Author note: I'm going to repeat myself at the risk of irritating some; but I do know that the Blitz and Torfan happened the other way round to the way they are in my universe, but I prefer it that way, for reasons of plot that should become reasonably clear.

I'm only going to say this once because it upsets me; I do not own Bioware or it's creations.

I'm only going to say this once because I don't want to seem needy, but reviews do help to show that my work is being appreciated, and that encourages me to write more, so...

Mass Effect: Vindication

Purgatory

Elysium; named for the realm of Hades in Ancient Greek mythology, where the great and the virtuous dwelt after death. It didn't seem to fit for two Alliance military police personnel. The reason was very specific; they were there to guard Corporal Thaddaeus Shepard in the run up to his trial for war crimes perpetrated during the action on Torfan, against batarian pirates and criminals that had been acting against human colonial shipping, with the unofficial but well known endorsement of the rogue batarian state.

Shepard had been a member of a strike team assigned to eliminate the enemy's commanders, then blow a hole in the front lines for the main force, with the help of another team led by the 95th Marines' CO, a Major Kyle, who were to target what was presumed to be an engineering and maintenance hub. Needless to say, the operation did not run as had been intended. Shepard's squad leader was killed, and the half English, half Greek psychopath had decided that the second in command was not qualified to lead.

Not long after, the second in command was dead, as a result of disagreeing with Shepard's 'suggestion' to fulfil their primary objective and eliminate the batarian Command, crippling the enemy forces and minimising the danger that they'd be able to cause any trouble in future, as opposed to going to the aid of Kyle's squad. Shepard went on to complete the objective and rescue Major Kyle (admittedly somewhat reluctantly), but along the way did some other things that saddled him with the irksome label of 'war criminal'; and all because he hadn't had the sense to kill off one sodding Irishman whilst he'd had the chance. Yes, O'Reilly had been far more of a threat than Shepard had given him credit for, going and sending that evidence to Command...

So now, two months later, he was on the jewel of the Alliance's colonial crown, waiting to attend his trial before the entire galactic community. And he was making Elysium seem a hell of a lot more like Purgatory to his long-suffering guards...

He was leaning against the wall of the large transporter shuttle that they had been provided with solely for the purpose of transporting him, something his guards, at least, were beginning to regret, as it provided him with the opportunity to wax eloquent on the subject of how incredibly gratified he was to be recipient of such a great honour. In fact, he was failing to take the entire business seriously at all, managing to slouch casually, subtly leaning against the movements of the shuttle so that he didn't appear to move at all when it swerved, accelerated and turned through the traffic, having the effect of making him look entirely in control in his black ankle length trenchcoat (a trophy from Torfan) and his matching fatigues, in spite of the fact that his wrists were cuffed in front of him. In fact, he looked more in control and at ease than his 'captors'.

One was male, one was female, named Mark and Cameron respectively, both good and dutiful soldiers, the former a spacer and the latter Californian. They bored him, so he annoyed them. Cameron commented that he'd have been better suited to a profession in which the sole purpose was to irritate others as much as possible, even resorting to juvenility if necessary. "But oh, wait, sadly, there's no such job..." She finished mock sorrowfully.

Shepard realised that there was more to her than just a pretty face. There was an absence of tact and foresight and, of course, the rest of her physical aspects which were just as delightful as her face and significantly more so than her wit, which was apparently somewhat disappointing. Shepard knew the type, he'd dealt with physically immature versions of her back in the good old days at the orphanage...

"Sorry, pet. I can already think of four right off the top of my head." He held his cuffed wrists up in front of his face, and raised his right index finger. "One; journalism." He raised the index finger on his left hand. "Two; politics." He raised his middle finger on his right hand. "Three; member of the Alliance Admiralty... oh wait, two and three are practically the same, oh, well..." He raised his middle finger on his left hand. "Four; any aspect of law enforcement." He smirked. "Particularly the military police..."

Mark snorted, at least appreciating skilled banter. Shepard grinned at him.

"Shame you can't make the grade for any of them." Cameron retorted spitefully.

"Ooh, watch the heart pet; that one hurt." Shepard said, holding his hands in front of his chest mock soulfully. "Well, I suppose the first three are out because of the whole 'war criminal' thing, and I'm afraid I'd never make a policeman, I'd fail their intelligence tests. You see, they don't like having anyone with an IQ of over 100... or is that one-zero-zero in binary, I forget..."

"Laugh it up while you can; I'm looking forward to seeing you in front of a firing squad..." Cameron replied with real venom.

"Do I detect a level of personal investment in my destruction? Surely the Alliance couldn't be so incompetent as to place me in the care of someone who was damaged on a personal level by my actions on that benighted moon? Wait, what on Earth am I talking about, that fits the bill perfectly..."

"My cousin was the second in command of your squad. You know, the one whose authority you usurped, whose orders you disobeyed, the one that you shot..."

"If it helps, I wasn't picking on him specifically; I had been going to kill O'Reilly too, but the pirates did that for me." Shepard replied flippantly. His guess was that the Alliance hadn't made a mistake, they wanted him to realise that he'd killed people with thoughts and feelings and families and puppies and other nice things that were certain to make him go all teary eyed and remorseful.

The funny thing was, so much of the time, this tactic would have worked. So many soldiers, so many killers in general never seemed to get it into their heads that they were killing someone to whom they could in all probability relate on some level; make them realise that, and their conscience kicks in.

The problem was; Shepard had no illusions on the subject. He knew he'd killed real people and that their deaths would have consequences to more people than just him. The fact was, however, that he didn't much care. He had been there on Torfan, unlike those who would judge him, and he understood, unlike them, that it really had been them or him; he also knew that, if they had been in those circumstances, and had they but the wit to act in order to ensure their survival, many others would have acted in the same way.

But now, he was here for the witch hunt. Certainly, he was guilty, and remorseless, but his actions were defensible from a rational perspective; the only one worth using, and he was to be vilified and persecuted, and most likely shot, unless a third party intervened. His personal hope was for Cerberus; they would be good to work with, concerned with results more than anything as they were, and with the resources to protect him.

However, his bet was that his bastard of a 'benefactor', Henry Lawson, would be the one to intervene. If Shepard but had the options, he would refuse him; there was no love lost between the two of them, due to the incident of Shepard rescuing Lawson's daughter from his tyranny, for a fee naturally, but Shepard preferred to have nothing to do with those who tried to kill him, other than perhaps facilitating their funeral.

The irony was that he was going to be aided, purely inadvertently and indirectly of course, by the very people who had forced his hand, made him step forth from the masses and take action to ensure his survival and the success of his mission; the batarian Hegemony.