CHAPTER ONE - Lost and Found

"Cerberus isn't just an organisation or the people behind it. Cerberus is an idea; that idea is not so easily destroyed." - The Illusive Man

The chill in the air stung the soul and rippled the skin as it carried with it the taste of death and hopelessness. Though this was no longer the case in this cycle with the Reapers destroyed the damage that had been done would never disappear. The feeling swam through the air and pushed its way through Raythe'Maetix vas Astrea's filter causing him to shiver uncontrollably. In fear he quickly checked the air levels in his suit and upon finding them normal breathed a sigh of relief. The debris of the Citadel crunched beneath his boots as the light from the end of his assault rifle lit up and destroyed and terror ridden halls ahead of him. His omni tool began to glow in the darkness alerting him to an incoming transmission.

"Captain," Raythe answered sternly as he halted in his journey through the ruins.

"Anything yet?" Captain Janix's voice vibrated through the transmitter almost hiding the Salarian tone.

"Just a few pieces I can use to patch up Astrea sir. Nothing of any real consequence though. But I found a few pieces of synthetic material for my work as well."

"Then this trip hasn't been entirely fruitless. I've found some things as well. We should-"

Janix found himself rudely cut short as they heard another crew member patch into the comm channel.

"Sir!" It was Zharia; her asari tone stern as usual but still holding the same sensual appeal that most asari voices did. "Zhorn has found something," she announced referring to their team's beloved varren.

"Put it in your satchel and continue on Lieutenant," Janix commanded, his tone expressing quite thoroughly his level of annoyance.

"Sir please don't take me for a fool. I think there's someone else here. He's- " Her transmission cut short leaving the other two in silence for a moment.

"Zharia?"

"Captain she's gone dark. I'm not too far from her position," Raythe offered.

"Neither am I Gunnery Chief. We'll make our way there. Double time."

"Understood."

His feet slammed across the floor in a speedy silence that even he was surprised he could achieve. Being quiet seemed trivial in a place so dead but the fact of the matter was is that it was necessary. They weren't supposed to be on the Citadel. No one was. No one was even sure if they would rebuild off of the remnants of this one or build a new one entirely. All the races were busy worrying about their home worlds and making sure that they were surviving the aftermath. Having a place to talk politics at the moment seemed very trivial. However, the abandonment of the Citadel did leave its ruins ripe for the picking. There wasn't much left but what was salvageable was valuable. There was no guarantee that other pirates and scavengers with the same idea hadn't shown up at the same time or that they wouldn't shoot on sight. The Alliance or C-sec might be patrolling the area as well; everyone was still pretty paranoid that something might have survived.

He narrowly dodged the decayed bodies of humans that had accumulated during the Reaper attack and splashed through puddles of what he hoped was oil. The rich blue of his suit was slowly staining with dark liquids; the silver of his belts and chest plate pulled against his matching hood as his body moved lithely through the narrow passages. His eyes were constantly aware behind the light blue of his helmet visor for any slight movement that might be his crew or whatever they had spotted. Darting over a crumpled opening he dashed into a new room that was lucky if it could be called that anymore. It was probably the most shattered of all the rooms he'd come across. He wasn't even sure how this area was identified on his schematics. Suddenly something latched onto the back of his hood and he found himself pressed to the wall beside Zharia.

"Stay in cover," the asari hissed quietly at him.

She wore her old Asari Commando uniform as usual with her Black Widow sniper rifle secured to her back. A small breather covered her mouth; delicate but effect against the atmosphere. Her skin was a paler blue than he'd seen on most asari features but it blended beautifully with her natural lavender markings. Half of her face was tattooed with thick black tribal lines that traced her features and brought attention to the pure white of her synthetic eye which had been rendered useless since the fall of the Reapers. Her other eye was a dark blue that pierced him with a harsh look that he had come to know as concern.

He said nothing in return but nodded at her and she signalled for him to look ahead. He saw the Zhorn pressed to the floor behind his own cover quivering in anticipation. Zhorn looked similar to most varren lean and muscular in build. His coat was as black as night that tapered into a soft white at his underbelly and carried simple tan tiger stripes. Zharia gave him a fierce gaze and her eyes darted over the wall of debris signalling Raythe not to be an idiot and to look past the varren. Slowly and cautiously he glanced over and it took everything he had not to cry out in terror.

Cerberus. He thought they had disbanded once the Illusive Man disappeared but they were here and in a solid force. Assault troopers were scrounging through the piles with such purpose that it was easy to tell they were here for something very specific. And very important.

Amidst their masses a woman strode through overseeing their actions with a look of contempt written across her scarred and pale face. Rich brunette hair was swept around her sharp features in a curled bob. He couldn't tell what colour her eyes were from this distance but he could make out a pointed nose and thin unimpressed lips. Her armor, though still donned with all the Cerberus colours, carried more black than white unlike the others.

"Keep searching," she commanded. "She's here somewhere."

She? They were looking for someone. Had they lost one of their team in this chaos? Perhaps a captive had escaped. But that still didn't explain why they were here in the first place. Something brought them to the Citadel.

"Commander I've found something!"

The attention was drawn to a lone soldier who began rapidly pulling debris from a large pile to the far right of the room. Cerberus soldiers flocked to the area blocking their view and Raythe tried to raise himself to see better but a hand clamped firmly on his shoulder holding him in place. He looked up to see Janix taking the look for him. Even behind the rich burgundy of his skin and the seemingly misplaced white and brown markings Raythe could make out the furrow of Janix's brow bone as he considered the situation. The salarian was a good Captain; he would risk taking the bullet himself before letting a member of his crew put themselves in danger. He wore simple white Kassa Fabrication armor with grey Hadne add ons and his breather was similar to Zharia's allowed Raythe to see the frown that creased the salarian's features. Janix crouched back down and his team leaned in close.

"There's a hand," he said simply.

Zharia frowned. "They found whoever it was they were looking for," she stated obviously.

The question was who. Janix shook his head. "The hand had bits of armor...but it wasn't Cerberus armor. It looked like N7 armor."

Zharia frowned. N7...Alliance soldier, human. Captain Anderson's body had already been recovered and buried after the war. According to rumor no one else had made it onto the citadel except...

"By the goddess," Zharia breathed in awe as the Cerberus operatives pulled the body from the debris. Her hand graciously covered her mouth though it didn't stop the words from pouring out. "They've found Shepard's body..."

The troopers pulled Shepard's tattered body up and held her like a limp rag doll while the female Cerberus captain inspected her. She ran her omnitool around the fallen Commander's body in a slow thorough pattern before taking a look at the readings.

"The life signs are faint but they're still there. Get her back to the ship!"

"Holy shit the Commander is alive," Janix exclaimed. It was an improbable occurrence but not impossible; he had remembered reading that humans could survive up to three days before dying of dehydration and possibly ten without food. But her body must've have suffered mass amounts of trauma; it was a wonder the blood loss hadn't taken her first. It'd had been over a week since the Reapers had fallen. He reached back and pulled out his heavy pistol in preparation. "We can't let them take her!" He didn't care much for the affairs of humans knowing that most of them did not share a kindness for alien species but in the past three years of this cycle it had become quite evident that whatever concerned Commander Shepard concerned the galaxy.

"Understood," Raythe replied and he readied is omnitool.

Zharia quietly leveled her Widow and took aim. The shot echoed through the empty space and Raythe watched as the head of the soldier holding up Shepard's body exploded into bits and pieces. Shepard's body fell to the ground as Zharia took cover once more to reload. Raythe leapt from his spot and placed an incineration blast in the central part of the group igniting multiple targets who then pranced around in an attempt to put out the flames. Without hesitation Janix picked off the distracted and inflamed troops before having to reload himself.

These events had only taken moments but it was enough to have severely dwindled the numbers of the Cerberus force.

Zhorn howled at the devastation and excitement but held back knowing that he couldn't help right now.

"Get her body out of here," the Cerberus Commander ordered as she pulled out her assault rifle and gestured for the remaining troopers to move in for the attack.

"Oh shit," Janix breathed. There had been more troops just out of view of small pirate group. Many of them were engineers. One was a Phantom. He had heard many rumors about the dangers of Phantoms and his next shot went right for her skull. He watched in dismay as a small purple glow sent his shot to floor. "Zharia take down that barrier or this battle will be over!" He fired a few more rounds at the Troopers in an attempt to keep them away from Shepard.

Holstering her sniper rifle with incredible speed Zharia began a full on biotic assault against the Phantom. Unfortunately this meant losing one more force against the grunts. Troopers leveled shots at them and Raythe launched incineration after incineration at them so slow their shots at the out of cover Zharia. She flinched occasionally as the rounds nicked her barriers slowly taking them down. The engineers began preparing their turrets for activation and Janix knew there was few precious moments left before the Commander would be lost. Raythe overloaded one of the turret mounds decimating its planter and igniting the engineer nearest to him. Janix tried his best to whittle down the shields of another engineer while the Phantom stumbled backwards as Zharia hit her with another warp blast.

The minute Janix saw one of the Turrets begin to rise he knew that they'd lost. The Cerberus forces began to retreat with Shepard's body until only the turret and the Phantom remained.

The phantom was a lot closer than Zharia would have liked but she had to take a chance or that turret would rip them to shreds. She halted her attack and threw up a barrier to block the onslaught of bullets; unfortunately the phantom was close enough that she too was shielded from the turrets attack. Zharia flinched expecting to feel the slice of the blade unable to drop the barrier to guard herself. She didn't need to. Before Janix or Raythe could level their guns the phantom let out a scream as Zhorn's teeth buried themselves into her shoulder and she fell to the ground beneath his weight. Zharia held her barrier against the turret but turned her gaze away from the blood bath that pooled at her feet as the phantoms cries turned to quiet gurgles. While Zhorn enjoyed his treat Zharia and Raythe turned to Janix for guidance.

"Cerberus has Shepard's body now," Raythe said bringing the thought to the table. "We can't get her back. That would be a suicide mission."

Janix contemplated what to do for a moment. Each outcome and option traced its way through his mind as he considered their situation. "Well," he began uneasily. "Commander Shepard made a habit out of bringing everyone back alive from suicide missions."

"But sir, this is none of our business-"

"Cerberus activities are everyone's business," Janix snapped. "And so is Commander Shepard. We may be the only beings in existence that know she's alive. And we're damn well the only ones who know that Cerberus has her."

Zharia wavered slightly under her barrier but held Janix's gaze. "Whatever Cerberus has planned...you know that it will affect us all Captain. You have indeed made that clear. But you still haven't said what you want to do."

"Tell someone," Raythe suggested urgently. "Tell someone and make it their problem. We're in no position to be facing all of Cerberus."

"Not by ourselves," Janix concluded. "And we can't tell just anyone. We'll be persecuted for trespassing on the Citadel. And what's to say anyone would believe us even if we did tell them. No ... wouldn't work. But I do have a plan."

"Sir?" Zharia's voice was calm but Janix could hear her loyalty; whatever he decided Zharia would follow him without question even if it meant her death.

Janix looked to Raythe for his decision. The quarian hesitated for a moment before acknowledging what the look meant and he saluted his Captain. "Till the end sir. Whatever stupid thing you decide."

"Good. Because we're going to save Commander Shepard. But we're going to need some help..."

Illium, one of the few places to suffer only a little damage from the Reaper attack, was as bright and lively as it had always been. It was missing a few chunks here and there but what mattered was that the economy hadn't suffered. With the Citadel in ruins and most worlds still needing to recover from the war Illium was in its prime. Everyone needed something and there was no place better to get it; whether people were rebuilding their homes, their ships or preparing for a strike back. There were brokers there of all kinds. Even those of information.

Janix made his way through the streets with purpose dressed in his usual bright white Kassa armor. His large black eyes were furrowed in determination as he swam through the crowds. He made people uncomfortable as he passed them; they all assumed that with his dress and demeanor he was on his way to fight another unknown enemy. With the war just ended that was to be expected. He was looking for a very specific being on Illium; a Volus by the name of Barla Von. Many thought that he had died when the Citadel was taken but he was indeed very smart. Before the attack had even occurred the Volus had made his way off world to return to his most profitable trade of information brokering. He continued working for the Shadow Broker and was doing quite well. Knowing exactly where to look it didn't take the him long.

"Barla Von," Janix stated as he stepped into the volus' office.

Barla looked up and the heavy breathing through his filter greeted them. "Captain Janix Athi," Barla Von greeted in return.

Janix smirked. "I should be surprised but I suppose you wouldn't be an information broker worth visiting if you didn't know me."

"Of course," Barla Von agreed. "One of the surviving members of the Salarian STG that worked on the genophage modification program. A pleasure to meet you. What brings you here to my office today?"

"I need information of a very unique sort. I already suspect it won't be cheap."

Barla considered this for a moment before gesturing for him to continue. "You've peaked my interest Salarian. Please, continue."

"I need dossiers," Janix said as he straightened himself to look like the Captain he knew he was. "I need names, locations. On all of Commander Shepard's surviving crew members."

"You're right," Barla Von agreed with a heavy intake of breath. "Information like that will not come cheap at all. Or easy. But I know we have it. However it may take some time."

Janix couldn't help a frown from creasing his brow. "This is a very unique and very urgent situation. Is there nothing we can do? I can promise that we will pay you handsomely for your troubles."

Barla considered the offer for a moment before turning to his omni tool skeptically. "I hope that you will. I am going out on quite a limb here." His fingers manoeuvred delicately along the omni tool interface as he input the information. "I have put the information request for you and marked it urgent. I've sent it as high up as I know. I wish I could do more for you but you must understand. With everything that we've all just gone through information on Commander Shepard is of a very need to know sort."

Janix sighed and nodded knowing that all he could do now was wait.

Liara T'soni absentmindedly twirled Glyph's projection orb on her desk as a heavy sigh of boredom overcame her; she never thought she'd miss the little drone's annoying personality. But now that she was trapped in the little shuttle she dared call the Shadow Broker base without the comfort of anyone's company but her own she missed it. She had docked on a small world that supported one small human colony and a ridiculous amount of vegetation. n Feron hadn't made it back in time to join her; but she made sure to tell him not to return. As far as Cerberus knew he was either dead or in the clutches of the Shadow Broker (which she supposed he was) so he was the only person she could safely interact with without compromising her friends or her location.

Cerberus was watching them. She had managed to fall back after the Reaper attack but after a few monitored transmissions and a couple of intel reports later she knew that Cerberus was as active as ever and that they were looking for Shepard. She wanted desperately to tell one of her friends but they were being monitored around the clock for any contact with each other. She couldn't risk contacting them and having them track the calls back to her base.

A new information request blipped across her screen and the orb fell to the ground with a startling thunk. Someone had gone to Barla Von requesting information on the whereabouts of Shepard's teammates.

"By the goddess Cerberus is making a move," Liara breathed.

Her fingers darted rapidly across the computer bringing up the latest video footage of Illium and her brow crinkled in confusion. A salarian was making his way out of Barla Von's office not a human. Obviously couldn't work for Cerberus then; they would only make the 'mistake' of trusting aliens once. The look on his face had been one of hopeless dejection. Moving again she pulled up his dossier which brought to her even more confusion.

Janix Athi; served in the same STG unit as Mordin Solus. He had left shortly after the genophage modification project and taken to Captaining his own ship which was run by a small crew of an assortment of different races. It said that he called it a pirate vessel but they had never attacked or pillaged another ship; they were far more like raiders due to their foraging activities. In short he was now a nobody. He'd fallen off almost every map except those of his squad mates. What would he possibly want those dossiers for?

Bringing up her comm connection she radioed to Feron; hopefully he could get her the answers she needed.

"Broker," came his short reply.

"I have a task for you.."

"He can't do anything at all," Astrea's pilot demanded boldly when Janix returned to the ship with the news. The female turian bristled at the idea and her mandibles clicked in irritation. "What kind of information broker did you see? It doesn't sound like he's capable of anything."

Janix did agree with the unfortunate circumstances but he ignored her irritation. He know she was the most emotional of the crew. "I'm sure it's fine Nitall. This isn't a normal request. Shepard has saved the galaxy I don't even know how many times in the past three years. Anything concerning her concerns us all. That's why we're here in the first place. The Shadow Broker knows that as well as anyone. Whether or not we get this information is not a decision he can leave to any of his informants."

She growled and bristled again but returned to her ministrations at the helm of the ship. Janix swore that if her gray skin could have reddened with rage it would have and her violet eyes had conveyed to him her trust but also pleaded with him to make this worth it. She took a moment to straighten her black suit to try making it obvious she was trying to find ways to distract herself.

An alarm on her display moniter startled her and Janix snickered when she jumped in the air.

"Encrypted." Nitall tilted her head curiously before looking to Janix for a confirmation.

"Patch it through," Janix said with a shrug assuming that it was Barla Von

Nitall nodded and after a few rapid motions across the data pad the communications screen buzzed to life. There was no hologram or visual to greet them though, simply the deep unnerving voice.

"It has been brought to my attention that you're looking for information on Commander Shepard."

"Holy shit it's the Shadow Broker," Nitall breathed in dismay. No ever spoke to the Shadow Broker; not even his own informants.

Janix gulped feeling completely unprepared for the confrontation. "Uhhh...yes sir. I did. My name is..."

"I know who you are," Feron snapped into the receptor as his fingers pressed delicately to his ear making sure that his conversation would be kept private. "You're the two bit leader of a little band of pirates but you're nothing more than scavengers. You're still allowed to dock at main cities because you've never done anything worthy of getting you noticed. So now, tell me, what does a worthless little group like yours want with information on Shepard?"

He recited every bit of information that Liara had given them in their short transmission before beckoning the Astrea. He hoped he would be able to do her proud by making this decision for her knowing that she wouldn't contact them herself. Feron was the only person that Liara felt comfortable contacting right now even through her Shadow Broker networks but only because Cerberus believed him to be dead so she knew that he remained unmonitored. She had considered getting him to send a message to the others to warn them about Cerberus but she knew that meant they would discover Feron and she would lose her only hand in the outside world.

Feron heard the Salarian gulp nervously before announcing. "Shepard is alive."

The drell stopped breathing for a moment. Liara had not prepared him for something like that. He could guess that she'd had her assumptions that Shepard was alive but he still felt like the world had suddenly been placed on his shoulders. He couldn't exactly say ' hey hold on one second I'm going to contact the real shadow broker and ask her what to do'.

"Impossible," Feron told him.

"No just improbable," Janix replied cautiously.

"How do you know this?"

"I saw it with my own eyes. We were raiding the Citadel for anything that we could find and we bumped into a Cerberus squad. They uncovered Shepard in the debris. I thought maybe it was just her body but Cerberus scanned it...they found signs of life. We did what we could to try and stop them from taking her but it wasn't enough."

"Explain then. Why do you need the dossier's for her teammates." Feron had to admit to himself that his curiosity was peaked.

"Because we can't get her back by ourselves." And Feron found himself taken a back once more. What did they care? The words came to his lips but Janix continued cutting him short. "Shepard did so much for everyone. I heard that she would even take the time to detour during missions to help those in need. She made time for everyone and she never gave up. If we lose her the galaxy will be lesser for it. But...we're just a small crew. We can't take on Cerberus by ourselves and I figure if anyone would be willing to help us it would be her old squad mates."

He had to admit; he was moved. He knew that they could have been lying but something in his heart told him to trust that Janix had good intentions. The Salarian certainly had nothing to gain by looking to help Shepard but Liara had made sure that there was a failsafe in place just in case.

"We do have people we can get to help us," Janix started up again when Feron remained silent. "And we intend to ask for their help as well. But..."

"Enough," Feron commanded finding his composer again. "I've heard enough. We shall see." Feron let out a heavy breath that he hoped they hadn't heard. "I have two dossiers for you; all at the same location. If you can recruit them then you will deserve the other dossiers." What he carefully chose not to tell them was that if they couldn't convince those three of their good intentions they would probably be killed on the spot. That was Liara's fail safe; should Feron choose to give them any information they would be stopped dead in their tracks if they were unworthy.

Without waiting for a reply Feron cut the transmission so that he didn't have to feel like he was destroying the Shadow Broker's image anymore. After catching his breath he switched the transmission channel back to Liara.

"Did you hear all that?"

"Every word," Liara replied.

"Do you believe him?"

Liara considered it for a moment. "I haven't decided yet. He's obviously not working for Cerberus. I checked my feeds around the relays and did see a Cerberus cruiser in the vicinity of the Citadel. If he worked for them he certainly wouldn't be giving up information like that. But what makes them think they can do anything to help?"

"What made Shepard think she could stop Saren? Or the Collectors? Or the Reaper?"

Liara's irritation became evident. She was very protective of Shepard. "She didn't! She just knew she had to try and do something..."

"Exactly," Feron replied in calm tone hoping that Liara would understand he never meant to offend her. "She had to try."

Liara sighed. "Well if their intentions are as honest you believe Feron then I only hope they're good enough to achieve the other dossiers. Or we'll have to find another way to save her...Goddess I can't believe she's still alive."

Janix received the dossiers almost instantly and cringed slightly. The Shadow Broker was obviously testing their resolve.

Nitall looked at him expectantly. "Sir?" She waited patiently for his reply and saw the distress on his features. This wasn't going to be easy. She stood up and saluted him finally pulling his attention from the dossiers. "Sir you shouldn't worry. You know we'll follow you into the depths of hell."

Janix snickered. "Good to know because that's exactly where we're going. Set a course for Tuchanka."