Anya took a deep breath to calm herself and stood quietly while Raan'ita fussed. The hospital gown she wore was far warmer than a normal one. Anya smiled a little. C-Flat Viridian was a momma hen at times, the Rachni certainly wouldn't let her freeze. But Raan'ita was speaking again.
"I know you are stubborn, Anya." The medic was saying. "But you know better. You should not be out of bed yet. It's been less than two days since we took out your implant. I know how fast you recover, Anya, but..." The Quarian shook her head as Anya laid a hand on her arm. "I just.."
"I know, Raan'ita." Anya said sadly. "But when the Citadel Council 'requests' to speak with someone 'at the earliest possible convenience'..." The human soldier shrugged.
"I don't care what they say..." Raan'ita snapped. "You are not going to be standing for this. You are not strong enough. If they have a problem, they can take it up with me." The Quarian checked her omni-tool's readout for the upteenth time and scowled. "Your blood pressure is elevated..." Anya just looked at her and Raan'ita actually laughed a little. "Okay, okay, I am a bit stressed myself. But I am your doctor, Anya. If you start to feel bad, tell me." Raan'ita begged. "We nearly lost you again. I..." Raan'ita shook her head. "I don't want my bungling to be responsible for..." She broke off as Anya embraced her.
"Raan'ita..." Anya said softly. "It's okay. It will be okay. In this I will follow your orders. The chair?"
"Here." Crado said as he pulled a wheel chair from the closet and unfolded it quickly. Anya lowered herself into it with Raan'ita's help. It galled her that she needed help, but she was nowhere near recovered yet. But as she said, when the Council called, people tended to answer. Or the next time the Council called, they were not as nice. He spread a blanket over the human's knees and nodded.
Anya sat quiet as Raan'ita moved the IV bag from the bed pole to a pole she extended from the chair. But she did squeak a little as Raan'ita opened her shirt.
"Hey!" She protested as Raan'ita placed a small device against her sternum. "That's cold!" She said as the device stuck to her undershirt.
"Hush, Anya." Raan'ita said severely as she closed Anya's tunic. "It's a heart monitor. I want to have eyes on your vitals the whole time."
"But you said I am recovering." Anya said sourly. "Was that wrong?"
"No." Raan'ita replied with a grin. "I just don't want any more surprises. Do you want something to keep you calm? I don't like the blood pressure readings."
"Raan'ita..." Anya said reasonably. "I am wondering if they are going to lock me up for being an illegal experiment in genetics. I am worried about whatever support my birth father may have garnered." She leaned forward and patted the Quarian's hand. "I am not worried about the repairs you and Scholar did. I know better." She said with a grin.
"Oh, Anya." Raan'ita chuckled sourly at Anya's dry humor. "You are as crazy as ever."
"Guilty as charged, Ma'am." Anya said with a smile that faded. "Don't..." She slumped a bit. "Raan'ita... if the Council does choose to incarcerate me...Don't do anything dumb."
"If they do." Raan'ita said sternly. "It is likely to spark another war." The Quarian said with a snarl. "And no, I am not being dramatic."
"Raan'ita..." Anya said, horrified. "No."
"Anya." Crado said softly as he knelt down to look her in the eyes. "Between the survivors of the team, all us... The Turian Hierarchy for whom we did a LOT of jobs during the war, the Asari matriarchy after we rescued so many from the processing center on Thessia, the STG guys we helped out, the Alliance, -including the Batarians who nearly revere you- and now the Protheans -who do revere you- and even a few Reapers..." He shook his head, awed. "Not even a politician can be dumb enough to ignore that kind of support." He said with a grin. "And if they are?" He shrugged. "Then I guess I will just have to abscond with you and live in sin somewhere hidden. I hear Omega is nicer now." Raan'ita laughed at Anya's expression. Then Anya laughed a little.
"Halfway tempted to run now." Anya said with a grin that wasn't strained. "Thank you, Crado." Her tone was heartfelt. "You always did know how to make me laugh. And I needed it."
"Well, least I could do after all the times you saved my sorry fringe, Ma'am." Crado said with a smile as he rose. "You ready?"
Anya rolled her shoulders to work any kinks out and then nodded. Raan'ita laid a hand on Anya's shoulder. Anya covered it with her own for a moment. Neither spoke. Neither needed to. Crado wheeled the chair towards the door and it hissed open. Just outside, Anya's sisters waited. But not alone. Kai stood with C-Flat Viridian. Jenni and Illia were almost intertwined next to the Rachni and Anya carefully hid a smile at that. Melissa was standing with Portia and Scholar. A team of Prothean soldiers stood near the only other door. But it was the quantum entanglement communicator feeds that Anya focused on. Four holo images were showing on them. Crado wheeled Anya's chair forward until he and she were between the others and the holograms. Anya studied the holos.
Councilors Sparatus and Tevos she had met during the war. Councilor Valern, apparently somehow still spry, she had never actually dealt with, but she HAD traded intel with his office a few times. It was the human woman who stood aloof that Anya did not know. From her expression, Anya was glad of that. Anya took a deep breath and spoke evenly.
"Captain Anya Solinus reporting to the Citadel Council as ordered." Anya said softly, but clearly. "Pardon my inability to rise."
"After what you have been through, Captain..." Councilor Tevos said compassionately. "No one is going to make comments on a lack of military decorum. No one sane anyway." The Asari said with a smile that faded. "We have read the reports, Captain and Spectre Williams has been very thorough in her own investigation." Anya nodded. "We seem to have two major interconnected problems. Your own status and the machine."
"Yes, Ma'am." Anya said with a nod.
"Your thoughts, Captain Solinus?" Tevos asked after looking at her colleagues.
"The machine doesn't work, Ma'am." Anya said soberly. "Obligatha's people built it, but it was flawed and detonated, killing half it's race. Leaving the rest as easy pickings for the Reapers. The Protheans..." She did not look to where Lipa stood with the others of her reconstituted race. "...experimented with it, but could not make it work so they abandoned the design as unworkable. Mr. Wilson Fuentes apparently found the design in the Prothean archives on Mars just after the site had been found and decided to try and build it. I don't know his reasons."
"Our...interrogations have borne some fruit." Valern said softly. Anya looked at him and he nodded. "He found it was a large scale control mechanism for machines, but he could not access it, use it even after he had built it. He believed it to be the ultimate defense mechanism. But he couldn't use it."
"He didn't have the right genetics." Anya said into the silence that sounded. "So he made us..." She waved a slow hand at her sisters. "To access the machine."
"Yes." Valern said with a grimace. "But... if the machine could be made to work..." He paused as Anya raised a hand. "Yes, Captain?"
"Councilor, Obligatha's people were incredible builders by all accounts." Anya said slowly. "I have spoken with it, since my rescue." The human councilor seemed on the verge of saying something, but then shut her mouth. "According to Obligatha -who should know- it's people designed the machine, built it, powered it and used it in less than two hours after the Reapers invaded their system." All four of the Councilors looked shocked at that and Anya nodded. "According to Obligatha, the design is fundamentally flawed. It's people were not perfect. The power systems are unstable. It is not something that can be fixed. Thank god." Anya said softly. "Just the thought of someone like my birth father able to use something like that makes me sick. The only known example of the device has been destroyed as well."
"Captain..." Councilor Sparatus said slowly. "We must be sure in this. You asked the Reaper to possess you?"
"Yes." Anya said simply.
"Why?" The human snapped. Anya looked at her and the woman flushed. "That's insane."
"I don't know you." Anya said softly.
"Ah..." The human councilor paused and then sighed. "Captain Solinus, my name is Sarah Norifica. I was asked to replace Admiral Hackett as Councilor after his heart attack."
"Hackett had a heart attack?" Anya snapped, concern for her former commander overriding her decorum. Crado laid a hand on her arm and she looked at him. "Crado..." She looked back at the holos when the Salarian Councilor made a noise of compassion.
"Be at ease, Captain." Councilor Valern said soothingly. "Admiral Hackett recovered, but he decided that he was, as he put it 'Too old for this'. He stepped down, retired to Earth to help in the reconstruction." Anya nodded to the Councilor and the Salarian continued. "You have to admit, Captain... what you did seems...unlikely."
"While I was in the machine, I could speak to Obligatha mind to mind." Anya said with a nod. "It... ah... It's people created the machine and it felt a certain responsibility. Odd..." Anya said softly. "I never thought to hear a Reaper express regret, but Obligatha does regret what it did." All four councilors looked at one another, but did not interrupt. "I did ask Obligatha to possess me, to take control, to stop the machine from killing everyone in the system."
"So instead, it killed everyone in the room but one and mistreated the prisoner." Councilor Norifica snapped.
"It asked for surrenders." Anya said mildly. "And two people in the room survived." Anya corrected the Councilor. "And... um... Councilor... anyone dumb enough to shoot at a Reaper possessed being that is trying to take them alive... Well..." She shrugged. "As for mistreating? I would love to see anyone try and bring Obligatha to court for that. It was...upset."
"You hate for your mother was well known." The human councilor snapped. "Was this revenge?"
"I was kind of dead at the time, Ma'am." Anya said in that same mild tone. "Or so everyone -including me- believed. My hatred for my mother..." Anya sighed deeply. "Yes, yes I hated her. She used fear and pain to keep her children in line. She wanted us to hate her. She beat a gentle gardener almost to death, councilor. Mika Mitaka was a woman who moved spiders and slugs to keep them from being hurt when she worked. And the reason she was beaten? Mika was protecting me from my mother's wrath, Councilor. So yes, I hated her. I hate her still." Anya admitted slowly. "When her agents captured me this last time, she tortured me again. She sabotaged my biotic implant to sear the inside of my brain. An injury that may render me unable to ever use biotics again. And top it all off, she killed my unborn child. How would you react, Councilor?" Anya asked, struggling for calm. Horror etched across all four faces at Anya's revelation. "Hate is a mild word for how I felt about her. How I still feel about her."
"Your child?" Tevos managed to speak first. Anya nodded and the Asari sighed deeply. "You have my condolences, Captain." Sparatus and Valern nodded. Norifica did not, Anya noticed.
"Thank you, Councilor Tevos." Anya said sadly. "It's hard. Harder than fighting, harder than commanding others to fight and watching them die..." She shook herself. "But that is neither here nor there. My siblings and I were created to be keys to the machine. We were genetically modified in vitro to be both more and less than human." Anya said precisely. "What is to happen to us?"
"We are not sure." Sparatus said with a nod. "If your genetics ARE triggers for this machine, then you and all of your siblings could be used as igniters for these doomsday weapons." Anya nodded soberly. "Even without the ability to control, the sheer magnitude of the resulting blast would be devastating." He shook his head. "Add to that the fact that the machine as it was does not fall into any scanner definition of weapon and... well.." He shrugged. "You see where this is going, Captain."
"I do, Councilor.' Anya agreed. "Although, technically, only MY genetics would have worked. Maybe Portia's as she is my genetic twin, created from my DNA when I was supposedly slain during the war."
"And how many times have you died, Captain?" Tevos asked, somewhat whimsically.
"Once that I know of, Ma'am." Anya answered her seriously. "When I was shot by the Collectors on Sanctum. It was a miracle of technology that brought me back. Prothean technology at that. This last time, people thought I was dead, but neither my body or mind died. It was... odd..." She admitted. "Not something I care to repeat. Ever."
"I understand." Tevos said with a nod. "But... This places the Council in a difficult position, Captain Solinus." Anya nodded to her. "The ban on genetic engineering is there for a reason."
"I couldn't agree more." Anya said sourly. "Especially after what happened to me."
"However..." Councilor Velern spoke up. "All of the information that we have discovered has pointed the same way. You are a victim of a crime, not a perpetrator of said crime." He shook his head and the Turian Councilor spoke up.
"The law is the law, Captain." Sparatus said slowly. "But... Laws are there to be interpreted, not followed blindly." Anya could feel the tension in the room slowly dissipate a bit. "The letter of any law rarely covers every situation. That is why we have judges and other legal experts, to find ways to make the laws work the way they are supposed to. Why do we have law, Captain Solinus?" The old Turian asked calmly.
"To protect society from those who would harm it, sir." Anya replied evenly. "To allow people to live without fear."
"Depends on the law." Tevos interjected with a grimace. Anya shared her grimace, remembering what had happened to Liara T'Soni. "But... Pretty much. So..." The ancient Asari sighed and nodded. "The Council has come to a decision." Anya took a deep breath and would have risen, except Tevos raised a hand. "No, Captain, stay seated. I do NOT want your doctor angrier with me than she already is." A chuckle ran around the room as Anya looked at Raan'ita who looked impassive, except... Yes, that was a wink! Anya sat back in the wheelchair and nodded to each Councilor in turn.
"Captain Anya Solinus, it is the finding of this Council that you are not guilty of genetic manipulation that violates Council statutes." Sparatus said slowly. "But at the same time, you do present a danger. An unquantifiable one currently." Anya's eyes narrowed.
"Unquantifiable, sir?" Anya asked when he stopped speaking.
"Yes." Sparatus said with a nod. "The machine that you know of was destroyed. But..." He shrugged. "Cerberus rarely left sensitive information lying about, or in one place alone. They likely have the plans." Anya inhaled sharply and he nodded. "This means that you and your siblings COULD be used by those...terrorists to trigger weapons of mass destruction."
"I had hoped this would be the end of them." Anya said with a sigh. "But I am a realist."
"Cerberus has many faces." Velern said with a nod. "Many different factions within their group. Isn't that right, Councilor Norifica?" Anya turned a questioning gaze at the human woman on the holo who flushed.
"Yes" The human councilor said with a nod. "Once, I was part of Cerberus, Captain Solinus. I was...an associate of your father's."
"Were you involved in this, Ma'am?" Anya asked, her voice tightly controlled.
"No." Norifica said with a grimace. "I cut all ties a long time ago. Before the war, actually. But I DID know your father. I had... had counted him a friend. Until... this...I knew he was Cerberus, I thought former like me." She shook her head. "Cerberus was not SUPPOSED to be this. It was supposed to be a shield..." She broke off as Anya spoke in a low tone.
"...not a dagger in humanity's back." Anya said softly. "Shepard said that." Anya bowed her head and when she raised it, she was SHOCKED to see all the others had done the same. "Hey! Shepard was no deity!"
"I know." Sarah replied. "WE know. I was blind to what Cerberus was when I was younger Captain. Shepard saved us all from the Illusive Man's blindness. And THEN she saved us from the Reapers. You cannot blame those who DO consider her a patron saint of sorts."
"I know what she would say to those people, Councilor." Anya said with a smile. "She would say 'Get a life'." All four Councilors smiled at that. Then Anya sighed. "So what is to be done to me?" The other Councilors looked at Velern who nodded.
"You will be under surveillance for the rest of your life, Captain." The Salarian said gently. "A precaution we hope will not be needed."
"Am I to be confined?" Anya asked far more calmly than she felt.
"No." Tevos said with a grin. "You are going to be busy. Very busy." Anya's eyes narrowed at that and the Asari nodded. "A plan was forwarded to our offices. A plan for a center of education." Anya went very still at that and Tevos nodded. "We can think of few better ways to rehabilitate former Cerberus personnel and facilities than to make them useful. And education is always useful for combating blind fanaticism."
"You..." Anya struggled to get words out past her suddenly closed throat. "You mean...?"
"Yes." Tevos said gently. "You are designated headmistress of that station and will be given resources and personnel to revamp it into a school. Have you had any ideas on curriculum?"
"Ah... No." Anya admitted. "I mean, I just found out about the idea this morning." She complained sourly.
"Well, in that case,..." Tevos smiled warmly. "We will leave you to it. We will be watching, Captain Solinus, but no more than that until and unless it is needed." Anya nodded. "Do you have any questions?"
"Only one." Anya said softly. "A name for the school?"
"We thought we would leave that up to you." The human councilor said quietly. "Do you have any ideas?"
"I do." Anya said slowly. "But I have to ask General Garrus Vakarian first." All four of the Councilors shared a look and then nodded in unison. "Thank you, Councilors." Anya said formally.
"No, Captain." Tevos said with a smile. "Thank you. Because of you, this Cerberus threat has been nullified. I wish the cost had been less dear to you." Anya nodded sadly. "But you have also done a miracle, in rebuilding the Prothean race." Anya would have protested, but Tevos raised a hand to cut her off. "You may not agree, but you did a marvel, Captain." Anya swallowed and then nodded slowly. "The Council remembers those who serve it well, Captain. Never forget that." All three of the others nodded and then they faded out. Tevos remained however for a moment. "I understand from some reports that they are going to TRY and make you another child?"
"I..." Anya stiffened in place, unsure. ""It was planning stages only, Ma'am..."
"The Council cannot officially condone such a thing." Tevos said in a repressive voice that was spoiled by the twinkle in her eyes. "It DOES violate certain statues against genetic manipulation." Anya slumped in place, but froze as Tevos chuckled. "Not that laws would stop your friends for long, but... You have our 'un-offical and off the record' blessing, Captain. Keep it quiet." Tevos warned.
"I..." Anya stammered, undone. "I don't know what to say..."
"You don't need to say anything." Tevos laughed delightedly. "It was the least we could do. Hurli girlie." Then the holo cut off.
