MEGA A/N: We're finally here; the whole reason I wrote "One of Those Relationships" and its sequels (By the way, if you haven't already checked out the previous installments, do so before you start reading, otherwise you'll probably be confused).

"Hybrid." My first major fic.

(P.S. Yes, that crappy cover is my work.)

This story is going to most likely be 40+ chapters long, maybe longer. To make things easier for me to organize my thoughts, I've divided it into 3 "parts". The first one, which I have completed most of the rough draft for, will most likely be 14 chapters long, the second part I'm estimating at around 20, and the third part could be anywhere from 6 to 60 chapters (probably somewhere closer to 6 though).

Each chapter for at least the first part will start with a flashback to Carn's childhood, so you'll get to see plenty of cute little moments (As well as some not-so-cute moments).

I'm going to be pulling out all the stops on this one, and feedback is CRITICAL to this story's success. It will be a work in progress, and I may on occasion ask you guys for your opinion on certain things I do. I need criticism on my characters and plot development skills, and feedback on how well I can shape your emotions like clay in the palms of my hands.

…Did that last part sound sinister to anyone else?

Anyways, this story has a lot of significance to me, because depending on its success and reception, I will determine if I'm ready to start to publishing my original work (obviously starting with just submitting a short story or two to a magazine or something, but hopefully working my way up to becoming a full-time writer).

To all you people returning from one of the previous installments: Thank You for sticking with me. I can never express how much it means to me.

Well, here it is. With great honor and anticipation, I present to you the first chapter of…

...

HYBRID

Part I: Renegade

1: The Hermes.

Garrus groaned as he was roused from his sleep by insistent mewling. Curled up next to him on the bed, his wife Alice sleepily nudged him. "Your turn…" she mumbled.

Garrus sighed and climbed out of bed with a grunt, snatching a bottle from the nightstand and going to the crib nearby. "I'm coming, I'm coming" he growled as the cries became louder. Reaching down into the crib, Garrus picked up the crying infant wrapped in blankets, cradling the baby in his arms. "Here you go." Garrus placed the nozzle of the bottle filled with the special dextro-levo formula into the child's mouth.

The infant instantly quieted and began to suckle on the bottle. For not the first time, Garrus gazed at his son in amazement. The first and only human/turian hybrid in existence, Garrus' son resembled a turian more than a human, with some notable exceptions of course. For example, his plates were softer, and were the same color of Alice's skin with a slight grayish tint. He possessed five fingers, not three. The front of his chest was actually closer to a human male's, and his cowl was notably smaller. He also possessed something turians lacked: fat; making him bulkier than the average turian, but still more lithe than a human.

Once he finished, the infant released the bottle from his slightly-more-flexible, almost-turian-lips and gave a small hiccup before allowing his large blue eyes to drift shut. Garrus' mandibles fluttered into a small smile as he watched his son sleep in his arms; remembering how lucky he was to be able to do this. Almost a month ago now, Alice had been kidnapped by a mysterious organization on their wedding night. Garrus, along with Alice's father, her twin brother, Commander John Shepard, his wife Ashley, and the entire Normandy crew had searched for her over the next few days, following a trail left by Alice's kidnappers. When they finally managed to track them down to their remote space station, they had discovered that the people who'd kidnapped Alice had experimented on her and managed to fertilize one of Alice's eggs with Garrus' sperm, overcoming the incompatibility of dextro and levo amino acids.

Alice had gone into labor during their escape, her pregnancy artificially accelerated, and gave birth on the shuttle back to the Normandy. They had chosen to name their son Carn after Alice's father, who had sacrificed himself to make sure they got away. When they returned to the station with a larger force, they had found it destroyed, and the organization that had once inhabited it, nowhere to be found.

Garrus had yet to figure out why Alice's kidnappers would have bothered to create a human/turian hybrid, but he had a feeling that it wasn't out of the kindness of their hearts. Even more troubling was the fact that the station had somehow been guarded by three of the new prototype Normandy-class SR-3s that Joker had to destroy while Garrus and the others were rescuing Alice. That meant they, whoever "they" were, had influence high up in the Alliance or Hierarchy. While normally, this would have been bad news at best, both governments were recovering from the Reaper War, and the higher-ups that remained were all regarded as heroes and been considered by Shepard to at least be mostly trustworthy, many of them even being friends with the Commander.

Garrus was drawn out of his thoughts when he felt a slender, yet strong arm wrap around his waist.

Alice leaned against him, looking over his shoulder at Carn. "Hey," she whispered softly.

Garrus smiled at his wife "Hey."

"What are you doing?"

Garrus shook his head "Just thinking."

Alice gazed lovingly at their sleeping son "So, you think something is going right for once?"

Garrus' mandibles fluttered into a smile as contentment filled him "Yeah…"

...

Carn shouldered his duffle bag as he walked through the Illium spaceport, looking around nervously. He was 20 years old now, most of the fat he'd had as a baby had been replaced with hard muscle. His fringe had grown fully, and was only a little shorter than Garrus', reflecting how he was a couple inches shorter in height compared to his father too.

The brilliant blue eyes that his mom had always said she could never decide if they resembled hers or Garrus' more, searched the crowd, trying to find someone. He'd recently dropped out of C-Sec Academy and was now in desperate need of a job. Sure, he could always do what his dad had suggested and work for his uncle as one of the Spectre's agents- a group of operatives that would assist Spectres on their missions when needed, sort of like Shepard's squad on the first Normandy- but he was not exactly keen on spending a lot of time around his father at the moment. Maybe in the future, once he finally made sense of everything that'd happened in the past few years. Regardless, he needed to support himself until then, and with no other options left, Carn had turned to the one person he knew he could trust without a doubt, despite what the rest of their family thought of her: his cousin, Lily.

He reached the agreed rendezvous and waited for his cousin to show. The area of the spaceport he was in was far less crowded than where he'd disembarked from his transport. With Lily's rare golden blond hair, one would think that Carn could have spotted her easily among the few humans mingling with the asari. This was not the case, as Carn couldn't locate his cousin anywhere.

"Boo,"

"AAAGH!" Carn started at the voice that had suddenly spoken up behind him without warning. Reacting instinctively, Carn elbowed his ambusher in the face, before sweeping their legs out from under them and pining them face first to the ground.

"Ow…" The human woman who'd startled him groaned.

Wait a second, I know that voice. At that moment, Carn noticed with no small amount of embarrassment that the woman had familiar shoulder-length golden blond hair. "Lily?" he asked tentatively.

"Hiyah Carny." Lily moaned.

"Shit, sorry!" He immediately helped his cousin up. Carn saw surprise flicker for a moment in her eyes before she could stamp it down when she saw his face.

"Don't worry about it," Lily said with a shrug, "When did you get so fast anyways?"

"The turian military kinda beats the skill in you." Carn said tensely, restraining the urge to flinch at the mention of his time in the Hierarchy's armed forces.

Lily smiled; he couldn't tell whether or not she'd noticed his behavior. "So, I thought your parents told you not to involve yourself with me and my 'self-destructive ways'?"

"They did," Carn admitted "But I need a job."

"Oooh, washed out of C-Sec did you?" she teased.

Carn sighed "Lily…"

"And you've come to little ol' me? I'm flattered!" Lily's eyes twinkled "What makes you think I have a job available anyways?"

"Because you've been begging for me to come work for you in your letters for the past three years." Carn pointed out. He sighed "Come on Lil' I need this. I can't just go and ask Uncle John for a job, that'd mean facing my parents, and I can't do that, not after dropping out of C-Sec too."

Lily grinned "Well you're in luck my hybrid little cousin." She slung an arm over his shoulders and started leading him towards the nearest hanger "It just so happens I do have an opening in my crew for a Gunnery Officer. You're dad taught you how to calibrate right?"

Carn frowned at Lily "Wait, 'crew'? You have a ship?"

Lily laughed "Of course! Why do think I asked you to meet me at the spaceport?"

"I thought you wanted to pick me up and take me to where you worked yourself." Carn said, at little baffled "You have a ship?"

Lily gestured as they entered the hanger, "See for yourself."

Carn looked towards where Lily was indicating and his jaw dropped, mandibles spread wide. The mostly deserted hanger was meant for smaller ships without airlocks, although it was large enough for a ship the size of the Normandy to rest in. And it was a good thing too, because the ship Lily was gesturing to was a bit bigger than the other ships in the hanger.

"Say hello to the Hermes." Lily said proudly.

The Hermes was a sleek, jet-black ship. Its design had -at least in part- clearly been inspired by the Normandy. There were a few differences however. For example, it had one engine on each wing instead of two that were longer, reaching far enough forwards that they were only a few dozen meters from being parallel with the bow. The ship was also closer in size to the SR-1 than the SR-2. There were two small turrets on each wing on the top and the bottom, with a larger turret placed on each engine. At the base of the ship, a loading ramp was lowered, revealing a large cargo hold.

Carn gaped at his cousin "How the- what the- who the-"

"The people I work for have very deep pockets." Lily explained "I operate on a skeleton crew of five -including myself- to keep costs down, but I think I can fit you in." she started towards the ship, motioning for him to follow, "Come on, I'll introduce you."

At the base of the boarding ramp, Carn could see two people waiting for them. One was a rather tall asari with lilac skin and hard, violet eyes wearing grey pilot overalls. The other, a drell with yellow-tinted scales, was wearing a dark orange and black jacket over brown pants.

"This is Nyn," Lily said, gesturing to the asari "She's the Hermes' pilot." The asari merely regarded Carn with cold eyes. "And that handsome drell right there is my second-in-command, Mort, our… well let's just call him our liaison."

The drell, Mort, stuck out his hand "Pleasure to meet you," he said as Carn shook his hand. "Captain said you and she used to get up to all sorts of trouble when you were younger."

Carn shot Lily a brief glare "She did, did she?"

Lily shrugged "What? It's true."

Carn just shook his head and looked around at the assembled crew "Wait, you said you had five crewmembers. Where are the other two?"

Lily smiled "Follow me." She marched up the loading ramp, Carn and the others trailing behind her. Once he had entered the ship, Carn looked around at the cargo hold. While the exterior resembled the Normandy a great deal, it seemed that the interior was completely different. The cargo hold was vast, and looked to be the main hub of the ship. It was dimly lit with old-fashioned yellow lights that hung from the ceiling far above, a stark contrast to the almost universal use of the vibrant white fixtures most ships possessed. Interestingly, the change gave the hold an almost homey feel, like the entire room was lit by candles. Stacked intermittently along the grey-brown walls were dozens of crates. Off to the side, Carn could see a hovercar anchored to the floor with cables. At the far end of the hold was a door labeled: Engine Room. Two sets of stairs ran parallel to either side of the hold, stopping off higher up for a few doors leading to what Carn assumed was the second floor, before doubling back on themselves and finally ending at the third floor, two doors on each side, one going towards the back of the ship, and one going towards the front.

They headed all the way up the starboard stairs, going through the door at the top towards the front. They entered a hallway that ran from port to starboard, a turn at each end, framing the cargo hold. Its lighting was a bit closer to that of the Normandy's, with white fixtures placed intermittently throughout. They turned at a corner halfway down the hall, went past three doors, two on the right, one on the left for what Carn assumed were crew quarters, and entered a large room with a table at the center and a moderately sized kitchen to the port side and lit once more by yellow lights; the mess. Past the mess and through another short hallway containing the airlock was the cockpit. At the very front surrounded by aerogel screens and interfaces of the controls was the pilot's chair. To the left and right of the pilot's chair were two platforms, further back in the center of the room on a raised area with a miniature galaxy map in front of it was the captain's chair, a couple more chairs were situated at the back of the cockpit off to the sides, each with their own terminals.

"Nice," Carn said appreciatively, admiring the ship "Very impressive."

"Thank you; I pride myself on my impressiveness."

"God and Spirits!" Carn jumped at the chipper male voice that spoke over the intercom without warning.

A glowing red hologram of a scrawny human male, maybe in his late teens appeared on the platform to the right of the pilot's chair with a confused expression on his face. "What? What did I do?"

On the opposite platform, another hologram -this time blue and of an asari- appeared. "There you go again, scaring the new crew." She said with a shake of her head. She acknowledged Carn "I'm Cyan, the Hermes' AI, and that inconsiderate fool over there is Mars."

"Sup," said hologram nodded to Carn.

Carn's eyes widened and he turned to Lily "You have two AIs on your ship? Two?"

Lily shrugged "They keep each other in check."

"You mean I keep him in check." Cyan said flatly. She turned to Carn "Mars is an experimental new breed of AI." She glared at her counterpart's avatar "However, he has a tendency to develop… quirks. I'm here to ensure that he does not blow up the kitchen 'for the lolz'."

"I resent that!" Mars cried indignantly "I would never blow up the kitchen just for the lolz!"

Carn noticed that suddenly everybody was glaring at Mars. The AI fidgeted under the scrutiny before breaking "Okay, there was that one time, but I promised never to do it again!"

Lily rolled her eyes "See what I mean?" she nodded to his duffle "You got everything you need? We were coming to Illium on a job when you called and I really don't want to delay any long-"

"Now wait just a damned minute!" Carn cut in "I never said I accepted the job, just that I needed one. If you want me to work with you Lil', I'm going to need a little more information."

Behind him, Carn heard Nyn snort "Typical"

He ignored the asari and stared intently at his cousin. Lily shrugged "Fair enough, what do you want to know?"

"First of all, who do you work for?" Carn asked pointedly.

Lily shrugged again "Hell if I know, we're mostly contacted through a representative. Probably some rich old guy on Bekenstein though. Most of the time they let us take whatever jobs we want from any client, in exchange we just handle the occasional job they pick out for us."

Carn frowned, Odd… "Alright, what exactly do you do?"

"We're on Illium cuz," Lily said with a grin "I'll give you three guesses, and no 'indentured servitude' is not one of them."

Carn's predatory eyes narrowed "Smuggling?"

Lily shrugged for a third time "Sometimes, yeah. We also deal in extractions, reconnaissance, and the occasional acquisition of certain valuable items."

"You mean stealing." Carn said darkly.

"To-may-to, To-mah-to" Lily rolled her eyes "Come on cuz, I have some morality- not a lot admittedly, but some." She locked her eyes with Carn's "What do ya say?"

Carn thought it over. He really didn't want to get involved in anything illegal, but he needed a job, and Lily had always stuck by him before… "Alright," he said finally "But just until I can find another job."

Lily beamed and loped an arm over Carn's shoulders, leading him out of the cockpit. "Excellent! I'll show you to your cabin. Nyn, prep the car, we leave in ten minutes."

"Yes Captain," the asari pilot said curtly, her voice firm.

Lily led Carn back to the cargo hold and down a floor, going to the port side of the ship. Like the deck above, the second floor had a hallway ringing the cargo hold, on the port edge of the hallway, at the corner towards the bow was the door to his cabin. It was average sized, large enough for comfort, but small enough for efficiency. There was a bed with a nightstand, a desk, a couch, a couple chairs, a coffee table, and a bathroom that was squeezed into the corner. He even had a window.

"Cozy ain't it?" Lily said cheerfully "The lounge is the room right behind yours, and the main battery and turret controls are towards the front, past the armories."

"Turret controls?"

Lily nodded "Yep, Mars controls the four auto-turrets we have on the wings, but the two turrets on the engines are controlled manually from the main battery."

"Why doesn't Mars control all the guns?" Carn asked.

"Processing power," Lily explained "Mars also provides tactical analysis in combat and manages the scanners. Cyan keeps an eye on the ship's status and operates our Cyber Warfare suites. In a pinch, Mars can aid Cyan in the cyber warfare to launch a two-pronged attack." She motioned to his duffle "You have your own armor and weapons?" Carn nodded "Good, get geared up and meet us in the cargo hold in five. I'll brief you there."

Once Lily had left, Carn sighed and dropped his duffle on the bed, starting to unpack. He took out his clothes and tossed them in a heap on the bed, intending to sort through them later. He took out his set of medium armor and with practiced movements, put it on piece by piece. He was luckily able to fit into a standard set of turian armor, with only the gloves needed to be custom-made. He took out his sniper rifle and pistol, attaching them to their appropriate spots on his armor. Once he was all geared up, Carn grabbed his helmet and put it on over his head, concealing his face.

"Vakarian, the rest of the crew is waiting for you." Cyan's cool voice projected over the intercom.

Nodding, Carn quickly left his cabin and headed for the cargo hold. Lily and Mort were gathered around the hovercar, watching Nyn undo the cables holding it in place. At the sound of his footsteps coming down the stairs, Lily turned and smiled at him "Glad you could make it."

"What's the mission?" Carn asked, getting straight to the point.

Mort chuckled "Ah the old 'I'm going to be all professional because I don't plan on sticking around' act." The drell glanced back at his asari crewmate "I remember Nyn acted the exact same way when she first came on board."

"She's still acting that way." Lily said with a smirk.

"Do I need to come over there and smack you two around with my biotics?" Nyn said flatly as she undid the last of the cables anchoring the hovercar down "Because you know I will."

Carn cleared his throat "Not to be rude, but what's this job exactly?"

Lily nodded and gestured for Carn to step closer "Our client wants us to retrieve some data from a hidden lab in Nos Astra's marketplace. You, me, and Mort will head over there with the car and, while Mort is busy "shopping" you and I will sneak in, grab the data, and get the hell out of there before they're none the wiser."

Carn frowned "What kind of 'data'?"

"Data regarding an experimental new form of Red Sand the lab is developing." Cyan's avatar popped up next to Carn. "Mars and I have already tried to access it remotely, but the server is isolated."

Carn glared at Lily beneath his visor "Red Sand?"

"Now you understand why I want you in armor." Lily said. When Carn continued to glare at her she held up her hands "Hey, if it makes you feel better, the client is a pharmaceutical company, they probably want it for some benign, helpful reason."

Carn snorted at the blatant lie, but didn't comment further. He didn't like dealing in drugs, but at the moment, he didn't see any other option if he wanted to keep the job. Hopefully, he mused, I'll be able to persuade Lily from doing any more drug jobs in the future.

God and Spirits, what have I gotten myself into?

…

They took the hovercar from the hanger to the marketplace. Once they had parked (apparently, Lily hadn't improved her driving skills in the past six years) Mort headed off to do "shopping"- whatever that meant- while Lily lead Carn through the crowds. He had worried that he would stand out in armor, but he soon saw that he was not alone in being dressed for combat; dozens of mercenaries were also wandering through the masses in armor, making him feel a little less conspicuous. Lily, on the other hand, stood out like a sore thumb. Instead of wearing the multicolored suits and dresses that were common, she was dressed in a beaten red leather jacket over a plain white shirt and tight brown pants with a pistol strapped to each hip.

It was a good thing she stood out so much too, because Carn was having trouble keeping up in the bulky armor, needing to resort to shoving people out of the way. Lily, on the other hand moved through the crowds as if she was made of water, slipping and flowing through even the smallest of gaps. Finally, Lily headed into a small store, and Carn followed her, not even bothering to look at the sign.

He found Lily browsing through the shelves. Joining her, he whispered "This is the place?"

Lily nodded, picking up an item, examining it as she whispered back "Yeah, our client knew the location; they just needed someone to go in and grab the data discreetly. The lab will probably be behind a hidden door in the back room."

Carn was about to reply when he finally noticed what the item in Lily's hand was. "Wait a second…" he said, mortified "Are we in a-"

"Oh don't be a prude." Lily said, rolling her eyes "This place is tame compared to most areas on Illium." She put the… item… back and walked over to the batarian at the counter in the rear of the store. "Excuse me?" she said smoothly "Do you have any… else for sale? In the back perhaps?"

Carn rolled his eyes as he followed her. REAL subtle Lil'.

The batarian eyed Lily and Carn "Another human/turian couple? I swear your kind has been popping up like maggots ever since that Vakarian and his human bitch had their mutant baby."

Carn bristled and was about to strangle the offending clerk when Lily laughed "I know right? It's like all of a sudden human/turian relationships are 'in' now." She smiled sweetly, leaning against the counter and casually brushing a few stray strands of hair out of her face, her eyes twinkling slyly "I have more refined tastes."

The clerk snorted "Asari?"

Lily threw her head back in a laugh once more "Hardly, too feminine for my tastes." She ran her eyes over the batarian hungrily. "No, I prefer more masculine species."

The clerk's four eyes studied Lily carefully "Really?"

Lily's voice dropped to a husky whisper "Definitely, know anyone who can fit the bill?"

Carn's eyes widened beneath his helmet. Was Lily seriously flirting with this guy? And it was working?!

The clerk smirked "Well I suppose I can 'show you the back'." He opened the door behind the counter and eyed Carn "I suppose your… friend… isn't coming?"

"Bodyguard," Lily corrected, sliding over the counter "His job is to make sure nobody takes advantage of me." She gazed seductively at the poor batarian from beneath her lashes. "But you would never do something like that would you?"

The clerk's grin widened "Of course not… ma'am"

Lily giggled- actually giggled! -and followed the clerk through the door, shutting it behind her. Carn just stood there, gaping in disbelief as he tried to process what the FUCK just happened? Carn winced, poor choice of words.

Less than thirty seconds after it had closed, the door opened again to reveal Lily "Come on," she said, beckoning for Carn to join her "We don't have all day."

Still more than a little confused, Carn climbed over counter and followed Lily back into the storage room. Looking around, Carn found the clerk slumped in the corner, unconscious. Lily activated her omni-tool and ran it along the walls. "Aha!" she cried triumphantly as a section of the wall slid away to reveal a hidden room "The stupid clerk probably didn't even know this was here." She said, activating the lights and stepping into the lab.

Carn followed Lily in. The room had various lab equipment scattered throughout it along with one or two terminals. "Where is everyone?" Carn asked.

"They probably only work during the night shift," Lily guessed, moving to one of the terminals "try and draw as little attention as possible, ya know?"

Carn looked around the lab for a few seconds while Lily worked, noting how aside from the equipment, the room was completely empty. Odd. Finally, he spoke up "So," he said uneasily "Do you normally seduce helpless clerks and then knock them out?"

Lily shrugged "Only when it suits my needs. Why?"

Carn shook his head "It's just…" his voice trailed off when he noticed the worried expression on Lily's face. "What's wrong?"

"This." Lily stepped aside so Carn could read what was displayed on the terminal. Instead of the data they were supposed to retrieve, all the terminal showed was a single sentence: Got you.

Click.

Carn and Lily spun around as he heard the sound of a gun being cocked, reaching for their weapons. Standing behind them, a pistol trained on Carn's head, was the batarian clerk Lily had knocked out earlier. "Ah ah," he said as Lily moved to draw her pistol "You don't want to do that Captain. Unless of course you want your friend here to wind up like Noclak."

Lily glared at the "clerk", but her hand moved away from her pistol "Dread sends his regards I take it?"

The batarian sneered at Lily "You didn't really expect to evade us forever did you Captain? Nobody escapes the Scourge of the Terminus."

"Funny, the last guy said the exact same thing." Lily quipped.

"Last guy?" Carn's brow plates furrowed as he listened to the exchange. She's run into these guys before? What have you gotten yourself into Lil'…

The batarian's eyes narrowed "You think I'm just another pushover grunt?"

"Pretty much yeah." Lily said dryly.

The batarian laughed "Well then you're mistaken, I'm a professional."

"Oooh, I'm sooooo scared!" Lily said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

The batarian sneered at Lily "Do you have any idea how much money your pretty little head is worth? I could shoot you between the eyes right now and be set for life! But you know what? Dread would prefer that you're alive when I deliver you to him. He wants to make your death special." The batarian grinned evilly and tightened his grip on the gun, aiming right at Carn's skull "He said nothing about your crew however. So unless you want me to shoot your friend between the eyes, you'll-"

BANG!

Carn flinched a little at the gunshot. There was a thump and Carn looked to see the batarian laying on the ground dead, a hole right between his four eyes. He turned and was surprised to see Lily with a pistol drawn, having fired from the hip.

Lily grinned and twirled her pistol before slinging it back in its holster. When she saw Carn looking at her, Lily shrugged "What? I he was starting to monologue."

Carn continued to stare at her in disbelief from beneath his helmet for a moment before shaking his head and heading towards the exit. "We should get moving, someone could have heard the shot." And then I have a LOT of questions for you.

He got the vague feeling that behind him, Lily was rolling her eyes "So? It's Illium. Random gunshots are kinda common."

Carn decided to ignore her and left the back room, exiting the shop and heading back to the hovercar. Behind him, he could hear Lily radioing Mort and telling him to meet them back at the car. Once they reached where the hovercar was parked, Mort already waiting for them, Lily called Nyn and told her to start up the Hermes. They quickly returned to the spaceport (Mort driving this time) and entered the hanger, maneuvering the car up into the Hermes' hold, and raising the boarding ramp behind them. Once they were back on the ship and had anchored the hovercar once more, Carn felt the rumble of the engines vibrate through the floor as the Hermes took off.

Lily and Mort, who until this point had seemed rather tense, both breathed a sigh of relief once the ship had cleared the hanger, although they clearly still weren't fully relaxed. "Nyn," Lily said, moving up the stairs to the top floor "I want us at the relay within the hour."

"Any specific destination Captain?" Nyn asked over the intercom, her voice still just as blunt as before.

"I hear Omega is nice this time of year."

"Yes Captain."

Carn removed his helmet and marched after his cousin "Lily! What-"

"I know you have questions Carn," Lily interrupted, looking back at him "but please, wait until we're sure we're not being followed." She pleaded "Just… change out of your armor and wait in the mess for me. I swear, I'll explain everything."

Carn sighed in frustration and headed to his room on the second floor. Once he was safely inside the cabin, Carn mechanically started the process of removing his armor- something he was more experienced with than he would have liked. Because he had been pressed for time when he had put on his armor, Carn had kept the clothes he was wearing on underneath instead of putting on a thermal regulating under suit as he would normally. As such, his shirt and pants stuck to his plates from sweat. He quickly stripped, lazily tossing his dirty clothes in a corner until he could wash them. He took a quick trip to the bathroom to wash off all the remaining sweat in the small shower within. After that, Carn went over to where his duffle was lying on the bed and grabbed a fresh shirt and pants. Because his genitals were internal when not in use like a turian, he didn't need to bother with underwear (although he still liked to wear briefs, what with his human sense of modesty and all).

Once he was dressed, Carn thought for a moment and decided to unpack before he went up to the mess. No sense waiting around with nothing to do for God knows how long. He took his armor and put it in a locker supplied in his room. Once he had done that, Carn took his guns and laid them out on the desk, he would take them over to the armory later. He looked out the window and saw that they had left Illium's atmosphere, his view now consisting of a field of stars. He turned back to his duffel and resumed taking out his stuff. He set his terminal on the desk, next to his weapons, and put his toiletries in the bathroom. He continued to unpack, putting his clothes in the drawers, and taking out the few pictures he had brought with him.

As he set each picture down on his desk, he spent quite a while staring at each one. The first picture was of his parents, standing behind him on the day he'd graduated from boot camp. His mom was giving the camera her usual gentle smile, something that still warmed his heart to this day. His father had his arm around Carn's shoulders, beaming with pride. Carn felt a sharp pang in his chest as he saw the blue colony paint on his 16 year old face. Unconsciously, he reached up a finger and traced the marks. He forced himself to set the picture down and reached for the next one. Carn smiled when he saw that it was a picture of him and Mordin, taken when they were kids. Carn was six, and hanging off of Mordin's shoulders, laughing with glee while the young krogan was trying to pull him off, a little annoyed perhaps, but there was a small smile on his lips. Carn put that picture down right next to his terminal along with several others.

Finally, he reached the last frame and, steeling himself, picked it up. As soon as he rested his eyes on the photo, Carn felt a powerful ache in his heart. From the picture, a young human woman gazed up at him. She had lovely hazel eyes; a tulip was tied into her ponytail, the glow of her vibrant red hair reflecting off the petals, turning the flower orange. Freckles sprinkled her nose, and her lips were pulled back into a smile aimed solely at him. The ache in his chest grew as Carn longingly stroked the image with his thumb.

Anna…

He turned and headed over to his bedside, setting the picture down on the nightstand. He gazed at the image for a moment longer before turning to leave his cabin. He made his way up to the mess. Sitting down at the table, Carn waited several minutes for Lily to join him. Finally, half an hour later, Lily, Mort, and Nyn all came back from the cockpit.

"We're safe in the Omega Nebula." Lily said, sitting down across from him "Mars is piloting the ship." Mort sat down at the head of the table while Nyn leaned casually against a counter in the kitchen, her arms crossed over her chest. "So," Lily asked calmly "What do you want to know?"

"How about who the hell did you piss off?" Carn asked, his frustration finally showing "Let's start with that."

Lily nodded "Fair enough I suppose." She locked her brown eyes with Carn's blue ones "As I'm sure you've guessed, in our line of work we get many enemies. Recently, we've found ourselves at odds with a powerful pirate known as Dread, Scourge of the Terminus."

"What'd you do?" Carn asked.

Lily shrugged "What didn't we do? We've been giving him hell for almost a year now, stealing his loot, harassing his raiders to protect a transport, delivering supplies to planets under his heel, blowing up his flagship with a toaster, you name it, we've done it."

"They've been trying to kill us for a while now." Mort said, "The last time they caught up with us, they…" his voice trailed off.

"They killed Noclak, our engineer." Nyn finished darkly "They mean business, and won't hesitate to kill us all if they have the chance."

There was a long silence as Nyn's words hung ominously in the air. Finally, Carn stood up, his voice surprisingly calm. "Thank you for telling me. Now, if you'd be so kind as to drop me off on the nearest Council planet, I'll find my own ride back to the Citadel."

Lily started, bolting to her feet "What? You're leaving? You just got here!"

"Yeah, and clearly I made a mistake." Carn said sharply "I should have stuck with trying to find a job on my own. I want no part of… whatever the hell you've mixed yourself up in."

Lily's eyes narrowed as she fixed Carn with a hard glare "Mort, Nyn, give us some privacy." The asari and drell complied and quickly left the mess, leaving Carn and Lily alone. The cousins faced off for a long time, neither willing to back down. Finally, it was Lily who broke the silence "I noticed you're not wearing your colony paint."

Carn instantly deflated "Yeah…" he murmured, averting his gaze.

Lily continued "I may not be an expert on turian culture, but I know that a turian only would remove his colony markings if he either got banished from his family for doing something irredeemable or…"

"…Or gone into self-imposed exile." Carn finished darkly, lowering his gaze to the floor.

Lily's gaze softened "Carn," she said gently "What happened?"

Carn scoffed "What didn't happen? I got dishonorably discharged from the turian military and had my citizenship revoked. I've disgraced my family and disappointed everyone. Mom and Dad are ashamed of me, I know it. And Anna…" his words caught in his throat, he could feel tears threatening to well up inside him and quickly stamped them down. Taking a deep breath, he continued "Nothing I've been doing is working, and now I've dropped out of C-Sec. I… I feel like I'm lost at sea during the middle of a storm with no land in sight."

Lily's expression grew kind as she walked around the table to silently lay a hand on Carn's arm. Ignoring the gesture, he continued bitterly "Besides, I'm a 'freak of nature who should never have been born'."

Carn felt Lily stiffen. When she spoke, her voice trembled with barely contained rage. "They've been bothering you again haven't they?" When Carn nodded in affirmation she swore "I thought your parents and mine took care of those assholes."

Carn shrugged "Same shit, different people, you can't expect everyone to be intimidated by the Shepards and Vakarians."

Lily sighed and shook her head. Then, out of the corner of his eye, Carn saw her lips twitch into a small smile. "It sounds like you're running away, just like I did." She wrapped and arm around him "And who better to run away from family but with family?" Lily looked up at her little cousin, "Come on, stay. We could use you."

Carn sighed "I don't know Lil'…"

"It'll be just like old times." She persisted "Please Carny?"

Before Carn could answer, Mars' avatar appeared on the table in miniature form. "Pleeeaaassseee?" he begged, his eyes pleading "I could use another person to anno- I mean talk to. Nyn's no fun."

Carn blinked at Mars, a little surprised "Were you listening in the whole time?"

"Maybe."

"Come on Carn," Lily said "What do ya say?"

With a heavy sigh, Carn caved in "I'll probably regret this, but alright, I'll stay."

"YAY!" Mars cried in delight, his avatar jumping up and down.

Lily grinned "I knew you'd come around." She held up her hand, fingers spread wide "No Shepard…"

Carn smiled and pressed his hand against hers, lacing their fingers together. "…Without Vakarian."

…

John Shepard sat at his desk in the Spectre headquarters, shifting through the piles of datapads stacked in front of him. He picked up a note from Aethyta, the newly appointed Asari Councilor after Tevos' retirement, requesting that a Spectre be sent to investigate a string of disappearances at the edge of asari space. It was most likely pirates, but John decided that some investigation would be required.

He sighed when he also noticed that he had another message from Miranda on his terminal. The Human Councilor for almost 24 years now, Miranda Lawson had proven to be an excellent politician, even though she hadn't even wanted the position in the first place, and she was determined to let Shepard never forget that it was because of him that she had been stuck with it. During the initial months of the reconstruction, the Council had been in turmoil. Two of the Councilors were dead, Udina having yet to be replaced and Sparatus having given his life to save the other Council members when the Reapers invaded the Citadel. The turians managed to find a replacement fairly quickly, but the human leadership had been decimated, leaving finding a replacement difficult.

Naturally, some suggested Hackett, but he declined, opting instead to lead the Alliance until the new President and Parliament were chosen. The next choice had been John himself, but he quickly shot that down. He had enough trouble dealing with politicians on a regular base, but doing it all the time? No. Just no.

Still, he needed to find a suitable alternative or else he would have to take the job. After careful consideration, he'd pointed to Miranda, who had been recently granted a full pardoned for her affiliation with Cerberus by the Alliance. Virtually nobody was happy about the idea of the woman who at one point had been the Illusive Man's second-in-command gaining such a powerful position. Plus there was the fact that Miranda didn't even want the job. John had merely said "Fuck that, I'm Commander Goddamn Shepard, I'll do what I want!" and… ahem… convinced Miranda and the Council to agree.

As soon as Miranda had been sworn in, along with the other new Councilors for the krogan, quarian, and geth, she had called for a vote to reinvent the Spectres making them a more organized force, with John at its head. All the Councilors agreed, and John was declared Supreme Commander of the Spectres. He remembered very well that after this, Miranda had approached him with a smile on her lips and said "Payback's a bitch isn't it, Supreme Commander?" He had to admit she was right. Having no choice in the matter, Shepard eventually was forced to accept the position.

With a resigned sigh, John opened up the message and read through it quickly before swearing to himself. There had been another hitch in the funding for the construction of the top secret Vigil Station. What was intended to eventually become the Spectres' headquarters had been under construction for the past three years. When complete, Vigil station was supposed to be able to travel through the relays so that it would never stay in one location too long and house every single Spectre, agent, and their families (with an ulterior motive of also acting as Liara's new Shadow Broker base, allowing her to finally get off the Normandy). The station was still a giant frame floating in a remote location, construction barely having progressed on it. Hopefully, now that the geth and quarians had finished rebuilding Rannoch, progress would speed up, but for now, the project had once again been put on hold.

His terminal chimed and his secretary's calm voice spoke through the speakers. "Commander, Agent Raskos is here to see you."

Shepard nodded "Send him in Lee."

The door to Shepard's office opened and a tall, bird-like alien stepped through. Shepard nodded cordially to the alien "Agent, thank you for coming."

Raskos was a raloi, an avian species hailing from the planet Turvess. Raloi were akin to a terran eagle crossed with a velociraptor. They possessed a sharp beak and were covered almost completely in feathers except for their hands and feet. The males had a small crest on the top of their heads like a terran cardinal, which the females lacked. The color of a raloi's feathers varied based on what region of Turvess they'd originated; Raskos' feathers being mostly brown with flecks of grey and white, especially on his crest. The most interesting feature of the raloi however, were their wings. Because of Turvess was covered almost entirely in steep, jagged mountains, the raloi had originally evolved as climbers, with strong arms and legs and five talons on each hand. Once they'd evolved to gain the ability of flight the raloi, unlike their terran counterpart, kept their hands, only with four talons, the fifth digit growing out to form the remainder of the wing. What made the raloi's wings unique; was that they had the ability to compact so as to not get in the way. A raloi's arm/wing had three joints, with about a quarter of the total wingspan between them. When fully extended, the raloi's wings resembled that of any other bird, with the hands at the second joint. Beyond the second joint, the bones were much smaller, and exactly proportional in length to the first two joints. When the wings were not in use, they would bend at the second joint, folding the far end back onto the first half, the third joint lining up with the first joint, what acted as the raloi equivalent of an elbow. The feathers compressed and overlapped one another so that, once the wings were completely folded back, you almost couldn't tell that they'd been there in the first place.

When the raloi first made contact with the Council, they were forced to wear environment suits due to an outbreak of the H7N7 avian flu. Fortunately, they were now able to walk around freely thanks to the salarian STG providing the raloi with vaccinations three years after the Reaper War. During the war itself, unwilling and unable to fight the Reapers, the raloi had isolated themselves on their planet, destroying all their space-capable technology and hoping that they were ignored as a pre-spaceflight species. Once the war had passed, the raloi emerged once more to rejoin the galactic community. Naturally, this has caused many in Council space, and several outside Council space as well, to regard the raloi as cowards and, while they were still greeted with open arms, there had been an undertone of hostility in relations ever since. Interestingly enough, the one race that bore absolutely no ill will to the raloi was the rachni. Perhaps it was because both races communicated through song (although the raloi were still capable of speech) and thus a bond was created between them.

"Commander," Raskos stood at attention (a habit he'd picked up during his time working for the Spectres), his voice was akin to both the cry of a hawk and the chirp of a songbird. "You wished to speak with me?"

John nodded, yet refrained from standing. Raskos, like most raloi, wore very little clothing when not in armor. His arms were- of course- bare. His chest was adorned only by a beaded necklace with a fang from one of Turvess' many predators. A loincloth was worn over his legs, the tunic flowing almost to his knees. Over his crest, he wore a silver scale torn from the same creature the fang on his necklace came from, the insignia of his tribe painted on it in the beast's crimson blood. Overall, John thought he resembled one of the old Native American warriors he'd read about.

"Yes," he said, motioning for Raskos to sit in the chair opposite him. Raskos hesitated before complying, his tail-feathers fitting through a gap in the lower back of the chair designed for just such a purpose. John folded his hands in front of him and continued "I wished to talk to you about your last mission with Javik."

Raskos bowed his head "Did I do something wrong? Spectre Javik seemed to have no concerns with my performance. Not that he exactly praised me either but…"

"Javik's just like that." Shepard shook his head "No, he actually said that you 'were beneficial to the mission,' high praise coming from him. In fact, you're overall performance has been exceptional. I've talked with the Council, and the raloi ambassador, and while they weren't all pleased, they've agreed to consider you for Spectre status."

Raskos' hawk-like eyes widened "S-Spectre status? I-I don't know what to say…"

"Don't start celebrating yet," John said with a slight smile "We still need to test you. Since you seem to work well together, Javik will handle the evaluation. You'll be working with him over the next several missions while he makes sure you're ready. If all goes well, then you'll be given the honor of becoming the first raloi Spectre." John stood slowly, his weakened muscles straining to support his weight. Raskos stood as well and shook his hand. "Good luck."

…

John limped down the hall in the primary Spectre offices, supporting himself with a cane. It was slow going, the cybernetics that had brought him back to life had been severely damaged at the end of the Reaper War, although the extent of the damage had gone unnoticed until three years later when, during the mission to find where Alice's kidnappers had taken her, the cybernetics keeping his heart and lungs working failed. He had nearly died again that day, and it was only thanks to the timely intervention of Ashley and Chakwas that he'd survived. They had needed to prioritize the power distribution of his cybernetics to keep his core bodily functions active and had to take the power from his legs. Since that day, John had had three heart attacks, two of them in the last year. Not that the rest of the galaxy knew that; he didn't want people thinking he wasn't still a badass after all.

As John limped into the training room, he heard Jack's harsh voice echoing through the room "That the best you got Junior?! Joker can hit harder than that!"

As smile touched John's lips as he watched his 19 year old son David Anderson Shepard engage in a biotic sparring match with his tutor. Currently, the former fugitive and current headmaster of Grissom Academy had a barrier up to deflect a Shockwave David was throwing, one of her trademark snarl/smirks on her lips. David growled in frustration and, as biotic energies swirled around him, slammed his fist into the floor. Jack barely had time to roll out of the way as the metal deck she had been standing on moments before released a large biotic blast.

Jack laughed "Nice try Junior, but did you forget who taught you that trick?"

John decided to make his presence known "Did you Jack?"

Jack turned and grinned at John "Hell no! I don't suppose you'd be up for a round or two?"

John shook his head "You know I want to Jack, but Chakwas will eat me alive if I exert myself."

Jack threw him a fake pout before turning back to David "Ready for another round Junior?"

John saw his son smile for a brief moment before stamping it down, replacing it with a professional mask. "Of course Ms. Nought."

John shook his head at his son's behavior "I'm afraid your training will have to wait, I need to speak with you David."

His son nodded and gave Jack a respectful bow, a habit he'd picked up from his martial arts classes. "Another time, Ms. Nought."

Jack rolled her eyes "Yeah, yeah, stop sucking up." She said good-naturedly.

David went over to his father while Jack cleared the sparing ring. As soon as he was in front of him, David saluted his father and stood at attention. "You wished to see me Commander?"

John sighed and rubbed his eyes "David, how many times do I have to tell you to stop doing that?"

David immediately relaxed "Sorry Dad,"

John shook his head and headed back out of the training room, motioning David to follow him. They had left the Spectre Offices and were taking the stairs up to their apartment before John spoke.

"Have you spoken with your sister recently?"

David frowned at the question, confused "Dad, I haven't spoken with Lily in almost six years. You know that. Why…?" his eyes narrowed "This has something to do with Carn doesn't it?"

John sighed and nodded, cursing his son's insight "We have reason to believe that Carn has joined up with your sister."

David swore angrily "Why can't that selfish bitch just do everyone a favor and get herself killed already?"

There was a time when John would have been horrified to hear his son say that, now it just made his heart heavy. David and Lily had never had the best of brother-sister relationships, in spite of John's attempts to get them to grow closer. Lily had inherited her mother's fiery temper, and brash behavior, as well as her father's curious nature, while David had gotten his parents military discipline and his father's slow burning, volcanic rage. At times, John thought he could see a little of the more playful side of his son that Lily had exhibited so prominently, but it was always immediately stamped down.

"Why Carn always followed her around like a lost puppy when we were kids I'll never know." David was saying angrily "All she'll do is drag him down with her."

"Don't dismiss your cousin so easily." John told his son "He may be close to Lily but he doesn't blindly idolize her. I'm sure if she was doing something truly heinous he would not join her…"

David sighed "I know, I'm just worried…" David frowned as he noticed that his father's breathing was getting steadily heavier as they walked up the stairs. "Dad, are you okay?"

John waved off his son's concerns, saying between breaths "Of course… it's just… just been a long day… is all."

Concern immediately showed on David's face and he quickly draped his father's arm over his shoulders while wrapping his other arm around John, supporting him. "Come on Dad, we're almost at our floor."

John snorted "I'm fine, David… there's… there's no reason to be concerned."

"Sure Dad, whatever you say." David said flatly, not releasing John.

With a shake of his head, John resigned himself to being supported by David all the way to their apartment overlooking the Presidium. He would never admit it out loud, but he was tired. Soon, they reached the top of the stairs and David practically carried John the rest of the way to the door of their apartment. John keyed the access code with the hand holding his cane and the door swooshed open. As soon as they entered the spacious apartment, John could hear the clamor of clawed feet on hardwood as a streak of grey and light blue rounded the corner into the entry hall, eager to welcome his master home.

"Down Urz," John scolded when the varren tried jumping up to lick his face, despite the smile on his face at the varren's affection.

Following the commotion, John's smile grew wider as Ashley entered the entry hall from the kitchen, a dirty rag and a disassembled pistol in her hands. John chuckled inwardly at this; Most wives clean dishes, my wife cleans guns.

"What happened?" Ashley asked with concern when she saw her husband being supported by her son.

"Nothing Ash, I'm fine" John said, trying to alleviate his wife's worries.

"Dad and I were walking up from the Spectre Offices when he started having trouble breathing." David explained.

"He's overreacting; I'm fine Ash, really." John tried to reassure her.

Ashley's eyes narrowed at her husband's casual dismissal of the matter. "David, take him into the Living Room and sit him down. I'm going to call Dr. Chakwas."

John sighed in exasperation as Ashley vanished back into the kitchen while David compiled with his mother's orders. "I'm fine Ash. Really. There's no need to bother Chakwas with this-"

"I'm calling her John."

"Yes ma'am."

As David gently lowered him onto a comfortable recliner, John couldn't help the sigh of relief that escaped his lips when all the weight was taken off his legs. A few seconds later, Ashley entered the living room and knelt next to John. "Chakwas is on her way, she'll be here in a few minutes."

True enough, Chakwas arrived not five minutes later. Well into her eighties, the good doctor had still aged remarkably well and remained healthy throughout the years. "Commander" Chakwas said as she entered the living room with a medkit in hand. Scanning him with her omni-tool, Chakwas tuted and fixed John with a hard stare. "Your leg muscles seem to be degrading at a slow but steady rate, forcing your cybernetics to take over more and more when you walk, like I told you at your last checkup." John winced at the angry glares Ash and David sent his way upon hearing this. Chakwas shook her head in disappointment, "Sometimes I wonder if what I say goes in one ear and right back out the other. This time I am making you wear the exo-joints for your legs at all times. Not just hidden beneath your pants whenever you have to make a public appearance."

John immediately protested "But how can I get my legs stronger if I have to use the exo-joints all the time?!"

Ashley gave her husband the patented "Williams' Glare". "John, what part of 'degrading' don't you understand? Your legs are getting weaker, not stronger."

John sighed in defeat "Fine, fine, I'll wear the exo-joints. Happy?"

Ashley smiled faintly "Very."

Her tone was light, but John saw the sadness in her eyes. She knew just as well as John why this was happening. His cybernetics had begun to fully shut down.

John Shepard was dying.

A/N: All is not well in the Shepard family. :P

I think this is the longest chapter I've ever written. Maybe combining the first two chapters into one hadn't been such a good idea.