'Mason, your son is amazing!' Jaret thought that as he lay on the ground after the fight. He had fought seriously and still lost to a kid. ' Incredible.'

The moves the kid showed him were extraordinary, and somehow managed to counter everything he tried to do. Of course, he hit the boy a lot of times, but it looked like it didn't affect him that much.

Jaret got up from the ground and approached Samael, who was surrounded by his army and Veronica. They parted the way for the veteran and the kid to face each other, '' Nice fight, kiddo.''

Samael, who was happy to finally have some real fight after a few years, also looked at the veteran differently, ' He is a good fighter.'

Of course, if it was the older Samael, the fight would have ended sooner. If it was the Samael with the serum, it would only take a minute or even less than that. Still, it was a good fight, as the veteran wasn't a veteran for nothing.

Both of them had handicaps, Samael his age and Jaret his robotic 'arm' ( if could call that a handicap), but the fight was amazing.

'' You too, old man. Let's do this again in the future, but be careful not to die.''

'' HA! Look at you, just because you won once you think you'll win every time... But, sure, let's fight again in the future.'' Jaret then looked at the kids around them, '' You see what we did today, and if you train every single day what we teach you, you can reach, at least, my level. But, go rest today and absorb what you saw as it is a nice learning experience.''

The army was in ecstasy after watching the spar, as their fighting spirit was ignited after watching such an exciting battle.

After that, Samael and Veronica went to his house. Vallery thankfully was away, otherwise, she would scold them both for allowing Samael to get this hurt.

Veronica helped Samael get to bed and he asked, '' So, what did you think of the spar?''

'' It was amazing! Do you think I can win against Jaret too?''

Samael nodded and shook his head, '' Yes and no. NO, as you can't win right now, and yes you can win in the future.''

As Veronica was trained by Samael, one of the most experienced fighters in the galaxy, she could win against almost anyone; But, right now, she had the body of a child, even though trained, and didn't have the experience Samael had, so she would lose against someone on Jaret level.

After making sure Samael was okay, Veronica left the house and the boy started to absorb what happened today, ' I need to grow up quickly.'

The figth agasint Jaret was a warining. He only won because he was experienced, but if he fought someone like an Asari commando, an elite force of the Asari focused only on battle, he would've lost.

While he could use the serum, the materials he needed to make it didn't exist on Earth as they were too exotic, so that too had to wait. But, the wait was killing Samael, who was made aware of his shortcomings.

' I wish I had a skip button to when I'm 18...'

With that in mind, Samael went to sleep.

--

DAYS LATER

It was a peaceful day in the slum where Tarzan lived. Ever since he started gambling with Samael's help, everything had become more peaceful. His people were now armed with the highest quality weapons and armor, so he was gaining more and more power in San Francisco.

Of course, he wouldn't forget that all this was only possible thanks to Samael, and the thought that he would betray the kid didn't even cross his mind, not even in the future, when he would be much richer than now.

Looking at the bets he was going to make today, Tarzan wondered where Samael was and what he was doing, 'The boy is a machine of surprises. I don't doubt that one day he'll say that he'll save the earth or something, and the worst thing is that I believe him...'

Pushing these thoughts aside, Tarzan would focus on the now, 'Even if our present is guaranteed, our future could take a turn for the worse in an instant. I'd better recruit more people and put more security on those I want to protect.'

Just as Tarzan was about to put this plan into action, one of his men knocked on the door. He said with a slight tone of irritation, ''What is it?''

''Boss, Samael is here and says he wants to talk to you.''

Tarzan immediately changed his tone to a more cheerful one, because a visit from Samael was only good news, ''Let him in. And bring two beers.''

'' Okay.''

It didn't take long for Samael to enter Tarzan's office, and just as the man imagined, the boy, as always, got straight to the point, ''I need a favor from you.''

Tarzan tried to hide his greed but couldn't, not that Samael minded, ''Go ahead.''

Samael then passed a pile of paper to Tarzan, who, when he saw it all, was confused, ''What is all this?'' With his limited knowledge, he really didn't know what it was.

"This, my friend, will make us even richer. There's a limit to betting, and this will serve to break that limit.'' Samael sounded as if everything was in his control.

'' ... Can you explain what I have to do?'' Tarzan now just wanted to know what part he was going to play. The plan itself didn't matter, since in the end, he would get richer anyway.

''Sure, but first, let me show you what these papers are. Give me a knife or a gun, please.'' Samael held out his hand to Tarzan and waited.

Without hesitation, Tarzan passed a pistol to Samael, who looked at it quickly and out of nowhere, shot himself in the arm.

'' What the hell?!'' Tarzan got up quickly and went to use the latest generation Med Gel he had bought to heal the boy, who for some reason had shot himself. At the same time, some of his men entered the office with weapons in hand, thinking it was some kind of attack.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Before anyone could speak or do anything, his attention turned to Samael, who pulled something out of his pocket. It was familiar to everyone there, but a rarity for them. It was some kind of Med Gel.

'' Look at this.'' Samael then applied the Med Gel and the wound disappeared instantly, something that surprised everyone on the spot, ''This, my friends, is something I call Advanced Med - Gel. It's 50% more powerful than the best on the market and it works instantly.''

Samael had invented this with Tali in one of the previous cycles. What he made now was a weaker version, but this weaker version was already more powerful than anything else on the market today.

'' And you're going to help me set up a company to launch this product onto the market. I want everything in order, without any irregularities. Can you do that for me?'' Samael said as he looked at the shocked Tarzan. The wound in his arm long healed.

'' Its also a chance for you to really start to be legit, getting away from crime.''

To the eye, it didn't look much different from a normal Med Gel, but if what Samael was saying was true, they would profit greatly. Before Tarzan could even ask how much he would make, Samael continued, ''Oh, and I'll give you 10% of the profits. It may not seem like much now, but that's not the only product I'm going to launch...''

This company that Samael was going to make, he was going to use to launch, little by little, products from the future, so that the whole galaxy could advance in research. All to fight the Reapers.

And well, make him more rich.

After hearing the last part, Tarzan immediately agreed, "Leave it to me!''

While he was a thug, Tarzan knew how to make bussiness. It wasn't diffuclt, to be honest. The problem was the product.

Generally, it need some time of testing to see if there's any problem with it, but while the others didn't knew the boy infront of him and his intelect, he knew, so he was condident the product was normal.

But, f he wanted the product in the market as soon as possible, he would have to bribe his way trought.

But Tarzan knew it was going to be worth.

' The product alone is worth bi-no, trillions. If he has more ideas like that...'

Tarzan shuderred just thinking about it.

' Let's do me part.'

--

The following day, Tarzan went ahead and registered the company under the name of LD ( Last Defense). He never asked why Samael chose that name and he also didn't care.

After registering that company, he bribed a few people to speed up the process of being able to submit a new product, and again, after bringing more people, he sent the Degraded Advanced Meg-Gel to test.

This was supposed to be the tricky part, as it could take years for the people to analyze the product, then approve or disapprove, and then go public.

So, Tarzan also bribed a few other people who worked in the testing area, but even then, they said it would take some time.

But, at that moment, Samael asked for the names of the people who were supposed to analyze the product.

'' Why?'' Tarzan knew he shouldn't have asked but his curiosity got the better of him.

'' No reason.''

Anyone with a brain knew Samael was lying. He was going to do something, and Tarzan didn't know what.

But, supposedly, it would make the process faster.

So, Tarzan passed Samael the names of the people he knew were working on the testing, even the ones he had already bribed. He, honestly, didn't like them, as his instincts he honed until this point in life were screaming they were bad news.

He didn't mind throwing them under Samael's pressure. On the very next day, the product was approved and only a few more steps were needed for it to be able to launch in the market.

All in all, it was less than a month since it was sent to testing, so this speed was something never seen before.

Tarzan shuddered thinking what could've happened to make the process so fast, even faster than bribing, but decided to ignore it.

' I don't think anything good will come out even if I knew how he did it.'

As the product passed a lot of tests, a lot of other companies and groups found out about it through their connections and were asking around about it, some with nefarious intent of stealing the data and idea, others just afraid of it, or just watching for fun.

One of them was Cerberus.

But, to their surprise, they found resistance from the people who worked with them in the past. Almost like they were afraid of something even more dangerous than them.

Of course, even if they did find the formula to make it, it would still be difficult for them to replicate, as it was a technology from the future and Samael put a few protections on it just in case it leaked.

Well, even if it leaked, Samael was confident the one he made was the better one. Besides, the purpose of launching it on the market was to make money and at the same time, speed up the process of advancement of new things.

So, if his Degraded Advanced Med-Gel was the catalyst for others to create an even more powerful version, Samael was going to be happy.

Anyway, time passed, and the media soon found out about it.

Earth was surprised, as this product was revolutionary, to say the least. The commotion got too big even the Council started to take notice of it, alongside other species.

For a while, every eye in the galaxy was on Earth, waiting for this product to launch.

And, while the interest was still high, and after a few months since he sent it to testing, Samael used this opportunity to launch it on the market.

Save to say, it was a success. Something 50% more powerful than the Med - Gel on the market and only slightly more expensive. Again, others even bought it for study.

The materials to make are almost cheaper than the ones used to make a normal Med-Gel, so the profit was enormous.

In the months before it was launched into the market, Samael used his future knowledge to hire the best of the best in their respective areas in the future, to manage his company. But, as he never really paid attention to this area in other cycles, he must have missed a few good seeds around, but nevertheless, he was happy with the people he pouched.

Even if they just reproduced only 50% of what they did in the future, he knew his company was going to be okay in their hands.

He, however, left a position to a person he knew on his past cycle but just didn't meet yet. It was a higher-up position and he wanted that person to get that.

This was just the start though, as Samael was going to make this company the start of his empire here on Earth. He would use it to launch more products, dominate the market on Earth, and then slowly start to reach other parts of the galaxy, eventually having footing around the entirety of it.

Samael never really tried this in other cycles, as he was too busy being depressed, helping Shepard, or doing other things. But now, he wanted all of it.

After all, it was going to be easier for the after-war effort if he already had a strong position on Earth or the whole galaxy. With the products he was going to launch, it was going to be easy to dominate the market.

In the middle of all the frenzy that occurred when the Med-Gel was launched, one particular man was intrigued, '' So, how did we miss something like this?''

A man with armor with a C on it was sweating bullets. He slowly answered, '' We followed the protocol. When a revolutionary item was sent to be studied before being launched, we would steal the idea and make a better version, then kill or silence the other part. Everything was going normal, but for some reason, the other part managed to go ahead with it, even with our man on the inside.''

That was something that bothered the agent. ' How could something like that happen?'

Cerberus was slowly but surely dominating the market on Earth, all behind a veil. They already stole a few products, but not a single one of them was like the ones they had just lost.

They even had an inside man to ensure everything was in order but for some reason, he just didn't do it.

' Should we kill that man?'

While not a Cerberus agent, the inside man knew a lot of their things. So, he was a loose end.

While the agent was thinking that, the leader of Cerberus, Jack Harper, said, '' Is that so?''

The man felt death from the stare and was going to beg for his life before Jack continued, '' This is going to be the last chance. Make sure you have the formula in my hand in the next week or it will be your head in its place.''

'' On it!'' The man then hurried to Earth once more, to try not to die.

Jack Harper, the Illusive Man, was a little taken aback by what happened. Never before he was outsmarted like this. It was a nice feeling from him.

' Something strange is happening.'

His gut told him it was bad news for him, but for now, there wasn't much he could do but wait and see.

But, he would surely remember the name of the company that managed to escape from his grasp.

When he looked at the name again, he smirked a little.

' Last Defense, huh. Let's see how will you behave in the future.'

What he didn't know at that time, was that was just the start of his misfortunes.