"If you are here to talk about Benezia's death, you need not bother. She brought it upon herself." Liara met his eyes, but he could see the tears welling up in hers.

It might have been easier, in a way, if Benezia had not managed to return to herself at all. "Don't pretend it doesn't bother you. She was your mother." Despite everything, it had still hurt to see his mother's obituary.

"She was..." Liara nodded. "But she was not. I prefer to remember Benezia as she used to be, before she was corrupted by Sovereign's power."

"I'd blame Saren." He folded his arms. "And if I were you, I'd want revenge."

"We have enough reason to stop Saren. I do not need to add revenge to the list." She squared her shoulders. "Benezia chose her path, just as I have chosen mine. I am with you until the end, Shepard."

Michael nodded. He felt like he should say something, but grief was never something he'd learned to deal with well. "I can leave you be, or we can talk about something else, if you like?"

"I..." She nodded. "I would like to talk."

"You were telling me about your interest in the Protheans?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Actually, I think I was talking about my interest in you." She sighed, and gave a small shake of her head. "And making a fool of myself in the process. As I said, I'm not used to dealing with people. Especially humans."

"Yeah." Michael nodded. "That's why I usually just shoot them."

That managed to get a small smile from her. "I did not really know much about your species when we first met, Shepard. I found it hard to take humanity seriously. Your kind always seemed so rushed and high-strung."

He leaned on the wall. "Has your opinion changed at all?"

"It has." She gestured. "I have been watching you and your crew. It has taught me a lot about your species." She waved a hand. "You humans are creatures of action. You pursue your goals with an almost indomitable determination. It is an admirable trait, but also an intimidating one."

Intimidating? Them? Well, no, maybe she had a point. A little one, anyway. "You're scared of us?"

"Unfortunately, the rest of the galaxy sees humanity as something of a bully. You run over anyone in your path to get what you want." She gave him an encouraging smile. "It's up to people like you to change their minds, Shepard."

He stared at her for a minute. "I, uh..." He shook his head. "Might not be the best candidate for that."

Liara shook her head. "There is a reason the Council chose you to become a Spectre. They saw something special in you -" She nodded. "The best of what humanity has to offer." She looked down, and then back up at him. "I looked into your history. I know what you did on Torfan. I cannot even imagine how horrible that must have been, but you did what had to be done."

His fist clenched, and he sighed. Not all of it had been necessary. "Don't go behind my back. You want to know something about me, ask."

"I..." She nodded. "I apologize, Commander. After our last conversation, I was afraid I would say something stupid again."

"Liara, if I threw people off my ship for saying something stupid, I'd have to be first through the airlock." He shook his head. And he'd hacked the records a long time ago anyway. "Well, after Joker, anyway. Come to think of it, I'm not sure who that would leave on this flying circus."

She considered a moment. "Dr. Chakwas?"

"You've never seen her around small indigenous mammals." He shook his head. "She coos. It's actually..." He shuddered. "Kind of disturbing." He shrugged. "I should go." He took a few steps, then looked back at her. "You did good, Liara. Glad you're on my crew."

"Thank you, Shepard. That means a lot to me."

#

"Head better?"

Kaidan looked up at Shepard. "Good night of sleep seems to have done the trick." He smiled. "Anything you need, Commander?"

Shepard sniffed at the contents of his plate. "The name of whoever programmed the VI of the auto-chef and a couple grenades?"

"It tastes better than it smells." Kaidan gestured at his own plate. He hesitated. "You have time to talk, with all that's going on? I mean, there are reports to file. On the rachni, and on Anoleis."

"Paperwork is why we have an ambassador. Wouldn't want him to feel left out of the fun." Shepard shrugged. "Something on your mind?"

"I'm just looking for an ear." He sighed. "The debriefing wasn't the right place to say how ridiculous this is. Seems like every other race in the galaxy is wrapped up in their own problems. They don't want to see what's coming."

"Wanting to believe everything will be fine?" Shepard poked at the food on his plate. "Sounds like human nature to me."

"Yeah." He smiled. "I guess something things carry across species well enough. I should remember that after what happened with Vyrnnus." Kaidan felt a moment of surprise that he'd said that last part outloud.

"Don't tell me you and Vyrnnus hugged on graduation day?" Shepard raised an eyebrow.

"Before I met Vyrnnus, I knew as much as any other civilian. Aliens were weird, superior, and tried to tell us what to do." He shrugged. "I mean, it's only been 26 years since first contact. That's not a lot of time to understand them." He finished his own plate, and pushed it aside. "It was Vyrnnus who made me see how human aliens are. They're not different or special. They're jerks and saints, just like us." He wrapped a hand around his coffee cup. "Hell, by the time I got payback, I didn't even want it anymore."

"I don't see you snapping very easily." Shepard laid his fork down. "What finally did it?"

"He hurt a girl. Broke her arm." He saw a strange expression cross Shepard's face before the commander nodded in response. "She reached for a glass of water instead of pulling it biotically. She just wanted a drink without getting a nosebleed, you know?" He shrugged. "Like an idiot, I stood up. Didn't know what I was gonna do. Just something. Any Vyrnnus lost it. Beat the crap out of me. Kept shouting how they should have bombed us back to the stone age. That's when the knife came up. A military-issue talon. Right in my face." He looked down. "I cut loose. Full biotic kick, right in the teeth. Almost as strong as I can manage now. At seventeen, that's something."

"Sat down by a kid." Shepard's voice was quiet. "Vyrnnus must have hated that."

"He didn't have time to hate it." Kaidan turned the coffee cup around. "I killed him. Snapped his neck. They probably could have saved him, if they got him to an infirmary quick enough. But they didn't. Caused a stir when they shipped him back home. BAaT training was shut down. Conatix folded a couple years later." He shrugged. "So yeah, maybe I hated that turian. I mean, if one ass was enough to judge a whole race, I'd hate humans too."

"The girl was Rahna?"

"Yeah." He wasn't surprised Shepard had put it together.

Shepard finished his coffee. "People are people. Doesn't seem to matter what color their blood is." He met Kaidan's eyes. "Keep that level head and we'll do fine."

"Staying reasonable is about all we've got left." He shook his head. "Everyone else in this galaxy seems to have gone out of their minds." He nodded to Shepard. "Present company excepted, of course."

"Damn." Shepard sighed, and shook hie head. "You know the galaxy is in some real fucking trouble if we're the sane ones."

"I..." Kaidan blinked. "You know, when you put it that way..."

#

"- Oh, before I go. You said you're serving with Commander Shepard now? We saw him on the news here. He's cute. Later, sis."

Ashley stood there for several long seconds before turning around. "Tell me you didn't hear that."

"Afraid I did." Michael watched as red crept across her face.

"Oh, shoot me now." She ran a hand down her face. "One of my sisters." She pointed back at the face still visible on the screen. "That's Sarah. The youngest." She took a deep breath. "What's up? You didn't come by to eavesdrop on family mail?"

Half the time he walked by, she was checking the family mail. "Your family seems to be important to you."

"Yeah, we've always been close. My and my sisters, especially." She gestured to a picture of herself with three others. The family resemblance was quite strong. "With Dad on duty so much, I had to help Mom raise them."

For a moment, he flashed back to the vid his eldest cousin had sent. She'd made a comment about being a monkey wrangler. "Did your father serve with the fleet?"

"Yeah. Took any crap posting he could get that offered space time." She told him about her family, coming very close to bragging at several points. Then she told him about how she and Sarah had become close. The story involved someone getting taking away in an ambulance, which in retrospect made perfect sense. "The Williams women are a decisive bunch, Commander. We do things when we're ready. Not before, not after."

"Where was your father during this? Wasn't your family stationed near him?"

"Dad always wanted to serve in space. But he wanted us to have real ground under our feet. He'd say, 'Space is beautiful, but you can't raise a family there." Her eyes took on a faraway look. "I cannot rest from travel: I will drink life to the lees. All times I have enjoy'd greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those that loved me, and alone. For always roaming with a hungry heart. Much have I seen and known. Cities of men, and manners, climates, councils, governments..." She smiled.

Tennyson. "I didn't know you like classical literature." He saw a moment of surprise on her face. Libraries had heat and working bathrooms, and as long as you had a book in your hand, people left you alone.

Ashley smiled. "'Ulysses was Dad's favorite poem. Every time he shipped out, he recorded me reading it. He had a dozen versions when he retired."

"Does he still like it?"

"I sure hope so." Her smile became sad. "I read it to his grave every time I go home." She twitched a shoulder. "Dad passed on a few years back. He's probably still watching, though." She winked. "So behave."

"I thought you said he was dead." He frowned in confusion.

"You know. From heaven. Wherever that is." She gave him a slightly self-conscious look. "That's not a problem for you, is it. That I believe in God?"

"I've set foot in church a time or two." He waved a hand. "Haven't caught fire yet. Well, haven't caught fire inside a church, anyway."

"You believe in God?" She looked startled.

"Harder question to answer than it sounds." He shrugged. "I'm a fan of Saint Nicolas though. Sailors, snipers, and thieves."

"I seem to recall it being repentant thieves." She chuckled. "You stole a mako, and you don't feel bad about it at all."

"Proverbs 6:30. Do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry, or if there are geth that need to be blown to little bits."

"Pretty sure there are no geth in the Bible, skipper." She shook her head. "Or explosions."

"What boring version did you read?"

#

"So why take to the mercenary life?"

"Lots of reasons." Wrex examined the selection of shotgun modifications.

"Such as?" Michael pushed the box of ammo blocks over.

"Such as..." Wrex picked up a tungsten block and looked it over. "I need to get out of our system. I needed to eat. I needed to survive."

The main reason Hackett had given for getting him out of the court martial had been to prevent him from going mercenary. "Why not stay and help your people?" He began removing the damaged ablative coating from his armor.

"I tried to help. That's why I had to leave." Wrex gestured at the frictionless mod, and Michael nodded permission.

"What happened?"

"I was betrayed." Wrex shrugged, and began taking his shotgun apart. "I was head of a small tribe. We were trying to restore order after the war, but the other tribes were against us. They followed Jarrod, one of the few warlords who survived the war with the turians. But he was old, and so were his ideas. He wanted to continue the war. He wanted us to fight: turians, salarians, each other. It didn't matter who as long as we were fighting."

He started applying the new coating. "What did you want?"

"I just wanted Jarrod to shut up. To stop his ranting. I wanted him to stop leading the tribes astray. But he couldn't understand how much things had changed." He was silent for a moment as he focused on a solder. "We didn't have the numbers to go to war. Even if we did, the genophage made sure we couldn't replenish our numbers fast enough. I told them all to forget about war. We needed to focus on breeding. At least for one generation. And for a while, we were getting through. Some of the tribes started coming around."

"I take it the warlord didn't appreciate that." He finished the chestplate.

"No. He didn't. He arranged a Crush with the tribes. A meeting on neutral ground. He wanted to talk. We met at the Hollows, near the graves of our ancestors. The skulls of our dead laid bare to remind us where we come from, and where we all go." He shrugged and started reassembling the shotgun. "It's as sacred as any krogan place can be. Violence is forbidden."

"Sounds like a trap to me. You must've expected as much." He finished the ablative coating, and started looking over the exoskeleton. That mod would take most of the day. Tali'd offered, but he found working on his gear relaxing. She was over on the other side of the hanger, getting a hand to hand combat lesson from Ashley. She wasn't doing so well, but they both seemed to be enjoying themselves.

"I did. But when your father invites you to a Crush..." Wrex snapped the shotgun up and examined the modification. "Well, there are some laws even we hold sacred."

"Jarrod was your father."

"He was. Until that day." Wrex started in on the ammo block. "We talked. But we didn't get anywhere. When it was clear I wouldn't join him, he gave the signal. His men leapt from the graves of our ancestors like krogan undead. The few that were loyal to me died quickly. I escaped with my life. But not before I sank my dagger deep into my father's chest. That..." He examined his handiwork. "Is why I left. And that's why I'll never go back."

Earth he'd revisited. Same with New York. But Montana... "No other family?"

Wrex smirked. "You trying to make me cry, Shepard?" He shrugged. "I've got some unfinished business with my family. But that's all."

"What kind of business?"

He sighed. "Before I left, I made an oath to my father's father. I swore to recover my family's battle armor. It was taken from him after the uprising. It's a relic; useless, really. But it was worn by five generations of my family before the war. It's rightfully mine. Originally, it was taken by the turian military. We weren't allowed armor or weapons after the war. Now, it's in the hands of Tonn Actus. A turian scum who collects relics from the war. He's made millions selling krogan artifacts that were stolen from my people. He's got several bases where he stores his goods. All fortified and guarded. I just don't know which base has my family's armor."

If he'd been able to get his grandfather's... Yeah, he might have gone back to Montana for that. "Note down where you want to start looking." He started the exoskeleton modification. "If we happen to end up in the neighborhood..."

"I'll upload the data to your nav system." Wrex nodded to him. "But, Commander, I want to be there when you find him."

#

Hackett's signal popped up on his communication unit. "Normandy? Admiral Hackett here." Admiral. An official communication then. He wasn't sure if he was relieved by that. "We're getting reports warning of a marked increase in geth activity in the Skyllian Verge. Surveillance drones have identified geth outposts on four different planets in the Armstrong Cluster. We need someone to take them out."

"I'm on it, Admiral."

"Finding Saren is still your top priority. But you've got experience fighting the geth. You're the logical choice to take out these outposts. We're transmitting the locations of all known geth outposts in the Armstrong Cluster to the Normandy now. Admiral Hackett out."

#

"Tali."

"Yes, Shepard?"

"Want to go hunt some geth?"

He shook his head as she nearly bowled him over on the way to the mako.

#

"You let Tali drive."

"She hasn't run us into any ravines or thresher maws."

"You're only letting her drive because you want to shoot something."

"It is my turn."

"Yes, but I look better doing it."

"In your dreams, Vakarian."

"Well, I guess I'll just have to get my rifle ready to take care of the ones you miss."

"I'm not the one who missed the geth with the rocket launcher."

"If someone knew how to keep a mako steady..."

Tali glanced at Kaidan. "Do they do this the entire time?"

He sighed, and just nodded.

#

Garrus and Michael climbed out of the mako. He sealed the hatch behind them, and tapped the top before leaping off. "Go."

Tali drove away, and he and Garrus took their positions. As soon as the geth revealed their positions by trying to fire on the mako, he and Garrus began picking them off. Inside the mako, Kaidan focused on shooting the heavy turrets while Tali kept the mako moving.

"She's a hell of a driver." Michael pulled the trigger and lined up his next shot.

"I don't think any of them have managed to hit her yet." Garrus put a round through a geth sniper that was trying to pinpoint their location.

#

"Strange. I expected one of these outposts to be the main base of operations for this incursion." Garrus shook his head.

Tali bounced. "Hold on. This receiver's picking up some kind of transmission. Based on the signal strength, I'd say it's coming from inside this star cluster."

"It must be a message from the primary geth base. We can use the signal to lock onto its location and take them out."

"Good work, Tali. Get us the target." Michael nodded to Tali.

"Yes, Commander."

#

"We just received your report." Hackett's voice came over the communication unit. "Looks like this geth incursion was bigger than we thought. They were probably preparing for a major offensive in the system. We're increasing patrols in the Armstrong cluster to make sure they can't establish another foothold in the region. Nice job, Shepard. You saved a lot of human lives on this mission. Hackett out."

#

Tali ambushed him before he was all the day down the stairs. "Shepard, I need to talk to you. It's important."

He shrugged, and led her into his office. "Is something wrong?"

She took a deep breath, causing her mask to make a slight whistling sound. "You know the data you took from those geth control nodes? The information you uploaded to Alliance control? I want a copy of it."

A light turned on. "You want to bring this data back to the Migrant Fleet."

"Those files have information that could be vital to our efforts to understand the geth." She bounced up on her toes a little. "It could be the key to helping us reclaim our homeworld."

Michael began copying the data over. "It'll take years to decipher and analyze the data."

"Maybe even decades. But it's worth the time. This information will give us new insight into how the geth have changed and evolved over the past centuries."

"Alright." He took the OSDs out of the system, and then started to offer them to her. He raised an eyebrow. "Sure you don't want to just go steal the Destiny Ascension?"

"Well..." She held out her hand for the disks. "Can't we do both?"

"Nope." He handed them over. "If you want the disks, you are going to have to settle for something smaller."

"Can I have the Normandy?"

"No."

"My people -" She looked down at the disks. "I owe you a great debt. One I can never repay. The only thing I can offer in return is what you already have: my solemn promise to stay with you until Saren and his geth armies are defeated."

"That's all I need." He nodded. "Well, that and somebody to finish the engine tweak to the mako she's been promising."

"Thank you, Shepard." She gave a playful salute before heading out of his office.

#

They headed back into the Citadel to resupply. Shepard pulled up his bank account, and then let out a low whistle. Nobody had mentioned to him that Spectre paid fairly well.

#

"They told me it was you, but I didn't believe it. Shepard grew up and turned into a soldier."

Kaidan saw Shepard's eyes narrow. "An impatient soldier. Who are you, and why are you in my way?" Shepard was hard to read, but he was pretty sure the commander knew exactly who he was talking to.

The man shrugged. "Name's Finch. You probably don't remember me, but we ran together in the Tenth Street Reds." Finch smirked, and looked Shepard over. "Maybe you don't remember it yourself, running in a gang. None of the vids mention it when they're talking about you."

"The vids never tell the whole story." Shepard shrugged. "So what can I do for the Reds?" Kaidan glanced at him, but said nothing.

"One of the Reds, Curt Weisman, got picked up by turians. We'd like you to talk to the turian guard in the bar and get Curt out."

"What was he arrested for?" Shepard folded his arms.

"Some stupid minor offense. Maybe he had a little red sand. You know how the turians are." Finch waved a hand. "They declared him a problem, and they're shipping him back for a trial."

Shepard raised an eyebrow. "What was one of the Tenth Street Reds doing in turian space?"

Finch actually had a proud smile. "Since your days, the Reds have expanded. We do some salvage, a little shipping here and there, that kind of thing."

"You're not asking me to break Weisman out of jail, are you?" Shepard's eyes narrowed.

"Of course not." Finch shook his head. "But word has it you've got some pull with the aliens. All we're asking you to do is pull a little for us."

"I'll talk to the turian and see what I can do."

"Thank's Shepard." Finch held his hand out, and Shepard shook it. "I knew you'd remember your old friends. The guard's over in Chora's Den. Take care of this, and you'll never see me again."

Shepard watched the man walk away. He didn't turn to look at Kaidan. "Suppose you want to know what that was about."

"Not if you don't want to tell me, Commander."

"If it's as minor as Finch says..." Shepard shook his head. "Then I'm going to get him out. I'd appreciate it if that stays between us."

"I..." Kaidan nodded. "Alright."

#

He found the guard in Chora's Den. With a sigh, Michael walked up to him. "You've got a prisoner named Curt Weisman. I'd like that prisoner freed."

"I'd like a lot of things, human." The guard shrugged. "Desire forms the foundations of organized society. That said, the xenophobe will remain in turian custody. This is not negotiable."

Xenophobe? Last time he'd talked to Curt, the man hadn't even encountered an alien. "What sentence is Weisman likely to receive?"

"Considering that he attempted to commit a xenophobic hate crime, I would expect him to receive a lifetime imprisonment." The guard shrugged.

Lifetime. What the hell? "Why are you calling him a xenophobe?"

"The human acknowledged his affiliation with several anti-alien organizations. His crime specifically targeted turians as a species. It was a hate crime, and will be treated as such at his sentencing."

Yeah. This didn't sound exactly like carving 'turians suck' onto the side of an aircar. "What crime did Weisman commit?"

"He attempted to poison medical cargo being sent to a turian colony to treat an outbreak of a dangerous disease." The guard's eyes narrowed. "If he had succeeded, millions would have died. This human is a dangerous xenophobe."

Well, the good news was that Curt was obviously still as incompetent as ever. "Thanks for the information." And Finch still needed a punch in the face. "One of Weisman's friends was less than honest with me."

"I understand." The guard looked slightly relieved. "Weisman was too well-supplied to be acting alone."

"They'll try again." Michael shrugged. "And they are dumb enough to try a guns blazing approach."

"Thank you for the information." The guard nodded. "We'll increase the guard on his cell."

#

"I knew you'd rat us out, Shepard." Finch was there before they'd even made it out of Chora's Den. "Now it's payback time." Finch waved a hand. "When we're through telling our story, the aliens will all know what the first human Spectre really is."

Michael turned to the guard who'd walked up beside him. "I stole a couple aircars. Some larceny. Now I break into the bases of bad guys and mess with their stuff. Sometimes I make their stuff explode." He turned back to Finch. "You think I care what the aliens think of me, Finch?"

Finch looked taken aback. "But this is your career. You'd throw it all away like that?"

The man really was stupid. "I can legally execute everyone in this bar. You think the Council cares about my shady past?"

Next to him, the guard shrugged. "The Spectre had overcome a troubled youth to lead a proud military career. The turians would not care about such things." Dammit, now there was another cop he was starting to like. "And I doubt your lies would fool the salarians or the asari."

"Fine, Shepard." Finch glared at him. "You're right. You're not one of the Reds. Maybe you never wore." He spat the words as though he expected them to hurt. Maybe ten years ago they would have.

The guard shook his head. "That man is a xenophobe who thinks he can blackmail a Spectre. You should have killed him."

If Kaidan hadn't been only a couple feet behind him... "I don't need the target practice." Michael shrugged. "And someone else will shoot him soon enough." He glanced at the guard. "Fifteen credits says it'll be you, when he comes back in an hour with two guys who think they are tough and tries making threats."

"So noted. Goodbye, human." The guard nodded. "It will be interesting to see what kind of Spectre you turn out to be."

#

Kaidan followed Shepard back to the market. Before they got there, Shepard stopped and turned towards him. "I was a member of the Reds for two years."

"Did you..." He wasn't sure how to ask. "So you knew Weisman?"

"I used to." Shepard shrugged. "Maybe. Not sure I'd even recognize him anymore. Hell, not sure I'd even recognize that me anymore." He shook his head. "Back when I ran with the Reds, I had a ponytail."

"I..." Kaidan blinked. "I'm having serious trouble picturing that, sir."

"That's because I burned all the pictures of that." Shepard sighed. "Back then, it wasn't legal but..." He nodded in the direction of Chora's Den. "It wasn't that. I never did that shit."

"I know." Kaidan smiled.

"What the hell were we down here for, again?"

"You said something about a shield moderator?"

"Right. You know, you should consider upgrading to a medical interface." Shepard looked him over. "Might help with the flareups you get juggling geth and making sure nobody shoots me."