The Normandy was a hive of activity, the crew busy with final checks before lifting off again. Supplies were stowed away, systems were checked; both by EDI and various engineers, and everything was checked over and signed off by either Shepard or Miranda.

Shepard was actually glad to be dealing with paperwork for the moment. It let her ignore the madness from yesterday.

It started on a high note, she was still feeling pretty good about helping Miranda’s sister, when Liara managed to find not one, but both of the people Shepard was looking to recruit. Something she would’ve been more appreciative of if both of them hadn’t gotten into trouble at nearly the same time.

One of them, an Asari Justicar named Samara, had managed to get detained by the security forces which allowed Liara to track her down pretty quickly though she might not remain there for long. Unfortunately, this information came at the same time the Drell Assassin they had been looking for decided to make his move by going after an Asari businesswoman. Thane Krios was easily one of the best. Which meant that even after two year where he was confirmed to be on Illium this was the first time someone had a solid lead on his location.

It also meant Shepard couldn’t head to both locations at the same time and someone else needed to handle one of the recruitment pitches for a mission no one sane would touch with a ten foot pole. So the Spectre made a judgement call. She would handle the Justicar while Revan would handle the Assassin.

The Commander would almost have preferred to send Miranda as the next (official)highest ranking member of the crew, but she had been busy making sure there was no way her sister’s family leaving Illium could be tracked. It didn’t matter in the end since Revan had successfully recruited Thane despite some...unexpected complications that had popped up in the middle of the mission.

Shepard still hadn’t heard the full story but if it was anything like how her own mission went then she had another headache just waiting for her. And she wasn’t going to go searching for another one so soon after what happened with Samara either!

She had headed down to the spaceport with the vain hope that things would be solved quickly and easily and found herself dropped into something out of a crime drama. A Volus murdered by Eclipse mercenaries. Mercenaries Samara had slaughtered looking for information from. Which caused the local powers-that-be to order her detained. There was even a pretty badass Detective that acted with a dry stoicism like she had seen it all!

The Spectre might’ve been more amused with the situation if ordering Detective Anaya to detain Samara wasn’t a death sentence in disguise. Apparently there was a time limit the Justicar would cooperate before breaking out, killing anyone in her way, and continuing her personal mission. Nothing Shepard or anyone else could convince her otherwise and the other Asari seemed perfectly okay with it. It was downright freaky listening to a bunch of them acknowledge Samara would likely kill all of them tomorrow without a second thought yet hold her in such high esteem at the same time.

Thankfully for everyone involved, Shepard was able to find the information Samara needed from the remaining Eclipse in the area; a list of ships smuggling things in and out of Illium.

Samara agreed to join up and Anaya had wasted no time releasing her from custody.

Shepard sighed.

Now if only the other recruitment pitch had gone nearly as well.

She finished off the last of items needing her signature and made her way to the communications/briefing room. Inside both Jacob and Garrus were waiting for an official debrief of Thane’s recruitment mission. Shepard had already gone through the highlights with Revan, but she also liked to talk to other squadmates when the opportunity was there just in case she missed something. No one could remember everything important in the middle of a mission after all.

“Alright guys,” Shepard said by way of greeting. “I know things got a bit louder than we were expecting with Thane. What's the damage?”

“Lots of civilians ended up as casualties when the Eclipse started purging all the workers and a good bit of the Dantius Towers will be shut down until they can be rebuilt.” It was obvious Garrus wasn’t happy about that. “But in exchange we got rid of a company of Eclipse, dozens of mechs, and Revan trashed a luxury Skystrider that belonged to some corrupt businessman.” He sounded much happier about those, but one thing stood out to Shepard.

“Wait, she did what? Revan never mentioned anything about a car to me.”

“I don’t think she actually knows.” Jacob commented, bringing up something on his omnitool. It was a picture of the car in question, a top of the line model that looked like someone had crushed it from above with something heavy.

“We caught a merc slacking on the job and Revan grilled him for information. He said...something stupid...and she pushed him out the window. Must’ve landed on the car on the way down” The marine looked a little disturbed by the style of the merc’s execution and Shepard didn’t blame him. Letting someone fall to their death seemed unnecessarily cruel.

“Hmph, I wouldn’t waste time feeling bad about the merc.” Garrus grunted. “That ‘something stupid’ Jacob was telling you about was the merc boasting his team would be right around the corner once they finished cleaning the floor...right after we ran into a group of Salarians that told us they saw workers jumping off ledges to get away from the FENRIS mechs. I think Revan didn’t like that.”

Any sympathy for the merc drained away. Shepard might’ve thrown the bastard out the window herself if she had been there. FENRIS mechs had a taser designed to work through heavy armor installed in them and the Commander doubted the mercs lowered the output. Unarmored workers would’ve been helpless before dying painfully.

“Okay, so Eclipse was definitely killing the workers and you took them all down.” Shepard rubbed at her forehead. “What happened next?”

“We followed Thane’s trail through the buildings, rescued a few more groups of workers that managed to hide from the Eclipse, then fought our way into the penthouse where Nassana Dantius was hiding out.”

“Why do I know that name?” Shepard furrowed her brows, trying to remember. Garrus saved her the effort.

“She was the Asari we met on the Citadel that tricked us into killing her slaver sister. Real piece of work, thought another one of her sisters hired us to take her out.”

“Ah, right. Her…”

Jacob interrupted the trip down memory lane. “She tried to buy us off but no one was taking her seriously. Krios dropped from the ceiling in the middle of her pitch, tore through her guards, and killed her.”

“Well I doubt many people will miss her.” Shepard mused. “How did the actual recruitment pitch go?”

“Pretty weird.” Jacob shook his head. “Krios ignored us for a while, praying for the wicked; which turns out is actually him. Revan let him do his thing and then he comes over and starts talking to us like he didn’t just kill five people in just as many seconds.”

“Religious, huh? That’s interesting.” Shepard also thought it was kinda weird that both specialists they brought onboard held their beliefs so highly and were so open about it. Talk about coincidences. Most people she met were pretty private about their faiths. Except Hanar, they would go for hours about their religion at the drop of a hat.

“So what happened?”

“They just started chatting!” Jacob threw his hands up. “Got along like old friends just like that and eventually Revan tells him the whole mission is basically suicide and asks him to join up. Krios thinks about it for like ten seconds and agrees!”

Shepard’s eyebrows disappeared into her hairline. Why would someone…

“Well, turns out there's some extenuating circumstances.” Garrus took over. “Our new friend says he’s dying so the low survival odds don’t mean much to him. He’s just looking to make the universe a bit brighter before he leaves it. A nice goal, even if he’s a bit dramatic about it.”

“I’ll take your word for it, Garrus. If anyone knows about being dramatic it’s you.” Shepard joked, getting a sound of protest from the turian. “But dying? Is there anything we can do for him?”

“Not according to him. We didn’t get the details but he says it won’t affect the crew or his work so I’m thinking either old injury or illness. You could probably get more from him.”

Shepard made a quick note to at least ask about it when she went to meet Thane.

She asked a few more questions and had the two go over the mission again just to make sure nothing got left out the first time but eventually she was satisfied.

One last check confirmed she had no more questions and she nodded at the two squad members. “Okay, that should be all I need. Why don’t-” Everyone froze as a tremor went through the entire ship. Before anyone moved, EDI’s avatar suddenly bloomed over the holo-projector.

“Commander Shepard, you are needed in the hangar bay.”

“What’s going on EDI?” Shepard was already moving even as the AI kept talking.

“There is an altercation taking place between Revan and Samara.”

“Shit.” That had the potential to rip the Normandy in half! “Do we know why?”

“Unknown.”

Shepard cursed again and double timed it for the elevator. If those two broke her ship there would be hell to pay!

-o-

While the rest of the crew was taking time to prepare the Normandy for launch, Revan was taking advantage of the final few hours planetside to inspect the new M-44 Hammerhead hover tank that had been brought on board with no one hovering over her shoulder and comparing it to some of the vehicles back home.

In her honest opinion? The Hammerhead is an over-designed pile of scrap that she bet was some designer’s baby rather than an honest attempt at making what she assumed was a light reconnaissance tank.

The main gun was fixed horizontally so the whole tank needed to turn to shift targets, the hoverjets overheated quickly if pushed, and the stabilising fins were incredibly exposed making them vulnerable to both the elements and enemy fire. If it wasn’t for a frankly ridiculously impressive repair system the Hammerhead would probably never make it more than a handful of deployments before breaking down. And of course, because no one in this galaxy seemed content without one, the designers shoved another one of their limited VI droid analogues into the frame. Practically daring anyone to hack the thing and trap the crew inside.

The Sith could only shake her head at the design and continue her inspection.

Eventually she decided to take a break and noticed an unfamiliar Asari wandering around the hangar with a look of placid curiosity on her face.

Since there was little chance a random person managed to get through EDI and the rest of the crew unnoticed, this person must have been authorised to be here. Likely the Asari Justicar Shepard had gone off to recruit while Revan tracked down Thane.

While Revan didn’t exactly seek out every new arrival on the Normandy to welcome them onto the crew like they would become good friends soon, she did make an effort to introduce herself to everyone she might find herself working with.

With that in mind, Revan headed over to the newcomer and waited politely until the Asari finished what she was doing and turned to face her.

“Hello, you must be one of the new crewmembers?”

“Yes, my name is Samara. Asari Justicar and sworn to Shepard’s service for the duration of her mission.” Samara’s voice is cool and pleasant to listen to but Revan can’t help the sharp flash of dislike she felt hearing it. It reminded her far too much of the Jedi masters that did their best to cut themselves off from all emotions. Revan often had more engaging conversations with droids than the meat-puppets those masters turned themselves into.

Still, if she could deal with them, she could do the same for the woman in front of her. Even if the briefing materials she read about Justicars drew some unflattering comparisons. There was always a chance that those could be exaggerated.

“I am Revan. I lead the second ground team. If you need any help settling in, please, feel free to ask.”

Pale blue eyes roamed over Revan’s visor where her own violet ones would be. The Sith was reminded once again of the Jedi Council with how the Asari seemed to run everything she saw past some kind of filter before choosing to respond.

Then Revan stiffened as a faint Force Presence brushed against her. One that she quickly identified coming from the Asari infront of her. “Thank you, though if I may ask, you seem disturbed by my presence?”

Revan slammed her mental barriers closed. She hadn’t come across another active Force user yet and she got lazy. If Samara or someone else had decided to attack…

But the Asari did nothing. In fact she didn’t even respond to Revan raising her defences. An unconscious use of the Force?

“Do you always read people’s emotions when you talk with them?” The Sith asked without judgement, it would be incredibly hypocritical for her to cast blame for another doing so but she wanted to know if it was an active probe or not.

“Many Asari are sensitive to the feelings of those around them.” Samara responded with a non-answer. “Apologies if that offends you.”

The more Revan learned about the Asari the more she was convinced they naturally had a strong Force connection as a race. Though in a way it tentatively confirmed the earlier probe was a natural or unconscious use of the Force and not a directed effort on Samara’s part.

In the unlikely event that Revan decided to take another apprentice, the Asari would likely be a good place to start looking.

“It wasn’t that. I have bad history with monastic orders and was projecting that on you.” Revan replied. “They had a habit of hiding behind their code and traditions when it was inconvenient to live up to the spirit those things were created for.”

“I wasn’t aware humans still had monastic orders.” Samara said with a spark of interest. “And while it is distressing to hear, I can assure you Justicars are fully devoted to our own code.”

“See, that’s the kind of attitude I’m talking about.” Revan shook her head and looked at the datapad in her hand. “There were plenty of Jedi that were devoted to the code but when they needed to do something not specifically outlined by it, they failed in their roles. Ah, and I am not a human by the way.”

Unseen by the Sith, Samara stiffened and focused intently on her.

“Jedi?”

“Yes, that is the name of the monastic order I mentioned. Indifferent and aloof to the people they claimed to protect, secretive and jealous with the knowledge they acquired, and most damningly... hypocrites of the highest order when their personal power was threatened.” Revan said heatedly. “Don’t get me wrong, there were members that lived up to the ideal they were supposed to represent. But they were few and far between at the higher ranks of the order.”

“I take it you are an enemy of theirs then?”

Revan idly noted the odd phrasing but didn’t mention it. “Most of them were more obstacles than true enemies,” Honestly, she had almost as much success talking Jedi around to her way of thinking as she did actually killing them. And many of those she did kill wouldn’t have been there if it wasn’t for the Council being too cowardly to face her themselves. “I can only hope the Justicars are a better representation of how to live by a code than they are-, were.” She corrected herself.

Samara shifted again and this time Revan not only noticed the movement, she noticed subtle whispers in the Force warning her of danger nearby.

“Occasionally when a Justicar meets a foe that can be a threat to the order or to the Asari as a whole they are given a title. Did the Jedi do similar? Perhaps Sith...or even Darth?”

The whispers grew louder and Revan frowned behind her visor. Obviously Samara hadn’t read the briefing packet on the various members of the Normandy crew since that information was clearly listed there, yet the Justicar seemed to know what those terms represented anyway. Another instance of Revan’s galaxy making contact with this one?

Revan brushed off those thoughts and began to draw deeply from the Force even as Samara began to glow with a Biotic Aura.

“Yes. I’ve been called both those things, though more for my hostile stance against the Jedi than for following the traditions of the Sith.”

Samara’s fingers twitched and Revan fought back the impulse to reach for her lightsabers. Dismembering Shepard’s new recruit should be a last resort, not an opening move.

“It’s regrettable that I am forced to retract my oath so soon after giving it. The Third Oath of Subsumation only has one clause for release before the mission is complete; to prevent the rise of a Sith Empire by the will of the Goddess.” Shortly after Samara finished speaking, Biotic energy crashed into a Force barrier with an impact that shook the entire ship.

Eventually Samara was forced to back off from her assault and retreated a few steps before diving out of the way of a quick burst of lightning.

As Revan tracked her, several thoughts crossed her mind. Somehow the Justicars knew about both the Jedi and the Sith. Probably more than the Alliance did as well considering it sounded like the Asari considered the Sith enemies of their religion. She wondered if another person had managed to get themselves stranded in this galaxy like she did or if the Asari simply recovered an artifact. Though more Force visions couldn’t be discounted, especially with the sensitivity the whole race seemed to possess.

The asari tried to Pull a nearby crate over to use as cover but Revan grabbed it in her own telekinetic hold and forced it still until the mass effect fields surrounding it collapsed. She tried again but this time using one of the crates as a battering ram. Revan allowed it to rocket towards her before jumping over the flying object and launching more lighting at the Justicar.

Caught out in the open, Samara responded by throwing up a glowing barrier that managed to hold off the Force-empowered energy splashing against it.

In a short few seconds Revan had learned quite a bit about her sudden enemy.

Samara not only had more raw power than Jack, though maybe not for long considering the human’s powers were still growing, she also knew how to use it with a precision Jack lacked.

Several times Revan tried to end the fight by choking Samara to either knock her unconscious or to open her up to another attack, only to find the asari had automatically adjusted her personal barrier to compensate. She also found out rather unpleasantly Samara was capable of using two Singularities at once despite all research she had done on the technique saying that was nearly impossible.

Samara revealed herself to be fairly decent at tactics too. Not only taking advantage of the miniature black holes she created to hamper Revan’s movement but also combining effects to try and throw the Sith off. Lifting objects only to Pull or Throw them once she throught Revan had ignored them, deliberately missing in attempts to corral her into the path of more powerful attacks, and in one case - exploding a Singularity by intentionally destabilising the mass effect field to force the Sith Lord to back off.

And that was what revealed the Justicar’s weakness.

Throughout the entire fight Samara had done her best to stay some ways away from Revan. She simply didn’t seem as comfortable with hand-to-hand combat as she was with her Biotics. Samara could probably contend with most fighters no problem, but the asari recognised Revan was likely better and did her best to keep distance.

So Revan strove to get close as much as possible. She certainly wasn’t about to let some Jedi knockoff best her now!

The two combatants squared up again after their latest scuffle forced them apart. Each one looking for an opening. Both of them were so focused on the other that they almost didn’t notice two Lift fields coming at them until it was nearly too late. Revan dropped her Force barrier and looked over to see who dared interfere with her duel to find a furious Shepard marching her way into the hangar.

“What. Do. You. Think. You. Are. Doing?” Shepard hissed each word through clenched teeth.

A small part of Revan’s mind was amused that the Commander had intruded on a duel between a Sith Lord and a Justicar wearing nothing more than casual clothes and a bad attitude. The rest was occupied looking for any hint that Samara would continue attacking.

However, it looked like the appearance of the Commander had taken the fight out of Samara for the moment. She was still poised to respond to an attack, but her posture was purely defensive at the moment.

“I thought your oath meant you wouldn’t randomly pick fights with my crew.” Shepard spat. At least she knew who started the fight.

“Normally, yes.” Samara replied calmly. “But all oaths and duties are secondary when it comes to removing the Sith from the galaxy. This is a facet of the Code that has hardly ever been relevant so I did not mention it during our conversation.”

“Well, at the very least you inherited the causal disregard of your oaths from the Jedi.” Revan sneered. “I’m sure whoever started your little sect is very pleased with themselves.”

It was telling how pissed off the Commander was, though now that she wasn’t focused on combat Revan could easily sense the human was fuming, that she didn’t turn to face the Sith. Merely pointing a finger at her demanding that she keep quiet.

“Well it’s pretty damn relevant when you start breaking my ship! And you!” Shepard rounded on Revan. “I know for a fact you have that stun blaster thing on you. Why the hell didn’t you use that instead of carbon-scoring my hangar bay?!” She pointed at the black lines left behind by Revan’s lightning.

“Once the fighting started I couldn’t afford the distraction of trying to draw it.” Revan shrugged. It was a lie though. She actually hadn’t drawn any other weapons because Samara had managed to prick her pride and she wanted to beat the asari without them.

Shepard certainly didn’t seem to buy that either, going by the glare.

“...sure. Now how are we going to fix this so I don’t need to worry about my ship blowing up everytime I turn my back on you two?” Shepard demanded.

“The Code demands the threat of the Sith is removed. This supersedes my oath to you, Shepard. We cannot allow a repeat of the Red Sith Empire to be born here.”

“Revan, explain.”

Revan was actually shocked that Samara mentioned the Red Sith, though when she thought about it it made some sense. According to the briefing, the Justicars were old. Thousands of years old. For something from Revan’s galaxy to get here early enough to be included in their founding tenets, it wasn’t much of a stretch to believe they were talking about the old Sith Empire.

“The Red Sith Empire, more commonly known as the original Sith Empire, was the result of a schism in the Jedi. After they were defeated in war, a few ‘dark Jedi’ fled to the depths of the galaxy -my galaxy, that is- and discovered the Sith, a comparatively primitive warlike race unusually sensitive to the Force. Those dark Jedi subjugated the locals and elevated themselves to become gods to their new subjects.

“After a few thousand years of interbreeding through the use of Alchemy the differences between the native Sith and their dark Jedi masters ceased to be relevant. So ‘Sith’ became just the name of the empire and their slaves and eventually became a term for ‘Dark Side’ users after their destruction.”

Revan felt a small bit of amusement at the astonished expression on Shepard’s face. She could be quite expressive when she wasn’t focused.

“You named yourself after an empire that enslaved an entire race and tried to take over the galaxy?!” Shepard cried.

“No, I named myself after the second empire that formed after the fall of the old Sith empire, by then they were just another warlike race. And again I did that as a symbolic gesture to rouse the rest of the galaxy in preparation for the Vong’s invasion.”

“The reasoning does not matter.” Samara cut in cooly. “The Code is clear. Shepard, either join me in destroying the Sith or stand aside. Until she is dead I cannot follow you on your mission.”

The amusement Revan felt was snuffed out by the Justicar’s words and her hands crept towards her lightsabers. She would not be going down without a fight.

Shepard caught the movement and quickly spoke up again. “Why not? You heard her. She isn’t from the same group your code warned you of, just one with the same name.”

“Even if the Sith only shares the name, she still poses a great threat to the galaxy. It is my duty to remove that threat.” Samara said stubbornly.

Revan felt diplomacy was about to fail and started to draw on the Force again. This time she would not be playing around.

“Wait, wait!” Shepard tried once more. “Even if she is a threat, she is still working to stop the Collectors and was a big part why we were able to drive them away from Horizon. Shouldn’t protecting innocents take priority over a distant threat?”

The Justicar actually paused at that.

“If she is truly not one of these ‘old Sith’ then I suppose my Oath of Subsumation would not be revoked and Shepard’s faith in you would take precedence over the Code.” Revan watched as Samara thought it over but didn’t release her hold on her blades.

After some time the asari looked to the Sith. “Very well, I will withhold any actions against you until the mission is over or you prove Shepard’s faith misplaced. Excuse me, I must meditate on these matters.”

Revan watched warily as Samara left without another word.

Whoever created the brainwashing regime for the Justicars certainly outdid anyone Revan had ever met. Not even the most fanatical of the Jedi had been able to swap their decisions so...robotically.

“What the hell just happened?” Shepard asked tiredly. It seemed Revan wasn’t the only one affected by the sudden departure.

“That is what happens when someone lets a Code determine everything about how they live.” Revan replied. “They cease being people and just become puppets to a bunch of rules.”

The Commander just sighed and rubbed at her face. “I’m not dealing with more of this right now. We’re leaving the dock in an hour. Please don’t uncover any other ancient feuds with people that will break my ship or I will do my best to throw you all out the airlock. Until then, I’ll be at my desk wondering exactly when the universe stopped making sense.”

Revan did feel a pang of sympathy for Shepard and at how exhausted she sounded. Revan knew from experience that infighting among subordinates could wear on a person more than any battle, especially since the Commander put so much of herself into her crew.

The Sith wasn’t about to subordinate herself or bend over backwards to make the Commander’s life easier, but perhaps a gift was in order as thanks for dealing with Revan’s problems on her behalf.

Maybe a blaster rifle to replace the slugthrowers she dragged around? Blackboxed to prevent anyone from stealing the technology, of course, but much better than her current gear.

Revan opened up the inventory list she had taken of everything salvaged from the ship she arrived on and started looking at parts. Now she just needed to see what would suit the human’s needs…