Okay so this will be a small story that's going to bridge the events between Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2.

So let me do a recap here and then we can get started. For those of you who had just come from reading ME1: Ghost of the Terminus, just skip past the recap.

Recap of Events that Transpired Previously: John Shepard who was named the Ghost of the Terminus, the vigilante who destroyed the slavers at Elysium and Torfan and also Aria T'Loak's Spectre equivalent, had been granted the rank of spectre in Council space after arriving from Eden Prime. There, Shepard took on the mission of bringing Saren Arterius back for his crimes. In doing so, Shepard was given command of the SSV Normandy and assembled his own team which consisted of different individuals all coming from different species, united under the same cause: Stopping Saren and the geth. Two of his team, he had grown to love greatly while the others had become close to him. The Normandy became like a family to Shepard as they continued their journey, which had its moments. Eventually, after many hardships, they had tracked Saren down only to find out he was merely a puppet for something worse.

The Reapers, an ancient race of machines that came and purged the galaxy of all advanced life every 50,000 years. The Reaper controlling Saren, Sovereign, used the Spectre to breach the Citadel, the Capital of Council space. The Citadel became embroiled in a life or death battle between Sovereign, his geth and the Council's forces. Shepard and his team had managed to keep up with Saren, who was going to give Sovereign control of the Citadel. The battle between the rogue spectre and Shepard's group was even before Shepard had managed to convince Saren that he was being controlled by Sovereign. Saren seeing no other way out, killed himself to stop Sovereign's control. The group took control of the station and summoned the Alliance fleet, which had been cut off due to the relays near the Citadel being deactivated by Saren when he was in control. But Sovereign had one more card to play before being defeated.

He possessed Saren's corpse, twisting and warping the rogue spectre's body until it was a husk unlike any the team had seen before. The Reaper's avatar overwhelmed the team considerably before Shepard unlocked his dormant power, the Overdrive. In this form his biotics were increased to unprecedented levels, managing to turn the fight easily in his favor in a one-on-one death match with the creature. The husk was obliterated by Shepard's power and Sovereign was destroyed. Shepard believing his job in this side of space was done got ready to leave. After speaking with the Council, Shepard was given permission to leave with his spectre access, and his equipment, still active. Before going he was asked to attend a meeting which turned out to be a thank you from the Council as well as the declaration that Humanity would have a seat on it now. He was asked his opinion on who he thought be best for the job. He nominated the man who stood by him while the others in the group turned their backs on him, Captain David Anderson. After making his opinion known he had gotten ready to leave for Terminus space. Before departing, however, he was requested to go to a Council training facility to show the new arrivals there how a team should fight in a series of live-fire situations. Agreeing to it, he set out for Pinnacle Station. Unknown to him however, is that some powers were already moving against him to take revenge for his actions as the Ghost of the Terminus. (Longest recap yet!)

Now

The Normandy flew towards the asteroid base silently. The ship came to hover as she lined up with the docking clamps. The clamps magnetized to the hull of the ship before the docking tube jutted out and connected to the door near the cockpit.

"Equalizing interior pressure with exterior atmosphere. Logged: the Commanding Officer is ashore. XO Pressly has the deck." The Normandy's VI stated as the team was waiting for the doors to open up. They didn't have to wait long as the doors opened to reveal a narrow hall. Shepard walked out first, clad in his shiny and new Colossus armor. His old one had been pretty busted up after battle of the Citadel so he was given a new one. His Master Spectre Gear wasn't as damaged so all they needed was a good cleaning, some minor repair work, a dose of omni-gel here and there and they were good as new. Everyone else was clad in the Colossus armor as well. Their armor had been bought by Shepard at the start of their search for Saren. While their armor had been damaged, it wasn't near the amount that Shepard had taken so their's were repaired and given back.

As they walked through the hall, Shepard briefly glanced out the window and appreciated the view. In the void of space was system's star illuminating the cosmic dust in an orange hue. It was pleasing to look at before Shepard continued on. They walked past a door to find a room full of turian guards. As Shepard walked past he heard a whispered conversation.

"Isn't that Ghost? The human spectre?" One turian with orange pain on his forehead whispered. Shepard kept himself from smirking. So he was heard way out here huh? Not surprising, given all that has happened. The turian across from the first one snorted. This turian was clad in medium titan turian armor with purple markings across his nose and under his eyes. He was obviously of higher rank than the three others in the room considering the were clad in a lighter version of his armor.

"Whatever. Spectre or no, it's always fun to see humans get pummeled in the simulator." He said. Shepard looked at him for a moment studying the turian. The man's tone oozed arrogance. A little too much for Shepard's taste. The turian noticed his gaze as he approached.

"Go pester Ahern, human. I'm on duty." The turian dismissed. Shepard rolled his eyes at him. 'Asshole.' He thought. The team walked through the door, coming to the command centre. This was where the station's operators tended to be as well as the commanding officer. Shepard took notice of the turian construction in the room. The subordinates were down below, in front of the podium where Admiral Ahern was. The view was spectacular. He could see Vebinok and its asteroid belt surrounding it. Shepard approached Admiral Ahern who took notice of him.

"Ah, Ghost. Welcome to Pinnacle Station. I'm Admiral Tadius Ahern." Shepard gave the man a small smile. This one was surprising more pleasant then most of the other Alliance Officers he's met.

"I'm glad I got the invite. Where do we begin?" Shepard asked while dismissing his team so they could look around. The group scattered and began looking at everything.

"You'll be training in the combat simulator. After each round you'll see how you fared against your competitors." Shepard had heard about that on the way over and was curious about it.

"How does the simulator work?" Ahern shook his head.

"Talk to Tech Specialist Ochren if you want the technical explanation. Basically, it creates combat scenarios that allow our operatives to build their skills in a safe, but realistic, environment." Ahern replied. Shepard nodded. It was a great way to train. The fact that this man is an Alliance Admiral means he must recognize such importance that is in it.

"So you run the station and the training here?"

"Last I checked. It's better than a desk job, and a hell of a lot better than retirement. The facility is magnificent. It has all the technological marvels that a commander needs to train the perfect soldier. The turians give their advice. Every so often, I listen to them." Ahern replied. Shepard raised an eyebrow at that? Was there some kind of rivalry here between humans turians?

"How do I try out a combat scenario?" Shepard asked trying to get back on track.

"Go talk to Ochren over in the staging area. He'll set you up and let you choose a scenario." Ahern said pointing to a door downstairs to the right.

"Who will I be competing against?" Shepard asked wanting to know who he needs to show up. Ahern smirked at him.

"The best of the best. Alliance operatives travel here from all over to try their hand at the simulator. The scores are tallied, and the winners appear on these monitors for all to see. Get your name up there, and the entire Alliance will know about it." Ahern said with pride. Shepard nodded with a smirk.

"I'll be fine. My team and I will take this thing by storm." Ahern smirked at Shepard's confidence.

"Fantastic. Is there anything else you need?" Shepard shook his head no before walking away. His team seeing this, followed him. Shepard walked into the observation deck with his team right behind him. He saw several monitors indicated readings that were going on inside the simulator. One in particular he noticed was the scoreboard and he couldn't help but whistle at the time on. Someone by the name of Bryant having finished in 1 minute, 24 seconds and 67 microseconds. He noticed that his name had been added and was at the very bottom with no time at all. Shepard smirked at it.

'Let's see if we can change that.' He thought before walking over a salarian who must have been Ochren. The salarian was looking over the simulator's controls as a krogan came out.

"Get me back in that simulator. Nothing makes my day like stomping synthetics!" The krogan said. Shepard and his team raised their eyebrows. Synthetics? Did they have a simulation with the geth? Shepard looked to where the salarian was again and looked past his station. The window in front of him shown a dark room. It had only a few lights on inside it, making it's size known. It was big. Shepard walked up to Ochren, ready to get this underway. Before he could say anything, though, Ochren beat him to it.

"So you must be the famous Ghost of the Terminus. I'm tech specialist Alud Ochren, lead programmer on the combat simulator." The salarian asked annoyed. "Do you need something? I'm sure I have a few minutes before someone forgets their password and comes crying to me for help." Shepard raised a brow at the salarian. Reduced to tech support almost. Damn.

"What's with the attitude?" Shepard asked. The salarian looked at him with annoyed glare.

"I'm a technical genius on a station full of soldiers who only respect battlefield prowess. It's more than a little frustrating." Shepard couldn't help but sympathize a little. On Omega, it was the same thing except you'd get mugged or killed instead.

"You help keep these soldiers at their best. That's extremely valuable." He offered. The salarian's annoyed look calmed down to a relaxed expression.

"I suppose so. It would be nice just to get credit for it once in a while." Ochren muttered out. At least managed to get the saurian to be a little nicer to him.

"So how does this work?" Shepard asked interested. The salarian seemed to be a little more enthusiastic about explaining it to someone who may understand.

"It's a combination of holographic images and kinetic barriers. Holographic images help you see the objects, and the kinetic barriers keep you from walking through them" Ochren explained. Shepard saw an attempt at humor and decided to make a joke.

"I assume the enemies are also holographic?" The salarian smirked at him.

"No, our operatives train in a simulator by killing real, actual people." The salarian said sarcastically, before sighing and continuing, "They're simulated. But I hear the kinetic slugs hurt just the same." Shepard rolled his eyes. Great, they even got the pain part down. Wouldn't be fun or encouraging without it.

"What are we supposed to do in these simulations?"

"That depends on the combat mode." Shepard's eyes zoomed on Ochren now. Was he saying they had multiple modes?

"We have Time Trial, Capture, Hunt, and Survival modes." Shepard almost wanted to face-palm himself. They wouldn't be doing one show for these guys, they'd be doing four, at least! He actuality he should have seen this coming the moment he saw the smirk on Anderson's face when he told him of this place. No point getting frustrated about it now. Just do it like everything else: Understand and move past it.

"What's my mission in Time Trial mode?"

"You and your squad must defeat all enemies as quickly as possible. The quicker you defeat all enemies, the higher your score." Glaringly obvious. Shepard shouldn't have bothered asking that one.

"What are the Capture mode objectives?"

"Capture all designated control points as quickly as possible. The faster you capture all the control points, the higher your score." Also incredibly obvious.

"What's the goal in the Hunt mode?"

"Defeat as many enemies as you can before the countdown timer reaches zero. You get additional time for every enemy you defeat. The more enemies you kill, the higher your score." Okay, that one he wouldn't have gotten right away. He thought it might've to do with finding some specific target and attack without getting the others.

"What's Survival mode all about?" Although this one he had a good idea.

"Fend of waves of enemies for as long as possible. When the leader goes down, the mission ends. The longer you survive, the higher your score." Yep, he called it.

"I've got it. "

"Splendid." Ochre said sarcastically.

"Let's try a new simulation." Shepard offered.

"New competitors are restricted to low-impact missions till they learn the ropes. The infirmary was starting to complain. Which combat mode? Time Trial, Capture, Survival, or Hunt?" Shepard thought it over. What would be best for him and his team right off the bat? He had it!

"I'll go with survival mode." Ochre began typing into the terminal until he pulled up a screen that had two habits. One was filled with trees while the other was what Shepard thought was a volcano.

"Now, pick a course. Do you want Volcanic or Tropical?"

"I'll go with tropical." Shepard said. Ochre selected it.

"Fine. We give you some dummy grenades and medi-gel. If you try to use a real grenade, I will turn off every safety measure this simulator has." Shepard nodded before walking with his team toward the simulator area.

A few minutes later

Shepard and crew were inside, ready for the fight.

"It doesn't have to be pretty, just keep yourself alive." Ahern told them over the comm. A flash of light came over them before a geth started appearing all over.

"And just when I thought I was done fighting geth." Shepard said as he got his assault rifle out. He got shot at instantly before ducking for cover. The firefight roared to life as they were surrounded.

"Dammit Shepard, that medi-gel ain't free." Ahern said. Shepard spray and prayed the geth holograms until they were destroyed. Shepard noticed that their surroundings were similar to Virmire, on the outskirts to Saren's base.

"Everyone! Set up choke points and these two sides! We'll draw them to us!" Shepard ordered before firing at a geth trooper. The squad jumped and got behind the rails near them, using them as cover. Everyone fired as the geth came in to the traps. The time flew by as more geth lined up and were destroyed. As the minutes passed, the geth became more powerful. Where there were once simple troopers, destroyers and juggernauts took their places. Three juggernauts came together. Shepard tossed a dummy grenade at them. The grenade weakened the holograms before the group finished it.

"That's it, Shepard. Give 'em hell!" Ahern commented. Garrus noticed a rocket trooper coming, took his sniper and fired at the rocket launcher it was holding. The rocket trooper and whatever were near it were destroyed.

"Damn, nice shot." Ahern said having seen it. Eventually though, the team was overwhelmed. Their media-gel became whittled down and soon enough, the others couldn't go on but damn having whittled down to after they ran out. Shepard was the only left before he too fell. The simulation finished and everyone left the area. When they came back they saw their score. Time: 15:33:46. That was a record. The squad immediately began resting save for Wrex and Shepard. Wrex was wanting to go back in almost immediately and Shepard, while tired, was getting his energy back quickly. Though he had to admit, they did very well. He knew that while most teams probably consisted of three and from what he was seeing, they did not last that long. Granted his squad, excluding himself, was double that number, but the other teams lasted for a minute and a half. His team alone lasted 8 minutes and he, by himself, lasted nearly as long. Shepard walked around to check the other scores and see if he and his team could set the record on all of them. As he looked around he heard something.

"Back of, Vidinos! I haven't done anything wrong." A human clad in white heavy explorer armor said. The turian he was arguing with was the asshole from earlier. The turian had his arms crossed as he looked at the human. Vidinos leaned in to the human's face.

"If you've tampered with government equipment Bryant, I'll throw you in the stockade." Vidinos threatened as his hand went to his pistol. Shepard approached hoping to keep the peace.

"What seems to be the problem?" He asked making both of them look at him. The turian scowled at him before waving his hand at him in a 'shoo' motion.

"Get lost Shepard. This doesn't concern you." Vidinos said.

"Vidinos is just mad that a human beat his record." Ochren piped up from his terminal. The turian scowled at the salarian.

"Shut you mouth, holo-jockey." He snarled, pointing to the salarian. Ochren payed him no mind as he continued working. Vidinos turned back to Shepard.

"Bryant says he scored highest in missions from multiple combat modes. No human's ever done that. He clearly cheated." Vidinos accused. Shepard sighed. Arrogant and a little racist.

"Keep mouthing off, and I'll show you what a human can do." Shepard said, having enough of the guy's attitude. Vidinos snorted at him, unimpressed.

"Threats? Is that all humans can do? Impressive!" Vidinos taunted. Shepard sighed.

"Would you change your mind if I scored highest on those missions?" He asked hoping this would shut the guy up. Vidinos didn't even think about it, obviously believing Shepard wouldn't succeed.

"Tell you what, Shepard. You beat my record, and Bryant won't spend the rest of the competition in the stockade. Hell, if you even come close, I'll give you my weapon." Vidinos said chuckling at the end. Shepard raised an eyebrow at the turian. Most turians wouldn't even think of betting their weapon. Those are too personal. Shepard glanced at the weapons on Vidinos' back. The guy had the complete set of the Kassa Fabrication weaponry. Shepard remembered it was probably the third best in the galaxy, right behind Rosenkov Materials which his team had.

"You can keep your weapons. You losing is all the incentive I need." Shepard shot at him. His face was neutral and cold making the turian freeze for a moment before he chuckled at him.

"I suppose many humans find failure 'fun.' If so, then this is your lucky day. I hope Bryant has something to read. He'll be in that stockade for a long time." Vidinos said before he started to walk away.

"Before you head back to your quarters, you should look at the new high score for the Survivor mission." Shepard called after making Vidinos stop. Shepard walked to where his team was as the turian shook his head before walking to the designated scoreboard. What could that human mean by-! The score was unprecedented. He stormed over to Ochren.

"What is the meaning of this!?" The salarian looked at him before smirking.

"Shepard's whole team went in and came out with that score." Vidinos' anger left him. Of course the human would use his whole team. They had a turian, a krogan and an asari for spirits sake!

"But technically, the team made it to 8 minutes after using all of their medi-gel." Ochren said. The turian stilled at first before his anger started to come back.

"Then why didn't you pull them out?" Ochren smiled at the turian.

"Because it was only Shepard's team that was out. And the rules state the team leader needed to be out. Shepard lasted 7 minutes, alone, after them." That information made Vidinos' heart stop for a second.

"I-It can't be. No human should be able to do that." Ochren chuckled at the turian's rising frantic behavior.

"I saw and monitored the whole thing. There was no holding back, at least no more so then usual." With that information Vidinos walked away, actually starting to feel nervous.

A couple of hours later

Shepard and his team did it. They beat Vidinos' scores and set the records on all of them. The Hunt missions were by far the easiest for them considering a majority of their time together had been wiping out all of their enemies on their missions. The Time Trial missions were the second easiest to them. All that was needed race to race against the clock. Hell they started competing against each other to see how many they killed in the match. The Capture missions were so-so to them. It was by no means difficult, but it was boring actually. All they had to do really was spread out or have to go forward taking out any enemy and leave someone to guard the area. Survival missions were also a so-so thing for them considering they never really faced overwhelming opposition before. It did help that the landscapes were changed with each of session of them which spiced it up. Each different landscape made certain missions more difficult.

For the Timed scenarios it was the volcanic. That was usually because it had volcanic activity to a degree.

For the Capture scenarios it was the subterranean stage. That was difficult because there were so many places that could have been and weren't.

For the Hunt missions, it was the tropical one. Again, so many places to hide things.

And in the survival it was the subterranean. That one reminded them of the time they saved Liara considering the stage was shaking and rocks were falling after them. All throughout the missions, Ahern gave glowing praises about the team's performance. And now Shepard was in front of Vidinos.

"Ochren must have changed it! Or... there's a bug in the simulator... You got lucky, human." Vidinos said reluctantly. Shepard looked at him. Throughout the course, he had noticed that Vidinos had kept his scores pretty high. It took something else to be able to win that. Plus, whatever anger he felt toward the turian had been vented on the holograms he fought so Shepard decided to give it to him, this one time.

"You know what, your record was tough to beat, Vidinos. I'll take what luck I can get." Shepard replied. His comment seemed to anger the turian who had taken it as mocking.

"Don't patronize me, Shepard. I'll find out how you did this and heads will roll! Bryant is clear." Shepard's lips almost turned into a smile. "Keep your smug grin to yourself. I'm out of here." Vidinos said walking away. Shepard let him go. No need to kick him while he was down and out. Shepard walked over to Ochren.

"Let's do one more simulation before we leave." Shepard told him.

"Sorry, but you and your team have done all of them. You took the spot everywhere you could. No one's even surprised any more." Ochren said. Shepard sighed. Well, that was that then. Their last get together was over. It was time to call it quits and part ways. Shepard began walking to command centre when he bumped into Ahern.

"Impressive work in there, Ghost." Ahern said to him.

"Thank you. Do you have anything else for me to do before my team and I depart?" Ahern smirked at him.

"Yes, the real match I had requested for you and your team to take." Shepard looked at him with a stunned expression.

"Wait, you had a simulation ready for us when we came here? Then what was the deal with having us do those 12 missions?" Shepard exasperated. That was a lot of time they had spent in that.

"That was all your fault. Besides, Guard Captain Vidinos needed to be knocked down a couple of pegs. And seeing you guys in those simulations were a great way to make sure you were capable of handling this one." Ahern explained.

"Alright, what is it?"

"There's a special scenario I don't get to offer to many operatives. I want you to give it a shot. Look kid, you've done well. But I've been through a lot worse. And it wasn't a simulation. But I could make it one, if you're interested." Shepard looked at him suspiciously. The last few ones in there had been pretty bad, but what could be worse than... Ah, a scenario without the safeties on.

"You have something else I can try?" Shepard prompted. He wanted to know what he was getting into. Ahern nodded with a serious expression.

"It's a reenactment of one of my missions. We held of an ambush of turian assault troops, during the Contact War. Just me and a small squad. I haven't finished programming it yet, but it's close enough. You can try it if you like." Shepard had only known about the First Contact War through the Codex and even with it he still felt that it wasn't enough to go on. To see the carnage of war, between humans and turians, was something he was hesitant about getting into. But then again, he took on a reanimated Saren powered by a Reaper in a kill-or-be-killed fight, so whatever Ahern throws at him couldn't be as bad.

"I'd be the first on to try it?"

"Technically. Though I did... in the real world." Ahern replied. Shepard could see the slightly haunted look on the admiral's face before he got rid of it. "Rules are simple: survive until you're picked up. If you can." At Shepard's questioning expression, Ahern explained, "You'll be ridiculously outnumbered. No real cover to speak of. It's the ultimate worst case-scenario. Of course, it'll only be a simulation." That was no fun, sure chances were it was a combination of a few of the other scenarios but he had grown used to it, as did his team.

"Then up the difficulty. My team and I don't want it easy." Ahern smirked at Shepard.

"You've got balls, Shepard. But it's just a simulation. Even our best VI's aren't as good as the real thing."

"Then turn off the safeties." Ahern looked at him like he was crazy.

"No safeties? Highest level of difficulty? You'll never do it. And then I'll have to explain how a Spectre died on my station." Shepard smirked at the man. If he did it with a small squad like Shepard's during the First Contact War, then he and his team should be able to do it easily.

"You think it's that hard, put your credits where your mouth is. Unless that's too much for you?" Ahern grew nervous at Shepard's tone.

"I don't mind a little wager. But, no... not credits." Shepard looked at him expectantly, wondering what the man would wager. "I've got a nice little retirement place on Intai'sei. I never go there and I don't plan on retiring any time soon. It's yours, if you beat it. And what are you wagering?" Shepard gave the man a deadpan look.

"My life." He said through half-lidded eyes.

"Right. So, you really want the safeties off? If you die, it's getting logged as user error. I'm not losing my job over this." Before Shepard took the wager, he had to know what was he risking his life for.

"What's this place like?"

"It's quiet. Remote. You've practically got the whole planet to yourself. I got a brochure from ExoGeni and they dropped a prefab down on Intai'sei for me, here in Argos Rho cluster. The weather is terrible, but they tell it's a red paradise, whatever that means. What do you say?" Shepard smirked. That sounded like a good place to get away form everything. Looks like he found a summer home.

"Set it up." He said before walking back to his team. While walking away he heard Ahern talk, "Talk to Ochren. I'll make sure he gets the new settings. I'd say good luck, but you'll need a lot more than that." Shepard nodded and continued walking to his team. He informed them of it and what the stakes were. They merely said "bring it on." Shepard walked to Ochren.

"I understand Ahern set up a special simulation." He stated to the salarian. Ochren nodded and began activating it.

"For the record, I'm against turning the safeties off." Shepard smiled.

"I'll be fine." The salarian looked at him. Shepard knew it was thinly veiled concern for him.

"What about my simulator? I'll be making repairs for weeks." Shepard's smile turned into a smirk.

"This should be good." The salarian sighed before looking back at the console. He activated the simulation. Shepard ushered his team to get in with him following them.

"I don't say this very often, but good luck." Ochren called after him. Shepard replied his thanks. As soon as he got to the area he noticed the objective.

'Turians have captured a critical colonist data bank. Eliminate the defenders and retrieve the data bank. Then hold out for evac.' Shepard read internally. So it was like all the trials into one. This should be good. The doors opened up and everyone charged in. The enemies were holograms of old turian forces. The group split into two group with the larger being a distraction. The smaller group took out most of the others in a surprise attack. When the holograms took their attention of the larger group, they left themselves open which destroyed them. Shepard walked over to the data bank and collected what was needed.

'There. Part 1 done, now for part 2.' He thought.

"Heads up, Shepard. The fun's just starting." Ahern said over the intercom. Sniper shot zoomed past Shepard's helmeted head, hitting the tank beside him. He looked and fired at the turian sniper before double backing to where they came from. They had to last five minutes for this one. Shepard would have said it was easy for them, but the enemies kept respawning quicker and quicker. Garrus noticed two surface to air defense turrets. He hacked one of them which helped thin the numbers slightly. He gestured for Tali to get the other one since she was near it. She managed to do so but was heavily wounded by the attack. Ashley and Wrex managed to get to her and bring her back to the group while taking a few out themselves. Kaidan applied the medi-gel to her which got her back up quickly. The group continued to fight with all of their abilities until the timer ran out. He had to admit, he was surprised when the anti-tanks came out with rockets. That was actually somewhat worrying. But in the end they made it out and beat it. Once the team came out, Shepard was greeted by Ahern.

"I never thought I'd see the day. Good work, Shepard. Really good work." Shepard smiled at the praise.

"It was a great challenge. Thanks for setting it up." Ahern's expression turned pensive.

"Makes me wish we had you during the First Contact War. Could've saved a lot of human lives." Ahern got out of it quickly. "And since I'm a man of my word, my retirement home is yours. Too bad. Now that I've seen you beat that scenario, I almost feel like I could retire." Shepard looked at him with wide eyes. He had just met the man today but he gave Shepard the impression that he wasn't the type to retire.

"Are you serious?" Ahern smirked at him.

"Hell no. The day I retire is the day I die. Enjoy that place, Shepard. You earned it." Ahern said. Shepard shook his hand.

"I think I will. It's been a pleasure being here Admiral. Thank you for having us today."

"Call me Ahern. You've earned that too. And feel free to come back here anytime." Shepard nodded in thanks before releasing his hand and walking away to the airlock where the Normandy was stationed.

"So, what do you plan to do with your new place?" Garrus asked as he the rest of the squad came up behind him. Shepard thought it over before smiling.

"We're going to have a 'going away' party." He replied as the airlock came into view.

I won't be getting into Mass Effect 2 just yet. I need to help bridge the gap and give a reason as to why Shepard would be on the Normandy to fit the timeline of the ME Universe. I've already messed with it a couple of times. So I hope you enjoyed this. Please review and favorite. And please give me some ideas for this.