The Radiance watched as it's ancient enemy faced her failed jailer. It had taken a form she had seen many times before. The hateful offspring of that wretched wyrm. So many had come before it, falling before they could ever come close to that cage the wyrm designed for her. But this one...this one was different.

Then again, everything about this place was different.

She was no longer in her jailer's mind...yet she was not free. Something in her echoed the truth of her situation. A ritual, different from the one her brother employed to keep his pathetic flame from flickering out. She could feel some lesser being's mind desperately reaching out, hopeful, rapturous. But as she saw her ancient enemy battle it's sibling, she found herself unable to care. This was not the first time they participated in this ritual, certainly not. But with each attempt, they went a little further. Grew a little stronger. And inexorably, they drew closer to challenging her.

And even if she did defeat them...they would return. Death did not seem to hamper them; only serving as a setback in their wretched advance.

For the first time since the pale wyrm trapped her in his accused contraption, she felt a tinge of fear.

It was ridiculous of course. Nothing could defeat her. She was the Radiance.

Yet worry gnawed at her. The pale wyrm had caused her to be forgotten; and then had trapped her within a being that had been near mindless. And now her came it's offspring, bearing the taint of the ancient enemy. Something far more fearsome than the pale wyrm had ever been.

Perhaps...worry was warranted. But what could she do, really ? Killing him wouldn't work. Unlike the wyrm, she knew no way to trap beings. What could be done ?

And then, a thought. Perhaps there was a way. A way to get rid of that bug...for good.

She witnessed as he turned to void, passing through the many swords summoned by it's sibling, striking it with it's pure nail, sending it to it's knees. She was running out of time.

Still, the order of things needed to be maintained. And so, with a cry, she answered the challenge of her ancient enemy.

As she expected, she dispatched of them the first time they fought. Yet, it had taken some effort; they had grown strong, stronger than she expected them to be. And now, they had returned, again and again, to face her brilliance. Seeking to smother it in darkness, once and for all.
She would not let them.

Floating high above godhome, she was currently bombarding them with colossal rays of light, as they ascended higher and higher towards her. She could see the darkness rising along with them; the terrible power that writhed writhing them, struggling to be contained. It was no longer fear she felt; it was terror.

She no longer had a choice.

Focusing, she used the one ability she hadn't used for a very, very long time. And summoned a dream gate, right under the wyrm's offspring, on the very platform it seeked to stand upon. As it did, she focused all of her power. All of her colossal divine energy.

And she pushed.

In a brilliant flash of light and essence, her foe vanished. For an instant, she remained, frozen. Had it worked ? She couldn't feel it anymore. She focused. No, she couldn't feel it anywhere.

Relief flooded through her. It had been risky. In fact, it had been as likely to fail and leave her defenseless. But, she had seen no other option.

Still, she wondered. A dream gate of that power, who's only destination had been "not this realm"...where could they possibly ended up ?

No matter. The threat was gone; with it's focus disappeared, it was a simple task to bat the void away with her light.

Feeling the ritual disperse, the linchpin of focus gone, glee filled her, ignoring the despondent cries of the lesser beings that had seeked to summon her. She could return to slowly breaking the wyrm's seal. And reclaim what was rightfully hers.

Perhaps once she was free, she'd pay her brother a visit. She'd felt the scavenger's presence, both in the lands above and in the being she had just banished. Perhaps they'd participated in that macabre ritual of his.

But for now, she needed to rest. This had taken a lot out of her. There would be time...later.

-"Commander ? The Illusive man wants to talk to you. He's waiting in the coms room. He sounds pretty impatient, so I, ya know, wouldn't take too long. Unless you want to annoy him. Which, fair."

Jane Shepard sighed. It had barely been a few hours since she'd last talked to the mysterious leader of Cerberus. It was hard enough to have to deal with what amounted to the terrorist in charge; worst that he usually had useful, if not critical, information.

That didn't mean she had to be nice.

-"Understood Joker. I'll go see what he wants."

-"When you do, can you ask him to be more polite ? It would be nice." A pause. "Actually, don't do that. He's kinda scary."

Jane chuckled as she passed the automatic door, entering the room, the holographic sensors scanning her form. The walls around her changed, as the hologram of the Illusive man appeared, sat as usual with crossed legs in his chair.

-"Shepard. I have an assignment to propose to you."

Straight to the point. Did he not want to play his usual games ? If so, she wouldn't complain.

-"To propose huh ? I am fairly busy you know. I've just finished picking up that Krogan...and I haven't even gotten the chance to wake him up."

She was admittedly still a little nervous at the idea of that. Facing a krogan in an enclosed environment was not exactly the kind of situation that she would call comfortable. But she'd made the decision to bring him on board; she would deal with the consequences.

-"I understand Shepard. However, I believe this to be worthy of your attention." Pressing some unseen button on his chair, a new hologram appeared next to her.

-"Omega ? Really ? You want me to go to Omega ? ...Again ?"

Her voice was flat, her eyes narrowed as she looked over the glowing orange form of the asteroid based station. Omega was a hive of scum and villainy. The worst in the galaxy. And she had already spent far more time than she'd wanted there.

Although, she'd give it a point for allowing her to be reunited with Garrus. Having him back made dealing with Cerberus far more manageable. But even then, she'd had to cut a bloody trail to do so.
Nothing was free in Omega.
Nothing.

-"I understand your reluctance Shepard. However, our agents on location have detected...something. We aren't sure what. Some energy spike, that only registered on one of our more...experimental attempts at detecting the collectors. I would like you to inspect this occurrence."

Jane frowned.

-"Why not send your own agents ? If they're already in place."

-"I would rather not risk them. It took a very long time to implant them...as you can imagine, Omega is not the most hospitable place. In addition, their domain of expertise lies more in infiltration and general...mingling, with the local populace. Not in investigating unknown and quite possibly dangerous anomalies."

She cocked an eyebrow, crossing her arms.

-"But you're fine sending me and my team."

To her annoyance, the man simply took a puff from his cigarette, before continuing, impassable. One day she'd get a reaction out of him.

-"I know you can handle it. Whatever this may be, it can hardly be worse than fighting a reaper possessed spectre."

For a moment, Jane considered demanding to know how he'd learned of this. But then, she remembered who she was talking to.

-"You're still not making this very appealing you know."

The man nodded.

-"I am aware. Which is why I have something to offer you. Information on one of your old crewmates. Liara T'soni."

Her head snapped up, staring into the Illusive man's eyes.

-"You know where Liara is ?!"

The man shook his head.

-"Not her exact location, no. But I do have information that, in your hands, would likely lead to you finding her. I would be happy to give every bit of it to you...should you do this favor for me."

Jane gritted her teeth. He had her and he knew it. She could rage and scream as she wanted...it wouldn't get her any closer to Liara.

-"Fine. Relay the information on this 'assignment' of yours to Miranda. We'll take care of it."

-"Good luck Shepard."

With that, the communication was ended, the holograms disappearing as the light returned to the room.

Exiting the room, she found Garrus standing by the side, nonchalantly lying against the wall by the door.

-"So. Anomaly in Omega huh ? That should be interesting."
Jane rolled her eyes.

-"And you've been here for how long ?"

The turian shrugged, speaking in his gravelly voice.

-"Oh, you know. I heard that the big man wanted to have a chat, and well, I know how much you enjoy talking with him, so I thought I'd just come over in case you needed a rant."

She gave her turian friend a grateful nod. Garrus was, besides Joker, the only member of his old crew aboard the ship. It was good to know he still had her back.

-"I'm a big girl. I can handle a talk with him, no matter how grating he might be."

Garrus hummed, stretching his arms.

-"Well, looks like we've got work to do. When are we leaving ?"

-"Right now. Might as well, I'd rather get this out of the way as soon as possible." And get the information on Liara as soon as possible. Garrus gave her a side glance, but did not comment.

-"Alright. What about the krogan down in engineering ? Do we leave him there until the mission is over ?"

Jane considered, before shaking her head.

-"I'd rather not risk some fail safe activating and having an angry krogan rampaging through my ship while I'm meandering through Omega. I'll take care of it on the way."

Tapping at one of the interfaces on the wall, she said :

"EDI ? Can you tell Joker to set course to Omega ?"

The strange blue hologram of EDI appeared, her synthesized voice answering :

-"I have already informed mister Monroe. We are heading to the mass relay and will arrive shortly."

Jane nodded, giving her thanks. It concerned her sometimes, how...smart, EDI could be at times. She supposed it was normal for an AI, but she was still getting used to the many differences it had from a VI.

-"Well...no time like the present."

Garrus gave her a concerned look.

-"You sure you don't want some backup ?"

She shook her head.

-"It's a krogan. They respect strength, honor. he won't respect me blackmailing him with goons pointing guns at him."

Garrus shrugged.

-"Alright. But you're the one that explains to doctor Chakwas if things go wrong."

She chuckled as she took the elevator down. That would certainly make for an interesting conversation.

Jane winced as she walked up to the galactic map. The encounter with Grunt had been...interesting. She'd promised him a strong clan; and worthy foes. Overall, it had gone pretty well, she'd say. Still, getting slammed into the wall had not been pleasant.

Looking down at the map of Omega, she muttered.

-"Time for action huh...let's get this show on the road then."

For this mission, she chose to take Garrus and Miranda with her. Garrus, because he knew his way around Omega, and in such a place she could use an old friend. And Miranda, because this was a cerberus mission, and she hoped that the Illusive man would not take the risk of losing Miranda, and therefore not keep crucial information from them.

That, and the woman was a strong biotic. Which was always helpful.

Arriving in the center of Omega, standing before the Afterlife, Jane turned to Miranda.

-"So. What's the situation ?"

The cerberus agent tilted her head to the side, indicating to Jane she wished for them to follow her. As they started walking down the dirty alleys of Omega, she started to speak.

-"Our agents have detected a massive surge in specific radiations. Something… unknown. The way it reacted makes us believe the surge we detected was actually just a side effect of a phenomenon of unknown properties. Thankfully, it happened in a mostly abandoned area of Omega. Too structurally unstable for residence, even for her."

Jane snorted.
-"That's reassuring."

Garrus sighed.

-"That's not surprising. Omega isn't very big on public infrastructure...when a section starts to fail, if it's not useful to Aria, it's as good as gone. Of course, it's rare that something here holds NO interest to her...but it happens."

Miranda continued, unperturbed.

-"All we really have to do is go there, and see if we can find anything out of the ordinary. We shouldn't run into trouble...although, seeing where we are, trouble may well just find us."

Jane rolled her eyes. She was already exasperated with this mission. At least she had good motivation.

It took some time for them to reach the area Miranda had described, almost getting in trouble with a local vorcha gang before a careful glimpse of her carnifex convinced them to back off. As she had said, the place was a mess. They had been forced to wear their helmets due to many sections of the place being completely vented, holes in the station leading straight to the vacuum of space. Buildings were crumpled, damaged, if not outright destroyed.

-"Jeez...what in the world happened here ?"

It was Garrus that answered her question.

-"A few years ago, Blue suns and Blood pack came to blows here. It got bad. Really bad. Aria had to get involved to make sure damage didn't spread to parts of Omega that actually mattered to her. No one bothered to fix it. It's not getting any worse after all."

-"Mercenary infighting. Of course."

Miranda interrupted their conversation, pointing towards one of the less structurally compromised buildings.

-"The readings came from her."

Jane nodded, taking her gun out. The avenger assault rifle had served her well so far; she just hoped it wouldn't come to that here.

-"Alright, doesn't look like the place's been vented. Keep your helmets on just in case."

-"Understood Shepard."

Walking up to the building, she came before the front door. It was half open, electricity in this area long gone. She would have to pry it open.

-"Miranda ? Can you get this thing out of the way ?"

The cerberus operative's eyes started to glow an eery blue.

-"It shouldn't be a problem."

With a single biotic push, the door was yanked, the sound of groaning metal bending and twisting echoing through the silent streets. The path now cleared, Jane stepped forward, the light from her helmet illuminating the inside of the room.

The place showed clear traces of disrepair; dust and grime littered the place, the metallic surfaces showing the occasional impact from a mass effect round. A table in the center of the room had been thrown to the ground; for cover, she assumed, from the numerous impacts littering it. The shelves had been pillaged, thrown open, broken down.

-"Shepard. I've got movement upstairs."

Garrus's voice brought her out of her inspection. Giving a small nod, she looked to the stairs. Besides a single missing step, it seemed perfectly fine. Slowly, she climbed up, Garrus keeping watch at the bottom of the stairs while Miranda followed her upstairs.

The upper level was a wreck. Someone had detonated some kind of explosive, destroying most of the walls connecting the various rooms together; leaving it one large open area. Old debris littered the place, but that wasn't what caught her attention.

The first thing she noticed was the strange, white mask the thing seemed to wear. Entirely blank of any feature, save the two pronged horns that reached out from it, and two holes, that seemed to serve as opening for eyes; yet all she could see behind was absolute darkness. It was like staring straight into the abyss.
And she had the strangest feeling the abyss was staring back.

The figure the mask was connected to was no less strange. They were very short; shorter than any species's she'd ever met, save perhaps the volus. Yes, that thing was just about the same size as a volus now that she thought about it. It's body seemed made out of some strange dark matter, that appeared to almost absorb the light from her helmet's light rather than reflect it. It was wearing some sort of ragged grey cloak, and she could see the handle of...something, sticking out of it's back. Whatever it was looked metallic, but beyond that she could not tell.

-"What...is that ?"

Had the situation been any different, she would have joked about the seeing the usually unflappable Miranda ruffled. Yet, she could not look away. She'd never seen a being like this…

-"EDI ? Are you seeing this ?"

-"Yes Shepard. No matches in any database I possess."

Well, that complicated things. The thing was still staring at them. If it wasn't for the occasional twitch from it's...arm ? She would have thought it some kind of statue. It seemed to want to reach for that thing on his back, but also showed restraint.

-"Hey there...I'm not quite sure what to call you. Can you understand me ?"

She called out to it, hoping that whatever it was, it had a translation software...although, she couldn't see any traces of tech on it. The thing tilted it's head slightly to the side. She had to admit, it looked kind of cute. Like a big plushy.

"Doesn't seem like it…"

-"Shepard, whatever this is, the Illusive man will want to know about this. We need to bring it back with us."

Jane frowned. She didn't like the idea of leaving whatever this was in that man's care…but as long as it was on her ship, she could keep it out of it's grasp while satisfying the head of cerberus's curiosity.

-"Fine. But no sudden movement okay ?"

How to approach this...she had no idea how smart this thing was, how dangerous it was, how much it could understand her...well, at the very least it wore some level of clothing and possessed what she could only assume was a weapon, so it had to possess SOME degree of sentience.

"Alright, let's see if we can get some scan on you...this won't hurt, okay ?"

On the off chance it could understand her, even if just the tone, she decided to keep talking to it. There was something unnerving about the way it stared at her, unmoving, as she stepped closer. As she reached closer to it, she must have crossed some kind of threshold in the thing's mind, as it's arm reached to it's back with blinding speed, drawing...some kind of strange sword.

She'd barely had time to blink. The thing had been ridiculously fast.

-"Shepard !"

She rose a hand.
-"Relax, it's probably just feeling threatened." It hadn't attacked her. Probably just a warning to not get closer. She could see from the corner of her eye that Miranda had drawn her gun, her eyes glowing with subtle light. At least she'd held back from just immediately shooting.

Dropping to a knee, she spoke softly.

"Alright, I'm just going to scan you. Don't worry."

With that said, she slowly raised the arm holding her omni-tool, and pressed the scan function, the orange hologram materializing.

And just like that, the thing dashed backwards.

Jane blinked. This thing really was insanely fast. It's sword was drawn threateningly, and it seemed dangerously focused on her omni-tool.

"Ooookay, not a fan of the omni-tool. Got it."

Something was glowing in the things...hand ? She couldn't tell.

-"Shepard, watch out !"

In the blink of an eye, the thing was on her, light coalesced in a similar shape to that sword from earlier, striking at her. She barely managed to lift her gun, before the light hit her.
And did absolutely nothing.

The thing was staring up to her, the light in it's hand gone, the sword placed back on her back. A blue light enveloped the thing, throwing it backwards.

-"Shepard, are you alright ?!"

Turning around, she looked to Miranda.

-"Stand down Miranda ! And Garrus, don't you dare pull that trigger !"

The turian had come upstairs, most likely attracted by Miranda's exclamation, and had his rifle aimed squarely at the thing's crumpled shape. She winced. Miranda's throws packed a punch. She hoped it wasn't too damaged.

-"It hit you with something !"

-"I'm fine.. It didn't do anything." Nothing noticeable, at the very least, but this wasn't the time to escalate things with unnecessary worry. Looking at where the thing had hit her, there was no wound; hell, there wasn't even a trace.

"Whatever it was trying to do, it either failed...or it wasn't meant to hurt. Regardless, I'm fine."

She cut herself off as the thing rose back to it's...well she wouldn't call them feet. They were more like stubs.

-"I threw it back full force...that thing's more resilient than it looks."

Shepard nodded, making note of that. That could be a problem if this thing turned hostile.

The thing...she really nodded to find a better name for it, was looking at them. Then, it started rummaging through it's cloak. She slowly grabbed her assault rifle in own hand. But to her utter surprise, it took out a sheet of paper, a quill, and some ink.

-"...Where was it keeping that ?"

She shrugged. Garrus made a good point, but she was more curious as to who in the world used paper and ink in the late twenty-second century.

The thing started to scribble carefully on the paper, using a wall for cover. She would have found it adorable if she didn't have at the forefront of her mind how fast the thing was. Still, she let it continue, and after a few minutes, it stopped. It seemed awfully slow at writing, if that was indeed what it had been doing.

Then, it walked up to her, Miranda and Garrus tensing behind her. Ignoring the two completely, it lifted the paper to her face, handing it over. She cautiously grabbed it, and read it.

The writing was appalling. Barely legible in fact. But, legible it was.

Hello.

She blinked. It had spent minutes writing, just to write that ? Then, she realized what she'd just read.

-"Wait...you can write English ?"

The thing nodded.

"And you can understand me."

Another nod.

"But you couldn't before, could you ?"

Nod.

"Was it that...thing you did, with your light ?"

It stayed immobile for a second, then nodded, albeit far slower, almost reluctantly.

"Huh. So that thing works as some kind of translator then...very weird way of doing it."

Still, that made things easier. Communication with the thing was finally achievable.

And she could solve her earlier problem.

"Do you have a name ? it would make talking easier."

The thing stared at her, before taking the paper back, once again writing on it. She saw that it took a very long time to write even a single letter; understandable she supposed, if it had just learned her language. This also indicated something deeper than a mere translation. She'd have to ask Mordin if he had any ideas.

Once it was done, she looked at the paper.

"Ghost, huh ? An interesting name."

A loud groaning echoed through the building, freezing all present. Once it was over, a few seconds passed before Miranda spoke up, her voice tense.

-"Shepard. We can't stay here too long. Who knows when the next building might collapse."

She sighed.

-"Right, we need to get a move on…" turning to...Ghost, she asked :

"Do you mind following us ? We have a few questions we'd like to ask, and this place isn't safe."

To her surprise, they nodded. She'd expected convincing it to be harder.

"Then let's get a move on. Garrus, make sure no one does anything stupid like try and nab our little friend here."

The turian chuckled.

-"I've got this Shepard. It's safe with me."

Miranda sighed.

-"Of course a mission with Shepard turns out to discover a new sentient species…"

As it turned out, despite it's short legs, the now named Ghost had no trouble keeping up with them. It had fiddled with some kind of pin before hand, attaching it to their cloak; some sort of mask surrounded by red...feathers ? A cloak ? Hard to say on something so small. And then had started trotting after them, arms still in their cloak. It was amusing to say the least; but she remained worried. Such an unusual sight, even in Omega, would undoubtedly attract attention.

But to her surprise, whilst they did get quite a few looks, none dared to interfere or bother them. As they reached the Normandy, she finally voiced her surprise.

-"I'm honestly impressed that none of those thugs tried and attack us. If only to piss us off."

Garrus shrugged.

-"Little guy looks weird, but nothing that can't be explained by a good disguise, on a distant examination at least." He smirked, or at least, she thought he smirked. It was hard to tell on turians. "Besides, they've heard about you. They won't bother you."

Well, she wasn't going to complain about being left to her own devices. Ghost hadn't said a word since they had left that building. In fact, now that she thought about it, they hadn't made a single noise since she'd met them. Perhaps their species were mute ?

Questions for later. For now, she had some information to get. She could solve the mystery of their little guest afterwards. As they passed the sas, she gave their small companion a grin.

-"Welcome, Ghost. To the Normandy."

A.N. : I just realized I haven't put an author's note when I first published. Oops. Anyways, here it is :

Hello ! This is my first fanfiction, an idea that's been trotting around for a while that I've decided to finally give a try at.
I'd love to hear whatever feedback you may have on this story, and I hope you enjoy !
If there are any inconsistencies, I do apologize, I am no true expert of the Mass Effect universe, my knowledge being limited to the three main games.

I hope to update weekly, although I will not do any promises I am unsure of being able to keep. Still, I will do my best to keep that schedule.