Well, this has gotten out of hand. Here I was, optimistically thinking that I could complete this story line in three chapters. But, of course, I was being woefully unrealistic. Juggling three story lines produces a lot more content than I was expecting. Ah well. More to read, I guess. We should start a betting pool on how many more chapters this will take. I'm gonna put my money on three more, but again, I could be optimistic.

I don't have much else to share at the moment except to say that my birthday was just a few days ago. Another year older and maybe another year wiser. Let's hope I get better with age rather than worse.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

Hidden Truths

The turians seemed legitimately bewildered when Shepard kicked in the door to the communications tower and told her squad to secure the building. She'd brought Garrus, Liara, and a handful of other biotics along with the order not to harm anyone. The biotics trapped the majority of people in stasis fields, and Garrus used only concussive rounds in order to disable potential enemies. However, for the most part, when the turians working in the defense area saw Shepard, they immediately surrendered. A few, being turians and therefore resistant to surrendering, reached for weapons, but they were subdued in less than a minute.

Shepard strode through a now completely neutralized zoned, studying the faces of the turians and finding them just as surprised as she felt. Turning back to one of her soldiers, she said, "Get Halber over here."

The soldier saluted and ran to fetch the elcor from the shuttle. Meanwhile, Garrus examined each turian carefully, checking their various insignias until stopping by one. He grabbed the other turian by the arm and dragged his immobilized form over to the commander. "This is the man in charge," Garrus explained, pointing to a badge on the other turian's sleeve.

Shepard gestured to the biotics and he was released from the blue stasis field. An older turian, she could see that his hard plating was worn and cracked. He eyed her with muted brown eyes, careful, cautious. "You're Commander Shepard," he said. "I recognize you from the vids. But why are you here? What have we done to anger the council?"

Shepard raised an eyebrow. "You fired on my ship when I requested permission to land," she said flatly. "How did you think I would respond?"

"Fired on... on your ship?" the old turian stammered. "No. We would never do such a thing. I swear by the spirits, we would never turn on the council."

Garrus and Shepard exchanged skeptical looks. "Your people did fire on the Normandy," Garrus stated. "We have the audio logs to prove it. We also know that Cerberus is operating in this area. If you have an alliance with them, you'd better come clean now."

"Cerberus?" The old man still seemed confused. "Wasn't that a human terrorist group? I didn't think they existed anymore."

"I have little patience for lies," Shepard warned.

"Urgently: He is telling the truth, Commander."

Shepard turned to see Halber lumbering towards them. He moved fast for an elcor and stopped only once he was within a few feet of the turian. He looked straight at him while adding, "Mild surprise: He believes every word he has said to you. In fact, he believes you must be lying to him."

Looking from the elcor to the turian and back again, Shepard asked, "How is that possible? I was at the helm when they fired on us. They made it clear that we were not welcome here."

"Uncertain: I do not know, Commander. But this man is not lying to you."

Shepard noticed that Liara had come to stand by her shoulder, and was now watching the conversation with intense interest. Garrus, who stood across from the commander, looked much more troubled. Even with Halber's assurance that the other turian was not lying, Garrus still looked skeptical.

"So, you never gave the order to attack the Normandy?" he demanded.

The old turian shook his head. "No, I never gave any such order."

"Then there's a rogue agent amongst your ranks. Who would have access to the defense systems?"

The turian didn't reply immediately. Instead, he seemed uncomfortable. But finally he said, "That would be... Irek. Up in the control tower." He nodded towards a door at the other end of the room. "That door is the only way to the tower."

"Garrus," Shepard said, also nodding towards the door. He understood her and went to retrieve Irek. The older turian watched him go, his mandibles pulled down into a frown.

"Surprised: Irek is his son," Halber said. He stared at the older turian, his black eyes taking in details that the others could not possibly read or understand.

"What?" Shepard said. "Really?"

At the same time the turian stepped back out of shock and asked, "How did you know that?"

"Didactic: Parents often have unique muscle contractions on their face when they think of their offspring. Thinking out loud: Offspring likely trigger a distinct part of the brain that is linked with the most basic forms of a species' survival instinct."

"That is amazing," Liara breathed. "I never knew that elcor could interpret such personal thoughts." She laid a hand on Shepard's arm and her eyes shone with the same enthusiasm that she got when talking about the protheans. "It was absolutely ingenious to utilize this skill in such a practical way, Shepard. It is almost as if Halber can read minds." She stepped towards the elcor and leaned her face in close. Halber, in turn, shuffled back uncomfortably. "Can you tell what I am thinking about right now?" Liara asked, excitedly.

Halber looked past Liara to Shepard. He gave an exaggerated hunch of his shoulders to convey to the commander that he didn't like this sudden attention being directed at him. Knowing that he could read any expression she made clearly, Shepard gave a look that said, "Sorry, you're on your own."

While Liara turned Halber into her newest science experiment, Shepard turned back to the turian and said, "Has your son been acting strange lately? Like he's been hiding anything?"

The man shook his head. "No. My son is loyal to the council. Like we all are. He would never..." He trailed off as Garrus reappeared, dragging a bewildered turian by the collar of his shirt. Irek was much younger, perhaps just a young adult by turian standards, and his eyes immediately went to his father in search of help. Garrus brought the boy over to Shepard, keeping a hand on his shoulder to keep him from running.

"What's going on?" Irek asked nervously.

"You fired on the Normandy when we attempted to land," Garrus said. "We know the order didn't come from above, so you must have done it on your own. Are you working with Cerberus?"

"Cerberus? What is that? I don't know anything about that."

"You want us to believe that you attacked us on your own then?" Garrus demanded.

"Attacked you? No... I didn't."

Garrus' mandibles twitched and his expression became annoyed. "I checked the logs in the tower, Irek. I know you fired the AA guns."

"Yes, but I..." Irek stammered, "I fired at some pirates earlier."

"Concerned: He believes that to be true, Commander." Halber edged away from Liara, probably relieved to have an excuse to break away from her questions.

Shepard rubbed her temple as she tried to piece through all the conflicting information. Irek believed that he had shot at pirates. None of the other turians seemed to know anything about it. And no one seemed to know anything about Cerberus.

"Perhaps Cerberus hacked into the information system and made it look like we were a pirate vessel," she offered, trying to come up with a plausible explanation.

Without warning, Irek let out an angry snarl and lunged at Shepard. His talons swiped at her face, but she managed to pull back in time so that they merely raked her left cheek, narrowly missing her eye. His talons rent into her skin, digging a gash from her cheekbone to her nose. As Shepard stumbled back, Liara trapped the turian in a stasis field and Garrus had a gun to his back in less than a second. Suddenly, everyone was tense, staring at Irek as the young turian struggled against the field that held him and stared at the commander with hate filled eyes. Shepard could feel blood seeping down to her chin and a burning sensation where Irek had cut her. Inside, she berated herself for letting her guard down and allowing him to get so close.

"What are you doing, Irek?" his father exclaimed, shock and fear mingled in his voice.

Liara approached Shepard with worry etched across her features. She touched Shepard's face, examining the cut and said, "It is bleeding a lot, Shepard."

The commander forced a reassuring smile for her wife's benefit and replied, "Don't worry. Cuts to the face always look worse than they are. It's really nothing, Liara."

Liara did not look relieved, but she also wasn't going to argue with Shepard in front of strangers and her own troops. She nodded and turned her attention back to Irek, her hands still aglow with biotic power. She glared at him, but the turian only had eyes for Shepard, who he continued to try to attack.

"Please, Commander," the father pleaded. "My son... He must not be thinking clearly. He needs a doctor. Please..."

Shepard could understand the man's concern for his son, but she had no intention of harming Irek. The only danger the boy had presented was his ability to launch a surprise attack. Now that she knew him to be a threat, he posed no real harm.

"Why did you attack me?" she demanded.

"It's what you deserve for all the turians you've killed!" Irek spat back, still fighting against the stasis field.

Shepard's eyes widened in surprise. Turians she had killed? She couldn't recall ever killing turians, at least not ones that weren't actively trying to kill her. She'd killed plenty of mercenaries, but she'd never targeted turians specifically.

"By the spirits, have you lost your mind?" Garrus asked.

Irek rolled his eyes to try to look at Garrus. "Why are you helping her?" he asked angrily. "After what she's done to our people. You're a traitor!"

Now Garrus's eyes widened. He and Shepard exchanged confused looks. "Who do you think you are talking to?" Garrus demanded.

"That's Red Regina, the pirate scum that wiped out the turian colony on Tryst. She murdered everyone. Women, children..."

Shepard looked to the father and asked, "Do I look like this Regina person?"

He stared at his son for a moment and then shook his head. "There is no such person, Commander... I have never heard of a pirate by that name."

Shepard shot Halber a questioning look. For her benefit, the elcor gave an exaggerated shrug of his shoulders - trying to mimic human body language. "Confused: Both turians believe what they are saying, Commander."

Liara had brought up her omni-tool and said, "I just checked on the colony of Tryst. There have been no recent pirate attacks. All the colonists are fine."

Shepard felt completely lost. Was the boy just crazy? Was this just a completely random event with no link to Cerberus at all? No. It wasn't possible. It was all too convenient to be a coincidence.

"Does your son have a history of mental illness?" Shepard asked.

The father shook his head. "No, never."

She shook her head. "I don't know what's going on, but I think we found the trap Cerberus set for us." Then turning to the older turian she said, "I will tell the Normandy to land now that this area is secure. I will also need to question your son. Don't worry, no harm will come to him. But I'm afraid he may have gotten into more trouble than you know."

~.~.~.~.~

Benny sat in the lobby of the hotel, tucked away in a corner of lounge chairs within view of the bar. James and Grandma sat talking at the bar, seated so that they could see Benny at all times, but keeping their distance. After their day at the museum, Benny had made it clear that she wanted to be left alone. Her classmates were all in their rooms and running around the hall upstairs, so Benny had sought refuge in the lobby. Curled up in an oversized armchair, her blue fingers lightly touched the cover of the book in her lap. She'd found it in the gift shop, a short book called The Adventures of Commander Shepard. It wasn't a detailed history by any means, just a basic overview of the hero's life.

She turned the first page and was greeted by an artist's rendering of a peaceful, rural colony called Mindoir. Then, from this second hand source, she began to read about her mother's history. She got up to where her mother had destroyed the collector base, and already had learned some shocking things. She learned what happened to her other set of grandparents and relatives on Mindoir. She learned that her friend, Kaidan, was named for a man who had died on Virmire - who had died so that Aunt Ashley could be saved. And she learned that she had been named after her grandmother, who had been a traitor and sided with the rogue spectre, Saren. And she learned that her mother had died, and had been miraculously brought back to life. While she was still trying to digest this information, a familiar voice snapped her back to reality.

"Oh, here you are! Whatcha readin'?"

Benny looked up to see her friend, Tela, plop down into a chair across from her. The other asari yawned and made herself comfortable on the cushions. Benny showed her the cover of the book and Tela just nodded.

"I didn't know you were a big Shepard fan," Tela said idly. Then changing the subject she added, "I'm really sleepy, but everyone is making so much noise out in the hallway. I can't sleep, but I don't really want to do play around with everyone else. So I thought I'd come find you."

Benny had half expected her friend to make some comment about how famous her mother was. Now that she knew some of the truth, Benny felt as if all eyes were on her. But when Tela didn't say anything about Shepard, Benny realized that she didn't know. None of her friends knew. Benny had rarely had friends over to her house, and most of the time Shepard was at work or on a mission. It dawned on her, suddenly, that none of her friends knew who her mother was. She wondered what they would do if they found out. Would they treat her differently? Would other people try to befriend so that they could see Commander Shepard?

Now cautious of revealing her secret, but also curious, Benny asked, "How much do you know about Commander Shepard?"

Tela shrugged. "Probably the same as most people, I guess. I've never seen her though, even though she lives on the same planet as us. My dad has seen her before though. He's in the Galactic Military and he says he's seen her a couple of times. I've heard she's really intimidating in person, but she always looks so nice on the vids."

"Do you like her?" Benny asked.

Tela laughed at that. "Well, yeah, of course. Everyone likes Shepard. She saved the galaxy. What kind of question is that?" Tela continued to laugh and shake her head.

Benny blushed. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Sorry." She flipped back a couple of pages in the book and showed Tela an image of the Cerberus logo. "It's just that, I was reading that she joined this terrorist group and I started to wonder..."

Tela shook her head emphatically. "She destroyed Cerberus in the end though. After the war, when all the evidence was revealed, it showed that Shepard hadn't really joined them. She just used them. She was protecting the galaxy all along. Trust me on that. My dad says that the media has been trying to dig up dirt on Shepard for years and they never find anything. He hates it when people talk bad about her." Leaning forward excitedly, she added, "He punched a guy once for saying that Shepard only cared about humans. It was so cool."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Benny agreed, even though she still felt woefully uninformed of all these facts. Then, quietly, she asked, "What would you do if you met Commander Shepard?"

Tela shrugged. "Probably faint," she joked. "What do you say to someone like that anyway? I know she's just another person, but... well, she's kind of not, you know? She's bigger than life, in a way. She's just -" Tela made a sweeping motion with her hand that suggested she was frustrated by the lack of words to describe what she meant. Her expression became annoyed and she finally said, "She's Commander Shepard. I don't know how else to explain how important she is." Pausing briefly, she added, "What would you say to her?"

"I don't know," Benny murmured.

Tela nodded her understanding, but in reality she had no way of knowing how Benny felt. How was Benny supposed to face her mother now? Knowing that her entire life she had been unaware of who Shepard truly was. Knowing that Shepard had saved countless lives, and that people practically worshiped her. How could she go back to just calling her Mom when she knew that she was speaking to the most famous person in the galaxy? She couldn't. Things could never be the same. Suddenly, the words of that biotic instructor, Jack, came rushing back to her. People would expect great things from her. She would live in her mother's shadow.

"Are you ok?" Tela asked suddenly, her eyes studying Benny's face.

Benny was so startled by the question that she jumped. "Oh, yeah, I'm ok. Sorry, I was just thinking."

"You looked like you were going to be sick."

"No. I'm fine." When Tela still looked doubtful, Benny said, "Really."

Shrugging, Tela said, "Ok. Well, I guess I'll go see if it's quiet enough upstairs to sleep now. Are you gonna go to bed?"

"Yeah, soon," Benny answered absentmindedly, waving to her friend as she walked away. Then she looked back down at the book in her lap, and opened it to the last page she had read. Picking up where she had left off, Benny devoured every last shred of information she could find on Commander Shepard.

~.~.~.~.~

The guard was like a stone statue. No, that wasn't true. Stone statues had more personality, Miranda decided. She'd tried talking to him and he'd completely ignored her. She'd even tried using a little sex appeal to get his attention, but he might as well have been a corpse. Behind that helmet and armor he remained an immovable rock. She only knew that he wasn't dead because when she'd tried to test the kinetic barrier of her cell, he had shouted at her to back off. Well, so much for sweet talking her way out of this. She would have to get creative.

Behind the guard stood a lone console. She had seen him use it to communicate with other guards, giving his status reports and authorizing that a meal be brought to her. Even if she could hack it from her cell - which she couldn't - the console would only have limited functions. Radio channels for communication, maybe exranet access. It wasn't much, but perhaps if Miranda could open both at the same time she could get some sort of distress signal out there. Shepard was looking for her, the Illusive Man had said as much, and the commander would have her eyes and ears combing for any useful information. Sending a tiny radio signal out into space wouldn't be much, but it might be enough.

Miranda paced in her cell, stretching her legs and thinking about what resources she had available. They'd obviously taken her omni-tool from her, so a direct method was out of the question. But they couldn't take her biotics from her. She flexed her right hand and eyed the console. Then, sweeping her eyes across the rest of the room she spotted the tray from her last meal by the door. It was a plastic tray, with a plastic cup on top of it, but it was out of the guard's line of sight since his attention was focused solely on Miranda.

She frowned. Using her biotics to lift the cup would be difficult from this distance without having the biotic glow spread past her hand. The more energy needed for the task, the farther the biotic field spread around the user. If she used too much energy the guard would see the glow and stop her. Miranda only had one shot at this.

Now, to keep the guard distracted. She faced him, her arms behind her back, and said, "I'm impressed. The Illusive Man must only have true zealots available to him now. Only complete xenophobes would still follow him and remain so loyal." Behind that helmet she couldn't tell if her words had any effect on him, but as long as he thought she was preoccupied with belittling him, then he wouldn't suspect what she was really up to. Trying to keep the concentration from her face, she reached for her biotics, just enough that her right hand became aglow with blue fire. With her hands hidden behind her back, the guard wouldn't be able to see what she was doing. By the door, the plastic cup also glowed and wobbled and then lifted slowly into the air. "Still," she continued on, "I cannot imagine there are very many of you. The Illusive Man has been inactive for too many years. He won't have the resources to keep a true army." The cup floated in the air, slowly hovering towards the console. Miranda watched it from the corner of her eye. Such a tiny, insignificant thing, but keeping it afloat with only minimal biotic power was trying. A sweat broke out on her forehead, and for once she was glad that her hair was an absolute mess since it would hide the sweat from the guard. "I'd be worried if I were you," she told him. "With such a miniscule force, Commander Shepard will tear through you all like tissue paper. But, if you help me out of here, I can make sure that she spares you." He gave no reaction, which she expected at this point, but his attention was still on her. The cup was nearly to the console now, and Miranda allowed herself to seize just a little more power so that her left hand now glowed with biotics. She eased the cup over the keyboard and positioned it to drop over the input command for both the radio channel and extranet access. She knew that she'd have to drop it to get enough force to activate the commands, and that would alert the guard, giving her only seconds to get a message off.

Never breaking eye contact with the guard, Miranda let the cup drop. It clattered over the keyboard, the console beeped to life and she could see an open channel displayed on the monitor. The guard turned sharply at the sound, but Miranda was already shouting, "Shepard! This is Miranda! The Illusive Man has me imprisoned somewhere. He's -" Before she could finish, the guard quickly crossed over to the console and shut it off, ending her message abruptly. He glanced back at her, and she glared back with a stiff jaw. I hope that was enough, she thought. If Shepard can trace that message back...

The guard opened up a different channel and said, "The prisoner managed to open an unsecure channel for a few seconds. I think she was trying to contact Commander Shepard."

A gruff voice on the other end said, "Understood."

The emotionless reply shocked Miranda. She furrowed her brow in confusion and stared at the guard's back. Why weren't they more concerned? It was like they were just going through the motions. Like they didn't have a stake in anything. Didn't they care that she had outsmarted them? That Shepard might soon be coming to kill them all?

The guard left the console and came to stand in front of the cell again, watching her with the same cold indifference. Miranda watched him warily, her skin suddenly crawling. Something was wrong here. Terribly wrong.

They stared at one another in silence for a long time, and then suddenly the door to the room slammed open and the Illusive Man swept in with two more guards on his heels. Miranda was more than a little relieved to see that he was angry. Yet, he paid the guard no mind, saying absolutely nothing about his failure to stop her from sending a message. Instead he approached the kinetic barrier to her cell and crossed his arms, frowning.

"I should have known better than to think you were securely contained, Ms. Lawson," he said coldly. "Of course you'd find a way to be a thorn in my side." He tapped his index finger on his arm. "I suppose you think you're very clever for finding a way to contact Shepard. But you haven't disrupted my plans." He grinned wickedly, smug and self-assured. "You see, I want Shepard to come to me. I'll admit, I had wanted a bit more time to prepare - I had intended to keep her running around and guessing for a bit longer - but I'm flexible. Everything on the schedule just gets moved up." He uncrossed his arms and motioned to the guards. "That means starting with you, Ms. Lawson. You'll wish you had decided to cooperate very soon."

The kinetic barrier of the prison vanished and the guards began moving towards her. An immense feeling of dread settled in Miranda's stomach and she knew that she was in grave danger. Desperately, she lashed out with a biotic push, hoping to strike the Illusive Man and end him once and for all, but one of the guards was also a biotic and he threw up a barrier to protect them. Another guard wasted no time letting off a concussive round which struck Miranda on the side of the head. She stumbled back, falling against the wall as her head spun. Her eyes refused to focus and the ground seemed to shift under her feet. Suddenly she found herself being slung over the shoulder of one of the soldiers like a sack of potatoes. She tried to struggle, but she still felt dizzy from the concussive round. The guard simply ignored her.

"Now, now, Ms. Lawson," the Illusive Man chided, "you had to know this day was coming. No one crosses me and gets away with it. Very soon I'll tie up every loose end. You will be reunited with Shepard in no time at all."