Author's Notes: Hello, this is my first Mass Effect fanfic and I'm not quite sure of the conventions, so please bear with me as I figure things out. I'll be using my standard Shepard for the main character. She is an infiltrator and not strictly renegade or paragon. Any other relevant information will be supplied in the story. This story begins at the start of the second game but, again, any choices Shepard made during the previous storyline will be relayed in the narrative. For the most part, though, you can just assume that things played out pretty much the same as the canon ME1 story.

The first bit of this chapter is an excerpt from Gurren Lagann. If you don't understand exactly what's going on, don't worry about it. It's only important insofar as it establishes how Kamina comes to be in the same place as Shepard and shows the relationship between Kamina and Simon. Also, Simon refers to Kamina as 'Aniki' which is a typical address for a younger man to an older man that he looks up to and is close to. There isn't a good English translation so I'm leaving it as is.

A couple things that should go unstated but I'll state them anyway: I don't claim any ownership over the intellectual properties of Mass Effect or Gurren Lagann. This is just for fun. Also, MAJOR spoilers for both ME and GL. Like, right off the bat.

Thank you everybody. I hope you enjoy this.

Let's See You Grit Those Teeth!

"What's the matter, Simon? What's the hold up?!" Kamina shouted.

"I'm tying! I'm trying but it's not working!" Simon said, ineffectually pulling at the controls of his Lagann.

Viral snorted a laugh and said, "You blew it during the endgame, Kamina." Then his gunman waved at his companions toward the huge Dai-Gunzan that Simon was currently failing to hijack. "Ignore the small fry! Everyone return to Dai-Gunzan at once!"

Damn it! Kamina jumped his gunman, the Gurren, into the air and flung the giant pair of sunglasses that doubled as his primary weapon. The sunglasses buried themselves in the ground, halting Viral before the beastman could escape. "You're not going anywhere!" What the hell are you doing, Simon?! Kamina turned to rest of the Gurren Brigade and shouted, "You guys keep the gunmen pinned down! I'll see what I can do about Simon!"

"Roger!" The members of the Gurren Brigade assented, rushing to fight the enemy gunmen.

Kamina leapt Gurren off the cliff and smacked into the Dai-Gunzan. He rapidly scrambled his gunman up and charged toward the Lagann. Even though he was getting more and more experienced with Gurren, the all-out sprint caused him to stumble several times, finally losing his balance completely when he reached the Lagann. Kamina simply slapped the release and tumbled out of the hatch, slamming into the top of the Lagann. "Open the hatch, Simon!" His younger partner started up and him and opened the hatch without question. Kamina pulled back his fist and said "Let's see you grit those teeth!" Then Kamina belted him across the face as hard as he could.

Simon bounced back hard in the cockpit of the Lagann and stared up at Kamina in complete confusion. "Aniki?"

Kamina smiled down at him. "Have you snapped out of it yet?" Simon blinked at him. "If you ever start to doubt yourself, I'll always come to belt you one," Kamina continued. "So don't worry. I'm here at your side. Believe in yourself. Believe in the Simon that I have faith in."

Simon gaped at him, eyes shining. Then he smiled, even though his cheek was starting to swell up. "I understand!" Simon turned around in the cockpit and retook the controls of Lagann. After a moment, the voice of Leeron came over the com. "You're doing good, Simon. Very good. You're synchronizing steadily. Just a little more."

Kamina looked down at Simon, pride welling in his chest. His little bro always came through in the end. That's why Kamina had chosen him as his partner when they were trapped in Giha village. The other villagers ridiculed Simon, calling him the Digger because he was always dirty from drilling holes to expand the village. Kamina knew better. He saw Simon's unlimited potential. That kid's drill was going to pierce the heavens!

With a sigh of relief, Kamina settled back into the cockpit of the Gurren. Now that Simon had control of the Dai-Gunzan, this battle was as good as over. "See," Kamina murmured. "You can do it if you—" Before Kamina could complete his thought, something exploded under Gurren's feet, flinging Kamina into the air. He screamed as something pierced the cockpit and sliced across his chest. The enemy gunman that did it jumped up behind him. Kamina spied the gunman and felt fear fill his belly. "Thymilph?! Damn, I didn't—" Kamina was jostled about as Gurren was hit again from behind.

Kamina whipped his head around and saw Viral attacking from his other side, "You bastard," he growled. Don't you have any honor, Viral?! Kamina tried to steady his gunman but Thymilph pursued him, slamming an enormous glaive trough the Gurren's knee and cutting off the limb. Viral caught him before he could fall and held him steady as Thymilph speared Gurren through the back, driving the glaive so deep that the tip of it actually stabbed into Kamina. Kamina screamed in pain and the world went black.

Some indeterminate time later, Kamina heard screaming over his com. "Pull yourself together, Simon! Can you read me?!" Kamina opened his eyes, wishing that he was still unconscious. Every part of him hurt except for his back, which was numb. Somehow, Kamina knew that that was worse than the pain. He moved his hand and was disgusted when he touched something hot and wet. Then he noticed that it was his own blood. Kamina groaned and pushed himself up.

"Can't a guy get a little sleep around here?" he muttered. He managed to sit back in the cockpit and work Gurren back to its feet. He saw the Lagann, still connected with the Dai-Gunzan, but slumped forward, mimicking its master's suffering. Kamina instinctively lifted a hand toward his little bro and then noticed that the Gurren's arm was only hanging on by a few wires. He reared back and flung the arm forward, severing it from the Gurren. "Simon!" he called out over the com. "Let's see you grit those teeth!" The arm flew true, smacking the Lagann in the face.

"Aniki," Simon called in relief. "You're alive!"

"Simon," Kamina growled. "Who the hell do you think you are?" Kamina forced his crumbling Gurren to lift up its other hand and point toward the heavens. "Your drill is the drill that's gonna bore through heaven and earth and even tomorrow. What're you sitting here dawdling for? We've won, blood brother. This behemoth belongs to you now. You don't have to worry about anything now."

"Aniki…" Simon said and Kamina could hear the hope in his voice again. "Right!" Kamina watched as Simon turned the Dai-Gunzan and, with impressive control, managed to make the giant gunman dance. "Everybody!" he cried. "Everything's okay now! Dai-Gunzan is ours! Come on aboard."

The other gunman of the Gurren Brigade cheered but before they could take Simon up on his offer, the gunman of Thymilph stepped forward, leading the remaining enemy gunman. Kamina glanced at him in consternation. He was so tired he could barely move his arms. "That old furball doesn't know when to give up, does he?" he sighed. Still, Kamina was the leader of the Gurren, no the Dai-Gurren, Brigade. And he had one last thing to do. "Come on, Simon. Let's send these clowns packing."

"Eh?"

"Let's combine. We'll use Gurren Lagann to do this last mission!"

"Let's do it, Aniki!" The Lagann disengaged from the Dai-Gunzan and ran toward the Gurren. The Lagann leapt up and drilled into the Gurren's head, beginning the transformation. The damage to Gurren was fixed and Kamina felt some life seep into him.

"We brawlers are sustained by willpower even when mocked as crazy and reckless!" he cried.

"If there's a wall in our way, we smash it down!" Simon chimed in. "If there isn't a path, we carve one our ourselves!"

"Our souls burn with a mighty flame!" they shouted together. "Ultra combination, Gurren Lagann! Who the hell do you think we are?!"

The last of the enemy gunmen leapt at them. "Out of our way, cannon fodder!" Kamina screamed. A drill for each one emerged out of the Gurren Lagann, spearing them all. When the drills retreated, the gunmen exploded. Thymilph attacked but the Gurren Lagann caught the glaive easily. Kamina slumped forward. The small boost he had gotten was rapidly failing and he felt hot all over. There wasn't much time left. "Listen close, Simon," he said softly. "Believe in yourself. Not in the Simon that I believe in. Not in the Kamina that you believe in. Have faith in the Simon that believes in you."

"Aniki?"

Kamina pried the sunglasses off the front of the Gurren and flung them at Thymilph. They split into to two and caught the beastman's gunman, spreading its arms and legs out wide. "Finishing move!" Kamina shouted. He lifted the arm of the Gurren Lagann and produced a huge drill. Bigger! If I'm going to go, I'm going to go in style! The drill pumped up in size until it dwarfed the Gurren Lagann. Kamina started it spinning and then launched the Gurren Lagann at Thymilph. "Giga Drill Break!" he cried. The huge drill crushed through Thymilph's gunman, destroying it utterly.

Kamina landed the Gurren Lagann and smiled. Not bad. His head dropped forward and Kamina knew he didn't have anything left. Sorry, Yoko. Damn, I wanted to kiss you one more time. "Later, buddy…" he managed to gasp out. Goodbye, Simon. I really wanted to see what kind of man you'd grow up to be.

"Aniki?" Simon cried. "ANIKI?!"

And Kamina's body was racked with pain. Not the pain of his wounds but something different, like he was being ripped apart at the molecular level. Kamina screamed. He screamed until his throat was raw, only he barely felt it past the agony of his body. Images flooded into Kamina's mind. He saw a city on the surface of Earth. Then he watched it burn. Kamina felt Simon's presence and looked over his shoulder. There was nothing. When he looked back, the Earth was gone. He was in the darkness of space, spirals of light all around him. Somehow, he knew they, too, were burning. Throughout it all, he felt Simon all around him. The aura of his little brother was all-pervasive and full of pain and cold. So cold. Kamina shivered. What happened to you, Simon? Where are you?

The pain spiked again. Kamina smashed through something. Again and again. Reality was breaking apart around him and being refused. Just like his body. White light blinded him and a roar deafened him. His skin felt frozen and like in was burning in turns. Just when Kamina was certain he would go insane, he hit something solid. Kamina blinked, staring at the white floor underneath his body. The all-encompassing torment retreated, replaced with the almost comforting pain of the wounds inflicted by Thymilph.

Kamina tried to push himself up but his body wouldn't respond. Blood seeped out of his chest and back and head. What happened? All of that and I'm just going to die, anyway? Then he heard voices. He couldn't understand a word they were saying. A hand was placed on his shoulder, cold against his burning skin. Kamina was turned over and the last thing he saw before he slipped into blessed unconsciousness was a pair of bright blue eyes and a mass of dark hair. An angel?

Part 2

Shepard dreamed. She dreamed of what she always dreamed of lately. Images of death and destruction. Quick flashes of the species called the protheans being wiped out by the sentient machines they called the reapers. There was no sense to the images. No story or sensible progression. There was a theme, though. Slaughter. Shepard moaned. The images had haunted her since she found an ancient prothean beacon on the human colony Eden Prime. She was sick of it. She already knew they were coming. She was already fighting.

Her mind flicked to an image of a reaper, though this time it was from her own memory. King Kittan, the thing had been called. It looked like a giant golden star sprouting arms and legs. The star had a face though, two red eyes the size of mountains and a humongous smirking mouth. In one hand it clasped a pink lance nearly as long as turian cruiser. Shepard had honestly found the thing kind of comical the first time she laid eyes on it. It wasn't funny when King Kittan caved in the front of the Citadel Fleet flagship, Destiny Ascension, with one blow of that lance, however.

She would never forget the sounds of the asari on board Destiny Ascension pleading for help, explaining that the Council, leaders the known galaxy, were on board. Shepard had ordered the human fleet to concentrate everything on bringing down King Kittan rather than escorting the Destiny Ascension out of trouble. Her decision had cost the Council their lives but she still thought it was the correct one. They'd barely brought down King Kittan, despite the Citadel and human fleet pouring enough firepower at it to scorch a dozen planets.

The most disturbing thing had happened just as they'd finally defeated the Reaper attempting to seize the Citadel, however. Shepard had assumed, like the Protheans, that the Reapers were sentient machines. When King Kittan had finally started to collapse in a series of explosions, something within it had reached out and touched Shepard. Something human. Shepard had a vision of a young man with grey eyes and a mop of blond hair. And she'd heard him whisper two words. "Sorry," and "Simon."

There was no way such a thing should be. The reapers had been around for fifty thousand years at least, since that was when the protheans had been exterminated. If Liara was right, they'd been around for hundreds of thousands of years before that. Shepard couldn't understand it. There was too much she didn't understand. Including the visions from the beacons. She groaned as they started playing in her mind once more.

"Shepard!" a voice called. Shepard twitched. "Shepard, you need to get up!" Shepard's crystal blue eyes cracked open. She squinted at the light. "Get up now, Shepard!"

Shepard blinked a couple more times. Her mind felt like jelly. Her body felt half-dead. "What?" she croaked. "Where am I?"

"It doesn't matter," the voice said. "Enemies are coming and you need to move."

Shepard's warrior instincts kicked in and she forced herself to sit up. The world spun around her and she clasped her head. Her hand felt scarring around the left side her face. What happened to me? Memories came back to her and her skin went clammy. She'd been aboard the Normandy when an unknown ship attacked. The ship had been destroyed utterly and Shepard herself had been vented into space. She could still remember the creeping cold and slowly suffocating as her suit lost oxygen. Shepard started to hyperventilate. "What are you doing?!" the voice screamed. "Get moving."

Right, no time for this. Shepard used a breathing exercise they taught her during her marine training to bring herself under control. She slid off the bed but her legs immediately folded underneath her, spilling her to her hands and knees. What the hell? How long had she been out? Shepard used the bed to pull herself back up, her legs trembling violently. "Good, Shepard. There are arms and armor in the locker to your left." With slow, unsteady steps, Shepard managed to make it to the locker. She frowned when she opened it. The armor was not her Colossus armor. With a sigh, she put it on anyway. At least it was painted in the red and black color scheme she favored.

Fully armored, Shepard felt a bit steadier. She took the pistol from the shelf in the locker and studied it. It was a standard issue Predator. Not her preferred sidearm. "Great, Shepard," the voice said. "Now get out of that room before the mechs swarm you." Shepard tried to place the voice but came up empty. It was feminine with a slight accent. It seemed familiar somehow but she couldn't put a face to it.

"Before I obey any more of your orders," Shepard said, "I think I am going to need some more information. Who are you and where am I?"

"There is no time for that!" the voice said, obviously irritated. Shepard heard an explosion in the background. "My name is Miranda Lawson. If you want to more than that, you'll need to meet me in the shuttle bay." A huge burst of static came through, making Shepard wince. "I think something..." Miranda's voice barely came through before being interrupted by another burst of static. "I don't know..." Static. "Get going!" Static and then silence.

Shepard growled in annoyance. Now she knew nothing. She supposed her only real choice was to hope she could find the shuttle bay and hope that Miranda was still there when she did. At least that was her only choice for now. Shepard hadn't been made the first human Spectre because she lacked a talent for improvisation.

She exited her small room and cautiously made her way forward. A burst of bullets made her take cover behind a nearby strut. When the firing stopped, she chanced a glance and saw two white mechs shuffling toward her. Shepard leaned out and took a couple snap-shots, clipping one of the mechs in the face. It collapsed and Shepard ducked back as the other one fired. When the firing slacked off again, Shepard rolled from cover, came up to one knee and blew away the other mech. Then she continued on her way.

Wherever she was, it was very white and austere. Shepard had assumed that she was in a hospital because of the circumstances of her awakening but there was no other medical equipment. She decided that it must be some kind of science facility. Which only made her more curious as to how she'd ended up here. Miranda still wasn't back on the communication network and the only human she found was in the process of having his head blown off by a mech when she did so. After disposing of the automaton, she studied the dead human. His clothes were plain and functional. The only thing of note was a logo of an orange snake eating its own tail on a black background. The logo seemed familiar but Shepard couldn't place it.

The mechs had done a good job trashing the place, so it took some time before Shepard found a functional computer terminal. The first thing she did was download a map of the facility into her omnitool. Then she started perusing what files she could access. Project Lazarus? What could that be? Before she could investigate further, a mech put a bullet through the hardware. "Damn it," Shepard cursed softly, putting a return bullet through the mech's head. She tapped a few keys before giving up. At least I got a map. If I can find this Miranda person, hopefully I can get some answers.

Shepard left the room and continued toward the shuttle bay. Before she got very far, though, she came across the first real live human she'd seen since waking up. The room he was in was bare and plain like all the others but the way he was glowering at the door, and the way that the wall facing the hallway was completely transparent, made it evident that the room was a prison cell. He was an odd-looking boy, Shepard had to admit. His shaggy hair was light blue and his eyes were bright red. Hair dye and colored contacts were common enough in the galaxy that it wasn't that unusual but the colors almost seemed natural on him. He was also wearing a plain white jumpsuit but had pulled the top off and tied the arms around his waist. Swirling blue tattoos covered his arms and chest.

The man noticed her and glared at her for a moment before beginning to shout. The room was sound-proof but Shepard stopped short, wondering what this man had been put away for. She considered leaving him but she was really hoping that he had some information about what was happening. Plus, Shepard wasn't really the type to leave someone to their potential death. Decision made, Shepard put two bullets into the glass wall. The man jumped back, watching her nervously. Shepard slammed her elbow into the glass and was stunned when it blew apart in one blow. I thought I would have to hammer it at least a few times. Strange.

Shepard stepped into the room, reattaching her pistol to her hip. The man studied her with his bright red eyes. "Who're you?"

"Commander Shepard, Systems Alliance Navy," Shepard said. "You?"

"I am Kamina," he said proudly. Shepard stared at him. Did he expect her to know who he was? Kamina's shoulders slumped. "You don't know Kamina-sama, the great leader of Team Dai-Gurren?"

Is that some kind of planetary militia? Shepard shook her head. "I can't say that I've heard of you."

"Damn it," Kamina groused. "Where the hell are we anyway?"

"I was actually hoping that you could tell me that."

"Hell if I know," Kamina growled. "This is a pretty advanced village if that's what it is."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure this isn't a village." What kind of weird-ass bumpkin have I run into here? "Look, I'm heading for the shuttle bay. You can come with me if you want. I'm sure you've seen the mechs roaming around here."

Kamina nodded and then rotated his shoulder. "Better than sticking around here."

They left, Kamina striding boldly forward despite not having any kind of weapon. With some annoyance, Shepard quickened her pace to stay with him. Which how both of them nearly met their end when they walked out onto bridge that had six mechs other side of it. Shepard jerked Kamina back behind the corner just as the bullets started flying. She sighed in relief when she saw that he wasn't hurt and then consulted her map. "That bridge is a kill zone," she muttered. "I wonder if there is a way around."

"Bah!" Kamina snorted. "Why go around, when you can go through?" With that, he stormed around the corner.

"Kamina!" Shepard cried. That idiot! He wasn't armed and she doubted that jumpsuit was equipped with any kind of a shield. She chased after him and was stunned to see that he was already across the bridge. Was he biotic? Shepard hadn't ever seen somebody move like that without a biotic boost. Maybe his L2 implants have driven him a little crazy. She felt a pang of sadness for the departed Kaidan Alenko.

"'What the hell even are you' kick!" Kamina screamed, crushing a mech's head with a jump kick. Shepard was impressed until she saw the other mechs raising their guns toward Kamina and it became clear he had no plan to deal with this. Shepard snapped up her pistol and started firing, concentrating on keeping all the mechs busy rather than taking them down one at a time. The mechs started firing back but Shepard stood her ground, hoping her shields could soak up the damage. She hated not knowing the limits of her equipment.

Kamina took advantage of her intervention and punched the nearest mech, breaking its face. Shepard raised her eyebrows. He was definitely a biotic. She finished off the rest and then took a breath. She checked her shield level and saw that it was nearly at zero. Damn it. "Why didn't you tell me you were a biotic?" she growled. "And even so, that was incredibly reckless."

"Incredibly reckless is the Dai-Gurren way," Kamina said with infuriating smugness. "What is a biotic?"

"You are."

"I am?"

Shepard felt a headache going on. "You manipulate dark energy, right?"

"I do?"

Shepard studied his face and decided that he really was just ignorant and not being an ass. She shook her head. Hard to believe anyone could be that ignorant, though. "Never mind. Let's keep moving."

As they walked, Kamina asked, "So where're you from anyway? The surface?"

The surface of what? "I'm from Mindoir," she said grimly.

"Mm." For some reason he seemed a little disappointed. "Are there many people there?"

"Not anymore." He looked at her with curiosity. Did this guy grow up in that room or something? Mindoir was notorious. "Batarian slavers raided it and killed or captured nearly everyone."

"Batarian?" Kamina repeated the word awkwardly. "Beastmen?"

"Yeah, I guess you could call them beasts." Though it was kind of a stupid insult in Shepard's opinion.

"Damn furballs!" Kamina snarled, slamming a fist into his other hand.

Shepard halted and put her hand on Kamina's arm. "Quiet. I think I hear something," she whispered. They snuck forward a little ways and the voices came through clearly. "Please, you don't understand!" a male voice said.

"I think I understand just fine," a female voice answered. Then there was the sound of a gunshot. Kamina and Shepard exchanged glances and then ran forward into the shuttle bay together. Inside there was a woman in a skin-tight black and white jumpsuit with a pistol in one hand, standing over the corpse of another human. Shepard aimed her gun at the woman. If anything, though, the woman seemed brighten at the sight. "Shepard!" she said with delight. "I'm glad you made it." Shepard recognized the voice now. Miranda Lawson. The dark-haired woman's eyes slid to Kamina and she lost much of her enthusiasm. "I see you've brought along our little mystery boy as well."

"You!" Kamina said with obvious venom. He leaned over and whispered, "Be careful with that one. She might have the face and ass of an angel but she's an ice queen."

Shepard glanced at him and said sardonically, "Thanks for the advice." Kamina either didn't notice her tone or didn't care.

"Come along, Shepard," Miranda said. "We need to get off this station. I suppose you better come along as well," she said to Kamina.

Shepard shook her head and didn't lower her gun. "I'm going nowhere until I've gotten some answers. Starting with where I am."

"All of your answers will be provided when you meet my employer." When Shepard didn't move, Miranda huffed in frustration and continued. "I could tell you the name of the station we're on but it wouldn't mean anything to you. It doesn't matter. Unless you want to be marooned here, I suggest you get on the shuttle."

Shepard laughed nastily. "If you aren't willing to talk, I'm more than happy to put a bullet in your head and take my chances hot-wiring a shuttle."

Miranda glared at her. "Fine."

Shepard gestured at the dead man. "Who was that?"

"Wilson. He worked here but he was the one who sabotaged those mechs to annihilate the facility. There were supposed to be here for our protection."

Shepard didn't have enough information to know if she was telling the truth or not. "What is this facility?" She asked. Another name jumped into her head. "What is Project Lazarus?"

Miranda sighed in defeat. "This facility and Project Lazarus were both dedicated to one thing. Bringing you back to life." Kamina whistled.

What does that mean? "Bring me back to life?" Shepard stared at Miranda. "What?"

"You were dead, Shepard. In just about every medical and legal sense of the word. Project Lazarus was a cutting-edge project with one goal in mind. Remaking you exactly as you were."

Shepard's stomach twisted. She had known that she'd have had to have been in bad shape after what happened aboard the Normandy but this sounded much worse than she would have imagined. "Why," she began and then had to swallow because her throat was dry. "Why would you do that?"

"You're a hero, Shepard. A bloody icon. We need you," Miranda said, as if it were that simple.

Shepard let her gun fall to her side. "Who are you? Are you with the Alliance?"

Miranda shook her head. "Not the Alliance. If you want to know more, get on the shuttle. Come and meet the man who poured over four billion credits into reviving you."

Shepard reeled. Four billion credits! What human organization aside from the Alliance had that kind of cash on hand? Why would the spend that much just to save her life? Most disturbingly of all, what exactly had been her condition been that it had taken that kind of money to fix her? She glanced at Kamina and was somewhat comforted that he looked just as lost. "I guess we should probably follow her," Shepard said, reluctantly. Kamina shrugged.

"Finally," Miranda groused. She turned and headed for a shuttle.

Kamina grunted and followed. "What a waste," he grumbled. "That body with that personality." Shepard went after him, feeling numb. The thing that she'd been trying not to think about was startling to bubble to the surface. Liara. The face of the gorgeous asari floated into Shepard's brain. Where are you?

Once they were seated and the shuttled was lifting off, Shepard worked up her courage and asked, "How long have I been out?"

"A little over two years," Miranda answered casually.

The world spun around and Shepard slumped back in her seat. Two years?! How could that be? "Who knows that I'm alive?"

"Well, now that most of the people who worked on the Lazarus Project are dead," Miranda mused. "Me, my employer and a few others in our organization. The Alliance has you officially listed as M.I.A."

"What...what about my crew? From the Normandy?" Shepard asked, for some reason unwilling to mention Liara.

Miranda shrugged. "Most of them have moved on. Without the Normandy and without you, there was no reason to stick together. I haven't kept tabs on them but my employer might have." Shepard wasn't one to cry but she felt like it. Liara thinks I've been dead for two years?

Kamina, who had his nose pressed up against one of the viewports, suddenly said, "We're in space! With the stars and the moon!"

Miranda stared at him. "Of course we're in space, you dolt."

Kamina stared right back, looking absolutely blown away. "Where is the Earth? I don't see it."

Miranda gestured slightly to her left. "It's about fifteen hundred light years that way. What is wrong with you?" Even though Shepard was nearly in shock, the analytical part of her brain deduced that they must be in the Horsehead Nebula.

"Nothing is wrong with me!" Kamina snapped. "I've just never been off Earth before, is all!"

Miranda rubbed her temple. "Then how are you fifteen hundred light years away from it?"

Kamina shrugged. "Dunno."

Miranda's eye twitched. "I'm going to figure out what your deal is, boy. I don't care if I have to dissect you in a lab."

Kamina glared right back at her. "Nobody but nobody dissects Kamina-sama!" he declared. Shepard couldn't help but laugh which earned her a dagger glare from Miranda. Shepard decided right then that she wouldn't let Miranda or her organization harm Kamina. Even though she'd just met him, she was starting to kind of like the brash knucklehead. Shepard also felt better having a clear goal and purpose in mind.

"Shepard," Miranda growled, though it was clearly residual anger at Kamina that was informing her tone. "Before we meet my employer, I would like to go over a few things to make sure your memories are intact."

Shepard crossed her legs and drummed her fingers on her thigh. "My memories are fine, Miranda. Whatever you did worked. I even remember the Normandy crumbling and being vented into space."

"Is that so?" Miranda glanced down at her at the datapad in her hand. "That's honestly better than our expectations. Still, we have a little time and for my own edification..."

"Go ahead." Shepard supposed it was better than dwelling on things she couldn't fix.

"Let's start with an easy one," Miranda said. "After the battle for the Citadel, who did you recommend to be the first human Councilor?"

"Captain David Anderson." He got screwed out of being the first human Spectre and he always trusted me when it came to the Reapers. Unlike that short-sighted fool Udina.

"Yes and your opinion at the time carried enough weight to see it done. Though I think his association with you might have harmed him since," Miranda speculated.

"What does that mean?" Shepard said, a sinking feeling in her stomach.

"There will be time for that later..." Miranda murmured. "Alright, how about a question from further back in your history...you first came to the Council's attention with your actions on Torfan. Do you remember what happened there?"

Shepard's eyes narrowed. She had a feeling Torfan would haunt her into her grave. "The Alliance wanted a retaliatory strike against the batarians for the Skylian Blitz. My orders were to eradicate their base at Torfan. I did so."

"At the cost of most of your unit," Miranda pointed out. "You also left no survivors and it is rumored that you executed surrendering batarians."

"They were slavers," Shepard said coldly, feeling a rage in her chest that had never really completely died since Mindoir. "My strike finally pushed them out of the Attican Traverse. They'd been getting away with raids in Alliance space for far too long. Torfan was a nightmare but I hope that it saved some others from worse ones."

"Well said, Shepard," Miranda said, a note of respect finally in her voice. "Ah, here is a good one. From your childhood, so if you can answer it I can safely say that your memories have been restored in full. When you were in the seventh grade, an essay you wrote on 'what in the galaxy I would most like to see' resulted in your suspension. What did you write?"

Shepard's eyes opened wide and she leaned forward. "How could you possibly know that?"

Miranda smirked. "It's on your permanent record, Shepard. Our hackers are more than competent enough to get into primary school records."

Shepard settled back. Jesus, these people are thorough. "I wrote that the thing I'd most like to see was an asari stripper." Done and done. "My teacher didn't like it, calling the essay unserious and disgusting. I called him a speciesist who had no balls."

Miranda gave her a thin smile. "Yes, that matches up."

Kamina laid a hand on Shepard's shoulder. He looked at her, red eyes serious. "What," he asked, "is an asari stripper?"

"I'll take you to Chora's Den when we have some free time," Shepard said with a smile.

Miranda shuddered. Then the shuttle halted. "It look like we're here." Shepard raised an eyebrow. Short trip. Miranda led them off the shuttle and into another facility much like the one Shepard had woken up in. Miranda pointed to a set of stairs. "My employer will meet you in the room at the end of that hallway."

Shepard gave a nod and then leaned over and whispered in Kamina's ear. "Don't let them take you anywhere until I get back." Kamina nodded, eyes determined. Miranda stared at them with suspicion but didn't say anything. Shepard went down the stairs and into a dark room. In the center of the room was a large man, mostly hidden in the shadow. She could also tell that he was actually a hologram, rather than a flesh and blood presence. Shepard couldn't make out his features very well but she could see that he was nearly as big as a krogan, with a bald head and bushy beard. The thing that caught her attention were his eyes, however. They were red, like Kamina's, but they seemed to actually glow in the darkness. More, instead of a single iris, there were concentric circles of red across his entire eyeball. Shepard crossed her arms, affecting an air of disinterest. "You much be the 'employer' Miranda keeps going on about."

The figure let out a deep chuckle. "Indeed. It is very like Miranda to be obfuscating. I am the one the Alliance calls the Illusive Man."

Shepard thought for a moment. She'd heard that name before. Then it hit her. "You're the head of Ouroboros!" Her stomach went cold. She'd broken up more than a few of their labs after she became a Spectre. They were doing human experimentation. She had meant to spend some time digging into the mystery organization once she had some time. "Why the hell would Ouroboros want to save my life?"

The Illusive Man laughed again. "You did me a favor. Ouroboros is an organization for the protection and advancement of the human race. I give my subordinates a lot of operational leeway. Sometimes it backfires. I was planning to send a strike team after the very people you put down."

"Convenient," Shepard spat.

The Illusive Man shrugged his massive shoulders. "Believe me or don't. I didn't bring you back to be part of my organization."

The statement blindsided Shepard. "Then why?" Four billion credits! I know Ouroboros must have a significant financial base but still...

"Because I understand the threat of the reapers," the Illusive Man said, his deep voice deadly serious. "You are one of the few other souls in the galaxy that does. You are somebody that knows how to rally public support, something I and Ouroboros cannot do. Even if you leave now and we never see each other again, I will consider my money well spent."

He's trying to make me lower my guard. It was working, too. If the Illusive Man knew what she knew, she could understand his motives. Shepard would bring back Saren himself if she thought he could help in the fight against the reapers. Still, it wouldn't do to let him know that she might believe him. "Will you still think that way if I tear your organization down around your ears?"

"Perhaps," the Illusive Man said. She could hear the amusement in his voice and cursed internally. "Before that, however, there is something I would like you to see." Here it comes. Shepard braced herself for the pitch. "While you've been recovering, entire human colonies have been going missing."

Shepard's head perked up and her eyes hardened. "Batarians?"

"No," the Illusive Man said with certainty. "There are no signs of struggle. No corpses, no property damage. Just every man, woman and child is gone, leaving nothing but a huge mystery."

How can that be? Shepard's stomach went cold. That sounded very much like something that had to do with the reapers. Who else could pull that kind of stunt? "What is the Alliance doing about this?"

"Nothing," the Illusive Man grunted. "These are colonies outside of official Alliance space. Many of the settlers specifically go to escape the Alliance. Even if they wanted to do something, they're hands are full trying to replace the turians as the muscle of the galaxy."

Shepard slid a hand through her hair. "Still, how could they do nothing?"

"You'd have to ask them. Ouroboros is not content to sit. I have information on a colony that's just been hit. Freedom's Progress. I would like you to accompany Miranda to the site and see if you can learn anything."

Shepard nodded in agreement before she could stop herself. Damn it. It was true that she really wanted to see this colony for herself. One thing Shepard had always been bad at was ignoring a problem. Still, it was time for a little test on how far she could push. "I'll go but I want to take Kamina with me."

The Illusive Man grunted in surprise. "That strange boy that showed up out of nowhere? We don't know anything about it him. It would be safer for us to interrogate him."

"I don't care." Shepard crossed her arms. "Kamina stays with me or I walk." She let her other threat remain unspoken but thought that the Illusive Man was smart enough to pick up on it. Shepard wouldn't be leaving this base intact if she left with Ouroboros as her enemy.

"Fine," the Illusive Man waved his hand. To Shepard's delight, he finally looked a little annoyed. "Keep the boy."

"Good," Shepard said with a smile. "I suppose I should head to Freedom's Progress right away."

"Go. I look forward to hearing your findings." The Illusive Man turned his back on her, a clear dismissal. Shepard's smile tightened but she left without another word. Miranda was working at a terminal when Shepard reached the top of the stairs and Kamina was staring out a window. They were obviously ignoring each other. Shepard didn't mind. If she was going to work with Ouroboros, she wanted to have somebody with her who wasn't loyal to them.

"How did things go?" Miranda asked with a hint of anxiousness.

"The Illusive Man has convinced me that I should take a look at Freedom's Progress. I haven't promised anything more than that at present."

Miranda's blue eyes lit up. "Excellent. I'll get the shuttle ready to go straight away." She pointed at a door. "Through there are some weapons and some alternate armor, if you are interested."

"Thanks," Shepard grinned. "Kamina will be coming with us, so I'll get him outfitted as well."

Miranda's jaw dropped and Kamina glanced over at them. "We're bringing that fool along?! Why?" she screeched.

"Because I want to." Shepard's smile turned menacing.

Miranda's face went a little red but she just muttered, "Very well. Meet me on the shuttle when you are ready." She stalked away, refusing to even look at Kamina.

The blue-haired boy walked over to her and smirked. "She didn't seem happy about that."

"You're an unknown. I gather that the people here don't like chaos. As long as I keep you around, I can keep them off balance."

Kamina laughed. "Glad to help with that."

Shepard jerked her head toward the small armory. "Let's go see what kind of weapons they have for us." They made their way to the armory and went inside. Shepard was surprised to see how many weapons they had available for her. There were also rows and rows of armor sets. A quick glance told her that her Colossus armor wasn't among them and she decided, regretfully, that it must not have survived her sojourn into space. "Do you have a weapon preference?" Shepard asked Kamina.

He scratched the back of his head. "I actually usually fight with a sword when I am outside of Gurren."

Shepard glanced at him with curiosity. "Is Gurren a ship of some sort?" And who the hell uses a sword?

"You could say that. I guess." Kamina frowned.

"Well, you've at least fired a gun before right?" Kamina nodded. "Any preference?" He shrugged. Shepard studied the weapons. She was familiar with most of them but a few were of unknown manufacture. Hopefully she would have time to play with them later. "You like to get up close and personal, right?" She mused. Then she picked up a shotgun and tossed it to him. Kamina caught it easily. "Scimitar shotgun. That baby will blow through just about any shield at close range. And for more delicate work..." Her eyes lit up when they spotted a Locust. She almost kept it for herself but then passed it to Kamina. "That cute little girl can pump out an enormous spread of bullets while staying very accurate." For herself, Shepard selected a Viper rifle and a Carnifex heavy pistol. She rubbed her chin. "We'll also need to get you some armor." They all looked heavy enough for frontline work. "Pick whichever looks good to you."

Kamina eyed the rows of armor and Shepard almost laughed when his eyes locked on to the most predictable set. "Ooooh! That's cool!" Kamina ran over to the armor, which looked like a set of medieval plate with a blood-red dragon painted on the shoulder and chest.

"Go for it," Shepard chuckled. "I'll wait outside." Shepard exited to allow Kamina to dress in private. She leaned back against the wall and sighed. How long had she been awake? A few hours? And already she'd been in one fight and was preparing to go into another. It seemed like her whole life since Mindoir had been nothing more than a few moments of peace in between constant bloodshed. Even her moments with Liara had been snatched during a flights from one warzone to another.

Kamina came out of the armory dressed in his plate armor. Shepard had to admit that he did look kind of cool. She helped him attach his shotgun to the small of his back where soldiers typically wore it and showed him how it would expand when he drew it. It was a worrisome that he didn't even know that much but Shepard figured that she'd be spending most fights behind him anyway. They found Miranda seated in the same place in the shuttle and took their same seat across from her. She rolled her eyes when she saw what Kamina was wearing.

"So," Shepard said. "Since your supposed to be my partner in this, why don't you tell me a little about yourself?" The shuttle started to rumble around them and lifted off.

"Worried about my qualifications?" Miranda asked with a slight sneer. "Don't be. I can crush a mech's head with my biotics or shoot out the eyes of a turian with equal ease. I also have the learning and technical skill to bring a dead human back to life," she added with a smirk.

I meant tell me a little bit about what kind of person you are but I guess you kind of did. Shepard let the matter drop. There would be time to learn about her later, if necessary. Something else did catch Shepard's attention though. "You're a biotic, you say?" Miranda nodded cautiously. "Well, it so happens that my friend Kamina here showed off some biotic skills of his own when we were fighting off the mechs. He's raw but I think he has a lot of talent. Why don't you show him a few of the basics while we fly to Freedom's Progress?"

Miranda's jaw dropped. "You can't be serious."

"I'm completely serious." Shepard glanced at Kamina and noticed that he didn't seem any more enthused than Miranda did. "Don't you think it makes sense for our little party to be as powerful as possible? I've no biotic ability or I'd teach him myself."

"That's true, I suppose," Miranda reluctantly conceded. "However, we usually begin training biotics when they are children. The abilities often seem impossible to the adult mind."

"Then don't worry about me! Nothing seems impossible to my mind!" Kamina declared.

Shepard laughed at Miranda's look of distaste. Then the Ouroboros operative flung a datapad at Kamina's face without warning. Even Shepard could do nothing to stop it short of Kamina's face. So all three of them were shocked when the pad stopped a hair short of his nose. The telltale green flare of energy materialized around Kamina's body. Shepard was the first to recover and said with a grin, "I told you he had talent."

Miranda finally actually looked more interested than annoyed. "Yes. I know a lot of fully trained biotics who would have been unable to stop that. You've never trained anywhere?" she asked skeptically.

Kamina smirked. "I guess I'm just a natural."

The contempt flared to life in Miranda's eyes again. Shepard sighed. Just when I thought they might get along. She shrugged and closed her eyes while Miranda began to lead Kamina through a few basic exercises. She napped as the shuttle docked with a lager Ouroboros ship and used the relays to fly them to the Terminus Systems. Catching forty winks on a shuttle in transit was a skill every marine needed to learn at some point.

When they reached Freedom's Progress, Shepard was surprised to see that Miranda really was the only Ouroboros operative than came with her. Either they really trusted Miranda or they weren't worried about Shepard making a break for it. Shepard glanced around at the pre-fabricated buildings of the colony. She could probably scrounge up a ship and be on her way if she wanted. First, though, she did need to see what was up with this colony.

They made their way through, Shepard taking point, keeping her Viper at the ready. There was something menacing in the air. It was way too eerie to see an entire colony just empty of people. Shepard had seen more raided colonies than she'd ever wanted to but there were always survivors and corpses and destroyed or burned buildings. There was none of that here. Just empty building after empty building.

So Shepard almost shrieked when a bullet grazed her shield. Even though she held it in, a blush spread across her cheeks. She could only imagine what her N-school instructors would think about an N7 screaming because they were fired at. Shepard ducked behind a nearby crate and took a peek through her scope at what they were facing. More mechs? What, did all military forces shift to mechs while I was in coma? "Kamina!" The young man had his back against the outside of a prefab shed just to Shepard's left. "Miranda and I will cover you. See if you can mix it up with those mechs." He grinned with excitement.

Shepard popped up and started firing, using the semi-automatic nature of her Viper to put a shot or two into each mech, keeping them off balance. Miranda stepped out next to her, spraying her machine gun. Then the Ouroboros operative's omnitool flared to life and one of the mechs simply exploded. Guess she's not all talk, Shepard thought approvingly. Kamina covered the distance to the mech's incredibly fast, an aura of green light around him. He blew the arm and shoulder off one mech with his shotgun and then lashed out a kick at another, smashing it backward. The last one he hammered with the butt of his shotgun, crushing its head.

With a laugh, Shepard settled her rifle on her shoulder. That worked well. It reminded her of fighting with Wrex. Her precision let him unleash his full destructive fury. "Yes!" Kamina shouted. Then he gave Shepard a passionate thumbs-up. "We did it!"

"We sure did." Shepard gave him a thumbs-up in return. She glanced at Miranda and found the same look of slight condescension and disgust the woman normally wore. "Christ, Miranda, don't you ever have any fun?" Her frown was all the answer Shepard needed.

"This mission isn't about having fun," Miranda snapped. She scanned one of the downed mechs and said, "These mechs have a central authority. I can follow the signal back and perhaps we can find who sent them after us."

Shepard nodded. She'd been thinking the same thing. "Sound good." She activated the door to a building that would be a shortcut deeper into the complex and stepped inside. The four fully-masked figures just inside leveled their guns at her and Shepard automatically raised her rifle. Then she noticed that one of the figures looked very familiar. "Tali?"

The quarian dropped her shotgun to her side. "Shepard?" she gasped. "How?"

"I could ask the same of you. What are you doing on a human colony in the Terminus?"

"What are you doing alive?" Tali fired back.

I guess she kind of has me there. "I'm honestly not sure of the whole story myself yet," Shepard said. "Short answer is that I spent the last two years in a medical coma. I don't know that I've even been awake for twenty-four hours yet."

"That's...insane."

"Yeah...I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around it myself." Shepard sighed. "Your turn, what are you doing on Freedom's Progress?"

Before Tali could answer, another of the quarians snapped his gun up, leveling it at Miranda. "That symbol!" he cried. "That bitch is Ouroboros!" The other quarians hesitantly raised their guns as well.

Tali waved them down. "Stop that!" she commanded. Two of the quarians immediately lowered their weapons but the first one kept his firmly on Miranda. To her credit, she just crossed her arms and stared at him with disdain. "Prazza, I am ordering you to lower your weapon now," Tali said firmly. Shepard blinked. Tali must be in charge here. Prazza made a sound of disgust but finally lowered the shotgun.

Shepard raised an eyebrow. "Your people seem to have some problems with Ouroboros."

"They infiltrated the Flotilla and murdered several quarians," Prazza snarled.

"Not the way I'd put it," Miranda muttered.

"It doesn't matter right now," Tali insisted. "We need to find Veetor. I could use your help, Shepard."

"Who is Veetor?"

"He's the reason we're here. Veetor is on his pilgrimage right now. He managed to send out a distress call to us when the colony was attacked."

He could tell us what happened here! "Sure, I'll help you find him. My own mission is to discover what the hell took this colony out. I want to speak to him as much as you. What makes you think he's still alive, though?"

"He's the one controlling these mechs," Tali said sadly. "They've attacked even us, though. I'm not sure what Veetor is doing."

"He mentioned that he had a suit malfunction," Prazza chimed in. "He's probably delirious."

"I see." Shepard rubbed her chin. "Well, it looks like we're all after the same thing. We should work together."

"Sounds good," Tali said happily. "I still can't believe you're alive." The quarian ordered Prazza and the other two to take the lead, while Shepard and Tali followed behind, Miranda and Kamina watching their backs.

"Honestly, I'm still having trouble believing I missed two years," Shepard said quietly as they walked. "How have you been, Tali?"

"It was hard for a while...after we lost the Normandy," Tali said. Shepard could hear her pain. "I wanted to continue to fight the Reapers but with you gone, nobody seemed to know how to proceed. So I went back to the Flotilla. Thanks to the geth data you let me keep, I had the ability to choose any ship I wanted. My name is Tali'Zorah vas Neema now, by the way." The quarian shrugged. "Since then I've just been doing whatever my people need."

"I imagine they rely on you for quite a bit." Tali nodded ruefully. "Do you know much about what happened to the rest?" Shepard's stomach twisted. "Do you know if many of them survived?"

"Oh, yes, Shepard. There were a few casualties but Liara rounded most of us up before the Normandy completely collapsed." She fiddled with her shotgun. "I don't know what happened to most of them afterward though. Garrus and Adams were the only ones I kept in contact with."

Garrus! Garrus had practically been her right hand when she was chasing down Saren. If things got testy with Ouroboros, the turian would be invaluable to have around. "What's Garrus been up to?" she asked with forced casualness.

"He was training to be a Spectre," Tali said slowly. "But the last message I got from him said he was quitting because he couldn't stand the politicking. I tried to tell him to stick with it but he never responded. I haven't heard from him since. That was over a year ago."

Damn it. Shepard could tell that Tali was afraid he was dead but Shepard wouldn't believe it until he saw the turian's corpse. Her hands went sweaty and her throat a little dry as she asked the next question. "Do you know what happened to Liara?"

Tali shook her head sadly. "I don't. I'm sorry."

"It's alright," Shepard said. She felt a strange mix of relief and disappointment. Why do I feel almost scared to learn what happened to her? Shepard was broken from her maudlin thoughts when a huge security gate shot up in front of her and she nearly smacked into it. "What the hell?" she muttered.

"Bastard!" Tali cried, slamming her fist against the gate. "Prazza just hot-wired this thing to close on us. He's trying to take Veetor away before you can get to him!"

"Fool," Miranda snarled, catching up with them.

Tali moved to the gate controls and activated her omnitool. "Let me see if I can get it open." After several moments she said something that the translators didn't understand. Shepard assumed it was a particularly filthy curse. "I can't get it! Prazza always had a knack for sabotage. We'll have to go around."

"If we do," Shepard said, "I think your friends might die." Even though Shepard couldn't see the quarian's face behind her mask, the way Tali twisted around told Shepard how surprised she was. "Listen." Sounds of explosions came from beyond the gate.

"Sounds like they found a bigger mech," Miranda commented with a hint of amusement.

Tali let loose with a stream of curses. "There is no choice! We have to find another way. If Prazza survives this, I'm going to murder him!"

"Bah!" Kamina announced. "We don't need to go around. If this big thing is in our way, we just need to go through it."

"And how exactly to you propose we do that?" Miranda drawled. "Idiot."

Kamina flashed her an impossibly cocky grin and green energy started swirling around him. "If something is in our way, we just smash it aside!"

"Don't even try it," Miranda snapped. "I've been practicing my biotics since I was six and I've never moved something half that weight. It's impossible."

"I thought I told you how I felt about the word 'impossible,'" Kamina grunted. He clenched his teeth and beads of sweat popped out on his forehead. The aura around him swirled and pulsed fitfully. "Who the hell do you think I am?' he ground out. Then there was a horrendous shriek and one side of the gate moved up about half a meter and drifted toward them a fraction. Kamina fell to one knee, gasping for breath. Miranda stared at him in absolute shock.

"Great job, Kamina!" Shepard shouted, running up to the gate. The gate was off its hinges and pulled forward enough for Shepard to squeeze her hands through. "Help me with this," she called. Then to get a sense of the weight, she gave it an experimental pull. Shepard was so shocked when the gate actually moved that she let it go. The gate was solid metal and had to weigh at least several hundred kilos. Shepard was no slouch in the weight room but she didn't have the muscle-mass to move something that heavy. Either the gate is much lighter than it should be or... Shepard clenched her fist. She would need to have a talk with Miranda about what exactly she had done while rebuilding Shepard.

A conversation for later, though. Shepard grasped the gate and with a mighty heave, managed to pull it far enough for them to fit through. She darted through right away, drawing her rifle, just in time to see a missile hit the ground right in front of Prazza, flinging him into the sky. Shepard fired off some quick shots, more to get the attention of the giant mech than to actually do any damage. It worked. The lumbering mech turned and fired its machine guns. Shepard dove away from it, rolling behind a nearby building. Miranda and Tali found similar cover. "Miranda," Shepard called. "You and me are going to keep that thing busy. Tali, shut it down." The human and the quarian nodded.

Miranda leaned out and fired a burst from her gun. Then she picked up a loose tire with her biotics and whipped it at the mech's head. The mech turned on her, forcing the Ouroboros operative back into cover. So Shepard peeked out and fired a volley of shots, aiming for the glowing red eye. The heavy mech actually stumbled back from the force of a half dozen shots to the same spot and the thing's shields collapsed. Tali, who had been working around to the back of the mech, didn't waste her chance. He leapt onto the thing's back and jammed her omnitool into the side of its neck.

The mech started shaking and then it flung its arms out wide. "Shit!" Shepard cursed. "Get off that thing now, Tali" The quarian sprung backwards but not in time. The heavy mech exploded, accelerating Tali towards a building. Before she could hit, however, a flash of green light surround her and slowed her pace. The quarian still hit the wall but at a considerably reduced speed. Shepard glanced over her shoulder and found a grinning Kamina, his arm extended toward Tali. He sat down hard. Shepard hesitated a moment but she didn't think over-using biotics would do more than exhaust him. She sprinted up to Tail.

The quarian was sitting up against the wall of the building she had slammed into, shaking her head slowly. "Are you alright?" Shepard asked, kneeling down next to her.

"Somehow," Tali said. Shepard breathed a sigh of relief and stood, offering Tali her hand. The quarian took it and Shepard pulled her to her feet. Tali looked at something over Shepard's shoulder and Shepard craned her neck around, following Tail's gaze. She was pleasantly surprised to see Miranda over one of the downed quarians, dispensing first aid. Tali clearly wasn't as sure about it, since she ducked around Shepard and jogged over to her fellows. Shepard went to Kamina.

"How're you doing, buddy?"

Kamina graced her with a cocky grin. "Just fine, Shepard." He wiped his nose and then goggled when his hand came away bloody. "Eeaugh?!"

"Yeah, maybe you better sit down and relax here for a moment." Shepard clapped him on the shoulder. "Good job, though. I was right to bring you along." She joined Tali and Miranda near the other quarians. "How's it look?"

Tali shook her head. "Fotor is dead," she said sadly. "The moron that got him killed has a broken leg and several suit perforations. I mean to make sure he lives so he can stand trial for this." She glanced up at Shepard and pointed toward a building. "Go and get Veetor so that we can get off this damn planet."

Shepard nodded, unsure of what to say. She's being nicer than I would be if a soldier under my command pulled a stunt like that. She went inside the building that Tali had pointed to. A quarian was sitting at a control console, more than a dozen feeds from the colony broadcasting into a grid in front of him. "Veetor?"

"Who are you?" Veetor asked. Shepard could hear the unstableness in his voice. "Why weren't you taken with the others?"

"I just got here." Shepard studied the feeds. None of them showed any activity. Whoever had attacked this colony was long gone. "Tell me what happened here."

"The seeker swarms," Veetor mumbled. "Covered everything. Then they came. Took them all away." He fiddled with something on his console.

Shepard, growing a little annoyed, activated her omnitool and shut the feeds down. Veetor finally turned around to look at her, a trifle unsteady on his feet. "Who took them, Veetor?"

"Myths," Veetor murmured. "Rumors. Legends. Wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it for myself."

"What are you talking about?" Shepard asked with exasperation. "What myths?"

Veetor activated his omnitool and tapped in a command. A hologram began playing. It showed several strange creatures carrying paralyzed humans. The aliens were bipedal with hard green skin that looked like it may be an exoskeleton and four glowing yellow eyes. "Collectors," Veetor whispered.

"Collectors?" Shepard repeated. She'd heard the name before but they were always just a bar rumor. Some mystery aliens that paid vast sums of money for mutants? Nobody took that seriously. Then again, I've never seen any aliens that look like that. And they are...collecting. It was something to start on at least. "Veetor, I'll need a copy of all the recordings you took while on Freedom's Progress."

"We'll need more than that, Shepard." Shepard spun around to see Miranda and Tali entering the building. "We'll need to take him with us and properly interrogate him."

"Interrogate!" Tali cried. "You can't be serious. There is no way I am letting Ouroboros take a quarian away. He needs medical attention and antibiotics only the Flotilla can supply."

"We came here to find out what was happening to human colonies." Miranda pointed at Veetor. "That quarian knows things we need to know."

"Why don't you come with us, Tali?" Shepard offered. "That way you could watch out for Veetor. I could use your help."

Tali shook her head and held up both her fingers. "Two reasons, Shepard. Number one, I'm not a trained doctor. I know field medicine but Veetor needs more than that. Number two, I'm an officer in the Flotilla now, not a shipless quarian on my pilgrimage. I can't just up and leave whenever I want."

Both good points, Shepard thought with a sigh. "Alright, Tali, Veetor goes with you. I'm sure we'll be able to figure out what we need from the omnitool data."

Tali's shoulders slumped with relief. "Thank you, Shepard. I'm glad you're still the woman I knew." Tali crossed the room and began speaking quietly to Veetor.

Miranda glared at Shepard, eyes like icicles. "The Illusive Man will not be happy about this!" she declared.

"Miranda, do you really think I give a damn?" The Ouroboros officer huffed and stormed outside.

They called in their respective shuttles and Shepard helped Tali load her injured comrades aboard theirs. When they were finished, Tali shook Kamina's hand. "Thank you, Kamina. Without you, me and my companions might all be dead now. The quarians owe you a debt."

"Don't worry about it," Kamina said. "I had fun."

Tali giggled and moved to Shepard, wrapping her in a hug. "It was amazing to see you again, Shepard. This galaxy was darker without you in it."

"I'm happy you're doing well, Tali," Shepard said in return. "Please don't hesitate to call me if either you or the Flotilla is in trouble." Tali boarded her shuttled and it took off. The three humans got in their own. The trip back was quiet. Kamina fell asleep almost immediately and started snoring. Shepard wasn't far behind him.

Before she knew it, she was back in the room with the holo of the Illusive Man, a great blue sun at his back. "What did you find?" he rumbled.

"Well, you weren't wrong about the gravity of the situation. How many people lived on Freedom's Progress before the attack?"

"Somewhere in the neighborhood of a million."

"Son of a bitch," Shepard snarled. "And how many colonies have been hit?"

"At least a dozen."

My god. "You were right that this is worthy of my attention. The quarian Veetor seemed to think this was the work a species called the collectors. Do you know anything about them?"

"Not a lot," the Illusive Man admitted. "But I will pour all of Ouroboros' efforts into learning. Can I take it you have decided to work with us?"

"Yes." Shepard narrowed her eyes. "However, make no mistake. I am not working for you. We are partners."

The Illusive Man barked a laugh. "A bold statement, considering it was Ouroboros that remade you."

"Well, you didn't bring me back because I'm a shrinking violet."

The Illusive Man laughed again. "True enough. Fine, I suppose that we can be partners." The way he said that put Shepard's teeth on edge. "Miranda will continue to function as the liaison between you and Ouroboros." Shepard nodded in agreement. At least she knew how to push Miranda's buttons. "There is another Ouroboros soldier who's services I would like to offer. He's a pilot. One of the best."

"Hey, Commander," a familiar voice said behind her.

Shepard turned and gasped, "Joker?" The former pilot of the Normandy smiled sheepishly at her.

"I will be in contact," the Illusive man announced. Then he faded away along with the blue sun and the lights came on in the room.

"He's kind of a creeper, right?" Joker said with a slight shake of his head.

"He's something." Shepard cocked her head. "How did you end up with Ouroboros, Joker?"

The pilot smiled. "I'll show you. Come on." He waved at her and left the room, shuffling slightly because of his Vrolik syndrome. As confused as Shepard was by his presence, she was also delighted. Joker was a phenomenal pilot. She followed him through the station, catching Kamina's eyes and gesturing for him to follow when she spotted him. Joker led them to a docking berth. As the dock started to light up, Joker said, "This I why I joined Ouroboros."

Shepard gasped as the Normandy was revealed. No, not the Normandy. This ship was bigger, even if it had the same profile of her old ship. "The Alliance black-balled anybody who stuck up for you, Commander," Joker continued. "Tried to make me a flight school instructor in bumpkin-ass nowhere. Ouroboros told me they were building a bigger and better version of the Normandy and they wanted me to pilot it. Hell yeah I joined up."

"It's incredible," Shepard said a little breathlessly. "Still, Joker, do you really think you can trust Ouroboros and the Illusive Man?"

"Not really. I don't trust the Alliance brass either though." Joker smiled affectionately at the ship. "Ouroboros rebuilt you and my baby so they've done more for me than the Alliance ever has. I guess we just need a name," he added wistfully.

"Oooooh!" Kamina jumped in. "I know! We'll call it the Space Gurren!"

"What?" Joker gaped at him. "Who the hell is this guy, Commander?" Shepard responded only with an enigmatic smile.

"No. We should call it Gurren Ship...Great Gurren Ship?" Kamina crossed his arms and rocked his head from side to side. "That's not right either. It is definitely a Gurren of some kind, though."

"Listen, you whack job. That wasn't a real suggestion. The ship already has a name."

"I've got it!" Kamina shouted, pounding a fist into the palm of his hand and clearly ignoring Joker. "Gurren Senkan!" Shepard doubled over laughing at this point, mostly at the look on Joker's face. "No! Dai-Gurren Senkan!"

Author's Notes: There you have it, the first chapter in my attempt to fuse the Mass Effect and Gurren Lagann universes. You many have noticed that biotic energy is green instead of purple. That is an element of the fusion and will be explained as we go further along. Also, yes, there is no Jacob in this fic. I thought Kamina replaced him rather nicely (honestly, I'm not sure what narrative purpose Jacob serves in the ME2 story). He won't be the only ME2 character replaced or missing as we go along. Most of the ME2 companions will be present but I don't want to get bogged down with too many characters. Obviously Miranda and Tali are present (and to assuage any fears, Garrus will be present as well).

I'm not sure if me referring to Shepard exclusively as Shepard works or not. It's how I think of her but I could give her a first name if its annoying. I also have no real plan in mind for pairings. Obviously Shepard was with Liara in the first game (Liara is my Shepard's space-love, even if she space-cheated on her with Garrus in the second game) but I could go either way on them getting back together. Even if they don't end up together, I'm going to play with the idea of Kamina/Miranda. Miranda came out pretty tsundere in this fic and we all know tsudere's love Kamina. If there is anything particular you'd like to see, don't hesitate to let me know. I'm pretty reluctant to do Kamina/Shepard, though. I'm more partial to the idea of them being partners a la Kamina and Simon.

If you have any other questions, please let me know. Thank you everybody for reading! I have a lot of the next chapter written so hopefully I'll have it up soon.

Kuragari