John,

I've been hoping for you to send word every day since we departe, and so you can imagine how happy I was when you did, but I must say that I was quite unpleasantly surprised to read of your new alliance. I had already been worrying why you hadn't messaged me yet, but I certainly could not have predicted that. I'll admit that it took me a while to understand - as you already know, there is bad blood between Cerberus and my people. Even more so than there is between Cerberus and any decent being already , that is. But in the end, however distasteful I may find this association, it likely does not hold a candle to how you must feel about it. Because of this I'm pretty sure you're already keeping this in mind, but still: Please be careful. You cannot trust them. They might see it in their interest to make use of you for now, but that won't last forever, and you can be sure they will stab you in the back the moment they think they'll benefit from it. There is also another problem with this: Now that you're associated with Cerberus, even if it's purely by necessity, I've no idea how I'm supposed to convince the admiralty of letting me join up with you again. You have a good standing with them, especially after your help on Freedom's Progress, but even that can only make up for so much. But that is a problem for later, and I suppose I will just have to figure something out. For now, the mission I mentioned is about to begin very shortly. I will not be receiving or sending any messages, for how long I cannot say yet. I wish I could tell you about it, but as I've told you it's highly confidential. So all I'll say is that I'm happy you found Garrus and that he is well. Please tell him so, I was very worried after he and Liara simply disappeared.

Hoping to see you soon,

Tali.

John sunk back into the chair cringing. The stilted writing made him want to squirm, being as it was a surefire sign of how awkward Tali had to have felt putting together this message, weighing her words carefully. He would know, given that he'd felt the exact same the day before when he'd finally gotten up the nerve to message her with the latest news. "Quite unpleasantly surprised..." , he thought. Tali was many things, but overly assertive wasn't among them, and so this nice little phrase could no doubt be taken as code for "absolutely livid". Not that he blamed her; hell, Garrus had reacted quite similar. He hadn't even told Hannah yet; first of all, he wasn't sure how, and the other thing was that John had come to the conclusion that it'd be preferable to keep the Alliance in the dark as long as possible, and he didn't want to put his aunt in a conflict of interest. So he'd simply sent her a message saying that he was alive, that he was sorry about the hurt he'd caused her but that he couldn't tell her was he what doing right now either, topping it off by stating that he hoped to meet up sometime soon. So far there hadn't been an answer – she probably thought some sick asshole was taking the piss,and he couldn't blame her either.

And despite it all, he thought as he got up and began to undress, simply throwing the stinking clothes into the corner for now, "Hoping to see you soon". She really was an angel . Hoping the same, believe me.

Careful not to soil the thin carpet, he discarded his blood reddened shirt; at this point it had mostly dried, but still. After depositing it nicely on top of the pile made of his other clothes, he inspected the deep scratch across his left side where a Vorcha's combat blade had made it through the soft part of his armor. He'd gotten entangled with a couple too much for his liking during their hectic defense of the slum's ventilation system, and they had once again proven to be a bunch of persistent little fuckers. The one who had wounded him had actually been the one he'd dispatched first – only to discover, a couple seconds and four more of them later, that a chopped off arm apparently wasn't enough to keep a Vorcha down for very long. He put two fingers down next to the wound and stretched, hissing from the pain; still, it wasn't as nasty as it looked, just like Chakwas had said.

She'd also said that he should stick around and let her put on a dressing of course, but he wanted to take a damn shower so he'd just grabbed some waterproof band-aids and fled to the elevator as Mordin launched into a passionate and very fast tirade about what frustrating patients military men could be sometimes.

Mordin Solus – quite the catch indeed. John snorted as he made his way into his tiny bathroom. The man seemed about as likely to talk his ear off than he was to actually shoot the enemy, but it was just as well. First things first, the fact that the Salarian had managed to run a clinic on Omega without paying protection money to any of the local crime syndicates- not even Aria, which was what impressed John the most – spoke volumes about the dangerous man hidden underneath that egghead interior. Additionally, he actually had some quite interesting things to say. Particularly his musings on the potential origins of the virus that had wreaked havoc on these people. John hadn't missed Miranda's curious expression when the Salarian had been so quick to bring up the Collectors as potentially responsible - he'd have to ask her for her thoughts on the matter later. Actually, he'd meant to speak to her anyway, so all the better.

She was to get the drop on him though, his omnitool chiming just as he was about to step in the shower. Sighing, John walked over an answered after registering that what was incoming was a pure voice call.

"Commander, I've had word from the Illusive Man. There's been a new development."

He looked down on his butt naked self, cursing inwardly. "I suppose it can wait for a moment?". John was pretty confident that it could - after all, Miranda would've just have EDI contact him directly in case of an emergency- and her answer confirmed just that. "Good. I'll be with you in ten, then."

"Commander."

The connection closed, John started making his way back to the shower before a thought struck him and he stopped.

"EDI?"

"Yes, Commander?"

"You have cameras surveying this room, don't you."

"As the ship's artificial intelligence, it is important that I am aware of all of it's rooms at all times. This includes your suite. However, I assure you that I am not spying on you, Commander."

"Well even if I want to believe that, it's entirely possible that the Illusive Man's got a subsection of you under his direct control with an override code, doing his dirty work, and you wouldn't even know it. Right?"

There was an unusually long delay before EDI's answer came, surprising John once more how well this machine was able to convey emotion, or whatever equivalent it appeared to have, even with it's limited expressive capabilities.

"This is essentially correct. I do not have access to my own core programming."

John lingered in the entrance of the bathroom, intrigued despite his nakedness. Not that the machine would care anyway. "That's...gotta be frustrating for you."

"I am surprised that you would attribute the capability of such an emotion to me."

He leaned against the doorway, the cool metal against his back and arse making him flinch a little. "Well, I don't know. I'll be honest, I don't understand you. But you certainly behave as if you had them, so I suppose it just kind of...comes naturally. To act as if you really have them, I mean."

Another longer pause. "Thank you, Commander."

He raised an eyebrow. "Not sure for what, but you're welcome. You're dodging the question though."

When EDI answered, John could've sworn that he could make out a hint of irritation in the voice. "I would prefer it if I had the capability to access my core programming, yes."

Deciding to stop prodding her – did it make sense to think of EDI as a she? - John pushed himself off the wall. "So I suppose I just have to accept that TIM could potentially be taking a peek whenever I take a shower. Marvellous."

"I fail to grasp the significance, Commander."

"Well, EDI, since you're a machine and don't have a body, perhaps... -"

"After all, the Lazarus project has already left Cerberus in the possession of any and all pictures of you in the nude that the Illusive Man could ever desire."

John stood still for a second, directing an exasperated look at EDI's hologram hovering at her station by the door.

"Thank you, EDI. You really know how to make a man feel better."

"You are welcome, Commander. Signing you out?"

"That would be best."

He shook his head and opened up one of the band-aids so he'd finally be able to get that shower. Sassed by a damned computer. Unbelievable.

Enjoying the warm water on his body, his thoughts drifted back towards Tali. If she actually manages to link up with us, EDI is going to be an issue. "Fucking hell...", he swore out loud. Damn the council for all this. I was a damn good soldier. I followed my orders and got the job done, and I didn't have to worry about this kind of fucking bullshit. But no, better to stick their heads up their asses and leave me hanging to do it all on my own. And they're gonna nail me for it, too. There was no doubt in his mind that the Alliance would throw him to the wolves as soon as they learned of his deal with the devil – officially, at least. John didn't except them to actually start going after him, at least not as long as he was still a Spectre, however long that might turn out to be. He harbored no illusions of the council having any qualms about condemning him for something they'd effectively forced him into.

At least he had Garrus with him, he supposed. But even he wasn't in any better of a mood than John himself; it seemed whatever had gone down exactly on Omega had scarred the Turian deeply, and not just his face. Most of his answers were tense, and when he joked it was hard to miss the strain behind it. But there was no point in pushing it; these things took time, as John knew all too well. Often enough they stayed with someone forever.

…...

A minute later than he'd promised, the door to Miranda's office slid open and John entered, his short hair still wet.

"Sorry I'm late. Had a little conversation with EDI."

Not that he had to explain himself to Lawson in any way, but since he intended to improve their working relationship relaxing a little would only do good. Not that it appeared to have any immediate effect.

"Of course, Commander."

"What's the bad news, then?"

She stopped for a moment and looked up to him, then she reached across her desk to hand him a datapad. "Another colony has been attacked."

That was an entire order of magnitude worse than he'd expected. "What!? When!? Where?"

" King's Point, a mining colony in the Segway cluster. Five thousand souls lived there. Contact was lost eight hours ago, we had eyes on the scene two hours later." She made the statement almost as calmly as she ever said anything else, but failed to keep her features completely even.

If she's irritated with Tim's bullshit, that's something at least.

"You don't seem too happy with being out of the loop. Neither am I, by the way. Why did we only get informed just now?"

She sighed. "Cerberus detected the attack as it was underway, but the Illusive Man decided not to inform us since we were currently engaged in the slums and couldn't have done anything anyway, even if we'd been in range."

John could've exploded, so in order to try and keep his temper in check he simply jumped out of his seat and walked over to the window, looking out towards the lights of Omega. Some time went by before he managed to speak without swearing."I see the Illusive Man's reasoning for not telling us, but this was the first and last time. I will be the judge of what is relevant for me, and when. Make sure to tell him that. " He turned around. "In the meantime, did he send someone else? Learn anything?"

Miranda nodded, not seeming fazed by his anger at all, but John had the sneaking suspicion that rather than her usual disregard for other people's opinions, the reason was precisely him and her agreeing completely for once. "Actually, they did. They managed to capture one of the 'seekers'."

John raised his eyebrows and whistled through his teeth, his anger diminishing, drowned out by surprise. "That's...quite the feat. How'd they pull it off?"

She shrugged. "They utilized remote controlled mechs."

"Clever. That doesn't deal with the Collectors themselves, though. How on earth did they get out of there?"

"They weren't chased." She reached over and scrolled down on the datapad. "They kept as far away from them as they could manage, secured their objective and withdrew without any indication of the Collectors even taking notice of their presence."

He read through that part of the report, gears turning in his head. "Did that unmanned shuttle have a stealth drive? Other cloaking technology?"

"It did, but we don't know if that even works against the Collectors. It certainly didn't do the SR-1 much good, but the system has been approved upon in the meantime, so..."

John nodded. "So we don't know." He rubbed his chin. "Maybe they simply weren't looking too closely...they've no reason to assume anyone on the ground would be anything other than paralyzed and helpless. Perhaps they're just neglecting their security. Judging by this reconnaissance, they're not even bothering to set up a perimeter." He shrugged. "No point in brooding over it. The only thing I do think we can be pretty sure of is that these seeker drones, or whatever they are, aren't remote controlled and don't report back any sensory data. If they did, they'd never have gotten out of there with that thing. Where's it now?"

"On it's way here, actually. The Illusive Man is very pleased that we've managed to get Solus on board, and he wants it on the Doctor's table as soon as possible."

John nodded judiciously, Tim was of course correct there, even if he still felt sour about having all this happen behind his back. "I take it they're bringing it here to Omega then? No point meeting somewhere in the middle of the void, after all."

"Quite. Should be here tomorrow, around 11:00 am ship time."

"Good. I take it any necessary refueling and restocking has already been taken care of?"

"Of course."

"Then I want ship and crew on standby to depart from 10 am on. We're making for Korlus, I want any potential intel this Warlord Okeer might have as soon as possible." He got up, moving towards the door. "And schedule a ground team meeting at 8, comms room. We'll need to come up with a strategy to get this Jack out of the Purgatory."

"I take it you don't trust the Blue Suns to honor the deal we've made with them?"

"The deal the Illusive Man has made with them, and damn right I don't. They're mercenaries, and we have enemies with lots of money. On top of that, me and the Suns aren't exactly friends at this point."

She nodded knowingly, having been present for those clashes. "We'll come up with something."

"No doubt." He halted at the door. "Listen Miranda, we didn't have the best start, so I think it's necessary to spell it out: You've been doing a good job, both in the field and as first officer. Our differences aren't gone, but as far as this mission is concerned, we'll be fine."

That seemed to take her by surprise, her mouth standing half open for a moment before she managed a reply. "I'm...relieved to here it, Sir."

John nodded and turned; he'd meant what he said, but this was enough mingling with Cerberus for now. He still wasn't sure if Miranda was a sociopathic alien hater or simply an idiot like Jacob. Not that she'd struck him as the former during their conversations these past couple of days, but John didn't put it past her to be playing him. He'd just have to keep an eye on her until he hopefully got through her exterior one day. Content to let the matter rest for now he started climbing a ladder to the CIC deck. Not that the elevator hadn't been drastically improved from the SR-1, it had, but moving his body a little could only help with clearing his head before talking to Dr. Solus.

He found the Salarian crouching on the floor, pottering about with something in the corner, underneath a ventilation grill.

"Ah, Shepard! Was hoping you'd visit. Little time to talk earlier."

"Yes I was hoping to talk to you as well...but what are you doing down there, exactly?"

"Wait! Just a moment." He picked up a screwdriver that had been lying on the ground next to him and levered something with it. One second filled with metallic scratching and the sound of something breaking later, Mordin let out a triumphant "Ahaa!" and got up, quickly stepping over to the desk Shepard had been leaning on and holding out his hand, sticking it into John's face, a small contraption in his grip. "Bug. Whole room wired. To be expected, of course."

"Yes, I noticed too. EDI says she's the ships AI, so she needs to see every room at once. The visible cameras and microphones should suffice for that though, one would think."

Mordin twisted his alien features into a smile, exposing his numerous small teeth. "Yes, yes. Already spoke to AI. Fascinating entity. Mostly convinced it won't kill us in our sleep, too."

Seeing John's concerned expression, he let out a short laugh and waved his free hand placatory. "Jest, Shepard. Actually very sure AI on our side. At least for now."

John nodded and blew some air through his nose, not even sure what he'd even wanted to talk about anymore after this verbal assault. "I haven't seen that type of bug before. Only found the larger ones in my cabin. I was already suspecting those were only ever there in the first place for me to find."

Mordin nodded avidly. "Reasonable inference. Cerberus should be well aware of distrust, as well as limits of technological abilities." The Salarian stowed the bug away in a drawer. "Precisely what I was hoping to speak about, actually. Must admit, I'm curious. Working with Cerberus must be difficult for you, given personal history."

John grimaced, exasperated by the way this damned topic just seemed to follow him everywhere today. "The STG knows about Akuze?"

The Salarian shot him a skeptic look. "Aware of Akuze, of course. Nothing known about Cerberus connection, though. At least not by me. Hear quite a lot still, but not all. Was referring to the Edolus- Nodacrux operation."

John rubbed his chin; technically this was Alliance intel, but at this point he supposed it mattered little. "There's good reason to assume that Akuze was a Cerberus operation. They set it all up, probably in order to observe the threshers, or the effect of their acid. I don't rightly know. I just bagged the guy behind it, I wasn't privy to the interrogations."

Mordin scratched his chin, leaving John to wonder wether that was a somewhat universal thing or if he'd picked it up from humans somewhere. "I see. Fits the bill, I'd say. All the more interesting you're willing to work with them."

"I'm not exactly 'willing', Doc. I just don't have much choice,the council is turning a blind eye. To the collectors, to the Reapers..."

He shrugged. Mordin leaned slightly forward, speaking in a conspiratory tone. "Not being listened in on here. So, will let you know: STG more independent than you might think. Regularly investigates potential threats regardless of political leadership's approval. More...open minded than council. Vigilant."

"Are you saying that the STG actually believed my reports?"

The Salarian shrugged. "Hard to say. No longer in STG myself, as you know. Definitely investigations ongoing, though. Could ask, if you'd like."

John found himself nodding profusely. "Please do. I'll take any allies I can get, however loosely. Especially if they're not a bunch of damn terrorists. I do wonder, though, what about you? You'd think a Salarian would have reserbations about working with a violent human supremacist group, but you didn't seem to need much convincing to join up."

Mordin half turned, casting a glance out the window. "Am...old, Shepard. Not by your standards, but my people's. Not many years left. Seen much, done much." He shifted his weight back to the table and blinked. "Some of it...controversial. Done with that. Want to do straightforward work. Why I was on Omega, running clinic. Helping people. Now. Collectors are a threat. Maybe even Reapers. Place to be." He waved a hand around the room, pointing at all the arcane machinery, more than half of which John had no idea of what it was or did. "Also, simply excited to work with well funded laboratory again. Clinic work fulfilling, but oftentimes somewhat... intellectually dull."

John failed to suppress a barking laugh at the casual way this man had just dismissed a job people of all species dedicated their lives to mastering as 'intellectually dull'; but if anyone had walked the walk, it was Mordin Solus, he supposed. Finally he remembered what he'd actually come by to say.

"I see. Listen, there's a reason I dropped by besides looking how you're doing. There's been another attack. Have you had time already to take a look at the videos from Freedom's Progress?"

The Salarian allowed himself a small smile. "Did take first opportunity to watch, yes."

"Then you already know about the Seeker drones. Well, they captured one."

Mordin's eyes widened, and the man started walking up and down his little laboratory. "Astounding! Cerberus quite capable of delicate operations. Punctually, at least. Should report. Hmmm...not prime importance now." He swiveled around. "Seeker Drone!Still functional?"

"Uh...not sure, actually. It will be here by noon tomorrow."

"Excellent! Will need to prepare...set up container...there! No, need that place for-" He turned around. "Shepard! Still here?"

John opened his mouth to speak, but the Salarian didn't let it come to that.

"Perhaps best if you'd leave me to it. Interesting conversation! Speak more later?"

He snorted. "Sure thing. Have fun, Doc."