The whole time the medic was cleaning up her arm, Val fidgeted with barely contained impatience. By then the shocky, lightheaded feeling had passed. Her arm was going to be fine; she wanted, above all, to grab Alex and find out what the hell he was talking about.
But first the medic insisted she go to the camp's clinic for a more thorough checkup, and then, just when she thought she was about to be free, a pair of MPs showed up to ask a hundred questions about what she'd seen. She answered as truthfully as she could. It wasn't a lie to say she didn't recognize the dead woman — looking vaguely familiar wasn't enough to mean anything. She hadn't even seen much of the struggle, so she couldn't help them much.
When the MPs finally finished taking notes and departed, Val slid off the exam table with only a slight wince, planning to track down Alex wherever he might be.
Then her mother burst into the room.
"They told me you were hurt!"
"It's all right, Mama," Val said, submitting awkwardly as her mother enveloped her in a hug. "It's just a graze." The wound stung under its dressings, but with a little help from her cybernetics, it should be healed up within a couple of days.
Misha and Alex trailed in after Mama, to Val's relief. Alex was frowning in thought, hands shoved in his pockets. Misha looked fine, and smiled when he caught her eye.
"Still!" Mama looked her up and down, keeping a grip on Val's good arm. "The war is over and now this. They said there was a shooter? Some poor crazy woman."
"The MPs didn't seem to know much," Val said, leaning back against the table.
"She just burst into the bar," Misha volunteered. "I don't know what she was planning, everything happened so fast."
In a bar full of off-duty military personnel, the woman with the gun hadn't had much of a chance. Another Leviathan thrall? Val wondered, the back of her neck prickling. The Leviathan probably didn't care about the welfare of their minions, but she would have thought they'd have a more effective plan.
"Guess I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time," she said out loud.
Mama sniffed. "You should be more careful."
Val hesitated, at a loss how to respond to that. "Okay, Mama," she said finally.
"It was just an accident," Misha put in, with a sidelong glance at Alex. "Val couldn't have prevented it."
"No one else got hurt," Mama grumbled, letting go of Val and turning to her sons. "You boys are all right, yes?" She looked them up and down, hands planted on her hips.
"Yes, Mama," Misha said, rolling his eyes with a smile. "We're fine. Right, Alex?" He reached out and nudged Alex's shoulder.
Alex shook himself out of his reverie. "Right. Fine. Nothing to worry about."
"Hmph. You look all right, I suppose," Mama allowed. "You..." She stopped as Garrus appeared in the doorway, looming.
Val swallowed, as her heart rate ticked up a notch. Garrus's expression was politely neutral, almost stiff, but she thought there was a stark concern in his eyes that gave her a shock of guilt. Everything had happened in such a rush, she hadn't thought to call Garrus. Of course he'd want to know what had happened. Had Alex called him? She glanced at her brother, but he still looked distracted, edging toward the wall and frowning at the floor.
She opened her mouth to invite Garrus in, but Mama spoke first. "Yes? Do you need something? Are you a detective? They were just here and gone."
Garrus's mandibles twitched. "Not currently, ma'am. Garrus Vakarian, I work with your daughter."
Hell. Val had never spared the time to imagine how Garrus and her mother might have met. Even if she had, she certainly never would have imagined it anything like this.
"We told you about him, remember?" Misha said.
"Well, you can't take her for a mission now," Mama exclaimed, her voice rising.
Val sighed and touched her mother's shoulder. "Mama."
Her head snapped toward Val. "What?"
"I'm starving," she said, and realized it was true, her stomach rumbling as soon as she said it. "I think I missed dinner. Could you and Misha maybe find me something to eat?"
Mama blinked. Her expression softened. "Of course," she said, suddenly solicitous. "You have to eat. Misha, come, we'll find something for all of us."
Misha looked around the room, his brow creasing. "Sure," he said, after a moment's hesitation. "Do you think we can ask at the mess hall, or..."
"I know just who to ask," Mama said. She swept out, a woman on a mission. Garrus hastily sidestepped to let her pass. She ignored him as she passed, but Misha gave them all one last probing look before following her.
"Shut the door," Val said, even as Garrus was already closing it.
"Shepard—" he said, starting toward her, his tight expression relaxing.
Val shook her head. "We don't have a lot of time. Alex, what did you mean, you've figured it out?"
"I mean what I said. They're still doing it." Alex started pacing restlessly around the room in jerky strides, scowling into the distance. "The Leviathan are still altering reality. They have to be."
"How do you figure that?" Garrus asked, crossing his arms over his chest. His voice was heavy with skepticism.
Val asked, "How? You said that would take tremendous amounts of energy."
"It would have to. They must have a source of energy. I don't know what." Alex shrugged, throwing his hands out. "But it seems like the best explanation for what we've seen."
"The camp," Val said, understanding. The camp's changed location, and Misha's presence. "But why would they want to move it? What does that have to do with anything?" Or was it somehow about her family, after all? That thought made her feel cold
"I don't know. But reality's changed again, or we're all losing it. Maybe..." Alex stopped abruptly, staring into space before whirling toward her. "Maybe it's a ripple effect. They change one thing the way they want it, and other things change in ways they didn't anticipate. Unintended consequences."
Val exhaled slowly as she took that in, exchanging glances with Garrus. She was no scientist, but she'd seen plenty of unintended consequences in her career. Decisions that seemed like a good idea at the time, only to blow back in your face later on. Solve one problem, create five more. It sounded hideously plausible. "Okay," she said. "Let's say you're right. So they're trying to accomplish something, they accidentally rearrange geography a little. And whatever the Reaper did to us meant that the Leviathan's changes didn't affect us, for some reason."
"Yeah, I guess." Alex stared back at her, running his hands through his hair. "Fuck. I don't know. I don't understand that part, either."
Val snorted. "When things get this weird, no one understands all of it." She'd spent ages trying to warn the galaxy about Reapers, even though she barely understood how the Reapers did what they did. She didn't have to know how the Reapers accomplished their goals to understand that they were a threat to galactic life and civilization. The same was true for the Leviathan. Thinking it through, she said slowly, "But then... if they're still changing reality, there's a way to stop them. They're using something to make this happen. Some... device or artifact, maybe a facility. We just have to find it. Then we can stop them."
Alex's eyebrows went up. "Just like that? We don't know what it is or how it works. Or if such a thing even exists."
"You said they have to have a large energy source," Val said. "So we find that."
"I... okay, but then what do we do with it?"
"We'll have to figure that part out as we go," Val said. Her mind was already scrambling to work through the logistics involved. This... this felt like something she could do. Not an intractable problem of physics or metaphysics or any kind of science she couldn't get her head around. This was a mission. Find whatever the Leviathan were using and deal with it. She could do that.
She'd found the Leviathan in the first place, hadn't she? And tracked down Ilos. This might even be easier than either of those.
Garrus chuckled. "Here we go," he said to Alex, who still looked bewildered.
Val smiled faintly. "So if they're using a tremendous amount of energy to alter reality," she said out loud, giving shape to her racing thoughts, "the energy discharge would have to be measurable somehow, right?"
Alex blinked. His mouth pulled down. "Right. If we can get enough data."
"We'll find it," she said firmly. "And we have the artifact. If we can trace its signal, we can get a location."
Alex blanched. "I don't like the idea of activating it again."
"Neither do I," Garrus put in.
Call in Plan B. "Let's see if we can come up with any data first, then."
"If we get a location, we're going to need a ship," Garrus said.
Val shook her head. "We're going to need the Normandy." She glanced up at Garrus. "Where is she?"
"In for repairs at Alliance docks, I think." His mandibles flexed. "Unless they've already assigned a new captain. They're not going to leave an asset like that in dry dock forever."
Val nodded, thinking. If she could just find a way to get them to assign the ship to her... It was bad form, of course, to openly angle for command of the pride of the Alliance navy. She'd have to figure out a way around that.
"I hope you're not being overcome by sentiment here," Alex said.
"I'm not. We need the ship, but we also need EDI. We need her first, in fact. Do you really think you have the processing power in your lab to trace that signal?"
Alex's lips parted and he paused, eyes going distant as his eyebrows gradually pulled together. "No," he said finally.
"What are you going to tell EDI?" Garrus asked.
Val shrugged. "She's good at threat assessment. I think I can persuade her that the Leviathan threat matters, if nothing else. But I need access first." She frowned as something occurred to her. "Does she still have access to her mobile platform?"
Garrus shook his head. "I haven't seen her around. I'm not sure your Alliance is keen on a mobile infiltration bot moving freely around its camp."
Val's first impulse was to argue that EDI didn't pose any security risk, but she swallowed it down. She couldn't be sure that EDI was completely trustworthy in this universe. She grimaced, considering that they needed EDI regardless.
"EDI has a mobile infiltration bot?" Alex said.
"Yes," Garrus said. "But look, are we not going to talk about the fact that someone shot you?"
Val shifted, reminded of the ache in her arm. "It's only a graze."
"This time." Garrus's mandibles pulled in.
"It was barely even a competent attack," Val said. "Bursting into a public place like that, especially one filled with off-duty marines?"
"And how long until a competent assassin shows up?" Garrus demanded, his gaze turning sharp. "I said it before, you're not safe here. The Leviathan will keep sending people after you. Or Liara will. She'll have the resources."
"Do you know anything about where Liara is?" Val asked, hoping that he'd gained some useful intel while he was in the turian camp.
"Nothing concrete, but I don't like what we're hearing from the asari. At this point, I'd be stunned if she didn't have her hands in it somehow. But —"
Val interrupted. "What about the asari?"
Garrus's mandibles flared. He sighed. "The short version is, there's some kind of political upheaval going on among the asari republics. Some matriarchs in key leadership positions have been replaced, but there hasn't been a formal election. Other matriarchs are simply absent. Hierarchy Intelligence is a little edgy about the whole thing."
"You're talking about a coup," Alex said.
"Maybe. But we don't know who's behind it, or what their goals are."
"I think we can guess," Val said. Liara's sudden departure now felt even more ominous. If the asari government was in turmoil, she had a hard time believing that had nothing to do with the Leviathan.
"We could, but there's not much we can do it about it now." Garrus fixed her with a hard look. "Nice deflection, by the way."
"I wasn't deflecting," Val said.
Alex snorted. Garrus said, voice rising, "If they've tried twice, they'll keep trying."
She lifted her chin, regarding him levelly. "I can handle it."
His mandibles twitched. "I'm not denying that, but other people are going to get hurt."
Val bit the inside of her cheek. He wasn't wrong, but the sense that he was trying to protect her chafed. She couldn't exactly hide in a bunker, and she couldn't predict how the Leviathan would try to get at her next. Lying low had never been her style. "And how do you propose to prevent that?" she asked, her words coming out clipped.
Brought up short, Garrus fell silent. His mandibles flexed.
"I hate to interrupt," Alex said, glancing at the door, "but Mama and Misha will be back any minute."
"At least consider wearing armor," Garrus said tightly.
Val nodded. She had no intention of walking around the camp in a full combat hardsuit, but saying so would only prolong the argument.
Mama swept back into the room moments later, Misha trailing behind, loaded down with packages of food. There wasn't any more chance to talk things over, and Val's stomach, at least, was grateful for their appearance.
Mama had, conspicuously, not brought any dextro food with her. Garrus stood awkwardly for a few seconds before excusing himself, giving Val one last sharp look before leaving the room.
He was going to have more to say later, Val was certain of it. Privately, most likely, and that idea made her skin tingle with anticipation.
#
Val Shepard had planned plenty of missions before. For maybe the first time since she'd woken up in her hospital bed, she knew her course and purpose.
She had an objective: Find out what the Leviathan were doing, and stop them. To do that, she'd need a ship, EDI, and the location of the Leviathan's base. And probably a larger team; Alex and Talitha and probably Samantha made a good tech team, between them, but there was no way she was putting any of them into a combat situation if she didn't have to. She'd rather go into the field with only Garrus by her side, if it came to that.
It crossed her mind that she might be presuming a little, on that score: Garrus had his own responsibilities to the Hierarchy, after all. But he'd said they'd finish this together, so she'd take that as a promise.
Ship, EDI, location, team: none of these things were easy, but all of them were achievable. It felt like her brain had finally fully awakened, no longer mired in uncertainty about her sanity or identity, ready to move forward.
However, she'd never tried to plan a mission with her mother hovering over her.
Mama, showing up at her door first thing in the morning to ask how she was doing and escort her to breakfast. Urging her to eat more even when she'd filled her plate. Talking about how she could take time off if Val needed any help...
Only an hour of this, and already Val felt like she might explode.
"Mama, I'm fine. It's just a minor wound. I've had worse."
Her mother's face crumpled, leaving Val cringing in guilt. Mama sniffed and dabbed at her face with her napkin. "I know. I'm sorry I couldn't be there before."
Val cast a desperate look across the table at Misha, who shrugged and smiled, totally unhelpfully. "Mama, it's not... I'm not upset about that. I'm really fine, that's all." She tried to layer extra reassurance into her voice, as if she were talking to a shaky recruit.
"I know, I know, you're all grown up and don't need me hovering. Just humor your mother, yes?" She reached out and patted Val's arm, sniffing into her napkin.
Val bit the inside of her cheek. Misha smirked at her. Alex and Talitha had both dodged out earlier with coffee, leaving Val without allies.
Her omni-tool pinged, giving her an excuse to extract her arm from Mama's grip.
Hope you're doing okay. Can we meet later? Seems like we have a lot to talk about. —G
She exhaled, her free hand tightening into a fist. Not him too.
"What's that?" Mama asked, catching Val frowning at her omni-tool.
She started, closing the message. "Just a note from a contact." The half-truth made her tense, but there was no easy way to explain her relationship with Garrus to her mother.
They hadn't even sorted everything out between them, she thought, and with that, her irritation melted into chagrin. Of course Garrus was concerned about her. He hadn't done anything wrong, and he was right, they needed to talk.
She didn't have a chance for much of a reply with Mama beside her and Misha looking curiously at her over the table, either.
Mama said, "Aren't you on medical leave?"
"Only for a day or two, Mama." She caught a glimpse of James Vega's familiar bulky figure passing the mess hall, reminding her of another mystery she needed to sort out. Val seized the opportunity. "Excuse me just a minute, I need to check on something." Without waiting for a reply, she sprang out of her seat and headed toward the exit.
Val had to stretch her legs to catch up with James, whose height and size let him pass by other people easily. She called out, "Hey! Vega!" as she got closer, hoping he wasn't heading to HQ, or anywhere else he might have a fixed appointment.
He swung around when he heard her voice, though, and slowed. "Hey there, Lola. What's up?"
Lola again. It wasn't a fluke. Val's nerves tingled. Hearing that nickname made her feel off-balance, like she had one foot in the past that had been, the other in the now-that-was. She tried not to show it, falling into step with him and keeping her tone light. "Same old, same old. Just wanted to thank you, about what happened last night."
He shrugged. "Aw, didn't do nothin', really."
"Still. Could have been a lot worse if you hadn't stepped in."
"Me and like twenty other marines, that chick wasn't getting nowhere." James shook his head. "That's it? You came charging out of there like a woman with a purpose."
"Did I?" She was maybe being a little too eager. Val chuckled faintly. "Just family stuff."
James chuckled. "Family stuff? I'm not touching that."
"Not asking you to."
"Just don't forget, though. You get somethin' interesting going on, you call me."
"I promise, you'll know when I've got something," she said. She did need a combat team, after all.
If she ended up having to steal the Normandy, though... maybe that would be too much to ask. She'd cut ties with the Alliance if she had to, but she didn't have to take Vega's career down, too.
"That's what I like to hear," James said, not noticing her hesitation. He nodded firmly, barely holding back a smile.
Val put her worries to one side. She'd make that call if it came to it. "I have to ask, though — why Lola?" Her shoulders tensed as she waited for the answer.
James frowned. "Didn't we talk about this already?"
"Did we?" Val honestly couldn't remember, but maybe she'd forgotten something. Or maybe, like Alex had said, reality had twisted around, so he remembered a conversation she didn't, or something.
But James said, "Yeah, we talked about it a while ago, down..." and then hesitated, frowning, his eyes going distant.
"James?" Val asked, coming to alert. "Everything okay?"
"Didn't we... I coulda sworn we talked about this, Shepard. Down in the cargo bay, when..." He shook his head, still frowning.
Val missed a step, as the shock of that sank in like cold water. He shouldn't have remembered that. She remembered their talk in the cargo bay, and their "dance," but he shouldn't have. She hadn't been on the Normandy. Not as far as he knew.
James laughed a little and shook his head. "That's weird. Like I just mixed you up with the commander. Funny, huh?"
"Funny," Val echoed. She watched him closely, as if she were entering a combat zone and scanning for enemy movement. "Right. Humor me, James. Tell me about Lola."
"Not too much to tell. My best friend's older sister. Tough. Hot." He squinted at her. "You sure we didn't have this conversation before?"
She narrowed her eyes, intent on his face. "Do you remember having this conversation before?"
"Sorta." He frowned and scratched his head. "Like I said, seems like we talked about it on the Normandy, but that can't be right, huh? Feels like something that happened in a dream. You don't remember?"
"Mm, I forget a lot of stuff," Val said. She didn't understand what was going on, but if he remembered something, anything, from that other life, she needed to know. She cast about for something else that might be unique to that relationship, her stomach tightening with anticipation. "Hey, do you play cards, Vega?"
"Like what, Skyllian Five? Sure."
She'd have to push a little further. "I meant more like—"
James threw her a wary sidelong look. "You're not trying to get me to play one of those crappy old card games of yours, are you? "
She stared at him, stunned. Back in Vancouver, when she'd been under lockup and James had been her most frequent guard, she'd roped him into playing cribbage and all sorts of other stuff. Out of sheer boredom, on her part, and James had humored her in spite of complaining about it.
He shouldn't be remembering any of that. If he was... she didn't know what that meant.
James frowned and blinked, his eyes going unfocused for a moment. Val put on a smile. "Nah, I wouldn't do that to you. We can play something more your speed. I mean, I gotta give you a fighting chance to win."
"Yeah? We'll see about that." James smirked at her. "Doesn't matter how old and crap the game is, James Vega can handle it."
Val laughed and kept walking, closing her hands into fists to keep them from shaking. Her heart was pounding, all her alertness kindling into excitement. She didn't know what to make of this, though. James remembered things he wasn't supposed to remember. Unlike Garrus and Alex, he hadn't been on the moon with her. Whatever the Reaper had done couldn't have affected him all the way out here, could it?
But he was remembering anyway. Somehow.