My god, it really has been awhile hasn't it? COVID has not been well to us at all for the last few months, and I desperately wanted this chapter done before the story's one year anniversary. There's not much to say other than I'm sorry for not letting anyone know anything about what had happened and that I truly wanted to let you all know something sooner than now. It's been quite difficult lately, but I'm starting a new job here in the next few days, so that that'll definitely help our situation. Other than that, I'm sorry for not you all in on what was happening but know that I'm back.

This chapter is small compared to the others in this story, but with who it is about and the subject matter, I decided that it'd be best to start off writing a small chapter to get back into the flow.

Review Time:

Blaze: Well, considering Kasumi was practically in love with everything in the vault, shooting the vase would've definitely crushed her soul, so I guess I just pictured that Jay didn't shoot it out of respect of what Kasumi likes. And for your other question, yes I suppose that would definitely be a possibility, considering that omni-tools are extremely prevalent in the civilian populace, the man would have a way to get a steady supply of them; I just didn't think about that until you mentioned it.

Captain: Gotta respect the classics, and with EDI's knowledge, she'd very much be able to understand what someone is saying via lip reading. As for the reference, I actually had no idea that was thing. Coincidence?

Guest: As I stated in the chapter, I had rewritten the entire thing from the ground up several times and wasn't satisfied with how it turned out in the end, but as an author, you'll eventually hit these bumps in the road. With Kasumi heading back to steal a few of the valuables from the vault, you'd be dead on about the police coming in and taking everything, but with her history that wouldn't really stop her from trying regardless. And we'll be at Omega soon, don't worry. About the shopkeeper gag, it was in Jay's backstory given to me by Blaze, as the man needed a source of income and a home on Omega for his time there, similar to Devin when he joined Garrus' vigilante gang all the way back in chapter two. I'm still unhappy at how the chapter came to be, but with how much of a nightmare it was to actually write, it'll probably take me another month of writing to actually get it sorted through. I hope you understand.

Without further ado, here's chapter twenty-seven. Enjoy.

Chapter Twenty-Seven: You Have to Forgive Yourself

"What's on our agenda for today, EDI?" Shepard asked the AI, looking down at the galaxy map for where they should head next, wondering where they should go today.

"Commander, we still need to obtain the reaper IFF from the derelict vessel, as it is imperative to our mission. However, it is entirely up to you to choose our next destination." She told him, causing the man to hold his chin in thought, with him mentally choosing where they should head next.

"I'm going to need some food in my stomach before choosing something this early in the morning…" He mumbled quietly, heading to the elevator to get breakfast that Gardener had made.

The man wasn't one to make decisions on an empty stomach, after all.

"Hey Tyler, how's it going?"

"Finishing up my plate here, Commander; afterwards, I was planning on going down to the hangar bay, maybe lift some weights with Devin and whoever else is down there. After… I don't know really." He answered, gathering his empty plate and glass to take to Gardener.

"You okay Tyler? You seem down for some reason; tell me what's wrong, you know I'll help you with whatever you need."

Tyler took a moment to think about it before sitting back down across from the man as his head hangs low.

"Tomorrow… tomorrow will be the fifteenth anniversary of the Mindoir attack. They're having a memorial service for those who survived and those who didn't. I was wanting to attend it, but we've got a lot going on here and it is infinitely more important than-"

Shepard interrupted the man with a shake of his head, gaining his attention as he went silent so that Shepard could speak.

"I'm not going to deny you a ride to the memorial service; I'd never do such a thing like that, Tyler. Tell you what: how long will you need for attending the service?"

"I don't know, maybe an hour or two."

"I'll give you three hours, if that's too little, then make it four."

Tyler could only smile at the response, thanking the man with as much sincerity as he could muster.

Standing up with his dishes in his hand, Tyler drops them off to Gardener and makes his way down to the hangar bay as he said he would, wanting to get his morning workout session done and with Devin finally able to roam around the ship without the hindrance of a wheelchair.

All in all, he was happy that Shepard was letting him go to the memorial but he wasn't really surprised that he is allowing it either: Shepard is a good man, after all.

"Fucking hell, this feels so good." Devin groans out, stretching his arms and legs as he prepares for his upcoming workout session.

"I'd say so, considering that you spent the last few days in a wheelchair and not being able to get up and stretch. Besides, I even got some music for us to listen to while we do this." Justin tells him, linking his omni-tool with the radio he brought down before choosing his desired song.

The song was in a completely foreign language to Devin, with the man turning around to look at the radio with a small amount of confusion as Justin started laughing at his expression.

His laughter is interrupted, however, by Tela singing the song from her seated position.

"You know this song?!" He asked her, his grin wide across his face as he looks at the asari Spectre, her legs crossed over each other as she bobs her head to song.

"Of course I know this song; DotA is one of my top five favorites that humans have overall. Took me over a month to learn Swedish, all because I heard this very song while at a nightclub a few years back. You humans have some diverse ass music, that's for sure." She told him, with Justin laughing as he gets back to his workout area, with him telling her that she's his second favorite Spectre now.

(DoTa by BassHunter, if you're curious)

"Justin, you only know two Spectres." Devin remarked, sitting down as he starts lifting dumbbells, looking at the young man with a single eyebrow raised.

"That makes it even better then."

Devin only snorted at that, shaking his head as he pays attention to what he's doing.

A few minutes pass by as the song draws to its conclusion, with the elevator doors opening and revealing Tyler as he makes his way to the nearest weight rack.

"Hey man, you getting your daily workouts done?"

"Yeah," Tyler answered, grabbing a couple of dumbbells off the rack before making his way to a bench to sit in, "I'm only going to be down here for the next thirty minutes or so; today is a slow day for me as I'm headed back to Mindoir tomorrow morning whenever Joker arrives in system. Besides that, you look happy to be out of that contraption of yours, Devin."

"You have no idea; I was planning on tossing it out of the airlock, but I guess it doesn't hurt having a spare around the ship for whenever someone needs it."

Tyler nodded his head in agreement, knowing that he had his reasonings and that he respected whatever they may be.

"So how are things going with Tulma? I noticed how you two are leaning on each other and holding hands but that's about it; taking it slow, I presume?"

Devin set the bar that he was lifting back into its slot, with Justin acting as his spotter during the process, before sitting up to answer the man's questions.

"Yeah, with everything that needs to be done and the imminent assault on the collector base, we've been content with just letting things progress slowly and simply enjoying our time together. Not only that, but after this mess is over with, I'm planning on taking her out to this one fancy restaurant on the Presidium, but that'll have to wait for later. And don't you say anything about this to her either, especially you," he points at Tela, a stern look on his face as she gave a thumbs up in return, before swinging around and pointing around the room, "and especially you Kasumi!"

Justin asked the man if she was even in the hangar with them, to which Devin narrowed his eyes as he looked around, telling him that he was unsure.

That women sure knew how to disappear without anyone knowing and that kinda scared the man, if he was being honest with himself.

"Well… if you're done with your sets, would you mind spotting me?" Tyler asked him, standing up as he handed Justin the dumbbells and made his way over to Devin.

"Sure thing, come on over and I'll get you set up. But first, let me take some weight off the bar."

"How much is on it?"

"Like four-fifty for the weights alone and another fifty for the bar."

"Fucking hell, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised hearing the weight, considering that you can stop a krogan mid-charge and pick people up by their face."

That got a good laugh from the man, with him shaking his head as he set the weights aside and put the clamps back into place to lock the other weights.

"What's the weight now?"

"Two hundred plus the fifty from the bar; that good for you?"

"Perfect."

With that said, Tyler got down to the bench and began his set with Devin spotting for him.

Even with everything going on, he felt at home with two of his closest friends lifting weights with him, not caring that he was Cerberus or that he technically reported to the Illusive Man; they seen him as the person he is, not what he belonged to.

He wouldn't trade it for the world.

"A lot of traffic going on down here." Shepard commented, looking down at the landing port that they were guided to, seeing hundreds of vehicles either parking, parked, or were dropping guests off.

"Makes sense, it is the biggest loss of life on a human colony since the First Contact War, after all. I can't believe that after all these years, they still left the city center barren."

"Well," Shepard started, adjusting his suit as he stood up and looked out the window where Tyler was staring at, "from what EDI told me, that was where town hall was before the batarians invaded and that the city left it bare after the debris was cleaned up to be a reminder of what happened and as a memorial site. Probably why the service is being held there, after all."

Tyler could only nod at the explanation, standing up and stretching before adjusting his suit as well, turning to look at Shepard as the shuttle came to a stop.

"Let's get this over with… a lot of bad memories are tied here." With that said, the doors opened and two men stepped off the shuttle, walking along an illuminated pathway that was set up for guests to follow so that they can get to the service.

"A lot of cameras here too; reckon anyone will notice-"

Shepard is interrupted from his conversation when a camera flash temporarily blinds him, causing the man to rapidly blink his eyes as a nearby reporter gathers her colleague's attention.

"Commander Shepard! It's surprising to see you here at the service! Hi, my name is Maddison Kelsey, I'm with the Alliance News Network and I have to say that it is an honor to meet you in person. May I ask about your reasoning for being here, if you have the time?" She rattled off, catching the man off guard for a moment before he recollected himself, looking back at Tyler and raising an eyebrow in a silent question.

Tyler merely shrugged his shoulders and motioned for him to go ahead, knowing that they had plenty of time before the service officially starts.

"I could say that I'm here for Spectre or even Alliance reasons, but those would be false: I'm here because a friend of mine wished to be present at this ceremony and asked if I would like to come with him." He told her, watching as she nodded her head and motioned for him to continue.

"My friend here," he starts, motioning towards Tyler as he stood silently and patiently behind the man, "is a survivor or the Mindoir raids that destroyed this colony, all those years ago. Any more questions, Miss Kelsey?"

"None that I can think of at the moment, Commander; thank you for answering the ones I did ask and God bless their souls, and bless yours as well." She told Tyler, the man simply nodding his head in appreciation as they walked off, following the procession.

"I never thought to ask EDI this, but how many survivors were there after the Alliance rescued you all?"

Tyler stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes glossing over as he stared at the horizon as the sun was high in the sky.

"Not enough."

Shepard didn't bother asking for any clarification on the subject, knowing that it'd be inappropriate to do so and let the man stay in place, still staring over at the horizon.

Then, he started walking down the empty street, with Shepard following along in silence.

Maybe, after all these years and the amount of reconstruction that had occurred over the years, the man still knew his way around the city.

"That's Bohr School, named after the physicist Niels Bohr; it was a rather large school back then and was where both junior high and high school was held. I know that it seems small in the front, but it extends out back to accommodate the rather large number of students that went there." He told him, walking down the sidewalk next the school entrance, his right arm motioning towards it.

"I take it you went to school here?"

"Yep, I was in the seventh grade. God, it still looks as stupid as it did back then. Anyway, there should be a stone outcropping somewhere on the other far side of the school here that we named Big Boulder."

When asked about the name, Tyler only shrugged in response, telling him that it was something that the kids around the city started calling it and that it just stuck with everyone, even the school faculty members.

And when reaching the far side of the building, lo and behold there stood Big Boulder, a walkway built around the rock with a small gate around it, a small plaque standing at the base of it.

Upon further inspection from Tyler and Shepard, they found out that the school had made the rock their official mascot after the raids had ended, informing them that while the school had been severely damaged in the attack, the stone stood strong and hadn't suffered any signs of damage throughout the ordeal.

That got a chuckle out of Tyler as he patted the rock before turning away, walking down the street away from the building.

"This was my old neighborhood…"

Shepard raised an eyebrow, looking down the street and seeing nothing out of the ordinary.

"How do you know?"

"Ravenwood was the name, that and it's still called Ravenwood, judging from the sign. Come on, I'll show you where I lived with my family." Tyler tells the man, beginning to make his way down the road only to be stopped by Shepard grabbing his arm.

"Are you sure you want to do this? The services started an hour ago and you did want to attend them, didn't you?"

With a sigh escaping his lips, Tyler nodded his head, agreeing with the man that they'd better get back to the reception before it ended in the next hour.

With one last look down the road, Tyler steps in line with Shepard and walks alongside with the man, staying silent as they made their way back to the memorial service so that Tyler can finish what he came here to do.

It was the least he could do for his brother.

"With the main service coming to its conclusion, I ask those present to once again join me in a moment of silence for those who were lost in the assault." The lead organizer requests, taking the microphone away from the stand and setting it aside as he and everyone present bows their head in silence; showing respect to the dead as they let them have this moment again.

"It has come to my attention," the organizer began, grabbing the microphone from its position and bringing it back to him, "that we have a very special guest with us today; Systems Alliance Commander and Council Spectre, Commander Shepard. He is with a guest as well, one of the few remaining survivors of the attacks. I please ask that if either of them would like to speak and tell us anything that they would like to share, for the two of them to come up here and take the stage."

Tyler could only sigh at having the attention brought to them, standing up with Shepard as the two of them made their way out of the VIP area and up to the stage where all the attention, cameras, and lights were focused.

Shepard had declined the offer of speaking on the subject, stating that he wasn't here whenever the attacks happened and that the honor belonged to Tyler instead.

Grabbing a cup of water and downing it in one go, Tyler swallowed the lump in his chest and began his small, improvised speech that he made up on the spot.

"I lived here on Mindoir so many years ago, back before you all got these new factories, stores, and other industrial complexes. It was a simple time back then, being a young kid with a bright future ahead of you and a loving family that was supporting of every choice you made. It was… paradise, for a young pre-teen. When the slavers came and attacked, my parents were killed within hours of the initial assault; leaving me to fend for my brother and I. We held out for several days, avoiding any slaver patrols, masking our scents with mud, soot, and whatever else we could find that we could rub into out skin so that the varren wouldn't find us. And it worked. For eight days, we were in the clear, we had a small hideout in one of the storm drains, a small stash of food and water to keep ourselves nourished, and even an alcove further back in that we could sleep on. The ninth day… it was a nightmare for my brother and I. We had been caught, and being just two kids against four batarians, we couldn't do anything. When they planted that chip into his head… that was when I finally focused my biotics for the first time and used them to kill all of them. After the slavers were dead or dying, I held my brother and I gave him mercy. When the Alliance came, I was bleeding out from a few bullet holes in my chest, I'd given up and was ready to die; but a man and his team had found me where I lied and patched me up and saved my life. I don't remember the name of the man who stayed with me, I've been told that it was a lieutenant, someone named Anderson, but he told me everything that had happened and that the Alliance had chased off the slavers, but not before they decimated the colony. After all these years, I finally understand what the man was trying to tell me: say not in grief and vain that they are no more, but live in thankfulness of who they were. And now, I ask the same of you all. Remember the fallen and continue living for them."

When he had reached the conclusion of his speech, the crowd began applauding him, no doubt the strong words and message that he told them being readily accepted by the masses going to be remembered for generations to come, but that it would in time be used for the future of the galaxy overall.

The very near future.

"Come on Tyler, let's get back to the Normandy." Shepard told him, slinging his arm over the man's shoulder as they passed a wall that had all the name's of the victims who perished or were never found, even showing the names of the Alliance soldiers who were killed as well.

Tyler stopped for a moment to search through the names listed, taking only a minute to find the names of his family, noticing that only his name was missing from the memorial and closed his eyes as he laid his hand upon it, before simply walking away from the site.

He didn't look back at it, knowing that he didn't have to and that he finally got the closure he needed.

"Thanks for being here Shepard, it… it really does mean a lot to me. I want you to know that I see you and everyone else on the Normandy as my family now. And I don't plan on losing this one."

Shepard could only laugh and tell him that he's glad to hear that as they made their way back to their shuttle, seeing Scruffy reclined back in the seat as he reads his adult fun time magazine whilst eating from a bag of chips.

"We're back Scruffy; take us to the Normandy." Shepard told the janitor/pilot, climbing into the back of the shuttle with Tyler in tow.

"Yep." Is all that the man says, flipping to another page and setting a bookmark so that he could come back to where he left off.

Like I said, small chapter that I wrote to get me back into the swing of things. Should I still continue writing more about the loyalty missions? Considering that Grunt, Mordin, Tulma, Jack, and a couple of others needs to written before we get too far in the story, or should I go with the next main quest mission then do some more loyalty mission?

Anyway, I hope you all are staying safe and that I'm back to writing once more. Have a great day!