One Shepard is not enough

by Eclipsephoenix

Summary:

John Shepard has lost everything. His friends, family, home and more. Given a second chance and a mission by a Watcher, he is sent to another world to help another Shepard in her quest and to counter dark forces at work. But nothing is ever simple as more divergence events happen and more Sheaprds appear.

Chapter 1

Commander John Shepard didn’t stop as he ran down the ramp to the lift leading up to the Citadel.  As he ran, a Reaper marauder tried to get in his way, but that didn’t even slow the Commander down as he just slammed into the husk pushing it to one side before continuing. He was pissed. Rage filled him to the point where he saw no allies, just enemies in front of him. There was nothing left for him after all, he lost everything. His friends, his crew, his family and his ship… all gone.

Tali and Kasumi died on the collector base. Wrex, Grunt, Mordin and Garrus died on Tuchanka trying to defend the last city from a Reaper attack. Miranda and Thane died thanks to Kai Lang’s blade. Zaeed died with Samara in the defence of the Ardat-Yakshi Abby. Jack and Jacob died when the Grissom Academy was destroyed as they tried, in vain, to rescue their students. Javik, Liara and Ashley died as they tried to move forward to the Citadel.

As for the Normandy… that was destroyed as it tried to enter Earth’s atmosphere. Joker, Chackwas, Adams, Traynor, Kelly..,. all had died. He had nothing left, nothing to stop him from getting revenge.

“John stop!” a voice called in his voice. “Come back! The assault has been cancelled! Earth is lost…”

He ignored the voice. There was no point in listening. He had nothing, only revenge on the mind. There was nothing that could stop him at this point. A reaper landed in the distance and fired its beam at him. While it grazed him, it didn’t stop him as he continued to advance with half of his armour gone and burn marks now covering him but he ignored them. As Zaeed once said: Rage is one hell of an aesthetic. Now John knew why as he built up as much power he could to his legs

He ran into the lift and shot up to the Citadel. “Time to end this,” he growled as he let exhaustion take over. 

When his eyes opened, he saw that he was lying on the outside of the Citadel looking up at the massively one-sided space battle. Humanity combined with what was left of the Turrian, Asari and Salarian fleet engaged the Reaper fleet. No Qurrians, they were extinct thanks to a Reaper ambush. No Krogan. Most of them died on Tuchanka. No Geth, they had been converted into warriors for the Reapers. They had no support in this war, they had lost even before they picked up their rifles.

With a groan and a grunt, John stood to see his body damaged and his armour far beyond repair. Shaking his head, he looked to take in the scene. There was a beam of some kind jetting down into the earth. In front of it was a control panel, that must be what he needed to activate the machine. With an effort, he walked forward to the control panel. There was no way he wasn’t going to destroy the Reapers this day. They would pay for every life they ever took from this galaxy. Live or die, he would make sure of it.

He almost reached when a red holographic image of a child appeared in front of him. “You will not take another step,” he said as two brutes appeared beside him. “The cycle will not be stopped this time. Kill him,” it said.

John backed up a bit as the brutes charged at him. He tried to raise his pistol, but the weapon was too heavy for his arm to lift. Instead, he dropped the weapon and activated his omni-blade ready for one last-ditch attempt to stop them. They were getting closer, closer and the commander braced himself for the last fight.

“I think not,” a voice then said and a man in a long black cloak appeared before John.

The brutes jumped ready to pound the two of them to paste. “Move!” John yelled but the man just held up a hand and clicked his fingers causing the two brutes to turn to ashes.

John blinked wondering if what he was seeing was real. “What…” he muttered but it seemed that the man before him ignored him.

“So, Starchild, it seems that the corruption has infected you. Even you know that there are rules you have to follow,” the man said.

“I am not corrupted,” the hologram said. “I am just doing what I need in order for the cycle to continue,”

“There are rules,” the man said. “And it seems you broke them,”

“Screw your rules!” the Starchild yelled as tentacles began to come up from the hole where the stream of light came from. “This is my world, my universe! Mine to do with as I wish!” he said as he rose and spread his arms wide with black tendrils slowly emerging from him. “This is my universe to command! Kill him,”

The tentacles moved forward faster than John could see, but they stopped before they hit the man. A second later, Shepard realised that it wasn’t just the tentacles, but everything around him had stopped.

“What the…” he muttered.

“Well, this is a fine mess,” the man in front of him said as he removed his hood showing his brown hair. “This fucking corruption is getting into places it shouldn’t,”

“Hey, who are you?” John asked causing the man to turn.

To the Commander’s surprise, the man was surprisingly young and with a pair of glasses sitting on his nose. “Sorry Commander. My name is Watcher. You can call me Darkstar if you like,” the man smiled.

“Those are weird names,” the Commander said before shaking his head. “Never mind that, what’s going on here,” he asked indicating around him.

“Oh, I stopped time. I cannot die from being implied, but trust me it’s not fun,” the man shrugged as he rolled his head cracking his neck.

“If you stopped time….” he trailed off looking at the Starchild and its pet.

Darkstar chuckled. “It doesn’t work like that,” he said turning to look at the same thing John was. “While I can stop time, it doesn’t allow me to interfere. It’s more of a tool for me to talk to people privately,”

Shepard blinked not understanding but just nodded. “Ok, so what did you want to talk to me about?”

The man paused before looking at John. “Here may not be the best place to do it. I can take you to my office and you can get something to eat and drink while we talk,”

John frowned. “Why can’t we do it here?”

“That is a long and complicated answer, but let’s just say that this time freeze will not last,” the man chuckled.

John just nodded pretending to understand. “Okay, let’s go to your office,”

“Just prepare for a bad queasy feeling,” Watcher said before he clicked his fingers and the surroundings disappeared only for them to find themselves in a room with a black marble-like material and books all along the walls.

John nearly fell onto his knees as he felt his stomach about to erupt. “Oh, that’s…. ugh….” He muttered as he grabbed onto a chair.

“Here, this may help,” Watcher said as he held a glass of water to John, who took it and drowned it feeling better almost instantly.

A surge of refreshment filled him as he stood and looked at his body to see his wounds heal and the pain vanish. “What….” he began looking up at the man as he took his seat opposite John. “What did you give me?”

“Let’s just say magic water,” Watcher said as he indicated for the commander to sit.

John frowned but did and found a sandwich appeared before him along with a glass of water. He looked at them before at the man in front of him who just nodded. Cautiously, John took the sandwich and took a bite out of it before his eyes widened and looked up at Watcher.

“This is BBQ jerky, how did….” he trailed off before looking around at the books.

All of them were in a variety of colours. Mostly black and brown, but there were a few that had brighter colours like pink or red. He then noticed that they didn’t have titles but emblems. One was of a double-headed eagle with its wings spread out with another was of a dragon’s head. His eyes were then drawn to the desk and his eyes widened at the N7 emblem on several books in a neat stack. He finished chewing and swallowed.

“What are those….” he asked slowly.

“These are books,” Darkstar said patting his hand on them. “Books of universes similar to yours. Have you ever heard of the multiverse theory?”

John took another bite as he thought. “I have, a bit, I think Mordin said something about it,”

Watcher nodded. “The multiverse states that there are infinite possibilities as every action you make, there is always another action. For example, on Vermire you could have chosen Ashley, not Kadian to remain on the planet,”

John looked down with a sad look. “I wish I could have saved both,”

“Other ‘you’s’ have,” Darkstar said. “But that’s beside the point,” he said as he took the top book and placed it in front of the commander. “Open it, this is yours,”

Shepard looked at him for a second before setting his half-eaten sandwich down before opening the book. Inside was a language he had never seen before but could read. He skimmed a few recognising the event as the raid on the Collector base but stopped when he reached Tali’s death. He blinked as the words couldn’t be read due to several transparent tentacles with a black outline waving in the air. He looked up at Watcher before he turned the page to see Kasumi’s fate. But again, it was blurred by the tentacles. He flipped through several more pages.

Each time it came to a major event or one of his crew dying, the result was the same. The black tentacles were there obscuring the text. After reaching Liara’s and Ashley’s death, he looked up.

“What is this?” he asked.

“The real name, you will not be able to pronounce or even say,” Watcher said. “The simplified version is simply Darkness or Corruption. They are the best names for what it is. So, I said that my name is Watcher, right? Well, that’s also my job title. I am a watcher of the multiverse; my job is to read and monitor the events of these books to make sure they reach their destined path. But there are those who seek to disrupt those paths,”

“Why?” John asked as he finished his food. “What would they have to gain?”

“Power and food. These powers feed off of the chaos that is brought when disrupting fate and paths,” Darkstar explained. “Most of the time it’s minor, but this like this…” he indicated to the book in front of John. “This is more problematic. If one book is infected, then so are others. It’s like a virus that infects others, to feed off of the host. So, we need to stop it before the universes collapse in on themselves,”

John nodded. He didn’t need to have a mind like Mordin to figure out that was bad.

“Why do you need me?” John asked.

Watcher placed his hand on the pile of books, six in all. “These stories haven’t reached the same point as you. I’ve put them on pause, but there is one which I found to be the focal point. I can send you there, along with some help, to stop this Corruption,”

The commander blinked. “How?”

“There are focal points, ones in which the timeline is either changed or fixed. You’ll have knowledge of these and will be able to counter the Corruption with it,” Darkstar explained.

“Is there a reason you cannot do it yourself? Or give me more?” Shepard asked.

Watcher chuckled and shook his head. “I would love to, but I cannot. It’s not due to not wanting to, more along the lines of I cannot. There are rules that I have to follow. Not going into specifics, but outside of a few exceptions, I cannot take direct action like what I did earlier. Because that was stopping a major collapsing event,”

“Collapsing event?” John asked brow raised.

The watcher paused as he looked at John, the smile gone from his face. “It’s an event that leads to the collapse of the universe you inhabit,” he said causing the Commander to blink. “A Collapsing event is when a focal point of the universe is removed allowing the corruption to take over and eat the universe,”

John blinked as the realisation hit him and he slumped in his chair pinching the bridge of his nose. “Wh…what about my crew?” he asked.

The Watcher sighed. “I’m sorry,” was all he said and John nodded in understanding.

“So, if I do this, will I remain in this universe?” he asked only to get a sad smile from Darkstar and John nodded. “Ok,” he looked at the being in front of him. “I’ll do it on a few conditions,”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way, name it,” The watcher smiled.

OOOOO

Jane walked onto the Normandy looking around herself taking it all in. While she didn’t like Cerberus, she did enjoy the feeling, the smell of the new ship as well as the look. Outside of a few choices, it was almost the same as what she remembered. She smiled as she turned taking it all in.

"Welcome to the Normandy SR2," Jacob said as he, Jane and Miranda walked down the to the Galaxy map.

"Commander everything is progressing smoothly; it’ll be a few hours before construction is complete. But afterwards, I recommend we get the scientist Mordin Solus," Miranda said.

“Good idea, we need a scientist on the team,” Jane agreed with a nod.

"Acquiring Professor Solus seems like the most logical option," a female voice then sounded.

After a quick look around Jane couldn’t see anyone. "Who are you?" she asked.

A blue hexagonal gridded orb appeared behind her as she turned to face it. She frowned as she turned to look at the blue hovering orb.

"I'm the Normandy's Enhanced Defence Intelligence, the crew refer to me as EDI for short," EDI said.

Jane nodded as she looked at the glowing orb in front of her. "Pilots don't like it when someone takes over their ship, especially Joker,” Jane said in a joking tone.

"Mr Moreau's talents will not go to waste. I operate the cyber warfare…” she tried to say something but she began to flicker along with the lights.

“What’s going on?” Jane asked.

“This shouldn’t be….” Marinda muttered as she tapped her ear. “Engineering what’s going on?” but all she got was a static in her ear.

“Intruder alert in engineering!” EDI began to say.

People moved with Jane, Jacob and Miranda close behind as they entered the lift and went into engineering. The security team moved in followed by the three and entered the main reactor room. Two of the engineers moved back as the team moved in looking at a glowing outline of a man as he began to form in front of them. Brown hair, tanned skin, blue eyes, stubble and muscle followed by a set of clothing matching the Cerberus uniform.

Once he fully formed in front of them, he fell to the ground coughing and spurting blood. “Ah fuck… he didn’t tell me about that, the ass,”

“Who are you?” one of the security men asked making the man look up and then down.

“Give us a sec,” he said coughing once more before standing. “What date is it?”

Miranda blinked. “What?”

“What’s the date, Miss Lawson? Day, month year,” he asked.

“How do….” She began but Jane cut her off.

“February 11^th, 2183,” she said frowning. “Who are you?”

The man nodded as he cracked his neck. “The 11^th, so I assume you just stepped onto the Normandy? Commander Shepard?”

That made the room pause. “How do you know me? How did you know that?”

“I’m Commander John Shepard, of the Normandy. Serial number 5923-AC-2826,” he said causing Jane to freeze up.

“That’s…” she began.

“That yours as well, I know,” he nodded and said as he began to bounce lessening himself up. “Sorry, stiff,”

“This guy is lying,” Miranda whispered. “He must have looked up your file,”

“Jacob?” Jane asked wanting a second opinion.

But the biotic shook his head. “I have no idea,” he muttered. “How did you know this was the first time Jane set foot on the Normandy?” he asked.

“Because I had the same experience,” he stopped bouncing and cracking his limbs. “There’s only one way to do this,” he said walking up to Jane and ignoring the guns on him. “Let’s go to medical, have Chackwas scan me,” that caused her to blink.

“Dr Chackwas is here?” she asked in surprise causing him to frown.

“I assume you haven’t met the crew yet?” he asked.

She looked at him up and down before nodding. “Stand down,” she said. “EDI turn the alarm off. Let’s go,” she said jerking her head.

“Shepard, I don’t think…” Miranda began but Jane cut her off.

“Miranda, he just appeared out of nowhere in the middle of engineering, knew about my service number, EDI and the Normandy,” she said. “If you have a better idea about what happened, I would love to hear it,”

Miranda opened her mouth, before closing it and nodded. “Ok back to your duties,” she ordered before she, John, Jane and Jacob walked into the lift and rode it up to the crew deck then headed to the med bay.

As they entered Chackwas turned but her smile fell as soon as she saw all four enter. “What’s going on?” she asked as a man, who she had never seen before jumped onto one of the beds.

“Hi Chackwas,” Jane smiled. “Sorry about this, It’s good to see a familiar face, but we need your help,”

“Ok,” said as she stood. “What’s the problem,”

“This man is claiming to be Commander Shepard. He gave the same serial as Jane knew about EDI and the Normandy. And now he’s requesting a DNA test,” Miranda said.

“DNA and x-ray,” the man said. “I have the same implants as the Commander here. Didn’t get your first,”

“Jane,” Jane said.

“Ah, John for me,” he smiled as he lay back and let the scanner do its work.

“Ok, scans are…” Chackwas began as she trailed off. “This is…” she began to mutter as she looked to another screen then at the man on the bed before back to the screens.

“Chackwas?” Jacob asked.

The doctor got up and drew blood from the man before putting it into a different scanner and moving to her terminal to check the results. She was silent for a few moments as she looked at the data in front of her. John moved the scanner out of the way as he sat up. He was silent as the doctor looked at the screens and then slowly looked at him.

“Other than the YX chromosome, your DNA is a 100% match. The same applies to the cybernetics. They are in the exact same places,” she said in a shocked tone moving out of the way and letting Jane, Miranda and Jacob see.

“So, genetically, you are my brother,” Jane said as she turned to face John. “Doesn’t explain why you are here,”

John nodded with a sigh. “Can you close medical and get EDI to turn off any and all listening devices?”

“No,” Miranda said.

“EDI do it,” Jane said and the windows closed along with the door.

“All security features are active and turned off,” the AI said.

“Good,” John said as he hopped off the bed as a book appeared in his hand from out of nowhere. “Have a look,” he said handing it to Jane.

The female Shepard took it and opened her eyes widened as she read what was there. She looked up and then back down as Chackwas, Jacob and Miranda joined her. All their eyes widened as well as they flipped the pages.

“What is this?” Miranda asked.

“That is a book of the universe,” John said. “This universe to be exact,” he said as he walked up and turned the pages to one which was black with translucent tentacles coming from it. “This is why I’m here,” he said pointing.

“What is that?” Chackwas asked as she reached but pulled back as it tried to grab her.

“Corruption,” John answered. “Don’t ask for details, I don’t understand them myself. All I know is, the universe I came from, is almost destroyed by it,”

“Almost?” Jane and Miranda asked at the same time before John went into an explanation about what happened leaving about the details of the Reaper war.  

But that wasn’t due to choice. He could remember, but Darkstar placed a ‘spell’ on him to prevent future knowledge from spreading. Events had to play out in order. Only when they couldn’t was he allowed to talk about that future event. It wasn’t ideal, but he had to work with it as he finished. The silence in the room could be cut with a knife as Jane closed the book her eyes closed.

“You left a lot out, but given what I have seen…” Jane said handing the book back. “So, you are here to stop the corruption? Why you? Why not another Miranda, or Jacob?”

“Because they aren’t us,” John replied taking the book only for it to vanish. “From what I understand, each universe that has a Shepard, more often than not, they are the focal point of the universe. The hero if you will,”

“And if the hero fails….” Jacob began.

“The Dark Lord wins,” Jane finished with a nod. “More heroes, the more chance we have,”

John nodded at that. “Darkstar said he would send more. When and where he never said,”

Miranda couldn’t help but scoff and she turned away and held her head in her hand. “This is fucking crazy. A male Shepard I can understand, but one from another universe? Now you expect us to believe that all Shepards are heroes,”

“Not all most, Miranda,” John said shrugging. “The way it was explained to me, for every 1 million Shepards, there is 1 Miranda or Jacob who saves the day and not me, or them to be more accurate. So the likelihood of it being another Shepard is higher than it being anyone else. At least for this series of universes,”

She looked at him with a frown. “This series of universes?” Jane asked before Miranda could ask.

John paused as he dug through his brain for the best example. “Ok, for example, you know Star Wars?” they nodded. “Ok, that universe exists. Not as a fictional universe, but actually exists,”

The three in the room just stared at him for a moment before Jane started talking. “Wait, so let me get this straight. You’re telling me that the incredibly fuckable Ashoka Tano is out there right now fighting the empire?”

John just blinked for a moment. “I wouldn’t say it like that, but effectively yes,” he said getting blinks from the redhead in front of him. “I take it you swing that way? Liara?”

Jane blushed for a moment and nodded. “Who was it for you?”

John hung his head as unpleasant memories flooded his mind. “I’d rather not talk about it,”

She nodded at that before Miranda spoke up. “So, you are here to help us. But where does that leave us now?”

“I assume that you were planning to head to Omega to get Arkangel and Solus?” he asked getting surprised and unsurprised nods from the three. “Then we should focus on that. Mordin will be needed for the countermeasure. I’ll be wherever you need me,” he said with a smile.

Jane smiled too. “I would love to see Anderson’s or Udina’s face when they find out there is more than one Shepard,” she laughed with John following.

OOOOO

The Normandy docked with Omega while the team of four finished their preparations. The two Shepards couldn’t help but look at each other, eyeing the other up at their choice of gear. John was an engineer while Jane was a vanguard. It was mostly out of curiosity rather than anything else. Once the airlock cycle finished, they entered Omega only to be met by a Salarian as they made their way down the passageway.

“Ah, welcome to Omega,” he said. “You’re new, aren’t you? I can always tell…” he began but a Batarian walked up causing him to stumble. “Oh, hello Moklan, I was just…” he tried but the soldier leaned in with a threatening aura.

“Leave Fargut, now,” he ordered.

“Of course, Moklan, anything she wants,” he quickly said before being waved off by the Batarian.

“Blasted scavengers,” he muttered before looking at Jane. “Welcome to Omega, Shepard,”

“You know who I am?” Jane asked with John muttering to himself.

“Of course. We had you tagged as soon as you entered the Terminus systems. You aren’t as subtle as you think,” he explained. “Aria wants to know what brings a dead Spectre to Omega. I suggest you go to Afterlife and present yourself now,”

Jane was about to say something but John placed a placed a hand on her shoulder and shook his head. Unspoken words pass between the two. Jane nodded and looked at the Batarian.

“We’ll head there,” she said.

He nodded. “I’ll send word to let you though, best not to keep Aria waiting,” he said stepping to one side and allowing the four to walk through.

“What was that about?” Miranda asked when they were out of earshot.

“I was just about to tell him where he can stuff it,” Jane grunted.

“Not the best way to endear yourself to the most powerful on Omega,” John muttered before jerking his head forward. “Speaking of which, here’s our first recruit,”

A man in miss-matched yellow armour was beating the stuffing out of a Batarian, something the team shed no tears about, as they walked up to him. The batatian collapsed as he looked up at the team.

“Please help,” he said.

“No one said you can talk jackass,” the mec said.

“Zaeed Massani?” Jane asked and the man turned around.

He was a horrific site to look at. Heavily scarred with one of his eyes not working properly as it was milky white.

“Yeah, that’s me. You must be Commander Shepard. I heard we have a galaxy to save,” he said.

“Have you been briefed?” Jane asked getting straight to the point.

As they spoke John moved past them and out into the main plaza of Omega looking around. Memories coming back about how Cerberus attacked in force. How General Petrovsky countered his and Aria’s every move. How he had to see her get executed before him, how Omega blew. He shook his head as he looked forward at Afterlife swearing that the outcome he experienced would never come to pass.

“Hey, you ok?” Jane asked as she walked up next to him.

“I… I’m good,” he said cracking his neck.

“Bad memories?” she pried.

“Yeah,” was all he said and Jane didn’t say anything as the other two joined them.

Saying nothing Jane led them to the far end of the plaza towards the nightclub clearly labelled Afterlife. They were largely ignored by people thanks to their armour and weapons. But those in Aria’s pocket did eye them with caution. Which was to be expected. Anyone with the amount of firepower that they had represented a clear threat to the rule of someone like Aria. As they approached the doors to the nightclub, they were being heckled by people in a very long line to the place.

Just as they were about to walk up to the door a Krogan bouncer walked up to them holding an arm out.

“Shepard?” he asked holding up a tablet.

“Yeah,” was all Jane said.

He said nothing as he nodded lowering his arm and the doors opened letting them inside. Jane smiled as they walked down a corridor before entering the main dance room. Her eyes were fixed on the asari dancing around the poles almost transfixed on their graceful balletic movements. She was brought out of it by John lightly pushing her.

“I know they are good to look at, but we can do it later Asari lover,” he teased.

“Hey, I’ve been dead for 2 years. I have the right to be a little frisky,” she said.

“That’s what the extranet is for,” he countered as they walked around the main dance platform and to a set of stairs that led up to a VIP overlook.

The guards let them through without trouble. As they walked John couldn’t help but feel a sense of wrongness. Something was about to happen but what? They soon reached the main platform and the two Shepards walked up to Aria who was looking over her club. As they reached the top of the stairs, her guards pointed their weapons at the team.

“That’s close enough,” she said in a calm but threatening tone. 

“Stand still,” a guard said as he began to scan Jane.

“If you’re looking for weapons, you aren’t doing a very good job,” the female commander said as she pulled out her pistol.

“Can’t be too careful with dead Spectres. That could be anyone wearing your face,” Aria countered.

“I have questions, I was told you have answers,” Jane said as the guard finished his scan.

“They’re clean,” he said as he moved to the said and Aria turned to face Jane taking a few steps toward her.

“Depends on the questions,” Aria said folding her arms.

“You r….” Jane tried to say when a flash of images cut off what she was about to say. “DOWN!” she yelled as she practically pounced on Aria right before a shot rang out hitting the opposite wall.

John reacted quickly as he moved up to the sofa and activated a shield blocking another shot that caused him to stumble. “SNIPER!” he yelled as he grabbed his sum and fired in the direction of the shot.

Aria’s security forces reacted quickly setting up a perimeter around the VIP section as Jacob and Miranda moved up to join John and Jane. Gunfire erupted from the ground targeting the ledge as Aria pushed Jane off of her and moved to activate a shield around her seat. All fire was blocked allowing the two Shepards to move over to look to see three mercenary groups move in.

“Fuck, they attacked way too early,” he muttered.

Aria looked at him with rage. “You knew about this and didn’t tell me?” she said standing and was about to approach when he turned to her.

“Yes, I knew, however, my information was based on the fact that they were going to fight you after taking out Arkangel. Looks like someone accelerated those plans,” John shot back he and Aira face to face staring daggers at each other. “What we do now, however, is save you and Omega at the same time. If we don’t…” he trailed off wincing.

Aira looked at him for a moment. She didn’t trust him, but she knew that look, that wince, that was all too real for her to ignore. Taking a step back she looked him up and down with a frown, there was something about him.

“Who are you?” she asked but before John could answer the area shook with an explosion forcing the team to look over to see heavy weapons teams bring out rocket launchers.

“You two stay here,” John and Jane said at the same causing the two to snigger before Jane continued. “We’ll take care of them, protect Aria,”

“Wait I don’t need….” She tried to say but it was in vain as the two ran off into the main area of the club.

Looking over the balcony the three watched as John and Janed moved in. Jane jumped onto a table and fired several rounds in quick succession taking down two Blue Suns soldiers before jumping up in the air her body glowing blue with biotic energy before she came down with a thud and sending a shockwave in all directions staggering or knocking the merc over.

John moved fast as he slid along a table taking out three soldiers with his shuriken, pulsing the burst fire twice for each target taking them down quickly. As he slid off the table, he produced two small square cases and threw one at the wall while the other he tossed onto the dancer’s platform. Both opened up into turrets and began to fire on the mercs in their sights. John then readied and activated an overload before throwing it at the nearest group taking out their shields, allowing them to be taken down quickly.

Once the shields were down, Jane used her lift powers to deny gravity to the mercs before being taken out by the two Shepards as they advanced. But Korgan mercs in red uniforms followed by mechs charged in forcing the two back as they struggled to find cover. They were so heavily suppressed that they couldn’t get out of cover to counter the attack. After getting a few gashes, John popped out of cover and fired back throwing a fire grenade at them. It detonated igniting several Korgan and Vorcha.

While the big lizards could deal with it, the Vorcha didn’t as they ran around screaming making themselves easy targets for Aria’s troopers. Jane did something similar as she used a cryo grenade to freeze her targets in place before charging through them. The shockwave from her attack shattered the mercs into bits taking out a few. But it left her open to the attacks of others. She sent out a shockwave pushing several mercs back allowing her to get back into cover before they could recover.

Despite what they managed to do, more mercs were coming into the club overwhelming the two and soon the Aria’s forces.

“COME ON EVERYBOY AND SING WITH ME!” a voice then yelled out causing people to stop and look up at the main dancer platform as someone was still dancing on it.

“Who…what…” Aria sputtered as she spotted the newcomer.

Jacob just blinked. “They just appeared…”

“Like John…” Miranda muttered.

As people adjusted to the light, they spotted the newcomer and were flawed by her look. The young human woman before them wore a short dress with detached sleeves and thigh-high heels. Other than her head and fingers, no skin was being shown so she wasn’t the typical nightclub dancer. The colour of neon green and blue on white also added to the fact that this girl was a dancer. But she also supported two square speakers just behind her shoulders. What they were for, John and Jane couldn’t say. She turned and paused with two of her fingers in the v pose as she winked.

Getting a good look at her the girl was Asian with makeup matching her outfit and pink hair that also matched the outfit. She also had a headband that covered her ears and had a pair of what appeared to be cat ears on the top. But that’s not what caught John’s and Jane’s eye. It was the patch on her outfit that made their mouths drop.

“N7?” John asked in surprise.

“Wait you’re a Shepard too?” Jane asked as well as the Shepard on the platform threw a pair of headphones to the two of them.

“Put these on. You’ll need them,” she said as the two grabbed them and did something to her omni-tool.

John and Jane looked at each other before putting on the headphones. “Now for the CORUS!” she yelled before screaming into her microphone attached to her armour.

The sonic shockwaves both stunned and killed some of the mercs as the sound waves pulsed from the speakers on the Shepard’s armour. Sonic weapons weren’t used often as they had limited range, indiscriminate in targeting and were more useful as a riot control weapon than an offensive combat weapon. John looked at the effect with wide eyes. It looked like whoever this Shepard was, their sonic weaponry tech wasn’t anything to scoff at.

When the new Shepard finished her scream, she jumped off of the platform pulling out a pair of pistols and firing at any merc who was still moving. John and Jane joined in fully clearing the nightclub and corridor. Saving the introductions for later, the three ran out into the main plaza only to find it clear of hostiles. While it was empty, it was clear that Aria’s combat forces did their job in cutting off the enemy forces. They were just clearing up the dead and setting up checkpoints as Jacob, Miranda, Aria and several of her security forces joined them.

“Looks like I owe you, Shepard,” Aria said as she and the others pulled back into the corridor. “But I would like an explanation about what is going on and who this is,” she indicated to the white, blue and pink armoured singer.

The singer stood at attention and saluted going from a bubbly singer to a full-on military commander in a second. “I’m Sonic Trooper Commander Shion ‘Hummingbird’ Shepard,” she said earning a wide-eyed look from the Asari.

“S…S…Shepard?” she asked looking from Jane to John to Shion putting it all together. “There’s three of you?”

“Look like it,” John shrugged as he looked and smiled at Shion.

Taking a deep breath Aria shook her head before regaining her composure and looked to them. “Ok, I assume it’s a long explanation as to why there are three of you, and to be honest, I don’t care. I owe you so what brings you to Omega?”

“We’re looking for Archangel and Mordin Solus,” Jane spoke up and Aria nodded before looking at John.

“You said that the mercs should Attack after Archangel is dead right?” she asked with a nod from John.

“Yes, but I don’t think that’s the case. Same reason why Shion is here,” he indicated to the singer. “Long explanation which we don’t have time for,” he quickly added seeing Aria’s raised brow.

“Right…” she muttered. “Archangel is in Kima District level 208 spire 167. I can organise a gunship to take you there. As for Mordin, Gozu District is on lockdown due to an outbreak of a plague. I can order my men to let you in. But you need to prove that you aren’t contaminated before I can let you back out,”

John nodded. “What do you think John?” she asked.

“Both are important. Archangel doesn’t have long due to the three merc groups closing in on him fast. Not to mention if they found out that the attack failed, they are likely going to accelerate their plans. Solus is also important. But because he’s former STG, and he has help, he can survive longer. But there is the point that the sooner we can get him, the sooner we’ll have the Collector countermeasure,” he explained.

Again, Jane nodded. “Ok, you and Shion take Mordin while me, Miranda and Jacob take on the mercs,”

“Sounds good to me,” Shion said with a smile.

“I’ll make the calls,” Aria said as she activated her omni-tool and several moments later their rides arrived.

Chapter 2: Cyborg and Samurai

The gunship shook as it flew between the underspires of Omega forcing Jane to hold on tighter to the handles. The day had been an interesting one for her. First the attack on Aria and the second was meeting an Asian version of her who was not only an N7 trooper, but an idol in her reality. That was hard to get her head around. Sure, Jane had sung before, but she was as tone-deaf as a waling Krogan. Shaking her head, she adjusted her webbing, making sure it was secure.

But she did wonder about that vision she had. She still wasn’t sure what it was, but a part of her had assumed that this ‘watcher’ had given her something but he wasn’t saying anything. At least not yet. She turned to look over to Miranda who looked at her with a frown.

“What?” Jane asked.

“This whole thing about multiple universes, well… I just don’t understand it,” she said. “I mean a male version of you I can understand, but a singer? What’s next? A vampire? A robot?”

Jane just chuckled. “Don’t tempt fate,” she smiled. “For all we know we could be on our way to meet a new Shepard,” as she said that the world around the gunship began to flicker. “I just had to say it,” Jane moaned as the three looked out of the opening.

“Pilot, whatever happens, don’t stop,” Miranda said as she tapped her earpiece.

“U…understood,” he muttered.

The flickering was similar to that of an old movie where scenes just jumped from one to another. But in this case, the underspires changed from red to blue to green and back again. But the flickering soon became more than that as more machine changes appeared. After a green-coloured Omega, the flicker then changed to what appeared to be a steampunk Omega. Jane could make out cogs, brass work, steam blowing everywhere and more.

It then changed again to something more organic. Bones and flesh make up the workings of this Omega before changing again to something that looked more asari. Rounded and sleek. The flickering stayed here for the moment with the only changes being in colours before another drastic change happened. Instead of being rounded and sleek, Omega became angular and smooth. Red lines of light along the edges of some of the buildings.

The changes had been giving Jane and the others a headache, but it seemed that the flicking began to slow down. Changing between the angular Omega, Asari Omega and the Steampunk Omega. As the flickering began to slow, the three could make out something closing in on them. Aircraft from the three different universes approached. They all had the same basic outline as the Kodiak, but each was different based on where they came from.

The steampunk one used sails and airbags along the sides with smokestacks at the back. The Asari universe was the same, but the angular universe was different. Much like the buildings, it was black with glowing red lines of light along the sides. That particular craft came more into focus and the flicking stopped. Their craft and this other one matched speed with each other.

“Looks like we’ve settled in this universe,” James said as the sides of the craft opened up.

Inside were several soldiers dressed in red and black armoured uniforms with a white and red stripe. That’s when Jane noted the N7 tags on their breastplates. But something was off about and she couldn’t place it. One of them then placed their hands to their head and a second later a buzz echoed in Jane’s ear.

“Unidentified craft, you are entering a combat zone. Please leave immediately,” the voice said.

It was male, but there was something about the tone that was off. “You aren’t going to believe me but, my name is Jane Shepard. I’m here to help,”

The soldier on the other side looked up. While his face was covered in a blank helmet, aside from a few lenses, she could tell that he was surprised. He looked at her for a moment before looking at Miranda and Jacob. Jane thought that she saw some recognition in his movements, but it was hard to tell.

After a moment, he came back online. “Maintain present course, the Commander would like to speak with you. We’ll escort you in,” with that the door of the craft closed but didn’t back away.

Instead, the craft moved slightly ahead of the gunship leading it in. After calling the pilot to let him know what was happening, Jane grabbed onto one of the railings and leaned out. Looking ahead of them, she could see a landing section that looked to be converted into a command-and-control centre with the black and red soldiers moving around. Some of them moved off into the streets. Further ahead of the centre, she could make out the flashes of combat. But the way the spire was set up she couldn’t tell more than that.

The two crafts landed on open platforms and both groups exited. Jane watched as the black and red armoured soldiers looked at them before moving off leaving only one. The sergeant removed his helmet and cracked his neck. He had dark skin and was deeply scarred. But his eyes were interesting as they glowed a bright electric blue. Walking over to them, he looked them up and down before his eyes dulled and turned back to brown.

‘Cybernetics?’ Jane thought as he approached. ‘I wonder if John would love that?’

He looked at her and nodded his head towards her. “Shepard?”

“I’m Jane Shepard,” she nodded and to her surprise, the man straightened and saluted.

“Captain Briggs, of Normandy Assault Group 10,” he said. “But I assume that means nothing to you,”

“You read my mind,” Jane chuckled and so did he.

“Follow me, the XO will want to see you,” he said turning and leading the three into the command centre, earning them several looks.

Eyes of curiosity and confusion echoed across the soldiers gathered at the three newcomers. Whispers began to echo across the area making Jane feel like she was in a bar. They approached a space that dipped allowing for a large round holo table to be set up. It showed the area of operations but it was hard to tell who was winning and losing. Other than a few operators, one figure stood out. She had short hair and silver hair and was dressed in a black red and white skin-tight outfit. Her arms were cybernetic with lines and cables visible through some of the gaps.

She also had an artificial spine running down her back that had sections which glowed blue. But the way she stood and looked seemed familiar to the commander. She glanced at the woman next to her but looked away not saying anything.

“XO, I brought the people,” Briggs said.

“Good, now we can…” she began to say turning only to freeze looking at Miranda.

Miranda Lawson froze as she looked at a completely different Miranda Lawson.

“Two Miranda’s?” someone whispered. “We’re so dead,”

“Forget her, who’s the other girl?” another asked.

After a moment the two Miranda’s walked up to each other and began to circle each other, looking each other up and down.

“Cybernetics,” Jane’s Miranda said.

“Genetics,” the other Miranda replied.

“This is weird,” Jacob said and Jane couldn’t help but agree.

“You’re telling me,” a familiar voice said as Jacob came face to face with this universe’s version of himself. “I heard that there was a look-alike, but I wasn’t expecting to look into a mirror,” he said walking up to Jane’s Jacob.

Much like Miranda, this Jacob had cybernetic arms and a spine. But unlike Miranda, he had a series of cables and pipes along his neck. He also had a single black visor that covered both of his eyes but it split and retracted showing his natural eyes.

“It’s almost like a mirror,” the cyborg Jacob said.

“Tell me about it,” Jane’s Jacob said. “Cool gear, but what happened to your neck?”

“Pirate tried to slit my throat and damaged my lungs. Had both replaced,” the cyborg Jacob answered as she stroked his neck.

“Damn, and I thought I had it bad,” Jane’s Jacob said with a stroke of his neck.

“Speak for yourself,” a new voice echoed and all eyes turned to a man in a black leather jacket walking a set of stairs.

He had tanned skin and short-cropped brown hair. His eyes were two different colours, one green and the other blue. Just like Miranda and Jacob his arms were cybernetic but only the forearms. A bandoleer of heat syncs was strapped across his body and a sniper rifle locked to his back.

“Since the two of you have met your alternate selves, I guess the only one left is me,” he said as he stepped up. “Ajax Shepard, Commander and founder of Normandy Security Services,”

“Jane Shepard, Commander of the Normandy,” Jane replied. “It’s a ship, not a company,”

“I gathered,” he chuckled. “I wasn’t expecting it anyway, another universe and all,”

Jane blinked at that. “I assume that this Darkstar guy called you,”

Ajax moved his head from side to side. “Yeah, but not about this. During my hunt for Saren, Darkstar contacted me with a contract. Very beneficial. He wanted me to find a group of Pirates and take them out. At the time I didn’t understand, but now… now I think I do,” he then jerked his head to the side. “Let me show you,”

He led the three over to a screen and hit one of the keys. The image showed one of the residential sectors. It was run down with graffiti, trash and more out on the streets. After a few seconds, the scene began to flicker. At first, Jane thought it was a problem with the recording but quickly dismissed that idea as she saw the flickering increase this time changing the scene before her.

From the trash and graffiti to the clean yet dark of the Omega she recognised. She leaned in as Ajax switched to other sectors showing Jane and the others what he had found. Then he switches to a recording that overlooks a residential building with a sole sniper on it. The group watched as the filtering started for a second before stopping now showing two snipers overlooking the bridge in front of them.

Almost immediately they pulled pistols out, pointing them at each other. After a moment they looked at each other before standing not taking their helmets off. It seemed that they were talking with each other, but it was hard to tell due to no sound. They lowered their pistols before removing their helmets and looking at each other. They stood there for a moment before incoming fire forced them behind cover. That was when the video cut off.

Jane looked up to Ajax who returned her look. “If there are two Archangels…”

“There’s going to be more targets,” he nodded. “That’s why he sent me on that mission. It was a similar situation,”

Jane nodded as well before turning to the holo-map. “So, what’s the plan?” she asked as she walked up to it.

Ajax looked at Janes’ Miranda and Jacob. “Vanguard and Sentinel, right?” the two nodded as he looked at his own Miranda and Jacob. “Jacob, you go with Jacob, Miranda goes with Miranda,”

The two Jacobs nodded while the Mirandas just looked at each other with wary expressions. With that done, Ajax walked up to the holo-map and looked at Jane.

“This is what I had in mind,” he said as he began to manipulate the controls.

OOOOO

John pulled the outer casing of his shuriken pistol to check the internals. The targeting computer and rate of fire seemed a little off and wanted to check. Opposite him, Shion was chewing some gum while playing a game. While she was in her twenties, it seemed she still had the mind of a teen. Something he smiled about that, it reminded him of a conversation… he shook his head and focused on his weapon. But Shion noticed it.

“Something wrong?” she asked pausing her game.

“Nothing just found the problem with my pistol,” he shot back.

She leaned in and looked at him, her piercing green eyes meeting his brilliant blue. “You’re deflecting,” she stated. “Don’t even try to deny it. We may look directly have different minds but we are practically twins,”

John stared at her as well but in the end, nodded and hung his head. “I…. I … I was thinking about who I left behind,”

Shion’s expression softened and pulled back. “So, spill who were you with?”

John said nothing as he remembered what happened. He knelt holding her in his arms, her blood decorating his armour and hands. Nothing he tried could stem the bleeding, not that he hadn’t tried. Using up all of his medi-gel to heal a wound she had earned from a Reaper using an explosive. But the wound took her leg and part of her torso. Blood leaked from her like no tomorrow and dyed her dark hair red.

She tried to speak, but the blood prevented her from doing so. The only words he heard from her were ‘I’m sorry, I love you,’ before time took what she had left and died. He didn’t know how long he was there for crying over her body, letting the rage build up in him. But all he knew was rage. After laying her down, placing her hands on her breast and finding a flower to place in her he ran. He was going to end it; he was going to stop the Reapers.

The memories were recent and fresh, but he pushed them to the side. He had a mission to focus on and he would cross that bridge when he came to it and voiced as much.

Shion looked disappointed but nodded. “Such is the curse of command,” she said with a wistful expression on her face. “I left Ashley on Virmire and I always wonder if there was anything I could do,”

John nodded at that. “For me, it was Kadian,” he smiled. “He was a good guy,”

Shion nodded. “Ashey was a good woman as well. Both were great fighters. But sometimes you have to let your feelings go and do what is best for the mission,”

The two Shepards looked up at each other seeing the pain that hid behind their exteriors. Saying silent for a moment, John leaned back looking at the girl up and down.

“So, what’s your story?” he asked. “How’d you become a singer? What’s with the sonic weapons?”

Siling even more Shion sat up straighter. “Well, the sonic weapons were developed in Germany during World War 2 as a special medication to their Tiger tanks. But it was tricky tech that didn’t work all the time. But when it did work, it was devastating. Crushing tanks, blowing bunkers…” she shrugged. “It was a powerful weapon, but expensive and didn’t help them in the long run. The tech was shelved for years until the 90s when the Gulf War erupted. Sonic tech was re-used with some American Abrams. It was everything that they needed to help win the war. Over time, the tech shrunk to allow regular troopers to carry them on their shoulders, like me,” she winked.

John smiled in genuine amusement. “So, I guess the tech continued well into the 2200’s”

“Absolutely,” she smiled wider. “The Alliance was making us of idols, like me. We had the vocal range to use the sonic weapons effectively. We were also a good propaganda tool,”

“I’ll bet,” John chuckled. “A soldier who could sing and fight? The Alliance would be all over you,”

Shion was about to talk but the car shook forcing the two to grab onto the nearest handrails. Thinking quickly, John grabbed the outer part of his pistol slid it back on with ease and holstered. Large calibre rounds then sliced into the car ripping part of it off. The two leaned out to see several Blue Sun soldiers targeting them with turrets. Both cursed as John leaned out to try and fire at them while Shion grabbed onto the controls to direct them to the nearest platform.

They were still flying between spires but there was an open section of street ahead of them. She aimed for that with the hopes of landing on the roads.

But another burst of rounds put an end to that idea as it destroyed the engine. “Ssi-Bal, hold on!” she yelled as the sky car flew and slammed into a habitation block with a boon and shake of the area.

Seeing this, the Bule Suns moved to secure the location. As they got near, they split up into teams before moving close to the crash site. Taking a quick look at each other they moved up faster. It didn’t take them long to reach street level with the upper residential street. Upon seeing where the sky car had crashed, they walked over to it weapons still up and alert. But as they approached, they never noticed the trap that had been quickly set up. The point man stepped forward, pulling on a wire that pulled the pins off several grenades which detonated almost immediately.

The ones at the front were ripped apart by the shrapnel while the Suns at the rear were only injured. But that didn’t last as Shinon and John exited from an abandoned shop to finish them off. With the Suns dead, the two walked up to them to get a good look at what they were dealing with. But as they did John frowned at the uniforms they wore. For starters, their helmets had a nape guard which was made out of strips of metal. But it was the slightly rounded rectangular shoulder armour and leg armour that told him all he needed to know.

“We aren’t in Jane’s universe,” he said squatting down turning one of the humans over.

The two got a good look at the blue and white samurai in front of them. While based on mass effect tech, the armour was inspired by the Japanese warriors of old. They even had a katana strapped to his side. But before anyone could ask any question gunfire cut that off as more Blue Suns soldiers advanced to see what happened to their friends. In response, John opened fire with his pistol while Shion yelled into her mic sending the Suns flying back.

“We need to find cover,” John said.

“Couldn’t agree more,” Shion said as she readied her pistols the two looking around.

They quickly spotted a defendable location at a store behind them. As another group of Blue Suns advanced, the two ran to the location. Each taking it in turns to turn and take quick shots at the suns to try and slow them down. Once they reached the location, both of their shields had drained and needed a recharge. This allowed the Suns to get close and move into a horseshoe formation around the shop.

“Surrender and will be merciful,” the Suns commander said.

Shion and John looked at one another before rolling their eyes. They readied themselves for a fight. Gunfire echoed, but none of it was aimed at them. Mirroring each other’s frowns, they peeked out from over to see three people take out the force in front of them. One of them being a 6,9 giant with dreadlocks. Looking at each other again they slowly stood and exited the shop.

“Hey,” John said.

The three newcomers turned to face them, one of them drawing his katana and levelling it at John’s face. He got a good look at them now. Miranda and Jacob were indefinable despite their outfits. Jacob had armour like a samurai but lacked the shoulder armour, instead, he had a tight-fitting cloth gi. Miranda still supported the bodysuit she also supported a martial artist's gi over it with one side being larger than the other. The two of them also supported a half mask that covered their mouths and jaw. Their gi’s also had the Cerbrus emblem on the lapels.

But it was the middle who caught John’s attention. The man had dark skin, green eyes and dreadlocks pulled up into a ponytail. His armour was much like the Blue Suns except for it being yellow and black with a red and white stripe along the shoulder pad. Aside from the N7 marking on his chest plate, there was an emblem of a flower which was split into 5 sections.

Being a bit of a history buff, John recognised that symbol but didn’t want to say anything yet. “Who are you?” Miranda asked, her voice having a slight Japanese accent to it.

John and Shion looked at each other before at the yellow armoured man in front of them. “I’m John, John Shepard,” he said.

“I’m Shion Shepard,” the idol added.

While Miranda and Jacob looked at each other with confusion and scepticism, the yellow-armoured giant frowned imperceptibly his eyes looking between the two of them.

“What are your serial numbers?” he asked.

“5923-AC-2826,” both John and Shion said at the same time.

“I’m Yasuke Shepard,” Yasuke said as he lowered his sword. “I was told to expect some help,”

Both Miranda and Jacob looked at him. “And you didn’t tell us why?” Miranda asked.

“You wouldn’t believe me,” Yasuke shrugged. “I assume you are also here for Mordin?” the two Shepards nodded. “He’s somewhere ahead, but there is currently a war going between Blue Suns, Eclipse, Blood Pack and Aria’s forces. The merc companies are trying to take over the station,”

John and Shion looked at each other. “Here as well?” John frowned.

“That can’t be a coincidence,” Shion added before turning to Yasuke. “Were you at Afterlife when the merc attacked?”

The Yellow Samurai nodded. “We replied the attack, earning her favour,”

“The same happened to us,” John said. “But if we got transferred to another universe…” he didn’t have time to finish that thought as an explosion got their attention.

“That’s where Mordin is,” Jacob said.

“It seems we need to hold this discussion for later,” Yasuke.

John and Shion nodded before the five of them moved off in the direction of the explosion.

Chapter 3: The 3 Angels

Jaroth wasn’t one for superstition, Gods or the like. But the 8 people who stood before him changed that idea. After all, if you saw two versions of yourself with multiples of the people who you hate, you’d also think that someone or something was messing with you. The command room was silent as everyone looked at each other with equal amounts of confusion, anger and suspicion. Interest was also mixed in their given their differences. Tarak had the two biggest differences with his duplicates.

One had his right arm completely removed and replaced with a bulky cybernetic that clearly concealed some kind of weapon on the inside. His left eye had also been replaced by a three-lens optic that gave him a sort of bug appearance. The other was only different his armour by wearing rounded rectangles on his shoulders and wore a pair of swords on his hip. While the look was familiar, Jaroth couldn’t place it.

As for his and Garms duplicates, at least one of them had clear cybernetics given their eyes and arms. But it wasn’t them he was concerned about. While they did present a clear and present danger to his operations, it was the person at the head of the table that had all of their attentions. To say that this person was a ‘person’ was a bit of a stretch. They wore a long black cloak with a hood that covered their face. But that didn’t matter as under the hood spun a series of multicoloured dots. They looked like stars, but it was hard to tell.

“My offer is quite generous,” the figure said in a very disturbing voice. It sounded like multiple people, men and women, talking at once with an electronic cadence as an undertone.

It was almost like a VI’s voice modulator glitching out, unable to find the right voice. But that didn’t make things better.

“We know it is,” one of the Garms said. “But we have a few questions,”

“Such as the power you intend to offer us,” the Tarak with the sword said.

“The offer of having not one, but as many Omegas as we want is appealing but we need some… convincing,” the cyborg Jaroth said looking at the others.

The other Jaroths nodded at the same time and in the same way. But eyes never left the person at the end of the table. The person chuckled and raised his hand. Two purple portals appeared next to him making them all, except the Krogan, jump as two ‘offerings’ walked out. The first human looking soldier walked though. The soldier wore armour similar to what they wore with but coloured purple with an odd-looking emblem.

What that was interesting wasn’t the armour that it wore, but the inside of it. The ‘body’, if you could call it that, flickered and rippled with what could only be described as shadows and blackness. But the second one made the humans and Korgan drool with desire.

OOOOO

Ajax and Jane moved quickly down one of the alleyways of the slums. The cyborg Shepard holding a sniper rifle that somewhat resembled the M-29 Incisor, but more angular with red strips along the side. There was no visible scope, but it wasn’t hard to think that Ajax was linked to rifle. Jane, on the other hand, carried a M-22 Eviscerator shotgun. She wanted the new crusader shotgun from the N-7 armouries. But that wasn’t going to happen until the Alliance recognised her as being alive.

She looked to her ‘brother’ and wondered if he had the same problem, but stored that thought until later. The two of them moved over to an edge that over looked the slums market. Small flashes of light could be seen in the distance as the two Archangels took out the mercs getting close. But getting to them looked complicated as the area looked like a maze of tangled wires and broken-down machinery along with buildings made out of scrap.  

Ajax’s shades pulled back as he looked to Jane while pointing. “Looks like we need to take the east side to get there quickly. Problem is there’s a lot of mechs in the way,” he said pointing to the left side of the slums.

“Mechs…” Jane mumbled in annoyance. “Those are going to be a pain, at least they are dumb,”

Ajax nodded. “That’s true, especially if we….” He started before Kelly came on.

“Sir, you need to look at this, sending video to your omni-link now,” she said.

The cyborg Shepard opened up his omni-tool and watched as the video Kelly sent him played. It was of the two Archangels firing at some of the mercs in front of them. They did that for a moment before a third Archangel appeared with someone else. The two were fighting causing the other two to look back and help the new Archangel with the stranger. It didn’t take the three long to take him down before addressing each other. Again, they removed their helmets with the new one being very surprised to see two more of himself there.

After a short discussion, they moved over to the ledge and pointed. They seem to some kind of agreement before leaving the area. Jane and Ajax cursed as the video went dead.

“Well, that complicates things,” Jane said.

“Yeah,” Ajax muttered before hitting his radio. “Kelly, did you see where they are going?”

“One moment,” she replied as the radio went silent. “They seem to be heading to a garage close by, you’ll be able to intercept them if you go though the west side of the slums,”

Jane looked to the right side and nodded. “We can use the roofs to make it along,”

“Can we get any air support?” Ajax then asked.

“Negative, they are too focused on containing the mercs and keeping them distracted,” Kelly replied with a sigh. “Sorry Ajax, that’s all I can do from here,”

“You did good Kelly, keep it up,” he smiled before closing the comm before seeing Janes smirk. “What?”

“I know that look,” she teased before hitting her own comm. “Did you guys hear that?”

“We heard,” one of the Miranda’s said. “We’re already moving towards the garage,”

“Same here,” one of the Jacobs added. “We’ll get there soon,”

“Understood, keep in mind that there are three of them now,” Jane added which was followed by silence before an ‘understood’ came from the pair of them. She then turned her comm off and looked to Ajax. “What do you think three Archangels mean?”

“My best guess is that three universes are colliding. Which also means that there’s probably another Shepard and Solus,” he said with a sigh. “Which also means that things just got complicated. But if we can get to the garage, we can hijack some transport to get to Solus,”

“Agreed,” Jane said as she pointed towards the garage. “I’d say we should stick to the main plan and move. The faster we can, the faster we can get there,”

Ajax nodded and the two of them vaulted over the railing and landed on the roofs of the slums. Once landed they moved as quickly and quietly as possible. Ajax, being an infiltrator, hung behind keeping his sniper rifle at the ready. As they got a few meters way from their drop off point, Jane fell though one of the roofs and landed in a heap on an abandoned mouldy mattress. She got up with a groan as Ajax looked in.

He was about to say something, but that’s when the gunfire began. Jane moved into cover quickly while Ajax vanished thanks to his invisibility module. Looking over her cover, Jane saw a group of blue armoured soldiers belonging to Blue Suns. Behind them was a group of Asari Eclipse mercs, it seemed that they were trying to co-ordinate with each other in trying to get them. They were about to move when a shot rang out and one of them fell. They looked around in confusion allowing Jane to move out of cover and towards them with her biotics charging.

They began to fire at her, but the rounds bounced off of her barrier before she pushed them backwards. The mercs fell backwards as a grenade joined them and Jane pulled back before it exploded. As the mercs began to recover, Ajax took out three of them before they could fully recover and Jane fired her shotgun taking out two. She was forced back into cover as the others recovered, they began firing at something. A second later Ajax appeared on the rooftop, his cloak module either destroyed or on recharge.

He grunted in annoyance as he switches to an SMG and began to fire at the mercs. But their attention was split between Jane and Ajax preventing the two from doing much. They were also well spread out preventing any area of effect attacks from being effective. But there was one thing Jane saw. Because of their split attention, that mean they couldn’t focus their fire. That mean she could move. Smiling she looked around and a plan developed in her mind. Putting away her she grabbed her SMG and charged up her biotics.

She then jumped out of cover and ran to a wall on the opposite side. As she moved, she threw a shockwave at them forcing them to scatter while she ran up the wall and grabbed onto the roof. Pulling herself up, she then ran along the edge firing her smg in burst while arming another grenade to throw. While she was doing that, Ajax did the same. While the mercs were distracted with Jane’s movement, he took the opportunity to take a few of them out before jumped up and tackled him to the ground.

The turrian growled at him as he began to slam his fist into Ajax’s face. The cyborg Shepard responded with his own punch sending the turrian stumbling backwards and off of him. After a quick crack of his neck, he opened his arms out and extended a long orange glowing omni-blade on one and a concussion launcher on the other. The turrian, on the other and, extended a pair of gleaming silver claws before charging at Ajax. The cyborg Shepard responded quickly firing a concussion shot, which didn’t hit, but did force the turrian to flinch allowing Ajax to push forward.

The turrian tried to act by holding it’s claws up for defence, but Ajax went low and aimed for the legs. The Blue suns merc couldn’t react in time and found himself falling to the ground. He didn’t have time to regret his decision as a round ended his existence in this world. With that done, Ajax looked over the area and saw that all of the other merc were dead with Jane looking at him from across the way.

“Biotics help, but it seems so do augments,” she smiled.

Ajax smiled too as he retracted his weapons. “Let’s get moving,” he yelled before jumping over to join up with Jane and the two moved.

OOOOO

Garrus had been though a lot of shit in the past two years. Leaving C-Sec, chasing down a drug smuggler, chasing down criminals on Omega, building his own squad then watching them die… a lot of shit. But now he had two more of himself to help him out and he wasn’t sure how to react. At first, he thought it was some kind of psychosis. Being alone, fighting alone, surviving alone. But that seemed less and less likely by the second. If anything, he was glad to have someone, even if it was himself to deal with.

While they shared the same names, they didn’t 100% share the same skills, looks or armour. The first one to appear was the one he called ‘Cyborg Angel’ given his cybernetic eye, right arm and legs. While the other he named ‘Vulku’ran Angel’ or, as humans would call him, ‘Knight Angel’ given his sword. They didn’t ask about where they were from, not yet anyway, as they needed to focus on getting out of the slums.

Cyborg angel took point as he had augmentation that helped with long range scans and tracking. But the other two kept close behind just in case. The black armoured Garrus moved forward along the wall and leaned past the corner. His eyes glowed red as he took in all the information before him before pulling back and looking at the other Garrus’.

“Looks like they barricaded the garage,” he said moving to the side allowing Vulku’ran and Garrus to look past him to see for themselves.

“Well, that’s a problem,” Garrus said.

“Doesn’t look like there’s a way in,” Vulku’ran Garrus agreed.

They pulled back and the three of them huddled together. “So, what are we thinking?” Garrus asked looking at his two doppelgängers.

Cyborg Garrus brought up his omni-tool and showed a map of the area. “This is what I detected. They have these sections blockaded while this section isn’t. We can assume that there is a trap there,”

“We can also assume that they probably have snipers in the garage and surrounding buildings to force us to go that direction,” Vulku’ran Garrus added pointing to parts of the map where snipers would likely be.

“Snipers I can deal with,” Garrus shrugged. “We just need to find a way to get into the garage while staying alive,” 

The nodded before looking at the map again. “A diversion would be nice,” Vulku’ran Garrus muttered a second a set of explosions caused the ground to shake.

The other two Garrus’ looked to him with a questioning look before all three of them moved out from cover to look what was happening. Most of the guards moved to investigate leaving a token group behind.

“Well as the human say, ‘the devil speaks’,” Garrus muttered.

“I’m not sure if you got that right but, let’s move and cover each other,” Cyborg Garrus said as the three of them moved forward.

Garrus hung back a bit as he took out the merc snipers in a counter sniper dual while the other two advanced forward, taking on the guards in a surprise attack with well-aimed shots from their rifles. A couple of the merc in odd looking armour charged with swords drawn, but they were met with Vulku’ran Garrus as he drew his own sword to counter them. The Cyborg Garrus, on the other hand stood in between the two and covered them both, cycling burst fire from his rifle to keep the merc at bay.

But he didn’t need to wait around log as Garrus took out the last sniper and helped the two of them take out the rest of the mercs on guard. Other than a few scrapes and bruises, they came off relatively fine. After regrouping, they moved into the garage itself.

“What are we looking for?” Vulku’ran Garrus asked.

“A combat truck, heavily modified. Me and my team used it as out operations vehicle,” Cyborg Garrus said with a wistful expression that the three of them shared and understood.

 Using the cars and trucks for cover, they slowly moved though the building. While it was empty, there were plenty of indications that someone else was here taking out the mercs. They had no answers until they got to the fourth floor where the sounds of voices made them pause.

“Yeah, we’re here, but they haven’t arrived yet,” a voice from a human female spoke. “Understood, we’ll stay here until they get here or you get her Commander,”

As she said that the Garrus’ looked to one another before they peeked over the cat to get a good look at who was talking. Two human women stood there. Both wore a skin tight bodysuit and welded pistols, but that’s were the similarities ended as one had short silver hair while the other hand long raven-black hair. They also differed in that their outfits, while similar, were different colours with the raven haired one having a white and black suit while the one with silver hair had red and black.

As the three turrians watched, Cyborg Garrus indicated to the silver haired woman. “I don’t know what’s going on here, but I think she is from where ever I’m from,”

“How can you tell?” Vulku’ran Garrus asked getting a good look at the two women.

“She’s got augmentations and a biotic spine,” Cyborg Garrus replied indication to his own augmentations. “Practically everyone where I come from has some form of cybernetic augmentations, either for combat or everyday use. She has several from what I can see, and she’s a biotic due to the spine as only biotics can use the spine,”

The other two Garrus’ nodded as they looked and Garrus got a good look at the emblem on the raven-haired woman’s suit. “Cerberus,” he growled.

“I take it you know them too?” Cyborg Garrus asked and the two nodded.

“Where I came from, they did experiments on soldiers. I’m not sure what they were trying to do,” Garrus growled. “But me and some of the Normandy stopped them,”

“Same here,” Vulku’ran added as he looked around the area. “We could surround them and take them out,”

Cyborg Garrus nodded before frowning as he got a look at the two women. “Wait,” he muttered as they turned to look in their direction but didn’t notice them. “I think they’re the same,” whirring sounded and his eyes moved slightly. “Yeah, they’re definitely the same. Their faces, their movements… they’re the same,”

Garrus blinked. “Like how we’re the same person?” he asked and Cyborg Garrus nodded slowly.

“Which means that there’s more going on than we now,” Vulku’ran muttered. “Let’s change the plan,” he continued to mutter his plan to the other two.

OOOOO

Miranda looked at her cyborg self and not for the first time wondered what the hell was going on. Clones, impostors, cyborg lookalikes and realistic holograms she could understand. But alternate universes were a new one on her. Theoretically, it was possible, even The Illusive Man had a few projects looking into it. But seeing herself as a vastly altered copy was an odd experience. The Cyborg Miranda, as she had taken to call her alternate self, looked the same, talked the same, even had the same movement style.

But outside of the obvious, there was also odd little personality quirks and their origins. They had time to chat as they made it here and learned a lot. In that time Miranda had found out that her cyborg self was born naturally. Apparently, her father had made arrangements with a woman to give birth to a child. That child would then be owned by the father while the mother was given enough to live off of for the rest of her life. Said life turned out to be a month.

Miranda was then altered and heavily augmented over the years to become the perfect mix of cybernetics and beauty to become the perfect CEO. Cold, ruthless, business minded and able to defend herself. But she escaped in her late teens and found work with Cerberus. A ‘black’ Corporation, that dealt with anything and everything illegal. They even escaped with the same people.

They were and weren’t the same. It was weird, but she liked it. It was like having a sister around to keep watch.

“Where do you think they are?” Miranda asked looking around.

“Either they haven’t arrived yet, or they’re planning to attack us,” her counterpart said.

That’s when Miranda frowned and looked at her emblem with an annoyed sigh. “Tell me, did a rouge outfit kidnap soldiers in your universe?”

Cyborg Miranda frowned for a moment before her eyes closed and she nodded. “They’re planning an attack,” she said as the two of them looked around. “How do you want to play this?”

Miranda was about to speak but couldn’t as a flashbang quickly blind and deafened her. She didn’t have time to comprehend what was happening as something slammed into her and pushed her to the floor. She and her counterpart yelled out as the hit the floor and their vision and ears began to clear. Looking up she could see the blank visage of a turrian helmet. Looking down at them.

“Why is Cerberus here?” he asked as he pulled out a pistol and pointed it at them. “Don’t make me ask twice,”

“We’re here looking for Archangel,” Miranda said as she decided that telling them the truth would be better than a bullet to the face. “We’re here to recruit you,” she moaned feeling the pain began to fade.

“Recruit us for what?” one of the other Archangels asked.

“Human colonies in the traverse have been disappearing,” Cyborg Miranda said though a groan. “They are being taken by a species called the Collectors. We’re here with Commander Shepard to recruit specialists to stop them,”

Their reaction at the new was odd as the Archangels looked to one another. The head movement indicated that they were talking via helmet radio rather than the speaker. After what seemed like a moment, the turrian looked down at Miranda.

“Even if what you said is true about the Collectors, Shepard is dead,” he said.

“He’s not,” Miranda grunted. “We found his body and brought him back,”

The turrian in front of them paused for a moment before taking his helmet off. The two Miranda’s looked wide eyed at the grey skinned and blue painted C-Sec sniper in from of them.

“And why should I, should we, trust Cerberus?” Garrus Vakarian answered.

Chapter 4: Escape and Demons

The fields of mud and rock were covered with the bodies of the dead. Soldiers from both sides lay dead with weapons and body parts scattered around. There were a few vehicles, but not many. Their burning wrecks lit up the area around them. Lighting cracked the sky as rain poured down while a lone soldier pulled along the corpses of his dead comrades and enemies. His shiny blue armour glinted as the sky cracked with lighting.

Wounded and dying, he moved towards to communications spire at the far end of the battlefield to alert friendly forces. Assuming they hadn’t been alerted already. False hope was still hope that allowed people to move on. And he grasped onto every shred of hope and strength he could as he pulled himself forward and further. They had failed in their objective; he would not fail his.

He pulled himself 30 meters over bodies, weapons and mud to reach the spire. Reaching out, he was about to activate it when a voice sent dread through his body.

“For almost dead, you did well,” the voice boomed with darkness and malice. “I am impressed,”

The soldier turned pale as he moved to see the Dark lord standing over him. The giant of a man stood over him like a mountain, his flesh covered by the dark armour he wore and the blackness of the night. His head was hooded and his eyes blazed like a never-ending fire. As the soldier backed up, the Dark lord got down to one knee to look at the soldier at eye level.

“It takes more than guts, more than strength, more than determination to do what you have done, in the condition you are in,” he reached out with a hand offering it to him. “I can heal your wounds and give you power to fight on, in my name,”

“You’ve got some nerve to say that to me,” the soldier said as she pulled his visor up. “After you left me behind,”

“Kadian,” the Dark Lord said with a hint of sadness. “I’m sorry, it was either you or the mission,”

Kadian Alenko slapped the Dark Lord’s hand out of the way. “I don’t want your pity or mercy. I just hope that they stop you,”

The Dark Lord sighed, “You are deluded by the lies the Knights have told. If they succeed, then no one wins,”

“Like I believe what you have to say after what you have done,” Kadian spat.

The Dark Lord said nothing as he moved to hold his hand in front of Kadian muttering an ancient spell. Red magic circles appeared before the two and light poured into Kadian's eyes. As it did, the former follower of the Dark Lord widened his eyes as he understood what was going on. After a moment had passed, he pulled his hand away.

“Now do you see?” the Dark lord asked and Kadian nodded.

“I….I…. he tried but his life slipped from him unable to stay for much longer.

Dark Lord said nothing as he withdrew his hand. For a moment he stayed there looking at the man who he had watched move across 30 meters of battlefield to reach this point. With a sigh, he pulled Kadian onto the ground and positioned it in a way to be respectful to the dead. With that done he stood and looked around.

“Status report!” he boomed.

“3,700 soldiers dead, but the main objective has been achieved,” a robotic female voice said.

The Dark Lord grunted in response as he looked at the castle in front of him. Its seamless structure shines in the light of lighting. While he had not lost many, any soldier dead meant one less to fight in another battle. He regretted the need to use them, but such as the need against the light.

“Order the Council to meet me inside,” he said as he walked towards the open gate.

“Yes, my lord,” the response came.

The Dark Lord remained silent as he walked, keeping in mind the dead before him. Doing his best not to disturb their final rest. He may have won, but that didn’t give him the right to disrespect the dead by defiling their corpses. They fought well and hard, earning the right to their peaceful rest.

Stepping into the castle itself, he looked around taking in the finely crafted walls and decorations. The ancient race, the Protheans, had archived much by their domination of the galaxy. But like all empires, they fell. Time was an undisputed killer of all. This place was just a monument to a dead race. But a place that one of the Gods had commanded him to go to.

Walking up to the engraved patterns on the wall, he rubbed his gauntleted hand across it. Feeling the raised and perfect edges of text and images telling a story of ages that he didn’t recognise. He wondered what this place was for. No, that was a lie. He knew what this place was used for. The question was what did the ancients need with a place like this?

The sound of footsteps met his ears before the voice of one of his Councillors. “My lord, you called for us,” the male voice asked.

“Indeed, I did James,” the Dark Lord said as he pulled himself away from the wall and walked up to the group gathered before him. “We are here because the forces of Light have found a way to leave this universe. We are going to stop them,”

Around him stood members of most of the races of the galaxy. Turrian, Human, Demon, Dwarf, Elf, Asari, Korgan, Salarian, Quarrian and Battarian. His trusted allies, his friends. They all looked at him with various expressions of surprise and puzzlement.

“What? They can leave this universe?” one of the Asari, asked her face betraying her scepticism.

“The multiverse theory is a long and well-debated subject in the scientific field,” the scientist said as the Salarian brought up a holographic chart. “But to go there is another thing,”

“Why would we need to?” an Elf, asked her long raven hair waving in the wind.

One of the Korgans grunted in response. “Because they are cowards and need to be hunted like the vermin they are,” in response he got a nod from another Krogan by the name of Grunt.

“Not quite,” the Dark Lord said, gaining the attention of everyone. “There is a force at work that is wanting to disrupt the universe as a whole. The forces of Light wish to help it because it will stop us,”

“So, if we stop this third party…” an environmentally suited councillor said.

“We stop the Forces of Light,” the Demon councillor said as her facial markings glowed. “What is our mission?” she asked.

“Follow me,” The Dark Lord said as he turned and led the council through a corridor to a room with a massive ring in the middle. “Just as he said,” he muttered before turning to look at his council. “This is the Universe Gate, the item which will let us travel across the multiverse. But only one can travel though at the moment. The reason is not explained, but from my understanding, it has something to do with the fabric of the universe,”

“So, you will leave us?” Miranda asked and to her surprise, the Dark Lord jerked his head.

“As much as I would like to meet my alternate self, I am needed here until the time is right,” he then looked to one of his retinues. “Which is why, you will go first,” he said pointing at the demon.

OOOOO

“Shepard is dead,” Garrus said as he looked at the Mirandas before him.

The two blinked in surprise. They had read up and searched for the Commander’s old team to try and get them on board the new Normandy. The Turrian in front of them evaded that investigation and now here he was, in the flesh. This was both good and bad. Good in the sense that the commander now had someone to rely on, bad in that he couldn’t trust them due to being Cerberus. That meant they wouldn’t be trusted by the Archangels in front of them.

As Miranda began to open her mouth the building shook and part of the roof fell through with two figures falling as well. They landed on their backs and got up slowly with groans and moans with a few curses added in for good measure.

“Why us?” the female asked earning a surprised look from Garrus.

“Easy, we’re just unlucky,” a male voice answered making the Cyborg Garrus turn.

“Looks like the gunships… gone,” the female Shepard said as she turned to look at Garrus with wide eyes. “Garrus?” she asked with surprise. “You, your….” she sputtered.

“Oh, that’s interesting,” Ajax said as he turned around. “Hey Garrus, long time,” he said walking up to and shaking hands with the Cyborg Garrus.

“I thought you were dead,” the Cyborg Garrus said.

“Same,” the ‘normal’ Garrus.

“Wait,” the sword-wielding Garrus said as he stepped forward confused. “You two look nothing like the Shepard I know,”

As he spoke the Miranda’s got up cracking their limbs while the ‘normal’ Garrus spoke up. “In what way?”

“Well for starters, they’re both…” he looked around trying to find the right words. “Their errr pigmentation is wrong. Aside from the gender their armour is wrong as well, and looks,”

“What do you mean?” the Cyborg Garrus asked.

“Well, look at us and them,” she said indicating to the other Garrus and Miranda’s. “We and they look the same, but they don’t. Isn’t that weird?”

Ajax just shrugged. “Infinite universe, infinite possibilities,” he smiled before a roar of engines flew by making them all duck. “But now’s not the best time to talk about this,” he hit his earpiece. “Kelly come in…” he waited but no answer. “Kelly? Kelly?” Inwardly he checked his communications and frowned. “Signal’s cut,”

Looking at each other, the Miranda’s and Jane checked their communications but nothing happened. They looked to Ajax and shook their heads. A look of concern was shared between the seven. Concerned, Ajax got up and walked to look out of one of the gaps in the structure. In the distance, a wall of pure black was approaching them at speed. He cursed before tapping his comm again.

“Jacob, do you read me?” he asked.

“Loud and clear!” both of the Jacobs said before one of them took over. “There’s something heading this way!”

“I know, how far are you from our location?” Ajax asked, his panic becoming evident.

There was a short conversation between the two before both of them cursed. “Too far, we’re at the marketplace to the south of you,” one answered.

Ajax cursed as well. “Understood, we’ll find some way to get to you,” he said before cutting the comms and looking at the others. “Any ideas?” he asked.

The cyborg Garrus then pointed to a large truck. “We can use that, but neither of you…” he pointed to the two Shepards. “…are driving,”

“What?” they asked in surprise and offence.

“I take it that Shepard is as bad a driver in your universe,” Garrus asked and the other two nodded.

“Hey,” the Shepards objected in unison. “We aren’t bad drivers, the controls just don’t respond,”

That earned them ‘are you serious’ looks from the Garrus’.

“Looks like we got them in stereo,” Miranda smiled with her cyborg counterpart smiling and nodding.

Before Cyborg Miranda could say anything the building shook as a gunship made a pass at them. “We can talk about this later,” she said. “Everyone into the truck,”

There was no argument, but both Shepards were pouting as they entered the truck. Cyborg Garrus took the controls while Garrus took the gunner’s console. The others strapped themselves into the seats while the truck started up.

“It’s going to be a bumpy ride,” Cyborg Garrus said. “Ajax, there’s a hard-link to the secondary gun controls,”

Ajax said nothing as he looked around and found a wire. A section on the back of his neck opened up and he clicked the wire in place. While the others couldn’t see, Ajax’s vision was first filled with static while the necessary handshakes were made before his vision quickly changed as he gained access to one of the gun turrets mounted on the truck. After making a few tests with the gun turret, making it turn and fire, he held his thumb up to the others and the truck took off.

At first, it was a little disorientating as he felt his body move but not in time with his mind. A quick adjustment to his sensory settings fixed that as the truck burst through the walls of the building and onto the highway. Cyborg Garrus put his foot down as he expertly waved through the vehicles on the road. But that didn’t stop the gunships from approaching and firing at them.

Ajax responded by firing back with the double-barrelled auto-cannon of the truck while Garrus fired with the truck’s cannon. As the two fired, Ajax zoomed in and got a look at the emblem on the side of the gunships.

“Target identification, Blue Suns,” he said.

“Has to be Tarak,” Garrus grunted. “I thought I disabled that gunship,”

“You and me both,” the other two Garrus’ said as the two gunners fired at the gunships while the truck weaved around traffic.

OOOOO

“MOVE, MOVE MOVE!” Yasuke yelled as the 5-man team ran down the street, turning back occasionally to fire at their pursuers.

A large group of Blur Suns with mechs closed in behind them, cover where they can. But they didn’t let up their fire as they pursued the crew. One of the mercs, armed with a grenade launcher, got in close and managed to fire a round at one of the cars. It detonated sending John into a wall, winding him. He coughed up a bit of blood, but staggered up with the help of Shion and fired back at the mercs.

“OVER HERE!” a voice yelled.

The group turned to see several black and red armoured troopers behind a makeshift barricade. Two gun turrets were set up at both ends of the barricade. Two of the black and red armoured troopers began to fire on the oncoming mercs, forcing the Suns to keep their heads down while the crew made their way over to them. The Suns tried to stop them by pouring on the firepower, but that did little as the black and red troopers set up force shields to block them before using grenadiers to scatter the mercs.

As they moved in, John noticed the emblem on their uniforms. “Normandy?” his brow raised.

“Normandy Security Services,” one of the troopers said before pointing to the Suns. “Take them out,”

A series of positive affirmations echoed from the other troopers while the sergeant looked at them. “I guess, all of you are named Shepard?” he asked and got nods, but he responded with a sigh. “I hate it when my boss is right,” he said as he removed his helmet. “But then again, it is interesting to meet other hims,” Kadian Alenko said as he smiled.

John and Yasuke blinked Shion squealed. “Kaidies!” she yelled jumping on him. “Oh my god, it’s so good to see you, even if you aren’t my Kaidan,”

“I take it that something happened to me?” he asked looking at the two male Shepards.

“Yeah…” John said rubbing the back of his neck. “For me, you died on Vermire,”

“Same with mine,” Yasuke said. “But why are you here?”

Shion pulled herself off of the scarred and augmented Aleko. “Yeah, what are you doing here?”

“I was sent here to secure the area by She.. I mean Ajax. He wanted me to secure Mordin before he arrived. He told me to be aware of other ones like him but different. I didn’t believe him at first…” he said. “But then this… flickering began and all of a sudden there were three Mordins,” he shuddered. “Seriously, one is like a hamster on coffee, three…” he shuddered again.

“So, he’s inside?” Miranda asked.

“Inside, yes, he… not all of them,” Kadian smiled. “Follow me,” he said leading them into the clinic.

 The doors opened to a worse scene than the five of them had seen before. Sure, they have seen battlefields, but seeing civilians in pain, dead or dying was never something a soldier never forgets. Spaces were almost covered in sleeping mats with people on them. Some were in better conditions than others. Medics moved around trying to help as much as possible. Some of them had ‘NSS Medical’ on their backs as they moved around.

One of them, an Asari, walked up to John and checked him over. “I’m detecting several broken ribs,” she said before bringing her arm up to apply medi-gel. “Keep out of harms way please,” she said before moving off. John just gave her a confused look before moving on feeling the medicine take effect quickly.

It seemed that Ajax had sent more than just troopers to help out. Kadian led them up to the top floor where voices could be heard.

“No, no, no, the genetic sequencing is flawed,” a voice said, a familiar sound to John.

“That is due to the decay of the genetic nucleotides,” a female voice added.

“Which prevent the protein strains from forming, breaking down the cure at a rapid rate,” another voice added.

John smiled but groaned knowing the trouble he was getting them all into.

"Mordin Solus?" Kadian asked as he knocked on the door before walking in with the crew. “You have guests,”

The group entered and three pairs of Salarian eyes turned to the new group. Two of them were male while one was female, which wasn’t much of a surprise. While telling female and male Salarians wasn’t easy, the face paint on the female Solus was distinctive. The two males, on the other hand, were different. One wore the familiar white and red outfit, while the other wore a black and white outfit. He had an eyepiece over one eye as well as a cybernetic horn.

One of them stepped forward and took a scan on the commanders. "Humans, don't recognize you from area,” the one in white said.

“Too well-armed to be refugees. No mercenary uniform. Quarantine still in effect. Here for something else? Vorcha? Crew to clean them out?” the female Mordin asked.

“Unlikely. Vorcha a symptom, not a cause. The plague! Investigating possible use as a bioweapon. No, no. Too many guns, not enough data equipment. Soldier, not scientist,” the cyborg added.

“Hired guns? Related to NSS? Maybe. Looking for someone? Yes, but who? Someone important. Valuable. Someone with secrets. Someone like me, like us?” the female added.

The three Shepards looked to one another before shrugging. “We, well our last name, is Shepard,” John said earning surprised looks from the Salarians. “I’m John, this is Shion and Yasuke,”

“Humm interesting, three Shepards, three Solus’,” the female said. “I’m Mordina by the way, not Mordin. Minor issue, but interesting,”

“Maybe one from each alternate universe?” the white-coated Mordin suggested, but the cyborg shook his head.

“Unlikely,” he said as he indicated the three. “Humans, all augmented in some way where I come from. No augmentations here,” he then looked to his other selves. “More Shepards maybe?”

“Well, I know she…” Yasuke said as he indicated to Mordina. “…is from my universe. The dossier and Aria referred to Solus as a ‘she’,”

“I doubt anyone is from my, or his, universe,” Shion said. “I’m not sure what happened but I didn’t arrive here with a crew. And he…” she indicated to John. “…seems to also be from the future. But don’t ask, he’s keeping his mouth closed on that subject,”

“Damn right I am,” John muttered. “But to business, we are here to recruit you, all of you, for a mission,”

That made them perk up a bit. "What mission? No, too busy. Clinic understaffed. Plague spreading too fast. Who sent you?" they all said in unison.

"Ever hear of an organization called Cerberus?" Shion asked, they are the ones who originally sent us.

The three Solus’ looked at one another before shrugging in the same way. "Crossed paths on occasion. Though they only worked with humans,” Mordina muttered.

"They do, but we're tracking down the Collectors,” Yasuke clarified. “We are assembling a team to stop them,”

“Human colonies have been disappearing, we have evidence that the Collectors are behind it. We are going track them down and stop them,” Miranda added.

"Collectors?” the three Salarians muttered with a look of interest.

“Interesting. Plague hitting these slums is engineered. Collectors one of few groups with technology to design it,” Mordina said as the three began to walk weaving between each other.

The white-clad Mordin stopped for a moment. “Our goals may be similar. But must stop plague first,”

As he finished the cyborg Mordian continued. “Already have cure. Need to distribute it at environment control centre. Vorcha guarding it. Need to kill them,”

Before anyone could say anything, the ventilation in the room shut off. "Environmental systems down?" Miranda complained. “Why can’t things be simple?”

“Welcome to my world,” John muttered as the Solus’ checked their omni-tools.

The Cyborg Mordin started. "The Vorcha have shut down environmental systems. Trying to kill everyone,”

“Need to get power back on before everyone suffocates. Here take plague cure,” Mordina said as she handed Shion a blue canister.

The white-clad Mordin then stepped forward. “One more thing, Daniel, one of my assistants. Went into Vorcha territory. Looking for victims. Hasn't come back, other Daniels may also be trapped,”

Yasuke was about to speak but John beat him to it. “I know where they are, we’ll find them,”

"Thank you. Told him not to go. But he's smart. Bright future. I hope,” he said.

John then stepped forward and patted two of the Mordins on the shoulder. “I know he does,” he said before leading the team out.

As they exited the main lab, Kadian joined them. “Well, that was interesting,” he said with a smile.

“Can you point to the atmosphere station?” Yasuke asked as they headed for the back door.

Alenko shook his head. “Sorry, but I cannot. The whole area has changed to the point where my map doesn’t work,”

The six of them stopped at the door. “Makes sense,” Shion said. “If this flickering is universes combining or putting people in odd places, then locations may be different. Kinda like how a labyrinth moves,” everyone nodded at that before Jacob looked to Kadian.

“You going to join us?” he asked. “We could use the extra firepower,”

Kadian smiled but shook his head. “I apply the thought, but I’m needed here, best of luck though,” he said as the door opened and the crew waved their goodbyes as they moved into the backstreets.

OOOOO

Despite the number of ambushes, the Blood Pack tried, the team managed to push through and follow the signs for the sector’s atmo generator. It was in a nearby industrial district which made sense. The generator itself was considered to be a piece of heavy industrial equipment. It also lets the maintenance teams get their equipment to and from the generator quickly. Even in places like Omega, there were certain maintenance priorities that even the gangs wouldn’t skimp on.

The ‘building’ that housed the generator was off to the west side of the district. Easy to get to from Mordin’s clinic if you knew the way, and followed the signs. But as they got close, John began to feel uneasy. There was something about this area that set him on edge. In his universe, the way leading to the generator was simple, but being in an open street felt off. He felt eyes on him coming from somewhere, not to mention the area was a little too quiet for his liking.

Trying to put it out of his mind, he moved to cover Jacob as he hacked the door. Yasuke and Shion looked at him but kept silent and their eyes were in front. The door opened and the crew moved into the building in a crescent formation, eyes open weapons at the ready. But they lowered their weapons as soon as they spotted three bodies hanging from the ceiling by the neck. Two male and one female with the latter also being a cyborg.

“What the…” John tried to say but several flash-bang grenades blinging them.

He could make out yells and cries as he was tipped up and forced to the floor with someone on his back. Cursing, he blinked as fast as he could to get the flash out of his eyes and clear his vision. Standing under the three hanging bodies stood two people in blue, white and silver armour. It was similar to the armour everyone wore, but this looked more medieval and the non-human equivalent of medieval. By the looks of the suits, a turrian and an asari stood in front of them.

After a few more grunts, John took a glance at the others to see them looking around, alert and confused. An indication that their vision had cleared. A good sign, but he was forced to look forward by whoever was on his back. He grunted in response to the sound of armoured boots on metal. Looking over to the sound he saw another Turrian in the same medieval-like armour walk down a set of stairs.

“I was told you would be here, to help these lowlifes survive. But I was expecting three, not five of you,” he said as he moved to stand in front of the Asari and Turrian. “So, this is a gift from the Gods,” as he spoke, he drew a sword. “Now which one of you is Shepard?”

No one moved forcing him to walk forward. “I asked, which one of you is Shepard?”

John looked to the others and sighed. “I’m Shepard,” he said. “The others are my crewmates,” That earned him the attention of the others but looks of shock and confusion from the crew. “If they say otherwise, it’s because they want to protect me,” that got a shocked look from the others.

“What in hell are you doing?” Yasuke asked.

“Shut it Kadien,” John yelled shooting the Samurai a look saying ‘stay out of this’. “Sorry, he has a bit of lip,”

The turrian chuckled as he squatted down. “Nice try,” he said slapping John across the face. “I know that isn’t Kadien Alenko, as I’ve met him,” he growled.

“Really?” John smiled. “And how did a split face like you meet him? Were you begging for mercy? Like a dishonourable…” he got another slap but smiled as he turned to face the Turrian, bleeding at the mouth. “Hit a nerve did I split face?”

“You know nothing of honour,” the turrian said as he backed up and removed his helm.

John, Shion and Yasuke froze at the sight of the man whom they had chased across the galaxy. Granted, he didn’t have any cybernetics and wore blue and white face paint, but there was no mistaking those eyes.

“Saren,” Shion growled. “I would ask how, but it’s pretty damn clear you aren’t from here,”

“You are quite astute, Shepard,” he smiled looking at Yasuke, John and Shion. “But that is going to end,” he said as he aimed his sword at John. “By the Order of the Spectral Light, I condemn yo….” He couldn’t finish as a woman wearing black amour appeared from nowhere and kicked Seran in the face.

She landed with the grace of a gymnast and spun firing at the soldiers around the room. While it didn’t kill them, it did allow the team to break free and take out their captors. As soon as he felt the smallest bit of weakness, John turned and slammed his omni-blade into his opponent beheading him. After kicking off the soldier he then turned and fired at one of the two under the hanging bodies as they moved to the woman.

But they were cut down by the three Shepards before they could fully draw their weapons. As they got up, Yasuke moved over to John, helping him but giving him an odd look.

“Why did you do that?” he asked, but John gave him a look and an unspoken agreement passed between the two of them.

All eyes then looked to the woman before them. Much like the soldiers around them, she wore medieval-style armour. But unlike the others, this armour was black with a pink stripe along the legs and arms. It also had spikes on the pauldrons and curved blades along the forearms. The helmet she wore was smooth and rounded with a white faceplate with no nose or mouth but eyes and a circular golden like that ran across the faceplate and armour. A pair of horns at proudly on her head. She looked fearsome, but right now she didn’t move.

“Thanks, whoever you are,” Shion said.

“I was only doing the duty my master assigned me,” the woman said in a neutral, but familiar tone.

John blinked. “W…who are you?” he asked.

The warrior reached up to unclip her noseless mouthless helmet and pull it off. Long dark hair wrapped in a braid fell out. Her eyes were a blazing red with her pupil being reptilian. Her face was covered in similar circular tattoos like her armour. But there was no mistaking that look as John almost fell to his knees.

“A…Ashely?” he asked.

Chapter 5

John only stared at the woman in front of him. He knew that he was going to have to face her at some point, but figured that that particular meeting was down the line. Reality, however, seemed to have different ideas. He swallowed as he looked at her demonic form, wanting to hold her tight and cry but held himself back. Now was not the time for not letting all those wounds that had yet to heal open even more. Taking a deep breath, she stood and looked to her.

“Thanks, for the help,” he said. “You said you are here to help?”

“Yes,” she nodded. “My master….” she began but was cut short by a loud crack of air.

She fell backwards as her left arm went flying. John moved to arch her before she landed and held her as she clutched her wound. All eyes turned to Saren as he stood holding a smoking pistol. Silence filled the air before John handed Ashley over to Miranda and Jacob.

“Take care of her,” he said calmly as he stood and stepped forward.

Shion and Yasuke stepped forward next to him dropping their guns. Yasuke drew his sword while Shion adjusted her sonic speakers. Saren looked between the different Shepard with a raised eye. Tossing the weapon to the side he drew two curved blades and smiled.

“Dishonourable to a fault, why am I not surprised,” he asked.

“I am going to rip those mandibles off and shove them up your ass,” John said as he activated his omni-blades.  

Shion screamed into her mic trying to stun Saren, but the Turrian moved at a speed that was unnatural for his race. The three Shepards moved back-to-back while Miranda and Jacob pulled Ashley out of the room so that they wouldn’t be targeted. But that wasn’t the case as Saren appeared before them both swords raised. Both blades descended with him aiming for the demon. All three of them tried to react but there wasn’t much time, so they braced themselves for the blades cutting into their skin or worse, death.

A metallic ting echoed in their ears making them open their eyes to see Yasuke standing in front of them blocking the blades. The 6,2 samurai seemed to stand taller then normal as Saren growled in annoyance as he landed backing away. Yasuke’s blue-black blade shimmed her in the light as he spun it before settling into a ready position, breathing lightly. Time seemed to slow between the two as they just stared at each other for a moment, sizing each other up, judging each other, seeing who would make the first move.

Saren then reacted to the attack. Not from Yasuke, but from John who came in with a flying kick. The Turrian reacted by moving out of the way and helping John on his way to the opposite wall. The commander slammed into it but quickly picked himself up while Yasuke moved quickly with an overhead strike. Saren deflected it and swiped at the Samurai who backed up quickly, but not withing the blade nicking him.

Shion screamed into her mic once again, but failed as Saren moved out of the way, vanishing once again. John stood and looked around.

“Where did he go?” he asked.

“Saekki, he’s probably using some kind of magic,” Shin muttered.

Yasuke nodded while John frowned. “What make you say that?”

Shion gave him an unimpressed look. “Because he’s a knight, or whatever the Turrian equivalent is,” she said. “It’s likely comes from a….” she tried to say before Saren appeared behind her and slashed with his blades at her.

Shion reacted quickly and dived into a roll. But the attack managed to cut her bun and damage her sonic weapons. Looking to them she cursed and detracted them from her armour before activating her own omni-blades and charged in. Saren reacted quickly to the attack by stepping back and accepting the attack with a block and deflecting forcing the Idol to adjust her stance. With that he pressed the attack, pushing the idol back with each strike but was cut off when John charged in to try and tackle him.

Saren pushed away from Shion to try and avoid the attack and almost made it. John, however, managed to use one of his omni-blades to cut deep into Saren’s leg. The turrian grunted as he backed up and blocked an attack from Yasuke who came in quickly from the side. The Samrai’s black blade managed to chip Saren’s own blade. The Turrian growled with annoyance and kicked Yasuke back before making a slashing moved that managed to cut the Samurai across the face.

Yasuke growled and backed up quickly rubbing the blood off of his face. The cut was a clean and left a bloody line that started from the left of his head to the right of his jaw. Saren smiled for a moment before Yasuke applied medi-gel to the wound and seemed to stand taller as he pointed at the Turrian with his sword.

“Scar’s on the back are the shame of a swordsman,” he declared.

Saren forced wondering what he was talking about, before a spark of pain alerted that he wasn’t paying attention. Looking down he noticed a glowing blade sticking out of his side. Looking behind him, he could see that Shion took the opportunity of Saren being distracted to make her move. Moving forward, Saren pulled the blade out of his side before slashing at the Idol who backed up. Dropping his second sword and grasping his side, he raised his sword aiming it at the three Shepards, eyes narrowed.

This was a problem for him. He had thought that he would be able to take all three of them, but it seemed that the three of them knew what the other was going to do before they did it despite their varied skills. They seemed to read each other, maybe because they were effectively the same person but he wasn’t sure. Either way, he needed to fall back and re-evaluate the saturation. But they weren’t going to let him leave, there was one option left. Taking a breath, he raised his hand and began to mutter something.

As he did so, the three Shepard’s backed up but kept their weapons at the ready.  Next to Saren, two portals opened up and several troopers stepped out. While they had similar armour to the Turrian before them, having a medieval like look, but the soft armour flickered with something that the three couldn’t identify. More portals opened up and more of these walking sets of armour walked out. All of them armed with guns.

“Oh, shit,” John muttered as Saren vanished laughing as he did so.

“Looks like round 2,” Shin said and her ‘bothers’ didn’t argue as all three of them grabbed their pistols and took aim.

OOOOO

“SHITTTTT,” Garrus yelled as a pair of rockets hit in front of the truck forcing him to weave out of the way.

The truck slammed into a car, crushing it into a wall before they got clear and continued at full speed, avoiding the gunships. So far, they had been lucky with avoiding the three trying to take them on. But that luck was going to last for so long. Ajax wasn’t having a good time either as he tried to keep the gun turret on one of the gunships.

“We’re getting close to the jump off point,” the Cyborg Garrus said pointing ahead. “I can see them now.

“I’ll help,” Jane said as she unstrapped and stood moving to a short ladder connected to the roof. “Gar….” she started but then shook her head. “You know what, this is going to get too confusing, you are Cyrus,” she said pointing at the Cyborg Garrus then at the knight Garrus. “And you are Sir-Gar. Like it, I don’t care. Having too many people with the same name is going to get confusing fast,” she then looked to the two Miranda’s. “You two better pick names before I do,” she said before pulling herself up and popping the hatch.

Pulling herself up, she gabbed onto one of the handles on the top to steady herself. A barrage of bullets forced her to moved out of the way however and the truck to move to the side slighting. She grunted in annoyance, tuning to stare daggers at the gunships before an idea formed in her mind. Tapping her ear, she spoke into it.

“Any heavy weapons down there?” she asked.

“Yeah,” one of the Miranda’s calls. “We’ve got a grenade launcher,”

“That’s one of mine,” Cyrus added. “It contains high-explosive homing rounds. They are expensive, so I didn’t use it as much,”

Jane looked behind her seeing the two Jacobs getting ready to jump. Behind them there were several bridges similar to the one the two were on. She smiled as plan formed in her mind.

“Ok I have a plan,” she said as she told them.

Ajax smiled but the others didn’t, but looked to one another with concern. As they approached the bridge with the Jacobs on, Jane pulled out her grenade launcher and did her best to stabilise herself on the roof. Loading a round into the chamber, she steadied herself and aimed before firing a round. The high explosive flew towards the middle gunship before a command caused it to explode close to the cockpit.

That forced the Tarak variant to react and move out of the way as shards hit the glass. The move also forced one of the other Tarak’s to avoid the move as well. He moved a little close to one of the buildings, he didn’t manage to clip it and stabilised the aircraft. The three then seemed to be arguing with each other as they moved back into formation, but Jane had turned to see the two Jacobs ready to jump. Placing the weapon onto her mag-locks, she turned as the two jumped.

Activating her biotics, she grabbed them and helped them float own to the truck. Once on they grabbed onto one of the handholds to stabilise themselves before quickly moving to the hatch. One of them made it though before Jane stopped the other. He gave her and odd look.

“Pass it up,” she yelled.

A second later, one f the Miranda’s pass up a grenade launcher. Jane took it and handed it to Jacob before getting her own.

“When I say, you fire at one of the bridges,” she said.

Jacob turned to look and nodded readying himself, bracing for the recoil. Jane aimed her grenade launcher and fired three rounds in rapid succession. This time, she didn’t detonate them before they landed. She aimed for one of the gunship’s turbines in order to disable it, thus reducing its speed and effectiveness. But that was part of the plan. Despite trying to move out of the way, the grenades hit the armour and cracks the glass of the gunship cockpit. That caused that Tarak to move violently to the side and slowed down.

But that slow down forced one of the other gunships to slam into it. The two exploded before the two slammed into the ground while the third kept coming. Jane blinked in surprise as she didn’t expect that, but now they only had one more gunship to deal with. It fired at them, but only forced to the two to duck their heads.

“Fire,” Jane yelled and Jacob unloaded the magazine into the bridge in front of them.

The rounds hit one after the other, destroying the supports and walkway of the bridge. The truck drove past and under the bridge as it began to fall. They made it passed the bridge as it broke and swung down and slammed into the gunship. But failed to outright destroy the gunship. Instead, it falls onto the road with the canopy opening up. Jane didn’t leave it to chance as she unloads all of her grenades at the gunship completely destroying it.

Cyrus slows and stops the truck before getting out and looking at the destruction with Garrus and Sir-Gar joining him. “Well, that’s good to see,” he said before spitting to one side.

“Yeah, he was a real asshole,” Garrus said.

“Oi guys,” Jane said making the three look up. “We need to get moving, John is probably going to need us,”

Nodding, the Garrus’ climbed into the truck and set off as Jane claimed back inside.

Chapter 6

Yasuke moved fast, swinging his sword cutting down one of the shadow creatures with ease while using his pistol to finish it off. It vanished in a puff of smoke, only to be replaced with two more coming at him. But he didn’t back down. Taking a deep breath, he moved in fast cutting down the creatures before they could respond with an attack. One tried to sneak up on him but that was rewarded with him moving his sword and thrusting it behind him. The armour did block it, but not my much. He cursed in annoyance as he withdrew the weapon and kicked the creature off before turning and slashed at the weak spots to take it down.

His training was drilled into him at a young age at the Imperial academy on Onimaru. The high gravity world gave him increased his strength and raspatory system. While originally it was only for special forces, the training was given to all soldiers of the Terran Empire. The benefit greatly outweighs the expense of not having such strength. With this battle he wasn’t even tired. Glancing at the others, who were panting, he wondered if they had the same training he did. If they didn’t, he’d make sure they did.

John moved in to kick one of the creatures before following up with a slash from his omni-blade. But the blade did little as it faded before it met the creature’s shuddering form. He caused as he moved in to slammed his fist into the creature sending it staggering.

“Shit, this is why I said they should use knifes,” he said as he drew a pair 18 inch knifes. “Good thing I have them as backup,” he said before moving to cut the show down to size.

A couple more advanced on him which he delt with with several bursts from is pistol with a quick follow up from his blade.

Shion fired her pistols in rapid succession she moved through the creatures. Part of her training including dance moves and how to incorporate them into ones fighting style. She did this with ease that she when she was in combat, it was hard for her not to sing to herself while doing do. In her mind the battlefield was a concert, she being one of the singers in a melody of death and destruction. But she would have prefeed it if she still had her sonic weapons.

She cursed Saren’s name for the millionth time and regretted not having a backup pair of speakers. As she deflected an attack by one of the Shadows, John moved in to help her counter another Shadow which tried to attack her from a blind spot. It dissipated and vanished into the wind. With that no more came allowing the three of them to finish the rest of them off. Once the last one fell, they panted smiling at each other.

John grabbed his water flask and took a gulp before handing it to the other two. Took it gratefully before Jacob and Miranda walked in with the demon Ashley in. They had applied bandages to the demon’s arm stump. The group helped her into a corner while Shion looked for her arm.

“Are you ok?” Yasuke asked.

“I let my guard down,” the demoness said holding onto her stump. “Master would not be pleased,”

“We applied medi-gel,” Miranda said. “The wound has stopped bleeding, but we need to find her arm,”

“Found it… but… ewwwwww….” Shion called out as she picked up am arm with two fingers. “I’m not a doctor, but even I know arms aren’t supposed to be like this… yet,” the arm she held was decayed and necrotised with juices dropping from it and bone showing.

The others looked on horrified as well, but the demon just chuckled. “That’s a trait of my heritage. I was turned into a demon before I died. My body is kept alive with magic and technology. But when a part of me is severed… then natural process takes over,”

“Ah,” Shion muttered as she dropped the arm. “Right,”

“So, you are combat ineffective?” Yasuke asked, his tone showing the sympathy he had for her.

“My mission was to help you, in preparation for my master’s arrival. I cannot do that with one arm,” she sighed. “I failed,”

John shook his head. “No, you haven’t,” he said looking up at Yasuke. “Remember Aleko and Mordin?”

The samurai nodded looking at the engineer. “You think you can replicate it?”

John shrugged as Shion rejoined them. “Maybe, I’d have to see how it works and the plans. I think one us…” he indicated to himself, Shion and Yasuke. “Is a cyborg. So, he may be able to give me plans for his cybernetics,”

“Sounds good, but I have a question,” Shion spoke up. “How is your Saren still alive? I mean I assumed that you killed him when the Reapers were about to appear,” she indicated to John and Yasuke, like us, right?” the two nodded.

“Saren, or Lord Marshal Saren did die two years ago at the hand of my master. However, he was resurrected in a similar manner to me,” Ashley explained. “I was resurrected with black magic; he was brought back with light. The difference being the source. Masters magic comes from dark matter while the light comes from the suns,”

“Ok, I was not expecting that,” John muttered. “Can he still be killed?”

“Yes, he is not immortal. But the rebirth grants him… special powers,” she said unsure how to explain. “One of his powers include rapid healing. So, he may not be dead yet,”

“Kuso,” Yasuke moaned. “So, we need to behead him,”

“Either that or nuke the fucker,” John added shrug. “Either way, that should kill him,”

“Let’s hope so,” Jacob said as he stood looking upwards. “We still need to inject the cure into the atmosphere generator. So, what’s the plan?”

Yasuke looked to his two ‘siblings’ then to the demoness. “As much as I hate to admit it, we need to leave you three here,” he said. “Better chance at survival. Me and my… other selves, we inject the cure,”

“Sir, is that really such a good idea?” Miranda asked as she stood. “We can help, and…”

Yasuke raised his hand. “It’s not that,” he said indicating to John and Shion. “We’re just better skilled for this,”

She opened her mouth before closing it and nodded. “Very well, but I wish to state my objections,”

“Noted,” he said before looking to the other two Shepards. “Let’s go,” he said and the three Shepards made their way up.

Once they disappeared, Miranda looked to the hinging bodies with a sigh. “Let’s get them down and give them some respect,”

OOOOO

“Fuck, fuck, fuck with a cherry on top!” Josephine said as she manipulated the controls of the Normandy, weaving and avoiding fire from several unidentified ships and avoiding the spires of Omega.

It was alike a game of cat and mouse. The ships that chanced her were doing their best to try and force her into a kill zone of their making, but she managed to avoid those tricks. But it wasn’t easy. The pilots of the fighters were skilled, very skilled. But they didn’t have her talent for reading her ship and able to, for lack of a better word, feel the flow of spaceships and where they would go. She would like to turn and open fire on the ships, but the fact that she was weaving in between Omega’s spires and that there were about 30 fighter craft on her weren’t good odds.

Frigates weren’t meant as fighter units. They were scout and escort units, so they didn’t have the weapons of cruisers and battleships that could take on this number of fighters. She could take out about 7 maybe 10 if she planned her attack pattern right but the others would be on her in seconds. They were the pack hunters and she was the prey, but that didn’t mean that she would give them a good meal. As she flew the ship in a curve, she cursed at seeing several ships waiting for her.

“Oh fuck,” she muttered as she moved the ship into a dive before they could fire. “Oh, this is just fantastic, I know I’m cute but I have no time for stalkers,” She levelled out the ship and continued to weave around the spires. “ED-I suggestions?”

“I’ve been calculating their patterns, but I’m not seeing any opportunity for an attack,” a male voice said. “They move in groups that outnumber the ship’s ability to counter them effectively,”

“Of course they are,” she muttered. “They have to be guys, no one likes my ass this much,” she then sighed. “Any word from the ground force?”

“Negative, I keep trying to raise them with no luck,” ED-I replied.

“This just keeps getting…” she tired to say but the AI interrupted her.

“I’m detecting additional contacts,” he said.

Almost immediately, three frigates appeared in front of her with the same sliver and sleek design as the fighters chasing her. Reacting quickly, Josie pulled the Normandy up and over at speed before missing a disk of one of the spires. Cursing like a sailor, she readjusted herself and reorientated the map in her head to figure out what to do. At least this time she had large targets to focus on. Unlike the fighters, which were too quick and hard to target, frigates were bigger targets which she could outmatch with ease. After all, the Normandy was the fastest ship humanity ever built. She could outmatch any and all frigates. Maybe not in a three, but if she could pick them off, she should be fine.

A smile crawled across her face as a plan formed in her mind. “Ok, ED-I I need you to…” she began but was cut off.

“Detecting additional contacts,” he interrupted.

That made her heart sink. Her finely crafted plan melted away in her mind while she cursed in anger. She hated things like this. While she enjoyed challenges, sometimes it was too much and she would have to admit defeat. But that was something she’d never do. Looking at the controls she figured that going out in a blaze of glory would be better than running all the time. She readied herself at the controls when ED-I dropped another bombshell.

“IFF reads as… Normandy,” he said in a confused tone.

Josie blinked. “Is it a glitch?” she asked.

“Negative, IFF reads both ships as the Normandy SR-2,” he said with his confusion even more evident. “I’m receiving a transmission,”

As second later two screens showed up before her of two men with a beard and baseball cap that read ‘SR-2’. They looked almost the same, they only difference being the background of their ships and uniforms. One wore what seemed to be a black and white shirt with a round sleek interior behind him while the other wore what looked like to be a gi or kimono with his background being Asian inspired.

“Who are you?” the one in the kimono asked.

“I’m Josephine ‘Harlequin’ Moreau,” she said indignantly. “Who are you?”

“Jeff ‘Joker’ Moreau,” the one in the white uniform said.

“My name is the same, but they call me ‘Jester’,” the one in the kimono added.

“Seems like we’re all getting versions of ourselves,” Joker said. “My Shepard had a copy appear not too long ago. Should have figured that copies of others would appear,” he shrugged.

“I would ask more, but now is not the best time,” Harlequin said. “I’ve got stalkers on me, and they have no interest in backing off,”

“Maybe we can help,” Jester said with a smile. “After all, isn’t that what brothers do?”

“Indeed, it is,” Joker said as the three Normandy’s moved into formation. “Let’s teach these bastards it’s not ok to pick on a lady,”

“Ahh, your sweet,” Harlequin replied.

“I was talking about the ship,” Joker shot back.

“Asshole,” she smiled as she sent them a battle plan and the three moved off.

OOOOO

“What the fuck are these things?” one of the troopers asked as groups of shadows with armour on moved towards them.

They moved like regular troopers, moving in a formation and operating with tactics. But the fact that the gaps between the armour made the sight uncomfortable for the NSS team. It was weird for them to see something like a shadow wear armour similar to their own. But didn’t stop them from engaging. Kadian wasn’t sure what to make of it. The change in targets meant something was going on, but what that was he wasn’t sure. What he was sure about was that the oxygen levels were starting to decline.

As soon as they did, he had ordered his men to get their helmets on and use their suits oxygen to give the people inside the clinic more of a chance to survive. It wasn’t ideal, but it was the best he could do. He was ordered to protect them and that is what he would to do the bitter end.

Gunfire erupted along the barricade as he walked along it, seeing what the situation was like. The shadows were moving in for another strike. But the main gunner was keeping them at bay and with their heads down. However, something seemed off with their movements. He wasn’t what, but they seemed to be more mechanical then biological. Humans, and other non-humans, had a smoothness about their movements even when in armour. But mechs and drones had a jerkiness to them due the motors and joins not being the same when compared to biologicals.

These shadows seemed to be like that, drones or mechs. One of the machine gunners on the wall targeted them, doing his best to keep them back. But the feeling of wrongness never left his bones as he looked one. That’s when the shadows, somehow, became mechs which more them coming down the street at them. He didn’t need to bark orders as the NSS troopers began to open fire, but he did anyway as a matter of course. NSS troopers were trained to respond to threats even when they didn’t have access to command.

Their threat responses kicked in and they began to engage the machines as they advanced. They went down easily but kept on coming, and coming and coming. Kaidan began to wonder if they had enough heat-syncs to deal with the problem. That’s when he noticed that the ones that they took down vanished and replaced with more mechs.

“Oh hell,” he muttered as he continued to fire.

But all of a sudden, the machines stopped advancing, turned around and ran. The gunfire stopped and the soldiers to looked to each other in confusion. But they didn’t move from their posts. They did, however, reposition themselves to get more comfortable. Time seemed to slow as an expectation of another attack filled the air. Kadian slowed his breathing, waiting, eyes focused on the street in front of him. He moved his fingers along the grip to regain some feeling in them and to keep him alert.

The ground shook. Not violently or like an earthquake, but there was a slight tremble with the floor that he felt. That they all felt. Not moving their heads, the soldiers looked to each other in a ‘Can you feel that?’ look. The shaking increased and something in the distance came into view. Kadian blood ran cold as he spotted a large mech advancing on them. It was similar to a YMIR mech but angular, blockier, hunched and had two chain gun cannons on one arm. It was slow but that was likely due to a ton of armour. As it approached, the chain guns began to spin up.

“TAKE COVER!” Kadian yelled as the machine began to fire.

Three of his soldiers didn’t make it down in time and were torn to pieces by the heavy calibre weapon. All that was left was smoking piles of meat. Kadian cursed at the sight of them. He didn’t have the weapons needed to take this thing down, nor did the clinic. But as it turned out he didn’t need heavy weapons as a tuck came in from one of the side streets and slammed into the mech braking one of its arms.

The machine didn’t move though. It just turned its head ominously towards the truck and began to spool up its chain guns again. As it did so, a woman wearing black armour got out of the top of the hatch and moved towards the machine. She jumped landing on it and fired several shotgun rounds into its ‘head’. She didn’t destroy it, but he did damage it enough to get it to back up. With that done, she pulled out a grenade and slid it into a gap on the machine before jumping away using biotics.

A second later the machine exploded but it was still active. Using its gun arm, it pushed the truck out of the way before using some kind of secondary tracking sensors to track the woman who attacked it. It fired but the woman moved quickly out of the way using a combination of biotics and fast movements. But her barrier was impacted by some of the fire and nearly popped before she found cover in time. Once in cover she pulled out a pistil and began to fire shock rounds at it.

It did little as it turned to face the truck and readied to fire. As it did so, the occupants pulled themselves out before they got killed. All nine of the occupants got out, but one of them, a turrian from the look of his armour, got his foot stuck in the hatch. He tried to pull himself out with little success. One of the dark-skinned men and turians moved to help as the mech destroyed the truck with a burst of gunfire.

“GARRUS! JACOB!” someone yelled.

Kadian blinked at that but shook his head. “Fire support!” he yelled and fired on the mech in the hope that he could bring it towards them.

It worked. The mech turned to face them and advanced, spooling up its chain guns against before a shot from somewhere, Kadian didn’t see, but it prevented the barrels from moving. That’s when a blonde- and raven-haired women moved up with fully charged biotics and slammed into the machine before pulling away.

“Troopers, grenades,” a familiar voice yelled.

While there was some looking at each other, the troopers responded quickly pulling out, arming and throwing their last explosives. They all landed close to or on the mech before exploding and taking out the war machine. Kadian’s men cheered but the woman in black armour and the others weren’t as cheerful. They moved back into the burning wreck to pull out three people. Two turrian and one human.

Kadian moved over to join them and was surprised to come face to face with three Garrus’ and two Jacobs. “Oh, hi,” he said as they turned to see him with equal amounts of shock and surprise.

Chapter 7

Jane blinked at the sight of the cyborg Kadian as he came up. Of all the people to see here, he was one of the last. Her mouth opened and closed a few times before she was shaken awake by Miranda.

“Commander, we have to get them into the clinic,” she said.

Still confused Jane just looked at her for a moment before what she said finally processed what she said. “Ah… r… right…” she muttered as she helped her Jacob onto her shoulder and hauled him up.

He moaned as she did so, but it was ignored as the rest of the Normandy Mercs came over to help. They hauled the three wounded over and into the clinic. It wasn’t easy. The Garrus’ were heavy due to their size and weight while Jacob’s leg was gone making him limb, badly. A soon as they entered, a group of medics helped the group to get the three to the nearest beds and begin to help them heal. Once on the beds, the group was shooed away which didn’t sit well with Jane or Ajax who looked at their respective teammates and friends.

“Sir,” Kadian said getting their attention. “They’ll take care of them, if you’re looking for the other Shepards, they’re at the sector’s atmospheric generator,” as he spoke, he sent something wirelessly to Ajax.

Jane watched as both their eyes glowed blue for a moment before turning back to normal. “Got it thanks,” he said before looking at the others. “You lot stay here, make this place defensible,”

The two Miranda’s gawked at that while Cyrus and Ajax’s Jacob, who now had the nickname of Barbarossa, nodded. “Not a problem, we’ll get this place secure,”

“What?” Miranda asked. “You can not be serious,”

Looking between the Ajax and Jacob, Ajax’s Miranda, who nicknamed herself Clover, sighed in defeat. “They are,” she muttered. “At least you can say why,”

Ajax looked between them before nodding. “This place needs more than basic troopers here. They some kind of command and authority here. You are that. Not to mention your skills will help here,”

The two sighed as they saw Jane’s hardened expression. She was in agreement with her ‘brother’ and wasn’t about to contradict him.  

“Fine, but I object to this,” Clover said.

“Noted,” Ajax and Jane said before the latter continued. “Trust me, it’s for the best,” he gave a small smile that was meant to clam them, but Clover and Miranda just didn’t feel it.

They just nodded and the two Shepards exited the clinic leaving the what was left of the team together. Brow furrowed Kadian looked to Miranda.

“This is going to sound weird, but in your universe, did I die?” he asked.

Miranda looked to Kadian and nodded. “Yeah, you did,” she sighed. “You don’t want to know the rest.

He nodded at that.

OOOOO

It didn’t take long for Jacob and Miranda to get the three bodies down and lay them in a more respectful pose. They couldn’t do much else outside of trying to find a tarp to put over them. While there were rights, they could perform, it seemed disrespectful to do them when the three may not share the same religion. But there was another problem that they faced.

“What should we do now?” Jacob asked.

Miranda shook her head in thought. “I’m not sure,” she muttered. “I think we should head back to the clinic, but she’s…” she indicated to Ashley. “Is still wounded,”

“Not that badly,” the demon protested as she tried to stand but failed.

The shot from the gauss weapon had done some major damage to her insides as well as taking her arm off. While she did have an impressive healing factor, it was still going slow repairing the damage. She couldn’t move without interrupting the healing process and causing more problems. But there was little else to do.

“Look your too badly injured and need help, more help than we can give anyway,” Jacob said. “Plus, the clinic is defensible,”

The demon groaned in annoyance and pain as she couldn’t come up with a good counter to his logic. Her ears twitched and she looked to the door with a fierce look. Miranda and Jacob took the hint and moved to hide while Ashley played dead. Both Miranda and Jacob were trained shinobi. Miranda due to her clan’s practices in business. They tended to backstabbers in more than a figurative sense.

Jacob, however, being a former member of the Imperial Rangers had similar training to Miranda but it was less expansive. They are were meant for commando operations similar to N7, just less than those elite units. The two hid in shadowed and out of place sections of the room, weapons at the ready and pointed at the door. They slowed their breathing and relaxed themselves as the door opened and two people walked in weapons up.

One wore a long black trench coat while the other wore black and red armour. As they looked around Miranda noticed the emblems on their breastplate. She tapped Jacob’s shoulder before exiting cover, getting the two’s attention and weapons on her for a moment. But a glit of recognition flashed in their eyes before they lowered their weapons.

“Oh, good… Miranda, right?” the woman asked.

Miranda nodded. “Miranda of Clan Lawson,” she replied. “I assume that you two are Shepard, right?”

The two nodded. “Ajax and Jane,” the man said pointing to himself then Jane.

“That is a relief,” Ashley spoke up spooking the two who looked at her wide eyed. “I thought it was more of our enemies,”

“Ashley, what the fuck…” Ajax muttered but shook his head. “Never mind, which way did the others go?”

“Up,” Jacob said. “The made their way up to the generator,”

“Ok, good,” Jane muttered before looking to Ashely. “Can you get her back to the clinic?” Miranda and Jacob nodded at that. “Then do it, they have defences there. And she’s in clearly in need of help,”

The two looked to each other, unsure what to say or do as this wasn’t their Shepard, but in the end nodded. “Will do,” Miranda said.

“Good, get moving, see you soon,” Ajax said as he and Jane moved up the ramp and towards to the top.

While that happened, Jacob and Miranda moved to help Ashley to her feet as Jane called back down.

“Oh, by the way, figure out what you are going to call yourselves. Other than the demon, there’s two Miranda’s and Jacob’s,” she yelled making the two agents look to each other with brows raised.

OOOOO

“Why this fucking thing,” John muttered as he had his hands deep into the electronic guts of a set of lift controls.

He had been at it for the past 10 minutes to try and get power to the lifts. Btu for some reason, he assumed to the incompatible technologies of the universes colliding. Either that or the flickering was messing around with the internal components. Neither of which he liked or helped. With a grunt he pulled his hand out and kicked the side of the panel in annoyance.

“Fucking hell,” he growled before getting back down and trying to find where he was. “Damn this fucking machine,”

Shion and Yasuke said nothing to him but were checking their weapons and making small-talk to pass the time. Shion, being deprived of her sonic amps, was going a quick check on her custom-made pistols. Thy were similar to the predator pistols, but with ported barrels, made out of lighter materials, hair triggers and quick-eject systems to allow for a quick replacement of a heat sync. While dual welding wasn’t always practical, if at all, Shion worked with a couple of engineers to figure out a way to make it practical and useful.

The pistols were the result and others like her took them up to look cool. And she was the poster child for that look. Others may copy, but she was the original.

Yasuke, on the other hand, was polishing his onyx black sword. Any Samurai worth his skill always kept their weapon clean and ready for the next battle. The routine, for him, was somewhat relaxing. Just cleaning, seeing his reflection and not having a care in the world. Just something simple rather than fast and chaotic. After a wipe he held it up and looked at his reflection from the black metal with a red inlay. In his universe, N7 wasn’t just a special forces unit. If you passed, you were considered to be a Samurai, a knight, a servant to the Emperor and Empire.

In order to represent this, all N7 graduates had to make their own sword to show their status. They had a selection of metals from across the Empire and he picked one of the rarest metals. He didn’t know why, it just called to him. And he never regretted it.

“Gah fuck!” John yelled breaking him out of his thoughts.

“John, there is no shame in…” he began but the engineer spoke up.

“What the fuck… guys have a look at this,” he called.

The Samurai and Idol looked to each other for a moment before getting up and joining him to see what. Shion almost vomited while Yauske just stayed stoic, but internally was going to vomit. The inside of the panel John was at, was no longer made out of polymers and metals but made out of organs and meat. Several veins pulsed with the pumping of blood and parts of it expanded out like it was breathing.

“Looks like something out of a horror movie,” Shion muttered turning away and going a greenish shade.

“Probably from another universe,” Yasuke muttered. “It seems that the flickering is causing problems,” he squatted down to get a better look before looking up at John. “Any ideas?”

John shook his head before looking up and to the door. Yasuke did the same tapping Shion’s leg. Within a matter of seconds, the thee of them pressed their backs against the wall next to the door weapons at the ready. The door opened and Yasuke and John reacted quickly with the former thrusting his sword being levelled at the intruder’s neck and John’s pistol at the head.

“Whoa,” the man said. “I was not expecting this…”

“John,” a familiar voice said in an annoyed tone.

“Jane?” he asked as he lowered his weapon looking to her then the man. “Shepard, I assume?”

The man nodded. “Call me Ajax,” he smiled as Yasuke lowered his sword.

“My apologises, my name is Yasuke,” he held out his hand which Ajax shook.

“No worries, I would have done the same,” he shrugged.

Once all five Shepards entered the room and got introductions out of the way, they then looked to the lift that led up to the main control room.

“So, what’s the plan?” Jane asked.

“Not a damned clue,” John muttered as he walked up to the panel. “I mean thing is still made out of meat,”

“Meat?” Ajax questioned following John to have a look. “What the fuck… looks something out of a horror movie,”

“That’s what I said,” Shion added. “I just looks wrong, and none of us know how to… well fix it…”

“That is a problem,” Jane muttered as she rubbed the back of her neck.

“Maybe we could….” Ajax began when the room began to shake. “Oh shit…”

A line similar to a lightning bolt, but made up of purple and back light opened up on a wall next to them. It spread into a web that covered everything, except the occupants in the room, before the cracks began to open up into new world and universes. Gravity seemed to cut off as they began to for while the room vanished and the widows grew wider and more numerous.

Sights, sounds, names, concepts without names or framework entered their minds. Each Shepard let out a soundless scream as the thoughts invaded them causing pain that they ever experienced before. Events new and old, familiar and not flooded their minds and eyes as reality around them began to shatter.

The five then looked at each other wide eyes before around at the room. It was the same as before. Dull metal with rusted parts and wires hanging out of broken panels. Red lights shined down on them making what they experienced even more ominous. Jane was the first to turn and vomit with John following and the others following soon after. The only one who didn’t was Ajax who helped them. After a moment of everyone emptying their stomachs, they took stock of what just happened.

“How are you not sick?” Shion asked as she took a drink from her canteen.

“I experienced something like that before on the mission Darkstar gave me,” he explained. “I won’t go into detail but… safe to say that was localised. What I saw lead to an entire populated system from vanishing with no one remembering it even being there. No records, bank transactions, shipping manifests, nothing. Only I remembered because I was on ground zero,”

“So, you mean that Omega is going to vanish?” John asked eyes wide, looking at the others then the lift.

Ajax didn’t say anything and just nodded. With that the group moved over to the open panel, pulled out their guns and open fired. The lift quickly activated and began to descend as the cracks began to appear again. This time they left something. A dead body and a crate of thermal clips. Before anyone could say anything, Shion moved up to the dead body and laughed.

“I think Darkstar just gave us something,” she said as she got down to remove a pair of sonic amps. “I’m now fully equipped,” she smiled.

The other just looked at each other with a shrug before moving over to the crate and getting as many clips as they could. Their pockets quickly filled before the lift arrived and they walked onto it ready for whatever came next.

Chapter 8

Darkstar moved up the stairs of his office looking over the books, trying to see if there was any corruption merging them. It wasn’t the best job or the most glamorous. But it was one important job. The corruption, or darkness, or whatever people called it, was like a really annoying fungus. If left alone, it could spread far and wide. Destroying whatever it infected if left too long. It was part of the watcher’s job to ensure little pests like that.

He sighed as he scanned more, the fact that the Star Child was corrupted in John’s universe was an indication that it got infected somehow. It wasn’t hard to think how or why. The corruption seeped into John’s universe and offered itself to the Star Child to keep the cycle going. But there was one nagging question in his mind. The other how. While the corruption seeping in was the main explanation, there was a point that he couldn’t figure out. Normally, the corruption needed a source inside the universe in order to affect it fully.

This source could be anything from a person accepting a deal to someone inside. The corruption couldn’t just enter without something similar to it inside or being invited in. So, the question was who invited it in or what gave it an anchor and was it in other universes? It was something he needed to find out after ‘cleaning’ the books in his library. Other than the corruption, there always nasties trying to cause chaos. As he took a book out and began to clean it, the sound of a new arrival met his ears.

“Darkstar!” a deep female voice yelled. “Get your ass down here, you have some explaining to do,”

“Give us one tick,” he said as he cleaned the book, before walking down a set of stairs. “Ah Jari, I suppose that you want to talk about my little stunt?” he asked as he reach ground level.

His fellow watcher, Jari, wasn’t human. She was a Kalmann, a somewhat humanoid creature with dark skin, four eyes, claws and a tail. In a way, she could be mistaken for human, but it wasn’t easy.

“Yes,” she said, her voice adding a low growl. “What were you thinking? Trying to fix a universe like that? Are you mad? Do you know what could happen?”

“I’m aware and I didn’t have a choice,” Darkstar replied. “The universe was going to collapse in on itself with 5 others. If it let it take those universes, I’m not sure what else it would take,”

“You know the drill, you leave it and let it happen,” she said. “It’s standard procedure with universes beyond saving,” as she spoke, she shook her head. “I mean why did you break procedure?”

Darkstar just looked at her before jerking his head for her to follow him. He led her over to the side. A door waited for them and she frowned at the number of locks and wards on the door. Jari was about to say something, but Darkstar just moved to unlock the looking hole.

“Have a look,” he said.

Jari did so and froze, what she saw couldn’t be what she was seeing. It shouldn’t be possible. Inside was a large black and purple ball hovering in the middle of the room. Black and purple tendrils anchored themselves to the walls of the room while several books swirled inside the orb itself and outside. Blue light leaking from them and being absorbed by the orb. It seemed to grow with each node of blue light.

“What in the heaven’s names?” she muttered.

Darkstar closed the window and looked at her. “This is why I did what I did. It’s growing,”

She nodded at that. “I need to report this to the council,”

“Please do, I need to stay here, and keep and eye on it,” he replied.

The two nodded at each other before Jari vanished before him leaving him alone. He looked to the door before moving off to continue his cleaning. Right now, there was little he could do.

OOOOO

“Hey John can you help me out here?” Shion asked as she turned to him.

“Sure,” he said. “What do you need?”

In response, she held up the sonic speakers to him. “Can you fit these on to the bases?” she indicated to two ports on her shoulders. “It’s a bit tricky,”

“Sure,” he nodded as he took the speakers and looked to the ports bon both the speakers and shoulders. “Ok, how do they…” he muttered to himself trying to figure out how to install the sonic weapons.

As he looked, the others were preparing themselves. Yasuke was sharpening his sword, Ajax was checking his sniper rifle while Jane was eating a biotic bar with another ready. Ajax just looked at her as she scoffed down the bar before opening the next. His brow raised at her as she looked to him with a frown of her own.

“What?” she asked.

Ajax jerked his head to the bar. “Got more?”

Jane rolled her eyes and pulled out a bar before passing it to him. “Thanks,” he said as he tore open the packaging with his teeth and tucked into it.

“I’m not offering anymore,” the biotic declared.

“Wasn’t asking. Ok, I think….” John muttered as he fitted the sonic speakers onto Shion’s shoulders. “There we go,” he said as he locked the speakers on.

“Heads up,” she said before she spoke into the microphone in front of her mouth. Making beeps and bops with her mouth, adjusting the sound making the four wince. “Sorry,” she shyly said before making a couple more adjustments. “Ok, should be good,” she muttered as she pulled out sonic ear defenders and handed them to Yasuke and Ajax.

The two didn’t say anything as they fitted them in. “Get ready,” Ajax muttered.

“What’s the plan?” Jane asked.

John smiled. “Well, I was thinking if it was a bunch of asari, we throw you into them. Then as they ravish your body, we fix the atmo generator,” Jane shot him an evil look.

Ajax just smiled while Shion whistled and Yasuke looked away. Jane opened her mouth to respond but the lift stopped and the door opened. Moving quickly with weapons up, the five of them moved into the room. Eyes open for any threats. It was pretty clear that this place created the atmosphere in the entire sector. The place large and round with a central pilar in the middle. The walls around the room were flat hand had air fans every 5 meters from each other. Normally, they would be spinning to send fresh air into the habitat sectors. But turned off, those people would choke. The five looked around, eyes tarting for targets but nothing showed up.

“Anyone recognise the tech?” John asked.

Shion nodded. “Yeah mine,” she replied looking around. “But to be fair, only Ajax’s tech looks different,”

“Good point,” the infiltrator muttered. “But that pillar looks odd,”

“Very good observation,” a voice called out followed by a slow clap.

The five moved their weapons over to the newcomer with Ajax growling in annoyance. “Jaroth,” he muttered as they cyborg salarian walked in.

“Ajax, so good of you to come to me directly,” as he spoke, he looked to the other four. “Alone with your siblings. But I must say, your mother must had been quite the whore given their looks,”

Ajax said nothing as he grit his teeth and resisted the urge to tighten his finger on the trigger.

“But you’ll be joining her soon,” he said as he pressed something on a gauntlet.

Something on the central pillar began to move getting the 5 Shepard’s attention. They looked to it as something uncurled itself from the pillar and begin to take flight. Yasuke looked on in fear and backed up a step while Ajax, Shion and Jane just stared wide eyed at the machine. John, however, was salivating of the machine that began to float and move around to face them.

“I want, so bad,” he drooled looking at the mecha dragon that floated around the central pillar.

“Oh great,” Jane groaned with a roll of the eyes. “He’s in gearhead mode,”

“The fuck is that thing?” Ajax asked.

“It’s a guard dragon,” Yasuke said. “There should only be 12 in existence in my world. They protect the Imperial Palace in Kyoto. They protect the Emperor,”

“Well shit,” John muttered as he looked at the machine.

It was shaped like the snake like Asian dragons from myths. The segmented sections moved and rippled as it moved along while flying. The underside was a polished silver and rippled with some kind of anti-grav tech while the top was a clean red and yellow that ran across the 30-meter metal monster. A pair of realistic antlers sat on his head while it’s fox-like face snarled at them. Its teeth, on the other hand, were little more than razor sharp buzzsaws and drills. As it roared, it spit out a large gobbet of flame.

“And it breaths fire?” Shion asked, eyes wide. “We’re dead,”

Jaroth yelled out laughing. “There’s no way you are making it out this time Ajax!” he declared. “You’re dead! You’re all fucking dea….” He didn’t manage to finish that off as the metal dragon shredded him to pieces. Sending bits of Salarian everywhere.

Once that was done, it looked up at them and roared. “Move!” all five yelled as the mech charged at them.

OOOOO

Miranda and Jacob made it into the clinic with Ashley on their shoulders. Their entrance caused quite the stir, mostly due to the sight of the demon in their hands. The expressions on peoples faces where a mix of surprise, shock and fear. Tension filled the air as three looked around. But it didn’t last long as a couple of the Normandy mercs ran up to help Miranda and Jacob to help them guide Ahsley to an empty gurney. They helped her onto it before several medics came up to heal her.

“Well, this is a surprise,” Clover said as she walked up to the three. “I wasn’t expecting to see Ashely here,”

“Yeah,” Jacob said with a nod before explaining what happened.

It didn’t take long and Clover just blinked at them. “Really demons and magic?” she shook her head. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. Infinite possibilities out there,” looking up she then offered her hand. “I’m Miranda by the way, but to save on confusion… call me Clover,”

The two shook her hand. “Clover?” Miranda asked. “I suppose that makes sense,” she shrugged. “Call me Sakura then, since we’re going for a flower theme,”

“What about the other Jacobs?” Jacob asked.

Clover shrugged. “They seemed to be going for a Pirate theme as my Jacob is calling himself. Barbarossa,”

“Ok, call me Kenki then, he was a pirate,” Kenki said.

Clover nodded as she brought her omnitool and typed something in. “Ok, updated. Welcome to the madhouse,” she smiled with a shrug. The clinic shook as something hit it.

A soldier, came in. “We’re under attack!” he yelled.

Clover, said nothing as she ran out with a Garrus and a Jacob followed with a Miranda and Kadian joining soon after. After the last attack, the NSS mercs moved to reinforce the barricades with some scrap from the previous battle. As the seven crewmembers exited the clinic, Kadain took immediate command.

“What’s the situation?” he yelled before diving into cover, avoiding gunfire from a Korgan merc.

“Blood Pack and Eclipse attack!” one of the mercs yelled as more shots hit around them forcing them into cover. “Joint attack by Blood Pack Vorcha and Eclipse troopers,”

“First wave attack,” Clover yelled as she popped up out of cover and fired her pistol with incineration ammo selected.

The rounds hit several Vorcha turning them into little more than burning piles. Sakura and Miranda followed suit with suing the same ammo while Cyrus used his sniper skills to take out the ones near the back. Taking the time to target the flame troopers, causing their tanks to explode and kill others around them. The two Jacobs moved to support a group of NSS soldiers operating one of the turrets. Kadian looked over trying to plan tactics of defence while taking pot shots at the mercs.

But the group didn’t have it their own way. Three NSS troopers were killed before the group arrived, and another one fell due to the onslaught of fire. That only left 4 of the original 8 that were there trying to hold back the merc forces. A round also bounces off one of the metal walls hitting Jacob in the arm. He grunted but applied omni-gel before throwing a singularity, scattering some of the assault.

Some of the attackers recovered quickly and began a fighting retreat while the others were picked off. As the others moved out of range, the NSS began to take stock of their supplies and wounded. The dead didn’t matter at this point, other than retrieving their tags. Kadian jumped over the barricade and looked at the soldiers who were scattered, checking them for supplies. Most were dead while a few where on the way which Kadian helped along. But there was one thing he noticed. The uniforms, while having a similar colour, where different. There was the ‘standard’ uniform which matched Jane’s and John’s armour, there was also the cyborg armour wearing troopers and samurai like troopers.

It was pretty clear that this was some kind of mixed attack. He needed to plan and figure out what to do. Looking back, he yelled out his orders.

OOOOO

“Sshi Bal!” Shion yelled as she and John jumped one way out of the way, while the other three jumped the other. Once clear, she looked to John. “Still want this thing?” she asked.

He looked at her as if she was crazy. “Yes,” he said as the dragon crashed behind them. “Whoa,” he yelled out as the two of them ran.

“I’m looking at the thing on my HUD,” Ajax called out on the radio, his ‘shades’ deployed. “I’m not seeing anything. It must have some kind of scanner suppression systems,”

“More likely multiple,” Yasuke added over the radio. “They were meant as the ultimate defence against any attack on Kyoto,”

John thought about that for a moment. “It probably has some kind of active dampening systems as well,” he muttered. “Likely multiple as a redundancy measure,”

“Explains why I cannot scan the damn… Jane what are you?” Ajax yelled as the biotic ran as fast as she could on one of the walls.

When she got close, she jumped onto the dragon’s back and held onto one of the panels as it pulled itself out of its crash and moved around the room again. She charged up her biotics and pushed her hand into a hole before sending out a singularity in the hope it would do something. It did as it then began to move violently shaking her off. Using a warp ball, Jane landed somewhat safely, but not without a few bruises.

“That do anything?” she called out.

The dragon moved to look at her, it’s blazing read eyes regarding her with hate. It roared and charged at her which she moved out of the way. It was slow, which was something. But the thick armour and suppression systems inside it were a big problem. It slammed into a fan before pulling itself away.

“Got nothing,” Ajax called out. “But that section seems to have done something at least,”

John and Shion then moved up with the latter stopping and screamed into her microphone. The sonic waves it the machine making it stop and shake its head in a very animalistic way. She blinked at that but continued the scream for as long as her lungs allowed. It was enough to let John get in and get its attention it looked to him and roared. Doing so allowed the engineer to throw a grenade into its mouth before running. The explosive landed on one of the saws and detonated.

The explosion did little structural damage, but took out it’s flamethrower and buzzsaw teeth. John smiled, but that smile quickly vanished as the machine looked at him. The smoke coming from its mouth not doing his nerves any favours.

“Oh shit,” he muttered as he turned and ran.

Seeing his chance, Yasuke ran and jumped onto the machine’s side and climbed up the scales. He reached the top before the dragon began to chase John. As Yasuke moved along the spine of the dragon, he recalled a possible weakness of the machine.

“I’m going to try something,” he yelled into the radio. “Keep it occupied,”

He didn’t a reply as the dragon turned violently to face Ajax who shot at it. It charged at him, but stopped as he vanished into thin air. Looking over to the others, he got a thumbs up giving the samurai the all clear. He nodded and moved up to a segment not to far from the head. Drawing his sword, and holding on tightly, he readied himself for the strike. If the rumour was true, there was a power cable to the main gravity lifters just behind the dead. If he cut that, he could stop the thing from moving and they’ll be able to take it out.

Aiming he thrust his sword into the gap and moved it left and right cutting as many cables as he could. The machine roared and flipped back breaking the samurai’s sword and sending him backwards and onto the floor below. Landing with a thud and a groan, he looked up to see that the gravity didn’t cut out as he hoped, but instead it was colliding with the roof and walls. As if it was trying to dislodge something or was getting pissed off by a fly.

“Its sensors are down!” John yelled. “It can’t see!”

It landed and began to thrash around like a wounded animal. “I see it’s power pack!” Ajax then yelled. “It’s in the middle,”

There was no other word as the five of them grabbed their grenades and threw it at the machine before it could move again. They threw all of them with Jane holding them in place with a warp ball. All of them detonated cracking the dragon’s plating and opening part of it up showing its core.

“Oh shit,” John yelled as he ran to it and pulled off some more pieces as just the head thrashed about. “It’s a small starship core!” he yelled as he looked for some kind of controls.

“Oh,” Jane’s eyes widened. “A good deathtrap,” she muttered as she and the others ran over to help.

“What do you need?” Ajax asked as John looked around the orb.

“One sec,” the engineer said as he opened up his omni-tool and scanned the machine. “Ok, Jane get those two cables, Ajax those,” he pointed to a set of two cables on each side of the core. The two grabbed them without much prompting while John grabbed onto two other cables. “On three pull, three!” he yelled.

At once, all three of them pulled, disconnecting the power from the dragon shutting it down. it stopped moving almost immediately making the five of them sigh in relief before John started to laugh followed by the others.

“Fucking hell, that was intense!” Shion yelled as she fell on her ass. “I need a drink,”

“You and me both kid,” Ajax smiled earning an odd look from the idol before looking at the pillar. “Oh shit, John the atmo,”

“Oh shit,” the engineer yelled as he ran up to the central pillar and began to type and sighed. “Sytem’s not too damaged,” he said. “But I have to run a few bypasses. Shouldn’t take too long,”

The four Shepards nodded as they took stock about taking down a mecha dragon.

OOOOO

“INCOMING!” Cyrus yelled as a rocket whizzed passed the defences heads and slammed into the clinic walls.

“Take that fucker down!” Kadian yelled as he fired his assault rifle, targeting the soldiers advancing on them.

Most of them being Vorcha, Asari and humans while the Korgan and Salarians hug back, advancing from debris to debris, doing their best to stay in cover and out of range of the NSS guns. In response to this, they began to deploy the heavy troopers such as Korgan and mechs. But they were being funnelled into a kill zone, without being able to move. An asari merc, feeling brave or stupid, moved out of over and charged at the barrier in an attempt to take it down.

She only got halfway before Miranda used pull to bring the asari over and have Sakura chop her head off in a clean cut. The ninja then threw the head like a projectile at a random trooper who screamed at the sight. The scream didn’t last long as the trooper’s head exploded from a shot from one of the Jacobs. It didn’t stop the assault though as most of them still moved while a few hesitated.

“What are you doing you wimps?!” one of the Korgan said. “Kill them,” he yelled pulling a trooper out of cover and pushing them down the street.

“It’s Garm, or one of them at least,” Cyrus yelled.

“Can you get a shot?” Kadian asked.

After a moment, Cyrus shook his head. “Negative. The shot will bounce off of the shields,”

“Target Garm them!” Kadian yelled. “Take his shields down!”

No one said anything but focused fire on Garm who moved into cover to avoid the onslaught. While Krogan were war hungry, they were still tactically minded. They knew when to get back into cover.

“Can anyone flush him out?” Jacob asked.

“Negative, don’t have a shot,” Clover yelled which was followed by similar calls.

Kadian cursed in annoyance as he tried to think of a way of taking out one of the merc commanders. But nothing came to mind. They were stuck and running low on ammunition. They needed something to break the back of the attacking mercs, but nothing came to mind. He had lost contact with the other NSS forces, most troops he had were medical cases, they couldn’t move up as they would leave the clinic undefended, they couldn’t sustain the defence with Krogan and mechs on the move. He needed to think of something, but what?

What could they do? Pinned from all sides, a leader on the field and seemingly no end to the merc forces. What could they do? The sound of jet turbines echoed in his ears. He cursed as he looked up trying to spot the gunships. Maybe the mercs had airborne support? If so, they were done and there was no way that they could survive.

“Aerial contact!” Clover yelled out. “Friendly!”

That was music to Kadians ears. He looked up and smiled to see a Kodiak fly in with a gunner firing at the merc forces. They finally got an upper hand.

Chapter 9

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

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

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

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

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

“Hey,” she called out. “Where are we?”

“Earth,” Yasuke muttered looking around. “But I’m not sure…” he began before Shion spoke up.

“London,” she pointed to a large clock tower in the distance. “That’s Big Ben,”

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

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

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

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

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

“John wait,” Jane yelled but he kept running and running.

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

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

“It’s not moving,” Yasuke noted.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Darkstar?” Ajax asked.

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

“Nothing,” Darkstar gagged. “I swear. This isn’t my doing. I’m just as confused as you,”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“John what’s going….” She began before someone interrupted.

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

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

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

“John, what in the Goddess’s name is going on?” she practically yelled looking at him.

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

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

Jane only grunted in agreement.

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

“Hey,” she snapped, giving him an evil look.

“For lack of a better word, we’re all Shepard,” Liara’s jaw dropped open.

OOOOO

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Kuso, didn’t see that coming,” he muttered as he pulled off.

“You ok there Jester?” Harlequin asked.

“Git clipped,” he replied. “Lost one of my engines,”

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

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

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

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

“Just like the Normandy’s and John,” Joker muttered. “How many ships are we talking about?”

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

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

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

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

It seemed that the tide was turning.

OOOOO

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

He chuckled. “Maybe in your eyes,”

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

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

“So what’s the…” Kadian began when a guitar riff cut him off.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“It’s a trap,” Jane muttered.

“I’ve noticed,” Ajax replied in a deadpan tone.

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

“Any ideas?” Yasuke asked.

“None,” John replied but noticed Shion adjust her amps.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Annoying little human,” the cyborg said looking to Shion.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

OOOOO

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Ah,” was all the cyborg said.

“Why can’t you talk about the future?” Yasuke asked. “Giving us the information could help us,”

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

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

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

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

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

He didn’t get a good look from John. “Why?” the engineer asked.

“You’ll find someone you’ll need,” he said before vanishing.

“Cryptic,” Ajax muttered.

“Ok, Jack next,” Jane said before sighing. “Who’s up for a drink?”

No one object to that.

Chapter 10

The room was dark only lit by a single light over the worktable where John was at. He didn’t know how long he was there for, but he didn’t care. His focus was on the arm he was making for the demonic version of Ashley. Ajax was more than happy to give him blueprints for several arm designs. Eager for something to do, he took them and practically locked himself in the workshop of Ajax’s Normandy and got to work. The only people who came in were his siblings and Liara, either to drop off food or check how he was doing.

Outside of single word replies, he didn’t talk much being so engrossed in the project as he was. He needed the focus; he needed the work to get his mind away from any dangerous possibilities for the future. As he looked to a screen to check something, the door opened. A familiar click-click of heeled shoes met his ears. Given how may times he had heard it, it was hard not to know who it was.

“Hi Liara,” he said as he turned back to the robotic limb. “Come to check on me?”

“You know me so well,” she smiled before dropping it. “I know you, John. You only lock yourself in a place like this when something’s bothering you. You will not admit it but… what’s the human saying?” she tapped her chin. “Actions speak louder than words,”

Seeing that he couldn’t get out of this, he said as he set his tools to one side and turned to face the blue skinned beauty. “You know me so well, Shadow Broker,”

She smirked at that. “Not yet, but I have been skimming the network to get info,” she shrugged. “But… you aren’t getting off that easily,” her eyes narrowed. “You can’t hide forever; you need to focus. We can’t have a Shepard vanish from this. I know you are still hurting, but I came back…”

“Don’t,” John said looking up at her, resisting the urge to let his tears fall. “Please, don’t give me false hope,” he looked down before looking back at her. “I… I know you are back; I know it’s possible that she can come back… but… but there’s always the possibility she cannot come back. I don’t want to have hope and have it taken from me again,”

Liara pulled up a chair, sat opposite John and clasped his hands in hers. She opened her mouth, looked down before tying again.

“I know how you feel,” she gave him a small smile. “I feel that pain, but dismissing it and closing it off will only hurt more,” she paused, looking down then back up at him. “You know how I feel about you, that I will always be there for you,” she reached out to touch his cheek.

“I know,” John nodded.

“Then listen to me, don’t bottle up your feelings, don’t close yourself away. I am always here to talk,” she smiled.

John smiled as well and nodded. “In that case, I think I should tell you what Darkstar and I agreed to,”

Liara frowned but nodded as he explained.

OOOOO

“Move, over there!” Jack yelled as she directed her students towards a side room while Jacob, Shepard and his squad held off a group of Cerberus squads.

The human centrist organisation had come in force to acquire any and all students from Grissom Academy for their war effort. Jack wasn’t going to let that happen, not to her students. She had picked up a few stragglers from other classes, which she didn’t mind, but what she did mind was the lip that some of the teens gave her.

“We can fight!” Rodriguez yelled.

“No, you can’t!” Jack shot as she threw biotic blasts at several of the incoming troopers. “Stay back!”

The brown-haired girl just grunted in annoyance and fell back with her other students. “Shepard, keep them from us!”

“I got you covered, move!” the engineer yelled as he threw up a turret for extra cover. “Jacob support!”

“On it,” the former Cerberus agent responded, as he threw out a singularity before moving to follow Jack.

Jack made it into the cafeteria before the door to the corridor behind her closed, trapping Jacob behind in the corridor. She turned to see Jacob slamming on the door as group of Cerberus troopers entered the corridor behind him. He didn’t have enough time to react as he was gunned down. Jack backed up, looking at the troopers with hate and tear-filled eyes. They moved to breach the door before something hit the roof of the corridor sucking them out into space along with Jacob’s body.

Tears still fell down her cheeks as she looked up at the hole to space. “Damn it, Jacob,” she muttered before turning to her students while wiping her eyes. “Follow me,” she said as she led them over to one of the doors.

As she approached, it didn’t open. One of her students, Smith, reached over to the hologram and waved his hand to try and open it. After a moment of waiting, he tried again before Jack tried herself with the same result of nothing happening. In annoyance she kicked it.

“Check the other doors,” she ordered to her students while she tapped her comms. “EDI do you read?”

“I am receiving Jack,” the AI responded in her monotone voice.

“Me and my students are stuck in cafeteria…” she glanced at the wall. “Alpha 7. One room from Shepard. Main door won’t open, can you check for a way out?”

“I am looking,” EDI responded as Jack sighed.

“Also…. tell Shepard…. tell him that Jacob is dead,” a knot formed in her throat as she said that, not believing the words she was saying.

The AI was silent for a moment before she responded. “Understood, I’m sorry Jack,” Jack nodded as she backed up to lean on the door.

“Teach,” a student, Yun, yelled as he came running up. “There’s not way out. The doors are locked,”

Jack frowned as she straightened up and opened her mouth when a new voice came in. “Jack, it’s Shepard, do you read?”

She quickly tapped her comm. “I read you loud and clear boy scout, what’s going on? Me and my students are stuck,”

A pause filled the line making Jack’s heart beat rapidly. “J…. Jack I’m sorry… b…but there’s no way out for you,” his annoyance was clear in his tone. “I can’t get to you and there’s no way for the Normandy to get to you,”

Her blood began to run cold at that as she looked at the fearful look of her students. They were going to die, and she could do nothing to stop it. Neither could Shepard. The station shook from a kinetic impact shaking some of the students off of their feet. Jack fell on her back, dislodging the comm from her ear. She grunted on impact with the floor before quickly getting up and stabilising herself. Picking up the comm bead, she pressed it.

“Shepard? Shepard do you hear me?” she practically yelled but all she got was static. “DAMN IT JOHN DO YOU HEAR ME?” she yelled but still got nothing.

“Communications are out,” one of her students said as he checked his omni-tool. “They must have hit a comm antenna,”

“Where’re cut off,” Rodriguez muttered. “We’re going to…”

Jack stormed up to her and grabbed her by the shoulders. “Don’t think like that, do so and it’s over,” she sighed and let go. “When I went to the collector base with Shepard, we… well some of us knew we wouldn’t be coming back. Some of us didn’t, but we never let the knowledge of us possibly dying get us down,” she looked at the others. “Understand, the moment you give up, is the moment you die,”

The room fell silent as the students seemed to look though her. Jack sighed as she felt that she came off too strong with her words. These were kids, teenagers, people who were training to be soldiers. But they needed experience, they needed to know how to deal with situations like this.

Sighing again she looked to them. “I know it’s….”

“Teach…what’s that?” Pasley asked pointing to the door they tried to use.

Jack turned to look and frowned. “What the hell?” she muttered as the door began to flicker into different shapes and colours.

“It’s like a visual glitch from a game,” one of the students muttered as sections of the door flickered.

It lasted for another moment before it seemed to stabilise and formed a door that looked somewhat familiar to Jack. Looking to her students then back at the door, she walked towards it and it opened up much to her surprise. Looking inside her eyes went wide as recognised the place and backed up.

“Teach.. wha…” a bang silenced the student as all of them looked to see a rocket hit the far end of the station.

“Ahhh fuck, EVERYONE IN! NOW!” Jack yelled.

The students didn’t hesitate as they moved with only Rodriguez lagging behind. Moving as quickly as she could, Jack’s body glowed blue as she used her biotics to pull the girl over to her before the explosions reached them. She caught the student and the two tumbled back into a server room with a grunt as the door closed. After getting their breaths, Jack helped Rodriguez before looking at the rest of the students doing a mental count.

“10, good we’re all here,” she muttered as she leaned back, cracking her back.

“Where are we?” one of the students asked.

“Purgatory,” Jack answered without hesitation, which earned her a few fearful looks. “Not the dead place, the space station. It’s the prison station where I was in cryo,” they blinked in surprise.

They had heard about her escape and joining Shepard, but one question remained how did they get here? Looking around, Jack noticed a terminal at the far end of the room.

“Oda, you’re good with computers, right?” she asked looking to the tech student.

He nodded. “Yeah, I’m taking it up as a minor,”

Jack nodded. “Hack into that terminal, see if we can find the date,” that made him blink but nodded as he moved up and began to type.

“What’s going on each?” Pasley asked.

“I don’t know, all I know is that we travelled several hundred light years and a year in the past,” as she said that, the students got wide eyes which she shrugged at. “If you remember my story, then you’d remember that Purgatory was destroyed when I escaped with Shepard. This place shouldn’t exist,”

“Then how do you know it’s the same place? Or that we travelled though time?” a taller student, Tavis, asked.

Jack indicated to the emblem on the door, it was a round circle with lines going down to represent old jail cells. “That is the emblem of the prison. And the only time it was used was when Purgatory was operating. Removing all other explanations, whatever’s left must be the truth. We travelled back in time,”

The student blinked in confusion. “I have never heard that before,” he shook his head.

“When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth,” Lilly, another tech student, spoke up. “It’s from Sherlock Homes,”

Jack nodded. “When I was on the Normandy, I did a lot of reading. Sherlock became one of my favourite novels to read. Being angry all the time….” she sighed as she remembered a chat she had with Miranda after their argument. “… doesn’t do anyone any good,” a tear fell from her eye which she brushed away quickly. “You don’t have to forgive and forget, but you do have to move away from the anger before it destroys you,”

Her students just looked at her with surprise at that. They had known the hard-ass Jack during their lectures and training sessions. While she was rough around the edges in terms of teaching, they thought she was doing a good job in training them. But she always presented a hardened exterior to them, not letting her emotions get the better of her. Now she had let some of that shell crack for all of them to see. Before anyone could Oda called out.

Jack turned and walked over to him. “What do you have?” she asked.

“You were right, we are in the past,” he said. “I’m not sure how, but we are in the past,”

Jack nodded. “Got a specific date?”

“Errr yeah…” Oda typed and brought up the date. “March 14^th, 2183,” his eyes widened at that date. “One day before it’s destruction,” he muttered.

Jack nodded at that as she looked to the students. “Ok kids get comfortable, we’re going to be here for a while,”

OOOOO

Ajax waited in his Normandy’s war room for the other to enter. It didn’t take long, but he was surprised to see John walking in.

“Ahh the gearhead returns,” he bowed earing himself a middle finger.

“Fuck you,” John smiled as he found a seat close to the holotable.

The cyborg smiled while the rest of the Normandy crew found their seats. Sitting next to their variants for whatever reason, but Ajax did notice a concerned look from Yasuke to John. But the Samurai turned back to the holotable, eyes focused. Once everyone was in, the door locked and Ajax began the briefing.

“This is Purgatory,” he said as a holographic image of the prison station appeared. “A prison station for some of the worst criminals in the galaxy. It is run by this man…” an image of a turrian in Blue Suns armour. “Warden Kuril, former enforcement officer on Palavan. He left and joined up with the Blue Suns to create Purgatory as no government approved of his idea due to cost,”

The images then changed to an image of a file. “Our objective, is to secure Subject Zero more commonly known as ‘Jack’. There is very little information about Jack that Cerberus sent us. But it should be a simple in and out,”

John snorted earning himself a slap on the back of the head from Liara. “Ow…Sorry he muttered,” giving a death glare at Liara.

“I take it that things go badly?” Yasuke asked.

With an annoyed sigh, John nodded. “Yeah… it doesn’t go well. But that’s not new and give the situation we are all in, we can probably expect more than one Jack,”

“And another Shepard,” Jane muttered.

“Agreed,” Ajax nodded. “But since you have experience John, what would you recommend as our approach?”

John rubbed his chin. “Light and fast. We are going to face a lot of problems, but not get overwhelmed. Miranda should also come with us,” that got him an odd look from the raven-haired woman. “And I should come to,”

Ajax nodded. “For that ‘special ability’ of yours?” the engineer answered with a shrug.

They cyborg sighed and nodded as discussion turned to tactics and who would come along. In the end it was agreed that Ajax would lead and take John, Miranda and Mordin with him. Jane, Sakura, Cyrus and Barbossa would act as guards for the Normandy.

Chapter 11

“We are on approach,” Joker announced over the comm as the team got ready.

Ajax, Miranda and Mordin were prepping themselves for whatever Purgatory had coming at them. As they were doing so, Jane, Sakura, Cyrus and Barbossa were readying for a counter attack. As they made their final preparations, John walked with an annoyed look. Before could ask he spoke up.

“Ajax, we need to change you out with Jane,” the engineer said quickly causing the cyborg and adept blinked in confusion. “This is Jane’s universe and it’s going to look weird if she doesn’t go,”

“Ah,” Ajax muttered. “Th…that’s a good point,”

Jane nodded as well. “Should have thought of that,” she agreed. “I suppose we are getting ahead of ourselves,”

“I still fail to see why you need me,” Marinda said as she adjusted her bodysuit’s webbing. “This is going to be close quarters, so you need heavy hitters. Not biotics like me,”

“That’s what makes you perfect for the role,” John said as he grabbed his pistol and pulled the slide a couple of times. “We can keep back while you use AOE attacks to take out groups. And it’s not like you don’t have any single enemy attacks,”

She shook her head as Jane smiled, adjusting her own armour. “We have docking permission and are on approach. Bording party to airlock,” EDI spoke up and the group made their way to it.

“Keep an eye out,” John muttered to Ajax who nodded.

The Normandy docked with the prison station the airlock cycle took a bit of time to finish off before the door opened allowing the main group to enter the station. They followed the corridor to the main entrance. Where several Blue suns troopers stood. Just like others they had faced, they were mostly made up of turrians, humans and batarians. As the group approached, the guards shifted a bit. It could have been nothing but the group shared glances with each other as they continued forward.

As they approached one of the turrian guards stepped forward. “Welcome to Purgatory Commander. Your package is being prepped and you can claim it shortly. As per regulation we must ask you to hand over your weapons,” the Sargent said.

“That’s not going to happen,” Jane said bluntly making the Blue suns click their safeties off.

The crew of the Normand did the same, but didn’t make any other moves.

“Everyone stands down,” a turrian ordered as he walked up. “Commander I'm Warden Kuril. As procedure I'm afraid that I have to ask you for your weapons. They'll be returned to you on the way out,”

Jane nodded, but gave him a look telling him that she wasn’t budging. “It's my procedure to keep my gun,” she replied as she flexed her shoulders and cracking her fingers.

Kuril did his beast to stare her down, but Jane wasn’t going to back down. Not like this, never like this. After a moment, the warden flinched.

“Let them proceed, our facility is more than capable to handle three armed guests,” as he said that the Sargent moved out of the commander's way. “We're getting Jack out of cryo now, as soon as the funds clear you can be on your way. If you'll please follow me to out possessing for the pickup commander,”

“Let's go.” Jane said as she and the other three came up to the Warden and followed him through the door.

“Good job, asari-lover,” John shot to which Jane shot him a smug smile.

Miranda rolled her eyes, while Mordin took the station in as the warden began to speak. “Cell block 2, as you can see, we keep tight control over the population,” Kuril explained as an arm moved to move one of the cells to another location.

As they walked something about this place didn’t seem right with Jane. The stink of fear was everywhere. Looking over to Miranda, she could see the Cerberus agent had a similar look. While she hid it well, she could tell that there was something off about this place.

“Each prisoner's cell is a self-contained modular unit, I've blown a few out the airlocks as an example. The ship is made up of thirty cell blocks identical to this one. We house thousands of criminals.” the Warden boasted as they continued walking before turning around and stopping. “We can put the whole place on lockdown on a moment's notice. Nothing goes wrong here,” he said facing the commander.

That just made her twitch, but she stood firm. His bare face told her all she needed know about his trustworthiness remembering what Garrus told her about ‘bare faces’. Normally, turrians would have some form of facepaint to show loyalty to the Hierarchy or the group that they were with. Those that didn’t, at least according to turrian culture, were not to be trusted. Despite a group trying to change that.

Putting that out of her mind, she focused on what she was here for. “What can you tell me about Jack?” she asked.

“Cerberus hasn't told you?” the Warden asked in confusion only to have Jane shook her head and shoot a look to Miranda who shrugged as well. “Jack is the meanest handful of Violence and hate I ever encountered. Jack is crazy but very powerful. We separated her from the other and put Jack in cryo,”

“She’s that bad?” Miranda asked, looking at John who didn’t move.

The Warden nodded. “Her biotics are some of the most powerful that I have ever seen. I’ve seen her rip apart one of my mechs like it was nothing,” he shook his head. “Dangerous, powerful, crazy, a bad combination,”

“Fascinating,” Mordin muttered as they continued.

“You must have had some escape attempts,” John commented, trying to ignore the sense of wrongness he felt the last time he was here.

“There’s no need,” Kuril answered with a hint of arrogance in his voice. “We’re in space, they have nowhere to go, and they know it. But these are dangerous scum, so we exercise caution. But we do have many ways into dealing and controlling the population,” soon he stopped and pointed down the corridor. “Out-processing is down that way. I’ll go to check that the funds from Cerberus have been cleared,”

With that he walked off. As soon as he was out of earshot, Miranda spoke up. 

“He’s hiding something,” she muttered, her hand resting on the pistol. “So are you,” she accused John.

“I have no idea what you mean,” he said innocently.

“Knock it off you two,” Jane said as she walked forward.

Aside from one member of staff Out-processing was practically empty. As the three moved further in, the staff made his way out of the room. John reached down to her pistol and clicked the safety off. The other three noticed what he did and did the same as they walked over to the far end where Jack was meant to wait for them. As they got to the door, John spoke up just as Jane was about to open it.

“Miranda, stand there,” John pointed as Jane stopped reaching for the door controls. “Mordin there,”

Despite the looks, the two did as he asked. Jane looked to him with a small nod, which he mirrored. She reached out and hit the controls. The door opened to show an empty cell.

“Sorry Shepard but your more valuable to me as a prisoner than a costumer. Drop your weapons and proceed I to this open cell and you will not be harmed,” he said as the team drew their weapons.

By way of an answer Jane turned and shot the camera before she and her team moved into cover.

“ACTIVAE SYSTEMS!” the Warden yelled.

As Security entered Jane and the others opened fire on the Blue sun's and mechs. Two mechs fell as the rest of security moved into cover. John moved closer, using his pistol’s bursts to force the security team to keep down. One of them decided to try his luck, but the rounds bounced off John’s shields opening him up to have his head popped open my Mordin’s aim. Once as the engineer got into cover, the two biotics threw singularities at the security team. The blast forced them out of cover, making them easy targets for the team to take out.

As soon the last one fell, and the group exited the office.

OOOOO

As soon as they got the signal, Ajax and the defence team moved out and took out a group of Blue Suns trying to advance on the ship. After taking out the mercs, the three then set up a mobile barricade and took up defensive positions. As they did so the air began to shudder followed by the flickering that they all recognised. Like a wave, it started from one end before surging forward over them and across the station.

Once it passed them, the defence team Ajax hit his comms. “Assault team, head up, we’ve got flickering,” he said before the station shook.

“What the hell was that?” Jane asked over the radio. “John you were here before,”

“The explosion began after I got Jack out,” the engineer shot back as the station shook again.

Flashes outside the station caught Ajax’s eye. Moving up to the window and looking outside, he could see several ships outside. From this distance he couldn’t make them out too well, but the skull and crossbones on them were hard to ignore.

“Shit, pirates,” he muttered before hitting his radio and alerting the others.

OOOOO

Jack looked around as the station shook. While she wasn’t too familiar with the different shakes that a ship or station did due to internal or external damage, she did know what this meant. She stood and moved over to the door, opening it ajar and looking out. Prisoners and guards were moving around in a disorganised fashion. Guards either trying to capture or kill prisoners while the latter were fighting back, poorly. Something felt off, but she didn’t have time to worry about that right now.

“Ok, move!” she yelled as she charged out the door and slammed into the nearest guard.

She slammed him into the floor and broke his neck with a quick kick to the area. She grabbed his gun and began to cover her students as they moved into more hard cover. Once the last student was in cover, she moved to join them taking the time to take in her surroundings.

“Section 4,” she muttered. “We need to get to section 2,” After getting into cover, she looked to her students. “Ok, listen up kids. We need to get to section 2. That’s where I am, don’t ask just move. Grab a weapon and watch each other’s back,”

She got confused looks and nods. With a nod of her own, she moved out with her students.

OOOOO

As they then down the corridor, Ajax’s alert came out making them stop. Jane looked to John who shrugged with a shake of the head.

“Things didn’t blow up until I got Jack out,” he explained. “As for the pirates….. not a clue,”

Jane sighed and nodded as Miranda opened the door and the staff member, they saw earlier fired his gun at them. Miranda unloaded a burst round into him killing him. The four then approached the console. They looked through a window overlooking a cryo pod with four heavy mechs in their way.

“That’s a lot of mechs,” Jane muttered.

“More mechs than when I was here,” John added.

Mordin looked down before looking at the terminal. Moving over to it he began to type, looking to see what the problem is.

“Shepard, pirate attack fused the system. Don’t have time to bypass. If activated, it will open all cells on this block,” he explained.

That made the Cerberus agent growl in annoyance. “But we need Jack.” Miranda counted.

Jane looked to John who nodded. “Brace yourselves,” he said before she looked to Mordin and nodded.

As soon as he hit the button an alarm sounded as an arm moved over to the cryo pod. The heavy mechs activated as the arm then unlocked the seal on the pod. the mechs readied themselves. The hiss of steam sounded as the mechs were fully turned to face the pod while the arm brought the pod up allowing everyone to see Jack.

Inside was an almost topless woman. She had the orange trousers of the other prisoners, but straps across her torso for a reason that. Tattos covered her, but what got the groups attention was her tiger tail, fur covered forearms and a of tiger ears which sat on her otherwise blad head.

“That's Jack?” Miranda asked eye wide in surprise.

“What the hell?” John muttered as he leaned closer

It was at that moment Jacks eyes opened and broke one of her cuffs off then the other before pulling her neck cuff off. Finally free she fell to her knees before looking up to see four mechs approach her. Her eyes glowed first, then her fur changed from orange to blue as she stood before letting out an ear-piercing roar and charged. The biotic blast she used shook the entire room making the team fall to the floor.

“We have to get down there,” Jane yelled with no one disagreeing.

Chapter 12

Jack ran though one of the cell blocks. Both guards and prisoners where fighting, but she didn’t care about that. She needed to get out of here and fast. A group of prisoners turned to her, looted weapons in their hands, and began to fire. Moving out of the way with speed, she pounced at them clawing at the first while aiming for the second’s neck. While the first screamed in pain, she ripped the other’s head off with ease before picking up the weapon from the fallen prisoner before unloading a bust into the other.

With both dead she moved, hopping over the makeshift barricade and pushed herself forward. Sending a warp ball towards a group of guards as she moved passed. They were a minor inconvenience at best. Focusing on her objective, she pushed forward, making her way to an office section. She looked around to see if there were any threats, there weren’t, but there was a small.

She noticed the attack, but couldn’t jump out of the way as she was slammed into a wall. Air was forced out of her lungs. As she was let go, she fell to the floor coughing. Looking up her eyes widened at the figure standing before her. Other than the hair and clothing, she looked just like her. Smelled the same as well which made no sense. The doppelgänger squatted down to get to just about the same eye level as her.

“I’m Subject Zero, Jack,” she said calmly.

Jack hissed. “You can’t be, I’m subject Zero, I’m Jack!” she declared.

“We’re both,” the woman claiming to be Jack said as she offered her hand.

Hesitantly Jack took it as was helped up. “How can we be both?”

“I don’t know,” the other Jack said. “I don’t know what’s going on, this prison is not as I remember,” she shook her head as she faced the tiger girl. “But you need to trust me, you need to listen,” she placed her hands on her.

Jack was about to counter but felt a strange sense of understanding,

OOOOO

After smashing though the window to get to where the cryo pod was, Jane landed and looked around to see the devastation which Jack unleashed. Impressed was a mild way to put it as she looked at the wreckage of the 4 Ymir smoking mechs with wide eyes. John, Miranda and Garrus quickly joined her. The Cerberus Agent and C-sec officer looked around with eyes wide.

“Ok, I’m impressed,” Miranda admitted.

“Trust me, this is nothing,” John muttered. “Follow me and keep your eyes up,”

Jane was about to say something, but kept silent as the four followed the engineer as he though the blasted walls which Jack went though. It was hard not to notice the blasted holes though the walls. The lights turned red as the Warden came on, ordering the guards to retake control but not kill Jack. That was something John frowned on. He didn’t think about it at the time, but now he was more focused it only just occurred to him about why the Warden wanted to keep Jack alive.

At first the Collectors came to mind, but he and the other Shepards would be their target. Selling seemed like a good guess, but something told him that it wasn’t the only reason. Shaking his head, he focused back on the path in front of him. They exited the passageway onto one of the cell blocks, they took over as several guards and prisoners took pot shots at them. Diving into cover, the team watched to see what the situation looked like.

The prisoners and guards where in one hell of a firefight with one another. The Guards had brought out mechs for extra fire support while the prisoners used makeshift weapons to take the guards on. It wasn’t even fight as the guards had both the training and equipment to take the prisoners on. While the prisoners had numbers, that meant little to the guards. Mechs were not easy to take down on a good day. With makeshift weapons? That wasn’t going to touch them.

John readied his shuriken pistol but was stopped by Miranda who seemed to focus on the mechs. “Those aren’t normal mechs,” she muttered.

John and Jane took another look and saw why. The standard LOKI mech was humanoid and carried weapons like anyone else. But these ones had weapons installed into their arms instead. The white that they normally had was also replaced with blue and black to match the guards. Pulling back, John just shrugged.

“More evidence for us being in another universe,” he mutated.

Jane nodded but looked passed him to Miranda. “7-10 split?” to which the woman nodded as both glowed blue as biotic power surged through their bodies.

“7-10?” Garrus began to ask before the air around them snapped as the two-biotics pushed forward into the two groups.

“Tell ya later,” John replied as he grabbed his pistol and pushed himself towards the end of the bridge. Firing his pistol in bursts to try and distract the guards and prisoners from Miranda and Jane, who began to decimate the two groups.

Garrus shook his head muttering about not being able to understand human idioms. “Who do they have so many?” he asked no one as he fired a shot at one of the guards, taking her head off.

Jane and Miranda Fell back as John joined them with Garrus giving them covering fire. The three got into cover and began to pick off the prisoners and guards. While the prisoners where easy to take down, the guards weren’t. They were Blue Sun mercenaries, trained and professional soldiers if a little too psychopathic. They quickly moved into cover and began to counter the squad’s fire. Jane, being a little cocky, popped out one too many times causing her shields to pop.

Garrus, on the other hand, had a clear shot at them and did his best to pick them off one by one. But they moved, repositioning to give him harder targets to pick off. But that gave the others the opportunity to take them out. But that didn’t stop the squad from taking some hits from the mechs and guards. The three moved out of cover and zig zagged from pieces of cover, taking out the guards and mechs.

After a generous application of medi-gel and Garrus rejoining them, the group moved through a corridor. As they got halfway through, the station shook due to an impact. With a frown, the group looked to each other in confusion before the station shook again and again. John looked around; brow furrowed in more confusion than the others.

“That was…” he began before another, bigger, impact hit the station causing the squad to lose balance and fall.

“Pirate attack, Pirate attack,” an electronic voiced announced. “All guards, repel borders,”

“Well, that should give us some cover,” Garrus muttered.

The other three couldn’t disagree as they recovered and headed to the end of the corridor before climbing several flights of stairs. It led to an overlook which looked over a large space with four sections. A canteen, a factory, exercise section and a sport section. It would seem that the Warden needed to follow standard prisoner rights charters as well. As the team moved along, the walkway, several shots peppered them forcing them to take cover behind an armoured section of railing.

Peeking out of cover, Garrus spied several orange uniformed prisoners who seemed to be more organised than the others. They were human with their heads shaved and a symbol tattooed on their heads. He had seen a few times on the Citadel. He wanted to ask people about it, but it was largely done by human officers. All of whom seemed to distain the emblem.

“I hate to ask,” Garrus said as he pulled back into cover. “But that emblem, I’ve seen it a few times but never got word about what it means,”

Frowning, John and Jane looked over. Their expressions turned from confused to a kind of happy and angry at the same time. “Ah those fuckers,” Jane hissed. “That’s going to make me even less guilty about killing them,”

“Same,” John muttered as he checked his weapon while Miranda did the same.

“Should I aim for the groin or stomach?” she checked while double checking her weapon.

Garrus blinked at this change of attitude with his friends. He looked again, but couldn’t see the reason for this sudden surge of sadism. “Ok, you guys are scaring me now,” he gulped.

John looked at him. “What do you know about human history?” he asked as Miranda and Jane began to take pot shots at the tattooed prisoners.

“Not much,” Garrus admitted. “Outside of recent stuff, I haven’t looked into human history.

John nodded. “Well, I’ll make this short those guys are Nazi’s,” Garrus eyes then perked up.

“Oh them I have heard about,” he looked to the prisoners and took one out with a shot to the gut as he tried to run. “Some of my human colleges talked about them. Said that in the past, they tried to wipe out a human…” he paused trying to find the right word while taking out another. “Ethnic group?” he half stated half asked.

“More or less, remind me to send you reading material on it later,” John said as he also fired at the Nazi’s with fire rounds.

More came out with heavier equipment forcing the team back into cover. “Must be an armoury nearby,” Miranda commented as a rocket whizzed passed her head.

It exploded above them, taking out one of the water pipes. Grabbing onto the railings as the water rushed past them. It landed in the courtyard below them forcing the Nazi’s to move away but the team soon followed. Maintenance seemed to have taken a hit with some areas of the facility. They landed on the hard floor, groaning in pain as the Nazi’s began to move up. Jane was the first to act and fire at them.

John recovered as well, not without pain, moving to a knee and fired in bursts managing to take out one of them. But it didn’t last long as one of the Nazi’s seemed to come out of nowhere and kicked the pistol out of John’s hands. Despite the pain the engineer jumped up and slammed his fist into the bald man breaking his nose. Pressing the attack, John aimed for the gut with a knee making him double over. The engineer then grabbed his neck and snapped it in one quick movement.

He quickly rejoined Jane, Miranda and Garrus in cover, after all of them applying medi-gel, find and opened fired at the pensioners. They fell back, but the heavy weapons allowed them to fight back despite the lack of military training. They had the crew dead to right and could kill them with their heavy weapons. The Nazi’s moved in a wide arc to try and flank the team. Readying themselves, the team pared to run through the well-armed group. Jane readied her grenade launcher; John prepared his turret and Miranda charged her biotics.

Both groups were about to move, when a slab of the celling fell in front of them followed by ropes. Looking up, they spotted a modified Kodiak troop transport which then dispatched soldiers dressed in black and red armour. The Nazi’s, now focused on the new target, began to fire at the descending troopers while Jane and the team moved out of the way of the repelling troopers who were firing back.

Seeing an opportunity, team began to fire at the Nazi’s as the unknown troopers landed. Avoiding targeting them, the team moved around them to get a better shot at the Nazi’s. The added firepower from the black armoured troopers helped mitigate the heavy weapons the prisoners had. Both groups took them out quickly before the black armoured troopers turned on the team. Aiming their weapons, the team quickly held their hands up and got a good look at the newcomers.

They hadn’t noticed that at least 10 troopers had arrived. While most of them seemed to be human, asari or batarians there was at least 2 who seemed to be krogan, 1 turrian and 1 salarian. A stylized skill and crossbones sat across their breastplates and left shoulder making it clear that they were the pirates and not another group. They way that they stood also spoke volumes about the military training that they had which itself wasn’t unusual. But all of them? That was.

A final pirate slid down one of the ropes and landed with an audible thud looking around. John blinked at the sight. She was a quarrian, a rare sight for pirates, even more so for being in command of pirates as she got a few salutes. Similar to the others, she had a red scarf that wrapped around her head and body. Despite her face hidden by a cloudy visor, her body language showed confusion.

“Who are you?” She asked as she approached the team, her voice was unmistakeable.

“Tali?” Jane asked in shock earning a pistol in her face.

“How do you know who I am?” the young quarrian asked.

“Brother?” a new voice asked.

Eyes turned to see a female turrian with a visor and blue faceprint, her eyes fixed on Garrus who blinked in surprise. “Solana?” was all he could say before she moved quickly and embraced him.

Chapter 13

Everyone just looked at the two siblings as one embraced the other. Garrus, thought shocked slowly wrapped his arms around his sister, the movement slow and deliberate. But meaningful. Regardless if this woman was his ‘real sister’ she was still his sister. He embraced her for a moment before the station shook causing several pirates to lose their balance and the two Vakarians to brake to stabilise their footing. Tali almost fell over, but was grabbed by Jane who pulled her up.

“You, ok?” she asked as she helped Tali to her feet.

The Quarrian, however looked at the commander’s hard clutching hers. Her head slightly tilted, her eyes seemed to be focused on where the commander held her. Jane was amount to move, but Tali stopped her by looking up. Despite the mask, there was something in the almost visible eyes of the young engineer.

“W….who are you?” she asked after a moment.

Solana looked to Garrus. “Yeah, and what about you?” she accused. “I thought you were staying with C-Sec? What are you doing on Purgatory? And who are these people?” she indicated to John, Jane and Miranda.

John and Jane looked at each other with a shrug and a nod. “I’m Commander Jane Shepard of the Normandy,” as she spoke the Pirates looked around confused but Tali seemed to nod.

“The way you hold me, is the same as her,” she softly mused as she let the commander let go and looked to John. “And you are her bother?”

“Sort of,” John shrugged. “I’m Commander John Shepard of the Normandy,”

Tali looked between them confused. “How are…” she began when Miranda toom over.

“He’s from another universe, like Jane, but a different one,” she explained earning eyes on her.

Solana walked up to her and looked her up and down, her eyes measuring her in ways that were both familiar and not to the Cerberus operative. “You… you look like Michel…” she muttered.

“I’m Miranda Lawson,” the perfect human introduced earning blinks from the others. “I assume you have a version of me?”

Solana nodded as she backed up continuing to look at the agent up and down. “Not as good looking as well,” she smiled earing and odd look from Garrus.

Sighing, Tali shook her head. “Ok, let’s assume you are telling the truth,” she muttered. “What’s the plan?”

“We still have to secure Jack,” John said. “She’s the main objective here. How many there are, will be up for debate,”

The young Quarrian nodded as she indicated for the others to lower their weapons. “I’ll trust you, for now,” she spoke in a low voice, a not-so-subtle threat making it clear how much she didn’t like that.

“That fine,” John said as he grabbed his pistol. “We’ll take point,” he cocked the weapon. “This way,” he indicated to a corridor and moved off with the others quickly following.

OOOOO

Liara walked around the holotable in the briefing room watching the progress of the team as they began to advance again with several unidentified icons following them. Jane and the team were highlighted in green, targets in gold and enemies in red. The station was practically covered in enemy contact icons, most of them being in clusters with several red pings vanishing every few seconds. But that wasn’t what concerned the Asari.

The station was being to shake in a way that suggest that something was going on. While this could be due to the flickering, a part of her told her it wasn’t. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but there was something there that sent a shiver down her spine. Taking in a closer look, she spotted something. Several grey neutral icons seemed to be making their way towards the docking ports. They seemed to be moving in a formation she wasn’t familiar with.

There were 11 contacts, 10 of them formed a circle around the 11^th. As they moved, the red icons around them that came into range seemed to vanish within a matter of seconds. That wasn’t good. While the average merc was fairly well trained, a good number of them were former soldiers, so their abilities for fighting would make them tricky to take out. But whatever was going on here, seemed to overcome them quickly.

Looking to where John was, she realised that he and this unknown contact would soon meet. Her heart ached as she imagined what could happen. She, like Tali, the poor girl, both had crushes on John. But he chose Ashely which they were happy with, but it was still panful for the both of them. She needed to help; she needed to get to him. Gritting her teeth, she ran into the armoury, grabbed the closest pistol and ran out into the station, despite the yells.

OOOOO

John and Garrus took point with Jane and Miranda behind them. Following them were Tali, Solana and the pirate squad. The latter group operating like a group of trained soldiers, covering each other as they moved though the corridors and cells. They maybe pirates, but they clearly had discipline rather than being little more than a disorderly rabble with guns.  The large group entered a large section of the station; several container cells lay across the floor offering cover for both the prisoners and guards.

Neither side seemed to be getting the upper hand as groups of both parties moved to get better angles to take the others out. Even with the mechs on the Blue Sun’s side didn’t help much thanks to the cover offered by the collapsing station. In the middle of the sector stat a pillar with what seemed to be a command section near the middle. Garus pointed to it.

“That should be where the Warden is,” he noted.

John shrugged. “Worth a shot either way,” he muttered in a agreement.

“My group will cover you,” Tali spoke up earning shocked looks from the team. “What?” she asked. “It’s a simple matter of strategy, my squad cannot get there quickly enough you can,”

Jane smirked. “I thought you didn’t trust us,” she quipped.

“I don’t,” the engineer shot her a deadpan look. “But this station is collapsing and we need to find Jack. Being expedient trumps distrust,”

“Can’t argue with….” Miranda began when the ground began to shake.

“The stations collapsing!” one of the pirates yelled.

“We have to…” another began when a call from John and Tali stopped him.

“Wait!” they both called looking at each other briefly then back at the ground. “That wasn’t the station,” Tali noted.

“No, it wasn’t, it would have been more violent with more explosions,” John added. “Something else is going on,” Tali nodded in agreement as screamed echoing forced the group to look over their cover.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Jane blurted eyes wide. “She’s supposed to be fucking dead,”

“Wait that outfit,” John noted and squinted to get a better look. “Shit, we have a problem,”

The Asari that made her appearance before everyone stood tall, her blue and silver dress flowing with elegance that seemed out of place of the surroundings. She stood at about 7 feet tall, towering over almost everyone even her silver and blue armoured guard. An aura of calm and command radiated from her; demanding attention be brought to her. The ‘tentacles’ on her head flowed back like long hair unlike regular Asari. It was like a queen or angel had descended and presented her nobility to everyone.

She raised her arms outwards. “I am a servant of the light,” she declared. “I find you all wanting,”

“Oh crap,” both Shepards muttered as the Asari’s hands began to glow with a blue light.

“May the dead become your judges!” the Asari declared as a flash expanded from her.

The group covered their eyes from the flash before watching in horror as the dead began to rise. Their eyes glowed red with menace and turned to the closest living subject. In panic both guards and prisoners close to the undead fired. The rounds passing though the decaying flesh, leaving only holes not damage. Roars echoed across the sector as the undead began to attack their former attackers and comrades.

Screams and roared began to fill the space and the Asari smiled. “Ahh, the sounds of judgement,” she sighed. “Such an enchanting melody,”

“She’s fucking insane,” Tali growled.

“Disrespecting the dead,” Solana agreed with her own growl along with Garrus. “Regardless of what they did, they deserve their rest. Fucking bitch,”

Jane and Tali looked to the two with surprise and were going to ask why when John spoke up. “Resurrecting the dead is considered to be one of the greatest insults in Turrian culture,” he explained earning his own odd looks. “What?” he asked defensively. “We had a regular movie night and watched Sean of the Dead one time. Garrus… well my Garrus explained the point,”

He got and understanding look from the two. “Please tell me it wasn’t the remake,” Jane muttered.

John scoffed. “Of course not, I have taste in movies,” he shot back.

“While this is all fascinating,” one of the humans said interrupting them. “What’s the fucking plan? I mean we have a fucking necromancer in front of us,” he spat indicating to the asari.

“Not sure,” John and Jane said at the same time. “We had to deal with a version of Saren and that fucker was….” John continued until he saw someone running towards the necromancer. “Liara? Wha…?” he didn’t have time to call out as the Asari jumped, her body glowing a pulsing blue with biotic energy as she jumped.

A warp ball formed in her hand as she descended towards to the Asari below her. She roared with anger and determination as particles formed around her hand growing bigger and bigger with each microsecond. Her target turned with some surprise before the archaeologist landed slamming her fist into the ground, pushing everyone back with her biotic energy. The only one who didn’t was the tall Asari who stood, seemingly unaffected by the biotic blast.

“LIARA PULL BACK!” John yelled. “GET BACK NOW! IT’S….” but he didn’t have to finish as the tall Asari grabbed Liara by the neck and lifted her up.

Looking at the features of the woman Liara’s eyes wide in shock and horror. “No, I killed you,” she growled with both anger and sadness.

“Maybe in your world, not in mine you pathetic child,” Matriarch Benezia said as she threw Liara several meters into the rubble.

Despite his better judgement, John moved over to his friend as fast as he could. As he did, Jane and the Pirate group split to get Benezia to focus on them. Which didn’t work out too well, as she sent zombies at the. Some of them being armed with whatever weapons they held when they died. A string of curse words echoed from the two groups as the undead advanced on them.

“How are the able to use guns?” Jane yelled. “Not fucking fair!”

Reaching Liara, John pulled her into cover and applied medi-gel to a wound on the asari’s side. “You stupid…” he gritted his teeth shaking his head. “What were you thinking?”

“I wasn’t,” she smiled. “I saw…” she winces at cold gel. “I saw, well her,” she indicated to her ‘mother’. “She was taking out several mercs at a time and it just felt wrong,” she shrugged.

“So, you decided to try and help,” he smiled back.

“Well, I couldn’t let my best friend die,” she shot back which earned her a hug from the commander. “Come on, let’s take out my mother, again,”

The two smiled as they exited cover. John fired his pistol earning the ire of the alternate Benezia who threw a fireball at him. John ducked and moved along the wall cover while Liara came out from the larger woman’s flank and threw a singularity shot at her. The with backhanded the attack, seeing it to the side before throwing a lightning bolt at the Asari. Laria didn’t have time to dodge a she was zapped.

The shot hit her in the shoulder, sending her spinning in the air. Slamming into a pillar, she grunted in pain as she landed spitting out a gobbet of blood as she did so.

“LIARA!” both John and Jane yelled before tuning to face Benezia and a zombie, respectively.

“You’re gonna pay for that you bitch!” John yelled as he redoubled his efforts, not only firing at the witch, but unleashed an overcharge shot on her.

That made her stumble as she shot more lighting bolts at the engineer. John moved fast, managing to avoid the worst of the shots of electrical discharge. Angry at what the tall Asari did to Liara he pounced at her, his omni-blade extending as he came spinning at her. Slashing the glowing orange blade at her. As he landed, she backed away yelling in pain covering her face.

Before John could do anything, he found himself floating as Benezia managed to use one her hands to force grab him and lift him up. He tried to struggle, but this wasn’t like a warp ball in which the gravity around him was altered. This was magic, which had a wider set of powers to use and he had no counter to. He watched as Jane and her squad take out the last of the zombies and turned to him.

“GET THE WARDEN!” he yelled.

Jane seemed to ordered the others to go take out the Warden while she repositioned herself as the Asari recovered. She turned to him, a horrible scar running across her face. Necrosis taking hold on the edges of the scar. Remembering what the demon Ashley said, this was an indication that the Asari was resurrected though magic. But that did little to hide her anger and rage at the engineer.

“You are to harm me? ME?!” she yelled. “You will pay for your insolence!”

“Do your worst,” he shot.

The Asari raised her hand when a flash of flight blinded them for a few seconds. When it died down, they looked to see the case.

“Mother,” a somewhat familiar voice began. “It’s time we end this,”

The figure materialised into another Asari. This one with dark red skin, black and white tattoos covering her body and wore what could only be described as Jedi robes. In one hand, she held a metal staff that pulsed with energy while in the other was an ornate pistol similar to the standard predator. But despite these, there was no mistaking her face or voice.

“Liara,” Benezia growled as she forgot John, letting him fall to the floor in a heap. “I agree, it’s time to end the mistake of giving birth to you,”

Chapter 14

Miranda watched as the red skinned asari pushed herself towards the taller Asari. Both of them radiating power. It paused around them like an aura of biotics with the same light and dark blue light. The power of the two collided in a flash of bright light and electrical discharge. Miranda and the others in her group had to cover their eyes from the bright light. The ones with helmets didn’t fare much better as their tinted visors didn’t dull the light of the impact.

“What in the ancestor’s dammed name was that?” Tali asked as she stood quickly recovering from the shock with her team.

“Magic,” Miranda muttered as she helped pull Garrus onto his feet. “Trust me, that’s not going to be the weird part,”

Tali just nodded before ordering part of her team to scatter and take pot shots at the tall Asari. The rest of them continued onto the watchtower. As they advanced, they ran into another group of zombies which pounced on them. Tali and Garrus reacted quickly while Solana and Miranda got tacked to the ground. Garrus took his out from the air with a well place shot to the head while Tali’s shotgun took a Zombie’s guts out on a date.

The zombies that pounced on Miranda and Solana managed to get them to the ground but not for long. Miranda kicked her one off before using her biotics to slam it into a wall then unload several rounds into its head. Solana, on the other hand spun the zombie onto it’s back and beheaded it with a blade she kept in her belt. The pirate troopers, however, didn’t last as they were torn apart by the zombies.

Before they could turn on the crew, Miranda threw a warp ball cancelling gravity from under the zombie’s feet making it easy for them to be taken out. With that done, they made their way to the watchtower. They met little resistance along the way as the zombies took up most of the time of the Blue Sun’s mecs. The ones who spotted the crew moving forward didn’t last long as they were taken out after a couple of shots in the crew’s direction.

Miranda, taking point, smashed though the watchtower’s door with a biotic charge and lead the team upwards. As they reached the control room, heavy gunfire forced them to hide behind several crates. Miranda peeked around cover to see who was shotting at them and spotted three Warden Kirl’s. Two of them were armed with Revenant heavy assault rifles wile the third was in a mech.

“Well, isn’t this a surprise,” one said.

“Indeed,” one of the other’s added. “Three Shepards. We can live like kings,”

“Too bad you aren’t going to last long,” Tali shot back as she popped out of cover used an overcharge to take out the shields.

It didn’t work as the mech suit prevented the overcharge from working. The warden inside, deflected it with the riot shield the mech had. It turned to them and opened up with the dual chain gun it had, preventing the team from advancing, let alone exiting cover and taking it out. Cursing, Garrus threw a smoke bomb to cover the team’s movement which allowed them to get into a better position.

As they moved the three wardens came out and began to fire at the team as they ran down a corridor. Moving to the back, Miranda three up a barrier to stop some the incoming fire allowing the other three to enter a command-and-control station. Splitting up, they chose the best positions. Miranda was blasted into a wall as she tried to fall back. A groan escaped her lips as she crashed into several computer terminals and servers. One of them, stuck into her back, managing to get through the soft part of her armour.

Despite the pain, she pulled herself up and joined the others. The shard of metal could stay in her for the time being, it was best to leave it in given the mech that they were going to face. It came quickly after her. It brought up its shield and unloaded several rounds into the command centre. The team were forced back into cover, but this time they had placed themselves to pop out of cover to take the odd shot at the machine.

Miranda pulled out a high explosive grenade and readied it. As the mech moved, she took the chance to throw, only for one of the other wardens to shoot her. The round hit her cheek. With a yell of pain and threw the explosive at the ceiling. It exploded causing several pieces of debris onto the mech and wardens with little problem. As the mech’s chaingun cooled, Garrus and Solana took that opportunity to take out one of the wardens.

The head of the one closest to the mech exploded forcing the other warden to hide behind the riot mech. As the chaingun finished cooling, the mech brought the weapon up and began to fire again with the sound of maniacal laughter coming from the mech. But it gave Miranda the chance to take a shot. The grenades, however, impacted the shield and did little damage.

“Shit,” she yelled as she dived back into cover. “This is getting really annoying, any ideas?”

“We need to get around,” Tali yelled. “But I have no idea how to do that!”

Solana moved along the terminals, straying in cover as tried to find a good vantage point. She managed to ger someway close to the other end of the room, when the mech fired at her pinning her down.

“It’s got some kind of tracking system!” she yelled.

Miranda gritted her teeth. “Fuck,” she growled. “We need to take that fucker…” she began something hit it from behind with a biotic charge.

The mech slammed into the same console which Miranda was slammed into. Before the other warden could react, Tali took the opportunity to use an over load on him, destroying his shields. Miranda took the opportunity to take him out with a single shot to the head. The mech turned to see several approaching figures, with a couple of them holding their hands up to keep biotic barriers up.

The mech’s gun rose but Miranda took the opportunity to fire at its weak bag taking out the engine with her grenade launcher. The back of it blew out before engulfing the rest of the machine. It blew taking both the mech and warden out. Being able to recover, the team stood with satisfied sighed with was followed by cheering from the people who were still advancing.

“That was fantastic!” one called out.

“I can’t believe we did it,” another added with a female voice.

“Wonder is teach is going to be mad at us,” a third asked.

As they came into view, Miranda’s eyes widened as she saw their student uniforms and young faces. “What the hell? Grissom Acadamy?” she practically yelled getting the attention of the students who looked at her with confused looks.

“Who are you?” one asked pointing at her.

“Hey, look it’s Garrus and Tali,” another pointed out as the said team members stood. “I didn’t know she was a pirate,”

“Who are you punks?” Tali shot back. “How do you know me?”

The group of teens looked to each other. “You’re Tali, the Engineer of the Normandy,” one teen pointed out. “He,” she indicated to Garrus. “Is Archangel, the best sniper in the Galaxy and Commander Shepard’s best friend,” there was a pause. “But… you died on Tuchanka with Wrex and Grunt,”

Garrus paused for a moment. “I’m dead?” he pointed to himself, unable to process the thought. “On the Korgan homeworld?”

Before the student spoke, up, a tattooed woman wearing a cropped white top and had her hair pulled up into a ponytail with both sides of her head shaved. “Easy kid,” she said as she stepped forward and looking towards Miranda.

She paused for a second before pointing to her. “Miranda, right?” she asked with some nervousness.

Miranda blinked but nodded. “Yeah, who the fuck are you?”

The woman chuckled. “I’m the bitch you’re here to get. Nice, to meet ya, I’m Jack,”

Miranda frowned but rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Great another variation,” she muttered.

“Not quite,” Jack replied. “But do you know a man called John?”

The raven-haired woman’s eyes looked up in surprise. “Wait, you’re his Jack?”

“Yep,” was all she said before the team made their way down to her. “I already met this version of me. She kind of look like catgirl, from Rodrigues’s hentai,”

“Hey!” the student shot with some of her friends trying to hide their laughter.

Jack’s smile vanished as she focused on the commander. “Now whatever you do, don’t refuse Jack’s request,”

Miranda blinked but didn’t need much to see what she was meaning. “Ok, I want to know what it is,”

“She will want accesses to Cerberus’s archives,” Jack held up her hands as Miranda was about to speak. “Before you say anything, it’s the only way to get her trust and to get her on your side. The only way she’ll recover,”

Miranda blinked with the others looking between the two in confusion. “What do you mean recover?”

Jack laughed. “It’s not something I can…” the station shook causing the two groups to stumble and fall.

The station began to flicker again; universes began to overlap with parts changing from some style to another. “Fuck,” Jack yelled as she tried to stand but found it difficult due to the shaking and flickering.

Looking around she spotted a door that wasn’t being affected. “Over there!” she yelled before turning to Miranda. “You stay here, in this universe,” she said as she helped her students up while Tali, Garrus, Solana and Miranda managed to get up.

The students managed to make it though the door. Jack turned to Miranda, grabbed her by the collar and kissed her on the lips. The XO didn’t have time to react before Jack pulled away and followed her students. As it closed it changed back to normal and the flickering along with the shaking stopped toon after.

“What was that about?” Tali asked.

Miranda, still red, didn’t answer.

OOOOO

As the two clashed, John and Jane covered their eyes as the blast blinded them. They backed up as well, as a blast of intense heat practically shoved them back. As the light died down, the two looked up to see Benezia holding the red skinned Liara back with a glowing magical ball. The staff that Liara held also glowed. But unlike the blue light from Benezai’s hers was a dark purple. The two energies fought against each other as the two just glared at each other. The hate between the two was hard to ignore.

Gritting his teeth, John looked over to Liara. “I’ll get her, help her,” he yelled.

Jane nodded and charged up her biotics as John moved over to Liara. She was unconscious from the impact of being tossed away. But it didn’t last long as she groaned while her mind returned to her.

“Oooooo John?” she muttered.

“I’m here,” he said calmly he said as he helped up her and gave her a pill before applying medi-gel to her head.

She winced but recovered quickly. “Seems that we have to choke a bitch,” she smiled as she began to glow.

John smiled as well as he cocked his weapon. “Let’s go then,”

The two charged as the red Liara was pushed away. Jane threw a warp ball at the tall Asari, but while it was deflected, it allowed Liara’s biotics to fully charge. She pushed herself into a charge knocking the Asari back a couple of feet. But the witch grabbed Liara’s ankle and spun, throwing her into the red Liara who was attempting to stand. The two slid across the floor, only stopping when they hit a pile of debris.

With a roar of anger, Jane jumped and threw a singularity before pushing herself forward into a change. It seemed that the Benezia was expecting it and threw up a magical shield before pushing it outward, sending Jane flying into a wall. She then landed on the decking in a heap. John made his moved and charged at Benezia, firing at her head while he readied a grenade. But she grabbed him by the collar as he got close.

John struggled as he felt himself be lifted by Benezia’s power. He struggled as he tried to grasp at an invisible hand that was choaking the life out of him. Choking he began to think about how much he didn’t want to die, not anymore, not now. He saw what could happen if he managed to stop the corruption, or whatever was happening. There was no way he was going to give up now.

“I know who you are,” the woman said. “One of the ‘Shepards’ that the light one talked about. One of the scum who corrupted my daughter, took her away from the light. You may not be the same Dark lord, but you are still are of the same blood,” she smiled exposing a set of sharp teeth. “But killing you will still provide some satisfaction,”

Her fingers grew into claws; she readied them to strike in his gut. “Any last words scum?”

John spat in her face. “Fuck you, you dead bitch,” his lip curled as she wiped off the spit.

Her eyes narrowed a as she pulled back her arm and John was about to face his end. She was about to strike, to take his life.

“Up here bitch,” someone roared.

The two looked up to see a large figure fall towards them fast. In response, Benezia dropped John and threw up a shield blocking a glowing orange axe held by a horned tanned creature.

“Well, isn’t this a surprise,” the new comer said.

John didn’t have time to respond as three large fingers grabbed him by the waist and pulled him back. He yelped as Benezia attacked the axe welding newcomer with what seemed to be some kind of force push. The new comer jumped away and landed next to John allowing him to get a better look at her. She stood about 6 feet tall and was built like a body builder.

A pair of bull horns curled around her head and jutted out at the front. The light shined off her bronzed skin while her short dark hair waved slightly.

“Hey,” she smiled showing off her fanged teeth while the fingers let John go.

“Got a death wish?” a new voice asked making him turn to look at the owner.

“Ah, Captain Shepard I presume?” he asked as he noted the pirate-like gear this one wore.

This Shepard wore armour integrated with a pirate jacket and a tricorn hat. Her left arm had been replaced with a large 3 fingered robotic arm that seemed to be made out of junk. A patch with a red lens covered her right eye.

“Lost it due to Saren,” she said as she turned to her crew. “Get the two Liara’s and meet by the ship. This bitch is ours,”

Her crew answered in the affirmative as John, the pirate and minotaur readied for the net attack.