Luna sat in front of the tv watching cartoons. Her eyes were glued to the screen while her mother, Liara, was cooking something. The smell of cooking met didn't even move the 4-year-old as she focused on the screen as the mouse grabbed a bat and began to beat the cat who was chasing him. The door opened and a voice called out.

"I'm home," she said.

The voice caused Luna to jump and run towards the newcomer. "Daddy!" she called before jumping into the arms of a red-haired human.

"Hey there little wing," she smiled. "Have you been good to mummy?"

"She's been very good," Liara said as she stepped up to her husband and stroked Luna's head.

"Yes, I've been very good!" Luna declared.

"Well then, I have something for you," her father said as she reached into a bag and pulled out a green coloured soft toy.

"Oh, what is it?" Luna asked as she took the toy from her father.

"It's a dragon," she smiled. "A fearsome creature of legend from earth. They breathe fare and only knights can take them. They kidnap princesses and hold them hostage until a brave knight comes along to save them. But they also hoard treasure. Protect it, so he's here to protect you," she bopped Luna's nose.

"Thank you, daddy," she squealed hugging the stuffed dragon.

Luna opened her suitcase and looked inside. She had a habit of packing light. It came from both her mother and father being on the move quite a bit. Not as much as spacer families, but enough to warrant the habit. She reached in and picked up the green and red dragon she had kept. The last give her father ever gave her before she disappeared. A sad smile crawled along her face as she pulled the soft toy in for a hug.

A satisfied sigh left her mouth as she stayed there, just holding onto the dragon for a long time.

"I miss you, dad," she muttered before setting the dragon to the side and pulling out her clothing and organising them.

Paedia just watched as Luna unpack. Inwardly she sighed, not sure how to help out. She was about to walk in but decided against it. Luna needed some time to process what was happening. Paedia turned and walked into the lounge. The ship, that her mother booked, was a high-end luxury transport meant for vacationers. While Noveria wasn't a hotspot as a holiday destination, it was popular with several company execs and armature scientists. As for why her father was there, she needed answers.

Her eyes turned to the hooded thief sitting on the sofa watching an anime with two of Luna's friends. The turrian eyed Kasumi before walking up to her and pulling her off the sofa.

"Hey what…" she tried to struggle, but Peaida knew how to handle her.

Once they were in Peadia's room, she locked the door before turning towards Kasumi with narrowed eyes.

"What is on Noveria?" she asked.

Kasumi blinked. "I…" she muttered but couldn't find the right words.

"What's my dad doing on Noveria?" Peadia asked, this time a little more forcefully.

Looking at her niece, Kasumi just sighed. "I don't know what's on Noveria," she finally admitted and watched as Peadia relax slightly. "Liara had several projects going on to make sure that you, Luna and the rest were safe and prepared in case anything should happen. Remember when you got selected for Advanced combat training in the Turrian military?"

"Yeah," Peadia nodded. "I thought that was dad's doing. And because of his reputation,"

"That's part of the reason, but there were a lot in the Turrian hierarchy who didn't like the fact that you were being pushed forward instead of more deserving soldiers," Kasumi explained. "It took your father, mother and Liara to fix that. Even Luna had problems joining N7, even the non-human side of things. In fact, every child born from the Normandy family had problems due to the reputation of their parents,"

"So, there were people who just didn't like us?" Peaida shrugged. "What's new?"

Kasumi just shook her head. "The thing is that these were people in power who despised us and what we stood for. A united galaxy and Liara couldn't just remove them as they were competent. Being the Shadow broker meant a lot, but when it came to finding allies willing to break a few rules. As such, she needed to find other ways to get special projects worked on without her enemies knowing,"

"I thought she didn't have any," the turrian asked confusion entering her tone.

"Oh, she did. Did you really think that she could remove her opposition without anyone noticing?" a knowing smirk appeared on the thief's face, but that dropped quickly. "Liara, and the rest of us, knew someday that our enemies would rear their ugly heads. Maybe not the Reapers, but others. Neo fascists, a revived Cerberus, that biotic cult, or someone with a major grudge. Whatever the case Liara made sure to secure as much as she could in order to prevent such a problem. Whatever it is, she never told us. The only person who knows is Garrus, and that's due to the fact he's a detective,"

"Why?" Peaida asked. "I thought you guys didn't keep secrets?"

"Liara largely kicked the project off after Miranda disappeared," Kasumi sighed. "I have no idea what's waiting for us on Noveria. But I think she wanted to keep it under wraps in fear of what she was doing would be found out,"

Peaida nodded with a sigh. "So, aunt Liara left us a gift, but we don't know what that gift is,"

"Afraid so," Kasumi shrugged before the room's bell dinged.

"Special delivery," a voice from an attendant said.

The thief and cop looked at one another before they walked out as Yanni walked up to the door and opened it. A well-dressed salarian attendant followed by a turrian attendant walked in with the latter pushing in a trolly with 5 cases on it.

"What's this?" Kasumi asked.

"Miss Vakarain asked these to be brought aboard, with an… incentive despite our policies," he said. "Since we are underway, the policy doesn't hold much effect. Please take this with our compliments," the two bowed before leaving.

Luna walked out of her room and looked at the crates before glancing toward Peaida. "Did your mother…" she slowly asked before the cop walked up and looked at one of the crates.

It had her name on it. Picking it up, she looked at the name on the next crate.

"This one has your name on it," she looked towards Luna who walked up and glanced.

"She didn't," the asari muttered as she picked up the crate and walked over to a table.

"What about the others?" Trivo asked.

Peaida looked. "No names, I think these are generic armours for you,"

Niica walked up and opened the top crate looking inside eyes wide. "Holy shit," she muttered as she pulled up a full suit of combat armour. "This… this is type 34 Hahne-Kedar Armor. Their latest,"

The other two asari looked at her jaws on the floor. After a moment, Niica then pulled out a pistol, similar in design to the M-3 Predator but without the large pistol guard and a shorter third barrel under the main two.

"An M-6 Predator," Trivo muttered.

"Mother really did go all out," Peaida chuckled before looking over to Luna who just stared at her crate.

After a few deep breaths, the green-eyed asari clicked the locks and opened up the crate. Her next breath was caught in her mouth as she stared at a set of black armour with a red stripe down the left side. On the breastplate sat the characters N7 with the name Luna under them.

Rain poured down on the alien recruits with the odd crack of thunder echoing in the distance. They all stood to attention as a human in a wide-brim hat and officer blues walked up. Even if he was a human, some of the turrians stood a little straighter. Stories of how human drill Sargents were some of the toughest men in the galaxy were in the back of their minds. Luna, however, didn't budge an inch as the drill Sargent walked up and down the line.

"I am Drill Sargent Grayson, here you will refer to me as Sir. Is that understood?" he practically yelled.

"SIR YES SIR!" the recruits yelled in response.

"Here, I will be your worst nightmare! This planet was picked for its high gravity, harsh weather and environment. If you want to prove yourselves to be called N7. So I have to teach you bunch of babies how to become that," as he spoke he walked up and down the line until he stopped at Luna. "I've seen asari with blue or purple eyes. But not green. Are you some kind of freak?"

"Sir no sir!" Luna responded crisply. "They came from my father sir,"

The Sargent was silent for a moment before leaning in. "And who was your father?"

Luna gulped. "Shepard sir!"

That caused a reaction as Grayson took a step back. "Shepard huh?" his eyes were filled with awe, curiosity and admiration. "If you are her daughter, then you should be able to complete this course," he pointed at a wooden gate labelled 'Death Gauntlet'. "Your father managed to get into the top 10 of running this course. Let's see if you can do better, but no biotics are allowed," Luna gulped as she felt all eyes on her. "Well, what are you waiting for? MOVE IT!"

Luna just ran through the gates aware that drones had their eyes on her. The gauntlet was a 2-mile-long obstacle course with some parts changing. In one run, there could be a drone to fight or an atlas mech. It was designed to teach N7 recruits to adapt. The weather and gravity were also obstacles as well meant to build one's muscles greater than normal. In this course, quite a few had died, Luna wasn't planning to be one.

"I'm not my father," she said as she dived head-first into mud avoiding electric wires.

"I'm not my father," she said as she swung above a pit of tar.

"I'm not my father," she said as fought against a group of mechs with nothing but her bare hands.

"I'm not my father!" she said as she faced several black armoured three N7 veterans blocking her way forward to the finish.

She emerged from the course still standing but spat a loose tooth from her mouth. Her fellow recruits looked shocked at her batted and bused form as she walked up to the Sargent and saluted.

"How did I do?" she asked.

"Have a look," he replied indicating to a screen.

She and the others looked. Her name was 2 places above her father making her smile before fatigue took over.

Luna reached in and pulled up her old suit and looked at it. "Aunt Ruti must have had this for safekeeping,"

"You know she never liked that little nickname, right?" Peaida asked as she walked up next to Luna. "But she is an employee of the embassy, so I'm not that surprised. She can get things passed through better than anyone,"

Luna nodded before sighing. "We have to find uncle Garrus," she said after a moment. "We have to get to the bottom of our parent's legacy and secrets," as she spoke she pulled up a pistol and expertly ran through checking it.

"No disagreement from me," Peaida nodded as she checked her rifle. "Even if I have to beat it out of my old man,"

OOOOO

Luna and her 'team' took a separate shuttle down to Noveria meant for VIP's. Niica baulked at the amount in how much the shuttle cost and, not for the first time, complained about Luna's and Peaida's finances.

"This is just unbelievable," she scoffed. "All of this luxury and you still fell into a crowd like us?"

"I didn't even know why I did," Luna confessed and earned a pat on her shoulder from Peaida.

It didn't take long for the ship to dock and the six exited. Armed and armoured, they got looks from the guards who twitched slightly. Ignoring them, Luna led her team over to the main entrance where a man and two guards waited for them.

"Welcome to Noveria," he said with a smile. "As policy, we have to ask you to turn over your weapons before entering,"

"I thought weapons were allowed?" Luna asked.

"Only for special guests," the man said, his smile not moving. "Now please, hand over your weapons, or you will be detained and charged with terrorism,"

"I'd like to see you try," Luna growled. "I'm here looking for a Turrian vigilante. If you don't let me pass, I will force my way past,"

At that threat, the guards clicked their safeties off. "Then I have to ask you to leave," the man said his smile vanishing. "Now,"

Luna was about to speak before a voice came on over the intercom. "Takakura stand down now," the man didn't move. "We were expecting them, I told you to look out for them,"

The man fell silent and his eyes focused on Luna. "Ah, you," he spat before moving out of the way. "Let them pass," the guards clicked their safeties on and moved to the side.

Luna said nothing as she and her team walked past them, but as they did the man said something that the green-eyed asari couldn't ignore.

"Half-breed bitch," that earned him a quick kick in the gut sending him to the floor. "Arrest her," he then yelled, but the guards just looked at one another.

"You will do no such thing," another voice said and eyes turned to a dark-skinned woman with dyed brown hair that still showed off a few streaks of grey. "Mr Takakura, your services will no longer be required here," she said as she walked up to him.

"Why? She attacked me without provocation," he said as he stood.

The woman sighed and pointed to her headset and eyepiece. "I saw and heard everything. Noveria has a zero-tolerance racism policy. You're fired. Go pack your things, you'll be leaving tomorrow,"

"But…" he blinked.

"Now, unless you want to lose out on a year's wage," the woman growled.

The man fell silent and just left before the woman turned to Luna. "I apologise about this, please follow me," she said leading the six past the checkpoint, into a lounge before walking into her office.

Once inside, she removed her headset and typed something into her keypad. Before Luna could ask anything, the woman handed her a pair of keys and a card.

"What are these?" the asari asked as she took them.

"A key for a mako tank in the motor pool and an all-accesses key card for Peak 15. Your mother's lab," the woman explained causing the team to blink.

"Just who are you?" Niica asked.

"I'm Gianna Parasini. Director of Noveria," the woman smiled. "I'm also a Shadow broker agent,"

"You work for my mom?" Luna asked surprised and Gianna nodded.

"Your father helped me out on a few occasions, and when your mother became the Shadow Broker, she helped me out with many cases. But we had a deal, she would help me with just about anything as long as I became director here on Noveria and kept an eye out for any of you," she explained. "In return, I got all the evidence and people I needed to run this place like a well-oiled machine. Not to mention the pay,"

"I assume, that mom told you to give me, or one of the family these if anything were to happen?" Luna asked and was rewarded with another nod.

"Yeah. Noveria isn't much of a holiday destination, but your mother gave me clear instructions about what to do," Gianna shrugged. "This was one of them,"

"What's at Peak 15?" Peaida asked.

Gianna bit her lip. "I'm not sure," she admitted. "All I know is that it was bought out by Liara after she became Councillor and had the place renovated and remade. Into what I'm not sure. She wanted a compartmentalisation policy so that if one of us was discovered, we couldn't tell whoever had us everything. Given what happened on the Citadel that was a very smart move," she bit her lip again. "Liara also had a lot of material, scientists and engineers moved here to Peak 15. We haven't seen much from them other than a material and food shipment. And the odd firing and replacement. But that's about it,"

"What about Garrus?" Kasumi asked. "What's he doing here?"

"There was an alarm set off at Peak 15, a day later Garrus arrived and went there. But that was a week ago. Haven't heard anything from there since. We do have a landline connection, but still, nothing," Gianna explained her tone betraying her worry. "The last time that happened, we had Geth on the planet, and a dead Matriarch to clean up,"

"So, dad..." Peaida muttered only for Luna to place her hand on her shoulder.

"We don't know that for sure," Luna said. "Thanks, Miss Parasini,"

"Not a problem," her voice turned serious. "Go, you have more things to worry about than me,"

Luna nodded and the six of them left for the motor pool. Hoping that they were in time.