"EDI, this number is protected by the console's security protocols," Liara said. "I am going to call it but I cannot trace it live-time from here."

{We will lock into the signal when the communication is established, and attempt a trace from our end,} EDI replied.

"I am placing the call now."

The console flashed a couple of times, indicating the call was signaling the receiving party, then went steady green. The same synthesized voice they'd heard before spoke up behind them. Del turned, facing the wall display.

Just as the voice, the image was synthesized. Dancing static formed the illusion of a humanoid shape but with no defining characteristics- species, gender, age, or even height was impossible to tell.

"Khan, I thought you had made your position clear-" the figure said, before it paused. "Ah, it's the gutter punk."

"Gutter punk? Is that supposed to hurt my feelings?" Del asked. "You want to trash talk you need to do better than that."

"It is a simple statement of fact. You're a goddamn cockroach, and you act like one. One would think getting hit in the face with a skycar and thrown into traffic from a hundred stories up would prove fatal."

"You want me dead you'll have to try harder," Shepard said. "People with bigger guns and far more creativity have tried and failed in the past."

A soft chuckle. "Oh, don't worry. When all other methods to kill a roach have failed there's one that works every time."

"You don't have a big enough boot."

"Don't I? You're a disease ridden, filthy waste of a life- the product of other worthless roaches fucking in the dark. I tried to make this simple for you, even slightly dignified- well, dignified for you, which is apparently flopping on the floor like a fish. Still, it's all one can expect-"

"Who the fuck are you?" Del asked, her eyes sparking furiously. "What have I done to you to deserve this bullshit? At least face me one on one instead of hiding like a bloody fucking coward!"

"Actually, I'm kind of glad you're still alive. Now you can suffer and watch as I take away everything…" the synthetic image's 'head' shifted to where Liara stood. "…and everyone you care about, before I kill you."

"You just signed your goddamn death warrant," Del said in a low, venomous voice.

"You can do nothing, gutter punk. You have nothing. All you can do is hide in the cracks and wait for the boot."

"I'll remind you of that when I have my hands around your goddamn throat," Del snarled. In response, the figure only chuckled, then vanished as they terminated the call.

Del immediately turned. "EDI, did we get the trace?"

{Negative, Shepard,} she replied. {The connection was far too highly encrypted for a trace to complete in that amount of time. Their communication system seems to have similar protocols to advanced military QEC secure lines.}

"More evidence Mr. Strange may work for the Alliance," Brooks said in a quiet voice, standing near the door.

"I don't give a fuck if that bastard comes after me," Del said. "No one threatens my friends and crew. Let's pull out these data drives."

"I thought they were wiped," Brooks said, heading forward as Del crouched and began to open the desk console.

"With EDI and Tali on it that may not matter," Del said. "If there's so much as a single bit on this drive that points me to that fucker's doorstep we are going to find it."

"I thought you were already asleep," Liara said softly as she walked in the master bedroom, spotting Del standing near one of the windows. She had changed into her usual yoga pants and tank, scrubbing her face clean of any molecule of makeup until her skin was red, the bruises she still bore from hitting the car in stark purples and blacks.

"Been wracking my brain," Del said without looking around. "Trying to figure out who can hate me so goddamn much."

"I do not know," Liara said, reaching her side and gently sliding her arm around her waist. "They are quite the paradox."

Del gave her a weary smile. "Much as you might disagree, Li- someone hating me isn't a paradox."

"That is not what I meant," Liara told her. "Someone hating you that vehemently, and yet who clearly does not know you at all- that is the paradox. Someone who knew you-really knew you-would know better than to expect they were safe, and they would certainly know better than to threaten those you care about. All the encryption software and ID masks in the universe did nothing to stop you from destroying the Shadow Broker. Even death was not enough to stop you from wiping out the Collectors and taking on the Reapers. Someone who truly knew you, if they wanted you dead, would not have bothered with the army of mercenaries. They would have disguised themselves as a waiter, walked over, and put a bullet through your eye without a moment's hesitation, then followed it up with a dozen more just to be sure the deed was done. There would be no chance at retaliation, no chance of warning. Anything else is, as has been mentioned before, elaborate suicide."

Del gave a mirthless chuckle. "Should I be worried that you've thought up the easiest and most successful ways to assassinate me?"

Liara smiled. "If I wanted you destroyed, Shepard, I would not kill you to do it. I would simply leave."

Del winced, then nodded, her arm tightening around Liara's waist. "Yeah…yeah, that would do it."

"Because I know you," Liara said. "Our mysterious adversary does not."

"So, how does someone who doesn't really know me hate me so much? What could I have done to them that was so terrible? Maybe…someone who worked with Allers and Wyatt? He's the only one that hated me this badly."

Liara shook her head. "Almost the moment we rooted out Allers and discovered the truth of Wyatt's attempts to indoctrinate you, I turned my attentions on rooting out anyone that had helped them or could be said to be part of their operation, sharing their ideals. There were few. Those that are not in prison are closely monitored. None have shown any interest in pursuing you independently- with the loss of Wyatt they have given up that particular vendetta. Certainly none could do so without my network noticing within moments- it alerts me if they buy so much as a pair of nail clippers. Whoever our 'Mr. Strange' is, they are not affiliated with Wyatt or what he tried to do to you."

Del gave a helpless gesture, walking toward the bed and sitting down with a frustrated huff. "Well, then who? Another batarian whose brother or kid was on Torfan? Or Aratoht?"

"Unlikely, and they would not be in the Alliance," Liara said, going over to sit with her.

"Maybe the Alliance is a red herring," Del said, brows knit. "It…could it be Eír?"

"No, I do not believe that," Liara told her, taking her hand. "It makes no sense, and would be needlessly complicated. Eír would neither hire a group of human mercs, nor hide behind encryption. She would have no need for an army. Eír would also not resort to such insults nor threats to your loved ones. She has no malice for us, and what malice she has for you is not her own but is preprogrammed- it is not personal, no matter how much she may be trying to justify it in personal terms. Those insults, those threats, those were deeply personal."

Del was silent a moment, then nodded. "Maybe the insults and threats themselves hold the clue then. He called me a gutter punk, a cockroach. He referred to my parents, where I came from."

"Do you think it could be someone from Earth?" Liara asked. "One of your old gang who also joined the Alliance?"

Del snorted. "Every one of the Reds came from pretty much the same place I did. Born in the slums, runaways or thrown out by their parents, scraping from goddamn garbage cans to survive. The ones that didn't, who tried to join the gang out of some misbegotten sense of rebellion, very quickly found out the reality and harshness of that life. They never lasted long. A former Red wouldn't call me a cockroach or a gutter punk, because a former Red would have been a cockroach and a gutter punk right along with me. The ones angry with me for 'selling out' and joining the Alliance already came after me- the ones that lived are still regretting it. A former Red in the Alliance would be just as much of a sell-out, so it's not that either."

She rubbed a hand over her face, groaning. "Fuck. Who the fuck could it be? Who could know that much about me and yet not know anything about me? Who hates me so much they not only want me dead, they want me ruined first? If someone hated me that much you' d think I'd remember doing whatever it was that made them hate me."

Liara gently rubbed her hand over Del's back, her fingers lighting up faintly with biotics as she attempted to soothe Del's tension. Feeling her muscles unknot a bit, Shepard looked affectionately at the asari.

"I love you," she said. "I'm not going to let Mr. Strange hurt you, or anyone else."

"That includes you," Liara said softly. "If I lost you, Del- even if you died trying to save me and your friends- I would be destroyed. Mr. Strange would have won."

"I know," Del replied just as softly. "I don't plan on going anywhere, Tianlán. EDI and Tali having any luck yet with the drive?"

"Not as yet. I have my network scouring datafeeds and records, trying to find any hint of whom our mysterious Mr. Strange might be, but it is unlikely we will have any further answers before morning."

"Is that your gentle way of saying I need some rest?" Del asked. Liara smiled.

"We both do," she said. "We are still on vacation, after all."

Shepard laughed. "Yeah. So far, it's been one hell of a vacation."

Del woke up the next morning feeling stiff and sore, but a hot shower seemed to do the trick to washing away most of the remaining ache from her ordeal, even if the water could do nothing for the bruises. Heading downstairs, she found Nan had already whipped up breakfast and was serving the others.

Shepard didn't have a chance to say anything before the older woman was pressing a plate of eggs, toast, and sausage into her hands with a cheerful, "Good morning, sweetheart!"

"Morning, Nan," Del chuckled, setting the plate down on the bar. "You know, you don't have to cook for everyone."

"I know I don't have to, I want to," Nan said, smiling as she turned back to her work. "It feels good to have a houseful, and everyone else is helping out in some way. I can't decrypt wiped data drives or infiltrate a casino's security systems but I can make sure everyone gets enough to eat. Speaking of which, we're running low on supplies. I don't think David had it in mind to feed a small platoon the last time he was here. I can pop down and get-"

Del looked up from her plate, fork in hand, and shook her head. "No," she said. "I don't want you or anyone else leaving the apartment unless absolutely necessary. Mr. Strange isn't just targeting me now. He'd happily take out any of you just to make me suffer. I'm not giving him the opportunity."

"The only other option is to order it for delivery, which means strangers coming to the door," Nan said. "That poses much the same problem."

"I can place the order through my network," Liara said, overhearing as she poured some coffee for her and Del. "It may take some finagling but I can get a delivery of the needed supplies here without Mr. Strange or his lackeys being able to link this apartment to us."

Del suddenly felt a hard whack to the shoulder that had hit the skycar as Jack stepped past her and to the bar, her own coffee in hand. "Morning, Shepard," she said cheerfully.

"Still…sore…thank you Jack," Del said in a pained voice.

"Oh, stop being a pussy-"

"Excuse me?" Nan said, looking around at the biotic with a scowl. Del smiled at Jack.

"Nan really hates that word," she said, chewing on her eggs.

"Uh…I meant…sooo…we gonna get a chance to fuck someone up today, Shepard? You think?"

"God fucking willing," Del said, washing the eggs down with her own coffee. "Gotta wait and see if we get anything useful on that drive. So far the eggheads are taking it slow."

"The 'eggheads' want to be sure that we don't miss anything," Tali said dryly as she walked up. Del smiled at her.

"You know I saw you there."

"Yes, I know. I'm sorry it's taking so long, Shepard. We're going over the drive literally bit by bit, trying to find any ghost of information that may have been left behind. Even for EDI it's a painstaking process, especially considering most of the drive was heavily encrypted. Still, we'll get there."

Del nodded, then blinked. "Wait a second. Have you eaten? Nan, do we even have food that Tali and Garrus can eat?"

"She checked, and the answer is no," Tali said. "There's nothing that wouldn't make us extremely sick. However, I have some nutrient pastes. If nothing else they'll do in a pinch, even if Garrus did make a face when I mentioned them."

"That's not ok, we need to get you guys some real food. Li?"

"I have already added it to the supply list I am compiling," Liara said. "Hopefully we can get the delivery here by dinner this evening."

"I have more than enough paste to last until then, but it is much appreciated," Tali said. "Thank you Liara."

"You are very welcome sweetheart."

After breakfast, Del and Liara joined up with Garrus and the others to go over anyone she'd ever met on Earth or in the Alliance who could possibly be their mysterious 'Mr. Strange', while EDI, Tali, and Brooks continued on with the data drive. Nancy was exceptionally helpful, remembering quite a lot of people that Del had completely forgotten about.

"What about that one girl, the one with the strawberry birthmark?" she asked as they neared lunchtime. "She was quite furious with you."

"Strawberry…" Del blinked. "You mean Brandi Faith?"

"Yes, that's the girl. Lovely young lady, such beautiful red hair-"

"Nan, Brandi Faith was in the Savon Street gang. Of course she hated me, our two gangs were violent rivals."

"I didn't say she hated you, I said she was furious with you. You said she confronted you in the park, over that sweet young-"

"Oh, fuck, I forgot about that," Del said, then waved her hands. "No no no, it's not Brandi."

"Hey, we should explore all avenues, right?" Vega said. "This sounds like it might be an interesting avenue."

"No, it's not," Del said. "And it's a pointless avenue because it isn't Brandi!"

"Shepard, finish this sentence," Garrus smirked. "She confronted you in the park, over that sweet young…"

"The sweet young girl was Brandi's cousin who wasn't in any gang but I hooked up with her briefly and Brandi didn't like that at all. Ok? Are you satisfied? I was a teenager. Brandi pulled a knife on me over that and I put her teeth out and her cousin ended up moving to Nebraska anyway. Jesus fuck, we're trying to find viable fucking leads not read my teenage diary."

"Sorry, Shepard, I was just trying to lighten things up," Garrus said. Del waved a hand and sighed.

"No, I'm the one that's sorry. You didn't do anything wrong, Garrus, I just…this whole thing has got me pissed off and on edge. I know it isn't Brandi because Brandi died six weeks later. She pissed off the wrong dealer, trying to steal his clients."

"Maybe her cousin then?" Tali asked.

"Her cousin broke things off with me, not the other way around, and that was because her family was moving. As I remember, our fling was short but I left her pretty happy. She had no reason to hate me, and certainly not to this extent."

"Man, this is all sorts of fucked up, isn't it?" Vega said, scratching a hand over his short bristles. "We haven't even gotten up to you getting into the Alliance yet. How many people have you met since then? We can't go over everyone, it would take weeks."

"I know, but it's the only thing we've got right now," Shepard said.

"Yeah, I know Lola. Still, it'd be better with some chow. You sure we haven't got anything left to eat?"

"Liara's getting some food supplies in but they won't be here until this evening," Del said, then glanced across the room as Tali suddenly appeared, waving their direction.

"What about a pizza? Any way we can order a pizza without every Alliance reject in a hardsuit swarming us?"

"Uh, maybe," Del said distractedly. "Liara might be able to…one sec. Looks like Tali might have something."

She headed toward the quarian, Garrus and a few of the others rising to follow her.

"Tali, give me good news," Del said as she got close. Tali nodded.

"We may have a couple of files. Brooks is finishing the decryption right now." She walked into the dining room, where they had been working on the drives since returning the night before. Brooks glanced up at her, and with the hollows under her eyes, Del wondered if she'd even gotten any sleep.

"Just finishing up, ma'am," she said. "Should be less than a minute."

"Shepard," Del said. "Not ma'am."

"Sorry, it's just…" She shook her head, jaw tight as she regarded her work again.

"You ok?" Del asked. "You can speak freely, Brooks. It's ok."

"I just keep feeling like this is all my fault," Brooks said softly. "You falling through that restaurant, nearly dying on that skycar lot because I didn't realize I wasn't talking to the real C-Sec, nearly screwing up at the casino, that man dying…"

"None of those things were your fault," Del said. "If it wasn't for you we would have gotten no warning at all. If you want to assign blame assign it where it belongs- to the nutcase we're going to stop, ok?"

"Ok, I know, I just…" she shook her head again, then looked up at Del as several of the others joined them, gathering around. Her eyes moved over all of them. "It's just you guys are the crew of the Normandy. You're legends, all of you. The things you've seen and done and…I'm just a desk jockey. Before I ran into that sushi place the worst injury I ever got was a paper-cut…and we don't even use paper! I mean, I know every job is important but honestly, I took mine out of cowardice. I know that now. I took it to be safe, while people like you are throwing your very lives into the fire."

"Every job is important, Brooks," Del said. "We couldn't do what we do without people like you behind the scenes."

"It's not the same," she said softly. "Without taking risks…people look up to you. People owe their lives to you-"

"If you had not warned Del back in Ryuusei, she would not be standing here," Liara said as she got to the table. "If soldiers received faulty information, or did not get vital intel in time, they could not save lives. It is possible because of what you do. Not all heroes fire guns, Maya."

"M-maybe you're right, but it's not all just that. I mean, look around. All of you. You're all here together. You're all vastly different and yet you're more than just a crew, more than friends. You're family. You're all as willing to die for Shepard as she is to die for you."

"I don't know if I'm willing to die for her," Wrex said with a smirk in Del's direction. "Get a serious but non-debilitating wound, sure…but death?"

"So, I should go back to Tuchanka and take back the genophage cure, is that what I'm hearing?" Del teased back.

"You see, that's what I'm talking about!" Maya said. "You're family! You tease each other but when the fire's on there's nothing you wouldn't do. I've…I've never had that."

"Not even with your own family?" Liara asked, surprised.

"Haven't really got a family," Brooks said. "I have my desk…and a cat."

"You know what I see, Brooks?" Del asked.

"Wh-what?"

"I see you standing at this table with all of us, willing to do whatever you can so that Mr. Strange is stopped and no one dies. I don't see you sitting at a desk with nothing but your cat. You're here, like the rest of us."

Brooks blinked at her, astonished, then nodded faintly. "Y-you're right…"

The console beeped and she looked back down, clearing her throat awkwardly. "Right then, right. The decryption has completed, let's see what we have, shall we?"