A/N: Sorry I haven't updated in a while. Term finals are coming up and I had a crazy idea: hey, how about I try focusing on them? Ye-gasp! What a concept, I know! For those of us living in the US, happy Thanksgiving! It's a little early, yes, but I thought I'd say it anyways. In any case, all of you have a good day, week, month, or however long you wish!

-Daedalus

Business men they drink my wine. Plowmen dig my earth.

None of them along the line, know what any of it is worth

Chapter 27

Homecoming ptI

Shepard was waiting in the war room just out of visual range of anyone using the QEC. Liara had been running down his family. His mother, father and eldest sister hadn't been a problem. The first two was through a quick query to Alliance fleet command. Sonja was still on Rannoch at Shepard's house and was second on the list to call. If Wrex heard about it, he'd go on a murderous spree hunting down whoever hired Kirby. His mother would have ordered her entire fleet to run them down like dogs. Isabella was on a shipping lane somewhere in the stellar void on another run. Amanda was on one of the farther human colonies helping with reconstruction.

"Admiral Shepard," Markus heard Liara's soft voice say. "there's something I need to discuss with you."

"I gathered," his mother's voice was notably irritated, "but why are you contacting me on the QEC at four in the morning?"

"It has to do with your son."

"Markus? What happened?" Her voice was now worried. She had undoubtedly heard about him leaving Rannoch. He shouldn't have been surprised. She had kept close tabs on both him and his sister for most of their military careers.

"That's the problem. We can't take the risk of a transmission being intercepted."

"That's why you're using the QEC... fine. Now tell me what happened to my son."

"We also can't risk anyone overhearing this conversation."

He heard how she snapped at her crew, a sly, somewhat proud grin crept up Shepard's face. "Everyone! Clear the bridge! Now! Simmons, shut the recorders off." She waited a few seconds before speaking again. "Okay, they're gone. But tell me something, why didn't Markus call me?"

"It's a bit of a long story." That was Shepard's cue. "Sorry 'bout this mom," Markus rolled around the corner and into view. "But I had a bit of a situation on Omega."

"Omega? I thought you and Tali were on Rannoch."

"Right... okay... from the beginning then..." It took him nearly half an hour to tell her what happened over the last week.

"Markus, I'm not questioning your judgement, but are you sure about this?"

"I am. And this is for Tali's sake as much as it is mine. If they try to come after me again it's likely they'll try and go through her."

"I understand well enough. All right then. What do you need from me?"

"Just put on a good show for the jackals when they start chasing."

"Won't be a problem. I just hope you plan on telling your father and sisters."

"Along with the crew. There's a, um... when I, after I..." He started fumbling his words.

"What's wrong?" Despite her children having moved out more than a decade and a half ago, his mother's nurturing tones hadn't accumulated a speck of dust.

"Once I uh, when I'm legally dead, we won't be able to talk as often."

"Really? I talked to you more during the war than most of your tours of duty."

"Mom, this is serious. We'll only be able to talk two or three times a year. And by 'we' I mean anyone in the family."

His mother's shoulders went slack. The hints of humor in her face vanished. "So it's thatbad. Okay. I uh, oh jeez. Do you want me to look into Kirby's history?"

"No," he flatly stated, "whatever you do, don't go near it. I mean it."

Hannah sighed. "All right. I take it the same goes for Sonja?"

"For god's sakes, keep her away from it. I know her, soon as she gets any information she'll run headlong at them and get herself killed."

"No problem. Now you better call the rest of the family before they hear about your 'death' from a paparazzi hound."

"You're right. Just, keep an eye open. Love you."

"I love you too, son. Be careful."

"Sure thing, mom. Bye." He closed the QEC. "Okay, Liara. Sonja and Wrex are up next."

Shepard moved back out of visual range while Liara began entering the frequency and coordinates to open a transmission to Rannoch.

"I think I have it."

"Oh, hey there Liara." Sonja's tone was fairly upbeat. "How's Markie? Been a while for a... what's wrong? Why isn't he calling me himself?"

"Are you alone?"

"Oh no. God no. Please, Liara. Please tell me he's not dead."

"Colonel, I understand your worry, but I need you to answer. Is there anyone close enough to overhear us?"

"Listen to me good, you blue bitch... Where. Is. My. Brother?!"

Sonja would just get more and more antagonistic. He needed something that would calm her down and fast. It took him a minute to remember that the two of them had a code set up if they needed to talk through an intermediary like this. He gave himself a mental kick in the head as he opened his omni-tool to send Liara the instructions. He heard her tool ping a quarter second after sending the message.

"Colonel, I understand your frustration but I need to know if there's any way you can get us some Hard Torrent beer. All we have on the ship is Black Dirt ale."

Sonja went silent for a few seconds. He figured she was trying to figure out why Liara said that. It was a bit of a non-sequiter considering the conversation, but he was sure she'd figure it for a lapse in his judgement.

"Yeah," she finally said. "It's just me."

"Okay." Just like the last call, Shepard rolled around the corner and into view.

"Sorry about that." Liara gave the two of them some privacy.

"Markus, what the hell is going on? Why the secrecy?"

"Kirby was after me the whole time. Used Garrus to lure me in."

"Suǒyǒu zài yǔzhòu zhōng de xíngxīng tuī wǒ de pìgu hé bàozhà! How bad?"

"Got two scars out of it and I need a new cover ID... For the rest of my life, but I mean other than that, yeah I'm fine. How's house sitting been?"

"Yeeeaaah... about that... there's a little... hiccup."

"What did you do?"

"It wasn't me! And Wrex didn't start it either."

"Sonja, just tell me what happened."

"Well..."

A few days earlier

Sonja, Alex and Wrex were lounging in the living room in Shepard's house. Sonja had gotten some furniture shipped in with Shepard missing. Mostly basic things, a couch and a pair of chairs that according to Amanda would work with most of the color schemes their brother would pick. Alex had ordered a 75" TV that was mounted above the fireplace. Some of the other odds and ends included a utility cooking appliance, a sink with a dish rack and a refrigerator with built in freezer. All of the kitchen appliances had been a dark gray color, the surface was physically smooth but looked somewhat rough. The person who delivered it assured Sonja that you could throw every adhesive against it and none of them would stick. If it did, all she needed to do was give it a quick wipe with a piece of cloth. She hadn't had a chance to test that so far, but then again she wasn't looking to test the validity of the claim.

The three house sitters were watching a repeat of a biotiball game on the Alliance Sports Network, the Amaterasu Dragons vs the Texan Hellcats. Urz meanwhile was laying across both Alex and Sonja with his head in the latter's lap. Sonja was scratching behind his ear with one hand and holding her beer with the other.

"I just don't understand how you enjoy this," Wrex grumbled. "Can't get behind a sport where no one breaks a bone. Or a krogan opera."

"Bah!" Alex's beer was almost empty, meaning she would be getting a refill soon forcing poor Urz to adjust. The varren of course would take over her spot as soon as she got up. "This was the most watched game in Alliance history. It even hit the galactic theater like nothing else! More than a dozen asari and turian colonies."

"Still boring."

"You'll have to excuse Wrex," Sonja said. "He likes punching things, clawing things and shooting things. You know, the refined social tastes that all krogan have."

That got a chuckle out of both Alex and Wrex.

"What can I say," the Krogan said. He had the krogan approximation of a coy grin. "I'm a pillar of etiquette and the elegance."

"Whoa. Never heard a krogan use such big words. You sure you feeling okay big guy?" Sonja jested.

"Your brother is a wise teacher."

"Whoa, did you call Markus 'wise'? Man you must have hit your head on something hard."

"We do that regularly. Mostly against other krogan."

"Hey, while I'm enjoying this game as much as the next man here, I'm getting hungry and all we have in the fridge is beer."

Wrex gave an affirming grunt. Alex gave a more verbal answer. "Yeah I'm in."

Alex did a search of nearby restaurants that served levio compatible food. It took her a few minutes to find somewhere that they could eat at. Sonja meanwhile just kept scratching behind Urz's ear and watched the game, an empty beer in her other hand.

"Here we go, City Ten has a couple of places we could eat. Hm..."

"How expensive are they?"

"It's not that. It's the names. They're all numbers."

Sonja offered a guess. "Geth?"

"Geth." Alex confirmed.

The humans grabbed a pair of jackets. The territories the Geth inhabited on Rannoch were more extreme in terms of temperature. Most of it was cold. It was a mutual agreement the quarians made with the geth. Geth had no preference for temperature until it reached over 300 Celsius.

"Urz, come," Wrex barked. The varren jumped down from the couch and ran quickly to the krogan's side.

Sonja was the last one out, locking the door behind her. What she saw though made her and the others' jaw drop; it was three dozen quarian marines and two bulldozers.

One of the quarians stepped forward. He was dressed in a pale off-white suit with a red clothed hood.

"Ah, good. Colonel, I was hoping you'd be here to see this." She couldn't quite remember where she had met him, but her gut told her he was an asshole. Of course, part of her gut was being influenced by his heavily armed escorts and demeaning attitude. "After we first met I wanted to fix your little attitude problem."

'Oh fucking bag of donkey dicks.' It was Gerrel. At this point, she was going to get an earful from her brother. There'd likely be political repercussions, but she was more worried about her brother. And of course, he'd likely tell their mother and she'd get an earful from her too as well.

Urz dropped low and started snarling at Gerrel. She had to admire his perceptibly. Animals were often a better judge of character than most sentients.

"I suggest you keep your feral animal on it's leash. I'd hate to see it get hurt."

"That 'feral animal' has more common sense than you, you inbreed pyjack!" Wrex defended.

"I wasn't talking about the varren." Urz's snarl deepened as Wrex's own sneer joined the stare down.

"Wrex," Sonja warned, "don't do it. We'll deal with this. The usual way."

"No, I don't think you will. You three are violating quarian territory, illegally seized land that has been designated as an industrial zone. Frankly, this is a good thing. The land here isn't safe for habitation. It's toxic for organic life over prolonged exposure."

"Really, guy? I've worked in planetary geology for over a decade. There's nothing hazardous about this place. I mean, the windows will take in the midday sun pretty bad, but that's about it."

"Hmph. You know nothing of our world, off-lander. Or how it works."

"And you know nothing about land. Six years college at ANWU, fronter scouting on twenty-two different worlds. Long story short, I know dirt and I know it very well. This land is safe."

"Well, I spoke with the head of Agriculture Office. He disagrees with your assessment. Visin! Start the bulldozer." The large yellow and black vehicle started up with a hearty growl. "Romm, Raal, get these trespassers out of here."

Eight quarians moved to pull Sonja, Alex and Wrex out of the way of the dozer. Four were for Wrex alone. Two more tried to corral Urz, who kept jumping out of their entrapment every time they thought they had him.

Sonja flipped one of the marines over, then rammed her knee into the other. Briefly looking back she saw Wrex pushing three of them with the third on his back, trying to subdue him but to no avail. Alex, however, was being pulled away by the two who initially went after her.

What she couldn't see was the house being pushed sideways as the dozer plowed into it.

"Sir, it won't go down!" The operator yelled over the roar of his vehicle.

"Then hit it again!"

Sonja smacked both her attackers in the jaw, taking a pistol from the second one. She fired a round from the Arc pistol to one of the quarians. The round stuck him in the leg but he went into spasms for a few seconds before collapsing on the ground where he continued twitching for a few more seconds. The weapon had been modified to incapacitate organic targets without killing them. Painfully so it seemed.

She trained it on the driver at the same time she heard an M-3 Predator cock behind her head. For a brief second she wondered if she'd been a soldier for too long that she could identify what kind of weapon it was, simply by the sound it makes when a fresh thermal clip is put into the sink dump.

"Go ahead Colonel. Nothing would make me happier right now."

She slowly raised her hand with the stolen pistol in it rather than risk a bullet in the head.

"Well I don't know, if you got that stick out of your ass I'm pretty sure you'd be feeling much better."

"Okay, could you just tell me; do I have a home to come back to right now?" Markus asked interrupting his sister's explanation of what happened over the last few days on her end.

"Yes and no. No, the one you built is nothing more than a pile of rubble. Gerrel planted explosives all over it and turned it to little pieces of dust. Yes, you do have a house. I contacted the geth. A quick name drop and filling in with what happened and they got you something. Nice beach front property. Inland beach of course. I know how you're all worried about being washed away. They said 'we have repaid 3.43% of our debt'."

"You're serious about Gerrel? He actually gave the order to arrest you and crush the house?"

"Virgins have been less excited about getting laid than he was."

"Fucking bastard."

"Guess it's a good thing you're dead. Maybe now he'll lay off."

"Let's hope. Send Joker the new landing coordinates. We'll be touching down in little over a day."

"Will do. Figured you should know that Alex was sent back to Alliance space. As a political dignitary, they couldn't throw Wrex off-planet as easily."

"So where is he right now?"

"Holding cell in Rayya."

"Yeah, that figures. How much to get him out?"

"Six hundred fifty thousand. Damned extortion of you ask me. And Gerrel isn't the only one. I heard Izzie bitching about how the Foreign Shipping Office tried screwing her over. She said that they offered her half her fee for twice the amount of cargo."

Markus sighed. It wasn't all that hard to figure out what was going on. "Shouldn't be surprised. Three hundred years trying to take your home back and someone else does it while making peace with the same people who you've been waging an on-off war with. Despite the geth giving them a serious assist on getting started, the feel like they need to not only catch up with the other Council races, they need to stick it to them as well for all the crap they've taken."

"So, it's a one-way pissing contest. Awesome. How long you think they'll be at it?"

"Few years. Wouldn't bet much more than five in total."

"Great. I take it you'll be swinging by Rayya beforehand?"

"Well someone needs to bail Wrex out. Honestly, I'm surprised he hasn't been thrown behind bars sooner."

"I'll get going then. I know you still have to call the rest of the family, plus a few of your old crew."

"Thanks, Sonnie." She closed the QEC.

He sighed as he stepped back. Two down and it had only taken forty minutes so far. By the time he would be done, it would be halfway between lunch and dinner.

The last week had not been kind to him. He was roped into hunting down a condemned killer, beaten up by mercenaries, beaten up by the aforementioned killer, stabbed by the again aforementioned killer, and while he was away his new house, which had cost him a financial arm, had been demolished. He sighed again.

"Long week," he muttered to himself.