Prologue:

On board the 'Forward unto Dawn':

"Wake up, Spartan!"

In the darkness of a wreak, floating silently and aimlessly in space, a faint blue light appeared over a pedestal. The light flashed briefly and seemed to take the shape of a sphere, hovering over the metal and glass. It pulsed three times, at each pulse, the sphere became brighter and its core took a different shade, slightly darker, electric. Moments later, the emergency lights flickered back to life. On cue, the sphere dissolved, disappeared and revealed the hologram of a woman, hugging her legs. With her forehead pressed against her knees, she was curled up into a tight ball. However her "revelation" seemed to have woken her up. She stretched, slowly standing, spreading her arms along her sides, her head still tilted downward. No clothes could have been seen on the representation of her body, but she didn't possess the particular feature of a naked woman body. Instead her skin was covered by light and dark blue symmetrical patterns. And symbols, only she understood, were coursing down her curves.

She slowly descended, landing like a feather on the holo-tank. Only then, she lifted her head. The woman had shoulder long hair, shorter on the back, falling symmetrically on the sides of her face. By her look, she wasn't older than 25 and her blue face with slightly darker lips showed only deep peacefulness. Her eyelids slowly rose, and the emergency lights were suddenly turned off, letting her bright, electric blue eyes shine in the darkness.

Faint, dull vibrations ran through the floors and walls, completely silent, but the sensors she had access to allowed her to feel them. In front of her, only lit by the little light her own hologram provided she saw a large tank. And through the Plexiglas, the cry-gel being sucked out, an imposing green armor. A small smile graced the woman's lips as she gazed into the golden visor of the helmet.

A screen suddenly appeared next to her, interrupting her observation and any thoughts the might have. She turned around and let her eyes travel across the data of the remaining available sensors. Actually she didn't need to do this, look at the numbers and shuffle through them. But her hologram showed her doing this anyway. A habit she was born with and that persisted and strengthened over the years. All her observations, computations and analyses were done internally and a lot faster than any human could follow. At the end, the conclusion was evident. The first scans her sub-routine performed were right, and she needed someone to wake up as soon as possible. She acknowledged the warning and the red PROXIMITY ALERT stopped blinking.

"Take your time... we're in no hurry...", she said softly, turning back to the cryo-tank.

In normal conditions, the tank would have been purged of the cryo-gel, progressively filled with air instead, the occupant then freed and look after by competent personnel as he was recovering from his sleep and expectorating the bronchial surfactant. Unfortunately, 'normal condition' included artificial gravity and atmosphere, both off-line for now. And the only living individual that could be considered as 'competent personnel' was currently in that very cryo-tank. So instead of the normal procedure, non-reactive gas was pushed into the tank from one end, forcing the gel out at the other end. Then the little bit of gas was released into the emptiness of space. It wasn't perfect of course, but that would do for now.

Eventually the green armor took life. It shifted, the helmet turned left then right before tilting forward, facing the hologram. With a mighty push, it shoved the hatch open, releasing the remaining gas and gel in the chamber. It kept its helmet down, facing the hologram, letting the image of the woman reflect into the golden visor. The armor pushed itself with its elbow and floated out of the cryo-tank, down toward the holotank.

"Good morning, Chief. Did you miss me?", the woman spoke directly into the armor's helmet, a small smile on her lips.

The armor, inhabited by the one now named Chief grabbed the side of the holotank and stopped his descend as his helmet was on the same level as the hologram.

"Cortana.", the deep voice of the Chief answered.

The hologram nodded, crossing her arms over her chest. Cortana knew not to expect much more than an acknowledgement, but it was enough for her. While Chief was balancing himself to land on the floor and magnetizing his boots, she ran several scans. His voice already told her all she wanted to know about his mental state and mood. His suit gave her the informations she needed about his vitals. During her analyses, her hologram stayed still, idly switching her weight from one leg to the other. She knew he didn't need to see her feigning to inspect him.

"Your vitals are normal, no sign of freezer burns. You look alright.", she informed Chief, looking up at him through his visor.

He nodded in response and kept his head tilted forward toward the small hologram. A few moments later, he lifted his head and started looking around the chamber.

"How long did I sleep?" Chief asked, and Cortana picked up a hint of concern in his voice and maybe apprehension too?

"Oh, it felt like an eternity..." Cortana teased and, this time, made a screen appear next to her hologram and turned her head to it. "Seven hours, twenty-five minutes... a handful of seconds.", she eventually answers before offhandedly dismissing the screen and turning back to the Chief, a playful smile on her lips.

He slowly turned his head and looked down at her. His reaction made her smile widen. She knew he expected her to continue, to answer the question he didn't feel the need to ask. She switched position, pressing her hands together behind her back, her smile still present and waited. They looked at each other for a long moment, both of them expecting the other to speak first. However even if Chief's patience could rival a rock's, he wasn't someone to stay idle when there was anything else he can do. So as Cortana expected, he was the first to give in. Just as he inhaled to speak, she snapped her finger and made the red PROXIMITY ALERT re-appear next to her.

"We've got company!", she announced, almost joyfully.

Chief didn't move, his visor still facing Cortana.

"Rescue or hostiles?", he asked her, pragmatic.

"I don't know...", she answered simply.

Even if Chief didn't give any audible or visible reaction, Cortana still 'felt' him twitch. A pang of pride washed over her, first because she still managed to surprise him, but also because she had made him used to her knowing the answer to every of his questions.

"The signal doesn't match anything we've encountered before."

Chief nodded at her, and, without missing a beat, leant against the holotank to push himself away, floating toward the weapon's rack.

On board 'The Purgatory

Commander Shepard sighed as she saw two Blue Sun's mercenaries being smashed mercilessly against the Plexiglas and steel. They both fell onto the floor, unresponsive. Her attention wasn't on them, but rather on the woman currently having a fit of rage, seemingly caused by the sight of the Normandy. For the first time, Shepard was able to get a good look at her, and truly reconsidered on including that psychotic looking biotic into the team. Her skimpy clothing and bald head made her numerous tattoos, nearly completely covering her, clearly visible. As visible as her lack of anger management. An anger do deep and virulent that the ex-convict was completely blind to her surrounding : Shepard, her team-mates, and also the Blue Sun's Batarian running toward her, his sub machine-gun already drawn.

Shepard quickly stowed away her rifle in her back, and took her heavy pistol, a M-6 Carniflex. A faint blue aura surrounded her as she drew and pulled forth her own biotics. In a flash, she dashed forward, leaving a blue trail behind her and crashed against the last mercenary shoving her armored shoulder into his chestplate. The strength behind her charge was enough to instantly overload his shield and forcefully push the mercenary back a few meters. Lifting her weapon, Shepard took aim and squeezed the trigger twice before the batarian even fell on the floor, not to get up ever again.

"What the hell do you want?", the convict snapped angrily behind Shepard.

She turned around slowly and looked upon the convict. The woman before her kept looking back and forth between Shepard on her left and her teammates on her right, anger still clearly out-weighting worry on her features. Silently, Shepard looked upon her.

"I'm commander Thereza Shepard. And you're Jack, right?", she asked for good measures, ignoring her outburst.

"That's my name, but I don't give a shit about yours! Now what the hell do you want?" Jack growled between her teeth, taking a careful step back, and keeping her hands ready to strike with her biotics anyone coming too close.

Shepard turned her head and motioned to her team-mates to stand down. Garrus lowered his rifle but kept it at the ready while assuming a relaxed posture. Grunt simply lifted his shotgun and held it over his shoulder, already looking around and loosing interest about the current matters.

"Thank you would be nice. Something like; 'Thank you for saving my ass', 'Thank you for getting me out of the freezer', or 'Thank you for giving me a chance to get out of this burning hell hole alive.", Shepard retorted, pointing to the Normandy with her thumb.

"I'm not going anywhere with you. You're Cerberus!", she spat back, her head still turning left and right, pacing restlessly. She looked like a dangerous chemical solution, just waiting, almost expecting for a spark to make her explode.

"I'm not Cerberus, nor am I working for them. We just have a massive problem coming our way, and they happen to be the only ones willing to do something about it.", Shepard retorted, pressing her pistol against her hips and letting it stick and fold itself there.

"Same difference!", Jack growled, this time facing Shepard and glaring at her. She pointed an accusatory finger toward the Normandy and continued. "You show up in a Cerberus frigate to take me away somewhere. You think I'm stupid?"

Shepard crooked an eyebrow and made sure Jack was able to see it through the thin visor of her helmet. Jack seemed to be rather focused on Cerberus and hold quite a grudge against them.

"This station is going down in flames, and I don't see anything resembling a space suit on you. I have the only way out and I'm offering to take you with me. In your place I wouldn't care even if it was in a Covenant destroyer. And yet, you're arguing."

Jack took a few deep breaths and seemed to settle down slowly, thinking. Behind her, Garrus was about to say something but one glance from Shepard silenced him and he stayed out of the conversation. He fancied interjecting, throwing in his own two cents, but also realized quickly when his thoughts weren't needed and simply 'sat back' and enjoyed the show. As for Grunt, well, at that stage, he didn't seem to care anymore.

"Look", Jack eventually spoke. "You want me to come with you, make it worth my while."

Shepard took a few steps toward her. Jack faced her, turning her back to the two aliens and crossed her arms. Thereza saw the gesture, her position and understood she was pushing Jack on the defensive by getting closer to her that way. She took one more step and stopped.

"Speak."

"I bet your ship's got a lots of Cerberus databases. I want to look at those files. See what Cerberus got on me."

Shepard stayed still and internally nodded. Indeed Jack has something against Cerberus and most likely some passive too, not the easy and nice one. The commander knew she would have to keep an eye on her and make sure none of the crew came too close. And also keep Miranda, who was clearly pro-Cerberus to the core, as far from Jack as possible.

"She could prove to be more problems than she's worth..." Shepard idly thought before answering the convict's request.

"Here's what you got ; I'm saving your life for the third time today by letting you step into MY ship. Then you choose, either you come on my team and I make sure the human authorities won't bother you anymore for your past crimes once we're done. Or you don't, and we drop you at our next stop. I don't care."

"You want me on your team, let me go through those databases.", Jack hammered, metaphorically digging her heels.

"That was my last offer. I make the rules, not you, not anyone else. You better get that into your thick head and fall in line. You want to see those files? Alright, prove me you're worth the trouble. You don't agree? That's fine too. The escape pods are that way, good luck getting there before the flames.", Shepard stated coldly staring directly into Jack's eyes.

The commander knew better than to completely corner someone, be it in a firefight, or argument. They would fight teeth and nails in this position. That's why she offered Jack three choices ; Stay here and die, use the Normandy as a lifeboat and go away at their next stop, or be part of the team and proving her worth to get access to what she wanted. Of course no sane person would ever pick the first choice. But if the convict kept refusing to conform to the commander rules, Shepard truly considered leaving her there. She needed skilled people in her team if she expected to stop the menace on the human colonies, but didn't want unreliable teammates. As for the database, Shepard still didn't trust Cerberus completely, and with good reasons. But right now, she needed them, Humanity needed them. The Illusive Man's attitude irked her, not his competences nor his objectives. Hence, she wasn't about to give potentially sensitive informations to the first one who came asking, stomping her foot.

"Alright, I'm in, but you better be straight with me, Shepard!", Jack conceded eventually, growling between her teeth. She clearly wasn't happy about the situation, but she knew she had to play along to get the informations she was longing for.

"That's what I wanted to hear. Garrus, Grunt, we're moving out!", Shepard ordered before turning around and stepping toward the hatch's door to the Normandy.

Garrus followed suit, and Shepard knew he would stay behind Jack to keep an eye on her, just in case. His new nickname 'Archangel' truly matched him. Grunt also followed on the side, silently. Both of them had their weapon still out and at the ready, more out of habit than real need. The Commander stopped in front of the door and hit the switch. However instead of blinking green, hissing and sliding open, the hologram blinked red, and nothing else happened. She pressed it again but the door stayed stubbornly still. Sighing she pulled out her omnitool and switched the coms on her headset to communicate with the Normandy's crew.

"Joker, this is Shepard, come in." Thereza called and waited.

Joker's answer quickly came : "What is it, commander?", he sounded worried which was easily understandable. His precious Normandy was still docked to a burning station and Shepard just used her 'a bit too serious' tone which didn't happen often with him.

"Why is the hatch locked?", Shepard asked impatiently.

She didn't like being locked out of her own ship, and even more not being warned about it beforehand. From the corner of her eyes, she saw Grunt starting to walk away, kicking the crate and barrels out of his way to the end of the hallway. She rolled her eyes, wondering if the krogan was aware that some of this containers held unstable substances. But for now she has other more important things to worry about than the krogan well-being or what caught his attention. She trusted his hide and his shotgun.

"Someone tried to pry the door open, Commander.", stated the feminine and artificial voice of EDI, answering Shepard question. "I saw fit to lock the hatch completely before that someone hacked the lock, or tried to."

"Heh... Complaining about the ship's markings but still eager to get on it, aren't you?", Garrus teased, turning to Jack. Of course he heard everything. Like Shepard, the Turian had the habit and capacity to be listen on several channels at once.

"The hell are you talking about?", Jack snapped in answer. Contrary to Shepard and her teammates, she didn't have access to the the communications.

Next to them, Thereza ignored them completely, her mind running fast as her eyes surveyed the door. Her head unmoving, and her body motionless too, only her blue eyes darted left and right, sharply behind the visor of her helmet. And in her heads, the cogs were spinning as fast as they could. There, her eyes suddenly stopped on a dent. The paint was gone and the metal was visibly albeit slightly bent. It stuck out like a lump of charcoal on a snow field, but still invisible for anyone not looking for it. The kinetic barriers weren't online, however the plating was still tough and durable and it wouldn't normally be possible to mark it in that way. Yet, Shepard had the proof right there, someone indeed tried to pry the door open with what should look like a crowbar. It wasn't Jack, she was sure of it as physical strength clearly wasn't her specialty, she would have tried ripping the door open with her biotics instead. It wasn't the Blue Suns either, they knew better. Hacking or in desperate measure, explosives would have been far more effective than a crude metal bar.

"I shall unlock the door for you, Commander." EDI continued after giving Shepard a few instants for her thoughts and quick investigations.

Thereza's eyes widened suddenly as everything clicked into her mind. Her body, still and relaxed until now, sprang into action. In a swift movement, her hand shot toward her hips to grab her Carniflex and she whirled around.

There it is!

I hope you enjoyed it! I really like both universes and an idea of story mixing them has been in my head for quite a while and here's the first chapter.

I'd like to thank my friend who was of great help while beta-reading and correcting this chapter.

Don't hesitate to leave a review if you want.

See you soon (hopefully) for the second chapter.