Shepard sat on his bed, looking at the ceiling. He had found his squad in a new ship they had bought using Shepard's name and had left behind the colony before the Alliance Marines could put two and two together and charge John Mason with murder.

"Are you okay, Shep?" Haku said, sitting beside Shepard. She had wrapped his trigger finger in bandages wordlessly, and had came back an hour later to find that Shepard had not moved.

Shepard shook his head.

"What's wrong, big guy?" Haku asked.

"Hannah is going to think I murdered her mother." Shepard said.

Haku put her hand on Shepard's shoulder. "I don't know how to fix that, Shep."

Shepard looked Haku in the eye. "I don't want to hunt or kill the Illusive Man anymore. But I have to. Every dead man and woman leading up to this point was killed because I was so obsessed with the Illusive Man. If I quit now, it would be insulting them all."

"So we continue on as planned?" Michael asked.

"Yes." Shepard said, and stood. "Where's Isabella?"

"Omega." Michael said. "She's became friends with Aria over the year you went nuts and found out a lot about T.I.M."

"Good." Shepard said. "Do we know where he is?"

"We think we know where every base he has is." Haku said.

"Where's my omni-tool?" Shepard asked, knowing that Cerberus would give his items back to his crew, taunting them.

"Right here, Shep." Michael tossed it over his shoulder. "That freakin' A.I. talked my ear off. Said I was like The Joker."

Haku giggled. "Not like 'The Joker,' like Joker."

"W'ever." Michael shrugged.

Shepard activated his omni-tool, and EDI said "Hello, Shepard. You haven't logged on in a month."

Shepard looked at Michael.

"Hey, look at your girlfriend, not me." Michael said.

"I wanted to see if we could find out where you were." Haku lied.

"Her increased heartbeat suggests she is lying." EDI said, in her robotic monotone.

"Oh, shut up." Haku blushed brightly.

"Reply to all messages asking me where I was by saying 'I'm back.' Then, let me read the rest." Shepard said.

"Done." EDI said. "You have one more message, from Rosaline Lawson."

Shepard immediately opened and read it. It was a simple message, saying that Rosaline missed him and other things that had happened to her.

"Rosaline already had her first kiss?" Michael asked, reading the message backwards. "She's a player!"

"What do you mean by that?" Haku asked. "When was your first kiss?"

"On my date with Isabella. Yours?"

"When I was fourteen."

"With who?"

"A cute girl with pink hair."

Michael's mouth formed an 'O.' "You had a sexy phase?"

"You're also subscribing to the 'Haku's-a-girl' idea?" Haku asked.

Michael nodded. "Yep. What base did you get to?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Haku asked with a devious smile. "So, Shep, when was your first kiss?"

Shepard thought about it and said "Sixteen. I had a crush on a strawberry-blonde girl that I was allegedly just-friends and we ended up kissing during a study session."

"I guess since going psycho he's nicer." Haku said.

"Thank god." Michael said. "My ass was so bruised from him kicking my chair over I could barely sit." Michael smiled and said "What base did you get to."

Shepard opened his omni-tool once more, and said "Home base. My parents weren't home."

Haku and Michael laughed for nearly a minute.

"What are you doing?" Haku asked, looking at Shepard's omni-tool.

"Giving Hannah a reasonable amount of money, for forgiveness." Shepard said.

"How much?" Michael asked.

"One-hundred thousand credits." Shepard said, and his squad's eyes went wide.

"Exactly how rich are you?" Haku asked.

"Rich enough." Shepard said.