Chapter 6:

I walked through the little hall onto the prison ship, Kasumi and Thane with me. I'd quietly sent them messages, saying to meet me at the airlock- I didn't want to have people fighting over who got to come with. I'd made my decision, and I didn't feel like defending it.

We were met with a bit of hostility, our weapons demanded for turnover. I just raised an eyebrow, making no move to do so and not speaking. The correctional officer advanced on us, but I kept still, my gaze steady on his. I wasn't backing down.

Before he could make a move, a turian man walked into the room, greeting us. He agreed that we could keep our weapons. After all, we wouldn't be able to cause trouble here. That had me fighting to not narrow my eyes.

He led us through the facility, pointing things out here and there, before leaving us to go deal with something. Telling us where to go from here. We continued on our way, stopping momentarily for me to convince the officer to stop the beating of a prisoner, and it wasn't long before we reached where we needed to for paperwork.

One look at the room, at the little square room at the opposite end, and I murmured softly. "We're going to fight our way out. We just need to get into their system and find out where they'd holding Jack." A pause. "Seal the doors, Kas. Thane, take out the cameras as soon as they close."

They didn't react, save for a sly grin spreading across the thief's face.

The doors slammed shut, trapping the lone staff member in with us. I shot him in the head, while Thane took out the cameras.

"EDI, get into their system and find out where they're keeping Jack." I ordered over the radio.

A moment later, she responded, telling me how to get to our prisoner. Before also stating that the facility was on lockdown, and the mercenaries and officers alike were closing in on our location. I shrugged that off, thanking her, and we pushed from the room, killing everyone who came against us.

We reached the observation room that looked down on Jack just as she broke loose, tearing a hole in the wall and fleeing.

"Jack's a woman." Kasumi observed. "Interesting."

We gave chase, more staff popping up against us, which didn't end well for them. For any of them. It wasn't long before we found ourselves running down the hall that led to where we were docked, coming face to face with Jack, finally.

She let out an angry yell at the sight of our ship, at the fact that it was Cerberus, before launching herself at me. I grabbed her fist and stepped forward, my face inches from hers.

"Let me make something very clear to you- I am not working for Cerberus, and I never will. They are working for me, if anything. They need me more than I need them, and we all know that. Now." I moved back, releasing her. "You can stay here and play with your buddies, or you can come with us."

"I want access to Cerberus' systems." She demanded.

"I'll make sure you get it." I promised, dipping my head.

Her eyes narrowed, studying my face, before she hissed. "What are we waiting for, then? Let's get out of this damn place."

I told EDI and Joker to lift the lockdown on the Normandy, and we boarded. Only a moment later, we were leaving the prison ship behind us. I told them to get us to Omega.

Miranda, funnily enough, wasn't happy with my promise to Jack. And she let me know it.

I narrowed my eyes at her, that same, now familiar urge to react coldly creeping up. "Miranda." I held up a hand, interrupting her mid-rant. "I don't care. Give her the necessary credentials and get over it." She opened her mouth, looking like she wanted to argue, and I lowered my voice. "If you cannot follow orders, I will not have you on this ship."

She froze, eyeing me with disbelief, before nodding. "Of course, Commander. I will do that right away."

"Good. That wasn't so hard, was it?" A glance at Jack, who looked like she was enjoying every moment of my scolding. "When we get to Omega, you'll be free to buy anything you need."

She raised an eyebrow. "Oh, yeah? On whose dime?"

"Mine."

That earned surprised looks from both women.

"You don't have access to your own account right now- we'll work on that- and I doubt you want anything to do with Cerberus, anymore than you have to. That leaves my money. Just tell the shop owners to bill me." I pushed up from leaning on the table. "Anything else?"

They both shook their heads.

"Good." I clapped my hands. "Well, then. I'll be going." Turning to Jack one last time. "You're free to any unclaimed space."

"I'll take as low as I can go."

"There's a large space under the stairs near engineering." I offered.

"Sounds like a good start."

With that, I left them to it.

...

With a deep breath, I opened the file that I'd honestly forgot existed- something that had been beyond easy to get. My health records that Cerberus had. All collected into a nice, neat little folder. It covered everything- broken bones to colds, flus, cuts and bruises, burns, gunshot wounds. The whole nine-yards. All of it.

And there, in the midst of it all, were the brain scans I'd had after every head injury I'd ever gotten. They were all more or less the same, very minimal changes between them that cleared up by the next checkup scan. I'd expected to find one for while they were rebuilding me, something to monitor my brain activity or something. Make sure my brain looked okay, but there was nothing.

But I couldn't complain- now I had a baseline.

I just needed a current one.

"Alessia." EDI's voice broke me from my thoughts. "Thane wishes to speak with you."

I minimized everything on my screen, before telling her to let him in, getting up to greet him.

"Hey." I smiled.

"I wanted to thank you for your help, with Kolyat, again."

I waved it off. "It was nothing. He didn't do anything worse than what Joram did." A shrug. "He seemed like a good kid, when I was talking to him. Would've been a shame for him to go to jail over someone like that."

He bowed his head. "He said he was willing to speak with me because of you."

I blinked, surprised. He hadn't mentioned that before.

"Thank you for that, as well."

"Well, I'm glad for that." A slight smile. "From what I know about you, you don't seem like that bad of a guy. I think it'll do you both some good, having each other in your lives."

It was his turn to blink at me. "From what you know about me?"

"Well, Cerberus has a lot of information on people." I explained. "I've read every file they have on the people I'll have with me for this mission. There was one for you, and it had a lot in it. Like a lot. Honestly, it's a little worrying how they can gather so much information on people."

He looked down. "Then, you know."

"You've gotta be more specific than that."

"My wife."

My heart clenched, my voice dropping to a murmur. "Yeah. I know. And, for what it's worth, I don't think it was your fault. Bad guys are going to be bad guys and make bad decisions that hurt others. It wasn't your fault- you didn't make them do it. Besides," I gestured. "you made them pay for it. It doesn't erase what happened or the heartache you must feel, but I'm sure knowing they can't do it to others helps. Even just a tiny bit. And that doesn't make you a monster, feeling like that. But that's just my two cents."

He regarded me with curiosity for a long time. I just smiled back at him, waiting.

Finally, he bowed his head, before looking at me again. "Thank you. I did not expect... this when I came to speak with you."

"I'm full of surprises." I winked. "How's it going with Kolyat? I know it hasn't been that long, but I was wondering if you got each other's contact information."

A nod. "We exchanged information, yes. I have not messaged him yet."

"Why not?" I tilted my head.

"I don't want to overwhelm him. And I don't know what to say." He admitted softly.

"Well. You could always try asking how his day is going. Or what he's doing. If he is doing something, you could always chat about whatever it is. Those are good starts. After breaking the ice a few times, I'm sure it'll start coming naturally." I gave him two thumbs up. "You've got this. I believe in you."

A slow, small smile turned up his lips. "Thank you. I appreciate your belief in me."

Taking a step back a moment later, toward the door, he excused himself.

I stared at the door, bemused. I could tell he wasn't used to someone saying that about him. Especially not to his face.

...

After Jack returned from shopping, I looked at the receipts in my account, not surprised at all that she'd only bought what she absolutely needed- only splurging on the weapons. I felt a warmth in my chest- she wasn't a bad person. Not by any means. Regardless of what had led to her being on that prison ship- and I knew all about it.

With that done, I went to tell EDI to take us to where we'd find the Warlord, but was stopped by a ping from my omni-tool.

Zaeed wanted me to know he'd tracked down someone he'd been after for a long time, and he wanted me to help him get the guy. I readily agreed, saying we'd head there next.

I told EDI, and she relayed it to Joker for me. With that done, I settled in on my couch with a glass of wine and my datapad. Getting started reading a scientific study on brains and how different traumas affected their development.

...

Zaeed was lucky I'd brought so many people with us. He wanted to just leave all the workers to die, just to go after one guy. I clenched my jaw, ordering Garrus, Thane, Jacob, and Jack to go with him to get his quarry. Kasumi, Miranda, and Samara would come with me. Mordin had stayed behind, still studying the seeker swarm.

My group stopped the facility from exploding, before helping all the workers get to the place's shuttles. Once that was done, and they had taken off, I asked for a check-in from the others. Thane let me know they had just taken out Vigo's gunship, and Zaeed was going to make sure he was dead. I told him we'd be waiting at the shuttle.

After about fifteen minutes, they rejoined us. Zaeed nodded firmly, saying he was focused, now that Vigo was dead and gone. I nodded back, and we returned to the Normandy.

Jacob pulled me aside, telling me he'd gotten a notification that his father's ship- which had gone missing ten years before- had sent off a distress beacon suddenly. He didn't know where the alert had come from or how it had reached him, but he asked me to check it out. I assured him we'd go there next.

The Warlord could wait another couple days.

...

That man... had to be the most disgusting person I'd ever met. It had taken everything inside me to keep Jacob from killing him. And some kind of godly influence, I'm sure, to keep myself from doing it. In the end, I decided to leave the man to his... fate.

I told Joker to radio the Alliance, whoever he had to, and let them know about the survivors. And that Taylor was dead. Because, by the time they got there, he would be. I was sure of it.

With that situation behind us, I spoke to Jacob, and he apologized for wasting my time. I adamantly denied that- it definitely hadn't been a waste. Those people deserved better. They deserved to be saved. He agreed on that, before saying that, in his eyes, his father died ten years ago. He didn't know the man we'd met today. I rested a hand on his shoulder, smiling gently, telling him that that was a good way to look at it. And that I was here if he found he wanted or needed to talk about it. He thanked me, a flash of surprise on his face, and once again, I knew that the old me wouldn't have said that.