Tali looked on earnestly as Garrus kept his eagle eye through his snipers scope. He had taken her out to practice shooting, said it was to help keep him in top notch shape in case any trouble should arise. But she thought it was more to impress the crowd that had gathered near, instead.

"Alright, Tali, you always got to breathe deep, it keeps you relaxed so you don't tense up. Otherwise, you might miss a shot entirely," Garrus instructed as he demonstrated. Tali nodded. Downrange, there was an empty brandy bottle sitting on a rotten wooden table, just barely visible above a desert hill. Garrus didn't want to go to the gun range in town, his last experience with Shepard and other members of the crew was rather boring considering it was small and a little restrictive. In his words, it was, "Like playing an arcade game with too many people." So he decided on a spot just outside the Normandy, where a crowd was attracted almost immediately.

"Make sure you keep your cross hairs over your target." Tali nodded.

"Of course."

"Make sure it's loaded and off safety." Tali nodded again.

"Obviously."

"Make sure you brought your rifle in general." It was only at this point Tali realized he was messing with her.

She folded her arms, "Oh, really?" she said in a mock questioning tone. Garrus looked away from his scope and gave a little smirk, continuing to play around.

"Unless you have the power to propel rounds out of that little hole in your helmet, then yeah, really."

Tali was surprised when he didn't even turn his eye back to the scope before pulling the trigger, in fact, he didn't turn at all from his smirk. The crowd went quiet, and a split second later the loud ring of glass shattering was evident that Garrus, indeed, hit the bottle without looking. Then a round of applause and a whistle or two.

"See if you can top that, Miss Admiral," Garrus teased smugly with a wink.

"Careful, Vakarian, I might not be a sniper but I can still beat your ass," Tali said, cocking her hip and raising the barrel of her sniper to the air. The weight ended up being more than she thought and she stumbled a little.

"Pssht, good luck."

Thanks, I'll need it.

Tali lifted up her rifle. The scope of the rifle was connected to her HUD so she could see through it without the purple of her mask in between. She lowered the cross hairs over her target, which another bottle on top of another rotten table next to the one Garrus shot at. But the rifle was so heavy that she kept waving it around and couldn't quite get a steady grip. It's been too long since she actually held one. Keelah, stay still!

After a few unsuccessful attempts at steadying her rifle, Tali gave up trying to steady it altogether and decided to time the motion instead. She jolted the barrel up and pulled the trigger once she thought the cross hairs were over the bottle.

Instead of a loud ring of glass shattering, there was a heavy wooden thud as the old table split in two underneath the bottle, causing it to fall to the ground into the soft sand. Another few moments and crowd report that the bottle was still intact.

Garry's inhaled sharply in a mocking manner, "Oof...ouch. That gotta be a little jab in your pride, huh?"

Tali gave him a threatening sidelong glance. Garrus laughed albeit nervously, "You're not gonna do the whole 'introduce you to my shotgun,' thing again, are you?"

She smiled under her mask, "I was thinking of something worse," she lied.

"Okay, let's calm down," Garrus attempted to defuse. "I think I can deal with the scars I already have."

"Good boy," she smirked.

"What, am I a pet now?"

Tali laughed, "John and I practically adopted you at this point."

Her Omni-Tool lit up as she got a sudden message from her Aunt. She turned and waved to the crowd, thanking them for showing up.

"You're done already? We just started!" Garrus whined.

"Sorry Garrus, you can keep practicing for the people. I've got a meeting with my Auntie. Seems fairly urgent."

"Oh, alright. Stay safe," Garrus said.

"Don't disappoint the people for me!" She responded over her shoulder.

Tali took to an old makeshift transport that was rented out for the crew, although hardly used. It seemed like a cross between a shuttle and a skycar, only it had the obvious quarian patches to make it work. It wasn't the best looking thing they had on hand. The patches almost made it look like scrap metal was just thrown together haphazardly and then given the ability to fly. Perhaps that's why the crew didn't use it as much. Oh well, easier for me.

She hopped in and felt it jerk as it rose off the ground, speeding off as if there was debris in its engine. She looked out the window as the transport glided clunkily through the air. She rolled her eyes at each bump. Living on the Normandy has made me soft, I guess. But she wasn't going to let it distract the view she held of the morning horizon.

Some might not think much of the skyline of half finished buildings. But to her it was something special. Something about the construction, the morning silhouettes of hooded figures and flashlight heads passing shapes of stone and metal. It gave her a small grin.

Progress...progress for freedom.

She grinned slightly larger. She remembered the human colony where she found out Shepard was still alive. She wish it would've been under better circumstances, as the human colony was abducted and Cerberus was also involved. But the long thought gone spark was still there.

She passed the megastructure of glass to its far end. Despite how large the monument building was, Tali couldn't help but be surprised further when she noticed that they were making additions, wings from the looks of it, and just outside of one sat Admiral Raan on a workers bench.

The transport settled and she waved to her. Raan waved back and motioned for her to park and come over.

She stretched her shoulders once out of the transport and briskly walked over to the other admiral. Judging from her Aunt's stance, something was clearly on her mind. "What's the emergency?" Tali asked.

Raan didn't even wait for her to finish the question, "Come, we have troubling news," she said as she walked towards the entrance.

Tali raised an eyebrow and increased her walking pace. "Wait up!" Raan only turned sharply in response and yanked her arm. "Hey!"

"No time, we must get to the medical office," and pulled on her harder. Tali's heartbeat began to speed up.

"Hold on!" She struggled to get out of the older woman's iron grip, but ultimately failed as she was dragged through the doors. "Why medical office? Is John okay?"

Raan didn't answer and hooked a right to the temporary medical area of the building. It was here where quarians came if they suffered any major accidents, most of them due to construction.

Raan pulled her onto a ground tram and they sped down the massive corridor.

"Do you mind telling me what's going on?"

"Patience, child, you shall see for yourself...ah, here we are already."

The tram stopped and the two women walked off into the medical corner of the building. Quarian doctors flowed back and forth across the corridors, some carrying heavy medical supplies that were being unloaded from the ships. Tali held onto Raan as she was guided in between the bodies of the crowd until they arrived at a door. It slid open and Tali could see Shepard sitting in his wheelchair, looking out a window.

"John! Are you okay? Are you hurt?" Tali questioned as she ran to his side, picking over the parts of his suit to look for any problems.

"Tal, calm down, I'm fine," he said as he tried to hold onto her arms to keep her from fidgeting, "It's not me you should be worried about." He motioned with his head to the far side of the room.

Her gaze followed his to a hospital bed with a familiar dark figure laying down, watching, tended by another familiar blue figure. "Oh! Silont! I'm so sorry!"

He gave a small chuckle. "It's fine, perfectly understandable," he said, waving away her apology. "I'm just glad you two are both still okay." He was interrupted by his bout of coughing. From the sounds of it, he was terribly ill. Tali also noticed that the blue figure tending to him was Liara, holding a datapad with Glyph hovering over her head. "And we're glad that you're okay," said the Shadowbroker.

"What happened?" Tali asked.

Silont groaned a response. "Chimera...nearly blew me out of my own ship as if I was a feather." Tali and Shepard together hissed at the name. Cerberus was bad, but the attack by Chimera back on the Citadel felt personal.

"Bastards," she whispered.

"I did fine though, Liara managed to catch me with a some biotic net hybrid thingy," Silont continued, followed by more coughing. "Smart move, I must say, never would've thought of it. To be honest for a second there I thought I was going to have to crash land." He coughed again.

"But that's not the important thing. Tayi, Shepard..." Both of them looked towards him in anticipation. "Chimera's preparing an attack."

Shepard scoffed in anger and tried to stand from his wheelchair, shaking his chair to try to retain balance. "Then let's prepare an attack of our own! Damned mercs can't get me unless I get them first!"

Tali was quick to try to get him to sit down calmly. "You know you can't do that."

He looked towards her, raw bitterness in his voice, "Like hell I can't! Someone give me a gun and I'll kill them all without having to move a foot!"

"Shepard, please, listen to what Silont has to say," Raan interrupted. Shepard scoffed again, and did his best to cool off by holding his shaking head in his hands.

He gave a loud sigh, "Alright. Silont, please, continue."

The quarian operative nodded his head. "This band of mercs is more than just a band. They have ships, Captain Shepard, a lot of them. I barely made a dent in their fleet. My guess is that Cerberus had a reserve and this is it."

Tali shook her head, "That doesn't make sense, if The Illusive Man had a reserve, why didn't he used them when we took their base? Why didn't he use them on the Battle for Earth?"

"No clue, maybe he didn't believe he would actually lose, maybe he thought it could be used for more resources for the future. Either way, they're out there, and they're serious."

"And so am I!" Shepard said with ferocity.

"John, please," she said with worry.

"Tali, as much as I want to be here forever, I can't do that until I'm absolutely sure that we're safe from trouble, until you're safe."

Silont piped up once more, "Perhaps we could use our fleet against them, as shaken as we are from the war, we can still hold our own." He readjusted himself in his bed. "I mean...as big as their fleet is, they have nowhere near the numbers we have."

"But they do have experimental weapons, it could be a tough fight," Liara interjected.

Shepard made a very audible sigh. Everyone looked towards him to hear what he thought. "No. No fight. I already risked too many quarian lives. I won't do it again. The only thing we can do is let me take the fight to them."

"Sir, that's suicide," Silont said.

"Not the first time," Shepard responded, "I survived Sovereign, I survived the Collector Base, and I survived the Reapers, I'm sure as hell going to survive the simple broken remains of a terrorist organization."

Tali sighed, "John, this is different. When we went through those things, we had plans, preparations, a crew. I'm sorry to say this, but you're just in a wheelchair, and retired." Shepard gave her an unemotional stare. At least she thought it was under the mask. It made her uncomfortable. But nonetheless, he continued.

"Then we plan, prepare, and get Garrus and the Normandy on this," his voice became more calm. "Come with me Tali, just one last fight and we can be okay."

"You're in no condition to fight. We can handle this," she responded. Keelah, if only you would be willing to relax for a few damn seconds. His speaker light shut off as he prepared to protest the statement.

"Shepard, she's right," Liara said, "Even if you do go attack them, their only goal is to kill you. They don't care if they tear themselves apart to get to you." She took a deep breath.

"You can't let all this galaxy saving go to your head."

"But I can do this, we can do this, if we just...if we just-" Liara's comment struck a cord. Everyone was looking at him. Tali noticed their gazes were soft, caring, but disapproving. As guilty as she might feel, she agreed with them. She leaned down next to his chair, and curled her fingers around his helmet, moving his head until she was gazing into his eyes that were filled with hurt.

"John, don't you think it's time for people to save your life for a change?"

His head tilted in her hands, "Tali, please, let me do this," he choked. She came close until they kissed visors.

"No."

"Why?"

"Because we love you."

Her luminescent eyes were always beautiful, and is was difficult to look at them when she was putting him in his place. Maybe he was in a wheelchair, but there's no way he could let his friends take the front seat on this. No matter what, they were always together, facing things head on with him at the helm. Now he felt like he was failing. Countless times has he saved them, it's what he does, because he cares. But to be suddenly stuck in this situation where he felt helpless...needless to say it hurt, and it felt like he was being hollowed out. He held her head, too.

Shepard grasped for straws in his mind, until he found a small stick. It wasn't what he wanted, but it's the best he could find. "Tal, no more risking quarian lives. If I can't fight, then I should at least come up with a way to avoid another war."

"You can try Captain," Silont responded, "But I see no way we could end this without destroying each of their ships. You can't just destroy the big one and hope they all give up, believe me, I tried."

"Could we get the alliance military on this?" Liara asked.

"I doubt it, it's not everyday a whole army goes after just one man instead of a race."

Raan joined in, "But it's Captain Shepard, I'm sure the alliance would like to protect their biggest war hero?"

"Perhaps," Liara answered.

"We'll never find out unless we ask," Tali said.

Shepard's head swirled, and the pit in his stomach got bigger. We're risking more lives? "Guys please, no more," he asked. Liara lifted her omni-tool. "I'll message Garrus right away."

"Guys-"

"We should also get the Geth to help on this."

"Guys-"

"Great idea, Dyad can help coordinate that."

"GUYS!"

Silence.

"Please, no more. I'm just one man."

"Shepard-"

"No, Liara. No more. I'm not having this. I have a line, this is crossing it by light years."

Raan shook her head, revealing more detail to her thoughts. "I hate to admit it, as much as I like the idea of gathering all these people, I highly doubt any of them would spare resources to guard a single man after everything that's happened, even if it is Shepard. I mean maybe the human Alliance, possibly, but every species is out rebuilding their livelihoods. We may have united for a war, but that was a threat that involved all of them. I doubt anyone is willing to risk their lives out of the goodness of their hearts."

Shepard gasped in relief that at least someone understood a little. "Thank you, Admiral. That's why I should be the only one on this...I mean not the only one, just us...you know what I meant," Shepard responded rapidly. He then turned back to Raan. "Look, you know I plan on living here. I helped broker peace to support the war, but I don't think I'll last long here if the quarians find out that I brought a fleet of angry mercenaries to their doorstep after they got their homeworld back."

"I agree, but...what are you trying to say?"

"I'm saying that I'm not going to be the reason why quarians lives, or any lives, are going to be lost. I'm saying that I will not allow them to come here. What I'm saying is...I should go...at least until we figure out how to put a stop to this."

Shepard glanced back over to his quarian lover, knowing very well what her stance would be behind that mask, but it still didn't prepare him for the silver eyes looking like they grew twice their normal size. "Let's not jump to those ideas, love. I'm sure we can figure this out. We don't need to leave."

Silont sighed. "He has a point. Chimera's going to stop at nothing to get to him, and as long as we're here, it'll make everyone a target."

"We can figure this out Operative Mikera!" Tali bit. Shepard could almost feel the heat starting to emanate from her suit, and it wasn't the kind of heat he was usually comfortable with having in his bed. He simply wanted to hug her until she calmed down. We are getting dangerously close to kicking the cat.

"Let's keep our heads, dear," Raan said carefully. "It's not like Shepard will be leaving forever."

Dangerously close.

"You're saying that like it's already decided!" Her head turned to everyone in the room, the only one who haven't given their thoughts on the idea was the lone asari. "Liara...please...help me out here."

Shepard had to do a small double take at Liara's small smile. In Shepard's experience, the shadowbroker was capable of being ruthless despite her rather robotic nature. But it was still Liara, so he couldn't tell if the smile was sad or more of a smirk.

"I'm sorry, Tali, but this is not my place to decide, but I do have to agree with Shepard's idea. If he's here, the more dangerous it is for everyone."

Tali scoffed, turning her disdain back to everyone in the room. Shepard just now realized her hands were wringing intensely. "So what if he leaves? So what if he goes into hiding? Where do you plan on sticking him, huh? Some lone rock in space? You said it yourself," referring to Liara, "anywhere he goes he's a danger to everyone there."

Shepard noticed once more at Liara's smile before Admiral Raan responded, "Well, there is one rock."

Shepard and the others shifted their attention to the older admiral, looking to her in confusion. There wasn't much in uninhabited planets or asteroids nearby that could support life, not any to Shepard's recent knowledge...except for maybe...

Shit.

"No," both Shepard and Tali said bluntly in unison.

Raan tilted her head. "Why not, Shepard? You would be far enough to keep Chimera from Rannoch, but not far enough to be unreachable if we need to send help."

Hell no! "We can't!" Shepard struggled to even find the words to describe how bad he thought the idea was. "I-it's just...not okay! It's not okay!"

"I know it's not ideal, but it's the best one we have. Besides, why are you so against it?"

This time it was Tali's turn to tilt her head. Even though their conclusion was the same, she seemed much more interested in why Shepard was more against it than she was. After all, the place they were both thinking had much more significant importance to her than anyone else alive.

"B-because...it's...disrespectful! I'm not getting the place blown up!"

"Shepard," Raan said comfortingly, "It's more than six feet underground, and the surface outpost is far enough away from it." She then turned more towards Tali, "I doubt any harm could come to it."

"It's still his rock," Tali said bitterly, "We had our time, now it's time to have our peace, too."

Shepard took the moment to think to himself. Is it really? God, I'm starting to really think I made a mistake. He wanted to claw the mask off his face right then and there and just bury his head in his hands, then just sit there and wait to disappear. I really screwed up this time around. I was only trying to help. Why the hell am I so stupid?

"Then go seek it," Raan finally responded.

A pause.

Then an interruption.

ACHOO!

Everyone turned to the inconvenient patient. His hand raised to his mask, trying to scratch at his face to no avail. "Gah," his warped voice came with congestion, "if cannons were our helmets." Shepard rolled his eyes underneath his visor, but grateful for the distraction. "Anyways," he continued, "Wherever this place is, I'm ready to assist in any possible way."

Liara looked over her datapad once more. "I don't think so," she said as she scrolled through, "You just came out of space in a blaze of glory. It's a miracle you're alive. Now if you only patched a video feed through. I could've told you who their leader was."

Silont tried to gasp in exasperation, but only inhaled more of his own sickness and began to cough. "Yeah, nope!" He managed to squeeze through, "I would've been dead on the spot!" His coughing grew louder and Raan briskly walked to his bedside, urging him to bend forwards.

His coughs were painful to listen to, it was almost as if he was coughing out the surface of the insides of his throat. Shepard could sense the quarian's weariness begin to grow as the older Admiral began thumping at his back, much like a mother did to her young child when sick. Silont twisted his head to clear the wires that was attached to the back of his helmet, giving Raan better access. His coughs began to be less intense and more so tired. He rested his own helmet in his hands, "Anyways, where is this place we're going, exactly?"

Tali rested her arm on Shepard's wheelchair, "None of us are going anywhere," she said forcefully.

Admiral Raan surprisingly changed from her motherly nature and sighed in exasperation. "You and Silont aren't, the rest of the Normandy crew can go." Tali tried to interject, but was still talked over. "Tali, dear, this will be for the good of everyone. What are people going to think if you two spend every waking moment together everywhere?" This time Shepard tried to interject, but Raan's words came pouring out as if in a bottle, stopped up for days, and she couldn't stop it. "The rumors can only go so far, I've been hearing a lot of talk, and some of them aren't too keen on the idea of one of our Admirals being this close to another species, even if they are in a suit of our people...I've been trying to get around to telling you this ever since we got back but you two have been...so...hopelessly lost in each others eyes that you are forgetting your duties!"

Hey now! Shepard thought indignantly to himself, until his mind caught up to the rest of what she said about Tali's job as an admiral, taking a quick solemn turn. Oh...I didn't realize...

Raan was so forceful with her words that she didn't realize that the thumping on Silont's back was almost becoming a beating. She looked down and stopped, and instead started massaging the area despite the armor being in the way. "Look, I'm sorry, but I had to say it. We have to warm the people up to the idea, and having a fleet of mercenaries coming to our doorstep wouldn't look good politically. Shepard's image is clean enough, we don't want to taint it now."

Tali's head lowered, clearly thinking over her Aunt's words as she continued. "You've also been falling behind on your duties. If you want to remain in positive light, you need to exceed expectations. Do that until we figure out this Chimera problem, and we have a chance for everything to work out on its own."

Silont coughed once more. "In other words, your, 'honeymoon phase,' needs to be paused. From here on out it's business."

Shepard mentally smacked himself again. How could I possibly forget Tali is still an admiral. Sure he spent most of his time helping the geth build their house, but even then he knew Tali was usually still back on the Normandy, talking to the crew and having fun with them, and whenever he came back, she was always there waiting for him.

Shepard glanced to his fiancée, her head tilting as if in shame. His heart went out to her, and she grabbed her hand, rubbing little circles on top. She returned the glance, her eyes like little slivers of sad bits of happiness. She sighed in defeat. "You're right," she said to Raan. "I'm sorry if I made things difficult."

"Nonsense dear, I'm glad you're happy, and I'm glad you don't let it cloud your judgement."

Tali did a small snort. "I think it was a little late for that," she said, just loud enough for Shepard to hear. This time he turned his whole body to give her a hug around the waist. I don't blame you. Tali has been probably dreaming of living quietly with Shepard ever since they retook Rannoch. To have it feel like it's being ripped out from under her would cause anyone to be upset. Hell, even he's been trying to help her fulfill that dream, because whatever or wherever makes her happy makes him happy, too. If it wasn't for damned Chimera! The thought made him pissed. If he was being honest with himself, he didn't entirely know why the name itself alone could make him so angry. Sure, they shot Tali. But she was fine, walking around and still being the same Tali he loved so much, not so much as a scar in her character from being shot.

He released her and took the moment to admire her in her entirety. He noticed her suit didn't seem to have the normal grease stains that came from hard work with engineering. In fact, her suit was exceptionally clean. The colors of her wrappings were especially vibrant and her mask shone in the morning sun that filtered through the windows. I guess now that they're back on Rannoch, they have the necessary resources to maintain better care of their suits. The thought made him look down on himself at his own suit. It was cleaned when Tali made it for him. His didn't have the battle scars or work grime that he saw on other quarians. Hell, compared to the other quarians he looked brand new. He sighed internally. I have to remember that I'm not one of them. I'm still human, and that's what Tali wants. He looked back to her tall, graceful figure.

She was simply perfect. A perfection that can't be matched or tainted. Or destroyed. He thought bitterly. Rage began to dwell in his stomach once more as he thought about Chimera. He despised them. He despised them for taking him away from helping his Tali. For every moment they keep me away from her is an eternity in hell for them!

Shepard ignored the small pause in conversation and jumped to his new topic. "Alright, let's get out of here and kill these sons of a bitches!"

As fast as Shepard's feeling of excitement and determination came, it left at the same speed. Raan folded her arms at his small act of unthinking. "I'm sorry, Captain, but you're not off the hook, either."

Shepard glared within his helmet at Raan's powerful tone. She continued to speak, "I fully intend for you to stay alive. I may be separating you two but I expect to see you at your own bonding ceremony. So I'm asking Dyad to guard you while you're there."

"Admiral, I don't think that's nec-"

"You fully plan to live here don't you?" Raan threatened.

"Excuse m-?"

"Then you must learn to listen to the law. No debate, you're taking Dyad."

"With all due respect, Admiral, I'm a council Spectre." Shepard regretted his words before he even finished them, like acid to his tongue. Because just like that, Raan shot him the ugliest glare that her pale luminescent eyes could muster. So much so that if the silence that ensued was a sound, it would be loud enough to make his head explode. Not that it would make much of a difference considering how empty headed he now felt. God, how stupid must I be to think I'm above an Admiral on her own world? And Tali's aunt, at that!

"Shi- I'm sorry, Admiral Raan, I didn't...I wasn't thinking. It won't happen again. I promise. I just got worked up and I'm tired so..." This time Shepard wrung his hands.

"Watch what you say...Captain," Raan said slowly and deliberately. "You're taking Dyad, and what he says is what I say."

Her air of authority was demanding, and to Shepard's relief, short. It didn't do to argue with a quarian admiral. Both on a personal level as well as a business level. He kept a mental note to take a nap so he didn't make any more verbal slip ups. That's right, I'm just really tired. It is still early morning, isn't it?

Meanwhile as Shepard was thinking, Raan made a dismissive gesture with her hand. "I'd ask your new commanding officer of the Normandy to take serious security measures as well, but they are not under my jurisdiction...I'm sure Tali can put forward a recommendation, or a note?"

Goddammit. Am I going to be cooped up in a room while my friends fight my battles?!

He looked hard at Tali, hoping that he was getting his message through without saying anything. He would have spoke of course, but he didn't want to invoke more resistance from the others in the room. But even if Tali could get the idea, he didn't think she would be opposed at all to Raan's suggestion despite how he felt about it.

"Absolutely," she said. "If it's not too much, I'd like to join first for a short while. Tell the other admirals that I'm just making sure he's alright as a thanks. I'll head back in time to not make anything seem suspicious."

Raan seemed to mull over the idea for a bit but in the end she nodded. "Take some work with you...makes things easier."

The older admiral looked down at her secret agent, she had stopped messing with his back completely for awhile and must've barely realized. "Silont, any more ideas or recommendations involving the situation?"

He gave a tired sigh and leaned backwards on his inclined bed. "I'd done enough damage to hold Chimera off for a short while. But I wouldn't put it past them to send someone to keep an eye out on Shepard's movements. I'd say it's for the best if he leaves as soon as possible."

Shepard internally groaned. Great. It didn't feel normal for him not to be in command. He didn't like it. Perhaps if he was in control of the situation, it would've been easier for him to navigate this minefield he set himself up in.

First I get blown up inside and out, I then revive Tali's father, we get ambushed by a damned mercenary, I get stuck in a god damned wheelchair, I have an asshole fleet coming after me, do I go on?!

He took a deep breath to steady himself. Just another mission. A mission I'm taking the back seat on, but another mission nonetheless. I guess I relaxed long enough, anyways.

After collecting himself, Shepard addressed everyone in the room, "All right, when am I going?"