Heyo! Posting this a bit later in the day than normal but I'll be damned if I get into the habit of posting late! That being said: Read, Enjoy, Review.

John pulled his helmet off and slammed his fist into the side of the shuttle angrily. They had just barely escaped the Collector ship after being led into a trap. A trap the Illusive Man knew about. His fist clenched just thinking about the cold-hearted bastard, sitting in his chair and casually smoking his cigarette. Nobody puts his crew in danger for no reason. Of course, his entire crew had been on comm when EDI had told them the truth, leaving no secrets. Jack was pissed, to say the least, using her rage to rip a Scion in half just to vent some steam and then continued with a rampage that ripped apart close to a couple dozen husks. Miranda was shocked, not handling the betrayal very well, having assumed that the Illusive Man had seen her as more of an asset meant to be preserved than to be risked like that. Not that she would admit it, claiming the Illusive Man was simply doing what he thought needed to be done, but the evidence was in her eyes. Johanna was as angry as Jack, but without the sufficient power to fuel rage induced biotic attacks, she had to settle for using her weapons to tear apart Collectors. The others didn't seem as shocked, Garrus simply noting that he had been betrayed enough for it not to matter. "Goddammit!" Jack yelled in anger, using her biotics to through a cargo crate across the hall.

"I don't know why you're so surprised Jack, this is what Cerberus does." Johanna commented, stepping out of the shuttle, supporting Garrrus. Garrus had taken some fire on the Collector ship, nothing serious but his leg was going to need some medi-gel before he could walk normally again. "I'll take ugly here to the medical wing." With that, Johanna carried a limping Garrus off.

"You know women love scars. Mind you, most of those woman are krogan." Garrus told Johanna as they pressed towards the elevator, the assassin and Justicar hot on their heels, both needing slight patching. Jack was still angry, looking for a way to vent her anger. Unfortunately, her attention fell to the two Cerberus operatives before them. Sensing the danger, John motioned towards Grunt to intercept the fight, since he was the only one who could take Jack's full rage and recover from it.

"This is what Cerberus does! This is why we should ditch these two assholes for the Collector's to find!" Jack demanded, pointing a finger accusingly at the two.

"Now wait just a moment. We were on that ship too. If the Illusive man thought it was necessary to send us in, he did so with the confidence that we would…." Miranda began defending herself but was forced to dodge a biotically thrown cargo crate.

"Oh stow the bullshit! You Cerberus bastards only care for yourselves!" Jack screamed angrily, glowing with biotics as she stepped forward in a menacing manner. Miranda didn't step forward but her glare told Jack that she welcomed the challenge between them. It was that moment that Grunt grabbed Jack by the collar and lifted her into the air. "Dammit put me down you overgrown lizard!" Jack yelled in anger, slamming a biotic wave into Grunt. The krogan stumbled but was otherwise unaffected by the biotic attack, his hand still clamped onto her back.

"Enough! We've already talked about this! Put your anger for each other behind each other for the rest of the mission! Jack, she was the same ship as us when it happened, she's not at fault." John told his team. Jack growled under her breath but her biotics dissipated and her fist unclenched. John nodded and Grunt set Jack back down, letting her go. She nodded towards Shepard and sent a glare towards Miranda, before storming off towards the elevator. Grunt and Zaeed followed behind, bantering about who had killed the most collectors in the ambush. The only two who didn't seem to care for the betrayal one way or another.

"Thank you Shepard. I was worried she would have acted on impulse. You always know the right thing to say." Miranda thanked the commander, lightly touching his shoulder while giving him a warm smile. John nodded in acceptance, turning to face the woman. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Tali's body language shift into a more defensive stance while her attention was focused on Miranda. He made a note to ask her what happened later.

"We don't need Jack ripping a hole in the cargo bay over some grudge." John nodded in agreement. Then before Miranda could say anything else, John turned towards her and looked her directly in the eye. "That being said Miranda, someday you'll have to accept that no matter the perfection of your genes or expertise, to the Illusive Man, we are all nothing but pawns on a chessboard. Expendable if it would get him a better position in the world. If the Illusive Man actually cared for you, he would tell you that he sent you into an ambush." Miranda started as though she had been punched in the gut by his words, as if she hadn't thought of it the same way before. John didn't say anything more, silently standing where he was as Mordin, Jacob and Miranda took the next elevator.

John was suddenly aware that he and Tali were the only ones left in the shuttle bay, Kasumi having disappeared with her tactical cloak, probably still stalking Jacob. It was almost embarrassing if you knew how to spot a tactical cloak, every time that Shepard entered the armory, there was the slight shimmer of the tactical cloak on the nearby table. He was almost tempted to tell Jacob about the thief's interest, but decided not to. John looked around the shuttle bay to be sure that Kasumi was sulking around in a nearby corner before turning towards the Quarian. "So, is this just like old times?" She giggled and turned to make her way to the elevator.

"Careful, or you might start sounding like Garrus." Tali told him as he caught up to her.

"So, did something happen between you and Miranda?" John wondered as they made their way to the elevator. Tali jumped and nervously began to wring her hands together, in her cute worried way.

"No, not really. Why do you ask?" Tali wondered.

"Just noticed a little tension between the two of you lately. Wanted to make sure she was treating you right. Garrus keeps complaining about her checking the cannons every time he made an upgrade." John worried. Tali eased a little, slowing her hand wringing.

"Its nothing. Just…nothing." Tali told him as the elevator arrived.


"If there is one thing you and Shepard share, it is the knack of having me on my toes." Chakwas mentioned as she applied the last helping of medi-gel on Garrus's wound before standing up from where she was kneeling. Johanna sat on a nearby table, having watched the treatment with a silence while slowly stacking up the number of taunts she had ready towards the Turian. One was a poorly hidden phobia of needles. "Well, you should be fine. That being said, you are confined to the med-bay for the rest of the day. I do not want to restitch the wound because of some wary calibrations." Garrus opened his mouth to complain but Chakwas cut him off. "If I find you off this bed when I returned from the Science lab, Mister Vakarian, I will sedate you until you cannot move."

"Didn't know you had a thing for Salarians Chakwas." Johanna commented as the elderly doctor grabbed a nearby medical bag. Chawkas laughed at the crude humor, looking at the Shepard Sibling with amusement.

"I'm afraid the time of my life for such things are over. We are merely examining the latest collector sample to determine if the skin is able to function as an organic armor." Chakwas explained herself. "Do not let Mister Vakarian leave the medical bay." It sounded almost like a threat but before Johanna could be sure, the doctor had left the room, leaving her and Garrus alone. Samara and Thane had chosen to heal in silence, their wounds not being serious enough for a forced medical stay. Garrus sighed and laid back on the medical bed, his feet hanging limply over the end of the bed.

"The great turian hunter defeated by an elderly doctor. Who'd have thought?" Johanna commented, mimicking his position on the bed.

"Sometimes, I get the feeling I'm just here for my looks." Garrus joked.

"Yeah, sometimes we need to get rid of some really persistent hiccups." Johanna bantered with a laugh. A silence fell over them, both of them watching the ceiling with thoughts rebounding off the side of their heads. Though the thoughts were of differing degrees. "We're glad to have you here Garrus. We couldn't do it without you." Garrus laughed and sat up again.

"Sure you could. Not as stylishly of course." Johanna let out a small snort of laughter despite the joke being mediocre at best. She stood up from where she was lying and went over to where Garrus was sitting, sitting on the medical bed with him. He sighed and looked outside the med-bay windows, looking at the calm humans milling back and forth in the mess. Miranda had just taken a meal from Gardener, and with the intent of returning to her room to be by herself, was stopped by Jacob, who convinced her to follow him. "It's strange going into a suicide mission on a human ship. Your people don't prepare for high-risk operations the same way that Turians do."

"Ah, I had a former Turian Blackwatch member who told me about it once. I ignored most of what he said, but something about sparring caught my attention." Johanna told Garrus, reminiscing about the talks she had with former black ops members from every species.

"Our commanders run us tight. And they know we need to blow off steam. Turian ships having training rooms for exercise, combat sims, even full contact sparring. Whatever lets people work off stress." He saw Johanna's condescending look as she thought about it. "It was supervised of course. Nobody is going to risk an injury that interferes with the missions. And it's a good way to settle grudges amicably." Garrus stood up and began to pace as he talked. He stopped, his mandibles flaring as he remembered something else. "I remember right before this one mission, we were about to hit a Batarian pirate squad. Very risky. This recon scout and I had been at each other's throats. Nerves mostly. She suggested we settle it in the ring."

"I assume the big bad hunter took the poor lady down gently?" Johanna teased, thinking about Turian females. Not very many of them were seen off of Palaven outside of military jobs but she did remember the one that always followed Aria T'Loak.

"Actually, she and I were the top-ranked hand-to-hand specialists on the ship. I had reach and she had flexibility. It was brutal." He stressed the last word, stopping as he faced towards the medical bay doors, staring off as if reliving the moment like than did. "After nine rounds the judge called it a draw. There were a lot of unhappy betters in the training room." He stopped and chuckled to himself. "We, uh, ended up holding a tie breaker in her quarters afterwords. I had reach, and she had flexibility. More than one way to work off stress I guess." Johanna put on a smile and shook her head. Then her smile changed and she walked over to where Garrus was standing, stepping in front of him and aiming the smile at him.

"Sounds like you're carrying some tension. Maybe I could help you get rid of it?" Johanna said in her most seductive voice. A little doubt in the back of her head wondered what she was doing and whether this was a good idea. Though, probing it, she realized her fear wasn't about looking stupid of silly but something else altogether. None of this inner conflict showed on her face as she looked at the oblivious Turian before her.

"I didn't think you'd want to spar with anyone besides your brother?" Garrus pointed out, shrugging his shoulders. Johanna almost laughed at his misguidance. She considered that she could always play off what Garrus thought, pretend this never happened. She could avoid the possibility of what she feared. She scoffed at herself. What kind of Shepard would she be if the prospect of being turned down scared her off but not the prospect of dying a horrible death at the hands of the Collectors?

"Well, then we can skip right to the tiebreaker then. We could test your reach…..and my flexibility." She told Turian, running a hand along the collar of his armor to stress her point. Her heart was beating unnaturally fast for acting so casual in her current situation. She watched with amusement as realization came across Garrus's face, causing him to jump a little at the suggestion.

"Oh! I didn't…..huh." He fumbled with his words, gaining a smile from Johanna. It was actually kind of cute watching him get nervous. He cleared his throat, mandibles flaring before adopting a stoic demeanor. "Never knew you had a weakness for men with scars. Well, why the hell not? There's no one in this galaxy that I respect more than you and your brother."

"Me?" Johanna was surprised at this. John made sense. He was N7, Captain of the most advanced stealth frigate and the first human Spectre to boot. But herself included? Someone with Garrus's background respecting someone with hers? Sure, she was respected by the underground members in Omega, even Aria herself had told her once that she would be worthy of her own attention should she ever piss the Asari off. It tickled her inside but she laughed at the idea of being best by the asari. Still, someone with the title Officer Vakarian behind him, she would think the man would respect her best.

"Yeah. You fight for what you think is right, no matter the consequences. Your family is important to you and you protect them. Anyone like that is worth more respect than the galaxy has room for." Johanna found herself smiling at this, feeling the warmness of his compliment coursing through her.

"Well, you better be careful Mister Vakarian or I might pounce on you now." Johanna told him with a laugh. The thought was tempting enough but she did have a smidget of self-control left. Garrus squirmed a little at the idea of the suddenness.

"If we can find a way to make it work, then….yeah. Definitely."


"Call from the Illusive Man, figure you've got a few words for him too." John nodded at Joker's message and his mind went through the very long list of names that he wanted to call their enigmatic leader of Cerberus, none of them flattering. John went into the conference room and stepped onto the communicator the moment it replaced the conference table.

"Shepard! Look like EDI extracted some interesting data before the Collectors ship back online." The Illusive Man greeted a little too enthusiastically. John just curled his fists in anger, wanting the first thing out of this man's mouth to be an apology for putting his entire squad in danger.

"EDI told us the distress call originated from the Collectors. You betrayed us. Just like I knew you would." John growled at the man. TIM just stared at him without remorse, taking a long drag from his cigarette before answering him.

"We're at war. The Collectors are taking humans, and every minute we waste is one more we give the enemy to prepare." The Illusive Man told him. John held back his scoff that showed he obviously didn't believe the man. His father always told him there were two types of military leaders. One that sacrificed his men only when there no other option, the one who always found another way to do things. And then there were men like the Illusive Man. Men who will casually sacrifice men to get the mission done, who believed his subordinates were nothing more than expendable pawns in a chess game.

"I know that stakes! But we're supposed to be on the same side, and I can't trust you." John told him. He hated working with people like this. Every life was important, no matter who they were.

"Without that information, we don't reach the Collector homeworld. And you and every other human may as well be dead." TIM excused him, tapping his ash tray with his cancer stick. "It was a trap….But I was confident in your abilities. And don't forget EDI. The Collectors couldn't have anticipated it."

"You could have told me that plan. You say I'm important, but you sure try hard to get me and my team killed." John pointed out.

"I needed the Collectors to believe they had the upper hand. Telling you could've tipped them off in any number of ways. Besides, I wouldn't have sent you in if I didn't think you could succeed." The Illusive Man calmly and stoically explained. John wished he could have been in the same room as the man so he could hit him. Men like this didn't deserve the power they had.

"I don't risk people. There is always a better way." John told him, crossing his arms.

"You may not like being on the receiving end—neither would I—but the facts are with me. As much as we try to avoid them, these decisions need to be made." TIM told him.

"What facts? All you've told me is that it was necessary. You want me to believe you, give me a reason." John growled. He was tired of hearing that petty excuse. The Illusive Man knew things he didn't so that entitled him to play with the lives of others.

"Shepard, please, don't insult me. Your humanities first Spectre. You stand for everything Cerberus strives for, even if you don't want to. I wouldn't risk your life unless absolutely necessary." The Illusive Man waved off John's obvious anger towards him. "But more importantly... It paid off." Changing the subject? Typical. "EDI confirmed our suspicions. "The Reapers and Collector ships use an advanced IFF system that the relays recognize. All we need to do is get our hands on one of those IFFs."

"Maybe if I had been told what I was walking into, maybe I could have grabbed one." John snipped at the man before him. He was getting tired of the information only coming after he knew it for a fact. TIM stared at John for a moment for the obvious sarcasm in his statement.

"As I said, EDI just confirmed it. Besides, you wouldn't have had time to find and extract it. But we have options." TIM told him, picking up the scotch from his chair.

"For someone who had such absolute faith in my abilities, you don't seem to trust me very much." John commented, his glare still as threatening as he could make it. TIM ignored the comment, not improving his character in the eyes of John. But no more was said on the subject, mostly because the Illusive Man refused to speak about it.

"So the Illusive Man didn't sell us out. Could've fooled me." Jacob commented, shaking his head in anger. Mordin paced back and forth behind him, John unsure whether the Salarian was pent up with nervous energy or regular energy, though he wasn't sure if there was much of a difference between the two for him.

"Lied to us. Used us. Needed access to the collector data banks. Necessary risk." Mordin excused the actions.

"He better not try something like that again, or the Collectors will be the least of his worries." John muttered loud enough for everyone to hear. He hadn't even gotten the ghost of an apology, simply told to tell his crew he didn't risk their lives unnecessarily, something John didn't even believe but he didn't need to deal with half the crew demanding the head of their sponsor at the moment.

"I'll rip the man's head off myself." Jack hissed through her teeth, leaning against the nearby wall. She was clenching and unclenching her fist, her eyes occasionally glazing over as if she was lost in a fantasyland of killing the Illusive Man.

"But how can we be sure the Illusive Man was telling the truth? He lied to us about the Collector ship?" Tali commented from beside John.

"I don't trust the Illusive Man anymore than I'd trust a reaper, but I trust EDI. She hasn't done us wrong yet." John assuaged her doubts.

"My analysis is accurate." EDI promised, her avatar springing up from the middle of the table. "I have also determined the approximate location of the Collector homeworld based on navigation from their vessel." A galaxy map replaced the avatar and the entire ground team watched as the AI showed them the Collectors path through every star system, eventually ending in the galactic core. The entire team was silent with shock for a moment. Everyone who had ever been in a starship knew that the only thing in the core was blackholes and exploding suns. The thing that kept all the planets and star systems from floating off into dark space.

"That can't be right." Miranda said, the first to speak.

"Better run the diagnostics, John. Looks like our AI got a bug in the software." Johanna mentioned, pulling up her omni-tool.

"My calculations are correct. The Collector homeworld is located within the galactic core." EDI promised, before pulling up the map once more.

"Could be an artificial construction. Space station protected by powerful mass effect fields and radiation shields." Mordin offered his own input.

"Impossible. Even the Collectors don't have that kind of technology." Miranda mentioned.

"The Collectors are just the servants of the real enemy. And we've all seen what their masters are capable of. They built the mass relays and the Citadel. Who's to say they can't build a space station surrounded by black holes?" John reminded the team. "No wonder nobody's ever returned from a trip through the Omega-4 mass relay."

"There must a small safe zone on the far side of the relay. Somewhere ships can survive. It makes a certain kind of sense. It keeps them safe from any number of enemies that could come after them without them having to fire a single shot." Garrus offered his own opinion. "Drift is common in relay transits and it would be a really bad thing to drift in the galactic core."

"Drift would be fatal." EDI told them bluntly.

"Well, I was trying to put a bow on it but yeah, in a nutshell." Garrus replied with a shrug.

"The Reaper IFF must trigger the relay to use more advanced, encrypted protocols." EDI suggested. The ground team was silent as the next matter came to mind to each and every one of them. Were they ready to face the Collectors? John though about it for a moment. He looked at Miranda and Jack, both whose personal issues were out of the way. It was obvious they were ready for anything, Jack getting rid of her childhood both physically and mentally and Miranda finally having something to live for other than duty. But were the others. He still had to deal with Jacob's dad, a mission that he had been putting off because of its lack of a time constraint. Miranda's sister was happening then, and with the looming party of Donovan Hock coming in a few days didn't offer much of a delay. He didn't want his team going through the mission with regrets. Regrets and hesitation got people killed when in a situation like that.

"Just because we can follow the Collectors through the relay doesn't we can take them out. I don't want to go after them until I know we're ready." John told his team. He heard a sigh from Tali, as if she had been holding in breath for this very response.

"Sooner or later we need that IFF. I say, why wait?" Jacob pointed out.

"The Reapers are capable of indoctrinating anyone without a strong willpower. If we're going to install something that's from a reaper on this ship, I want to make sure everyone is dedicated to the cause." John told his crew, looking around at them in a silent message. "If you need something done, or have unattended business, then come to me. We'll get it done before we go to the Reaper."

"That's a smart call Commander. We need to strengthen the resolve of our team before we take that kind of risk." Miranda stepped in, smiling towards John. Johanna smirked from where she was when she saw this smile and her brother's obvious ignorance.

"It's your call, Battlemaster. As long as you find me enemies to fight, I'll stick with you." Grunt pledged from where he stood. The others took this as a silent confirmation to leave, Jacob with a salute, Mordin with a nod, and the rest in silence. John noticed with a slight tringe of protectiveness that Garrus and Johanna were walking a tad too close for his comfort. He would have said something but he noticed that Tali was standing silently beside him, wringing her hands together in the common sign of nervousness. God, is she cute when she does that.

"Something on your mind Tali?" John asked, leaning against the table.

"Shepard, I may need your help." She said, as she began to pace.

"Anything you need, name it." John told her. This didn't seem to ease her mind as much as he had hoped, but she stopped pacing.

"I just received a message from the Migrant Fleet. The Admiralty Board had accused me of treason." She stopped for a moment, as if trying to gather her courage. "I'm scared, Shepard." John felt his eyes narrow that possibility of the Admiralty Board accusing Tali of treason. The very idea made him angry.

"Nobody who knows you could believe you'd betray your people Tali." John told her, getting out of his relaxed position and walked closer to her. He didn't like it when she was so upset.

"I don't know Shepard. They don't lay down charges like this unless the evidence seems absolute." Tali sighed, resting a single three fingered hand over her mask. "But thanks. I appreciate your faith in me, Shepard."

"This isn't because you're working with Cerberus is it?" John worried. Did he bring this down upon Tali? The very thought made it seem as though something inside him was shriveling up. He looked down in shame.

"I'm not working for Cerberus. I'm working with you. And I got leave to serve on the Normandy again." Tali assured him. It made him feel a little better but not by much. "I have no idea what they're accusing me of. You'd think I would remember if I'd betrayed the fleet!" She added bitterly as an after note.

"So what happens when a Quarian is accused of treason?" John wondered.

"There's a hearing, with members of the Admiralty Board acting as judges." She paused for a moment and turned away, walking a few steps before stopping again. "My father is an Admiral on the board. He'll have to recuse himself from judgment. I can't even imagine what he's thinking right now." She stopped with a sigh, turning back towards Shepard. "The punishment for treason is exile. If they convict me, I can never go back." Her voice sounded so upset about the very mention of this punishment. John could only imagine the pain. Seventeen million people who you could call family but never being able to see them again? It was a fate worst that imprisonment or execution.

"So how does the trial work? How soon do we need to get you there?" John asked.

"They'll wait a reasonable for me to come and defend myself. Eventually, if I don't show up, they'll try me in absentia. As for how it works…it's less formal than an Earth trial, or something you'd see on the Citadel. We're a family. This is just the worst kind of family meeting."

"Well, we can't have that. Let's go find the Flotilla." John told her. He could almost see the smile that came to her lips at this.

"I was going to book passage on another ship. I didn't think there would be time for you to help. Thank you, Shepard." She stepped forward, as if she was going to do something but stopped and walked over to the console where EDI's avatar popped up. "I'll program the Normandy with the Flotilla's current location. The Admirals will be waiting for us." She nodded towards Shepard and left the conference room. John sighed and shook his head. He should have done something more than say he would help to make her feel better. Damn, why was it so hard to do this?


Yay! Garrus and Johanna have begun their romance, which will get more fluffy later. Promise. Also, One of the things that always bothered me was that the "team meetings" almost always consisted of just Mordin, Jacob and Miranda. I mean, I just spent hours convincing all these convicts, assassins, and highly dangerous aliens to join my team for their personal opinions and expertise and they don't even get a say. And it is shown that they can have all the team in one place at once right before the assault on the collector base begins. So this was my envisionment. Last thing was that I thought Shepard gives up on berating the Illusive Man too easily after the Collector ship incident. All he says "I have the information" and your forced to accept it. So I added a slight change. That's all. You can go now and read the other fabulous fanfics on this sight.