Continuity Note: This should remain plausibly canon for Mass Effect, set between 2 and 3. It's AU for NCIS, with Gibbs and his dream team (circa Season 13) set in the Mass Effect timeline.
Why? Because my husband and I are total nerds, and this is the kind of thing we talk about on date night. :)
Until Proven Innocent
Prologue
"Come on, Leon. We're supposed to haul in the greatest hero the Alliance has ever had?"
"The brass wants a full investigation." Alliance NCIS director Leon Vance leaned toward his best agent, bracing his hands on his desk. "She worked for Cerberus, Gibbs."
Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs gave a disbelieving half-smile. "She saved all our asses. You know it, the brass knows it—hell, even the Council knows it. She used Cerberus, and then turned the ship over to the Alliance when she was done! She did what none of them had the balls to do, and they want to accuse her of terrorism?"
Vance pushed away from his desk and straightened. "You want to clear Commander Shepard's name, Gibbs? Then do what you do best: find the truth."
The rest of the team was just as incredulous. "But… she's a Spectre," Timothy McGee protested. "Don't Spectres have immunity against this sort of thing?"
"She's also an officer of the Alliance Navy, McGee," Gibbs snapped. "Subject to all the regs that come with the position. Just because the Council won't prosecute her doesn't mean the Alliance can't."
"Boss, they can't be serious." Anthony DiNozzo echoed McGee's disbelief.
"Oh, they're serious." Eleanor Bishop looked up from her computer terminal. "It's all over the extranet already. Shepard's been relieved of duty and placed under house arrest pending our investigation!"
"Can they do that?" asked McGee.
"Looks like they just did." Gibbs settled in at his desk. "DiNozzo, Bishop, go get her and bring her to the conference room for questioning."
DiNozzo stared for a moment, then muttered, "Bring in Rhiannon Shepard, right." He tossed the skycar keys into the air and caught them with a sarcastic, toothy grin. "Ready for a suicide mission of our own, Bishop?"
She followed him out, shaking her head in a gesture that clearly said, Here goes nothing.
Gibbs turned to the team's tech expert. "McGee."
"Get locations on the rest of the crew. On it, boss."
"And convince them to talk to us. More than half of them are alien nationals," Gibbs reminded him. "Appeal to their loyalty to Shepard. They followed her through the Omega-4 relay; hopefully they'll answer a few questions."
McGee was already typing at his terminal. "I've got contacts on Thessia who can get us in touch with Samara, the justicar. If anybody's word concerning Commander Shepard carries any weight, hers will."
Gibbs nodded. "Good. Go talk to her."
The crew dossiers were dizzying, the mission reports staggering. With no body to examine (thankfully, considering what had happened to those unfortunate enough to fall victim to the Collectors), Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard had plenty of time to put his forensic psychology skills to use. And it would take every ounce of it to make sense of Commander Shepard's squad.
Five humans, six aliens, and a geth, most with colorfully checkered pasts. Almost all of them fiercely independent individuals, and few with any loyalty to the Systems Alliance, they comprised what had to be the most ragtag collection of scoundrels and misfits in the entire annals of military history. And yet they'd followed Shepard into the very maw of hell, with little hope of return.
Zaeed Massani, mercenary. Co-founder of the Blue Suns, nursing a twenty-year vendetta against his former partner.
Legion, geth mobile platform. Enough said. And yet not nearly enough.
Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, quarian machinist. Daughter of the late Admiral Rael'Zorah vas Rayya, charged with treason against the Migrant Fleet and later cleared. Named for Shepard's vessel rather than one of the flotilla's.
Dr. Mordin Solus, salarian physician, former STG. Worked on modifications to the genophage that was decimating the krogan population.
Garrus Vakarian, turian, former C-Sec officer. Briefly held the somewhat melodramatic moniker Archangel while leading a squad of vigilantes on Omega. Betrayed by one of his own.
Miranda Lawson, high-level Cerberus commander. Oversaw Project Lazarus, responsible for bringing Shepard back from the dead.
Jacob Taylor, Cerberus operative. Former Alliance officer, father later discovered to be unstable.
Samara, asari justicar. Tasked with hunting down and killing her own daughter, a rogue Ardat-Yakshi.
Urdnot Grunt, krogan warrior. Grown in a tank, genetically engineered to be "perfect."
Thane Krios, drell assassin. Dying of Kepral's Syndrome, and rumored to be romantically involved with Commander Shepard.
Jack, AKA Jacqueline Nought, AKA Subject Zero, self-described "psychotic biotic." Victim of some of Cerberus's most brutal experiments before breaking out of the Teltin facility. Extremely powerful biotic abilities, prone to violence.
Kasumi Goto, master thief. Lover killed for sensitive information contained in his graybox.
Ducky shook his head. Yes, all of these people had followed Shepard on her famous suicide mission. They had fought well and bravely. They deserved as much credit as she did for saving the galaxy once again. And then they had abandoned her, almost to a man, once their contracts with Cerberus were complete. Leaving her to face the Alliance music alone.
He couldn't imagine how these people could help Shepard's case at all.