THESSIA
Five days have gone by. The Shepard/T'Soni household is getting ready for Liara to come home from the hospital. Turns out there was a tear the doctors missed in her initial surgery so they had to open her again to repair it. The kids insisted on decorating the house with balloons and signs welcoming their mother home.
They are all in the family room making last minute changes when Aethyta yells out, "She's here. Hurry up kids." She steps outside to greet her daughter.
Shepard helps Liara out of the sky car. "You okay?"
Liara is a little unsteady on her feet. "Yes."
"I got you Liara." Shepard places one arm around her waist while the other is around her shoulders.
"Hi kid."
Liara gives her father a tired smile. "Hi Dad."
Aethyta holds the door open for them.
"Welcome home!" the kids say in unison.
"My, what is all of this?" asks Liara.
Shepard is a little worried about the commotion. Doctors orders were to put her to bed and keep her there for at least a week. Her recovery time will be a bit slower they said due to her second surgery.
"Careful Little A!" Shepard scares their youngest. It looked like the little one was going to run into her mother's arms. She freezes in her tracks. All of the kids stand quiet. Shepard feels like an ass. "Sorry…sorry I didn't mean to scare you. We have to be careful you guys. So give gentle hugs for a bit. Your mom is still sore." She helps Liara to the couch.
Shepard gives Little A a hug, "I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you."
"It's okay Dad."
"Is this all for me?" asks Liara trying to break the tension.
"Yeah Mom we wanted to do something special for you," says Eva.
"Well thank you very much."
"Here Mom," says Mia, "some tea for you." Her daughter's hand trembles when she sets down the cup on the table beside her.
Liara catches her hand and looks at her, "I'm fine honey."
All of the kids are gathered around her. Waiting for her to come home has been awful.
Mia's eyes fill with tears.
Liara pulls her in for a careful hug. "It's okay honey…everything is okay."
"What's with the tears?" asks Aethyta, "I thought this was supposed to be a party?"
Little A catches onto what her grandfather is trying to do. "Yeah! We were going to play some board games if you are up to it Mom."
"Uh Little A I don't…."
Liara stops Shepard with a look. "That sounds wonderful Little Aethyta."
"Honey I don't want you overdoing it."
"I will rest when I grow tired okay Elly?" Her eyes are pleading. She has missed her children. Shepard relents and settles in for games.
EARTH
Oriana is home. She decided to take the afternoon off. Claire, her partner in the lab was happy for the break. She said she had a date with a good crime novel. They have been making progress on their work, though they still are not sharing their results with Dr. Blair Sadler or the rest of the team. Something Oriana knows will need to happen soon.
Since she passed Miranda information on the RUST project and her thoughts of Dr. Sadler the human scientist has been a bit on edge. Claire noticed and asked her what the problem was. She simply shrugged it off and has been trying to do a better job of keeping her cool ever since. Her sister and she have spoken since she passed her the information but it has only been short calls talking about the family. She knows Miranda is trying to come up with a way for them to communicate about the project.
She is home now. Her boys Hunter and Tanner are playing in the nearby park. She saw the note on the data pad on the kitchen counter, most likely left for their Dad Mark, since he usually gets home before she does. She has decided to treat her family to a home cooked meal, something they have not had for a few weeks. Well not her home cooked meals anyway.
Oriana almost forgot what it was like to actually go grocery shopping. Her driver/escort/body guard Gary didn't seem to mind. He has actually grown on her in the last few months. He is married and has a family of his own and when she told him her plans to cook dinner he got it into his head that he would do the same. So he followed her around grabbing ingredients as she did. To an outsider they probably looked like a married couple.
She is in the middle of cutting up vegetables when she hears the front door and two sets of footsteps running to the kitchen, her boys no doubt looking for a snack before dinner.
"Hey hey where's the fire?" she asks with a great big smile.
"Mom? What are you doing here?" asks Hunter.
"Hi Mom!" says Tanner. He gives her a hug. She lifts her hands up since one is wielding a knife.
"I came home early today. Thought I would treat my favorite boys to a meal tonight."
"Awesome!" Hunter looks in the refrigerator and grabs a drink.
"How was the park?"
"Good."
Tanner grabs water. "You want something Mom?"
"No thank you." She looks at her boys. She wonders if there is any grass left at the park. The stains on their shirts and shorts along with the mud will be so fun to clean. But she doesn't care. It has been too long.
"I'm gonna go shower," says Hunter.
Tanner sits on the stool at the kitchen's breakfast bar to watch his Mom cut vegetables. "You making a salad?
"I am."
"What else?"
"Fish, salmon to be precise."
"Ohh sounds fancy." He smiles as he drinks his water. He looks just like Mark, short blonde hair with blue eyes. Her son Hunter looks more like her, brown hair and blue eyes.
"Are you enjoying your summer vacation?"
"Yes especially since we don't need a babysitter anymore."
She doesn't like leaving the boys home alone but Mark insisted that Hunter being 14 is old enough to care for him and his younger brother. Mark only works half days anyway and is usually home around 1pm, so the kids are not alone all day. So far things have been going well and she sees the independence developing in them already.
"I bet. Here have a piece." She hands him a slice of carrot.
"I like this," he says as he puts the whole thing in his mouth and starts chomping.
'What honey?"
"This. You being here. It's nice. I miss you."
Oriana looks at her youngest boy, her beautiful baby boy. "I miss you too sweetheart."
THESSIA
Liara lasted about an hour before her eyes started closing. Shepard finally told the kids that they would have to play without them. She helped her blue beauty into bed to get her settled. She didn't tell Liara that she needed to get to Valya and Dara's house. She didn't want to worry her.
Valya has been home for two days now recovering. It will be another week or so before she can go back to work. Atalia, her partner, is stopping by with more information on the case. Shepard hopes they have found Caressa. She figures she will update Liara when she gets back. If she told her about the meeting she knows the asari would insist on going.
She gave her excuses to her kids and to Aethyta and left the house.
Her sky car lands. She knocks on the door.
"Hi Shepard."
"Hi Dara." She looks exhausted. "How are you holding up?"
"Come in please. Oh I am okay."
"Hate to say it Dara but you don't look it."
"Thanks." She gives a small smile. "Want something to drink?"
Shepard looks beyond the kitchen to see if she can see anyone in the family room.
"Atalia is in there and Valya is on the couch. Do you want something?"
"No thank you. And Dava? How is she doing?"
"She is doing as well as can be expected. She begged to be part of this meeting. We finally said yes.
"She feeling better?"
"She is. But the nights…" her voice trails off.
Shepard can only imagine the nights. She puts her hand on her shoulder. "It will get better Dara."
Dara smiles at her. "I sure hope so."
They walk into the family room. Valya is sitting up length wise along the couch. She has a blanket over her. She looks pale but Shepard figures that is to be expected. Atalia is sitting on one of the chairs across from the couch. She stands when she sees Shepard. Dava is sitting on the floor in front of her Dad by her feet.
"Hi," says Shepard. "You're looking good Valya."
"Liar."
They share a smile.
She shakes hands with Atalia. "Detective."
"Shepard."
The human motions for Dara to take the chair. The asari shakes her head and sits on the arm of the couch near her daughter. Shepard sits.
Atalia clears her throat and sits back down. "Over the past week since I have been on leave I have been doing some research into Elina's family."
"Sorry to interrupt," says Shepard, "have you found Caressa?"
"No." Atalia continues. "I decided to look back around the time Raina was attacked at school fifteen years ago. We believe that Elina was behind it. We believe she was influencing Caressa. So working on that theory I went back two decades from the attack to try to find Elina's father."
"Any luck?" asks Shepard. Apparently she doesn't understand she is supposed to just listen.
"I believe so. Since we know Elina was an Ardat-Yakshi, something Akira was able to confirm with the tests she ran, we know Elina had to have an asari father. I didn't find anything two decades before the school attack so I went back another decade and sure enough I found what I believe is her father. Elisa was her name. She and Shia were never bonded but they had a child together. Elisa was killed in a house fire when Elina was ten years old. It took some doing finding the information. A lot of our archives were damaged or destroyed during the war.
When asari children are growing their parents meld with them. They share memories with them, teach them techniques of the meld like putting up walls, they also teach control. My theory is that Elisa was in a meld with Elina and the Ardat-Yakshi within was awakened. I believe she accidentally killed her father and her mother covered it up by setting the house on fire.
Dava suddenly feels very uncomfortable and hot.
"What makes you so sure?" asks Valya as she takes a sip of water.
"I contacted the Detective from the case. She is retired now but she remembers it because she always thought the little girl was a little creepy.
"Did she suspect foul play?" asks Shepard.
"She couldn't find evidence to back up her theory. She thought that the house fire was intentional. But the fire investigation was inconclusive so it could not be proven either way," says Atalia.
"So Elina now is 10 years old. She has tasted blood. She is probably scared out of her mind at first. But then the hunger inside calls to her. It consumes her. To the point where it is the only think she can think about. She needs a release, she needs to meld."
Dava stands up and goes into the kitchen. Dara follows her after exchanging a worried glance with Valya.
The detective continues. "I continue to research deaths. I hit a wall two days in then I thought I was maybe looking in the wrong places. I started to look for young asari deaths. I found a lot. Over the next ten years there have been about twenty asari deaths that I believe are because of Elina."
"What?" asks Shepard. "How can that be? How would she get away with that?"
Atalia shrugs. "One, she is a child. Two, people at the time didn't believe there were any more Ardat-Yakshi, well on the loose I should say and three, the location of each death is pretty spread out. I believe Elina's hunger was so strong she couldn't deny herself anymore, but she was smart about it. She killed very young asari to hone her craft so to speak."
"How young?" asks Valya.
Atalia swallows. "Younger than Elina."
"Honey are you okay?" asks Dara. Her daughter looks agitated and all around unwell.
"Yeah..I…I just needed to get something to drink."
"You don't have to continue listening honey. I am sure this is very hard to hear."
"Why? Why do you say that?" She does not mean to sound so desperate.
"I…I only meant that it could add to your nightmares the more you know about Elina that's all honey. Why, what did you think I meant?"
Dava shakes her head, "Nothing."
"I think you should go to your room honey." Dara reaches out for her but Dava backs away.
"No…no. I need to hear it. I'll be okay." She gives her mom a smile as best she can and reenters the family room. Dara follows.
"So you are telling me," says Valya, "that she killed asari younger than her? And you think she killed around twenty? I am with Shepard. How is this not found out back then?"
"Well first off, after Elina's father was killed, the first young asari death did not occur until almost a year later. And that was nowhere near Armali. It was on the other side of the planet," says Atalia.
"What makes you think it was Elina then?" asks Shepard.
"Hotel Receipts. Shia and Elina were on vacation. A young asari girl goes missing. She is not found until a month after they get back home. I showed the autopsy report to Akira and she agrees that the cause of death could have been from a very inexperienced Ardat-Yakshi based on damage to the nervous system. The same thing happens five more times. They go on vacation a young asari goes missing. Every time I can prove Shia and Elina were there. But again, no one was looking at this as an Ardat-Yakshi because it was not obvious. Akira said if she didn't know where to look it would easily be overlooked. Elina was smart and she played it smart."
The room is silent.
"This goes on and on. Now since Shia is dead I cannot have her tell me of all of the places they went on vacation. But I suspect they went off planet and Elina was able to find young asari to feed on. She was growing her power and understanding her power and learning how to control her hunger as best she could. Then Shia meets Tolan. They get bonded. They have Caressa."
"I believe she started manipulating Caressa when she was very young. I believe she was the one pulling the strings when she went after Raina."
"But Raina was not her original target," says Shepard, "it was Mia. Raina stepped in and took the beating."
"Because Elina wanted it that way."
"How does an asari as old as Elina hang with Caressa who is what 30 years younger and no one notices?" asks Valya.
Atalia smiles. "She is very good at hiding in shadows. She was always in the background. If anyone was afraid or suspected trouble they always attributed it to Caressa. She did that on purpose so she would not be noticed."
"Shit," says Shepard. She looks up and sees a very pale Dava. "You okay Dava?"
Everyone looks at her. "Just a little tired."
"Maybe you should…."
"I'm fine." Dara could not get the rest of her sentence out when her daughter cut her off. "It…it's just a small headache that's all."
"So why was she targeting Mia?" asks Valya.
"Her biotics," says Atalia. "Mia is a phenomenal skyball player. Probably the best the school has seen in decades. I believe her prowess in biotics made her the next target."
"That doesn't make sense. I mean I get the biotic thing being a draw, but why the very public beating at the school?" asks Shepard.
"I believe she wanted to talk to Mia. She wanted to start influencing her, but Raina stepped in. I think Elina was probably thrown off guard a little and had Caressa beat her," says Atalia.
"What happened with Elina when Caressa was sent to that facility?" asks Shepard.
"Three more deaths."
"You have got to be kidding me."
"Elina was very good at covering her tracks. We believe her influence on Caressa was immense. Now remember Elina is 30 years older than Caressa. She is smarter now and stronger. It wasn't vacations this time. I believe she probably learned how to drive her mother's sky car and hunted at night. A lot of people think that just because asari live with their parents until close to 100 years of age that they cannot do adult things. Well they can. As you know Shepard, a 30 years old human is quite capable. I see no reason why a 30 year old asari cannot be just as capable. She kept her targets young and the three deaths were in the low-income part of town. I figure she was killing asari she didn't think would be missed."
"But why risk exposure?" asks Shepard. "Why take Dava to lure in Mia? I mean she would have had to kill them both." She kind of wishes she thought about what she was going to say before she actually said it. She hears a small gasp coming from Dava's position at her father's feet.
"So she was going to kill me," says Dava looking paler.
Dara puts her arm around her shoulders.
"Probably," says Atalia. "But I believe Elina moved past wanting Mia for her power to just wanting Mia. Her mind and her body." She swallows then looks at Shepard. The human shows no expression.
"Why do you say that?" asks the retired Captain.
"The apartment where Valya and I were jumped. I went back there earlier in the week. I didn't like that hardly anything was found. So I looked again. I mean I was on my hands and knees looking. I found a loose floor board. Under it was a small box. The box contained a disc. On the disc were photos. Photos of all of the asari that I believe Elina has killed. I am running the pictures now but I am pretty sure I will find matches to either dead or missing asari kids. She took pictures as her trophy. There were also about a hundred pictures of Mia. From the time she was a little girl to her age now."
The room is deathly quiet once again.
"Are….are there pictures of me?" asks Dava.
"Only where you are with Mia. I believe Elina was jealous of the relationship you have with her Dava. She knew if she took you that Mia would come. She obviously didn't know Mia would bring help."
It takes a minute for each person to soak in the information the lead detective just shared.
"So what are you doing about Caressa? Is she still a threat? Is she still under the influence of Elina, that she still wants Mia?" asks Shepard.
Atalia shakes her head and shrugs her shoulders. "I'm sorry Shepard I don't know the answer to that. I don't know if the influence is severed when the Ardat-Yakshi dies or if it slowly fades away. I have been meeting with various Matriarchs to get their opinion because I can find nothing in the archives about it."
"And we know for sure that Caressa cannot be an Ardat-Yakshi?" asks Valya. Her eyes are starting to close. She is tired.
"Tolan was her father, so no Caressa cannot be an Ardat-Yakshi."
"Dava," asks Shepard, "have you ever seen Caressa use her biotics? I mean do you have any idea how powerful she is or isn't?"
"No…sorry."
"Did she do anything with you while they were waiting for Mia to show up?"
Dara squeezes her daughter's shoulder as if passing her courage and strength to talk about it.
"Caressa is the one who grabbed me. After that she never spoke to me." Which is a lie. When they were alone the asari kept looking at her and telling her she knew something about her that Elina didn't. "It was Elina who beat me." She swallows back the memories. "I…I have never seen Caressa use her biotics."
"What was with the corner?" asks Shepard.
"What?"
"The corner? When I stormed into the place I could have sworn I saw a figure standing in the corner."
"When Elina was in the shack she told Caressa to get in her corner. That's all I know."
Atalia answered a few more questions but could see that her partner was fading fast on the couch.
"I think I should probably head out. I need to brief my boss."
Shepard looks at her then follows her gaze to Valya who is fighting to stay awake. The human stands and shakes the lead detective's hand. "Well thank you Atalia. This has been very eye opening."
"I am going to request my boss have a unit watch your house Shepard just in case."
"You think it is necessary?" asks Shepard.
Dara stands, "What about us? What if Caressa comes for Dava?"
"She's right." Shepard puts her hand on Atalia's shoulder. "Why don't you send the unit here? We will be fine."
Atalia gets her meaning. Though she feels it is highly unlikely Caressa would come for Dava, Valya is down right now and would not be able to protect her family if something were to happen. Something she suspects Shepard is trying to communicate to her through a look.
"Very well. I will ask Meryl about it and let you know," says Atalia to Dara. "Thank you Dara for letting me stop by."
She and Shepard walk to the front door. Valya is already asleep on the couch.
"Please give her our best," says Shepard.
"I will and thank you both."