Review reply for lordheistra222: Yes, it was mentioned very briefly in chapter 23 and it will be addressed again in about...oh...two scrolls down. ;)

Chapter 35: Remains of Freedom

Freedom is hard won
But it is harder kept

"We're almost to Freedom's Progress," Miranda reported, "Do you have any orders for us, commander?"

Terra scoffed. "Oh, so now I'm in charge?"

Miranda managed to remain stoic as if the question had borne no threat to her at all. "The Illusive Man considered you essential largely because of your leadership skills. We're at your disposal."

Then my first order is for you both to jump off the shuttle before reentry. She almost smirked at the thought, but she thought better of it. No matter what she thought about their ideals, she couldn't hold it against them personally, especially not when they were prepared to help her. She'd have to step back into command as if they were her squad. Hopefully, they'd prove her wrong about how trustworthy they could be. She didn't expect they'd prove her wrong about anything else just yet, but she might as well give them a chance while she was at it. "Alright. Our first priority needs to be looking for survivors."

"Understandable, but it's unlikely. There were none left at any of the other colonies."

"Let's hope, though," Jacob stated, "Anything's better than another ghost town."

Having survived a slaver raid, Terra could empathize with that statement. When they did finally land and she saw the colony really was empty, she almost felt like that lost teenager again. But she wasn't anymore. She could do something about this one. She stepped off the shuttle with purpose, drawing her rifle. She had received a full supply of weapons before they set out, and though it made her miss the Spectre-requisitioned guns she'd accrued during the hunt for Saren and lost in the crash (then again, they were all overheats rather than thermal clips and thus hopelessly out of date), it made her feel like herself again. If she only had her old squad behind her rather than Jacob and Miranda, all would be right with the world. …aside from the fact said world was currently inhabited, that is.

They moved through the village, finding no sign of any evidence. As Jacob put it, it was as if everyone simply got up and left. This wasn't right. The entire place was cold and lonely, ringing with the silence Terra despised. She had to fix this. So when they stepped through a door to the next area, she was prepared to meticulously turn over every stone on this planet for some sign of who did this.

Until the mechs started shooting.

"Again?!" Terra demanded as they all took cover.

"Careful!" Jacob called, "They've got mobile platforms programmed to get close and cut our shields!"

Of course they do. "Start overloading them first! Take them down quick!" To their credit, Jacob and Miranda followed her instructions, softening up the mechs for her to make her shots count.

"I don't understand," Jacob said when the fight died down, "Security was disabled on the other colonies."

"Not just that," Miranda added, "Someone reprogrammed them to attack on sight. We're no alone here."

Terra wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. She just knew they had to keep moving to find out. She led them down to the residential area, stopping only to scan for clues or take out a few drones, and cut through a prefab to the next zone.

The last thing she expected to see inside that building was a team of quarians.

"Intruders!" one of them announced, prompting his squad to draw their weapons.

Terra was about to tell Jacob and Miranda to stand down so she could try talking her way out of this when another quarian raced over to mediate. "Wait! Prazza! You said you'd let me handle this!" The quarian turned to look at the arriving humans…and froze. "…Shepard?"

Terra froze with her. "Tali?"

Tali took a moment to again order the squad behind her to put their weapons down, but her focus was on Terra now. "Shepard, is that… You're alive?"

No, forget the guns. Now Terra felt like herself again. She smiled to see one of her best friends here. "I am. Tali, you have no idea how happy I am to see you!"

Tali didn't move. She didn't know what to do. "I…how do I know you're really Shepard? Prove it."

Terra could easily have referred to one of their past conversations, reminded her of the geth data she helped her salvage for her Pilgrimage, or even just hugged her and known that would be enough. But the only thing that could really prove it was what she did: reaching under her armor to pull her necklace free and show the Vakarian clan markings on its charm.

Tali beamed behind her helmet when she saw that. Only Terra herself could wear that charm with such pride and belonging. "It is you!" She turned back to the squad resolutely. "Prazza, weapons down. This is definitely Commander Shepard."

The quarian soldier named Prazza stowed his gun but also looked between Tali and the humans in confusion. "Why is your old commander working with Cerberus?"

Tali only now looked past Terra herself to see the Cerberus seals on Jacob and Miranda's uniforms. "I…I don't know. But she hates them as much as we do, so she must have a good reason."

Terra nodded, taking Tali's side. "They're the ones who brought me back. They're investigating the missing colonists. If I want to do the same, I'm stuck with them."

"Glad to know you feel that way, commander," Jacob shook his head.

Terra waved him off. She'd apologize later. …or not. "What are you doing here, anyway?"

"We're looking for a quarian who was on Pilgrimage here," Tali explained, "Veetor."

Terra gave her a curious look. "Why would a quarian go on Pilgrimage to a human colony in the Terminus Systems?"

"Veetor liked the idea of helping a small colony. He was always…nervous in crowds."

"She means he's unstable," Prazza shook his head, "Combine that with open air exposure from damage to his suit's CO2 scrubbers and he's likely delirious."

"We just need to bring him back to the fleet."

"If he was here when the colonists disappeared," Miranda pointed out, "he might not be here now. Or if he is, he might have seen what happened."

"Then it's in our best interests to work together," Terra concurred.

"Good idea," Tali nodded, "You'll need two teams to get past the drones anyway."

"Now we're working with Cerberus?!" Prazza demanded.

"No, Prazza, you're working with me," Tali asserted, "If you have a problem with that, go wait on the ship."

Terra looked at Tali in astonishment. Her quarian Pilgrim had grown up while she was gone. She admired that. Too bad that meant they'd have to split up from here. "We should hurry. Keep in touch over the COMMs." And be careful, Tali, she decided not to say in front of the other quarians, even though she truly meant it. She couldn't lose one of her best friends so soon after finding her again.

Tali seemed to understand, though. She'd spent enough time with the commander to know how she worried about her friends. "Will do. And Shepard…it's good to have you back."

Terra smiled. For the first time, she thought it was good to be back.

After they moved out and encountered more drones but no clues, Terra became convinced Veetor would be their only source of any information on what happened here. They'd have to be quick and careful. They made their way through the rest of the residential area and approached the industrial zone of the colony, finding the number of mechs they encountered increasing as if to prove they were going the right way, until Tali came over the line with a warning.

"Shepard, Prazza's squad ran on ahead. I tried to stop them, but they wouldn't listen. They want to find Veetor and take him away before you get there."

"Don't suppose you can do anything to slow them down," Terra sighed.

"No, but maybe I can speed you up."

"Did I mention how much I've missed you?"

"I figured. But thanks."

Terra smiled to herself as they continued towards the industrial zone, now with distant hacking support from Tali. This was more like what she wanted. If she had to go into a long firefight with only one person at her side and Garrus wasn't available, Tali was who she'd pick. There was something about the quarian that made her feel optimistic and protected. And the fact she was the best friend Terra had ever had besides Garrus or Solana was certainly part of that.

She missed the old days an awful lot, she realized. She was going to have to get the band back together. …assuming she could.

"Shepard," Tali sent another warning over the COMMs as they approached the industrial center, "Veetor reprogrammed a heavy mech. It's tearing Prazza's squad apart!"

"They did want to get to Veetor first," Miranda grumbled.

If Terra couldn't understand the operative's frustration, she'd be incensed that she could be so callous about other people's lives. As it was, she had to focus on the mission. "Anything you can do about it, Tali?"

"No, but I can get you into position to take it out. Get to cover and I'll open the door."

So Terra signaled Jacob and Miranda to either side of the main door to cover their entry as she took cover. When they were clear, Tali hacked into the locks and the door slid open. Terra peered around so she could see what was happening and when it would be safe for them to move up. So she saw the quarians getting all but torn apart by the massive mech blocking their path. She cringed sorrowfully at the sight of it, but it had already happened by the time there was something she could do. She couldn't save them. But she could avenge them.

"Stay down as much as you can, time your shots," Terra told Jacob and Miranda, "Take it down hard."

They did. It had been so focused on the quarians that it hadn't spotted them yet, so they got the drop on it. The first few shots wore down its shields enough that Miranda could overload them and warp its armor. Then it was just a matter of disabling it. That much Terra could do on her own. All she had to do was let off a few shotgun blasts at its head and it was open for all three of them to fire at once and take it down.

Terra took a moment to catch her breath after the mech blew. "Tali?"

"I'm over here!" Tali called from a structure off to the side, "We have wounded. I'll take care of them. You find Veetor. He's probably somewhere near the back of the loading bay."

Terra turned and saw one building perfectly positioned behind the defenses. She carefully approached, signaling Jacob and Miranda to stand down, and led the two operatives at her side into the building.

"…have to hide…" a terrified quarian was muttering to himself as he typed away at a terminal, "…mechs will protect…safe from swarms…no swarms, no monster, no, no, no, no…"

"Veetor?" Terra asked softly.

"I don't think he can hear you, commander," Jacob shook his head.

She had her ways, though. The quarian was focused on those terminals. She was still no technical expert, but she knew how to initiate a remote shutdown. All she had to do was send a simple command through her omni-tool and all the terminals on the wall powered down at once.

Veetor turned to face them. When he saw them, he turned from panicked to puzzled, standing to address them directly. "You…you're human? How did you escape?"

"We just got here," Terra explained, "We were hoping you could tell us what happened to everyone."

He shrunk back sadly, turning back to the terminals. "You don't know. You didn't see. But I see everything." He powered one of the terminals and set it to play a video.

"Looks like security footage," Jacob noted, "He must have pieced it together."

Terra watched the video in shock as it showed how strange creatures came and dragged the colonists away. "What are those things?"

Miranda examined them for a moment before she reflected Terra's shock. "I think they're Collectors."

Terra had heard of these. Strange creatures from uncharted space that occasionally went into the Terminus Systems to harvest living specimens. "I thought they kept to themselves."

"They do sometimes work as intermediaries. …maybe they work for the Reapers now."

"But how are they keeping the colonists from fighting back?"

"Seeker swarms," Veetor explained, his voice shaking with horror, "Machines like tiny insects. Swarms find you, sting you, freeze you. Then the monsters take you away."

"It must be an offensive technique to disable enemy defenses," Miranda reasoned, "Send in drones to immobilize targets with a stasis field or a nerve toxin."

Invaded, paralyzed, and dragged away by, as Veetor so accurately put it, monsters. Terra couldn't imagine what a nightmare those colonists had been living. She didn't want to think what was being done to them now. But Veetor? Well… "How did you stay hidden?" she asked the quarian gently.

"Swarms didn't find me," Veetor answered, clinging to the hope behind the statement, "Monsters didn't know I was here."

While Jacob theorized about the suit obscuring scans and Miranda suggested it had something to do with technology designed to detect humans since only humans were being targeted, Terra gave Veetor a sympathetic glance. Hiding away in a hole while forces you couldn't possibly fight dragged everyone around you to an unknown horrible fate, terrified they'd find you at any moment. She'd been there. She wondered if Veetor simply caved under the pressure given his already "unstable" nature…or if this was a grim vision of what might have become of her had Garrus not found her.

"What happened next?" Miranda finally asked.

"The monsters took them all away," Veetor whimpered, "But they'll come back for me. No one escapes."

"I don't think we're gonna get anything else out of him," Jacob observed.

Terra gave Veetor a smile she hoped was comforting, wishing she could do more for him. "Thank you."

Veetor nodded. "I scanned them. I recorded it in my omni-tool. Lots of readings. Dark energy."

"We could use that," Miranda said, "Grab the quarian, we'll take him back with us."

"What?!" Tali entered the room, already having heard enough. "Veetor is traumatized and injured. He needs treatment, not an interrogation!"

"Why should we? Your people already double-crossed us once before."

"Prazza was an idiot, and he and his men paid for it. This is different. You're welcome to take Veetor's omni-tool data, but please, just let me take him."

Terra turned to Tali. "You don't have to take him and go. You could come with me." She didn't say us, making it clear to Tali that she meant more to her than either of the operatives behind her. She hoped the rest of what she wanted to say was clear enough in her tone.

Tali merely looked at her, almost regretful. "I can't, Shepard. I have a mission of my own. But when it's over…and if I'm still alive…maybe I'll be able to help you then."

Terra gave her quarian friend a look of concern. "Tali, that sounds dangerous. What exactly are you doing?"

Tali glanced behind her former commander to Jacob and Miranda. "I don't think Cerberus should hear about it. But it's in geth space. That should tell you how important it is."

And how risky. If there weren't an untold number of lives on the line with the Collectors, Terra would drop Cerberus here and go with Tali (the quarians might not like it, but it wouldn't exactly be the first time she'd stowed away on an alien military mission). But she'd have to trust that Tali didn't need her. There was a significant chance she wouldn't since she was an expert on the geth and had more time clocked fighting them than any other quarian alive today. So Terra simply nodded to convey her wish of good luck upon her former teammate before turning to Miranda. "Veetor needs medical care. We'll take the data, he'll go with them."

Miranda, remarkably, didn't seem to even inwardly object to the order when she acknowledged it. Maybe there was hope for her yet.

"Thanks, Shepard," Tali said, "I'm glad you're still the one in charge."

Terra smirked. She intended to keep it that way. "Take care of him, Tali. I'll see you later."

Tali nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

Terra rode that wave of hope all the way back to the Cerberus station. Arriving there abruptly cut her off. Having to go talk to the Illusive Man in the COMM room again sent her crashing back to shore. But he had technically been telling the truth so far, so she decided to give him the benefit of the doubt for now.

For now.

"Shepard, good work on Freedom's Progress," he said as if he had ever expected any less, "The quarians forwarded their findings from Veetor's debriefing. No new data, but it's a surprising olive branch given our history."

"Yes," Terra scoffed, "well, having friends as well as subordinates tends to help. You should try it sometime."

He blatantly ignored the digging comment. "And you confirmed the Collectors are behind the attacks."

She outright rolled her eyes now. "Why am I not surprised that you're not surprised?"

"I had my suspicions. We don't have the means of intercepting them, though. Every time their business is complete, they retreat behind the unmapped Omega-4 relay."

Terra had heard of that relay, too. It was the space equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle. "I'm still a Spectre. Can't we get the Council to take action now that we know what's going on?"

"If you think you can convince them, by all means. But I doubt they'll see reason."

She was more than prepared to counter that they knew when action was needed. Then she remembered how many times they failed to see that during the hunt for Saren and figured this Illusive Man had a point. She hated to admit it, though. "So you're suggesting I work with you instead?"

"We have the resources for you to lead a successful campaign against the Collectors," he nodded, "and whoever else the Reapers might send. Together, we can safeguard our colonies where the Alliance refuses to."

The very thought of it was wrong. She was Alliance through and through. She was turian at heart, after all, and they knew loyalty and service better than anyone. But serving the Alliance was how she defended those in need of her protection. What was happening to these colonists in the Terminus Systems was even worse than what happened to Mindoir. She had to take action. Stopping Saren had involved going behind the Council's back and technically committing an act of treason, so this wasn't all that different. But she drew the line somewhere, and this was on the verge of skirting that line.

So with her decision made, she stood firm, giving the Illusive Man a determined glare. "Let me be perfectly clear up front: I am not working for you. I am doing this to help the colonists. That's it. If you want to help me, I won't turn you down. But the second you do something I don't agree with, I am shutting you down."

He seemed disappointed she wasn't going along with this entirely, but he had clearly expected as much. "I'm willing to accept those terms. Are you willing to do what's necessary to end the Collector threat?"

"I'm willing. But not ready. For a job like this, you need an army…" She smirked. "…or I need a really good team."

"Of course. I've already assembled a list of soldiers, mercenaries, and—"

"Scrap it. I said a good team and there's only one team I trust. I want my crew back."

He shook his head. "I understand, Shepard, but it's been two years. Things have changed."

"Nice try. Tali already helped us on Freedom's Progress."

"That was unexpected. I need more intel before we can commit to that."

At that point, Terra was ready to scream in his face "For the last time, you're not the boss of me!", disconnect, steal a shuttle, and race after Tali herself. But Tali had made it clear she was about to go off the radar anyway, so there was no point. "Fine. What about Ashley?"

The Illusive Man started scrolling through a display by his chair, but it was pretty clear he had already prepared for exactly this line of questioning, judging by how cleanly he recited the answer. "Ashley Williams is on assignment with the Alliance. Her record is surprisingly well classified."

She figured that would be the end of that. Ashley wouldn't turn her back on an assignment, even for her old commander. "OK, what about Wrex?"

"Urdnot Wrex is a bit preoccupied with trying to unite the krogan clans on Tuchanka."

She almost smiled to hear that. The big guy really had gone home and now he was trying to unite his people? She'd miss having him backing her up, but she couldn't ask him to leave that. "Well, what about Liara then?"

"She's on Ilium. Our sources say she's working with the Shadow Broker. If so, she can't be trusted."

She almost fell over when she heard that. Liara? Working with the Shadow Broker? There had to be a mistake there. It'd only been two years. She couldn't have missed that much.

Two years…

…wait…

Terra looked at the Illusive Man one last time, somewhere between purposeful and anxious. "…where's Garrus?"

He sighed, shutting off the display by his chair entirely. "Garrus Vakarian disappeared two months after your death. Even we haven't been able to find him. I'm sorry."

…no… Garrus was missing? This couldn't be happening. She had to find him. People don't just disappear. He had to be somewhere. She couldn't just lose him like that. If she'd come back after all this time just to find out he was gone, Cerberus would have wasted a lot of money on a broken soldier.

She couldn't think like that. She'd find him, but right now she had to stay focused. She took a deep breath to steel herself, telling herself she'd contact him later. "OK. I get it. They're not available."

The Illusive Man nodded and returned to explaining how he was going to send her the dossiers on the recruits he'd found her in lieu of her old squad. "First, you should head to Omega and find Dr. Mordin Solus. He's a genetic specialist and he might find a way to counteract the seeker swarms."

Pretty good reason, though she still wanted to snap about how he had no right to be giving her orders, especially this earlier in their little arrangement. "Fine. What else?"

He smirked. "I've found you a pilot. I hear he's the best."

Terra gave a confused look to the air in front of her as he disconnected. What was he playing at now?

"Hey, commander."

She froze. She knew that voice.

Joker stood there, smiling at the sight of her. "Just like old times, huh?"

It took everything in her not to burst out laughing with sheer delight and fling herself into hugging him. As it was, she was beaming nonstop as she followed him out to the station docking bay. "I can't believe it's you, Joker!"

He scoffed. "You're telling me. I'm the one who saw you get spaced."

She shrugged. "I got lucky. …with a lot of strings attached. What are you even doing here?"

He shook his head as he hobbled his way up a flight of stairs and waved off any offer to help him. "Things went south after the crash. Everything you stirred up, the Council just wanted it gone. Then the Alliance stopped giving me pilot assignments. Take away the one thing that matters to me? I might just run to the competition."

She smirked. She admired his gumption, but she wished there had been some other "competition" for him to run to.

To his credit, he picked up on that. "Hey, I don't trust them any more than you do. But they're not all bad. Saved your life, let me fly…and then there's this." He came up to a window, smiling at what was on the other side.

Terra came up beside him. She almost cried with joy at what she saw.

The ship was outwardly a perfect match to the Normandy. There were some slight differences, but it was still the turian-engineered, human-crafted ship that she had fallen in love with. She may have died that day, but a part of her had already died the second her beloved ship was destroyed. Seeing this one now, she felt like she was back home.

Joker sighed. "Beautiful, isn't it?"

Terra nodded. "Guess we're gonna have to give her a name."