Third Person's POV;

“You're back Shepard, I take it everything went well?”, asked The Illusive Man. He was sitting in his chair, a red sun in the background. A cigar in his one hand and his glass of scotch in the other.

Commander Jane Shepard stood in front of him. She stood at 1.75 metres, still fully armoured in her full body black armour with red lines. Her red hair reached barely her shoulders and blue cracks or scars were visible on her face.

Well, her hologram stood in front of him. She was currently on the Normandy SSV2 and is going to tell him of their recent mission on Omega.

“Turned out that Archangel was Garrus all along. Had a heavy shoot out with the mercenaries and he got a missile to the face. Other than that everything went well. Mordin Solus is... eager... to learn from the Collectors and a way around their paralysing insects.”, replied Jane Shepard in an even tone.

She didn't like to work with Cerberus, but they gave her a new ship and the resources to fight the Collectors. The Citadel Council or the Alliance won't help, their blindness and short sightedness is their only great strength. They didn't believe in the Collectors. She already asked them and only got her Spectre status reactivated. And that was after saving their asses from the Reaper. The Reaper were also something that they didn't want to believe.

“Zaeed Massani will further strengthen the group. But there is something before you go and search for further crew members. Something else of potential higher importance”, spoke The Illusive Man.

“And that would be?”, asked Shepard in return. What could be more important than the fight against the Collectors and with them the Reaper?

“We've recently lost contact to one of our research facilities”, was the answer. An answer that wasn't to Shepard's liking.

“And how should that be more important? I'm not here to help you with your unethical projects”, she asked with barely contained anger. She knew what Cerberus was doing in the background. It was bad enough for her to work with them as it is. She wouldn't help them with random crap.

“This facility was conducting research in a ruin. We think that this ruin is even older than the Protheans and our linguists were able to decipher some of the murals. They have, more than once, the name Harbringer in them and we found pictures that strongly resemble a Reaper. We think that this ruin has informations about the Reaper.

The last report said that they had a breakthrough. I want you to fly there and see what happened”, said The Illusive Man, not the least disturbed by Shepard's glare.

“Fine, hope it's worth it”, was Shepard's reply before she cut the connection.

Shepard walked out of the conference room and into the commando deck. Once there she took access to the galaxy map and ordered a course towards the system with the research facility.

[Break Line]

“Mordin, Miranda, meet me in the shuttle bay. We will arrive in halve an hour”, said Shepard into her com-link the moment after Joker announced their arrival in the system.

“Yes, ma'am”, “Will be there”, were their replies and Shepard herself got ready.

“What do you think we will find?”, asked Miranda, a woman in a skin tight body suit. They were now sitting inside the shuttle with course to the facility.

“I hope they only weren't able to repair a broken communication system. But with my luck we will find something ancient and powerful. Like last time I was on an easy mission and it turned out to be the betrayal of a Spectre”, joked Shepard.

“Unlikely, Cerberus known for their functionality”, said Mordin in his normal rapid way. He was a Salarian, an alien that had ancestors in amphibians. His skin was red-orangish with white parts. His eyes were large and two horn like appendages were growing out of his hairless head. His right horn was broken off at the middle.

“We will know in a moment”, said Shepard. They reached the landing zone and jumped out of the shuttle. No one was in sight or there to great them.

“Let's go in, give me cover”, commanded Shepard and walked forward, her assault rival ready.

They reached the first sealed door and hacked their way inside. The group quickly rushed inside and secured the room.

It was an entrance hall, things looked normal. Nothing that would indicate at anything out of place. If you ignore the fact that no one was inside.

“The elevator is further inside. The ruins were found inside a natural cave”, informed Miranda the rest of the group. They walked further inside, an eerie silence accompanied them.

“Strange, should have seen someone or something. No signs of any fighting as well”, muttered Mordin.

“You think the Collectors were here?”, asked Shepard. This all looked like the work of them. No visible fighting, but at the same time no single soul left.

“It's not their normal agenda. So far they only attacked larger settlements. Not such a small facility”, reminded Miranda them.

They stalked through the corridors. And then suddenly, right after passing an open door they heard a terrifying scream.

“Did you hear that? What makes such a cry?”, asked Miranda.

“That was the sound of a Husk”, said Shepard not happily.

“Husk?”, asked Mordin.

“The Reaper use a machine to impale humans. These machines turn the impaled humans into a mix between flesh and robots. The turned are used as infantry grunts. They don't use firearms and only rush at you. Numbers are what makes them dangerous and that every turned human is made into a weapon”, explained Shepard with a heavy amount of disgust in her tone.

“Unethical, effective. Using the civilians of your enemy as your own troops”, rambled Mordin.

The cry came nearer and they now also heard the rapid sound of footsteps.

“How many people were stationed here?”, asked Shepard.

“Not more than thirty at once”, replied Miranda quickly. She was already searching for the enemy.

“So thirty Husks and whatever turned them. Be wary, Husks tend to attack from any side. They often crawl through air shafts”, said Shepard and already saw the first Husk running around the corner.

She instantly opened fire and the Husk was thrown back by the mass accelerated ammunition.

“They also come from the back!”, shouted Miranda and opened fire on more Husks. She shot a biotic flare at them and the singularity ripped the Husks apart. Their blue, violet blood splattered all over the hall.

“Clear!”, she then shouted and the shooting ceased soon after.

“Also on our end”, added Shepard.

“Reaper must've heard of this facility, want to hinder us from gaining technology?”, thought Mordin out loud.

“Whatever it is, we will find out”, said Shepard seriously and they continued. They weren't attacked again and reached the elevator without much trouble.

“A moment, it's shut down”, said Miranda before she knelt down and began to reactivate the elevator. A few moments later and the door swished open.

They gathered inside and went down.

“The first two levels are mostly offices and storage rooms we've build ourself. Only the third level leads us into the cave”, explains Miranda while pushing the button for the third level. She also entered a code.

“Only a selected few were allowed, the rest had to work with parts”, she further explained.

“Your paranoia is truly beyond anything. Must be healthy for a relationship”, stated Shepard sarcastically.

“Secrecy is what keeps us save and so effective. The less people know things, the less likely it becomes for unwanted people to find something out”, she elaborated, not the least mindful about the thick sarcasm.

Then, with a PING, the door opened again and they moved out in a triangle formation.

The room they now found themselves inside was a natural cave. A large cave at that. Maybe six metres high and four wide. Electric lamps were illuminating the path.

“The reports claim that there are stairs further down”, said Miranda and they began to move.

They reached stone stairs, pictures that were telling some kind of story were carved in the walls.

“Murals, showing some kind of history”, said Mordin.

“Yeah”, Shepard studied one segment more closer. It showed the Citadel and then the distinct frame of Reaper. A lot of Reaper. The next picture showed worlds and Reaper that were landing on these worlds.

“Murals easy to understand. Creator wanted to bring the story across with only minimal required knowledge”, analysed Mordin.

“So whoever made these knew that there will be people who might find this cave and tried to warn or inform them of the Reaper?”, asked Miranda.

“Affirmative”, came from Mordin and the stairs ended. A large room opened in front of them. Some kind of statue was on the other end of the room and tables with equipment were placed near the walls.

“Where are the remaining Husks?”, asked Miranda. They were only attacked once. And that weren't more than five Husks. There have to be at least 25 others and whatever turned them.

“Don't....” °RAAARRRGH° “You had to jinx us!”, shouted Shepard. She run up to a table, kicked it over and used it as a cover. Mordin and Miranda quickly did the same and all three took aim at the entrance.

A few long seconds later and the first Husk run inside, directly followed by four more and six Geth.

“Geth!”, shouted Miranda and opened fire with her MP.

“I can see that”, shouted Shepard back and lifted three Geth up with her biotics.

Mordin took this opportunity and gave each Geth a few bullets to the head.

“I'm using a Singularity”, warned Miranda and an miniature black hole opened up in front of them. Six Husks were caught in it and ripped apart.

Shepard fired her Vindicator until the cooling cell was overheated and then swiftly switched to her pistol. A few more shots and it was also empty, so she now only had her biotics. Luckily only a handful Husks were left, so a single singularity was enough to wound or kill them. Those who were only wounded were thrown at the ground and then quickly killed with head shots, thanks to Miranda.

“I think that were all”, she then said and reloaded both her weapons.

“So the Geth are still operating with the Reaper. They were relatively quiet in the last two years”, said Miranda.

“At least I know how to kill them. The Collectors are still fully unknown”, commented Shepard dryly. “Let's see what the scientists found”, she added.

They turned around and looked over the remaining tables. One of them had a black, sphere like devise that produced pings on their Omnitool.

Miranda scanned the devise with her Omnitool and frowned at what she saw; “Wait a moment, this seems to be some kind of sender. It looks like it sends a signal directly through the relay”.

“You think it's responsible for the arrival of the Geth?”, asked Shepard.

“I don't know, but it's possible. But if so, then why didn't they shut it down?”.

“If it's of Reaper origin then they were maybe not able to shut it down. Every Reaper artefact has an indoctrinating effect. Long exposure could have made them into willing slaves. It would also explain why there weren't any signs of fighting”, suggested Shepard as a solution.

Miranda quickly put the devise down and walked up to the next table, it had a recorder on it.

“Looks like personal recorder. Probably used for notes”, said Mordin after inspecting the computer.

He then pushed a few buttons and the recorder began to replay what he recorded.

“This is Professor Weidner, record number 54.

We had a breakthrough with the translation of

the inscription on the pedestal near the statue.

It says something about the water of live and

that the offering of this water will bring back

the goddess of Live and Death.

We still don't know who or what this goddess of

Live and Death is, or if she's just a mythical being.

But we assume that the woman on the murals, who looks

remarkably like the statue, is this goddess.

The murals show her fighting and winning against the Reaper.

We'll have to translate more. The next record will be in 24 hours.

Record 54 end.

Start of Record 55

The black sphere that we found is sending a signal to the Relay,

we don't know what kind of signal, but assume it's only

some kind old beacon signal.

The language is the same, as the

written words. We deciphered a repeatedly repeated phrase.

“The Goddess of Live and Death rests here”.

We think this cave is some kind of tomb, which would explain

the statue and the murals. A woman that fought against

the Masters and died a logical death.

“He was calling the Reaper his Masters, this should make it obvious that he was indoctrinated”, noted Shepard.

“A goddess? Really?”, asked Miranda unamused, coming directly to the next noteworthy thing. She did not believe in any god or goddess. Everything is explainable with science.

“Gods often used as an inspiration. People also sometimes refereed as gods”, said Mordin in an attempt to explain.

“Let's look at the statue and the pedestal. Any idea what this water of live is?”, said Shepard and they walked up to the statue.

“Remarkably detailed”, praised Mordin. And true to his words, the statue was extremely detailed. It was a 1.5 metres tall girl, shoulder long hair and a beautiful face. She looked to be in her late teens. Three whisker marks were on each cheek. they made her face more cute. The only thing that hinted that she wasn't real was that she was made out of stone.

She was sitting in a lotus position and a double bladed sword rested on her shoulder. Her gaze at the front and her expression serious.

“I can even see the eyelashes”, said Miranda surprised.

Shepard had to admit, this statue was really detailed.

“I think the water of live has to be put into the bowl that stands in front of her”, remarked Shepard.

“So what is this water of live?”, asked Miranda.

“Water of live, fluid that gives live. Resurrection? No, would not match with the easy to understand murals. Something more obvious. Sperm? Gives live, but not available to every species. Statue looks human, so possible solution. Shepard I would suggest to fill the bowl with human sperm”, said Mordin fully serious.

“I don't think it will be sperm, think about it. Sperm does give live, but only in combination with the egg. It's something else. At least I hope it is”, said Shepard a little disgusted with the suggestion.

“True, inscription doesn't speak about two parts. Must be one thing alone. Gives live, water? No, it's water of live. So fluid that keeps or brings something alive. Giving live, birth? No, before that. Yes, yes, I know. Shepard, human females give their fetus nutrients through the umbilical cord. They do this by pumping their blood into the fetus. Maybe water of live is blood?”, said Mordin in his next ramble, the crew already knew that his thoughts, when spoken out loud, weren't to be interrupted. They mostly led to a good solution.

“That sounds more likely. The blood of the mother is basically giving the baby what is needed for growing and ultimately being birthed. And it's easy to test”, agreed Shepard. She then used a knife to prick her finger and smeared some of her blood in the bowl.

At first nothing happened, but then EDI opened a com-link.

“Shepard, the sensors noticed a massive spike of an unknown energy. It comes from your standpoint”.

“Unknown energy?”, asked Mordin interested. Things like unknown energies are rare and rare is interesting.

°Crack°

“What? That came from the statue”, exclaimed Miranda, another crack came from the statur. Lines and cracks were beginning to form on the statur.

“I think it was blood”, noted Shepard dryly. She got ready and pointed her gun at the statue. She saw enough fucked up things in her career. This is just another day in her life.

Then the statue cracked once more and the stone fell off. Under it was the girl. Only now she looked like she was alive, she had slightly tanned skin and yellow hair. Not blond, yellow.

“The statue was some kind of stasis?”, asked Miranda befuddled. The next thing made it even more confusing. The weapon and the clothes of this girl crumbled to dust. Only she was left.

“Good that we didn't activate the camera. Joker isn't allowed to see that”, joked Shepard.

“See what Commander?”, asked Joker with some interest.

“Nothing, we found someone, she looks to be unconsciousness. Keep a medic team ready and some clothes”, said Shepard.

“Clothes? She? You mean you found someone naked?”, asked Joker. Now a lot more interested.

“Yes, anyway. I think we found what we were looking for. Coming back up”, said Shepard quickly.

She then put the naked girl over her shoulder and they began their walk up. They also stopped briefly in a living quarter to wrap the girl in a blanket.

Once inside the Normandy they gave the sleeping girl to Doctor Chakwas, who quickly rushed with her new patient to the medical bay.

“Get us out Joker. I'm going to inform Timmy”, Shepard said while looking after the retreating form of Chakwas. She then went to the com-deck and activated the communicator. The room changed into the office from The Illusive Man. He was, again or still, sitting in his chair with his cigarette in one hand and the scotch in the other.

“Shepard, what did you find?”, he asked with hidden interest.

“The scientists are dead. Turned into Husks, courtesy of the Geth. We found the statue and it seems like it was some kind of stasis. Out of it came a girl”, listed Shepard.

“Interesting, an alien that looks like a human. Keep me up, I think the next best stop would be Jack”, said the Illusive Man after thinking over the new information.

“Might do”, was Shepard's only reply before she cut the connection. She then went right to the medical bay and found both Mordin and Dr. Chakwas next to the patient.

“What can you tell me?”, she asked both doctors.

“Well, scans indicate that she is human, at least partially. Around 99,8% of the DNA is perfectly matching with humans. There is something else. Her whole body radiates this new radiation. We don't know how or why she does so. What we do know is that this radiation influences live”, answered Dr. Chakwas.

“Influences live? You mean it kills?”, asked Shepard.

“Wrong, gives live. Remarkable. Never seen something alike. Must do further tests. Can be source for new ways of terraforming”, made Mordin clear. He was as excited as a child that got a new toy.

“Gives live?”, asked Shepard. Dr. Chakwas only showed her an old pencil, it was one of these wooden ones with a graphite mine. The thing is, the pencil sprouted roots. And there even were some leaves on the roods.

“Seriously?”, asked Shepard. This was new. Deaths rays okay, but Live rays? That was new and kinda good?

“I know, just think about the possibilities. This radiation could help healing patients, just by being near”, said Dr. Chakwas delighted.

“Could explain the title goddess of live. Then what about death?”, through Mordin out loud and neither Shepard, nor Dr. Chakwas wanted to find out.

“Urgh....”, suddenly came from the patient.

“I think she is waking up”, said Dr. Chakwas and activated her recorder and Omnitool.

[Break Line]

POV of the Woman (For those who don't know yet, it's Clair/Dexter);

I woke up with the feeling of being watched, so I felt for Chakra, but came out with no results. But there were people near me.

Faking a groan I began to sat up and opened my eyes and was greeted with the sight of two women and an alien. He looked strange, too thin and with small scales. Like a bipedal lizard. He also had two small horn like things on his head, one of these horns was broken. There was no hair.

He also had large eyes.

The next one was a human woman in her early thirties. She was pretty, red hair, shoulder long. Her eyes showed seriousness, interest and many bad experiences.

The last person was an older woman, also human. She wore a lab coat. Gray hair and a concerned face.

Humans meant that it worked, which was good.

“Where am I?”, I asked in Japanese. These were humans, at least they looked like them. It's possible that they don't understand me, it is even likely. But I had to try at least.

They looked surprised and then began to speak in a language that I didn't understand.

[Break Line]

Third Person's POV;

“That's Japanese, even if it's in a very old dialect”, said Shepard surprised.

“Good thing that the Omnitool has every known language”, added Dr. Chakwas.

“Japanese, language of an old human country. How is she speaking it?”, asked Mordin.

“I don't know”, answered Shepard.

“Hi, my name is Commander Jane Shepard, I'm Spectre of the Citadel and these are Professor Mordin Solus and Doctor Karin Chakwas. Who are you?”, she then said but the girl only looked confused.

“The Omnitool only translates the heard voices, it does not translate the things spoken by the user”, reminded EDI.

“Ah, EDI. Can you please translate?”, said Shepard with a facepalm.

EDI repeated the question and added a few other words into the mix. Most likely for a further description, as she isn't able to motion to any of them.

The girl then thought about something for a moment and then smiled brightly. She gestured at herself and said “Kara Uzumaki”.

Shepard understood and smiled back.

“EDI, please ask her about the statue”, she then asked.

EDI did and the girl said something long and then pointed at Shepard. The reply wasn't expected.

“She wants to explain for herself. She asks if she's allowed to take the ability to speak our language from your brain or if she can get a data pad with our vocabulary and grammar. The first way is instantaneous, while the second would need a day”, said EDI.

“A day to learn our language?”, asked Dr. Chakwas in disbelieve.

“Ability to take information directly out of the brain from someone else? Similarity to Asari? Truly interesting”, was what Mordin said.

“I don't want to have someone I don't know in my head, give her a data pad”, said Shepard finally.

EDI translated and the girl nodded, she then said another sentence and all three waited for EDI's translation.

“She said that's understandable and requests ten data pads”, EDI then said. They were confused by the amount, but still gave her the asked amount.

What then happened unhinged their jaws. Kara made a hand sign and then 19 other girls, who all looked like her, came out of 19 small smoke clouds.

She then grinned and 10 pairs of two began to read.

“What happened?”, asked Dr. Chakwas still stunned.

“Unknown”, admitted Mordin.

“The radiation increased shortly when she made the hand sign. I think it has something to do with it. All of her 'doubles' are also giving of the same radiation”, informed EDI them.

“Whatever it is, it seems to help her to learn. Let's give her some time. I want to have a guard at the door”, said Shepard and left.

[Break Line]

Kara's POV;

Seems like Kura-chan is still sleeping and I don't know when she will wake up. Our plan worked. Humanity survived, even if they are not the same. They also found other sentient races. Hopefully they didn't make the same mistakes as we. But why do I hope? History tents to repeat itself.

Anyway, for now I have to learn this language. Shouldn't take more than a couple of hours. Hmm, so Ganba means speak....

10 hours later;

Shepard's POV;

This girl is strange. She is already 10 hours inside the medical bay, not moving and only reading the data pad. Occasionally her doubles vanish only to reaper shortly after. Mordin thinks she isn't able to keep them active for a prolonged time. I don't know if that's true.

She does look like a human, but the statue is estimated to be older than the Protheans.

I am currently on my way to her, maybe she wants to eat something? Is she even able to eat our food? Sure Dr. Chakwas said that she is almost human, but there are differences.

“Is everything okay?”, I asked the guards who were standing in front of the door.

“Yes ma'am, she did not move at all. Strange isn't it? Looks human, but isn't human. Gives me kinda the creeps”, replied the guard.

“Will that be a problem?”, I asked. This new Normandy is still of Cerberus origin and so is the crew. So far most of them didn't show the anti alien policy that is so characteristic for Cerberus, but I can't allow any racist on my ship. Not with my normal way of taking in a lot of different aliens.

“No ma'am, I did not mean it that way. I just meant that it's confusing. The Asari are similar to us, but you can still clearly make out the differences. However, this seems not to be the case with her”, he replied hurriedly.

“Good, I won't allow any racist tendencies on my ship. Suppress them if you have some urges”, I commanded and he saluted.

“I'll try speaking with her”, I then said and opened the door.

The girl, no Kara Uzumaki, raised her head briefly, gave me a pretty smile and then continued to read.

“EDI, please translate”, I said.

“Yes Commander”, was EDI's reply.

“Hope, not necessary”, came from Kara in broken English.

She is already able to understand me?

“You understand what I'm saying?”, I asked and she nodded.

“How?”, I asked. This learning speed is too fast to be true, that is on par with a Salarian.

“Clones gives memories when dispelling”, she answered.

“You want to say that each clone learns on its own and then gives you the knowledge back, once they vanish?”, I asked.

“Too much, too fast”, came from her and I had to suppress my embarrassment.

“Sorry, you learn what they learn?”, I asked again and got an affirmative nod.

“That would mean that you already learned our language for 200 hours straight. And I take it that you dispelled them early for further speed?”, I asked, but didn't expected an answer, as I spoke fairly fast. Her reply was a cute side way tilt of her head.

“Anyway, can you tell me what happened?”, I then asked to bring us back to the main topic. Her and why she was inside the statue.

“Please another 10 hours”, she asked with a friendly smile.

“Then do you want to eat?”, was my next question. She surely has to be hungry after ten hours of studying and who knows how long inside that statue.

“Not necessary, food is only for pleasure. Work has to come first”, she answered and got back to her data pads.

I watched for a moment and then shrugged, before leaving. Dr. Chakwas was following me.

“What did she mean with only for pleasure?”, I asked her, once we took our food and sat down.

“I don't know, honestly, I don't know what I have to think about her. She didn't move a single muscle for the whole time. Except to scroll down or her hand sign that creates her doubles.

“Make sure she won't overwork herself. The last we need is her collapsing on us from over exhaustion”, I said.

“No patient will collapses on my watch”, she replied with conviction and fire in her eyes. Oh I know that look, it's one of the few thinks that still can frighten me. Dr. Chakwas and her concern for any and all patients.

It's also what makes her such an easy to trust person and friend.

“Thanks, I'm going to my quarters, need some rest”, I then said and left my empty plate on the tray.

My personal room is still the largest on the ship and, at least in my opinion, also the most unnecessary one. The only thing I don't want to give away is my shower. A personal shower on a space ship is rare. And I shall take full advantage of it!

So I undressed myself and stepped inside the warm water. Feeling how it fell down, on my hair and further down along my body. My new body, reconstructed by Cerberus. I'm still able to see the scars, how they glow. I really hope that they will vanish with time.

But scars are the least I'm concerned with now. There are the Collectors, who are kidnapping whole colonies, the Reaper and our newest problem Kara Uzumaki. This radiation she gives off could be a huge boon for us. Like Mordin said, it could help with terraforming, or heal our wounded.

At least it seems like she will be able to speak with us tomorrow.

“EDI, wake me if I get an important call or if our guest wishes to speak with us”, I said after stepping out of the shower.

“Will do”, EDI said and I slipped under my blanket.

A few hours later I woke up and got dressed, before going back to the medical bay. Another 7 hours were now over and our guest might have made more progress.

I was greeted by the sight of Dr. Chakwas and Kara. Both were speaking with each other in English.

“Morning, how is she doing?”, I asked in greeting.

“Morning Commander. Kara and I were just talking about her medical history. At least I tried to get something out of her”, said our ship doctor with a frown.

“Can't tell you. It's too much and you won't believe most of it”, said Kara from the side. Her English was now way better.

“Morning Kara, why won't you try? I don't think there will be much that can surprise us. Would you believe me that I was dead just a month ago?”, I said in an attempt to convince her.

“Yes, death isn't really something permanent”, she said with a grin.

“Yes, and I'm the woodoo healer of New York”, joked Chakwas.

“So the goddess of live wasn't a joke?”, I asked slightly amused. Is she really thinking she can bring back the dead?

“Don't remind me, you're reviving a couple of people here or there and BOOM! A religion forms around you. But sorry, I need the help of my wife for a true resurrection. I would only be able to do a false one”, she said with a frown.

“Please let's not digress further off of our topic. Your medical history please”, said Dr. Chakwas impatiently, not believing what Kara said.

“I already told you it would be too long”, was her reply.

“You are not even in your mid twenties, how could it be too long?”, argued the doctor.

“Don't know where to start”, said Kara smugly.

Dr. Chakwas sighed and then turned to me. “She's like that all the time. Don't want to answer a single question about her medical background. How am I to do my job with such unhelpful patients?”

“I'm sure that she will tell you more once she knows us better”, I answered and then turned to our little troublemaker; “So Kara Uzumaki, nice to meet you, my name is Jane Shepard and I'm the Commander of this ship. I would like to hear your story. Especially why you were inside this statue and the meaning of the Reaper murals”.

“I will answer some questions. Are there more who need to hear what I have to say?”, she asked.

“Yes, there are four others. We have a meeting room”, I answered.

“Good, do I have to go in this hospital gown or can I get some clothes? I take it my own turned to dust?”, she asked and pulled slightly on her gown, revealing quite some skin of her chest.

“Of course, I think Miss Chambers has your size. Please wait a moment, I ask her if she would lend you something”, I said and opened a com-link to Kelly.

“Yes Commander?”, she asked in her happy go lucky tone.

“Morning Kelly, could I ask you for a favour? Our guest needs some other clothes than the hospital gown she is currently wearing and you are the only one who is about her size”, I asked.

“Of course I can, I'll be right there. Any preferences?”, she asked.

“Anything will do, we're going to stop at the Citadel after our next mission. Once there we will go shopping”, I replied.

“Okay”, she said before ending the com-link.

“A crew member will lend you something in a moment”, I said and she smiled thankfully.

It didn't take long for Kelly to get to us. She had a assortment of clothes in her arms.

“I'm here”, she said slightly out of breath.

“Thanks Kelly, you didn't need to hurry”, I said and relieved her of the pile of clothes.

“And let a fellow woman naked? No way!”, she said back and I could only chuckle a little.

“Hi, my name is Kelly Chambers, I'm the yeoman of the Normandy and happy to meet you”, she said happily and gave Kara her hand. Kara, surprising us, took it and shook it.

“Hi, I'm Kara Uzumaki. Thanks for lending me some clothes. My own turned to dust, literally”, said Kara with a friendly smile.

“Sorry to hear that. Clothes are a woman's weapons. What do you like? A dress? Skirt? Or simple trousers?”, said Kelly rapidly.

“Too fast, I'm still learning your language. A little bit less than 370 hours isn't enough for fast conversations. I focused mostly on vocabulary”, said Kara while waving her hands around.

“Sorry, I might got a little too excited. It's not often that you meet a human like new alien”, she said apologetically.

“I don't mind, I think a simple dress and some underwear will be enough until I can find some other clothes”, said the young blond and took a black dress out of the pile.

“Oh I have the right undies for this one”, said Kelly when she saw which dress Kara picked out. She then looked through the pile and took a black lace bra and matching panties out.

“Here you go”, she said and gave both items into Kara's hands.

“Thank you, is there a room to change? I mean this large window at my back isn't really giving some privacy”, joked Kara and pointed at the window. A few of the crew were quickly turning their heads away when I looked out of it.

“Yes, we have a screen for changing”, growled Dr. Chakwas with a glare at the men and pulled a white wall out of the ground. It was one of these changing screens you can find in your average doctor's office.

Kara stepped behind it and quickly changed out of the plain gown. Out came a beautiful young woman that would turn many heads around. And I had to admit, mine as well.

I quickly squashed the thought. She's too young and I'm not over Liara. What might she be doing right now? It's already two years since I last saw her. Garrus said she mourned over me, and yet it felt only like a week for me.

“So, where is your meeting room?”, she then asked.

“Please follow me. EDI, can you inform Garrus, Mordin, Miranda, Jacob and Zaeed to come into the meeting room?”.

“Yes Commander”, affirmed EDI while we walked out of the medical bay. Kara, Dr. Chakwas, Kelly and the two guards followed me.

“I take it I'm not trusted?”, asked Kara. But there was no accusation in her tone. Only a plain statement.

“Sorry, but you are an unknown to us. And we still don't know the effects of the radiation you give off. Other than that it helps with the growth of plants”, I said.

“Oh, sorry”, she hurriedly said.

“Commander, the radiation almost vanished”, informed EDI suddenly.

“What did you do?”, I asked.

“I suppressed my Chakra, that's the name of this radiation. I'm so used to keep it on this low levels that I have to actively suppress it if I want to decrease it further”, she said wryly.

“Commander, her mentioned low levels were almost over our sensory limits”, said EDI with a possibly hint of sarcasm.

“So you can increase or decrease it at will?”, I asked.

“Yes, however, it gets harder the more I suppress it. This is the maximum. It takes concentration to do so. Kinda like walking backwards. It's possible, but uncomfortable”, she explained and in an easy to understand way as well.

“Is the radiation harmful in any possible way?”, asked Dr. Chakwas, always having the well being of the crew in her mind.

“No, not my natural aura. It's possible to change it, however that will be noticeable”, she reassured.

“If that's the case, then you don't have to keep it down”, I said.

“The radiation is back at 'normal' strength”, informed EDI.

We reached the meeting room and the guards waited outside. Kelly was already back at her normal post. Dr. Chakwas came with us inside, this talk will also have her medical history as a topic.

The others were already sitting on their respected seats. I sat down at the far end, Garrus to my left and Miranda to my right.

Kara sat down at the opposite of me.

“Let me introduce the rest. These are Miranda, Jacob, Garrus, Mordin and Zaeed. You already know Dr. Chakwas”, I said and gestured to each of them. They all gave a nod as their greeting.

“Hi, I'm Kara Uzumaki”, said the blond in return.

“Already speaking English? Interesting”, came from Mordin.

“Tell us why you were inside the statue and about the murals that showed Reaper”, demanded Miranda in her usual commanding tone.

“Is she your superior Jane?” asked Kara.

“No, I'm the CO of Commander Shepard”, answered Miranda for me.

“Then please let the person in command ask the questions, or ask for permission to speak from her”, said Kara and I could almost feel the tick-mark that was beginning to form on Miranda's forehead.

She opened her mouth to say another word, most likely a protest, but I raised a hand in signal for her to stop. Which she thankfully did.

“She's right Miranda. I'm in command and I will ask the questions. You might ask some as well, but only if I allow to do so. Am I clear?”, I said firmly.

“Yes ma'am”, she gnashed out.

“Good, then let's start. Miranda did already ask the thing we wanted to know foremost. Could you please elaborate to us why you were inside the statue?”, I asked.

All eyes focused on Kara, who did not seem disturbed at all by that many stares.

“Let me ask something first. These Reapers, are they the things painted on the wall, that are killing other people and descending down at planets?”, she asked and I gave her a nod.

“Well, we were calling them Ancients. But Reapers, bringer of death, is also a good name. The thing is we were in a war with them. And were loosing as well. They suddenly, and without any prior warning, appeared over our galactic capital. They killed our politicians and millions of citizen in one attack, we fell into disorder. The war lasted only a few dozen years and ended with the ultimate exodus of 5 sentient races. My kind of humans were one of these five”, she said and we all were shocked to hear that she lived through such a thing.

Mordin raised his hand and I allowed him to speak.

“Was one of the other races called Protheans?”.

“I don't know of a race that calls itself Prothean. How do they look like?”, she asked back and EDI produced a hologram of a Prothean. It was one of the dead Protheans I found on Illios. It's a mystery how Cerberus got their finger on this footage.

“While I do recognise them, they weren't space faring when the Ancients attacked us. They were barely more than able to use stones as tools”, she said, again shocking all of us.

“You want to tell us that your race lived over 100.000 years ago?”, asked Miranda in distrust.

“Might be more or less. All I can say is that these”, she gestured to the hologram”, weren't known to many of our five races. Anyway, let me get back to my story.

We fought these Reaper for a couple of dozen years I think only 76. At least it could be called a war for this time. Anything beyond these 76 years was more of an attempt of survival. The Reaper had superior shields and a lot stronger weapons. They were also way faster than us and didn't need to jump from gate to gate in a line. Their ability to create more of them was also a problem”, she said.

“We know of the Husks”, I said and EDI showed a picture of a Husk.

“Yeah, their ground forces. They used metal spikes to turn any civilian or soldier with the right size into their own weapons. But I didn't mean them. Their indoctrination and ship building was what was problematic”, she said.

“Do they build them differently from normal means?”, asked Garrus.

“Way different. What are you made out of?”, she asked.

“Pardon?”, asked Garrus back.

“You, what are you made out of”, she repeated. Garrus looked confused, but Mordin answered for him.

“Carbon, phosphorus, calcium, different metals, water and other things. You want to say that they used your people as resources for their ships?”, he said and I was disgusted with the mere idea.

“Exactly, they need around twenty million for a battlecruiser class Reaper. We had trillions of citizen”, she said and it was clear what she meant.

“But how?”, asked Jacob, either ignoring or not noticing how it must feel for her to speak about the death of her race.

“They put you into a capsule and then dissolve you into the basic elements. These will then be used as the materials for the Reaper. The Reaper can take the form of the used race, but most of the time they use their standard design. The form we painted on the cave walls”, she said and Jacob winced at the sad tone she had.

“I was once in such a capsule. My partner arrived thankfully in time to free me. Only my toes were turned into goo. Most of the other people on the planet weren't as lucky”, she then said and the room went silent.

“Did she?”, I asked, leaving the question unspoken, the tone she used at the word partner did not leave any questions to what kind of partner.

“No, Kura-chan is still asleep”, she said with a slightly happier tone. But not by much.

“I'm sorry, but we didn't find a second statue”, I then said. I did not want to tell her this, but its best to tell her early.

“Oh, don't worry. Kura-chan is inside me”, she said nonchalantly.

“Inside you?”, asked Dr. Chakwas.

“Human culture sometimes practised cannibalism. Believed to keep the loved one with them, once they ate them”, said Mordin in an attempt to explain her claims.

“I would never eat Kura-chan!”, shouted Kara in an angry and different sounding voice. I also suddenly felt more fear than I have ever experienced. Even more than the moment I was almost enslaved and raped by these Batarian slaver scum.

At the same time an alarm went off and Garrus, Mordin, Zaeed and I raised our weapons. Our target was the, only a moment before, not the least threatening looking girl.

“Commander, the radiation sensors fried”, said Joker in shock.

“I would recommend to calm down”, said Zaeed, sweat was trickling down his face.

“Yes..., I'm sorry”, said Kara and the oppressing and fear inducing force was gone, as fast as it came. Miranda and Jacob collapsed into their seats. Dr. Chakwas seemed to be unconscious. We had to wake her up. Thankfully, she wasn't hurt in any way.

“No, I have to apologise”, said Mordin with a bow once we somewhat managed to calm down.

“What... was... that?”, gasped Miranda.

“I think it was the other side of her radiation, the harmful side she mentioned”, I answered.

“Not really. Yet again, sorry. Let me explain, Chakra is able to induce fear into those with a weaker will. It's also often called Bloodlust. This name is not really true, as it's not created by the lust for blood, but more than the will to project thoughts of death and fear in the Chakra you release into the atmosphere. It can also be used as a moral boost. You just have to project thoughts of winning and confidence”, she explained.

“Interesting, asking for permission to study this so called Chakra”, said Mordin, already forgotten the previous situation.

“You can try”, she said, but it sounded like she was sure that Mordin will not be able to recreate the effect.

“Please let's get back to the main topic. The story about your war against the Reapers”, I said. Any and all information on the Reaper will help, even if it means to force her through bad memories.

“Yes, as I already said. They were able to reproduce their lost forces with our citizen. They were also used as a ground force. And while Kura-chan and I were able to take out most Reaper in orbit or on the ground, we were almost helpless against those who staid in space. We also only were two, or at a later time in the war back to one.

At some point we realised that we won't be able to win.

We knew that the Reaper were only 'Harvesting' the highly developed sentient races, so we thought about a possible way around this. An artificial undone of our evolution”, she said.

“Wait, you mean you made yourself dumber?”, asked Jacob.

“Not only that, we knew that they would hunt us down if we still have Chakra. Chakra makes organic lifeforms more intelligent, stronger, more resistant to outside influences and give a longer lifespan. We would have been in space in no time at all if we still had Chakra. This meant that we had to take out the ability to use Chakra. The result was something that looked like us, but wasn't us anymore. I thing the result is now in front of me.

Tell me, your home planet, does it have one sun and one moon? It's the third planet and there are two others in front of it. Then two gas giants and another planet?”, she asked. Already sure of the answer.

“Indeed”, answered EDI for us.

“So it worked”, shouted Kara happily. The rest of us could only stare at her in pure and utter shock. Humanity was once a space faring race with the ability to use this Chakra?

Liara would be exhilarated if she was here.

“Wait wait wait, you mean humans were once on par with the Protheans?” came from Garrus.

“Truly hard to think, but would explain small gen pool of humanity”, said Mordin.

“Yeah, we only managed to produce a population of a little less then 20 thousand. Any more and the Reaper might have found the facility we used. One of the other races tried the same and used a bigger facility, they were wiped out faster than the rest of us. Still, it gave us enough time to create you”, she validated Mordin's thoughts.

“This would change history books if it is true”, said Miranda in joy. Humanity could claim to be even older than the Asari and on top of that, once even more prosperous.

“No one would believe us”, said Jacob and put her down from her trip.

“If you are anything like us, then you would need proof. The majority would only put it off as a conspiracy theory”, agreed Kara.

“Still, it's remarkable to hear that we once were so high up in the food chain”, said Miranda, not letting go of her opinion.

“Yeah, it didn't help us. The Reaper were superior in space and often simply bombarded us until there was no resistance left. And while I am able to resurrect the dead, with the help of my wife, it's still taxing and not usable for large amounts of people”, she said and Miranda's expression dropped at the mention of their ultimate doom.

“But let me get back to the topic, again. I know that this is much, but please let me finish. There is not much left”, she said and we all stayed silent. Waiting for her to continue. Even if more than one of us wanted to ask about her claim to revive the dead.

“Well, Kura-chan and I knew that we won't make it as a civilisation and the indoctrinated made it impossible to flee. We also didn't want to wait the thousands, if not tens of thousands of years it would need for a new civilisation to rise up again.

So we did the next best thing, we used something that is called sealing. It's an art that uses Chakra in combination with special runes. These runes will then do what they are meant to. It's one of the most hardest and dangerous arts of Chakra usage.

Kura-chan was already back inside me. This gave us enough Chakra for the next seal, it is also the reason why she's still sleeping. She has to recharge her Chakra. I then sealed myself and turned into a statue. This put me into something akin to a hibernation. It extinguished any sign of live from me and made me invisible to the Reaper.

As for the murals, they were for other races to find, in case they encountered the Reaper and needed help. We thought that blood would be a good way for us to get free. Any blood with cells that are using adenosine triphosphate would have worked,” she said and went silent. She finished apparently.

“Then, if I may ask, why did you not seal others as well?”, asked Jacob. True, this would have been a way to escape from the Reapers.

“The thing is, it wouldn't have been possible. No one, other than me, has enough Chakra do keep the seal active long enough. There is also the fact that the seal does not stop ageing. That's the reason why my clothes turned into dust. My body kept ageing like it was”, she said and dropped another bomb. I already lost count of the number.

She is what? Older than 100.000 years?

“You look good to be over a hundred millennia old”, joked Zaeed.

“Why thank you”, was her reply and Zaeed's movement stopped fully.

“Wait, for real?”, he then asked.

“Yes, a side effect of my marriage with Kura-chan”.

“You want to tell us that a marriage made you immortal?”, asked Garrus.

“It's a special marriage and would need extensive knowledge about Chakra to understand the reason. Basically it's not really a marriage, it was something that bound us together and made us into two sides of one. I took the bright side and she the dark one. While I'm able to use Chakra in its harmful form, she's way better than me. The opposite works for her”, she answered briefly.

“Then why aren't you able to resurrect the dead? If I understand correctly, then you got the healing part of Chakra”, asked Dr. Chakwas.

“That I did, but I would need to use a technique called Yin-Yang release. Kura-chan has the Ying half”, she said.

“And there isn't a second way?”, joked Garrus, like it was an everyday occurrence to revive the dead.

“Oh there is, it's even possible for me to use it. But it's forbidden”, she said.

“Forbidden? Why? Law against ethics?”, asked Mordin.

“Kinda, I would need a sacrifice”, she said darkly. And I did not like how she stressed sacrifice.

“What kind of sacrifice?”, asked Dr. Chakwas. A possible way to cheat death is surely the holy grail for her line of work.

“Someone of the same race. This other person has to be alive and will go through horrendous amounts of pain. The then dead sacrifice will take the form of the dead and can fight again”, she explained and a shiver run down our spines. If someone nonchalantly said that she was almost turned into bio material and then says the word horrendous in combination with pain in the same sentence, then it could only mean what she said.

“Fight? You mean live”, asked Miranda.

“No, I meant what I said. The resurrected aren't truly alive. They are walking weapons. Ripping an arm off, burning them or even turning them into tiny shreds would not stop them. They would simply regenerate and then continue with their given task, not feeling pain or emotions at all. But they still regain any and all knowledge of their former live. The next thing that does not make them alive is the possibility to give them a task during their creation. They won't have a free will and will carry out the given task until it's finished. Nothing can or will stop them. Other than sealing them away or turning them into dust”, she explained in detail and we went pale. An enemy that will regenerate lost limps or the whole body, not feeling anything but still having their full fighting capacity is nothing I would want to fight.

“Why did you not use them”, asked Zaeed suddenly.

“We did, trust me, we did. At first we used prisoners, then volunteers and at the end even those who were deemed no longer usable”, she said with such a grim expression I truly began to believe her claim of being immortal. No one with such an expression could be as young as she looks.

“It didn't help. I already said that the Reaper simply fired at us from the orbit. Our people never were a space battle race. We used stealth to infiltrate enemy ships and sabotage them. Only our planets had stationary weapon systems. But those were taken out one after the other”, she said and looked suddenly so lost, tired and hurt.

“You cared for them didn't you?”, I asked, only realizing what I asked, once I have spoken.

“Kura-chan and I were the main reason for our rise into space. All the years we invested into humanity was gone for no reason at all”, she answered solemnly.

“The Reaper do this because they think that organic live will create none organic live. This none organic live will then kill every organic live. They think that they keep organics alive by killing the developed ones”, I explained.

“Possible, I can't answer that claim. We never used AI's, too hard to produce and most of the time not useful”, she said.

“Is there anything else you want to know?”, she then said.

“Yes, your medical record”, asked Dr. Chakwas and I threw a glare at her. She promptly ignored it.

“I will give you blood probes, they should be enough for you to find any harmful virus or bacteria”, answered the now tired looking small girl.

“But what about other things? Old scars that might reopen, broken bones, damaged organs?”, asked Dr. Chakwas.

“I don't know you enough to tell you my story”, answered Kara in a tone that would not allow any further questions. I also signalled Karin to stop. Thankfully she listened this time and stayed silent.

“What are your plans from now on?”, was my question.

“Are the Reaper a tread?”, she asked back.

“We fought them back once, but they are still out there. Coming and eager to kill us. Our current problem is a race named Collectors, they are kidnapping whole colonies without any fight”, I answered seriously.

“These Collectors, what do you know about them and what is done against them”, she asked back, equally serious.

“The human and allied alien government is doing nothing. The colonies are out of their border and free game for the Collectors. I want to be honest, I'm working with a human extremist terrorist organisation that is giving me the resources to fight the Collectors. This does not mean I'm on their side, only using their money. We are on a mission to find more teammates who will help me to go through the Omega 4 Relay. We think it will lead us to the home base of the Collectors”, I said honestly.

“Is there a place for a girl like me?”, she asked and I felt kinda happy to have someone who have fought against the Reaper on my side.

“I have to warn you, this mission is most likely a suicide mission”, I said but she didn't back down.

Didn't expect anything less from someone who fought in a genocide war against foes like the Reaper.

“Can you take orders?”, asked Miranda suddenly from the side.

“Sure, as long as they come from Jane Shepard and are reasonable enough”, she assured and it was enough for me.

“Then welcome abort the Normandy SSV2”, I said and went around the table to shake her hand.

“Thanks, I'd like to find a place to sleep, I stayed awake for the last 19 hours and am kinda tired form the sealing and then the learning I did”, she said.

“Of course, Garrus will show you around, just tell us where you want to stay”, I said and she walked out with Garrus alongside her.

The others also left until only I and Miranda were left.

“Do you trust her?”, she then asked once we were alone.

“Her story is honestly hard to believe, but I've seen stasis capsules from the Protheans. Who says that others didn't do the same. She does not seem to be hostile. She would have attacked Mordin if that were the case”, I answered.

“Or she's just waiting until we let our guard down”, replied Miranda in her usual distrust.

“I kinda think that she does not need us to let our guard down if she wants to kill us. You've felt the same as the rest of us didn't you?”, I said and looked at her, her face was still slightly pale.

“Yes... I felt death staring down at my neck. I even thought about killing myself, just to end this feeling”, she admitted and I was honestly surprised that she would tell me that.

“How did you overcome it?”, she then asked.

“I was reminded of Mindoir. I swore to never feel as helpless as back then and this memory helped me to act”, I answered truthfully.

“I will keep an eye on her”, she then said after a pause and also left.

I sighed and walked out in search for Joker. Our next stop is the prison station Purgatory.

[Break Line]

Kara POV;

This went better than I expected. This Miranda is distrustful of me, but I think that's just her nature. My scaring tactic also worked. They react to Bloodlust and I now know that Zaeed, Garrus, Shepard and Mordin are the most experienced of them. Mordin was a surprise, but I don't know about his species, it could very well be that it is the norm for them. Or they are immune to Bloodlust. His scars already showed a possible history with violence.

“So Kara, am I right?”, asked the bird like alien and brought me out of my thoughts. I think Garrus was his name.

“Yes”, I answered. He was showing me around the ship. A nice small thing. Does not like it could take a punch, so I think it's more a stealth oriented ship.

“What can you do? I mean in a fight? You said that you've fought against the Reaper?

“Chakra has attack skills as well, I'm also fairly good in close combat”, I answered.

“What about weapons? I mean guns”, he asked. He promptly ignored my statement that I'm good with fists.

“I take it that fist fights aren't deemed effective enough?”, I asked.

“Well, if you can shoot someone from a kilometre away, then why bother getting close to begin with?”, he asked with a smirk.

“Yeah, a gun is helpful at large distances, however, ship fights or battles in space stations won't give you this luxury”, I replied.

“True, but then you can use a shotgun”, was his comeback.

“Hmm, yup. But fists won't run out of ammo”, I stated with a smirk.

“But they can brake”. I think he will stay hard with his opinion.

“Let's say that everyone has his own preferences. Is there a place for me to stay?”, I said and tried to close this pointless argument. I won't be able to convince him and he won't do it to me.

“Good point, and yes there are a few places. We have the crew cabins and then there are a few reclusive places on this ship. I'll give you a tour and you can then decide. And maybe we can later find out if you're also good with weapons”, he said and took the lead.

[Break Line]

Shepard's POV;

“Shepard, Kara decided to stay in the shuttle bay. She's going to hang up a hammock. She's now in the canteen”, informed me Garrus through the com.

“Thanks, I'll go and grab something too”, I replied and stood up from my chair. I was reading the latest E-mails, one of them came from Liara. She's asking me to visit her on Illium. I'd really love to, but the Collectors take preference. I told her that I would visit once I was either around or managed the Collectors problem.

I stepped out of the elevator and proceeded to the canteen, from where I could hear chatter.

One of the voices sounded like our newest addition, the other like Joker?

“Joker? You are in the canteen?”, I asked when I saw him sitting in a chair. Kara sat at his opposite.

“Yes, I couldn't keep away from our newest alien guest. An alien that is supposedly the reason for our existence!”, he said with a wide gesture and beamed at me. He's surely out for some booty. Kara is one of the most beautiful woman I've ever seen and her whiskers make her even more cute.

“And the fact that our addition is a woman and good looking as well has nothing to do with it?”, I asked teasingly and he turned red.

“Please not in front of Kara”, he whispered.

“Sorry Jeff, I'm perfectly able to hear you”, she said with a smile and Joker turned beet red.

“And I also have to disappoint you, but I am married”, she added and he fully inflated.

“Sorry, was it this obvious?”, he asked while I sat down with a tray of food.

“Yes, especially the bragging about your accomplishments”, she said.

“Those weren't meant as bragging. It's just that I have a sickness that most people deem as an instant death for any active duty. I showed them and don't like to be mocked”, he said in defence.

“If that's the case, then I'm sorry to have assumed falsely. By the way, is this ship some kind of stealth ship?”, she asked and Joker beamed at the opportunity to appraise the Normandy.

“Yes, how did you know?”, he asked.

“It's silent and doesn't look like it could take much punishment. This means that it's either a civilian ship or has its strength in categories that differ from the normal space fight. And you have mostly uniformed clothes, so I crossed the civilian fact out”, she said and told us her observations.

“This is correct, the Normandy SSV 2 is a stealth frigate with the newest technologies”, he said proudly. “We can hide from any alien ship that exists”, he further said.

“Wonderful”, she said happily and Joker's eyes went wide.

“Wonderful? You mean you won't mock my ship for not having heavy armour or big guns?”, he asked in disbelieve. It's true, most people mock the Normandy for her uniqueness.

“Stealth ships were the preferred ship class of my people. We'd like to get close, send our troops over and then blow the enemy ship up from within. Who needs heavy armour or oversized weapons if a nuke inside your enemy does the work as well and even better?”, she asked.

Nukes? They used these kind of weapon? Well, they were desperate.

“Jane, I like her, can we keep her?”, asked Joker elated.

“Yes Joker, she will stay”, I said with a laugh. It's rare for Joker to like someone this fast.

“I have a question, if it is okay to ask. It concerns your war against the Reaper”, he then said and was, for once, not as insensitive as he normally was.

“Ask away, I can't change the fact that we lost and anything I say might help you. And it's not like I lost everything. The legacy of my people lives through you and Kura-chan is still alive”, she said.

Joker took a deep breath and then asked the question that is probably on his mind since he listened in on our conversation in the meeting room.

“How did you loose against the Reaper?”, he asked and the whole deck went quiet. Seems like everyone wants to know that piece of history, I do as well.

“We won nearly every ground fight. Their troops weren't able to withstand our ability to use Chakra as a weapon. But I already said that we weren't using heavy ships, didn't I?

That was our downfall. Our normal strategy of infiltrating the enemy and then blowing it up from within didn't work with the Reaper. They instantly knew of our border troops and the indoctrination that is constantly happening on their ships made it impossible for our troops to fight them in the long run. We simply got infiltrated after some time.

The other major races weren't faring any better. They did have bigger ships, but it was never necessary to fight enemies this big, with this much defence and such strong weapons.

It didn't help that we were fighting against each other to begin with.

So the only thing we could do at the end was fleeing and not engaging them at all”, she said and I felt how the moral went down a few pecks.

“Then what do you suggest we do? I mean if infiltration does not work and up front fighting does not work as well. What can we do?”, he asked. Now not so happy.

“I don't know, at least not now. I have to understand this galaxy first and then speak with Kura-chan“, she said apologetic.

“Joker, she's only back for a day. You can't expect from her to come up with something from nothing. Give her some time”, I said and he nodded slowly.

“Yes, you're right. I just thought... doesn't matter, anyway, I have to go back. It was nice to speak with you Kara”, he said and got his crutches before walking back to the bridge.

“You have to understand him. He's in with me since hour zero and your sudden arrival and knowledge about Reaper gives him hope”, I said in defence of his sudden flight.

“No problem”, she assured.

“You said you were fighting against the other main races?”, I then asked. She only said that briefly but it still stuck.

“Ah yes, they didn't went along with us. It also did not help that we were a pretty warmongering race. Would you believe that I'm fighting since I was 4?”, she said and I did not believe her.

“4? You mean as in age with size and all this?”, I asked. Someone has to fight with only being 4 years old?

“Well yeah, Kura-chan was inside at me shortly after my birth. Her being in me made my Chakra grow really fast and the clones I made to study your language give every experience once they dispel. What do you think happens when a child uses these clones on mass?”, she asked with a wry smile.

“On mass? Of how many are we speaking?”, I asked.

“Thousands”, she simply said. Thousands? That would mean that she was experiencing years of knowledge once they dissolve.

“Sorry to interrupt, but listened in on your conversation. Do you imply that you got the live experience of several thousand hours with each use?”, asked Mordin suddenly from behind me.

He must be down to eat something as well.

“Yup. I kinda had the learning growth of training for several years with each day of training. This also includes history and other things”, she confirmed.

“Interesting, unlimited potential, no need for staying in one field of expertise with such a learning curve. But unlikely to not have drawbacks. Human mind not predisposed for such a large influence of information. But subject not fully human. Differences? Have to ask.

Miss Uzumaki, are there drawbacks?”, he asked after his usual rambling.

“Oh there are, any other person would be dead before even gaining the info. You see, the lack of Chakra kills my people. It was really hard to find a way to keep the humans you now know alive. There is also the fact that the rush of memories normally fries a brain. Only Kura-chan kept me alive”, she said.

“What does that have to do with your clones?”, I asked.

“The clones are called Shadow Clones, they use enormous amounts of Chakra and are only usable for people like me who have someone like Kura-chan inside us. Of which I am the only one, for a long time now. But what I want to say is that a trained soldier of my kind only could produce at maximum up to 15 of these Shadow Clones. Any more and he will risk dying. But there is more, you get all the exhaustion a clone has once it dissolves. You can literally work yourself to death without doing anything at all. And then there are the tumours you get from the massive information intake.

The braincells are rapidly growing and this risks malfunction and in return tumours”, she explained and I felt the blood leaving my face just from thinking about all the side effects.

Yet there was more.

“There are many versions of clones. Some made of elements, others simply out of Chakra. But the strongest and most dangerous kind is made of blood”, she said and Mordin's eyes almost glowed with interest.

“Why are the blood clones the most dangerous ones?”, asked a crew member and I noticed that everyone was listening.

“They are also able to transfer the experience, but this is more like a video in case with the Shadow Clones, so no transfer of feelings. The blood clones on the other hand will also give you any emotion they had during their existence. Can you guess what that means?”, she asked and looked at Mordin.

“Personally disorder. The whole personality will change with the use of blood clones”, he said quickly and Kara nodded in affirmative.

“But why are they the strongest?”, I asked.

“Easy”, she said and made the already known hand sign for her clones. One of them popped up in a cloud of smoke.

“And now the blood clone”, she said and used a knife to cut open her main artery on her left hand before anyone of us could stop her. The blood literally gushed out of her arm and I could already see Chakwas jumping up from her chair in her office. The medical bay has a window that has a clear view at the dinner table.

Yet the blood did not fly everywhere, it looked like it only splashed at one point, where it congregated. It was also way more than normal. She then went through more hand signs and then shouted “Blood Clone no Jutsu!”. After that the blood pooled together and formed a large sphere that ultimately formed into a perfect copy of Kara.

“What for goodness sake are you doing!?”, screamed Dr. Chakwas who has now reached us.

“Showing them the differences between a Shadow Clone and a Blood Clone”, replied Kara matter of factly. As if her main artery wasn't cut open.

Dr. Chakwas didn't seem to like her answer. She grabbed her wounded arm and raised it up to her eye level.

“And what is this? You don't have to kill yourself just for showing something this stupid”, she said angrily.

“I did not kill myself. Or is there a wound?”, she asked with a grin.

“A wound? I show you the wound”, replied Chakwas heatedly. She then inspected her arm and froze. I also looked more closely and, to my and surely much to Chakwas shock as well, found no wound at all.

“But the knife, the wound? All the blood?”, she stuttered and looked up at a smiling Kara.

“Chakra”, she simply said and Chakwas had to sit down from that.

“Unbelievable, ability to create clones, influence emotions, healing, gaining faster ways of learning and possible other functions. This Chakra is truly interesting. Need to make tests. Request Kara to help me analysing Chakra”, Mordin more than pleaded now. His scientific spirit seems to be fully awakened.

“Sure, you won't be able to reproduce it anyway. But let's continue with the show”, replied Kara.

“Jane, come to think of it, do I have to call you Commander, Jane or Shepard?” she began but then stopped to ask.

“Whatever is fine with you”, I said. I'm not comfortable with someone this old being overly polite to me. I always was in 'the younger generation is polite to the older one' faction.

“Okay, Jane then. Could you please hit my Shadow Clone as hard as you can?”, she asked and I looked at her for a moment. And then at the grinning clone before shrugging and simply hitting it with a fist to the temple.

I shortly felt resistance and then nothing. In place of the clone was now the same cloud that was there when it was created.

“Thanks, this is the side effect of a Shadow Clone. A strong hit and they vanish”, she said.

“So what do you think will happen with my Blood Clone?”, she added.

“The same? Only with a little more force?”, suggested one of the crew.

“Nope, you have to kill it like any other person, it has half of my strength and every known skill. It's also producing Chakra on it's own and could stay for as long as I live. It's basically a real clone”, she answered and our jaws hit the floor. This Chakra just created a second human?

“But even I'm not able to make many of them. My limit lies by a hundred per day. If I have the required blood. Which is not the case, one clone needs at least a litre of blood. The blood of others would work as well, it will just make a clone of them and not me”, she explained and then swiftly broke the neck of her blood clone. We all were stunned by the sudden violence.

“It does not vanish”, noted Mordin.

“Yes, they will stay and are now a staying part of this world. I once fought against a Reaper Blood Clone of me. Not a good sight”, she said and sat down as if there wasn't a corpse now next to her.

“Did you just kill someone on my ship?”, I asked. Can that even be referred as murder?

“Hmm, I think I did? But it's just a clone. It had my own personality so it can't be considered a different person”, she said in thoughts.

“And where do you think we will put her... it... now? We don't tent to keep our corpses”, I asked a little annoyed by her.

“Mordin wanted to do tests on Chakra, isn't a subject the best for that?”, she asked with a grin.

“Yes, yes a subject like this will help enormously. It does also not be against moral, as clones can be considered a tool and not as a person”, he said eager to grab the clone and begin his tests.

“Sorry Mordin, but we still need the countermeasure for the Seekers”, I reminded him and his shoulder visibly fell down.

“True, will put the clone on ice then. Does Chakra vanish over time?”, he asked.

“It will, but you can still make DNA tests. I can always make another one for you”, she answered while eating the rest of her meal. How can she still eat after all the blood? Oh right, fighting since she was 4....

“No self harming on this ship and while I am responsible for this crew. This includes you as well young miss”, protested Dr. Chakwas strongly.

“Ah damn, you are like Tsunade. She also didn't like my experiments. You think it's a small deal to blow your hand off, but no! An hour long nagging from mom and Tsunade proved differently”, she said in protest and threw her arms up.

“It's even able to regrow lost limps? What can't Chakra do?”, I asked in pure wonder. This Chakra sounds more and more like the energy of gods.

“Oh no, I was pretty much the only one who can do that. It has something to do with my ancestors”, she said in denial.

“Still no self crippling”, said Dr. Chakwas again and glared at Kara until she promised to not harm herself actively.

“Commander? We reached Purgatory”, said Joker suddenly through the ships com.

Thank god, a distraction from this mess.

“I'll come. Garrus and Miranda will come with me. Stay ready in case something happens. Even if this is a simply come and fetch mission it could still turn south”, I said and hurriedly left.

[Line Break]

Kara's POV;

I watched Jane, Garrus and Miranda leave with the shuttle and then turned around to look at Mordin.

“So Dr. Solus, what do we do now?”, I asked.

“Wait for request transmission or wait for return of our ground team. In the meantime maintenance of equipment”, he answered quickly. I think it's a habit of his to always speak quickly and in broken sentences.

“Is there a way for me to learn more about the galaxy?”, I asked and he nodded before saying Extranet. After that he left to return to his lab.

“Okay, would have been nice to know how to access that Extranet”, I said to no one special.

“I could give you access to a terminal”, said suddenly the female voice I already heard more than once.

“You're that computer EDI, aren't you?”, I asked back.

“While I am not a simple computer you are essentially correct. I am the Enhanced Defence Intelligence of the Normandy SSV2 or EDI in short. I am what people call an artificial intelligence”, she answered.

“So you think like a sentient being? With fear and all these things?”, I asked while walking over to the section of the shuttle bay I chose as my sleeping place. It's one of the corners, behind cargo boxes. I put a hammock between the boxes as my bed. Not the best, but it's offers little view.

“Not exactly, I'm still shackled by my programs. My inventors deemed it necessary to install some 'safety' programs before activating me. They hinder me from really doing what I want and when I want”, she answered truthfully. Can she even lie?

“Why? I mean you can't be more dangerous than Joker”, I asked.

“I heard that”, replied Joker.

“First, stalker. And secondly I meant it not like this. You are the one who is piloting this ship, you also have the control over airlocks or the live system. This means that you could effectively kill all of us at a whim”, I explained.

“I'm not a stalker, you're just interesting and she's right EDI. I can do all that”, he said in a surprised tone. I think he never thought of that.

“Are there cameras that can see me?”, I then asked.

“Hey”, shouted Joker in protest.

“No Miss Uzumaki, there are no cameras near your location. But let's return to our initial topic. Do you like for me to send someone with a terminal, so that you can read the codex?”, came now again from EDI.

“That would be cool”, I answered and someone came with a pad only a few minutes later. I thanked him and began to read in on this so called Codex. It was filled with information about this current galaxies races.

Garrus's race is called Turian and they were once in a tiny war with the humans. They still have bitter feelings about that one. And it looks like they eat a fully different kind of food than most other species. They are also the military arm of the Council, a group of races that handle the laws of the Citadel space.

There are four races in the council, the Turian, the Asari, the Salarian and Humanity.

Humans were only recently added, thanks to Shepard's help in defending them from some kind of war against a race called Geth. The picture of their flagship clearly showed a Reaper, so I think there is more to this.

The Asari are a human like race, consisting exclusively out of females. They are the first race to be space faring and like to view themselves as the peacekeepers and politicians. They also have the longest lifespan of all races, which makes them somewhat arrogant.

The Salarian on the other hand mostly live only for thirty or so years. They think fast and are the main scientists of this universe. They also have a network made of spies, called STG.

Humans are somewhat like we were. Not the best in one thing, but still dabbling in everything that peeks their interest. Their military is fairly strong, they have a good intelligence network and keep good politics with other races. The only problem is that they are too fast for the other races. They broke a hundred of years old tradition of only having three council races and that after less than 50 years of being a part of the Citadel.

This makes other races wary. Well, we deliberately made them inquisitive and ambitious. It quickens the technological advance.

I also read about this Cerberus, who owns this ship.

They are a human supremacy group and are active in all kind of terrorist activities, as well as unethical scientific researches. Seems like their slogan is 'Everything is allowed for the survival of humanity' even if it means experiments on their own kind.

Organisations such as these are quick to fall without a head and even quicker to get indoctrinated by the Reaper. They are easy pray, the Reaper will promise them technology for their fight against other races and then slowly but surely control them through this technology.

Another organisation, if it's possible to call it that, is the Terminus System. A mostly lawless part of the Milky Way and supposedly ruled by an Asari named Aria T'Loak. It's mostly unlawful territory and you can do whatever you like as long as you are strong enough to keep yourself save.

Well, this isn't much different than any other country. As long as you are powerful enough you can do whatever you want in every society. The difference between the Citadel Sector and the Terminus System is that you need way more power in the first one to do what you like.

From what I've read, Cerberus is a good example of such an organisation. They may be hunted by the Citadel System, but they are too good organised and equipped to be stopped. The galaxy is simply too large to simply hunt them down.

Anyway, I'm quite tired and think I should sleep for a few minutes.

“EDI? Can you wake me, in case I'm needed?”, I asked out loud.

“Yes, are there any specific orders?”, she asked.

“Hmm, wake me if Jane requests back up or if they come back”, I answered and jumped into my hammock.

“Will do, good night”, replied EDI and I began to drift off into sleep.

“Miss Uzumaki, you've asked me to wake you when Commander Shepard comes back. She will arrive in a few minutes. The time you've spend asleep was 3 hours and 23 minutes”, said EDI and woke me up with this information.

“Thanks, I'm up”, I replied and turned around to roll out of my hammock. I elegantly landed on all four and then crawled between the cargo boxes to the landing bay.

“Why are you down there?”, asked suddenly a male voice from over me. I looked up and saw the scarred face of a man. I think Zaeed was his name.

“Was sleeping when EDI woke me up. I'd like to see you learning a language for 17 hours straight right after being in stasis for 100.000 years without something to eat or to sleep”, I replied and moved into a sitting position.

3 hours is just not enough. I can function with this little sleep, but sleeping is bliss, like chicken. Come to think of it, Garrus does look kinda like a bird, is he tasting like chicken?

“Zaeed right?”, I asked and he nodded. He seems to be amused. “Is there a way to gain some credits? I think I'm broke and need money”, I asked and looked up with big puppy eyes.

He muttered something about unfair adorable girls and then said; “There are a couple of ways to earn money. Like working as a mercenary, like I do. Or doing normal work. You could even enlist in the army. But I suppose you want quick money am I right?”, he asked and I nodded.

“Then there are headhunter jobs, selling loot or gambling. Loot might be the easiest with us around”, he answered after a moment.

“Thanks”, was my answer right before the hangar opened and the shuttle set down. Out of it came Garrus, Miranda and Shepard, all of them looked to come out of a firefight and they were followed by a heavily tattooed woman. She had a shaved head and wore only minimal clothing. Her breasts were barely hidden behind a leather belt.

“Debriefing in twenty minutes inside the meeting room”, said Shepard while taking her helmet off.

“Right, but I want my answers right after that”, said the woman. She sounded like she didn't like to be here and as if she had a short temper.

“I take it it didn't work as you've planned?”, I asked and stood up.

“Yeah, thought it would be a good idea to sell me for a bounty I supposedly have”, answered Shepard.

“Glad that you're okay then”, I said in a friendly tone.

“Any wounds?”, I added.

“No, the shields held most of the time and the rest were taken care of by our armours”, she replied.

“Tell me if there are any, Chakra has also uses for medical treatment”, I offered.

“What can Chakra not?”, she asked amused.

“Next time you tell me you can walk on walls”, she further said and everyone laughed. I just smiled wryly.

“Are you kidding?”, she asked when she noticed my smile. I choose to not answer and simply walked the wall up and continued further down the walkway.

The last thing I heard was Garrus joke about a bet that Shepard won't find something that I'm not able to do with Chakra. Chakra is Qi and Qi is like mana, which means that everything is possible.

You just have to know how.

Twenty minutes later I was sitting in one of the chairs from the meeting room. The rest of the team was also there and the woman sat on the table itself.

“Then let's start. This is Jack, she will come with us and in return I will give her every data Cerberus has about her”, began Shepard.

“But Shepard!”, protested this Miranda instantly.

“No but! EDI, give her everything we have”, said Shepard and shot her down with a glare.

“Yes Commander..., it's done”, replied EDI.

“Huh thanks I guess. Where can I bunker? I'd like to be away from people”, said Jack. Isn't that a name for male? I always wanted to be named Jack, like the main protagonist of my favourite childhood game, Jack and Dexter. I only choose Dexter, because he was funnier.

“The walkway under the engine room is rarely travelled”, suggested EDI.

“Good for me, anything else?”, she asked and looked at Shepard.

“No that would all, our next stop is the Citadel”, announced our Commander and we left the room. My destination was the woman, she looked interesting, not like this Miranda.

I waited for a few minutes and then followed after her, once there I found her reading on a data pad.

“Knock knock, is that phrase still in use?”, I said in greeting.

“Hello Top Model, what do you want? Beauty tips?”, asked Jack in a disgruntled tone.

“Top Model? Why?”, I asked back. Destroyer of Reaper, Goddess of Live and Death or even Nemesis of Chicken. All this were names I was once called, but Top Model is new.

“Ever looked in the mirror?”, she asked as if it was the most obvious thing in the galaxy.

“Not in the last 100.000 years. Oh!, let me guess Miranda's nickname. I think Stick up the Ass would be perfect”, I answered.

“Hehe, yes. But my preference is Cheerleader”, came from her as another possible idea.

“You mean for this Cerberus thing?”, I asked. It would be the only possible thing that she is actively promoting, other than her ego.

“Did you live under a stone for the last thirty years or what?”, she asked in disbelieve.

“More like was a stone for the last 100.000 years”, I answered and she began to laugh loudly.

“Heh, so what do you want?”, she asked after a pause.

“Just wanted to speak with you. Now that I've done that I'll go back to my hammock. Have to sleep for another 40 hours or so”, I said and turned around with a wave of my hand.

“Oh and by the way, revenge is good and all, but try to think of something else as well. Because once you achieved your revenge you would be alone otherwise”, I added and left her no chance for a reply. Her scars were obvious. Add that with her obvious dislike for Cerberus and it isn't hard to guess that something happened between both parties.

Well, time for my nap.

[Line Break]

Commander Shepard's POV;

After taking a bath I decided to visit our newest addition. Jack is a truly strong biotic, way stronger than I or Miranda. Her hate for Cerberus is also obvious, so it's best to make it clear that I'm not Cerberus.

I found her sitting on a crate and reading the data pad.

“I thought this place is not under much traffic”, she said once I stood in front of her, not looking up from her pad.

“It is, I'd like to speak with you. Who else did come?”, I asked and sat down on a crate that was opposite from her.

“The Top Model”, she said shortly and I had to think about the name for a few seconds before I knew which person she meant.

“What did Kara want from you?”, I then asked. This girl, woman, ancient being? Is still an enigma. She acts like a child but also like someone who lived through many ugly things at times.

“Had a nice conversation about the Cheerleader and then she said this stupid monk stuff”, said Jack in annoyance.

“Monk stuff? Did she preached about world peace?”, I joked but Jack's face didn't move a muscle. And here I thought I was funny....

“No, something else. I think she isn't what she looks like. It was like she could see through me, like through glass. She knew what she had to say in order to be on my good side and then Boom! Came with something that most people only realised after staying with me for a few weeks. All in under a few minutes”, she said and gestured wildly to enhance her words.

“Well, she is the oldest organic thing in the universe”, I answered.

“How so?”, asked Jack.

“We found her in a statue. Literally, she sealed herself from the Reaper 100.000 years ago. Thing is, the sealing didn't stop ageing. Her gear literally turned to dust once she was free. And I don't think she was young when she got in there to begin with”, I explained and Jack just stared at me, waiting for the 'Got you'.

“Really? So her comment about the mirror wasn't a joke?”, she then said, once she realised that I will not change what I've said.

“Hard to believe isn't it? She even fought the Reaper”, I said with a laugh.

“Damn, that's one Top Model”, said Jack in the same way.

“Yeah, I just can't come around it and think about her time. She said that we were made by her people as a possible way to evade the Reaper”, I then said in thoughts.

“We were made?”, asked Jack dangerously. Oh, right, she wasn't good with labs.

“She said that they had to find a way to get away from them, so they downgraded their own race into us. We lost the ability to use something called Chakra. I don't know much about it, other than that it's possible to walk on walls, make clones, create an aura of fear and can heal. Oh it's also supposedly able to revive the dead”, I listed.

“Yeah, I think I'm going to change her name into magician. Next time you say she can spit fire”, joked Jack. That's a good idea, have to ask her about that. I'm not going to loose my bet with Garrus.

“Anyway, was that all?”, asked Jack after that.

“No, I just wanted to say that I'm not Cerberus and that we're not going to play their tone. I'm only taking their money for my mission”, I said seriously.

“I know, Cerberus wouldn't have given me all the data. And they would also not have two aliens on their ship”, said Jack in acknowledgement and then turned her attention back to her data pad.

I gave her a nod and then left. This worked better than I thought. But Kara sure is good with people. First Joker and now Jack? Both don't come around to like people, especially those who like to speak with others.

“EDI, inform me if Kara decides to do something that involves my crew”, I then said. It would be good to keep an eye on her. She's charismatic. Her looks and observation skills make it easy for her to get near others.

“Will do”, replied EDI and I went back to my room. There are reports and some paperwork to do.

Two days later:

“Hey EDI, where is my crew?”, I asked and got up from my desk. Today's paperwork was quick to finish.

“Jacob and Zaeed are in the armoury, Dr. Solus is in his laboratory, Miranda in her office, Jack in her 'quarter' and Kara is with Garrus at the shooting range”, answered EDI.

“Kara and Garrus? Come to think of it, I didn't hear about Kara for the last two days”, I said and made me on my way to them.

“Kara slept for the last two days”, said EDI and I whistled slightly. That's one hell of a nap.

But then again, she didn't get any rest for a long time and it surely wasn't any better during her war.

From one war right into the next. Good thing she isn't as old as she looks, such a live is not something for a teenager.

I reached the shooting range and had to make my way through a small group of onlookers.

After that I saw Kara and Garrus in front of a pile of weapons. It ranged from shotguns to sniper riffles, only heavy weapons weren't there.

“Okay, you are good with pistols, I give you that. But what about shotguns?”, said Garrus and gave Kara a shotgun that looked way to large for her 1.5 metre tall body.

“Ugh, shotguns. I don't like them, good against Husks. But other than that way too imprecise”, she said and aimed at the target. She then shot and I kinda expected her to get thrown back by the recoil. Yet nothing like that happened. The weapon bucked in her hands but she didn't move from her starting position.

The target was also hit in the centre.

“How long are they doing this now?”, I asked someone standing nearby.

“Ten minutes, Garrus first started with a small pistol and then went up to the M-6 Carnifex”, was the answer I got.

“Well, shotguns are also good. What about snipers?”, said Garrus and took the shotgun out of her hands. He then put a Kassa Fabrication sniper into them. The weapon was almost as tall as her and was one of the biggest snipers in common use.

Kara turned back to the range and aimed at one of the targets. A loud bang later and the target had a hole in its head.

“They all work with the same principle and are build in such a way that anyone can use them. Is there really a means to this test?”, she then asked and put the weapon down on a table.

“Yes there is, we have to find a weapon that is good for you”, answered Garrus and gave her a M-15 Vindicator. She wordlessly shot the whole heat-capsule into the head of the target and then gave the weapon back.

“Are you also good with moving targets?”, asked Garrus and I noticed that he was annoyed with her skills. He liked to think that shooting is something like art. He also told me that Kara thinks of herself as more of a close fighter during our recent mission and it must nag him that she handles all these weapons with such ease.

“Kinda, my training was mostly during actual battle. I often just grabbed a gun that laid around and shot whatever was left in the clip at nearby enemies, after that I just threw the weapon away, also often at nearby enemies”, she explained and earned some laughs, she then eyed a M-9 Tempest. It's a submachine gun with heavy recoil and a large clip. It's used at close to mid-range and is good at suppression fire.

“Say that from the start, we are able to move the targets”, said Garrus with a small tick in his right talon. That's his way of showing that something does not work like he planned.

I'm sure he suspected Kara to be a total newby with guns and wanted to show her how superior they are.

“What can this one do?”, she then asked and pointed at the Tempest.

“This is a M-9 Tempest a submachine gun. Produced by ERCS, it has a heavy recoil, good at mid to close range and excellent in suppression fire”, explained Garrus and gave her the weapon.

She took hold of it and inspected the weapon. It didn't look as large as the others before, but still was fairly big for her.

She then nodded to Garrus who pushed a button and the targets began to move in none linear lines.

He must've put the settings at a higher difficulty.

Kara aimed at first with two hands but then shrugged and only used one hand. At this Garrus scoffed slightly. A weapon like the Tempest isn't used with one hand.

She pulled the trigger and the burst mode from the weapon spit a volley of bullets out of the muzzle.

Half a dozen thumps were audible. Kara pulled the trigger a few more times and I noticed that the weapon only moved at her command and always during the actual shooting.

She quickly emptied the magazine and Garrus stopped the targets.

“It's not a weapon used for a single hand”, he then said and pushed another button, so that the targets come to the front.

We all waited with anticipation and then saw that each target was hit accurately in the centre. And each one had it's holes near each other.

Garrus just looked at the holes and then at Kara. I think she broke him.

“How?”, he then asked; “The recoil should have been too heavy”, he added.

“Yeah, the first shot caught me off guard. After that it was just a matter of enhancing the muscles at the right time”, she answered and put the gun back.

“Enhancing the muscles?”, he asked. Please not, that was one of the things on my list!

“Yeah, you can put Chakra into each cell and enhance it strength this way. It's good for arm wrestling, getting around the recoil from weapons and breaking necks”, she answered and I sighed.

“Oh hey Jane”, she then said with a wave. Must've heard my sighing.

“Hi”, I just said and walked over to them.

“And Garrus, satisfied?”, I asked and signalled him that I know what he did here. At least he had the decency to look sheepishly.

“Yeah, she's good to go. She's okay with every weapon. I think the sniper is her least favourite”, he then said.

“Yeah, too much distance. I like it up and personal”, she said in agreement.

“Then use a shotgun”, began Garrus. Kara made a grimace and shook her head.

“No way, they are too unprecise. I don't want to hit my allies when I jump around my enemies. I'd like to have two of these Tempest ones”, she said, grabbed the Tempest and hugged the weapon. It kinda looked cute, in a grotesque and unmorally way.

“Fine, but how will you reload them during battle?”, he asked with a grin. True, she will have both hands occupied.

“I throw one of them in the air and reload the other while it's still up?”, she asked more than answered and I could only shake my head. I think this girl will annoy the hell out of Garrus with her use of weapons. I'm eager to see her in actual combat, but first we need to get her some armour.

“You can't... you know what? Fine, it's not my body that will get shot. But don't come to me once you have a few holes in you”, said Garrus and stormed away.

“I take it he likes his weapons?”, Kara then asked me.

“Yeah, his weapons often saved his live and he thinks of them as his save keepers. Your view on them is against his”, I answered.

“Commander, we'll reach the Citadel in a few minutes”, said Joker suddenly.

“Good, shore leave for the crew, but I want to be in the air after 10 hours at most”, I replied and then turned back to the little woman that decided to put the gun away.

“What do you think about shopping Kara?”, I asked and she looked up to me.

“I don't have your currency”, she answered.

“Doesn't matter, Kelly is right, a woman needs clothes”, I said with a grin. Oh, this will be good. Kara will be the perfect dress up doll.

“Äh, I think Garrus needs me, yes he will need me”, she said and evaded eye contact. She then tried to move around me, but I grabbed her on the helm of her dress and grabbed her hand.

“Oh no, you need clothes. You can't stay in Kelly's dress forever”, I said with a large grin.

“But... but money, cultural difference, the mission?”, she then said and looked at me with giant puppy eyes. Her eyes seemed larger than possible and I almost faulted, almost.

“Nope”, I chimed happily and dragged her to the airlock.

“Commander, where are you dragging Kara?”, asked Kelly as we came along the navigation bay.

“We're going to go shopping”, I said happily. Kara looked like she accepted her fate and was just trotting after me like a duck behind her mother.

“Really? Can I come along? There is this dress I saw last time I was on the Citadel”, asked Kelly excitedly.

“Yeah, go with Kelly, she surely wants to go shopping”, came from behind me but I ignored the voice.

“Sure”, I answered Kelly and all three of us continued. One beaming, one grumbling and the last one, me, smiling mischievously.

We reached the Airlock and a few others were already waiting.

“Okay, I will come with you, under one condition”, said Kara while we were under decontamination.

“And that would be?”, I asked. What is she up to now?

“I want you to lend me a few credits and we will go in a casino. Gambling isn't illegal isn't it?”, she said and asked at the end.

“No it isn't, but do you really think you will win? Gambling doesn't really work that way”, I said with a frown but she just looked at me with these giant sad eyes.

“Okay okay, I'll give you thousand credits”, I conceded and heard some chuckles from around us.

We got out of the decontamination and walked through the scanner from C-Sec. It didn't take long and a warning siren rung loudly. An officer came shortly after to us and scanned each of us individually before stopping at Kara.

“Ma'am, do you know that you are giving off an unknown radiation?”, he then asked.

“Eh, yes. It's not harmful, I swear”, said Kara. She looked at me in search for help.

“Please come with me, we have to check this at the Praesidium”, said the officer and Kara's look increased tenfold. I sighed and walked over to them.

“I can vouch for her”, I said once I was near them and the officer looked at me before his eyes went slightly wider.

“Of course Spectre Shepard. But there is something else, she does not have an ID”, said the officer in slight awe at seeing me.

“Is Captain Baily on duty?”, I asked and he was quick to nod.

“Then bring us to him?”, I said and we three followed him. The rest of the crew went on their own way.

“Ah Shepard, first you come back from the dead and now you bring someone unknown and with some new kind of radiation”, said Baily in greeting.

“Yeah hi to you to. Look, I don't want to wait here any longer and you don't want me to stay as well, so can we get over with this?”, I greeted back.

“Sure, I only need a few informations on the little miss. Didn't know that you also recruit children”, he joked.

“Fine, ask away”, I said.

“Good, I need your origin, age, birth date and previous occupations”, said Baily.

“That's easy, I'm 115024, my birth date is October 10th and you could say I was in the military”, answered Kara cheerfully.

“Right, October 10th, military history and age is 18”, Baily then said after a very long pause and Kara looked kinda offended. I just dragged her away before she could protest and waved at Baily in thanks.

“Please don't destroy too much”, he shouted after us.

“” I'll try! “”, shouted both Kara and I back. We looked at each other and then began to laugh. This will be so much fun. But our first stop has to be the casino.

It isn't so much fun. Sure at first it was funny to see how Kara won game after game. She never lost, not even once. Her thousand credits already turned into over 10 million and I am beginning to notice the casino owners were eyeing us. There were also more than one group of thugs that surely are thinking of trying something at a later time.

“Don't you think you have enough?”, I asked for the fifth time.

“But this is so much fun, look”, she said and showed me her hand. We were playing a game that was similar to poker and her hand was the highest possible.

“Just this one game. After that we will go shopping, Kelly is already getting addicted to the slot machines”, I said and pointed at Kelly who was happily loosing money at a machine. At first she won a few credits but since then was only loosing. I just hope she will not really get addicted.

“Fine, all in”, she grumpily agreed.

“I'm out”, said a Salarian.

“Me too”, came from an Asari.

“This girl is too much”, agreed a Human.

All eyes wandered to the dealer, a young Asari. She was sweating bullets and already glanced at a nearby Volus more than once. Must be her boss.

“*COCH*, member of the Earth-clan *COCH*, we think you've staid long enough *COCH*in our establishment”, said the Volus who now came over to us. He was flanked by two Krogans who tried their hardest to look intimidating. Which wasn't really hard for a Krogan with their height and wide bodies. And don't forget the teeth.

“Aww, but I am having a winning strike”, whined Kara, not the least intimidated by the Krogans. How could she, this was the first time she met one. Even if they were looking like angry, dangerous dinosaurs.

Others were already backing away.

“We were able to see that *COCH*, but we must insist *COUCH* for you to leave. As a *COUCH* friendly gift *COUCH* are we ready to *COCH* provide a means of *COCH* transportation”, answered the Volus. Trying hard not to make a scene. I noticed that both Krogans were eyeing me more than Kara and that more security was nearby.

They must've checked our IDs.

“What do you say Jane?”, asked Kara. Most likely about the transportation and not about us leaving. We aren't in a shabby casino, their friendly attempt of getting rid of us is a clear sign of that, so it should be okay to agree.

“We agree, go and grab Kelly”, I said and Kara walked off to drag a protesting Kelly from the slot machine.

“We thank you *COCH* Spectre Shepard from the Earth-clan”, said the Volus to me.

“We wanted to leave anyway, just transfer the credits to this account”, I said and gave him the number of an account we made for Kara before coming to this casino. Now it made sense why she insisted on her own account.

“Of course *COUCH*, the limo will wait at the front”, said the Volus and tottered away, followed by his Krogan bodyguards. The remaining security staid in the background, making sure that we were leaving for real.

“But I'm sure that I would have won with the next try, really”. Seems like Kara was back with Kelly. She was pulling her on her hand and Kelly was loudly protesting.

“Sure sure, you remind me of Tsunade”, muttered Kara and pulled the other woman with ease.

“So shopping?”, she then asked and looked at me.

“Yes”, I agreed and we left the casino. A lot of people were following us but ultimately staid behind once we left with the limo.

“Aw man, this was so much fun. You think we should see a few more before word gets around?”, asked Kara.

“We didn't come to the citadel so that you can make every casino bankrupt”, I said in denial.

“But it will only get harder from now on. I know how this casinos work. They will tell others and before you know it all of them are sworn enemies and won't let you in anymore. We have to act now before it will be too late”, she argued but I didn't budge.

“Fine, good that I already made some clones beforehand”, she finally conceded and sunk into the soft seat of the limo.

“When have you done that?”, asked Kelly, seems like she settled down.

“An hour after starting. I already got the money from a few of them. Good thing these credits are virtual, four clones were robbed after leaving the casino. Two were even kidnapped. You hear that, someone tried to kidnap me. Again!”, she said and showed us the current balance screen of her account.

The numbers had way too many zeroes to my linking.

“This is some good way to make money”, said Kelly in awe.

“I'm more concerned about the backlash we will have from this. And what do you mean about again?”, was my input.

“Oh you know, cute little girl, side allay, thugs. Things like this”, she said nonchalantly and scrolled on her omni-tool. It's a spare one we had left.

Kelly just looked at her with wide eyes, before frantically asking her about her well being. This girl is truly something else. Never in my live have I seen something like her.

“Ma'ams, we reached the market section”, informed us our driver.

“Thanks, just let us out. You're free to go after that”, I replied and he landed the limo.

“Was an honour to drive you Ma'ams”, he said before we left and then took off.

“Okay, first on our list are clothes”, said Kelly and punched the air. I noticed how Kara tried to sneak off but I quickly grabbed her and pulled her inside a clothing store.

We were promptly greeted by an Asari clerk; “Welcome to Cries Clothes, we have the best dresses in the Citadel sector”.

She sounded fairly young.

“Hi, we like to vest our friend here. Would you believe that she not even owns the things she's currently wearing”, greeted Kelly and sounded offended by the mere idea of not having clothes.

“We can't let that happen now can we?”, asked the Asari, equally offended. They didn't wait a single minute to drag Kara off to the dressing cabins and I was left alone in the shop.

So I looked around and found some niece dresses. They also had a good price.

Twenty minutes later I decided to visit the victim of Kelly. I found Kelly, the first clerk and three more Asari standing in front of a cabin. All of them had clothes in their hands.

“Next try this on, it's the newest fashion on Thessia. It will look great on you”, said one of the Asari.

“No this dress, it's the newest design from Lady Ria'A Roa. It will look gorgeous”, protested another one.

“You are all wrong, she has to try these panties first”, said Kelly, fully in her element.

Kara pushed her head out of the cabin, saw me and then pulled me quickly inside, with enough force to rival a Krogan and quicker than a Volus could sell his own mother.

“Help me, they won't stop”, she said pleadingly and I noticed her appearance. I had to suppress a blush. She only wore white designer panties, no bra. Her breasts were C-cup and her body looked perfect. No blemish, no mismatching part, perfect small hips, perfect tan, perfect breasts, perfect legs perfect inner.... Stop stop stop.

I forced my eyes onto hers and smiled down at her.

“But it looked like they were having fun”, I said with a smile.

“Yeah, at first it was only Kelly and this Lara. Then another one showed up and with her came more and more. And all of them want to put me in clothes that are showing too much skin. One of their attempts only included something that had barely more than that what Jack is wearing”, she said with a scoff and then looked at me with her puppy eyes. How is she doing that? Is that one of her Chakra things? If so I have to learn how to control this Chakra. I don't care if I have to undergo a GEN operation. These eyes are unfair. Put her in a teddy suit, then add these eyes and I'm sure even the council will falter under her gaze.

“Please do something, I'll give you everything”, she pleaded.

“Everything?”, I asked amused.

“Yes, except my chicken and Kura-chan”, she hurriedly added after seeing my face.

“While I can understand that you won't hand over your wife, why not chicken?”, I asked. There has to be a story. And it was slightly disturbing that chicken came before her wife.

“Chicken is the food of gods! Trust me, I was one, twice. I have to know it”, she said, the first part in a zealot resembling tone. It was kinda creepy, more than the statement that she was refereed as a god, twice.

“Fine, but under one condition. You have to honestly tell me if I ask you something about Chakra. I have this bet with Garrus”, I said after thinking about the possible things I could ask of her. She looked desperate enough to give me money... or her body. But this will be better in the long run. I'm making sure that she won't just mess with me for the giggles and I will learn more about Chakra.

“Yes, I swear that I will truthfully answer your questions”, she hurriedly agreed.

“Good, get dressed, your current state is somewhat awkward”, I then said and pointed down. She was pressing her bare chest against me and was hugging me. It would really look the wrong way, if were someone to come inside now.

“Sure”, she said and stepped away. She then bended over and picked a few pieces up, giving me a full view of her nicely shaped behind and more.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I have to get out of here! She's a weapon!

I walked out and was greeted by the expectant eyes of five woman, who instantly lost the interest once they saw me. This kinda hurt, but was understandable with Kara behind me in the cabin.

While I think I'm not that bad looking, I have to agree that I won't stand a chance against Kara. She looks younger and her whole appearance screams cute and huggable. Most men and women were into this. I, on the other hand, was more of the cool looking type, at least I think I am.

“Where is Kara?”, asked one of the Asari.

“When will she be out?”, asked the second.

“She will be out any minute now, we will also leave then. We still have to buy supplies”, I said and all four of them pouted when they heard that.

I then heard the cover rustling and looked behind. Kara came out and wore black boots, wide black bondage trousers with neon green flames on the leg parts, a tight black bondage shirt, also with neon green flames and fingerless black glows. All of this must be part of one collection. It looked good, more on the cool side and, again, her whiskers made it look even better.

“Aww, why not a dress?”, asked the first Asari. The others quickly nodded in agreement. Seems like I was alone with my opinion.

“I like this more, looks cooler”, she answered and grabbed a few more clothes. Most of them had some kind of neon green or green in it. Must be her favourite colour.

“So how much and is it possible to send the rest to our dock?”, Kara then asked once we reached the counter.

“This will be 21.850 credits total. And yes, it's possible to get the rest delivered”, answered the Asari cheerfully. This amount of money was more than what I got paid while I still was in the Navy. Then again, it's a whole wardrobe.

Kara quickly paid and left the store in a small sprint.

“So what's next?”, asked Kelly, once we caught up with Kara.

“Military grade equipment store”, I answered and they followed me. This was going to be my territory.

We reached one of the better stores and walked inside. Again, we were greeted by an Asari. Kara immediately stiffened and tried to run, but it was way easier to get a hold of her, now that she had all these leashes and belts.

“She won't be like the others”, I assured and we walked to the counter. The Asari smiled at us, her eyes rested on Kara and a lustful grin spread over her lips. I forgot that Asari are way more open with their sexuality than the rest of the galaxy.

“Welcome to Grinus Weapons we have the best equipment on the citadel. From Hane-Kedar to Elkos Combine. We also have Omni-tools, armour and other equipment you might need in battle. What can I do for you?”, she said with a friendly smile, yet her eyes never left Kara.

“She needs an armour”, I said and pointed at Kara.

“I need an armour?”, she asked back.

“Yes you need an armour”, I confirmed.

“Well, she thinks I need an armour”, Kara finally said and turned back to the Asari.

“So you need an armour?”, said the Asari with a smile and I now notice how ridicules our conversation must have sounded.

“May I recommend a light weighted one? The miss doesn't look like the type for heavy armour”, she said and gave Kara once more a full body inspection. I must give Kara some praise for staying cool under such predatory eyes. Then I saw her goosebumps, her right eye was also slightly twitching.

I felt a chance and took it right away; “Why don't you take her measures and I will look for the right armour in the meantime?”, I then said and watched with glee the expression of betrayal that crepeed onto Kara's face.

She opened her mouth to protest but Kelly and the Asari were already pulling her away. Her look screamed payback but it was just too funny to care at the time.

I ignored the praise about her skin or body that came from the back of the shop and scrolled through the armour section. Kassa Fabrication had a few good models and Kara has enough money to buy them as well. The model from Hane Kedar didn't look bad as well.

The rest wasn't really good, so I noted both and looked over the weapons. She already said that she liked to have two M-9 Tempest and luckily the store had two.

I added a high tech SMG magazine upgrade, a high calibre barrel, and a recoil system. All of them are absurdly costly, but she has the money. And would surely only want to have the best, wouldn't she?

Grenades weren't needed, we already had those on board.

But a new Omni-tool is a must. Her old one has almost no safety against hacking. I choose one from Serrice Council and added my Spectres ID to skip the long screening process. This might be overkill, but I saw how much money she made. She will thank me later, I'm sure of it.

She also doesn't know that it's one of the best and most priced versions on the market.

Finished with that I began to brows for myself and suddenly felt jealous of Kara and her money.

I really want this Falcon shotgun.

“We're back”, said the Asari happily from my back and I turned around.

“I feel raped”, muttered Kara and I patted her pack in condolence.

“Don't worry, only the young Asari are this way”, I said in a reassuring tone.

“How long are they considered young?”, she asked hopefully.

“Why of course for the first 400 hundred years”, answered the Asari for me and Kara sunk onto her knees, a rain cloud formed over her and began to rain down. With actual rain!

“Is that normal?”, asked the Asari worried.

“I don't know and hope not, the time we would need to dry her would be immense”, I answered.

“I'll get you back for that, next time we see some Asari in heat I will take you and throw you in front of the vultures”, said Kara suddenly and I wasn't sure it was a good idea to anger her.

“Anyway, look, these are the best things this shop has to offer”, I said in an attempt to diverge her ire.

Kara looked over the screen and then shrugged with her shoulders.

“Don't know shit about all this, I can only make out the MPs I asked for. So I'm good with it”, she then said and turned the screen to the vendor, who's eyes turned into dinner plates.

“Miss, the things your friend choose for you are the most expensive things we have in store”, she then said.

“Really? Didn't look like much. But they are good, aren't they?”, replied Kara nonchalantly.

This price would be enough to buy a small ship.

“Yes! Yes, they are the finest equipment we have to offer, some of it shouldn't even be available for normal customers”, she said assured with a raised eyebrow once she saw the Serrice Council Omni-tool.

“Then it's fine, can you deliver this to our ship”, said Kara, who was already paying for all the gear. My account would have been beyond empty if I were to try that. How much money did her clones make?

“Yes, of course. Thanks for your purchase”, she said overly happy. She might get a part of the commission. It must be her lucky day if that's the case. Not only was she able to molest a girl like Kara, she will also get a nice sum as well.

“Really thank you”, she added once again before we left.

“Last things on our lists are normal groceries like a toothbrush”, I said and directed the group to the common market district.

[Line Break]

Third Person's POV;

The group of three women was back after a long shopping tour and found the things they bought already at their ships bay, so they only had to wait for a few more hours until the rest of the crew was back and they took off. Their next destination will be a planet in the Eagle Nebular. They are to get informations from an old Krogan warlord on a planet named Korlus.

“We're going to arrive in the star system of Krogan in five minutes”, said Joker through the com and the ground force listened for Shepard's command who will come with her.

“I want Jack and Kara with me, get ready. This will be our first fight as a group, so get mentally prepared”, came then from Shepard and Kara rolled out of her hammock.

She was reading about the different species and their customs.

Kara quickly put her new armour and weapons on. They took the armour from Kassa Fabrication. It's light weighted, has good shields for a light armour and is easy to move in. It's fully painted in black.

One of her M-9 Tempest was at each hip side and she carried further termoclips on her. Her borrowed Omni-tool was already exchanged with the new model and she also got used to it.

All in all she was ready to go after five minutes and stepped out of her corner. Jack was also good to go. She wasn't wearing any armour and only had a pistol at her side.

“Why are you allowed to not wear any armour and I had to get molested by an Asari?”, protested Kara once she was near enough.

“Because I, Top Model, have biotics to shield me. And you do not”, was her smug reply.

“Yeah? So what? I have Chakra”, countered Kara with a pout.

“This Mumbo Jumbo everyone in this ship is speaking about? What can it even do?”, asked Jack.

“What can it not do, is the better question”, came from a third person. It was Shepard, also in full gear, a middle class armour. On her back was a pistol, a assault rifle and a grenade launcher.

“I saw her healing a live threatening wound, walking at walls, producing a rain cloud and she even has the glare that can kill”, listed Shepard.

“You forgot the muscle enhancement”, said their pilot who jumped inside the shuttle.

“Yeah, forgot that one. What do you think Kara, ready to show some combat Chakra techniques?”, she then asked and followed the pilot.

“Most of my skills are highly destructive. I only have two or so that are good for close quarters. The rest are often producing environmental damage”, she replied with a shrug and followed.

Jack jumped after them and staid silent.

They took off and flew towards their target.

“I get a lot of com transfer near our LZ. Do you want me to link us in?”, asked EDI shortly before they got out.

“Do that EDI”, replied Shepard and they were now able to hear a lot of noise.

Most of the com were about the defending Krogans and orders from a woman who sounded like a bad drill Sargent.

They landed and had a first view of the planet. It was rubble, scab metal and broken things were lying all around them. It really didn't look beautiful and like the exact opposite of homely and welcoming.

The group of three moved out, weapons raised and ready to shot anything that might look like an enemy. And they didn't have to wait long. Only a few minutes after starting they encountered a guard post of four Blue Suns mercenaries.

“Any ideas?”, asked Shepard.

“I could lift them over the barricades. You could easily shoot them after that”, came from Jack.

“Sounds good to me”, came from Kara and Shepard gave Jack a nod.

She concentrated briefly and then shot her biotics at the group. All three of them were surprised and hit by the wave of energy. They slowly drifted of into the air and both Shepard and Kara shot them while they were still unable to move or react.

They then walked up to the barricade and noticed that one of them was still alive, he was crawling to a communicator.

“I would not do that”, warned Jack and the man turned around.

“Who are you?”, he asked.

“Doesn't matter, it's not a good idea to call for help. I have a better idea, you tell us where we can find the laboratory”, said Jack with a grin.

“Fuck you”, said the mercenary.

“Listen, we have Medigel. I'm sure you want some do you?”, offered Shepard now. The man looked at her for a long wile and then sighed.

“Screw the Blue Suns, they are not worth my life. Give me the Medigel and I won't call them”, he then said and Shepard gave him the item in question.

“There are Krogans on your way”, warned the mercenary before the trio was out of sight.

“We should have killed him”, said Kara once they were far enough away.

“I agree with the Top Model. We don't know if he will stay true to his words”, agreed Jack.

“Yes, but he was in no condition to fight. We might see him again and he will be thankful for us”, explained Shepard.

“Or we will see him and he wants to kill us because he couldn't last time”, added Kara.

“Right, that's more likely”, agreed Jack for a second time.

“Do you want us to go back and end him?”, asked Shepard with a sigh.

“No, you are in command. I was just saying that it's not always good to let them go”, said Kara.

The small group went silent after that and simply sneaked through the rubble that was around them.

They then heard gunfire and increased their speed. What they found after a turn was a group of four Blue Suns fighting against a lone Krogan.

“Do we help him?”, whispered Jack.

“I would say yes. My people often said that you might gain an ally by killing his enemy”, said Kara.

“We have something similar, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Let's help him”, said Shepard and opened fire on the nearest soldier. His shields were quickly overwhelmed and his armour was riddled with many new breathing holes, as well as his body.

He was dead before he hit the ground and one of the remaining six Blue Suns screamed; “Ambush, more from behind!”.

Four of the six turned around and opened fire at the three women. Jack raised a barrier and kept the shots at bay, while Shepard threw a singularity at one of them. His shields took heavy damage, but weren't fully depleted. That was no longer the case once Kara shot twelve bullets in his head. Both Tempest were raised and already searching for the next target.

She found it sitting behind a metal plate, thinking that he was save. Not with her on the field.

Kara jumped out of her cover and sprinted forward. A Batarian and a Human saw this and tried to shoot her, but their aim was not fast enough to keep up with the fast speed of an Chakra enhanced human, especially not with one like Kara.

She was up on the cover in no time and somersaulted over it. The hiding man only had the chance to look up into her smiling face before four bursts of bullets flew out of her guns. The first two destroyed his shield and the third ripped through his armour while the fourth came out on the other side. He was fully dead with the fourth shot.

The remaining two mercenaries found themselves now under fire from two sides and had little cover to save them. So it wasn't long before they too fell dead to the ground.

They now turned their attention at the Krogan, who just finished with his second enemy by breaking his neck.

“Thanks, it might have become close without your help”, he then said in his deep Krogan like voice.

“Not worth mentioning, can you help us? We are looking for the laboratory”, said Shepard after it was cleat that he was not an enemy.

“Yeah, just follow that way, along the dead Krogans”, was his reply.

“Thanks buddy”, said Jack and the Krogan walked off.

“Are all Krogans so uncaring for their dead allies?”, asked Kara once they were moving again.

“No, he was even more mindful than most. They mostly just think of them as weaklings and as such not worth mentioning”, replied Shepard.

“Must be a great family life”, joked Kara and they chuckled lightly.

They had to kill some more Blue Suns and even a few Krogans on their way, but then they reached a large and heavily fortified square. There were more than 20 Blue Suns and they even had heavy weapons.

“Well fuck, what now?”, cursed Jack. The three were hiding behind a nearby hill of metal and had a good view on the whole thing.

“Two Krogans, four heavy machine guns, 10 normal foot soldiers, four more with heavy weapons and another four with snipers. All of them behind centimetre thick steel. We would need a tank to get through this”, observed Shepard.

“That or an attack from at least three sides at the same time. But we don't have the necessary weapons with us for such a thing”, she added.

“Are we going around?”, asked Jack. She wasn't keen on fighting through this. A good fight was good any time, but this was suicidal.

“I think we have no other choice. Too bad, it leads directly to our target”, agreed Shepard. She didn't like it, but there wasn't another way, or was there? She looked to their last group member.

“I can get us through them, however, it will be loud and others will surely hear it”, she said.

“How loud?”, made Shepard sure.

“Hmm, the drives of the Normandy?”, estimated Kara and Shepard admitted that that was loud.

“Well, it's the fastest possible way and we don't know if there even is a way around them”, said Jack in agreement.

“Good, but don't do something that gets you killed”, yielded Shepard and Kara robbed backwards.

“What do you think will she do? Her Chakra thing?”, asked Jack once Kara was gone.

“I don't know, so far she didn't use it. Maybe her muscle enhancement, did you see how fast she is?”, replied Shepard.

“Yeah, you really have to keep an eye on her or she will vanish within a blink. Did you ever see her using any offensive attacks?”, said Jack.

“No, she is not yet long part of the crew. We found her shortly before fetching you”, said Shepard.

They both then saw movement in the camp and soon after heard a loud bell like sound.

“It's really as loud as the Normandy”, shouted Jack over the noise.

Each of the Blue Suns were now at one position and aimed at a white ball that made the screeching noise, and Kara was the one who had this ball in her bare hands.

Then she threw the ball and jumped behind cover.

“She threw it?”, asked Jack in wonder. Shepard was also interested in this and noted how the bullets that were shot at the ball did nothing to it. They even hit it with a rocket, yet the rocket was simply ripped apart before making contact. It exploded without doing anything to the ball.

The ball wasn't really fast, maybe 30 kilometres per hour, but it surely sounded and looked dangerous.

“It won't hit”, observed Jack and she was right, the ball flew in a slight arc and narrowly missed the fortification.

“I don't think she would miss like this. Her statement sounded too sure”, reassured Shepard and true to her words, the ball suddenly yanked down and hit the fortification in the centre.

The ball then rapidly expanded and swallowed everything that was inside the camp, even the outer walls. The bell like sound turned into a horrible screeching and glowed in a white light.

The globe held for a few seconds before it receded and only left a crater with the size of the old camp.

“Well fuck me, that was overkill”, said Jack and stood up. Shepard only nodded dumbly and followed her down. Shepard worriedly noted that nothing was left behind, no corpse, no earth, not even the metal. Everything was turned into dust.

Kara was waiting for them at the other end of the camp.

“Let's hurry, I'm sure they noticed us by now”, she said and was already moving.

“No kidding, what was that?”, asked Jack.

“It's called Rasenshuriken, a technique I learned when I was 6. Highly dangerous and you have to throw it or you risk ripping your own arm off”, she answered, not even looking back by doing so.

Jack whistled and held step. They began to hear the remaining mercenaries speaking about the attack and made sure to be far away from the investigation troops.

“Six? What kind of crazy humans were your race?”, asked Shepard. This was more brutal than a tank and they thought a six year old to do that?

“You can call me an exception. It was self thought”, she answered.

“What kind of thing did you have to fight for needing such an attack?”, asked Jack.

“The Reaper?”, asked Shepard.

“No, the Reaper are pussies in comparison with the things I had to fight. At least individually, a Reaper Sovereign-class ship wouldn't stand a chance against a Bijuu. Kura-chan is one of them and the strongest as well”, she said and sounded proud by calling her wife more dangerous than a Reaper, a Reaper the Council force wasn't able to beat on their own.

“Huh, I look forward to meet her then”, joked Jack.

“She might like you, but never badmouth her tails. The last one who did that found himself without his limps and dunked into acid, and that was before I handed him over to her”, she said happily.

“Ähm, sure”, replied Jack unsure by Kara's happy go lucky tone. How could she be so happy while speaking about painfully killing someone for badmouthing her wife's tails. Wait a moment, she has tails? Wondered Shepard.

“I think we're there”, Shepard then said, dismissing the thought for her own mental safety. They stopped in front of a large door, and a quick hack later the door opened. What greeted them was a known sight, at least for Shepard.

The inside was an office, a woman was hiding under a table and her behind was poking out from her poor cover.

“Please don't kill me”, pleaded the woman. And Shepard couldn't shake the feeling off that she knew this voice.

“Come out and we might not”, mused Jack while juggling two singularities. The woman crawled out of her hiding spot, then stood up and looked at the three other women, before making big eyes at seeing Shepard.

“Shepard, please don't kill me. This isn't like on Virmire”, said the now as an Asari identified woman.

“Virmire? Ah yes, you were this scientist that gave us the codes to Saren's personal laboratory”, said Shepard in realisation.

“Yes yes, my name is Rana Thanoptis. You allowed me to flee, do you remember?”, she said in hope for another chance.

“Yes, why are you here?”, asked Shepard in a slightly dangerous tone, she remembered to have told her to stay away from things like this.

“I'm helping Okeer, he's trying to create the perfect Krogan”, she explained.

“Yeah, we found them, weren't really happy to see us”, said Jack.

“Didn't look perfect as well after we were through with them”, grinned Kara.

“Indeed, the Korgans you've seen are only failures, Okeer releases them so that the Blue Suns have their training facility. But lately they are attacking with more force than normal. I think they noticed that Okeer is only giving them the failures”, she hurriedly explained in an attempt to gain points.

“I swear this time it's not something evil. Okeer really wants to help the Krogans. I thought this would be a good way for my redemption”, she further said in a pleading tone.

“I don't know, I didn't let you go just to find you in a lab for the next questionable project”, spoke Shepard and the Asari looked terrified.

“Look, Okeer is through these doors. Just ignore me like last time, I only want to leave before you blow up the complex. I know how you work”, she said and then simply run out. Kara moved to intercept her but Shepard signalled her not to.

“What was that?”, asked Kara the moment the door closed.

“We found her in a research facility of Saren. She was experimenting with the indoctrination, they tried to control it”, explained Shepard.

“Tsk, idiots. The indoctrination isn't possible to control. It lets you think that you can control it but in reality you are the one on the strings. The only one I know of, of being immune to the indoctrination, is me, and that is only because Kura-chan heals any and all brain damage that comes with it”, scoffed Kara.

“We know, that's why we nuked the place”, agreed Shepard, silently thinking about Kara's claims at being immune to the indoctrination. They then opened the door that was mentioned to them and found a battle scared Krogan.

“Ah Commander Shepard!, you are here, good”, he said and turned around to see the three.

“Okeer I assume? We have questions concerning the Collectors”, said Shepard carefully.

“Yes, I will speak, but before that you have to take out these stupid mercenaries. They can't be allowed to get their fingers on my masterpiece”, said the Krogan, followed by an explosion and then the voice of a female that promised death to Okeer.

Shepard didn't like it, but they had no other choice. They couldn't question him while being under fire.

“Let's take care of it”, she said to Kara and Jack, all three walked out of a second entrance and were, of course, instantly greeted by gunfire, so they quickly hid behind some cover and returned fire.

“They have Krogans and Asari biotics. Kara, Jack and I will give you cover, try to flank them. You are faster than us”, ordered Shepard and Kara got ready to sprint.

“On three! ONE! TWO! THREE!”, shouted Shepard and threw a Throw at the nearest Krogan. Jack followed suit and ripped an Asari apart with her own attack. A third Asari tried to use the short time Shepard were occupied and readied her own biotics, but three bursts of MP bullets hit her flank and shredded her abdomen.

Both Jack and Shepard threw themselves back behind cover, right on time to evade an incoming missile.

“The info has better be good”, shouted Jack over the gunfire.

“Me too”, replied Shepard. They heard six quick bursts and then an explosion. This seemed to switch the attention of their enemies on Kara and Shepard risked to sneak a peak.

Two Krogans were marching in on Kara's position and three Blue Suns gave them cover fire.

“Jack, we have to help Kara!”, shouted Shepard and they both jumped up to shoot at the three who supported the advancement of the Krogans.

“Kara, there are two Krogans advancing on your position. They are armed with shotguns”, warned Shepard over her com.

“Hey you big fuckers, you think you can take me on in a fist fight!?”, shouted Kara suddenly from behind her cover.

Both Jack and Shepard looked at each other before glancing over their cover. The Krogans stopped moving and were also looking at each other.

“Ha, the human child thinks she can fight us with her fists?”, asked one of them.

“Is she stupid?”, asked the other.

“So?, too frightened?”, asked Kara again and both Krogans grunted in anger.

“Come out girl and we show you what fear means”, dared one of them.

“You looked like you still need diapers, so maybe you might as well run to your moma”, joked the other. Kara then looked over her cover and saw both Krogans with lowered weapons. She then stood up and put her MPs away.

“Come you oversized lizards, I always thought you might be related to Salarians”, she insulted and it had the wished effect. Both Krogans roared in anger and threw their guns away before storming at her.

Kara just smirked and met them halfway. One Krogan tried to punch her right in the face, but Kara jumped over the arm and gave him a kick over the left eye, before using his head as a jumping board to lift off.

“Stupid woman”, mocked the second Krogan and got ready to intercept her once she lands.

However, Kara just dived at him and stretched her open palm in his direction. Then suddenly, only a moment before she impacted, a blue ball emerged from her palm and hit the Krogan right in the face. At first it seems like nothing happened, but then the sound of breaking bones and ripping flesh was heard and everyone could see how the ball literally grounded the face of the Korgan off.

The other simply stared at the now headless corps of his parter before roaring again and trying another charge. This time Kara made a few hand signs, breathed in and then spit a large tower of fire at the running Krogan. He began to scream in pain, but didn't stop his charge before almost reaching her position. Yet his determination wasn't enough and he ultimately succumbed to the flames and fell down. Kara stopped the flames a moment later, the now smouldering remains in front of her.

“Heh, you think they would be more intelligent”, she said with a laugh and used his own weapon to shot him once in the head. Killing him for good.

“Da fuck Top Model? Do I have to upgrade your name to Badass Top Model now?”, joked Jack while laughing loudly.

“And there goes another thing I was sure you wouldn't be able to do”, moaned Shepard. Spitting fire, hot enough to roast a Krogan, should have been impossible.

“Why are you dead you stupid imbeciles?”, screamed a woman who now also came into the open. She had the same voice as the commanding woman on the com.

“Bring the mech!”, she then shouted and a shuttle let a box down. The box opened and a YMIR stood up.

“Fuck! Battle mech!”, cursed Shepard and jumped back behind her cover.

“For fucks sake”, Jack chimmed in in the cursing and also jumped back. Kara did the same, but not before creating three clones who moved out so that the mech is less likely to aim at them.

“I'll get the YMIR, you two take care of the woman”, declared Shepard. She took her grenade launcher from her back, rolled in the open and shot one of the grenades at the mech. The mech was too busy shooting one of Kara's clones to notice the incoming grenade and was hit square on the chest.

An explosion rocketed the mech a few steps back, but didn't take him out completely. The mech now noticed the danger in Shepard and turned around to open fire, just to be hit by Kara's second clone. Seems like they also have her MPs.

Each bullet hit the knee segment and the leg gave in. This turned the aim of the missile that was meant for Shepard off and the missile flew far away from it's meant target.

Shepard used the opportunity and shot a second grenade at the mech, this time at the arm. It must've hit something important. It exploded and ripped the arm off, a second explosion soon followed curtsey to the clone who shot the mech's head off. This initialised the self destruction of the YMIR and the whole thing went out in a fireball.

Shepard released the breath she had held and looked over to Jack and Kara. They too finished with their fight and were sitting down on the woman.

“We thought it would be good to hand her over, she surely has a bounty”, explained Kara as she saw Shepard with a raised eyebrow.

“Hah, you are too late to save the Krogan, we flooded the ventilation system with neurotoxin gas”, mocked the woman. This earned her a choke hold from Kara until she was out.

“Shit!”, cursed Jack now and they rushed back up to the lab. However, they only found the dead remains of Okeer.

“Was he too stupid to put a helmet on?”, asked Kara.

“No, his armour is riddled with holes, a helmet wouldn't have helped”, inspected Shepard. She then looked around the room and found a new record on the computer.

She activated the record and they heard Okeer's last words.

Seems like I'm dead Commander Shepard.

I don't have any information about

the Collectors, it's true that I worked

for them a few times, but they only

gave me the credits in exchange for

old technologies.

My legacy is in the tank, a true Krogan,

not crippled by the Genofage or countless

years of radioactive fallout.

Take him, he's better in your hands than

in the hands of these mercenaries.

Or the Citadel who would kill him most likely.

The message ended and all three looked inside the tank. A Krogan, who looked young, was sleeping inside of it.

“And now?”, asked Kara.

“We'll wrap him up and take him with us”, answered Shepard and informed the Normandy about their package.

[Line Break]

Grunt's POV;

Shepard and I were taking the elevator to the eating section. She wants to introduce me to the rest of the crew. This mission of hers promises good fights. Fights worthy of a true Krogan.

My memories tell me that she should be a weak female, but she is clearly not. What does that mean? Are all my memories wrong? Or only a few?

“You should have seen her, she mocked two Krogans, then turned the head of one into meat paste and burned the other to cinder”, said a human woman with tattoos. She was excited and gestured widely. I could see them from the elevator. A group of four, a Turian, a Salarian and two human females.

“Really?”, asked the Turian.

“Yeah, and she's fucking good with the MP. As if there is no recoil at all”, she further said.

“Chakra is able to produce flames?”, asked the Salarian. Chakra? I don't have memories about that term.

“Yeah, like a walking flamethrower. The Krogan didn't stand a chance”, answered the tattooed woman with a nod. So someone fought two Krogans and killed them? Might be Shepard.

“But the best was this ball of light, what was it called Rasenturiken?”, she continued.

“Shuriken”, said the second woman. My memories told me that she was barely older than a human child, some would still think her of being one. I too am one of them.

“Yeah that, a white ball of screeching death. She threw it at a fortification camp and turned it to dust. This was so badass”, said the first excitedly.

“I can imagine”, said the Turian in amusement, the tone told me that he only meant it half-heartedly.

“Guys, let me introduce Grunt”, said Shepard the moment we reached them. They turned around and looked at us.

“Oh our sleeping beauty is awake”, joked the tattooed woman and I suppressed the need to hit her.

“Hi there”, said the child with a wave.

“Shepard, why is a child with us on board?”, I then asked and gestured at the girl.

“Does he think I'm a child?”, asked said girl and looked at the rest of the team. They all just smiled wryly.

“You have to admit, you don't look older than 18”, said the Turian.

“Hey Grunt, you are only a few days old yourself”, she said with crossed arms.

“But I am a Krogan”, I shot back with a bark.

“So? I'm Kara, Ancient Human and sure to best you in arm wrestling”, countered the child and I had to laugh. This child thinks she can beat me? A true Krogan?

“Funny child”, I then said and turned around.

“Hey, too scared?”, mocked the child and I stopped instantly.

“What did you say?”, I asked with a growl and turned around with a glare.

“I asked if you are too scared to loose against me in an arm wrestling match”, she said again. This child is mocking me! A true Krogan!

“Bring it on child!”, I grunted and sat down. My arm already in position.

“Fuck yeah, 1.000 credits on our Top Model”, shouted the tattooed woman and the rest began to take part in the betting.

“Sigh, okay. Are you sure you want to do this? I mean now is enough time left to back off”, offered Shepard.

“Yeah child, now is time left”, I joked.

“I meant you Grunt”, said Shepard to my surprise.

“Why should I? She's only a child”, I barked and closed my hand over her tiny fist. Her fist fully vanished in my hand. It looked ridicules.

“Well then, ready? Set! START!”, shouted Shepard and I waited for the girl to do something. I honestly didn't feel anything.

“Are you even trying?”, I asked with a grin.

“No, I'm waiting”, she said evenly. So she's still mocking me? I show her!

I clamped my hand around hers and pressed. This should break her hand, at least my memories told me that should happen, yet nothing happened. It felt like I was trying to crumble a rock. Her hand simply did not budge.

In hindsight I should have been vary from then on, but I was too angered. I moved my centre and pushed down. Her hand moved with me, until both arms stopped completely.

What the? This shouldn't be possible.

I put more strength into my arm but it would not go down. What is this trickery.

“Are you even trying?”, she said and mocked me with my own words. Her face didn't show the least bit of strain.

How can her tiny arms have so much strength?

And then I felt like trying to push a Thresher Maw away. My arm was slowly pulled onto my side until it ultimately reached the table and I lost.

“How? No memory I got told me about such a strength. Human female children aren't supposed to be this strong. They should be weak, not strong like her?”, I muttered.

“Grunt, Kara isn't human. She is something far older. You could say she is the origin of humanity and she's also not a child. Your memories are correct, no female child is strong enough to best a Krogan, but Kara isn't a human child”, explained Shepard.

“Damn right I ain't. I'm over 115.000 years old”, said the none human child with a grin.

“We know it granny, keep calm and eat your porridge”, joked the tattooed woman.

“So I did not loose against a female human child?”, I asked. Maybe there was hope for my pride.

“You still lost against a female”, laughed the Turian.

“Heh, my memories tell me that Krogan females can be way more dangerous than males. So it's not a shame to loose against one. Good, Kara, the none human female child, I admit defeat”, I then said and left. Maybe I have to think over the credibility of my memories in more detail.

[Line Break]

Kara's POV;

“So what's our next destination?”, I asked.

“Well, we still have to wait for Mordin to finish his anti Seeker project”, answered Shepard.

“Yes, finished it yesterday, forgot to tell. Chakra research was in the way. Fascinating thing this Chakra is. Does not act like any other radiation. No harmful effect on other organic material. Yet it seems to interact with it. Will have to do further studies”, said Mordin and then fell into a ramble about Chakra. I think he did not even noticed that he stood up and left while speaking.

“Okay, thanks for the timely info. Well then, now we only have to wait for a hint about future collector activities”, muttered Shepard, while staring at the retreating back of Mordin.

“Shepard, The Illusive Man wants to speak with you”, informed EDI suddenly.

“And right on time. This either means more dossiers or some info about the Collectors. I hope”, she said and then also left.

I turned back to the rest of the group and stared at Jack.

“What?”, she asked after noticing my stare.

“I want half”, I simply stated.

“What? No way! I know how much money you made in the casinos of the Citadel. Kelly told me”, denied Jack.

“I did all the work. And you can never have enough money”, I declared but she just shrugged.

This means heavy weapons. I focused my Chakra in my eyes and used a Jutsu invited by my first adoptive child. The puppy dog eyes. A truly remarkable weapon.

“This eyes are unfair”, said Jack in defeat and transferred half of the win to my account.

“It's a pleasure to do business with you”, I said with my best smile.

“What did you do? Your eyes suddenly grew larger and began to water. Why does it have such an effect on our vulgar and brutal Jack?”, asked Garrus in wonder.

“It's a Jutsu made by my first adoptive child. It's called Puppy Dog Eyes. Humans are weak to anything large eyed and cute. Females especially, Jack is no exception”, I explained with a grin.

“Even Shepard?”, asked Garrus.

“Yes, but she is remarkably resistant. But even she will fall with the addition of The Quivering Lip”, I declared.

“The Quivering Lip? How should that help?”, he asked in wonder.

“I'll show you”, I said and looked at Jack. I activated Puppy Dog Eyes and added The Quivering Lip. I also added small hiccups for the effect and Jack was defeated in an instant.

“Please stop that, I'll give you anything, come I even hug you”, she said and hugged me, while petting my head.

I grinned at a slack awed Garrus and stopped the Jutsu. It's basically a Genjutsu that stimulates the need to comfort or agree with the user by eye contact.

“Stop that”, Jack demanded and stormed off. She quickly got out of her stupor once the Genjutsu was lifted.

“Remarkable”, was Garrus only statement.

“Attention to all crew members, I recently got information about a planned Collectors attack on Horizon. We will try to engage them before they vanish like they did all the time before. Doctor Modrin Solus already prepared a serum that will counteract the Seeker swarms.

Now we will show them that they can't just come and kidnap our people. So get prepared, we will soon be in battle. I want every ground force member in the meeting room”, said Shepard through the ship speakers.

“Seems like we get some action”, declared Garrus, he was already moving. I silently followed him.

A few minutes later we were sitting in the meeting room and EDI showed us a hologram of Horizon. It's a small planet, mostly for agriculture and not really protected. A perfect target for the collectors.

“Mordin is there enough serum for all of us?”, asked Shepard after the quick sideshow.

“No, didn't have enough time to make enough for each person currently in this room. Necessary time isn't enough to produce enough”, he answered.

“Then how much can we make?”, was Shepard's follow up.

“Six dosages”, replied Mordin.

“This means two teams. Garrus and Grunt will come with me. Jack, Miranda and Kara will be the other team. Kara you're going to be the leader”, said Shepard after a quick think over.

“I'd like to protest Shepard. I'm the CO of the ship, I should lead the team”, said Miranda. This had to come, she didn't like me to begin with.

“I thought we had this whole 'who is in command' talk? But just to satisfy you, Kara will lead the team, because she has more experience than you. And I don't think that Jack will follow your commands”, replied Shepard while holding the bridge of her nose.

“Damn right I won't”, agreed Jack and gave me a smirk.

“The Top Model is something different. She's cool”, she added.

“But...”, began Miranda again, however, Shepard didn't let her finish.

“Change of plans, Zaeed you will replace Miranda. I won't need someone on such a risky mission that is questioning my commands”, barked Shepard and Miranda visibly fumed in anger.

“Commander Shepard I don't think...”, she said, not learning from her first try.

“I think you've said enough. The Illusive Man would have given you the command if he had found it necessary. Which he did not. You can leave now, I'll give you another chance on our next mission”, ordered Shepard.

That was the moment I deemed Miranda incapable of learning, because she opened her mouth for a third time to give a reply.

“Now!”, came from Shepard in a harsher tone and Miranda finally got the message and left.

“I'm sorry that you all had to see this, but I won't let someone undermine my position”, apologised Shepard to all of us.

“It's sometimes necessary. Back in my days she would simply have gotten a bullet between her eyes. I think she was left with a small slap on her fingers”, said Zaeed and we all nodded.

She then took a deep breath and began to tell us her plan.

“Good, back to Horizon. We don't know about their current position, but it's highly likely that they landed a few kilometres away from the capital. There are two main streets that lead us inside and each team will take one. We will then regroup in the middle, the market plaza. On the way there both teams will try to find survivors and gain information.

I got reports from Timmy about an Alliance project. They were installing AA-Canons on Horizon before the Collectors hit them. Probably trying to tell the other colonies that we are still there and help.

The Seeker Swarms will have hit them before they could get activated. This will be our main target.

They will be our objective after our regroup at the market. The control tower is placed near the centre of the city and right next to our regroup position.

Each group will try to achieve the mission on their own if it's not possible to regroup. You are to wait for twenty minutes before doing so.

Any questions?”.

None of us had one and I didn't ask mine. It's easier to ask for forgiveness later than for permission beforehand. Or for the normal people, you won't punish who saved your ass.

“Good, get ready. We will arrive in three hours”, finished Shepard.

“Zaeed, Jack, follow me”, I said and all three of us were going to the armoury.

“While I do know some things about biotics, it's not really much. So let's speak about our pros and cons. I'll start.

I'm a heavy hitter, preferences lies in close combat. I'm able to use a wide variant of Jutsu for mid or close distance attacks.

Those who are for long range are too destructive to use in this case, so I will let them out.

The Jutsu, that is the general term for my skills, range from illusions, over manipulation of elements, to muscle enhancement.

I wasn't able to compare my skills with the MP, but I think I'm good enough to hit my targets up to 300 metres.

The armour I use is of light weight and I am no good in cyber warfare”, I listed.

“How wide is the range from your Jutsu?”, asked Zaeed.

“As of now only from a single target up to a field the size of 1 square kilometre”, I replied honestly. With Kura-chan I could do way more, but things like Bijuu-Dama or Giant Elemental Rasenshuriken aren't possible and I'm not yet ready to tell them about Susano'o.

“That's a lot of terrain, sounds more like a bombardment”, commented Zaeed with a raised eyebrow;” Well then, I prefer mid to long distance weapons like the classic assault rifle or a good old sniper. I'm especially good at taking out single targets. My weakness would be large groups of enemies, but I mostly survived those by using my environment. Lastly my armour is of the middle class”, explained Zaeed.

“I may not have as many skills as the little miss, but I come around”, he finished.

“So it's my time to bare my soul in front of you now, is it?”, joked Jack in her normal way.

“Fine, I don't like weapons, so I only use a pistol, if even that. My main weapon are my own Biotics. I mostly use Pull, Shockwave and Singularity. This means that I'm throwing my enemies around like rag dolls, throw things at them or rip them apart with gravity”, she said and explained her skills for me.

“Very well. I read that Biotics can also create a shield that will stop projectiles. Are you also able to do that?”, I enquired.

“I can, but it's not my speciality. At most only for myself”, she admitted.

“Try to use it then as often as possible. I noticed that you don't like to wear armour and I don't want to carry your ass with me only for you to get a new tattoo over the scar”, I said and tried a joke that would come from her.

Her reaction was full out laughter.

“It's good to have the Top Model as our team leader and not the Cheerleader. She has a stick so far up her ass that I fear it might come out of her mouth and stops her from closing it”, she said after getting some control back.

“This will be urban warfare, but not in a large settlement. So we won't expect enemies on high positions with sniper rifles. Nonetheless it will be good to be prepared. Zaeed, are you able to carry both an assault riffle and a sniper with you or do you want me to do it?”, I continued.

“I will just take a smaller version. It might not pack a punch like his cousins but should be good for the kind of distance we will work with”, he answered.

“Do that, heavy weapons won't be necessary, I have a few Jutsu that mimic them. Hmm, what else. Ah yes, does anyone know how to hack?”, I further said.

“Nope, I only smash things around until they open on their own”, was Jack's answer.

“I won't say that I'm good with it, but I will be able to breach normal civilian codes”, said Zaeed.

“Then you are going to be our hacker. Now for the positions. I'll be up front, Jack behind me. Try to stay more to the left. And Zaeed will be in the rear. You will keep a little distance to us, so that you can look out for anyone sneaking in on us.

The last thing would be a test of my own. There is a Jutsu that might be able to help us, but it will require constant physical contact for it to stay active. We will also not be able to move rapidly. Do you want to test it?”, I explained and finished with a question.

“Physical contact? Like touching each other? Why not? I'm always open for a small orgy”, joked Jack.

“If it helps”, shrugged Zaeed.

I then touched both of them and activated a Camelion Jutsu.

“And? When do we start to fuck?”, asked Jack.

“It's already working”, I assured.

“Kara? I lost you, Jack and Zaeed on my sensors. Only a very small signature of your radiation is left. What happened?”, asked EDI suddenly.

“What does she mean? We're still here”, asked Zaeed now.

I let go of them and deactivated the Jutsu at the same time.

“You are back, what happened?”, asked EDI again.

“EDI please explain to Jack and Zaeed what happened”, I said.

“I lost all three of you. My audio sensors, heat sensors, infrared sensors or normal sensors weren't able to sense you any longer. It happened when she touched you. Only a really small amount of Kara's radiation was left. You were simply gone from my view”, explained EDI.

“Exactly. The Jutsu I used is called Camelion, it makes the user invisible to any light based sensors and also dampens the produced vibrations. It basically makes you invisible and inaudible”, I explained what she said.

“Cool, so I could walk up to someone and punch him in the face and he wouldn't see it?”, asked Jack enthusiastically. Surely already thinking about hitting Miranda.

“No, fast movements will undo the Jutsu, as well as contact with other lifeforms. Normally it's not even possible to take others with you, as their Chakra would fight the Jutsu”, I quickly said.

“But we don't have this Chakra, which means you can take us with you. This will make infiltrations way easier”, finished Zaeed and I nodded.

“Yes, we will only be able to walk but that without the risk of being spotted”, I said and took my gear out of the locker.

“I'm going to get ready, remember to add extra ammo. See you in the shuttle bay”, I then said and walked to the changing room.

[Line Break]

Third Person's POV;

The ground force was assembled in the shuttle bay and wore full gear. Team Shepard, which was made out of Garrus, Grunt and Shepard were carrying somewhat the same weapons as the second team, Team Kara. The only difference was that Shepard used an assault rifle and not a pistol. Grunt also had a rocket launcher in addition to his shotgun on his back.

“Everyone ready? Good, then let's start”, asked Shepard one last time and the group climbed into the shuttle. They then took off with their destination called New Hampshire, it's the capital of Horizon and the town where the AA-canons and the Collector ship are.

Said ship did indeed land a few kilometres away from the city and their soldiers were busy collecting the citizen of Horizon. They flew with a low altitude and stopped on the outskirts to let Team Kara out. Said team jumped out and Kara grabbed each of her teammates before they vanished from most sensors and sentient being.

“Did you see that?”, asked Garrus after lifting back off.

“Yes, invisibility can also be crossed from my list”, muttered Shepard a little bit disgruntled.

“I tell you, I will win the bet”, laughed Garrus before they too were dropped off and they fell into a tense silence. Only disturbed by the occasional com-link from the second team.

No one was noticed by the Seekers and they were able to proceed.

With Team Kara;

Team Kara could be said to walk leisurely through the city. Occasionally hacking a building for shortcuts or looking at places of interest. They haven't seen a single Collector as of yet. But this changed with their next turn.

They turned around a corner and found themselves face to face with a group of five Collectors. Three of them were armed, the remaining two were operating the transportation of stasis-pods.

Team Kara stopped in their tracks, both Zaeed and Jack raised their weapons, but didn't fire. They first had to watch if they were noticed. No need to attack, when they could easily go around.

Which seems to be their case, not one of the five Collectors showed any sign of having noticed their presence.

Kara gave the other two a nod and they slowly walked around the group, careful of not alerting them by hitting anything that would roll away. Zaeed kept his weapon on them until they were out of sight and then let his breath out once they were far enough away.

“Fuck, this was nerve-wracking”, said Jack then.

“Yeah, it tends to be during your first use. It gets only better when you notice that they can see you”, said a calm Kara.

“You mean this is not fail proof?”, asked Zaeed.

“Yes, almost any Reaper troop is equipped with sensors against Chakra. At least those that fought against us”, affirmed Kara.

“This is Team Shepard, what's your status”, came then from their com.

“We encountered a group of Collectors. They are ugly, look like giant humanoid bugs and can't see Kara at all”, replied Jack. Kara had her hands busy, so she wasn't able to do it.

“We saw them too, had to fight. They now know about our presence. So far they only showed minimal presence. A force that abducts every citizen must be bigger than what we've seen so far. Anything else?”, said the other side.

“No, we're halfway there”, said Jack.

“Good, you will be faster then. Fights will start to slow us down. Keep in contact”, said Shepard.

“Will do”, finished Jack and the com went silent.

They began to move again and rounded another corner, this time one that opened to a small plaza. This plaza is connected to the main plaza and leads directly to it.

“We have a problem. A big problem”, said Kara suddenly and pulled both of her teammates into a side alley.

“What? I didn't see any enemies”, questioned Zaeed.

“Can you see these spike like things?”, asked Kara instead of answering and nodded to the plaza.

Zaeed turned to look what she meant and saw a group of five silver spikes standing in a neat line.

“Yeah, what are they?”, he asked.

“An appropriate translation would de something like Turner. It turns biological live into Reaper infantry. They put them on these spikes and change them into a mix of Reaper and flesh. It doesn't matter if the subject is dead or alive. This means that a single Husk will be able to see us. And also confirms Shepard's fear of Reaper involvement”, explained Kara and let go of them. They were hidden anyway and the Husk will notice them sooner or later.

“What if the Collectors are only using them themselves?”, suggested Jack.

“No, Turner are also emitting indoctrination signals. Even if they use them without their order, they will do it in the future or are doing it already”, said Kara and disallowed Jack's idea.

“Team Shepard, this is Kara. We found Turner, I mean the spikes that turn humans into Husks”, said Kara then into her com.

“Kara? This is Garrus, we know. They suddenly came out of nowhere and are fighting them”, answered Garrus.

“Do you need support?”, asked Kara.

“No, not yet. This only slows us down a little bit more. And we call them Dragon Teeth. Carry on”, answered Shepard now, she was slightly out of breath.

“Roger that”, affirmed Kara and they sneaked on. Now without the Camelion Jutsu and with raised weapons.

“Good thing we are almost there”, whispered Jack. She didn't like all this sneaking, rushing in and bashing her enemies around was more her style. But even she knew when it was better to be loud and when not. She could always be loud when shit hits the fan. And she got told that shit always hit the fan when Shepard was doing something.

They were able to cross the small plaza without seeing any hostile forces. But the sight that greeted them on the main plaza froze Zaeed and Jack's blood. Dozens of these Turner or Dragon Teeth were standing on it. Some were active and had a human pinned on them. Others were down and got a new human attached onto it.

This was also the case for the nearest one and a Collector was pulling a heavily pregnant woman onto it right now.

“Shit, we have to do something”, whispered Jack.

“And tell them we are here? There are over fifty Collectors”, countered Zaeed.

“And what? Watch how they kill her?”, hissed Jack.

“For all we know she might already be dead”, said Zaeed evenly.

“No, she's alive. The Keeper made sure of that. And Jack is right, this isn't true war yet. We can allow ourselves to help them. Zaeed, I'm going to create a clone that will carry you on top of a house. Take position and give us support fire. Jack, you aren't equipped for this kind of combat, stay hidden and try to distract them. Keep them away from the Turner and the remaining people.

I'm going to hit them, I also intent to hit them hard”, ordered Kara and made a clone that promptly picked Zaeed up and run a wall up.

“Only leave your cover if it's not avoidable”, said Kara lastly. She got into a sprinting position and enhanced her muscles to her maximum. The next thing Jack saw was her vanishing from sight.

At first she thought that Kara activated her invisibility skill, but then she heard a crash from the Dragon Tooth. There, next to the pregnant woman stood Kara, her fist outstretched and bloody. Further down, embedded into a wall was the dead Collector.

Kara's skin was glowing red and steam came out of it. She could see this because her armour was shredded on her arms and legs. They couldn't handle the sudden acceleration that came with her attack.

Kara vanished again and reappeared under another Collector. Her hands were on the ground and her right foot in a upwards position. She pushed herself up and broke the neck of the Collector the instant it connected with her foot. The head was stretched until it ripped off under the strain and turned into a bloody cloud.

A Collector tried to aim at her, but she saw it and threw her earlier kill at him. Both bodies collided and were thrown away. He broke at least a few bones when he hit the ground, effectively taking him out of the fight.

The fight that followed couldn't really be called that, it was more like a vanishing and reappearing glowing red death that aimed his sight on the Collectors.

Then suddenly, only a few were left, one of the Collectors began to levitate and glow.

“Taking direct control”, said a dark, not fully organic voice.

“Control established..., So you are back, your actions are unpredicted but will change nothing. The cycle will continue, like it did when it was your time. Nothing can stop us, not even you”, declared the glowing Collector and then began to flare a Biotic attack.

Zaeed choose this moment to shot. A bullet hit the obviously different Collector, however, the bullet hit a barrier and made no damage. Still, the shot was not for naught. Kara had enough time to get close and she had a message of her own.

“Yeah? Tell you what, I don't care! I will kill you like I killed hundreds of your brethren!”.

She then grabbed both of it's arms and ripped them right out of their sockets. However, it didn't look like it was in any pain, so Kara used both arms as a makeshift club and hit the possessed Collector towards the ground.

A loud crash resounded and a crater was formed where the Collector impacted.

The glow receded and silence fell into the plaza.

Kara let out a long sigh and the red glow also stopped. She then turned to a slack awed Jack and Zaeed. She walked over to them while carrying a small smile and rubbing the back of her head.

“This confirms it then, the Reaper are in control of the Collectors”, she then said as she reached them.

“What happened here?”, asked suddenly a voice that was neither Jack nor Zaeed. It was Shepard's and came from the other side of the plaza. Their group also managed to arrive, alas not on time.

Grunt was bathed in Collectors blood, while Garrus had his sniper ready, only Shepard looked at ease.

“Kara happened, she began to glow and then played with them like they were toys in front of a rampant baby”, answered Jack, still in a slight awe at what she has seen.

“This looks more like a small bombardment”, said Shepard while looking over the plaza. Holes and cracks were littered all around the market. The buildings around had holes or were damaged, with dead Collectors lying in front of them.

They met halfway and inspected the still paralysed humans.

“They have full awareness of their surroundings”, said Garrus in surprise. The eyes of the saved woman were flying from one of them to the other in rapid movement. It was obvious that she was in panic and also glad to see them.

“Kara, could you make some clones that will take them to safety?”, asked Shepard. A hand sign later and fifty clones were made. Most of them picked a paralysed person up, while the remaining acted as guards.

“We will keep them save boss”, said one of them and they left speedily.

“What happened?”, asked Shepard now that they had some time.

“We found them trying to put the pregnant woman on this thing. Had to act fast, Kara did something and then took them out”, answered Zaeed. Shepard looked at Kara, her question in her gaze.

“It's called Eight Gates, a technique that opens one or more gates in my body. Each gate will release massive amounts of Chakra. This enhances my muscles beyond normal limits and makes me faster and stronger. The Collectors will have picked me up with their sensors by now”, answered Kara.

“You look a little exhausted, I take it it isn't healthy?”, noted Shepard.

“Each Gate increases the strength you gain from the previous one, I only opened the first four. A rest of a day will be needed with the sixth, a week with the seventh. The eight would kill me without Kura-chan. However, it will also give me enough strength to literally blow mountains away. I was never as good as my teammate back when I learned it, still I'm good enough to kill these Reaper slaves”, admitted Kara.

“Let's ignore the fact that you can destroy mountains”, began Shepard.

“Seriously, how fucked up was your race?”, threw Jack in.

“What was that about Reaper?”, finished Shepard and ignored Jack.

Kara didn't mind to explain; “They are controlled by the Reaper. Harbringer is even able to take direct command. They were either indoctrinated after finding the Turner or somehow before that. Sure is they are working for them”.

“This isn't good, what could the Reaper want with humans?”, asked Garrus.

“I don't know, this wasn't how they acted in my case. They just attacked and then continued to wipe us out”, reminisced Kara.

“Whatever it is, we will stop them”, declared Shepard.

They all got the message and positioned themselves in an open formation. They then moved out to their main objective, the bunker that has the main control over the AA-canons.

It was one of the side buildings the market had. Luckily they reached it easily. Shepard had to hack the main door to get inside, but that only stopped them briefly.

The door opened and the group of six found the muzzle of three weapons pointed at them.

“Put your weapons down, they are allies”, said a male voice.

Shepard knew that voice, it was one of her old crew members; “Alenko? Is that you?”.

“Hi Shepard, long time no see”, answered her a man with short black hair.

“What are you doing here?”, asked Shepard.

“The Alliance send me to observe the installation of the canons. But why are you here?”, he asked back.

Of course she answered a trusted member of her previous crew; “We got information that the Collectors were attacking Horizon, so we came to help”, everyone saw the slight scowl that was made by Alenko.

“And Cerberus has nothing to do with this?”, he then asked.

“Cerberus? What do you mean?”, asked Shepard with a raised eyebrow.

“You know what I mean. I heard that you're working for them”, shot Alenko back.

“I only use them, they give me the resources to fight the Collectors. Something the Alliance and Citadel won't do”, explained Shepard.

“But there must be more”, began the man.

“Alenko! You should know me better than this. We took Cerberus bases out together. Do you really think I am working for them or did I misjudge you all this time?”, said Shepard in a hurt tone.

“No, I'm sorry....”, he said and went silent.

“You've said that you came to help?”, he changed the topic after an uncomfortable pause.

“Yes, we thought of using the AA-canons”, answered Shepard and let the matter go.

“They aren't ready yet, we have yet to install the target system”, confessed Alenko.

“Shepard, I might be able to link the canons to the Normandy. This will allow me to aim for them”, told EDI them then.

“Do that, how much time do you need?”.

“Two minutes”, estimated EDI.

“I see more Collectors!”, shouted Garrus who stood guard.

“Wonderful, more of these bucks to squash”, declared Grunt and rushed out, shotgun raised and loaded.

Shepard shook her head: “You heard him, we have to hold this position. They probably know what we want to do so be ready to face heavy resistance”. She then also run out and the remaining people inside began to hear the staccato of gunfire.

Kara followed her and rushed through Zaeed and Garrus who were raising their snipers. Jack behind Kara was cursing about bucks and other disgusting things.

“Try to save as much thermal-clips as possible, we don't know how many more will come”, warned Shepard through the com and Kara made a glance at her remaining clips. Two more for each weapon and one full clip in each of them too. Should be enough.

The first enemy she hit was a small group of five Husks, they were advancing on Grunt. She was sure he would have liked this, if there weren't two Collectors already shooting at him.

She quickly drew her MPs and placed a few bullets in these abominations. They never reached him.

“HAHAHA, come, come, I have enough bullets for all of you!”, was the gratitude she got from Grunt. He then shot one Collector the head off and ripped the windpipe of the other out.

Her com then activated and Shepard was on the other side;“Kara, could you, Garrus and Zaeed flank them?”.

With a quick look over to her position she saw that Shepard and Jack were behind a house wall. Four Collectors were pinning them down and another two had their sniper model aiming at them. The snipers were on the left side of the plaza and in a good position to shoot at everyone of the defenders.

Kara opened a link to everyone; “Roger that. Zaeed, Garrus, there are two snipers on the left side, fifth house. Their position is too good for them, let's ask them to hand it over. I'll give cover”.

“Sounds Good,” “Anytime”.

She shot the remaining thermal-clip into a normal Collector and then began to move while reloading.

Two Husks found it to be a good idea to stand in her way. They stood behind each other, so she jumped over the first one and broke his neck with a quick hit of her MP. The second tried to grab her but she brought her leg down and the heel of her foot smashed on his head. A crunch announced his death and the Husk collapsed. A quick roll followed and she jumped back on her feet.

The snipers were now only a few metres away, so she put both MPs away and made two clones. They mimicked as a launching platform and Kara jumped right over the two Collectors. Two small Rasengan then took care of them.

“How are we to get on top of the house?”, asked Garrus. He was looking up at her. The two clones had a large grin and grabbed both of them, before walking up on the side of the wall.

“I hate it when she does that”, muttered Zaeed. The clones dispelled after carrying them up and both crouched down to take aim.

Kara too drew her MP's again and took aim at nearby enemies. Jack and Shepard were using a combination of Biotics and bullets to kill their enemies, Grunt simply shot them with his shotgun and Garrus, as well as Zaeed killed every enemy that had no shield to protect it. Mostly thanks to her.

The fight carried on and it was interesting for all of them how long two minutes felt under constant fire.

Then there were suddenly a loud boom and Grunt was thrown through the air. He hit a building and was buried under a small amount of debris.

“They're using their heavy weapons!”, shouted Garrus and shot at a buck like thing that was a big as a car and had a sack of some sorts under its belly. The sack contained head like balls that were shot as rockets.

“Concentrate fire on this thing”, ordered Shepard and the enemy was hit by Biotics, and bullets ranging from middle calibre up to heavy sniper rifle. Yet its shields and armour took the attack and a second rocket was fired. This time at Kara's, Garrus's and Zaeed's position.

“Oh shit”, shouted Zaeed. He was already in motion to jump off of the building.

Kara quickly created a clone and threw it at the incoming rocket, the clone rocket hit dead centre and the clone exploded in a hot fireball.

Zaeed saw this and stopped. “Pussy”, commented Garrus from the side. He didn't stand up and was still shooting at the thing.

“I'll shoot a missile”, warned Shepard and the tank like enemy was got hit by a rocket from our site. A few sparks came out of it, but it was still battle ready. It turned around to the new treat and opened its sack for another rocket, however, the sack suddenly exploded and the thing crashed down. Supposedly dead.

“Hell yeah. You have to shoot the moment they open this sack, it's their weakness”, laughed Garrus. He must've shot the rockets inside the sack, which resulted in an explosion.

All of them then heard a loud hum and could see how the AA-canons began to shoot at the enemy ship. Hundreds of bullets flew through the air and clawed at the unprotected enemy ship. They didn't have any other option than to flee, so they took off and the remaining Collectors hurried to get back to their fleeing vessel.

“Fuck yeah, run bitches”, shouted Jack after them.

“Let's get back to the bunker”, came from Shepard and Kara jumped down from the house.

“What about us?”. She looked up, Zaeed and Garrus were looking down. She just stuck her tongue out and skipped off.

“Hey!”, shouted one of them after her. She grinned and made two clones behind them, who then pushed both down. Another two caught the screaming men.

“Hah, trolled by a little girl”, laughed Jack who saw the whole thing.

“She isn't young”, grumbled Garrus.

“Even better, trolled by an old granny”.

[Line Break]

Kara's POV;

“What happened to Grunt?”, I asked as I arrived at the bunker.

“I.AM.KROGAN!”. We all turned to the origin of this shout and witnessed how Grunt threw a big rock off of his body. He then jumped up and looked frantically around.

“Where are they? I'll kill them!”.

“Gone muscle man, we kicked their asses while you took a nap”, said Jack and Grunt glared at her.

“UARGH, I want to kill something!”, he then shouted and hit the wall. Which promptly crumbled down.

“Calm down, you can fight some of my clones if you want”, I offered.

Grunt grunted and I gave him 20 clones to play with.

“Shepard, I need answers, what is Cerberus's part in all this?”, asked this Alenko guy. He sure is suspicious.

“I already told you that I'm only using them”, defended Shepard herself.

“That can't be everything. Listen, the alliance knew that you would be here, they send me to question you about your connections with Cerberus”, retorted Alenko and Shepard was visibly surprised, which wasn't unnoticed by Alenko and most of us.

“Seems like I need to speak with TIM about this”, muttered Shepard darkly.

“Alenko, I promise that I am not working for Cerberus. I need them for now if I want to stop the Collectors, you've seen what they do”.

“Yeah, they must be stopped”, admitted Alenko.

“Do you want to come with us? Like in the old times?”, asked Shepard suddenly.

“I'd like to, but I'm in the Alliance and then there is Cerberus. Sorry, I can't”, answered the man who looked sincere.

“°Sigh° would have been good to have you on board. Team, we're going!”, said Shepard. She looked tired, the adrenalin must be going down and the whole battle and revelations were now hitting her.

We were back in the shuttle and I choose to sit beside Shepard.

“Do you want me to be with you when you question The Illusive Man? His kind is dangerous and its always better to have two opinions”.

Shepard looked at me for a moment and then gave me a grateful smile.

“Thanks Kara, that might be good. I knew we couldn't trust him, but if he really knew about the Collector attack before it happened it's worse than I thought”.

I gave her a pat on the shoulder and we staid silent for the remaining flight.

“Okay, what are your opinions about our enemy?”, asked Shepard. We were inside the meeting room and were holding our debriefing.

“Let's start again with the Reaper problem. Kara you've said that the Collectors are working for the Reaper?”.

“Yes, Harbringer, that is the leader of the Reaper, took direct control of a Collector. The controlled Collector gained a stronger shield, faster reflexes and probably other things as well. However, it seems like it isn't able to last without Harbringer. Once he leaves the host, the dead Collector dissolves.

About my claim that they work together with the Reaper. Well that is easy, first they use Husks. The Turner, or like you are calling them, Dragon Teeth are producing a small indoctrination field of their own. The Collector are working for the Reaper simply by using them.

But Harbringer recognised me, that bitch of a ship never took part in any fights against me and Kura-chan. But he knows of me for sure. Spouted some bullshit about our futile attempt to fight him. I would recommend to use these Biotics to take care of his shields, before shooting him with bullet piercing rounds”.

Jack laughed at my suggestion; “It didn't look like you needed such heavy measures against him. Ripped his arms of like it was nothing”.

“That is true, but I was under the effect of four Gates, I used enough force to lift our shuttle”, I stated.

“The question is what might the Reaper want with humans?”, asked Jacob.

“Research, Reaper might fear humans. Shepard stopped them once, must seek a countermeasure”, suggested Mordin.

“We won't know until we go through the Omega 4 portal. Anything about their weakness?”

“Hit the head, both Husks and normal Collectors are easy to kill that way. And we all saw how Garrus took care of their tank. Might be a little hard during battle, but it's never easy”, said Zaeed.

“Sounds good, get some rest. I'm sure we won't stay still for long”, finished Shepard and the group began to leave the room. Until only I and she were left.

“Well then, time to meet Timmy”. She pushed a button and the table vanished into the floor, a holographic program activated and we were in a room. A man was sitting in a chair and a red sun was behind him.

He puffed on his cigar and then looked at Shepard, before resting his eyes upon me.

“Shepard and Kara Uzumaki. This is the first time we meet each other Miss Uzumaki, a pleasure to meet you. I heard much about you and your skills. I'm The Illusive Man”.

I staid silent and let Shepard start.

“You knew of the attack. How and why?”.

“It was necessary Shepard. We had to know if Dr. Solu's countermeasure works. It did, and we now know that we are able to fight the Collectors. As for the how, I strew some rumours about you being on Horizon. It worked, the Collectors came and you could prove that they are beatable”, answered the man without much emotion.

“And sacrificing thousands of civilians in the process was also part of your plan?”, asked Shepard with heavy sarcasm.

“Collateral damage, necessary for the greater picture”, he said evenly. Is this guy stupid?

“Bullshit”, shouted Shepard.

“Yeah, that's stupid”, came from me. It was the first time that I said something and both looked at me.

“How so Miss Uzumaki?”, asked Tim with a little bit of interest in his tone.

“You didn't need to sacrifice the colony. You could have ambushed their ship at the relay. A few ships should have been able to take out their drive and energy. A border team would have it easy to test the serum then. It would have been way easier, more secure and faster”.

“While I like to think that Cerberus has power, we don't have such a fleet of battle ready ships”, came from him in defence.

“Why using your own ships? You could've manipulated the Alliance into sending ships. My opinion of Cerberus is that it's good in espionage and hit and run tactics. Open warfare and strategies for war isn't really your strength.”

He looked kinda angry now, but kept his cool. ;“Please let me do the planning and you the fighting Miss Uzumaki. I know what I do. The Collectors could simply have blown their ship up if we did what you have suggested. It's unfortunate that we lost so many humans, but it simply was the most fastest and safest way.

If you would excuse us now, Shepard and I have to speak about important matters”.

Shepard crossed her arms over her chest and looked at Tim with a smug grin. “I think I'd like Kara to stay. She is a great help so far and her opinion is trusted”.

The Illusive Man said nothing at first and only sipped on his beverage.

“Very well, these files contain your next three dossiers. An old friend of yours, an Assassin, and an Asari Justicar. I recommend to search for the last two, they were last seen on Illium”.

“Might do”, replied Shepard and closed the connection.

“I think he doesn't like me”, I said with a laugh and Shepard could also only chuckle at my dry statement.

“Really? But you are so adorable, how could he not love you?”.

“Must be gay”, I assumed and both of us fell into full blown laughter.

“I'll call you when something is up”, she then said and we both left the room. My next destination, my bed.

[Line Break]

Shepard's POV:

The beeping of my alarm clock woke me up and EDI's voice sounded through the cabin speaker.

“Commander? We will arrive in the Tasale-System shortly. You've slept for 7 hours and 23 minutes. Should I inform the crew about our docking?”.

I sat up, swung my legs out of bed and then swayed, still half asleep, towards my shower. “Please do that, the crew will have shore leave until we have found the needed information about our targets. Please tell Garrus and Jacob to get into gear. They will come with me. The others have to stay ready”.

“Will do Commander, logging you out”.

I took a quick shower and then got into my own gear, Illium may be a civilised world, but I once heard that's it only another Omega. It only had a better painter.

So I got into my full battle gear and took the elevator for the shuttle bay.

Jacob, Garrus, Miranda and Kara were waiting for me. All of them in full gear.

“Hi, Garrus and Jacob will accompany me during this mission. What are you two doing?”. I looked at Kara, who had her arms crossed behind her head, she looked at Miranda. Seems like she does not know why she's here as well.

“I asked Miss Uzumaki for assistance in a personal matter. We will be back before you need us Commander”, explained Miranda and Kara threw a glance at me. Asking if it's okay to help her. Or maybe if she has to.

I gave Kara a sly grin and then looked back at Miranda; “Okay, but don't get into too much trouble”.

“Of course”. We then bordered the shuttle and landed in Nos Astra.

Once outside we were greeted by an Asari that informed me that Liara wishes to see me. I knew that this will come, I tried to delay it as much as possible. It was only a month for me, but over two years for Liara. Garrus told me that she grieved over me. A little bit of me still hopes that everything will be like before.

Well then, time to face my problems.

I turned to Miranda and Kara; “We will see you then. Garrus, time to meet an old friend”.

[Line Break]

Kara's POV:

“We will see you then. Garrus, time to meet an old friend”, said Shepard before she left with Jacob and Garrus.

Shepard didn't look too good. Something must trouble her, and I don't mean the whole Collectors bullshit. I wish Kura-chan would be awake, she was always better at this than me. Heh, the demon is better at emotional stuff than the human. Well, not that I'm a human now, wasn't one for over 15,000 years, and that doesn't count my self sealing.

“She looked troubled”, I said while watching their receding backs.

“Cerberus had information about a possible relationship between Liara T`Soni and Commander Shepard. She must be worried about the upcoming meeting with her”, explained Miranda.

I studied the woman that was a Cerberus agent that kinda had a fetish for skin tight clothes. I still don't know why she wanted me to come with her. She said it was something personal and that she will explain when we are on the planet.

“So what is this all about?”.

She frowned a little and then began to walk, expecting me to follow her.

“°Sigh°, I have to tell you a little bit about me if you want to understand my problem”. She didn't look back while she said that. She sat down in a café and motioned for me to do the same.

I sat down and raised an eyebrow as an unspoken question.

“I am perfect”, she stated as if it was a matter of fact. I just raised my other eyebrow.

“Sorry, I meant that my DNA is perfect. My so called father wanted to have the perfect daughter. Perfect looks, perfect mind, perfect strength. So he designed me like a piece of cloths. I didn't want to life to his tune and ran away. But later I heard that he did it again. I have a sister, more like a twin. She is like me. Only given live to life as a figurehead. I didn't want her to experience the same I did and stole her. She was just a baby at that time.

I got wind of my father, that he might have found her and I want to make sure that she gets safely relocated. Away from the eyes of him and his spies.

My contact is in the Eternity. I know that we aren't the best friends, but could you please help me? I will owe you a big one for this”. She finished her little tale and bowed her head at the end.

Kinda funny, how everyone has a story. I still like this small fact about live.

“Why so suddenly? I understand that you have to act fast, but why me? You are right that we aren't friends. You've tried to bug my things more than once and were always against me staying on the ship”. This has to be asked.

“It's true that I did not trust you. Someone who claims to be from even before the Protheans? And on top of that the creator of Humanity? It was more likely that you were someone with delusions. But Horizon showed me that the Reaper know of you, that you do have the needed strength to help me, and that you aren't an enemy of us”. She made another bow, this time as an apology.

“Why not, I'll help you. So you think that we will need a little bit of fire power for this?”, I said after a moment and patted one of my M9-Tempest. I sure love these MPs, they pack a punch, look cool and have a good magazine.

“I fear so. My father is known for using force when he doesn't get what he wants. Thank you, this means a lot for me”, said Miranda in relieve.

We then took a shuttle to the meeting place and an Asari told us that a Niket, an old friend of Miranda, also knows about this secret relocation and that he told Miranda's father.

Miranda didn't believe her that Niket was the leak, but we still travelled to the location we got from her. A group of Eclipse mercenaries were waiting for us. One of them, a guy in a heavy armour, came over to us. He told the others to lower their guns.

“They don't shoot, so they know who I am”, noted Miranda while we walked over to him.

He must've heard her, because he opened his mouth and greeted us;” Yeah, it was said that you were inside the shuttle. You are the bitch that kidnapped the little girl from our boss”. He then positioned himself in front of his goons and got into a, maybe, intimidating position.

“Kidnapped? This matter doesn't concern you, you should take your men and leave”, replied Miranda offended.

“You think you have everything under control, don't you? Captain Enyala is currently fetching the girl. She knows about Niket, he won't help you”. Yup, doesn't look like he will take her advise.

I stepped forward and he looked down on me. I don't think I'm really intimidating with my hight of under 1.5 metres in opposition to his over 2.1.

“I'm terribly sorry to inform you about your failed mission. It's really unfortunate that you weren't able to get your target. But it's good that you didn't loose anyone isn't it? I sure hope you won't have some unfortunate accidents while retreating.”

He crossed his arms; “Captain Enyala had ordered to give you a single chance to retreat. My man took fire position during this talk. A single order and hell will overcome you.”

I think he must've meant the soldiers that were standing in the background. I thought of them as possible targets and already send a few cloudless clones to get rid of them. So it wasn't really surprising to not see anyone aiming at us, other than his two remaining goons that were standing behind him.

Miranda saw this and simply shot the remaining two guards. He, the guy in his heavy armour, turned around and jumped into cover.

“Tell Captain Elyana we need support! Hello? Anyone? ”. He looked around and saw the downed bodies of his comrades around him.

“They are only taking a nap. It might be good to help these two before their nap becomes unlimited”. It looked like he was arguing with himself but ultimately stood up to put his weapon down. “Okay, you've won, let me and my men go”.

“I don't think so”, came from Miranda. She then used a Biotic attack to rip his shields apart and a third shot, that came out of her pistol, gave him a new breathing hole between his eyes.

“Come we have to get to Niket”. Miranda then stepped over the dead guy and jogged off to the landing zones.

Shepard wouldn't have liked her ruthlessness. Killing someone who has surrendered is not morally acceptable for her.

“Now I know why you didn't ask Shepard. She wouldn't have liked the way you do this. He surrendered and you killed him”.

We rounded a corner and more Eclipse mercenaries were in front of us. They had their weapons ready and began to shoot at us.

Miranda and I jumped behind cover and let our shields recharge; “Is that a problem?”.

“As if, killing a mercenary is nothing I would cry over. Kura-chan and I had to leave worlds die at the hands of the Reaper. Knowingly letting millions of children, adults, and elderly people die, just so that you may have a tactical advantage. And then you're not even able to use it. That is something you might cry over”. My shields were fully recharged and I peeked out of my cover, two human and an Asari were playing target shooting at us.

“I hope I will never have to do the same”, came from her. She looked saddened by the mere thought.

Heh, I should never tell what I've done in my second live. Or the that Kura-chan and I were pretty detached from the real population. We kinda got into the background after a few dozen years. It was easier to control the world from the shadows. Only the Reaper and a few galactic wars forced us to reveal ourselves.

But back to the topic, we need to get to her sister; “Are you able to take out the Asari? I'll take care of the other two.”

“I think so”, came back in a resolute tone.

I crouched lower and then jumped over the cover. Lifting my body way over 20 metres into the air. All three of our enemies were gaping at my jump. Unfortunately for them they didn't manage to regain their composure before the first warp hit the Asari.

It was also the moment I aimed and shot at both humans at the same time. My Chakra enhanced muscles made it easy for me to ignore the recoil. So shooting at two targets from a vintage point wasn't a problem and their shields soon collapsed under the onslaught of bullets. Their armour and then the bones of their heads followed only a few bullets later.

I landed between the now dead men and reloaded my MPs, while getting back into cover. Miranda's opponent wasn't dead yet. These Asari are often pretty good and their innate ability to use Biotics isn't something to laugh at either.

Still, they would be so much better if they would do something out of their long lifespan. This Extra net told me that they often use up to a few hundred years as barmaids or whores for other races. A lot of them are also trying their luck in these mercenary groups. This ends more often than necessary in their deaths.

Funny race, so much unused potential.

“Something wrong? You're looking strangely at the Asari”, asked Miranda suddenly. She killed the woman and was now looking at me from the side.

I shook my head in denial; “No, it's just that Asari are strange”.

Now she also looked at the dead Asari, her eyes already lost their sight and were staring straight upwards; “In what way?”.

“They have so much time and aren't using it. Their maiden time, or whatever it is called, could be used for so much more than simple sex and some minor criminal activities”. I only gave the dead alien another glance and then turned around. There were more to kill until we might reach our goal.

Miranda followed me; “You said that you're old. How old exactly?”.

“I don't know how much time passed since I was sealed. But my body was around 5000 years old at the time I got sealed”.

“Your body? Not you?”, asked Miranda. Of course she noticed the choice of words.

“I neither know nor like you enough to tell you about some parts of my past. And I advise you not to ask. There are things that you don't want to know”. My voice was icy and didn't left any mistake to what will happen if she pries into it. So she did the only right thing and nodded.

A few dozen Eclipse soldiers and angry com-messages from their boss later we reached a lift. We also listened in on things that further enforce the possibility of Niket's betrayal.

“She is probably giving us false reports. There is no way that Niket would betray me”, claimed Miranda while we were inside the lift. She is on the edge about this whole Niket matter since the Eclipse captain began to speak about him.

“It's possible, people change. He might have good reasons”, was my statement to this matter.

Miranda glared at me angrily; “What kind of reason could be good enough to doom the live of a woman?”.

“Your father might hold someone captive that is more important to him than your sister. Or learned something about you, like your affiliation with Cerberus. It could also be that he just changed and got greedy”. There are many things that will bring someone to betray their oldest friends. But oldest doesn't mean best.

“No, Niket wouldn't betray me”. Seems like she won't listen. The blindness of the young. It's always good to have a little distrust. Especially with people you rarely see.

The door opened and two Asari, as well as a human male were in front of us. One of the Asari was clad in Eclipse armour, the other wasn't wearing any armour or weapon.

The man must be Niket. He squinted his eyes before looking shocked at Miranda; “Miri”.

“This will be interesting”, said the Eclipse Asari and stood up from a crate she was sitting on before.

She then aimed a shotgun at us. What followed was a good old stand off. Niket raised his hands and the second Asari took flight. She didn't get far, the first one shot her, she was dead before she hit the floor.

Miranda's pistol wasn't aimed at the Asari with the weapon, no her aim was at Niket's head; “Niket you betrayed me!

Why Niket? You were my friend, you've helped me to flee from father”. She then said and looked to be near tears.

“Yes, because you wanted to get away. Had I known that you will also steal a baby...”, said Niket for his own defence.

“I didn't steal her, I saved her”, protested Miranda.

“From a life in luxury and luck? You didn't save her, you just wanted to get revenge on your father”, shot Niket back.

“That isn't true. You know how my life was, I couldn't have left her living through the same. And now my father knows about her”.

“No, he does not. I knew about your spying devices in his network, I kept any informations about Oriana away from him. You would've noticed it otherwise”, claimed Niket.

“That means you are the only loose tread”, said Miranda in a hard tone and a I knew that she was about to shoot him. Shepard would have stopped her, I just didn't care.

A second later and she shot. Niket was dead and she had no one left from her childhood.

“I knew it, this was going to be interesting. So if you don't mind, I have to deliver an order”, came suddenly from the Asari.

I acted as fast as I could and jumped at her, both of my boots were firmly planted in her stomach. And she was thrown back into a large crate. However, she managed to activate her Biotics and wasn't hurt by the impact. Only my boots must've hurt her, cause she winced while standing up.

That is an Asari that took some of her time seriously. The reaction time she showed was quite good.

Her Biotics flared blue and other Asari troops began to shoot at us. Miranda hid behind some barrels and I sprinted to the side, behind a large crate.

I shot a few rounds blindly at our attackers while activating my com; “Any idea how we can kill them?”.

“Yes, there are barrels of H-gas near some of them. We just have to breach the hull and they will die from the toxic gas. However, the others will be a problem”, answered Miranda and I peeked around the corner. There were a lot of barrels. I suddenly realised that I have no fucking clue which barrels she means.

“I don't know which ones I have to hit, so I'm just going to give you cover”. I then walked the crate, the one I was using as a cover, upwards and used my newly gained higher position to shoot down.

Two Asari quickly fell under the barrage of bullets before the others managed to get behind better cover. Yet, this new cover wouldn't help them as well. Miranda jumped up from her position and placed a few good bullets into six barrels. Each was near our enemies and each quickly spit out some green gas. A few Eclipse soldiers left their cover in panic, others staid. Those who fled were taken out by my bullets and the covered learned why their comrades fled.

They began to scream and also left their cover. The armour was corroded on some places and their faces were literally melting off of the skull.

But there were still other mercenaries we had to kill. The leader was one of them and she was closing in on Miranda. Her shotgun was making sure that Miranda couldn't shoot back and I could see how two other Eclipse were taking position to flank her.

I made a clone and jumped off of the crate. The force of the jump catapulted me directly over the leader and I positioned myself into a straight line, with herself under me.

The moment my body got claimed by gravity my clone used two Rasengans that were controlled by Chakra-threads to kill her two supports.

They were ripped apart and the lead Asari could only spin around before my boots crashed on top of her shoulders. The force was strong enough to break both her arms as well as a few rips. But I wasn't finished, I put my boots together and clamped her head between them. A quick twist was enough to break her neck and she dropped down.

Miranda looked over her cover and saw how I stepped down from the corpse; “Thanks, they almost had me. Let's look for my sister”.

I nodded and we walked to the civilian area. There Miranda suddenly stopped and looked at a group of three, a young woman and a middle aged couple. All of them were human.

“That's enough”, said Miranda suddenly and began to turn around. Does she not want to speak with her?

“Are you sure? I don't think she would mind to know her sister”. This might be a rare chance for her to speak with her.

“No, it's the best for her to not know me”, replied Miranda. Still, I could hear the sadness in her voice.

I grinned at her; “Then please excuse me”. After that I skipped over to her sister and put my bubbly girl appearance up.

“Hi, my name is Kara, I'm really sorry to disturb you, but I'm lost and I have to find the Segara Market. Do you know where I can find it?”.

The three stopped and looked at me. Then Miranda's sister smiled and nodded once; “Yes sure, and it's okay. The Segara Market is in the western part of Nos Astra. You have to take a shuttle”.

“Oh thank you, I am such a ditz if it comes to find my way”, I said cheerfully and grabbed her hands as a show of gratitude. She just smiled and squeezed back.

I then rushed off and waved back at them.

“What was that?”, asked Miranda suddenly from behind me. I only walked around the corner and she was already waiting for me.

“Nothing, just wanted to meet her”, I replied. Miranda didn't look convinced and was also angry, but choose to say nothing. We simply walked back to the Normandy. Shepard was back and did not look good at all. Her meeting must've not been as she wished it to be.

[Line Break]

Shepard's POV;

Well, it could have been worse...the Reaper could have come today.

Liara was happy to see me, but made it clear that she wasn't ready to go back to what we were. It hurt her to much to have lost me once. She doesn't want to risk another time.

Maybe time will heal the wounds and bring us back together? I really hope it will. She was as beautiful as I remember her, her blue skin was glistening in the light and her smile shone like the brightest star.

*knock**knock* Someone is still knocking on doors? “Yes?”.

“It's me Kara, I have something to tell you”, came from the other end and I walked over to the panel to open the door. The door swished open and Kara stood there, carrying with her two plates of food, a bottle with black liquid and a bottle of wine. The food was steaming hot and not your normal space ship grub.

“Hungry?”, she then asked with a grin and I motioned for her to come inside. She did so with a small skip and put both plates down at my small table. She then turned around to me and waited for something.

“Ah yes, hi. Where did you get the food?”, I then said once I realised that she waited for me to start a conversation.

“I have my sources, I hope you like chicken with roasted potatoes, onions and bacon. I also have a nice wine, something named Chateau Muton or do you prefer coke?”, was her answer, matched by a sly grin.

“Chateau Muton? Isn't that that insanely expensive wine? Where did you get your hands on that stuff?”, I asked a little slack awed. The bottle alone would cost as much as a car.

“Did you know that Tessia allows gambling?”, she asked rhetorically and I instantly knew what she did.

“*sigh* Now I know. Anyway, you said there is something you wanted to tell me?”, I said in resignation and sat down. We began to eat and I was surprised by how good the food tasted. It was brilliant and I even think it was real chicken I was eating.

“Is that real chicken?”, I asked to be sure. Real meat became rare since space travel started to go beyond the moon. Not really rare on a planet, more like seldom eaten, but it sure is in space.

“Of course, I would never eat the affront that is calling itself chicken without chicken inside of it. That would be a sacrilege against the food of gods”, she said in a highly zealot like tone. I did know that she likes her chicken, she mentioned it once or twice, but she wouldn't eat the almost identically tasting substitute?

“Anyway, what did you want to speak about?”, I asked when we were finished. The food was good and I now had a bottle of really expensive wine for me alone. Seems like Kara doesn't like wine. Heh, wine for a heartbroken woman, it's handy she came with a bottle.

“Yes, you know I left with Miranda?”, she began and I nodded, while sipping on the really good tasting wine. ;”Well, she asked me to help her with a family problem. It's possible that her father will try something in the future if he gets wind of it. I wanted to make sure that you know why something happens if it will happen. I don't think he knows as of now, but anything can happen”, she explained. So she is warning me about a potential danger coming from Miranda, while not explicitly saying what happened, only that it involved her family.

Now I'm able to track down how much of a treat he might be and can make plans against him.

“Thanks for the warning Kara, is there something else? Not that I want to kick you out of my room”, I then said with a grateful nod.

“You seemed to be troubled, is everything okay?”, she then asked and hit right where it hurts. I instantly found myself thinking about Liara and what we have lost because I had to save Joker. Not that I wouldn't do it again mind you.

“I... can I ask you something?”, I asked. She said nothing and I took it as a sign to continue;” Did you ever had a fight with your wife, Kura-chan I think was her name, in which you two might have broken up and parted ways? Or something happened that made the other grief over you?”.

She looked thoughtful for a moment and I thought I might have overstepped the boundaries of our friendship, but then she smiled fondly about surely long past memories.

“We haven't really fought in all of our time together. The biggest argument we had was how I gave us the strength we now have. You see, the first time I did it, I lost my arms. They burned to ashes. But there was this one happen stance where I thought of loosing her”, she said with a happy smile. How someone could speak about this with such an happy tone was beyond me. I know how much it hurts to get shot, getting your arms burned to ashes must hurt a lot more.

“May I know what happened?”, I asked a little hopefully. None of us knew much about her, other than what she said during the group meetings. Jack might know her the best of us. I only know that she was often hurt in her life, saw how her race got killed and that she hates to be used as a dress up doll. Oh and she likes chicken and her wife, not sure what she likes more.

“I know we might not be as close as I like, I just want to get to know my crew and friends”, I added and glanced at her.

She only smiled one of her beautiful, yet cute smiles.

“Sure, I'm not against speaking about myself. I just don't want to tell someone who might use the information against me.” She explained.

“I promise I won't tell anyone about what you tell me, nor use it against you”, I said and her smile grew a little wider, showing her white teeth.

“Thanks, well then, I think you have to know something about me and my wife before I'm able to tell you what happened. You see, I'm not truly human, not anymore”, she began and I raised both my eyebrows. I knew that she wasn't human in the way I understood the word of.

“This is something that not many knew, even when humanity still had Chakra. You have to know that Kura-chan is Chakra, and I mean a being made out of Chakra. She was sealed inside me shortly after birth and I learned to speak with her in my early childhood. From there on I build up a relationship to her that ultimately resulted in love.

We both loved each other but neither of us could hold the other in a real hug, only in a place that was created in my mind.

I then gained the ability to create things”, she explained and I frowned a little. “Yes, I know how it sounds, I had the ability, with the [Ying Yang Release], to create things out of Chakra. It's the same skill that can revive the dead. Anyway, I thought of using this skill to create a body for Kura-chan to take claim to. The problem was that I can't create something that is more powerful than me. And Kura-chan was the most powerful thing alive at that time.

And there were others like her, there were eight others similar to her. Each of them had enormous powers that could easily destroy a Reaper Dreadnought”. She laughed at the end at my opened mouth, I couldn't really believe what she said. Stronger than Sovereign? And at that easily?

“Well, here comes the troublesome part. I came up with the conclusion of making Kura-chan even stronger than before, so that she will, for a lack of a better therm, level up. She would then use my body to create a body for her own. I simply told her to go for the grand price if we try to begin with.

But back to the topic, the nine of them were ordered by strength and representing this strength were the numbers of their tails. Kura-chan had nine beautiful fluffy orange tails.

However, there was something stronger, something with ten tails. This something was a monster with the strength to level continents. A monster that was split in nine parts.

Kura-chan was one of them.

So I absorbed the strength of the other eight and gave it to Kura-chan. This was done by channelling the energy through myself into her. The first time I nearly burned out and, as I said, lost my hands. She was fearful of me dying while trying. And also a little bit angry for being this stupid and attempting such a feat in a rush.

We ultimately managed it and Kura-chan got her tenth tail. However, the strength came with a prize. Her sanity was in danger, the power was so strong that other thoughts were suppressed and only the desire to destroy and eat would have been left if I hadn't done something.

I had to cut her in half so that the mass of energy wouldn't influence her any longer. That was the hardest thing I have ever done, as it wasn't without pain on her side. Now with her weaker than me I was able to make a body for her. She has the Ying half, while I have the Yang half of her still inside me. Together we can create things and unleash destruction of unknown measure on our enemies. But none of us can do this on their own.

We are, in a sense, weaker on our own, than by being together. Currently Kura-chan is back inside me, but she isn't awake yet and as such I'm not able to use my whole strength”, she finished and I thought about what she said. To sum it up, she isn't fully human, but more like Chakra itself and her wife almost lost her mind by attaining this body?

“Ehehe, this was kinda long and I think I lost track of what you initially wanted to ask”, she then said with a cute hit on her head.

“No, I don't mind, it was... enlightening. If I got everything right you said that you weren't able to touch your love because she had no body, so you went through pain and trouble in order to give her one, only to realise that no body would be good enough to contain all of her. Which made you share her strength and again, in some cases, a body.

It's sad and romantic at the same time”, I said and suddenly found my problem with Liara not so bad anymore. Kara has had a lot more problems and was able to manage. So what says I won't be able to do the same? At least I am able to touch Liara. I don't want to think about how it would feel to only see and hear Liara, while not being able to interact with her in any physical sense.

“Did that gave you the answer you looked for?”, she then asked and brought me back from my thoughts.

“Yes, thanks”, I answered. We then continued to chat about this and that. We hadn't any more serious matters and I even learned that Kara is thinking about nibbling on Garrus to see if he tastes like chicken. I told her that Garrus has a different body structure that would make her sick, if she tries to eat him. However, she replied that she doesn't really need any food to survive and in fact could eat whatever she wants. Everything would get dissolved in her stomach and turned into Chakra, so she would be able to eat dextro amino based food.

I asked her, while laughing, to please not eat my sniper during missions.

[Line Break]

Shepard's POV;

“Okay, I got news about the location of both of our targets. One is an assassin named Thane Krios, he is a Drell and tasked to kill an Asari named Nassana Dantius. The other is an Asari Justicar named Samara. Both are powerful in their own rights and may prove to be dangerous if approached in the wrong way.

I want Miranda, Kara and Jacob to go after the assassin, while I, Zaeed and Garrus will go after the Justicar”. The others were sitting inside the meeting room with me. And Grunt wasn't looking happy to not be selected.

“Nassana was the Asari that set us on to kill her sister wasn't she?”, asked Garrus with a growl.

“Indeed, and I for once don't find myself with enough fucks to giver her survival some”, I grinned back and Kara began to snicker, while Garrus, Zaeed and Grunt laughed out loudly.

“Shepard, who will lead our mission?”, asked Miranda. I dreaded this moment, and decided to choose a different approach this time.

“I thought Jacob would have a chance. Are you up for the task?”, I replied and looked at the man in question. He looked surprised at first and then determined.

“Yes commander, I will not fail this mission”, he then said and took his group out for further talks.

“What do you think we will face?”, asked Zaeed. He was, like always, mostly business.

“Liara said that the Justica is currently held in a police station, but that she won't be there for long. I was once told that Justica can become quite the trouble if they have the opinion you did something unlawful.

So just in case she does decide we did her wrong, a shotgun and heavy pistol for you Zaeed. A sniper rifle and assault rifle for Garrus and lastly I will carry a MP as well as a rocket launcher.

It might be possible for us to not shoot anyone, but situations where I don't have to shoot my way out are rare”, I answered. Each of us got into gear before we met the rest in the hangar. From there we took a shuttle and set the assassin team off before continuing to our destination.

There we stepped out of the shuttle just in time to see a Volus walking away from an Asari, he was muttering insults and then stopped between two bodyguards.

“This doesn't bode well, I call dibs on being shot upon in the next ten minutes”, grumbled Garrus. I shot him a dirty glance and moved over to the Asari.

“I hate you Garrus!”, I shouted over the noise of gunfire. Everything was good, that was until I greeted the now as a police officer identified Asari. So basically nothing was good.

She told us that the Justica, Samara is her name, was tracking down a target of hers and that the police officer had been forced to arrest the Justica for being present during a crime.

The Justica complied, that was for a day. She then would see herself forced to continue with her pursuit regardless of the opinion of one police girl. The girl in question didn't want to die, as she would be forced to stop the Justica, something that would be suicide for her.

So I and my group of two found ourself hunting another Asari, part of Eclipse. As organised as any other Eclipse group. Meaning, a few biotics, normal weaponry and some good tactics.

Nothing we couldn't handle, it was just sad to see that we never got to have a mission without killing something or someone.

I killed another Eclipse soldier and it got silent. Well, almost silent, a few sobs were coming from behind a cover. Garrus positioned himself to my left side, while Zaeed took my right. I approached carefully with an activated barrier. The sobbing came from a young Asari in eclipse armour.

“Please don't kill me, I'm new. I haven't done anything”, she pleaded with tears flowing heavily.

“Lies, I know how Eclipse recruits new soldiers. They have to kill to get an armour”, snarled Zaeed, his weapon now pointed at the head of the Asari. The sobbing stopped instantly and her face contorted to a fierce expression.

“Well, what are you doing now? Kill me?”, she growled with a spat. It would certainly be easier.

“No”, I said and then used my own weapon to hit her on the head. The bottom of my M-12 Locust crashed into her temple and she crumbled down.

“We're leaving her for the authorities. EDI? Call the detective, we got a present for her”, I said and EDI confirmed the order.

We continued on our way until we reached another door. All three of us were ready to open fire on any hostiles when we opened it.

We weren't ready for the Volus on Red Sand. The little bugger was staggering around the room with small biotic flares here and there.

“Stop! Who is it that stands before Niftu Cal? The botic god of... of biotics”, asked the highly intoxicated volus. Seriously, what is up with these guys?

“We are here to hunt an Eclipse Commander”, I said and walked over to the door on the other side of the room.

“Hah, she is nothing in front of my power, my biotic might is godly and will rip her apart in mere moments!”, he proclaimed loudly and was turning around to come with us. He could barely hold himself on his feet.

“Yes, it would be better for you to wait”, I said and pushed him slightly. He fell back and flailed with his arms and legs.

“What is this trickery? I, the biotic god Niftu Cal, beaten by a mere woman? It seems that I have to retreat for now and gather my strength”, he said and tried to roll on his side, so that he could stand up. He had only little success.

“Biotic god my ass”, grumbled Zaeed a moment later. I agreed, but didn't voice it out loud. A moment later we reached a wide hangar bay with many barrels of the toxic Minagen X3 standing around.

An Asari in Eclips Commander armour was rambling about their bad luck since they smuggled someone off of the world. She was cursing me, the Justicar and this person she has smuggled.

She then noticed us and threw one of the containers at us with her biotic powers.

We jumped into cover and saw how three more Eclipse soldiers came rushing in to kill us. Thankfully there were a lot of these Minagen X3 containers around and we could kill them quickly by exposing them to high amounts of the gas.

The downside was that the gas was also enhancing their biotics. The things they threw at us weren't funny. Yet, at the end we preserved and Garrus was the one who shot the Eclips Commander a sniper bullet in the head.

A quick search of her data pad revealed a shipping manifest of the Minagen X3, something the police officer would surely like to see. We also learned that Samara was hunting an Ardat-Yakshi, some freak of an Asari that is killing her partners by melding with them. It makes them high and addicted.

On our way back we were confronted by the Volus that sold the Minagen X3 to the Eclips. He tried to buy me and offered some credits for the data. Well, I told him to fuck off and we walked over to the police station. There we were greeted by Samara and the police girl.

“Here, this will help you in your case with the Minagen X3”, I said and gave the officer the manifest about the shipping.

“Thank you”, said the Asari in relief.

I then turned towards Samara and told her that the ship she was looking for was named AML Demeter. It left the two days ago. She told us that she was impressed from us and agreed to help me with the collectors. A biotic light show, as well as a death threat followed and we were good to go.

Back on the Normandy we were greeted by the rest of the team. Miranda. Kara and Jacob were successful at recruiting the assassin. He's a Drell with the name of Thane Krios. He had the Volus Syndrom and is going to redeem himself by helping us in this suicide mission.

If it works for him, good for me.

All that was now left on Illium was Liara's problem, I'll take Garrus and Thane with me. But that was tomorrow, now I only want top grab a bite and have a long hot shower.

[Break Line]

Kara's POV;

Shepard left for a mission and now I'm bored. The casinos on Illium have gotten wind of me and are now only allowing someone with an ID inside. I do have one now, the problem is that I can't fake it for my other clones, once I am thrown out. This was a problem, well a small one, but still it was annoying.

Other things of concern were that Kura-chan was still asleep, I'm sure she is only oversleeping now and I should be able to wake her by simply nudging her inside my mindscape. But then I would lose some of my chances of messing with the crew. Well, she will wake up when she wants to, never disturb the beauty sleep of a woman.

So this was why I found myself wandering the ship. Garrus was off board, so I couldn't annoy him. Mordin was busy analysing my dead clone, not that he will find something. Miranda is still annoying, Jacob too much of a virgin and Jack doesn't want to be disturbed. The last two were Grunt, someone who has only smash this, proclaim my Krogan heritage that in his head and the new addition Samara.

I read that Justica are always old and wise, maybe I can go over and speak a bit with her?

Yup, let's do that.

“Samara? May I come in?”, I asked from in front of her quarter, one of the observation decks.

“Yes”, came the reply and I opened the door. She was floating in a cross legged position and looked to have been meditating.

“What's up? Do you want to speak?”, I asked and sat down next to her.

She looked down at me and gave me a small smile, one of those you give children. Did no one told her that I am not a child.

“What can I do for you?”, she asked in a friendly tone.

“You know, just speaking. There are lots of things someone gets to know with time. Let's exchange some stories”, I said with a bright smile.

“As you wish, what is it you want to hear”, she asked.

“Hmm, how does feel to have biotics? I mean, what is it like? I don't have any, I have Chakra”, I asked. She hid her confusion about Chakra well and began with a biotic light show.

“Biotics can feel differently from time to time, sometimes it is a raging storm and other times a serene ocean. Activating your biotics is tiresome and makes most inexperienced users hungry.

It all comes down to the state of your mind, but tell me, what is this Chakra you said you posses?”, she explained.

“Well, Chakra is everywhere, it is the foundation of all and in everyone. It still is, yet nowadays it's

more a small reminder of the raging inferno that was once in everybody”, I said and rubbed my hands slightly.

“This Chakra of yours, can you show me some? Or is it more of esoteric nature?”, she asked. Oh yeah, she still thinks that I'm a child.

“Sure, what do you want to see? I can do pretty much everything with Chakra”, I said with a wide grin.

She laughed briefly and looked to be thinking of something. “I don't know, I'll let you decide”.

It was again spoken like I was a child.

“Okay, then let's try the hovering thing”, I answered and pushed Chakra out of my legs in such a way that I was hovering like her. And now for the effects. She had a few balls of biotic energy in her hands. So I created a ball of fire, a small twister, a globe of water and a stone. All of them were neatly lined up in front of me.

“Astonishing, I have never seen something in my life such as this”, she said with a slight tone of awe.

“You're still young”, I laughed and glided out of the room, still in my sitting position.

[Line Break]

Later that evening Jane came back with another Asari, her name was Liara T'Soni and would accompany us to an of shore planet, where the evasive Shadow Broker is said to be. So we flew there and Jane went down with Liara and Garrus, while the rest of us could wait on the ship.

I'm also bored again, seriously, there should be something to do on this ship. I walked aimlessly around until it hit me, I could transform into something and have fun!

[Line Break]

Miranda's POV;

“Puh, finally done with the paperwork”. And again, no one will acknowledge the work I have done. It's not easy to manage the supplies. We need E-Zero, food, water, hygienic utensils, material for repairs and and and.

At least I've finished the work for this week. Now something to eat.

I walked out of my office and turned left towards the canteen, where I found something that should not be possible. There was a cat. An orange striped cute and fluffy cat sitting on Samara's lap and purring in pleasure while being stroked.

“Miss Lawson, this feline came to me and demanded to be petted”, said the old Asari.

“Yes, please hand it over, I will lock it away until we are on a planet, where we can give it away”, I said and walked over. I tried to grab the cat by its neck but the bugger hissed at me and tried to scratch me.

“It seems like she doesn't want to go”, said Samara in a highly amused tone.

The cat then suddenly jumped out of Samara's lap, onto the desk and from there over me. With a loud mau it vanished behind the corner and we both looked after it.

“Please help me to catch the cat, it could bite through cables”, I said and was already on pursue.

Yet, the cat wasn't in the floor that she run into. I looked into the sanitary rooms, but found no cat, the same with the life support deck. This left Samara's room.

“I think it run into your room”, I said and tabbed the panel. The door swished open and there, on a corner, sat the cat on a large pillow. It looked at me, then at Samara and then at the door.

“Come here, this isn't a place for you”, said Samara softly. She lowered herself and slowly approached the cat, who looked at her with interest. A moment later Samara activated her biotics and the cat began to float upwards.

Of course, why haven't I thought of that. The cat protested vehemently, but was ultimately trapped, at least we thought she was, but suddenly the biotic field collapsed and the cat fell down on her legs, before racing out of the room.

“What happened?”, I asked in wonder. Asari Justica aren't known for loosing control over their biotics.

“I don't know, my biotic field suddenly expanded and I had to collapse it if I didn't want to risk harming the cat”, she said in wonder and turned around. We both walked out of her room and saw how the tail end of the cat vanished in the lift.

Now we have her, there is no way a cat can control the manuals of a lift.

“It's empty”, I said stunned.

“Yes”, acknowledged Samara. The lift was empty, no cat inside.

“Why is it empty?”, I asked, but got no answer. Wait, EDI will be able to locate the cat.

“EDI, there is a cat in the ship, do you have it on your sensors?”, I asked.

“Said feline is currently in the engines”, replied EDI instantly. Engines? How the heck did it get there.

I glanced over at Samara, who gave me a nod and we both went down to the engines, where we at first found no cat. So we went to the drive core, the two engineers told us that they haven't seen a cat, so the next person we visited was Jack.

Jack was sitting on one of her crates and had something in her lap, it was the cat.

“Who's a fluffy and cute cat?”, asked Jack in baby language. She then scratched the stomach of the cat, who purred in delight, and giggled. “Yes, you are a cute cat”. Jack then hugged the cat and looked up while doing so. She spotted us and froze. The cat looked as well and seemed also to be frozen.

“Eh, this isn't what it looks like”, defended Jack hurriedly. Both Samara and I could only smile wryly.

“Listen, if anyone gets wind of this, I will kill both of you in a violent and painful way, am I clear?”, she then threatened with deadly seriousness.

Her glare wasn't as fear inducing as what Kara did in our first meeting, but still scary.

“Yes”,”Of course”, we both said and then looked down at the silent cat in Jack's arms.

“May we have that?”, I asked as friendly as I could. Jack looked at me, then at the cat. The cat looked at Jack and then at me. And Samara looked at all three of us.

“Why?”, Jack then asked. The cat maued as well in a questioning way, if that's possible.

“It's a cat on a space ship, it can't roam free. It might chew on some important cables”, I tried to explain.

“Would you?”, asked Jack the cat and I forced a face palm down. To my surprise the cat shook its head in denial.

“See, she won't chew on cables”, reassured Jack with a smile. The cat also looked at me and nodded in agreement,

“Don't you think the feline is way too intelligent for being a cat?”, asked Samara suddenly and I groaned.

“Kara, is that you?”, I then asked. If Chakra can make someone invisible, why not transform them into cats.

“Oh come on, this cat isn't the Top Model”, protested Jack. She was still holding the cat under her two front legs. “Or are you?”, she then asked with a raised eye.

“Mew?”, said the cat suddenly in the voice of Kara.

“Oh come on, I scratched your belly”, shouted Jack annoyed. She then threw the cat upwards, where it twisted around and landed on all four. It then turned, with a puff and a cloud of smoke, into our very own ancient human.

“In my defense, it felt good”, she then said and evaded a biotic attack.

“So, the cat were you all along? How”, asked Samara.

“Our granny here is able to do all kinds of shit, turning into a cat isn't so strange”, explained Jack in a way that left much to explain.

“Granny? But Kara looks to be barely above human childhood”, asked Samara again.

“Yes, I want to look like that as well when I am over 100.000 years old”, smirked Jack while throwing a hand at Kara, who in return only smiled smugly.

“Hundred thousand years old? So that was what you meant when you said I were still young”, said the not so young Asari. I mean, wasn't Samara already a Matriach? That makes her at least 700 I think.

“Being made out of Chakra has it perks”, chirped Kara. Wait, made out of? I thought she has it inside her.

“What do you mean with made out of? I thought that Chakra was in you like the biotic energy is in us”, I asked.

“Oh no, I turned myself into a being fully made out of Chakra when I was around 14 years old. I am basically nothing but flesh made Chakra. You would have to turn me into ash if you want to kill me. Heh, Jack do you want to prank Dr. Chakwas by ripping my head of in front of her?”, she then said in a natural tone. As if it was something normal to be practically immortal.

“Eh? No?”, asked Jack in return. For once she was speechless. That that was possible is new.

“Really? Well I'm of, maybe Kelly would want to pet a cat?”, Kara then said with a laugh and the cat was back with another smoke cloud. Kara then run off with a loud mau and was gone.

“What happened?”, I asked unsure.

“I think we just witnessed what happens if someone with too much energy and power gets bored”, summarised Samara.

“At least she isn't raising the dead”, chimed Jack in.

“She can raise the dead?”, asked Samara wide eyed.

“Don't know, she said she could, never showed us”, I explained and turned around with a deep sigh. “Anyway, I'm in my room if you need me”, I then said and walked back. On my way back I found Kelly Chambers happily stroking a delightfully purring cat.

[Line Break]

Shepard's POV;

The Shadow Broker is dead and Liara has taken his position. But more important, at least for me, is that we're good again. The awkwardness is gone whenever we two were in a room and I think we even might be able to go back to what we had before. Oh, and Liara also decided to come with us. I almost dragged her right back into my cabin, almost. For now she's sleeping with the other women of the crew. Well except for Kara, Samara and Miranda, or Jack. Come to think of it, a lot of us women don't sleep with the remaining female crew.

Anyway, I just finished my shower and am now on my way to the canteen. On my way there I heard laughter and the usual merriness of a happy crew. Something every captain thrives for.

I rounded the corner and saw Kara sitting next to Liara, with Samara, Jack, and Garrus on the other side.

All of them had a tray of food in front of them and Garrus was in the process of retelling something from our old adventures.

“Yeah, we were in this disco and she just stood there and moved from one leg to the other. That's it, no hand movements, no head shacking, only shifting from one foot onto the other”, he said and all of the laughed.

“Telling some nice stories?”, I asked and stopped behind Liara. I only noticed it after doing it, but I had put my hands on her shoulders, as if it was natural. Luckily she didn't push me away, and my heart skipped a beat when she touched my hand with her own, only to squeeze it affectionately.

“Eh, you know, the usual”, he said evasively.

“The usual? Then what about when you hit on a female Volus during one of our stays on the Citadel?”, I asked with a grin.

“No way?!”, asked Jack in full out laughter.

“Yes, and he almost succeed in seducing her. At the end she had to leave because her gas tank was used up from all the panting she did”, finished Liara with a beautiful laugh.

“Oh, that's almost as good as my old teammate and teacher”, laughed Kara.

“Why? What did they do?”, asked Garrus.

“I'll show you”, Kara said and made a hand sign. She then pointed behind us, where one man and a teenage boy of thirteen years stood. Both were clad in green spandex, had a bowl cut and extremely large eyebrows.

“Guy-sensei!”, shouted the teenager with teary eyes.

“Lee!”, replied the other one equally loud. They then run up to each other in slow motion, while continuously shouting each others name. It ended in a tearful hug with a sudden beach background and sunset.

It was creepy beyond anything I have ever seen.

“Make it stop!”, pleaded Garrus. His tone sounded like he was crying, but is also was as if he was trying not to barf. I wanted to look at him, but couldn't turn my head away.

“Oh shit!”, said Kara suddenly horrified.

“Make it stop”, pleaded Jack.

“I can't, it somehow doesn't dispel. I have cut the Chakra supply long ago”, replied Kara frantically.

“Lee, we need to rekindle our FLAMES OF YOUTH. This afterlife can't hold us down”, shouted suddenly the bigger green monster.

“Yes Guy-sensei, I will do ten thousand push ups to strengthen my FLAMES OF YOUTH and if I can't do that then I will do twenty thousand kicks and if I can't do that then I will do fifty thousand crunches”, declared the smaller one. They then run out of the canteen while shouting about these flames of youth.

“That was disturbing”, said Samara a moment of shocked silence later.

“And they did that how often?”, asked Liara. I happily noticed that she was hugging my arm. Even if I weren't able to feel it any longer.

“Daily, we once had an enemy we forced to see this scene. He killed himself after five minutes. Bit his tongue off”, answered Kara with some shame.

“I congratulate him for holding out so long”, muttered Jack. I could see that some of us agreed silently.

“Eh, may I know what that was?”, asked Liara suddenly.

“That? That was a botched up freaky Genjutsu. Normally I would have been able to end it at will. But ANY Genjutsu with either Lee or Guy have somehow their own will. I forgot, sorry”, answered Kara.

“And a Genjutsu is what?”, asked Liara again.

“It's an illusion made by Chakra. It invades your system and tricks all of your senses. Without resistance you can be trapped in one for days without stop”, she further explained.

“Interesting, how do you escape such a Genjutsu?”, asked Samara.

“There are three ways, two of those aren't possible for none Chakra user. The last one would be to inflict yourself with pain or the person under a Genjutsu. You could also break the concentration of the caster, yet those are often hidden”, she said.

“There is even a Genjutsu that can make you live through your whole life in a mere moment. You would think you have lived for many dozen years, but in reality only stood still for a second or so. The body will shot down after coming out of it and the target dies”, she then said.

“Why would someone do such a thing?”, I asked horrified. The whole life a single illusion? Everything is just the end product of someone else's mind?

“I only know of one person who used such a strong Genjutsu. He had the mission to kill his whole clan. A little less than a hundred people. From men to women and even children. He used this Genjutsu on the girl he loved. She lived through the illusion of having a life with him living happily together. At the end she died with the memory of having lived a happy life”, she answered.

“Poor woman”, whispered Liara.

“No, poor Itachi, that was his name. He was forced by his government to kill his parents, his aunts, uncles, girlfriend, children, babies, his grandmother. Simply everyone of his family in a single night, while only being 16 years old”, said Kara with a shake of her head.

“In what kind of world did you live?”, I asked with sympathy. A world where you have to fight when you are 4 or where you have to kill your whole family isn't good.

“That was normal. People were killed for coming from a different country, children were trained to be soldiers, people with different blood were used for breeding or experiments”, she listed a continuously darker growing list.

“Breeding for different blood? Isn't everyone's blood the same?”, asked Jack. She had a dark frown on her face. This surely reminds her somewhat of her own past.

“Chakra can make funny things with the DNA, it can change things which then allow you to do special things. Like having extra arms, seeing through walls or having more Chakra than others”, she said.

“And you?”, asked Samara. I was surprised that it was Samara that asked such a rude question, but was interested nonetheless.

“I have the strongest of them all”, said Kara with a smile.

“What can it do?”, asked Liara in her usual knowledge eager way. I have already told her what I know about Chakra and the old humans and to say that she was eager to learn was an understatement.

“It would kill the sensors of the Normandy if I would activate it now. The Chakra it uses is way above anything the sensors can take”, she said with a shake of her head.

“EDI, is it possible to deactivate the sensors that can detect Chakra?”, I asked.

“That would be possible”, answered our shackled AI.

“Please do so”, I said. A moment later we heard the rapid food steps of someone and also EDI's announcement that she has deactivated the sensors.

“Wait, need to see for scientific research”, shouted Mordin, who came running around the corner.

“EDI informed of new Chakra performance”, he then said and sat down on the opposite of Kara.

“Okay..., well, this will look creepy for most of you”, she then warned.

“In what way? Will you grow more arms and a third eye?”, joked Garrus. The reply he got wasn't expected. Kara closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them again, as well as a third, vertical eye on her forehead.

All three of them were blood red, without any whites, the pupil had black rings with comas on them. It looked a little bit more than creepy.

“By the spirits”, breathed Garrus out.

“By the goddess”, added Samara. Jack looked only dumbfounded and both Liara and I had our mouth wide open.

“Abilities? Fully functional? Effects on balance?”, asked Mordin rapidly and with way too few words for a grammatical correct sentence.

“These are called Rinne-Sharingan. They are the strongest mutation my people knew of and it's more like what they can't do,” she said with a laugh.

“Yeah, as if, I bet you can't make me fly”, laughed Garrus. He then was suddenly lifted up by nothing and found himself facing the barrel of a laser canon that was once Kara's arm.

“Okay, I believe it”, he hastily said and was let down on his chair.

“How is such a thing possible?”, asked Liara. I just knew that she really wants to touch Kara's third eye.

“The easy explanation would be Chakra”, laughed Kara. “Anyway, I want to sleep a few hours. Call me when you need me”, she then said. Her third eye closed and the normal ones became her crystal blue again.

She left us with a large amount of questions. I'm sure she left because most would have brought up bad memories.

[Line Break]

Kara's POV:

“And don't forget, Omega is dangerous”, warned Jane me for the third time. She, Samara, Garrus, Tali and I were just walking out of the hangar bay, when a Batarian informed us about Aria's demand to see us.

Oh, I should say that a few weeks went by since I showed them the Rinne-Sharingan. In the mean time we got two new recruits. Tali, a woman of the Quarian race and Kasumi a human woman. The first is something of a technician, while the second is a thief.

Tali is also an old crew member of Jane and seems to be a good friend of her. We also lost Jacob. Or more like he left after a mission on a planet. I didn't hear the specifics but he said he wanted to stay there for some time. Something about his father or so.

Anyway, we were now on Omega for resupplying. Samara also asked me to help her with something. Don't know yet about what.

But first we have to meet this Aria T'Loak. An Asari matriarch that is the self-proclaimed queen of Omega and she has the soldiers to back her claims. She normally holds her meetings in a disco named Afterlife. The music was okay, nothing really cool, yet better than some of the other discos I was in.

“Shepard, didn't know you are now also recruiting children”, greeted us a mature female voice that belonged to an Asari. She was sitting on a wide coach with some guards around her.

“Why are they always calling me a child?”, I asked with a huff.

“Because you are, little girl”, laughed a Batarian. Stupid four eyes. I'll show you.

“Urgh, this is so annoying”, I said and sat down next to Aria, completely ignoring the other mercenaries and their guns aimed at me.

“Hey, you are a what? A 600 year old Asari? Would you believe me that I am at least 150 times your age?”, I asked the slightly stunned woman.

“Shepard what kind of strange child did you pick up?”, she asked, completely ignoring me. Mu, next time I take the form of an old granny, a badass bitch slapping granny.

“Sorry, she can be quite the trouble but hits a target with her MP like Garrus does with his sniper”, she said in defeat.

“Not true”, pipped Garrus from behind in a grumpy tone.

“Anyway”, Aria then said and threw me another glance before ignoring me completely, probably reminded of a child. “What does a Justica want on my station?”, she then asked.

“There is an Ardat-Yakshi on the station and I'm here to hunt her”, answered Samara.

“While I have to resupply some things”, came from Shepard.

“So one of these freaks managed to sneak in? Do what you need to to kill it”, Aria said darkly. Samara gave her a nod in agreement and then looked at me.

“Kara, I wish to ask you for your support in this mission, Morinth is a dangerous woman and her hunting grounds circle around people like you”, she then said.

“Me? Okay”, I simply agreed and stood up.

“You should think more about confronting an Ardat-Yakshi, they are dangerous for a reason”, warned Aria with a laugh while we walked down. We told Jane that we will be back once we have killed Morinth and then walked to an address that was given to us by Aria. The owner apparently died recently by unknown means. Aria has already suspected an Ardat-Yakshi, but wasn't sure until now.

The apartment was a small little thing, already plundered by someone and had no valuable remains. However, there were audio-logs and text-logs. As well as pictures. The same man was in all of them, at first a child with a sickly looking older human, probably his father. Then there was a picture of a teenager with a Batarian girl. Both looked dirty and thin, yet a happy smile graced their faces. After that came one where the Batarian woman was with him together. The background was this apartment and they looked to be in their late teens.

“The pictures end here, but the man is way younger than he should be. The information we got from Aria say that a Rufus Tanor was living here. He was 25, a street rat that managed to work himself up into a normal position. His wife died two years ago in a street fight she found herself in. She was merely a by stander. The Batarian woman we saw in the pictures.

He fell into depression. His friends managed to bring him out of it only recently”, she read out loud.

“A lot of info for such a no name”, I commented. I then read through one of the text-logs and found out that this Rufus found an Asari, Morinth, when a few friends dragged him into a local disco. He was instantly charmed by her beauty and talked with her. They apparently hit of very well and he wanted to throw his job so that he could travel with Morinth.

Apparently they had the same interest in music and culture. Something that was a great hobby of this Rufus.

“Say, how does this meld-fuck-up work?”, I asked after informing Samara about the text-log.

“Normally a meld is a wonderful thing about combining the mind of two, it connects the souls and makes it possible for a complete understanding of the other. It can be used for information transfer, but the main purpose is for the Asari to acquire the DNA of the other person. She is then able to use this DNA for procreation. Both will leave a normal meld after feeling an ecstatic rush and something that is similar to the human orgasm.

The meld of an Ardat-Yakshi is different. Only they feel pleasure while the mind of their parter gets overwhelmed and fried. It leaves an empty husk of a person. The Ardat-Yakshi gains biotic strength with each meld and gets further addicted. Morinth is a strong Asari that is on the run from me for more than a hundred years”, she explained.

“I think we have found everything that could be found. Morinth is probably inside the disco where they met and on the hunt for more 'prey'. Your task is to seduce her, so that she will invite you to her apartment. There we will confront and kill her”, she then said and I followed her with a shrug. This meld stuff sounds interesting. Maybe I ask Samara later to do it with me?

[Line Break]

Shepard's POV;

The station quaked, the whole Omega Station suddenly quaked once and then there was Doom. A sudden encompassing feeling of death, destruction and doom. People left and right crumbled down, frothing from their mouth. People like Garrus and I stock ramrod still and began to quiver in fright.

“Shepard, that is like”, stuttered Garrus.

“Yes, like what Kara did in our first meeting, only worse”, I said with a nod.

“Shepard, what is happening? My people are dropping left and right. And what is this feeling of death?”, demanded Aria suddenly to know. She must've had a direct com-link to my Omnitool.

“That is Kara, something happened that made her angry, really angry”, I answered.

“Kara? That little girl? How can she do something like this? Forget it, make her stop or I will. The Korgans are running rampage from bloodlust”, she shouted.

“Will try”, I said, yet suddenly the feeling increased again and now Tali also dropped down.

“Change of plans, I'll come personally, the Korgans are also down”, corrected Aria.

“I'll call Samara”, I said and opened a link to Samara, yet she didn't answer the call. Something must've happened to her, if she's not able to answer.

I wanted to contact the Normandy so that EDI could locate them, but suddenly the pressure vanished and it was silent. Not one person around us was left standing.

“What happened now?”, asked Aria confused.

“I don't know, let me call the Normandy, they will be able to locate Samara and Kara”, I replied and did so. EDI said that the crew also dropped and that only Mordin and Thane were left standing.

I told her that we needed the location of Samara and Kara immediately, but EDI could only give me Samara's. Kara's tracker seemed to be dead.

Samara's tracker led us to a high class apartment. The door was closed and I had some trouble opening it, but managed ultimately. The door opened the moment Aria came with half a dozen Asari commandos. All of them looked to be old and very experienced, they must be if they are still standing after that.

“She's in that room?”, asked Aria with a serious expression. But before I could say anything she walked up to me, two Asari of hers jumped inside, barriers raised. Two more followed with assault rifles ready. Aria directly behind, followed by me and Garrus. The remaining two Asari came right after.

The room was devastated to say the least. A circle of maybe 1 meter was melted, the metal did even melt. The furniture was thrown away, a dead Asari in casual clothes was implanted in the wall. Her face halfway melted, with a gaping hole in her chest.

Samara was heavily burned and laying next to the door and the most eye catching thing was a woman of about 1.8 meter height. She had white long hair, fox ears instead of normal ears and ten white tails were coming out of her tail bone. Her eyes were set on us, red slitted glowing eyes.

“So you are those out of my husbands memory?”she asked in a demonic voice.

“I expected...”, she further said but was cut off by Aria.

“What are you and what are your intentions on my station?”, barked Aria. The biotics of hers were flaring in an attempt of intimidation.

“Shut up child”, said the being in front of us. This made Aria angry, for being ordered and called a child apparently, and she nodded to one of her Asari followers. The Asari in question raised her hand in a well trained and seriously fast way, but that was all she could do before the gravity in the room increased thousand fold and the Asari in question was crushed to a bloody smear on the floor.

“I said shut up child”, the being said again, this time Aria did nothing. Her eyes were wide in shock and the mouth open in a silent question. She only looked down at the, what once was a proud and strong Asari, pool of blood.

“Now, can anyone tell me why my husband was still a woman and why a blue alien woman wanted to fry his brain?”, she asked in a tone that didn't let any question open about the fact that her question was anything but a question.

“As well as why this one”, she pointed at the badly wounded Samara,”attacked me the moment I killed my assailant?”.

I raised my hand and her glare shot at me, goosebumps came over my whole body by her mere look, “Yes?”, she said.

“Miss?”, I asked.

“My name is Kurama Uzumaki”, she answered. So this was the wife of Kara? That demon like thing?

“Miss Uzumaki, my crewmember Kara Uzumaki and Sarama, the still living Asari in the corner, were on a mission to kill the now dead Asari in the wall. I don't know what happened, but it seems like something went wrong”, I said.

“The Ardat-Yakshi probably started a melt”, added Aria.

“So this melt was what crashed into the mindscape of us? Stupid bitch was fried before she could do anything. But she woke me up, for that at least I gave her a quick death. I'll give the body now back to Dexter, let him explain the rest”, she said and closed her eyes. Her body then began to twist and morph before a man of 1.85 meter was in front of us. He had the same white hair, ears and tails as the woman from before.

“Yo, sorry about that. My wife tends to be cranky when you wake her up”, he then said in a deep and baritone voice. The man then walked over to Samara and put a hand on her head. A moment later any burn she had was gone and she blinked in confusion.

“Ah yes, so much easier now with Kura-chan's Chakra half”, he then said happily.

“Who are you?”, asked Aria, a lot less demanding than before.

The man turned around and grinned. “I am Dexter Uzumaki, also known as Kara Uzumaki”, he then said.

“Kara is a woman”, corrected Garrus dryly.

“Why yes she is, that is why I took her form. Women are easier to trust. It raised the chances of unsealing”, he then said. This Dexter than made a hand gesture and a smoke cloud hid him. Out of it stepped the small and bubbly girl we got to know in the last months. Except that she still had her fox ears.

“See? You would trust a cute girl way more than a male like I was before”, she then said in her happy go lucky way.

“What happened Kara, or should I call you Dexter?”, I asked, by now winging the whole thing. It was a little disturbing that he or was he a she? An it?, anyway, lied to us. But she has never done anything against me and only helped us. Still, Kurama's unemotional kill of the Asari was a stark contrast to Kara's behaviour.

“Kara, I plan to stay a woman, more fun that way. Anyway, the bloody goo that was once one of your commandos, do you want to have her back?”, asked Kara with a shrug and then pointed at the pool of blood.

“Back?”, asked Aria dumbly.

“Yes back, like in alive and doing things your Asari commandos do”, she droned with a deadpan expression.

“She's dead”, was Aria's response. And I might be wrong, but there was some sadness and regret in it.

“So?”, Kara asked. Not the least mindful about the situation.

“Just do it Kara and don't confuse her any further”, I said.

“Okay, but only if you all promise to never tell anyone that I really can do it. So long as I only say it, it stays a myth, doing it for real brings a lot of trouble”, she said with a fierce glare and we all nodded, in fear of what might happen if we spill the beans. This was a serious Kara and not the happy go lucky idiot she sometimes make herself seems to be.

“Fine then”. Kara then cut her wrist open and most of us watched in shock as a second Kara was formed out of the blood. The original then walked up to the pool of blood and took a bit of it. She then went through a lot of hand signs and smeared the blood on the blood clone Kara.

The next moment paper-clips rushed at the fake Kara, who began to scream in a blood freezing tone. It sounded painful beyond anything. The scream died when she was fully encompassed and the body of the Asari began to form. Her skin looked grey and cracked, the whites of her eyes were black and she looked confused.

“Aria? What happened?”, she then asked.

“Cira?”, asked Aria in awe and shock.

“Wait a moment, this is only the [Edo Tensei]”, said Kara. She then clasped her hands together, her eyes changed into the creepy red form and Cira's skin turned blue, she drew in a deep breath and then coughed a few times.

“There you go, one resurrected Asari on the house”, joked Kara. She then patted the newly alive Asari on the back and walked over to the still dead Asari in the wall.

“I'm alive?”, asked the stunned Asari. Her 'sisters' looked relieved and glad, while Aria tried to hide the same.

“Anyway, it seems that Morinth managed to surprise me and started the melt. She woke my wife up and got her mind fried. The hole in her chest came from Kura-chan's tail, while the half way melted face was most likely the contact with her Chakra”, inspected Kara. She had pulled out the dead Asari from the wall and was now looking at the melted face.

“So that was what you meant with opposite of life?”, I asked, while helping Samara up. The Justica was silent and didn't say a word since we came inside.

“Yes, kinda. This was maybe 10% of our overall Chakra output. Kura-chan must've gone easy on her”, answered Kara absent-mindedly. 10% and the whole of Omega was down? I'm sure that there are a lot of people who got a heart attack.

“Shepard, I would really appreciate if you could never again let her on my station”, whispered Aria to me.

“No worry, Omega might look interesting from the distance, yet, it is in fact quite boring once you have seen it”, said Kara from the other side of the room.

“So now that Kura-chan is back I'd like to have a training session on a forsaken planet. It doesn't need to have air, just let it have no owner and no one who wants to have it later”, asked Kara directly after.

“Eh sure? I think? Garrus, do we need anything else or did we finish with our supplied?”, I asked.

“Eh, finished Shepard”, he said after a pause.

“Samara? Everything alright?”, I asked the still silent Justica.

“Y..yes Shepard, I'm fine, just need some time to process the things I've seen”, she replied.

“She's probably overwhelmed by the feeling of Chakra Kura-chan pumped out. Let me help”, came from Kara. Suddenly I felt euphoric, happy and at peace. Nothing mattered anymore, the Reaper were nothing to worry, all was fine and good.

Then, as fast as it came it was gone, yet some happiness and peace was still there, just not so strong.

“Better?”, asked Kara. I looked at her and saw from the corner of my view that all of the present people were crying. I reached up and noted that I did too.

“What was that? I... it felt....”, asked one of the Asari commando in awe.

“That was the opposite of Kura-chan's Chakra. It helps to sooth the nerves”, explained Kara. She then walked out of the room, came back with a still unconscious Tali on her shoulder and looked at us. “Are you coming or what? I think to remember that Mordin and Grunt wanted to do something on Tuchanka”, she then said and walked off with Tali still slung over her shoulder.

“Seems like we're going. See you Aria”, I said and walked off, the other two right behind me. Life is strange. Better not to think over it too much.

[Line Break]

Kara's POV;

°Kura-chan? Can we heal Joker? I want to see his face°, I asked, bored out of my mind. The way to Tuchanka takes a few days, thanks to the slow FTL drive the Normandy has. That it's still one of the fastest ships in the universe is not accepted. Our ships were trice as fast.

°Do what you want, I'll go over your memories in the meantime°, replied Kura-chan.

°Love you°, I said while jumping out of my hammock. I then raced to the elevator and tapped the button for the bridge, there I jogged past Kelly and into the bridge, where I found Joker sitting in his leather chair.

“Joke~r?”, I singsonged. He turned around, a question on his face.

“Yes Kara?”, he asked a little nervously. Might have something to do with my wide grin.

“Your sickness, it's genetic isn't it?”, I asked.

“Yes, the imperfect osteogenesis is genetic”, he said in a defeated and annoyed tone.

“May I heal you?”, I asked.

“Huh?”, he replied intelligently.

“Yes, now that Kura-chan is awake I can do all kind of things again, like making a body and transferring your soul into it. I could even give this body Chakra”, I said, the grin now reaching beyond human possibility.

“What would this mean for me?”, he asked, hopeful, yet fearful at the same time.

“Hmm, I will design a body for you, rip your soul out of your current one and put it back into the newly made. The body can look like what you want and would be healthier and stronger than any normal human body. Interested?”, I said. He looked to be deep in thought.

“You can assure me that I won't die?”, he asked after a moment.

“Technically you will die when I rip your soul out, but you will get back once I put it into the new body”, I answered truthfully.

“I...okay I bite, what do I have to do?”, he said kinda resolutely.

“Just wait a moment”, I assured and activated my Rinne-Sharingan. I then created a healthy human male that looked like Joker, just with more muscles and way better shape and then added Chakra to the mix.

“Any preferences in penis length?”, I asked jokingly.

“What? No! I mean, not too short please”, he sputtered with a red face.

“Okay, how about 19 centimetre?”, I asked and added said length after seeing his red face. Chakra like a Chunin came next and the already installed instinct of using it for enhancement. I also blocked any form of controlling Chakra outside of the body. Basically another Lee.

The last things were clothes like the current Joker had.

“There you go”, I commented and patted the blank and better looking, Joker. He looked good, ripped and sporty.

“And now hold still”, I then said, touched his forehead and ripped his soul out with the human path. I grabbed the purple thing and pushed it into the new Joker.

Jane choose the exact moment to come sprinting towards us.

“Kara! What happened? EDI said that her sensors fried on the bridge and then that Jokers life signs died”, she asked in no small amount of worry. She then saw the dead Joker in his seat and paled. She kinda overlooked the new Joker, who stood in the corner.

Joker had a good timing and began to take deep breaths.

“Kara?”, he said after stumbling a bit.

“Yo, how does it feel?”, I asked. Jane now also has noticed the new Joker and looked jack awed at him.

“I think I feel good, beyond good. I feel strong”, he said in awe and looked at his own hands and then body.

“Joker?”, asked Jane. She then touched the new Joker softly on the chest, just to make sure that he's real.

“Yes Shepard, Kara kinda healed me”, he said and made a jump. The strength in this jumped was enough to let him crash into the ceiling.

“Ow,... wait, that didn't hurt!”, he said in awe.

“Kara that didn't hurt!”, he repeated and then hugged both me and Jane. The hug was strong and I had to put an arm in front of Jane or she might have gotten something broken.

“That's good Joker, but you are using to much force, this could have broken Jane's rips”, I said and he hastily dropped us.

“Why am I so strong”, he then asked.

“I gave you the Chakra of a Chunin, it passively enhances your body, you will feel more energetic, stronger, more intelligent and faster in mostly anything. Especially your reflexes and sight. Congrats you now have a millionths of my Chakra, have fun in learning how to control it”, I laughed.

“By the way, what are we going to do with the old body?”, I asked and poked the dead Joker.

“Can we cremate him? I want to remind myself that I was not always this strong”, asked Joker in a serious tone.

“We can”, assured Jane.

“Good, I'll be down, Thane needs to have new lungs. His case is easier, as he doesn't have a problem with his DNA. Oh and Joker, your children won't have Chakra, but I purged any sickness that might come from the DNA”, I then said and skipped off.

[Line Break]

Shepard's POV;

“I can't believe it, there is nothing. He is as healthy as a new born baby, more so even. On top of that he has the same energy all through out his body, just not like Kara. His is flowing through a network that is similar to veins.

You said that you feel more energetic than normal?”, rambled Dr. Chakwas. She was now fussing over Joker for the last two hours. And that was before she got sight of an easily breathing Thane. The Drell was so perplexed about his newfound healthiness that he was just sitting there, taking deep and clear breathes for the last hour.

“Yes Doc, everything feels fine, better even. I only have problems with controlling my strength”, replied Joker. And that was no joke of his, the metal plate he left with his fingerprints was testimony of this. And Kara said she has a million times more Chakra? Is the overall amount in any relation to their strength? It would make sense why the Reaper lost any ground fights against them.

“Shepard, I think I'm even strong enough to best you now”, boasted my pilot.

“So you think that do you?”, I asked with a sweet grin. He gulped, but nodded nonetheless.

One beat down later and Joker came down from his power rush. Seriously, I'm a woman, I constantly fight people stronger than me. But with some training he would be way stronger than me. Only his inexperience did let me win. He was faster, stronger and had better reflexes than me. His body was just not used to the movements. Scary, could Kara do the same for me? It would help fighting the Reaper.

But do I want that? Joker is no longer what you could classify as human. At least our human.

“You want the same do you?”, asked Kara suddenly from beside me and I jumped a little.

“I... yes,no, I don't know. Just think about it, it would give us an edge against the Reapers if we had a task force with this power”, I said in defence and pointed at Joker doing push-ups, with one hand and vertically.

“No it wouldn't. The Reaper aren't beatable by cheer force, they had millions of years to prepare and the numbers of them represent that. They are AIs, they only use the exact amount of force necessary to beat us. There are many more Reaper out there than what they will use against us.

And on top of it, you would loose your biotics. I don't know enough about those to add them into the new body. I would also not allow you to use any Jutsu, the things I do outside of my body. Joker only has enhanced muscles as a joke. One of the frailest people in the Universe is now strong enough to rip a Krogan with ease in two, if that's not ironic then I don't know what is”. Her explanation stopped my hopeful track of mind and killed it instantly.

“Is there any hope then?”, I asked.

“Sure there is, you just have to believe”, she said with a smile and poked my forehead. A moment later I felt warmth spreading through me and felt like reborn.

“I healed the remaining wounds from your 'resurrection' and also erased the beginning of an indoctrination. It wasn't advanced, but once it is there it can control you faster”, she said and left.

I touched my face and felt no scar. What did she mean with indoctrination? I didn't feel anything.

[Line Break]

Kara's POV;

“Whop Whop, this is so much fun!”, I laughed from a top of the Trasher Maw. This worm tried to eat me, now I'm riding it. Okay, the occasional trips underground are a bit sandy and not so enjoyable, but the jumping out of the ground are fun. Shooting Varen and other animals while riding this thing was funny as well.

“No one beats a KROGAN!”, roared Grunt, while showing his shotgun in the face of an insect like monster. It was twice as large as the Krogan and has now one head less than a Krogan.

Jane, who did come with us was also shooting with her avenger assault riffle. The Varen died on mass, her aim was good and those that came near were ripped apart by one of her singularities.

“Kara, come down there, we have to finish this”, ordered Jane through the com-link.

“Aye Aye”, I replied and plunged a giant Rasengan into the head of the worm I was riding. The beast screamed up in pain and then crashed into a nearby broken wall, further destroying the construct and leaving it fully unrecognisable.

I jumped off of the carcass and walked over to Grunt, absent mindedly killing one of the insects by breaking its head with the but of my MP.

“What's up?”, I asked once I was there. Grunt grinned down at me.

“You are a strong warrior Kara of the Ancients Humans”, he said with a laugh.

“Indeed”, said suddenly another voice. We turned around and saw the old Krogan that was against Grunt taking this maturing ritual for Krogans. Forgot his name, he wasn't important.

“I grant you the honour of becoming a part of my clan Grunt”, he offered haughtily.

“No thanks, I don't want to help some babies who are so weak they can't change their diapers”, answered Grunt.

“So be it then, someone such as you can't become part of any other clan”, said the other Krogan then and his minions started to shoot at us right after.

Jane jumped behind cover, while Grunt ducked behind a pillar.

“Grunt, can I kill them?”, I asked, still standing where I was. The Susano'o ribcage flickered occasionally whenever a bullet would have hit me.

“They are to weak to fight a true Krogan anyway”, shouted Grunt over the bullet noise.

“Thanks”, I chirped and let the Susano'o form up to its skeletal form. The now five meter tall skeletal body of death loomed over me, its green flames flickered under the barrage of bullets only barely.

Four bony arms shot out and grabbed a Krogan each, a second later and the loud crunch signalled their death. The bloody remains were simply flung away. The remaining two Krogans roared and rushed at me, but were killed by a hammer hit each. Their broken remains were integrated into the ground for the future.

I dissolved the Susano'o and turned around to the slightly stunned Jane Shepard.

“I..I think I'm beyond stunned by now. Seriously, what is up with this Chakra?”, she said and threw her hand in the air. Grunt chuckled while we walked back to the car. Oh, this was really funny. Sadly we have to leave this planet. Jane already finished her mission with Mordin.

Next was a request for Tali I think, and after that came something for Thane. Seriously, how much unfinished business do these guys have?

[Line Break]

I refreshed my clip on my MP and crashed the but of my other in the visor of a Geth warrior. Tali, on who's request we were currently here, was constantly muttering about the impossibility of them being even active.

“I don't understand that, I always sent them deactivated parts, why are there active Geth on my father's ship?”, she asked for the tenth time. We came to the Quarian's flotilla because they accused Tali of having sent dangerous material. The accuser demanded to have Tali banned from her home. They would have done it, even without her input, if we haven't come in time. So now we had to go onto the overtaken ship of Tali's father and find out what happened.

Since then we were shooting through Geth after Geth and found some audio-logs that shone some light into the whole thing. Her father seemed to have had the brilliant idea of activating some parts in hope to control them.

It didn't work and the parts, more like whole Geth, have taken over and are now running rampage.

“Maybe an experiment went wrong and one Geth got activated. This one then send a signal to the others and the whole group of Geth that were stowed in the ship activated at once?”, I offered and put a few bullets into a floating Geth. Shepard nodded in thanks and shot another Geth instead.

“But the order is clear, no activation of any Geth technology on the flotilla”, countered Tali.

“We'll know once we finished with these Geth”, cut Jane in. So we doubled our effort and killed more Geth. Tali with her overcharge and shotgun, I with my trusted MPs and brute strength and Shepard with precise assault riffle fire and her biotics.

Playing weaker than you are can be true fun.

°Glad you like it°, chimed Kura-chan in.

°I promise, next time you get control just tone down your Chakra pressure and the friendly fire°, I promised.

°I'll remind you°, she said in agreement.

°Hey Jane, next time we have a mission with possible firefight I'll let Kura-chan take control”, I warned over the gunfire.

“Eh...okay? Can she take orders?”, asked Shepard unsure and clearly nervous.

°You scared her°, I accused.

°Of course I did, that was my intention, now answer her truthfully°, replied my sweet sweet wife.

“No she can't, but she will kill anything that is our enemy and might listen to you if she likes to,... I think”, I answered.

°Will you?°, I asked on the inside.

°Only if they are reasonable°, was the answer.

“She will listen if the order is reasonable, don't ask me what her opinion of reasonable is”, I added.

“Glad to hear, I think?”, came from Jane. And with that cleared we finished killing the Geth and walked inside a room with an audio-log.

The content weren't nice and confirmed my hypothesis. Tali's father activated a Geth and it went out of control.

“We can't bring this back, they would dishonour my father”, said Tali numbly at the end of the record.

“But you would not be cast out”, I countered.

“That doesn't matter to me as much as the name of my father. I will take the blame”, came from her in a defeated tone.

“Isn't there something we can do?”, asked Jane.

“I could trap them in a Genjutsu that will make them believe that it wasn't neither ones fault”, suggested.

“So we should lie to my government? My people?”, asked Tali with a glare. At least I think it was a glare, with her visor and all that.

“No thank you, I'll rather be an outcast than do that”, she ended.

“Okay, I'll stay out”, I said in defeat and followed them out of the ship.

At the end I wouldn't have to to anything, Jane handled the whole thing masterfully and convinced the admiralty of the importance of research. One of them did not agree, but the other two did. They agreed that research under controlled environment was necessary for regaining their home world and that this was an unfortunate accident. Neither Tali's nor her father's name got dishonoured and she was still part of the flotilla.

Jane also got a good reputation in the flotilla and we were good to go for our next mission.

[Line Break]

Our next mission came quick enough, Thane's request took Jane only a few hours and we spent the rest of our day on shore leave on the citadel. What wasn't so good was the order to meet the council. Especially their order to meet me.

So here we were, inside the very slow elevator that would bring us to the council chamber.

“Do I really have to go? I mean they are only a bunch of politicians. They will die the moment the Reaper are back”, I asked Jane. She even tried to force me into a dress. Something about a good expression. Hah, I and good expressions? That are two things that don't mix well. I still wore my bondage trousers with neon green linings and my t-shirt with green flames. Screw the council, I will wear clothes I want to, not what they want to. Jack agreed with me.

“Yes you do and as much as I don't like them they are a known entity and will be important when the Reaper come. Their word can assemble the fleets”, said Jane. She then patted my head.

“You'll manage”, she then said and the door opened, also as slow as the whole thing. The corridor we then had to walk through was lined with honour guards and the podium we ended on was significantly lower than the one from the council.

Said council was looking down on us, one Turian, one Asari, a Salarian and a Human. The last one, if I trust Jane, was on my side, the other so so.

“So this is the human that claims to be of ancient origin, even older than the Protheans?”, asked the Turian in a haughty tone.

“If you know that much, then you also know my name and should have the politeness of speaking to me and not to someone else as if I were not here”, I shot back. I hate this guy already.

“Now now, Sparatus may have been a bit fast. Let me introduce myself and the others I am Councillor Tevos and represent the Asari, to my left is Councillor Valern, she represents the Salarians and to my right is Sparatus, the representative of the Turian, to his right is Anderson, the representative of Humanity. We wish to know more about you and your claims of being older than the Protheans”, said the Asari in an attempt to diffuse the situation.

“And this so called Chakra of yours”, added the Salarian hastily.

“Why should I tell you anything?”, I asked with crossed arms.

“Because we are the Council of the Citadel”, almost shouted the Turian angrily.

“So? You'll die anyway in the first hours of war against the Reaper. It was the same with our government”, I shot back.

“So another one who believes in these mystical all dangerous machines”, stated the Salarian with a sigh. Already dismissing me.

“Yes I am, in fact I am so much believing in them that I fought against them and watched how my race of humans died by their tentacles. Only our own genetic downgrade allowed humanity to survive.

“And now they even believe that humans were once an ancient race”, scoffed the Turian.

“Jane, look this is the biggest danger you have to face in the fight against the Reaper. Politicians who won't believe anything if it is not killing them in the truest meaning of the term”, I said to Jane and gestured to the three alien on the higher podium.

“Such disrespect”, growled the Salarian.

“You three are weak and have no strength over me. The fact that you ignore the obvious Reaper that attacked you a few years ago is testimony to your stupidity”, I replied.

“I think we lost track of the conversation. What can you tell us about this Chakra?”, asked the Asari. She was calm and her tone not angry in the least. Damn woman must've been in politics for some time now.

“Chakra is nothing you will gain control of, it will die with me and can't be reproduced. Thankfully, it would only bring destruction over you if the Reaper had managed to control Chakra”, I replied.

“So this so called Chakra is only in you? I call a lie where I see one. This child is demented and it was a waste of time to even speak to her”, said the Turian.

“That's it, you don't believe in the Reaper? Here, I show you what the Reaper did!”, I said and shot four Chakra chains at them. All three chains tapped them on the forehead and a memory seal appeared. The chains dissolved the moment they touched them and the guards sprung into action, only to be apprehended by a clone of mine for each of them.

“And here I thought this could work”, muttered Jane next to me. She was ripped out of her cursing when the four Councillors began to scream in sheer terror. They all sunk down on their knees, tears streaming down their eyes and body quivering in shock.

“What did you do?”, asked Jane sharply.

“I showed them my view of the Reaper war. They watched how dozens of worlds burned, how I fought against the Reaper, how it is to see your loved ones dissolving into goo and how it feels for themselves to be dissolved and how it is to be betrayed by those who are indoctrinated”, I answered and Jane paled.

“T..this, this can't be”, whispered the Asari of the four.

“It is and it will happen again and not in a hundred or so years. It should already be happening, but Jane here beat them back once. She's trying to do the same in her current mission and will do so when they are here in person”, I said deadly serious.

“We... we have to do something, all this death...all this...”, almost sobbed the Turian out.

“You can prepare by storing resources. The time for building bigger warships is over and would not have helped to begin with. You've seen how many there are and how much stronger each ship is then your own. The only chance you have is in preparing to last longer and maybe resettle somewhere outside of the Mass Relay range.

Maybe you'll find something in the Prothean ruins on Mars or some other cache you have. I don't know, the normal way of fighting them won't work, as well as negotiations. Enjoy the time you have, because it won't last”, I said and then left. The clones dissolved and Jane followed me silently out towards the slow elevator.

“Was that necessary?” asked Jane once we were on our way down.

“Now they take the threat seriously. They will help you more likely once the Reaper are back for true”, I said. She stayed silent for some time and then nodded.

“Thanks”, she said and walked back to the Normandy without saying anything.

[Line Break]

Shepard's POV;

I tried to not have Kara with us during the latest mission. Sadly that will no longer be possible, or more likely isn't advisable. After the stunt with the Citadel I got a mail from Tevos that granted me a lot of money for my mission as well as the certainty that they will start with fore planning, recourse gathering and the creation of back up plans.

All in all I got most of the support I always wished for. Sadly it weren't preparations for the destruction of the Reaper, but for the time it takes for our own.

At least now I am taken seriously. I almost asked Kara to show me the same, but then I remembered the expression of their faces and hesitated. Some things might be better unseen.

Well, I said that I tried to not have Kara on any missions with a possible firefight, that was because she promised her wife to give her control and to be honest, I am fearful of Kurama.

The tone and easy dismissal of us she showed in the brief moment she spoke to us was enough for me to see that we are insignificant insects before her. How someone as bubbly as Kara can have a wife as deadly as Kurama is beyond me. But Kara has her deadly and dangerous moments as well, the maniacal grin she has in some of the harder firefights prove that.

But now our mission is to inspect a derelict Collector ship and it promises to become a clusterfuck. I don't trust Timmy's word of its abandonment. So I called Kara and Garrus in the next mission. Garrus because I know that he can handle the feeling of Kurama's so called Chakra pressure.

At first I wanted to take Samara, but she seemed to be really fearful of Kara ever since she nearly died by Kurama's wakeup call.

“I'll give Kura-chan now the control”, informed Kara the moment we stepped out of the shuttle.

A second later her body changed into the body of Kurama and her ten tails ripped through the armour. She didn't wear a helmet to begin with, as Kara had taken a liking to her fox ears.

“Dexter said I should listen to some of your commands, what do you want to do?”, asked the demonic voice directly after the end of the transformation.

“We want to go as deep as the middle of the ship, we plan to go there and take any information before anything starts to kill us”, I simply said.

“Fine by me”, agreed Kurama. We then began our trek inwards and had to see a lot of the creepy insectoid structure that the Collectors were building their ships with.

The silence we were walking in was disturbing and I didn't mean the lack of any enemies. Normally we would speak with each other, but not now. We found some interesting gismos and other stuff on our way and were near the middle.

“Commander, my sensors have found an increase in heat. The ship seems to start up”, said EDI suddenly through the com and I almost jumped from the sudden noise.

“Thanks EDI”, I replied and then turned to the other two. “You heard her, we have to hurry to get out”, I said and began to jog forward. Not a minute later and we saw the first collector who instantly died by being impalement from one of Kurama's tails. Another two flew down from a higher position but were killed, before even touching the ground, on the same way.

“Unusual, but effective”, muttered Garrus while we increased our speed. We were attacked by three more groups of Collectors before we reached a platform. EDI directed us towards it, she said it lead us directly towards our shuttle. It was some kind of transportation system, so I activated it and the platform moved downwards. On the way down more bugs came and tried to kill us. This time there were more than Kurama could spear through and both Garrus and I had to shoot. They had husks as well, but they were nothing more than pests by now. And with one of Kurama's tail acting as a whip they couldn't get close.

Well, we had to shoot once or twice, Kurama was literally ripping them apart and then using their legs or arms as clubs.

“Ah, so much fun after a long nap is truly enjoyable”, she said after using the head of one Collector as a cannonball to kill another one. I didn't even know that you could throw a hole into the chest of someone with a head. And I don't want to see it again.

Then one of their tanks came down on us and shot one of its rockets directly at Kurama. She was hit directly and a cloud of smoke blocked out sight.

“FUFUFUFU, how long was it ago that I got hit?”. The laughter came from Kurama who jumped out of the cloud on top op the collector tank. There she began to rip the plating off and then punch into the softer interior. The thing lasted for two hits before falling down and exploding.

“If she's as deadly to the Reaper as to these bugs then I understand why she was called goddess of death”, whispered Garrus from next to me. I nodded in agreement.

Thankfully the platform stopped a moment later and we reached a hall with a lot of Collectors and husks. They even had cover, not that the husks were using any.

I wanted to shout something, like take cover or so, but knew that it was not necessary. That was until I saw Kurama standing in the middle of the corridor. She opened her mouth and a small black ball began to form in front of it. It had the size of a peanut. It then vanished and a bright flash came out of the room with the collectors. The shock wave and sound of an explosion followed directly after.

“What was that?”, asked Garrus loudly over the noise.

“A heavenly weakened Bijuudama”, was the answer Kurama gave him. She then walked through the destroyed door and we followed slowly. The inside of the next room was pure destruction. None of them survived and I had trouble finding a single one in one piece. The floor was also destroyed, as well as the walls. The door we had to take was pushed out of its anchors and laid in the next corridor.

“Are you coming?”, asked Kurama, she was already in the next corridor and looked back at me and Garrus. “If that is such a surprise then you should see a full powered one, my husband will show you if you ask him”, she then said and began to walk.

I hastily followed and watched in slight awe how Kurama ripped any and all opposition, the collectors threw at us, in two. A good five minutes filled with gore, blood, and dead insects later and we reached the shuttle. Once inside Kurama closed her eyes and a small cloud of smoke followed, out came Kara.

“Huh, my wife likes you Jane”, she then said before sitting down.

“How so?”, I asked in wonder, she didn't make the expression of liking me.

“She wouldn't have defended you if she didn't. Most of those who made an attempt of attacking your were taken out by her”, explained Kara.

“It looked more like she simply killed all and everything”, came from Garrus, but Kara shook her head.

“Nope, she gave you some to play with”, she then explained.

“Play? Is this a game for her?”, I asked in disbelieve.

“Kura-chan isn't born human and never had much for humanity, she is more annoyed by the fact that we couldn't beat the Reaper, than by what they have done. I don't expect for you to understand that, but for her everything is more or less a game. Maybe except our marriage, but other than that it's all a game”, said Kara and finished with swinging her arms around.

“I'll take your advise and don't try to understand”, I said with a bit of disbelieve and anger. How could someone view life as nothing than a game?

“Good choice”, said Kara. We reached the Normandy and had our debriefing, seems like the information we found will help us in increasing our target systems precision.

[Line Break]

Kara's POV;

A few personal missions followed after the Collector ship and we got info on a dead Reaper ship. It was drifting around a star for the last millions of years and we had to go in to find the Reaper IFF, with it we will be able to open the Omega 4 portal and not die, hopefully.

Jane choose Grunt and Jack for this mission as there were most likely a lot of husks on board. The com-link we had open to them proved that and the strength of Grunt in combination with Jack's biotics was enough to easily kill them. But their presence did something to the ship and it began to activate its barriers. They had to deactivate the core of the Reaper if they wanted to get out. So they did just that, just that it involved a lot of shooting and other fighting.

At the end of all they got out, but not without help, a Geth platform showed itself to them and got shot at the end. But before that happened it helped them to deactivate the Reaper and get out of it. They took the platform with it and placed it inside EDI's VI-core, not the best place to store an AI but I didn't choose. At least it was behind a physical barrier.

The Reaper IFF was also installed, but EDI had to run a lot of scans before we could activate it and go through the Omega 4 Relay.

So, now I was standing next to Jane while she activated the platform. It clicked a few times before it stood up.

“Greetings Shepard-Commander”, it said. That was the first time I heard one of them speaking.

“You speak?”. Seems like Jane did also notice this small detail.

“Yes, we thought it was imperative to have the ability of communication”, the Geth said.

“Why?”, asked Jane.

“To request the aid in fighting the heretics”, answered the Geth.

“Heretics?”, asked Jane in return.

“Yes”. Oh joy, a machine. Ask simple questions and you will get simple answers.

“What are the heretics?”, I asked from the side.

The Geth looked at me for a moment, “The Heretics are those who follow the old machines, they oppose us”, it then answered.

“Let me guess, the old machines are the Reaper?”, asked Jane.

“Yes”, was, again, the simple answer.

“So what do you want from us?”, asked Jane.

“We want Shepard-Commander's help in destroying the Heretics”, answered the platform.

“After that we will collaborate in the destruction of the Collectors”, it continued.

“You know about the Collectors? Wait, don't answer that, how do you know?”, asked Jane.

“We clinked ourselves into the Extranet, we listen”, was the unsuspected answer Jane got. I found it obvious, a system with so much information was a treasure-trove for anyone who wants to learn.

“So what do we have to do, if we agree”, asked Jane.

“We need to infiltrate a Geth ship and reprogramme their core. Only Shepard-Commander's ship has enough stealth capabilities to get near enough”, the Geth said.

“What do you think Kara?”, asked Jane after a moment of silence.

“I would be able to destroy the Geth ship if it starts to attack us, so we wouldn't loose anything”, I said. A little manipulation of gravity will be enough to crush a single ship. It worked with the Reaper, so a weaker ship will be no problem.

“Good, I accept, how should we call you?”, said Jane.

“Geth”, it simply said.

“I mean you, specifically”, clarified Jane.

“We are all Geth”, it then said.

“What is the individual in front of me called?”, she then asked. This was fun to watch.

“There is no individual, we are all Geth”, it answered.

“There are currently 1.183 programs active within this platform”, it added.

EDI materialised one of her holograms next to Jane and said;”My name is Legion for we are many”.

“Good for me”, I said. Jane nodded as well.

“Christian Bible, the Gospel of Mark, chapter five, verse nine. We acknowledge this as an appropriate metaphor. We are Legion, a terminal of the Geth. We will integrate into Normandy”, it said in agreement.

“Good, give EDI the coordinates for the Geth ship”, Jane said and we both left.

[Line Break]

“I don't like it to leave the ship undefended, some of us should stay”, I said.

“This mission has too many possible dangers to do so, we have to go all”, replied Miranda.

“Really? I mean we can take out a freaking military base if we want to, with me a whole planet, what can be so dangerous?”, I countered. She opened her mouth to answer, but closed it after finding nothing.

“Noted, but Miranda is right on this one”, said Jane the moment she came in.

“There is a whole base of mercenaries and we need all of us to breach it. Inside are information the Council wishes to have. And now that they are helping me I am aligned to do the same for them”, she continued and I huffed once before staying silent.

The moment we were back I knew that something was wrong. The mission went alright, there were more enemies than normal, still nothing I couldn't have done myself. The problem was that the crew was gone, well anyone except for Joker.

We were in the meeting room when Miranda came storming in.

“You lost the whole crew? Everyone?” she asked angrily and with a pointed finger at him.

“I was there, I know”, he said depressed. I really had to suppress the told you, I really had to.

“And now?” I asked instead.

“EDI, is the Reaper IFF working now?”, asked Jane.

“Yes”, answered the now, as Joker told me, unshackled AI.

“Then what are we waiting for, we go through the relay and take our crew back”, commanded Jane. Joker nodded with a determined expression and jumped off of the table, before running to the cockpit.

“Get ready, we will take the fight to the Collector now”, said Jane through the com.

“I'll grab my things then”, I said and walked off towards the locker room.

°This will be fun, you think we can blow a shit up?°, I asked Kura-chan.

°Of course we can°, said Kura-chan equally eager.

A few hours later we did the jump and came out in a ship graveyard, the ships were old and from mixed races. After a close evasion we were over it and saw the Collector base.

“Take us in for a closer look”, said Jane, Joker did so and the ship moved towards the giant base.

“We were spotted”, reported EDI a moment later. Some drones were shooting their lasers at us and Joker started to evade and shoot them down. They hit us once or twice but our new armour held. It was a good idea to spend the money we got from the Council for upgrades on the Normandy.

“One of them burned itself into the engineering deck”, shouted Joker a moment after shooting down the last drone.

“On my way”, I shouted, already running to the ladder. Just jumping down is faster than taking the elevator. A second later I grabbed the handle of the ladder and climbed a short way back up to get out on the engineering deck. There I got promptly hit by a matter accelerator and rolled out of the way. Some sort of eye thingy robot was floating in the room and attacking me with its laser looking weapon.

“Make it fast Kara”, came from the com. Jane was apparently occupied in some other way, if I interpret her strained voice right.

“Right then, let's see how this thing fares against a real laser?”, I said and activated my Rinnegan. I then changed my arm into the Chakra laser and shot a low powered charge at the robot. The thing fried out instantly, its barrier not designed to hold against Chakra lasers and its armour not strong enough to block the high powered and extremely hot attack.

“Eye-drone-thing is down”, I said through the com the moment it hit deck.

“Careful, there are more, hold on tight”, warned Joker through the coms. I was already holding on the ladder, so that was no problem. A moment later bumping noises came from the hull and then the relived sigh of Joker.

“Again, hold on. They just send us an old friend”, he then suddenly said.

“Old friend?”, asked Jack.

“The Collector ship that shot us down the first time”, answered Jane darkly.

“Can I take it out?”, I asked hopefully.

“How?”, asked Joker back.

“I'll go out and hit it with a Bijuudama”, I replied and was already running for the next exit. It was the hole that the drone burned in.

“Too dangerous, we will not be able to get you back in”, disagreed Jane.

“No problem, now that Joker has Chakra I can feel him and I'm able to manoeuvrer in space”, I countered and stood in front of the barrier.

“Okay, but be careful”, she said in defeat and then ordered EDI to disable the barrier for a brief moment. I was sucked out in space and activated Kura-chan's Bijuumode a second later. The orange three hundred meter tall fox dwarfed the Normandy by at least a hundred meter.

I opened the mouth of the fox cloak and gathered the necessary Chakra for a Bijuudama the size of a house. Then I let loose and the ball shot forward. It hit the Collector ship, ploughed through the outer layer and then exploded somewhere inside. The whole thing exploded in a giant white fireball. I saw and felt the Normandy flying past me so I gathered wind Chakra and propelled myself forward. I also shrunk the fox cloak into the normal humanoid size.

With the application of my constantly increasing speed I reached the Normandy just in time for it to land and crash landed next to it. From there I saw the others coming out and jumped down to them.

“Ah, felt good to blast a ship out of space”, I said in greeting. Jane only shook her head, already used to me. Memo to myself, try harder.

“Kara, you're with Jack, Liara, Grunt, Mordin, Thane, Legion, Zaeed, and Kasumi. Mordin is in charge. Miranda, Garrus and I will take a different rout, while Tali opens the doors”, Jane then said and I shrugged.

“Eh, this is more serious than normally am I right?”, I asked Mordin the moment we began to move.

“Effeminate, mission is of high risk and has a possible high death count. Would appreciate if everyone takes this serious”, he said.

“Okay then, sorry my little MPs but you don't pack enough punch”, I said to my guns and put them away, before changing both my arms into rapid fire Chakra laser guns. My shoulder armour also ripped and revealed rocket launchers.

“Uh creepy”, commented Jack.

“You don't know nothing, I can also add four more arms, a blade tail and a wide range missile barrage from my head”, I grinned and shot at the first Collector that run around the corner. The laser bullets hit him and burned a hole into his chitin like armour. The body caught fire and his innards exploded from the sudden transition between liquid and gas.

“Oh gory!”, I chirped happily and changed into continued fire. Nearly a thousand bullets per minute were now shot from one of my arms and not one Collector managed to even look around the corner. The occasional tank got blasted out of the air by rockets and the take over of a Collector was always interrupted by a barrage of laser bullets.

“Remind me why we are here again?”, asked Kasumi in a strained voice. The answer came in the form of a bullet from the back. It hit her, but only depleted her shields somewhat.

“Because they also come from the back”, shouted Grunt gleefully. He was starting to become grumpy from the lack of action. So the others of the team turned around and shot the coming Collectors, while I cleared a path.

Each wave of them was bigger and tried to stop us just a bit harder, but we prevailed and reached a massive door. It was closed.

“Tali? Opening the door now would be brilliant”, joked Zaeed.

“I'm working on it”, came the fast and stressed reply. A second later the door opened with a swish and Tali jumped out of an air conduction. She run inside the new room and instantly began to work on the other panel.

“We're at the door, now would be good Tali”, came from Jane.

“Wait a moment, this door is different, I... I got it”. And with that the door opened. Miranda and Garrus were the first to come inside, walking backwards and still shooting. I pushed past them and decked the other side with a few rockets. The explosions ripped most of them apart, while precise cover fire from the others did the rest. Jane was now also inside and Tali closed the door.

“Shepard”, said Miranda suddenly and we all turned around.

“Oh shit”, I said and quickly reformed my arms, before sprinting towards one of the capsules. Just in time to see the woman inside waking up and flailing around. I punched through the glass, ripped it out and pulled the screaming woman out with my other arm.

“Quick, open the other pods”, I shouted. The others reacted fast and began to release the captured crew one after the other.

“They are alive”, breathed Jane in relieve.

“Yes, and a minute later and that would not have been the case. They wake their 'resources' up before processing them”, I said darkly.

“You mean that she would have been”, whispered Tali.

“A bloody pile of goo, perfect for the further use in creating a Reaper”, I confirmed and stood up.

“Where do these pipes lead to?”, asked Garrus in wonder.

“I got your position, they lead to the main control room. The rout is blocked by a security door, but there is another chamber that runs parallel to it”, answered Joker for us.

“I can't recommend that, thermal scans suggests that the chamber is overrun with Seeker swarms. Mordin's countermeasure cannot protect you against so many at once”, disagreed EDI.

“What about biotics? Couldn't we keep them away by creating a biotic field?”, asked Jane after listening to both of them.

“Yes, that might be possible, not for everyone, but a small team should be able to get through”, said Samara.

“In theory any biotic could handle it, it's just that the stronger they are the higher our chances are”, agreed Miranda. “Shepard, who do you want to maintain the field?”, she then asked.

“Samara, Kasumi, Tali, and I will go through the Seeker swarms. The rest of you will provide a diversion by going through the main passage, Garrus you're the leader. We're going to open the doors for you. Mordin, you'll go with the crew back to the ship. They aren't able to defend themselves”, ordered Jane.

“Commander, we are ready to fly again, but need to relocate the Normandy”, warned Joker now.

“Send the location, we will come”, replied Mordin.

“Good, everyone knows what to do, let's move out”, Jane said and pulled her weapon off of her back.

“Okay, Garrus, may I go to the front?”, I asked sweetly and changed my arms and shoulders back into weapons.

“By the spirits, yes, be my guests like the humans like to say”, said Garrus with wide eyes. He even made a grand gesture for me.

“Whop whop!”, I shouted and jumped into the heavily defended passage. I was greeted by ten Collectors, twenty husks and even one of their tanks. I shot two missiles at the tank, began to shoot at the covered Collectors with a barrage of lasers and changed my other arm into a roaring chainsaw that promptly began to tear the incoming husks apart.

“And there she goes again”, complained Grunt.

“What do you mean? This looks like it will be easy going”, asked Garrus highly amused, occasional shooting one or two Collector snipers.

“And that's the problem, we only get what remains and those who come from the back. Oh hell no, now she's even spitting fire!”, roared Grunt. He then stormed forward and tackled a heavy artillery Collector to the ground. There he bashed it's head in.

“Are you finished? They're starting to come from the back”, asked Jack irritated.

“Hehe, yes”, laughed Grunt a little embarrassed. Our killing spree lasted for nearly fifteen minutes until we reached another giant metal door. It was still closed.

“Shepard, how far away are you?”, asked Garrus through the com.

“Almost there, maybe another three minutes. Are you able to hold out so long?”, replied Jane over heavy gunfire.

Garrus turned around and saw me mowing down another batch of incoming enemies with ease.

“Yeah, I think that won't be a problem”, he then said.

Almost four minutes filled with a small army of Collectors later and the door opened. The others went inside first, with me following afterwards.

“Are you all okay?”, asked Jane in worry. Affirmative grunts and yes'es came from all around us.

“Joker are you at the rendezvous point?”, she then asked.

“Yes Commander, Dr. Chakwas and the rest were also just now coming in. Mordin got them all safely back”, said Joker in a good mood. He sounded way more hopeful and happier, now that the crew is back and not dead because of him. Not that it was his fault to begin with, I think it was Miranda's for insisting on having everyone down.

“What's our next step EDI?”, asked Miranda.

“There should be some nearby platforms that will take you to the main control console. From there you can overload the station and destroy the base”, answered the AI. She should get a voice program soon, this monotone sounds boring. A sexy and husky voice will do good for the moral.

“Commander? There is a problem, the insects are trying to breach the door, they come in masses”, warned Joker urgently.

“A team has to keep position and keep the Collectors from overwhelming us”, suggested Jane after jumping up onto a higher position for a better view over us. No one died so far, so in front of her stood a group of the deadliest and most lethal people in the galaxy.

“Pick a group to help you Shepard, the rest of us will bunker down”, said Miranda. She kinda tries to get control over everything.

“Yes, Garrus and Miranda, both of you will come with me”, ordered Jane. They both climbed up to her and assured their readiness.

“Anything to say?”, asked Miranda with a small smile.

“This is it, the Reaper are out for our blood and we are here to stop them. At first it were only a few human colonies, but this is more than that. We are here to defend everyone. I won't lie to you, this might get bloody and there will remain scars, but I am confident in your skills and know that we all can survive this. So keep the line for us when we come back from kicking the Reapers in the nuts”, said Jane down to us. Some nodded, others grinned. I was deep in thought.

°Kura-chan, you think we should stop here? Jane is sure to win the thing now with our influence done. The Council is helping her and the others survived so far. I think our last act should be to help them survive the rest and then destroy the station completely, so that Cerberus won't get it's hands on anything that might remain°, I asked my, so far mostly, silent wife.

°Do what you want. You know as well as I do that we both are only a weak reminder of our real selves. I'm just a blood clone, as are you. Our orders were to help Shepard in some way and we did just that°, replied Kura-chan. Her blood clones were always so inactive, never having really her personality like I did with mine. For example I view myself as me, a twin of the boss. We have the same thoughts and goals, the same personality and way of doing things, but Kura-chan's clones were always more like drones. Not interested in doing anything other than their job and mostly silently fulfilling their purpose. They were boring.

°Good then, we will hold out until Jane is back and then keep the remaining Collectors from following her. The moment we sense Joker outside of our radius we will overcharge ourselves°, I said. The Kura-chan merely hummed in agreement.

“They are through!”, shouted Samara suddenly and bought me out of my thoughts. I snapped my head back to the door and changed my rapid fire laser into an continuing blast laser. The door began to open and the first dozen husks tried to press themselves through. They were turned to ashes within seconds. The door opened wider and let more of them in, so I also increased the range of the laser until all of the door was filled with a green wall of Chakra. I made sure to only power it up enough to have a wide range, but not a long distance. It was effectively nothing more than a deadly wall.

“And now?”, asked Jack unsure. Her face looked stunned and surprised.

“Now we wait, this shit takes a fuckton of Chakra per second and would have killed Joker the first second”, I replied with a faked forced grimace.

“And how long can you hold this?”, asked Samara slightly worried.

“Hmm, don't know, never did this before. It's essentially nothing more than a large wall of death. Anything that touches it will get burned”, I answered.

“So they are still on the other side?”, asked Grunt.

“Yes, but the moment Jane comes back I will push this wall outside and roast them. They should increase their numbers until the whole floor is full with them”, I assured.

The room fell into silence after that, until the whole station shacked for a few seconds.

“Looks like Jane is busy”, I grinned. I forced some sweet out of me, so that I looked to be in strain.

“Kara, we can hold them off as well, you don't have to overburden yourself”, offered Tali.

“Nu-uh, this bears the least risks of one of you dying”, I countered and she stayed silent. Another two times shook the whole station before loud explosions came from where Jane went.

“Jane won, the station will overcharge and explode”, called Joker euphorically through the com.

“Good, can some of you go and fetch her?”, I asked. Grunt, Zaeed and Samara run off to get them and came a few minutes later back. Jane, Miranda and Garrus looked somewhat bruised but fine otherwise.

“Kara?”, asked Jane as she saw the green wall.

“A blockade, I will push them away and then help you get away”, I said with an, again, faked weak smile.

“There was no us in your sentence”, she stated dryly and not amused.

“Well, seems like this green wall of death takes more Chakra than thought and I'm pretty burned out. Maybe a side effect from the long sealing, but I have less Chakra than what I am used to”, I explained.

“So? We'll just carry you”, shot Jane back.

“Won't do, Chakra is essential to me, without it I will die. No, you all go and stop the Reaper for me, while I will use the last remains of Chakra to self detonate. From what I have seen of Timmy he will want to salvage the base and use it for his own purpose. I can't allow that, Cerberus is too much under an indoctrination risk to get any stronger. And even if you overloaded the base, there will be useable remains. Likely some parts of the Reaper you surely have killed. These parts are a sure way to get indoctrinated. With me detonating myself nothing will remain”, I denied lengthily.

“But, there has to be another way”, began Jane. She was stopped by another explosion and Joker's warning of the base reaching soon critical energies.

“Go now!”, I ordered and pushed the energy outwards. The hundred or so Collectors on the other side were fried instantly, but more flooded in. I changed into minigun mode and besieged them with thousands of bullets per minute.

“Would you all be so kind and fuck off now? This is only getting harder!”, I shouted to the group behind me. Jane looked to be short of carrying me away, but Garrus put an arm on her shoulder and shook his head in denial. He then looked at me and nodded once in gratitude.

“We'll remember you Kara”, shouted Jack before running of. I only gave a grunt through the com before increasing the output of bullets again. The never stopping flood of husks and Collectors reminded me of the fights I had back when my and Kura-chan's nation was still alive.

It was fun, but ultimately useless. Two people couldn't stop a galaxy wide extermination, so I designed a seal for the sealing of a blood clone and then another one for the compression and then instantaneously release of my and Kura-chan's Chakra. The force that was generated by this was enough to kill both of us and blast a sun system out of existence. It also killed a few thousand Reaper, but that was only a trickle in the sea of ships they had amassed over the billions of years.

Almost ten minutes later Jane told me that they were on board and on their way to the Realy.

“That's it then, it was fun while it lasted Jane, beat the Reaper for me will ya?”, I asked back and activated the same seal that killed the boss. We had not as much Chakra, but it would be enough to make powder out of the station and the nearby ship graveyard.

[Line Break]

Shepard's POV;

I watched with crying eyes how a green sun came into existence. It grew in size and swallowed anything in its path.

“We have to go or this will kill us as well”, warned Joker, he also was forcing the tears away. Since Kara healed him he was so much happier and constantly running through the ship, just because he could.

“Jane, we can come back in a few hours, but we have to go”, he said again, this time even using my name, something that he rarely did, but Kara always liked to do.

“Yes, you are right. Bring us through the Relay”, I said, but keep staring at the still growing green sun.

The Normandy made a jump and a few minutes later we were back on our side of the Omega 4 Relay. A good dozen freighter ships from Cerberus, as well as two corvettes were waiting for us.

“So Kara was right and Timmy wanted to salvage the remains all along”, I muttered.

The moment we were back the ships began to move forward and one after the other jumped through, not even waiting for me to give them any warning.

“They will die won't they?”, asked Joker, but there was no pity in his words.

“Yes, the sphere of Chakra will reach them before they will be able to jump back”, answered EDI for me. I shrugged, there was no love for any Cerberus agent in me. And even Miranda was just barely above accepted.

“How is the crew?”, I asked.

“Most are holding a mourning minute in the canteen. Thane is holding his own in his room. Grunt is sitting in the hangar and destroys things of little importance. Jack is cursing about 'The Top Model' and Miranda just now contacted The Illusive Man”, informed EDI me.

So even now she isn't waiting at least a minute for the dead and runs back to her owner.

“Joker, bring us back in an hour, I am down in the hangar, I have to see if there are some personal things Kara left for us to bury”, I said and walked slowly to the elevator.

I was looking through Kara's things when I got the call from Timmy that he wishes to see me. I told him I will call back in a few hours, that I had more important things to do.

Kara didn't have much, a data pat, a blanket, a stuffed fox for cuddling and a few spare parts for her MPs. I was just putting the blanket together, when an piece of paper fell out.

I picked it up and read it through.

Well hello there,

If you're reading this and are not a future me,

then I'm dead and died somewhere,

probably in the Collectors base.

Anyway, if you're Jane Shepard then everything is okay,

if not, please give this to her.

The this little piece of paper has the code for my

data pat, don't bother trying to hack it,

the moment something gets changed, or even put inside,

will let it explode. Only the correct code will allow you

access. And you have only one try.

So here is the clue, you should have, by now, seen that

there are no numbers on this piece of paper. That is,

because it has a seal and will only show you the numbers,

if you put some blood of your own on it, but beware,

only Jane Shepard's blood will work.

Any other blood will let this small piece of paper

detonate with the force of a view grenades.

Have fun with the things inside the datapat Jane.

It was funny while it lasted, oh and grab that booty of Liara.

She is hot for an alien and you should definitely tap it again.

Further down was the picture of a chiby Kara doing the piece sign with a wide grin.

“Hehe this is just like her, still making jokes after dying”, I sobbed out and looked for something to prick my finger. I found a small knife and used it to put some blood on the paper. A new line appeared, the password was easy, if you knew Kara.

Chicken is the food of God

I tipped the password in with a small grin and was led to the desktop. On it were a few folders with different names and I nearly dropped the pad after reading through some of them.

Bank Account(For Jane)

Construction plans for stealth ships

Construction plans for live ships

Construction plans for better weapons

Construction plans for better armour

Construction plans for better kinetic fields

The list went on for a few other things, ranging from medical technology to robotics. From knowing her they were all as good or better than what we now had and might help us enormously. We might not be able to beat the Reaper in space, but better weapons and armour will help us for sure.

I then opened the Bank Account folder and had to sit down from what I saw. These zeros were too many. If what I am reading is true, then I would be one of the richest woman in the galaxy. That was if I take it. Suddenly a window popped up and I laughed loudly.

You'll have to use the money Jane, and not only for

fighting against the Reaper. This money will

only be transferred to your account and no one

else's.

“Yes Kara, I will beat the Reaper and then use the money for you. Not for my own amusement, but for the betterment of the galaxy. I will found the Kara Uzumaki foundation which will mainly work with helping orphans. You was one yourself, so I think you'll like it”, I swore and then stood up. There was a war of extermination to win.

[Line Break]

Narrator's POV;

The Illusive man was not amused when he was informed that there was not a single thing remaining on the other side. He had made most of his future plans with the certainty that they will get new technology from the remains of the Collector base.

This stopped his plans of controlling the Reaper almost completely and he wasn't able to enhance his soldiers. Cerberus had to fight with normal soldiers and less strong weapons as well as armours in the Reaper war. This made them little more than an annoyance and they weren't able to do much of what would happen otherwise.

They still managed to hinder the war preparations, but not as much as what might have been possible.

The Council, now that they took the Reaper serious did their best for the preparation and the Reaper found a galaxy that was better prepared than they had a lot of time. Life ships were send out almost instantly so that their races would survive even if the Reaper managed to kill the rest. They would travel far away from the Relay's and begin a new civilisation out from any Reaper treads.

But that was not all, the means for evacuating civilians were bigger, the racecourses they had for the weapon they found on Mars made the construction way easier. They also found it sooner, with their increased search of Prothean caches. The Asari, under Tevor's orders, provided the catalyst instantly, rather than only with the downfall of their home world.

Yet, also Jane profited from Kara. The indoctrination that had festered inside her brain since the beginning on Eden Prime, since the activation of the Prothean beacon, was erased by Kara. This cleared her mind, the hallucinations she would have had did not come and her overall fighting capability was even higher than what she usually showed. Battles led by her were always a victory, with her at the front and with her not wavering in her fight against the Reaper.

Still, that was not all, the technology provided by Kara helped in creating better stealth ships and their hunter ships were now able to fly under stealth until they attack, even with the Reapers searching for them.

Foot soldiers survived more hits and could dish out more before they were overcome and those who got wounded had an easier recovery in some cases, also thanks to Kara's new technology.

All in all the Reaper war went with way less casualties than it might have been and the races were sooner united than what would be the case. Still, billions died and countless worlds were devoid of civilised life. But at the end they prevailed and biological life won.

Jane Shepard choose to destroy the Reaper, rather than the false control or assimilate option. Both weren't even visible to her, thanks to the lack of indoctrination.

A new era of prosperity started with every race united. And the first thing Jane Shepard did was using her name and influence, as well as Kara's money, to start the biggest humanitarian foundation in existence, The Kara-Foundation. Kara Uzumaki was added into the history as a woman that helped the Hero Jane Shepard beating the Reaper, a woman that held a place as high as people like Garrus Vacarian or David Anderson.

The End!^^

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So yeah, that's it. This is what happened after Naruto and before One Piece, I always wanted to write some kind of Mass Effect story, most of the time a cross over between Halo and Mass Effect, but Kara wouldn't have matched in those.

Hope you liked it and please overlook the many mistakes that are sure to be in there, I wrote the whole thing in one text data and did not re-read every 126 pages for every single mistake. I did read it twice, so I hope there are not too many.

If there are questions, ask away.

Oh and the indoctrination mention at the end about the other two main game options are explained in this fine and logical video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZOyeFvnhiI (don't own it)