Chapter 12: It's Not Over Yet

AN: Well, this took a while, didn't it? Sorry for the wait. Enjoy the chapter!

Citadel, Shipping Warehouse, 2176 A.D

1 Week, 3 Days After The Skyllian Blitz

Jane shook her head in disbelief.

"I can't believe this." she whispered.

"S-sis-" Whitley replied, trying to calm her down.

"Don't 'sis' me, Whitley! You've got no idea how mad I am at you right now! God! How'd you even get mixed up in all this?!"

"I…um…I may have stumbled upon a few of their plans, and then they tried to kill me. After that, I decided to try and take them down." Whitley replied.

"Despite the fact that you have no combat training whatsoever?" Jane replied back, acidicly.

Whitley frowned. "Hey, you and mom trained me how to use a pistol!" he exclaimed.

"THAT IS NOT EVEN REMOTELY THE SAME THING!" Jane shouted. Taking a deep breath, she continued the conversation.

"Did Cerberus force you to do this?" Jane asked.

Whitley shook his head. "No. I wanted to do this. They came after you. They came after mom. I wanted to stop them."

"We didn't ask you to fight our battles for us, Whitley! Not if it means killing people! Not if it means joining Cerberus!"

"What would you have me do, Jane?! Just sit back and watch as these slavers kill you?!"

"I'd have you safe! Because we'd at least know that, if we didn't make it, you'd still be alive!"

At that moment, Jane's omni tool beeped. Taking a glance at it, she groaned.

"And now, because of your antics, mom's gone frantic. She thinks you've been kidnapped!"

Whitley frowned. "What?!" he shouted, incredulous.

"What was she supposed to think?! You missed out on two days of school! You, the nerd who's had the 'perfect attendance award' given to you ever since you started at Auxua!"

Jane pressed a few keys on her omni tool.

"We'll continue this conversation later. Right now, I'm calling mom. You can explain yourself to her."

Whitley shook his head. "Jane, wait-"

"Wait? Wait for what? For you to disappear again?"

"Jane, please. Mom's already in a bad spot. Telling her about this…."

Jane paused her keystrokes, contemplating the various scenarios her brother's words conjured up. She sighed.

"It would kill her. Fuck. Alright, we won't tell her anything, but you're under house arrest, mister. And that's just the start of it."

The ringtone echoed through the rooftops for a few moments, before a hoarse voice answered.

"What is it?" Anderson asked.

"I saw the alert." Jane's voice called out.

"Jane? Are you alright?" Hannah asked.

Jane chuckled. "I'm alright, mom. And I've got some good news."

Jane waved Whitley over. Whitley, bracing himself, walked over to her position.

"Umm...hello?" Whitley asked.

"Whitley?! Oh, thank the stars!" Hannah's voice echoed through, her tone full of relief. However, a few seconds later, it turned to anger.

"Where have you been?! Are you alright?!"

"I'm fine. I was just…busy building stuff, trying to get my mind off of what happened. Next thing I know, some Batarians took me off the street. Luckily, a friend of mine was nearby, and they came to my rescue."

Jane gave him a strange look, but Whitley waved her concerns away.

"Then, I started hearing all sorts of noises coming from the Presidium, near Ekol's shop, so I came to see what was going on. Next thing I know, the noises stopped, and Jane found me."

"If the Batarians are coming after you in the middle of this chaos, then you're not safe. Jane, bring Whitley with you back to the conference hall." Anderson replied.

"Understood." Jane stated, turning to Whitley.

She sighed. "You know you can't exactly claim you're 'fine' when you've got blood all over you, and a gushing wound in your hand, right? Also, how're you going to explain that your trademark white hair is jet-black now?"

Whitley froze. He hadn't considered that angle. He'd just been trying to spin the situation as best he could.

"Come here." Jane stated, annoyed at her brother's foolishness. She waved her hand over Whitley, allowing the medigel in her omni tool to heal him.

"I'll yell at you later. Now, let's get out of here. You better come up with a good excuse for the hair color." Jane said, dragging Whitley by his right arm.

"Hey, careful!" Whitley exclaimed, while discreetly shooting a message to Michelle and Wrex.

"Better keep yourselves out of this mess. Something tells me Jane is going to watch me like a hawk from now on."

Citadel, Alliance Meeting Room, 2176 A.D

As Jane dragged Whitley into the ruined conference room, Whitley took a moment to inspect the damage that littered the building.

They have enough manpower to attack mom in the middle of the Presidium?! What kind of allies do they have that they were able to amass this kind of attack underneath the Alliance and Cerberus's nose?!

Whitley, preoccupied with his thoughts, failed to notice someone running up to them. It was only when their arms encircled him and Jane that his head escaped the clouds.

Hannah squeezed the siblings tightly.

"I was so worried." she whispered.

Whitley felt something get caught in his throat. "M-mom." he replied, trying to reassure her, trying to explain that he hadn't become an accessory to a terrorist group. That he hadn't murdered someone and gotten some degree of sick satisfaction watching him die, all for the freudian excuse to protect his family.

"It's okay, mom. We're alright." Jane said, trying to reassure Hannah.

Hannah nodded, still refusing to let go of the hug. After a few moments, she stepped back, letting her children go.

She did a double-take, noticing her son's new hair color.

"Whitley, what's up with your hair?" she asked.

Whitley sighed, trying to explain the lie he had constructed.

"I needed to salvage a few parts for my inventions, and I wanted to go under the radar a bit. I wasn't comfortable being asked about what my sister went through on Elysium."

Hannah nodded in understanding. She'd had her own experiences with the vultures after Mindoir, asking how she'd felt that the Batarians had gotten away after murdering her son, and what the Alliance was planning to do.

"Would you mind introducing me to them sometime?" Hannah asked.

Whitley nodded. "Of course. Um, just wondering, you don't have any grudges against Krogan, right?"

Hannah smiled. "A Krogan saved you? That's a twist, if I've ever heard one."

Whitley sighed. "I was surprised too. Apparently, there's a bounty out for many of the slavers, and he was in the Citadel looking for information when he came across my predicament. Guess we both got lucky."

Hannah chuckles, ruffling her son's hair. "Guess you did." she said, while trying to calm down her rapidly beating heart.

Whitley was lucky this time.

But what about the next time? What if there was no one to save her son the next time the slavers came for him?

Her mind made up, Hannah turned to Jane.

"Jane, look after your brother. I'm gonna be busy organizing an attack on the slaver scum."

Jane nodded. "Sounds like a plan to me. Come on, bro."

As the two siblings left, Hannah turned to Anderson.

"Hannah, don't-"

"I'm done waiting for the Council, David! They didn't help us last time! Why the fuck would they bother helping us now!"

"They attacked the Citadel, Hannah. The Council can't afford to not help now, not when the center of the galaxy was attacked by slavers under their nose."

Hannah glared at David, the rage clear in her eyes.

"They went after my kids, David! My fucking kids! It wasn't enough that they killed John! Now my daughter is suffering from PTSD and my son is lying to me and skipping out on his education because of these bastards!"

Hannah wasn't fooled for a moment. Her son was hiding something from her. That was one of the main reasons why she assigned Jane to watch over Whitley. If there was anyone that would watch over Whitley like a hawk, it was Jane.

"Hannah-"

"Stop, David. Just stop. Don't try to talk me out of this." Hannah growled.

Later, Citadel Streets

As the automated skycar rose into the sky, an awkward silence arose between the two siblings. For a few minutes, they didn't say anything to each other.

Growing increasingly uncomfortable by the silence, Whitley decided to take the risk that was brewing in his mind.

"Sis, listen, this isn't over yet."

Jane laughed, humorlessly. "Oh boy, here it comes. How're you going to convince me, little brother? How're you going to convince me that you need me to let you go on a rampage to find the rest of the slavers?"

Annoyed at the condescending tone that his sister was taking with him, Whitley continued on.

"I infiltrated a C-Sec radio tower. I was able to narrow down the location of the slavers to three locations, all located in the Lower Wards. Jane, we can end this! We can stop these slavers from hurting any more people, and we can save mom!"

Jane froze for a moment, before turning to her brother.

"Hold on, you infiltrated a C-Sec tower? A-and how did you find these locations?!"

"I'm a genius, remember?" Whitley replied, his trademark smirk clear on his face.

Jane scowled. "Wipe that damn smirk off your face, bro. It doesn't suit you right now."

She began to input instructions in the skycar.

Whitley froze. "What're you doing?" he asked.

"I'm gonna give your data to one of mom's friends, and then I'm taking you to a safe house."

Whitley shook his head.

"Jane, you can't."

"Why not?! Do you suddenly think you're some kind of superspy, just because you killed one slaver?! News flash, Whitley! You're seventeen! For fuck's sake, you'd need mom's permission to join the Alliance, and you're trying to stop a cabal of slavers that were powerful enough to bomb the Presidium!"

"BECAUSE THERE ARE BATARIAN SYMPATHIZERS IN THE ALLIANCE!" Whitley shouted.

Jane looked at him, shock decorating her features.

"That…that can't be true!" Jane stated, in disbelief.

Whitley shook his head, opening up his omni tool.

"It is. Even the bastard's personal memoirs confirm it."

Jane took a look over the pages of data, before she froze.

Whitley looked at Jane, concerned.

"Jane, what's wrong?"

"I…I never knew mom had a son before me." Jane whispered.

Whitley grimaced. "I didn't know, either. Then again, losing your son to a slaver's knife probably isn't an easy topic to open up about."

After leafing through the rest of the data, Jane's expression turned to one of cold fury.

"Are you certain about this?" Jane asked Whitley.

Whitley nodded. "Think about it, Jane. How else could they have acquired this much power in such short time? How else could they have taken Elysium so easily? It's a bastion of the Systems Alliance, but there was barely any resistance when the slavers rolled in. Doesn't that seem odd to you?"

Jane sat there for a few moments, before she growled in frustration. She waved the touchscreen to her brother.

"Fine, but I'm taking point in this operation. I'm not gonna stand by while your idiocy gets your head blown off, understand?"

"Understood." Whitley replied, inputting the coordinates to Michelle's safe house. As the directions were set, he sent Michelle and Wrex another message.

"My sister's had a change of heart. Looks like we might just nail Balak after all."

As the skycar began to descend towards Michelle's hideout, only one thought kept echoing through Whitley's head.

I'm coming for you, Balak. You'll join your brother in hell.

Lower Wards, Batarian Hideout

A green-skinned Batarian took a bottle of his people's finest ale, settling it into two glasses. Finally, it was done. He had his revenge.

The plan had been simple. To set a two-pronged assault against his father's killer. One part of the assault would be the heaviest, throwing it's most powerful soldiers and associates into the fire in the effort to kill Hannah Shepard. The other part had fallen to his brother, as the first team would occupy the Alliance forces and C-Sec long enough to set up Romak's kill-shot.

The door to his room opened, up, and Serag walked in.

Balak chuckled. "Serag! Come in, have a drink! Today is the day my brother and I celebrate the death of the bitch that almost destroyed us, all those years ago!"

Serag shook his head. His features betrayed an expression full of fear.

"Captain Balak, sir, Romak didn't succeed in his mission. Hannah Shepard still lives."

Balak blinked, before his expression hardened.

"What?! What happened! Where is Romak?!"

Serag gulped, before standing to the side.

Balak's grasp on his glass slackened, as he saw the lifeless body of his younger brother

A Few Hours Later

Balak drank another glass of Batarian ale, looking at the omni tool in front of him.

The footage on the omni tool showed his brother fighting against Hannah's adopted son, easily gaining the upper hand. Instead of finishing him off, Romak decided to terminate Hannah Shepard instead.

A mistake that proved fatal.

Balak watched as his brother choked to death. Beaten by a child with no experience in the art of war.

Balak stood up, with the footage constantly looping in his head. He snarled, before throwing his glass at the wall.

Forget Hannah Shepard. I'll settle for killing you, boy, as painfully as you killed my brother. This, I swear.

AN: We're reaching the end of this massive prologue arc to ME1. My estimate is that there's probably one or two chapters and a small time skip left before I start ME1.

I just wanted to thank each and every one of you who've been keeping up with this story. I've been having an avalanche of nonstop ideas for this fic, and I feel I never would have had this much inspiration if you all didn't keep encouraging me. Thank you!