A/N: if there are any grammar mistakes, please notify! Thank you! Sorry for the delay! Got off the grid.
Virtuous Bullet: Collected
Mom
"We work by the notion that governments don't want these criminals freed. And we don't want them to escape. Keep the criminals in space and the galaxy is a safer place."
Armada glanced towards the big windows looking at the numerous amounts of cellblocks they'd have.
"Well, that's got a certain ring to it." She replied, not taking her eyes off of the window.
There was no reply from the Warden.
What a stiff guy. She thought. She glanced in Garrus' direction. And Joker says you have a pole up your ass. She smiled internally, repressing her trail of thought.
Warden Kurril continued on about his fine establishment and directed the squad towards out-processing, down the hall.
Armada wasn't too glad to see prisoners getting beaten by the guards, with one glance Garrus was permitted to deal with it. The turian guard inquired as to why Shepard wasn't doing the job of telling him herself, trying to ease his way out.
"Because she's being kind." Garrus replied with a certain appeal that made Shepard look renegade. "Stop beating the prisoner" he glared.
The turian waited a couple moments then called off his friend for the time being.
As they walked away, Armada smiled towards Garrus. "She's being nice. And this is how my vicious reputation came to life."
"It's all an illusion. We all know you wouldn't hurt the guard."
"I talked Saren to death didn't I?" She replied, smugly. "You were there Vakarian, you can't say you weren't impressed." She glanced towards the scientist near the door.
"Out processing is at the end of the room, Commander." He announced.
She nodded and Garrus carried on.
"Impressed? Yes. Surprised you didn't shoot him yourself? Hardly."
"Meh. What can I say? I'm just that kind –" Shepard stopped before the out-processing chamber. "… hearted…"
Steer Clear was written right in front of it.
She turned her gaze towards the scientist at the door; he hurried out of the room rather too quickly. She frowned. "Hey Garrus…" she turned around slowly towards the exit of the room trusting the clear warning flags flaring up. "You've had experience with Blue suns… what are the chances they'd disobey Cerberus directly?" Out came Kix, Miranda and Garrus followed, unquestioning.
"Very likely" he replied.
Kurril's voice came over the comms,
"I'm sorry Shepard. But you're worth more as a prisoner than a costumer. Get into the pod."
Aramda dashed into cover, which was a poorly covering desk. "You'll have to catch me first Warden."
"Think you can pull a Saren through the comms?" Garrus whispered as the party darted to cover.
"I'd rather not risk it. I want to shoot this back stabbing Sun myself."
"Commander this would have contributed to your vicious reputation."
"I know Lawson." She sighed, sighting incoming FENRIS dogs entering the room. "I know."
/-SR2-/
The Medbay's doors beeped; as it didn't recognize the crew ID it was presented.
"Oh come on you undecided piece of Cerberus cra-," Darwyn began but silenced her rant as she received a couple side-glances from the surrounding crewmembers. She cleared her throat and knocked on the door, hoping she wouldn't have to wave her hands like a moron to get Chakwas' attention through the window.
To her great satisfaction the door unlocked and Dwyn made her way inside.
Her new boss, the infamous Doctor Chakwas, was seated at her appointed desk, back towards her. Darwyn assumed that Chakwas preferred the Alliance protocols to Cerberus' so took her military stance next to the door.
"Doctor," She kept her hands tucked behind her back and her legs glued to each other. Chakwas turned towards the youngest Shepard and smirked.
"You'll need to put that hair up." She smirked, getting a hair tie from the desk. Darwyn caught it with a wide grin.
"Nothing to say about the lab coat have you?" Darwyn chuckled tying her blond hair.
Over her typical scientist uniform, Darwyn had put her S.P.I.T research vest. It had a petticoat style going on with rolled sleeves. It ended to her knees with the company name going down the side. It had far more pockets than Darwyn would dare use.
It was the colours of the sources: black and red. The stripe somewhat imitating the N7 line. And its stripe design seemed 'strangely' similar to the N7 stripe worn by those elites.
"What coat?" Chakwas smiled getting up, handing over Darwyn's first batch of paperwork. Gaining a couple gratitude points in the eyes of her new assistant doctor.
/-Purgatory-/
"I have a ship, and I'm offering to take you with me and you're arguing?" Armada asked, incredulous.
Jack stood before them. She was around Darwyn's height, making Armada a tower in comparison. She was covered in tattoos and would need some sort of military plate to protect her chest if she was supposed to fight with them on missions.
"Make it worth my while. I want access."
"What kind of access?" Armada figured she'd work tat attitude a bit, cooperation wasn't going to be easy peasy at this point.
"Cerberus access."
Miranda flinched as Armada granted her request.
"Then why the fuck are we standing here for?" Jack replied.
Armada shrugged and followed Jack into the ship. "Commander? A word once we've boarded."
"Sure." She replied as the airlock closed behind them.
EDI's voice came overhead, "Equalizing interior pressure with exterior atmosphere."
"Shepard…. You overrode the protocols again?" Miranda sighed.
"What? I got bored… for far too long."
Garrus chuckled, "Cerberus doesn't have experience dealing with Engineers it seems."
"Not the bored ones." Miranda replied with a smirk, making Shepard repress a snicker.
/-/
Darwyn was seated at her new 'desk', improvised surface behind Chakwas, when her pager went off. Like the rest of the crew, she now had a pager that she had to keep on her person everywhere in the event of contact. She wanted to tweak the ringer song but she had to get started on her work first.
She picked it up and put it in her ear.
"Yeah." She answered.
"New crewmember incoming."
Darwyn chuckled as she instantly recognized the purposely-deepened voice in her ear.
"You do realize that we don't get to see the newest member right? Unless they come down here for a medical check up," she replied, getting a glance from Chakwas – who knew exactly who had contacted her newest assistant.
"Just giving you a fair warning. She surprised the crap out of me up here."
"Why? Is Joker nervous?" Chakwas rolled her eyes with a large smirk, trying to guess what Joker's replies where.
"They said this new one would be different but she looks like she's ready to punch a hole through the hull."
"Oooooh! I'm guessing she's a biotic."
"It's hard to tell with all the tattoos."
"Does she have a murderous glare?"
"Didn't I just say that she looks like she wants to punch a vacuum hole in the ship?"
Darwyn nodded, "Biotic it is." Chakwas took a glance to check up on Darwyn's process and noticed that she didn't do much since she started talking with Joker.
"Jeff," she started, "my assistant needs to return to silent work." Chakwas chipped in from her own pager.
"Oh Doctor you're just jealous it's a one sided conversation." She heard in her earpiece.
"Jeff…" she added once more.
"Yeah yeah, I got you doc. Joker out."
And the line went dead.
Chakwas stretched her arms above her head and leaned over to see Darwyn's progress.
"Darwyn Shepard, surveillance of the Normandy's cameras isn't part of our job description."
Darwyn turned towards the doctor with wide eyes. "But Doctor! Did you see her tattoos!"
/-C-Sec headquarters, well one of them-/
"Alright gather round." Bailey commanded to his officers.
All of the Zakaera Ward C-Sec officers and Investigators, whom Toren and Alleris belonged, made their way to the seats in front of their Captain. Every ward Investigator was called for the meeting as this one was coming from the top, a very wealthy top.
There was chatter as all of the officers sat down to listen in a natural separation of job titles.
"I've called you all because we have an issue. We've all heard about the disappearing human colonists in the Terminus systems but now, it seems, it's become our problem."
A couple heads nodded to this as part of their own families were present on Freedom's Progress.
"Many interested parties have donated large sums of credits to insure a minimum of three, two officers and investigator, to make it to other colonies and report back to C-Sec about what they could find." Bailey scratched behind his head. "I don't expect any of you to find anything out there but these funds contribute to our weaponry cases."
"Why C-Sec? Can't they just tip the Alliance?" Someone asked from the crowd.
"Maybe this donor doesn't want the Alliance involved." Someone else replied.
"And why not? It's their job to protect the terminus colonies." A turian answered.
Bailey raised his voice. "I don't care why they asked us. I need volunteers so that we can all get back to work and catch the counterfeiters we were following for months now."
There was a moment of silence before Toren got up. "I volunteer as the investigator joining this mission."
Bailey wasn't surprised but was pleased to see someone take initiative amongst the babble of C-Sec whiners. He was doubly pleased to see Toren, the fabled sharpshooter, stand up first.
"And I as an officer." Fang raised from his seat much like Toren did
A third officer took the mantle and Bailey called them over for a debriefing.
Before Toren got to Bailey, he felt the eye of Rheault follow him through the sea of navy blue uniforms. It was an unmistakable gaze, as he knew there was more to this mission than Bailey let on, or maybe he didn't even know the other side of the plate.
He looked up to find her but was not successful. Instead he caught the eye of his partner. There was a certain worry in her eyes that she'd wished he'd never identify. But that was one of the best things about Alleris Plaice: she tries to be stronger for the whole of them but Toren knew that would ruin her one day.
"Alright. This donor really wants information from a certain colony. I appreciate all of you volunteering, it makes my job easier." Bailey looked over to Toren then to the other two.
"Your job is rather simple: show up to this colony and keep an eye out for a specific colonist… or rather person."
"We don't know who we're looking out for do we?" Toren asked, understanding Bailey's hesitation.
"Ya, the donor apparently won't tell us until everyone's deployed." Bailey grumbled a couple inappropriate curses before continuing. "He told us the colony at least."
Toren crossed his arms as Fang inquired, "Which is it?"
Bailey looked straight into Fang's eyes, "Horizon."
/-/
She walks back to her desk in haste. Others notice her rush and wonder what the head of the Directorate could be worried about now, considering there was always something on the mind of the lethal Ms. Rheault, of which no one knew the first name of (some called her Zipper though.)
She didn't care because this was much bigger than what most thought. If S.P.I.T's information was correct, Toren, Fang and Baldersons stood in the face of danger. She opened her terminal and went straight to the priority line. She daren't touch the emergency line because it was reserved for Reaper related activities.
"Boss, C-Sec are getting deployed to donor colony. Thorn + Fang + Sierra volunteered. R.R" She sent the short message instantly with a little red flag over the mail recipient.
Not a minute passed by when a reply came. "Apollo's 2 Hrs."
Rheault's mouth went dry. Only emergency topics received this attention. Another message came in. "come casual." She smirked. She was going to meet the head of the information branch for the first time in her very long life.
She looked the message over again. come casual. It was surely a turian. Turians had the common mistake of never capitalising the first letter in certain short sentences.
/-SR2-/
"So doc? How she holding up?" Armada asked as Doctor Chakwas and herself went to get some time off walking around the SR2 and settling into the Crew Quarters.
"She's surprisingly easy to work with. However it shows when she works that a lot has happened to her during the past few years. Those events might be anything ranging from the lead of her company to your death." Chakwas took a pause and sighed, "It's hard to say."
"She seems… closed off. More so than before."
"People change Commander."
Armada nodded. Kelly may have the psychology degree but as far as she was concerned: Chakwas was her mind reader. Chakwas was her professional mother.
"Still… sometimes I swear she's hiding something big from me. She acts like she's got some huge secret and doesn't want me to worry."
"Don't we all?" Chakwas replied, with a hint of sadness. "You already have enough on your plate Shepard. Perhaps she doesn't want you to worry for the sake of the mission."
Armada chuckled, "Now that wouldn't be like her at all!"
Chakwas smirked "Besides," She added, reeling them back onto subject, "it wouldn't hurt to ask her how the past years have gone."
"I think one heartfelt discussion is enough for one day." Armada replied, recalling her previous conversation with her sister and how icy it became after mention of her sentence.
"Already? Is it like that with your brother?"
Armada leaned back in her chair and looked down at her hands. "No. Darwyn has always wanted to counter the norm of the family. If Toren and I say yes, she feels the absolute need to say no. If we join the military, she fights till blood is shed to stay out. The list is unending."
Armada sighed and looked up. "But it's also a contradiction. She dyes her hair blond to match the rest of us. She demands the same demeanour that we do. She has our horrible sense of musical coordination… She's a Shepard through and through yet… she insists on being different."
Chakwas nodded, understanding where Armada came from. "Does she get along with your mother?"
Armada gave Chakwas a crap load of credit; she didn't think the old doctor would remember that.
/-Past-/
"How are you feeling today Commander?" Chakwas asked, dabbing Armada's brow from the stitches they put in after her awkward fall from the beacon on Eden Prime.
Armada didn't even wince when she felt the sting of the disinfectant.
"Better. My brain still feels scrambled though."
Chakwas' concentrated eyes focused fully on her brow. Her injury would leave a scar and the Doc knew that the commander knew that very well already, having earned collection of scars over the years.
"Not enough to distract you on missions I hope." She returned for the bottle with the alcohol lotion and applied it to the swab carefully, Armada following her every action.
"Not hardly enough." Armada smirked.
There was a silence between them as Chakwas finished her cleaning. She hesitated but then asked plainly, "May I ask a personal question Commander?"
Armada smiled, "I ask you personal questions all the time Doctor. Go ahead."
Chakwas sighed, "You don't get along with your mother do you?"
The question had taken Armada off guard. She wondered what gave her that impression. Was she talking about her mother while she was sleeping? Did she overhear her mention anything of the sort… no she didn't bring up her mother at all on the SR1.
"What makes you think that doctor?" she asked, more curious at her trail of thought.
"Certain soldiers react a certain way when they are injured." She began, "When it is urgent, they usually call a loved one or they pray – depends on the beliefs. A mother is what transfers love and nurturing to a child, or they are supposed to at any rate." She returned to the wound with a fresh swab, applying creams made of omni gel. "The father, in a typical situation, gives the right amount of manliness to his children and the right amount of arrogance or modesty."
Armada couldn't see what she was getting at.
"So you see, Commander. I ask if you got along with your mother because the first name you uttered was 'Darwyn'. Your youngest sibling."
"And that gave me away how Doctor?"
"If you would have gotten along with your mother your first thought wouldn't have been of a sibling that is currently in perfect safety – and an adult, because you are worried that she wouldn't grow properly."
Chakwas dabbed the wound again examining Shepard's reaction time to the numbing cream.
"Am I close?" She asked, with a smirk.
Armada stayed quiet for a couple moments, "Not for those reasons but uh… No. I don't get along with my mother." The commander smirked. "It seems it takes one to know one."
Chakwas grinned, she was caught.
/-Present-/
"Yes. She does." Armada looked down at her closed fists. "She gets so well with Mother that she wants to be more like us." She shook her head. "I'm the only child that can't seem to get along with my mother. Maybe it's because I'm the eldest." She shrugged.
Chakwas sighed as their conversation moved on to a different topic. "Darwyn wants to be like a Shepard but maybe she wants to be different because the Shepard name has been labelled."
Armada rose her eyebrow, "Really? What does this have to do with my mother?"
Chakwas smirked, "That was just me being nosy."
Armada burst out laughing. "Taking advantage of me Doctor?
"As usual." She smiled.