Ambassador Udina was not in a good mood today. A human colony gets attacked - by the Geth, of all things! - the best archeological find of the century had exploded, and to top it all off, the Council's favorite pet Spectre, Saren, seemed to be involved somehow. What was supposed to be the first step in getting the idea of a Human Council seat onto the table had turned into a political shitstorm! The Systems Alliance did not need their golden-boy getting in over his head!

"You're not making my life easy, Shepard. Firefights in the Wards? An all-out assault on Chora's Den? Do you know how many-" the man in the suit had his voice trail off as he turned to look at the motley assortment that had just entered his office. Somehow Shepard had managed to triple the amount of people he had first left with. Standing alongside Lieutenant Alenko and Gunnery Chief Williams was an almost complete set of galactic life: a Krogan, a Turian, a Quarian, and... a Human wearing some strange clothes. They only needed a Salarian and an Asari for a complete set. "What is this, Shepard? Who are all these aliens with you?" Udina waved his hand at the gaggle of uninvited guests that the Commander had brought with him.

"Well, if you'd sit tight for a second, I'd tell you that each and every one of them has something to contribute to stopping Saren." Shepard huffed in response.

Wow, Axton thought, either this guy doesn't answer to Mr. Suit over there, or he really just doesn't give a damn about protocol. Either one's fine with me. Meanwhile, Axton already hated the guy. Alright, well, maybe not exactly hated, but definitely a strong dislike. The suits back at Dahl had given off exactly the same sort of feeling that this clown did: haughtiness, resentment, and disdain at anyone other than themselves. Axton was about to pontificate this matter further when Shepard continued.

"Tali here has some evidence that links Saren to the Geth." Shepard guestured to the Quarian.

"Really?" The ambassador could just barely contain his surprise; but even so, he still kept the level, dispassionate face that the job required of him at all times. "Maybe you'd better start at the beginning, Miss Tali...?" he trailed off, waiting for the Quarian to supply her name.

"Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. But please, call me Tali," she replied.

"We don't see many Quarians here. Why did you leave the flotilla?"

"I was on my Pilgrimage, my rite of passage into adulthood..."

It was at this point that Axton began to drift away from the conversation. Too much exposition for his taste. Instead, he decided to run through his skill menu for the time being. So many skills, never enough skill points. At least he had fully spec'ed the gunpowder tree before he ended up here; that one was his favorite, and it would save a lot of time from having to search for a QuickChange machine.

As he was swishing through the menus with his fingers, he became aware that the conversation seemed to have stopped. Looking away, Axton saw that everyone was staring at him in silence. Again.

"Uh... What? Do I have something on my face?" came the Commando's honest question.

"Axton," Shepard began, "what are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?" he replied with a smirk, "I'm checking my HUD. What else?"

"You have a haptic interface built into your heads-up display?" Tali asked excitedly.

"Excuse me, who is this man?" Udina turned to the Shepard for his response.

"Name's Axton, buddy." Axton interjected before anyone else could say something.

"Just Axton?" Udina crossed his arms.

"Uh, yeah. That's my name."

"Shepard," Udina pinched the bridge of his nose, "why is this civilian with you?"

"Well, he-" Shepard began to say, before getting cut off.

"Hey, I ain't no civilian! Ten years of Dahl military experience right here, pal!" Axton indignantly shouted back. "I'm the most badass soldier to ever leave that army!" He gave a grin as he pointed to himself with his thumb.

"So you're a mercenary, then." Udina tilted his head back slightly, as if recoiling. "Do you even have any formal training?"

"If you count not dying, then yeah, I had some training. I was a Sergeant."

"Pardon me," came a new voice. Axton saw the Turian in the group raise his hand. "But what is Dahl?"

Axton paused for a moment. "Uh, Dahl? Oh, right, you might not know since you aliens are new after all." He took a second to clear his throat, completely missing the glare that was sent his way by the Turian. "Dahl is one of the big mega-corporations in the universe. Big gun manufacturer, but they also make other stuff too. Runs a lot of other, smaller companies under its umbrella. Like the other mega-corps, they have their own private armies to do what they best: Kill stuff, and keep their stuff from getting stolen or blown up."

Everyone else was quiet for a moment before a woman's voice broke the silence.

"With all due respect, that is the biggest pile of crap I have ever heard."

A look of surprise sat onto Axton's face, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Uh, excuse me, miss...?"

"Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams. And there is no such thing as the Dahl corporation. The way you're describing it, should be that every human should know about, yet I never have."

"Now, wait a minute," Axton began to retort, raising his hand in a 'stop' motion and placing a smug look on his face, "I think you've got that wrong, Missy." And again, he cleared his throat while completely missing the glare being sent his way. "I did not spend ten years of my life in a military that doesn't exist. Look, I'll show you! I got one of their guns right here with the name on it and everything," and with that, Axton digistructed his Dahl Repeater into his hands.

This, of course, had a wildly different reaction to what he was expecting.

Udina, Ashley, and the other two dudes that he didn't know the names of had their eyes go so wide that they appeared to be trying to escape from their sockets. Shepard and Tali, as well as the Turian and the Krogan, had a similar, but more diminished, reaction.

"Seriously, guys," Axton asked in earnest, "what's wrong? Why are you getting so freaked out over a gun? You've got them on you yourselves!"

"M-Mr. Axton," Udina sputtered breathlessly, "how did you just do that?"

"What, this?" was his reply as he began to cycle through his four equipped weapons, each appearing and disappearing from his hands. It would have been a comical sight to see, if it weren't for the gravity of the situation.

"Yes! That! Teleporting your gun!"

"You mean digistructing, right?"

"No- wait, what? Digi... structing?" confusion was now on Udina's face.

"Alright, alright, now everybody just chill for a minute," Axton held up his hand as he holstered his gun. "Ever since I got here, things have been pretty weird for me. I mean, first off is the aliens, full stop. Never seen any before, but now I'm told that they're everywhere in the galaxy. Kinda strange, but I mean, alright, that's pretty cool too. Second thing is that some guy tells me that nobody's been outside the Milky Way. Now, maybe they let a nutcase into the police force, but I kinda have to have my doubts – Actually, no, wait, scratch that last one. I of all people should know that incompetency always finds its way into anything. But the third thing that makes me confused is something that I am really having trouble dealing with; something that I still cannot believe..."

Axton paused for dramatic emphasis. Everyone seemed to lean in slightly to catch the mysterious man's next words.

"How is it that you guys don't use bullets in your guns? I mean, seriously? Who thought that was a good idea?"

Dead silence passed.

"I... I don't..." Ashley slowly found her voice.

"You show up with fantastical technology and the thing that makes you the most confused is the fact that guns don't use bullets?" Shepard deadpanned, folding his arms over his chest.

"Pretty much." Axton nodded in agreement.

"Right." Shepard turn to face Udina, who was still dumbfounded. "Remember how I told you that there were two things you needed to see? That was the second one."

Udina blinked as he tried to recompose himself. "Ahem. Mr. Axton, I must ask, wherever did you get your technology?"

"I bought it. From the Dahl corporation. It's not that hard to understand, pal."

"But I-"

"Alright, well maybe 'bought' is the wrong word, seeing as I didn't actually pay them for it."

"Mr. Axton, please-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know! But I just don't get it! How have none of you never heard of the Dahl corporation? They're in all six galaxies!"

The silence was deafening.

"Six... galaxies?" Udina spoke softly. "Mr. Axton, you must understand this: No one has left the Milky Way galaxy. Never."

A multitude of expressions passed through the Commando's face. The furrowing of his brows. Then the raising of them. The squinting of his eyes. Then the widening of them.

"So... So what, is this some sort of joke? Did I just walk into some kind of crappy sci-fi plot?"

"What are you talking about?" Shepard inquired.

"I think... I might not be in my own reality."

A pregnant pause hung in the air.

"Shepard, is he on drugs?" said Udina.

"Goddamn- No! I am not on drugs!" Axton exclaimed. "And no, you are not the first person to ask me that! Look, my friend was a Siren, she was trying to get better at-"

"What is a Siren?" Tali asked. Axton paused, his momentum defeated. He had to explain to these people what exactly he was dealing with.

"A Siren is one of six people in the universe that have some really cool superpowers. There's some weird kind of rule that says that there will always be six sirens; if one dies then somebody else becomes one. Oh, and also, they're always women, never men. Don't know why, but that's how it is. Anyway, I had come to know thr-two of them as my friends. One was named Maya, and she was somebody I had gone on a lot of adventures with. The other one was Lillith. I didn't really know her that much, 'cause I didn't see her that often, but she had more experience than Maya with her Siren power things. Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked. Long story short, Maya was trying to teleport something, I volunteered as the test dummy, I got sent here, then I met you guys. Alright?"

"That makes absolutely no sense." the still-unnamed light-skinned man replied.

"Which probably means that it actually is true," Shepard concluded. "The vision that the beacon gave me; it sounds like nonsense but I swear by it. I don't know how much I can trust you yet, Axton, but with the technology you have with you, I get the feeling that this may be more than coincidence. If you care for it, I'd be glad to have you with us."

"Uh, wow. Um... Alright, sure!" Axton reached out to shake Shepard's hand; this time he was acknowledged and received the proper gesture in response.

"Good. Now, we've already heard the evidence against Saren-"

"The what?"

"The audio clip that Tali played earlier. Weren't you playing attention?"

"Um," Axton scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "I guess not."

"Forget it, you'll hear it again anyway." Shepard waved his hand in dismissal. "We have our evidence. We need to show the Council what really happened!"