Author's Note: This is a complete rewrite of Family Ties. Some chapters will be noticeably different, others weren't changed much at all. There are also several completely new chapters added.
Beta: pixelatrix
Bioware owns the Mass Effect universe and all its characters. If you don't recognize a character, it's probably mine.

The summer had started ordinarily enough, but four weeks in and Jason Shepard knew something was off. Historically, the relationship between his half-brother Marcus and their niece Katie had been volatile at best. But lately, they'd been spending an inordinate amount of time together. And the times they weren't together, Katie just wasn't acting like herself. Jason was positive neither of them realized he'd noticed.

Just after closing time at the Argo, Jason's beach-side bar, and he was busy cleaning up after a very long raucous night while Marcus sat at the bar, doing inventory. They both looked up as someone unlocked the door; after closing, it was either Katie or Jason's son Ryan, though tonight he was supposed to be at a concert with his girlfriend.

After a moment, the door slid open and Katie walked in. She tensed up the moment she saw Marcus.

"All right, that's it." Jason looked from one to the other. "What the hell is going on between you two?"

Marcus shrugged and went back to the inventory list. "No idea what you're talking about."

Katie stood in the doorway for a moment before she came to an apparent decision. She walked over and took down a picture of her mother and aunt that sat on the memorial shelf behind the bar and shoved it in Marcus' face. "Tell him the truth. Tell him how they really died."

"Is that what all this has been about, why you've been acting so odd since you came down for vacation?" Jason asked, trying to wrench the picture from her hands. "It's been twelve years, Katie. Let it go."

She growled softly and shook her head. "It's been twelve years of lies, Uncle Jason. I'm tired of you and Daddy not believing Ryan and me."

"You were three, Ryan was five. You were both traumatized and confused; you don't know what you saw."

"No, she's right, Jason. I've been living a lie all these years," Marcus said, handing the picture back to Katie, who looked startled by the admission.

She wasn't the only one. "What the hell are you talking about?" Jason asked, more confused than ever.

Marcus got up and began pacing as he launched into a narrative. His voice was eerily calm and he spoke as if he'd rehearsed what he was going to say many times but never thought he'd actually say it to anyone. "You and Steven had taken shore leave, said you'd wanted to surprise Ryan and Katie for their birthday. Shannon and Lara had taken the kids to Mom and Dad's house and I was supposed to be on my way to pick you two up at the spaceport."

"Supposed to being the key words," Katie muttered angrily as she walked around the bar and sat down on a stool near the door.

Marcus continued as if she hadn't spoken. "I drove a block or two, turned around and went back to the house. I went in and shot them all. I'd planned to make it look like I'd walked in on Dad killing everyone, but I'd forgotten Brent was coming by to finish the kids' tree house before the party. He walked in as I was about to take the kids out. He tackled me, got the gun away from me and shot me, then took off with the kids. You may recall, he actually told the police the truth, but since he had the kids, the gun and his alibi was that he was alone in Mom and Dad's backyard, they didn't believe him."

Silence descended over the bar as the meaning of Marcus' words sank in for Jason. Finally he spoke, his voice rough with barely controlled rage. "So you let a man go to prison for four murders he didn't commit while you walked around devil-may-care all these years? And you let Steven and me believe our children to be liars? Why, Marcus?"

"Because he was jealous," Katie snapped. Jason had nearly forgotten she was even still there.

Marcus shrugged. "Pretty much. You and Lara were always the favorites, our whole lives. After you were born, and certainly after she was, I was virtually ignored. And then when we grew up, you two got the perfect lives with the perfect families, not to mention you and Steven getting goddamn medals in the war. And I was just... an afterthought."

"I... I'm sorry you felt that way, Marcus." Jason frowned. "But seriously, your solution to that was to... kill everyone?"

"I'd wanted to take away everything that made you happy. Wanted you to see what it was like being alone."

"Alone?" Jason frowned. "I'd still have had –" He shook his head. "You are a fucking sick bastard! You were planning to kill the kids too?"

Marcus rolled his eyes. "That's what I meant by take the kids out, idiot."

Jason glanced at Katie. "Did you know?"

She nodded. "Why the hell did you think we were always so terrified of staying with him when you and Daddy were on missions, and why we were so relieved when you retired?"

"So would anyone like to tell me how you and Ryan really got the scars on your face and his arm?"

"You really don't want to know," she said softly.

"Tell me anyway," Jason said, keeping a wary eye on Marcus, who had inched closer to Katie.

"Fine. Don't say I didn't warn you." She sighed. "We actually did fall into the glass coffee table. But the reason... we got into a huge fight and he told me I was the reason Marcus had killed everyone and why he wanted to kill us too."

"He actually said that to you?"

She nodded. "I lunged at him, and we eventually ended up in the middle of the coffee table."

"I'm gonna kill that little fuck," Jason snarled.

She rolled her eyes. "And that's why we never told you. Deep down, like really deep down, I knew he didn't really mean it, and he apologized after a couple of days."

"This has all been very fascinating," Marcus said suddenly. "But it's getting late and some of us," Katie shuddered under the hand he put on her shoulder, "are much too young to be out of bed at this hour."

"Hold on just a goddamn minute," Jason growled. "You're not going anywhere, Marcus. I'm calling the police."

"Are you? Are you really?" Marcus reached out and yanked Katie from her bar stool by her braid before wrapping his hand around her throat, pulling her body flush with his as he backed up against the wall closest to the door.

"Are you fucking insane? What the hell are you doing?"

"Leaving." Marcus drew the pistol he always kept on him whenever he worked in the bar and aimed it at Jason. "With Katie."

"The hell you are." Jason reached under the bar for his own pistol. "Just let her go and we can work this out rationally."

Marcus scoffed. "Rational? You? Don't make me laugh, Jason. And what do you think you're going to do with that? You don't have a prayer of shooting me without hitting Katie first."

Jason could see this wasn't going to end well for anyone, so he decided to keep Marcus talking as long as possible until he could think of... something. "So what are you going to do, kill me?"

"Yes, actually. No one will believe Katie if she told anyone about what happened here tonight. You and Steven have made sure of that. Doesn't matter though. After I kill you, I'm going to take her with me and keep her as my pet until Steven comes looking for her. Then I'm going to kill him too." Marcus tightened his grip on Katie's throat as he lightly grazed the knuckles of his gun-hand over her breasts and stomach, down to her thigh, causing her to shudder again. As he spoke, his lips brushed the shell of her ear, seemingly purring his taunt at her. "By now, I'm sure she realizes her mistake. So I can do whatever I want to her and I know she'll never say another word to anyone. Wouldn't want anyone else's blood on her hands."

"You sick fuck!" Jason spat out. "What the –" He looked into Katie's eyes and saw the fury that had been blazing there had been replaced by a haunted look, coupled with pain and fear; this was not news to her. "You've already done this to her before, haven't you?"

"Oh so many times," Marcus said in a self-satisfied voice.

"Why didn't you say anything, Katie?" Jason asked.

Her only answer was a whimper as she tried unsuccessfully to pry Marcus' fingers from her throat.

"Who's she going to tell, Jason?" Marcus said with a snide smile as he raised the gun in Jason's direction and applied still more pressure to Katie's throat. "The only one who might believe her is Ryan, and that wouldn't help her any. If you didn't believe either of them back when they were children, why on earth would you believe them now?"

"You're a fucking psycho, you know that?" Jason snarled.

Marcus pulled the trigger. "So I've been told."