Change of Attitude

I stare out the window at the Geth Dropship as it's blasted into pieces by the Alliance Frigates holding the soldiers we assisted. I scratch the back of my head, dressed simply in the Cerberus black tee and white cargo shorts, as I watch while Silver stands behind me processing several of my recent requests.

"I was looking forward to having the dropship, too bad we couldn't arrange storage." I mutter.

"Logistics priorities were shifted during our mission. It would appear that we have an ally investigating a mutually important target." Silver responds lowly. I blink and nod turning slowly and looking around the room. For the moment we're alone, Morinth went off to take a shower and Jacob had apparently decided to fully move into Kasumi's room while we were planet-side. I guess we've made all the progress we can, haven't we. I'll have a good amount of sentinels from the supplies we stole during that raid, offloaded before we blew up the dropship. Everyone's loyalty missions have been completed except for Tali and legions, but we can get those two handled relatively quickly if I remember correctly. I think we're as ready as we can be to start this thing well and truly. Well Shepard will decide this anyway, I gotta get in contact with my old friend.

"Hello Geth." I say, after the encryption programs run their course and the call connects. Soon-to-be-Legion answers with what sounds like a pleased trill.

"Hello Delta-Specialist. We have found your assistance to be extremely beneficial to consensus." Ah, right, Silver uploads his experiences.

"I'm pretty glad to hear that, I can only hope this will make future negotiations and integration amongst organics easier. Unfortunately, that's not the purpose of today's conversation."

"We are currently unable to join you in N7, despite the online tournament we discussed previously. We are investigating a classified subject of import to the Geth."

"Oh don't worry, I know and I don't blame you. We've been charged to do the same actually. I just wanted to say to be careful. Don't go in far alright, I have no doubt Shepard is going to send us that way next, seeing as we have little else to do besides that job, another one, and collecting materials for some ship upgrades." I sit back on my bed, shifting my head to look at the door as, speak of the devil, Shepard steps through eyebrow raised as she looks at me. I flick my thumb and pinky out on a fist and hold them to the side of my head, looking at her through the depolarized visor of my helmet.

"Acknowledged. We will delay our initial investigation, but be aware we cannot hold off for long. The period of accessibility is short." Shepard's brow stays raised arms folding as she leans against the wall beside me.

"Got it. Shepard's looking to talk right now so I'll see you later Geth." I say as I grab and pull the helmet off, the line cutting as Legion gives his own goodbye. I put the helmet down beside me and look up to Shepard, dropping to lean on my knees. "Wassup Shep?"

"What friends have you made without me knowing?"

"Quite a few, but hey, they're not bad and you'll meet them eventually I think." I say with a smirk.

"That so hm? Well don't let them distract you alright? We have a serious job to do here." Her face grows a little stony as she says this and I nod.

"I got it Shep. Got a list, checked it twice, gave presents to the ones who are nice. Just some stuff I need to handle during these next few missions we have and I'm all set for the final job." I cough lightly, reaching over for some water and taking a sip.

"Alright, well I want you on standby. We're syncing up with the Migrant Fleet in 22 hours to help Tali out with her trial, and you're part of the ground squad along with Garrus and Jack." Shepard pushes off the wall, turning to walk away. I blink then jolt straight up.

"Wait, what? Shepard, what about that Reaper IFF we're supposed to grab?" I see her pause and turn back to look at me with a gentle sigh.

Shepard shakes her head, arms folded again. "We're not handling that just yet. I know it's a sensitive subject and could develop into an issue but I'd rather have Tali get some peace of mind before we pick up that particular piece of tech. I have a really bad feeling about it and I'd rather not risk anything until we're as ready as we can be."

No, no no, we need to, we might lose Legion and I need Legion and Tali if we're going to fix this damn Geth-Quarian bullshit. "Shepard, you just said so yourself, it's a sensitive, potentially volatile situation with that IFF device. We should grab that first and then help Tali, the hearing is postponed until she can arrive to present and defend herself isn't it, so it's not likely to proceed or worsen until we get there in the first place. We should handle the more volatile scenario first then take care of the benign one."

Shepard's eyes slowly narrow as I speak, her arms tightening slightly when I finish. I realize my mistake a second later. "How did you know the specifics of her court summons? I know I didn't share them with you or anyone else and Tali made it sound like she only told me."

"I hang around in the maintenance vents and stuff a lot Shepard, you should know that by now."

"I do, which is why when I asked EDI where you were when Tali told me she said you were here in the armory." Shepard takes a single step closer and I don't like the implications. "Are you spying on us Delta?"

"No! I mean, yes, sometimes, for pranks and such but that's the extent of any spying I do. I just have good instincts."

"So do I Delta, and you sounded a lot more sure about it than just going off 'instinct'." She says stepping closer, eyes narrowed. I can see her searching my face and that sucks because I am not a great liar, and I have a short-lasting poker face. I can't help but avert my eyes and when I glance back I see hers narrow a slight bit more and knew I made a critical mistake. "There's something you're not telling me isn't there? Is this something to do with that data dump you got so long ago?"

I wince, partly in pain at the memory and partly in guilt. "Look Shepard, it's a long story and I don't really know where to start or even if it's one worth starting. Just, please, trust me when I say that our time is most effectively spent getting that IFF, helping Tali and then handling 1 thing after that."

"Uhuh. And what is this one thing you have in mind Delta?" Shepard seems to relax slightly but her face is deep-set in commander mode.

I sigh, placing my hands on my hips as I pace back and forth slowly. "There's an ally I've been in contact with that is also investigating the Reaper IF. I was just talking to them when you came in and they said they were close to it. I told them to hold off for a bit because we were going after the same thing and could provide support. I was under the impression we didn't have any other priorities." I say with a frown as Shepard watches me. "I was going to tell you that I had an ally in the area once we were on our way, I saw no harm in not saying anything beforehand because my ally is after different data than what makes up the Reaper IFF. Specifically, data relating to countering viruses."

Shepard unfolds her arms after a moment, shaking her head as she turns around and starts walking out of the room towards the CIC. "You're telling Tali about what's going on." Shepard commands over her shoulder as she leaves. I sigh, glancing at Silver who has been silent this entire time.

"Nope. All you." He says with a quiet, staticky chuckle. "We are not going anywhere near her and her shotgun." Right after that he turns away, dropping some crickets into Gary and Jr.'s tank for them to eat before pulling out the vid screen and game console.

"Hey, is that Fleet project we talked about complete?"

"Yep. Local copies applied, modifications complete."

"Alright, hopefully this will help things." I shake my head, muttering under my breath as I step towards the CIC to take the elevator then decide not to and just slide into one of the maintenance shafts. Sliding down through my now familiar paths, I'm suddenly thinking of how soon it's going to be Joker stuck going through the wider ones. I sigh and stop by the vent to Engineering, making some noise as I open the vent and slide out. I shove against the floor, nearly catapulting myself to my feet as I stand behind the Normandy's three star engineers. I wave at Kenneth and Gabby then point to Tali as I talk.

"Hey you two need to borrow your boss for a sec."

"Well just don't piss her off then aye? Blood tends to mess with the circuitry."

I grin but notice Tali's eyes narrowing. No idea if it's in mirth or suspicion. Either way she walks with me as we step outside the engineering bay and then eventually into the cargo hold. She has her arms folded, watching me as I walk around. I sigh and just decide to start.

"...I really don't know how to start this so imma just say it. I convinced Shepard to put your trial on hold and handl-."

"ARE YOU SERIOUS!? YOU BOSH'TET," The next words out of her mouth were staticky and not translated. I don't know if she turned her translator off or maybe she's using a bunch of new, private swear words not really used outside the Migrant Fleet? I really don't know but I am morbidly fascinated at the amount and intensity of the new vocabulary she's using. OW!

"TALI NO! STOP PUNCHING ME!"

"WOULD YOU RATHER I SHOOT YOU, YOU ASSHOLE!? I COULD BE EXILED FROM MY HOME AND YOU HAVE THE NERVE TO PUSH FOR US TO SERVE SOME RACIST XENOPHOBE!"

"I'M TRYING TO MAKE THE BEST USE OF OUR TIME DAMMIT, I KNOW ITS BAD BUT IT CAN'T GET WORSE AND THEY'RE NOT GOING TO EXILE YOU UNTIL YOU'VE AT LEAST PUT FORWARD YOUR DEFENSE! IT CAN WAIT, THE REAPER COULD SELF-DESTRUCT OR WHATEVER CAUSED THOSE SCIENTISTS TO GO DARK COULD DESTROY OUR ONLY WAY THERE TO THE COLLECTORS!" I frantically try to defend myself both verbally and physically. I tried to just block her punches but when I started getting the pattern of her attacks she started mixing it up with knees and kicks. Then I tried just hugging her from the side to pin her to my body but that resulted in a headbutt and several kicks to the shin and one narrowly avoided to the groin. Finally, I decided 'fuck it' and just gave her a push to get some distance and ran, some stray tool or device left in the cargo hold soon flying after me and hitting me back of my leg. Tali chased after me and the two of us ran around the cargo hold for a long time. I don't know how long, because I was more focused on dodging whatever Tali threw at me (which was a lot of surprisingly hard, heavy metal stuff) and clambering over/moving the crates that were in the area to try and slow her down. It took a good while of just straight up running, shouting, throwing dodging, a few times tripping when I didn't dodge something and then fighting off Tali. After a long time Tali and I are standing back near the entrance of the cargo hold. Tali has her hands clenched into fists at her side, shaking tensely. I am rolling back and forth on the balls of my feet, watching her closely for any signs of her grabbing something to throw, rushing forward to punch or something else aggressive.

"...You're kinda cute mad." DAMMIT MOUTH! I immediately duck as she throws a wrench I hadn't seen, letting out a nervous chuckle just to feel a sharp jolt of electricity against my arm, jerking to the side as Chiktikka pops up and zaps me. "Not fair, I did not consent to a threesome!" I jerk away again, turning and putting some distance between me and the zap-happy drone as Tali just folds her arms and glowers at me. I'm running again, doing much the same but have the handicap of trying to outrun a hovering drone that automatically zaps me at a certain distance, while also clambering over crates. Least I'm getting my cardio these days.

After about 5 aggravating minutes of running I slow down when Chiktikka fades. Looking over at the entrance I can at least tell that Tali isn't as mad anymore. Goddammit, I can't wait for her to see Legion and find out I know him too. At this point everyone's so familiar with Silver (and our pranks) that I think Tali will be the only one to really object to Legion. I slowly walk back over to her, arms on my hips as I stop in front of her.

"Alright, got it all out of your system? Because if you're still mad at me, I might as well say some other stuff to help you exorcise all your grievances with me."

She scoffs, eyes narrowed at me.

I roll my eyes before looking at her again. "Tali, c'mon, we're teammates you should know by now that I'm not trying to screw you over on anything. I know this is a tough situation, you're worried, confused, a little scared and you'd rather get it handled now rather than later but there's only so much we can do in the time we have and I'd rather we get done everything of important with as much time efficiency as possible."

She seems to raise a brow before unfolding her arms, putting one hand on her hip as she shifts to lean on her left leg and gestures with her right arm towards me. "Are you kidding? You've been treating this mission like a joke this whole time and now you're trying to be 'efficient', and looking for special treatment? You've been getting special treatment this entire time actually, why the hell should I be okay with you getting more, especially when it involves sacrificing my time and effort from what I need!"

"...I haven't had to step in to make things go according to plan before, okay? Look, we're with Shepard because we trust her judgement and decisions, right? Well I did, and I still do don't get me wrong, so I didn't have to make deals or bargain or do extra work to get the leeway I needed. I could afford what materials I wanted on my own, Mordin is a goddamn genius and is spending far less time on the projects any of us gave him than we actually think. Like seriously, dude devised the anti-grav components and a suitable power source for my suit in 5 minutes. The projects I ask him for help are relatively small and with blueprints already devised he spends even less time working out kinks than I would even think possible. Everything else that's large-scale I already have patents pending and relevant research, tech prototypes and blueprints in a controlled distribution. In a year or so, once factories start really pumping out my designs, I'll start getting a reliable source of income that could entirely support that frigate I stole."

Tali stares at me, folding her arms again. "Alright, so you haven't been sharing the information you got with us, but the galaxy at large."

"Yes and no. I'm working on some fun things for us too, but the majority of the information I have is best used in quantity. I haven't had anything useful for the ship because the armor and shield upgrades proposed and used are much higher quality and an entirely different style than what I had in mind. So, outfitting the universe with better gear so that everyone can last just a bit longer against the Reapers when they get here."

Tali blinks, looking down then shudders. "Right, them..."

I nod, shifting on my feet. "Yeah, them. I'm building for the endgame Tali, always have. Here we are now and its close, very close. Once we get this IFF, we handle your situation, the ally we're picking up will have something to take care of too and once that's done we should be able to tackle the Collectors."

"Ally?" She says, looking up again with a curious brow. "You made a friend we haven't met and they're at this Reaper?"

I shrug, throwing on a smirk. "Yeah, a gamer friend I made. Dude said he was a special operation unit, Silver did me the favor of tracking him to the system where our IFF is located when I called to see why he ditched our N7 tournament."

She shakes her head with a sigh. "I really hope you're joking about that..."

"Only partially. I already knew he wasn't going to make the tournament, just called to make sure he didn't do anything before we got there."

Tali looks back at me with a blank stare then shrugs and turns, walking back to engineering. "I'm going back to my station. Don't bother me anymore until we reach that Reaper."

I chuckle and walk over to one of the vents, sliding in and climbing through the guts of the ship once more.

I pop out into the armory, blinking as I see Silver and Morinth and Silver watching a video of Tali chasing me through the cargo hold with her untranslated tirade playing over it.

"What is she saying?" Morinth asks, flicking her eyes to me as I simply shake my head and sit down beside them, wrapping my arm around her waist. I grin widely as she almost immediately leans into me, chuckling.

Silver straight up laughs for the first time, shaking his head and pausing the video. He immediately stands and starts walking out. "The only thing I'll say is that the mildest thing she did was call you a space barnacle."

I blink as that processes. "Che cazzo?"

Zero: This is one story I don't think I can let die. I've done too many jokes and have too many awesome readers (everyone), but it's a slow one. We're getting to the end now though, and then I get to spend a few years slowly going through ME3. (Gives me an excuse to buy the game again anyway so woot)

Delta: I'm on life-support augmented by tea, donuts, and college exams.

Zero: And a healthy amount of stress.

Delta: Our amount of stress is far from healthy.

Zero: Hush you, we'll take a nap or something.