underhanded jab to his chin. Usually she would have jumped at an opportunity like this, but she didn't. For one, his fall was far too loud to her liking, loud enough to make her presence known to whoever was near-by and that might be enough for a C-Sec officer to investigate the sound. And she was very well damn sure that meeting a C-Sec officer now would be detrimental for this situation. That and the fact that the sidearm of Lars' sidekick was just a bullet away from her temple.

"Can't you put that thing away?"

"Nope." Lars female sidekick replied earnestly. "I won't be the reason that he dies, which he would do once I turn this just a bit away from you."

Romeo chose that moment to finally turn around to face the woman for real. She was tall, just a bit taller than herself with long black hair and a pair of brown eyes. A slight complexion and an overall firm and fit body if her armour was something to be going by. Her hands never wavered a bit, showing that she wasn't just a girl playing soldier but a real marine. One that knew the hardships of her profession and didn't complain, knowing quite well what she had gotten into all those years ago. The armed woman's face wasn't set into stone, but for the moment a rather grim expression adorned her otherwise probably very pretty face. Of course Romeo acknowledged and knew quite well that she was the sole cause for this situation, but that didn't mean that she did regret punching him into oblivion or unconsciousness for this time. Trying to defuse this rather grim - for her - looking situation she shot the other woman a grin, not one of her usual feral grin's that she liked to show her enemies, but one of her more friendlier ones. Though that probably turned more into a grimasse than into an actual grin if one could go by the other woman's facial reaction to it.

Deciding not to dawdle too long on it, Romeo shook her head slightly and went a step back instead of forward. Knowing quite well that the unknown marine wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger to put a bullet into her body if she even looked like a threat, not necessarily into her head, but she wasn't going to risk that either. She had other things to do after all, like caring for the unconscious woman behind her. "You have good instincts."

If Romeo hadn't looked the other woman in the eyes she wouldn't have noticed the reaction to her compliment. The reaction was gone so fast that most wouldn't even have noticed it in the beginning, because she didn't alter her stance a bit, simply following Romeo's movements with the pistol.

"Apart from them and your speed there is only one other thing that stands in the way of his death." Romeo continued, thinking that pursuing the pure compliment path wouldn't bring her much further. A combination of paths would probably be way more successful. She sometimes had to remind herself that she wasn't Morrigan, who would have killed her and him without hesitation. Him because he was just him, a person she had sworn to kill herself, and her simply because she had stood in her way doing that. And unlike her sister she was still a member of the Alliance and therefore she knew there would be repercussions along the way, but that didn't mean that she could stop her hatred of him. It was just too damn strong to reign it in every damn time.

"And what would that be?" The marine warily asked her, eyeing Romeo strangely.

"A promise." was the sole and cryptic response Romeo gave her, while she crouched down to the unsconscious marine from before, ever aware that the other marine could use this opportunity to put her down but somehow chose not to. Maybe she didn't wanted to attract even more attention, maybe she waited for other people to be lured to this place or just maybe she felt that the try to put her down wasn't worth the risk or the energy. Whatever the reason was Romeo didn't see the need to actually know it, instead she concentrated on putting the uncounscious woman on one of her shoulders to carry her easier away. Slowly walking away, without looking back, she went away, somehow hoping that she wouldn't be called back.

"What are you going to do about this?" the woman suddenly asked, stopping Romeo's movement, just as the later had thought it.

Stopping, the disguised marine slowly turned around to face the marine, who still had the pistol in her hand. While it wasn't pointed at her anymore, but downwards for the moment, she had no doubt that it would turn upwards the moment she seemed like a threat to her or him or someone else for the matter. "What do you mean?"

"I mean." she slowly said, clearly unhappy about this situation, looking pointedly at the people she wanted to talk about. "The Commander and the marine on your back."

"About her? I just found her here shortly before you stumbled upon me, I'm going to bring her somewhere safer. I don't trust him to do that." It wouldn't do to say that she materialised in front of her, even though it was true, saying that would send her to places she would rather not be.

"You know that I can't allow that." She replied, aiming the pistol at Romeo's head. "I need to bring you in for assault of an Alliance Marine without provocation and -"

"Without Provocation? He almost said her name with his filthy lips!" Romeo yelled at her, forgetting for a moment that she wanted to escape and not seem like a crazy person.

"Just because of a name you assaulted him?"

"We vowed to never let him say her name ever again! He should have learned it by now!" Romeo declared angrily and sort of explained. This was a family matter and it would stay that way if she could help it.

"'We'?" the marine questioned, just as a new sound entered their ears. The sound of heavy and fast steps coming nearer and nearer.

Sensing an opportunity to escape Romeo readied her biotic abilities, as far as as she could without actually alerting the marine of her biotic powers, and pushed the marine back, just as another person walked around the corner. Freezing for a second after attacking an Alliance marine apart of Lars and her, which she never wanted to do, gave the other marine almost the chance to stop Romeo from escaping. But in the end, when she was back on her feet, Romeo was already running, running as fast as she could to escape with her guest, not keen on waiting or wanting to find out who had stumbled on them or if they would run after her. It was better to just keep running until she was somewhere safe where even C-Sec couldn't find her. Thankfully for her she knew where such a place was.

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

Tina stood very still in her spot next to the free clinic in the wards just below the presidium, occasionally looking around in the hopes of seeing one of two very familiar faces, or both, but neither seemed willing to make an appearance, once again. Tina shook her head and sighed in frustration and sadness. Sadness that neither of her parents deemed it necessary to appear at one of her serious and possible life changing appointments in the clinic. Sometimes she wondered if she should really consider them as her parents and not just as some people who were willing to take her in and feed her, nothing more, nothing less.

Tina knew that she wasn't usual, that she was very special and that some had and would call her freak of nature because of her condition. Her own real parents knew what they gotten themselves into even before she was born and still went and got her. They had loved her and cared for her as best as they could while the others around her regarded her and her parents as some kind of freaks and monsters. She hated it, but tolerated it because she had her family who loved her, but that had ended the day the batarians came to visit Mindoir.

Everything afterwards was a mess in her head. She remembered killing a batarian with his own weapon when he hesitated, seeing her condition for the first and last time. She remembered seeing cages with a lot of humans in them next to a dozen ships, around them armoured batarians. She remembered the burning builds and the smell of smoke and burned flesh, the smell of rotting corpses. She also remembered seeing someone else trying to attack the batarian slavers, but he was gunned down quickly and being sent to the afterworld, joining the many corpses around him in his way there. Then there was the eery silence after they had gone and left her as one of the few survivors left on the planet, at least until the Alliance got there and brought her somewhere else. She had been ten years old then.

Afterwards she spent the next two years in a place for homeless children on the Citadel, until someday her new parents had visited the place. Her new human mother took one look at her and Tina knew that instinctively this one wanted her, why she didn't know and didn't care, but she simply knew that this one human wanted her in her life. Sick of the building and the people in it she accepted the offer.

That had been three years ago and now she was fifteen, her condition being not as obvious as it had once been but she still needed to hide it, scared of scaring the few friends she had away. For that to really work her new parents had set out to search a doctor who was good and also trustworthy to not say anything about it. They had tried many and in the end had settled for the one clinic Tina was standing in front of, mostly because Tina liked the doctor in there. She was very friendly, nice, knew her job and was showing no signs of prejudices, just simple curiosity at her condition and the will to help.

Though that didn't mean that the treatment wasn't hard on the young girl, often enough she had to endour grave amounts of pain for a long time, once even for almost three months. And to her chargrin and ever growing sadness and frustration her new parents were almost never there. She knew that their work usually had them working overtime and at odd hours, but was it much too ask for at least one of them appearing at one of her appointments? Apparently it was and so she looked once again at her omni-tool, seeing that she was ten minutes overdue. She so wanted to give them the benefit of doubt, but sometimes it was hard for her to do so.

Tina took one last long look around to find no one around, no one she knew at least, and went with another loud sigh into the clinic. Once again alone with the doc.

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

Garrus had a bad day, first of all he had another 'discussion' with his father that didn't end well, it never did. And then there was the Eden Prime incident or the geth attack of Eden Prime. C-Sec had gotten information about a rumour that one turian had been leading the geth force on that planet, trying and succeeding in getting to a protean beacon as far as he knew. And then he was charged with getting the evidence needed to convinct him, only that nobody had told him that the one who was suspected to be the geth leader a turian Spectre was. It didn't need to be said that this made his day even worse, since most of his work and data was just covered with so many red tapes that he couldn't look through it and find something in time, which frustrated him to no end and he belonged to C-Sec for spirits' sake! Something told him Saren Arterius, the turian spectre in question, was hiding something. It didn't have to be Eden Prime or the geth, it could be something else entirely, but his boss ignored it and ordered him to let it go, but Garrus simply couldn't and went to find new informations or hints.

And informations he had gotten, thank the spirits, not long after leaving the presidium. Apparently a quarian had found a solid proof that Saren was indeed behind the attack of Eden Prime and now she was hiding on the Citadel, looking for protection against Saren and his goons.

The thought that one of his kind was able to do something this unspeakable made him angry, sad and frustrated about his own race and he wanted to bring Saren Arterius to justice, by himself if he needed to. There was just too much red-tape in his documents, so much that Garrus knew that something was very wrong with him and that he wasn't reliable anymore. Probably wasn't for a long time a feeling in his gut told him.

That was why he found himself running into another person when he just skirted around a corner. The crash was sending both of them to the ground. Groaning Garrus shook his head to get his thoughts clear again. When he saw that the had bumbed into another person he stood up again as fast as he could and offered up a talon to help the human woman up, which she took.

"What's gotten you in a hurry, Vakarian?" she asked him as she made her self a bit more representable.

"Ah, Shepard." Garrus replied, now finally recognizing the human in front of him as one of his fellow C-Sec officers. "Got time to help your favourite turian?"

"Third favourite turian, Vakarian, third favourite." she replied instantly, making him step back theatrallically.

"You wound me Shepard. Just third?"

"Yes, just third." she replied simply while rolling with her eyes, making Garrus grin inside. He loved to make her roll her eyes, he didn't knew why, he simply did.

"Someday I will find out who they are." Garrus vowed once again, not entirely meaning it, but who cared, he certainly didn't. He wasn't that nosy, at least for those that didn't do anything wrong, as far as he knew, those that did, well, then he could get very nosy.

"Help you with what?" The human asked him, bringing him back to the subject on hand. Looking at him expectantly and completely ignoring his vow, as usual. While she reacted to most of his jokes, she never did to the vow. He never understood why, but he didn't really care enough to find out why.

"Well, I probably could need reinforcements." He really thought he could need it, but he neither had got the time to ask for some nor had he the feeling that the Executioner would give him some, not even counting the fact that it would probably be too late by then. He was working on short notice here after all.

"Reinforcements? For what?" Shepard said sceptically, raising one of her eyebrows in the process at him, making once again wonder their resemblance and at the same time difference to the asari, before forcing himself back to the present. Now was definitely not the time to wonder about that.

"I have gotten a tip that a quarian might have some evidence that Saren was behind Eden Prime."

"Who's Saren?"

Garrus eyed her strangely. "Didn't you watch the confidential news today?" Which was actually nigh impossible for a C-Sec officer not to do. It wasn't a news show, but a program destinated to send every man and woman working in C-Sec the most important news, news that they all should know, like a confirmed sighting of a serial killer not backed up by a citadel race or it's army. This morning it was a notice of the situation on Eden Prime, including the accusing of one Saren Arterius. Even if she hadn't gotten it in time, because of some interferences, it should have been sent to her mailbox anyway, meaning that she should have been able to read it nonetheless.

"I did skip it over and simply wondered why someone would attack Eden Prime. It has nothing of worth." Shepard replied confused. "What has this to do with this Saren?"

"Saren Arterius is a turian Spectre, and according to one Captain Anderson of your Alliance he was behind the geth attack on Eden Prime."

"Geth? Geth attacked Eden Prime? But -"

"- there is nothing of worth, I know. I don't know what he or they wanted there, maybe that Captain Anderson could tell you. Anyway, that is not the point. The point is that I had been tasked with finding proof that he is behind that attack and I may have found a trace to follow that may proof that Saren is involved, though I fear that this trace may grow cold if we stay here for too long."

"Then start walking, I will follow you, but don't forget to keep explaining what's going on." The human replied and motioned for Garrus to move.

Garrus nodded and started to run, but looked behind to make sure that the human wasn't left behind. He didn't need to worry, she easily seemed to match his pace. "I have heard about a quarian who says she she has proof of Saren being a criminal and being behind Eden Prime, though it is also said that she was searching for a clinic because of an injury. I also fear that Saren has heard about this and has started to send his own men after this quarian."

"A clinic? There aren't many clinics around here that would treat quarians, so that would mean." She paused and stopped, head hanging low, Garrus noticing that stopped also and looked at her curiously."So that would mean the free clinic of Dr. Michel is where we are heading to?" Shepard asked quietly, this time with something that seemed to resemble fear in her voice. Garrus had never seen the human woman fearing anything, no kind of criminals she had encountered on the Citadel and now he thought he had heard fear in her voice? He must be going old or senile, neither one a nice thought, but her eyes told him otherwise. They were big and pleading for an answer to her question though he didn't knew why they were so full of fear.

"Why are you looking at me that way?"

"JUST ANSWER THE DAMN QUESTION, GARRUS!" Shepard yelled at him so loud that Garrus noticed that a few people turned around to face them.

"Yes, I'm certain the quarian and Saren's men are heading there, if they aren't there yet, but why - ?" He asked but was only met with heavy silence.

Then.

Shepard yelled something but his translator didn't pick it up and was about to ask what she said as he noticed the human passing him with a biotic charge and started to run. "TINA!"

"What's wrong?" Garrus yelled after her and started running after her. It was quite bad if a clinic was under possible attack, but that didn't explain her quite impossible strong reaction to that.

"My daughter has an appointment there, right now!" she yelled back at him.

"Your daughter?" Garrus reiterated a bit dumbfounded and started running faster on his own. "You have a daughter?" he called after her but got no response, probably because she didn't hear him.

Garrus didn't like this. He didn't liked this one bit, because it seemed his bad day might go worse, once again. A worried parent was one thing, a worried biotic parent with a weapon who knew how to use it another one. He feared for the people sent after that quarian and he also feared for the doctor to end up as collateral damage if Shepard's daughter was hurt. Seeing as Shepard was emotionally involved now, he tried to run even faster, knowing that it now fell to him solve this as bloodless as possible, but having seen Shepard's expression he feared that it might not be possible.

"And the morning had been so good." he grumbled and concentrated full on running. The clinic was thankfully not that far away anymore

* * *

A/N: There we are again, three months after the last one as usual and seeing that we have January 2016 now I probably should wish all of you a late happy new year, so late happy new year everyone.

And two new characters! One unconscious and one a young teenager that I had only hinted at earlier chapters. And Garrus is finally here, though it will still take a bit time until we see Tali for the first time.

Your thoughts to this chapter? I would appreciate hearing them.


	11. The Clinic

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

Tina didn't like her situation, not at all. She was sitting on one of the beds in the clinic, while only half wearing her shirt. Only her right arm was in the shirt, in the correct position, the left arm was outside. Why? Because she had been in the process of dressing herself when a group of armed men suddenly stormed the clinic. Instinctively she had pushed her hands above her head and in that process her sharper then normal nails tore her shirt a bit apart, leaving the others a clear sight of her underwear and body, or at least the right upper body part of it.

But the men looked more confused then angry or whatever they were supposed to look like in this kind of situation.

"Shouldn't the doctor be alone?" One of the men asked another one.

"I'm pretty sure that's what I remember." another one agreed.

"Who cares?" The third one replied.

"Shut up! All of you! It doesn't matter anyway." The fourth one of them yelled at the others. "It doesn't matter that she isn't as alone as we were lead to believe. It doesn't matter that the quarian isn't here, because no one will know what we wanted anyway once we are done here! So let's simply do what we are here for and a bit more." He said with a lecherous grin towards the teenage girl that made her skin crawl and made her pray, for the first time in years, and hoping that her parents would show up in time to save her.

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

Romeo leaned against the wall next to the exit, observing the unconscious woman she had found earlier, the one who had materialized directly in front her, and brought her here. She was lying down on a big couch in the apartment. The woman was slightly stirring, a sign that she was about to wake up Romeo presumed. The problem was that she had done so for the last hour again and again, slowly starting to irritate Romeo until she just couldn't take it anymore.

"WAKE UP, DAMN IT!" she yelled loudly, which made the unknown woman jump up in a heartbeat and into a combat stance, but Romeo had anticipated it and was therefore standing too far away for a surprise attack.

"If this is the after life God has a bad sense of humor, making a human alarm clock. Couldn't it be at least in the form of an angel? That would make waking up better, wouldn't it?" She sighed. "And really? Battered and punctured armour and no guns attached to it, but you left me my omni-tool? Really, God has a strange sense of humour. Couldn't he have given me at least a fully functional armour and weapons, or some other clothing?"

Romeo couldn't help but blink at that. She hadn't anticipated something like this happening. "This ... this isn't the afterlife, you know, it's just another dimension."

"Another dimension?" She replied sceptic and Romeo could understand that. She would also be pretty sceptic. "It's original, I give you that, but really? It doesn't make the slightest bit of sense or - wait? I'm dreaming, aren't I? Dreaming whatever the Reaper's want me to dream so that I can become an easier target for indoctrination?"

"Reaper? Indoctrination? I have no idea what you are talking about, but you are not dreaming." Romeo said frowning momentarily, before a stray thought made her grin and the unknown woman took a step back.

"What?"

"Nothing!" Romeo replied cheerily. She really didn't know why she was suddenly so cheerful, but it probably was the prospect of getting a good fight and she really needed one. "Nothing except, shall I shoot you to prove that this isn't a dream?"

"What?" she said again, confused but at attention for any sudden movement. Ready to fight for her life. Good.

"I may feel bad for fighting with a fellow alliance marine later, but that way I could prove you that you are not - couldn't you at least have let me slap you?" Romeo said when she noticed that the unknown woman had slapped herself, hard.

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

Tina looked frightened at the gun that was being pointed at her, she didn't even dare to gulp in fear of getting killed for that display of movement. She never ever had been in a real fight, even though her new mothers had started training her in self-defense and weapon proficiency some time ago. She was thankful for that, but it didn't help her now. She didn't have a weapon with her and she wasn't good enough yet to steal the pistol of the man next to her. If she wasn't that frightened and if there was only one she might have tried something stupid, but she was frightened to death and didn't even dare to move. She didn't wanted to die after all and every second she survived was a plus in her mind.

"TIIIIIIIIIIINAAAA!" A very familiar voice yelled just before the door to the clinic opened, revealing a wonderful sight for her sore and frightened eyes. Standing in the doorframe was a human woman who had a very dark skin tone, dark red hair and black eyes, she was also wearing a C-Sec uniform.

"MAAAAAAMAAAAAA!" Tina exclaimed loudly, she never had been so happy to see her mother as she was in that moment. Her mother had once been a marine before she had left the Alliance and joined C-Sec, but even after all that time she was still very good with her weapons and even without them. Sometimes her parents fought, with and without weapons, and somehow her mother won those matches every time. Her mother's eyes turned to her, and in that second the teenage girl could have sworn they were burning with a fire that would turn everything and everyone to ashes that was in her way. In that one single moment she was scared of her own mother, more scared of her then of the other men around her, more scared of her then of the batarians who had devastated her home and had taken her real parents from her, who were still sometimes haunting her dreams. Tina then and there decided that the most scaring thing ever was her furious mother.

"You dare to threaten my daughter?" She asked with a quiet fury present in her voice, getting the attention of the criminals. "Then you shall pay the price, for no one threatens my little dragon without paying the price!"

"Why don't you pay the price yourself, bi -" the one man nearest to Tina was cut of when he was send flying by her mother, who had started to turn blue, a sign of her biotic abilities being active.

"Mind your manners, there are minors here." she replied with a calm fury, a fury that made the skin of the teenage girl once again crawl. She had never seen her mother that angry and hoped sincerely that she would never be the focus of that fury.

And then things escalated quickly, but a few of those moments burned itself deeply into young Tina's minds. It was like time itself was deliberately moving slower, like it wanted Tina to take in as much as she could and even more.

She saw her mother, how she stood there, calmly, despite the dangerous men all around her and aiming at her. The way she leisurely put one hand on her back to unholster her shotgun, while keeping her eyes on the dangerous men around her. She didn't seem to fear them in the slightest, she did seem to believe in her own experience and was projecting an aura of strength that despite the seriousness of the situation impressed the young woman.

Then there was Dr. Michel, her doctor and a sort of friend, whose eyes were full of fear, a fear so contrary to her mother's strength and believe that young human was wondering how she still managed to move. Tina herself was frozen by fear and the doctor was also definitely scared shitless, but she still had enough courage to use the distraction that the C-Sec officer was to pull Tina under the next bed, where they both were safer from bullets. Knowing that a wrong move could mean her end and still doing it to protect another person impressed Tina immensely and at the same time she was disgusted at herself. She may be only fifteen but she had had weapon training, but was still unable to do anything because she was too damn scared.

Once she was safely under the floor she could only hear the flying bullets and shouts around her. Doctor Michel was above her, shielding her from any stray bullet and Tina regretted her latest thoughts about her parents and started to ask herself what she did to deserve such strong people in her life and hoped that they would all be alive at the end of the day so that she could tell her parents that she loved them. Something that she hadn't done even once since she knew them.

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

She looked at her hand, lead it to her cheek for a few seconds before she turned it away, so that she could see her hand and this strange woman. The things she was feeling now. She couldn't really comprehend and understand them. She wasn't even sure that she wanted to, but the feeling of pain on her cheek told her enough. Told her that she wasn't dreaming and that she might have to think the things she had heard over.

"Alright, I'm awake and definitely alive, unless you can feel pain in the afterlife?"

"Don't know, but I rather think not unless we have a dragonball style afterlife after all."

"A what?"

"... forget it, it's not important anyway."

"And what is important then?" She said, getting to the point again.

"Making you believe that this isn't your home, that you are nothing but a ghost here. No one does know you, and even if they do I'm pretty sure your background would be way different" This stranger said to her, stopping for a second. "Your name would probably help in that regard."

She narrowed her eyes. "Your name first."

The other woman shrugged and replied. "Natia Brosca."

"Yeah, right and I'm Kalian Tabris. Not happening."

'Natia' gaped at her for a second before she started to laugh out, loud. "Good counter! You aren't the first person to look through that, but most people don't."

"In my younger years I was quite fond of the restarted Dragon Age series."

"Huh, good to know. Anyway, Roxanne Shepard, at your service."

"Can't you just tell me your real name for once?" She replied getting a curious and confused face from this 'Roxanne'-persona now. "You certainly are used to using that name, but you can't fool me. It is not your real name, not by a long shot."

"According to the world, according to the records and according to my mother that is my name. I lived by it for years now and while I have other names, I'm not going to reveal them to you now. Only a handful of people know them anyway and I haven't used them for years and they are officially dead anyway. No, Roxanne Xenia Eleanora Shepard is my name, for all thoughts and purposes."

"Davina Katherine Moreau." Davina replied in earnest, believing all the words Roxanne had uttered just now. She hadn't even expected that reaction, she had meant it as a sort of joke, and couldn't really make heads or tail out of it. But she could feel how important those words were to her without really understanding them, even though she didn't know this person at all.

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

Alpha finally stopped in her carnage, forcing herself to calm down after she had killed everyone that seemed to be a threat to her daughter, but before she could look for said person the door behind her opened. Her instincts kicked in, she turned around and fired blindly in the direction of the door.

"Woa!" someone else exclaimed, turian by the sound of the voice, and it was someone she recognized.

"Oh, sorry Garrus!" The C-Sec officer apologized to her fellow officer, as soon as she saw him. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

"It's alright." The turian waved it off, chuckling. "We are in clinic here, aren't we? Whatever the stray bullets would have done to me, the good doctor would have undone, wouldn't she? Speaking of the doctor, where is she?"

Alpha blinked. That was a good question, she hadn't seen the doctor since she entered the clinic, neither had she seen her daughter. Had they become collateral damage? Had she hurt them in her try to protect Tina? The human C-Sec officer was going very quiet, cold and full of guilt.

"Right ... above ... me." Someone said very strained and almost silent, it sounded as if the person had a problem with breathing, which would also explain the quietness of it.

Alpha stirred at those almost unhearable words. It wouldn't have mattered if those words would have been only mouthed, she still would have heard them somehow. She would hear and recognize Tina's voice everywhere and that was clearly her who had problems with breathing! So the C-Sec got moving to the origin of the sound. She found her underneath one of the clinic beds with the doctor, who seemed to be unconscious, above her, trying to shield her from the bullets, but one of the good doctor's elbows had found a way in Tina's unusual ribcage and made breathing hard for the teenage girl.

She quickly kneed down and pulled Doctor Michel from Tina, who just stared silently at her while slowly tears ran down the face of the teenage girl. Alpha gently pulled her into her arms, stood up with her in her arms and sat her down on the bed, caressing Tina's hair slowly.

"Mama! I was so scared!" She cried out.

"I know, I know." Alpha replied, trying to sooth her daughter. "But Mama is here now and will protect you, my little dragon. I will always protect you. Always."

"Eh, Shepard, who is that?" a forgotten voice interrupted the mother-daughter duo.

Turning around the humans faced the curious turian. "Garrus, this is my daughter Tina. Tina, this is my friend and fellow C-Sec officer Garrus Vakarian."

"But -" Garrus tried to say, but the waking sounds of the doctor and the opening of the door stopped him.

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

"... I have no idea who you are and how you got my number, but you aren't going to call me ever again or this will get ugly!" Romeo could hear a loud and gruff voice replying to the dimension hopping marine in front of her and the voice didn't even wait for an answer, he just terminated the call.

Romeo tried not to look too smugly after the other end had ended the call and Davina was looking at her, once again. "Do you believe me now? No one knows you here, no one knows you are here, you are an unknown, a Jane Doe. You are practically a ghost."

Davina just nodded, somewhat exhausted from her talk with whoever she talked with. "Yeah, I'm starting to believe it. My Anderson was old, but he was ready to do everything for me. This Anderson here sounds younger, way younger then my own and he really didn't seem to know me."

"Maybe you two will never meet each other here."

"What?"

"You aren't the first traveler I have seen and who knows how many others are out there? How might this change things? Heck, I have no idea what your world was actually like. How your world is different from this one! Is it just a universe further down the timeline or are there some other changes?"

"Further down the timeline?"

"You said your Anderson is older. If his birthdate is still the same it means that you aren't just from a different universe, you are from a possible future. Which reminds me, what is his birthdate and what's yours? Or just saying the years might be enough."

"2137 and 2187"

"2187?"

"2187, yes, why?"

"That's in three years."

"In three years?"

"Yeah, so you are really a traveller from a possible future."

"Oh shit, that means my parents don't even know each other yet, possibly!"

"... I think this is a good time to tell me about your world, don't you think?"

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

Tina had seen many things in her short life so far, but she had never seen her mother tense in such a way. She hadn't stopped caressing her hair, but her face had gotten, in a lack of a better word, harder, like she was trying desperately to surpress her feelings. Curious she turned around to face the newcomers while some lone tears were still running down on her face. She blinked once, trying to get the offending tears out of her eyes.

Two humans, one male and one female had entered the room and they were both armed and armoured, but thankfully they didn't point them at her, or at anyone else. Garrus, the turian near the door, was pointing his rifle at the newcomers and if Tina's teary eyes were correct, he was unsure what to make of them.

The man raised an eyebrow at Tina and her mother and also opened his mouth, but the human C-Sec officer beat him to the punch.

"What do you want, Lionell?" Mama asked with a tone that made even Tina turn around to look at her and then back at the male human. He and everyone else that Tina could see frowned at that tone. Only then she noticed that the two other humans were with the Alliance.

"Does Mama know them from her time with the Alliance?" Tina wondered silently.

"Information. I have heard a turrian called Garrus Vakarian might have a lead on Saren and that he was supposed to be here."

"I'm right behind you, whoever you are."

Everyone turned around to face the turian, who had suddenly spoken.

"I'm Commander Lionell She -"

"RICHFORD-Shepard!" Tina's mother yelled so loud that the girl's ears rang for a second and made her unable to follow the discussion for a few seconds. She saw the turian saying something, but she wasn't able to actually hear what he said.

"Garrus, that is Commander Lionell Richford-Shepard from the Alliance. Lionell, that is Garrus Vakarian, a fellow C-Sec officer." Her mother replied, introducing them and ignoring the silent soldier in pink and if Tina wasn't sure that was absurd, she would have said that her mother sounded strained.

"Uh, what is going on here?" A new voice wanted to know.

"Oh, Doctor Michel, everything alright with you?" The two C-Sec officers asked simultaneously.

"Yes, yes, I think so, thanks to you."

* * *

**Omega Nebula, Sahrabarik System, Omega**

Oshara cursed silently in some ancient asari tongue, known only to a very, very small percentage of living asari in her and in this time. She wasn't the only one who had found the first hideout of what was probably a criminal organisation and surprisingly and to her chargrin it hadn't been the only hideout of them on Omega. Whoever was behind this organisation had bought quite a few warehouses and armoured and armed the people around them. He or she or they were expecting trouble, which was something the STG believed in, if she remembered correctly, which being on Omega wasn't quite the worst way to live.

The clock ticked down and while she still had some time left, the asari veteran mercenary didn't know if there were more places with those mercenaries around. She still could still search for a few hours or days and find more of them or not. That wasn't the problem. The problem was to find the right place, the place with the couple she had to find, hopefully before the other ones after them. Of course to find them and the place they were hidden she would have no other choice but to infiltrate one place after another while trying to avoid being spotted. A task easier said then done if she was correct in her feelings and assumptions.

With a snarl and another silent curse she made her way to the only place that may give her the chance to infiltrate the warehouse, the stinking sewerage of Omega. Infested with vorcha and other things that were better off not said. Remembering the vorcha infestation she looked at her choice of weapons. While her personal modded noise-reduced pistol would pack quite the punch, even against vorcha and also in the small ways of the sewerage, but she doubted it would help her against a bunch of wild vorcha. Her stolen geth plasma submachine gun, from her time, would be able to take down quite a few of them also, but in a close quarters she would be better off with a shotgun. She really wanted a shotgun now, a shame that she had gone without one, but remembering where she was that probably could be changed in a short time.

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

Tina listened silently and patiently to the explanation that the Commander gave Dr. Michel. It sounded quite stupid and insane, but her mother wasn't correcting him and nodded at the questioning glances of the human doctor. So that meant everything the male human in front of her said was true and that scared the youngest of the group. A sudden geth attack on Eden Prime? What would stop them from attacking the Citadel? In Tina's mind nothing, if they wanted to they would but they simply hadn't wanted to so far. They were rather following this turian Spectre for the time being and this Commander seemed to pinpoint him as the bad guy here and was searching for help. Help in the form of a female quarian, who apparently had been here, shortly before her own appointment and had some kind of proof that could help him convince his superiors.

Dr. Michel gave him the answers he wanted, but only after her mother nodded at her, once again. He eyed her mother strangely, but never said a word of thanks, and just turned around to leave.

"Lionell!" The human C-Sec officer called out to stop him and this time Tina was sure that she sounded strained, like she was keeping herself together with only willpower. "Papa is on the Citadel."

"Papa?"

"You know, the one who had hurt your ... mate."

"Fuck." He said and paled.

"Mind your manners, Lionell." Tina's mother said, glowing slightly blue. "There are minors here."

"You never cared about cursing, not even when minors where present. What changed?" The one called Lionell simply asked, apparently used to it.

"We haven't seen us for a long time, Lars, many things have changed and now go, you still have a quarian to catch."

"Ah, yeah, almost forgot. Come on, Williams, we don't have the time for this."

"... Understood." The female marine begrudgingly accepted the order and followed the Commander through the open door.

"Really, Shepard, what was that -"

"Garrus, follow them." Tina's mother interrupted the turian who then looked confused at them.

"Why should I?" He questioned her order, with a curious glance if Tina interpreted his face correctly. Even after all that time she still had trouble with turian faces and their expressions.

"One, I know Lionell and he doesn't care about collateral damage, but you do. Two, you want to go yourself to see the end of this. Three, -"

"Alright alright, I got it." He replied amused and disappeared swiftly, following the two marines.

Tina looked strangely at her mother when she heard the sigh escape her lips after Garrus disappeared, then her eyes widened as she finally noticed the blood coming out of a wound she hadn't noticed earlier. "Doctor!" she called, just as her mother was falling unto the bed, breathing heavily. Alarmed the teenage girl jumped down from the bed herself and with the help of the doctor they layed her down on it correctly, instead of only the top half awkwardly lying on it.

"Tina?" The C-Sec officer called weakly after her daughter, while she shortly opened her omni-tool and typed something before closing it again.

"Mama?"

"Come here." she ordered and Tina followed suit, kneeling next to her mothers head, looking concerned and frightened. "I will be alright." she whispered to her. "Your Mari is on the way, but you need to do something for me." Tina simply nodded, no hesitation there because she trusted her Mama and her Mari to keep her safe, even if she didn't outright say it. Never had. "Take this and keep a look for that man next to us, the one behind the other bed, the one who is leaning against the wall. He should be still alive. Your Mari and I may want to have a talk with him, later, but if you have to ..."

Tina blinked at her mother, and then at the pistol in her mother's hand, then back at her mother. Tina ignored everything that the Doctor said or did, she just focused on her mother's eyes. Those eyes that were full of trust and love. The young human moved her hands slowly, to the hand of her mother that still held the weapon patiently. She had somehow thought that the weapon would feel unnatural or heavy in her hands, but it didn't. Somehow, for the first time in her life it just felt right, the weapon in her hand wasn't something that she feared anymore. It was a tool, a tool to protect those that she loved and she would do that now, protecting her mother and the doctor, even if that meant killing someone.

She looked back at her mother, who simply smiled and nodded, before she closed her eyes, finally giving in to her body, who demanded rest. A rest she needed after that display of biotics and the wound she had gotten in her fight with the other men.

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

"... It seems your story so far is correct." Roxanne said after she had switched the screen off. They had just seen the news, the news about Eden Prime which had finally gotten to the media, but she certainly didn't like the fact that Lars was now seen as a hero. He may be many things, a coward and the media's favourite Shepard, but definitely not a hero. At least not to her, never to her, for that her feelings were way too dark and heavy.

"What is correct, Natia? And who the heck is this?" A new voice asked. Romeo turned around to face the newcomer who was seemingly lazily pointing a pistol at the marine from another universe. Romeo also noticed how Davina was looking between the two of them with curious glances, but the marine from this universe ignored them. She was used to those curious glances as much as the newcomer was.

"Didn't even know that you are on the Citadel, Morrigan."

"Same goes to you, Natia, but you still didn't answer my question."

"I'm just on a short vacation." Romeo sort of explained. A hidden message in those words that didn't miss their target, because the one known as Morrigan just nodded. "And the one in front of your pistol is a dimensional traveller apparently called Davina Moreau."

Morrigan eyed Romeo strangely. "Are you drunk? You know that you can't hold much alcohol despite owning a club."

"Papa!" Romeo roared angrily at her. "I'm not drunk! I'm never drunk!"

"Never? And what about - "

"That was the first time I ever touched alcohol! Don't you dare to hold that over my head! And you! You weren't really sober that time also! Didn't you - "

"ROMEO!" Papa yelled angrily. "WE AREN'T TALKING ABOUT THAT EVER AGAIN!"

"Then don't call me a drunkard ever again!" The marine huffed angrily, while the two sisters stared at each other.

"So, that means the show is over?" A slightly amused and forgotten voice interrupted them.

"Ah, right, you were still here, which reminds me. Natia, who is she?" Papa asked, while somehow the pistol was still pointed at the third woman in the room, despite the earlier shouting match.

Romeo simply sighed in exasperation. "This woman here materialised right in front of me as in one second she wasn't there and in the next second she was halfway there and in the second afterwards she was completely there. She has somehow jumped from her universe to this and almost died then."

"Almost died then?" Papa repeated in a voice that clearly showed her scepticism, while Davina was suddenly listening very intensely. Figures.

Romeo choose to ignore it and continued. "I ... I had almost an encounter with some bloodthirsty krogan, you know how they can be." she lied. Romeo loved her sisters, all of them, even Papa, but she was by far the most bloodthirsty of the lot and she had promised to kill Lars the next time she sees him. The Death Dancer was known to have never broken a promise, like the whole group of the mercenaries she belonged to. If someone would tell her of his presence on the Citadel she would go and search for him, no matter of the consequences. And if someone would have seen Morrigan killing Lars it might lead to problems for her or her sisters and of course there was that promise. She wouldn't be breaking it, directly or indirectly. "But I managed to confuse and outrun them and brought her here. Once she was awake I started interrogating her. Her story ... it sounded unbelievable."

"Sounded? You mean you believe her now?"

"Yes. Yes, I do now. She had told me a story about the geth, Eden Prime, a defecting turian Spectre and way more. At first I didn't believe her, but after watching the news I believe it. The geth invaded Eden Prime!"

Romeo looked closely at Papa, but she didn't seem surprised, not in the slightest. "You ... you knew?"

"Yes, I knew. I'm just amazed that the media took so long." She replied. "And I'm not going to say more about this. We have a guest here after all, one I do not trust with that kind of information."

*Beep*

Romeo's omni-tool made itself known, who grumbled but opened the message nonetheless. "Interesting." she muttered just loud enough for them to hear as she read it.

"What is it?" Papa asked.

"My vacation is cut short." Romeo replied while Papa just stared at her incredulously.

"Seriously, who the fuck would believe that? A drunk elcor prostitute?"

Morrigan's look was even more incredulously when she turned around to face Davina. "Drunk elcor?"

"Drunk elcor prostitute." Davina corrected her.

Morrigan turned back to Natia. "I apologize." She said stunning Roxanne, who had never heard Papa apologizing, ever. "You are not drunk, she is."

"Hey!"

"No, Morrigan, she isn't or at least I don't think she is. She is just ... well ... special."

"Special." repeated Morrigan as if she was savoring the word, before she nodded. "And now you are going to tell me, where you are going!"

"Papa." Romeo sighed. "I only have been ordered to find Captain Anderson, who is waiting at our ambassador's office."

"Captain Anderson?" The other two repeated in unison. "Why?"

"No idea. I was just informed that my vacation is going to be cut short and that I was told to find him for my next post. Which probably means I am going to work with him!" She said with glee in her voice.

"I doubt that." Davina chimed in. "If this is similar to my ... my universe, you won't get to work with him, but with the one who was his XO, and then it will start all again. And this time my mother isn't here to stop anything from happening and I'm also in no position to change anything!"

Romeo looked at Davina then at Papa, before going back to the former. She had just gotten a brilliant idea. "Maybe, maybe not. Morrigan here is a force to reckon with and she has an entire battle force and more under her command. You only have to convince her to help you, and now I really have to go! We will talk later!" She said before running upstairs to change into one of her spare uniforms, leaving the other two bewildered.

* * *

**A/N:** A few days late, but here it is.

I really haven't got much to say, except that Davina Katherine Moreau is loosely based on **Jules Hawk**'s Katherine Davina Moreau from the epilogue of her **Out Of Destruction** story and from **Family**. I have her permission to use this alternate version of Katherine in this story. Meaning she is the daughter of Shepard and Jeff Moreau.

Your thoughts to this chapter? I would appreciate hearing them.


	12. The Clinic, aftermath

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

Tina looked anxiously on as Dr. Michel took a closer look on the wound, the wound her mother had somehow gotten in her fight against the many men who had planned to kill her and the good doctor, while trying to protect her. She was about to ask a question when she heard a sound. A sound that made her skin crawl even though it was just the simple sound of someone waking up who had been smashed against something hard earlier, in his case it had been a goddamn wall.

Gripping the pistol her mother had given her earlier harder she turned around, to face him, one of the people who had wanted herself, her mother and the doctor dead. And not soon afterwards he opened his eyes and groaned. "My head."

As soon as Tina heard it, she started to point her mother's pistol at his head and gave her first order. "Don't move!"

"Huh?" he made, looking up from his position and jerked back against the wall with a loud whack when a shot just missed him. Unfortunately he didn't sank back into unconsciousness, he just cursed loudly and blinked once before he looked in her direction. He blinked once again before he started to smirk. "You know that you just missed, don't you Missy?"

"I haven't missed." The young human replied in a voice that was way steadier then she felt. "I hadn't intended to hit you or kill you, just yet. That first shot was only to warn you, but I can end your life here and now if you want."

"Really? You have to excuse me, if I can't take you serious, even with the deadly weapon now in your small hands." He chuckled, which made Tina scowl. "It's just that you had been too frightened to even dare breathing earlier. All I see is a scared child."

'A scared child with a weapon!' Tina wanted to say, but simply couldn't since it was true. So instead she replied with "That was then, this is now." She wasn't proud about how she had acted all but a few minutes ago, but now was not the time to dwell on it.

"Maybe." He allowed with a grin that showed clearly how serious he took her, which was zero. "But still, apart of you now having a weapon, nothing really changed."

"Something changed." The teen replied, feeling the need to point it out. "Something very important changed!"

"And what would that be? I mean, okay, all of my colleagues are dead and -"

"My mother trusts me." She interrupted him. She didn't wanted to hear his thoughts and plans and such. They were unimportant, everything was unimportant, except one small thing. The trust her mother had put into her.

"Your mother trusts you, missy?" He almost-quoted her, still not taking her fully serious, despite the pistol aimed at him. "I can't see her, kiddo, sorry, and mothers tend to trust their children, despite what they are doing for a living." He chuckled at the last part.

"My mother is right behind me." "Asshole." She thought the last part, mostly because her mother's reaction to swearing was kinda bad and because she didn't wanted to lose any amount of trust her mother had in her, not anymore, even with her being unconscious for the moment.

"That bloody amazon is your mother? She doesn't even begin to look like you!" He stated simply, eyeing the three woman next to him a bit closer. And Tina knew he was right. Her mother had a very dark skin tone, dark red hair and black eyes, while the teen had a far lighter skin tone, black hair and blue eyes.

"That's actually very easy question to answer." A new voice replied, before Tina had the chance to even form an answer in her mind. Furthermore it was a voice Tina knew and was close to ecstatic to hear it now and here. "She is adopted, after all."

"MARI!" Tina shouted as she spotted the owner the new voice. She couldn't remember the last time she had been this happy to see the turian, which was probably never. The happiness of seeing her mari confused the turian shortly, before the expression on the woman changed to something entirely different what Tina couldn't decipher at the beginning. Though that changed when she felt the presence of the man behind her who should have been somewhat in front of her. He quickly stole the pistol from her and pointed it at her head, while he was probably smirking down at her.

"Like I said, nothing has changed. You are still not a soldier, you are just a frightened child."

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

"I knew that the geth were evil!" The drell spectre spat as they watched the news in some sort of bar. It was another bar, not the bar the quarian had met the two humans from yesterday. "Attacking that colony of whatever they were called again, is just pure evil. We should just destroy them once and for all! In this universe and in ours!"

"Humans, they are called humans." Rati said, as they listened to the announcer who was an asari. They could easily understand the asari, since the language was thankfully the same in both universes.

"Whatever." The batarian next to her said. "It's not like we can change anything anyway. We have no power here."

After the death of Morya, or The Morya Incident as the other two called it, they had found a place to sleep in the lower wards. In the morning they had wandered around the lower wards, looking for a place to eat they stumbled upon a shady looking bar whose name wasn't even readable anymore. Rati didn't like it, but it also served quarians and having seen and experienced the hatred and mistrust upon her race in this universe, she complied with her companions and ordered drinks and meals.

They had stayed there, in some back both, way away of troubling any other customers and had been discussing plans as the old vid screens suddenly went online, broadcasting a special news show of sorts. Everyone in the bar was taken from their discussions or their sleep or whatever they were doing there, as it started. Rati thought she had even heard the owner of the bar, a batarian, mumbling that he thought they weren't working anymore.

The news informed them that a fleet of geth ships suddenly appeared over Eden Prime and invaded the world. The geth devastated the colony and decimated the unprepared marine contigent near-by. Only the luck of having a new frigate inbound and near-by as the invasion started saved the colony from being bombed into the stone age. The marine contingent of the frigate, the SSV Normandy SR-1, had been under the command of one Commander Richford-Shepard. Who had with his few men fought the geth of the planet and defused the bombs designated to make finding any evidence impossible. They still didn't know how or why the geth did attack the human colony after almost 300 years of isolation. The Council and the Systems Alliance were still investigating the colony and looking for any sort of clues. The asari ended her report that not only the human fleets were preparing themselves for more geth attacks, but also every other military in the galaxy prepared themselves for the formerly unthinkable situation of a geth attack on one of their planets and that everyone should stay sharp, wether on the Citadel or on one of the Council worlds.

"The question is what we can do and not what we should do." the batarian continued after a while. "We still have to get a better grasp on this world, this universe, and even then we might not be able to change things or help." He paused. "If we are even able to do so."

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

"Like I said, nothing has changed. You are still not a soldier, you are just a frightened child."

Ozeana Osdra cursed her daughter for a moment before observing the huge man silently. He was easily the broadest and tallest human she had ever seen. He was easily two heads taller then Tina, probably even more, if her estimate was correct. On the other hand, hadn't she and her Vima taught her again and again to not look away? To be prepared for everything and more? To not give someone else the advantage over the situation and yourself? Hadn't they taught her so much for her own protection? Had it all been for naught? Had her Vima's trust been misplaced? Was this the last straw? Was this the end of the teen and by proxy the end of her time with Deirdre if Tina died?

She sighed and then stopped midway, sensing something amiss. Confused, she looked closer, trying to find the reason and she quickly saw what it was, even though it surprised her greatly. Tina had since she had known her been a bit of a scaredy cat, afraid to lose friends, afraid to be marked as a freak, afraid to hurt someone else. Ozeana had never really understand why Deidre had wanted to adopt her, but maybe, just maybe she had seen something in her that was just starting to show. A fighting spirit which she had never seen in the teen started to show itself on young Tina's body language. The way she looked at the men and her mother alternatively told the turian a story, a story she didn't knew the contents of so far, but nevertheless it was still a story she wanted to know and she would be spirit-damned if that story would be left untold.

And to hear that story she would have to make sure that they all survived this, minus possibly the man who was threatening Tina and for that she might need to confuse the man, amongst other things and people.

"True, she is a scared and frightened child." The turian replied, her voice hard and unforgiving. She saw the teen flinching at her words and slight confusion on the man's face. "Even though we have done so much for her, tried to teach her things for her own protection, she never really listened to us and therefore brought this situation upon herself."

"Who the fuck are you?" he questions her confused.

"Her mari." she simply replied.

"Her what?"

"Mari means mom in the turian language." the doctor said, while still concentrating on the turian's bond mate. A bit of relief filled the turian knewing that the wound her Vima had wasn't that dangerous or life-taking if the human doctor could contribute.

The human male jerked back at that, taking Tina with him. The pistol never swayed much from the teen's head, ready to blow her a new hole at a moment's notice.

"Her what?" he repeated dumbfounded.

"Her mother." Ozeana repeated. "I adopted that ungrateful little brat together with that dark skinned human behind you. I never should have gotten involved with them, or at least with her." She said, pointing at Tina with one of her white talons.

They were all met for silence, except the quiet mutterings of the doctor who was still working on Deidre's wounds. Why he still let her do that was a good question.

"And you, stop whatever you are doing to that monster -" He barked at the doctor, having made the same connection the turian had made just a few seconds earlier.

"Hey!" Tina piped up angrily, but the man just hit her once, hard, with his weapon, making her go quiet and simply continued.

"So, she really isn't that scared? Good." Ozeana thought at that display approvingly and concerned at the same time.

"- turian, so that I can see you both!" He continued. Though Ozeana had missed a few words it wasn't hard for her to guess what she had missed.

Doctor Michel almost run to her side, but the turian didn't care. Not really. Her eyes were still on the nameless man and her daughter, who also eyed her back, both of them. The former with a mix of arrogance, over-confidence and a hint of craziness, the later's stance showed a mix of self-disgust, anger and ... trust. That Tina still trusted her surprised Ozeana greatly.

* * *

**Omega Nebula, Sahrabarik System, Omega**

Oshara was swearing once again in an ancient asari tongue. The sewerage of Omega was way worse then she had anticipated. Some pipes were quite huge, while others were to small for anything to go through and they followed no fucking plan. Whoever built those should have been been burned, sliced in parts and so much more before being burned again and then their ashes spaced. At least to the asari mercenary.

They were stinking hellholes, that part was anticipated, infested with vorcha, pyjeks and other vermin, that part was also anticipated, but that they were also going crisscross through the station, up and down, left and right, forward and backwards, without a clue where they were actually going to. And guessing where the heck she was in this catastrophe of a sewerage made her irritated. The feeling, the need to kill something was growing stronger by the minute and once she found a way outside she would have no other choice but to vent some of her anger and irritation on some people. Probably Blood Pack, she just couldn't stand Garm and his vorcha idiots, or even more probable those mercenaries that were hiding the two humans she was searching for. Yeah, probable those and the fucking idiots who invented and built these sewer, if they were still alive.

She had turned up at so many different places, places she definitely didn't wanted to be, very far from her goal, and simply hoped that it wouldn't take to long to finally find the correct exit. The stench was starting to get to her and that made her even more irritable.

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

For a long time no one said anything, they just stared at each other silently.

"Looks like you brought a huge amount of trouble upon yourself." The nameless man finally said.

"You have no idea." Ozeana replied and meant it. He had no idea what kind of trouble she was getting with those two in her life, but she didn't mind it, though of the following words she meant not one word. They were all lies, or at least mostly. "I never should have bothered with those two begin with. All I get each day is one problem after another. And now this! She is injured because she tried to protect this freak of nature who should have been home again a hour ago! Enough is finally enough!"

Ozeana noticed that they all reacted to her saying 'freak of nature'. The strongest reaction of course came from Tina, who looked gobsmacked at her. Understandably so. While it had not been the first time she had called her daughter that, it had never been with the hatred she had poured in those words this time. It usually was frustration, when she had problems with the execution of a move or when she did it wrong on purpose or when she was just being difficult like all humans of that age span she had been told.

"Freak of nature?" He repeated confused. "What the fuck?"

"Wa- what do you mean? You aren't here for her?" Ozeana almost replied with 'watch your language', she just managed to catch herself. "I was very sure you were here for her. Why else you should you have been here after all?"

"What? Why should I be here because of her? We are here because of her!" He said looking pointingly at Dr. Michel.

"That makes no sense. The doctor is good, I give you that, but otherwise she isn't really that important."

"We are not here because of the doctor's abilities to do her work!" He replied. "We are here because we are ... No, I'm not telling you! Instead you tell me why you thought we would be here here for this little punk." He demanded, pressing the pistol harder against the teen's head.

Ozeana refused to answer that, but the doctor didn't. "Tina is, well ..."

"Well, what?"

"Special." The doctor finally said and the turian cringed at the word choice. Special sounded so negative.

"Special? What kind of special?" he asked, getting a dangerous tint in his eyes that Ozeana didn't like.

"She's a sort of turian-human-hybrid and ..."

Not waiting or caring whatever else the doctor would say or was saying he, he turned his focus down and pulled the remains of the teen's shirt up and destroyed them in the process. Leaving Tina's upper body open for anyone free to see. He bowed down somewhat, and stopped his head on Tina's head level and was shocked speechless as he stared at the teen's body, who stared right back at him.

Ozeana was somehow paralyzed by the show and just wondered when Tina would freak out or crumble under that stare, like she usually does, when someone sees her real body for the first time, but it never came. Instead she shifted her stance slightly, took his head in her hands, pulled downwards and kicked so strongly against his feet behind her that he lost his footing while simultaneously using that momentum to throw him forward, over her body.

With a loud crack he landed on the floor and looked gobsmacked at the teen, before he jumped up to stand and threw a mean punch at her face which connected and made a mean sound. Throwing her backwards to the floor, where she landed with a lound sound and looked dead to the world.

With a snarl Ozeana loaded her hidden heavy pistol at the man and pulled the trigger. Three times. Each of her bullets hit his head, killing him instantly. For good measure she took her Vima's shotgun from her sleeping form and put a few rounds in the man again. "That was for hurting my daughter you imbecile!"

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

Commander Richford-Shepard was not amused. He rarely was, but after having met Harkin, who definitely was a drunkard, a member of C-SEC and at least somewhat a criminal, surrounded by asari dancers, sent his mood went further down as he learned that he had to find a turian, the one named Garrus Vakarian, a C-Sec officer, to maybe get the proof he was searching for. A proof that would allow him to pull the trigger on Saren's head, while having the approval of the Council. Not that he really cared. He would have done that anyway the next time he would have met that turian, no questions asked, but having the Councils allowance to hunt one of their best Spectres would make things far easier. So, he complied, for now.

Meeting two of the five daughters of his wife and learning that another one, the most violent one, was on the Citadel didn't help his mood. Remembering that the third one had sworn to kill him the next time she see's him also didn't help.

Meeting the first one of the five daughter's was before he had met Harkin and that one had been cut short or rather punched short. She had managed to punch him unconscious in short order, making him rememer that uttering the name of the first of the sisters was in their presence akin to a death sentence. The only exception was if the first sister was actually present. Of what he had been told later by his forced-upon companion was that what-was-her-name-again? would have probably killed him if she hadn't stopped him even though she told her that she had promised to not kill him. And he doubted that greatly, the only one who had have been able to stop that one would have been the first sister, and he didn't think that she would force them all or even just one to a promise, a promise of not killing him. No, it was probably more along the lines of her forced-upon companion stepping in in time and save him. He was grateful, since he still had a few plans in his life, apart of putting a bullet or a dozen in Saren's head for killing humans - directly and indirectly - on Eden prime, but he wouldn't ever say that. It was, after all, her job to make sure he was alive.

Meeting the second one had been better, but still, seeing how she hugged and patted that teen made him really wonder if she was still alright in her head. Which was probably a no, only the first sister was sane, the others were all insane, in their own ways. Even his wife said so and she knew them of course longer then he did. At least he had been warned of the presence of the sister they called 'Papa' - God only knew why - and he knew now that what he should be looking out for. Staying out of too much trouble, if he could help it, and not trying to antagonize the two other sisters on the Citadel, otherwise, he knew that with certainty, they would inform her of his presence and that would end up with at least one person dead. Him or her. While he didn't care about her death or any of the sisters, never had, never would, he was well aware that he couldn't just kill everyone on the Citadel who was in his way. Or at least not until he was a Spectre and even then he would need a reason to get away with it. Starting a killing spree now would also make following Saren so much harder, or just outright impossible and that he couldn't allow, nor would he.

He was also displeased at the turian from before, the one he actually been sent to search for clues by Harkin, had caught up with him and what-was-her-name-again? Though he had to grudgingly accept that the turian made sense. His explanation that him being a C-Sec officer accompanying them would make it easier to stay away from trouble by laws and the like, even if they were the ones who would cause it.

As they were very close to Chora's Den they started to hear the tell-tale sound of a fight going on and got running.

Just around the corner to the entrance area of Chora's Den, they found an armored and armed krogan in red standing over the bodies of quite a few humans. He immediately shot in their direction, with his shotgun if Lionell was correct, but missed because they all jumped away and into near-by cover. No other bullets came flying their way, just silence until the big krogan opened it's mouth.

"Vakarian? Was that you?"

"Yeah." the turian replied easily after two seconds of silence. "And what by the spirits are you doing here, Wrex?"

"Nothing much. Was just on my way to introduce Fist to my shotgun, when people suddenly started running scared like a group of pyjeks from from a single varren growl kilometres away." He laughed. "Humans are all sissys, after all."

"Request permission to kill the krogan, sir."

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

When Tina awoke she was met with one of the strongest headaches she ever had the misfortune to get. On the plus side, the first thing she saw was her mother talking with her mari.

"How are you feeling?" The voice of Dr. Michel sounded a bit too loud in Tina's ears from the other side.

Turning around she faced the cautious and sort-of sorrowful face of her favorite doctor. "Can you turn down the sound a bit doctor?" Tina asked and then winced at her own voice. It also had been way to loud. She droped her voice a bit and said: "Why is everything so loud?"

"You hit your head pretty hard, Tina. It could be that the fall disturbed your hearing a bit, I will have to check to make sure that your hearing is still okay among other things." The doctor whispered.

"Okay." She replied quietly, before turning around to look at her parents again, who were both awake and quietly talking to each other. "How are they?"

"They are fine, darling, even your Mama is. The one bullet that had struck her hadn't been deep, I easily tore it out of her body and repaired the torn skin and muscles. She just needs a bit of rest."

Tina nodded pleased, but then narrowed her eyes as she could see the tell-tale sign of an omni-call on her mother's omni-tool. The face of a turian appeared in the air, who said something she couldn't understand despite her hearing being sort of overcharged for the moment.

"How far are you in this Saren-thing now?" her mother asked and the turian replied with something but it was still too quiet for her to understand it even though she was trying to understand it.

"Just in front of Chora's Den? Perfect! I have a few questions of my own to ask this Fist or whatever he is called. - No, I'm not going myself. Someone has to stay here, to protect the doctor and write a report. My mate will go instead. - Yes, mate, , not everyone is a bachelor like you. - The Shadow Broker wants him dead? I shouldn't say that as C-Sec officer, but that's fine with me. Just for messing with my daughter, though indirectly, I would kill him, but not before he answered a few of our questions. Kill him for all I care after that. - It won't take long, Garrus, she will be there in five minutes, tops. - Yes, Garrus, she, deal with it!"

At the end of the call her mari gave Tina a short look, before she disappeared to spirits knew where. Her mother came to her after she ended the call, and hugged her. "My brave little dragon, I'm so glad you are fine."

"Mama, not so loud." Tina replied.

"Loud?" she asked the doctor a bit quieter.

"It seems her earlier fall messed with her hearing. It should go back to normal, but I can check hear ears if you want to make sure."

"Yes, please do."

"Mama?"

"Yes, Tina?"

"Where did Mari go? And why isn't Morya here yet?"

"Mari has gone to find out who was behind the attack on the Clinic." She replied, a hard tone in her voice. "We will never let those who hurt you escape without a punishment. And Morya?" Her voice softened. "I actually don't know. I haven't seen or heard from her since yesterday evening, my little dragon."

Tina gulped at that and needed a bit time to process that. "Mama? Can you and Mari teach me more about self-defense and fighting?"

She could see her mother blinking at that before she practically lighted up. "Yes, of course my little dragon. We will. Morya will too, I'm sure of it."

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

"Excuse me?" Romeo asked an asari that sat behind a sort of reception. "Can you tell me where the human embassy is?"

Romeo had never been here and didn't really knew where here actually was, she had just found a sky cab and ordered it to bring her to the human embassy. This entire area was way to bright for her liking and she felt a bit out of place in this place where everything and anything looked way too proper to be natural. No, she didn't like this place one bit and wanted to be as far away as possible and as soon as possible also, but she had been ordered to find and talk with Captain Anderson about her next post who was - for reasons she couldn't come up with -waiting at the human embassy instead of the small outpost the Alliance had on the Citadel.

"Do you have an appointment with the ambassador?" She asked her in reply.

"As strange as it sounds, I do not. I rather have an appointment with Captain Anderson, who I was told was last seen in the human embassy."

"Captain Ander - Oh, yes, he is here. The human embassy is the second door on the right." The asari replied helpfully and even pointed at the hallway Romeo should walk along, who thanked her.

* * *

**A/N:** Once again a few days later then I wanted to upload it, but you know ... life.

Your thoughts to this chapter? I would appreciate hearing them.


	13. Fist

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

Romeo knocked as silently as she could on the door to the human embassy, which was still loud to her ears. Not so loud that people from other rooms or hallways would come looking for, but definitely loud enough that the inhibitants of that room couldn't not hear the knocking.

Unlike many other doors this one didn't open just on her near-by presence. Romeo didn't know if she needed an allowance or if the ambassador was in a important meeting or just didn't wanted to be disturbed because he was sleeping in that office. One way or another she had to make her presence known and though she could think of a few ways to do that, she did it the most polite way she could think of, so she just knocked on the door. She simply didn't need to alienate the man or men before meeting them, even though knowing herself she would still do it one way or another.

She waited for a few seconds and was about to knock again when the door sign turned from red to green and then opened on its own. She reminded herself to be polite again as she entered the room to see two people staring at her. One man wore the usual uniform of the alliance while the other man was wearing what seemed to be a very expensive suit to her.

"Yes?" the suit-man who had to be the ambassador asked with a raised brow.

Romeo stopped, unsure. She wasn't used to deal with politicians, she had never been very good at dealing with civilians, especially after the Torfan episode. Some of the things she had done and said afterwards had made sure that her own promotion had waited for quite a time and even now she was still a lieutenant. She decided it was probably for the best to regard this as an order and started to salute. "First Lieutenant Roxanne Shepard reporting as ordered!"

"As ordered?" asked the ambassador before turning around to face the captain. "Anderson? What is the meaning of this?"

Anderson sighed, she wasn't sure if it was because of her or of the accusing tone of what had to be the ambassador. "If you remember a lot of soldiers died on Eden Prime, among them was my Marine Detail Commander. On our way to the Citadel I send a request for a replacement, together with my old list of preferred candidates."

"I suspect from your tone that this person hadn't been on said list?"

"Unfortunately Udina no, she hasn't been on the list." Anderson said to the ambassador. "And there is another reason why I am against taking her."

"Another reason?" the ambassador asked.

"Sir?" Roxanne asked, getting a bit uncomfortable at the Captain's stare. 

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

Ozeana Osdra was running as fast as she could through the market place that was for some reason next to Chora's Den. Why the two were so close had confused her for a long time, but for the moment she didn't care. She only cared for getting there in time. She had heard the whole discussion her vima had with her colleague and she agreed with her. She didn't care if this Fist creature died, but only after she had some answers, otherwise she would have no choice but to torture the answers out of the others.

Jumping down the last stairs she came to a halt as two human, a turian and a krogan aimed at her, everyone equipped with a different kind of weapons or at least with a different model. She didn't knew any of them, not really, but she recognized a Vakarian or any high ranking turian family when she saw one and she knew that a Vakarian was working with her Vima in C-Sec and this Vakarian was wearing a C-Sec uniform and was waiting next to the entrance area of Chora's Den. So, what were the odds that she was wrong?

"Vakarian." She greeted him and then the others. "Humans, krogan. Now that I'm here, let's get going, my talons are itching to get a few answers of that Fist creature."

"Who by the spirits are you?" requested Vakarian, his aim never wavering.

That question was anticipated and therefore she was prepared to answer it, in a way that would possibly make him furious. "You may call me Rhian Tabris if you like." Ozeana said and bowed even little while hiding her grin. She just couldn't help herself, playing with the minds of other people, most of all turians who were so important in the hierarchy, was her definition of fun.

"That's not a turian name!" And there it was, the outburst she had been waiting for.

She shot him an incredulous look, while she was smirking inwards. "You are saying that with a conviction as if you have heard every turian name in existence."

He started fidgeting and mumbling and looking embarassed, it was as always so refreshing to see a proper turian doing that. She just loved messing with their minds. After a few seconds she choose to rescue him. Normally she wouldn't have rescued him so fast but her Vima liked him, so she was giving him the 'special' treatment. "You are actually right, it's not a turian name or at least not mine but it's the only one you are all going to get from me. So, you better remember it til I disappear, or don't, I really don't care either way."

"'Til you disappear?'" The human woman frowned and repeated. "What the heck is that supposed to mean? I thought you were here to help?"

"Let them be. We don't have the time for this turian drama." The other human replied and got going. The female one grumbled something but followed him past the krogan.

"Finally." The krogan said and followed them, apparently eager for a fight. "I was getting bored."

"I'm still not sure I can trust you." said Vakarian simply, still aiming at her.

"Who said something about trusting me?" she replied confused. "You don't know me, I don't know you, they don't know me, I don't know them. We all just want one thing and that is getting to that Fist creature. Don't stand in my way and you live, stand in my way and you die, as simple as that. So, do me a favour and don't try to stop me. My Vima would be furious with me for hurting her third favourite turian."

At those words he looked strangely at her and finally lowered his rifle, but he also vowed. "This isn't over yet!"

"It is." Ozeana simply replied. "Once this is over, I'm gone."

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

Romeo waited a few minutes wondering about what was going on and what was wrong now. She hadn't done anything wrong, or had she? Well, okay she had done a few things wrong in her life. She wasn't even the most liked marine, which was no wonder if one thought about it. People had hated and feared her after Torfan and still did it to this very day. She really didn't care, compared to Papa, she was harmless. If she was a soldier gone wrong, then Papa was the devil incarnate for many many people, with a reason of course.

Suddenly the door opened again and she was beckoned in again. Both of the men didn't look happy, curious and confused she saluted again in front of Captain Anderson.

"I'm not happy, but I have no other choice. High Command just told me in no uncertain terms that you are the only soldier who is on the Citadel and avaible on a very short notice. On the other hand they also told me that it's my decision if I take you since there is a complication."

"A complication, sir?"

"As you may have noticed or seen in the news by now but for the case that it may have eluded you I will elaborate. Eden Prime had been under attack by the geth. The Alliance hadn't anticipated an invasion by the geth after almost three hundred years, in which there had been no sightings of them outside the Perseus Veil. Therefore the Alliance, the Council, and everyone else was totally unprepared to find them on Eden Prime. It was nothing short of luck that the Normandy was a few minutes out on a shakedown run to Eden Prime. Many marines lost their life that day but we managed to safe the colony and drive the geth off Eden Prime." Captain Anderson explained to her.

Romeo nodded, before she realized something. "Sir? The news said something about Lars being the 'Hero of Eden Prime'. Please don't tell me he is working under you! Sir!" She added almost as an afterthought.

"Lars?"

"Lionell Archimedes Richford-Shepard." She clarified with disgust her voice.

"And there you have the complication." The captain said to the ambassador and to Romeo. "The Commander is working under me on the Normandy. While I need a new marine for the job, I'm not sure that letting you on the Normandy is a good call. We will wait until he comes back and decide then if you will come aboard or not and that is an order, Lieutenant."

"... Aye aye, sir." Romeo replied, saluted and went to a corner of the room to wait for one of her least liked persons ever.

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

Ozeana grinned to herself. She could feel the other turian's glare on her back, but she really didn't care what he thought about her. She had meant what she had said earlier. She would be disappearing as soon as she had gotten what she wanted to know and he wouldn't see her again, which really was the best for them all. He might not believe it, she was sure of it, but it really was.

She knew that it was in all of their best interests to never let him know her real name, to never let him really know her, but she had the fleeting thought that it may be already unavoidable by now. Vakarian would definitely ask her Vima about her, no doubt, and then ... She sighed since she could already imagine the discussion between the two C-Sec officers and what would happen afterwards, but she didn't have the time for that now and while she hoped against all hope that it would never happen she knew that it eventually would happen. With her being here, right in front of him, it was only a matter of time.

A near-by shot that was followed by a sort of krogan battle laugh took her out of her thoughts. Looking around she found the culprit easily. One of the humans had opened the door to Chora's Den without a warning and the krogan just shot into the open door and according to the sounds she heard he had actually hit someone. By the spirits, how could one be so stupid as to wait right in front of the door? Was he or she suicidal?

But unfortunately or fortunately she didn't have time to dwell on it. The fight had officially started now and while she usually tried to stay out of fights - for good reasons! - she knew that she couldn't and wouldn't stay out of it this time, regardless of the consequences. These people were responsible for hurting her little dragon and for that they would pay!

There was of course also another reason. She needed to send a lesson to whomever was behind this. A lesson that said that messing with her family was a bad idea. It didn't matter if they got the message or not, she would send the message either way with killing every man that was involved, as simple as that.

The krogan of course stormed just in and shot at everything he could see with his shotgun and then took to the right. Chora's Den was a circular room, with a big round two-level table in the middle. The lower level was were the barkeepers were usually working and on the higher level was the place dancers, mostly asari but sometimes female humans joined them, used to entertain the visitors. She had been here before, no one here knew who you were as long as you didn't make trouble, and so she also knew that at the booths, that were place at the outer edges of the room, you could have an asari or a female human dance and entertain you privately for some money. She never had done it, asari simply didn't do it for her, humans apart of that one actually didn't do it for her also. All around the middle were smaller tables and chairs positioned, usually, but now they were scattered around, giving the defenders and the attackers room and opportunities for cover, though those that had used a bad cover were dead by now, courtesy of the red krogan.

Ozeana could see, hiding behind the open door, that the two humans followed the krogan, taking the right side of the room, which would have left the other side for the two turians, but she had another plan and ignored whatever battle plan the humans were used to. She wasn't with them, they weren't her leader, she was just working with them, not for them.

She silently made her way into the room and onto the second level of the middle table. She stood still as it cringed a little, but it seemed no one, save for Vakarian, had noticed her jumping and climbing. She didn't lie down or crouch down like most sane people would do. With a grin she readied a few grenades and took her heavy pistol in her talons. She had a good view from above and could see where everyone was except Vakarian, who was behind her and could easily end her life, but he wouldn't do that without a good reason and she didn't plan on giving him one. Or at least killing a few thugs from above or behind shouldn't give him a reason, but she was a criminal and all had but admitted being one by not telling him her real name and he was a proper turian, in C-Sec and very high in the hierarchy. Her lives were so different that she was unable to imagine what he might think about certain things, what he might deem acceptable and what not.

She shrugged her thoughts away, thankfully the thugs were too occupied with the other humans and the red krogan to notice her and take advantage of her momentarily absence of thoughts, and concentrated on the biggest group of thugs in the room. She could count twenty four human thugs and a krogan. Most of the humans were in groups of three or two, but there was one group with six members who very close together. Gripping the pistol firmer she aimed shortly and pulled the trigger six times in short order and six human spirits left this world.

"What the hell?" someone was shouting as they noticed enemy fire suddenly coming from a different direction. Vakarian took that as his cue, because he finally started shooting now and his first bullet ended the thug who had been shouting earlier. The two humans also didn't wait for an invitation and started their own line of fire. Thug after thug was now joining the spirits of the afterlife.

Ozeana grinned from her spot, feeling better than she had for a long time. The thugs were now under fire from three different positions and their numbers were dwindling, but they weren't beaten yet as a thug showed. He managed to hit her with a bullet and more would have joined the first if her body wouldn't have reacted automatically. She jumped back to the floor level and landed next to Vakarian in cover.

"What are you? Crazy?" Vakarian asked as he pulled the triger of his sniper rifle again and ended another life, the one who had tried to take her out, she thought.

She just growled and snapped at him, making him look befuddled, before she looked over the edge and wanted to kill the last thugs, but the thought of what she had just done stopped her. She had growled, growled at him, and even tried to bite him! She was almost acting like a wild siccerta and that was a bad sign. She was slowly starting to lose control and that was never a good thing. She was about to headbutt the table in front of her to regain a bit more control when she suddenly noticed the silence. There were no sounds of fighting anymore, no more bullets flying around. Looking above and around she saw the krogan looking at her, his shotgun directed at two thugs who had lost half of their heads and the other krogan lying dead behind him.

"What?" He replied grinning. "He was in my way and you are way to slow, turian."

"Oh, suck it up, Wrex!" Vakarian replied, apparently knowing the krogan.

Ozeana ignored the banter and simply stared at the dead bodies and took in the light smell. Her senses were starting to go wild and her desire to kill something was growing, similar to a krogan in a frenzy she thought. Therefore it was no wonder to her recognizing that she was angry at the krogan for killing her prey. Sometimes she really hated the turian hierarchy for doing this to her. Some day, she swore once again, some day she would get her revenge.

She really didn't like this feeling, this need to kill something, her bloodlust. So far there were only two people who could - without even trying - calm her down enough to regain reason when she went to far. Only her Vima and the little dragon were able to calm her really down. With a deep breath she tried to calm herself down somewhat, before she did something stupid, like punching the wall or Vakarian. She needed her head in the game, now more than ever.

Trying to not show the craziness inside that was trying to crawl its way to the surface, she stood up and looked around the room, before saying. "This was the first step and the second one follows immediately." It was a sort of magic sentence to her. Her mate often was using it when trying to calm her down and alone the imaginated presence of her saying it helped her.

"And what would be the second step?" The male human frowned at her, as she moved through the room and past the krogan, the dead bodies and the two alive humans. Not sparing them one glance, as if they were all unimportant, though she only wanted to get away from the dead thugs and Vakarian as fast as possible for the moment.

"Finding Fist of course." the female turian easily replied, opened the door and was greeted by another pair of two humans, workers this time. She snarled at them and simply punched them unconscious, claiming that she didn't have time for them.

"I would have just killed them." The red krogan and the human male said.

"And since when are you the leader?" The human male added, sounding very displeased about his leading abilities questioned.

Ozeana just shrugged and replied, trying to sound calmer then she actually felt. "I don't belong to your group." while walking along the lone corridor, her pistol gripped firmly. "I'm just here for an answer, afterwards I don't care what happens to either of you or him."

"And I just want you all dead!" A new voice cried out from the open room the corridor lead to. This was followed by a couple of grenades that were thrown at them and two turrets that popped out of the walls next to the open room started firing, leaving them no choice but to scatter back lest they all join the thugs in the bar area.

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

"And why should I believe anything you just told me?" Papa questioned. "Geth on Feros, Therum and Noveria? An asari matriach working with them to bring some mystical monsters back that wants to eradicate us all and did the same to the protheans and whoever was before them? That sounds stupid, at least. Who would believe that?"

"Your sister did." the other one pointed out. Papa wasn't even going to ask how or why she thought that, it was just too easy sometimes to connect the dots. "And you also know that the geth did invade Eden Prime."

"And? That doesn't prove anything. You had seen the news, after all and even I knew that this had happened before the galaxy at large was told. The only reason I'm even talking to you and not giving you another hole to breath through is because she believed that you could help us with this whole geth thing. I don't see how or why or how you could, but I will keep you around for a while, just to humour my sister."

"Keeping me around? What am I to you? A lost varren?"

"A possible danger to my plans and to the wellbeing of my sisters. I can ignore the first, but the second I can't and I won't." She replied, getting agitated. "I don't care who or what you are. No one endangers my sisters, not you, not my mother, not the Council, not Aria. Simply no one. Not without paying the fucking price." Her eyes narrowed at this supposed dimensional traveler. "So, if you are a danger to them you should start praying to your gods for a quick and painless death because I won't give it to you nor to anyone else."

"You really love them, don't you?"

Papa stopped, took a deep breath to calm herself down, before she continued and admitted. "Yes, I do." She said in a much quieter voice, before she continued with a stronger voice. "Natia seemed to think that you could be of some help and while I do not see how I will still humour her and take you with me, but it won't be pretty."

* * *

**Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel**

Garrus hadn't anticipated those turrets and he supposed the others hadn't also. He was pretty sure that he could overload those turrets but he needed them or at least one of them in his view to make it work, but seeing as they automatically concentrated their fire on him whenever he tried it made him think that this might not be the best idea.

"Krogan?" This 'Rhian' asked Wrex. He wasn't still happy about her being here and knowing next to nothing about her. She could fight, yes, but she was only armed with a pistol and without any armor he could see. If there was an armor hidden on her body it had to be very thin, making it useless against those turrets or any good mercenary. And her growling and snapping at him made him wonder if she was actually completely there.

"What?" He rumbled.

"You are the Shadow Broker's agent, aren't you?"

"What about it?"

"Is that human there this Fist creature? Yes or no?" She demanded to know.

"Creature? I'm going to skin you alive for that, turian whore!" A voice from behind the turrets said.

"There's your answer." Garrus replied, watching this 'Rhian' carefully. "And now?"

She turned around to face him, and even the others turned around to look at the two turians as if sensing that something important would happen now. "And now I'm doing something really crazy, hopefully not crazy enough for you trying to kill me though. Even though it might be amusing to see you being hunted by Annabelle from the spirit realm." She said laughing before she suddenly turned blue and then disappeared.

"Whaah! How the hell did you do that?"

"Magic!" Came Rhian's way too cheerful voice from the direction in which Fist was hiding. Garrus could hear the turrets turning and waited for the sound of flying bullets, but to his surprised ears and senses, it never came.

"Get this beast off me, you damn turrets!" Fist wailed before he cried out in agony. "You broke my arm!"

"That's what you get for calling me beast and a whore!" Rhian replied. "And I would stay still and just answer my questions or I will have to break your other arm too, piece by piece."

"As if! You kill me, when I'll do it."

"Oh no, I only will kill you if you aren't going to give me some answers and after I have nothing to break anymore!" The female turian replied cheerful. "Alive you are worth more to me, as long as you aren't being troublesome."

Those words rang like an alarm in Garrus' head. He quickly moved forward, so that he could finally see the situation in which those two were. Rhian was standing just behind Fist, who was in the line of fire of the turrets, making them useless. However Fist tried to get free of her grip, but she simply countered it.

Garrus wasn't sure what she was really going to do to him or if such an opportunity would present itself again and so he quickly overloaded both turrets, wrecking their hardware so strongly that they were unable to fire anymore, at least until they were being repaired, professionally.

"Oh, look, the others have joined us." Rhian pointed out.

"By the spirits, Rhian, what are you doing?" Garrus demanded to know.

"Playing with him, what else?" She responded. "But fine, I'm going to ask my questions so that you can have your turn asking your questions." All playfulness and craziness Garrus had seen in her, vanished in a second, making him wonder what was real and what the mask was.

"Who ordered the attack on the free clinic?"

"Me." Fist replied after Rhian broke a finger of him.

"On whose order?"

"No ones! It was all my idea!"

"I'm asking one more time, before I break another finger! On whose order?"

"Sarens!" Fist cried out immediately. "Saren Arterius! He paid me good money to get rid of anything that could be used against him! He promised me more once it was done!"

"Saren, huh? Good to know." Rhian said and let go of him, to the surprise of them all. "What? I have my answers and that's all I wanted, though Annabelle would probably be very happy if you could show her some evidence later. And about him? Do to him whatever you want."

"I thought I was worth more alive?"

"You are dead either way, human. The Shadow broker wants you dead." Wrex interjected, his shotgun aimed at Fist's head. "And Saren wouldn't have let you alive, not for long anyways. That's how he operates, I have seen him doing it."

"You heard Wrex." Garrus said, letting the other turian simply go. "It's only a matter of how slow and painful your death is going to be."

"So you better tell us what kind of evidence you have!" The human commander demanded.

"A quarian! A quarian who somehow has a disk on her with him discussing Eden Prime and the victory it's representing!" Fist cried out, in fear of getting more broken bones and pain.

"And where is this quarian supposed to be?" Richford-Shepard asked. Humans had strange naming senses, Garrus thought not for the first time.

"In a dark corridor near here. There she thinks she will meet the Shadow Broker himself and give him the disk."

"Impossible! No one meets the Shadow Broker himself!" Wrex pointed out.

"I know that, but she doesn't. Naive girl." Fist replied, before his head exploded. Courtesy of Wrex' shotgun and the near proximity.

The companion of Commander Richford-Shepard turned on the krogan and demanded he let the weapon fall.

"Let it go, Gunnery Chief. Fist wasn't worth it."

The female human glared at the big krogan who glared right back, before she lowered her weapon, slowly.

* * *

**Siccerta** \- A large (average size 2 -4 metres in length, 100 kilos), desert dwelling lizard-analogue known for its long fringe, which it can extend out to impress mates or intimidate competitors, and its dual toned, raspy hiss.

**A/N:** For those in the know, Siccerta was invented by "MizDirected" and I have the permission to use it.

Your thoughts to this chapter? I would appreciate hearing them.


End file.
