FicWad

As he walked into the briefing room, Jack could feel his blood begin to boil. He stepped onto the holo-communicator pad and let it scan his body as it made a connection to the Silas's unknown location. Silas himself was overlooking the information that Jack's team had procured from the Quintesson ship as the Prime appeared before him.

"Prime, I believe we have hit gold, the information that Teletraan downloaded…." he spoke as Jack cut him off angrily.

"Can it, I knew you would show your true colours, it was just a matter of time."

The Director looked at the Prime confused.

"I beg your pardon?"

The young Prime stared daggers at him.

"Teletraan just confirmed what I was already suspecting since the mission. The Quintessons were waiting for us on that ship. The distress signal was a trap and you knew about it." Jack spat at him as Silas's expression changed from confusion to anger.

"We are at war. The Quintessons are abducting humans and every second we waste is one more we give the enemy to prepare." he spat back as his yellow optics narrowed at the Prime, but Jack was not impressed.

"I know the stakes, but we are supposed to be allies and yet I can't trust you."

Slias crossed his arms as the Prime spoke, his optics never looking away from him.

"Look, without that information we don't reach the Quintesson home world and you and every other Human may as well be dead." he then walked closer to Jack.

"It was trap, but I was confident that you and your crew could handle the situation." Silas said as Jack looked over to the screen beside the Director.

"You could have told me the truth. You say I am important but sure have a funny way of showing it." Jack replied coldly.

"I needed the Quintessons to think that they had you fooled. If I had informed you of their intentions, it could have tipped them off in any number of ways." Silas countered.

"I don't risk people, there is always another way." Jack replied defiantly.

Silas shook his head gently as he looked away.

"You didn't like being kept in the dark, truth be told neither would I. But the facts are with me. There are always difficult decisions to be made, ones that we cannot avoid. But fortunately….this time it paid off."

Silas then activated a screen beside him, which in turn made a screen appear next to Jack.

"What's this?" he asked as he glanced down at it, wondering if this was the Director's attempt at changing the subject.

"The data Teletraan downloaded confirmed my suspicions. The Reaper and Quintesson ships use an advanced IFF (Identify Friend/Foe system) that sends a signal through the rift and allows safe travel for them. We just need to get our hands on one of those IFF's."

"Well if you told us what you knew before hand, we may have been able to grab the one on the Cruiser." Jack replied.

Silas shook his head again as he deactivated the screen, making both disappear.

"You didn't exactly have enough time to retrieve it, though your confidence is commendable. I have a few ideas about where we can find one, but it will take a little time for me to find out which is most viable option to go for. I will send you the information on the target and its coordinates when I have them finalised."

Jack crossed his arms.

"So you want us to sit and twiddle our thumbs in the mean time?"

Silas picked up the glass from the stand behind him and took a sip of the liquid inside before looking back to the Prime.

"It can't be helped. But in the meantime I suggest that you do not tell the crew about what I did. They have enough on their plates without the extra crap that this situation could cause. It will make things easier going forward." He said as he tapped another screen next to him, ending the transmission.

Jack found himself standing in the briefing room again. He thought about what Silas had said but felt that his team deserved to know the truth. He wasn't going to be told by someone light years away to cover their ass for them and lie to the crew. He activated his com link.

"Teletraan, ask everyone to join me here in the briefing room please." he asked in stoic tone.

"Of course Prime." the AI responded.

A few minutes later and Jack and his team were standing around the conference table. Garrus, Jacob, Zaeed and Soundwave on one side and on the other was Airachnid, Jackson Prime and Miranda. The young Prime had just informed them of his talk with Silas and what the Director had kept back from them during the last mission. Everyone's faces were a mixture of shock and anger except for Soundwave who just looked blankly at everyone. Zaeed was the first to speak.

"So that bastard left us out there with no bloody clue. When I see him, I'll show him what I think of him hoarding his fucking secrets." he ranted as Jack looked to his left to see Miranda, her face was one more of shock and sadness than anything else.

"Well it wouldn't be the way I would of handled it, but we did get the information we needed." Garrus spoke, trying to be the voice of reason. Jack reluctantly nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, I just hope that this IFF is worth it."

Teletraan's holo-form appeared on the table.

"With the information we obtained from the Quintesson vessel, I have come to the conclusion that the IFF will allow us safe passage through the rift. I have also recovered coordinates from their navigational system to pinpoint the exact location of the their home world."

The AI's image then disappeared as a model of the galaxy appeared in its place and a cross-hair appeared on it and moved around the galaxy before stopping at its center. Miranda was brought out of her thoughts as she stared at the image in front of her.

"That can't be right" she said in a curious tone. Jack though looked convinced enough.

"That has to be right. The Quintesson home-world is somewhere in the galactic core."

Jacob shook his head in defiance.

"The core is full of exploding stars and black holes. There are no habitable planets there."

Garrus decided to speak again.

"Maybe it's a space station then, I mean these guys used to be the Lithone…"

The Turian looked at Jack who carried on.

"And they now work for the Reapers, our true enemy. Remember they created the Citadel after all, so who's to say that they can't build a station surrounded by collapsing stars."

Teletraan reappeared next to the galaxy image.

"It would be safe to assume that there is a safe zone surrounding the station and that there is also a satellite on their side of the rift that when given the correct code, stabilises the anomaly for safe passage. Any ships travelling through without an IFF would either be torn apart by the subspace fluctuations or thrown out beyond the safe zone and destroyed by the gravitational fields created by the black holes."

As the AI spoke, Jack looked over to Airachnid and noticed that she had been watching him intently. He decided to act like he had not noticed which made a slight smile appear on her face as she looked away. He then looked back at the team.

"Well all of this means nothing until we get the location of an IFF from Silas. So in the mean time I want this ship to be ready for anything, ok dismissed." he said as the others nodded and left the room, one after the other. Miranda made her way past Jack as he stopped her suddenly.

"Miranda, can you wait. I would like to speak to you." he asked in a gentle voice, which surprised her.

"Of course." she said, unsure of what he was going to ask. As Airachnid walked out of the room, she looked back to see Jack and Miranda talking and watched them for a second before leaving. The MECH Agent looked uncomfortable as she leaned back against the table, Jack had just dropped a bombshell on her and he needed to know how she felt about that and most importantly, if he could even trust her. Because she was Silas's best agent.

"Miranda, what did you mean earlier when you said that Silas wouldn't place you in danger, because we both know now that he did." Jack asked as Miranda looked down to the ground. "Miranda, since we started this mission, I haven't kept anything back from you. So I would appreciate the same curtsy."

Miranda looked up at Jack and sighed.

"It's personal Prime?" she answered back hesitantly as she raked her fingers through her hair, not wanting to continue this conversation. Jack though did not budge and just stared at her stoically before his expression calmed.

"Call me Jack" he replied gaining a look of surprise from the agent.

"Talk to me, why is it personal. Who is he to you?" he asked again gently.

"Jack." she said in a uncertain tone. "He is my father."

Jack's calm expression turned to one of shock as he looked dumbfounded at the woman in front of him.

"Your father….but his surname is Bishop, whiles your is Lawson." Jack replied confused.

"He didn't raise me, you see my father and mother always wanted a son, but when I was born he gave me up for adoption without a second look." she replied as her eyes started to well up. "Do you have any idea how it feels to know, that from the moment you were born that your parents never wanted you." she said as tears started to run down her cheeks. Jack leaned his back against the table next to her and placed his hand on hers sympathetically.

"Actually I do know what that's like in part." he replied. Miranda looked at him as she wiped the tears from her cheeks.

"My father walked out on me and my mom when I was very young. I can't even remember his face, not that I would want too. But I can't believe that 'a couple' would turn away their own child just because it didn't turn out the way they had wanted." He looked away and sighed before looking back at her.

"I am sorry. I would understand if you didn't want to talk about it now."

Miranda though gave him a sad smile.

"No, its funny but talking about it seems to help. I have spent most of my adult life bottling up my feelings and just focusing on what I had to do, but now that I am talking about it. It feels like a weight has been lifted off me and I can finally breath..." she answered honestly.

"...You see after they left me, I was soon given to loving family that went by the surname Lawson. I had a very happy childhood and did exceptionally well at school. Wanting to be the very best I could be, but then came the day when my parents told me that they were not my real parents. I became angry at them and told them I hated them."

Jack looked at her with a confused expression.

"Why, I mean they obviously loved you very much and probably felt that they were protecting you from the truth." Jack replied in a reasoning tone.

"I eventually saw it that way, but back then I was young and naïve. I felt that they were keeping me from my real mother and father. After a while though I did calm down and make up with my adoptive parents. But I still wanted to know who my birth parents were. So when I graduated from high school, I started to look for them. It took a while but I managed to track my father down after a year or so."

Jack looked at her surprised.

"That's impressive, you managed to find a man who prides himself with staying ahead of enemies and allies alike. On being a shadow as it were." Jack replied.

"I know, I started by going through the records of the orphanage where they dropped me off, the names were fake but I did find patterns in the data that allowed me trace them. And so I followed the trail to each dead end, finding more traces that I tracked until the day came where I was standing in front of my father." she said as she remembered that day.

"How did that go?" Jack asked curiously.

"Not well, Silas openly told me that he and my mother didn't want me, because I was not the son they wanted."

Jack looked at her shocked again.

"What, he just came out and said that?" he asked in a disbelieving tone.

Miranda nodded and sighed.

"Yes, not the best way to patch up a relationship, but he was extremely impressed with how I managed to track him down, considering that he was former black ops and made it his job to cover his tracks at every turn. So he offered me a job." she answered.

"And you just accepted it, considering that he didn't want you as his daughter?" he asked again, his curiosity peaked. Miranda chuckled softly as she stroked her hair.

"Well it was good money and it allowed me to be close to my Father. I still felt like I had to try and be a part of his life, to get his approval. And I did, after a few years of training and a lot of successful ops. He started to warm to me and I believed that he started to see me as his daughter. That's when I started to trust him."

Jack then had a troubling thought appear in his mind.

"Wait, what about your mother. Where was she?"

Miranda looked away, a troubled expression forming on her face.

"She had died a few years earlier… My father killed her." she replied.

Jack again was shocked by what he had heard.

"Why, what did she do to deserve that?" he asked.

The agent looked back at Jack.

"He told me that she had betrayed him to an enemy during what was supposed to be a easy op. It turned into a blood bath and he lost a lot of soldiers. So he then hunted her down and killed her. He said that he did not take betrayal lightly." she replied, the last part in an almost frightened tone. Jack looked to the wall in front of him as he dwelled on what she had told him. He then looked back at her.

"I guess you believed him about that."

She nodded slowly and sighed.

"Yes, I believed everything he told me, but after what happened today. I don't know."

Jack stood up and turned to face her, his expression sympathetic.

"Miranda, I am sorry you had to find out about your father the way you did. I…" he was then cut off by her standing up and leaning in close until she kissed him on the cheek. When she pulled back, Jack looked at her with a mixture of confusion and surprise. She just smiled warmly back to him.

"Thank you Jack. You have no idea how good it feels to talk and get all of this out in the open."

Jack smiled back.

"You're a member of my crew, Miranda and I consider you a friend."

"I appreciate that." she replied as she turned and started to leave as Jack followed her. They then stopped next to the door as she turned back to him.

"I have to think long and hard about my future with MECH and my father, but it can wait until the end of our mission." she said as she opened the door and walked out.

"Tell me something..." he asked, making her stop and look back.

"Are you still in contact with your adopted parents?"

Miranda smiled back as she answered him.

"Yes, and though they don't know the job that I do, they are extremely proud of me." her expression then became thoughtful as she looked back at the Prime.

"Even though Silas is my father, I will always consider them my parents." she answered back honestly. Jack merely nodded back as a smile appeared on his face. She then turned around and walked into the CIC. Jack was about to walk there himself when his com link activated.

"Prime, Soundwave would like to 'speak' to you in the science lab." Hotrod said. Jack acknowledged his pilot and walked off to meet with the spymaster.

PRIME EFFECT 2

Soundwave was working at a console with Ravage lying at his feet when Jack entered the room and stopped next to the former con.

"You wanted to see me Soundwave?" the Prime asked and Soundwave pointed at the console next to him. Jack looked at the information on the screen.

"You want to go to Tuchunka, why?" he asked. The former con simply pointed back at the screen which then showed Frenzy's schematics and a location appear on the map of the planet.

"You think whoever turned Frenzy against you back on Omega is at Tuchunka?"

Soundwave merely nodded as Jack's face looked troubled as he remembered what Wrex had told him two years earlier. He then looked back at the spymaster, who's face looked as blank as ever.

"Okay, I'll have Hotrod set a course. But I'll have to warn you, I know one of the Krogan there and he told me the part you played in the creation of the genophage. Now if we go, you will have to keep a low profile and pray that no one recognises you. Now I know that because you are now in a pretender body that the chances are unlikely but still." Jack said in a stoic tone. Soundwave's face started to change as he looked unsure, but he merely nodded in return. Jack then left the science lab and headed for the cockpit.

The Defiant jumped out of hyperspace and entered orbit around the brown planet of Tuchunka, home world of the Krogan race. The ship's shuttle bay door opened and shuttle one flew out and down to the planet below. Onboard the shuttle was Jack, Soundwave, Airachnid and Garrus. Jack was looking out of the of the window, while the spymaster was seated in silence. The Turian was chatting to the former spider-bot, but did not notice that Airachnid was taking sneak looks at the Prime as he stood there all stoic like.

"We will be touching down in five minutes Prime." the shuttle pilot informed him as Jack turned around to look at his team.

"Okay, We will seek a meeting with the leader of clan Urdnot."

Garrus put his hand up, gaining the Prime's attention.

"Who is the clan-leader Jack?"

Jack smiled back at his friend.

"Our old team-mate Wrex, he has brought together a number of the other clans in an attempt to unify the race."

The Turian grinned at the news.

"Wrex, I haven't seen him in two years. Never would have thought of him as a leader mind you. But it will be good to see him again."

Jack then gave Soundwave a knowing look, to which the spymaster simply nodded in return.

"So the four of us will go in, speak to Wrex and gather Intel for Soundwave."

Airachnid and Soundwave glanced at each other before nodding at the Prime. Jack noticed this and had known that since both had been aboard the Defiant, neither had even spoken to each other. Jack didn't know what the problem between them was and this certainly wasn't the time to ask.

The shuttle flew through the sand storm that battered the remains of what was once a great City and entered a stone building that looked a little like a bunker, through the opening in it's roof and landed on a make shift landing pad. The hatch then opened and the team were met by a group of Krogan who immediately approached Jack.

The group's leader stomped up to the Prime and attempted to stare him down but Jack did not flinch. Airachnid could not help but smile at the Human Prime. The Krogan in front of him must have been double his size, but Jack took it in his stride. As he was being rebuilt by MECH, She had read all about what Jack had achieved before his premature death as he went from soldier to a Prime. And having served with him on the Defiant, had witnessed first hand the man he had grown into. She had to admit, she liked it a lot.

"Human, what are you doing here?" the Krogan growled as he looked at Jack.

"We are here to meet with Urdnot Wrex." he replied stoically.

The Krogan took a sniff of the air between the two of them and shook his head.

"Urdnot Wrex is busy. He will not see anyone else." he replied.

"I know he will make an exception for me." Jack said back.

The Krogan then looked Jack up and down.

"I don't see anything special about you Human." he spat back.

Jack though smirked at the Krogan.

"That's because you're a dumb-ass who has all the skill and smarts of a pyjak."

The Krogan then roared at the Prime before throwing a punch which Jack blocked easily countered, palming his attacker in the face and then kicking at his leg, knocking the Krogan to the ground and then while still holding his arm, twisted it until everyone there heard a bone crack. Making his attacker yelp in pain.

"Okay, okay you win, let go of my arm.."

Jack threw the Krogan's arm down, stood up and noticed Airachnid looking at him in awe, a large smile on her face. Jack nearly blushed, but managed to keep it under control as he winked at her before turning to the other Krogan who had took a step back.

"Right, can I now see Urdnot Wrex or do I have to beat you all down too?" he asked as the other Krogan looked at each other, afraid to speak up.

"Yes go on through." the beaten one on the ground said while grimacing in pain.

After walking through a long tunnel, the group came up to a large room that had numerous Krogan working around the area. Jack looked up to a part of the room that had been risen up and saw Wrex standing there and arguing with another Krogan who was wearing grey armour with blue neon patterns on it.

"You are making too many reforms Wrex, when you should be responding in force. That is what tradition demands. The other clans will not tolerate this kind of action from you as it will make you look weak." The other Krogan spoke with disdain towards Wrex who looked like he had had enough before he noticed a friend he thought he would never see again.

"Jack!.." he shouted happily before pushing the Krogan out of the way and walking down to meet the Prime.

"...my friend."

They shook hands as Jack smiled at Wrex, while Airachnid and Soundwave looked on bemused.

"I should have known that death wouldn't be able to keep a hold on you Jack." he smiled.

"And you made chief. That's a hell of a promotion from mercenary, Wrex." Jack replied.

Wrex chuckled at the comment.

"Yeah well travelling around the galaxy with you opened my eyes, Especially at Virmire. I used Saren's failed attempts to control the Krogan to unify the clans under Urdnot, but not everyone was happy about it."

The other Krogan stepped beside Wrex.

"You have abandoned many traditions to get your way and that is very dangerous."

Wrex then turned to the Krogan and head butted him.

"Speak when spoken to Uvenk, I'll drag your clan to glory, whether it likes it or not."

He then walked away as Jack followed, ignoring Uvenk who stood at the side wincing.

"So Jack what can I do for you?" Wrex asked as he sat down on what appeared to be a throne.

"I have a friend with me who needs.." he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.

"Jackson Prime, please let me ask him." Soundwave spoke, which left Jack, Airachnid and Garrus shocked, but Wrex looked at them confused.

"Who is this Jack?"

The Prime looked at Soundwave, a concerned look on his face.

"You sure about this?"

The spymaster merely nodded. Jack then sighed and stepped out of his way.

"Alright then."

Wrex looked more confused as he stared down at the human in dark blue armour before him.

"Who are you?" he asked.

The spymaster remained quiet for a moment, his face blank. He then looked up at Wrex.

"My name is Soundwave and I require your assistance." he spoke in a calm and civilized manner.

Wrex looked at the former con standing before him, still confused. But then the spymaster's words hit home and the Krogan leader remembered as his eyes narrowed and he bared his teeth before launching himself at Soundwave, roaring in rage.

"YOU!"