A/N: So I have returned. With the sequel to the Fourth Galactic Power. Beggining the story was clearly the hardest part, but after that it should be going pretty well. In case you wonder, I will mostly focus on the Carvins and their interactions with other species in the early parts of the war. Then when the time comes adventures of Shepard and the Carvins will be merged. However I will still put some pieces of Shepard's story to keep you all informed about choices he makes. I also went away from the whole POV system, since it was quite hard to write in the first place. That being said,

Enjoy!

Carvistorn orbit, Seviros' flagship - Relentless

Since Virox has returned the entire Carvin Empire has been put on a high alert. Other Carvins weren't as convinced about his "experiences", mostly because of the split personality. It made conversations difficult and annoying, but the High Generals, for some unknown to them reason, trusted him.

Seviros was looking at his home planet through the windows of the bridge. After the destruction of the Alpha Relay, it was clear that the time of war was close. Terminus Systems were in complete chaos after that incident, since most . That allowed the Carvins to quickly annex a few very valuable systems without any consequences.

When you looked at it, Terminus was actually helping the Carvins a lot. When the Citadel races have placed multiple embargos on the Carvin Empire, Terminus Systems, in their fierce defiance against the Council were more than happy to do whatever would make them angry.

He chuckled on the irony of this situation, but then turned serious and focused his thoughts on what was to come, not what already happened. Carvistorn's autumn has begun, but it would only be a matter of time before the extremely harash winter would come, due to the eliptic orbit of the planet. That would be extremely problematic for the Reaper ground forces and could turn the ride of the ground battle. From the information given by Commander Shepard, it seemed that the Reaper ground troops aren't exactly very durable and rely on overwhelming numbers, rather than equipment advantage. Carvins already fought a threat like that. They submitted to the enemy once. Never again.

Yet as much as he hated to admit it, Seviros knew that this war couldn't be won alone. All of the races would need to come together to defeat the Reapers if they were as strong as Commander Shepard was saying. Right now though every race was focusing on its own matters, and no one couldn't blame them. Carvins did too. Therefore if the war was going to begin anytime soon, most races would probably focus on defending their own borders until someone comes up with a plan.

High Generals concluded that if unity cannot be achieved now, at least preparations could give the galaxy the time to unite and counterattack. They reluctantly agreed to offer sending military advisors to the other major races of the Citadel space along with some pieces of technology that could boost their own systems.

Reaction of the particular races varied, but was overall unsurprising. Turians, who were now the biggest rivals of Carvins when it came to military power, dismissed the proposition as an attempt to infiltrate the Hierarchy in order to find any weaknesses they could exploit. They also questioned their ability to make any impactful changes to their current system and technology.

Salarian Union was highly interested in the exotic tech of the Carvins, as well as the rare materials absent in the areas accessable by the Mass Relays, but little beside that. It was clear that the froggies cared more about their stuff than what they had to say.

The Asary were the most balanced ones. At least they listened to everything Carvin ambassador had to say. Nobody could blame their Councilor when she was curious about this sudden change of relations towards the Citadel races. Given the reply and the offer, Asari Republics agreed on limited cooperation, which included some technological exchange, as well as some joined military excercises and counseling regarding the strategy, tactics and overall military management.

Finally there were the humans. They were the strangest. Councilor Udina immediately began barganing with the Carvin ambassador Zayan Te'Kraan to... modify the deal. The will to cooperate expressed by the Humans actually surprised the Carvins. Udina stated that they know how it is to be ignored and pushed away by the Council, although Seviros still thought that this was only a sweet talk to cover the fact that he only desired this deal to make his kind stronger. Nevertheless, apart from the already existing trade route connecting two civilizations, military advisors were sent to the Alliance to share knowledge and experience, as well as upgrades to the GARDIAN systems.

Interestingly, human Councilor was the only one of the bunch to show so explicitly the deep nature of his species: creativity, determination, and hunger for power. All these traits had their uses in certain situations, however as a separate species, Carvins knew that such species are likely to compete for influence, teritory and resources.

Seviros shook his head in exhaustion. He's been up for far too long, but there were so many things going on right now. And with all this movement of the fleets as well as thoughts in his head, he just couldn't fall asleep. Instead he focused on something that he felt moderately comfortable with. Fleets and starships.

The big shipyards of Carvistorn and Mantar were soon to finish three new dreadnoughts, as well as two carriers. Those were going to be seeing a lot of combat in the upcoming months, IF their construction will be finished before the Reapers get to them. But Carvin Empire needed the lighter units as well. There were only so many dreadnoughts and the Empire was big. Cruisers, frigates, corvettes and fighters were going to be a determinant factor in this war. Other shipyards were also working constantly to quickly build new ships.

The Battle of Qreten made Carvins realize something. While their rapid response flotillas were performing well in the field, Carvin Navy lacked something that other major powers did not: mobile spacecraft. Thanks to eezo cores, Citadel races could move their fighters through FTL and mass relays, while Carvins were still strongly relying on planetary fighter bases, orbital space stations and large carriers. Therefore, under some pressure, all Carvin ship designers, who weren't assigned to the Andromeda Initiative at the time, were instructed to design a smaller and more mobile spacecraft carrier, capable of rapidly transporting spacecraft throughout the Empire. From this idea, a light Trizer-class mini-carrier was born. These 300 meters long ships were capable of transporting 42 fighters/bombers (6 squadrons of 7 craft), were faster than the standard carriers, and possessed some AA weapon emplacements for defense, as well as an experimental reactor, capable of recharging 50% of the whole spacecraft force they stored at the time.

Fortunately, Carvins were also conducting various modernization programs to their forces, as well as some secret projects. New EMP missiles and torpedos for their fighters, bombers and corvettes were defianetely going to help fight the synthetic enemies. Secret projects, or rather a project, was another thing. The whole High General Council agreed on forming another branch of the already quite successful Project Executor. Its codename was "FLAX". High Generals HOPED to have at least 6 thousands of improved soldiers ready before the Reaper arrival.

Hope.

What an insignificant, yet powerful feeling. Existing because of inability to accept bitter truth, capable of driving organics forward and past their limits.

If the hope could be stored physically, then all races should've began stockpiling it long ago. They were going to need it soon. And a lot of it.

Carvin colony Qreten, civilian district, home of the Or'Zaal family

It was only a few months since his return to the Carvin Empire and Virox already managed to find a family. Literally. After he was temporarily relieved from duty, he met one of the active duty soldiers, who he became friends with quickly. And because he didn't have much to do apart from telling everything he could about the Reapers, both of them got along pretty fast. Arill Or'Zall, his new friend actually invited him to his house on Carvistorn and Virox discovered that he wasn't living alone. It actually tirned out that he had a wife (or rather its Carvin counterpart) and two kids: a daughter and a son, born in this order. The former was 3 at the moment and the latter was 1.5, but due to the accelerated aging as well as faster learning, one seemed to behave like a teenager around their 17s and the other like a 12 year old.

Virox's playful (and a bit odd) personality seemed to appeal to the kids and after a few visits, he slowly became a good friend of the family. Calia Or'Zaal, the mother of the children, seemed to have mixed feelings about him. While he was a good friend of her 'husband' and kids, she felt like he wasn't completely fine in the head. Of course after a few visits the reason of such behaviour was revealed.

"When the rubble fell on me, I was knocked out at first." Virox was telling the story about the Collector Base to the kids. "Then I woke up. Couldn't see anything, but I felt weird too. I had flashbacks from various moments of my life, while I felt like if my mood was constantly changing from happy to angry. After some struggle I managed to get out of that pile of rubble, nearly suffocating in the process. And then... I saw dozens of Collectors."

"And what happened then?" Zia, the daughter of the Or'Zaal family asked.

"Well... I don't really remember that much." Virox admitted sheepishly. "Though my friends have told me that I went nuts with my weapon overcharge and killed 'em all. Or most of them, since they picked some kills too. After I calmed down, one of my friends told me I had piece of scrap stuck in my head. After they pulled it out later, it was this big." he activated his omni-tool. He then created an omni-gel 1:1 replica of the scrap piece. It was triangular, though had some dents around the edges and was roughly 40 centimeters in length.

"That's impossible!" Nalik, the younger brother shook his head in disbelief. "You couldn't have survived that! Nobody would!"

"Well, I guess me sitting here beside you proves you're wrong." Virox grinned and playfully punched the little Carvin.

"And suddenly your weird behaviour makes sense." their mother rolled her eyes. She was a field medic in the army and found it hard to believe at first. But then his behaviour suggested that he had his brain damaged somehow...

"Hey! Just because I'm over 400 years old doesn't mean I can't have a sense of humor!" Carvin snapped back with humor. (A/N: It was never said, but Virox was born right after the start of The Great Grox War. Calculating the years I realized that he was over 400) "Also, it's my defense mechanism against depression!"

All four knew to not pursue this topic. Virox told them enough for everyone to realize that he had various painful memories that he wished he didn't have. Despite his PTSD, he was still able to live... a moderately normal life. They admired him for that, and the kids, whose parents were in the military too, were only more determined to follow their parents' steps after meeting Virox.

Virox himself thought of this family like his own. He was already called 'uncle' by the two little Carvins, and Arill often reached to him for help, since he was a less experienced soldier. His wife was a bit colder towards him, but he didn't blame her. He realized long ago he had a skill of annoying the heck out of people. The kids though were another thing. Virox saw a lot of potential in them.

Zia was always more active than her female friends at school. She always stuck with the boys and her behaviour greatly resembled theirs. Picking up fights for money or beating up some douchebags, she was the first to be there. It was of no surprise that she wanted to become a Carvin Vanguard in the future. Her agressive fighting style she displayed multiple times was only confirming the potential she had for this kind of position.

Nalik on the other hand was the complete opposite. He was calm, careful, and most importantly - deadly smart. Teachers in his school on Qreten actually decided to move him a class higher, and with the accelerated aging, as well as incredibly quick learning, 1 year for Carvins was like 3 years for humans. Of course, such intelligence created dangers. Many other kids saw him as a nerd and a dangerous rival in school. His sister was trying to protect him every time she could, but she couldn't be there for him every time he got into trouble. But when his parents finally allowed him to buy an omni-tool, most of the bully problems vanished immediately. As a kid, he managed to implement the Overload to his omni tool, effectively keeping the bullies at bay. His dream was to become a combat engineer - a profession greately needed on the battlefield, yet lacked the candidates possessing the traits required for the task.

After some minor training sessions with Virox, they learned how to use pistols and found it quite fun. Virox himself was looking at them with pride... and saddness. These kids had dreams that they actually might fulfill, but a lot sooner than they expect, and in a more painful way. The Reapers were coming and Qreten was dangerously close to the borders. Even after its defences were reinforced after the Collector attack, he was afraid that this planet was going to be one of the first ones to fall. Their parents knew that too, which surprisingly made them attend the training sessions more frequently. They were afraid that some day they might not be there for them and wanted them to know how to survive.

"Wait! I just got a call from a friend." Virox said as his omni-tool began beeping. "Guess I'll tell you the end of the story later." he then turned towards Arill "Can I use your room for a while?"

"Sure, suit yourself. Just don't be late for dinner like the last time." he replied with a chuckle. He didn't mind Virox, as the latter never invaded his privacy, and if he did, it was helpful everytime. Well... most of the time.

"Thank you!" Virox darted out of the room to anwser the call.

Palaven, capital city, home of the Vakarian family

After the Suicide Mission, Garrus felt like he needed to prepare his people for the worst. Giving the past experiences he knew that it wouldn't be easy. Being in the crew with Shepard helped greately, he just followed his example, though right now he began understanding how exhausting this could be. Which is why he was now on Palaven, in his family home.

It was thanks to his father that he actually managed to do something about the Reaper threat. If he didn't believe him in the first place, Garrus would feel even more frustrated. Now he needed to wait for the entire Hierarchy to realize.

Unfortunately treatment of his mother wasn't going better. He tried to do everything he could, but all of the best salarian medical centers were incredibly expensive. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't save enough money to afford the treatment. The painful truth was, that he might not be able to raise funds anyway, since the Reapers were coming.

At the very least Garrus could be here with his family for a while... and call Virox from time to time. Comm buoys were working along the most of the Carvin space right now, so they could communicate. He did envy Virox a lot, since the Carvin Empire started to make some serious preparations as a whole. Turian Hierarchy on the other hand was doing only so much so that they won't fall behind the Carvins. From what his Carvin friend told him, they already were behind.

Solana was skeptical about this whole situation, but learned from experience that if their father sees the connection somewhere, there was something about it. After all he was a C-Sec investigator, one of the best ones. She didn't have time to bother with this entire situation though, because she was spending most of her time trying to somehow get the money for her mother's treatment off Palaven.

Garrus could feel the pain from her and tried everything he could to make her feel better, but at the same time he was in pain as well. He decided to call Virox. At least there was a chance of him lightening up his mood.

He went to his room, turned on his computer and began the call. It took a moment for the Carvin to anwser, but soon his 'face' showed up on the screen.

"Hey, Garrus. Sorry it took a while. I was just telling the kiddos about the Suicide Mission." he said in his (almost) always cheerful mood. "Can't take too long, but I can stay for a couple of minutes. So what's up?"

"Heh, I was actually hoping for you to tell me, but fine." Garrus chuckled lightly, though soon turned serious. "I won't lie to you. The Hierarchy still isn't doing anything about the Reapers. We're nothing close to prepared and I'm scared that if they strike, we won't hold for long."

"That bad?" Virox asked with pity in his voice. " We WILL need the Turian fleet when the Reapers arrive. ALL of us."

"No doubts to that." Turian nodded. "And how about your people."

He didn't reply for a while, as if he was thinking of an anwser. "Well... it's better than I hoped, but worse than I'd like. Our fleets are patrolling our borders and the enscription is high. But we both know it's not enough." then he paused, seemingly unsure if he should continue. "We're taking the kiddos to early specialized training. Zia will try to get an approve to become a Vanguard, and Nalik will pass the entry exam for the Engineers."

"You seem worried." Garrus noticed.

"Of course I am!" Virox let out in anger and leaned his head on his hand. "They are my first family I've had since..." he stuttered on that, but continued. "The point is: if they will be sent into the heat of battle when the Reapers arrive, they're most likely to die! And I can't let this happen."

"Believe me, I know."

There was a brief silence between these two.

"How's your mother?" Carvin finally asked.

"*sigh* I wish she was better, but everything we do just isn't enough and we don't have enough money to afford the off-planet treatment." Garrus said with saddness.

"You and your sis are still trying to raise money for the salarians..." Virox understood. He knew that the salarian doctors were the best out there and possibly the only hope remaining for Garrus' mother. He looked down for a moment. Then he turned on his omni-tool. "Here, take these."

Garrus' omni tool suddnely beeped and showed a transfer of 50000 credits to his account. That... was a lot.

"They will be more useful to you than for me." he added, but then he turned his head to the left. A voice was shouting something off the camera. "OK, I gotta go. Faster than I thought. Hope these credits help. See ya!"

And the call ended.

Garrus just sat on the chair, unable to process what happened. Virox just gave him 50000 credits to help his mother. Not even questioning where did he get this money from, but he just gave it to him... no regrets... nothing. He stood up and left the room. A small spark of hope was lit in his heart. He entered Solana's room, where she was browsing for additional jobs she could take to raise money.

"Sol?"

"Not now, Garrus." his sister was visibly irritated.

"I have good news." Garrus insisted. "You'll like them."

"If it's another news about how we're ready for the Reapers, then don't even bother." she grumbled. "I had enough of that for a while."

"A... friend of mine just decided to support us finantially." that caught Solana's attention.

"How much?"

"50000 credits."

Her hand stopped right above the button and Garrus knew that she was happy. This was the first actual good news regarding their mother for a while. Now there was a chance they will get her off Palaven before the Reapers arrive.

"Tell your friend..." she finally recovered from this sudden yet positive surprise. "Tell him or her, that we're all grateful."

"Will do." Garrus nodded with a smile. Now all they needed to do was to get the rest of the money needed and send their mother to the salarian doctors. There was still hope for her.

Hope...

Local Cluster, Sol System, Earth, Vancouver, Alliance Military HQ

Being detained was making Shepard angry. Like VERY angry. Not about the fact that he was arrested. No. It was how this entire situation was handled. Just like he suspected, they grounded him in Vancouver, blocked all communication available to him and put him under observation, but... it felt like they did this just to reduce the tension. Although when it came to listening to him about the Reapers, it all suddenly felt very inconvenient.

The only good thing was the fact that the RD sector was still open to him, as well as the training grounds. Shepard decided that if he manifested the biotic abilities, he should make a use of them. So far he stayed away from the subject, but the sudden love for shotguns, as well as the badassery of the concept, made him reconsider the implantation (A/N: It's cannon that Shepard has biotic abilities no matter the class or origins). However due to his like of action and being in the heat of battle, he decided that Adept was out of the equation. Sentinel seemed unfit for him due to the lack of tech skills in general. Finally there was Vanguard - the most badass biotic "class" of them all. It was good that he already went through military training, leaving him with the biotics to cover.

It took a few weeks, but Shepard managed to gain a considerable amount of control over his biotics. His instructors were shocked by how fast he learned as well as by his initial scores on the training grounds. After a few months they were sure he was meeting the basic Alliance Vanguard criteria, but he, as an N7 wanted to be above that. Since nobody could transfer him to Rio, he spent most of his time training. In 2 weeks he managed to get to the top 20 of the leaderboard and was now 16th.

"Again!" Shepard shouted after he finished his training simulation, still not being able to improve.

"Commander Shepard, this is your fourth attempt to this course without any rest." the VI of the training course appeared on the nearby terminal. "It is recommended to cease the training sessions for some time in order to regenerate."

"I need to be ready." the N7 sighed as he lifted the training version of the M-23 Katana.

"Your score doesn't show any signs of improvement over the next sessions." the VI said. "In fact, your score overall seemed to have worsened by the average of 4,63 seconds over the course of all four sessions."

Shepard finally gave up. There was no point in arguing with a VI that had unlimited patience and access to body scans. After putting away his training gear, he headed towards the mess hall. After reaching the destination, it was clear that it was a lunch time. Almost all of the tables were taken and the talking of the soldiers kept filling the entire room with noise.

It took a while, but Shepard managed to find a free table on the far side of the room, near the windows. He looked at the soldiers who were eating, talking and laughing. No one showed any signs of worry or fear. Like if the Reapers didn't even exist for them (which was technically true). It was pissing him off. A lot.

'How can they be so calm?' he thought and the wave of helpless anger went through his head. He wanted to shout. To scream. To yell at them for being so ignorant. Yet he knew that this wouldn't change anything. It would only make them think he's insane.

Therefore instead of focusing on his inability to convince his people about the threat of the Reapers, Shepard came back to his recent training sessions. To be honest, he thought that biotics will come to him with more difficulty, but it felt... natural. His favourite combo was, unsurprisingly, Pull followed up by a quick biotic charge, and if he landed in a group of enemies, a ground slam with Nova for the final. Shockwave was particularly useful in tight corridors with a lot cover, but he didn't use it that often actually. And his favourite ammo was of course Incendiary Ammo, due to the versatility, and the fact that his enemies were usually dead 2 seconds after biotic charge, therefore the Cryo Ammo couldn't really shine that much.

Hell, he even learned to do biotic dashes to all four sides (like those from ME: Andromeda) and enhance his jumps using his biotics. A feat previously thought to be impossible for the begginers. Yet despite all these cool and powerful abilities, Shepard still felt that something was... not yet perfect in his combat style: his weapon. While shotguns were extremely powerful, and his powers allowed him to get close to the enemy incredibly fast, his aim wasn't perfect and the enemies weren't going to just stand there and wait to be shot. Every pull of the trigger could potentially cost Shepard his life, because all the shotguns he used so far had incredibly slow firing rate. His dream weapon was an automated shotgun with a moderate damage, but capable of surpressing multiple weaker enemies, or quickly wearing down some tough foes. There were some rumors about a new N7-series shotgun in development, but not much details were revealed yet.

"Is this place taken?" a male voice said from the side. Shepard looked away from the windows and towards the person speaking. It was James Vega. Assigned to guard him, the 'prisoner' of the Alliance. It was quickly established that he was a very big fan though and 'guarding' him wasn't exactly what it seemed to be.

"No, it's free." Shepard replied and gestured his hand on the seat.

"Thanks." James placed his food on the table and sat in front of him. "So... people are talking about you. And not only biotics, but normal grunts as well."

Shepard smiled weakly on that. He knew that the news about his suddenly revealed biotic talent did spread quickly.

"Personally, I'm not very convinced about the biotics and I find my muscles more... reliable." he said, but quickly added. "Not that I think your skills are bad."

"Well, I began to worry." Shepard replied with a fake seriousness. "But I know what you mean. Biotics can be a strong asset in combat, but every biotic shouldn't depend on them. He should be able to get by using his aim, physical strength and endurance."

"Damn straight!" Vega slammed his fist at the table with satisfaction.

They kept talking about biotics and guns until they realized that they were the only ones left in the mess hall.

"Wow, we must've talked for a looooong time, Commander. All other folks are gone." James noticed. "Must've already finished their lunch

"Either that or we just scared them away." Shepard joked, but realized what he called him. 'Commander' wasn't his title anymore, and if the Reapers arrive soon enough, it won't ever be. "I think I'll do a few more sessions today, then I'll spend the rest of the day boring myself to death. If there will be any news about this new shotgun, let me know."

"You got it." he saluted, which was completely unnecessary, and left. Shepard started to think about it, but the mess hall crew already began glaring at him with irritation. He shrugged then and headed back to the combat simulation room.

This was going to be a very good session. He could feel it. And hopefully he will be ready for combat as a Vanguard before the Reapers arrive.

Hopefully...

Horse Head Nebula, Anadius System, Cronos Station.

Illusive Man was a man that disliked risky operations. He prefered to work from the shadows and interfere only if necessary. That's how his organization survived for so long. However time was running out for the galaxy and everyone in it. After everything that happened recently, it was clear that the Reapers were close to the Milky Way. And when they arrive, it is up to Cerberus to stop them from destroying the Humanity.

But other races, as well as the Alliance were all blinded, either by ignorance of the obvious threat, or by the desire to destroy the Reapers. They fail to see their true potential and unthinkable number of advantages that controlling the Reapers could bring.

The Illusive Man knew that he couldn't let the military ignorance stop the humanity from being the dominant race. A centuries-old maxim said that a wolf caught in a trap must chew off its own leg to survive. If humanity was to survive and gain from the threat of the Reapers, sacrificing some people in order to achieve that goal was a pretty fair tradeoff.

Despite all of that, he knew that his idea were in minority, but he already made some steps in order to set his plan in motion. A successful strike on the Shadow Broker's base caused the still inexperienced Doctor T'Soni to flee from Hagalaz. Now he didn't need to worry about the Broker's agents that much. They were going to be in chaos after that.

Loosing Shepard, the Normandy Sr-2 as well as the Enhanced Defense Intelligence were quite painful. The Illusive Man didn't expect anyone to unshackle it and allow it such high level of control over the ship, to the point that it could stop them from remaining the control. The data, resources and the crew were all lost after Shepard's... rather unfortunate cutting of ties. But that defeat only made them stronger. They're learned that all the new equipment and allies should be loyal, or else they can cost Cerberus a lot. The new AI, codenamed: Eva, was going to follow the fleeing Doctor T'Soni. Their paths were going to cross again, but she won't suspect anything. He'd make sure of that.

Commander Shepard, the most painful loss of them all, was now detained on Earth. This position was rather uncomfortable, because while their goals were different, Shepard was going to try to fight the Reapers and buy the galaxy some time. Time that Cerberus was going to use for researching a way to stop them. But in arrest he was useless to everyone. Though helping him to return to active duty would cost too much resources, and if someone would accidentally discover the Cerberus' involvment in this matter, they would most likely lock him up again.

But that wasn't important at the moment. Their priority was to find a way to stop the Reapers. And there was one place where they could find any lead on that. A place that led to humanity's ascention to the stars, yet now ignored, seemingly forgotten, with all its potential being wasted. The Prothean Archives on Mars. Project Eva was going to be crucial in gaining access to the data stored there.

It will take time, but Cerberus needs that data to save humanity. If it was to be used in a wrong way, the entire Human race would be doomed.

The plan was in motion. Now it will take some time to accomplish it. Time and a lot of research. There was no room for mistakes. Hopefully with any luck, they will manage to achieve their goals without sacrificing many people.

Hopefully.

A/N: So there is the first chapter. Took me longer than I'd like to write... well not that much. Only 5000 words. I'll try to keep the future chapters between 6000 and 9000 words. Other than that I will also start re-writting the first chapters of the original Fourth Galactic Power, since I know they're more shitty than an entire crap in a Vorcha colony XD. Leave a review and let me know how was the first chapter. I encourage constructive criticism. If you want to bitch, go somewhere else, or at least support it with some constructive arguments. All hate will be deleted. Carry on!

Bonker out!