When Lola and Joker took off in their Kodiak, James turned to see his new companion. Link. Last year, after they'd killed the Reaper on Rannoch, Lola had pulled him aside and told him about the geth seed in her brain. Only Joker, Garrus and Doctor Chakwas had known about it at the time and Lola told James that he needed to keep an eye on her during missions, just to make sure she wasn't too indoctrinated.

He never believed that she would accept a geth in her brain because of indoctrination, like Joker apparently had thought, but then again he wasn't sleeping with her and sharing his life with her the way Joker did.

Now Link was free, self-aware and ready to help with Admiral Hackett.

"Lieutenant Vega, do you have a plan?" He asked.

"We need to find out where Hackett is staying first, then find a way to get him out to Greenland for a few hours and back without him or anyone else noticing."

"We may not need to take him all the way to Greenland. I can go back there and bring the equipment. Then we can do the transfer in his bedroom and no one will ever know."

"We need a self-aware geth for it."

"I'll do it. There is absolutely no need to involve anyone else." Link looked after the Kodiak and his voice sounded like...

James slowly panned to look at the geth.

"Link, what do you know about love?"

"Everything Jo knows about it. Why?"

"Because I swear I can hear it in your voice. It's a little creepy. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for your right to self-determinate, but it's really weird to hear emotions in a geth's voice."

"That's why I am Link," the geth actually winked at James with his flashlight eye. "The Catalyst told Jo almost the same thing: it had been created to act as a link between organics and synthetics, but the Leviathans went about the task all wrong. They created a synthetic and asked it to explain itself to them. Does it surprise anyone that it didn't work?"

"And your way is the right way?"

"Not my way. Jo's way. She didn't ask synthetics what it's like to be us. Instead she trusted me with something no other organic would be comfortable with, I think. Full access to her mind and body. I may not have been self-aware at the time, but I have the data now and can process it at full capacity. And I have more than just data on thought processes and chemical changes in an organic body. Jo taught me the meaning of emotions. She kept nothing from me. I'm the real link because she changed my coding, made me part-human."

"And it shows. You look at her like Grunt does, or Alice. And I can't believe I just said that," James considered Link's body, which wasn't really equipped to show emotions, but Legion had managed to a certain degree, and Link was even better at it.

"I know what 'mother' is, Lieutenant," Link once more looked up at the sky where the Kodiak disappeared. "She may not be ready to hear me say it, maybe she never will be, but I will always know what she is to me."

"You know all her thoughts and feelings, right?" James grinned. "What does she think and feel about me?"

Link sounded smug when he said:

"I would never betray her trust by revealing her private thoughts to anyone who isn't Home."

"Is that what she calls him in private?"

"It's the essence of what he means to her. It's not what she calls him, it's what she feels for him."

James had to admit, Link's refusal to betray Jo's privacy made him really respect the geth.

"You really are part-human," James nodded in acceptance. "And I have to admit, it makes it a lot easier for me to relate to you."

"I am Link," Link bowed his head a little in happy agreement.

"So," James shook the weird conversation off and returned to business a hand. "I have my own Kodiak parked over there," he pointed at the parking lot. "Take it and get what you need from the lab. I'll message you where to meet me once I know where Hackett is staying. We'll see from there."

Link nodded and they parted ways. James returned to the palace and asked around. Hackett hadn't left yet. He was waiting for Jessica Akiyama to leave the conference room where the future of the galaxy was being decided at this very moment. Hackett, surrounded by two Lieutenants and three bodyguards with N7 signs on their collars, held his own conference in another room, apparently using the time to attend to some business. When James found the group, Hackett had several people on the screens reporting about bandits, rebuilding of some factory and about fuel problems. The N7 guys gave James an evil glare and he decided to stay away and observe for a little while.

It soon occurred to him that those bodyguards weren't real N7s. They had none of Jo's charisma, or even Hackett's personality. They were brutal and efficient killing machines, but nothing else. He remembered what Lola had told him when he got his ICA invitation: the Academy had lowered its standards and admitted people for pure combat training to push as many as possible to the front lines. That's what these guys were and James had no doubt that Jo would dismiss them as fakes if she saw them. She was quite proud of everything she'd learned in ICT, and it wasn't just her fighting skills. She was proud of her brain, while these guys looked like they had one brain between the three of them.

James did his best to blend in with the crowd once the Council and the other leaders left the big conference room some six hours later. It was almost midnight. The reporters were tired, their cameras in need of recharging, the politicians were drained but resolved. Akiyama and her own bodyguards joined Hackett. Together they left the palace in a Kodiak. James commandeered another vehicle from the lot and followed them.

They went to Hackett's base camp in Portugal. It was now the unofficial headquarters of the Alliance and James, as an Alliance officer, had access. The camp was huge, located in the suburban area around a little square with a not working fountain. The civilians who'd lived here before the invasion had long been turned into ashes. Hackett had settled in one of the houses facing the square. The highest ranking officers under his command were stationed in houses nearby. Kodiaks and other vehicles came and went at all times of day and night, bringing and retrieving soldiers, weapons and provisions from warehouses nearby. It was a well armed and defended camp, extremely busy and efficient. And James needed to get to the heart of it: to Hackett himself.

He was lucky: once Hackett made sure Akiyama was safely stashed in a house for official guests one street over, he returned to his own quarters. James pretended to have business at the square as he observed the N7s take up their night patrol around the house premises. Soon after that the lights in the house went out.

James messaged Link about his whereabouts and received a message back: ETA 16 minutes. When the geth's shuttle finally landed, James blessed the half-human synthetic. Link had brought more than the necessary equipment. He also brought several cans of the strong sedative Jo had been kept under. From then on things went easily. James sneaked to the back of the house and carefully sprayed one of the N7 guards with the sedative. The guy dropped like a sack of potatoes. James let Link inside the house with two heavy crates, then took the guard's rifle, earpiece and helmet to conceal his Mohawk. While Link disappeared in Hackett's bedroom, James resumed the guard's route. His bulk came in handy. He made sure not to come close to the other guards, only waving them off when he met them at periodic intervals. In darkness they hadn't noticed that he wasn't one of their buddies. Then Link reappeared, carrying the crates once again. They quietly left the premises, returned to the shuttle and Link started his report:

"I sedated him in his sleep. He'll never know he'd been unconscious. Then I set up the machine, hooked him up and copied a part of my consciousness into his brain. I will not keep up any contact with that part of me to avoid detection. It may take longer than I estimated to clean his brain, but the good news is: if he really was indoctrinated so much, he'll know the difference when the process is done. Then he'll come to Jo of his own volition. If he doesn't come begging for forgiveness, then he's just plain evil and indoctrination has nothing to do with it."

"All we can do now is wait, right?"

"Mhm," Link nodded in agreement. James nodded back, then shook himself:

"Fuck, this is creepy. No geth says 'mhm'."

"Why is it creepy?"

"Because I'm accepting it so easily! Because you sound so human that I forget that you're not."

"But I am, even if only a little bit."

Link got him there.

There was nothing left to do but let things take their own course. If Hackett's 'cleansing' took longer than a week, then maybe his personality change would seem more natural to those surrounding him. In any case James had no business lurking around the headquarters anymore. He and Link took the equipment and flew back to Greenland. It was almost dawn and James decided to catch a few hours of sleep before he headed to Riga to meet Lola and Joker at the orphanage.

It was around noon when he woke up. On his way to the cafeteria he noticed Link standing still in front of a console that showed some news vid. James almost walked by when something the reporter said caught his attention. He made a u-turn and stopped next to Link. He pushed the icon to replay the vid and his jaw slowly clenched so hard that his teeth almost crushed.

"Yesterday the world as we knew it changed and who would be surprised to find out that it was once again Commander Shepard who changed it?" A young human woman spoke into the camera. Behind her was the palace in Spain. "The saviour of the galaxy dropped the bomb at her press conference, declaring just one day after her second resurrection that the galaxy needed to be ruled by a Council made of all the species, regardless of their standing, reputation or level of expansion. Revolutionary idea, to say the least, but who can claim to be really surprised? We've gotten to know Commander Shepard as a radical woman of strong beliefs over the years.

"However, while the Council and the leaders of the species were busy discussing the new development inside the palace, they missed a spectacular scene that took place just outside." A clip of the gigantic crowd at the plaza played while the reporter spoke in the background: "Two thousand four hundred and seventy eight people gathered at the plaza of the Royal Palace of Aranjuez in a show of solidarity and gratitude towards the Commander." The vid cut to a picture of a cute young woman:

"Joker sent out a message yesterday, asking people who directly owe Commander Shepard their lives to come here today to show her that she isn't just a cold-blooded killer. We all came here because we care about Commander Shepard. She saved my life when she freed me from a batarian slaver ship six years ago. I was just a teenager back then, scared out of my wits. I'll never forget what she did for me." The vid cut back to the reporter:

"Joker, otherwise known as Flight Lieutenant Jeff Moreau, the infamous pilot of Commander Shepard's legendary ship, the Normandy, entered the public scene quite unexpectedly yesterday when the Commander boldly declared in front of the cameras that she was engaged to him. The question of how many rules have been broken to make that relationship possible is still open, but that is a topic for another day. After Commander Shepard personally spoke to many people gathered at the plaza, she accepted an invitation from Lieutenant James Vega to visit one of the orphanages he had set up in the last seven months.

"Lieutenant Vega, a former member of Commander Shepard's crew, has devoted his time and efforts since the battle against the Reapers to the children on Earth. Many will remember him from his visits to survivor camps all over the planet and his outspoken support for his former CO and apparently a close friend, Commander Shepard. Most of us know Lieutenant Vega as the mastermind behind the database of lost children, which has helped thousands of families to be reunited since its creation about six months ago. The Lieutenant and a small fleet of other concerned citizens have also become known for rescuing children and bringing them to safe houses in Fort Nelson, Wichita, Osaka and Riga. All this time Mr Vega insisted on dedicating his work to Commander Shepard, so we really shouldn't be surprised that she and her fiancée decided to visit one such house in Riga." The woman leaned closer to the camera and her voice turned softer, more intimate, like she was sharing a secret:

"Commander Shepard has left Madrid yesterday at 17:23. However, no one in Riga has seen her arrive. The Kodiak shuttle she left in was last seen over the ruins of Turin some eighteen minutes after her departure from Madrid, but not since." The woman paused dramatically and leaned even closer to the camera: "The world has once again been turned upside down. The Council is desperately trying to regain some semblance of control. The Alliance is covering up the sudden appearance of a new human Prime Minister, Jessica Akiyama, but all the world is asking themselves one thing: where is the woman who started it all? Where is Commander Shepard? Miri Avis, New Earth News."

James' whole body tensed to the point of snapping.

"You tried to contact them, I take it?" He asked Link through clenched teeth.

"Yes. No signal."

"Have you tracked their route?"

"Last eye witness was indeed a small Alliance outpost near the ruins of Turin. My simulation shows that they probably took a direct route over the Alps. There are countless small towns and villages in the area, most of them surviving better than big cities because they grow their own food. It's a goldmine for bandits. Farmers with no weapons or training to defend themselves. Sometimes bandits in those villages even end up with surprisingly sophisticated weaponry in their backyard, due to the chaos of war. If the Commander's Kodiak has been shot down, we'll have a lot of ground to cover, most of it in the mountains."

"Call the Normandy," James ordered. Link obeyed instantly. A few moments later Kenneth appeared on the screens. As usual, the technician had a tool belt on and his hair was messy.

"Vega?" He asked. "Calling so soon? We just met yesterday, I thought you'd be busy with Shepard for a while."

"I'd like to be," James said slowly, trying not to crush the console in worry and rage. "If I knew where Shepard was."

Kenneth's face immediately turned hard and Gabby appeared at his side.

"What do you mean?"

"Have you watched the news today? The reporters say that Shepard and Joker's Kodiak fell off the radar yesterday on the way to Riga. Link and I can't raise them on the com."

"What can we do to help?" Gabby instantly jumped to offer.

"Remember that implant in Shepard's head that we used to track down her body on the Citadel after the battle? It's still in her, but I don't have access to the receiver."

"Oh, you mean this old thing?" Ken grinned and dove under the console to retrieve something. When he re-emerged, he was holding Joker's minipad. "Joker left it here when he moved to the lab in Greenland. Probably didn't think he'll need it anytime soon."

"Ken, I could kiss you right now," James sighed in relief. Gabby snorted:

"I always knew you swung both ways, Vega. You flirted with Steve too outrageously to be fully straight."

"Moving on," James shot the young woman a glare. "What does the tracker say about Shepard's location?"

Ken activated the pad, pushed a few icons and zoomed in on something.

"Looks static, smack in the middle of some godforsaken village in Germany."

"Coordinates, please."


"What the hell did you do?!" Markus Leitner, the mayor of Kochel and the owner of the house Jo and Joker were currently in, hissed as he crept towards them, staying away from the windows. It would have looked almost comical, if the man wasn't so good at moving around silently and unseen. He'd had months of practise.

Armin and his gang had taken over Kochel almost half a year ago and put some real fear into the peaceful and defenceless villagers. They'd occupied the best houses around the town square, taken hostages and forced the rest of the village to do their bidding. A formerly thriving little town of 2000 citizens had already been reduced to half of its strength by the Alliance conscriptions, then reduced more and more by the Reaper forces, winter without electricity, bandit raids, storms from the mountains and other disasters. Now the town's population counted 278 people, which was a lot more than what the bandit told them when Jo questioned him, but it was still nothing compared to what the town was supposed to look like. Most houses were empty, the fishing boats stood unused, fields remained unploughed.

This morning Jo and Joker had arrived in Armin's car, the gang leader hogtied in the back, furious and scared. The four remaining gang members were no match for Jo, especially since she actually had a gun, so their resistance had lasted about three minutes. The town had been woken by the shots, and when Jo freed the kids locked up in the gang house's basement, the villagers came running. They had been happy to see their kids, but not sure if Jo was not a greater evil than Armin had been.

"What do you mean?" Joker asked the cowering man. There shouldn't be any more reason for him to hide and fear, not after he and Jo had moved in here this morning.

"Look!" The man pointed at the window. "We lived peacefully until you showed up! Sure, Armin and his thugs took most of what we had, but we had an agreement! And now - look what you brought on our heads!"

Jo and Joker both stepped to the window. They immediately saw what the mayor was talking about. A small armada of fourteen Kodiaks flew in attack formation over the mountains, heading straight for Kochel.

"That will be less than twenty four hours," Jo grinned at Joker, who bumped her raised fist.

"Are those friends or enemies?" Leitner hissed in panic.

"Oh, I don't know," Jo said slowly, allowing herself a little fun with the man. She watched the Kodiaks approach and descend on top of the little town, taking up strategic positions. The villagers disappeared as if by magic, used to hide quickly at the first sign of trouble. The leading Kodiak slowed down over the town square with its door opened. It was still over two meters in the air when the gigantic figure in the doorway jumped out and landed on the pavement. The man wore full battle armour, which made his already spectacular bulk appear superhuman. The ground shook when he landed on his feet, obviously feeling no need to play stealthy. He carried a lot of guns strapped to him and one particularly nasty shotgun in his hands. As the shuttle slowly landed behind him, it wasn't exactly clear which one was a tougher tank: the Kodiak or Lieutenant Vega.

"Heilige Mutter Gottes!.." Leitner whispered, looking over Jo's shoulder at the newcomer. His knees were shaking. Jo couldn't blame him, really. Even she got the chills at the sight of Vega when he was obviously about to start ripping some heads off. She wondered at the blue armour he wore. It was not the piece he received from the ICA when he was recruited. Then she remembered: that particular grey armour broke to pieces when a Mako fell on Vega the day of the big battle. Besides, it would be hopelessly too small for him now, anyway.

"Go and talk to him," she nudged Leitner, who was already pale as a sheet and almost keeled over. "Go on, he doesn't look like he's got a lot of patience."

Other Kodiaks landed, their doors opened and a small army of about one hundred people flooded the streets. Vega's 'guys', Jo and Joker realised. Jo smiled to herself: the man wasn't into small gestures when it came to her safety.

She nudged Leitner towards the door and the mayor had no choice but to stumble outside. Since he was the only face to show up at the sight of the new invaders, all eyes - heavy eyes of battle-hardened warriors - turned to him. Leitner could barely walk on his shaking legs when Vega palmed his shotgun and declared:

"You got something that don't belong to you."

Joker sniggered at the trembling and speechless mayor and elbowed Jo:

"Come on, let's go put the man out of his misery. No one should be exposed to that," he waved his hand at Vega. "Especially not the man who's just trying to keep his town safe."

"Yeah, you're right," Jo agreed. She and Joker followed Leitner outside and when she put a gentle hand on the man's shoulder, he sacked down and gracelessly sat on the steps to his house. His nerves were ruined.

Jo stepped around him and grinned, approaching Vega. He looked at her, holstered the shotgun and took off his helmet.

"You," he pointed at them accusatory. "Can't leave you alone for a moment, can I?"

"We're fine," Joker rolled his eyes. "We just wanted to see how long it'd take you to find us."

"I was worried sick!" Vega declared, his fists balled. Obviously their disappearance had shaken him as much as their appearance did Leitner.

"Well, here we are, a little sidetracked from our journey to Riga," Jo spread her arms to point at the whole town. Curious faces, pale but eager, started to appear in many windows. "Our Kodiak is gone, though. And I loved that thing. Now the Normandy is one tank short."

"Oh, is that the biggest of your worries?" Vega snapped sarcastically. Jo had probably underestimated how scared he got at he possibility of losing her merely a day after getting her back alive.

"Actually, no. That's my biggest worry," she pointed to the side, to the porch of an empty house nearby. Armin sat there on the ground, handcuffed to the column.

"Who's that?" Vega exhaled slowly, getting himself under control again now that he saw that she and Joker were both safe. His guys hung back near their own shuttles. Jo didn't know any of them, but they looked like former soldiers or otherwise strong and capable people, each of them armoured and armed. He'd probably gathered them in the last seven months to help him rescue kids. So many people these days needed guidance and Vega was a natural leader.

"Name's Armin," Jo explained. "He used to be the leader of a small gang that was terrorising this wonderful village. Praying on the weak and innocent. He actually took the mayor's son and a few other kids hostage to make the population compliant."

"And why is he your biggest worry?" Vega asked,

"I'm not sure what to do with him."

"Why?"

"He kicked Joker in the ribs."

"Ooof," Vega hissed and grimaced. "You're right, that demands a particularly creative punishment."

"Mind you," Joker grinned. "She's already beheaded the least dangerous and most helpful guy in the gang."

People started slowly coming out of the houses. They hadn't been sure whether to trust Jo or not to begin with. The appearance of Vega's little fleet made them even more suspicious.

Mayor Leitner finally caught his breath and calmed his knees enough to stand straight. He was a good man, just faced with impossible odds. Without guns and people who knew how to use them Kochel had stood no chance against Armin's gang and when four youngsters had been taken hostage, one of them being Leitner's own son, the mayor had to deal with the situation in whatever way he could. To his credit, he'd managed to keep the violence between the gang and the villagers to a minimum so that no deaths had occurred in the last three months.

Still, today was the day of this town's salvation, they just didn't know it yet.

"Don't forget Benjamin a few towns over," Joker reminded her.

"Another gang leader?" Vega asked and when Jo nodded he grinned: "Come on, let's solve both issues at once. Say goodbye to your new friends."

Jo saw no problem in that. While Vega carted Armin to the Kodiak, Jo and Joker shook Leitner's hand and thanked him for letting them stay in his house while they waited. The man looked shaken, but also relieved. His son, freshly washed, clothed and fed, ran out of the house and wrapped his arms around Jo in thanks.

"You realise he hugged you to cop a feel, right?" Joker nudged Jo when they joined Vega in the shuttle.

"Yeah, I figured. Don't be jealous," she grinned. "How many sixteen year olds can claim to have groped Commander Shepard?"

Since Vega seemed to have some sort of an idea she let him take the lead. The entire fleet lifted up and headed for Tutzing. They landed in the town square once again and Vega jumped out with the same scary grandeur he did before. He dragged Armin by his hair out of the shuttle and made him kneel on the pavement. Tutzing was a bigger town, but apparently just as helpless against their own little gang problem. The civilians quickly disappeared, while a group of men and women with mismatched weapons poured out of a house nearby.

"I'm looking for Benjamin," Vega declared.

"And who the fuck are you?" A tall, bear-like man challenged him.

"It doesn't matter in the least who I am," Vega shrugged. "All you need to know is who she is," he pointed at Jo. "Watched the news lately?"

The bear-man looked at Jo, took a double take and paled like a sheet.

"So, you do know Commander Shepard," Vega said and his face suddenly turned very, very cold. "I also take it you know Armin here." He grabbed Armin's hair and yanked it back. "He's been a bad boy, a very bad boy indeed. He took down Shepard's shuttle. Little did he know, Commander Shepard can not be killed. He's also been terrorising Kochel, holding kids hostage and draining food and resources from the population." Vega took a knife from his belt - the knife Jo had given him, the one that used to belong to her - and slowly swiped it across Armin's throat. Blood spluttered in all directions and Benjamin's gang took a step back to avoid the liquid. Armin choked for a moment and tried to fight, but Vega brought the knife down again, grimacing in a beautiful display of raw power as he severed the man's head completely. In slow motion the body fell forward at Benjamin's feet while Vega held up the head by the hair.

Someone in the gang retched, most grew pale, Benjamin clenched his jaws and narrowed his eyes at the gruesome sight.

"Any of the charges sound familiar to you?" Vega asked Benjamin, still holding up Armin's dead head. "Because this is what happens to bandits, kidnappers and terrorists at Commander Shepard's order."

Benjamin and his gang had no chance against Vega, Jo and a hundred other guys in their Kodiaks accompanying them. The man looked around, weighing his chances of survival and checking for any possible exit out of the situation.

"I'll tell you what happens now, Benjamin," Vega spoke again. "You will stop all illegal activity you're into, you'll apologise to everyone you hurt around here, you will return any stolen property and hand over all your weapons to the local police force. Then you will politely offer your services to this town and spend the rest of your life making sure no bandits come here ever again. And if there is a single complaint from these nice people against you or one of your gang members, Commander Shepard will be back and she will not be as nice as I was to Armin here." He threw the head at Benjamin, who jumped back to avoid it and smacked a few of his people out of his way. "And don't think even for a second that you can get away with any more crimes. Commander Shepard always follows up. Always."

Vega flourished the knife in his hand and stuck it in its sheath. He stepped to Benjamin and fixed him with an evil glare.

"Do we have an understanding?"

Benjamin swallowed hard, blinked, threw a quick glance around and when no help came, he nodded quickly:

"Yes. Yes, we do."

"When did you get so evil?" Joker asked Vega when the Kodiak lifted up again. Benjamin's gang on the ground was already surrendering their weapons to the locals.

"That wasn't evil," Vega said, but he didn't look Joker in the eye. Jo could tell why. Before he met her in person, he was a good guy, a genuinely nice person, driven, ambitious, caring, maybe somewhat naive, but he had no darkness inside him. Even Fehl Prime had left him burned, but not hardened. When Jo started training him as an ICA recruit, she put him on a path that unavoidably led him to real darkness. He spent the last seven months continuing his training on his own and it demanded that he find and embrace the part of him that could be truly cruel. It was the only way for any recruit to learn to do whatever it takes. Jo hadn't wished that on him and he wasn't exactly proud of it, but he had set himself the goal to become an N7 from the very beginning and was working towards that goal with everything he had.

"No," she agreed with Vega. "You did what you had to."

He seemed relieved that she approved of his actions.

The other Kodiaks peeled off one by one, pursuing their own business now that they were no longer needed. In the meantime Vega reported what had been done about Hackett and filled them in on the work that was being done in Riga:

"Kasumi procured a DNA scanner somewhere," he said. "We can now check if the families that claim the kids are actually their families. We're trying all we can to get to the archives with birth certificates, but power appears only sporadically in most towns and satellites are broken, so we have to physically go to administrative buildings and see if their servers are still intact. Then we try and power them up to salvage the data. It's worked in many towns, even though the London archives have been completely destroyed. Too much Reaper activity."

"Sounds like solid work," Jo nodded. "What do you need me for?"

"For the most obvious of reasons," he sighed. "You give people hope. Riga has one of the better medical facilities I could put together, so when we find badly injured children, we bring them there. But physical wounds are nothing compared to what those kids have seen, to what their nightmares are filled with. Some of them are so deeply traumatised that they don't eat or speak or even move. I'm no good in that hospital. They see a huge man with scars on his face and they start screaming."

"It sure pays to be cute," Joker observed.

Things were as Vega described. The medical facility was in a building next to the actual safe house, dilapidated from the outside, but clean and efficient inside. Vega made a point to take off all his weapons and armour before he led them inside the building, and still he hovered by the door to the main dorm, obviously used to the negative reaction from the kids. Jo, however, walked inside. The room had been a big office building with cubicles before. Now there were about sixty beds, most of them occupied by children of all ages. Some had broken bones, some were missing limbs entirely. Some were sedated and asleep, but most curiously turned to watch Jo as she walked down the isle. She paused at the bed of a young boy who stared out of the window and ignored her completely. He looked about seven and while Jo could see that he had some bad cuts and bruises, it was clear that psychological trauma was worse than the physical one in his case.

Jo sat down on the edge of his bed and gently ran hr knuckles over the boy's cheek. Other kids, curious about the new arrivals, came closer if they could walk. The boy seemed to be shaken out of some trance by Jo's touch. He turned to look at her.

"Are you an angel?" He asked softly.

"Yes, she is," Joker nodded through a knot in his throat. "She's been to heaven twice."

"Have you seen my mum and dad?" The boy asked with a hint of interest.

"Oh, heaven doesn't work like that," Jo said honestly and seriously. Other kids came closer, curious about her answer. "It's not a garden where people walk around forever, remaining the same they'd been in life."

"Then what's it like?" A girl asked from the next bed.

"Imagine an ocean. A big, huge ocean. It's powerful and all-knowing. Every once in a while a little drop from that ocean decides to leave and explore on its own. It becomes a soul and is born into this world as a human baby, or a turian baby, or any other baby. It grows up, learns new things, it sees the beauty of the world and it does everything it can to make the world even more beautiful. And when that soul dies, it becomes a drop again and it goes back to the ocean. It becomes one with the ocean once more, it shares all it has learned with the rest of the water and makes it more beautiful through its experiences. But you see, the drop was a part of the ocean before it became your mother, and when she died, she became a part of the ocean again. I can tell you one thing for sure, though. The ocean is a good place. It's warm and peaceful and you can float there forever, sharing all the happiness other drops have brought with them from their lives as physical beings. Your mother and father are there now, they are warm and at peace and they love you. The whole ocean loves you. You know why? Because just like your mum and dad, you are also a drop from that ocean. You decided to come here and to explore, to be happy and to make sure that when you die in many, many years, and join the ocean, you bring love and joy with you."

"But you came back. Can't my parents come back, too?"

"I've been there and I've see the ocean, I felt how much it loves me, but my time as a drop isn't over yet. I came back because I still have many things to do."

"Like what?"

"Oh, maybe to be here today, to meet you, to tell you about the ocean. Question is: what are you going to do with your time as a drop?"

"I don't know," the boy turned away again. "I want to be with my mum and dad."

"I understand," Jo nodded. "Oh, do I ever. My mum and dad have been with the ocean for a very long time. I was only two when they died."

"Oh," several children sighed nearby. By now almost everyone in the dorm was gathered around her, and those who couldn't get up from their beds strained to listen. The nurses and doctors stood with Vega by the door, some of them wiping away errant tears, some biting on their knuckles hard as they watched the atmosphere in the dorm change from gloom to elation.

"I wanted to be with them, like you, but then I thought: why don't I look around first, see what's good around here? Maybe I could help some people? Maybe I could create something beautiful? So I stayed and tried my best to make the world maybe a little bit brighter."

"And did you?" The boy asked, curious once more.

"Do you know who I am?" Jo smiled.

"Commander Shepard!" Several older kids declared. "You were on the news! You saved the galaxy!"

"Yeah, I did that," Jo shrugged with a serene smile. "Would you say it was worth staying alive, even though I was away from my parents?"

"Yeah," the boy finally cracked a smile. "But what am I gonna do? I'm a kid, I can't... do what grown-ups do."

"Hey, I was two when my parents died, a lot smaller than you, and here I am! Look around you," Jo pointed at the small crowd around them. "Look how many friends you already have. Together you are strong. If you look after each other, you'll be fine. Besides, there are grown-ups who want to help you. Like Mr. Vega over there."

The kids turned as one to look at the man in question. A little girl came to Jo and leaned onto her thighs:

"He is scary," she declared.

"Naw," Jo drawled. "He's saved some of you, didn't he?"

"He's still scary," another young girl insisted.

"Baby girl, there is a huge difference between 'big' and 'scary'. Vega is big and strong, but he would never hurt any of you. That I can promise you."

"He has scars," the girl in Jo's lap whispered loudly.

"And do you know why? Because he got hurt protecting someone. He's so strong that even when he was hurt, he got up again and kept fighting to keep all of you safe."

"So it's a nice scar?" The girl's eyes grew wide with wonder.

"Yes, it's a very nice scar."

She considered Vega from a distance, working through the new information in her five year old brain. After a few long seconds she reached a conclusion. She separated herself from Jo's knees and ran across the dorm right into Vega's arms. He bent down to pick her up so naturally that it was clear: this was not the first little girl he held. The girl wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed the scar on his cheek:

"Will you get more nice scars protecting kids?"

Vega chuckled:

"I hope I can protect more people without getting hurt. But be sure, I won't stop protecting you and the others, no matter how hurt I am."

"Oh," she considered the new intel again. "Okay." She waggled a tiny finger in his face and declared with a serious tone: "No nice scars anymore! Or bad scars."

Vega laughed, and so did the nurses and doctors, at least those who weren't crying.

"I promise," Vega nodded and stepped into the room, carrying the girl towards her bed. Nobody objected to his presence anymore.

The girl clung to Vega before he could put her down.

"Your chest sounds like... a... barrel," she struggled for the right word and pressed her ear to his pectoral. "Say something."

"What's your name?"

"Anya."

"Anya, everything is going to be okay."

"Okay," she nodded, seemingly appeased.

When Jo and Joker exited the dorm, two doctors and six nurses swarmed them.

"Oh my God," one of the doctors said, wiping away a tear. "You're a miracle worker. Sasha's been here for almost two weeks and hasn't said a single word to anyone, but you... It's just... Thank you!" The woman hugged Jo.

"I try," Jo hugged the doctor back for a moment.

"You really are a miracle," Joker wrapped an arm around her neck possessively when they exited the hospital. Jo leaned into the heat of his body.

"And on that note," Vega caught up with them. "I have one more pressing problem. How about we get some food and rest? Because then I need you to come with me."

Jo nodded and let Joker tug her towards the Kodiak. He leaned closer and whispered into her ear:

"I suspect he's going to do all he can to keep you too busy to remember that we're trying to get married."

"He's going to have to try a lot harder than that to make me forget something so important," Jo whispered back and stole a kiss from her man. An obscenely hot kiss. With lots of tongue.


Heilige Mutter Gottes - Holy mother of God (ger.)