Flight of the Phoenix

by Elizabeth Carter

Book two: Sovereign is dead, the citadel once ruins is beginning to rebuild, the Council is saved and now Shepard is faced with a new enemy, one held over from ancient days:The Collectors. She must race against time, Cerberus and the shadows of a war yet to come. This is part two of my Ashes world: a retelling of ME2. Many game elements are changed because Shepard wasn't spaced.

2. Stacking the Deck

RED Spelling BLUE Grammar Tenses GREEN Word Choice missing words

Chapter Two: Stacking the Deck

MEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEME

Three Days Earlier…Normandy.

Shepard stood quietly in the medbay beside Dr. Chakwas in between two of the beds. One contained a very small quarian, the other a broken turian. Tali had agreed to sleep but only if she could be near her love just as Liara had been when Sam had been so gravely wounded after the battle of the Citadel. Of course the threat of sedation had also worked.

"How is he?" the Spectre asked of Garrus, her blue eyes resting upon the man who lay sleeping on the bed. It struck the Spectre a little strange to see the man she had viewed as her brother without his armor, even his causal hardsuit. On the Citadel she had seen plenty of turians going about in casual wear either in informal garb or in business suits but she had never seen one of their kind topless before. The dark haired woman padded gently up to the slumbering man and touched his shoulder lightly so as not to disturb him.

His carapace wasn't as nearly spiky as she thought it might have been. Good thing too, she couldn't imagine the soft skin of Tali cuddling up to something as abrasive as coarse sandpaper. There will be some chaffing but Chakwas and Sullus should be able to counteract that with some sort of ointment or cream.

"He will live but not without his scars. Like you he had to have cybernetics implanted to save his life. He lost his right eye and mandible and ear. He lost a bit of his fringe as well. But he will make a full recovery. Physically." Chakwas put a hand on Shepard's arm drawing the younger woman's attention to her. "He will need help, emotionally. I asked Master Xedrix to speak with him."

Master Xedrix of course. Despite he was a converted disciple of Confucius as many turians were, he represents all turian doctrine. And he like his other two colleagues was a credited councilor, trained especially to handle the physiology of his own people's mindset. The very presence of the three clergymen made the integration of multilateral crew that much more easily handled.

"He has Tali now." Shepard whispered as she cast a glanced glance towards the slumbering young woman. While the Spectre respected the clergy she didn't put a great deal of stock in the faiths. Any of them. She was no atheist; it was fair to say she was more agonistic than anything. There were some greater powers out there, what name it took, what gender, what face it wore, Shepard cared little. She was raised to respect the totems of The People—the Salish, and praise the Goddess Danu of the Druids. Now married to an asari the triple faced goddess of her paternal Celtic heritage became Athame. There was no difference in the young woman's eyes. Sam knew faith gave hope, and that was a very valuable commodity, one Shepard placed great stock in, but she put greater stock in the heart.

"Love like that can pull you though a hell of a lot. Even when you are part synthetic." Shepard flexed her right hand. Most of the bones, tendons and muscles had been replaced. A great deal of her body had been substituted with bio-synthetic and cybernetics technology. Mostly because of a chunk of Sovereign's hull had fallen on her, the rest due to the debilitating affects of cyan syndrome.

Chakwas smiled. More than anything Liara had pulled Samantha out of her moments of doubt, darkness and despair. Yes in accordance to Alliance regulations Shepard attended sessions with grief councilors, had psyc-evals but it was Liara's devotion, her love that pulled Shepard through the shadows. Tali would do the same for Garrus.

"Never limit Tali's access to him." Shepard ordered. "No matter the hour."

"Didn't even cross my mind." Chakwas answered sparing a look to Tali then moved to interrupt Shepard's line of sight on Garrus. "We never talked about what happened in that apartment the Pirate Queen gave you. How are you doing?"

"The Archangel's Lair? Why? What is there to speak of?"

Chakwas pushed knowing she needed to. "Why call it that-the Archangel's Lair?"

"He is a guardian of the purest sort." Shepard crossed her arms over her chest and drew in a long breath before sighing it out. "He always has my back, always there. Always will be, whatever comes I can always rely on that. He will be there at the very bitter end. He held the line in that loft. He saved the lives of the whole squad when he drew the fire of that damned gunship. In every sense of the word he's an archangel. " Shepard let her arms fall to her side and said nothing more but walked for the exit.

"Shepard! It isn't your fault." Chakwas called after her.

Shepard paused, but didn't turn; her head shifted only a little when she spoke in a passionate whisper. "Yes it is. Every soldier fallen on the battlefield is there because of the commander that put them there. Their lives and their deaths are in their hands. My hands. There is always an accounting. There must always be an accounting. Any CO who does not take that mantle does not deserve the tile: commander. It means to lead. It means to take an accounting of the failures, successes, deaths and lives of those under their command. What befell Garrus…my brother, my archangel…is my burden. There is no Shepard without Vakarian." That said the young woman departed.

A tiny part of Chakwas wondered, just wondered if Shepard regretted calling Ashley Williams her Trusted when it might have been Garrus Vakarian. She knew the whole fiasco with the trinity was only due to the symptoms of CS. That blasted god-cursed condition that affected biotics into feeling all emotions into the extremes and exaggerating them. Well of course one those extremes Samantha Shepard and by proxy because of the bond Liara had assumed the loving friendship Shepard and Ash was something more. And so the asari had introduced the idea of a three-way union. Thank heavens Ash had some sense in her and rejected the offer.

Chakwas looked at the man in the bed and Shepard's last words echoed within her mind: 'There is no Shepard without Vakarian.'

'You will never raise hand against her will you, Archangel? I wonder if it all came down to it there is one on the crew will ever pull a gun on Shepard?' The smallest part of the doctor's hindbrain went back to Williams. There already been an altercation between commander and lieutenant, one that nearly caused the ties of friendship to crumble into dust.

Again it was because of a preconceived notion that Williams was hiding something from her CO, placing Shepard on the defensive. Udina had approached the young lieutenant to exonerate the darkness over her grandfather's legacy. All Williams had to do was to leak information about Shepard and her connection to Liara. No doubt the slimy bastard would have given the Intel directly to the Illusive Man so that Cerberus could dictate the results of the gestalt. Williams had sat on the offer instead of coming to Shepard right away and presenting the evidence of Udina's betrayal.

Chakwas treated Williams for the bruising around her neck given to her by a very enraged commander. Of course that should have been the tip-off that something was wrong with their commander. Perhaps the symptoms of CS might have been diagnosed earlier. Chakwas chided herself for not being more observant, she knew the Spectre was highly stressed at the time, and thus the good doctor had not seen the signs.

Another train of thought crossed the physician's mind. If it all came down to what the young lieutenant thought or believed to duty, on what end of the gun would she face Shepard with? Undying devotion to duty was very commendable and it was equally blinding. Hell she knew that kind of devotion. Karin Chakwas self-admittedly was completely devoted to the Spectre and her cause. The commander for Shepard will always be the commander was the immovable center. Chakwas would never turn her back on Shepard. Once more she trusted Shepard to be above all, ethical even when it appeared she was deliberately navigating the black-bleak waters of lies, deceits and feints, such were the tactics of war. Deceive and outflank the enemy.

The aging woman worried for her commander. How many will turn on the Hero of the Citadel, Saviour of Elysium? And how many more who had already forsaken her word, ignored her warnings would come begging for her to save them when it all came to fruition?

"I serve you my Commander Shepard. I always will. Where you go, I go, where you lead I follow until the ending of my days." Chakwas uttered the hard promise in a soft voice. It was an ancient promise of her forbearers: bannermen to their sovereign liege lords. From past and far off times to this present day the promise was not diminished, because the value of them had faded into obscurity or transformed into oaths of service of the current government. To Karin Chakwas they had great and powerful meaning, because the woman she had made such a vow was great and powerful-a woman to deliver them from oblivion.

MEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEME

Two Days Ago: Omega.

The return to the Pirate Queen's domain was no where near as eventful as it had been during the first visit. In no way however did the atmosphere of the nightclub lend itself lowering one's guard, if anything the very air hyper-accelerated the senses.

At the bottom of the stairs were the same batarians that were there during Shepard's first visit. Anton, Sanak were their names if the Spectre recalled correctly. Sanak was the one that threatened to toss her out the airlock if she forgot the single rule of Omega. Shepard smirked as she passed him thinking how Wrex put the bastard in his place.

At the top of the stairs the Normandy crew encountered another bodyguard; this one was an asari huntress.

Aleena drew in a breath of air recognizing who it was that stood before her. The huntresses eyes were the same as her own, the same as Aria's the same eyes her mother had. So this was Liselle.

"She's expecting you." the maiden said eyeballing Aleena longer than she did the human or her asari bondmate. Her eyes continued to follow her as trio mounted the last tier to her mother. 'That was my mother seven hundred years ago!' She turned still watching, her attention not on the Spectre as one might have first suspect but on the bounty hunter. Of course partly due to her mother's training. 'Keep your eyes on the leader's left and right flank. Who do they trust to cover their backs, and how loyal are they to the one who pays them?

"Ah Spectre, I wondered when you'd return to my court." Aria said with her back was turned to the human as it had been when they first met. "I would say I was in your debt for aiding in the curing of the plague but I believe this evens the score between us. I did 'nothing' as you desired and gave you that little apartment block which is now nothing but rubble." For the moment the Queen of Omega was content to simply pour herself a glass of Novarian rum.

"Yes on that score we are even. But now I have to ask another favor of you, one whose debt I'll pay thrice over if you are willing to undertake it." Shepard said.

"You don't strike me as a stupid person, Spectre." Aria turned around and sat demurely upon the settee and took a sip of her drink. "So why are you so willing to pay such an exorbitant price without telling me what you want?"

"If I did, you'd accuse me of melodrama and you'd not be the first." Shepard crossed her arms over her chest, her eyes never leaving the asari's.

A smirk fell upon the purple lips of the Pirate Queen. "Oh now you have my interest."

"Make them go and your interest will be filled." Shepard made a pointed look to Aria's henchmen.

Aria looked at those beside the Spectre; she recognized her own sister and Shepard's bondmate the T'Soni maiden.

"And those that stand with you?"

"Will remain where they stand." Shepard's voice became stern and unmoving.

"You think to beg a favor of me and in the same breath make demands of me?" Aria's hand began to glow blue. The batarians snickered waiting for the human cunt to fall as her kind are only meant to exist on their knees.

"I do not beg Aria, but you need to hear what I say with open ears and an equally open mind. You have a head for business and profitable ventures. I dare say when you hear what I have to say you will see the true value of it."

"You will speak in front your people but not in front of mine?" Aria challenged.

"I know those that stand with me. My bondmate, I hide nothing from her and my field-medic…I trust her explicitly. Dr. S'thasa is apart of my squad, my crew."

"And you don't think I trust my men any less?" the matriarch challenged.

"That depends." Shepard's voice dropped an octave. She reached into the cargo pocket on her left thigh and pulled out a small datapad and held up it to the lavender skinned asari. ". The mech bands that went after me and Liara were coming for you next. I got this off the body of the Eclipse leader."

"Let me see that." Aria demanded holding her hand out catching the padd as Shepard tossed it to her.

Tarak:
I've spoken to Garm, and he and his men are on board. Assuming this operation is successful, we can count on high morale and extensive buy-in from the men. From the losses we've already taken, possibility exists that we won't have the men needed to continue on to the next objective. It's clear, though that none of our organizations would be ready to move on Aria without the assistance of the other two.
Jaroth

The rage swelled within the Pirate Queen's chest. The datapad sailed through the air zinging Anton between his four eyes, bounced off his skull and clattered to the floor at his feet. "You want to tell me how something like this slipped the net!"

"I'll…I'll get right on it boss!" the batarian stammered backpedaling off the dais nearly tripping over his own feet as he did so.

Her green eyes narrowed as T'Loak turned her attention to the remaining batarians with a look that screamed: 'Why are you still two standing here?' The smugness on their faces washed away as they scurried after their fellow minion. "Liselle, remain." Her voice was still dark. Strange there had been no protest on the human's lips at this proclamation which intrigued the Pirate Queen. Then as if nothing happened, Aria's personality instantly changed. Demurely she took another deep sip from her glass.

"I will grant you your audience Spectre. But never trade on my benevolence again. I don't show it often and I give to you today only because of your actions in the Gozu district. And for that." She nodded towards the datapad still on the floor.

Shepard turned her full focus to Aria. "We cannot speak here in so open a forum."

"I told you I wouldn't indulge you…"

"Sister…" Aleena dared to speak of her relationship causing Liselle to snap her head up and stare at the woman who was her aunt.

To so openly admit it was a dangerous card to play with the Queen of Omega especially now when her anger was still so high. Liselle was never to speak of her relationship in public. She rarely spoke if it in private. The rumors floated about that Liselle wasn't just one of Aria's top guns but also one of her occasional dalliances. A rumor Aria allowed to cover the truth that the younger asari was indeed her daughter.

"Hear her out. This is bigger than you can possibly imagine." Aleena urged.

"You mean to speak of the collectors?" Aria narrowed her green eyes, her gaze never leaving Shepard.

The Spectre was about to speak but the bounty hunter beat her to it. "I'd ask what you know of them Pirate Queen but our need is more urgent. In fact your actions today could very well mean the survival of Thessia and the rest of council space."

"My my such drama little sister. One might think you were an actress out of asariwood. Really Aleena I thought better of you."

"Gwathel!" Aleena hissed using the formal asarian word for sister.

The look in the elder sister's eyes was pure murder. "Very well." With the grace of a great hunting cat, Aria causally slinked off the sofa and headed for her secluded apartments.

Once within the private confines Aria whirled panther quick on her sister. With a biotic slam and she pushed the bounty hunter into the wall so hard her shoulder was dislocated. She hung there suspended two and half meters off the floor by the older Asari's power. "I warned you never use that word in public Aleena. When did you turn into a fucking dull stone?"

"Only way…to…get you to listen gwathel!" Aleena ground out the words between gritted teeth. Again the bounty hunter dared to use the forbidden word.

Aria snarled deep in her throat and dropped her sister to the ground with a hard thud. She turned and saw both T'soni and Shepard glowing blue in the summoning of biotic power but they made no other aggressive moves. The Pirate Queen felt the raw power of their barriers and smiled as shark. Even a matriarch of her talents might have difficulty breaking the combined shielding. Not that it couldn't be done, of course. But not today…

Truth be told, Aria was impressed and satisfied to see the younger women ready for a confrontation. "Calm yourselves." she dismissed their battle ready stances with a flippant if not queenly wave of her hand. "It was nothing more than a gentle reminder to my little sister that not even she is not allowed to overstep her bounds. And you're treading on a very fucking thin line Shepard. I should slam you into a wall for that shit you pulled out there."

"I promise you once hear what I have to say, what I have to show you, you will change your mind." Shepard said nonplused by the insults or threats. "There is a storm coming and it will consume the galaxy."

"And the drama continues." Aria drawled. "You mean the Reapers? I heard that little speech you gave after the battle of the Citadel—my little Spectre: 'Who can stand? Not one soul. Not one! But many can. Not one nation… one world… not one race can stand. But many can… No Reaper will be able to clap its broad wings over the battlefield and rejoice in the slaughter.'

"Very theatrical, very powerful words. I have to admit you have a way with them. All that military bravado, I can appreciate the need to inspire the troops. Way I hear it the Council outright dismissed your claims, so did your Alliance. You have very few believing in you Shepard and most of them are either on your crew or conspiracy theorists. Even the Wizard believes in you. Now if you can get the Shadow Broker on your side you may have something. Right now all you have are the tricks of scare mongering."

"Look at me and tell me you actually believe the drivel that Sovereign was a geth construct or a repurposed Reaper." The human's voice was distilled in quiet rage. She would not be dismissed again.

"In my line of work I can't afford to take anything on belief, Shepard."

"Spoken like a true matriarch." Shepard said, causing Aleena to hiss.

Aria scowled. Unlike humans she wasn't going to deny her age. But she didn't like it open for public consumption unlike her sister matriarchs. She wasn't about to admit she was well over a thousand years old, leave things like that to old crones like Althea. Shepard boldly proceeded. "I don't know if you are aware I had a meeting with some of the Matriarchy to allow me to under go the Great Hunt. I shared with them the visions I have from the protheans beacons. According to Councilor Tevos my visions are true insomuch because I believe them to be true, so when the matriarchs melded with me they saw no lie in the visions."

"But the Matriarchy won't move, is that it?" Aria almost snapped. "Why come to me?"

"Because you are going to meld with me," Aleena said. "I don't have the cipher but I have the visions from it all the same. My melethril shared them with me during núr-gwédh."

If Aria was upset before she was very nearly livid now. "You have a melethril? And you shared núr-gwédh? You foolish bitch, I raised you better than that. To be smarter than that! You realize how much you danger you have so stupidly embraced? How much danger you put into this woman's life, this melethril of yours?"

"I didn't embrace stupidity sister, I embraced eternity. Shiala was a disciple to Matriarch Benezia and the Normandy's XO she is no stranger to danger. I love Shiala, deeply. I will become arda to her daughter and I am taking her as my bondmate. I have no intentions of living my life alone like you!" Green eyes fell on Liselle "Or having to pretend to."

"Leave my daughter out of this. Her life will always be endangered because of who I am. Which is why her true identity is kept secret." She turned to the human and T'Soni. "Until now. You are too much in Shepard's shadow, Aleena. Look what happened to her bondmate and daughter. Has that taught you nothing?"

"Enough!" Shepard snarled. "We leave Liselle out of this and you leave Liara and Secura out of it Pirate Queen. You want to go on protecting your daughter? Then help us. Her identity known to me and Liara is of no threat to her or you. But the Reapers will be. Help us with the asari Matriarchy. Help me to convince them the threat of the Reapers is a real and present danger. The galaxy at large needs to be ready. The people, militaries and civilians ready for what is coming.

"We need to start stockpiling meds, food, water and safe harbors as well as energy resources. The Reapers will hit our infrastructures hard; the main core worlds will be the first targets. It is inevitable. It will be a slaughter house, more so if we are not ready. It will be a fire sale the galaxy hasn't tasted for fifty thousand years. We need to construct underground bunkers-vaults with independent power and food-stores. There will be thousands…millions of refugees when the war comes. We need to be fully prepared for it. And we're not, not by half. When Sovereign hit the Citadel our collective bare asses were hanging out, in the open and that was just a vanguard."

"And you come to me?" Aria folded her arms. "Why?"

"Ruthless calculus," Shepard's voice became logical, pitted for a debate. "'Don't fuck with Aria.' Isn't that the rule? I bet that rule goes a hell of a lot further than Omega. And your power extends further than just what you display here. If you can convince Tevos to heed the warnings and to act on them, then the Council will act. If the Council acts Pavlon will act. When they do Earth will definitely act and if they act other worlds will act. And the survival rate of organics goes up. The only possible way to defeat the Reapers if we stand utterly united."

Aria stared not at her sister but to Liselle. Her youngest and the only daughter she had any strong ties with, any connection to. And the Goddess help her, Liselle was her favorite. Her child looked at her with expecting urging eyes to take the human and her aunt seriously. To do as they bid.

The Pirate Queen of Omega turned back to Aleena and pointedly ignored her. "You want my help Shepard, you will meld with me. You will convince me with more than that silver tongue of yours."

Liara having been silent up until turned to her bondmate. "Samantha…I do not like this." "The only tapping into your mind should be me. She will not be gentle, Samantha. She will not stop with only Prothean visions. She will push. And she will punish you for what happened on the floor."

"I know." So that all could hear the dark haired Spectre said. "There is little choice. There was a certain amount of common dramatic verisimilitude between the events playing out now between the Pirate Queen and the Spectre and what Shepard was doing with Lawson.

"That's right. You don't have a choice." Aria gave an ambiguously austere look. "Not if you want me to consider opening a dialog with the asari councilor."

Aria was indeed not gentle

A slit of razor blade against the skin: visceral, focused and precise. It was not the human's who bleed despite that was the clear intent.

Human minds instinctively resist the Joining. Aria expected blocks, barriers. What she didn't expect was to slide in, like turbulent waters of a river rushing over reeds. The streams of thoughts were like those of an asari maiden. Mental doors were cracked open, others shut tight and a few wide open. One that was flooded with grotesques, the tearing and ripping of flesh and synthetics raped the souls of their victims. What was left was no longer whole, not longer truly sentient but an abomination.

Whole worlds destroyed, entire systems wiped out one after the other until the galaxy was burning and bleeding. Above it all inviolately intertwined was Shepard's outrage that no one was listening. She was pleading, begging for someone, anyone to listen to her words, to the warnings. Her desperation to unite, to protect life, to find a way something to stop the Reapers, were systematically destroyed as the worlds that had fallen fifty thousand years ago had been.

What seemed like hope for a moment was utterly dashed when the Council forsook her. And contrived to cover-up the truth, to deny the reality of what Sovereign truly was, and what lurked just beyond Dark Space.

Beyond all of this Aria experienced another memory, one hidden behind a curtained door but screaming to be heard. To Aria the voices that spoke had no full face, no recognition for her. Three women stood upon a gangplank looking at a ruby red holograph of…something… the memory was clearly focused on the words, not facial recognition. But the outline…it was familiar to the Pirate Queen. Almost like the map silhouette of the inner Council chambers…

"I get the feeling something bad is about to happen." A nervous young quarian spoke.

"You are not Saren." mechanical sounding voice said, it had an odd echoing quality to it as if whatever was speaking was in a vast open space.

"What is that? Some kind of VI interface?" Aria now knew from Shepard's memories that the owner of this voice was named Tali, her bondmate's Trusted.

"Rudimentary creatures of blood and flesh. You touch my mind fumbling your ignorance incapable of understanding."

"I do not think this is a VI." memory Liara said from behind Shepard's right shoulder.

"There is a realm of existence so far beyond your own you can not even imagine it. I am beyond your comprehension. I am Sovereign."

Aria found herself within Shepard's eyes rather than looking over her shoulder. She felt the emotions of that day. The dawning terrible realization of just what Saren's flagship truly was. "Sovereign isn't just some Reapers ship Saren found it's an actually reaper!" Aria/Shepard gasped.

What Benezia, Shiala and Rana said about the subtly of its presence was more clear now. All three asari admitted that you didn't even know it was there at first, then over the course of a few days, weeks the presence became more and more infused with your own thoughts. Then one day your thoughts cease to exist at all there was only the will of the ship. While Benezia was able to shield a part of herself away from Sovereign she still succumbed. Shiala was overtaken by the thorian and when it dies, its hold over her seemingly died. But Rana Thanopterious… Shepard had shot her.

"Reaper. A label created by the protheans to give voice to their destruction. In the end what they chose to call us is irreverent. We simply are." Sovereign's demeaning voice proclaimed.

"The protheans vanished fifty thousand years ago! You could not have been there, it's impossible!" Liara protested.

"Organic life is nothing but a genetic mutation. An accident. Your lives are measured in years, and decades. you wither and die. We are eternal. The pinnacle of evolution, of existence. Before us, you are nothing. Your extinction is inevitable, we are the end of everything."

Like hell it was, Aria/Shepard glared at the holographic image of her enemy. Challenged Aria/Shepard tossed back at the thing before her. "There is an entire galaxy of races united and ready to face you!"

"Confidence born of ignorance. The Cycle can not be broken." Sovereign swatted the verbal parry aside.

"Cycle? What Cycle?" Tali's curiosity demanded. In the depths of Shepard's memory was the smaller voice that answered 'the ones within the cipher, the one Liara spoke about when she was first on the Normandy.'

Sovereign clearly was ready for this question. "The pattern has repeated itself more times than you can fathom. Organic civilizations arise, evolve advance and at the apex of their glory they are extinguished. The protheans were not the first. They did not create the Citadel; they did not forge the mass relays. They merely found them…the legacy of my kind." a boast.

"Why would you construct the mass relays and leave them for someone else to find?" Aria/Shepard frowned. She knew the answer, deep down she knew it but to have it confirmed…

"Every civilization's technology is based on the one from the mass relays, our technology. By using it your society develops along the paths we desire. We impose order on the chaos of organic evolution. You exist because we allow it, and you will end because we demand it."

Liara was horrified. "They are harvesting us! Letting us advance to the level they need then wiping us out."

This had now become an information gathering attempt; she would keep this thing talking as long as possible. Her mission had just expanded; she needed to not only destroy this base but to find out as much about the Reapers as she could, "What do you want from us? Slaves? Resources?" this time rage rose to the surface of Aria/Shepard's mind, with no intention of making the attempt to cool it.

This will not do! The notion organics were nothing but a crop to be cultivated and taken when desired was reprehensible. There was no way they/she was going to allow it.

"My kind transcends your very understanding. We are each a nation, independent, free of all weakness. You can not even grasp the nature of our existence."

Aria/Shepard ignored the superior proclamation. She wanted answered goddess damn-it! "Where did you come from? Who built you?"

"We have no beginning, we have no end. We are infinite. Millions of years your civilizations have been eradicated and forgotten. We will endure." More confidence from the synthetic.

Impossible, something had to build these things for them to exist in the first place. "Where are the rest of the Reapers? Are you the last of your kind?" Aria/Shepard pressed.

"We are legion. The time of our return is at hand. Our numbers will darken the sky of every world. You can not escape, you are doomed."

The beacon message Aria/Shepard realized, the images of protheans running, trying to escape the ships and what came from them to annihilate them, or simply clinging together crying out in fear and despair at what was happening. World after world after world, their populations completely eradicated, their buildings brought down and destroyed, their civilization wiped out as if it had never been. By these things. She stared it, her hatred, her defiance of it; she would not permit what had happened to the protheans to happen to those she was sworn to protect.

"You just admitted that the universe only spontaneously generates organic life. You had a beginning, when organic life created you. And if you attack us you will have an end, when we destroy you!" she declared her tone conveying equal parts chill anger and resolution. "You're not even alive. Not really. You are just a machine. And machines can be broken." Aria/Shepard spat.

"Your words are empty as your future. I am the vanguard of your destruction. This exchange is over."

Around the three women the world shattered and so did the memory back upon itself looping with the visceral images of the beacon.

Aria pulled away so sharply, it staggered the young Spectre. Shepard toppled and fell to the floor of the Pirate Queen's apartment.

Aria looked down at the kneeling human and to the young maiden who rushed to her side and held her. Liara looked back up to the matriarch challengingly. A look for the moment T'Loak allowed for it was one born out of instinct of the bonding. Gritting her teeth the Pirate Queen took to one knee and put a hand under Shepard's chin and lifted it. She met eyes that were fully cyan as her biotics swirled around her protectively.

"I was brutal to see the fullness of truth, to discern if you merely believed these things to be true or they were." Aria said haughtily

"What you did…" Liara snarled, her arms were still clutching Shepard's shoulders. Her embrace was so tight the young human would be sporting bruises for days after. "was rape her!"

"Yes." The Pirate Queen didn't even deny it. "But it was necessary."

Shepard sniffed the blood that began leaking from her nose. "And what is your proclamation Queen of Omega? Am I delusional?"

"Crazy? Yes or I suspect half the things you do wouldn't work out. But delusional, mentally unstable? No." T'Loak helped Shepard stand. There was a look in her eyes one of respect for the woman before her. However brief it was there just long enough for Shepard to actually see it before it was carefully hidden again behind a highly schooled mask. "Liselle get her something to drink and one of those protein bars." she ordered.

The queen's daughter quickly slipped into another room and returned a short moment later carrying a bottle of juice and a protein bar. Shepard didn't refuse either though she wondered if she were going to be able to keep either of them down. Her head was killing her, and her stomach was turbulent.

"I will say that I am impressed you withstood our connection, Shepard. No doubt it's that strong will of yours that allowed you to withstand the interfacing with the prothean beacons before the gestalt. A lesser mind would have been mush."

"Yeah…I've heard that before." Shepard nonchalantly wiped the blood from her nose. "And you're not the first matriarch to say it. But will you be the first matriarch to do something about what you have seen?" Shepard matched the asari's eyes with her own confrontational commander's stare.

Aria's lips curled playfully cruel. "The others did something as well, Shepard. They ignored it. In those images they saw you were honest to your beliefs, to your convictions to what was shown you. But honesty is not synonymous with truth. The matriarchs of course would not do what I just did and rip that information unadulterated from your mind in order to get past the honesty to gain truth.

"However if you mean will I do something proactive? I am the Queen of Omega. I will not be a bitch-slave to some tin-god! It is in my best interest to help you."

The Spectre nodded and regretted the action almost immediately as her throbbing head swam inside her skull. She was positively sick.

"If you are going to hurl please use the toilet." Aria pointed to a closed door just off to the left.

"It's only pain." The marine in Shepard answered back. She defied her stomach to obey her will by swallowing several gulps of the fruit juice.

"Do you ever have a normal day?" The Pirate Queen suddenly asked the novel question.

"Once." Shepard responded taking another swig of the juice. "I think it was a Thursday."

Aria laughed.

Shepard's stonewall resolve must have further impressed Aria for that same sly grin appeared on her purple lips. "You know it's too bad you pissed off the three heavy merc companies here on Omega. While I was content to let them kill each other, their numbers will come in handy later on. That may take sometime to finagle. That being said…" she sighed "I have favors aplenty to call on back on Thessia and Illium. Those that owe me will have no choice but to listen when I give them a call. You see I know the value of another's 'gratitude'. Oh speaking of which. You may want to speak with Althea." the smile again and a wink. "She may have a few pressies for her Little Wing."

MEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEME

"What do you think Aria meant that Althea had presents for you?" Aleena asked once the three of them were on a transport heading for the Normandy from the station docks.

Liara didn't answer. She didn't care to. She looked up at the bounty hunter who was standing in the aisle of the transport with her arm above her head hanging on to the guide railings running along the shuttle's ceiling.

Shepard took a seat nearest the door, her hand rubbing her forehead as if to knead away the throbbing behind her eyeballs or rub out the images that freshly bled into her mind. The pressure of Liara's hand on the small of her back eased the tension building along her nervous system.

"It should have been you!" Liara snarled. She looked to her bondmate and back to Aleena. "It was supposed to be you!" She leapt to her feet shoving the other woman. "That was the plan."

"Aria would never have gone for it." Shepard spoke up. "It had to be me and it had to be Aria's choice. The only way she'd target me was if I was off the table."

Liara spun around on the balls of her feet, staring incredulously at her bondmate. "What?!"

Shepard looked up. "Aria wouldn't have linked with my mind if we told her too. She would have tossed us out on our collective asses. Especially for that stunt we pulled out on the floor, she had to feel she was punishing me to save face."

"I don't believe you. You had no intention of having Aleena join with Aria did you?" Liara gasped. Her eyes grew darker.

Shepard shook her head.

The resounding slap across the Spectre's face shocked the three of them. Liara was fuming. She stood before her bondmate in her rage. "I can not believe you!" Liara repeated. "You…allowed her to…to…rape your mind deliberately?"

Shepard looked down to her feet. "Yes."

Liara dropped her gaze, she was feeling too many things: fear, anger, betrayal and all of them directed at Samantha. If she could have walked away at that moment she would have. Instead she was stuck in the transport stewing in her rage and the emptiness. She was forced to sit and witness another woman-another asari do what no asari had the right to do and rip into Samantha's mind. Invade her mind and there was not a damn thing Liara could do to stop it. Samantha's soul cried out, screamed for the pain to stop, pleaded through the bond for Liara to stop it, and she couldn't.

And now she finds out Samantha deliberately allowed it? She allowed it!

Sam rose up, took two steps so she was standing directly behind her wife. She reached up and touched Liara's shoulder, but the asari shrugged it off. "I had to. Liara nobody in power is listening and we're running out of time. I have to stack the deck in our favor…"

"Don't you dare, Samantha. Just don't." She whirled around. "What you did…" She stopped speaking. "You are such a fool Samantha Shepard."

The hand reached once more for Liara's shoulder then fell away. The silence lingered, heavy on in their air, heavier on the heart. Aleena wanted to fade into the furthest darkest shadowy corner. This was not something she needed to witness, to take part of despite the fact she was a part of it all.

"Go see Dr. Chakwas, before you play your games with Lawson." Liara demanded in a low growl.

"I will." answered the wife.

Liara nodded.

The shuttle landed. The door was popped and Liara marched out not looking behind her.

MEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEME

Present Day: Normandy

Oriana followed sullen and slow of foot behind the cool and removed stature of LT. Naga'sadow. "If I can just explain…"

"Do you think anything said now will change Huntress Nual's fate?"

"I…" Oriana paused, sucked in a bit of air and stood prouder, more confrontational. "Yes! Because I…pleaded with her to let me see and hear what my sister had to say in defense of the evils Cerberus had done. I didn't know of her past but when I heard it I….I used it without impunity. I…"

"Will see the Spectre." Naga'sadow said. "She will decide what is to become of this development."

Oriana continued to follow realizing she wasn't going to be taken to a secluded area to be questioned but directly to the brig. "We're going…in there?"

"Yes."

"But my sister is in there."

"How very astute of you to observe that."

"But she will know I was there. That I heard what she said."

"Yes."

Oriana paused "This was Shepard's plan all along wasn't it?" Her blue eyes opened wide. "That's why she had two guards always in a helmet. She knew that I would convince Nual to let me in the brig during the interrogations. And she…she…"

"Put Huntress Nual on your guard detail because her sister is ardat 'yakshi. Again yes."

"Because Nual would be sympathetic to me."

"Again you are astute in your deductions." Naga'sadow responded nonplused.

"I'm a quick study." Oriana stood staring and the asari, "but why? Am I a tool or a weapon against Miranda?"

"That is for Operative Lawson to decide."

The young woman frowned. "What? I don't…understand."

"How do you think your sister will respond to the knowledge you were in the room with her, or the assumption you were in there all along?"

"Agent Shepard said I was to be the redemption for Miranda. She admitted that was my true role here, the real reason I was taken into protective custody, not just as bait. It was why I was shown that footage of Cerberus crimes, so I would be in that room the day Shepard showed it to Miranda. She said I was going to be used to turn her. I guess I didn't see just exactly how. I didn't think she manipulated events so fully that'd I'd willingly place myself there. Now it makes sense, when Shepard said that Miranda's redemption began with my choices."

Naga'sadow said nothing as she escorted the young human back into the brig. Helmet still in hand Oriana Solheim came face to face with the true facade of the Spectre. A woman of command and undeniable power. A soldier that lead others into unthinkable suicidal odds with only the promise she'd be there every step of the way.

Oriana's eyes were drawn to her sister who fell back against the wall of her cell. Hard. She slumped against the solid surface and slid down to the floor. The assumption was made, just as Shepard had planned it. Even if Oriana said she hadn't been in the room the whole time, Miranda's heart had fallen because she had believed otherwise. Precisely as Shepard had stacked the deck all in her favor.

"Agent Shepard?" Naga'sadow made sure of the deliberate use of the Spectre's title rather than the Alliance military rank others were more familiar with. "There had been an incident that needs your attention."

Shepard looked to Orana smiled and completed the poorly played farce with: "Cadet Solheim remain with the prisoner." With that she left the room to Oriana and Miranda.

For a moment both sisters stared at each other both accepting the charade for what it was.

"Shepard is many things. Subtle isn't one of them." Miranda said still in the position she had been when she hit the floor.

"She is what she, is a military commander at war." Oriana answered. "And nobody with the power to do something about it is listening to her."

Using her hands Lawson pushed herself back onto her feet. Preparing her mind for the barrage of questions and accusations surely Oriana was ready to assault her with. She could see them burning behind her sister's eyes.

"Shepard spoke of this to you?" Miranda was dumbfounded. Surely the Spectre would not have played such a hand.

"No. If something was being done we'd have heard about it, governments would be moving, prepping people. They are not, which means Shepard is being silenced."

"Cerberus has listened! We want to help her."

"But only on your terms, only if she rids herself of her alien wife. You people already murdered her daughter. You don't want Shepard to have any connections outside humanity…outside Cerberus. The Illusive Man wants her to be his bitch and to heel just like you. I bet he doesn't even want to help Shepard. He wants whatever the Reapers have. The ability to control others, to utterly dominate them. But he can't get it without Shepard. But you can't get Shepard as she is now. You need her broken, don't you? "

Miranda should not have been surprised that her sister summed up the whole scenario of 'Operation Caesar' so quickly. Oriana was after all her sister, held the same mental capabilities. Of Shepard had too. But then of course Shepard had developed the same analysis…so maybe the perfection of genes had nothing to do with it.

"What happened to Dr. T'Soni and her child wasn't Cerberus, not really. It was Udina who did that and on his own initiative because the alien Council used him as a shill a pawn in their games, because of how they acted, Udina had to respond the only way he could. Yes it was tragic decision, and perhaps rash, definitely reactionary, and yes Cerberus tried to contain the situation but we were not the cause of it!"

"I have ears to hear, eyes to see. I know what was on that vid Miranda. Cerberus seek to lionize their actions while demonizing all they see as enemy."

"That was all propaganda, things taken out of context."

"Oh yeah I'm sure what happened that poor quarian kid was taken completely out of context. Or you going to tell me that 'wasn't Cerberus…not really'? Not a great organization if you ask me if you have that many rogue agents running around."

"I….I wasn't a part of that, Oriana. And… the military isn't always clean either. They have done countless atrocities throughout history. And yet Shepard is still a part of them she still became a marine, an N-Seven and the Spectres are just as dirty. Yet you exonerate her, while…"

Oriana pressed herself against the bars of the cell, "You really going to play shift-the-blame game with me sister? Really?"

Lawson looked away clearly abashed. "No. No I won't. I supposed we are both better than that."

"One of us is." Oriana challenged. "I'm asking Shepard to join her crew. Officially. I don't know what I can accomplish here, but I have to do something! And not just for humans. History can say that at least one of Hennery Lawson's tank-bred daughters has the moral conscience to do the right thing." Oriana spun around and ran out the brig's door leaving Miranda to call out after her.

MEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEME

It was some hours later before Shepard reappeared. As before she reclaimed her chair, and just sat there, her azure eyes meeting Miranda's gray. For some reason, Miranda expected the younger woman to gloat, to posture over the play with her sister. But she did not. There was austerity within those blue eyes, but not boasting over her triumph. There was only silence.

This was the face of Commander Samantha Shepard come Commander and Spectre. This was the face that would lead the galaxy to war against the machines. A face that would launch more than a thousand ships.

"I would not have believed it before but I don't have what you do, that fire that makes someone willing to follow you into hell itself. My father got me the best genes money could buy. Guess that wasn't enough." she was bitter.

Shepard leaned forward resting her elbows on the table. "You always bring up your genetic tailoring. It really bothers you doesn't it?" Another counter.

"This is what I am Shepard. I can't hide it. The intelligence, the looks, even the biotics, my father paid for all of that. Every one of your accomplishments is due to your skill. The only things I can take credit for are my mistakes."

"You give your father too much credit. You were given gifts; it is how you chose to use them that defines you. My grandmother Shan once told me: 'Our thoughts become our words. Our words become our actions, our actions become our habits. Our habits become our values and our values…our values become our destiny.'

"What is your destiny Miranda? You rescued your sister so she has the freedom to choose her path, but do you have a choice?"

"We are not always the person we hoped we'd be." Miranda muttered.

"No we're not." Shepard admitted in the same solemn voice thinking of what she had to do to get Aria onboard. How she had hurt Liara to do it. "None of us choose our end, really. A commander may move a soldier. An overlord may motivate her dominion.

When I was a younger my mentor once told me that even when those who move you be they commanders or persons of power, your soul is in your keeping alone. When you stand before the Goddess, you cannot say, 'But I was told by others to do thus', or that virtue' not convenient at the time'. This will not suffice."

"Virtue? You speak to about virtue? And what of Oriana? What virtue will you choose for her? Are you going to allow her on your crew? She told me she was going to ask you to let her stay on."

"She has. And no I will not allow her to serve on the Normandy. Not even if she enlisted. Her place is not on a warship. We need people like her at groundside, in support roles, helping with the organization and maintenance of refugee camps and the like. And I hate to say it we will need young women like her to be the mothers of a new generation after this war with the Reapers are over. The only way to survive the aftermath is to start having babies."

"Babies." Miranda whispered the single word. 'Only she is like me…the curse of our perfection. She and I can't have babies.' The thought was heavy on the older woman's mind. She looked up guilt on her face, "About your…"

"Don't apologize to me Miranda. Just don't. I don't want your pity and I don't accept it. Udina and Cerberus wanted Liara and Secura dead, they wanted me to bleed. They want me to feel so helpless so broken that I am utterly lost. So lost that I go mad and sink below the sea. They would have me shatter ties with everyone that has any meaning to me, and when I am utterly destroyed I will be piecemealed back together as Cerberus sees fit.

"I know this and so do you. If Cerberus truly wanted to help they would have by now rather than waste time, energy and resources on some draconian scheme to demoralize me.

"Bad people do bad things because they can, Miranda. I'd give my life to see his demise. He must be stopped before his evil machinations come to a crescendo."

"A bit melodramatic isn't it commander?"

Shepard rose so sharply from her chair both it and the table toppled over, her body automatically shimmering in the glow of her biotics. "Is it? That man is one archdemon short of a blight!" She paused claiming herself with deliberate composure. She picked up both chair and table, speaking all the while: "There is no question in my mind there are some good people in Cerberus, people too caught up or too naive or too ill-informed or too desperate to see the true clear picture. People who believe the rhetoric, or feel they have no choice. But there are choices."

Shepard did not retake her seat but rather stood almost apologetically for her earlier display of temper. She lowered the volume of her voice below that of a conversational tone, as if at a funeral. "If allowed to have even one-tenth of the Reaper's technology TIMy and his devoted servants will wreak such havoc in the galaxy it will parallel what the Collectors are doing now. I cannot allow for the sake of humanity. We cannot lose our humanity just for the sake of advancement, Miranda.

"If you think I am too being too melodramatic we can ask the Migrant Fleet and the family that poor boy your people 'interrogated' or Gillian Grayson and if not them, there are dozens of other colonies we can ask each of them victims of Cerberus clandestine projects."

Miranda responded with an equal measure of conversation's demeanour though growing weary of defending her beliefs of a human positive objective. "Yes Cerberus has made some hard choices not all of them good, but I told you before Cerberus goals is not intergalactic domination. Our prime directive is the betterment of humanity."

"And become less and less humane in the process. I'd rather be alien in mind and humane than human with no soul. You know the protheans once questioned if one ever truly has a choice? One of their more unpopular philosophers believed 'one can only match move by move the machinations of fate and thus defy the tyrannous stars." Shepard said.

"Is that what you believe?" Miranda asked.

"I believe in defying tyranny."