A/N: Well, I expected this out sooner, but a reorganization at work and problems at home delayed it. On the other hand, I can now give you all a Christmas Present. So happy holidays and get smashed on New Years.

This is the last breath before the Angstrofuck of Doom is at last upon us.

As usual, none of this would be possible without the dedicated assistance of the Editing Gang. Also check my site logicalpremise dot org for a link to a realtime chat room if you have questions about the story.

Also as usual, you should seriously check out Abaddon's Living an Indoctrinated Dream.


'When it first hit me that the Butcher was Shepard, I was actually kinda proud she'd managed to pull of what she had. Then she pulled that goddamned stunt on Ilium and I wanted to throw her out a fucking airlock."

-Admiral Tradius Ahern, interview with Emily Wong


Garrus pried open the access panel of his visor, pulling out a malfunctioning optronics chip and laying it on the desk in front of him. He paused to take a sip of turian brandy, then went back to fiddling with the circuits.

Various LCD panels, interface connectors, bits of electronics, and omni-leads were strewn across the metal bench in an order that made sense to him, along with the technical manual for his visor. The margins were heavily annotated in hastatim clawscript on many pages, dog eared or highlighted passages found here and there.

The rooms the Cerberus woman had put him and his team in were more than comfortable. They'd had custom tailored clothing shipped in, and the team's cyberware had been overhauled and upgraded by the most cutting-edge cybernetic clinic he'd ever seen.

Someone, knowing he'd like to tinker, had installed swing-down overhead lights, a diagnostic panel, and a workbench in his room. His suit had been upgraded with new myomer, weapons, and armor. He'd found a fluid-mount Eliminator dual-role sniper rifle in his weapons locker, a gun that had just come out the month before and was supposed to be limited to the Salarian Union.

The small dispenser in the corner put out just the kind of vehkan and brandy he liked, and the closet in the far corner was full of high-quality, stylish turian armor vests, jumpsuits, and under-armor, all in black, gold, and pale gray, most of them made with armorweave inserts. The hanging hammock was pure simitarian cordage under real vakar fur, and clearly tailored to his exact height.

He would be creeped out by it, but it mostly just told him Cerberus was very thorough. They did their homework. They knew about Butler's lactose intolerance, Mierin's fear of heights, and Angel's sweet tooth for chocolate pastries. And given that they'd known absolutely nothing about his team a few weeks ago, that was… impressive.

He smiled to himself as he soldered another connection on the visor. The bulk of his attention wasn't really on the minor and routine repair job, but on his situation, and that of his team.

The luxurious splendor of the rooms didn't bother him, but it made him wonder a few things, such as just what kind of access Cerberus had to the personal files of his team, and himself. His own military record should have been impenetrable, along with his C-Sec files, but they'd used them to size the clothes they ordered for him.

Knowing that level of information on every team member made him wonder a few more things, mostly about how Cerberus could be utilizing Vigil.

But the accuracy and action of putting it in place so quickly sent its own message. It spoke of a casual assurance that – of course – his team would continue to go along with whatever Shepard was up to. From one point of view that was just arrogant assumption. From another, more paranoid point of view, the message was simpler and more threatening.

We know everything about you.

He flipped the visor over. He didn't really think Cerberus was out to do his team any harm… unless a team member did something stupid. But he had no doubts, after his brief talk with the 'security officer,' Ezno, that if his people got out of line they would regret it quickly. Ezno had the same kind of dead, coolly dispassionate eyes that the trainers in the Blackwatch did – ones that didn't particularly care if you lived or died.

Cerberus's long-term goals were murky to Garrus. Most of what he knew about the group wasn't true anymore, after all. That made figuring out his own next steps more difficult, even if he felt as if he'd been crouched in the mental equivalent of a spring and leap for days.

Part of him was adjusting to the reality that his goals were suddenly attainable. With the amount of power and resources Cerberus had and the Illusive Man's apparent hatred of the Broker, Garrus was fairly sure he'd see the criminal asshole die sooner rather than later. But after years of surviving Omega, he knew revenge was never free. It was going to cost people their lives.

A lot of his team's issues had little to do with the Broker and more to do with Omega being a criminal infested shithole. The Broker didn't frame Melenis, didn't set up Mierin to fall, didn't double-cross Erash. They followed him because he'd taken the fight to the gangs and won, and they continued to follow his lead because he'd gotten them out alive…

…but that didn't mean they would be willing to die for him to have his revenge. Nor should they.

Another issue affecting his mental state was the simple fact of his own survival and the revelations since then. Part of him was still in shock that Shepard was alive, that he wasn't dead, that his team had gotten off Omega, mostly in one piece. He'd spent so much of the past two years slowly losing hope and relying on nothing more than outrage and grit that the sudden loss of fear and privation felt wrong somehow.

He leaned back in the chair as he fiddled with an omni-lead, working on the minor damage to his visor. There wasn't much he could do about how he felt, except give himself time. The other part of the problem was more worrisome in his eyes.

Shepard herself.

The first night after they'd gotten away from Omega, Garrus had gathered the team together to figure out what to do next, and all they'd come up with was to wait and see if Cerberus could be trusted. After the mess they'd just survived on Horizon, Garrus was no closer to being sure of that. But at least they were doing something, instead of just sitting around with a talon up the chute and babbling about galactic peace.

He laid the visor down and took a longer drink of his brandy. The action they had taken had accomplished a lot – probably saved lives. But how it ended up bothered him. Shepard always took the most direct path to any conflict – the action on Horizon wasn't like her.

The Shepard he knew, the one he'd read about, would have done something for the people of Horizon. The Shepard he knew had nearly died on Dirth because she refused to write those people off. The Shepard he'd fought alongside had risked not only her life, but Liara's – who she valued more than anything – to save Neo Berlin from an asteroid strike.

Shepard hadn't done it to stop the loss of eezo, or save the Alliance's economy. She'd done it to save innocent lives. It had been the one thing she'd always held to, the one line she'd never cross, and the reason she'd lectured him so long ago about the reason for red tape.

Shepard cutting out on Horizon without even making a token effort to rescue more people… didn't fit. He knew the hard facts of the matter: they didn't have the capacity to help. The automated ships controlled by Vigil had no need for life support, so it had never been turned on or prepped, and in any case those ships had almost no space for refugees.

Even if they had, there still would have been people left behind. He wasn't quite sure what had changed with Shepard.

Or maybe, he mused, I don't understand her as well as I think I do.

He knew that on some level, he was probably trying to see something in her that wasn't there, something to soothe his own worries. Garrus had always been rebellious and challenging authority – Shepard wanted to fit in and only when her orders got in the way of doing the job did she resist.

Shepard's actions since they'd last fought together he only knew the barest facts about – and considering she was going along with Cerberus, maybe her attempt to 'fit in' had failed utterly and completely. Or perhaps this new coldness of hers was a reaction to lingering rumors the Alliance itself had been involved in her death.

He would have to talk to her about it, and he wasn't sure that was a conversation he was ready for. And if he had misjudged or misunderstood her, it left some ugly questions about whether or not he'd stick around for the long-term.

Before he could finish that line of thought, however, the door opened, revealing Melenis.

"Busy?" Her voice held the barest hint of amusement, as she'd often chided him for tinkering with his gear when he should have been sleeping back on Omega.

He flicked his mandibles. "Nah. Making adjustments to the visor. Shrapnel clipped me from one of those close hits, juddered the rangefinder interface a bit."

Melenis wore one of the black and gold Cerberus jumpsuits, and she sat down on the mesh chair across from him, sighing. "Lucky it didn't penetrate further and put out your good eye, then. I'd figured you would be resting after the fight." She gave him a wry look. "Most of the rest of the gang is already asleep, actually. Why are you still up?"

He set the visor down, and poured himself more brandy. "I thought about getting some sleep. Had a lot on my mind, though… figured sitting down and tinkering would clear my head so I could sleep better."

She smiled a bit. "Did it work?"

He snorted. "No." He sipped the drink, leaning back in his own chair. "…Things are just different than I expected."

Melenis gave a soft laugh. "I would think so, Garrus. We expected to die. It hasn't even been two weeks since we were eating out-of-date survival rations in that warehouse, listening to Vortash bitch about Montague's cooking." Her expression turned sad. "And the world seems emptier now, without them in it."

She shrugged and leaned forward. "What has your mind so agitated that you can't sleep?"

He exhaled. "All kinds of stuff, but Shepard, mostly. I knew her. I'd say I knew her pretty well. Or thought I did." He gazed into the depths of the drink in his hands. "When we first met her, I thought she was just the same as ever. But I can't stop thinking about all those people we left to die on Horizon… and if she's changed, or if I never really got her at all."

Melenis sighed. "I know. I was talking to one of the military types… a man named Pressly?"

Garrus's made a noise, a faint vibration. "Yeah. Her old XO. We never saw eye to eye on some things, but he's… a solid officer."

She ran a hand over her crests. "Yes, he seemed to be. He was upset as well – he said that they'd never expected to have to evacuate people, but he should have foreseen that. He was talking about the capacity of the ships, how the carrier could have taken in a thousand or so people but that it would have been a huge security risk." She shrugged. "He seemed to blame himself more than Shepard, though."

He grunted. "That doesn't surprise me, really. Pressly always was the one to think of things everyone else overlooked." Garrus drank again, then sat the glass down. "I understand… intellectually, I guess… why it happened. What bothers me is that Shepard didn't hesitate to just write them off. She didn't used to be that cold, Melenis. Protecting the innocent used to mean everything to her."

The asari woman sighed. "Yes, I know. But you're only looking at this from where we stand." At his look of confusion, she gave a bitter smile. "Do you remember what you were like your first few weeks after we found you?"

He nodded, closing his eye. The pain of losing Telanya, the sorrow of watching his friends die, knowing he'd been too weak to protect his mate, to save his friends, to stop the body of the woman who'd given him a chance from falling into the hands of criminals… "Yeah, I remember."

She glanced off to one side. "Angel was really upset that at first you weren't even concerned about our own fight, to protect the people. You were stuck in your own pain – and with good reason. You'd just lost everything you loved, valued, and fought for. Our cause wasn't that important."

He flicked a mandible. "I was a mess, that's for sure. But I eventually got over my own tork-shit." He paused. "And you think she's the same?"

Melenis nodded. "I do. We've had years to adjust, Garrus. But something Pressly told me stuck with me. For her… it's only been a few months. For her, while everything has moved on, she's still in the seas of loss. She died – and now she's alive again, and everything she sacrificed turned out to mean nothing!"

The asari swallowed. "Goddess… I don't know how she's even managing to keep herself together at all. She's not over losing her bondmate, and the bonding was a Soulforge – that usually kills you if broken. From talking with Doctor Sedanya, I'm astounded she managed to remain sane."

Garrus hadn't thought of it like that, but Melenis continued. "And to be honest, Garrus… I think she's looking at things on a much bigger scale than we are. She's not just fighting gangs stuck on a station. She's fighting these things, that blow up planets, that destroy entire civilizations. She's having to plan for the Reapers – how do you even fight something like that? And she has no allies among the galactic powers – only an untrustworthy terrorist organization… and us, a bunch of misfits she only knows through our association with you."

Her voice hardened. "As much as I hate to say it, Garrus… she doesn't have the luxury of compassion."

He looked at the floor before raising his head to look at her. "That shouldn't ever be a spirits-damned luxury…but you're right. So the question is how do I fix that?"

Melenis didn't say anything for a long few seconds. "I… don't know. I don't even know if you can. I'm not sure if you should, for that matter. You never fixed yourself, after all, yet you still worked to save the people of Omega."

Garrus traced a talon against his leg aimlessly. "No, I guess I never did fix myself. Stubbornness, cowardice, fear, and… stupidity. All factors, but not really good excuses."

Melenis's expression was a little tense, but she smiled anyway. "I understand… but you need to apply that to Shepard, as well. She's probably not dealing with things any better than you did when you… when we brought you back. And even I can see she's under a lot of pressure."

She stood up. "Tides go as they will, and we all follow in their wake. I just came to tell you that we'll be headed to Ilium soon, and Shepard wants to brief everyone in the morning. It sounds like it's going to be dangerous; you should probably get some sleep. You've been running on grit and stubbornness for a while…"

She trailed off, then shook her head. "…I guess that's part of your charm. Seriously, though - please try to rest. Worrying about everyone else and not yourself make us all worry about you more."

He nodded, then shook his head. "…Yeah." He reviewed Melenis' words in his head, and the darker thoughts he'd been having before she arrived. He'd been focused on everyone else for so long that maybe she had a point.

He was tired. And maybe, given what he felt, he needed to avoid ending up like Shepard. Being so tired that you forgot what the spirits you were even fighting for.

She turned to the door, and was almost there when he spoke. "Mel?"

She didn't know what to make of his tone, so she stopped and turned, watching as he slowly got up. "Yes?"

He just looked at her for what seemed to her like hours, but was only a few seconds, the tiredness in his organic eye vivid and biting. "There are times I don't know where to find the strength to… keep the light going. Times I've done things I shouldn't. Times I've let fear… drive me. I think that's her problem too. Without a… reason, to fight, you lose hope."

She swallowed as he came closer. "I never did give you an answer to what you asked me on Omega, did I?"

Melenis gave him a smile. "An answer? What was the question?"

His voice dropped. "Wasn't really a question, I guess. You said you couldn't be anything I didn't want you to be."

She only looked at him, then her smile took on an edge of pain. "I can't replace her, you know. What she meant to you." He opened his mouth to speak, but she held up a hand. "I know. I know you don't think you're strong enough to go through that again, and I don't blame you."

She stepped closer. "But I know what I am, and what you are. I know death chases us. I know pain, and I know what it's like to have nothing to cling to, to fight for. I can't be… anything you don't want me to be, no matter how badly I want to. But I—"

He cut her off then, his hands wrapping around hers, and his voice was wry. "What is it about me that drives asari girls insane, I wonder?"

She didn't have an answer for that, but found she didn't need one, as she was occupied doing other things after that point.

O-TWCD-O

Shepard woke up, laying evenly on the extremely comfortable bed in her quarters. Tali was laid out on the wide sectional couch, while Jeff had slumped off the end of the couch and was actually laying on the floor.

She smiled as she sat up. They'd been drinking last night, talking about the people who'd been lost along the way. Masterson and Kaiden, Master Chief Cole, the Marines killed on Virmire and lost during the fight on the Citadel. And Haln, Ownby, and Haskins.

It was a good night of reminiscence, marred only by the fact that Jack couldn't hold her liquor very well and had passed out. She glanced around, but didn't see the biotic anywhere.

As she stepped around the slumbering form of Joker, she found her also passed out in a mess at the foot of her bed, and snorted gingerly. Stepping over the girl, she made her way to the desk and tapped the comms panel. "Pressly, anything of note?"

The XO's voice had a trace of amusement in it. "Not really, ma'am. Systems performing normally, and the crew is upset about Horizon but pleased we kicked in the teeth of the Collectors. Ms. Lawson was… unappreciative of most of the crew getting smashed last night, however, and in particular of the antics of Ms. Goto."

Shepard snorted. "People needed to blow off steam. And Jacob didn't seem to be complaining. Tell her about Normandy shore leaves sometime." Her faint mirth faded. "Any updates from Trudy's team?"

"Only that Matriarch Trellani has arrived at Ilium and is in the process of landing. She'll have more news later. The news feeds are mostly quiet, although supposedly representatives from several Clans and the Thirty will be arriving on Ilium soon to discuss the unrest. Might be even more asari fleet assets in system if that happens. ETA is unknown, but our best guess is five to six days."

She glanced at the clock. "Alright. Ping everyone's omnis, we'll have an all hands meeting in… one hour. That includes Garrus and his team." She clicked off and, with a sour smile, nudged Joker with her boot.

The pilot flopped over. "…Urgh. Who turned on the g-force spin simulator…"

Shepard snorted. "Up, sluggard. Time to get a shower and get back to work."

Tali groaned and sat up, checking her mask and then looking up at Shepard. "…We fell asleep?"

Shepard shrugged. "No biggie. I expected Garrus to show up, but he never did. Guess he was partying with his team." She turned and hefted the unconscious Jack into her arms with ease, laying her out on the bed. "You two gonna be able to make it back to your quarters in one piece, or you need a lift?"

Joker grimaced and gingerly levered himself up, the faint whine of his braces barely audible even to her augmented hearing. "No, I'm good. Nine cups of coffee, a long shower, and some bacon… mm. Bacon."

Tali very gently whacked him on the back of the head. "Bosh'tet. Bacon is vile." She ignored his outraged splutter and turned back to Shepard. "Anything going on?"

Shepard folded her arms. "All hands meeting in an hour. I expect to see you both there." She watched them depart her quarters, then turned to Jack. Sleeping, the anger and tenseness of the girl's usual expression was muted, leaving her with a curiously vulnerable look.

Shepard sighed and gently shook her a few times, then shook her a bit harder. Jack's eyes opened blearily before slowly focusing on Shepard. "Guh."

"Eloquent. Guessing you drank a bit more than you could handle, huh?"

Jack coughed, then winced and held her head. "Remind me not to try and outdrink a damned cyborg again. Don't you ever get drunk anymore, grandma?"

Shepard shook her head. "Thanks to fucking Cerberus, I don't think I can. Takes some of the fun out of it, but on the other hand, I don't have hangovers anymore."

Jack's voice was blurred. "Great, sign me up with the chop docs then. My head is exploding."

Shepard pinched the bridge of her nose. "I've got some errands to run around the base. You can use the shower; door is code-locked so no one can get in. Figured you'd rather do that than use the public ones."

The biotic nodded, and Shepard turned to go. "H-Hey. Shepard."

Shepard paused, half turning. "What?"

Jack bit her lip for a second. "…Thanks. You didn't have to… let me hang out with you guys." She glanced at the decking. "Didn't think I'd be able to enjoy myself, but it was pretty cool hearing about the stuff you got up to."

Shepard leaned against the doorframe. "I don't have a lot of friends, Jack. And of those I have, I don't think any of them can get where I came from when I was younger. It's… awkward talking to people sometimes. I don't know how to read where the conversation is going. I'm getting better, but… I still tend to not socialize very much."

She ran her fingers through her hair. "My marines are solid, but I'm an officer and they aren't. It's one thing for the CO to share a drink or two, but not to hang out. Garrus… has spent the past two years with his team. I can't expect him to drop them and spend time with me, even if I am back from the dead."

She tilted her head. "And while I'm actually pretty surprised at how much I like Miranda, she doesn't sound like the kind of person who gets sentimental. So it's mostly Tali and Joker that I hang out with." She pushed off the doorframe. "I included you because it's a hell of a lot easier to talk to you and know you get what I say, even if I fuck it up."

Jack's expression was hard to read, then she gave a small, sad smile. "It's so fucked up that you hafta go through this shit, you know?" She glanced away. "I messed my own life up. I mean, I don't blame every bad thing that happened on my own choices. People used me. People hurt me." She exhaled. "But I know that I did pick some bad ways to live."

The ex-convict stood up. "So why is it that even after you did all the right things, you're still fucking miserable? Does doing the right shit even mean anything, or do you just go on being fucking… alone? Writing poetry no one gets, trying to fit in where nothing fits?"

Shepard gave a slow nod. "…I wish I had a happier answer. No. That's not fair." She met the other woman's gaze. "I did have a happier life. I did have a time where I wasn't miserable. I had everything I wanted, and instead of realizing the shit I had gotten myself into, I told myself I could handle it all."

The older woman looked down at her hands, and her face twisted into a bitter smile. "Maybe if I made different choices, I'd still be there. Maybe if I spent less time feeling sorry for myself, worrying about shit that didn't matter, I'd have seen what was coming at me. But instead, I was sure I knew all the answers."

She looked up. "That's what bothers me the most, I think. I wonder if I can trust my judgment."

Jack didn't say anything else as Shepard left the room.

O-TWCD-O

Mordin Solus glanced over the other figures in the comfortable briefing room, even as he continued to go over the latest set of test results on his datapad. The excursion to Horizon had certainly exposed him to a bit more danger than he was used to, but the Collectors had only lightly focused on his group, expending most of their forces on the defenders.

Besides, you can only die once. He was pleased with his own performance during the mission, and highly impressed with the capabilities of the others.

Seeing Miranda Lawson in combat and observing her skills had been useful in terms of measuring what Cerberus was made of. He'd expected more subtle levels of racism, more suspicion of his motives, more checks on his activities, and found none. It took several days for him to realize that was due to the complete isolation of Shepard's operation from the rest of Cerberus, but it didn't explain why she was here acting as a sidekick to the Butcher.

Observation was the most likely answer.

She was clearly highly intelligent, but also – surprisingly – not in charge of this operation in any way. Despite Cerberus obviously being Shepard's patron, the reluctance Shepard had to following orders was interesting. At the same time, Shepard and Miranda appeared to get along very well.

Curious.

The STG had long suspected there was some kind of tie between the Illusive Man and the shady billionaire Henry Lawson, but there had never been any firm proof. The fact that a near clone of Lawson's known daughter Oriana served as a very high-ranking member of Cerberus was a troubling thing – STG knew of a figure in Cerberus called Miranda, but had never put the pieces together.

Typical, sadly. The STG was getting sloppy as the STG Master attempted to fend off the various plots of not only other intelligence groups, but the machinations of the SIX as well.

He fiddled absently with the tip of the stylus he used to notate further possibilities in research cant as Shepard entered the briefing room, trailed by the wide-set form of Pressly. She was wearing the black and gold uniform of a Cerberus officer… and she had not, he noted with some interest, taken the small gold hexagon off.

Interesting. Potentially troubling.

Shepard and Pressly sat down, and her blue gaze swept across the room, her face expressionless. After a moment she placed both hands flat down on the table and spoke, her voice low but strong. "Alright, people. Horizon was a… gruesome mess in a lot of ways, but despite the losses – of innocent lives and of our own soldiers – I can't disagree with the Illusive Man that we made progress."

She grimaced and her voice had a note of disgust in it. "Now that we know the Collectors are goddamned assholes, we'll put in contingency plans in case they try anything like this again. That being said… and wishing I didn't have to say it… our goals are larger than just stopping a particular raid. We have to figure out how they're doing this, why they're doing it, and how to take the fight back to them. And this raid helped with at least some of that."

She gestured to Mordin. "The Collector corpses we picked up, along with their gear, are being studied. The wreckage of several of their ships is also being examined. What we know about the foe is pretty straightforward: the Collectors are, based on what we've managed to figure out so far, some kind of fucked up Protheans."

Her expression flickered. "The suits they wear let them fly and are roughly on par with reinforced Devastator armor – bounces most light to medium weight small arms fire, pretty much immune to fire, provides pretty damned good shrapnel and spall protection. Their weapons are particle beam rifles – and, according to Vigil, that's probably not the heaviest shit they can bring to the fight."

She looked across the table at Jacob and Miranda, sitting side by side. "It's going to take some time for the Cerberus research teams to make any sense of what we found. On the plus side, I'm gambling the Collectors won't go for another colony right away, given the ass-whipping they got this time. On the minus side, when they do come back they're likely to bring out the big guns… and that means we could be looking at heavy casualties or losing another planet."

She exhaled sharply. "Due to having to wait, we're going to go ahead and pick up the last of our specialists. The Sisters of Vengeance are, based on our best intel, a pair of asari matrons that hold some kind of grudge against the Broker. They specialize in ambush tactics, booby-traps, poisons, assassinations, and especially bombings of all kinds."

She glanced at Garrus. "I've certainly gotten my hands dirty a few times in my campaign against the pirates, and I understand Garrus's team also had a few unintended casualties. That being said our focus is on keeping damage mostly limited to the assholes we're trying to kill. The Sisters don't appear to share that discretion. They started out keeping things clean, but have gotten increasingly bloody and ruthless as time has gone by. For the past few months, they've had a lot of collateral damage, and so has the Broker in trying to kill them off."

She tented her fingers together. "While I normally would not want to work with a pair of murdering terrorists… the fact that I'm working with Cerberus will probably make us out to be just as bad to the rest of the galaxy. The main reason we're going to go after them is they have a lot more information on the Broker and his methods than we do, and they seem to be the ones he's trying to kill the most."

Miranda muttered. "Not to mention they seem to be winning, something Cerberus has never managed."

Shepard flashed her a grin. "Don't be sour, Miranda." She leaned back. "Questions so far?"

Angel nodded. "Just one. I'm a bit concerned about the reason why we're going after the Broker in the first place." He held up a hand as Garrus leaned forward angrily. "Hang on. I understand – the bastard killed your wife, Garrus's wife, and some of your friends. But the Broker doesn't seem to care very much about the Butcher, and not much more about Archangel – he's focused on these Sisters."

He folded his hands together. "Given that they sound like a pair of psychopaths, why not let them draw the Broker's attack and then take out whoever he sends after them, or see if we can trace them back? I don't have a problem with you guys wanting the Broker dead, but more than a few have tried and died. The news of what's going down on Ilium right now sounds… bad."

Miranda's voice lanced out. "While it is certainly true that we do have a potential opportunity to observe or attempt to trace the Broker's activity in regards to the Sisters of Vengeance, we're operating in a data deficit when it comes to localizing him. Cerberus and the Broker Network have been fighting a shadow war for almost twenty years, and we've never gotten close to being able to trail his people back." Her voice became rueful. "Our previous focus on having mostly human operatives put us at a disadvantage in terms of penetration of his own network - very few humans rise to any level of access."

Trudy spoke up. "More than that, guys – the Broker doesn't usually send in so many assets after one problem. He had his people blow up a reactor, knowing that would draw immense pressure and stir up trouble with the Asari Republic. We don't know why he's so desperate to kill the Sisters, and throwing them away in hopes of taking advantage of their deaths is risky."

Angel arched an eyebrow. "Less risky than boots on the ground in a civil war with justicars and who knows what else showing up?"

Shepard shook her head. "Enough. I don't like the idea much more than you do… and I'm not sure, once we get what we need from these Sisters, that I may not take up part of your idea and let them lead the charge into wherever the Broker operates from. But the bigger reason we have to move now is that the Broker is working with the Collectors."

She gestured at Garrus. "Garrus and Tali can tell you how 'reasonable' the Citadel Council is about things their own agents are telling them. I can just imagine how they'd react if I showed up from the dead, working with Cerberus, claiming the Broker was working with Collectors. His people would ruin any chances we have."

She met Angel's gaze squarely. "I also won't lie and pretend we're going in there to just save the Sisters. It's because I'm pretty sure the man responsible for a lot of what I've suffered, Tetrimus Rakora, is going to be there. He's the Broker's primary enforcer and if we can kill him then it will be a lot easier to confront the Broker."

Garrus flicked a mandible. "Once you and I have finished killing him in every way I can think of, how exactly do we 'take the fight' to the Broker? We never even got close to figuring out where he is."

Shepard nodded. "We're hoping the Sisters know – it's the only reason the Broker would be trying so hard to kill them. They may not have a method off the planet, and even if they do, they'd be vulnerable to the Broker's assassins."

Grunt shrugged his massive shoulders. "Talking about it is pointless. Shepard has decided… so why are we here?"

Shepard leaned back. "To go over our potential operational plan. Right now, Matriarch Trellani is landing on Ilium, where she's going to make contact with some local data brokers. We are hoping that they'll be able to localize the Sisters without any trouble, but we're not going to count on that." She gave a rueful smile. "Given how things usually turn out on the Shepard Express, expect that we'll have to find them ourselves."

Zaeed grunted. "Good luck with that shit. If they could just be guddamned found, we'd never have heard of them."

Shepard smirked. "Luckily, the one thing we can be sure of is that they're going after the Broker." She tapped her omni, and the haptic projector in the far wall illuminated. "The Broker's last remaining… ally, I guess, is Nassana Dantius, CEO of Dantius Starsystems. She's one of the Five, the CEOs that run Ilium, and owns about a fifth of the planet. Dantius is dirty, and is in some kind of feud with her sister, who is a big shot Silver Rim slaver."

Shepard changed the display, showing a gigantic skyscraper, with another one in construction next to it. "According to Cerberus and Trellani's sources, Dantius is going to be having a big gala affair – she's invited the fleet commanders of the Republic fleet over the planet to the event, as well as a lot of other big names. With the last Broker base on Ilium taken out by the FTL crash, the only place the Broker's goons could be operating out of is this tower."

Shepard glanced up at Trudy, who smiled and spoke. "Cerberus intel picked up on a big mess – Dantius was behind several jobs done by the Broker to take out her sister's operations. The Broker apparently contracted it out to a Remembrance Dancer Clan, then had a third party go and kill most of the Dancers to clean up the evidence."

Trudy's voice dipped in tone. "Shockingly, this didn't go off perfectly – one of the Dancers got away, a drell that Cerberus claims to have dealt with before. One Mr. Thane Krios."

Miranda nodded, a grim look on her face. "Yes, that is correct. He was one of the team that went to retrieve Shepard's body."

Tali's voice was incredulous. "I thought he died in the ceiling collapse back at Omega."

Trudy shook her head. "Apparently not. He reached out to us several times over the past year or two, and we finally provided him with the proof he needed to get revenge. Thane claims Dantius is working with the Broker, and that he's sending a super-powerful kill team, led by Tetrimus himself, to deal with the Sisters. Thane and some of his Clan plan to get in the way. I'm gambling the Sisters are going to know Tetrimus is coming… and that's where they will be."

Shepard spoke again. "We don't know exactly what we are going to be headed into on Ilium, but it's likely to be a fucking mess. The planet's on the edge of civil war, and the capital Nos Astra is going to be as dangerous as Omega. We've gotten reports of STG, justicars, and some other players on the ground, so this is likely to be messy."

"Our goal is simple: find the Sisters and get them the hell out before the Broker gets them killed. Focus on extraction, not on anything else – given all the asari fleet power around Ilium, and the beaten up condition of our fleet after Horizon, if things go south in a big way we'll be stuck."

Garrus flicked a mandible. "And Tetrimus?"

Shepard's fist clenched slowly. "I seriously doubt we'll be able to do this without killing off the Broker's heavy hitters. In fact, I'm planning on it, which is why we're not just going in in one big wave." She tapped her omni-tool again. "We're going to need several teams. Garrus, Grunt, myself, and Zaeed will form the heavy combat unit. The DACT will shadow us and DFA once we locate the primary target. If Tetrimus, Tazzik, or any other crazy fuckers show up, we'll deal with it. Once we locate the Sisters we'll cover the retreat as the rest of you get them out of there."

She pointed at Miranda. "Miranda, once again I'm putting you in charge of a medical extraction team. Doctor Sedanya, Doctor Solus, Melenis, and Krul will go with you. When we find the Sisters, your job is to patch them up and get them out of danger."

She turned to Kasumi. "Goto, I want you, Jack, Mierin, Sidonis, and Tali on a secondary support team. You'll lead them. Shadow us and take out anything coming at us from behind. Most of you are snipers, so that's your call on when to engage. Tali will handle drones and any hacks we need. Jack, if Tetrimus shows up, play havoc with his biotics if you can to give us an opening." She paused. "Once we're done and are moving out, you'll fall in with my group for the escape."

She turned to Taylor. "Taylor, I want you, Kiala, Dost, Angel, and my Marines as hot backup if things go bad. If one of the other teams gets into a firefight, you get to pull them out, and when Miranda's team is getting out, you'll fall in with them to make sure they escape.

"With any luck, Trellani will be able to get us enough information to find the Sisters… if not, we'll have to assume they're going to be at the Dantius gala clusterfuck and try to find a way in." She placed both hands on the surface of the conference table. "In either event, things are going to be messy. Broker kill teams are usually turian and salarian mercs, with very few asari or batarians. They're very tech heavy, with lots of anti-biotic toys, and focus on sniping and shock combat."

Trudy spoke up. "According to the Illusive Man, most of what's left of Cerberus's ground forces are going on this mission – ten battle-suits and a reinforced company of soldiers. They're going disguised, but aren't supposed to deploy unless Trellani is compromised, or if we need serious help."

Shepard nodded. The Illusive Man had told her he didn't have much in the way of military assets, but she'd thought he had more than that, although ten battle-suits were nothing to exactly sneer at. "Good. I assume they have their own chain of command?"

Miranda spoke. "Yes. General Petrovsky will be on the scene, in orbit. Hopefully we won't require the use of those assets at all." She pushed her hair back. "Shepard, this is clearly only an outline of a plan, but it seems somewhat thin on details."

Shepard shrugged. "No more than the 'plan' we had for Omega. With as much mess as there is on Ilium right now, any plan we make with almost no real data is going to go completely to shit." She turned to Pressly. "How long to reach Ilium?"

He frowned, tapping his own omni. "…Two hours to the Veina Relay, and a three hour FTL burn to the Kashci Relay. If we go in full stealth and expect to stay that way, I'd strongly advise dropping heat and charge in the Zelene System next door, and come into the Tasale System off the main trade lane."

Shepard spent a moment on her omni, looking at the details of the Crescent Nebula before nodding. "Good idea. So, call it six hours to orbit from when we leave." She gestured to Doctor Sedanya. "Issues?"

The asari folded her arms. "Jack, Mierin, and Sidonis had their surgeries yesterday. I'd prefer them to have a least another week of recovery, but I know time is tight. Assuming they don't stress anything and have their cybernetic packages sealed inside an omni-gel bandage, they should be good to go." She glanced across the room. "Jacob, however, is still severely injured."

The burly black Marine sighed. "Doc, I've fought through worse."

The asari shook her head. "Captain, I strongly doubt you've been struck by weapons that vaporize whatever they hit before. You still need more time on the nerve regenerator machines or you'll never walk without a limp again, not to mention the condition of your arm and the burns from your armor melting." She turned her head to face Shepard. "He's not going to be fit for anything for at least a week, preferably two."

Shepard pondered that. Angel spoke up. "It's been a long time since I formally led troops in the Alliance, ma'am, but not so long since I had to lead the Angels on Omega. I've been a BDO before."

She nodded. "That's true, but it does leave your team without a biotic, and that could be a serious liability."

The heavy voice of Randal Ezno rang out. "In that case… I would suggest that I accompany your backup team." She glanced up at him and he gave a thin smile. "I am a biotic as well as very experienced in direct combat and troop movements."

She arched an eyebrow. "I thought you were only concerned with the security of the base."

He rolled his shoulders. "It's rather boring." An amused note entered his voice. "And unlike most of your team, I've been on Ilium before, more than once. I can hold my own."

Shepard rubbed the back of her neck. "Miranda? Thoughts?"

The other Cerberus operative gave a weak smile. "Mr. Ezno is a… formidable biotic, and is more than capable of holding a line of battle. However, he's very recognizable as a Cerberus operative."

Shepard shrugged. "And you aren't?" She smiled and turned back. "Taylor, sorry, but you're on the bench for this one. Start drawing up a training and exercise program for both the troops and the non-military members of the group for when we get back."

Taylor squared his shoulders. "Yes, ma'am."

Shepard leaned back in the chair. "Questions? Ideas?"

Kasumi spoke up. "How exactly are we going to get on the ground on Ilium, Taicho? I somehow doubt they will not attempt to block traffic."

Shepard nodded. "The easiest method is have the Normandy stealth through the atmosphere, and drop the shuttles off outside the capital… along with the tank. That also allows for a hot pickup, assuming we can pull it off."

Pressly grimaced. "Keeping in stealth is going to make our heat endurance pitiful, ma'am. The new Normandy has a much larger heat budget and better heatsinks, but generates more too."

Joker shrugged. "Once we drop them off, I can head up toward the arctic area of the planet. It would put us out of the main scanning areas, too. Unlike the old Normandy we can do a slow heat dump even while stealthed… if we're really careful."

Pressly ran his hand over his balding head. "And if we mess it up, we'll light up like a Christmas tree."

Shepard shrugged. "Work it out. Any other questions?"

Miranda tapped notes into her datapad. "When do we launch?"

Shepard's head swiveled to find Trudy, who sighed. "Matriarch Trellani said it would probably take a day to get settled in, and one to two days to localize the target. The meet at Dantius Towers happens four days from now. In six days, the rest of the asari fleet – their Second Fleet, we believe – will arrive to reinforce the lockdown."

Shepard nodded. "So, six days at the max. If we're still there when that fleet arrives, getting out will be lots of fun." She laid her own datapad down. "Everyone make plans to depart at 0700 the day after tomorrow. I want to be onsite well before the shit at these towers goes down. Call it a hunch."

O-TWCD-O

"You are cleared for landing, dock forty-seven, Nos Astra General, Spectre Vasir."

With a smile, Aethyta Vasir watched as Tela responded. "Acknowledged, control." She clicked off and scowled at her aunt. "I thought you made arrangements to get past the blockade on your own, Auntie."

Aethyta nodded. "I did. Expensive ones. And if we can't hustle the girls out of here without an incident, that's how we'll get out of this relli's nest." She tapped the controls and angled the ship downwards, toward the night side of the planet. "It's also why no one is going to be checking out your story as to why you're here in the first place."

Tela nodded sourly, before checking her gear again. "Fair enough. Still a bit concerned, though. How is this going to work?"

Aethyta's smile faded a bit. "Carefully. It would be the height of stupid for me to go walking around Ilium with the Black Blades, as we kinda stand out in a crowd. You, on the other hand, are investigating something – make something up – and looking for information. You'll meet with Liara and Telanya in their data broker offices and set up a meet, and then we'll proceed in a ground transport – a cargo hauler or something where we can't be seen."

The other Vasir nodded. "And then what?"

Aethyta adjusted the flight path slightly, coming through the clouds and over the wide bay that Nos Astra was pressed up against. She switched the landing computer on and shrugged. "Depends on how they want to play it, Tela. If I can get them to leave without a ruckus – if we can convince Liara, at least, that Shepard is possibly still alive – maybe we won't need to do much of anything."

Her fingers moved over the haptics of the control panel, her voice sad. "But given what they've gone through, they'll probably want to kill Tetrimus before they go. We'll have to come up with something once we know how shit on the ground is shaking out."

Tela ran a diagnostic on her armor and shook her head. "We don't have much time until the Second Fleet jumps in-system, you know."

Aethyta snorted. "Pagh. Dantius and that other clanless trash will pay someone off before that happens." Her smile thinned into a narrow grimace a moment later. "Speaking of clanless trash, be careful down there. Situation's a goddess-damned mess likely to go to the depths in a split second, and we're going in blind."

The small vessel cut through the hazy atmosphere over Nos Astra, the city illuminated in a thousand spires of delicate silver, pale purples, and gentle, graded blues. The vast width of the seawall surrounding the harbor was dotted with GARDIAN towers and banks of GTS missiles, while the bay itself was studded with pleasure craft. Nos Astra's outer ring of slums and 'indentured servant facilities' gave way to the glittering beauty of the metropolis as Aethyta smoothly brought the ship into the docking slot assigned to it.

Tela frowned as the ship came to a stop. "I'm not really up-to-date on this place, Auntie… what's up with the clanless?"

Aethyta exhaled. "A lot, kiddo. The clanless idiots wanted to run a planet by themselves, but didn't realize they were being used. Most of the CEOs in charge of Ilium are in debt up to their crests with the Thirty, and when one gets too uppity the Thirty would call the notes due."

The older asari got out of her flight chair. "One of the CEOs, that crazy Dantius bitch, ended up borrowing from the volus to pay off the Thirty, then paying off the volus by selling drugs, optronics, and other stuff to Eclipse, and from them into the Traverse. Kept it quiet for a long time, but Spectres eventually figured it out."

Tela nodded. "I remember some of that – another Bau / Talid double team. What's that got to do with this?"

Aethyta checked her sword. "Short version? Dantius's sister sang like a zhongfish, and now the CEO is in huge trouble. Ilium wasn't expected to be successful, and now that it is – and the Broker's goons are all dead – the Thirty plan to fix that. Lay all the crimes on Dantius, and then strong-arm the rest of the CEOs into doing what the Thirty want."

She glanced out the cockpit window sourly. "The reason you need to be careful is that some idiot clanless might see you and think you're here to strong-arm the CEOs. I'm pretty sure that's actually why the justicars are here… not that you'll convince anyone of that."

Tela walked out of the cockpit into the small inner segment of the ship, where the Black Blades were already checking weapons and armor. She turned back to face Aethyta as the older asari came out of the cockpit after her. "So what's my plan? I mean, you said meet with Liara and Telanya, but where?"

Aethyta tapped her omni-tool. "At their offices. They have a fairly secure suite of rooms in the South Silver Corporate Omniplex, just south of downtown. Get there via aircar – there should be rooftop parking – and try to keep a low profile. Once you're inside, they're on the fifth floor."

Tela nodded slowly. "And are they stable?"

Aethyta shrugged. "Hard to say, kiddo. Losing a bondmate… doesn't leave you in a good place, and when you drown yourself in hate and revenge… I suspect that does some damage." She paused, then met Tela's gaze directly. "I'm not sure it matters, either. Unstable or not, that's still my daughter. Right or wrong, good or bad… I'm getting her out of this place. And if you're right…"

She turned away, hand dropping to the sword at her hip. "…if you're right about Shepard, Tela, maybe I can actually get her life turned around."

Tela inclined her head. "And the clanless girl, Telanya?"

Aethyta snorted and her lips twisted in a sneer. "Clanless. Like I give a fuck. If she's loyal to Little Wing, fine, if not, whatever happens is what happens." She shrugged. "You have to get to their office before we can figure out the next step." She tapped her omni. "I've called up an aircab, should be here in five."

Tela nodded, and exited out of the hatch in the side. As it closed, one of her acolytes looked up from sharpening her warp sword. "Your niece is a little flaky for a Spectre. I expected a more professional outlook."

Aethyta scowled. "Smiya, when the fuck have we ever been professional?"

The other asari smiled, the white-painted marks on her dark purple skin twisting. "Never said we were, Mama Fish. But I expected something more… impressive?"

Another one of the Black Blades gave a grunt. "Saw her on Cirian XI. She's not real good with a blade, but she can kanquess fast, and her biotics are sharp. Give her another century or two and she'll be scary enough for you, Smiya."

The asari named Smiya sheathed her curved warp sword and strapped on her chest armor. "Whatever, Dinua. Just saying the situation is flaky as it is… is this Spectre girl of yours going to go along with things? I mean, she is a Spectre – what if it turns out Little Wing blew the shit out of a bunch of people crashing that starship? Will she play along, or try to arrest her?"

Aethyta rolled her eyes. "Not happening. Tela is… not like that." She cleared her throat. "Alright, girls, plans are simple. If things go well, Tela convinces them to drop going after the Broker, they drive back here, we take the fuck off, and you all get to have wasted your time."

The assembled asari laughed bleakly at that, and she continued. "If things go how I expect, Liara will have a plan by now to go after Tetrimus. We'll probably have to figure out how we fit into it… and if she's actually got a shot at this, or if it's just staring at the waves."

Smiya shook her head. "It's Tetrimus. Unless her 'plan' includes 'dropping a building on him' or the words 'orbital bombardment,' any plan she comes up with is going to involve us engaging him en masse." She folded her arms. "We've killed some really nasty bottom-feeders over the years, and I'm not scared of anything that walks, but you know at least two or three of us are going to die before the fucker goes down."

Aethyta smirked. "I survived fighting the fuck."

Another one of the Black Blades snorted. "No disrespect, Mama Fish, but you still had your crests handed to you." She paused. "I came along on this little jaunt to get out of the house, since my bondmate died. To stop moping."

Her voice took on a harder note. "Like I said, I'm not saying I'm scared of the fuck – bring him on and we'll kill his ass like we did everything else in our way. But I need to know why we're all risking death when we could just grab Little Wing and get the hell off this commoner shithole planet."

Aethyta folded her arms. "Girls, if this was just about Liara, I'd pull out a shock rifle and tranq her, and she'd wake up once we were somewhere safe. But there's more shit on the table than just my daughter's life, or mine."

She bit her lip. "The Broker is tied up with some of the same shit Saren and Benezia were, and he's the one advising the Council. My own grudges aren't the point, and neither are Liara's – I'm here because killing Tetrimus will get us closer to the Broker himself. And he has to be stopped. I can't go into all the details right now, but…"

She gave a condensed version of the situation with the Reapers, of how Aria's people had seen the Collectors meet with Broker ships, and then about how husks showed up at Eden Prime and in the video on the extranet from Horizon.

"I won't lie. Tetrimus isn't likely to be alone. I'll probably not be able to talk Liara out of going after him, and we're going to have to cut through the craziest, scariest fucks the Broker can throw at us to succeed. But if we don't stop this shit now, it's going to end up with Thessia looking like Horizon."

The group was silent for long seconds, before one of them spoke. "…That's some heavy waves to drop into the bay like that, Mama Fish."

Aethyta sighed. "I know, Manvai. And it shouldn't be up to a bunch of old fuckups like us to fix this… any more than it should have been up to us to fix lots of shit in the Republic. But now you know why I called you all here. Why it's important. All you have to do now is choose."

There were a few more seconds of silence, then the assembled blade mistresses all drew their hands into a gesture of siari agreement. Grim smiles and amused, rueful expressions spread across every face, and Dinua smirked as she spoke their own personal mantra.

"We're Blades. We don't run away from danger, we are the danger."

Smiya looked around and then nodded at Aethyta. "Very well. One last crazy and likely suicidal adventure. But no more, and you're paying for the drinks when we're done."

She turned. "Blades, move out in trios, one at each quadrant of the dock, and watch for problems or justicars. When Mama Fish gives the order, it's time to get to work."

O-TWCD-O

"…Clear of the relay, Ginnister Tetrimus. Twenty-nine hundred k drift. Sensors nominal, no nearby vessels."

Sitting in the dimness of the bridge aboard the stealth-cruiser of the Broker, the black-cloaked form in the command chair merely nodded. "Have the rest of the ships enter the system in the lower elliptic, behind the gas giant Thail." He paused, then flicked a mandible. "And inform Ms. Dantius that we'll be in orbit shortly and will be awaiting her call."

As the communications officer bent to his console, Tetrimus leaned back, tilting his head in the direction of the bulky figure to his right. "Your thoughts?"

The huge, armored krogan standing next to him gave a single rumbling grunt before speaking. "This mission of yours seems excessive in both depth of power and preparation. Okeer always taught his pupils that overestimation of an enemy's power was just as unwise – and perilous – as underestimation."

Tetrimus nodded. "Perhaps. Then again, your old teacher is dead, Thax. And it is probably due to the fact that he underestimated who killed him."

Thax Varun gave a krogan shrug, the heavy shoulders whining due to the powerful cybernetic arms. " 'Perhaps' is a good choice of words. Okeer was never hasty, and I cannot shake the feeling his death was simply too… obvious. I still maintain we are missing something."

Tetrimus gestured to the viewscreen. "Then perhaps another time would be best to discuss it, as the Sisters of Vengeance are the goal here, and I am not overestimating their danger."

Thax gave the turian in the chair a cool look, his bulbous blue eyes narrowing. "I only agreed to this somewhat ridiculous task on the chance that I would have an opportunity to engage the Butcher in combat, to avenge my old battlemaster. The Sisters I leave to you and the rest of the rather eclectic team you have assembled."

Tetrimus flicked his mandible again, but the comms tech spoke up. "Ginnister, Ms. Dantius has agreed to meet tomorrow morning at first meal, and has arranged a berth for a pinnace at Nexium Skyport, dock slip 90B, all fees paid."

"Very good. Inform her we will be there and the situation clarified once we arrive." He turned more fully to Thax. "I leave it to you to prepare the ambush as needed. I am willing to admit you are better at such things than I… while I need to speak with the others about their roles."

Thax's chuckle was almost amused, his baritone voice edged with the same polite mockery Okeer's often held. "I am overjoyed by your magnanimity, my good friend. I shall endeavor not to disappoint."

Tetrimus got up from the chair and walked slowly to the lift at the back of the bridge, but paused upon reaching it. "It isn't me you need to worry about disappointing, Thax, but the Broker."

Thax frowned sourly as the turian cripple entered the lift. "…perhaps. A fitting word indeed." Turning his attention to the console in front of him, he tapped the omni-panel and pulled up everything the Broker Network had discovered about the Butcher.