XxXxX

Shepard stared at the Illusive Man with a pensive look while she processed what she had heard, running through the words he'd used and the tone he applied to see if he had another agenda hidden within it. Her… current employment with the Cerberus leader had been so far cordial and professional, but the recent hiccup that was the supposedly destroyed Collector ship had her closer to the edge of suspicion than ever before, and it was affecting her judgment of the brief detour he was giving her.

"Are the reports even confirmed? What's stopping me from not listening to you?" she tested the Illusive Man, wondering if the bait was a bit obvious than usual. But Jane Shepard kept firm, and instead reinforced herself with a cross of her arms. She decided she'd leave it as that, amusing herself at the thought that he considers her a bit naïve after her death.

The Illusive Man didn't reply at first, instead opting to take a brief inhale of his cigar as casual as he always seemed, and instead waved a finger to someone or something on the side. The Quantum Entanglement Communications device flickered his hologram and replaced it with a visual feed of someone's helmet cam. Then did he spoke, a commentary she realized, "Just two days ago, rumors began circulating of a colony saved from a Batarian slave raid."

Shepard was outwardly calm, maintaining her posture and even leaning back slightly, but her eyes sharpened significantly at the mention of the infamous slaving race, a dark cloud subtly beginning to form on top of her at the memories of one of her engagements with the species. It didn't take long to realize that she was looking at the cam feed of one of those species, her jaw set when the cam showed the Batarian firing his gun at some unseen threat past the wall of slave meat-shields.

"I've done some digging, and found a couple of cam feeds. What you're seeing now is one of them engaging the colony's savior. You can tell they're desperate enough when they're using slaves as a barrier," TIM, as she liked to call him, explained calmly while the feed played, the Batarian's panicked breathing and harried chatter following his explanation.

Whether he realized it or not, the cam feed continued showing the Batarian firing increasingly panicked shots, rousing the heat of anger inside of Jane's mind before it switched to a different feed entirely. This one of a gunship pilot's, the familiar layout of a cockpit before him and the incessant heavy rattling of autocannons and the occasional thumps of missiles firing while his feed showed a street with a multi-layered wall of slaves. He was firing just in front of them, smoke covering his target, but the frightened tone he was using as he fired all of his guns indicated that whatever he was firing at was still alive.

An almost cruel smile pulled Jane's lips up before she pushed it down, her anger giving way to curiosity when she finally heard just what the Batarians were saying.

"He's getting closer! He's getting closer! Nothing's stopping him!?"

"Nothing's landing! Bastard's somehow deflecting everything?!"

"WHO IS THIS GUY?!"

Shepard pushed her brows together as a concentrated look took over her features, and her arms uncrossed themselves before landing on her hips while she listened to the feeds, curiosity winning over her anger as she asked, "What's going on? It's just one guy?"

There was an affirmative hum, and then the feed was fast-forwarded just enough to where the firing was now significantly, in fact suddenly, reduced itself to just small patters and errant shots. The gunship clearly exhausted all of its missiles and warnings on the controls indicated the cannons were overheated as well. Shepard watched closely as silence began reigning the comms, the pilot oddly still with his cam showing him staring at the slowly dissipating smoke, as if waiting for something to appear.

And then warnings started blaring on the controls, with a big warning sign indicating engine failures, which was the outcome of the sounds of crushing metal before the pilot screamed in horror as the aircraft plummeted from the sudden loss of both engines. Shepard's eyes widened at the sudden damage, and was now standing straight while the feed briefly jerked when the aircraft crashed down, the pilot likely jolted, before a large crack appeared on the feed.

The feed switched to one of the many foot soldiers on the ground, and it was facing upwards, where two gunships fell from their hovering after what Shepard saw was definitely their engines suddenly crushed inwards. Her mouth parted in surprise at the quick and sudden damage, and slowly widened when the feed showed one of the gunships stopping mid-air before it was pushed to the side, as if someone grabbed it mid-air, crashing onto the building beside it and, from what she can tell, killing multiple slavers within it.

The feed then lowered in a panic where the slave wall was, and the Batarian that was recording this began to break down when something began appearing from the smoke, moving through the meat-wall calmly. And then a red rod appeared from one of its hands, snapping the final thread of bravado the Batarian had before the feed turned back and was followed by the rapid footsteps, telling her that the slaver was turning tail. And he wasn't alone.

And then, the feed switched over to the casually sitting Illusive Man, his cigar switched to a glass of most likely wine, and Shepard blinked in realization when she found her jaw had dropped. Shaking her head, the Spectre composed herself from stupor, pulling herself together, and now looked at the Cerberus head with a question on her mind, "What the hell was that. Those Batarians were scared shitless about one man, and I saw those engines crushed mid-air before one of them was flung to the side. And who the hell was the guy at the end?"

Shepard realized a moment later that she was clenching her hands, and that her heart was pounding something fierce. It took her a moment to realize that she was panicking as well before she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. And when she was calm again, she opened her eyes and stared intensely at the holographic display of the Illusive Man before her with a single question in her mouth. She didn't know who that was, and from the way he was feared by the Batarians, she knew that he had some sort of grudge against them to make them that scared of him. Not a lot of people could make Batarians scared shitless, aside from her, and she wants to know who he was.

"Where is he?"

XxXxX

On the Colony of Myoris II, what remained of the Batarian slave raid pulled back from the planet's orbit with engines at full power. The raid had five ships in total, with three of them being transport frigates to ferry the would-be slaves of the world. And yet, two managed to escape the orbit of the planet, with one finding itself pulled back into it. The other two ships, the frigate in-atmosphere, had been grounded violently, their smoking remains scattered across the many empty fields of the planet. And as the two ships ran away, with fewer numbers and no slaves to bring back, the one being pulled into atmosphere sent out desperate hails before switching to violent cursing.

And on one of the buildings of the remaining standing city of the colony, a dark figure stood still with one outstretched, an almost haunting heavy breathing coming from himself. Not a few moments later, he twisted his hand up and started to lightly clench his fingers, but not fully forming a fist, before being seemingly satisfied and slowly dropped his hand. Looking to the sky behind the eerily emotionless visor of his life-saving mask, he watched patiently as something large entered the atmosphere of the planet, glowing bright orange and was slightly crushed.

And when the Batarian ship began hurtling to the fields that surrounded the city, away from the civilians he had saved, Vader turned his back to it with a casual twirl of his tattered cape and faced the other man that was with him.

"Your people are safe, Captain," the Sith Lord stated simply, nodding his head to the grizzled man who was staring at the crashing ship with clear awe in his eyes even as his face remained neutral. He didn't change his expression one bit when he looked down to the armored man before him, who had single-handedly saved the entire colony, but did gave his appreciation with a deeper nod of his own head.

"You can't believe how grateful I am for everything, Mr. Vader," he thanked the dark-suited man before him, the respect evident in his tone, and extended a hand towards him casually.

Vader looked down to the hand stretched to him for a moment before he took it, and apply little pressure before shaking it gently, the motion sending a dull pain of spike up his mind which he ignored with experience. "It is an honor, captain. I merely did not want your people to experience slavery, "his own memories of his time as one resurfaced painfully, and this time, he forced the rage he had cultivated for so long to remain under. It translated to him pulling his hand away from the good captain's and into his cape as he clenched it.

He had long since realized how blinding rage could be.

The captain gave no indication of his knowledge to Vader's trauma, and instead gave the dark-suited Sith Lord another grateful nod before smiling gruffly, humor and respect in his eyes as he led him to the elevator, "And I know you have the literal power not to. So why not help the people a bit more?" Vader gave the man a quiet stare, almost contemplating, as they entered the elevator and allowed the door to close silently, his mind went to how he looked, and noted his breathing apparatus that now filled the space around them, and found humor to him helping people. It was a gallows one, what with him remembering his past deeds, but it was humor still.

So he replied with that humor, "I have little doubt they would appreciate my assistance."

The captain laughed gruffly again, his wizened features getting slightly younger as he did, and gave the Sith Lord an amused glance and grin before he placed a hand on Vader's shoulder pad, its weight negligible to the one already placed before it, "Nonsense. I heard the kids calling you a hero when you started throwing the Batarians left and right with those superpower of yours, Vader. And a lot of the folks saw you saving them from the slavers anyway. They'll appreciate any help you'll give."

He had spoken it with confidence, with no trace of fear, and even experience if Vader felt inclined to read his mind. And the Sith Lord found himself a pride he long thought was gone swelling inside of him when he spoke so highly of him. The lack of fear from the man, and the respect he was showing, made Vader remember his own youth. And a pang of sorrow and guilt grew when the memory began to darken. But he pushed them aside, and instead gave the captain a slowly considering nod, "I might consider, Captain Jackson."

A ding told the two men that they had reached their floor and both looked forward to the door sliding open to reveal multiple men in armor with guns turning to them slowly. One by one, the soldiers began cheering into a joyful celebration as they exited, and Vader soon found himself patted and shaking hands with the many soldiers that had helped him. It reminded of his youth, of his time before he donned the mask, of the time he had been called by a different name. And if able, it had brought him a guilty happiness that would've made his eyes waters with how happy they all were.

In the soldiers' faces, Vader saw the replicated, but distinct faces of his clone men that served under him, celebrating a victory. He was out of armor, and was whole with only one, painless and comfortable prosthetic, and had been delivering the finishing blow that would see his side achieving victory for a battle, with the captain's face replaced with the one of his wizened mentor and brother.

And underneath the mask, Vader smiled sadly. Letting the men celebrate their victory as he saw memories.

XxXxX

This one was an adventure of mine that first appeared when I thought of what would happen if Vader, post-RoTJ, was sent to the MEverse with all of his experience of both Light and Dark side brought with him. It's a plot bunny that I found interesting and felt that the way I'm conveying it wouldn't be enough but I'll at least do my best. Frankly, it's more for my own want of seeing the ME verse experiencing a powerful Force user and lightsaber master, but I do intend to showcase the deeper things between that. And so far, I'm liking what I did so far.

Bear in mind, the Vader I'm portraying is how I felt he would be after experiencing Light and Dark, and seeing that he isn't an irredeemable monster when Luke called out to him for help because he had faith in his father. As well as seeing Luke pull himself back from the Dark side after briefly falling. I'll explore this sometime.

It'll be a short series, but I felt I wanna share it anyway.

I hope you enjoy! :D