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Slaves of Cerberus	By : NakedOwlMan Category: +M through R > Mass Effect Views: 138070 -:- 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
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Kelly had dressed quickly, feeling disgusting as she put on a uniform she thought she had worn for the last time. The whole situation still seemed so unreal. Minutes ago she had been thinking about the future she and Sam were going to have here. And in a heartbeat, it had all been blown away.

She fought the urge to linger in the place she had called home, knowing that it would do no good. Her eyes caught the pistol she had tossed aside earlier, and for a second her thoughts went to a last stand. Go out fighting, maybe take down an enemy or two before being executed.

But she couldn't. With her dead, who knew what they might do to Sam? Turning away from the weapon, she opened up the door, stepping outside of her former home for the last time.

A moment of panic filled her as she saw that almost everyone was gone. The woman who looked like Shepard, her former Cerberus associate now calling herself "Brooks"... and Sam. In their place stood a smiling young woman with short brown hair, dressed in a uniform identical to the one Kelly had just donned.

"Hey, you ready?" the woman said, her tone casual considering the death surrounding them. "Should be getting out of here before somebody comes around wondering what happened."

"Where'd they go?" Kelly said, unable to keep the panic out of her voice. "Where did they take Sam?"
The woman laid a hand on her shoulder, and Kelly fought the urge to fling it away. "Hey, calm down. Shepard and Brooks took her back to the ship in the colony's shuttle. Left us to wait for you and..." the woman looked slightly sheepish as she added. "And they figured you'd be more cooperative with your girl back on the ship."

"And, hey, free shuttle!" said the blond woman from before, who casually strolled into the conversation flanked by a group of around eight fully-armored Phantoms. "Not like these corpses are gonna be finding any use for it, anyway. You shoulda heard those little piggies squeal when we..."

"Hey!" the unarmored woman said, fixing a heated glare at the head Phantom. "Those 'corpses' were her friends, okay?" she pointed at Kelly. "How about you show a little respect here? I know what we did here was necessary, but you don't have to rub it in her face."

The blond Phantom's smile slowly faded, and she strode up to the protesting woman with a blank expression, a thick sheen of blood drying on the blade dangling at her side. The imposing woman stood a good six or seven inches taller than the unarmed brown-haired woman, but the shorter Cerberus member did not flinch, staring back with a stern look on her face.

Finally, the blond woman reached up a hand, and patted the other woman lightly on the cheek. "You keep talking like that, babe, and you might just lose your bitch privileges for this trip," she muttered, a crooked smile crossing her face.

"I think I'll live, Morgan," the other woman said.

The blond Phantom, Morgan, dismissively turned away from the two unarmored women and waved to the team of Phantoms. "Get moving!" she barked. "All this killing's got me hard as a goddamn rock."

With that, the team of Phantoms started walking away. Kelly followed their steps with her eyes, to see them entering a large shuttlecraft that had been brought down in what had once been the main town square.

The remaining Cerberus crew member watched them leave, and then shuddered a little. "Take my advice: watch yourself around Morgan. I know you're supposed to be some kind of psychologist or something like that, but trust me, you ain't ever dealt with anybody as messed up as that woman. Anyway, we should get moving. You can sit in the front with me, stay separated from that nutcase and her companions." The woman started to walk towards the shuttle, then paused and chuckled. "Sorry, rushing around so much I almost forgot: name's Erin. Erin Crooks."

Kelly said nothing in response, not engaging in this woman's strange attempts to befriend her. Shrugging, Erin started walking towards the front airlock of the shuttle, and Kelly reluctantly followed.

"Anyway, Morgan. Like I said... craziest woman I've ever had to work with, by far," Erin chatted as she and Kelly walked to the shuttle. "The bosses brought her on-board fairly early, back when we were desperate for anybody willing to fly under the Cerberus flag. I mean, not only is she obviously a homicidal maniac, in her spare time she likes to find strong, confident women and turn them into her 'bitches,' as she so charmingly calls it. Breaks their wills, makes them into her personal possession, and kills them if they step out of line," Erin triggered the door of the shuttlecraft and glanced over her shoulder at Kelly. "So, like I said, steer clear of her. You'll either end up dead, or replacing her latest plaything. Not really sure which is worse."

Kelly still didn't respond, and Erin let out a ragged sigh. "Look, I know you don't want to be here. I know we just screwed up your life and are dragging you into this against your will. But not all of us are monsters. Some of us just want to do what's best for humanity, and are willing to do whatever it takes to show our species what needs to be done."

"And this is what 'needed to be done'?" Kelly finally spoke, gesturing a hand back to the dead silent residences and scattered bodies lying in the grass. "This is what's best for humanity? Speaking as a psychologist, I don't think Morgan back there is the only person here who's messed up in the head."
"Look, if it were up to me, we would have gone about this differently," Erin said, as she gestured to Kelly to continue the discussion inside the shuttle's cockpit. "You were with Cerberus once, you knew back then that humanity needed a champion. Shepard and Brooks should have come to you straight, told you we were going to fix all the problems of the last time around and do it right this time. But they had different plans, obviously."

"Obviously," Kelly repeated, a sneer in her voice as she sat down in the seat next to Erin in the shuttle's cockpit. "From what I've seen so far, the people in charge of Cerberus now are following the exact same path they did before. Even worse, as a matter of fact. Oh, and that's not Commander Shepard. I knew Shepard, and that woman isn't anything like her."

Erin leaned in close to Kelly from the pilot's seat, lowering her voice slightly. "Yeah, well, if you don't want them to do anything to your friend, I'd keep that kind of talk quiet. She doesn't like it when you start talking like she's a 'fake' or 'different Shepard.' I don't know who she is, really, but as far as us grunts are concerned, she's Anna Shepard, humanity's greatest hero."

"Seems like there's a lot of topics I want to avoid as the latest member of Cerberus," Kelly said, jolting a little in her seat as the shuttle activated and started hovering off the ground. "Makes me wonder why anyone not completely insane would join up of their own free will."

Taking a hand off the controls for a moment, Erin tapped a photo of a blond haired man attached to the front viewport. "See him? That's my brother. Devon Crooks, one of the best pilots the Alliance has ever known. Me and him, we grew up on Earth. Parents too blitzed on red sand to give a damn about us, Devon ended up raising me himself. He made so many sacrifices for me. Joined the Alliance Navy just so he'd have some money to send back home for me. Never forget how excited he was when he called to tell me he'd been chosen to pilot a prototype the Alliance had developed with the turians. 'The Normandy is amazing,' he told me. 'Can't wait to get behind the controls and see what she can do.'"

Erin paused for a moment, eyes downcast on the console as the shuttle penetrated the atmosphere and barreled off into space. "And then some cocky bastard locks my brother up in a shuttle and steals the Normandy. Steals it, and instead of punishing him like they should have, they decide to make him the pilot instead! My brother earned that spot, dammit, and just because some turian liked Moreau's hotshot flying, Devon lost the pilot seat of the Normandy just like that."

She sniffled a little as she sarcastically exclaimed. "Oh, but that's okay! My brother still ended up getting a great assignment after all! Behind the helm of the SSV Jakarta, one of the best cruisers in the Alliance fleet. Or it was," Erin's eyes were locked on the photo as she spoke. "Until it was destroyed fighting to protect the Destiny Ascension. It was an alien who screwed my brother out of the biggest shot of his career, and it was protecting aliens that cost him his life. So, damn right I joined Cerberus after that."

"Your brother sounds like a decent man," Kelly said, doing her best to sound sincere. "You ever considered what he'd think of you being a part of an organization like this?"

Erin glanced over at Kelly, giving her a thin smile. "I know this all looks bad. And trust me: when you get back to the ship, you're going to see some horrible things going on. But humanity needs a wake-up call. Sure, everybody's been living in harmony now that the war is over, but it's only a matter of time before somebody steps out of line. You really think the batarians are going to let go of all their hatred of humanity and be our buddies now? Not to mention the krogan. Urdnot Wrex is a fine leader, I'm sure, but what happens if somebody takes him and his queen out, huh? Is the next krogan in charge going to be as friendly when their people start running out of planets to colonize? Or will the Krogan Rebellions end up devastating Earth this time around?"
"I was like you once," Kelly said, a trace of sadness in her voice. "Willing to overlook all the terrible things I was seeing because I was convinced I was contributing to a greater good. And if I hadn't worked up a false identity and gone into hiding, Cerberus would have killed me without a second thought. You're fooling yourself if you think anything has changed."

Erin fiddled with the shuttle controls in silence for a few seconds. "I suppose, under the circumstances, it would be difficult to convince you," she finally said. "And maybe you're right, I dunno. But if nothing else, I owe Cerberus my loyalty, for giving me the opportunity that my brother got taken away from him."

"And what's that?" Kelly said. When Erin didn't answer at first, Kelly looked out the front viewport of the shuttle. When she saw what hovered out in the blackness of space, her fingers gripped the armrests of her chair hard enough to hurt.

"Beauty, isn't it?" Erin said. "Not the same one my brother would have been flying, of course. But still an amazing ship, the Normandy." She turned to look at Kelly. "Say, weren't you part of... Kelly?"

Alarms blaring. We're being boarded. I try running, but the lift doors slide open and they're there. Their hands all over me, their cold hands shoving her into a pod...

"Turn around," Kelly gasped.

Erin looked confused, staring at Kelly in concern as she shuddered in her seat. "What?"

"Please, take me back," Kelly said. She had turned white as a sheet, and her voice trembled. "I can't do this. I can't be on that ship again. Turn around."

Erin shook her head. "You know I can't do that, Kelly."

"You can!" Kelly cried out, her voice frantic. "Please, don't take me back there. I can't stay on that ship," Kelly raised her hands to clutch at her forehead, nightmarish visions of Collectors flooding her mind. "I can't, I can't, I can't, I ca..."

"Hey, hey!" Erin reached over to grab Kelly by the wrist. "Listen to me. What's your girl's name again?"

"Can't go... can't be on that ship..."

"What's her name?!" Erin yelled, snapping Kelly out of her panicked state momentarily.

"S... Samantha... I call her Sam..." Kelly muttered.

Erin gripped Kelly's wrist harder, enough to hurt. "Well, Sam is on that ship right now, Kelly. And if you aren't on that ship too, then Shepard and Brooks have no use for her. You're right about one thing: as much as I believe Cerberus has the right goals, their methods right now are brutal and merciless. You think they'll let her live if I don't bring you back there?"

"N... no..."

"You want Sam to die? You want her shoved out an airlock, or a sword put through her chest?"

Kelly felt a tear fly off her cheek as she rapidly shook her head.

"Then you need to get past whatever happened on that ship, and think about Sam whenever you start freaking out like you are now. Otherwise, neither of you are going to be much use to Cerberus. I'd hate to see them do anything to hurt you or Sam, but I know they will. So please, calm down."

Closing her eyes, Kelly struggled to block out the traumatic memories of the Collector invasion of the Normandy. She filled her mind with images of Sam. Her smile, her voice, everything about her.

And while the fear didn't completely dissipate, she could feel herself calming down slightly. Her rapid breathing slowed to a normal pace, and she could feel the tension in her body start to abate.

"You okay?" Erin said, and either she was really good at faking it, or there was genuine concern in the pilot's voice.

"I think so," Kelly said. "Than..." she started to say, then cut herself off from thanking the Cerberus pilot. As much as Erin's words had kept her from breaking down, in the end she had used veiled threats against Sam to make sure the message hit home.

Kelly wouldn't let herself be fooled by Cerberus again. Nobody on this ship was her friend. Not this woman, not anyone.
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Slaves of Cerberus