Jane Shepard rolled her shoulders back in a habitual gesture before stepping into the holographic projector. She wasn't looking forward to working with Cerberus - not after the atrocities she'd seen from them while she was chasing Saren - but after Freedom's Progress, she knew she had very little choice. They'd brought her back from the dead. She didn't forget her debts, even if she loathed the one she owed.

She was a bit disappointed that she wasn't meeting this 'Illusive Man' in person, but it made a certain degree of sense. He was the leader of a terrorist organization, someone the Alliance would dearly love to get their hands on. Perhaps even the 'Most Wanted', though she'd rarely paid attention to any of that sensationalist nonsense.

When the scan finished loading, she was astounded at what she saw. Her mouth hung open for a few long minutes as she tried to reconcile two things that seemed to flatly contradict each other. "Daddy?" she asked finally, in a very small voice.

"Hi, Janie," her father said, lifting a cigarette to his mouth. (Jane remembered the time she'd fought with him about his smoking, pleading with him to quit. He'd just smiled and said 'It's not the cancer that'll get me in the end, Janie.')

"Don't call me that," she snapped angrily. "I'm not a little girl anymore."

"But you'll always be my little girl," he said gently, and smiled at her. It looked somehow out of place on that creased face of his, with eyes that were somehow much bluer than she remembered them being. "It's so good to see you."

"You're not actually seeing me!" Jane yelled. This wasn't real. This couldn't be real. The Illusive Man was a ruthless terrorist who authorized hideous experiments on innocent people. She remembered the rachni, the Thorian creepers, Admiral Kahoku and the Thresher Maw. The anger she'd felt as she put the pieces together and realized that there was an organization - Cerberus - behind all of that. She remembered thinking that she could very easily hate this Illusive Man.

And now, she was finding out that he was her father, Jack Harper. Who had always been there for her when she needed him. Who had carefully cleaned her skinned knees and read her bedtime stories. He'd taken her out for ice cream when she broke up with her first boyfriend, helped her with her homework and given her recommendations for music he thought she'd like. Jane had always felt lucky to have two parents who loved her so much, even if they weren't together.

How was this possible? How was it that two completely different people were, in fact, the same man?

"I'm sorry, Janie," her father replied, his shoulders drooping slightly. "I wish I could be there in person to see you. But it has to be this way."

"No, it doesn't," Jane shot back. "You could not be a murdering bastard. Then you could come and see me." She shook her head. "Now I know why you didn't come to my graduation from basic. From N-school. Why you didn't come to the ceremonies after Elysium." She felt herself shaking, almost uncontrollably. "What, since I was an adult, you figured I didn't need you anymore? You figured that you could devote all of your attention to Cerberus?" She spat the word out.

Her father looked hurt. "That's not it, Janie, and you know it. I know you're upset."

"You're damn right I'm upset." She was shaking uncontrollably now. This was too much. She'd been brought back from the dead by her father, who secretly controlled a terrorist organization with seemingly unlimited funds. She made herself turn around to start leaving.

"Janie-"

"Not now, Daddy," she said without turning back. "I - I can't do this right now." Her pace quickened. She barely noticed Miranda staring at her in open shock as she exited and ran, ran up to her cabin to sob in peace.