"Why'd you do it Mordin?"

"Do what Shepard?" the salarian scientist enquired. "Agree to Jax's plan, incapacitate Operative Taylor, secure CIC or provide unauthorised medical care to Yeoman Chambers? Please specify."

Shepard sighed. "All of it."

"Jax and Garrus were already committed to enacting plan" Mordin replied instantly. "Would have happened with or without my assistance. This way, allowed me to have share of control, minimise casualties. Needed to have my help" Mordin told her, "they might've gotten it wrong."

"Of course they might've" Shepard sighed. Half of her crew were impounded, the Normandy didn't have a brig capable of holding all the mutineers so she'd taken to having EDI scramble locks on all their rooms while she and Miranda tried to figure out what to do with it all. Miranda had immediately wanted to get rid of every crew member that had stood against them but that left them with either the prospect of another long recruiting drive, exposing more colonies to collector attacks, or the prospect of taking the fight to the collectors severely understrength. Neither were attractive options, but a mutiny had just occurred, under her own command, by crew members who had been supposedly loyal to her. Measures needed to be taken, that not even Shepard could deny, but she needed answers first.

"Also…" Mordin added quietly. "…my personal connection to Jax."

Shepard's head cocked. "You have a personal connection to Jax?" She asked.

Mordin nodded. "On Omega, provided clandestine medical treatment to Archangel's team on occasion. Jax was old patient, my duty to him as doctor."

"You helped him on Omega?" Shepard asked.

Mordin nodded. "Provided treatment to number of squad members. Erash, Mierin, Grundan Kul." He looked up. "Appreciated Grundan Kul, Batarian patients usually disagreeable but bedside manner very amenable. Never met Garrus though, identity of Archangel too valuable, needed to keep circle of trust as tight as possible."

"And Garrus never met you" Shepard finished.

Mordin nodded. "Treated Jax's injuries sustained in eradication of his squad."

"You?" Shepard asked. "You saved his life?"

Mordin nodded, his head slightly weighted by guilt. "Heard of attack, was… too late to intervene. Gangs pursued Archangel to new location, left me to my work."

"He's alive because of you" Shepard said.

Mordin needed. "Felt obligation to help again, keep him alive, not inflict any casualties on his conscience. Had to be me, someone else might've gotten it wrong."

Shepard sighed. She had assigned herself, Miranda and Kelly to assess each of the mutineers for their motivations, loyalties and risk of future discrepancies in their loyalty and so far they had all come back with that same answer. One of serving the greater good, wanting to minimise the casualties from an action too far conceived to be stopped. Shepard believed in her crew having a degree of autonomy, she had no use for soldiers who couldn't think for themselves but there had to be a line. The problem was that line had never needed such clear definition before, no one had ever pushed back against her command like this. And it had been for nothing. "I've got to go" she told the doctor.

"Shepard… Commander" Mordin amended. "Miss Chambers, may I enquire as to her condition?"

"She's fine" Shepard replied evenly, "she's obviously shaken by what's happened but she'll carry on."

"If I may," Mordin ventured, coming around from behind his desk, "have synthesised medication, will combat anxiety, insomnia, most minor psychological trauma symptoms." He offered a small bottle.

Shepard took it from him and gave it an experimental shake, hearing a rattle of the medication inside. "I ordered Doctor Chakwas to empty this lab of any elements that she might need assuming sole duties as Normandy's medical officer" Shepard told him.

Mordin nodded. "And she did so, quite thoroughly, I admired her, keen foresight to prepare for nearly any eventuality. Also relished challenge, create effective medication using largely non-standard chemicals within bounds of human physiology, very fulfilling."

"And distracting" Shepard added.

Mordin shifted uncomfortably. "Yes," he finally said. "Yeoman Chambers suffered under my watch, my responsibility to do no harm, no unnecessary impact for Mr Weaver's departure. Failed," he added critically, "to do so. Would informally request my apologies be provided to her with prescription medication."

"I thought you'd be more worried about yourself" Shepard said.

Mordin shrugged. "Have provided honest answers to all questions. No more to be done on my behalf; my future rests entirely with you. Miss Chambers however, I can help."

Shepard was motionless for a second before accepting the small container from Mordin. "I'll think about it" she told him before leaving.

"I was going to go to Omega" Shepard told Garrus. It hadn't been his interview, Miranda had insisted she conduct it for the sake of objectivity, a point Shepard could hardly deny her second. In fact, this meeting wasn't even happening officially, or existing at all in any log. "I was going to help Jax."

"What?" Garrus asked, looking up. When she had come in, Garrus had moved from his calibrations to the counter he used to modify his rifle. The weapon had obviously confiscated of course, but it seemed the location held some degree of solace for him. He had been unable to look at her when she had entered, and instead examined the texture of the table.

"Omega is too critical a location for us to lose" Shepard stated. "Samara's daughter is there, we'll need the system if we're to take the fight to the collectors, I even made clear to Miranda of my plans to do it." She pinched her nose. "I just wanted his loyalty before I gave him mine, but he couldn't put the mission before himself and worse, you taught him not to. All of this was for nothing, less than nothing, when you consider the damage you helped him cause."

Garrus somehow sank even lower into his slump.

"I'm going to get him back" Shepard told him.

Garrus' head slightly rose.

"He's joined the Omega Civil War in a shuttle tagged with my signature, I now don't have a choice" Shepard told him.

"What will you do when you find him?" Garrus asked.

Shepard suddenly became acutely aware of the weight of the carnifex at her hip. "I don't know" she replied quietly. "I will make the choice I can, or the one he forces me to" she finished with a sense of foreboding. She exited the main battery, hearing EDI engage the magnetic locks behind her.

The sudden 'pop' of the shuttle exiting FTL speeds made Jax grit his teeth unconsciously as he decelerated into the Omega Nebula. He had been on a shuttle a few times, a couple of mining runs to Bindur for platinum when the pay was good enough, usually that meant the Vorcha were starting to get competitive, but it still unnerved him. It wasn't the manufactured air, which he had never really taken notice of until the first time he had stepped planetside and experienced what it was trying to imitate. No, it was the idea that literally the boundaries to what he thought was his existence were so much more vast than he could have ever imagined. It was infinite, space went on forever and out here, in the shuttle, forever was in his reach. It was both exciting and terrifying to think of. All his life he had lived on the massive, lawless space station and even up gliding in, it was barely a speck, the hollowed-out meteor a pebble. To think he could be as insignificant to Omega as Omega was to the rest of the universe, it was a thought that demanded reflection from someone much smarter than him.

Jax looked down at the communications console and entered in the frequency Aria had provided him.

"Jax" she greeted, for a moment when we detected your signature, I thought Shepard had grown a pair and had come to join the fight."

"Not exactly" Jax replied, "I helped myself to her shuttle."

Aria smirked. "I'll pay your weight's worth in eezo if you have footage of her face when she realised."

"I don't think it'll be pretty" Jax replied, squinting into space. "Where do you want me to come in, I'm not reading any active docking bays."

"I have a back entrance" Aria told him, "sending you the coordinates now."

Jax watched as the destination came up on his screen as the on-board computer plotted a course. "I'll be on my way. Might take a bit of time, the amount of space junk out here is ridiculous."

"It's not junk" Aria told him.

The shuttle hummed softly as Jax approached the field of debris surrounding the station. Jax activated the exterior lights and saw a sight that turned him cold. It was a body, floating lifelessly past. As it turned over, Jax forced his stomach to settle seeing the ice white skin and eyes blood red from a million burst capillaries, the results of prolonged exposure to human biology. The debris wasn't junk. It was the remnants of ships, there must have been dozens, maybe even hundreds, all blown apart mercilessly, no offer of surrender taken. "What happened?" Jax asked.

"Patriarch happened" Aria said. "Using the Queencode, he locked out my communications and ports, then invited every pirate band who ever crossed me and lived to have easy pickings on any merchant vessel that came into my system. All the favours I mentioned calling in? They're in that mess too. The lockdown on my ports and comms meant I couldn't launch my ships in retaliation, nor warn the merchants and reinforcements until it was far too late. The pirates took their plunder and then blew the ships apart with their crews still on board; a warning from the Patriarch. We developed a workaround for the communications and while Omega is still mine for the moment, the Sahrabarik System is firmly Patriarch's."

"Do you know where he is?" Jax asked.

"No," Aria replied bitterly, "we think he's hiding his ship in the debris field or the asteroid belt, preventing it from being picked up by what few systems we do have. I was hoping your expensive Cerberus warship could help in that regard."

"Well you've only got me" Jax told her, activating the shuttle's stabilisation boosters. "I'm coming in now." The hum of the shuttle's engines intensified as Jax navigated the solar cemetery, following the route plotted by the VI. The 'back door' Aria had mentioned wasn't so much a back door as it was a hole in the side of the station with some hastily established environment shielding to create a pocket outside the vacuum. Jax touched down and opened the shuttle to meet Aria standing firmly in front of him.

"What did you bring?" She asked him quickly, pushing past him anyway into the shuttle to examine for herself.

"Standard survival packet; a sidearm, some rations, environment suit" Jax rattled off, "my own ordinance and ammunition…" He trailed off at the sound of clambering over the shuttle. He made his way out to see the ship swarming with vorcha. "Hey!" He yelled but they took no notice as they lowered wielding goggles and set to work. Jax could only watch as seemingly in half a minute, they had removed the main thruster legs of the shuttle, the doors and were quickly gutting all of the internal circuitry.

"We need it more than you do" Aria told him, stepping out and handing the survival packet with a few other pieces of armament to her henchman, a batarian Jax recognised by reputation as Bray. "Trust me, it's more valuable this way. Thrusters can be converted into heating units, the circuitry can be reverse wired into making quick fixes patches for parts destroyed by the power surges, the doors excellent barricades and the seats? Well everyone could use a little comfort right about now." Her voice was bitter.

"The invasion is going that badly for you?" Jax asked.

"It's not an invasion" Aria replied, leaving and motioning him to follow. "An invasion would be a kindness compared to what the Patriarch's doing to this place. He's starving us out, no merchant ships mean no food or water gets dropped off here, how many farms do you think Omega has?"

"You must have stores" Jax replied, joining her as she slipped into a nondescript skycar. They took off with a low hum, Aria's men surrounding them in identical skycars.

"I do" Aria replied, "but what about them?"

Jax looked out at the cityscape Aria gestured to. When he had left Omega, the station had been illustrated in neon reds and pinks, an impressionist's canvas of love and rage in a tormented haze. Now though, he barely recognised it. The lights were all powered down to conserve energy, pockets of fire burned away at buildings and in the streets and the city streets were near empty.

"Patriarch knows if he hurts the people long enough, they'll overthrow me for him. The threat of gunning down anyone who dissents against me isn't going to be effective forever."

"You'd kill random civilians to hold your spot?" Jax asked.

"The people can't reach Patriarch and I can't promise when I can, inspiring their hearts and minds is a useless folly. Patriarch is trying to make people fear him more than they fear me, that is when my Omega is lost."

A flash of movement caught Jax's eye as a LOKI mech marched down the street, only to be swarmed by people of all races. The white armour was almost hidden from view before there was a burst of sparks as they ripped it apart, scavengers not content to wait until their prey had fallen before claiming it. "Oh yeah, because 'your Omega' is such a paradise" Jax replied sarcastically.

"Everything of what you see is of Patriarch's creation" Aria shot back. "Omega may be a lawless haven but it's ruled by the survivors. As much as this crisis has brought out the worst in us, some would argue it's brought out the best."

"Let's just get to work on killing him" Jax muttered.

Aria's smirk was audible. "Now that's an attitude I can respect."

The skycaps touched down in front of Afterlife, only it wasn't the one Jax remembered. Barricades were established, soldiers were behind mounted turret guns, the entirety of the outside was fortress, the only thing missing was the barbed wire. "You're still based here?" Jax asked.

"Everything I do sends a message" Aria replied back harshly, leading him through the opening corridor that now functioned as an extensively stocked armoury. "If I run, what kind of message does that send? How are people supposed to still fear me then?" She asked. "No. The only way I'm leaving Afterlife is if someone takes it from me." The doors at the end of the corridor opened and Jax surveyed the new Afterlife. Gone was the bar, the tables for private dances and the central platform for the strippers. In its place was a massive holographic table displaying the station, a medical centre was in one corner and a number of other facilities Jax couldn't quite identify. It was an entire hub dedicated to waging war.

"Where do we begin?" Jax asked.

"With Patriarch orbiting Omega on a ship, he needs certain… supplies." Aria explained. "Food, water, fuel for the life support, the only way he is getting that is from here. Therefore, he must have an agent aboard my station. I've had my men scouring the station for any kind of leads but Ahz here came up with something." Aria learned in closely as her Salarian hacker commanded a terminal and a grid appeared; a calendar showing all the uses of the queencode since Patriarch's rebellion's inception. "Patriarch has been attacking the station sporadically with random cyberattacks, venting a section here, shutting off the power there, even uploading the IFF mech virus into the heavy mechs at all my ports; any way he can cause disruption, destruction and chaos. But, under all the random attacks, there's a pattern" she said, watching as the majority of the attacks were stripped away, leaving the rest flashing. "Every time my men go into this section, a hack occurs which either slaughters them or forces them to withdraw. Every solar week at the same time, an attack occurs in a random area as far away from that section as can be, forcing my men into action to shut it down."

"A distraction" Jax mused.

Aria nodded. "Precisely. This same area was one of the first places where our sensors went totally dark. The logic dictates, they use the distraction to pull our eyes away while Patriarch's agent makes that supply run."

"If we can't get into that area, and we can't launch ships, then how are we supposed to track that supplier?" Jax asked.

"We use the one thing he hasn't prepared for, and the one thing he can't stop" Aria explained. "You, and me."

"Explain" Jax replied.

"The section is totally locked down; Patriarch can dictate how we navigate through the station like rat's in a maze. The explosives you brought? We'll carve our own way through" Aria said, every word from her lips was sharper than the edge of a knife. "Patriarch won't vent the station; he needs his agent alive."

"But he'll still likely throw everything else he has at us to stop him" Jax continued.

"You afraid of a little warfare?" Aria asked.

"No" Jax said, checking the thermal clip in his carnifex. "It's exactly what I came here for."

"Good" Aria said. "I'll have teams covering other areas as well. Grizz, Anto, Bray, you'll be in charge of those teams, pick whoever you like, I'm leading the assault myself." The Turian and two Batarians nodded and moved off to follow her orders.

"So we just blow our way through wall after wall until we end up where we need to be?" Jax asked.

"The linearity of Omega's main corridors allows whoever's controlling it to line up hundreds of enemies in one's way" Aria told him. "We can't afford delays or the agent will go dark."

"How are we meant to find the agent anyway?" Jax asked. "An entire section, that's thousands of people."

"Patriarch uses the queencode at the same time every solar week" Aria says. "The next attack is in less than a day, a little more than fourteen hours. This is the most likely place the agent launches his shuttle run from," Aria said, demonstrating on the holographic interface, "it's one of the main ports in and out of the station on this side. We're going to get as close possible before smashing our way through and cornering the agent there before he can escape, if we're lucky, their shuttle will be grounded for refuel and stocking supplies, they'll have no escape." She looked away at a screen showing the next group of skycars landing, offloading Jax's ordinance from the shuttle. "Make sure everything you need is loaded onto the cars, inventory the rest in the armoury. Don't worry" she told him, "it'll be safe here. No one, not even Patriarch can take Afterlife in a straight assault."

"One person could" Jax replied offhandedly.

Shepard rubbed the bridge of her nose as Miranda started up the holo-display again. "Omega" her second in command said, "it's our only option. The transponder shows the shuttle entered the station nearly a day ago and what little local intelligence we have has confirmed to us a major military offensive is about to take place. We're in this war whether we like it or not Shepard, Cerberus equipment is now going to be used. We can either ignore that and suffer the blowback or turn it to our advantage."

"And how would you suggest we do that?" Shepard asked.

"We make sure Aria, and by extension Jax, and by extension Cerberus, wins" Miranda said. "If they're using our supplies, they may as well use our help and in so become indebted a favour to us in the future."

"Favours of any nature are dangerous when it comes to Aria" Shepard warned, "one has already torn apart my crew."

"And it could be the way to bring it back together" Jacob countered. "An all-in offensive, mobilise the crew who supported Jax and show everyone that you two fight on a united front. Clear Jax's favour from Aria's ledger and not only will you gain one of hers in yours, Jax then has nothing keeping him from staying loyal to the mission."

"You think we're letting that kid back on the ship after what he did?" Miranda rebuffed.

"That 'kid' earned the trust and support of half our crew loyal to Shepard, neutralised the other half, disabled our ship and escaped without incurring a single casualty on either side" Jacob said. "That's more than qualifications enough for our crew, and that's still not counting the on-hand demolitions knowledge and experience he brings."

"We might've been dead on Rannoch without him" Shepard was forced to agree.

Miranda looked positively venomous.

"Infiltration could be an option" Shepard said, "we could use the stealth drive to slip into the system quietly. But given the intelligence we have on Patriarch and the damage the queencode can do, we have to face the possibility we won't be sailing into a friendly port."

"With our allegiance already decided, there's no real points against guns blazing" Jacob noted.

"We're going in quiet" Shepard said, "no need to waste an advantage we don't know if we have yet."

Jacob nodded in affirmation.

"Samara will be on my immediate squad" Shepard said. "If we can gather intelligence about Morinth, we have to take the opportunity, if she's even still on Omega with all this."

"Who will be your other squadmate?" Miranda asked.

Shepard did not miss her slightly expectant tone. "Garrus" she finally said.

"What?" Miranda blurted out.

"He has in-depth knowledge of Omega and if this mission is as much a political statement to the crew as it will be a firefight, I need to rally him to my side" Shepard said.

"And if he betrays you again?" Miranda asked.

"He won't" Shepard said, knowing it was true. "And if he gets put down in the firefight, then you'll get what you want anyway."

"It's your call commander" Jacob said with a salute before exiting the room.

It's her call to screw up Miranda thought to herself inwardly. Nevertheless, the Illusive Man had charged her to be Shepard's second and she, unlike many other members of this crew seemingly, was loyal. She entered the elevator and watched as Shepard stepped up to the galaxy map, selecting Omega as her next destination. The doors began to shut before Kelly slipped into the space beside her. Miranda wavered slightly as she felt Joker engage the engines to follow Shepard's command but didn't break her professional silence. She exited the elevator at the crew deck and noted with mild curiosity that Kelly had commanded the elevator to take her one floor lower.

It was dark in the subdeck, but then again it always was, save for the red maintenance lighting. Kelly had only been down here once, back when Jack had been their fresh new recruit. The convict had made clear she wanted nothing to do with anyone who was a part of Cerberus, a wish Kelly happily would have granted if her need for answers had been less right now.

Jack sighed as she saw Kelly approach. "You again? What, you run out of friends? I already did my post mutiny interview with the cheerleading bitch, you can fuck off too."

"I want to talk to you" Kelly said, trying to keep her tone from wavering.

"About?" Jack asked. When Kelly hesitated in replying she chuckled. "Oh sweetie, that's cute, feeling like you're back in high school again? You haven't even said his name since he left you haven't you?"

"Why did he do it?" Kelly asked, ignoring Jack's ever growing smirk.

"Because he wanted to" Jack said. "He wants to cut loose, it's not something I'd expect a tame little shrew like you to understand." Jack leaned in slightly, studying Kelly. "You did something with him, didn't you? It's not just a crush, you thought he actually liked you back, that that perfect storybook love of yours was requited. Did you fuck?" Jack taunted. "Did he lie you down in the crew quarters and make everyone else watch as he licked you clean out?"

"Stop it" Kelly warned with little ferocity, trying not to burn up under Jack's smile, trying to ignore how much she was obviously enjoying this.

"You may love him" Jack goaded. "But you don't understand him. You'll never understand him. And it will rip you apart, piece by piece, from the inside. You're a shrink or a flirt but you've never been both at once, and you chose to analyse him before you loved him and he knows it. You'll either refuse to understand what he is, or love him for who you hope he might be someday; and both ways will leave you only disappointed. That's why for all your hopes and wishes, you'll never seal the distance you made between you two. He's one of us; a fighter," Jack whispered, "you're just the zookeeper who couldn't manage to keep us in line."

Kelly couldn't listen to another word as she left, tears hot on her cheeks. She'd thought she might understand Jax better through the first person he befriended on this ship, and instead Jack was right, she couldn't accept that he might be the person all of his actions made him out to be. Kelly marked her shift over early as she made a beeline straight for one of the corner bunks facing the wall, it had been a long day sorting the mess Jax had made of the crew. It would be an even longer night sorting the mess Jax had made of her.