This chapter was supposed to be done last week, but it just refused to stop getting longer.

Song Themes:

Isabella Mills: With Slander for a Blade by Dirt Poor Robins

S&S

Canada's Prime Minister, Catherine Freeland, has pledged to continue the previous government's position in the matter of 'Martin v Canada.' Freeland's government came to power when a surprise vote of no confidence was called shortly before the winter recess resulted in a short, but bitter, campaign that followed.

Some had theorized that Freeland's government, under pressure from cybertech firms such as Beacon Technologies, would drop the case, effectively ending the Federal government's restrictions on 'unnecessary' cybernetic augmentation. This latest news though means that in just a month from now Canada's Supreme Court will begin to hear arguments on whether the Canadian Government infringed upon the Canadian Charter of Rights when they restricted augmentation technology.

This case will be of great interest across the world, as it represents the first of a series of legal challenges against the so-called 'anti-augmentation' laws that numerous governments worldwide have put into place over the last few years.

BBC, 2063

S&S

Vasir scowled as she exited the gunship and began to make her way deeper into the abolitionist complex, four months of combat in all its dullness and terror yet they were still no closer to accomplishing their mission.

She spotted Wrex drilling a handful of humans that he felt showed 'promise,' "Wrex, where is she?"

The Krogan tilted his head slightly to regard her, keeping his other eye on the fledgling warriors below, "She's been locked up in her lair since you left."

Vasir couldn't help but sigh as she felt a stress-born headache beginning to develop, "Goddess, why do I get stuck with the insane one's." A destination in mind she quickly moved towards the heart of the compound, and soon flesh and blood guards gave way to one's of metal and circuitry.

Evalyn had been shipping in new models of the combat mech's her company was producing as often as she could, each iteration more dangerous and refined thanks to the combat data that was being collected on the ground. If that was all the human was doing then Vasir wouldn't care, but Lady had realized early on that she was, aside from Wrex, the most experienced military mind on the planet and that her experience would be needed practically everywhere.

So, she had of course figured out a way to do just that.

A reinforced security door, that had been added since the incident that occurred when they arrived in system, opened, allowing the Spectre to slip inside and enter the nerve center of their little resistance movement. Pushed to one corner of the dim room was a large cylinder, and within that cylinder was her current partner.

The device allowed Eva, with the assistance of her A.I, to observe everything that was happening in the abolitionist tactical network. It essentially allowed her to move and update the forces under their command with a thought, and it was true that during the times that she was plugged in was when they made their greatest strides.

It was also exceedingly taxing on the human, likely to the point that she was doing even more damage to her brain.

Striding across the room Vasir wrapped her hand around the manual override and yanked it down, causing the object's front to swing open and a blonde, hair dye being in short supply, human to collapse to the floor. Vasir just sighed as she looked down at the almost pitiable figure, "How long have you been in there?"

All she got in response was a wracking cough, and with a roll of her eyes Vasir went and grabbed one of the liquid supplement packs that human biotics used, "Drink this, slowly."

Silence pervaded as Eva leaned back against the device, slowly regaining her wits and some energy as she drank from the package. Finally, her eyes moved up to Vasir, "How did the mission go?"

A small shake of Vasir's head caused a sigh to erupt from the human, "That bad then."

The asari moved across the room, and began to update the plans with the information she had just gathered, "Both Sederis and Jaroth haven't left been planetside for nearly a month, if the Na'Hesit and their corporate backers need something they travel to the station otherwise they are all holed up in New Thebes."

Pushing herself unsteadily to her feet, Eva made her way to one of the tactical displays, "Which means that my plan is our only option."

"Except it goes against our directive; we're supposed to minimize the damage, and a space station is not 'minimal' damage, Shepard."

The human glared at the use of her surname, but quickly shrugged it off, "You keep hiding behind the Council's orders so that you don't have to admit the truth of our situation," noticing Vasir's puzzled expression the human gave voice to the unspoken sentiment that filled the abolitionist halls, "We're losing."

Shaking her head in disagreement Tela moved closer, "How can you say we're losing? They've lost more men, more resources." Throwing her arm in a gesture at the table in front of them, "We just took back two cities, how can you even think that we are losing?"

Mismatched eyes glowed with grim knowledge, as the human directed her next statement to the ever present third party, "Tess, bring up the projections based on the last cycle of data." The display shifted, and Tela frowned in confusion as the Na'Hesit and their Eclipse allies slowly but surely began to push back and reclaim their lost territory. The asari couldn't help but voice her confusion, "I don't understand, what's changed?"

"Aria." An image suddenly filled the screen of a ship bearing Aria's mark moving towards Eclipse held space, "She's been trying to draw this combat out, but since that isn't an option anymore she's going to make sure that the side that wins is going to be in her debt."

Tela let out a groan at that, "And this way she can ensure they don't try and muscle in on her eezo profits in the Terminus systems." Moving away from the display Tela made a lazy circle of the room before nodding, "Okay, if, and I mean if, we go with your plan how long is our timetable?"

Eva summoned the plans on to the table, "I've had the most recent Typhon models already loaded on to the colony tug. Those units, plus maybe twenty or so abolitionists and I'm confident that we can neutralize Sederis."

Tela tapped a finger against her lower lip as she mulled it over, "Our timing is going to need to be perfect. Ground forces will need to engage with the defences at Thebes otherwise you'll get overwhelmed by the Eclipse reinforcements."

"Plus, if you attack too late then the corporatists might have a chance to flee."

Tela sighed as she glanced at the casualty projections that Tess projected, "A lot of people will die, Lady."

"It's a war, Tela, people always die."

Despite what many of the people who lived on this planet thought, the Spectres goals were not to liberate this planet but rather to give a very harsh lesson to those who would attempt to propagate slavery within Citadel space.

Vasir finally gave a small nod at the plan in front of her, "Alright, we'll figure out personnel tomorrow. How long do you think it will take you to drill into your picks what their missions are?"

Eva simply gave her a smug grin, "What do you think Wrex has been doing all this time?"

S&S

The meeting that took place the following day was small, consisting solely of a handful of trusted, and vetted, abolitionist commanders, Wrex, and the pair of Spectres. Evalyn back in her guise hiding armor swiftly launched into an overall description of what was to come.

"This operation will consist of an attack on both New Thebes and its associated station Sacred Band." She moved her hand over the map and tapped a section of space away from the planet, "We're going to use the colony tug that is sitting at the L4 Lagrange point and use it to breach the station, upon doing so we will neutralize Jona Sederis and deal with the remaining Eclipse survivors."

Of course, she wasn't going to mention that they were going to cut a deal with Eclipse absolving them of any and all guilt, that would just cause unnecessary issues at this point.

Vasir, from her position next to Eva, tapped the planet which caused an enlarged view of the city to be assaulted to appear, "Meanwhile all our forces which aren't currently engaged in combat theaters elsewhere will be assaulting the city. Our job is twofold, one to ensure that no Eclipse reinforcements are send up to the station, and to ensure that as soon as Eclipse is taken out of the equation that we are able to round up those who are responsible for this fiasco in the first place."

Jackson, one of the first to have been meld probed by Vasir, spoke up first, "No offence, Ma'ams, but why is this attack even required? We're making steady progress at retaking the planet so this attack seems needlessly risky."

Vasir gave him a small, but grim, smile as she answered, "We've just received intel that Aria T'Loak is backing Sederis in this fight, which means that they will be able to keep bleeding us dry as Omega's coffers ensures that the Na'Hesit have all the conscripts, eezo, and weapons that they need."

A dark chuckle emerged from the lone Krogan, "Which one of you two pissed off T'Loak? She wouldn't be getting this involved unless there was something personally in it for her, and she really doesn't care for Sederis."

That only earned Eva an almost catlike grin from the Tela, but the human ignored it as she pushed forward with the briefing, "Wrex will be accompanying Vasir, while the squads he has been training will be accompanying me once this meeting is over."

The sole non-human commander, a Turian who went by the name Pobus, grumbled out a question, "And when is this assault happening exactly? You can't expect us to survive this suicide mission if you don't give us time to prepare."

Vasir made to reply but was cut off as Eva stepped closer to the assembled 'military' leaders, "If this were a regular war then I would agree with you, but even with Vasir's efforts we all know that our security is compromised. There are too many people, both civilian and military, that have family in Na'Hesit territory, and those people would sell us out in a heartbeat if it meant protecting their loved ones."

The abolitionists grew quiet at that, remembering the attack that had occurred when the Spectres had first arrived. Most of those who had assisted Eclipse had been people with family who hadn't made it to safe territory, and family was a motivation that was easy for most people to understand.

Evalyn even understood it, though her definition of family was certainly skewed at this point she had to admit.

She let silence rule just long enough so that her message had time to sink in, "This mission though is about putting a stop to all of this, we can, and we will eliminate Eclipse from this equation. This war could drag on for years, or we could finish it in a handful of days and you can start getting back the lives you once had."

She could tell that her words had swayed enough of them to cool the hottest of tempers, though she and Vasir would have to do some additional one on one damage control before she left for L4. Shutting off the tactical display she remotely opened the room's main hatch, "You're all dismissed, get your people ready and your assignments will be uploaded to your Omni's when you are on the transports."

There was some mild grumbling, but no blow-ups as the militia fighters left the room. Eva though was shaking her head in mild annoyance as she muttered, "Christmas," causing Vasir's lips to quirk downwards in confusion, "You've lost me, Lady."

Eva let out a sigh, "It was something they said during one of our major wars in the twentieth century, 'Over by Christmas,'" shaking her head again the human broke out of her reverie, "Regardless, we can't afford to let it spiral out of control like that."

The senior Spectre clapped a hand on her shoulder before leaving the room, leaving the human behind with Wrex whose gravelly voice filled the room, "Try to make sure the girl makes it out alive."

Knowing that the Battlemaster had developed a soft spot for the young human biotic he had been training she nodded, "I'll try."

S&S

Eva moved through the transport ship as she hunted down the last squad leader to give them their assignment, Isabella had proven both competent and highly motivated which had earned her command of a small unit that would be in charge is disabling the security systems.

She found the girl in one of the forward observation rooms, a feature that was both dangerous and unnecessary in Eva's opinion but she didn't design the ship.

The girl had hardened both in mind and body over the last few months, and had taken to wearing an armored coat that Eva had shipped from Illium for her to use. Though said coat was also somewhat ill fitted now as the girl had hit a late growth spurt, with none of the growth going to her height. As such the girl had to tilt her head back to regard the spectre, but that was normal for Eva as she was the same towering height as her Father had been.

"I've been looking for you." The sound of the mechanically distorted voice was normal for the young warrior who simply shrugged before she answered the question, "The furthest I've ever been was to one of the orbiting stations, this is the first time I've ever truly escaped natural gravity."

Eva nodded as she moved up to the viewport as well, "You get used to it, after long enough natural gravity starts to feel abnormal." Isabella's omni flashed as Shepard transferred over the mission plan that the girl and her team were responsible for, "Your team is to work with both Arashu and Amonkira squads until you reach checkpoint four, at which point use the emergency lift to progress down to the beta security hub and run the program that I just uploaded to your omni."

She paused momentarily before adding, "You should probably make sure everyone has a copy of it, just in case."

Isabella nodded, but as a small frown crossed her lips she, cautiously, voiced a question that Eva was sure had been in her head for quite some time, "What are you? I mean, species wise." She flinched slightly when Eva focussed her attention solely on to her, causing the girl's distorted reflection to stare back at her through the Spectre's helm, "I'm nothing, or at least that is what I am as long as I wear this armor."

It was true, the armor was both a prison and a liberation of sorts. It tied her to the Council certainly, but it also freed her from what she was and what she would become again if she was stripped of it.

Glancing forward Eva realized that they were in visual distance of the colony tug, and so with a few commands she brought up an enlarged view of the massive vessel on the viewport. Isabella's eyes widened at the sight of the ship, "That's enormous!" though a frown soon developed on her lips, "Why would something like that be here though, and how did you know about it?"

Eva tapped at the ship, causing a digital representation of it to spin slowly on the screen, "Eezo processing is a dangerous procedure, even more so when it is done planetside. Normally we find it on asteroids, or barren worlds not ones that are hospitable. As such the mining conglomerates, right before the civil war started up, had decided to move manufacturing to L4, which meant moving all those workers on the surface into space as well."

A pleased smirk formed on her lips, "I found that in their public minutes, and so it simply became a matter of finding out where they left the tug." Seeing the girl's still questioning expression she elaborated further, "Every colony project needs a tug, they are basically a bunch of engines surrounded by heavy plating in case of an accident. You need to build colonies near resource rich areas like asteroid belts, and then the tub drags them to their final destination."

Glancing from the screen to the Spectre and back again Isabella shook her head in disbelief, "And you're going to use it, as a battering ram?"

Which only earned a laugh from the older woman, "Sounds like fun doesn't it, if we're lucky we might shatter the space elevator too and ruin Eclipse's chances for reinforcements."

"How likely is that?" The question gave Eva pause as she did some brief calculation in her head, "Rather unlikely, we'll damage it likely but to destroy the elevator would require us to be moving at a speed where we would be unable maneuver and the station's emergency protocols would have to fail to activate."

She clapped the girl on her shoulder, causing her dark braided hair to shift, "I'm not going to say you shouldn't worry, but we've already put this plan into motion. No need to worry about what you can't change, and focus on what you can."

S&S

The transport lurched suddenly, a side effect of the pilot having to stick close to the ground to avoid detection, causing those in the crew compartment to jostle violently. Wrex let out a growl at the continual evasive maneuvers, "It's embarrassing for a warrior to die before he gets to the fight, Tela."

Vasir sitting across from him just smirked, "We'll be fine," though as the ship banked suddenly in the opposite direction she quickly amended her statement, "I'm pretty sure we'll be fine."

That just earned an annoyed huff from the large reptile, before he, uncharacteristically, continued the conversation, "Which one of you had the idea to send the girl off world?"

"Lady made that call."

Wrex gave a small nod at that, "Good, it's a hard thing killing a parent."

Vasir didn't respond to that, as she knew that the Krogan didn't like to open up about his past on Tchunka. Instead she pulled herself to her feet and made her way up to the cockpit. The human pilot, his name started with an M she believed, didn't react to her presence, as this had become a standard occurrence for any pilot that had flown the asari spectre, "Are we on schedule?"

The pilot didn't answer immediately, instead he glanced down to check a few readings on his displays first, "This route has more obstacles than the scouts reported, the main force will probably arrive on time but we'll be arriving a little late to the party."

"How late?" but a shake of the pilot's head was all the answer she needed, "Alright, just try to get there as quickly as you can without killing us."

Slipping back into the crew compartment she settled back down across from Wrex, whom was in the midst of his seventh weapon check, "You really think that anything has changed between now and ten minutes ago?"

The Krogan paid no heed to her as he finished up his check, finally satisfied he set the weapon down at his side and glanced up at the spectre, "You really think we can rely on the Salarian's intel?"

"Given that we both had a go at him I'm as confident as I can be."

The Salarian in question was Jaergan, Evalyn's captive and brother to the number two Eclipse agent in this system; Jaroth. According to their guest Jaroth wasn't one of Sederis' people, but he had been appointed by the board to ensure that Sederis didn't screw up what was a potentially lucrative contract.

Unlike the Blue Suns, Jona Sederis didn't have enough capital behind her when she formed Eclipse which had forced her to partner up with several well to do investors who had taken the company public. These investors did recognize the value of Sederis' reputation, but they also knew that she was a liability when it came to more delicate matters. Which resulted in the appointing of Jaroth and several others, who in theory could overrule Sederis.

Now there was no way that Jaroth would roll over if Sederis was still in the picture, the last corporate stooge who had tried to pull rank on her had found himself turned inside out. Remove the bitch though, and that was a different story.

Of course, they couldn't just kill her, too many of the high-level members were fanatically loyal to Sederis. As such she needed to be neutralized, though in a fashion that would paralyze her followers for fear that harm might come to her.

"You never did say which one of you ticked off Aria." Wrex's voice brought her out of her own mind, though Tela simply gave a light shrug, "I'm never met her, I know that Lady had some dealings with her but as far as I'm aware they were mostly cordial."

Wrex suddenly let out a bellow of laughter, "Remind me to give her my condolences next time I see her, not many survive Aria's attempts at courting."

That stopped Vasir cold, before a singular giggle emerged from her lips which quickly developed into tear inducing laughter, "Aria's trying to sleep with Lady?"

"Less sleep with than trying to get a kid out of her. It is her style, both before and after she became a queen bitch."

The giggles lasted her until the transport hit the dirt, and then there was nothing to laugh at.

S&S

"Impact is in five minutes people, double check your safety harnesses and prepare for some turbulence." Isabella couldn't understand how the Spectre could be so calm given that they were riding in what was essentially a giant metal fist on a collision course with an even bigger metal object.

Yet she simply strode around the bay doing spot checks on everyone's gear, and as she yanked on Isabella's harness the Spectre's mechanical voice broke the bay's silence, "I nearly forgot, Wrex wanted me to remind you that you aren't done of your training yet. So, don't even think about dying yet."

The thought of the grizzled old warrior being worried about her safety caused a smile to form on Isabella's lips, Wrex was incredibly rough but he had a good heart and she found the small tidbits of Krogan culture that he had dropped to be fascinating.

Before she had started training with the Battlemaster she had simply tried to coast through life, she was smarter than most and Mother had seen to it that she had every advantage possible. As such she had avoided anything that even offered the possibility of failure, but Wrex had shown her a different path.

A better path.

He liked to joke about how failure was the greatest teacher, and that it was a testament to the sheer stupidity of his race that they weren't the rulers of the galaxy after how many failures they had suffered. Still though she had never felt more alive than she had in these last few months, the Krogan had kept her focussed and busy in continuing her Father's work.

Today he would finally be able to rest peacefully, and then she would focus on the future.

"Impact in sixty seconds, get ready people!"

The ship began to shake as impacts from the station's perimeter weapons began to slam into the heavily armored vessel, but it would take far longer than a single minute for this ship to be compromised.

The timer on her display ticked below the thirty second mark, and her entire body clenched as she wrapped her arms around her torso like she had been shown.

And then hell broke loose, metallic screams filled the air as she was buffeted in her crash chamber. The bulkheads pinged and buckled inward, while the ship's V.I began to list off damaged systems; which apparently consisted of the entire ship.

The abolitionists began to clumsily extricate themselves from their crash webbing, only to be shown up by the Spectre who was already striding across the room like some modern god of war flanked by an entire squad of metal soldiers.

The Typhon Mark 4, or T4 according to the Spectre, resembled an armored humanoid and they were armed with a variety of weapons that were powered directly from the mech's own internal power systems.

Lady made a gesture and pairs of mechanoids split off from the force she was leading, each of them moving to one of the assigned squad leaders, "These mech's will be assisting your teams and they are programmed to follow your directives unless they are contrary to the mission. Don't hesitate to sacrifice them, machines can be replaced; lives can't."

With that the white armored woman began to lead them out of the damaged ship, eventually blowing open one of the airlocks on the ship's port side to gain access to a heavily damaged but serviceable portion of the station. A map was suddenly projected from the Spectre's omni-tool, and she tapped a portion of it that suddenly caused all the other squad leaders' maps to update as well, "We are presently in quadrant four of level sixteen of the station," on her HUD Isabella could see a segment of the station highlight before a red line traced to a new destination, "and we will proceed to transit station three before splitting up into squ-"

She was cut off as accelerator fire began to fill the hall, Eclipse soldiers pouring out of a hatch further down the hall from the abolitionist position. The T4's immediately began to engage, their presence obviously startling the mercenaries as they were almost wholly focussed on the inhuman combatants.

Isabella reached down and tapped into her biotic reserves, she still wasn't at her full potential as there was no time for her to get an amp implanted but she still packed a punch. The swirling energy left her hand and struck one of the eclipse soldiers, causing him to fly backwards into his fellows as the throw field did its work.

Lady for her part simply strode forward, the rifle in her hand taking a life every time that it spat out a round.

Wrex had said it was a human design called a Sabre. She had later looked it up and discovered that it was custom designed by the Alliance military for people who had achieved N6 or higher. So Lady had either been in the human special forces, or she had killed one of them.

The Eclipse force that had spotted them was routed quickly, but the Spectre didn't waste anytime in sending the mech's to begin clearing their path. While she permitted her flesh and blood soldiers a few moments to check for any injured.

Whoever she was, Isabella always noticed that Lady always seemed more comfortable on the battlefield than she did back at base. She had asked Wrex about that once, and he had just cryptically said that she had the 'blood of a warlord' in her.

He had gone on to explain that it was a title granted to only the most powerful of warriors, and it was something the demanded respect even if they were your enemy. Elaborating further, Wrex had explained that a warlord was a warrior that inspired people to follow them, he had struggled to explain how they inspired such confidence merely telling her that she would know it if she felt it.

Still, as she watched as the people around her snapped to attention as Lady's voice barked out commands she could almost believe in what Wrex had said.

S&S

A group of Eclipse soldiers howled in pain as Eva overloaded the cryo containment systems of a shipping crate they had been using for cover, engulfing them in a deluge of sub-zero gas that effectively removed them from the current sortie. Glancing over her shoulder she shouted at the closest squad of abolitionists, "Harrison, get your squad up here and push up the left flank.

The man nodded and with a few quick shouts into his headset rallied his people to start pushing on the collapsing Eclipse line, in the meanwhile Eva had summoned several of the mech's and leapt over the barrier she was using for cover. Pushing deeper into the plaza they were fighting in she shifted her aim high and began picking off the soldiers in the upper galleries, relying on the Harrison's squad and the T4's to keep her protected from the threats on her level.

A metallic whine filling the air caused her to shift her attention to ground level, and she turned just in time to see that one of the mech's being crushed by a shipping crate. Though the machine was still firing despite most of its superstructure being crushed by the crate.

Eva ignored that however, and instead concentrated on the Eclipse Sister only a few meters front of her, the Sisters were one of Sederis' personal units and operated the highly lucrative smuggling routes that moved through Illium's capital of Nos Astra.

The asari shot her a grin as she charged at her on a wave of biotic energy. Given how close the asari had been Evalyn didn't have time to deploy a damping field, instead she engulfed her own body with as strong a biotic barrier as she could and mag locked her boots to the ground as she let the asari's attack slam into her shields.

Even with those efforts though both her barrier and shield were destroyed, causing the force of the blow to push her backwards; her boots screeching against the deck plates as they struggled to keep their lock on the floor.

Attack over the Spectre straightened her posture causing the few warped plates on her armor to ping in protest. Realizing her mistake the asari's eyes widened as Eva lunged forward, slamming her replacement enforcement gauntlet into the Sister's skull causing the alien to collapse to the floor.

Checking to ensure that her shields were still recycling she took a quick stock of the battlefield. Her mech's, along with the support from the abolitionists, seemed to have taken over this section of the station, which meant that they needed to move on to the second phases, "Alright people, everyone move to the lifts now. We're wasting time!"

They fell in line with admirable discipline for a group that had been little more than civilians playacting as soldiers mere months ago, but she knew that most of them wouldn't survive direct encounters with Eclipse Regulars.

She just had to hope that most of them were engaged down on the planet below, but that Sister she had just fought did not leave her with a lot of hope in that department.

As she walked toward the bank of lifts situated in the rear of the room she found that the squads were pouring into every transit device available. Luckily, they had landed close to the hanger that handled refined eezo, as such it had dozens of lifts that accessed every portion of the station in order to speed up processing and shipment of the valuable resource.

Another advantage to this lift was that the mining companies didn't want their competitors spying on each other, so the lifts had no surveillance and were cut off from system control if you had the correct passcodes.

And as a Spectre, she had found it rather easy to strong-arm representatives of the non-Anhur mining guilds into giving her those codes.

Eva though had her own target, and slipped into one of the express elevators meant for emergency situations she shot skywards to the section of the station reserved for corporate heads and visiting politicians.

Her research on Sederis had revealed her to be a poor imitation of Aria, so an area devoted to such gaudy luxury seemed like a good place to start hunting.

Cautiously moving forward, she easily breached the station's local network and found herself frowning at what she discovered. This entire section, barring one complex directly ahead, was completely dark. Unhooking a pair of black boxes that had been sitting at the small of her back she threw them on to the ground in front of her, the objects quickly unfurled into the next generation of her spider-like assault drones which swiftly skittered off to scout the area.

With their feeds transmitting to her HUD she moved forward, keeping to cover whenever possible as she moved through the empty streets in an effort to lower the risk of an Eclipse sniper getting lucky.

Coming across the complex she found that it was entirely unguarded, and unsecured, so of course it was a trap. Summoning one of her drones which quickly scurried to her position she sent the small spider like mech into the structure, only to have nothing happen at all.

"I'll admit that I was hoping that you would actually be stupid enough to go in, I've met enough Spectres to know that most of you Council worshipping assholes can hardly think with anything other than your guns."

Glancing around slowly Eva frowned as she saw no signs of incoming movement, which made no sense to her as there was no way Sederis could think that she could just lock her in the attic. The asari continued to speak over the station's comm system, "I hope you can accept my apologies for not greeting you in person, but you see there is a lost little girl who needs to be returned to her Mother. Thanks for delivering her right to me, by the way, you have no idea the amount of bitching I'd have had to listen to if she had died."

Growling to herself Eva began to head back towards the lifts only to discover that every single lift was sealed due to a reported 'atmospheric leak.'

She could blow through the hatch, but it would take her longer to break through the security gate on the other side of it.

"As you probably just realized I've locked down that level, but don't worry you won't be in there for long. I have a feeling that you are going to be really branching out in a few moments."

Eva didn't need for her drones to find the explosives to know that Sederis was insane enough to blow the entire top off a space station, and given that she had no hope of exiting this level through the inside of the station.

She'd just have to use the outside.

Thumbing one of the few explosives charges she had left she threw it at the closest viewport, using her biotics to make sure it was in place before she ran out of time. She ended up detonating the charge only moments before she slammed into the transparent barrier, which turned out to be almost too fast as the security shutter that deployed automatically clipped her back on the way out sending her tumbling end over end in the void of space.

She had only a few moments to celebrate escaping the level before the entire top of the Sacred Band station exploded, and she found herself being blasted deeper into space from the shockwave.

S&S

"I'm just saying he needs a name."

Isabella rolled her eyes as she uploaded the virus into the security systems, they had been able to move swiftly through this level though they had lost one of the mechs. As a result Jones had decided that they needed to give the surviving mechanical a name.

The machine in question was hunkered down next to her, its featureless head keeping an eye on the entrance where another member of her squad, Lucas, was stationed beside.

She could practically hear the eye roll in Lucas' response to Jones, "It's a freaking war machine, man, not a goddamn pet."

"If you don't like Sparky as a name just say so."

Isabella let out a gasp as the eezo in her body reacted to a sudden surge of biotic power, and before she could shout out a warning the entire room was engulfed in a cacophony of screaming metal as a singularity ripped the wall that Lucas was using for cover apart.

The man didn't even have a chance to scream as he was pulled into the unstable biotic field, and Isabella's helmet automatically dimmed itself to protect her eyes from the flash as the field was detonated; taking both Lucas and a large portion of the wall with it.

And on the other side was the black clad figure of Jona Sederis, a twisted grin on her lips as she laid eyes on Isabella, "Finally, you have no idea how many humans I've killed today trying to find you."

Faster than an organic could respond 'Sparky' had dashed across the gap and wrapping its limbs around the asari tackled her to the floor, its mechanical voice relating a warning to the humans, "Self-Destruct mechanism activated; move to minimum safe distance."

And the humans did just that, throwing themselves into a full-on dash to escape both the explosion and the asari. A slight tremor went through the deck plating when, Isabella assumed, the mech exploded, but she didn't dare to assume the Eclipse leader was dead.

Glancing at her map to get her bearings she called back to those behind her, "There's a lift just ahead, we'll take it and regroup with the Spectre." Sara for her part kept following, but tapped the item that adorned all their hips, "Weren't we given these to deal with her?" The item in question was a modified slave collar that Lady insisted would shut down any attempts by an asari to access their biotics.

Jones though just shook his head, "If you want to get that close to the bitch who just tore apart a hardened wall like it was a fucking toy then more power to you, I vote we just fucking put as much distance between us and her as we can." That plan however was nixed as soon as they realized that the lift was dead and the doors magnetically sealed.

A flash of realization came upon the squad leader, "Lady mentioned that only the lift we used was out of Eclipse's control, and that's out of the question since it's on the other side of Sederis." Refusing to panic she calmed her mind like how Wrex had taught her, and as an idea formed she turned to Sara, "Do you remember if the hanger you checked had any ships in it?"

There was a moment of hesitation before the other woman gave her a nod, "Yes, but it was a transport. It looked operable but if the drive core isn't spooled up it could take a while." Isabella though just shook her head, "It's still a better option than running around hoping that we find a lift that Eclipse forgot to shut down."

As they moved through the latest empty hallway on their way to the hanger Jones glanced around him nervously, "Where the hell are all the mercs?"

She knew what he meant as they had fought at least three squads just getting to the security hub, but she also knew the answer from the briefing that the Spectre had given the squad leaders, "Sederis likes to play with her kills, she's probably been going level to level and sending her men to secure other areas."

Reaching the final hallway to the hanger entrance Sara slipped ahead to peek inside, before slipping back to the squad's position, "There are two Eclipse regulars in the hanger that I can see, but there could be more in the transport."

Glancing at Jones who just gave her a nod of encouragement she steeled herself, "We don't have a choice. Sara, you get to the transport and make sure it is ready to go, we'll handle the guards."

Taking the lead, the she slipped into the hanger first. It was mostly bare aside for a few scattered shipping crates near the entrance, while the transport squatted in the left side of the bay.

Targeting the furthest mercenary, she slammed a lift field into him causing him to rise towards the ceiling. Which exposed him to the follow up throw field that punted him through the Hanger entrance that was only covered by a kinetic barrier at the moment, and into the void of space. Jones in the meanwhile had downed his target in a hail of accelerator rounds and shouting, but he glanced down in worry at his belt, "Down to my last three thermal clips."

"Sara, we're good out here how's the ship?" silence was the only answer she received and in a panic, she found herself dashing towards the ship, "Sara! Dammit answer!"

A trio of Eclipse soldiers strolled out of the ship, one of whom carried a still smoking pistol in her hand, "I'm sorry, but Sara's unavailable at the moment."

Isabella's attention was pulled from the trio when Jones suddenly let out a shout of both pain and alarm as he went sailing into a nearby bulkhead. Sederis padded towards the last human standing with bored expression on her face as she approached her target, "Xelna, you and the girls go and have fun on the higher levels, I'm going to take this naughty human back home to Mommy."

The human biotic reached for the power in her body, but she let out a gasp as the Eclipse leader blinked directly in front of her. Sederis flowed around Isabella's attempt to attack and slammed a blue first into the back of the human's neck both stunning, and shattering the human's amp at the same time.

"Go, Xelna, that's an order." The asari who had murdered Sara gave a small nod, and signalled for the pair behind her to follow her out of the hanger.

Using the moment's reprieve to grab the knife hidden in her gauntlet Isabella swung at Sederis, only for the mercenary to bat the weapon away. A smirk flashed on lilac lips as Sederis spun in place before Asari slamming her armored boot into the human's stomach, but as Isabella hit the floor no follow-up blow came.

Instead she spotted Sederis land ass first on the ground nearby, before quickly scrambling to her feet with a murderous glare in her eyes, "I'll admit, Spectre, I'm impressed you both escaped and made it down her as quickly as you did."

The ring of heavy footsteps signalled that Lady was moving closer to the asari, though Isabella was confused as to how the Spectre had gotten to the hanger exit side without anyone noticing her, "I took a shortcut."

Sederis actually let out a laugh at that, "I can see why Aria wants to get her hands on your genes, there is certainly something refreshingly arrogant about you. It's just so amusing to see one of the lesser races think that they are actually our equals."

"I'll show you what a lesser race can do."

S&S

Sederis charged just as Eva had expected her to, and unlike the Sister from earlier she had taken the time to prep a damping field when she had slipped into the hanger from the void outside. So as Sederis materialized she let out a gasp as her biotics were temporarily denied to her, and never one to ignore an opening Eva slammed her knee into the asari forcing her to double over.

She had however, underestimated how long it would take for Sederis to recover and found herself on the receiving end of a cargo container that Sederis threw at her with her biotics.

Using the small respite the asari spat out a mouthful of purple blood, her eyes narrowed in anger at the proof of her mortality, "Cute trick, but that's all your kind has." Energy began to flicker off of Sederis as her body was unable to completely contain the energy she was summoning, "But I have power!"

Eva's rifle snapped to her shoulder as she fired off a handful of rounds, only to find them impact harmlessly against the barrier that was protecting the asari. Sighing the human raised her left arm, causing a micro-missile launcher to pop out of her gauntlet before launching a single missile of the pair she had available.

The missile was based on the same technology that Disruptor torpedoes used to collapse capital ship shielding, only miniaturized and even more expensive. Of course, unlike a mechanical based system a biotic could choose to simply drop their barrier, but she had a feeling that Sederis wouldn't be willing to pass up a challenge.

So as the projectile impacted against Sederis' barrier the alien let out a scream of effort as she kept trying to fuel both her attack and her barrier, but as she eyes locked on Eva's helmed visage the human realized she had miscalculated.

And so instead of keeping her barrier up in defiance of Eva's attack, Sederis instead shunted all that energy into her attack and unleashed a flare directly at the Spectre.

Eva only had a few seconds to react, and so she twisted to present her right side to the blow knowing that dodging was out of the question.

Pain blossomed as her armor warped under the intense, though brief, biotic force, causing her to collapse to the ground for a few moments as her armor was forcibly fused together in several places. Forcing herself back to reality she became aware of the sound of accelerator fire, and realized that either Isabella or her team must have been attempting to engage with Sederis when her attention was fixated on the Spectre.

Ripping off the offending armor plates, the human staggered to her feet. Her Saber had been thrown to the edge of the bay, and so in the interest of time, and saving lives, she pulled her backup weapons from their holsters and re-engaged with the Eclipse Founder.

It was obvious that the asari had been toying with the humans, but seeing that the Spectre was back on her feet Sederis batted them aside with a thought as she approached Eva with a grin, "You have stamina, I like that in prey."

Eva simply opened fire, frowning when the rounds were absorbed by Sederis' biotics. She had not anticipated that Sederis was this strong biotically. The woman was known as a proficient if violent combatant, but nothing to this degree of power that she was currently showing off.

Forced to concede that she didn't have the option of weakening her opponent from a distance, Evalyn decided that she would just have create an opening with which she could collar the alien.

Her omni lit up as she launched an incinerate at Sederis, biotics protected from many things but heat wasn't one of them, and then through her cybernetics she triggered the core of her Tempest to overload and threw it to where she predicted her opponent would blink to.

Satisfaction filled her as Sederis was stumbled from the concussive force of the explosion that she blinked into, and the Spectre swiftly closed the gap between the two of them as she slipped the collar from her waist and into her left hand.

She tasted victory.

Only for Sederis to catch the collar moments before it wrapped around her neck, "Did you think I didn't notice that all your little pawns had these?"

Eva's response was to jam her pistol as hard as she could into the Asari's side and pulled the trigger as fast as she could. Sederis' barrier unable to protect her at this close of a range, and the asari only ended the onslaught when she pushed the human away with a biotic wave.

Clutching at her side, blood oozing from several of the holes punctured through the plating, the asari's eyes blazed with anger, "Since you went to such trouble to level the playing field, why don't I just bring you to my level?" Sederis' body flared with power as she gripped the human with her biotics and slammed Eva into the side of the freighter.

The metal buckled inward from the force being exerted on it, and another pulse of power furthered the damage while also shattering the right side of the Spectre's helmet. Revealing her face to the asari, whose mouth ticked upward in amusement at the sight.

The last thing Eva heard before the ship's superstructure gave way was Sederis' mocking voice, "I'm glad you showed me what a lesser race can do."

S&S

Warning: Operator life signs critical.

Element Zero exposure beyond critical levels.

Lazarus protocol engaged.

S&S

Sederis hummed in satisfaction as the shuttle imploded inward in a flash of blue energy.

Her blue gaze shifted over to the Isabella and Jones, and Isabella just sighed as she dropped her gaze to the ground. It was obvious by this point that neither human stood a chance against the asari.

Sederis chuckled at the despondent human, "Cheer up, little one, you'll be back home soon enough. We'll just need to move hangers to get a new ship." The alien seemed to mentally debate something in her mind as she approached the humans, "Then once that is out of the way I can get to know my new toy a bit better."

Sederis smirked as she planted her foot on Jones' chest, "If you perform well enough, I might even let you join my forces once I've had my fun," her eyes shifted over to Isabella, "though seeing you in the flesh has me rethinking giving you back to your mother, you are quite the lovely specimen, my dear."

The hanger's lights flickered for a moment, and suddenly red emergency lighting flickered into existence as an automated warning began to fill the air around them, "Warning: A rogue Class Five intelligence has been detected in the station's mainframe, station network entering safe mode until quarantine procedures are complete."

Sederis frowned at that announcement, "What is this nonsense about?"

Her answer swiftly came and those in the hanger could only stare at the shifting wreckage of the freighter, as a battered but very much alive Spectre emerged from the wreckage of the transport. Sederis' stupefied expression quickly turned murderous as the figure continued to approach her, stripping away broken pieces of armor, with what was obviously a cybernetic arm, before finally removing the helmet and revealing the Spectre's face.

Isabella let out a gasp as Evalyn Shepard's fierce visage revealed itself. A large portion of the right side of her face, and her left eye, was covered in an eerie red glow that had to be the result of cybernetics of some kind.

Seemingly satisfied that she was combat ready the Spectre glanced down at her natural arm, and with a flick of her wrist manifested a crimson biotic field. She seemed surprised at the color for a few moments before shooting a confident grin at her opponent, which was only made more unsettling given the red glow from the field in her hand, "Red is a good color, don't you think, Sederis?"

The Eclipse leader though simply began to slowly circle the human, who began to do likewise, reminding Isabella of two alpha predators sizing each other up. Sederis rolled her neck as she engulfed her body in a barrier of biotic energy, "I don't know who, or what, you are, but it won't matter once I've sent you to the void."

Shepard though wasn't phased by the threat, "I'm the one that you'll be kneeling to once this is over with," and the quiet confidence that she was projecting made Isabella believe every word the Spectre had said.

Sederis let out a howl of anger at the insolence of the human, and Eva found her position overrun with a series of shockwaves. The Spectre in a flash of red energy blinked from the epicenter of the attack, only to reappear nearby her omni flashing as she engulfed Sederis in a cryo blast.

The asari howled as she was coated in numerous layers of ice, a problem that Sederis overcame by releasing her stored biotic energy in a massive nova. Blowing off not only the ice, but also sending everything in the hanger, including the human bystanders, flying.

Shepard for her part quickly took control of her skid across the hanger, digging her artificial hand into the deck plating to arrest her momentum. That task accomplished Isabella could see that the Spectre had procured another pistol from somewhere, and she began to fire upon the asari who had still yet to recover from her previous attack even as with every step she closed the distance between the two of them.

Shepard's body flashed red as she slammed a biotic punch into Sederis' gut, warping plating beneath the blow before she caught the retaliatory strike of the asari's within her mechanical grasp.

Sederis' voice had lost much of the cool it had previously possessed, instead now becoming manic as Shepard refused to die, "I will not lose here, human! I'll kill you, and then I'll kill every other human on this station," an almost unhinged laugh emerged from the wide-eyed alien.

Shepard though looked at the snapped asari like a bug had landed on her hand, "You can't kill what's already dead."

Twisting violently Eva popped the asari's arm out of its socket causing a screech of pain to emerge from Sederis, and swiftly followed that up with a blow to the alien's throat that left her dazed and gasping for air.

Eva's head twisted towards the pair of human's gawking at the fight, the combination of the red eyes and loose hair made her look like some corrupted goddess to Isabells, "I need one of your collars," Sederis' body flashed with power as she clumsily swiped at the Spectre with her functional arm, "Now!"

Jones had been swifter to answer Shepard's command, and quickly tossed his collar underhand to Shepard who deftly caught it only to slam it onto Sederis' neck moments later.

The asari froze for a few moments as her biotics simply fizzled away. At least until she broke out into a full-blown cackle as Isabella could feel the Asari trying to draw upon her biotic power, despite the fact that doing so was causing the collar to send more and more feedback into her body, "If you think this toy can keep me in check, you are about to have a nasty surprise, human!"

Sederis' body began to thrum and glow with power as she tried to overload the collars capabilities. Both Jones and Isabella found themselves putting distance between themselves and the display of power, but Shepard simply stood her ground just in front of the asari.

Sederis' body was practically blinding as she continued at her attempt to overload the collar, "Once I get this collar off you die, human, then your family, and then your friends! Do you hear me, hu-"

With that Sederis's body seemingly reached the breaking point, and she collapsed to the floor just inches from the Spectres' boots.

Crimson eyes stared down impassively before a satisfied smirk formed on Shepard's lips, "You didn't kneel, but I suppose this will have to do."

S&S

Nudging Sederis' head with her boot Eva was satisfied that the alien was out for the count, "Jones, go and grab my rifle."

The man simply mutely nodded as he hurried to carry out the task assigned to him, Eva for her part started a check to ensure that all her parts were where she had last left them before she glanced at Isabella, "How bad do I look?"

The girl's mouth opened and closed several times before she sputtered out, "Your face, it, well it's glowing."

Frowning at that comment Eva held up her omni to let her get a look at her face, and seeing the red lines under her skin combined with the angry scarring around her eye her frown deepened, "That is going to be a bitch to hide."

Accepting her rifle from Jones with a nod she settled it into the crook of her cybernetic arm, "Jones, Isabella, you two stay down here and guard her, I'm going to deal with Jaroth."

They made to protest but that was silenced by a glare from the Spectre, "We did not go through all this effort to capture her alive just to have her escape, now keep her under wraps."

The two gave sharp nods of understanding as Evalyn left the hanger, and as she progressed to the closest lift her mind finally found a few moments to play catch up to what had occurred.

One: Her mind felt like it was being stretched in a thousand different directions as the nannites had taken the uplink to her omni-tool and multiplied that by what felt like a factor of a thousand.

Two: She felt spectacular. Not only from the sheer degree of biotic power that was surging through her, but her command of the energy felt more fluid, more instinctual.

Three: She was in a really, really, good mood all things considered.

Reaching out with her mind the human crushed the digital security that was keeping the lifts sealed, and with a rather nonchalant press of the keypad she began the journey up to the primary command hub.

She smirked at the repeating system announcement about a rogue intelligence, which she had to presume was technically herself given the circumstances. Luckily the network going down meant that Jaroth would have no idea what was going on from the command center until he managed to bypass the system's safeties.

As such the two mercenaries that were on the other side of the lift doors had no chance to defend themselves as she drilled a round through each of their helmets.

She had already calmly left the lift as their bodies hit the ground, and she continued her path to the command center. Opposition was sparse, likely because the mercenaries were scattered across the station dealing with the remaining hostile fire teams.

Summoning her newly strengthened biotics she lashed out at doors that barred her entrance to the command center, and with mechanical precision eliminated all those in the room save for her target.

"Jaroth, we need to have a talk."

It took the Salarian a few moments to realize that he was still alive. Though once that realization dawned he quickly took stock of the battered armor she was wearing, and quickly pieced together who it was he was dealing with. With a small shake of his head he sighed, "Should have known I was hoping for too much when Sederis said she had a plan to deal with you," he dropped into a seat behind him, "So what do you want form me, I assume it isn't to kill me or you would have done so already?"

Shepard simply chuckled at the Salarian's nerve. Honestly, she could appreciate this level of competence in an enemy, "I'm here to make a deal, one that will work out for both of us."

The alien's eyes widened with curiosity, and greed, "What kind of deal?"

Eva couldn't help but smirk, as she began to outline the plan she had been working on for months.

S&S

Vasir would always remember the moment when Shepard's crazy plan worked, one minute she was busy dodging fire from an Eclipse gunship and the next it was doing a strafing run against one of the Na'Hesit positions.

Knowing that Evalyn had pulled off her part of the deal Tela began to roar at the soldiers who were still capable of moving, "Push into the city, we're ending this tonight!"

"And don't shoot the mercenaries unless you want to get us all killed," Vasir had to chuckle at Wrex, always looking on the bright side.

They were met at one of the city's gates by one of the Illium sisters, a bitch by the name of Wasea if she remembered correctly, "This way Spectre, we've captured the corporatists in the city's legislature."

Following the mercenary Vasir couldn't help but frown at the statement, "That's rather fast given that you couldn't have been given the order from Jaroth that long ago."

Wasea actually shot a pleased smirk at her, "The Boss didn't want to take any chances, so we've had a detail around all of our clients. Of course, we claimed it was for security purposes, we just neglected to say whose security it was that we were safeguarding."

Wrex gave out a dark chuckle at that, "Smart," which earned him a glare from the Spectre.

Wasea led them through a winding path through the city, striving to avoid the heaviest of the firefights that had broken out inside the city. However, it was quickly becoming evident that the Na'Hesit had no hope of beating the seasoned professionals that had betrayed them.

On the way to their destination Vasir found herself confronted by the realities of what she had been fighting against.

Cages of people littered public squares, auction blocks setup nearby to enable faster turnover of stock as soon as it was acquired from the battlefield.

Malnourished humans, and in some cases other council races, in slave collars continued to perform the tasks that had been assigned to them, even when it was obvious that their Masters had either fled or been eliminated in the chaos that was gripping the city.

Wrex expressed her feelings perfectly when he just shook his head, "This makes me miss Tchunka."

Wasea soon led them inside a large, overly, ornate building, and as they passed by more and more Eclipse soldiers she realized just how right Shepard had been about their chances of success had this plan of theirs not paid off.

Finally, they were led into a large hall, benches lined the walls and she realized this must have been the seat of the planetary government. Spotting what she presumed to be the corporate leaders down below Tela glanced at the darker skinned asari next to her, "Why bring them in here?"

Wasea just gave her an incredibly pleased smirk, "Well, this is where they signed their little slavery bill, so I thought it would be fitting if you executed them in here."

Vasir gave a small nod at that, "I take it your men don't have a problem in assisting in this matter?"

"By the goddess, no. Twist my arm and I might just volunteer myself for execution duty," the young Eclipse soldier flashed Tela a grin that would have been cute, had it not been elicited by the thought of murder.

No matter how justified it might be in this case.

Wrex though noticed her hesitation, "The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can get off this rock."

Giving the Krogan a small nod she made her way down to the center of the room, her eyes sweeping over the assembled leaders, businesspersons, and general scum who had taken a planet over the brink of war.

All for profits.

"I hope that you all know who I am, but for those who aren't aware my name is Tala Vasir. I represent the Council as a member of the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance Branch, and as such it is my duty to enforce the laws of Citadel Space."

She pulled up the dossier that she and Eva had gone over prior, it contained the shortlist of the leadership that would be more beneficial to the Council alive and imprisoned than dead and an example.

She began to move down the list, and instructed Wasea to have them brought to a secured room until she had them transferred to a Citadel ship.

She halted as she saw one name that Eva must have added last minute, "Candace Mills."

Wrex gave her a strange look at that one, but he moved up and yanked the woman to her feet before leading her out of the room. The list over with Vasir turned her attention to those who remained.

"The punishment for enslaving another sapient in Citadel space is a minimum of thirty-five years in a max-sec prison, however given the scale of your charges, and the sheer amount of pain and suffering that has been caused due to your actions the Council has agreed to hand down a special sentence in this instance."

"Execution."

The collective of them burst into outrage at her proclamation, but she ignored them as she began to direct the Eclipse soldiers into their positions.

And then in a single burst of light and sound it was over, and silence reigned.

S&S

A week had passed, and many changes had taken place on Anhur.

Primary of those, was that it had found itself being placed under Alliance control when the Turian's had, in a surprising turn of events, put their support behind the human's initiative to 'safeguard' the planet from future destabilizing events.

Tela hadn't been too pleased when she had realized that Eva had orchestrated the deal between Sparatus and the newly appointed human ambassador Donnel Udina, but she had, begrudgingly, conceded that Shepard hadn't done anything wrong in her little scheme.

She had just apparently not expected the human to still be loyal to the SA.

And in truth, Eva wasn't.

She was however very interested in ensuring a smooth relationship with the sole human she might be coming into contact with on a regular basis over the next few years, and it was for that reason that she walked through the halls of the dignitary ship the SA had sent to visit Anhur.

Her old armor was obviously destroyed from the fight with Sederis, and so she had been forced to ship in one of Dekrin's newer prototypes. She preferred to keep her new toys under wraps, but she also never intended on interacting with the Alliance in a state that suggested weakness.

Her Father had taught her that lesson.

A hatch opened revealing a small conference room, Udina stood up and gave a small nod to the soldier that had led her in, "Thank you, Herman."

The moment the hatch shut behind the soldier Udina gave her a cool glance, "You can sweep the room for bugs, I won't take offence."

It took the work of a few moments for her to ascertain that the room was indeed clean, and Udina simply leaned back in his chair as he regarded her, "I really have no idea what to make of the little gift you sent my way, and I'm somewhat wary of the price-tag that must be attached to it."

She merely smirked at that, "No price, rather think of this as the beginning of a business arrangement. You gain access to Spectre assistance on occasion, and I want access to whatever data on Cerberus that floats your way."

"Cerberus," the man rubbed a hand along his jaw as he debated that subject, "they've been becoming a nuisance in recent years, Director Quinn in particular is becoming increasingly aggravated by what he sees as efforts by the brass to protect the organization."

She gave a small nod at that, "Assuming that we have an accord here, I'd like to know how the bureaucrats took to the Anhur situation."

The man sighed as he picked up and then waved one of the datapads that littered the table at her, "Parliament had an utter fit when they first read the proposal that we pay those mercenaries, but the moment they realized that it might let them get their grubby paws on Anhur's eezo mines," the man gave her an oily smirk, "their tunes changed quite drastically."

"Yes, I thought they would."

Setting the pad down the man seemed to hesitate before he found his nerve, "There is one problem area, Isabella Mills."

"What about her?"

"Well, you see," the man shifted uncomfortably under the expressionless gaze of her helmet, "she's not a citizen of the SA, and as she is then technically a colonial it means that she is unable to own a SA registered company."

Realizing where this is going she sighed, "And the parliament wants to seize Candace Mills assets."

"Quite, now I can halt the proposal, but I would need an unaffiliated SA citizen to sponsor the girl. I don't suppose that you have someone in mind?"

"I might."

The Ambassador nodded at that, "Well if there was nothing else, I do have quite a bit of work to oversee during this transitionary period."

"Yes, there is one final matter," the Spectre stepped in close, taking advantage of the intimidation factor her height gave her, "Sederis, I know that the Alliance personnel who transported her took several samples of her blood, I want one."

"I suppose that can be arranged." The smaller man backed up somewhat awkwardly from her, "Good day, Spectre."

She couldn't resist letting out the chuckle that was building in her throat, "Good day, Ambassador."

S&S

A disgruntled, still obviously half-asleep, Cora Addison appeared on the screen before Evalyn, her eyes widening at the sight of her old friend. Surprise though was quickly supplanted by anger as the woman reached forward to disconnected the call, only to be halted by the tired voice of Shepard, "Please, don't hang up, Cora."

The woman hesitated long enough that Eva knew she was going to be allowed to say her piece, "I need a favor."

That earned a snort from the other woman, "Yeah, I figured that much, what catastrophe have you spawned this time?"

"I need you to sponsor someone," Cora's eyes narrowed at that, but she held off her comment as Eva continued to speak, "Isabella Mills, her mother is being taken into Citadel custody and neither or her parents applied to have her become an Alliance citizen prior to this clusterfuck," her voice trailed off, though Cora nodded in understanding of the situation.

"My mother has connections to the Mills family, if I remember both her parents were staunch colonials so I suppose it isn't such a shock that they wouldn't want her to be registered. Plus, rumor has it that the girl's a biotic, and we both know the length the military is willing to go to get more biotics in the forces," a tired sigh emerged from the older of the pair, "There's been talk of conscripting biotics, I can only hope that doesn't happen for Maddi's sake."

The blonde nodded in agreement, "How is Maddison?"

Cora blinked in confusion, before her face softened somewhat, "She's doing much better now that her treatments are done, not that you ever showed much interest before."

"We might have stopped talking by the time you and Matthew got together, but I always kept tabs," Eva gave a small look at the disbelieving stare the redhead was giving her, "You are, or I guess were, the only friend I've ever had, Cora." Feeling the faintest trace of embarrassment at that admission the blonde turned her head away from the screen, "Anyway, do you think it would be possible for you to sponsor her, it would just have to until she can do her stint in the military and earn her citizenship."

An aggravated sigh emerged from Cora, but she gave a small nod, "Just send me the papers and I'll take it to Mathew's mother, he might not like it but she's got enough sway to get it approved."

"Thank you, Cora."

A scoff erupted from thin lips, "I'm not doing this for you, Eva, you look like shit by the way."

And with that she disconnected the call.

Eva sat in the dim room, staring at the dead screen for a few minutes before releasing a sigh that filled the room, "Nice talking to you too."

Getting to her feet she rubbed her cybernetic hand down her flesh and blood limb, she still wasn't sure the extent of what she had done to her body but at times it felt like there were ants crawling under her skin.

Now was one of those times.

"Tess, tell Isabella to come in here, please."

It took a few moments for the door to open, sliding through the space that the T3's guarding the door left for her, "You wanted to see me, Shepard?"

The girl wilted under the Spectre's gaze, and she quickly backtracked, "Lady, I meant Lady."

A low hum emerged from the older woman as she held a hand out for the girl to take a seat, "As you know the Alliance's appropriation of Anhur has left you in a precarious legal position, a non-Alliance citizen cannot hold a majority stake in an Alliance corporation after all." Isabella's eyes flashed in anger, but she was silenced by Shepard's gesture for silence, "As such, I've taken steps to have an old friend of mine sponsor you until you come of age, at which point you will have to serve a stint in the Alliance military to gain your citizenship status."

"I won't do it."

Eva couldn't help but let out the cruel laugh at the girl's childish statement, "Oh, and what will you do? The Alliance isn't just going to let a biotic with your potential slip through their fingers, at least if you take my offer you'll keep both your family's company and get the best treatment available."

Turning away from the girl Shepard paced to the edge of the room, pressing a hand to one of her temples in an effort to stave off a migraine, "This is your call to make, but I can only hope that you make the smart one."

Shooting a glance over her shoulder the blonde gestured at the door, "You'll have the day to think this over, Isabella, go and talk with Wrex if it helps but in the end your destiny is your own."

S&S

Evalyn spat out a curse as she loaded the last of her gear into her ship, Vasir was actually being helpful as she brought out another crate filled with the deconstructed tactical tank, "You sure you trust me with this crap?"

"That fact that you are calling it crap confirms my choice." Vasir burst out into a laugh at that, as she dumped yet another crate inside her own ship, "So you just want me to dump this stuff on Illium?"

"Yes, I'll have some people discretely move it from the warehouse you'll be dropping it off at."

Glancing around Vasir shot a slightly troubled smirk at the human, "Well, this is it, I guess. Be careful, Lady."

Cocking her head slightly the blonde couldn't help but let an amused smile play on her lips, "If I didn't know any better I'd say you are worried about me, Tela."

"I am."

Vasir let out a nervous puff of air as she glanced around the bay, "The Council almost never assigns back to back missions, and I've never heard of them doing it to a probationary Spectre. This doesn't feel right, and well," the blue alien gave a small shrug of her shoulders, "Nihlus would be upset if you died."

"Oh, well if Nihlus would get upset, I'll take extra care then."

"Good, he'd hate to lose that bet with Saren."

"Great," Eva frowned she registered the entirety of the asari's comment, "Wait? What bet with Saren!"

A sudden thud filled the bay, and the pair turned to spot Wrex lugging his gear, "You two done yet? My trigger finger's getting itchy."

Tela gave out a small laugh as she biotically lifted the Krogan's case, "I'll stow this, give you two some privacy."

The Battlemaster stomped his way over to her, before extending one of his arms, "May your enemies fall before you, and your people always be victorious."

She nodded in thanks, but felt compelled to respond, "I don't have a people anymore, but thank you, Battlemaster."

Wrex just laughed at that, "You choose your people, Lady, I learned that the hard way." Hauling back the Krogan suddenly slammed his crust into her helmet, a smirk on his wide maw, "And Lady, we've shed blood together, you can call me Wrex."

The old warrior began to stomp off at that, but he slowed his gait before turning back to her, "If you ever want to undergo the Rite properly, I'd be privileged to serve in your Krant."

Eva really didn't have a response for that, and she was surprised to realize just how deeply the krogan's offer touched her.

Of course, she wasn't the sentimental type, and she had quickly hauled herself into her ship, "Tess, all systems green?"

"Of course, Ma'am, our course to the Citadel has already been plotted out."

S&S

Credit Song: Brave Heart cover by PelleK

Anhur's done!

I swear that deciding to do this arc was the worst idea I've ever had, especially as I had already dropped it the first time around for the exact same reason that I've been struggling so much with this one.

I'm looking forward to the next two chapters quite a bit though, and I hope that everyone enjoyed this chapter.