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Slaves of Cerberus	By : NakedOwlMan Category: +M through R > Mass Effect Views: 138212 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: Mass Effect and all the characters in it are owned by people that are not me. I have not made a cent off this work of fiction

Chapter List
- 15
- 16
- 17
"Come on, come on," said Alec Edison, furiously hitting buttons on the control panel next to the viewscreen. "Dammit, work!" he stared at the blank screen with an accusatory stare, like it was staying on the fritz just to spite him.

From the kitchen, his wife Olivia poked her head in. "Still not working, hon?" she asked pleasantly, a pointless question considering Alec's continued cursing.

"Still not working," Alec confirmed, delivering a stiff palm to the control panel. "The Washington Hackers game's gonna be on in two hours, and still can't get a damn signal."

Olivia gave him a smile. "Sorry, babe. But just remember, you were the one who wanted to come here. Said it was better than digging ditches back on Earth, remember?"

"Yeah, I know. Just wish we could just get a goddamn steady extranet signal in this place," Alec said, finally surrendering and walking away from the control panel in a huff. "Maybe if that damn tech girl spent less time munching carpet and more time working, we wouldn't be having these problems," he snapped.

"Alec, seriously?" Olivia said, reproach in her voice. "You sound just like your father when you say things like that."

Leveling that charge at him was enough to instantly chasten Alec. "I know, I know. Just slipped out."

"You remember how bad things were before she showed up?" Olivia gently reminded him. "We'd go for weeks without getting a signal at all. That girl's amazing, and here you are saying mean things like that."

Alec slumped down on the couch, staring at the dead signal coming from the television. "Guess you're right. It ain't really her that bothers me, anyway. It's that little blond girlfriend of hers. Something just... off about her."

"You're imagining things, hon," Olivia said, having returned to her cooking in the kitchen. The rapid tap of her knife against the cutting board filled their small residence. "It's probably the heat getting to you."

He turned to the kitchen door. "Ain't the heat. I'm telling you. There was this one time a few days ago, I saw her out grabbing some food and I called her name. Took three times before she finally responded, and even then, she had this weird look on her face. Like she didn't even recognize her own name or something. You ask me, I think she's one of them... them tag dodgers!"

"Honestly, hon, you're so paranoid sometimes," Olivia said. "You seriously think that sweet little thing used to be in Cerberus?"

"Always the ones you least suspect," Alec insisted. "They put on a show for everyone out in public, but when they get home they're sending off messages to their human-supremacist buddies."

Olivia chuckled at her husband's paranoia. "Why don't you go out and take a walk, dear, since the vidscreen isn't working? Dinner's not going to be ready for a little while yet, and sounds like you could use the fresh air."

"You giving me orders now?" Alec said good-naturedly. "Okay, fine. Just make sure to send out a search party if that Cerberus spy ends up abducting me as a sacrifice for her lesbian sex cult."

"I'll get right on that, hon," Olivia said, not looking up from her vegetable chopping. "Oh, and if you see Katrina, make sure to thank her for that potato leek soup recipe."

Standing up, Alec triggered the door to their pre-fab residence and felt a wave of heat strike him dead in the face.

It was actually somewhat pleasant outside, relatively speaking. Alec gauged it at around 89°F which, for an early evening on Chasca, was downright frigid. Of course, the word "evening" was a matter of perspective here, considering that the sun never moved from its place in the sky. Thankfully, the folks behind this colonization effort had equipped their small, pre-fab residences with heavy shades to block out the sunlight.
Alec looked around at the scattered box-like structures that had been set up in the temperate zone of the planet, a thin ring on the planet caught between the scorched side that always faced the sun, and the dark, frozen side that remained in eternal night. After the mass relay network had been re-established following the war, colonization efforts had begun in earnest fairly quickly. With so much of Earth in ruins, and so many aliens suddenly making their homes there, overcrowding in the intact residential areas was becoming a concern. Chasca had been a major focus of colonization even before the war, and now Alec and his wife were making their home at "Site #5" (as the Alliance official designation went) or "Haverdean," a name one of the first new residents had coined.

Last Alec heard, there were about fifty residents of Haverdean, and he imagined the other seven sites on the planet probably had similar numbers. A pretty decent amount, especially considering Chasca's reputation at a "cursed planet." Before signing up, Alec had read all the stories about what had happened here. Some messed-up stuff involving Cerberus, ExoGeni, and an entire colony getting converted into those screaming husk things.

But all of that was over. All of his talk with Olivia about unchipped Cerberus agents hiding in their midst was just him being silly, he knew. But still, for all the friendly smiles and helpful gestures that were shared among the residents of Haverdean, there was still this ominous feeling here. Like something was lurking over those mountains, some remnant of the horrors that had filled the galaxy just a scant few years ago.

Or maybe he was just imagining things.

Strolling around the sunny, grassy colony and exchanging waves with people as he went, Alec spotted someone out of the corner of his eye. Immediately, his walk took him in that direction.

"...considering my offer any further?" Edward Inesco, the leader of Haverdean's operations, was saying to the colony's tech specialist as Alec approached. "You know that we'd really appreciate having you around."

"I know," Samantha Traynor responded, looking uncomfortable in her Alliance uniform out in the heat. "And yes, I have considered it. But you know that it's not just my decision, after all."

Inesco nodded. "I understand. Well, why don't you discuss it with your..." he looked to see Alec arriving. "Ah, good evening, Mr. Edison."

"Hey. I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" Alec asked.

The colony leader shook his head. "We were just finishing up," he said, nodding at Sam. "Have a good evening, Miss Traynor."

"You, too," Sam said, before turning to Alec and letting out a deep sigh. "I know, I know, the signal is still down. I've been working on it all day, but we're still compensating from the ion interference coming off that meteor shower a few days ago."

"Hey, I don't mean to push or anything," Alec said with a smile. "It's just my wife, you know? She had been looking forward to watching the Crucible Day telecast, and she's been bugging me for days about how she missed it. Wanted me to ask if you might get us up and running so she can catch the rebroadcast."

Sam nodded. "I'm trying my best. I had hoped to watch that myself, actually. Some old friends of mine were going to make an appearance."

"Oh, that's right!" Alec said. "You were on the Normandy with Shepard during the war. You know, I don't mean any offense by asking, but you could have written your own ticket to any posting you wanted. How'd you end up in this podunk little colony?"

Sam gave him a smile. "By writing my own ticket here. Shepard may be the type who likes to be in the thick of gunfire and glory, but the only reason I ended up on the most famous ship in the Alliance Navy was mere chance, nothing more. Working on communications setup for quiet little colonies like this... sounds like a good way to spend the rest of my hopefully long and peaceful life."
"You have to miss it, though, just a little," Alec said. "I mean, I was on Earth during the war, I had to do my fair share of fighting during all that." This was technically true, even if the "fighting" he did was fighting for the best bunk in the old fallout shelter he and his extended family had hidden out in during the conflict. "Something about that adrenaline rush, being in the thick of danger like that... can't imagine that'd be easy to give up."

"On the contrary, Alec. It was the easiest thing I've ever given up in my life," Sam said. "I think I've seen enough bloodshed to last me a good long while."

"Guess we all have. Well, I'll let you get home and rest," Alec said. "But if you should happen to see that things are up and running again with our comms..."

"You'll be the first to know, I promise," Sam said, adding with a smirk. "Oh, and go Hackers!"

Alec blinked, putting on his best confused face. "What? I don't know what you're talking about. Told you, it's my wife who's pushing to get the extranet up again. I don't follow that biotiball stuff at all."

"Of course you don't," Sam said with a roll of her eyes, waving goodbye to him as she walked to her residence.

Alec waved back as he turned to return to his house. Dinner was probably ready by now, and he was starving.

Dimly, just as he reached his front door, he could just barely hear the sound of a shuttle landing in the distance. Wonder who that could be? he thought. And why are they landing all the way out there?

But as the door opened and he smelled Olivia's cooking, he immediately put it out of his mind. Let Inesco worry about stuff like that. Right now, it was dinner time.

* * *

"That you?" a voice called out from another room as Sam stepped in.

"Yeah, it's me," Sam answered, as she stripped off her bulky Alliance uniform shirt and tossed it aside. The temperature on Chasca was dreadful sometimes, and it was such a relief to her when the workday ended. She could come back home, strip down to almost nothing, and feel the cool breeze of the residence's HVAC fans wash all over her.

"Extranet back up yet?"

"Afraid not," Sam answered. She stepped into the bedroom of the house, sitting on the end of the bed and shedding her pants and shoes. Clad now in only her underwear, she stole a glance at the door, checking to see that nobody was watching. When she was sure the coast was clear, she quietly stepped over to her desk and activated her personal terminal.

"You're not working in there, are you?" said the voice from the other room.

Bloody hell, how did she always know? "Nope, just getting ready to hop in the shower," Sam lied, as she logged into the Chasca server banks and pulled up the calibration data from the communications array. She just needed a few minutes and she knew she could figure out a way to compensate for the ion disturbance. It had to be subsiding by now, if she could just...

"You're a terrible liar," said the voice that had been coming from the other room, but was now right behind her.

Sam laughed, continuing to work ever after she'd been caught. "I'll just be a few minutes, I promise."

From behind, she heard footsteps as the owner of the voice approached. "You know, I told you what would happen if you kept bringing your work home," said the voice that was in the other room, then was behind her, and was now right in her ear.

Oh, that voice. Definitely not as sexy as the dearly departed EDI, but if there was ever a human who could potentially get Sam off with just a few well-chosen words, the one standing behind her would be the one.

"Refresh my memory," Sam said, as she put her terminal to sleep and started to swivel her office chair. "What devious tortures did you have in mind for me?"

But her chair was suddenly locked in place, as a pair of feminine hands gripped the back of it and kept Sam facing her terminal. "Just keep working. I wouldn't want to... distract you or anything," came the voice behind her, sinister intent oozing out of every syllable.
"Why do I have a feeling Mr. Edison won't be seeing his biotiball game tonight?" Sam said as she activated her terminal. Part of her did want to put in a little more work on getting the extranet back up, but the tone of the voice behind her told her that very little work was going to get done tonight. Well, work of a productive kind, anyway.

Almost as soon as she started typing, Sam felt the warm wetness of a tongue, running along the edge of her earlobe. Dammit, she had to start there, didn't she? Sam struggled to focus on the feedback readouts from the comm buoys, while the evil woman behind her continued with her teasing.

"You're pretty sexy when you're trying to concentrate," breathed the voice, a gentle hot breeze blowing against her ear. "You looked just like this during that Kepesh-Yakshi tournament last year. Remember how afterward, I..."

"Took me into a storage room and nearly tore my clothes off, yes. You're not going to win this, you know," Sam said, even as she noticed her hands start to tremble on the keypad. "If you were really watching that tournament, you know that I always play for keeps."

The voice didn't answer, but the pair of hands that had held her chair in place now dropped down to her chest and effortlessly unhooked the fastener at the front of her bra. No sooner were Sam's breasts exposed to the chilling breeze of the cooling fan, than the hands started playfully rubbing at her medium-sized mounds.

"Hmm. May need to redirect to an alternate signal source," Sam said to herself, trying her best to sound as blasé as possible while the woman behind her started pinching at her erect nipples between thumb and forefinger. "Getting some weird asynchronous burst interference on buoy #12, need to switch to #8 to bypass it."

"You doing alright? I think you're sweating a little, Miss Traynor," the voice behind her teased.

"We're on Chasca, dear, of course I'm sweating," Sam said. "Now, if that's the best you've got..."

A chuckle in Sam's ear. "Not even close." The hands left Sam's breasts, and it took all Sam had not to groan in disappointment. She had a feeling, though, that more was yet to come.

"Think I've almost got this," Sam said, her fingers flying as she calculated the correct adjustments to bring the extranet back online. "Ready to admit defeat?"

The voice from behind her came from about two feet lower than it did before. "Don't go claiming victory just yet," it said. Sam glanced down as an arm snaked around the side of the chair and across Sam's thigh. She could have easily closed her legs shut before the probing hand found the damp black crotch of her panties, but that would have been cheating. Besides, she was so close now...

Then a finger started to run up the sodden crevice of her labia, throbbing beneath the fabric of her panties. "Going to blame this on the heat, too?" said the voice, as the tip of her finger firmly pressed against the wet silk and trailed upward.

Sam gripped her hands into fists, gritting her teeth as the hand between her thighs expertly teased her. "You're evil, you know that?" she said, her voice trembling slightly. "I'm going to tell Alec it's your fault he won't be watching the Hackers play."

"Go right ahead," said the voice. "Give him all the dirty details. I'm sure he'd enjoy that more than any biotiball game."

And as the fingers between her legs eased the crotch of her panties aside and began pressing against her bare pussy, Sam let out a defeated sigh. "Oh, that's it!" she lept to her feet and spun around to face her abuser. "If that's the way you're going to play, you've left me no choice but to spend the rest of the night fucking you senseless, Miss Felicia Hannigan!"

"Please," said the grinning blond woman, snaking out her tongue to lick Sam's wetness from her fingers. "You can call me Kelly."

Sam charged at her lover, landing on top of her on the bed and cutting off her surprised laugh with a long, wet kiss.
It had been at Shepard's party just before the assault on Cronos Station when they had first met. Kelly Chambers had arrived late, long after Sam's awkward conversation with EDI and the copious amounts of alcohol she had consumed to try and block it out. The night was still foggy in her mind, but Sam at least remembered Shepard introducing Kelly as "the woman who used to have your job." After having difficulty making conversation with most people at the party, Sam was thrilled to have something in common with one of the guests, and the two of them had bonded almost immediately.

What happened after that was lost in an alcoholic haze, but Sam definitely remember the next morning: waking up without a stitch of clothing on in Shepard's spare bedroom, Kelly naked and nestled in next to her. After a moment of panic, Sam woke Kelly up. The two of them hastily dressed before anyone else found them, and they agreed that what had happened was just a one-night thing. Neither of them were looking for anything long-term, and with the Reaper War still hanging over their heads, it would be foolish to make any commitments.

And that was where it stood for a while, up until the Normandy returned from its exile on an uncharted jungle planet. At the grand "Welcome Back Normandy" celebration, Sam was surprised to see Kelly emerging from the crowd, heading straight in her direction with a joyful expression at seeing her again.

At first, they had just made friendly conversation, but after a few drinks they were jumping into a skycar and renting a room somewhere in the lower wards. This time, Sam definitely remembered what happened that night. And the night after that, and several more following that one as well.

It had been the best "welcome home" present Sam could have imagined. But soon after that, she had gotten word from the Alliance that her request to provide assistance with comm buoy setups in new human colonies had been approved. She was sure that this would mean the end of her fling with Kelly. But after breaking the news to Kelly that they would need to end it, Sam made a joking off-hand comment. Something like, "Unless you feel like coming along with me and living in a succession of backwater, barely functional pre-fab houses while I calibrate communication grids."

She'd laughed, and expected Kelly to laugh, too. But instead, Kelly had gotten a thoughtful expression on her face, and after a few seconds said, "Okay."

And just like that, they were a couple. Alliance Specialist Samantha Traynor was now accompanied at each colony she visited by former mining vessel worker Felicia Hannigan. By day Sam worked in the server farms calculating bandwidths and repairing wiring faults, while Kelly helped out around the colonies and used her psychology degree to unofficially counsel the residents. And at night, the two of them talked, laughed, and (most especially) fucked like horny university students. Chasca was their fourth colony now, and Kelly never showed any signs of getting bored or regretting her decision to stay with Sam.

It made Sam ashamed of her early suspicions about Kelly: that she was just tagging along with Sam to these remote colonies in order to evade notice as a former Cerberus operative. Strictly speaking, Sam was actually breaking several Alliance laws by not turning in "Felicia Hannigan" to Alliance authorities to get chipped.

But really. Kelly could barely bring herself to swat a fly without feeling guilty about it. How could somebody this sweet, this wonderful pose a serious threat to anyone?

She certainly didn't look threatening right now, moaning and squealing as Sam's tongue went to work on Kelly's clit. Sam was getting her revenge on Kelly for distracting her from her work, and revenge was very sweet indeed.

"You have to admit," Kelly said, her legs dangling lewdly in the air as she watched Sam's dark-haired head bob between her thighs. "Isn't this better than working on comm buoys all night?"

"It isn't bad," Sam said, and then started shifting on the bed. "But let's see if we can't get some two-way communication of our own going."
The two women repositioned themselves, Sam laying on top of Kelly and putting her dripping snatch right into her lover's face. Kelly certainly didn't need any further instruction, and the two of them began licking each other. Their competition continued, this time to see who could get the other one off first.

This time, it was Sam who claimed the victory, as Kelly pulled away from Sam's crotch long enough to signal her climax with a long, ecstatic cry. But Kelly placed a very close second, her tongue sending Sam into a shivering orgasm that had her rolling off of Kelly and lying limply on her back in a sweaty, satisfied heap.

"You ready for that shower?" Kelly raised her head up from the mattress to look down at Sam at her feet.

"In a little bit," Sam said, catching her breath enough to slide off the bed onto her feet. Glancing over at her terminal, she scampered over to her chair. "I've still got another thirty minutes," she said as she returned to her seat.

Leaning back on the pillows, Kelly let out a weary sigh. "My little workaholic," she said. "I hope this colony realizes how much they're going to be losing out on when it's time for you to leave."

Sam's typing fingers hesitated, just for a moment. "Yeah," she said quietly, resuming her work without looking over at Kelly.

But Kelly must have heard something in Sam's voice. That damn psychology degree of hers could be such a pain sometimes. "So, where do you think the Alliance will send us next?" she probed. "I hear there are some mining operations being set up in the Armstrong Nebula. Imagine they'll probably need somebody to get that cluster back on the grid."

"Kelly, I... I've been meaning to ask you something," Sam said, figuring there was no point in waiting anymore. "A few days ago I was talking to Inesco. And he was saying how, with all the problems they've been having with keeping the communications up and running here, and with all the extra bandwidth we'll be having to deal with here once the next colonist ship arrives... Well, he asked the Alliance, and they approved him to have a full-time, permanent communications specialist stationed on Chasca."

Kelly nodded. "So, I guess you're going to have to train them to do your job, and..." Seeing Sam's look, Kelly finally understood. "You want to stay here. For good."

"It's a little hot, not the most convenient location in the galaxy, I know," Sam said, getting up from her terminal and sitting beside Kelly on the bed. "But I think I like it here. It reminds me of growing up on Horizon. You know, minus the whole 'attacked by Collectors and then turned into an indoctrination factory' part of it. I think it could be a good place to stay. Maybe raise..." Clearing her throat, Sam stopped herself in her tracks. "I mean, make a home here."

"So you said yes?" Kelly asked.

Sam shook her head. "I didn't say anything yet. Told him I needed to think about it." Reaching down, Sam took hold of Kelly's hand. "Kelly, I've been meaning to ask... well, I guess what this is all about is... do you..."

She was interrupted by the beeping of the console on her desk. Sam's head snapped over to it, and she let out a whoop of triumph as she saw the green lights across the board. "Yes! It's back up! Suck it, ion disturbance!"

Kelly smiled along with Sam, although there was a trace of disappointment in her eyes at the change in subject. She watched as Sam began throwing on clothing rapidly. "You're going over there now? You know what you look like right now?" she asked. Inhaling deeply, she added, "And smell like? He's gonna know we were..."

"He'll be too busy watching the game to care about what we've been up to," Sam said, running hands through her frazzled hair after throwing on an old t-shirt. Making her way to the door, she paused to lean down and kiss Kelly. "Be back soon, love you."

"I love you, too," Kelly said, and the way she said it made Sam stop in her tracks. In Kelly's expression, Sam saw the answer to the question she hadn't quite gotten out, and Sam smiled in gratitude. Kelly smiled back, her eyes glimmering in the dim light of their bedroom.
As she rushed out the door, she made a mental note to talk to Inesco in the morning, and let him know that she'd be accepting his offer. And with the newly-restored extranet, she would start looking for one of those sites that found homes for war orphans.

Not making any commitments yet. Just planning for the future. Their future.

Stepping outside into the sunlight, Sam trotted through the grass towards the Edison home. The only way you could tell that it was "night" in Haverdean was that most of the residences had their shades down, blocking out the 24-hour a day sunlight to allow the occupants to get some sleep.

Funny, Sam noticed as she walked through the fields between the residences. Even at this time, there was usually at least one person out walking. Sam hadn't ever seen this place this quiet before. Maybe everybody went inside once the extranet came back up, checking all their missed messages, Sam reasoned, but it still struck her as odd.

When she reached the Edison residence, the green light on their front door indicated that it was unlocked. As she climbed the small set of stairs up, the door slid open automatically, and she heard the vidscreen blaring from inside.

Rapping on the wall as she stepped in, she called out. "Hey, I got it back up, Alec! How's the game going?" Stepping into the house, she looked over to see the back of Alec's head from his spot on the couch. In front of him, the vidscreen was tuned to Westerlund News.

"What, game not on yet?" Sam said as she stepped in. "Or is Olivia making you watch... the..." She stopped in her tracks as she saw what was on the screen. It was Commander Shepard, speaking from the CIC of the Normandy.

"The Council and the Alliance don't want you to hear what I'm saying," Shepard was saying. There was something different in her tone, an anger that Sam had never heard before. "They want you to keep on believing that everything's fine. That I'm the crazy one for resigning my posts and rejoining Cerberus."

"What?" Sam exclaimed. She couldn't have heard that right. Cerberus was dead, along with the Illusive Man and his crazy followers. And even if it weren't, Shepard would never be a part of it again.

But as the camera pulled out on the vidscreen, Sam saw the rest of Shepard's body, clad in a uniform with a Cerberus insignia proudly emblazoned on it. "This is... some kind of prank, right?" Sam asked Alec. "A lookalike or something."

Alec didn't respond, and Sam's eyes remained locked on Shepard's on the screen, as she continued to speak. "The truth is, I'm the only one speaking the truth. Aliens have been exploiting humanity for far too long now. Before the Reapers came, we were nothing but second-class citizens of the galaxy. Fighting for whatever scraps we could grab from the Council's table. And now, even with humanity on the council, alienkind is still looking for a way to take back what we've managed to claim. Any humans watching this message, I want you to remember what I'm about to say, and mark my words well. A lot of the news networks have been showing incidents of humans supposedly attacking aliens, but I promise you: it's going to be nothing compared to what those aliens are going to do to us once they realize that we're trying to rise above our appointed station. Within the next few days, you're going to see humans slaughtered, butchered and enslaved, and all to send us a message: don't fight back. Lay back and take it, or you'll get even worse."

Sam watched in mute disbelief, watching as the hateful, xenophobic words poured out of Shepard's mouth. How could this be real? Granted, Sam hadn't seen Shepard in a year or so, but could she have really changed so much? Become this horrible in so short of a time?

"Well, I for one don't intend to lie back and take it," Shepard exclaimed, clenching her fist in front of her. "I'm going to fight back. And Cerberus is going to fight back. And if you're a true supporter of humanity like myself, you'll join us in our fight against these aliens who want to dominate us. Because if you don't fight against them, they'll take everything from you. Your homes, your families... and your lives."
The video crossfaded to Khalisah al-Jilani. "For those of you just joining us, we received this new message from the former hero, now fugitive terrorist Commander Anna Shepard just a few minutes ago. It was sent via an untraceable asynchronous burst transmission, and as a result we still have no idea where Shepard or the Normandy are currently located. We'll update you with any new information once..."

Shaking her head, Sam stepped up to the back of the couch. "This is unbelievable, Alec. What else were they saying before I came in?" Glancing down at the back of Alec's head, Sam put a hand on his shoulder. "Alec, what..."

The world seemed to switch to slow-motion at that point, as Sam watched Alec's head fall limply forward and bob in midair. Feeling a chill run through her, Sam withdrew her hand from his shoulder and held it up to her eye level.

It was sticky with blood.

"No," Sam gasped. "Oh, no no no no no..." she turned and stumbled into the kitchen. "Olivia! Olivia, are you..."

Her breath caught in her throat, and she fought the urge to scream. Olivia was slumped forward over the kitchen counter, the long knife she had been using to prepare dinner stabbed down through her throat and into the cutting board below. Blood was seeping out from the wound and dripping down onto the floor below.

Sam shook her head, desperately hoping she was about to wake up from a terrible nightmare. Shepard joining Cerberus, her neighbors murdered in their own home. It couldn't be real. Just a horrible dream.

One thought finally brought her back to her senses. "Kelly," Sam breathed. If there was a murderer out there somewhere, Kelly could be in danger. Rushing back to the front door of the house, Sam nearly tumbled down the stairs to the grass before regaining her footing.

And that was when she heard the screaming.

Oh, God, Sam thought. He's still out there. Whoever it is, he's going house-to-house.

Across the main courtyard, Sam saw a door slide open, and Katrina Alenaz came running out, crying out in terror. Sam almost called out to her, but then she saw another figure shimmer into vision just behind her. Stalking deliberately behind the fleeing colonist, and brandishing a long sword dripping with blood.

Sam recognized the pursuer immediately: a Cerberus Phantom. It was true, then. Cerberus was back. But did that mean... that Shepard was behind this? No, impossible.

Suddenly, Sam saw that Katrina's terrified path was leading her in Sam's direction. Somebody like Shepard might have run to defend her, but Sam knew that all she would accomplish is getting them both killed. Before she was seen, Sam dove behind a tall set of shipping crates and huddled up against them.

Above her, she could hear Katrina's cries. Sam had to bite back her own surprised shout as she heard an impact from above. Looking up, she saw Katrina leaning over the crates in exhaustion, staring down at Sam with frantic eyes as she struggled to catch her breath.

"Sam," Katrina gasped, her voice barely audible. "Sam, they're kil..."

There was a whoosh of air, and a spray of blood as the Phantom's blade passed through Katrina's neck like it was tissue paper. Sam watched as the colonist's head, a terrified expression now frozen on her face, fell from her shoulders and tumbled to the grass. It landed facing Sam, dead eyes staring at her, and Sam fought the urge to kick it away.

Behind her, she heard a muffled thump as Katrina's beheaded body hit the ground. Sam pressed herself harder against the crates, knowing the Phantom would only have to lean slightly over to see her hiding there.

"Miss Lezayen, report," said a woman's voice on the other side of the crates. She heard a mechanical click and the sound of the Phantom's helmet being tossed down onto the crates.

"Mission going off without a hitch, ma'am," the phantom, Miss Lezayen apparently, gleefully said. "The few folks who managed to pull weapons on us didn't even have a chance to get shots off before we bled 'em."

"Any sign of movement from the target's residence?" the leader asked.

"Nope. Maybe they're sleeping like these other folks were," Miss Lezayen said. "You want us to move in?"
"No, my partner and I will be handling Miss Chambers and Miss Traynor personally," the leader said. "What I need your team to do is start putting this symbol up everywhere you can," there was a pause in the conversation as the leader showed her underling something. "Use whatever's handy: paint, blood, anything that will make a mark.

"Pretty. What does it mean?" Miss Lezayen asked.

"What, you don't recognize it? It's the insignia of the Homo-Sapien Extermination Movement, the alien terrorist organization that will be claiming credit for this bloody attack on a human colony," the leader explained. Sam didn't even need to see her face to know there was an evil smile there.

"Hmm, but aren't they going to be a little miffed that we're putting the blame on them for something they didn't do?"

There was a long sigh from the leader. "That would be very difficult, considering they don't actually exist. Now get moving. We don't want to stay here any longer than we have..."

Sam gasped involuntarily at the sudden sound of distant gunfire, and for a moment she was terrified that she had been heard. Looking up, she saw nobody leaning over to find her.

"Ma'am, we found a couple of stragglers." a voice said over Miss Lezayen's radio. "They're holed up behind cover, might be difficult to get to them."

Taking a big risk, Sam poked her head up slightly over the edge of the crate. The Phantom, a long-haired blond woman, was standing with a dark-skinned woman in a Cerberus-branded uniform. Neither was looking in her direction, the two of them turned to face the sound of gunshots.

It was now or never. Before she could convince herself otherwise, Sam broke from her cover and ran.

* * *

After Sam had left, Kelly had laid back on the bed. She couldn't keep the blissful smile off her face.

Sam was right: Chasca was no paradise, but it was probably the most pleasant colony they had lived in since Kelly had made the (somewhat impulsive) decision to tag along with Sam on her Alliance work. Kelly hadn't ever considered making colony life her permanent state of being, but now that Sam had proposed it – or had been about to, at least – she liked the idea more and more.

But most of all, she liked the idea of staying with Sam. For most of her life, she had never considered the long-term. Her decision to join Cerberus, her decision to leave, to come to the Citadel and help the refugees... all of it was so spur-of-the-moment. Sam had her thinking about the future now, and Kelly liked what she saw.

As she had lightly dozed, the image of her and Sam in matching wedding dresses in her dreams, she was soon harshly awoken.

By the sound of gunshots.

Gasping, Kelly jolted out of bed. They were under attack. Yanking open the drawer of the nightstand, Kelly withdrew a pistol and tried her best to slow her suddenly-panicked breathing.

So many horrifying images were flooding through her mind. Being back on the Normandy when the Collectors abducted them. The Cerberus invasion of the Citadel, Kelly waiting any moment for them to discover her true identity and execute her. And just weeks later, the mad dash to any available shuttles as the Reapers had taken control of the entire Citadel and started towing it to Earth.

"Calm down, Kelly," she told herself. "Might just be some wild animals came into the camp. Or just somebody doing some target practice. Could be nothing."

And then she remembered: Sam was out there. Laying the pistol aside, Kelly grabbed whatever clothing was nearby and started throwing it on. If Sam was in danger out there, Kelly wasn't going to let her face it alone.

She was about ready to grab the pistol again and head outside, when the doorbell chimed.

Kelly froze. It couldn't be Sam; she had the door code. Which means it was either another one of the colonists... or someone else. Someone who might have been the cause of the gunshots.

Picking up the pistol from her bed, Kelly stepped cautiously out of the bedroom. Training the gun on the front door, she tried her best to sound intimidating as she called out. "Who's there?"

"Kelly, it's me," said the voice on the other end. A voice that Kelly instantly recognized, and which sent a wave of relief flooding through her. "Open the door."
Tossing the pistol aside, Kelly rushed to the door and opened the lock. She barely waited for it to open before wrapping her arms around the woman on the other side. "Shepard, thank God!" she exclaimed. "What's going on? Have you seen Sam?"

Pulling away, Kelly saw Anna Shepard's smiling face and felt instantly calm. Everything would be alright. Shepard was here, and whatever happened next, Kelly knew she'd be safe.

"Hey, Kelly," Shepard said, her demeanor strangely casual considering the earlier gunshots. "Been a long time. I brought a friend along, think you might remember her."

Kelly gave Shepard a confused look. "What are you talking about? Who was shooting before? Is the colony safe?"

"The colony is totally secure," said an accented voice to Kelly's right. Kelly turned and her eyes went wide in surprise.

"Hope?" she exclaimed, as her former comrade in Cerberus casually strolled up to the two of them. "Hope Lilium?"

"Actually, I go by 'Maya Brooks' now," said the woman from Kelly's past. "Was just supposed to be a temporary alias but it's funny... I'm starting to like the sound of it. What do you think, 'Felicia Hannigan'? Does it suit me?"

Kelly blinked, struggling to come up with how to respond to this. Then her eyes locked onto Maya's body armor, and the all-too-familiar logo pressed into it. "Shepard, I don't know what this woman has told you, but she's..."

Turning to Shepard, Kelly took a step back in horror, as she saw a matching Cerberus logo on Shepard's armor as well. "What were you going to say?" Shepard asked, her previously warm smile turning into a smirk. "That she's with Cerberus? Believe me, I know."

"What is this?" Kelly said, starting to wish she had brought her gun out with her. "Where's Sam?"

"Miss Traynor?" Brooks said. "Not to worry, Kelly. She's perfectly well," she made a gesture to someone, and Kelly looked in the direction of her gaze.

"Sam!" she cried out, as she saw a blond woman in body armor march Sam forward. She started to rush towards her, but Shepard put a hand out and held her back.

"Kelly," Sam said, her cheeks damp with tears. "They killed them all. The colonists, they... butchered them!"

Kelly stepped back, away from the woman at her door. "Who are you?" she asked, her voice trembling with anger. "You're not Shepard. Shepard would never do something like that!"

"Maybe not the Shepard you served with," said the woman who wore Shepard's face. "But that person is... indisposed at the moment. Meet the new and improved Commander Shepard."

"Please, just..." Kelly said, shivering as she saw the blond woman force Sam down to her knees in the grass. "Just let her go. Whatever you want to do with me, just do it. But let Sam go."

The fake Shepard responded to this with a loud, harsh laugh. "Didn't I tell you, Maya?" she said to her partner. "Just like Shepard and Liara. So noble, so self-sacrificing."

"I think it's time we stop beating around the bush, love," Brooks said, as she walked over to stand next to the other woman. "We came here, Kelly, because the galaxy needs Cerberus. And we were wondering if you would be interested in returning to your former position with us."

Kelly stared at Brooks in disbelief. "Wh... what?"

"We've learned from our mistakes, Kelly," Brooks said. "The distractions that destroyed us back when the Illusive Man was in charge... they're gone now. We can return to our true mission: advancing the cause of humanity. It was a cause you believed in once. We'd like you to help us again."

"You... you're insane!" Kelly exclaimed. "You just slaughtered an entire colony! A human colony! How does that 'advance the cause of humanity'?"

"Some sacrifices have to be made, I'm afraid," the other Shepard said. "For the greater goal."

Kelly shook her head in disgust. "You're no different than the Illusive Man. Just a bunch of sick monsters deluding yourselves into thinking you're better than the rest. How could you even think I'd want to be a part of this? The answer is no."
Brooks and the Shepard imposter exchanged a glance. "Well, this is a problem, Kelly," the fake Shepard said. "Because as a former member of Cerberus, you can either be an asset to us... or a liability. And we don't like leaving liabilities unresolved, do we, dear?"

"No, we do not," Brooks said. "Last chance, Kelly. Will you come back to Cerberus or not?"

Kelly locked eyes with Sam. I'm so sorry, she thought. This is all my fault. If I hadn't come along with you, this never would have happened. "No," she said, turning her eyes back to Brooks. "No, I won't."

Brooks nodded, then turned to the blond woman. "Take their heads. The Alliance bitch first."

"No!" Kelly cried out, as the blond woman forced Sam to bend forward from her kneeling position, her hair falling forward to expose the back of her neck. "No, don't, please! Kill me if you want, but not her!"

"You had your chance," the fake Shepard said. "Shame, we went to all the trouble of finding you, too. Ended up being just a big waste of time." She turned to the blond woman, who had her sword raised up into the air, and nodded.

And just as the woman's sword started swinging down to Sam's neck, Kelly screamed. "I'll come with you!"

"Stop!" yelled the fake Shepard. The blonde's decapitating strike froze, inches away from Sam's neck. Looking over, she gave Brooks a triumphant grin. "Looks like she saw reason after all."

"She always was a smart one," Brooks said.

"Kelly, no," Sam said, as the blond woman yanked her to her feet. "Don't do this."

"I'll come," Kelly said, "But only if you promise not to kill her. If you let her live, I'll come back to Cerberus."

"Fine. As long as you follow our orders, do whatever we ask of you," asked the fake Shepard, "and serve me just as faithfully as you served that other Shepard, than yes. I promise that Miss Traynor will live."

Kelly nodded, feeling the trickle of her tears down her face. "I will, I swear it."

"Wonderful," Brooks said, giving Kelly a warm pat on the shoulder that Kelly instinctively flinched away from. "Welcome back to Cerberus," she said, before turning to the blond woman. "We're leaving, get your team together," she instructed, and then pointed to Sam. "And get her secured for transport back to the ship."

"No!" Kelly protested, starting to move forward. "You said that..."

The other Shepard pushed her back, rougher this time. "We said we'd let her live. We didn't say we'd let her go free. And we can't leave anyone here to tell what really happened to this colony. Don't worry... the crew will treat her with all the respect that a member of the Alliance deserves."

Kelly watched as the armored woman led Sam away. Just a few minutes ago, her life... their life had seemed so perfect. Now, it had turned into a nightmare.

"We've got a few minutes left until we leave," Brooks said, as she picked up a small bag from her feet. "Enough time for you to get changed." Unzipping the bag, Brooks revealed the Cerberus uniform inside. "Pretty sure I got your size right."
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Slaves of Cerberus