Welcome to Chapter 14 of Violet Eyes! This is a mostly Jack/Miranda centric chapter, and things will start coming full circle. Judgment Day is on the horizon and coming quickly!

"Have a good time with the parents then?" Jack asked, hobbling into Miranda's classroom with a knock. She looked up from her paperwork with a smile.

"Yes, it was nice. Met an interesting family. Did you meet Jessica and Draga?"

Jack nodded quickly. "Hell yes! Those two were hilarious! Fighting about their girl Kira, and she was sitting right next to them looking like a turian who forgot his gun!" Jack cackled. She had really enjoyed that particular family. Who knew that two people could fight so much as still love each other.

"Yes, I did like them...spent a few hours with Kira in the cafeteria, telling stories." Miranda admitted, looking back down at the pile of homework assignments in front of her. Grading was usually boring, but she found this set of papers to be rather funny. The assignment was to write about how biotics would help you in a social situation and she had to admit that some of the students had wild imaginations about what biotics could do.

"Telling stories about what?" Jack asked, pulling up a chair and sitting backwards on it, resting her arms on the backrest. Miranda's eyes glazed over in memory.

"Shepard. Kira apparently has a case of hero worship regarding that particular Galactic Hero." She said with a grin. Jack saluted the air.

"RIP, Shepard. You glory hogging drama queen."

"Jack!"

"I don't mean anything bad and you know it." Jack retorted, rolling her eyes but grinning. She had always thought that Shepard made a show of firing the Crucible and then dying on it. She got all the attention and Jack got nothing. She deserved it though. Hell did she deserve every piece of it.

Jack, or at least the old Jack, the Jack that was imprisoned on the Purgatory, didn't respect anyone or anything. She would have stared the Council down and told them to fuck themselves. Nobody deserved her respect, and nobody got it.

When the crew of the Normandy was taken by the Collectors, Jack was positive that Shepard was going to turn tail and run off into the sunset. She was so sure of it that she was packing all her guns and meager belongings into bags when Joker said over the intercom that they were going into the Omega-4 Relay. Fuck if Jack didn't get close to actually respecting the red haired human at that moment.

When they flew out of that base and she watched it explode, shit she was happy. When she turned around and found that the whole landing team was still alive, she felt it. She finally respected someone. Shepard had earned that respect. Through the fire and flames, Shepard earned that respect.

"You know, I think about her every day..." Miranda trailed off, looking into space. Jack cocked an amused eyebrow at her.

"Should I be concerned? Shepard making you a little wet over th–"

"Shut it, you. I think about her dying. I was always so sure that her implants would have made her far less susceptible to death."

"Mi, we don't know what happened on the Citadel that day. Nobody does. Shepard might have been dying before she even fired the Crucible. She might have died the second it fired. We'll never know." Jack said, reaching over and putting her hand on Miranda's. She wasn't alone in that thought process. Jack thought about Shepard every day too. How different the galaxy would be today if Shepard were still around.

These new merc groups would never be as strong as they are if Shepard were here to hunt them down. The Council wouldn't be so...vague all the time. The assassin from Tiber would be a dead man already. Dangerous mercenaries like Talon wouldn't be running amok like they are.

Poor Liara wouldn't be left alone to raise her daughters. The whole galactic scene would be different. It was crazy to think that one woman had that kind of influence, but Shepard did. She did things that nobody else could even dream of doing.

Jack took her hand away and rested it under her chin again, staying quiet as Miranda went back to grading her papers. Jack had always guessed that whatever relationship she ended up in would be primarily physical, barely a moment spent doing nothing. More and more though, she was getting to just enjoy sitting with Miranda while they worked, or just hanging out. It was almost like she was getting to that stage in life where love didn't mean constant sex. She thought it would be boring. She loved it.

"Uh...Dr. Lawson?" Jack flicked her eyes to the door and the student standing there. Sarah stood there, a small bashful smile on her face. Jack snapped and nodded at her, a gesture that all the students had learned to mean that they should continue.

"I was just wondering if you knew where Dr. T'Nirra is?" She asked. Miranda flicked a slightly amused glance at Jack, understanding why Sarah was asking her and not the ex mercenary.

"She should be in her office, Sarah. What do you need?" Miranda answered, putting her pen down. The girl nodded and shifted her weight nervously.

"Well...I sorta forgot to hand in an assignment today, and I was hoping she would take it late. The lights in her office are on, and I knocked but nobody answered."

Jack narrowed her eyes. The lights were on but nobody was in? Impossible. The rooms were equipped with biological lighting systems. If there was someone inside, the lights were on. If not, they were off. Suspicious. Paloma was obviously in there, but she wasn't answering her door. This was her chance to catch T'Nirra doing something she shouldn't be.

"I'll go to her office with you, Sarah. Dr. Lawson is busy." Jack said, getting up from the chair and sliding it back over to where it came from. Sarah giggled at the door, drawing a curious look from her teachers.

"You guys are cute together..." She risked, smiling at them. Jack glared at her for a moment before smirking. She flicked hey eyes to Miranda's, meeting them with a knowing look.

"I told you she knew, Mi..." She said softly before fixing Sarah with a deathly glare. "You spout that to anyone and I will fry you like that Reaper on the Thames!" She snapped. Sarah's eyes only widened.

"So you did destroy a Reaper..." She mouthed in wonder. Jack smirked at her and ushered her out of the room, winking at Miranda on the way out. The professor graced her with a perfect smile before turned back to her work.

"Seriously though, Sarah. Keep quiet about it. Miranda and I like our privacy...for that matter, how did you find out in the first place?" Jack asked once they had put some distance between themselves and Miranda's classroom. Sarah shrugged nonchalantly.

"I can detect love when its in the air." She proclaimed, her nose high up in the air, eyes closed and chin stuck out.

"You do remember that I give you grades, right?" Jack replied coolly. Sarah immediately strained her back and righted her face.

"I sorta...overheard you two..."

"How does hearing us talking give away that we are together?" Jack asked curiously. She knew Sarah was smart, but not that smart. That was like...Miranda level smarts. Crazy genetically engineered smarts that were in no shape or form normal among regular people. It was sexy though.
"You weren't talking...you were...y'know..." Sarah stammered, her face and neck bright red with embarrassment.

Jack face palmed. "Oh. You overheard that, did you?" She mumbled. Sarah had overheard them having sex. Which was really no surprise, as the two of them had sex regularly in one or the others office. When it was late, and they assumed all the students were asleep or at least in their rooms.

It was not surprising actually, seeing that Sarah was a library bug. She could be found there at all hours, studying or sometimes just being lazy. Why she never chose to be lazy in her room was a mystery.

"Are you...mad at me? For overhearing it?" Sarah asked nervously. Jack couldn't believe that she was actually having this conversation with one of her students. Weird, but at the same time, kind of amusing.

"Mad at you? Nah. Sex is a natural thing, and an awesome thing. When you get into it, you'll figure it out." Jack replied with a grin. She had no qualms about sex, or about being embarrassed. Embarrassment only came from doing things that are unexpected. And unexpected was fun. Unless unexpected was blowing a hole in the side of your ship with a crazy laser and kidnapping your friends to be turned into Reaper goo. That unexpected was not fun.

"I've...I've already gotten into it..." She stammered. Jack turned a semi surprised eye on her. Not every day that your students confided in you about become sexually active. How should she approach this? Even when she taught at the first Grissom, nobody had come to her with that kind of information.

"Recently?"

"...yeah..."

"With who?"

"Marcus..." Marcus. Of course she slept with Marcus. He was her training buddy. Her friend, her classmate. He lived four rooms down from her too. Jack wasn't sure how to proceed. She kept silent, intending to stay that way until her stupid mouth decided to plunge in head first.

"Are you ok?" She asked after a minute. Sarah looked up at her with wide eyes. "What do you mean?"

Jack swore inside her head. She didn't even really know what she meant. "I mean...was it your first time?" Sarah nodded silently. "Well...you aren't...confused about anything? Concerned? Was everything...shit I don't know, was everything...kosher?"

Sarah nodded firmly. "Yeah, it was fine...Marcus didn't force me into anything. He was a gentleman about it..." She said, her voice carrying a bit more substance to it.

"Good...and tell the other girls if they need to talk about sex or anything....intimate, they can come to me anytime." She said, feeling a lot better about this. She had been a teacher and a friend to these kids, but this was a new frontier. This was her taking yet another step to making these kids lives the best they could be. It actually felt damn good.

They walked in silence for a good while. The station was huge, and they needed to take a lot of roundabout ways seeing that it was late and a few hallways were sealed off at night.

"It was pretty good..." Sarah said finally, breaking the silence they had been walking in. Jack flicked her eyes to the girl.

"What?"

"The sex...it was pretty good..." She said again, a girly little smile and blush spreading across her face. Jack recoiled and made pronounced gagging noises.

"Please Sarah, do not tell me how good my students are in bed. Really don't want to know." She exclaimed. Sarah burst out in laughter before pushing Jack with a playful little shove, soft enough to not make Jack fall over her cast.

"I'll try not to corrupt your pure mind, Jack."

"Don't talk dirty now." Jack warned humorously. She and Sarah shared a loud laugh together before falling into a much more comfortable silence. They arrived at Paloma T'Nirra's office, and, just as Jack had suspected, the light was on. The only room lit in the whole hallway. Her eyes narrowed at the door, and she suddenly had a terrible feeling about this.

"Sarah, listen very carefully to me. I want you to run back to Dr. Lawson's classroom, and stay there. You will see her on the way back. Get moving." Jack ordered with a jerk of her thumb. Sarah faltered hesitantly.

"What's wrong, Jack?" She whispered. Jack glared at the door, trying to focus enough to tell how many people were inside, if any at all.

"Nothing yet. Move it." Sarah nodded and sprinted back down the hall. She was fast; it would only take her around ten minutes to get back at that pace. Jack pulled up her omni and dialed Miranda.

"Hey, everything ok?" Came the answer.

"No. I just sent Sarah back to your classroom, but I need you to come here to T'Nirra's. Something is wrong, I just know it, and I can't fight properly with this leg if things come to that." She heard some things shuffling on the other side of the line.

"Alright. I'll be there in five." She said before cutting the line dead. It had taken her and Sarah almost twenty minutes to get there, on account of them walking and her cast. Sarah was fast and could get back in ten, but Miranda was far faster. She hated her father for the genetic engineering he did, but it really made the eldest Lawson sister into a physical goddess. Both on the battlefield and in bed.

True to her word, five minutes passed and she was coming to a stop next to Jack. She was barely breathing hard from the sprint, which wasn't a surprise. She took a moment to investigate the surroundings and came to the same conclusion Jack did.

"No lights on except hers..." She muttered, glaring up and down the hall. Jack nodded, keeping her eyes plastered on the semi opaque glass that was set in every door, trying to see if there were shadows moving about behind it.

"Lets figure this out..." She said slowly, approaching the door with care. She had been on the wrong end of door bombs and other traps before, and she had learned some painful lessons about just waltzing up to suspicious doors.

She conjured up the tiniest push she could muster and sent it at the door. The little pulse of energy basically knocked on it, winking out of existence on contact. Nothing happened. So no bomb. At least not a pressure sensitive one.

She placed a hand on the handle, ever so slightly, and pushed it down. The lock clicked open, and Jack held the handle steadily. No trip bombs on the lock. She pushed the door inwards and moved out of the way as quickly as she could.

Nothing happened. So no motion sense bombs. She and Miranda slowly peeked into the room, Miranda having a warp prepped and fizzling in her hand, just waiting for someone to jump out at them. While she lacked Jack's raw power, Miranda's biotic control was fantastic; she might not be able to blow things to pieces as well as her lover, but Miranda could put out a cigarette from two hundred meters. Anyway, any warp from this close would fuck someone up pretty hard.

The room was normal looking. The chairs lined up on the wall appropriately. The desk was still neat. A broom closet was open on the other side of the room. In the swiveling chair behind the desk was Paloma. Jack could see the stupid asari's crests over the top of the chair.

"God...what the fuck T'Nirra? You're making everyone think you're dead in here!" She snapped, rounding the desk angrily. She grabbed the chair and spun it around. Miranda gulped loudly behind Jack, a sentiment Jack was following up shortly.

Paloma T'Nirra was in her chair, at her desk, in her office, yes. With her throat slit ear to ear, the wound surgically clean and precise, and no blood marring her skin or robe. "Well...guess we know why she didn't answer the door..." Jack mumbled somberly. She hated T'Nirra, and she used to enjoy the idea of T'Nirra dying. Now though, looking at her dead body...she was disgusted with herself for ever thinking such a thing.

Miranda inched forward and looked around the desk when she gasped. Jack flicked her eyes up to her love. "What is it?"

"The computer..." Miranda said slowly, staring at the screen. Jack moved up next to her and glanced at it. On it were plans. Numbers. Routes. Codes. And she saw a single word repeated over and over again. Revenant. Revenant. Revenant. From the looks of things, Paloma T'Nirra had been a high ranking officer in the new merc group Revenant.

"Holy shit...look at all of this. It's a treasure trove of information..." She muttered, looking through it. There were locations of supply caches. Locations of garrisons. Plans for heists and other such things, even rendezvous coordinates for ship pirates.

"Oh my god..." Miranda began, backing away from the desk and computer, grabbing Jack's hand and pulling her slowly away with her. Jack followed along, staring at Miranda in concern.

"What is it, Mi?"

"Look Jack," She said, pointing at the desk, Paloma's body, and the computer. "Where have you seen this before?" She asked. Jack focused on it, taking in everything at once. Then it came to her. She flicked her eyes around, taking in the details. It was the same. Exactly. The computer having all the incriminating information on it. The slit throat, with no blood accompanying it. It was all the same. Except for the race of the target.

"This is exactly how Loxx was found on Tiber...holy shit...this was another assassination." She said, her voice shaking. She remembered something and quickly jumped towards the desk, searching frantically. Finally, under a paper, she found the data pad, already on.

"What does it say, love?" Miranda whispered. Jack could not shake her confusion as she read it aloud.

"Follow me, Lawson. GS-3371.

Dock 412 A.

Bay 14."

"What do you think?" Jack asked, passing the pad to Miranda. The woman read it a few times before snapping her fingers loudly. "GS-3371. It means Grissom Shuttle 3371. Dock 412 A is the main intergalactic dock down in Discovery. Bay 14, clearly, is the bay there that the assassin wants us to follow them to." She said, a smile spreading across her face. Jack was equally excited. They had a trail to follow, and even if it meant they could be running into a trap, it was exciting. This felt like they were on the Normandy again, heading out to kick ass.

"We'll need to alert Grissom security about this, then we can follow this trail." Miranda said confidently, striding quickly out of the room. Jack went to follow her and happened to look into the broom closet that was open. The door, that had looked normal originally, was definitely not normal. It had a massive gash in it, like someone had gone after it with an omni blade.

Down inside it was a small mattress and some bowls, one of them still having some mushy looking stuff in it. It was almost like someone was being...held in there. Held captive. Someone like...the T'Soni daughters. Everything was falling into place now.

Paloma T'Nirra, who was a high ranking officer in a merc group, orchestrated the kidnapping of the T'Soni daughters, probably for ransom, and was keeping them hidden at the New Grissom Academy. Liara went out and somehow, somehow, hired Talon, the most dangerous contract killer in the galaxy, to find them. And find them he did. Along with Paloma.

And that right there answered their questions about Loxx. Talon killed Oriana's batarian aide because he was orchestrating a huge heist that would have surely put Oriana and the colony out on their asses with nothing but varren to stand with.

She hobbled out of the office, shaking her head. Talon had been right. They had not seen him again since getting him to the station. He didn't need his pistols either, both of which were hidden in Jack's apartment on the stations upper residential floors. He had a blade with him.

She steadily began to wonder if this was really a good idea. With her leg in the state it was, she couldn't fight. She would be more burden than anything else with how she was. Then again, Talon's elusiveness was legendary; if he left them directions, he wanted them to find him. He had been far from the bloodthirsty killer the news vids made him out to be when they met him. Maybe this was more than it seemed.

Either way, they needed to pursue this. It was their duty as professors to find who killed their colleague, and they would.

"So you told the academy we were going to check on your sister?" Jack asked again, amusement ringing in her voice. Watching Miranda concoct schemes and cook up lies was always fun to watch. Halfway because they were funny, and the half because they always worked.

"Yes. I reasoned that because the scene was so similar to the one on Tiber, I wanted to go check on Oriana. It was easy to say that you should come because you were on the security detail with Shiala." Miranda proclaimed proudly. She quite enjoyed deceiving people. Not in a bad way. At least not all the time.

"Good. Where is this damn shuttle?" Jack complained, looking around the hanger. Miranda shared in her frustration. They had specifically asked for shuttle 3371 and were told that it was available. Now, they had waited for almost an hour in the shuttle bay at the academy, and the shuttle had still not arrived. Miranda smirked at her lover. Jack was not a patient woman. She was when students were involved, but when she was looking to be busy, patience was the last thing on her mind.

"Relax, love. If someone as dangerous as Talon left a trail, then he isn't going anywhere." She glanced downward and found her eyes on Jack's slender hips and round rear. The leather pants that Jack decided to wear were as tight as they could possibly be, and Miranda would have been lying terribly if she said she wasn't spending her time enjoying the view.

She stuck her booted foot out and playfully nudged Jack on the bum. Jack turned and swatted unsuccessfully at the perpetrating foot, fixing Miranda with a smoldering eye. "Don't start something you won't finish, Lawson." She warned, winking at her.

"Start something? On the contrary, I might just like what I see..." She trailed off, taking a very vested interest in investigating her fingernails. She loved teasing Jack like this, seeing how much she could get the woman going.

"You might just regret that statement, Lawson..." Jack muttered, grinning mischievously. Miranda knew what that grin meant. At some point soon, she would be ambushed. Roughly. Who knows when, but it would be soon. Probably as soon they had some privacy. She would have to temper it though, on account of her lovers leg.

"Dr. Lawson?" Miranda looked to her right at a salarian, who wore a shuttle pilot uniform. "I am the pilot for shuttle 3371." He finished.

Jack scoffed as she tromped past. "About time you got here. We're headed to–"

"Dock 412 A, Bay 14." The salarian interrupted, marching past a surprised Jack and an equally surprised Miranda. He knew where they were heading? Miranda was sure that they hadn't included that in the request for a pilot...

"I was aware that you would be requesting my shuttle and given instructions for when you did. Please, come this way." He gestured to a shuttle near the edge of the bay. Miranda and Jack fell into step behind him, meeting each others eyes only briefly, the unspoken conversation taking place quickly. Talon had planned this out extensively.

They boarded the shuttle with the salarian, the three of them staying silent while the pilot requested permission to take off. He got it, and before long they were sailing through the city of Discovery. The city was a shining star of modern development and infrastructure, hundreds of newly made technologies going into its reconstruction.

At the north end of the city was the spaceport and docking bays, a massive tower spiraling almost a mile into the sky over the Discovery cityscape. Every thousand feet, huge stabilizing units generated mass effect fields to keep the tower from falling or even swaying.

The pilot got clearance to enter Dock 412 from the control center and, once inside, veered to the A side of the wide docks. Finally, he put the shuttle into bay 5. Miranda and Jack got out, Jack tossing a credit chit to the pilot. Through some unknown development in their relationship, Miranda had somehow ceded money matters to Jack. She initially thought she would be annoyed by it. In fact, she enjoyed it.

They watched the shuttle take off again and left the bay. Miranda cast a small glance at Jack and noticed a sheen of sweat developing on her brow. She reached out and took Jack's hand, stopping her.

"What is it, love? You're sweating." She wiped the woman's brow, her eyes mixed with concern and uncertainty. Jack lightly swatted her hand away.

"It's nothing. Bit nervous is all." She hedged, trying to turn away to keep heading for bay 14. Miranda held fast onto her hand, pulling her back. Again, she tried to wipe Jack's brow and again was swatted away.

"You don't get nervous, love. I've always known that...is it your leg?" Jack bit her lip and looked away, shame obvious in her eyes. Jack hated admitting weakness, no matter how great or small it was. Always trying to be the tough one. She had probably been in pain for a while now and decided to not say anything.

"Have you taken painkillers?" Jack nodded briskly. Miranda shook her head as she placed her hands on her hips. "You're lying." She stated evenly.

"How would you know?" Jack retorted, crossing her arms on her chest. Miranda reached into the bag on her back and pulled out a small container, rattling it.

"Because you gave me your pills and asked me to keep them for you. Here," She grabbed Jack's hand again and dumped out three pills into it. She snatched a water bottle from a passing cart and pushed it into Jack's other hand. The woman stared at the pills with disdain.

"Please don't put yourself in unnecessary pain, love. Suck up your pride and just take the pills. You have two more weeks in the bio-cast, then just a light brace. Stick it out until then." She ordered sternly. She was not only a doctor, but also Jack's lover. Jack would not overdo things under her watch.

Jack took the pills and downed the water, tossing the bottle into a nearby trash chute. She looked up at Miranda sheepishly. "Thanks Mi." She mumbled. Miranda smirked at her and quickly pecked her on the cheek.

"Let's go. We have somewhere to be." She started walking towards bay 14, stepping slow enough to allow Jack to keep pace comfortably. It was slow going, but they eventually came upon a holo board with the number 14 on it.

This specific bay was mostly empty, the only people milling about being maintenance workers, guards and a single snack cart. Docked in the bay was what looked like a luxury shuttle, much larger than the Grissom shuttles. It was an interplanetary shuttle, equipped for travel between systems.

"Well...we're here...what now?" Jack muttered, looking around. Talon's stupid instructions were mum on what exactly they were supposed to be doing at this bay. As she spoke, the shuttle suddenly whirred to life. At the far side, a hatch opened and an asari walked out dressed in commando leathers. She came around the bay towards the two of them.

"Kira!?" Miranda exclaimed once the asari got close enough for her to see her face. She smiled at them and bowed.

"Dr. Lawson. Jack. It's good to see you." She said politely, straightening up from her bow. Miranda glared at her, eyes narrowed and a shockwave pulsing in her hand. A flick of light from beside her said that Jack had something similar burning in her hand as well.

"What's going on? Is your name even Kira?" She demanded. The asari nodded, keeping her hands clasped in front of her. On her back was an assault rifle, but she made no attempt to reach for it.

"Yes it is. Judging that you are here, I assume that you found Talon's instructions?" Miranda nodded carefully, slowly inching around to place herself between Kira and Jack. Asari commandos were fast, and though she would never say it out loud, Jack was the exact opposite of fast. If this asari tried to attack, Jack would never be able to move in time.

"Please. I understand that I helped in deceiving you, but there is no need to be so tense. If you thought that you might have to fight anyone, rest assured. There will not be combat where I am to take you." Kira declared, turning to walk towards the hatch.

"Where exactly is that?" Jack called, making no move to follow. Kira looked over her shoulder, stopping for only a moment.

"Would you like me to tell you what I was ordered to, or the truth?" She said, her voice soft and sincere. Miranda let her shockwave she had in her hand dissipate, and she cocked her head to the side.

"What did Talon want you tell us?"

"He wanted me to tell you that you were going to the Citadel." She answered.

"Where are you actually taking us?"

"Thessia. Please, make yourselves at home on the shuttle. Talon wanted you to be comfortable, Jack." She said, turning again and heading to the hatch. Miranda couldn't help but be curious. Talon wanted Kira to tell them that they were going to the Citadel, but the were actually headed to Thessia? Why Thessia? Then, to compound things, Talon apparently wanted Jack to be comfortable on the ride. Why would he want that of all things?

It made decent sense. Talon had seen Jack's leg when he met them in Discovery. Maybe he wasn't so bloodthirsty after all. Miranda and Jack reluctantly followed after the asari onto the ship, clasping hands tightly. It really was a luxury ship; the main cabin was ringed with expensive furniture and nice decorations. There was a bar and a large kitchenette, with bottles of wine on ice and large bowls of fruit.

"Take a seat. We'll be leaving shortly." Kira had emerged from a hallway that led to the front of the ship, most likely the cockpit. She wore a genuine smile, and Miranda saw a chance for her and Jack to talk about this quickly. She took Jack by the arm and led her to a large loveseat..

"Mi, what do you think?" Jack whispered, allowing herself to be sat down. Miranda wasn't entirely using this as a chance for them to talk. She really did want Jack to sit down and take some pressure off her leg. Taking Jack to the seat fulfilled both purposes.

"We see where this goes. She already told us that Talon wanted her to lie, and she chose not to..."

"Can we be sure that that wasn't the lie?" Jack mused, her eyes hard and her hand twitching.

"I think we can trust her, for now at least. I'll call Liara; she'll know that we're coming." She whispered back quickly, kissing Jack softly on the cheek and sitting down next to her.

Kira smiled at them and moved up to a control panel on the wall. A moment later, the hatch of the ship closed. She touched a finger to her ear, activating a headset. "Yes. Clear." She said. A few minutes later, the ship lurched out of the bay.

"We'll be there in about six hours. Help yourselves to anything on the ship. It is all payed for in full." Kira explained, gesturing to the cabin. Miranda looked around, wondering just how much this all ran up. She was no stranger to astronomical amounts of money; the Lazarus Project ran into the hundreds of billions of credits, and she handled most of that to procure the best equipment.

Still. For a transport, luxury or not, this looked pretty expensive. While her eyes wandered, she caught Kira stealing a glance over at them. When she noticed Miranda's eyes, she turned away stiffly and marched back down towards the cockpit.

"We left Horizon three hours ago," Kira said into the comm, sitting next to the pilot. "Yes. Both of them came. Yes." She spoke in an almost robotic tone, too upset to really put any inflection in her voice. Her world had changed, and she wasn't sure if it was for the better or worse.

"Good. Are you nervous?" The voice was tired and strained. Kira understood that things must have been intense since she came back to life.

"About?" She hedged, hoping that Shepard wouldn't force her to do this.

"Coming back to the estate. You will explain yourself to your sisters, and to Liara."

"What about you?" She sniffled hopelessly.

Kira was shocked and mortified to find out that Talon the mercenary was in fact Zaia Shepard, the father of the T'Soni daughters. In the moment that she found out, she was far more afraid of the very image of the Hero of the Galaxy than she had ever been of Talon. Compounding that she had actually aided in the kidnapping of Shepard's own daughters, she had been a wreck.

To her surprise, Shepard had not killed her. Had not taken revenge for her daughters misfortune. In fact, she asked for information. Information to the tune of how accepting the T'Soni commandos would be of her. Kira did not lie when she said that her sist...former sisters would be suspicious and reluctant to accept her. The former spectre seemed unconcerned with that, like she had some sort of plan. With all she had seen since leaving Thessia with 'Talon', Kira had no doubt of that.

Shepard demanded that Kira help her get the girls back. Fearing for her life if she said no, Kira went along with things. Now though, the T'Soni girls were back at home, with their mother and father. Two things Kira no longer had.

Shepard had told her, once they were off Grissom Station, that she had discovered the fate of Kira's family in Perin T'Nirra's files. Just as she had feared, Kira's family had been killed as soon as Vasha and Imali were taken. She was still reeling from that information when Shepard gave her the instructions to wait at the docking bay for Jack and Miranda Lawson to come, then bring them to Thessia.

"I have made my decision." Shepard grated out, cutting the line. Kira closed the call with a tear. Maybe Shepard would be merciful and end her life quickly. Maybe the commandos would do it. Better yet, maybe Na'lara could overload her brain with biotics and end her painlessly.

She wiped her tears away with a shaking hand. She had foolishly believed that her family would be safe if she helped the T'Nirra's kidnap the T'Soni girls. She had thought that mercenaries would keep their word. She had alienated her family at the T'Soni estate, believing that she would have at least one family to return to. Now, she had no blood family, and the T'Soni commandos would never accept her again. She was an outsider, a lost soul. No home, and no purpose.

For what did she have to live for anymore?

XXX

"So...correct me if I'm wrong...but all the political hits over the years...that was you?" Garrus asked, sitting next to Shepard on the top floor balcony of the estate. Zaia had woken from her peaceful sleep not too long ago, groggy but content. Liara's lullaby singing skills had not dulled. They had always put her to sleep while they were on the Normandy, and it's effect had no diminished.

She had stayed in the room and sent Garrus a message, telling him to come up to the top balcony. They had been sitting there for a good hour now, him mostly listening to her describe her life for the past ten years. To her surprise, he was more interested in her experiences rather than why she was doing them.

"Yeah, those hits were me." She said again, taking a draw on the Crystal she had him sneak up. She wouldn't drink it in front of her daughters, and neither were present. It would take her time to break from her addiction to the smooth drink.

"So, the Council forced you into all this shit, huh?"

"Yeah. Sparatus was the mastermind." She grunted, spitting the name like it was the most bitter tasting morsel in the universe. The view that this balcony provided was spectacular, the golden glow of the setting sun shining across the lake next to the estate.

"Well...now you're here, Shepard," Garrus began, holding his glass up to her. She reached over and tinged hers off of it. "Dump the past," He proclaimed.

"Shed the black,"

"Don the truth,"

"And unfold the future." She completed the mantra, downing her glass while Garrus did the same with his dextro cocktail. When things had been grim, her and Garrus had somehow manufactured this mantra of theirs. Only the two of them knew it; nobody else had ever recited it with them.

When she fell into depressions about her past on Earth while they were on missions or on the Normandy, Garrus was the one who suffered through it with her. He helped her keep her mind right. There was no romantic connection between them, but they were closer than most partners would ever be.

"Garrus, I'm going to need your help. With a few things..." She said, pouring herself another glass of liquor. The click of talons on glass signaled that the turian was doing the same.

"Anything Shepard. You were my commander, and you always will be." He answered, leaning back in his chair. Zaia knew that she would always be able to trust him with important things. What she was planning would not make her popular in the T'Soni household for a while, but it wasn't important. The safety of her family was important.

"Sparatus has a mole here. One of the commandos..."

"Alright. I'm assuming that you have proof, so what do you want to do? She reached to the table next to her where her favorite blade lay. When she was thinking or planning, she often played with the knife, twirling it or tossing it about. Picking it up, she began to spin it in her fingers. On the ground to the right of her chair was a bag, and inside that bag lay about ten other knives. At the edge of the balcony, leaning against the railing was a wooden board with a target painted on it.

"I don't have proof. He knew that I arrived here with Vasha and Imali. The only people who were aware of that were you, Tali, Caius, Aethyta, and the commandos."

"What about your pilot?" He inquired. Zaia shook her head knowingly. "Draga is on our side, my friend. I'm not worried about Aethyta, Tali or you. Caius is hiding from Sparatus, so I know it isn't him. That only leaves the commandos."

Garrus nodded his approval. "Sound reasoning. What do you want to do about it?"

Zaia flipped the knife, catching it by the blade. "You know that commando that helped the T'Nirra's?"

"Kira..." Garrus spat with disgust.

"Yes, Kira. She's coming back here right now," Shepard flicked the knife at a wooden board, hitting about an inch above the bulls eye. "She is actually the only commando I trust."

Garrus started, disbelief in his voice. "How? She helped those bastards take your daughters!"

"I know what she did, Garrus. I took her with me to find them for a reason. She told me that the T'Nirra's took her family hostage and threatened to kill them if she didn't get them inside the estate." Shepard said morosely, grabbing another knife from the bag and flipping it around.

"So she's naive and a traitor. What's your point?"

"I took her with me to gauge what kind of person she is. And she is no traitor. She was scared, and fear is the greatest motivator for the young," Zaia explained, catching the knife and flicking it at the board in one fluid motion. It struck a few inches higher than the first blade. "She made a common mistake; she sees only the good in people and assumed that T'Nirra would keep her word and not harm the family. She's too young to be cynical, and it bit her in the ass. Her family is dead, Garrus."

Garrus leaned back in his chair, taking the information in stride. "Well, I guess I can say that I'm sorry for her, but that still doesn't absolve her." He sneered with contempt.

"Listen to yourself, Garrus!" Shepard snapped, glaring over at him. "My daughters are alive and well, sleeping in their own beds tonight. Her family is dead, Garrus. There are few costs as steep as that." She growled.

"Are you telling me that you weren't mad that she gave away your daughters?" Garrus hedged, eying Shepard intently. Zaia grabbed another knife from the bag, twirling it pensively.

"Don't play me, Garrus. Of course I was mad. Furious. I almost passed out from the my Woede's, I was so angry. I fully planned on killing her once I found the trail."

"So what happened?" Garrus wasn't a vicious or violent turian. He was really playing the devils advocate right now, and Zaia knew why. He had been a father figure to her daughters over the years, and while he wasn't about to claim them as his own, he took their kidnapping hard.

"I started noticing things about her. Simple mistakes. A clip not loaded properly. Lack of meditation. That's when I finally realized that she is just a kid. I asked her. She's only 110."

"That's not that young, my friend," Garrus snickered into his glass. "The foremost scientist and Prothean expert of the galaxy, who had a direct hand in fighting the Reapers, and is the mother of your daughters is only 119."

Shepard couldn't help but crack a small smile. "I think we can both agree that Liara is a special case."

"Or that you are an asari cradle snatcher." Garrus chuckled. Zaia's smile widened.

"And what a catch she was...anyway. What happened to Kira was not her fault. More on that later though. I have a plan for finding this mole."

"What is it?"

Shepard got up and retrieved the knives that were stuck in the board. "I'm going to detain the commandos here and question them. Every single one. I want you to help me. One of them is a leak, and I intend to find out who." She grunted as she pulled the last knife from the board. Garrus considered it silently, his eyes scrunched in thought.

"Alright, I'm on board...but couldn't you just ask Liara to force them to spill? I mean, they're damn near fanatical to her."

Shepard shook her head vehemently. "No. If it were that simple, the mole would never exist. Whoever it is is someone that is acting..."

"What about Kira? She already betrayed Liara once." Garrus reasoned.

"Wouldn't make sense. Sparatus would want the mole to make sure nothing happened to the girls. Kira made something happen to them. It's exactly opposite. It's not her." Shepard stared out over the lake from the railing, her brain ticking slowly, calculating her moves. Sparatus wasn't going anywhere. That turian could run as far as he wished, she would catch him.

Garrus walked up and joined her at the railing, staring out at the lake as well. "I'm here for you, Shepard, Tali as well. Whatever you need, just say the word." He said. Zaia nodded absently, her eyes meeting the sunset. She would fix things. She would be the father and lover she couldn't be for ten years. Never again would she leave her family.

Never.

Who had fun? I did. Read and review and enjoy! Also, if you have ANY questions, please do not be afraid to leave a review or PM me. I have not always been great with responding to reviews, but I will try harder. I promise.