Story [Mass Effect] Chains - UDC5; Week 20 - Completed!

Title: Chains
Timeframe: Pre-Mass Effect 1 to Post-Mass Effect 2
Characters: A lot, but especially (Hunter) Shepard, Ashley Williams, and Miranda Lawson
Summary: Response to the UDC 5. For all the decisions he makes, Hunter Shepard is still chained to duty.

This isn't my first Mass Effect UDC response (I have one running for UDC4 that I can't post here), and unlike my last SW response, I intend to finish this on time. This response's Shepard is Hunter Shepard: a man who's out to save people, but has very specific ideas on who can be saved who and deserves saving.

I do not own Mass Effect. BioWare and EA do.

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[b]Week 1: Hunter Shepard ? Mean Streets[/b]
[i]Tough, street-smart, and aggressive, he could have remained on the streets of Earth for all his life.[/i]

[b]1. Doctor[/b]

"You've got a few cuts on your arm, a broken rib, scrapes on your legs? but all that's nothing compared to those Fangs. Now [i]they[/i] looked like ****." Pedro folded his arms, giving Hunter a smirk. "Don't tell me you did all that to them."

Hunter had no idea what Pedro was talking about. He only remembered trashing against the Fangs holding him down, getting more and more pissed, then? nothing. He shrugged; it would probably come back to him later.

From his makeshift bed, Hunter looked to his right. "So, since when were you the Reds' doctor?"

"Shut up."

[b]2. Companion[/b]

It was rare that Hunter found himself alone, but he made the best of the solitude. He chose to kill time by staring at his knife.

Except for that one time a Fang scarred Hunter's nose with it, the blade had never left his side. He didn't use it much, anyways. When it came to morons who ignored that they were up against a towering muscular hulk, Hunter would rather use his fists.

And even though Hunter preferred actual human companions?as in the other Reds?he liked knowing that it was always in his pocket. He liked the constancy.

[b]3. Time[/b]

The Reds' leader cracked an amused smile. "Well, that's too bad. If you don't like it, then Hunter's gonna have to fix that."

Silence and stares from the three Fangs were the only signal Hunter needed. He stepped forward into the dim light from overhead. As always, physical intimidation failed, but he liked showing himself off. He cracked his knuckles and got only defiant glares. One of the Fangs rushed him. Hunter sidestepped the clumsy swing and rammed his knee into the Fang's gut. He gave the other two a smirk.

Just like every other time, they had no chance.

[b]4. Space[/b]

Hunter found Pedro and Curt on the roof of the apartment building the Reds called base.

"There's more to do out in space," Curt said. "We could get a ship, run drugs or tech all over the colonies?"

Pedro nodded. "Make a ton of creds."

Hunter chose that time to cut in. "Or get killed by batarians. You heard what they did to Mindoir."

Curt turned around. "You're optimistic."

"Just saying. No point in making a ton of creds if you're not alive to use 'em." Hunter glanced down to the streets of the Texan Megapolis. "Besides, Earth's big enough."

[b]5. Dimensions[/b]

"Well done."

Hunter's gaze snapped from the Fangs on the ground to the alley's entrance. A man in what looked like a military uniform stood clapping.

"The hell are you?" the Reds' leader asked.

The man paid him no attention. "Your name?"

"Hunter."

"Hey, I was?" A gunshot aimed near his foot shut the leader up.

"Hunter." He took a step into the alley. "Many? dimensions to that name. There are the disciplined hunters. Efficient. Precise. Lethal." Another step. "Then there are the savage hunters. Brutal. Unstoppable. But predictable." He paused. "Ah, yes, introductions. Captain Stanislav Lee, Alliance Military."
[hr]
And that's week 1. Let me know what you think!

 

This is a direct continuation of Week 1, making it Part 2 of Hunter's origin story. There are a few parallels between this and the origin stories of Dragon Age. You'll see. Also, I included a bonus drabble dealing with Stanislav Lee's motives in approaching Hunter.

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[b]Week 2: Hunter Shepard - Spacebound[/b]
[i]To force him down a predetermined path, he had to be given no choice-or the illusion of it.[/i]

[b]6. Island[/b]

Captain Lee, Hunter figured, was the kind of man who loved to hear himself talk.

"An Alliance colony, or any colony for that matter, is like an island. Isolated, yes, but still dependent on the outside world for survival. Cut it off completely from trade, from resources, and it dies."

"Your point?"

Lee smiled, like he knew something. "The same applies to a person. Cut him off completely from companions, from people he can trust, and he may as well be dead. You trust your fellow gang members, correct?"

"Yeah." What was he getting at?

"Good, good." His smile widened.

[b]7. Survival[/b]

It was supposed to be a simple job. Break into the abandoned warehouse, nab some guns, and get out.

But the warehouse didn't have any guns. And it wasn't abandoned.

Hunter slammed the door and ducked as gunfire from the Blue Suns mercs broke through the window. He looked around the room. Small, with just one exit: the window. But he was already three floors up.

Either get shot by mercs or jump out a window. The choice was easy.

Hunter made a mad dash to the window and smashed the glass. Sparing the door a final glance, he leapt.

[b]8. Lost[/b]

[i]"They're dead. The mercenaries killed most of them, the few survivors are long gone."[/i]

Hunter didn't and couldn't believe it. Lee had to be wrong.

When he found nobody at the usual spot, he had to return to warehouse at night. He didn't want to find anyone there. But he did: Pedro, Jose, Josh, Carter, almost everyone, staring at nothing, bodies covered in dried blood. The Suns just dumped them into a large bin bound for incineration.

That familiar anger, the all-consuming rage flared up. But with no merc to unleash it on?with no [i]gang[/i]?Hunter just felt lost.

[b]9. Other[/b]

Hunter felt himself press into his seat as the Alliance transport accelerated. Destination: boot camp. A month ago, he would have laughed at the notion of joining the military. Many things were different then; having a gang was one of them. But Lee somehow convinced him. His old life with the Reds was dead. The Alliance was his best choice.

Still, he barely seemed the military type. But that could change. Hell, that had to change if he was going to make something of himself as a soldier.

Maybe, Hunter mused, he would come out of training another person entirely.

[b]10. Flashback[/b]

"And you believed that son-of-a-bitch?" Finch?one of those few survivors from eleven years ago?clenched his fist. "You idiot. He knew we were going to hit that warehouse. And he hired those mercs to kill anyone who broke in. Do the math, [i]Commander[/i]."

Hunter stared at him, dumbfounded for just a few moments. "How did you find that out?"

"Long story short, we've got connections now."

He had been lied to. Lee had the Reds slaughtered the whole time. And for what? A soldier? Fighting back the anger, he created a mass effect field around Finch's neck and squeezed.

[b]EXTRA: Stanislav Lee - Dealings[/b]

"You can't change who a man is on the inside." Captain Morne sipped his ale. "No matter how much you train him, he'll always revert to his real self given the right circumstances."

Lee chuckled. "That's where you're wrong. Men are like clay. Soften him up, and I can mold him however I like." He leaned his elbows on the table. "Tell you what. My next shore leave, I'll find a person who you would think would never fully? fit in with the Alliance. Have him enlist. And we'll see."

"Your wager?"

"The satisfaction of knowing who was ultimately correct."
[hr]The Lost motif running through the themes made it tempting to do a week based around Ronald Taylor and the 10 years on Aeia. Then I figu

 

Minor characters this week.

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[b]Week 3: [i]Purgatory[/i] ? Clockwork[/b]
[i]Aboard the [/i]Purgatory[i], Warden Kuril detains, tortures, and sells his prisoners?all for the greater good of the galaxy.[/i]

[b]11. Far[/b]

Kuril strolled down the observation corridors of his prison, noticing a Sun acting rather skittish.

"Straighten up," he said.

"Yes, sir." The man was a recent transfer from Omega. He was used to dealing with the powerless scum. On the [i]Purgatory[/i], the scum had a fair amount of power. The trick was to make them believe otherwise.

"Learn this: prisoners are no different from trash in Omega. Force is the only language they appreciate. Show it in overwhelming amounts, and you'll have control." Kuril added one more thing as he walked away. "It's not a complex formula. Far from it."

[b]12. Prisoners[/b]

"Well, if it isn't the frozen princess."

Jack looked up from her meal at the two idiots who had come to screw around with her. Both wore stupid grins and cracked their knuckles. Their "intimidation" act wasn't even funny. Just pathetic.

In any other circumstance, she would've just let off a small biotic pulse as a warning. But the two guards behind her would be on her as soon as she did it. "Go back to the kids' corner."

One of the idiots chuckled. "I don't think kids can wipe out an entire settlement."

"Let's show her we're not kids."

[b]13. Peacekeepers[/b]

The moment 6725 and 6016 took a step towards Jack, Kalash gave Tarus a nod, then reached for his stun-gun?a modded pistol for crowd control purposes. Kalash fired into 6725's chest with surgical precision. Tarus did the same with 6016, though the turian preferred two shots to the batarian's one. Whether it was for the certainty or the added pain, Kalash wasn't sure.

"Hurry up," Kalash said to the woman. "The Warden wants you back in cryo."

Guards like Kalash and Tarus were the peacekeepers on the [i]Purgatory[/i], ever watchful and sparing no bullet. The prisoners deserved nothing less.

[b]14. Uncharted[/b]

Kuril watched the Cerberus frigate attach to the [i]Purgatory[/i]'s docking arms. Commander Shepard had come to secure Jack for a mission. Unfortunately for him, Kuril had no intention of releasing his prisoner. He would acquire a new one instead.

Shepard wasn't the first one Kuril would trap aboard his prison. However, Shepard would be the first human of near-galactic importance. The man had, after all, defeated a rogue Spectre and enabled his kind to take over the Citadel Council. Having him aboard the [i]Purgatory[/i] was something of uncharted territory.

No matter. Kuril would detain Shepard and be done with it.

[b]15. Scape[/b]

The [i]Purgatory[/i] burned.

Jack was free. Shepard was loose. Prisoners were rioting. And all Kuril could do was hunt for the one thing he could save: possessing Jack.

Gunfire flared from behind. He hadn't even turned when Shepard, enveloped in biotic energies, slammed into him. The massive impact knocked Kuril's weapon from his hands and left the Warden a helpless heap on the floor.

They didn't understand. If Kuril died, then [i]Purgatory[/i] and all its successors would fail.

With only a sadistic smirk, Shepard picked up Kuril's machine gun, held the muzzle to the turian's face, and pulled the trigger.
[hr]Apparently, "scape" also means part of a column (the architectural kind), so that might help explain "Scape."

Secondly, Hunter's borrowing a habit of a certain [link=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a0/Kratos_God_of_War_III.jpg]Ghost of Sparta[/link]. That is, he likes finishing off his enemies with their own weapons. (Example: Kratos beats the Barbarian King to death with the Barbarian King's hammer. Or kills Hades with Hades' soul-sucking chain-claws.)

Thanks for reading!

 

Week 4: Commander and Chief ? Firsts
For both of them, it started with tiny realizations about the other.

16. Smart

"Admiral Hackett wanted me to kill Darius the whole time, create a power vacuum in the region and conflict with the lesser warlords. And since I'm a Spectre, I could get away with it. He denied it, of course."

The vids all portrayed Shepard as a brute who got a whole force of batarians and his own unit slaughtered on Torfan. But after the Commander told her about his debriefing with Admiral Hackett, Ash realized that the vids were all wrong.

Sure, Shepard liked violence. Ash had seen plenty of examples of that. But Shepard was also pretty damn smart.

17. 99

"Get down!"

Hunter felt something throw him to the ground before a rocket blasted his head off. Williams rolled off him and into cover.

Williams gunned down the last geth. "I think that's the ninety-ninth time I've saved your ass, sir."

"You actually count that?"

"The best way to stop you from questioning my competence," she said, grinning, "is to show you that I'm competent."

The Chief's way of addressing him should've grated on him, but Hunter wasn't thinking about that. Ninety-nine times? maybe an exaggeration, but Williams was still a better soldier than Hunter initially gave her credit for.

18. Chief

"So now you know. Still interested in me? Baggage and all?"

Hunter blinked. "What?"

Ashley flashed him a smirk. "Oh, nothing. Just thinking out loud. I have a few things to take care of before we land. Talk more later, skipper?"

"Right."

Hunter walked off, pondering what she said. Despite her grandfather's scapegoating and a tarnished family name, Ashley joined the military. She was right: that took a lot of thick-headedness. Hunter, however, preferred to call it determination.

He didn't want to tell her, but he honestly thought Ashley deserved better. Better assignments, and a better rank than Gunnery Chief.

19. Agents

Ash leaned on one of the bridge chairs. "For someone called the Butcher of Torfan, Shepard isn't that bad."

"For you, maybe," Joker said. "Shepard always sounds like he's ready to shoot someone when he's talking to me. Hell, sometimes I think he's one bad day away from turning into Saren. He already has everything: an army of devoted followers, unlimited power?"

"There's one difference." Ashley stepped up next to the pilot. "Saren's trying to destroy the galaxy. Shepard's trying to save it."

As far as she was concerned, the only similarity that mattered was being agents of the Council.

20. Shoe

"So now you know. Still interested in me? Baggage and all?"

It took a while, but Hunter found an answer: yes.

He figured it was Ashley's iron determination to press on with her career despite the odds. That fire that moved her to break the chains: her grandfather, Shanxi, her name. And after Finch told Hunter the truth about Lee, after Hunter realized that Lee had chained him to his own designs, the Spectre had to admire her for her accomplishments.

But regulations and duty hung over his head; did he really want to shoehorn a relationship into his mission?

 

Week 5: Grunt ? Blazes of Glory
Through his love of violence, he's determined to find glory for himself?and in doing so, his people.

21. Super

A pure krogan super-soldier.

That was what Okeer had intended him to be. The greatest of his kind, whether the greatness was in his genes or in his combat ability. In the tank, Okeer's imprints told him that he would start a line like no other to conquer the genophage. And his line, Okeer said, would cull the weak and make the race stronger as a whole. Even now, the warlord's whispers crawled in his skull.

Greatness. Revival. Conquest.

Okeer's plans for him meant nothing. For now, Grunt was content to fight at Shepard's side and find his own glory.

22. Bat

Vorcha. According to Okeer, little strategic capabilities, no more than animals that could screech words and hold guns. Pointless enemies.

Grunt disagreed.

He and Archangel?or Garrus or whatever his name was?picked off vorcha as they charged across the bridge. Okeer was right on those two points, but the vorcha were still fun to kill or hurt. And they way they squirmed and squealed when Grunt's burning bullets set them on fire only widened his battle-crazed gin.

Grunt hoped they would send more. From the ease at which they died, he could bat or shoot a thousand, no problem.

23. Wonder

Tuchanka was nothing more than a ball of mud covered in rubble.

Grunt expected something more? glorious, more amazing. Something worthy of being called the home of Warlords Shiagur and Kredoc, despite everything Okeer's imprints told him about the krogan homeworld. He held onto those hopes up until the moment the shuttle landed. Until the door opened, and the obvious weakness about the place burned Grunt's wonder away.

Now he understood why Okeer created him. The krogan of this camp were weak, more concerned with coddling and mere survival over improving and strengthening themselves. He was supposed to fix this.

24. Hawk

Grunt rushed into cover, evading a wad of the thresher maw's acid. A twist of a knob ejected the spent thermal clip, and he shoved another in.

The beast was a worthy enemy; Grunt would much rather fight a bunch of thresher maws than a thousand vorcha. Foolish of him to believe that those things were worth anything, he decided as he sprayed the monster with bullets.

The thief human squatted next to him. Grunt tossed her a grin. "Too much fun."

"You're quite the warhawk."

He didn't know what that meant, but he assumed it was a good thing.

25. Lantern

Urdnot Grunt. He liked the sound of that. And by the way Urdnot Wrex and Shepard reacted to his entry into the clan, they liked it, too. Wrex had this "wise old man" smirk on his face, the kind Grunt remembered from imprints of old warlords. Shepard just looked amused.

Tuchanka was still a useless wasteland. Clan Urdnot could make it better, he saw that now. But in the end, Grunt's line would revive the krogan.

"This is my legacy," Okeer had said. "A perfect soldier, a perfect krogan, a? lantern to guide the krogan to finding their lost glory."

 

Week 6: Hunter Shepard ? Vanguard
Through years of rigorous training, the recruit from Earth's slums became the perfect soldier.

26. Hours

Hunter had only been at the training facility for a few hours, but he already hated it.

The place reeked of authority. With the Reds, Hunter followed because he wanted to. With the Alliance military, Hunter had to follow or face the consequences?just like living in the hellhole house of those ****heads some "humanitarian" program had shoved him into when he was a little kid.

Hunter joined the Reds to escape the stranglehold his foster family had on his life. Following Captain Lee's advice and enlisting with the Alliance seemed to put an even tighter leash around his neck.

27. Days

From the Private Logs of DI Peter Tenerowicz:

? seems decent enough, bit on the spoiled side. That'll fix itself soon enough.

Shepard, on the other hand. Arrived a few days ago with all the others. Rat from the slums, sour attitude from the start, typical teenage rebel. Doesn't seem to want to be a marine, but isn't looking to back out, either, from what I can see. Probably has something to do with that "special project" mentioned in a message I got from high up. Not worried, have broken in dozens of similar rats. Just need a few days.

28. Weeks

Hunter made that gesture again, a tiny flick of his wrist. The violet corona engulfed the fork and flung it into his palm.

Biotics, they called it. Apparently, someone in charge observed "biotic tendencies" in him and put him under the knife for implantation. Now Hunter had crap in his head that let him do a load of crazy ****. He ran a finger on the back of his neck, at the base of his skull, rubbing the metallic bump that was his "amplifier," or "amp."

It would take a week or two for him to get used to it.

29. Months

Hunter recalled Admiral Chevalier's words as he fought through waves of batarians on Torfan.

"Imagine this. You're across the field from your opponent. You charge. He opens fire, thinking you have no chance with a shotgun at long range."

He blasted a batarian's face into bloody bits.

"He doesn't notice that your barrier absorbs every single bullet."

His barrier slapped aside machine gun fire.

"And when he finally realizes that he can't stop you? it's too late."

The perfect soldier, cutting through enemy ranks with mechanical precision. Just months after entering the N7 program, Hunter had come so damn far.

30. Years

Hunter sat in his quarters, pretending to nobody to look over mission logs from Feros.

Captain Anderson and Ambassador Udina shoed him into the Spectres. He was comfortable with that. Then Finch came along.

"And you believed that son-of-a-bitch? You idiot. He knew we were going to hit that warehouse. And he hired those mercs to kill anyone who broke in. Do the math, Commander." Captain Stanislav Lee butchered the Reds in some twisted plan to get Hunter to join the Alliance.

So for more than eleven years, Hunter Shepard was just a carefully crafted construct in someone else's plans.

 

Week 7: Kasumi Goto ? Shadowed Steps
Effortlessly conquering challenge after challenge, she says she's the best thief in the galaxy. Not out of pride, but simple fact.

31. Iron

A partnership forged in iron. Unbreakable links in a chain, inseparable peas in a pod? that sort of thing. Kasumi found the arrangement very agreeable at the moment. For once, she was the one kicking back while Keiji did all the work.

She checked the building schematics while twirling a fork in her ramen. "Take the elevator down a level."

"You sure this won't lead me into another roomful of guards I have to sneak past?"

"Come on," she said. "I wouldn't do that to you again? so soon." She heard a mumbled curse and smiled. Definitely an ironclad partnership.

32. Challenge

For such a top-secret organization, Cerberus was a cakewalk to steal from. Kasumi couldn't really fault them. It wasn't that they were lazy, she was just too good. Alarm systems? Bypass. DNA encoders? DNA samples. Guards? Sneak by or distract. Child's play.

She bet that right now, nobody in the whole base knew that she was in their vault, stealing their stuff. A quick omni-tool fix broke through the last obstacle, a small kinetic barrier. She grabbed the device marked "Lazarus," placed it into a container, then made for the vent through which she came.

Nope, no challenge at all.

33. Stadium

"We've just confirmed that geth are in fact mounting a massive assault on the Citadel. The Citadel defense fleet is sustaining heavy losses, with no sign of incoming reinforcements."

The voice of Khalisah al-Jilani drew Kasumi's attention to the news on her current? well, victims' computer.

She tried to remember one of Keiji's weird analogies: something about the galaxy being a stadium; the big events being the game, the distraction; the real event being the spectators losing their stuff to thieves. Keiji explained it a lot more eloquently.

In this case, that analogy applied very well?much to her surprise.

34. Chairman

Open. Free. Not cramped up in a crate. A very nice change of pace, Kasumi decided, staring out Port Observation's window.

She flicked a glance at the door at the sound of it opening. In walked Commander Shepard, the captain, the leader, the chairman. "Tchaikovsky?" he asked, referring to the symphonic fanfare she had playing in the room. "'1812 Overture.' I always liked that one."

Kasumi gave a bemused smile. "You? Classical music?"

Shepard shrugged. "Don't tell anyone. I have a reputation to keep."

"You can punch me in the face when I do. That'll restore you to badass status."

35. Chef

Curled up on her couch, Kasumi eat another forkful of ramen. It same recipe as always, but it didn't taste quite the same.

"Huh. It's pretty good. You ever think about switching jobs with Gardner?"

"He volunteered" was Shepard's only reason, excuse. Yes, he volunteered to go into the vents when both Kasumi and Shepard knew he couldn't handle it. And when that biotic attack snapped his neck, Shepard spared his body only a passing glance.

There were a lot of coffins when the mission was done. His was the hardest to look at.

Keiji. Jacob. Was this her curse?

 

Week 8: Mordin Solus ? Facets
Eccentric scientist. Cold pragmatist. Nobody can quite put a finger on him.

36. Duck

A volley of bullets and rockets sailed overhead. A band of krogan had caught the genophage modification team dropping their product on Tuchanka.

Messy, but survivable.

Mordin unclipped a fusion detonator from his belt. Loud, hardly subtle, but the time for subtlety was long past. He pressed the button and threw it over his cover.

"Professor," Maelon said, "we just walked into deathtrap, how are we going to get out of this?"

"Krogan combat techniques developed over long generations. Very predictable. Always straightforward charge; rely on armor to protect until entering close-quarters combat. And one more thing."

"What?"

"Duck."

BOOM

37. Money

"Told you already," Mordin said. "Patients under my protection. Will not surrender them to you."

The Blue Suns mercs folded their arms. "You're sure? 'Cause if you don't, we'll just burn down this clinic. If it's money you want, we have a nice wad of credits waiting for you in exchange for the humans."

"Bribery? Appalling. Giving you one more chance to leave."

Rifles sprang into their hands. "Not happening."

Mordin replied with only the faintest of nods.

The LOKI mechs opened fire, ripping through their shields. Mordin nailed each merc in the head, then went back into the clinic.

38. Uncle

A faint hiss signaled someone's entrance into the lab. Mordin glanced upwards. "Chambers. Surprised to see you."

"Just checking in. I want to make sure that the Commander's outbursts haven't been affecting the morale of the crew too greatly. I thought I'd start with the ship's veritable uncle."

"Uncle? What brought about description as 'uncle?'"

Chambers smiled. "Well, out of the nonhuman personnel, you've been on this ship the longest. We're pretty much a family here, and the crew seems to regard you as the eccentric uncle."

"Interesting."

"Now?" Chambers revealed a datapad. "I need to ask a few questions."

39. Gizmo

"Shepard. How I can help?"

Shepard leaned on a table at the far side of the lab. "No, I just need to talk to someone who isn't angsting all over."

"Curious. Why pick me, not Grunt or Garrus?"

The man folded his arms. "Already talked to Grunt. Garrus is angsting all over." His eyes flicked down to Mordin's work. "So what's this?"

"Almost finished with cure for Joker's condition. Just need more?" Mordin frowned. "No. Cure causes liver failure. Need to start over."

Shepard grinned. "Liver failure? Hold on." He stepped towards Mordin's table. "This I need to learn about."

40. Tales

Mordin pressed himself up against a metal panel. A stream of bullets and energy beams from the Collector horde came overhead.

"Shepard," he heard Tali shout. "There are too many of them. We need an exit, now." Mordin almost pitied her. She hadn't realized that Shepard was leaving them behind.

He realized the necessity of Shepard's actions. Tali, however, would see a second betrayal in them. She wouldn't live to tell about this betrayal.

The moment Mordin stood to attack, enemy fire ripped through his shields and through him. His last thought: the human phrase.

Dead men tell no tales.

 

A bit late on updating, though I had the last three weeks already written.

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[b]Week 9: Commander and Chief ? Hades' Dog[/b]
[i]The name of one organization keeps turning up in their search.[/i]

[b]41. Murder[/b]

The crack of Hunter's shotgun and the death rattle of the rachni soldier were the last two sounds before a deathly silence overtook the Cerberus facility.

Ash's voice broke it. "Commander. You'll want to see this."

Hunter wiped off the droplets of gray-green rachni blood off his armor, then turned around and approached her. She gestured downwards. On the cold metal floor lay an unmoving Admiral Kahoku, his chiseled face twisted in agony.

Garrus knelt beside the corpse. "No visible wounds? just a small needle prick on his arm."

Hunter took a breath. "Guess we know what we're dealing with."

[b]42. Mystery[/b]

Nepheron's dusty orange sky gave way to a metal prefab ceiling as the squad barged in through the door of the Cerberus base. The lone guard in the lobby hardly had a chance to aim his weapon before Ash tore into him with her rifle.

Hunter made a small gesture towards the door. "Garrus."

"Right." The turian rushed past him to the entrance console.

"You think we'll actually find anything here?" Ash asked. "You know, something that can give us a clue to what Cerberus was doing on Chasca and Binthu?"

The door opened. "We better," Hunter said, stepping through.

[b]43. Writer[/b]

"'To prevent the inevitable genocide of humanity by extraterrestrial life, we need an army, a Cerberus to guard against invasion through the Charon relay.'" Ash crinkled her nose at that sentence. The tone of the whole manifesto, released just after the First Contact War unsettled even her. "Whoever wrote this makes Terra Firma look like xenophiles."

"They all sound the same to me," Shepard said.

Something crept up on the fingers of her free hand lying on the armory table. First on her fingers, then on her?

Ashley set the datapad down and looked up at a sheepishly grinning Shepard.

[b]44. Retired[/b]

"Fraternization, Commander," Ash said, smirking. [i]"Fraternization."[/i]

"I'm a Spectre." Shepard's smile went from sheepish to confident. "I'm above the law. Right now, I say I'm above Alliance regs. And?" His smile widened as he drummed his fingers on her hand. "You haven't pulled your hand away."

"Maybe I'm toying with you."

"And maybe you're not."

Ash noticed that Shepard's hand was shaking. "You're damn lucky nobody on this deck cares enough to spread this rumor."

Shepard withdrew his hand. "Right, well, I have sleep to catch. Dismissed, Chief."

"Skipper." Shepard raised an eyebrow at that, then turned and walked off.

[b]45. Teacher[/b]

Hunter spent the short elevator ride to the crew deck mentally yelling at himself. [i]"What the hell, Hunter"[/i] and [i]"you're crazy"[/i], as well as countless other variations of those two, made the majority of his thoughts. An attempt at showing his interest in Ash turned into a complete embarrassment.

He shook his head as the elevator door opened. There was no time for stupid little distractions from the mission. And even if he was a Spectre, he was still a soldier. The perfect soldier wouldn't do things like that.

The perfect soldier. Hunter was beginning to sound like Captain Lee.

 

Week 10: Viewpoints ? Hunter Shepard
He has his opinions about them, but what they see when they look at him is something else entirely.

46. Captain

When Anderson looks at Shepard, he sees a cracked suit of armor.

Anderson was always one to pick up on subtleties. Shepard's stiff professionalism and his casual treatment of brutality marked their first interactions. The investigation on Saren dragged on. Shepard's demeanor suggested something of resentment, or irritation. Towards Saren, towards Udina, towards the Council, or towards him, Anderson couldn't tell. Eventually, Shepard stopped reporting to the human embassy altogether. All he and Udina had to go on were scarcely detailed mission reports.

Whatever it was, Anderson knew something was getting under his skin. And he couldn't help but wonder.

47. Pilot

When Joker looks at Shepard, he sees an ******* of a commander who still manages to respect him.

At least Joker hoped so. From the moment they met on the Normandy, Shepard, like Anderson, spoke to him in a way that screamed "I hate your guts." Still, they weren't the first of his superior officers he pissed off by just being him.

But when Joker insisted that he could drop the Mako in an impossible spot on Ilos, Shepard actually trusted him. And, even though there was never a doubt, Joker pulled it off. He hoped that was worth something.

48. Mechanic

When Garrus looks at Shepard, he sees a soldier unbound by red tape and bureaucracy.

"You can't be serious." Dr. Ross aimed her pistol with shaking hands at Shepard. "ExoGeni won't stand for you murdering us."

Shepard shrugged. "I'm a Spectre." Ross paled at that. "I can do whatever I want. And right now, I want to kill you. A lot of people died on Feros because of ****heads like you."

"Please?"

Her head burst at the pull of a trigger. Williams, Wrex, and Garrus dealt with the rest.

Exactly the kind of person needed to take down Saren.

49. Mercenary

When Wrex looks at Shepard, he sees a warrior.

Even when he wasn't looking, Wrex could easily tell when Shepard was winning a fight, for one reason. People were screaming. Loudly. And if Shepard could make asari commandos scream, then maybe Wrex needed to take another look at the way humans trained their soldiers.

Wrex turned a last asari's face to a pulpy mess with a blast from his shotgun. He turned around to the sight of Shepard tossing another commando aside like a ragdoll. The two exchanged smirks before moving on to their next target, an exhausted Matriarch Benezia.

50. Serenity

When Ashley looked at Hunter, she saw the first chance for peace she ever had.

"You make me feel good enough."

She meant it. And when he forced out "I feel the same way" almost word by word, she knew he did, too.

When Ashley looked at Hunter as the Normandy burned, she saw that peace torn apart.

She took a step towards him. "Commander?"

"Get the hell out of here!"

On its own, her body forced itself to turn and run off.

Now, when Ashley looks at the empty coffin, she sees an entirely different kind of peace.

 

Week 11: Miranda Lawson ? Lazarus
She spent two years of her life bringing the galaxy's greatest hero back from the dead.

51. Office

For two consecutive months, the station's main medical bay became Miranda's office.

Whether it was reconstructing Shepard's organ systems or figuring out Wilson's latest biotic enhancement proposals, she spent day in and day out working on the man's remains. Not even Wilson, who had far more expertise in the field than her, logged as many hours.

Jacob was starting to notice.

"Are you ever going to grab more than an hour of shuteye?"

Miranda didn't look up from the charts. "I can function on less sleep than normal people. You know that."

"Yeah, but you're still human. You've got limits."

52. Sales

Miranda noted the new additions to her cell: Doctor Chakwas and Jeff Moreau. Neither seemed the Cerberus type. The former, from her Alliance file, struck Miranda as uncompromisingly moral or idealistic. The latter didn't get along well with Shepard.

Joker, with help from his new skeletal upgrades, approached her. "So, if you're putting his brain back together, can you take out the ******* part of it?"

Miranda was beginning to see why Shepard didn't like the helmsman. "Then we wouldn't be rebuilding him exactly as he was."

Jacob must have made quite the sales pitch for them to join Cerberus.

53. Accounting

Basic neurological activity restored. A check on the list.

Skeletal and muscular systems reconstructed. Another check.

Respiratory system reconstructed. Circulatory system reconstructed. All major organs fully functional. Stable metabolic rates. Synthetic implants functioning normally.

Miranda looked up from her datapad at the man lying on the sterile white table. Just two years ago, he had been a mere sack of burnt flesh, unrecognizable as the human who saved the galaxy from the threat of Saren and Sovereign. Now, a dead man had been brought back to life through human ingenuity.

She offered Wilson a faint smile. Commander Shepard was alive.

54. Management

Miranda kept her gaze focused on the shuttle bay door. Any moment now, Shepard, Jacob, and Wilson would come right through. Only two of them would leave the station with her.

The whole attack was a sham. It served two purposes: to purge the Lazarus cell of personnel who were no longer needed and to test the revived Shepard's combat abilities. Wilson, always the greedy one and also unnecessary, was the scapegoat.

The door slid open. Conveniently, Wilson stood right in front of her.

"Miranda. But you're?"

A single shot left him a crumpled heap.

"Dead?"

Simple resource management.

55. Temp

"Are you naturally this bitchy, or is it just me?"

"I have the utmost respect for your abilities, Shepard," she said. "It's your motivations that concern me. I believe in what Cerberus stands for. Only time will tell if you prove to be an asset or liability to our cause."

"Let's just go."

Miranda led Shepard to one of Minuteman Station's many hangar bays. Part of her hoped that his irritation was merely a result of, for him, a sudden awakening and an overload of new information.

If she was to work well with him, it had to be temporary.

 

Week 12: Samara - Oaths
She swore an oath of service, not knowing that mere words meant as little to him as her life.

56. Terrorists

Samara preferred to use her biotics with precision and efficiency, to maximize the effect of every mass effect field while minimizing the effort put into creating them. But for these would-be terrorists attempting to destroy a Thessian monument, wild displays worked just as well. Not for the physical effects, but for sheer psychological impact. Few could fearlessly stare into the eyes of a justicar, blue corona surging madly while objects caught in the field swirled around her, for long.

A dramatic wave of her arm sent crates flying towards the group. Samara unclipped a pistol from her belt and began.

57. Deadline

Twenty seconds.

Twenty seconds was all the Eclipse sister had to give Samara the name of the ship that had smuggled Morinth away from Illium. Flinging her through glass to the warehouse's main level made the message quite clear.

Sixteen seconds.

Samara leapt off the platform, using a mass effect pulse to slow her descent.

Twelve seconds.

She approached and placed a foot on the mercenary's neck, gave one final warning.

Eight seconds.

The Eclipse sister gave her only silence before a last damning statement of her defiance.

Four seconds.

A breath. "Find peace in the embrace of the Goddess."

58. Jack

Though the façade had been built up for years, Samara saw right through Jack. Behind the woman's nearly indifferent disposition lay a wounded little girl who longed for closure. Jack would not have asked Shepard to help her destroy the Teltin facility if she did not.

"Do you truly believe that obliterating this place will help you find peace?" she asked her.

Jack gazed down the long-abandoned, darkened hallways. "It's none of your business." She quickened her pace to leave Samara's side and join Shepard's.

And for a moment, Samara considered Morinth. Was her daughter's condition her own Teltin facility?

59. Defiance

"I am already sworn to help you, let us finish this," Samara said over the roar of the biotic storm that had consumed the apartment. But even before she finished, she saw Shepard approach her. The man grabbed her wrist and yanked the arm aside.

She eyed him, accepting her fate, but decided that he deserved one warning. "She will destroy you, Shepard. It is in her nature."

"It's in yours, too. I'll take my chances with Morinth."

Shepard clenched his fist, crushing her wrist. Her expression remained still; she would not give him the satisfaction of seeing her pain.

60. 24

The battle had lasted twenty-four seconds. Three from her entrance into the apartment and her initial attack. Another five spent exchanging blows until they had reached a stalemate. Six seconds towards requesting Shepard's aid. Three for the man to make and finalize his decision.

Five seconds.

Morinth threw her to the ground.

Four seconds.

The demon approached her, her grin a twisted mockery of the little girl Samara once knew.

Three seconds.

Morinth knelt and grabbed her by the throat.

Two seconds.

"Say goodbye? Mother."

Morinth reared her biotic-charged fist and swung.

One second for the corpse to fall still.

 

Week 13: Blue Suns ? Expand and Conquer
Ruthlessness and efficiency transformed a simple idea into an empire.

61. Enterprise

"So we're really doing it," Vido said, fidgeting with the cigar between his fingers. "We're really gonna start up this operation."

Zaeed smirked. "I prefer to call it a 'protection service.' I'm sick of going to people for jobs. With this, they'll start coming to us. And a few old friends are interested in working for us."

"Then it's all set. What'll we call ourselves? 'Santiago and Massani's Protection Services' doesn't sound very memorable."

"Remember when we hunted down that krogan clan to that binary star system and wiped 'em out?"

"Our crowning achievement."

"Exactly. We're calling ourselves the Blue Suns."

62. Galaxy

Vido just watched as his men forced a battered Zaeed onto his knees.

Zaeed spat his usual bile at him, drivel that Vido couldn't care to acknowledge or process. Vido merely pulled his shotgun?batarian make, for the final insult?and rammed it against the former's bleeding temple.

Shame it had to come to this, but men of limited vision had no place in the Suns. Even if said men of limited vision came up with the idea for the organization in the first place. Eliminating him opened up a galaxy of possibilities, ones that Vido wasn't about to ignore.

63. Federation

Jaroth: a coward with more bark than bite. Garm: a fool with more brawn than brains.

That was what Tarak wanted them to be. Working with idiots would have made strategizing much easier. But they didn't attain their positions by chance. Jaroth calculated every move with the caution of a master quasar player. Garm, unlike the rest of his kind, had an appreciation for subtlety underneath his brutish demeanor.

Tarak had already suffered numerous obstacles in warring with Archangel. Cooperating and compromising with the Eclipse and the Blood Pack was just one more, and he wouldn't let it stop him.

64. Next

It was supposed to be glorious, an army of mindless krogan slaughtering at her order. Star cluster after star cluster would have fallen to her, until she could challenge the likes of Jona Sederis of Eclipse or Ganar Wrang of the Blood Pack. Perhaps even Executive Dal'serah himself.

Jedore wanted malleable krogan, but Okeer gave her insane rejects.

She would not allow the delusions of a relic from a forgotten era hinder her rise to power. After dealing with him?and those five goddamn commandos her incompetent troops couldn't seem to get rid of?Jedore would get her army regardless.

65. Generation

Harkin shifted in his chair, trying to maintain eye contact with the faceless merc. "You Suns are more the 'shoot-first' types. You should try something new. Subtle."

"What are you getting at?"

His bluntness made Harkin's blood chill a little. "Making people disappear," he said. "I know the system. If someone doesn't want C-Sec to catch them, I can make it happen?" He took a deep breath; here came the sales pitch at last. "With your help, of course. Men, money, supplies?"

The merc eyed him for a moment. He gulped.

"Fine. If this works, we want half your profits."

 

Week 14: Interlude - Shackles
She tore him from the release of death and shackled him to the strongest chains he ever knew.

66. Psychic

A loud crash and roar drew Miranda out of her office.

"This is your fault." Shepard had Joker pinned to the wall, both of their bodies engulfed in biotics. And even if the commander had his back to her, Miranda could see the rage on his face.

Miranda didn't need to know why, she only acted. In one smooth motion, she caught Shepard in a stasis field milliseconds before his fist smashed into Joker's face, then approached and pressed her omni-tool into his back.

A small beep and jolt, and Miranda released the field. Shepard's body crumpled to the floor.

67. Detective

"? episodes of mindless, enraged violence when sufficiently provoked during teenage years."

A stark contrast to the highly disciplined soldier described in Alliance files; thus, Shepard's sudden outburst came as a surprise for Miranda. Regardless, a potential problem had presented itself, and she would tolerate no threats to the mission. Not even from Shepard.

She wanted it solved as soon as possible especially because it came from him.

The question was "why now." What caused it? She glanced at the unconscious Shepard lying on a bed in the crew quarters.

Of course. There was no question about it?

Chief Williams.

68. Fraud

It took nearly killing Joker for Hunter to realize that he had been lying to himself for years.

Lee and Chevalier did everything to mold him into what they thought was a perfect soldier. Perfect soldiers didn't let things get too personal. Perfect soldiers didn't lose control and devolve into raging lunatics.

In some ways, Hunter was still the little kid running with the Reds back on Earth.

The worst part for him that was he didn't care about this realization as nearly as he thought he should. But it did surprise him that he was entering Miranda's office to confess it.

69. Awareness

Shepard leaned forward, gazing out the windows. "I guess this whole hero role wasn't meant for me. Too much control from ****heads in suits, I can't handle that."

They weren't so different after all. Shepard had been selected for someone's pet project. Others tried to mold him into what they wanted him to be. Her father did the same thing, wanting a successor for his dynasty.

The difference was that she escaped it. Shepard was still chained.

But that was for the best. Humanity needed Shepard. Cerberus needed Shepard. Recruiting him was the best course of action, was it not?

70. Pharmaceutical

Miranda remembered it all too clearly. Shepard's agitation before arriving at Zada Ban. Biotics launching him towards the enemy. Krogan, vorcha, and varren nearly tearing him apart.

She applied medi-gel to one of the many gashes on Shepard's body when Chakwas came to her side. "Please, you needn't spend your time here. I can handle this."

A deep breath, and Miranda stepped back from the bed. She didn't spend two years rebuilding him just so he could get himself killed, but Chakwas had a point. This was her job.

And Miranda was starting to think she was becoming too attached.

 

Week 15: Interlude ? Icebreaking
She's proving the constant that Ash should've been for him. He's proving the one thing that can get to her.

71. Happy

Miranda looked up from the recent mission report at the sound of her door opening. Shepard, clutching what seemed like a sore side and a new scar along his cheek from the disaster on Zada Ban, regarded her with obvious exhaustion in his eyes.

"Chakwas told me that you tried doing her job for her." He shifted a little. "Well, those weren't exactly her words, but you get the point."

"I was trying to help," she said, feeling defensive. "I wasn't about to let two years?"

"Thanks." Shepard offered her a small smile, then stepped out of her office.

72. Sad

"Knowing about me will only complicate things for her."

Hunter looked from Miranda to the family of three in the distance. Smiling. Laughing. It reminded him of the Reds, of the simpler days when it was just brawling for the sake of brawling.

Miranda had family, but for some reason she was content to stay in the shadows. Hunter found that more than a little sad.

"bull****," he said. After all the hell she went through to keep Oriana safe, he wouldn't let her run away. "Get over there and tell her that she has a sister who loves her."

73. Curious

"Have you ever considered undergoing the reconstruction surgery?"

Shepard glanced back at Miranda as they made their way through the Zakera Ward's bustling crowds. His scarring had reached new levels, a web of glowing red cracks all over his face that the ward's low blue lighting only accentuated. The scars, the red glow in his eyes, and his tousled hair made him look a far cry from the man all over the new feeds after the Battle of the Citadel. "Once, after Chakwas told me about it. Figured it wasn't worth the cost. Why?"

Miranda shrugged. "I was only curious."

74. Angry

"The damn selfish bitch" heralded Shepard's entrance.

"You were there. I saved her ungrateful ass by showing that evidence, but now she wants nothing to do with me because I didn't do things exactly the way she wanted them."

A part of her wished that he would go to Chambers, but everyone knew how much he hated most of the Cerberus crew. It fell to Miranda to calm him down. To prevent another incident like what happened to Joker.

She felt sorry for him. Like with Williams, Anderson, and T'Soni, two years had ruined another one of his old friendships.

75. Content

"You wouldn't believe it, but that scar I used to have right here?" he said, running a finger across the side of his nose. "Got it during a brawl. The guy I was fighting took my knife outta my hands and cut me right here."

Hunter leaned on the table in a nearly empty mess and sipped his glass of champagne. Miranda was on the other side, drinking, listening. Popping an occasional question, though probably just to indulge him rather than true curiosity.

In any case, his "thirtieth" wasn't as big as his twenty-ninth, but it was just as nice.

 

Week 16: Morinth ? Vices
There is an entire galaxy out there, and she won't let the fears of her people keep her from experiencing it.

76. Ranger

Past the tree line, into the village clearing, Morinth heard the wail of biotics as Mother tore through the enthralled village.

Meanwhile, the Ardat-Yakshi could only run and try again, while Mother would inevitably follow. Mother would try to impose those chains Morinth's sisters had been content to rot in, but Morinth would never let her succeed.

She trudged through the forest, ducked under branches too thick for her to move aside, slipped between narrow gaps in the dense vegetation. Nature had its beauty, but she preferred civilization, people, music, art.

Morinth would have to wander until she found it.

77. Cavalier

"There's a world called 'Wenrum,' in your language it would mean 'white knight.'"

The sandy-haired Alliance soldier smirked. "So I'm a white knight?"

Morinth pressed him up against the wall, arms around his neck. "That's what we're establishing."

Humans had only been present on the galactic stage for a few years. That made them new, unknown. It came as no surprise to Morinth when she found herself wanting a human mate. This soldier, a veteran of the "First Contact War," was just what she needed. A perfect embodiment of the newcomer race.

She closed her eyes and forged the link.

78. Thief

"You're not really Samara, are you? That, or something happened to you on Omega that scrambled up your brain."

Morinth heard Kasumi enter, but suppressed her reflexes to maintain the façade of meditation. She dismissed the biotic sphere in her hands. "Why would you believe that?" she asked in the justicar's voice.

"You started acting a bit differently. Small things most wouldn't pick up on. Shep said nothing was wrong, but he's a terrible liar."

"So I see." She still maintained the act; the thief could've been bluffing.

"I don't know who you are, but there are eyes on you."

79. Acrobat

Morinth snatched an Eclipse merc in a biotic field and watched him drift into the air. From there, she could have thrashed him around like a ragdoll. Instead she threw him into the valley below. Efficient. Economical.

Combat made playing Mother grew difficult. The justicar never cut loose with her biotics, she practiced restraint.

Morinth, on the other hand, preferred enthralling displays. She lived for the sight of helpless fools dancing about like unwilling acrobats in Morinth's little act, the fear in her enemies' eyes when they saw the massive biotic corona engulf her form.

Pure power. Why restrain it?

80. Barbarian

Morinth took a brief breather after another vicious biotic assault to glimpse Shepard.

He had told her about the new L5n implants that allowed him to conjure his own little mass relays, launching him into enemy ranks for close combat. And from the way he used that technique, Cerberus had made the right decision.

There was a certain beauty in his brutality, how he sowed panic into the Eclipse line by smashing into it with explosive force, how his Claymore shotgun cracked like thunder.

She wondered how it felt to be on the receiving end of the man's bottomless rage.

 

Week 17: Zaeed Massani ? Gains and Losses
Vido's betrayal, in the end, was only a setback for him.

81. Boys

The krogan commander collapsed, his body smoking from a barrage of incendiary rounds and surrounded by a pack of dead varren.

Zaeed lowered his rifle and glanced around at the remnants of the Blood Pack base, now the Suns' first foothold in the Terminus Systems. He knew that he could take this operation a long way, but actually seeing it happen was a different thing.

He turned to face the few remaining Blue Suns. "Men, this base is now ours. That includes everything the old residents used to own. Make yourselves at home, and take whatever the hell you want."

82. Mountain

So Vido betrayed him so he could start hiring goddamn terrorists for the Suns. And now Zaeed Massani was once again a lone freelance merc with only his track record from before the Suns; Vido had wiped his name from the records.

Someone could've called him a nothing and condemned to spend the rest of his life drinking cheap booze to ease the pain.

Like hell. That betrayal took him down several notches, but Zaeed didn't get to where he was by quitting. He would just have to build himself back up. And someday put a bullet in Vido's skull.

83. Town

Zaeed had to give the sod credit: he was smart enough to avoid Omega.

With two-bit bounty hunters, small colonies on the fringes of the Terminus, places nobody bothered looking at, were a mark's best chance. The problem for this mark? Zaeed was hardly a two-bit bounty hunter.

Choros, they called this place. Sad bunch of pre-fabs in the middle of a desert, lawless enough for Zaeed to walk around with Jessie in his hands.

A scream from behind. He turned around and spotted a salarian sprinting away.

Big mistake. Zaeed fired a round into the air and gave chase.

84. Controversy

Zaeed thought he had Shepard figured out: straightforward, violent, with an annoying habit of throwing tantrums and crewmates with his biotics. Until Zorya.

"We're going for the workers."

Maybe Shepard didn't get it the first time. "We help them, Vido gets away."

"Yeah." The man had already started for the other side of the refinery, Garrus and Miranda in tow. "But I'm in command here. Not you. We're cleaning up your mess."

Zaeed followed them with a frustrated grunt. The Collectors must've hit Shepard head too many times while the crew was trashing their base. No other explanation for it.

85. Profanity

"You can't be serious. You need me."

"No, I don't," Shepard said. "You did what Cerberus paid you to do. Now you're just dead weight." With that, he turned and walked.

Garrus' "We're really just leaving him" was the last thing Zaeed heard before fire and the intensity of his anger drowned out every other sound.

"Damn you, Shepard." He tried wresting his pinned leg free. It would not end like this; Vido was still alive, and Zaeed didn't survive a hundred fights just to die in a goddamn fire.

Zaeed looked up at the departing shuttle.

"Damn you, Shepard!"

 

Week 18: Shotguns and Snipers ? Brothers-in-Arms
Every hero has a right-hand man.

86. Steel

Shepard charged into the cluster of mechs the moment he saw them. Each crack of his heavy shotgun shredded a fully functioning piece of equipment into useless scrap metal and drew five more to replace it.

Meanwhile, Garrus lurked behind cover. Shepard could have all the attention he wanted, but Garrus would make the finishing blow. He tilted his sniper rifle upwards, scoped the target, and pulled the trigger. Shepard launched himself away just before a ton of pure metal came crashing down on the enemy.

The two flashed each other their species' respective smirks. Harkin needed to do better.

87. Peel

"What's a banana?"

Hunter, biting into the entrée of a Cerberus MRE, quirked an eyebrow at Garrus' very random question. "It's? an earth fruit. One of my favorites. Why?"

Garrus shrugged. "Gardner compared my fringe to a bunch of these bananas."

His gaze drifted towards the top of the turian's head and lingered there for a few seconds.

"Shepard?"

For a moment he could see a cluster of bright yellow peels taking the place of the bony fringe. He blinked the image away. "****. Now I'm going to start seeing bananas on your head every time I look at you."

88. Gale

Shepard launched himself into the Blood Pack platoon with the force of a storm.

Whenever Shepard flew into one of his rages, pure brute force replaced tactics and sense.

Five enemies replaced every vorcha, krogan, and varren that he killed.

But brute force relied on the enemy being weaker. And sometimes, charging headfirst had no chance of ending well.

Eventually they did, first with a krogan slamming him into the ground, then the rest joining the slaughter.

Shepard's mind was still the same as it was two years ago, at least that's what Cerberus intended. Garrus knew that something changed.

89. Stylish

"Shotguns do their job well enough," Garrus said, examining Shepard's Claymore, "but there's nothing quite like a well-placed sniper headshot."

Shepard hefted the Mantis in one hand. "Maybe. But with shotguns, you get to see the whites in the enemy's eyes just before you pull the trigger and rip those eyes to shreds." Garrus might've seen the amusement in the human's voice reflected in his glowing red eyes. "And before you go on about the skill required for a headshot, it takes?"

"It took skill to close the distance. Now you just have biotics to do it for you."

90. Needed

Garrus looked away from the shuttle windows and the view of the Citadel beyond. "So. You and Miranda?"

"Yeah?" Shepard asked.

"I've been thinking, and? what about Williams?"

His response was immediate, mechanical. "She moved on. You know what she said. After I tore Horizon apart to make sure she was safe. It's over."

Garrus paused, wondering for a moment if it was a good idea to continue the conversation. "I'm not sure if it is or not, but I'm also not sure if you believe that."

Shepard dropped his gaze. They spent the rest of the ride in silence.

 

Week 19: Interlude ? Beginning and End
They both knew that he was still bound to another's shadow.

91. Theater

It was a horrible idea. A flat-out stupid idea. It had to be.

The worst possible time, too.

Hunter cared about Miranda. Because even though it took a while for her to warm up to him, even though she seemed nothing like the fiery marine he had fallen in love with on the old Normandy, even though he had only met her after his reconstruction, she became what Ashley should've been for him. A constant.

And in many ways, Miranda was just like Ashley, caught in a bad situation and determined to escape it.

A love triangle. Too much drama.

92. Singing

"You want this."

"I do. So don't die. You promise me, dammit."

"I'm already dead."

"I'm already dead." The words of a man who had given up on himself.

It made Miranda wonder. Shepard had withdrawn. His rages had become less frequent, like that fire that fueled his resentment towards Cerberus?towards all the forces he believed were controlling him?had died down. Like he was tired.

Maybe he was counting on this mission to end it for him.

Miranda shook her head and returned to work, and her thoughts gave way to the distant humming of the drive core.

93. Jokes

The shuttle ride to Aequitas was too quiet for Garrus' liking. By now Shepard would be explaining a new upgrade for his Claymore or biotic amp. Or Miranda would be going over last-minute details about the destination.

Not this time. Just silence, punctuated with awkward-seeming stares and glances between Shepard and Miranda.

Garrus knew they were getting? close. But something seemed different. Maybe it was a conversation they had that took things to another level.

"So," he said. "I guess this wouldn't be a good time to tell you about?"

Both of them turned their stares on him.

"Never mind."

94. Guests

Just stay alive out there... Skipper. I don't know what the future holds, but I can't lose you a second time.

Hunter sat there, just staring at the message. She had the worst timing. The ship was bound for the Omega 4 relay. He and Miranda had something?he didn't quite know what it was, but something. And now this. Just when he thought he was starting to pull things back together.

Part of him wondered why he got this message now. Why she waited so long to send it.

Fingers drifted towards haptic keys, and Hunter began his reply.

95. Puppets

It was her fault.

Williams had sent the message weeks ago, days after Horizon. Except it was deemed "detrimental to the mission" and kept it from Shepard's?Hunter's inbox. So when she browsed the screened list and saw it, when she considered the circumstances, she owed it to Hunter to place the cursor on "send" and press the button.

"Miranda, I? I think?"

"That our relationship should remain professional. I understand."

He still loved Williams. Miranda was only a gut reaction to Horizon, and she needed him to realize that. She needed to give him something to live for.

 

Week 20: Hunter Shepard ? Catharsis
He finds his peace as others fall around him.

96. Girl

He didn't see the explosion. He didn't hear the ear-piercing screech. He didn't watch the Collector laser that swept away years of abuse, anger, and helplessness with one fatal strike.

When Hunter laid eyes on the charred metal where the attack pierced the ship's armor, however, he had to wonder. So much time spent struggling against chains led to this: a quick, graceless death with no chance to fight against it.

Maybe that was what lay in store for him, too.

Hunter averted his gaze and made for the debriefing room. The rest of the squad was waiting for him.

97. Secret

"At the very least?" Morinth clutched the gaping wound in her stomach. Blood seeped between her fingers. "At the very least I got the others through. I am sorry, Shepard. I could not see this through to the end. I? I could not fulfill my?" The Ardat-Yakshi fell silent, and her head dipped forward.

Hunter saw a biotic attack snap Taylor's neck, he saw Collector pods reduce Chambers and Donnelly into a pulpy mess of blood, and he saw seeker swarms whisk Krios away to some unknown fate. Then there was Morinth, who protected their little secret to the end.

98. Blood

"They won't be able to hold all those Collectors on their own," Miranda said.

Hunter remained focused on the platform's console. "I'm not counting on them to survive, if that's what you're asking."

"We're just leaving them?" Garrus asked.

"That's the plan. Mordin won't take it personally. Tali? I don't give a damn what she thinks. Proved that at her trial."

Garrus stepped in front of him. "So you hate her so much now that you're willing to let her die over that?"

"And you're questioning me?"

Grunt chuckled. "Bad move, turian."

"I've made my decision. I'm not changing it."

99. Magic

So that was it. With an explosion and a few choice words, he was free.

No Lee trying to mold him into something he never could've been. No Anderson or Udina or Council roping him into their fold. No Illusive Man to leash him to his stupidity. For the first time in a long time, it was just him.

Dozens of his crewmembers died to get him there: Chambers, Jack, Taylor, Thane, Morinth, Mordin, Tali, more. Worthwhile sacrifices in the end. Even more so when he saw the look on Joker's face as he came up to the bridge grinning.

100. Slayer

Hunter Shepard, Butcher of Torfan, first human Spectre, Savior of the Citadel, and Slayer of the Collectors wanted to crawl into a corner and hide.

He had prepared for this. He cut his hair back to the old high-and-tight. He got rid of the cybernetic facial scarring. He was the spitting image of himself from two years ago?except for the nose scar that Cerberus didn't care to recreate.

But nothing could have prepared him for this.

He glanced up from the dinner table at Bhatia's restaurant when he caught motion at the corner of his eye.

"Hey there? Skipper."