Disclosure 7

The first thing Shepard felt when he stepped through the door connecting Flux to the rest of the wards, was panic. Miranda, Oriana and Danner were already there, staring down at a large dark red patch on the ground. John looked around, but there was no sign of Thane. He fought down rising the swell of anger, and tried to think.

"Is that… blood?" Danner asked nervously.

"Yes." Miranda answered. She put an arm around her sister, who was looking fearful.

Shepard crouched down beside the and gave it a closer examination.

"Is it…human?" Oriana squeaked, staring wide-eyed at the mess.

"It's red," Shepard told her, "that's about all I can do for you."

He stood and pulled Miranda aside, "If that's Drell blood, we have a very serious problem."

She stared, "You had Thane guarding us?"

"I asked him to make sure your brother and sister got here in one piece."

The woman gave him a grateful, yet worried look.

Danner cleared his throat, "Um… C-sec is only a short walk from here…"

"We're not involving them until both of you are safely out of here." Miranda snapped. She turned back to Shepard, who tapped the predator pistol hidden beneath his coat. She sighed and nodded.

"Send a message to EDI." Shepard ordered, unzipping his jacket to reveal his scarred chest beneath, "I want Garrus, Zaeed, Jacob, Grunt, Samara, and Mordin down here now and loaded for bear."

He pulled out the pistol and flicked off its safety. Miranda stepped away from the group and relayed the orders back to the ship.

"My god, you had that on you the whole time?" Oriana pressed her hand to her mouth win a look of shock.

"Yep." Shepard held the pistol loosely in his hand, watching the far door.

"Where's your shirt?" the young woman demanded.

"Oriana…" Miranda tried to cut in, but to her own surprise, was shushed.

John met Oriana's eye and shrugged, "Lying in a blood-filled toilet underneath a dead assassin in the Flux washroom."

This statement was greeted with stunned silence. Danner took a few hesitant steps towards the nightclub, but Miranda held up a hand, "Do you really want to go see it?"

The boy thought it through and shook his head.

Oriana held up an accusatory finger, "And then you just walked out and acted like everything was normal? You're a Grade A psycho, you know that?"

John shrugged, "I kill people for a living, Oriana. I kinda thought that was common knowledge. For every bad, there's a worse. I kill when I have to. The galaxy is a dangerous place and someone in my position has to play for keeps."

"That's different." The girl deflated slightly, "It's different when those are just stories you hear about on the news. But when the guy you had lunch with stopped in the bathroom to kill somebody…" she motioned down at the puddle of blood, "Whose is this, anyway? I don't' think I've ever been this close to the action…"

"I don't know whose blood that is." Shepard said grimly, "It's either the blood of a good friend of mine, or the blood of the person who attacked him. Either way, I am going to get answers."

Oriana rounded angrily on her sister, "And how many people have you killed?"

"Oriana, it's not-"

"Tell me!" the younger sister exclaimed, "If my sister is a murderer, I want to know."

Shepard took one look at Miranda's expression, and felt anger rise. He grabbed the young woman by the shoulder and spun her around, "That woman took at least six rounds so that you and your parents could get off of Illium without hooking up with those Mercs." Shepard spoke harshly, cowing her into silence, "She did it so you could live your life without that kind of threat hanging over your head. The fact that you can afford to stand there and be shocked at the sight of blood is a privilege, not a right, and Miranda bought it for you with her own blood, and her own life. And you owe her far more respect than you're showing her right now."

He let go and met Miranda's eye. The murderer comment had stung her, he could tell, but she was trying to hide how much. He said, "I want to hear an apology. Right now."

"I'm sorry." Oriana whispered.

Miranda pulled her sister into a long, tight hug.


The Normandy SR-2 was much larger than Ash had expected. It was almost twice the length of the original, and had very obviously been through the wringer. Large gaps of the outer plating were missing altogether, and the cargo hold was completely open and vented, with twisted metal and melted plastic surrounding the openings. Even as she watched, technicians were slaving away over it, trying to close the gaps. She stared in dismay at the bow, upon which was emblazoned the Cerberus logo.

The airlock hissed open and expelled a young Quarian woman, who immediately smothered Ashley in a tight hug, "Chief!"

"It's lieutenant now." Ash told her, returning the hug, and trying to find the quarian's eyes beneath her purple faceplate.

The Quarian backed away a step and looked her old friend up and down. "And Spectre, too." She observed, "Congratulations, Chief, you deserve it."

"Thank you." Ashley said gratefully, "I wasn't expecting that."

"Why not?" the Quarian reasoned, "You're part of the old crew."

"Garrus didn't give me the friendliest reception."

Tali put her hands on her hips severely, "What did he say?"

"He said I was a traitor."

"Bahh," Tali waved a dismissive hand, "That's ridiculous. You ignore him. You know how Garrus is. He and Shepard both dove right off the deep end."

"What do you mean?"

"They're both so serious all the time." The Quarian complained, "Garrus went vigilante and tried to commit suicide by mercenary, and Shepard only smiles when Miranda's around." Ashley tried to ignore the jealousy in the young Quarian's voice as she pointed at the Cerberus logo, "I'm not even going to start on that."

"Who is Miranda?" Ashley asked, "I've been hearing a lot about her."

"A Cerberus bitch." The Quarian growled, stamping her foot, "You aren't going like her at all. And she's got Shepard wrapped around her little finger."

"Are you sure that's not just jealousy talking?" Ashley asked, a small amount of pleading in her voice, "Tali I've been ordered here by the council to determine if John is still running things, or if he's been compromised."

Tali's posture suddenly tightened up, showing caution, "Is that why Garrus called you a traitor?"

"Actually he was angry about Horizon." Ashley shifted uncomfortably, "That conversation was botched on both ends, but I'm no traitor. And if Shepard is working for Cerberus."

"He's working with Cerberus because that's his only option." Tali corrected grimly, "And believe me, he's not happy about it."

"And what about this Miranda?" Ashley protested, "How much control does she have over Shepard? You said he's wrapped around her pinky finger."

"No more control than you did before he died. And no more than the council does." The young Quarian told her, "And if you want to pay any respect to the previous Normandy, you're going to strike that comment off the record."

"It was the most honest thing I've heard out of any of you." Ashley said.

"No, it was just me venting, and what both of us want to hear." Tali told her, "I don't like Cerberus any more than you do. They're terrorists, and they attacked the migrant fleet, but John Shepard is still John Shepard. He helped her rescue her sister or something." The Quarian shrugged, "Go talk to them and see for yourself. He's the same man, he just… doesn't have that many allies right now."

The airlock hissed open again, and expelled the largest and most diverse group of aliens Ash had ever seen. Most of them were scarred and mauled. They were all very obviously used to heavy combat, even the Salarian, one of whose horns had been broken off. He was followed by a toughened old veteran, whose face was warped, the right side of his face was a giant warped scar with one milky white eye.

"That's Zaeed Massani." Tali told her.

"Seriously?" Ashley stared. She'd heard stories about the ruthless and relentless mercenary's accomplishments back when she was first enrolled at the academy. His legend had only grown since then. The man noticed her stare and broke from the group to walk over.

"What'cha lookin' at, Princess?" he growled. His voice was exactly what she would have expected; rough as a sawblade, toughened and hardened with age, and tempered with experience. He probably swallowed a cup of acid and broken glass every morning just to keep it in shape.

"What happened to your face?" Ashley asked.

"Got shot in the head." The merc snapped, "The fuck happened to yours?"

"Nothing."

"So you're normally that ugly, eh?" the old man laughed.

"Zaeed!" a voice barked. Ashley looked over his shoulder. A black man was approaching them. Ashley would have placed his age between twenty-five and thirty-five. She took in his chiseled face, and perfect physique, and felt herself blush.

Zaeed Massani burst out in deprecating laughter, "I think she wants to fuck you, Jacob."

"Zaeed!" the man barked again, "This isn't what you're getting paid for."

The man grunted in response. He pumped the bolt of his sniper rifle, ejecting an unused thermal clip. His other hand struck like a snake and caught the flying cartridge as it pinwheeled through the air. Then her turned and sauntered towards the elevator.

"Sorry about that." The man said, giving Ashley an honest smile, "I'm Operative Jacob Taylor, the Normandy's Armory officer."

"Lieutenant Ashley Williams." Ash replied.

"I know." He shook her by the hand enthusiastically, "You climbed the tower with Shepard and Garrus. I was stationed on Eden Prime during the Geth attack." He turned to Tali, "I don't want to break anything up here, Tali, but the emergency life support systems are down again."

"The emergency life support is down?" Ashley cut in.

"Yeah," he grinned, "but the regular life-support works just fine."

Ashley chuckled.

"What's going on?" Tali asked, "Where is everyone going?"

"Shepard got attacked. And Thane is missing." The human held up a hand, preventing Tali from moving, "But we'll deal with it. You need to help fix the ship, Tali."

Tali sighed, "I'll see what I can do." She turned to Ashley, and gave her another hug, "Talk to you later?"

"Yeah."

Williams and Taylor were left alone on the dock.

"Sooo…" the man began, "You here to snoop?"

"Something like that." She replied.

"It sounds like a move the council would make." He said, nodding, "Gotta say though, I didn't expect that it'd be you they'd turn to."

"You say you were an alliance soldier." Ash reminded him, "Why would you join Cerberus?"

"Got tired of the paperwork and red-tape." The man replied. Ash could hear honesty in his voice, "the alliance has a problem and that's the fact that every move they make is judged by the galaxy, so they gotta be diplomatic and do things through the right channels. But that means more often than not, those things don't get done."

"But… Cerberus are terrorists."

"Yeah." The man nodded, "Among many other things. But we brought Shepard back, and saved Horizon. That's gotta count for something, even for a marine like you."

"About bringing him back…" Ashley asked meaningfully, "What do you know about it?"

"Not much." The man admitted, "You'd have to ask Miranda for the details, but I know he came in one door as meat and tubes, and walked out the other fragging security bots with a Carnifex. I know there was a scrapped plan to put a control chip in his brain."

They stared at each other.

"I'm amazed you were swilling to tell me that." Ashley said.

"It was scrapped." The man replied, "Besides, cutting you out of the loop isn't the way to stop you from worrying. If security was at the top of my list, I would've already taken you off the dock. But let's take a walk. I'll tell you what I can."


God do i love Zaeed Massani. The guy is just a walking tower of awsome. I've always wondered what a conversation between Ash and Jacob would look like. A you can tell, all the arrows are pointing towards Miranda.

I know this story isn't for the Ashley lovers out there, but i'm not trying to do any kinda smear job on her.