"We're on site. No beacon in sight."
I sent a short message to the Normandy, then turned and looked at our newest addition.
"Williams, where could they have moved the beacon?"
Knowing canon was good, but I still wanted to confirm.
"Only to the spaceport… from here there are two roads: the one we came on, and one to the spaceport. So they could only move it there."
"Understood."
I activated my omni-tool again.
"Unconfirmed: beacon may have been moved to the spaceport. Advancing to verify."
The APC started moving, but of course it couldn't be that simple. And it wasn't. After barely two hundred meters, snipers opened fire. My biotics protected us, sure, but… it was unpleasant.
"And why are you sitting there?!"
Jane snapped at Williams.
"It's not realistic… rangefinder says the snipers are about five kilometers out. For a human to shoot at that range—"
"Got it. You're a useless idiot who thought she could latch onto our team."
"Jane, I could sit like this for a long time—my stamina is enough. This isn't Elysium, where my unit was getting shot at with everything the pirates had when they raided the planet with an armada. But… maybe you'll do something?"
"One second, sir."
She didn't show an ounce of displeasure. When I looked back at her, I saw her climbing out of her exoskeleton—securing it to her armor—pulling out a sniper rifle, and firing.
No, she couldn't hit from that distance, but she wasn't trying. She laid down suppressive fire, cutting the incoming shots by about a third.
"And why are you sitting there?!"
Jane snapped at Williams again.
"Do what I'm doing!"
When Williams started shooting, incoming fire dropped a bit more, and geth began dying as the APC kept rolling forward.
"So, we've reached some kind of transport hub…"
Everyone, look around! The dome is almost useless here, so I'll keep a shield in front of us.
"Sir, there's a body…"
I went to Rebecca, who'd called my attention, and—unsurprisingly—found Kryik.
"Oh yeah… alone you do move toward death faster."
"Kh…"
I stared at him, surprised; he coughed and forced his eyes open.
"…I… kh… I'm not dead yet."
"Damn…"
I crouched beside him and scanned his head with my omni-tool, running a specialized diagnostic.
"You were fucking born in a shirt…"
I shook my head.
"…it looks awful, but the bullet ricocheted off your skull. Aside from cranial trauma and torn outer tissue, you've got nothing."
"Hah. And you were talking about death."
"Don't move."
I quickly flooded the wound with medi-gel.
"Alright. Now you won't die of blood loss either—you had a chance of that. Now into the APC, because combat participation is bad for you."
"I'm not some girl…"
"I'll knock you the fuck out."
I showed him a fist glowing with biotic flame.
"APC it is."
"Good."
I helped him into the vehicle and was about to leave when I heard his question.
"You don't want to ask how it happened?"
"No. Everyone makes mistakes. Some get lucky and the mistake becomes a wound and nothing more. Others pay with lives—and it doesn't matter whether it's their own or the lives of those near them. And specifics don't interest me while I'm not in the Spectres."
"Hah. The right approach."
"Sir, I found a witness!"
"A witness?"
I looked at Jane, who was hauling a scrawny man out from behind crates by the collar.
"A witness to what?"
"I saw one turian shoot another!"
"Oh… put him in the vehicle and have someone watch him so he doesn't run. We'll need witnesses. Cameras?"
"What cameras to hell?"
Jane smirked crookedly.
"This is a temporary transport hub. They were going to dismantle it after the dig ended—same with the monorail that runs from here to the spaceport."
"Understood."
With a couple gestures, I, Jane, Rebecca, and Williams moved toward the platform standing on the monorail line. We had to leave the APC behind—there was no passage for it.
"Contact!"
I signaled enemy ahead, and Jane and Rebecca immediately poured fire with their exoskeleton cannons.
"And why am I even needed here?"
"Chatter…"
I threw Williams a displeased look. With every minute, I liked this idiot less. I didn't like her in canon either; she survived to Mass Effect 3 only because between her and Kaidan, she annoyed me less. In reality… she was just irritating. Even Alenko with his migraines annoyed me less—at least he could be helped. He was a coward, sure, but I'd already ordered him a new implant. An L3-M-V3. Which meant: L3 biotic implant, modified, modification version three. Basically it lacked the flaws of the L2 implants, but nothing more—so his capabilities would remain what they were.
"Contact."
The girls poured fire again, and soon we reached the platform.
"Alright, take positions and wait for daddy."
"Yes, sir!"
Jane, Rebecca, and Williams took positions immediately. I went back along the cleared route to the APC, lifted it with biotics, and carefully set it on the platform sideways so it could serve as additional cover.
"Alright, Jane, activate the platform."
I said it and sat down, leaning my back against the APC's wheel—sitting in front of it, not behind it, so any enemy seeing us would target me first. Though the biotic dome covered the entire platform.
"Damn, he's some kind of monster…"
Williams didn't speak quietly enough, so I heard her perfectly—but I didn't react. In a way, she was right. I wasn't a man—I was a monster… a chimera whose creator failed to keep control. All because someone in high circles decided to joke and stuffed the soul and mind from another world into a chimera's body.
"Williams, shut up."
There wasn't a trace of friendliness in Jane's voice.
"But ma'am—"
"Shut up, I said, or I'll put a round through your knee."
"… "
Williams fell silent. I smirked under my helmet. And it had started so strangely…
A lab… unknown bastards in coats teaching me English. Luckily I'd studied it in school; I could say "I am from Russia." Only I didn't. I decided to do what I was told and listen.
Pretty quickly, I learned I was in another world, and my creator—my "father"—came to me, telling fairy tales and trying to make me believe I was his heir and that everything I had was owed to him.
But that wasn't all.
Father believed I had to be the best at everything, so at six years old I began intensive training and education.
And then I realized where I was—because not realizing it when a blue, bald girl in a tight suit is standing in front of you and talking about biotics would mean being an idiot. Mass Effect had been one of my favorite worlds.
But understanding what world I'd landed in didn't make my life easier. It made it worse. Not only did the instructors start tormenting me—literally hammering knowledge into my head—but I started tearing myself apart too. The Harvest I'd likely face wasn't kittens. It was a global problem.
Still…
Back then it was such a distant prospect that I didn't think about it. I just took what they gave me—and then some.
At some point, when I was about eight, I learned my father's name: Henry Lawson.
For a couple days I felt rattled, thinking I'd replaced Miranda in this universe, but… replaced her or not, I had to keep learning. And as much as I wanted to help other familiar characters—Jack, for example—I knew criminally little to make that happen. And besides, I simply had no opportunity. To Henry, I was a project—a project to be finished.
He kept me in the lab. I had one single room, plus a training range where they drilled me in hand-to-hand and biotics. That was it.
I started thinking about escape at fourteen…
But I drove those thoughts away, because I understood that even without realizing it, Henry was giving me everything I'd need to survive the coming nightmare. So I endured. Endured his pretentious lectures about other species being "resources." Endured him saying humanity must stand above all—except that above humanity there should only be one's own family.
So I endured—and nodded in the right moments.
When I turned sixteen—not to the day, but still—I learned I had two sisters. And one of them had run away, taking the other with her.
That day, Henry let his guard down. He came to me without security—he'd sent them out to search for my sisters—and I decided not to waste the chance. I hit him with biotics.
No, I understood I couldn't kill him yet, so I didn't. I just knocked him out, took his omni-tool off his wrist, put it on mine and…
Bingo.
Henry was paranoid and wanted to control everyone and everything. His omni-tool had countless programs for controlling not just the lab, but the estate—and the corporation he'd built.
Oh, how I laughed, locking Henry in the room where I'd spent so many years, and then issuing orders in his name. Best of all, the orders were obeyed without debate. In under three hours, I was in Henry's office watching surveillance stills showing my sister Miranda carrying off a little girl.
I wasn't going to stop them. On the contrary, I ordered no one to interfere. Sure, I could've tried, but…
Why?
Miranda wouldn't believe soldiers screaming that Henry had stepped aside and his son had taken over. The soldiers themselves might try to attack me—after all, I was a sixteen-year-old kid, and they might decide to act aggressively and seize power.
Understanding that, and that I had no choice, I contacted one extremely eccentric woman who already had everything. That didn't mean she wouldn't try to take the corporation—but… maybe, since she already had everything, she'd leave me at least crumbs.
That's what I was thinking when I contacted Aria.
** Seventeen years earlier. **
"Yes, Henry, what do you want?"
Aria's voice sounded slightly tired. Still, it carried authority—and it made you want to bow your head and recognize the power of its owner.
"My deepest apologies, Lady Aria, but this is not Henry Lawson. This is his son, John Lawson. And I'm calling you with a very interesting proposal."
"Boy… does your daddy know you stole his omni-tool?"
A note of threat entered Aria's voice.
"Well…"
I looked at one of the office monitors.
"…not yet. At the moment he's unconscious, locked in the room where he kept me for sixteen years while trying to raise me into his loyal follower."
"He… what?"
I was surprised—there was so much hatred in Aria's voice that goosebumps the size of small boars ran over my skin.
"Boy, you don't joke about that."
"Lady Aria, I'm not calling to joke. I'm calling because I understand perfectly well I won't be able to keep power in the corporation in my hands. I was given excellent education, but it's not finished yet. However, I know asari have a particular attitude toward children, so there's a chance you won't dismiss my request. I'm asking you to help me manage the corporation. Naturally, I understand you'll gain very substantial advantages from it. But this option is the only one that lets me at least finish my education and get at least crumbs from the table, without becoming a puppet who worships Henry Lawson as a god and the ultimate truth."
"And what do you want from me?"
"I… forgive my audacity, but I want you to fly here—to me—and help. I understand it's arrogant, and it would be easier for you to keep dealing with Henry, but…"
I forced confidence into my voice.
"…it'll be easier for me to destroy the corporation than to give everything back to Henry. And if I do that—"
"I lose profits. Fine, kid. Consider me interested. But if this is a stupid prank, I'll personally whip you. Understood?"
"Yes, Lady Aria. Sending coordinates…"
** End. **
"Contact!"
Jane spotted enemies hiding in folds of terrain first and opened fire. I just kept sitting. Sure, I could've shot too, but why, when there are subordinates?