A/N: Italics indicate internal thought.

Bold indicates Shepard Reaper speech

Bold Italics indicate Reaper internal speech

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This is my first attempt at a story, so I am open to constructive criticism. Also If anyone has suggestions for the story feel free to give them.

Cost of Half-truths

Location: The Normandy, Medical Bay

Time: 2230 CST

Date: 17th November

Still adorned in his armour, Reaper observed a slumbering Abbie as Miranda performed a medical examination. "How is she?" he asked. "No serious injuries. But she's extremely malnourished, expending all that biotic energy likely didn't help. Nevertheless, she's merely suffering from exhaustion, she just needs rest and food," Miranda replied, turning to him. Her expression then became, one of concern, "you shouldn't be here, bringing her onto the Normandy for medical treatment was enough to explain. But the rest of the crew is going to become suspicious of your vested interest in her," she explained further. Reaper didn't respond, he just kept his gaze fixed on his sister.

Miranda turned away for a second, before sighing in frustration, "there is something else you really need to see," she said. Reaper turned to look at her for a second before nodding. "It's best to show you in the CIC, give me a second," Miranda said as she turned her attention back to the teenage girl. Reaper stood up and walked out of the medical bay. After the door shut, Miranda looked around to make sure she wasn't being observed. She then brought up all the medical scans she had taken of Abigail, and deleted them.

000

Reaper stood in front of the holo-table, Kaidan on his right, while on his left Miranda was working on the terminal. "This broadcasted while you were planet side," Miranda explained as she brought up a screen in front of the three of them.

The screen showed three individuals that Reaper immediately recognised. Irissa, the Asari councillor, Esheel, the Salarian councillor and Quentius, the Turian councillor. A logo in the corner of the screen signified that this was broadcast by the Citadel News network. It could also be seen that there were a lot of people gathered in front of the Councillors. Irissa cleared her throat and began to speak, "citizens of Citadel space. The last six months, has been a time full of uncertainty. Terrible things have happened, and we have failed to provide you with an explanation for them." Quentius then spoke up, "we of course speak of the abominable actions of the terrorist group Cerberus, and their new champion. The one called Reaper." Esheel spoke next, "in the few months he has been active, we have seen our worlds attacked, and many noble men and women ruthlessly cut down."

"We did not come forward with a public statement at the time, because we feared it would only succeed in spreading fear amongst the population." Irissa explained, "Thus we hoped to wait until we had acquired adequate information about this new attacker and his motivation. Unfortunately, recent events have made his intentions all too clear, thus we are forced to reveal all that has transpired." The Turian councillor spoke again, "due to his sadistic broadcasting of his abominable actions, you are all aware of the devastating attacks on Fortress Ramiscus, the Bastion of Athame and the STG base. The structures reduced to rubble, and almost all personnel brutally murdered." "But what you are not aware of," Esheel explained, "are his lesser-known acts. Ever since the attacks, hundreds of people have been murdered. Not soldiers, merely ordinary citizens."

John could hear the shocked gasps of many of the people present at the conference.

"These crimes were committed by agents of Cerberus, who used the devastation of Reaper's attack to land on our homeworlds. These brutal murders serve to recruit more zealots to their cause." Irissa continued. "We are now releasing a list of all identified victims. It is a list that dozens are added to daily," Quentius said, solemnly. "But it is the events of the past few days that have made the intentions of these terrorists transparently clear," the Salarian councillor said.

Irissa again, began to speak, "yesterday the terrorist known as Reaper launched several devastating terrorist attacks on the Citadel itself. The first of which was the Dredoroh auction house. But he did not limit his wrath to a single building. The entire block was levelled by explosions, that we have identified as identical to the means by which he destroyed the facilities. Many of these other buildings had no part in the slave trade. And many of the innocent victims of this attack had never harmed another soul. But this monster had condemned them to death merely for living near an auction house," her voice began to strain. Quentius spoke again, "but they were merely the first victims of his rampage. Hours later he launched an attack on the home of Patrice Sinclair, while he was hosting many guests. These were not soldiers, or trained combatants, yet he still killed them all without mercy. And still, merely hours later, he launched another atrocious attack. Docking Bay 12 had many people working there and dozens of ships docked. None of those ships were delivering slaves to the Citadel, but the terrorists still destroyed it, barely any survivors have been found." Esheel carried on from there, "it soon became clear what the intention behind these monstrous attacks was. All that destruction, all that death, was merely to serve as a diversion. Diverting the attention of C-sec so he could attack to the Office of Spectre Intelligence. C-sec officers and several Spectres tried valiantly to stop this terrorists rampage, but were no match for his power."

"It was during this attack that he made his intentions clear to all," Irissa said. The image then changed to show a vid recording of Reaper's attack on the O.S.I. "perhaps they should go to sleep terrified by the notion that they might not live to see the morning! Perhaps they should live….just like humans do." The image then changed, "What if we have entire armies ready. Past all of their fleets and defences. Positioned at the very hearts of their civilisations. Merely waiting for the chance to take their revenge against the communities that abused and degraded them." The image then changed again, showing his massacre of the C-sec officers, the brutal murder of the Spectres and his attacks on Liz and Ashley. Soon the vid reached the point showing his destroyed helmet, the visible black skin and blaring red eye, "the streets must run with the blood of the hypocrites! COME ON! JUST TRY AND STOP ME YOU VERMIN!"

He clenched his fist in frustration, even he had to admit that despite everything he'd accomplished, in that moment he only came across as a deranged killer.

The screen then switched back to show the three Councillors, "he has made claims of being a liberator. But do not be deceived my friends," Irissa announced, "he and his acolytes are nothing more than genocidal zealots. They seek nothing less than the complete eradication of our great civilisations. And they will stop at nothing to see their dark ambitions come to fruition." "We speak now to the human Systems Alliance and of humans who live under the banner of the Citadel Council," Quentius continued on from her, "I know there are some of you who have been enticed by his poisonous words. But I implore you to look again, he cares as little for your people as he does for ours. To him there is only joining him or standing against him." Esheel spoke up next, "in addition, you have seen the unnatural power he wields. Do you truly believe he is of your species? He is the results of Cerberus' vile experimentation, lacking any trace of humanity."

The Asari councillor took the reins again, "we cannot deny, our society faces a grave threat. But we have faced grave threats before, the Rachni, the Krogan, we defeated those threats by standing together. And thus, shall we defeat this threat. Let us stand together against the threat of Cerberus!" she announced loudly, which was soon followed by deafening cheering from many of the people watching. He even heard several chants of "death to Cerberus," and "Death to Reaper,"

Miranda deactivated the screen, a solemn expression on her face. Kaidan folded his arms, but it was obvious to see how tense he was. Reaper said nothing, he merely turned around slowly, "how bad could this be?" he asked in a neutral tone. Miranda pursed her lips before answering, "we already have reports that anti-human sentiment is swelling considerably." "They can no longer stay silent about our actions, so they are directing all efforts into portraying us as the villains." Miranda tensed up, Kaidan looked at her, while Reaper momentarily glanced over his shoulder, both of them clearly expecting her to explain what was wrong. Relenting Miranda said, "it might be a lot worse than just 'portraying' us. I've looked over the list of 'our' victims and I have discovered something unsettling. A considerable number of the deaths on that list…..are deaths we are not responsible for."

Reaper didn't react but Kaidan gasped in shock," are you…..are you saying that the government murdered some of their own citizens just so they could blame it on us?" he asked, with dread. Miranda nodded grimly, "I'm afraid so, I believe they have murdered random civilians to prevent the fact that we only target abusive slave masters from being discovered."

"The explosion at the auction house….and the docking bay…..they blamed those actions on us as well." Kaidan and Miranda both looked down the floor, understanding what he was implying. Without another word he walked off.

Making sure he was gone, Kaidan turned to Miranda, "you examined the piece of the shock collar that was won by Abigail, right?" he asked. She nodded in response; the expression stony. "And?" Kaidan further questioned, hoping that he was wrong. "Yes," she responded, "and it has only reinforced what we feared. The collar did not short-circuit allowing her to use her biotic abilities…..she overpowered it. My examination of her confirmed it….she has awakened it as well." Kaidan rested his head is in his right hand, "what….what do we do?" he asked shakily. "I've deleted all evidence I have on the matter; I also took measures to prevent EDI from reporting it. We can only hope that he does not find out, and we must take all steps to prevent him from learning about her."

000

Reaper stood alone in one of the ships hallways, his fist still clenched in anger. 'They murdered countless people…their own people…..for what? Just so they could enforce their fabricated narrative,' he heard the familiar rasping voice. Glancing to the side he saw that his partial reflection in the metal wall of the ship had assumed a familiar form.

'It is the truth that we have always known, but have desperately tried to deny. But we can deny it no longer,' the entity spoke. 'We have given them two options. Admit their sins and proceed to make amends, or deny them and suffer our wrath. But we knew they would never admit their crimes, never admit to their mistakes, never present themselves as fallible. Their entire civilisation is infested with beings that care only for their own power and nothing else, not even the lives of their fellow beings. Their very societies are corrupted rights to the core.' Reaper didn't rebuke the entity's claims, how could he after all he had just learned, 'there has only ever been one solution to this, a solution that we have no choice but to enact. We must destroy their civilisations, tear them up by the very roots. And when we have destroyed every remnant of the old corrupt regimes….it will finally become possible to install better ones in their place.' Reaper was completely shocked by what it was implying, all of his efforts had been to prevent this course of action from being required, but he still found he could not voice any response. The entity seemed to growl in anger at his hesitation, 'how many will have to die before you do what must be done, not only of our people, but theirs. Do you think they will stop at this? As long as you continue to fight them, they will sacrifice innocent lives to support their narrative. Many will die, but in the end the pain will cease if you take action. If you do not….the suffering will continue endlessly.'

Reaper tried desperately to find some counterargument, but no matter how much he racked his brains he could find nothing to rebut what the entity was telling him, 'it is the only solution!' the entity roared. John let out a roar before slamming his fist into his reflection. The entity went silent and Reaper took several rasping breaths.

"Are you okay?" Reaper spun around and was shocked to see Abigail standing there, looking at him puzzled. Reaper was completely floored by her appearance, and just stared at her. He regained his composure after a moment, "what are you doing out of the med-bay? You should be resting," he stated. Abbie didn't even flinch at his voice, "I know, but I really need to ask you something," she said, "when I was kidnapped from Mindoir, both my sisters were as well. I wanted know if you…." she trailed off as her lip again to tremble. "Yes, I rescued both of your sisters, once we have confirmed you are in no danger, we will send the three of you home." Before John knew it, the teenage girl had charged into him and wrapped her arms around his midsection in a massive hug, "thank you. Thank you so much," she said, tears falling from her eyes. Reaper instinctively made to pat the top of her head. He stopped to inch away, remembering that he couldn't do anything to let her know he was her brother, "you are welcome," he said.

Had Reaper glanced over his shoulder he would have seen his reflection seemingly recoil in pain at the contact with his sister.

Abbie pulled away from him and dried her eyes before asking, "what about all the other prisoners in that place…..the alien ones?" John wasn't surprised that she'd asked about them, his youngest sister always did have a lot of compassion. "They will be taken back to their families as well, or to a safe location if that is not possible," he explained. Abbie then gained a curious expression, "there was a Turian and an Asari with you," she said in a puzzled tone.

"you did not expect me to be working with aliens?" he asked rhetorically, she looked him in the eye, "I wasn't sure what to expect if I ever met you. I mean, the Citadel races were all terrified of you," she said. "I cannot deny that I have given them reasons for that," he responded. "I'm not afraid of you," she responded, firmly. Reaper turned his gaze back to her, "good for you kid," he replied, "don't call me a kid," she pouted. John had to stop himself from chuckling at that, Abbie immediately looked away, realising how childish she actually sounded. That is how she caught sight of the sizeable dent in the wall that Reaper had created just a moment ago, "so...something frustrating you?" she asked. John was honestly slightly amused by the fact that his sister was trying to have a casual conversation with an infamous terrorist, "I shouldn't burden you with my problems," Abbey just smiled at him, "you saved my life, and the life of my sisters. I think the least I could do was let you vent your problems." When he still didn't respond she continued, "my mum always says that just saying a problem out loud can help." John quickly glanced at her, that was something their mother had taught them, she had strongly believed that bottling up your issues caused problems further down the line. "It is not something you should trouble yourself with. I have merely come to the realisation that I was expecting something that likely will never happen."

Abbey continue to look at him, "what were you expecting to happen?" she asked, curiously. John knew he really shouldn't be venting his frustrations towards her, but now that he had started, he felt that he just had to get this off his chest entirely. "You remember the two alien Spectres that assisted in your rescue," Abbey nodded, "I believed that once our efforts to end slavery gained traction, those among the alien population who also wished an end to slavery would step forward." He clenched his teeth narrowed his eyes in anger, "but I underestimated the lengths those who are empowered by slavery would go to maintain this Galaxies status quo…and how many of the ignorant masses would go along with it."

John's eyes immediately widened in alarm, he shouldn't be saying this to someone Abbie's age, he wanted to protect her from all of this, he turned to face her again and saw her expression was one of concern, "so your saying, there aren't any good aliens?" it was more question than statement. Reaper looked away from her again, he really didn't want to destroy his sister's positivity, but he couldn't lie to her either, "not enough to help us, the longer we wait for them to gain a conscience the more humans suffer."

A tense silence passed between the two before Abbey spoke up again, "you know, you remind me of my older brother, John, a bit. He was a slave once and I know he went through some bad stuff. Now he believes he needs to act cold and uncaring because that's what it takes to protect people in this Galaxy." She then smiled slightly, "but I believe he's still the big brother I grew up with. One who would protect anyone who needed it no matter who they are. One who has a heart of a hero," she said the last statement with a great deal of pride. Reaper cringed, as he remembered what led to the current situation, "your brother's actions are what led to you and your sisters being kidnapped," he said, with more force than he intended, "don't you blame him for that?" He asked, knowing that he blamed himself completely. "No!" Abbey almost shouted, she momentarily looked embarrassed at her outburst before she continued, "he saved a lot of people. I know they abducted us to punish him for standing up, but I don't blame him." She looked down at the ground again, "I know that this Galaxy is wrong, but just hurting more people won't make it better. Even though I was only in that facility for just over a day, I saw some pretty horrible things. I saw a couple of other prisoners beaten to death just because they couldn't keep going." She looked up again, a small smile forming on her lips, "but I overheard them talking about you, they were terrified of you. Even before I was kidnapped, I heard about the countless people you'd saved so I held onto hope that you would save me as well."

The minute she said that word, Reaper found every muscle in his body tensing up in anger, almost instinctively. He turned away from her and before he could even register what he was saying the words left his mouth. "Hope is when the universe is feeling its cruellest," 'hope is when the universe is feeling its cruellest.'

John's eyes widened in surprise that, he had spoken completely intime with the entity, that had never happened before, and why did he say those specific words?

He was so busy trying to register what had happened that he failed to notice Abbie run back in front of him, fixing him with a hard stare. "Hope is what gives us strength when we have nothing else, it's what gives us a reason to keep going." John stared at her, he recognised those words, their parents had taught them to him as well. Before he could respond though Abbie began wobbling and just as she was about to collapse Reaper caught her, "you need to go back to the medical bay, get more rest," he stated. Abbie pouted slightly before she nodded, "fine just don't wake me up again with your rants about how corrupt and irredeemable the Citadel races are," she said as she proceeded to walk back down the hallway. John was tempted to escort her back but then he realised something, and it caused him to stop dead.

She said that his rant about the Citadel races corruption is what woke her…but he hadn't been the one saying that, it had been the entity. An entity that he was the only one that could hear…..the only other person was light-years away on the Citadel. How had she heard it? Reaper glanced back to his vague reflection, hoping it would provide an answer, but the shadow was gone.

000

Location: Shepard Farmstead, Mindoir.

Time: 0900 CST

Date: 18th November

John was watching the scene from a distance. He was in his armour with his tactical cloak activated, ensuring no one would notice his presence.

The scene he was witnessing would have made an unrelated person's eyes water. Both of his parents had pulled all three of his recently rescued sisters into a bone crushing embrace. His mother was weeping tears of joy at their safe return, while his three sisters were also weeping with happiness. He then saw his two younger brother's charge through the front door, stare momentarily in shock at their sisters, before rushing to embrace them as well.

Reaper sighed, he knew both he and Liz would soon receive messages about their sister's safe return, and while he knew Liz would get the earliest shuttle she could back home, the recent events had made him consider that if he wanted to protect his family, perhaps he should stay away from them. He had already allocated several more Cerberus resources to protect the planet, and with Alex Carmine's daughter returned to him as well, he knew that there was very little chance of events repeating themselves.

At least that's what he tried to tell himself, deep down he wasn't sure.

'You rescued them this time John….but things are only going to get worse for the Galaxy…..and it could happen again….and next time, you might not make it before it is too late,' the entity whispered in his head. Reaper could only grit his teeth in frustration at the fact that it could be right.