It was all fairly standard, the new normal. Loads of geth, disabling their comms, disabling their signals to call other geth to the planet. Oh, and the turrets, which went down with a few sniper shots. Nothing terribly hard. Well, for me. Everyone else was always out of breath by the time we were finished with a base.

Before long, we'd cleared Maji, Casbin, Antibaar, and Rayingri.

"This is odd." I looked over at the asari. "I would have expected one of these outposts to be a main base of operations for the geth incursion into this region."

Garrus was leaning over one of the bodies, pulling something free. "This receiver's picking up some kind of transmission." He let out a hum, typing something into his omni-tool, probably a tracing program. "Based on the signal, I'd say it's coming from inside this star cluster."

"Good work. Let me see that." I held out my hand and he gave it over. "Looking closer at the signal, it's coming from the Grissom system." I pulled up the map of the system, running the transmission through a bunch of different filters. "The moon Solcrum. It's got a level one heat hazard, keep that in mind. Let's get going."

"Damn." He shook his head, muttering under his breath. "She's good."

I chuckled. "I just have a penchant for finding things, is all. Another reason why Nihlus kept me around as long as he did."

Joker picked us up, taking us to Grissom, and dropped us off again.

The ride in the mako on the way to the base was a little bumpier than usual.

Kaidan groaned quietly. "I've never been carsick before, but this is making me nauseous."

"I feel that, LT." Ashley agreed.

A quick glance back showed me they were both holding their stomachs, Liara and Tali hanging onto the handles above the doors for dear life. Garrus and Wrex were the only ones seemingly unaffected. I shrugged it off.

Once we reached the place, I fitted my helmet and started getting out. "Stay here. I'll be back when the ground forces are down."

"Shepard-"

"Williams, is your armor made for hazards? Are any of your armors?" No one said a word. "I thought not. Mine is specially made to withstand up to a level three hazard, cold and heat."

With that, I snuck out, cloaking so they wouldn't be able to see where the shots were coming from as I flitted around the battlefield.

Snipers down first. Colossus next. No turrets to speak of, surprisingly. They clearly didn't expect anyone to find them out here.

"I'm going in. You guys catch up." I said over comms.

Of course, I got various "Shepard" in response. Liara's voice, in particular, was exasperated.

Foot soldiers. Those weird ones that liked to jump around onto the ceiling and walls. Troopers. Even bigger guys. Those were fun. A bit more of a challenge. By the time most were dead, the others joined me.

They took care of the last of them, while I went and searched through their consoles. The last one I reached, before I could even touch it, music started coming from it. A haunting melody of worlds and innocence lost. Tapping a few buttons, the video that was playing popped up. A quarian was standing in front of a crowd, singing.

A ping sounded, a little pop up appearing at the bottom right of the screen. The video had been sent out to the geth worlds beyond the Perseus Veil. Huh. Maybe the geth weren't all bad, if they had kept around this kind of thing.

Searching through said console revealed encrypted data files, and my first thought was Tali.

"Hey, Tali? Can you come here for a moment?" I called out.

She walked into the room, everyone trailing after her. I rolled my eyes.

"Shepard?"

"Do you want a copy of this?" I gestured at it, the files already transferring to my omni-tool.

After a few minutes of looking through it all, she turned to me, excited as a kid on Christmas. "Oh! We could learn so much from this! I mean, it could be years before we fully decrypt it, but everything we could learn? I can't even imagine."

"I'll transfer it to an OSD for you when we have downtime, and if I crack it or come across someone who can, I'll let you know."

"Thank you, Shepard!" She threw her arms around me in a big hug.

I laughed, returning the affection. "It's not a problem at all. I hope it can help your people."

"It will do more than help. I could use this for my Pilgrimage." She was far away, planning ahead, falling silent. Then, " Are you giving the information to the Alliance?" as she pulled back to look at me.

Everyone's eyes were on me, it felt like. Except for Wrex. He couldn't give a shit.

I shook my head. "I didn't even have a thought to do that before you asked. No. I'm not with the Alliance, I don't have to give them anything."

She nodded, already on another train of thought. "I can't thank you enough, Shepard. The only thing I have to offer in return is my vow to help you with Saren, and you already have that."

"Ah." I waved her off. "That's plenty enough." A glance around at everyone. "Alright, let's get back to the Normandy."

"Viridian." Liara fell into step beside me as we walked back to the mako. "We didn't have the sit down we had when you rescued me. I think we should have another one, now that we've dealt with Feros. And you have the Cipher."

"Yeah, sorry." I rubbed the back of my neck. "I was a little preoccupied with getting to the geth bases first."

When we were back on board, I called up Hackett. Filled him in on the geth's activity. He said they'd be increasing patrols in the cluster to make sure it didn't happen again. Gave me a "Nice job, Shepard" before hanging up.

Once everyone was seated, Liara was the first to speak. "You look pale." I didn't have a helmet to hide behind now. "Are you suffering any ill effects from the Cipher?"

"I'm fine. Nothing a little sleep won't fix. I already told Kaidan earlier, I'd get some rest after everything was settled with the geth in this cluster. That's all squared away now, so after this meeting, I'll be heading to bed. Nothing to worry about."

"Could I..." She trailed off. I gave her a nod to continue. "If you are open to it, I could join my consciousness to yours and help you make sense of it."

"I already know what it means."

"Shiala said-" Ashely began her protest.

I leaned back in my chair, crossing my ankles. "I know what she said." But she'd also never come across someone like me, so she had no idea how quickly my brain would unscramble the message. "The Protheans sent out warnings to the beacons. I'd be willing to bet other beacons, maybe not all of them, but some, show the same vision." I got up and started pacing. "It was a warning that the Reapers had attacked, that they had the intent of wiping their entire race from the face of existence. I saw what they looked like." My eyes went to Ash and Kaidan. "Remember Eden Prime? What you saw with your own eyes," A nod to her. "and what we saw in the distress call?" My eyes went to him. "That was a Reaper. They resemble cephalopods, but on a colossal scale. If you believe the legends, Reapers are a race of sentient machines." I paused, looking around the room. "Saren has himself a Reaper. That ship of his, that can indoctrinate people to his will? It's using Saren, making him believe that he's using it. I'm willing to bet he's being slowly indoctrinated himself, he just doesn't know it yet. Thinks himself immune to it or something. Maybe a deal of some kind with the ship. Either way, the bottom line is this: he has a Reaper."

"Shepard." Joker called over the comms, his voice spilling into the room. "I've sent off the Feros report. You want me to patch you through to the Council?"

I motioned for everyone to sit quietly, responding. "Yeah." Then, "They'll only be able to see me since it only captures what's in the middle of the room, so stay quiet, and we won't have any issues." A warning.

"Shepard." The asari Councilor was the first to speak, once their hologram had appeared. "ExoGeni should have told us about the Thorian. It would have made your job much easier."

The salarian wasn't as welcoming, tone sour. "You might have been able to capture it for study instead of destroying it."

"With all due respect, Councilor, I wouldn't be able to trust anyone with that kind of tool. Something that can control minds? I don't believe anyone, or thing, should have that ability. It's too easy to corrupt."

"You humans usually deal with things you don't understand by killing it. It's not surprising."

I kept my expression neutral, not giving the turian the satisfaction of a reaction. "It wasn't that hard to understand. It enslaved and killed innocents."

"Perhaps," The asari was trying to diffuse the situation before her companions could make it worse. "it's for the best, then. At least the colony was saved."

"Of course it was saved." The turian scoffed. "Shepard would go to any lengths to help a human colony."

"I have done nothing to earn those words. In fact, if I recall correctly, I have saved more turian and asari lives, than I have other races, due to the fact that I am always able to find a way to maximize rescue efforts and minimize deaths. And with working with Nihlus, I often found myself working with other races on missions, in general."

"Admirable as that may be," The salarian Councilor started. My smile was firmly fixed to my face, and nothing they said could dislodge it. "Spectres have to make sacrifices. I hope you're willing to do that when the time comes."

"Goodbye, Shepard." The asari broke in, bowing her head to me, in another attempt to prevent something from breaking out. "We'll be waiting for your next report."

The call ended there, and I stood there for a moment, my eyes closed. Relaxing my body, I turned to face the room.

"Well, that was fun."

"I do not like the way they speak to you." Liara was frowning deeply.

"You shoulda given them a piece of your mind, Shepard." Wrex scowled, motioning angrily at the comm console.

I raised an eyebrow at him. "I did."

"You let them walk all over you, is what I heard." The scowl was turned on me.

"I did not." I chuckled, relaxing into the banter, as I went to sit down. "I politely told the two of them to fuck off, in politician terms. You have to talk like them, or they'll ignore anything you say." A shrug. "I'm used to it, I guess. It's easy to pick up on and slip into, when you're around it constantly." I glanced over at my asari friend. "I'm used to them talking to me like that. Doesn't really ruffle my feathers much."

"Just because you are used to it, doesn't mean they should."

"Ah, I'm fine." I flippantly waved off her words. "They've got a lot on their shoulders. I'm sure they can't always think of trivial things like feelings when they've got other, more pressing matters on their minds. As for dealing with them, and people like them, don't take what they say personally and always keep your expression as neutral as possible."

She looked like she wanted to say more, argue the point more, but then her expression shifted to concern. Like I was dying all of a sudden.

At the same time, a wave of dizziness washed over me, and I leaned back in my chair, my eyes closing. A quiet, "Yeah, maybe I should take a break."

Liara and Tali walked me to my room, fussing over me the whole time. After assuring them, for the thousandth time, that I would be fine on my own and didn't need supervision, I was left to my own devices. Of course, I spent a few hours copying the data for Tali onto an OSD, thinking about the Prothean Cipher and how it had affected me. Nothing had ever felt like that before, had ever done that before.

Taking a deep breath, I tentatively reached out, thinking. Anyone awake?

Immediately, I had a flood of responses, ranging from I'm always awake for you! and Are you alright? Is everything okay? to I was just about to open the link, myself.

I'm okay! I laughed, feeling the warmth in their words. I miss you guys, but that's it.

Was there something in particular you wanted to talk about? My mother asked, always the one to get to the heart of the matter.

Yeah. So, you remember me talking about the books I'd read, about the Protheans and the Reapers?

Agreements reached me.

Well, turns out it's true. That sentient race of machines? One of them is here, with a rogue Spectre. Oh! I was made a Spectre! And Nihlus is in the hospital. I saved his life, from the rogue Spectre, actually, and I've been sent to hunt him down. I added, like a dork. The rogue Spectre, not Nihlus.

A cacophony erupted, the beginnings of a headache triggered.

What happened?!

I'm so proud of you, but what happened?!

You'll get them, I know you will. And you'll make them pay.

Hold on! Guys, guys. Relax. Nihlus is okay, just needs to stay in the hospital until his brain is healed. Saren, aka Rogue, shot him in the head.

Your vision, of him dying. My grandma was the first to connect.

Yeah. I stole Karliah's deal and shot at the same time, using cryo ammo.

I'll let her know she was inspiration. My aunt chuckled. Being the leader of the Thieves Guild, she'd have faster access to the elf.

So, we went to the Council- once without evidence, which I knew would be fruitless, and a second time with. After the second time, they surprised me by making me a Spectre. I paused to take a breath. Even though, the conversation was mental, I still had to stop to breathe. I tended to hold it without realizing. So, I was given a ship- the Normandy. I sent images of what was quickly becoming my baby. And I've made some- A crew. I've gathered a team to join me in the hunt. I sent a flurry of more images, linking faces to names.

You never get to spend time with Liara. I'm glad she's going into this with you.

My mom added onto the sentiment with, And Wrex, as well, before branching off on a different subject. How is it, working, indefinitely, without Nihlus?

I- It's hard. I keep expecting him to message me or walk through the door, asking when I'll be ready. I blinked back tears, moving from the chair to the bed. Flopping down. I mean, I'm used to doing things without him, yeah. And I'm used to giving the orders when it's just me, because of my time with him. But now I am him. And, if the Reapers intend to wipe out life again, then... I've found my thing. Stopping them. The Council denied our claims about them existing, and I'm afraid that others will, too...

And you're worried you're alone in this fight. Grandma murmured. Listen, when you feel like this, the worst thing you can do is self-isolate. Go out there and talk to your companions. Teammates. Whatever you want to call them. They're with you. They're on your side, my little emerald.

I know you're right, but they see me as a superior and act so weird around me. Anytime I enter the room, Kaidan and Ashley get really quiet and avoid eye contact.

You're good at making people like you. Aunt Visala reminded me.

Yeah, but I tried, with Kaidan. He thought I was coming onto him. And Ashley is a speciesest. If that's even a word. She hates that we're working with aliens. Hates it. Wrex is cool, same with Liara. Tali seems nice! She has a backbone, but she's sweet. Albeit more than a little naïve. And Garrus is a bit... He's like... You know how I've talked about Paragon and Renegade, and how Nihlus calls me his little Paragade? Well, Garrus is hard Renegade. He wants nothing to do with rules, whatsoever. Even told me that's why he joined. I groaned. I've talked to him about it, and he seemed to genuinely take in my words and think about them. I don't want to change him, but I hope my point of view helps him see the other side.

A ping from across the room informed me that the download was complete.

I should go. I know I dropped a lot on you guys, but I have to get a data disc to Tali. The next time I get to talk to y'all, I'll fill you in on the rest of it.

The last thing I heard before cutting the connection was a scandalized, There's more?! from my aunt.

I reluctantly got up and checked it over, making sure nothing corrupted or anything like that. Then, I hastily scribbled a note, cloaked, and made my way to where the quarian slept. Left the disk and paper on her pistol, where she was sure to see them.

With that out of the way, I went down to the cargo bay. Uncloaking as I reached the work table, seeing I was alone, I started going through my usual routine. Assault rifle and shotgun first, since they always required so little attention- I rarely used them- pistol next. Followed up by last, but not least, my sniper.

I'd managed to get almost everything done, working on my sniper, when I heard the elevator running. Garrus stepped off, looking just as surprised to see me as I was him. There was hesitation, then-

"Can't sleep?"

"Yeah." Laying on the bed had only made me antsy. "Checking over my guns usually helps." It was a strange thing to say, admittedly. I was sure he would brush me off.

Immediately, he became more animated. "I get you. It has a calming effect."

"Exactly!" I nodded, smiling. "So very few people relate to that."

"You don't know good people, then." The instant regret on his face, as the words left his mouth.

Worried he'd insulted me? Adorable.

"Ah, yeah. No arguments here. Mercs aren't known for being good people." I joked.

He chuckled, walking around to where he normally stood. Was he here to grab something he'd forgotten?

The part of the earlier conversation, where I was told to talk to my teammates right now, popped into my head.

"Say," I started, placing my gun on the work table and leaning against it. Facing him. "what made you join C-Sec, anyway?"

He let out a thoughtful hum. "That's a good question. There were several reasons I guess."

I rolled my eyes, crossing my arms. "Yeah? Do I have to pull them from you?" A grin to show I was joking.

His mandibles moved, and he let out a chuckle. "Sorry. Probably the same as most officers." He shrugged. "I wanted to fight injustice, wanted to help people. I guess my father had something to do with it, too." At my questioning look, he added. "He was C-Sec. One of the best. I grew up hearing about his accomplishments or seeing his picture on the vids after a big arrest. He's taking my resignation pretty hard."

"Ah, yeah. That's understandable." I nodded slowly. "Still. You'd think he'd be impressed you're going after Saren."

"My father's a C-Sec man to the bone. 'Do things right, or don't do them at all,' he says. He thinks I'm being too rash. Too impatient. He's worried I'll become just like Saren. He actually talked me out of becoming a-" A moment of hesitation. I raised an eyebrow, waiting. "Spectre, when I was younger. For the same reasons."

Interesting. Letting my arms fall to my sides, I tilted my head. "You were asked to be a Spectre?"

"Well, I was targeted as a possible Spectre candidate. Me and about a thousand other turian military recruits. I could have received special training, but my father didn't like it." There was a hint of bitterness, there. "He despises the Spectres. He hates the idea of someone having unlimited power with no accountability. He wouldn't like you, Shepard." He bowed his head quickly. "No offense."

"Oh, I get it." I held up a hand. "I one hundred percent get his concerns."

"You do?"

"Spectres don't really answer to anyone other than the Council. Can get away with a lot, like that."

"And Saren's not going to play by C-Sec's rules." He sounded more like he was talking to himself, now. "If you want to nail Saren," No, thank you. "you need to send someone who isn't restricted by policies and procedures."

I tapped my chin, pursing my lips as I mulled over his words. "No." His eyes widened, looking taken aback. "Sure, I can break all the rules ever made, but that doesn't mean I should. That's just getting down on his level, and I don't need to do that." A softening to my expression. "And neither do you, Garrus."

"I... see what you mean, but..." He shook his head, looking down at the floor. "I'll think about it."

"All anyone can ask for, really."

He walked away, lost in thought, and I turned back to my gun.

I wound up back at my room a few hours later, after spending companionable silence with Garrus. Finally knocking out, a movie playing on the big screen, sound routed to my ear pieces. My stash of chocolate half eaten, wrappers strewn about in the room haphazardly.