A/N I had to go off story timeline to make the next chapter work. but I hope you all enjoy it. Fluffy times ahead.
Shea
"Admiral Gerrel, although I do understand and even agree with your decision, I'd appreciate a bit of warning." I said. I heard Tali mutter under her breath, what sounded like a few choice Quarian curses, but the only one that was familiar to me was Boshtet. After he left I contacted Hackett and gave him an update on my end and he returned with an update on his end. As I walked past I heard a garbled message. "EDI can you clear this up?" I ask. Now the message was clear Admiral Koris was pinned down on Rannoch. "Thank you Commander. We will do what we can to keep them distracted, until he can be rescued, the Civilian fleet needs him." Raan said. "Can your fleets hold out a bit longer, we'll go extract him." I said. "We will try but with those Geth fighters it won't be easy." She said. "I have an idea." I replied.
My idea seemed to work well. I sent Ash, Tali, and James to take down the jamming tower, while they did that I took Javik and Garrus with me to the server. Where I found out why the Quarians initially began the war. It was simple and irritating, fear. They started a war because they were afraid when the Geth asked if it was alive and had a soul. Ash picked us up and I spoke to Koris and convinced him to give us his coordinates. Once on board our shuttle we rendezvoused with his fleet. Then it was back to the Normandy. Finally everything was in place to attack the Geth base where another Reaper signal was originating from if we took that out it could stop the Geth attacks, then we could get this whole mess resolved.
"You are not leaving me on the ship this time." Ash said firmly. "As you wish wifey." I said. "When did you two finally get married?" Tali asks "About six weeks ago. We recorded a video of it for you, we're sorry we couldn't wait for you to be with us." Ash said. "It's ok, for all you knew I could have been dead. I'll watch the video when we get back." She said. We landed on Rannoch again. "I think the living room window should go right here." Tali said. "Something we should no Tals?" I ask. She explained a bit about how the Quarian's felt having to live their home world and the meaning behind the saying "Keelah Se'lai". "Liara and I have agreed that if I got my home world back we would settle down here, and raise our all of our little blue children." Tali says." Then I will do all I can to help you get it back for now though, I hope this will do." I hand her a rock from the surface. "It's a start." She says.
"Dear God that was a lot of Primes, tough S.O.B's I'm really glad we got a platoon to help us." Ash says. I track down the Reaper signal and use the Normandy's targeting system to fire. The ground beneath us seems to groan and shake, I fall off the edge of the platform. I had just regained my balance when I saw a gigantic leg appear accompanied by the on sound constantly plaguing my nightmares. "It's a fucking Reaper, not just the signal. Retreat! Everyone get to the escape vehicle. We run and just get to the Geth fighter as the Reaper rights itself. I turn the turret towards it. "Go Legion! Now!" we escape just as the fleets fire from space it isn't enough to destroy it. "Shepard-Commander it is still operational, but we have time to get away completely." Legion says. "No pull over. If we leave now the Geth stay under Reaper control and the Quarians are dead. This ends now. The firing chamber appears to be a weak point when priming. EDI, patch the Quarians into the Normandy's weapon system. I want the targeting laser synced up to the whole damn fleet." I said. "Understood." She replies.
"Really Shea you're going to take that thing on foot?" Ash says. "Not much choice love. This threat needs to end now." I said. "Shea if this doesn't… If we don't make it.. " Ash says. "You worry too much baby." I said. "I think you are insane, but I love you. Give 'em hell my love." She says. "When don't I? other then when I'm giving you a much more pleasurable hell." I tease.
Liara
I watched in horror as Shea dodged and shuffled barely missing being hit by it's laser, I cringed when it got to close to the vehicle Tali and Ashley were in, I trembled with fear as the Reaper was almost on top of Shea. Ash was probably going crazy and digging her nails into the nearest surface, heart threatening to beat out of her chest or explode. I know I would be if Tali were standing in Shea's shoes. When the Reaper exploded, we all cheered. The cheering died when Shea told Legion to upload his code, it was still Reaper but at least they could choose and think for themselves. Tali was frantic worried the fleets wouldn't cease fire. "Shea please you can't choose them over my people. Please stop him." She begged. I was angry, but I had to have faith in Shea. "No one else is dying today. All fleets hold your fire." Shea said. "This Admiral Zorah, Shepard speaks with my authority." Tali adds her voice trusting Shea.
Admiral Gerrel of course wants to keep fighting and wipe out the Geth. "You're peoples whole history is attacking the Geth first, would you not defend yourselves if you could. The Geth don't want to fight you. If you can believe that for just one minute this war can be finally over. Please Keelah Se'lai." The silence was deafening. " All fleets stand down. This war is over." Gerrel says. Finally he does the smart thing, the right thing. The happiness cannot last long, in giving the other Geth individuality Legion had to give his life, to free his people. After a somewhat tense scene between a Geth Prime and Admiral Raan peace was finally achieved. I switched to Tali's feeds as she looked at a beautiful sunset that I could honestly see greeting every day.
"Shopping for another house?" I ask. "Beach front property." Tali says. "Claim it fast. It's a buyers market." I reply. She sighs and I see her surroundings shake and then lower to the ground as if she was sitting. She looks at Shea as she sits next to her. "You okay? I know working with the Geth will be difficult." Shea says. "You know I'm not staying. I'm coming with you. I have been away from Liara and our girls too long." She says and my heart melts. "I would understand if you felt the need to stay. The girls and I will be ok." I tell her. "I know you would my heart, but I would not." She says. "I wasn't going to ask. You know I'd love it if you came with us." I said. "Liara I don't know how much time we have left or I we can even beat the Reapers. But whatever time we have left, I want to spend it with you my heart and soul." She says.
She has almost the same conversation with Shea, only less lovey-dovey. She looks over the horizon. It will be years before we can live without our suits, but right now I have this. I switch back to Shea and see Tali remove her mask and breath in the air. I worry a bit and want to demand she put her mask back on, but I can give her this. My attention is diverted by an important message notification. "Kai Leng's ship has been pinged heading for a planet. I look at the map again. "Horizon, how much more can that poor colony take. They were still recovering from the Collector attack. Poor Sam once again her home is under attack." I think. I better tell Shea when she gets back. She will not be pleased, also Councilor Tevos wishes to speak to her on the Citadel. At the moment we are closer to Horizon. I know Shea would want to check it out. It is never good when Cerberus land anywhere, and whatever they're doing there needs to be stopped. I send a written message to Joker. "Are you sure Liara?" Joker asks. "Yes unless Shea says differently, that's probably where we should go next." I tell him. "Ok, I'll get the course set up to go when Shea returns." He says. "Thank you joker. I'm still looking into Tiptree for you." I tell him. "Thanks I really appreciate that." He says. We disconnect and as soon as Shea is on board, I approach her and share what I found. "Good call. Joker head to Horizon." She orders. "Yes ma'am, ETA two hours."
Ashley
Shea had just finished her interview with Allers as I was heading to the shower. I waved at Diana in farewell, I had come to the conclusion that she wasn't so bad for a reporter. I guess it helped her case that Sam loved her and from what I could see the love was mutual. I hopped in the shower as Shea sent her report to the Alliance high command. I didn't even say hello, I was a bit tired and just wanted to shower and then eat. Cuddle a bit with her as I drifted off to sleep. It would appear she took it as I was mad, because when I got out of the shower she was setting dinner on a table. "Where did we get the table from?" I wondered. "Ash, I know what I did was reckless and scared you, but it was the only thing I could come up with on the fly. I am sorry that I made you angry." She said looking down at her feet looking like an adorable kid who felt bad for doing something wrong.
I walked over to her albeit quicker then I thought, she seemed to cringe but be ready for me to hit her. I reach out and stroke her cheek and kiss her gently. She is still tense expecting a strike that would never come. "Shea Alexandra Shepard. I promised you I would never hit you again, and I meant it. You are both the craziest and bravest woman I have ever met, and I love you for it. Yes taking on a Reaper on foot was ludicrous, but I too saw no other option. I am proud and in awe of you. You faced something truly terrifying and stood your ground figuratively speaking. You say you are no miracle worker, but yet you stopped a 300 year old war. Once the bitterest of enemies and you helped them make peace. True there is still a lot of work ahead for them, but because of you they may now have a chance to right their past wrongs." I told her
She placed her hand over mine that was cupping her cheek. "You aren't mad?" she asks. "At first I was, but on the way back to our ship I had time to think things through and that is when I realized, you had no other options, I was no longer angry." I said. "Are you sure, you've barely said two words to me?" she asks. "Oh, I'm sorry baby. I'm just tired and hungry and sad for Horizon, it's like that place is a beacon for people to attack or take over. I can only imagine how Sam is feeling." I explained. "Oh.. Okay.. I just thought.." she begins I place two fingers on her lips. " I know, and that is my fault. I'm sorry my love." I tell her. I wipe away the tears shimmering in her eyes. "The food is a most welcome sight, shall we eat, snuggle and get some shut eye?" I ask. Her smile beams. "Yes please, but I thought maybe we could have some special naker snuggles tonight." She says fake pouting. "You are adorable, but we'll just have to see. Right now food and sleep is uppermost in my mind." She pulls out my chair and kisses the top of my head. I grab her hand and kiss it. "Thank you sweet heart." I say, she nods and sits in her seat.
We never really talk during meals after missions, we are mostly too tired to. But I had to ask. "Where did you get the table from?" she smiles sheepishly. "I may or may not have commandeered it from the crew quarters." I laugh remembering our conversation about how she acquired booze for the Christmas party a couple years ago. "Which is Shea speak for you stole it." She smiles. "You know me so well, though looking at it here, I'm not sure I'll be returning it." She says. "The hell you won't, once we wake up, the first thing you are going to do is return it to the quarters. If you really want a table we can purchase one on the Citadel, when we go meet Councilor Tevos." I said in a firm tone. "Fine, but can we at least have sex on it first. After our first encounter with table sex, I seem to dream about it and desire it quite a lot actually." I shake my head. "When we buy our own we can, but then we'll never eat on it again after that." I said she grins. "Damn it." She pouts. "But Ash that's what I want the table for, so I can eat my favorite tasty treat on it all the time. I loves me some Ash pie." I throw my napkin at her. We both laugh.
Chey
After I watched her pace for the hundredth time in the past hour, I had to put a stop to it. She was driving me nuts. "Babe, calm down, you're wearing a hole in the floor." I said. "No I will not calm down. Are you not aware we might be too late. Oriana could be dead for all we know. We shouldn't have wasted so much time. What if I failed her." She says with attitude. "Love we aren't too late, she's fine." I tell her trying to reassure her. "Think positively you negative Nelly." I add. "You think positively you asshole." She glares at me, and resumes her pacing. I sigh and pull her gently to my arms. "Honey, I know how you feel, but if you give in to your doubts you've already lost." I said. She tries to push off of me and my arms are around her like a steal cage. "You and your impossible strength." She says. "I thought you liked my impossible strength." I tease. She sighs. "I'm sorry Chey. It's just every minute she is with that mad man, doing whatever he wants to her." I kiss her forehead. "It's alright love. We'll save her and I have every confidence in you that whatever he has done or not done to her you'll figure it out and help her." She leans her back further into my chest, and relaxes.
"Miri, do you honestly think he'd ever hurt her?" I ask. "Not Physically no. But the psychological scars aren't so easy to fix. I still deal with the ones that he gave me." She says. I hug her. "Then we'll help her together, I'm no stranger to psychological damage myself." She squeezes my arms beneath hers. "I know darling. But you seem to have adjusted well." She says. "Only because of you. Just holding you in my arms like this, helps a great deal. I'm not alone in this anymore, neither are you, and neither will Ori be." I tell her. I lean down and kiss her shoulder. I see her smile out of the corner of my eye. "Thank you my dear heart. I don't know what I'd do without you here." She says. "You'd crack and crumble under the weight of your genius brain." I tease. She playfully swats my arm. "Not likely. If you weren't around maybe I could get a decent nights sleep and be able to function better without the constant distraction." She says equally teasing. "No. I like my reasons better. Therefore I am right and you are wrong." I said.
She turns into my body and straddles my hips. "Oh, is that so?" she asks. "Yep." I reply. "And why is that?" she asks moving a bit. I resist the urge to clench my teeth, I will not let her know how torturously pleasurable this is becoming. "Because, I have the penis. Every one knows the one with the penis is always right." I respond. "Really? And there's nothing I can do to change your mind." She grinds her pelvis against mine. I moan with need. "Damn you woman." I roll us over and get on top of her, clothes begin to come off skin touches skin. I'm hard as hell, she's slick with need. An alarm sounds. "Fucking Hell!" I exclaim and clamber off of her, my erection making it hard to walk comfortably. "All comms are down!" she sidles up next to me in the cockpit. "We've lost navigation, we need to land at Sanctuary now!" I state and get it in the pilots seat.
We break through the atmosphere at a perilous speed. "Harvester on our right!" she shouts. I barely miss it. "Evasive maneuvers!" I shout. The shuttle shakes as we bank the side of the Harvester. "Are you sure you can fly this thing through this mess?" she asks. "Of course. I'm a Shepard after all." I said. "That's what I'm afraid of." She says. I laugh. "Come on, I'm not nearly as bad as Shea. Don't you remember who did most of the driving in the Mako, not too mention the hammerhead?" I ask. "Oh yes I remember the hammerhead well, your driving was only slightly better the Shea's." she says trying to keep it light despite the shit storm around us. "I'll have you know that was my first time learning to pilot a hammerhead, the Alliance never uses them." I bank left and slide through a Cerberus and Harvester duking it out mid air. I manage to land our shuttle smoothly. "Well… that was a thing." I said. "Time to move!" Miri shouts as we fire through some husks and get into the facility.
Miranda
We had just made it through the doors, when the water started filling up the basin to hide the entrance. "No way to go but forward I guess." Chey said. "Thank you Mrs. States the obvious. Come on Ori needs us." I retorted. She arches her eyebrows at me. "Sorry, it's the baby's fault. I blame the hormone and adrenaline." I said apologetically. "Uh-huh, stop using our son as an excuse." She teases me. "Our daughter you mean." I said. "Nope." She replies, I roll my eyes and push her forward. She pulls up her Biotic barrier and places it around us, with her always leading in the front. When I asked her why she kept doing that, and that I was perfectly capable of walking up front or next to her she explained. "I'm an excellent shield." We argued a bit about her treating me like a porcelain doll, to which she responded by taking me hard and fast and anything but gentle. After that fan-freaken tastic bout of sex we discussed it more. "You two are my world, and it would crumble into nothingness without you. Please just let me be your shield." Then I kissed her, made gentle love to her and agreed, but only if she didn't put herself at too much risk. When at first it pissed me off, now it was sweet and made my heart feel all funny.
Room by room we systematically searched, reading and grabbing what data we could. We took out the Reaper forces we could and sealed others away, but still no sign of Ori or father. I left messages here and there so that if people did come here, perhaps they would listen and turn back. To really stop this insanity and save these innocent refugees from becoming experiments for my father and TIM we needed to open up communications. The galaxy needed to be warned. We continued through the facility, I feel myself begin to panic then I feel Chey's reassuring hand on the small of my back urging me through the next door to the comm tower we get it fixed up, but the controls are in the room to the front and below us. "That has to be where they are it's the next to last room." She says to me. I like her enthusiasm, but it does little to ease my worry. "What if we are too late and Ori ceased being important to father and she was one of those husks we killed." She squeezes my arm. "Miri." I sighed. "I know, I know try to be positive." I said.
I was finishing my message when Kai Leng dropped down from above us. "Miri!" I dodged his sword attack and ran a bit a way from him. Immediately Chey is in front of me. He attempts to hit her several times but he either misses or she blocks it. Something came flying towards Chey, it bounced off of her shields and clattered to the floor I see it was a knife an it's point of origin was none other then my father. He smirks but is surprised when Oriana points a gun at him. She fires, but misses father grabs her. "Ori!" I shout this distracts Chey enough that Kai Leng kicks and sweeps her legs out from under her he follows it up with a quick boot to the ribs. She is winded, he comes for me but another barrier erects around me. Chey is standing now and she charges as he thrusts his sword towards my abdomen. It sticks into her belly and it is good and stuck. Kai Leng tries to pull it out to strike again. She grabs his arms and pushes him further away but unfortunately it causes the blade to push through her more. He looks panicked, I am terrified and Chey grins and brings her Omni tool down on his blade severing it in the middle. She jumps up uses nova and then warp. He is pushed back he scrambles away. "Chey!" I shout, and run to her side as she falls I cradle her head in my lap. Ori elbows father he tightens he grip and pushes the gun to her temple. The door opens and I hear Shea's voice. "Miranda?" she asks. "Here over her quickly, Chey is hurt really bad." I tell her.
I see her legs come forward and she trains her gun on my father. "Tali find whatever information you can. James, Ash get Chey on board and to Chakwas. Miranda are you alright?" she asks. "I'm a little banged up, but nothing serious Chey took most of the damage." I said. I slowly stood up.
Tali
I started hacking into main frame as Ash and James took Chey back to the ship. Shea faced Henry Lawson her pistol raised. "Put the gun down." She orders. "No Oriana tried to shoot me. Miranda's poisonous influence no doubt." He said. "I'm sorry she missed." Shea says then looks towards Miranda. "Where is Kai Leng?" He off after stabbing that amazon of a whore. He took my research and left us here to die." Henry said. A flicker of blue tells me Miranda is pissed and Shea's hand gripping her pistol harder told me she was pissed. I was pissed too. "She isn't a whore, she's my wife." Miranda pulses. "Miranda." Shea warns her biotics fizzle out. Miranda moves a bit closer. "That's close enough. Both of you! I will kill you both." He says. "This ends here, for now I'm going to ignore your insult to my sister." Shea says. I'm itching to try my new stealth mode on Chiktika and end his miserable life but with Oriana as his hostage, I couldn't risk her getting hurt.
"On the contrary. Now that the Reapers are taken care of, we have a way out." Henry said. "Let her go." Shea demands. "Shea don't let him take her." Miranda says. "Shea.. Please." Oriana says. "I don't have much of a problem with you. Give me Oriana and the research data and you can walk." Shea says. Though I know she wants to kill him as much as everyone else her in the room. "You want a lot. What do I get out of it?" he asks. "Your life. What's that worth to you?" Shea counters. He pushes Oriana away and points the gun at Shea. "I want out alive. Deal." Miranda flares blue and throws him through the window. "No Deal." Miranda approaches Oriana slowly. "Did he hurt you? Are you alright?" she asks. She helps Oriana up. "It's ok. Ori you're safe now." She hugs her tightly. "I'm fine… I just want get out of here." Oriana replies. "We will. Give me a minute , okay?" Miranda replies.
"Shea.. I can't believe it's you. I'm sorry Chey got hurt because of me." She says to her. "We caught a break. I'm just glad we got here in time. Karin messaged me and said Chey would be fine. I don't blame you I blame Kai Leng." Shea assures her hugging her. "So am I. I never pictured Chey and I as damsels in distress." Miranda said. "Baby are you ok?" Liara asks on our private channel. "I'm ok. Love is all this information getting to you alright?" I ask her. "Slowly, but yes. Chey is in surgery now, I keep checking in on her through the window. Is everyone else ok?" she asks. "Miranda and Oriana are a bit shook up but otherwise fine." I tell her.
"How did you do all this?" Shea asked, I know Liara is listening in as well. "Finding father wasn't all that hard once I confirmed he worked for TIM. Then all I had to do was follow the lies. Then when we saw what this place was we couldn't walk away." She said. "Of course." Shea said. "Things got really complicated with the Reapers and when Kai Leng showed up." Miranda says. "You survived not many could say that." Shea states. "Thanks to your warning and Chey's insistence on being our shield." She touches her belly which was only slightly raised from the baby. "You two broke into a fortified Cerberus lab while it was being attacked by the Reapers. I think you both did amazing." Shea says. I can't help but agree. "I had to find Ori, nothing would stop me." She said. "You did find her and we found you again, that's what matters most." Shea said.
"We're sorry if we worried you." Miranda says. "Of course, I was worried about all three of you. You're my family and my friends." Shea said. "It was nothing we couldn't handle." Miranda said with a slight smile. "I know. At least Oriana is safe." Shea said. Miranda sighed. "Yes, I just wish she didn't have to see all this." She said. "About your father." Shea says. "I'm glad he's gone Shea, I'm sorry if that sounds cold. But I had to end this, for my family's sake." She said. "Yes you did, for our family. Never forget Miranda you are family to all of us, even before you and Chey got together" Shea kisses the top of her head. Even though I mostly disliked Miranda, I still loved her like a sister.