“Mass Effect Transition successful. We have arrived at Korlus, Commander.”

“Thanks EDI. Have the ground team start prepping for launch.”

“Affirmative. Logging you out.”

Shepard breathed out a long sigh and leaned back in her chair.

The two years she had spent dead had left her woefully behind several major events and innovations in weapons, armor, and galactic events. Something she was slowly correcting, but that was the key word. Slowly.

Even with EDI providing a list of highlights, it was still taking all of Shepard’s free time to catch up with those events or to read through the articles, and that was when she trusted the Cerberus AI to include everything without bias or as little as possible.

She sighed again and pushed herself away from her desk and walked over to the private bathroom attached to her quarters. She ran the faucet and splashed some warm water- she couldn’t handle the cold much anymore -across her face and gently massaged around her eyes to ease the stress building up.

“Okay Jane...time to be a commander again.”

Shepard walked out trying to imagine the tension in her stomach was anticipation for the upcoming mission. Not disgust at the twisted face in the mirror.

-o-

“Okay team! We’re about to drop into the lovely planet of Korlus!” Shepard declared brightly to her gathered teammates. “It’s main exports are rust, scrapped ships, and corpses. We are here to secure the services of one Dr. Okeer, a Krogan scientist rumored to have gotten his hands on some Collector tech. With some luck he might be able to give us a hand with the stuff we picked up as well.”

“Doubtful. Okeer interested in Genophage research. Any technology would be geared towards Krogan physiology.” Mordin said dismissively. “Still, new Collector technologies would provide a bigger sample size for testing. Could lead to breakthroughs in other areas.” He inhaled to slow himself down a bit. “Might be worth recruiting for that.”

“We need all the help we can get with Collector tech.” Shepard placated the Salarian, unsure if this was a case of professional pride or something else. “Besides, I’m not planning on taking you with us for this one Mordin. The Seeker swarm antidote is your top priority. I just wanted you filled in case we come back with a cartload of new Collector tech to look over.”

“Wise decision.” Mordin agreed. “Experiments moving at a reasonable pace. Have even learned specific toxin used to cause paralysis. Managed to neutralize it three separate ways already.”

“You found a cure for it that fast?” Jacob asked.

“Oh no. Only toxin was neutralized. Side effects of the current methods include breakdown of nervous system, loss of cognitive function, and a projected increased heart rate to fatal levels. Still much more testing needed before a viable solution is found.”

“I think everyone here would prefer not to die before we even encounter the Collectors.” Miranda put in her two credits.

“Agreed.” Garrus said dryly.

Shepard coughed into her hand. “Anywayyy. Mordin is going to keep working on that. Miranda and Garrus are with me...Revan do you want to take Jacob with you?”

Eyes turned to the second ground team leader. Everyone had been informed of Shepard and Revan’s deal, but a few were interested in how that would work in practice.

“I think Jacob would be best utilised guarding the transport.” Revan said. “No offense to his skills, but he is used to working with a dedicated team that I simply don’t operate as. Until we can get another specialist to act as a partner, I’m probably going to be operating solo. Besides from what I’ve read recently, Korlus isn’t exactly the place to leave functioning ships lying around if you want it to be intact when you come back.”

Shepard nodded at the reasoning.

“Any objections?”

No one said anything.

“Then check your gear and load up. We drop in thirty.”

-o-

“I wasn’t expecting much from the info I found, but Korlus really is a dumping ground isn’t it?” Revan marveled at the number of derelict hulls littered across the landscape.

“Yep, best place to get rid of any ship too battered to limp anywhere else. Just strip everything down not needed for a relay jump, go through the mass relay, and then strip that too.” Shepard agreed as the four of them moved towards the facility Cerberus Intelligence suggested Okeer was working out of.

“The Dossier we received doesn’t say if Okeer is on this planet by choice.” Shepard said, snapping into mission mode. “Until we know better, assume anyone we come across is hostile.”

“You sure that's the best approach here Shepard?” Garrus asked, no judgment in his tone.

A voice suddenly rang out in the distance, the echoing quality suggesting an electronic system. “There is only one measure of success: kill or be killed! Perfection is your goal.”

“Ah, nevermind then.”

“Broadcasting orders over loudspeaker? Charming.” Miranda added. Shepard agreed. It took a special kind of crazy to announce every move to those around them. Crazy they were likely going to run into at some point based on her luck.

Still, best get everyone on task.

“Stay focused. We’re looking for a Krogan warlord.” And hopefully not the crazy lady on the loudspeaker.

“Being hired is merely the beginning. You must earn your place in the mighty army we are building.” the voice continued.

“Building an army, hm? But an army for what?” Miranda mused. However, no one had an answer so they merely continued over the rusted stairs into the facility.

They made it to a corner leading into the facility and Shepard motioned for Garrus to peek a camera around it.

“Observation post.” he reported. “And ready for a fight, it looks like.”

“Anyone we know?”

“Looks like Blue Suns. Doubt they’re gonna let us walk through even if we ask nicely.”

Shepard took a moment to look at the ground in front of her team. Unfortunately it was rather open for a direct engagement. There were a few metal plates to dissuade vehicles from entering but beyond them it was all open ground. Her team would need to pick the Blue Suns off at range or they would be cut down in seconds. Good thing Garrus was here. Only him and potentially Revan had any real options over that kind of distance. Miranda could probably handle coverfire, but Shepard would be relying on a pistol to even have a shot at the mercs.

“Okay. Miranda, you're going to set up at that far barrier. Keep moving and pick off who you can. I’ll set up at the middle barrier. Garrus, you know what to do.” She turned to Revan and simply waited. She and Revan were equals on the ground, she wouldn’t try pushing her larger numbers to force the elf into agreeing to a plan. Not now.

“I think I’ll follow you, Commander. You’re going to be the obvious target in the middle until Garrus can clear enough of them to get closer, right?”

“I prefer to say I’ll be drawing their attention by being the most dangerous thing in front of them and letting Garrus clean up the ones I don’t get to, but your version works too.”

“Well might as well give them a clear target to shoot at.”

The fight wasn’t that exciting. Well, compared to the last few fights Shepard had participated in. Miranda sprinted to her assigned location and drew a couple shots before Shepard and Revan stepped out and drew the rest of the attention. A single human in a bright white catsuit might be an attractive target in a normal engagement, but nothing drew attention quite like the armored figure of Revan as she casually walked into the open, sabers weaving walls of light as she stood there like an unbreakable juggernaut.

That was her only contribution to the fight but with no one else free to shoot at her squad Shepard was easily able to direct Garrus and Miranda to focus on the ones in better cover as she picked off a pair of mercs with a combination of biotics and some well aimed shots from her heavy pistol.

When the last of the mercs fell over from a final shot from Garrus, the ground team regrouped and slowly made their way forward. Shepard and her team in standard Alliance squad formation and Revan walking casually off to their left. The Blue Suns had been whipped out except for a single human who had fallen further back from the others after Miranda’s SMG had broken through his armor. From the blood dripping down his face, a few rounds had shattered his faceplate and given him several nicks and another round had cut into the side of his neck.

A grisly scene, especially with the merc frantically swiping at the blood and panicking when his wounds continued to bleed, but...

“Shit. Shit! It won't stop bleeding…” The merc panicked, pawing at his neck before shifting to his face. “I’m gonna… Son of a bitch!”

“Doesn’t look that bad actually.” Miranda whispered. Shepard agreed. If the merc stopped for a second and let the blood clot, his wounds would’ve probably stopped bleeding by now.

“Yeah, but we don’t need to tell him that.” She whispered back.

“I knew it wasn’t berserkers. Not at range. You’re mercs. Or Alliance. I’m not...I’m not telling you anything.”

Shepard looked over the Blue Suns merc. Human male, probably early twenties at best, with the Suns for at least two years if he had the armor, but from the look in his eye he would fold at a stern demand. But like her mom said, ‘a polite word got you further than a gun because you could always use the gun later’.

“Not even for this bit of medigel? You look like you could use it.” And just like that the defiance in the merc drained out of him.

“Son of a…Look, I don’t know much of anything.I just shoot the overflow from the labs. The old Krogan up there...” the merc shook his head. “Jedore hired him to make an army, but the Krogan he creates are insane, so we use them for live ammo training. It’s all crap, and I don’t get paid enough to goddamn bleed out!” he finished with a snarl.

“Outpost four? Jedore wants us to move. We need coordinates on that Krogan pack.” a voice broke in from the merc’s comm. Shepard heard Revan’s weapon ignite behind her and held out a hand to prevent the elf from doing anything rash.

“What’s he talking about?”

The merc paled at the sight of Revan’s weapon and couldn’t speak fast enough. “Jedore runs the Blue Suns outfit here, and she’s making Krogan for an army. But they come out crazy. Tough as hell, but just insane.” Meaning the Blue Suns needed to send patrols to mop up the ones that started to wander. A patrol her team would likely run into if she didn’t do something.

“Conventional weapons have to be cheaper than a setup like that.” Garrus pointed out while Shepard thought about what to do about the patrol.

“I don’t know, I just point, shoot, and bank my credits. Maybe they have something better in the labs?”

“Outpost four?”

Shepard lowered her hand. “I think it's better if we don’t meet your friends. Don’t you?” She said softly to avoid the comm picking up her voice, aware of the red glow from Revan’s sword meaning the elf was likely passively threatening the merc behind her.

The merc swallowed audibly, turned and placed a hand on the comm. “Uh, patrol? The last group...dispersed. Lost sight five minutes ago.”

“Dispersed? Jadore will be pissed. She wanted a show.”

“You wanted a report, you got it. Dispersed.” the merc said panickedly, shooting Revan nervous looks.

“Fine, understood. Returning to the labs.”

“There. You see? I’m helping.” there was a touch of desperation in the merc’s voice now.

“Great! So why don’t you keep helping for a bit.” Shepard said and began grilling him about what was going on and how the facility was set up.

The merc didn’t know much. As a low level grunt all he knew was that Jadore had hired Okeer and that he was making a lot of krogan in an effort to make an army, as he had said multiple times. He knew nothing about what that army was going to be used for or why Jadore wanted it, nothing about why they were using krogan other than because they were krogan, and nothing useful about the facility they were heading to.

Shepard sighed. It was a longshot to hope that a grunt at a perimeter outpost would know anything but the only slightly useful info was that there weren't any defences specifically for repelling small infantry teams.

“Alright, guess we’re done here.”

“You sure?” Revan asked.

“Yeah, he doesn’t know anything useful and we’ve wasted enough time.” Shepard said and turned back to the merc gesturing back the way they came. “You’re free to-” Revan pulled out a handgun and shot the merc. A ring of blue energy hit him in the chest and he collapsed bonelessly.

Shepard gaped at the collapsed merc for a second before rounding on the elf.

“Revan, the hell?!”

“Relax. It was a stun shot.” Revan said calmly returning the pistol to the folds of her robes. “I know you wanted him to run off, but I’m not risking him changing his mind and calling his friends the second he has a change of heart.”

“So you just shoot him!? And where did you even get that in the first place?”

“Yes. Like I said it was a stun shot and his shields were down, without his armor sealed even a civilian grade stun-blaster would’ve worked. As for where I got it, that should be obvious, no?”

Shepard ground her teeth as the Sith turned and walked off towards the facility. It was kinda obvious where she had gotten the handgun. It had to have been in one of those crates they had recovered. No one knew what else might be in the others until Revan decided to show something off because they couldn’t open the things. No one could read the language on the controls to even try. And now that they had proof that it wasn’t just parts and datapads in those crates.

She sighed and did her best to push her frustration down. It’s not like Revan killed the merc and she was right about them wasting too much time. If Shepard had known about the stun gun beforehand she might’ve asked Revan to stun the merc anyway, so the only reason she was getting upset was because Revan hadn’t explained herself.

One day Shepard was going to figure out how to handle their resident extra-galactic visitor and the new weapons and abilities she kept springing on her, but it probably wasn’t going to be today.

“Fine. Let’s find Okeer before Revan gives me an aneurysm.” The rest of the ground team took off after the Sith.

“Think she has anything to share with the rest of us? I could use a new rifle.” Garrus wondered aloud.

“It would give us an edge over anything using kinetic shields. Her energy weapons have proven to be incredibly effective already. A ranged version would probably be just as effective.” Miranda added.

“You can ask after the mission.” Shepard snapped. “Heads in the game.”

They found the elf around a corner patiently waiting for the three of them.

“More Blue Suns up ahead.” Revan announced. “Two squads on the upper platforms. We should split our focus so we don’t give them time to call in more reinforcements.”

Thank God, a tactical problem. Something she could deal with.

“Sure, what’s the layout?”

“Left turn over two levels with catwalks on the other side. The first squad has an unrestricted sightline down this path,” Revan pointed behind her. “There’s a staircase down to the right, but the second squad is watching on an overpass.”

Okay, easy enough. Unless Shepard wanted to open a flank to the squad overlooking the path Revan would need to be the one to deal with the ones on the overpass. And considering Revan hadn’t just come out and said which one she would deal with, Shepard was sure the elf was waiting for Shepard to pick which target she wanted and was perfectly fine taking on whichever one was left.

“Is there any cover on the main path?”

Revan nodded.

“Not much but there are some walls the Blue Suns haven’t managed to cut out. They’re part of the hull of whatever ship they dragged out here to use as a building so it should hold up against whatever the mercs have on hand.”

Shepard frowned and looked at the chopped up remains of the ship hulls surrounding them. That...made a certain amount of sense. Not many construction crews would work on this planet and prefabs would be stolen. So the mercs probably did the best they could to strip away the few troublesome areas and just left the ones that remained since they were better than simply having dirt roads.

“We’ll head in from the road. I’m guessing you have a way to get to the overpass at the same time?”

“Yeah. I’ll move up alone and wait for the shooting to start.”

Revan split off and disappeared into the mess of jagged metal forming the walls surrounding them.

“You think she can get into position in time and handle a squad of mercs by herself?” Garrus asked, he had seen Revan in action so he knew she was capable of taking care of herself but Shepard prized teamwork over everything in the field. It was rare that she would support individuals going off on their own.

“I think she would’ve done this whole mission by herself if she could.” Shepard snarked. She knew Revan listened to the people around her but when it came down to it, the elf would simply do what she wanted. But this wasn’t the time to brood about their teammate. “Let’s go. We aren’t going to find Okeer standing around talking.”

True to Revan’s word, Shepard’s team ran into the mercenary fireteam as soon as they rounded the corner. They clearly weren’t expecting company so Shepard and Miranda were able to make it to a short wall by the staircase before the Blue Suns opened fire. The two of them tore through the merc’s shields with a combination of gunfire and biotics and Shepard had Garrus pick off the few that tried to make a run for it by catching them in a Lift field and letting the Turian sniper do what he did best.

Shepard was a little confused when the sound of gunfire was still audible even when no more shots were coming their way when she realized Revan was probably still fighting off to their left. She gathered up her two teammates and quickly moved into position just in case Revan needed help.

She didn’t.

Revan had somehow made it up to the overpass in the time it took Shepard’s team to walk down a hallway and was simply walking through the streams of gunfire heading her way. The Blue Suns were screaming in defiance or terror as the Sith disintegrated their rounds with a wave of a lightsaber and dragged them one by one out of cover by an unseen force. Pretty soon, there were no more mercs alive on the overpass.

“Spirits, I’m glad she’s on our side.” Garrus whispered. “That was just…”

Shepard agreed.

They didn’t have much time to talk. Another Blue Suns group rounded a corner on another overpass further down the trench her team found themselves in. They took one look at Revan standing over the bodies of some of their compatriots and opened fire. One of them made a try for his radio, but his head snapped back as Garrus’s rifle boomed.

“Into cover! Keep moving forward and watch lines of fire!” Shepard shouted and ran forward herself.

The next several minutes were a chaotic blur to Shepard’s memory as they fought through more Blue Sun mercs. She made sure to have Garrus target anyone who looked like they were going to call for backup and she saw Revan do the same on some occasions but they still ran into more groups of three to four mercs as they ran forward. Thankfully it seemed like most of the mercs didn’t have a communicator that went back to the main facility for some reason but Shepard wasn’t about to worry about it too much if it meant the enemy was coming at them disorganised and unsupported.

At some point Revan dropped down next to her and redirected a rocket with the wave of a hand. “The main facility knows something’s up.”

Shepard snapped off another shot with her M-6 and hit a merc square in the chest. “Yeah? How’d you know?”

“Grabbed one of the comms off a trooper.” Revan held up the device. “They know the patrols are getting wiped out by something but they are getting conflicting reports about by who. We lucked out and some of the Krogan are pushing for the facility at the same time.”

They moved forward into more Blue Suns and found them fighting a handful of Krogan in a berserker rage. The comm in Revan’s hand crackled to life. “Code Six! Offworld presence! Shift fire from the Krogan! Hostiles in the compound!”

Revan chuckled. “Well I guess they know for certain now.”

“Just get back in the fight.” Shepard snapped.

Revan’s head tilted to look at the Commander but said nothing. She just nodded and ran forward, the glowing swords drawing the attention of nearly everyone on the battlefield.

Once the last of the mercs dropped dead Shepard found herself less than ten feet from a bleeding but still standing Krogan. Even then the lone visible wound swiftly stopped bleeding as the Krogan's natural healing swiftly dealt with the injury. The odd thing was...the Krogan that had been screaming and firing mindlessly at the mercs was now standing docilely in front of her despite the weapons pointed at him by her teammates.

Shepard held out a cautious hand to get Garrus and Miranda to stand down. Revan had already deactivated her lightsabers but the hilts were still in hand.

After a second the Krogan lumbered forward and sniffed Shepard. Weird, and certainly concerning since she had never seen a Krogan act like this. Shepard just hoped they could get some answers to what was going on.

“You...are different. New. You don’t smell like this world.” The Krogan said. “Seven night cycles and I have only felt the need to kill. But you...something makes me speak.”

Shepard risked a glance at Revan at the mention of unexplained desires -she had mentioned telepathy at one point- and got a small nod in return. She wasn’t sure how to feel about that, so she made a mental note to grill the elf on that later.

“He’s only a week old?” Miranda’s voice jolted Shepard out of her thoughts and back to the large alien in front of them.

“They must breed them full size so they’re ready to kill. Not much use as an army if they are too small to hold a gun. And I don’t think a merc company would be patient enough to train adolescents.”

“Bred...to kill.” the Krogan mused. “No. I kill because my blood and bone tell me to. But it’s not why I was flushed from Glass-mother.

“Survival is what I hear in my head. Against the enemy that threatens all my kind. But I failed even before waking. That is what the voice in the water said. That is why I wait here.”

Great. The Krogan might not be in a howling bloodrage, but he was still crazy.

“You heard a voice in the water?” Shepard asked.

The Krogan explained that the voice was the one that determined that he had failed his purpose, likely a cure for the genophage that ensured most Krogans were infertile or had trouble procreating, and was responsible for teaching the clone in front of them. When it was decided the clone wasn’t ‘perfect’ the teaching had stopped and he was given over to Jedore.

Although it sounded like the relationship between Jedore and Okeer wasn’t exactly great. From what Shepard could infer, Okeer was planning on moving on at some point without the mercenary leader. Likely after he had finished his experiments. Shepard asked a few more questions hoping to figure out what both leaders were attempting, but the Krogan clone didn’t know anything more.

After getting some directions to the lab, the team moved on.

-o-

“I need answers Revan.”

Revan sighed. She had been expecting this considering the tumult of emotions she could sense in Shepard but she had hoped they would be back on the Normandy before they confronted each other.

The group was taking a breather from the dragged out fight they had just gone through. With Miranda and Garrus keeping an eye out for trouble it was easy enough for Shepard to pull Revan aside for a private conversation.

“I don’t suppose you’ll wait until we’re done here?” she tried.

Shepard shook her head. “You did something to that clone. I need to know what so I can tell if you start pulling it on the rest of us.”

Revan gave her a flat stare, hidden as it was by her visor, then sighed again.

“If I do, will you tell me why you’re snapping at the team?”

“I am not-” Shepard bristled.

“You are. You put on a good show back at the Normandy with the happy attitude, but you are snapping at everything that isn’t mission focused.”

“This isn’t the best time to play at being a psychiatrist.” Shepard growled.

“It’s not. But someone has to call you on this. Garrus is worried but trusting you to handle it and Miranda isn’t close enough to you to know you’re tearing yourself up about something. So as the resident empath, and yes that is how I calmed the clone down, I get to deal with you.”

Thankfully, the mention of her friend being concerned about her behavior was enough to stop Shepard from just ignoring everything she said, but from the way her anger spiked Shepard didn’t like the admission Revan could sense her emotions.

“Before you say anything, I want you to stop seeing the color blue.”

“Wha-” The random comment threw off whatever tirade Shepard was about to spout.

“You got upset at me sensing your emotions but for me I sense everyone’s emotions. All the time. It’s not some ability I turn on and off rather it’s something I always sense but just don’t focus on.” Revan explained. “And because I know this is your next question, no, I’m not manipulating the emotions of the team. Doing that on strong willed sentients is hard.”

“You read my mind for that?” Shepard asked sharply.

“No. Now, your turn.” When Shepard didn’t say anything Revan leaned forward threateningly and held up a hand. “Of course if you don’t tell me I will read your mind just to figure out why you are acting like this.”

Shepard obviously didn’t like that. Not at all.

But faced between talking freely or having it forced out of her, Shepard picked the option that gave her some measure of control.

“You’re right. I’m lashing out. The more I try and act like myself the more I feel like the pieces just don’t fit. I shouldn’t be running missions, hell I shouldn't even be running a fireteam! But once again no one else is going to step up for it so I have to or nothing gets done. Do you even know what it’s like to look in the mirror and wonder if the person looking back is even you?”

By the Force, there was no possible way Revan was going to be able to handle this quickly.

“I actually do know what that’s like.” Revan said dryly. By the wince, Shepard finally remembered the Sith explaining the ‘Death of Personality’ ritual.

“How do you deal with that?” The desperation in the human’s voice was clear, and it wasn’t helping Revan refocus Shepard on the mission without her snapping at her teammates.

“There’s a couple ways. Meditation mostly. I’ll show you how once we aren’t in the middle of a combat zone.” Revan offered.

“Haaaah.” Shepard let out a long sigh. “Right...you’re right. I need to keep it together for this mission, then I’ll probably take you up on that offer.”

That was actually better than Revan was expecting.

“Then let’s get this over with.”

Shepard nodded and signaled the other two to rejoin them. After a final equipment check the four continued into the facility in search of Okeer.