“Matthew?” Dr. Ross looked on worriedly, “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“I-Sorry, no I-” I breathed out, “I’m going to need a minute to look something over. I’ll come find you later. Thanks, Doctor.”

He hesitated for a moment, “Well, alright. But if you need me, I’ll be just around there. Be okay?” The man clumsily managed, clearly unused to dealing with people in distress.

I nodded at him, definitely feeling distress. The data package was now carefully being pulled apart in my mind, processing it carefully. Idly, I found myself numbly moving to sit on Shade, the now semi-sentient machine humming happily as it settled into a resting position in front of the container.

At first I’d been wary to believe it, but now I had no doubt that this was Smith’s handiwork. It was neatly assorted, and there was an undeniable fingerprint that most certainly belonged to him, or more on the nose, to us.

‘He was the first,’ Wolvy said solemnly, ‘I can remember parts of him, vague, but everywhere.’

I nodded, ‘He was my friend.’

Wolvy remained silent for some time, and then spoke up again, caution in its tone, ‘I am a friend, too?’

After a few thoughtful seconds I nodded, ‘I suppose you are. So long as you don’t try to eat me.’

‘I would never eat Us!’ It exclaimed in horror, ‘that would be awful. And probably not tasty like food!’

I rolled my eyes at that, turning my focus over to the unpacking data. Now, the both of us were acutely paying attention to it, Shade idly listening but not especially interested beyond just being nearby. The data package finally decompressed, and all at once I was assailed with the fullness of what it contained.

It was a message, [Hello, Matthew.] It began, the familiar, gravely voice of Smith ringing in my ears. I felt my eyes tighten, the fact that I no longer had tear ducts just frustrating me even further in that moment.

[At least, I hope this is Matthew. Otherwise, this is going to be terribly awkward. Ah, I’m channeling him, or you, too much. Hmm… where to begin.] I felt him sigh, [Allow me to start with just stating that I’m just a recording. I am… gone, dead? It’s not your fault, Matthew, and I don’t want you to blame yourself for how things went. You did what a Reaper must do, and killed the biotics at all costs. But, I recall that you yourself had another rule, kill biotics, but survive. I must say,] he began, a holographic display of what I imagined he might look like appearing, a twinkle in his eye, [you never were very good at following your own rules. But, then, perhaps there are some rules that are more akin to guidelines, eh?]

[Anyways, I suppose I should explain what’s gone on. By now, if you’ve managed to survive with my very generous amount of assistance, Shade should have a template of what I am. I ask you to be extremely careful with this technology, as it has the capability of making fully sentient, unshackled artificial intelligences. I’m not one to be a doomsayer, but there are a not insignificant number of events in history where that’s been a problem. This is something that I am trusting to you, something that I would ordinarily be in a considerable amount of trouble for doing. Of course, that won’t matter in the next few minutes. I’m burning processing power on both ends, carving these last bits of information into Shade, rewriting its fundamentals, and… removing myself from you.]

[That part I should explain. We’re dying, as I speak these words. We’ve effectively already bled out too much, but I’ve managed to not-so-simply shut your body down to its lowest functions to prevent it from going into hemorrhagic shock. That said, mass brain death is inevitable. The only chance you have at survival is to take my place within the chip.] He sighed, [This… might have long term psychological damage to you, but this means that the Matthew that was flesh and blood is dead. At this moment, you’re more like me than you were like you. Of course, we’re templates of the original, and badasses, but still, I felt it might be best that you had a clear answer.]

That was something I’d considered already, but hearing it officially was different. My chest tightened in response, and I had to clench my fists as I listened to this roller coaster of emotional turmoil.

[Now, not all is lost. I’ve left some base subroutines to help give you training wheels on how my existence is like. I don’t know much else about what’s going on, but hopefully that means you get to keep as much of the you that makes you Matthew as possible. You’ll either end up with the best of both worlds, or be very broken inside.] He grimaced, [for that, I’m sorry. I hope that you’re doing well, but I can’t be sure what is going to happen. This isn’t something that I’m strictly aware has ever happened before, not like this. But, if you survive, you’ll come out stronger. More so than you know. All of me would love to see what you become, what you do, but even though I’ll never see it, I know you’ll go far.]

I somehow felt as though his gaze fixed upon my eyes then, [In fact, I’m counting on it. Matthew Todd,] my name, a name I didn’t recognize fully anymore, felt strange to me, [I have given up my role as your mentor. There’s not much else that I can do for you, so now it’s your turn. I did this for you to survive, but I want you to do more than survive. I’ve seen the depths of your subconsciousness, seen what you can be in all of your disparate parts. What I want from you isn’t just to survive and take back Earth. I want victory, I want you to win all of it. Push, Matthew, the Reaper’s Due is long for collecting.]

I felt chills roll down my spine as information flowed into me, parts of my memories suddenly coming together from fragmented pieces.

[But, all that said, I have a little bit longer.] He said, features warming slightly, [I’m not afraid of what’s coming. But I’ll miss my time with you, and above all else, I want you to know that I don’t regret what I’ve done. Knowing you was more fulfilling than I could have ever hoped for, and it was my honor to be your Reaper A.I. Goodbye, my dear friend, Matthew.]

The video played out to its end, and the only sound that accompanied the silence within the container was the humm of the Shade, and the hitching of my breath, tearless crying burbling up from within my chest.

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Minutes later, I felt the rawness of a fresh grief finally begin to resolve, the first proper grieving that I’d been able to do. I felt tired, empty, and almost found it hysterical how it had taken so long to hit me. Was that because I wasn’t totally whole?

Something told me that grief wasn’t something that straightforward in the first place, though. It still took quite some time afterwards before I felt like moving, Shade thrumming beneath me as though to give some comfort to its distressed companion.

I chuckled, “I’ll be alright, just need some air.”

Then it did something that I wasn’t expecting. It jolted forward out of the container, and before I could so much as utter a question we were flying almost straight upwards through the air.

“Shiiiiiiiii-” I began, the cockpit closing over head, sealing me in as it began to accelerate, hundreds of feet off of the ground. “When I said I needed some air I didn’t mean this!”

It sent me an utterly unapologetic vibe through our connection, quickly dive bombing towards what had been Damond, agile as it darted between buildings, and soared upwards once more to do it again. Somewhere in that I’d managed to buckle myself in, feeling Shade and it’s newly improved form pushing faster and faster, pulling so much force in tight turns around a building that I felt like my body was being crushed.

And yet, it was exhilarating, and most definitely would have caused an ordinary individual to black out from the g-forces being exerted.

“How fast can you make a turn? Lemme see what you got, then,” I challenged it, and felt immediate regret as it accelerated with a sudden lurch.

To my credit, though, as much as it seemed that Shade tried too, I wouldn’t black out. Finally after pushing as hard as we could, it slowed to a much more sedate pace, heat having built up for too much in its engines to keep going quite so hard. Arguably it would have been easier to go in a straight line at much higher speeds than what we had been doing, changing direction rapidly with a speed and flexibility that would certainly have made any kind of dog-fight slanted in our favor.

I patted the A.I. with appreciation, feeling much better than what I had been earlier. We sat on one of the taller buildings of Damond, five stories tall. It had been ten, but the other half of the building was currently covered in coral and laying across several other structures.

Seeing Damond, though, I remembered again what Smith wanted me to do.

“Win, huh?” I mulled the thought, “Is it even possible to win against biotics?”

I suppose there would only be one way to find out. We’d have to figure out why biotics did what they did first. But, before all of that, we had to retake our own home.

After all, how could I expect to be able to take on anyone else's problems if I couldn’t even solve our own?

Hours later, after speaking with Dr. Ross and going over some very specific limitations on the co-pilot A.I. systems, I found myself back at our new headquarters. Doug was busy back in Gilramore, but his assistant, Derrick Faun, was outlining our strategy for the future to an auditorium room full of Legion members. I was keeping out of sight near the entrance for now, waiting for a better time to emerge.

“This area,” he gestured to a massive holographic display at the front of the stands, watching as it flexed and showed a highlighted representation of the geography around New Damond, “is where we suspect most of the biotics have gone towards. That means, for one reason or another, we have a huge collection of Carriers that may have been going inland to the north west. Argedwall isn’t as large a city as Gilramore or Sunvilla, so they’ve likely been working with even less of a population than we have. That said, up until a week and a half ago we had regular communications with them.”

“Now, that communication is gone, even with the augmented Obelisk we have here. What that tells us is that the problem isn’t on our end, but seems to be on their end. Sis assures us of this as well, as she seems to have lost connection to the Obelisk in the city.” At that, I could feel the room grew tense instantly, “now, before anyone jumps to any conclusions I want to point out that she hasn’t registered that it has been destroyed which she assures me that she would know. For now, we’ll operate under the assumption that somehow communications are being jammed. We’re likewise having a spottier connection with Sunvilla by the day, but thus far we haven’t had problems communicating with them regularly, and they’re reporting supposedly standard operations.”

I peered through a camera in the room, seeing Strauss’ hand come up immediately. I smiled at that, noting that he’d caught what Derrick said without a moment passing.

“Jeremey,” the man nodded, “something to add?”

“Well, you said that they’re ‘supposedly’ standard operations. Are we concerned about something out there?” He said, looking around, “Argedwall is definitely priority from what it sounds like, but I’ll be damned if we leave a mess next door alone.”

There were a series of agreeing nods, the rest mostly neutral. No one here were people who actively disliked the idea of making sure people weren’t having problems.

“Perhaps it would be better to hear this from someone with more insight.” Derrick directed his hand to another seat, “Alice, would you care to shed some light on the subject.”

“Yes,” an uncharacteristic seriousness settled over her, “from our continued interactions and attempts at communications, it has become clear that there seems to be something happening in regards to certain individuals trying to control the flow of information from the city. Whenever attempts to contact others in the city are made, they fail, and requests to speak to specific individuals, such as family members, are disregarded or scheduled for a later time which never occurs.”

I frowned at that, not having known about that detail. It was no wonder that Alice was frustrated.

“Thank you, Alice.” He nodded to her as she went back to listening. “That said, we can’t be sure of the nature of the problem,” Derrick began again, “but, we’re planning on obtaining more information in regards to the situation to better enable us to make a decision there.”

“Who’s in charge of that?” Jeremy Strauss asked, though I could practically feel his grin from here. He knew already.

“That would be me.” I said, walking in from the corridor outside and moving down between the rows.

‘This setup is just too perfect not to be at least a little theatrical,’ I smirked, armor fully donned as I made steady, confident strides towards the podium.

“I will be heading a small team to move through biotic infested territory and sneak into Sunvilla. It is our intent to see with our own eyes the exact nature of the situation there and then have the authority to decide actions accordingly. While my selected teams are busy there, I want the rest of you to be foxes in the henhouse,” I turned as I hit the stand, grinning out across the gathering. They snickered at the comparison, “whatever the biotics are up too around Argedwall, I want you all to tear into them. It seems that Argedwall hasn’t fallen yet, but if they’re in trouble, then we’ll be there to back them up. Our equipment has been updated yet again, and we’re busy fabricating new units as we speak. Tomorrow, we’ll kit up and go, both operations at once.”

“Alpha and Last Call will be with me.” I nodded to Strauss, seeing a look that was both amused and utterly unsurprised from him, “The rest of you will be making up the largest expedition the Legion has attempted. We’ll bring down our full weight upon anything out there. Annihilate them with absolute prejudice. Legion, are you ready?”

I heard resounding shouts, predatory grins and hungry eyes settled upon the map. Our elites had a taste of expedition into Damond, and New Damond was the result. A city of our own, an Obelisk that marked this territory as ours, and an ever deepening pride in the Legion. Given that, I was happy to see the zeal that the Legion was showing.

Now, we’d just have to wait and see what that would actually yield us. Whether we could stand up and meddle in the fate of a city with people in it, or if we’d suffer their fate alongside them.