PART 2 - SEVEN MONTHS LATER

"Boss? Boss, are you there?"

A male voice had snapped a lone figure in an underground bunker out of a deep thought. The figure had been concentrating on something so hard that they were unaware that a call had come through on their terminal. The figure turned towards their terminal and saw that they were receiving a video call from a turian.

"Yes I'm here," said the figure, "sorry I was thinking about something else. Do you have a report for me?"

"Of course," the turian replied, "the phase two preparations are now complete. All we need is your "go" order and we will proceed."

"You are a go. But I want you to understand something first."

"Boss?"

"We already have one failure because of that idiot batarian I put in charge of the first phase. We can't afford to have another one. If you don't want to earn a punishment worse than what the batarian received you better ensure that this phase does not end in failure. Do I make myself clear?"

The turian didn't respond after the figure finished speaking. He knew about how the batarian died. In fact he was the one that fired the gun that killed him. The batarian died from a single gunshot wound to the head. The only way the turian could experience a worse death would be if he was painfully tortured first. He also knew that the figure's threat was a serious one. Thinking about what awaited him if he failed had scared him into silence.

"Do I make myself clear?" the figure said again to get a response.

"Yes boss," the voice replied, "I'll keep that in mind. Out."

The image of the turian vanished instantly after he finished his statement. With the call finished, the figure turned their attention back to what they were concentrating on earlier. It was a datapad that had an image of a male human displayed on it. The text on the screen identified the human as Captain Shepard of the Alliance Navy. A smile slowly grew on the figure's face.

"You might have won the last battle Shepard," they said, "but our war is far from over."

In his apartment inside the Tiberius Tower apartment building on the Citadel, Captain Shepard was sitting behind a desk in his office looking at a datapad. The datapad was filled with several documents. As Shepard scanned through the documents, he grew more and more frustrated until finally he tossed the datapad onto the desk. Whatever he was looking for, it wasn't in the documents. Shepard barely had a chance to breathe a sigh of frustration when he heard a beeping noise coming from his terminal. He was receiving a call from his ship the SSV Normandy. The voice that greeted Shepard when he answered the call was Comm. Specialist Samantha Traynor.

"Captain," said Traynor, "is this a bad time?"

"No I was just finishing up," Shepard replied.

"Any luck?"

"Sadly no, the more I look the more I keep coming across dead ends."

Seven months ago, Shepard was on a Spectre mission to prevent Balak, a batarian terrorist and an old foe of his, from assassinating the Supreme Leader of the batarian Hegemony. Balak hoped that the assassination would force his fellow batarians to withdraw from the Citadel Council and make him the new leader of the Hegemony. Shepard prevented the assassination and killed Balak when he took one of Shepard's squadmates as a hostage. By all accounts, the mission was a success. Then Shepard discovered that Balak had a secret financial backer. Since then he had spent any free time he had trying to identify them. Unfortunately as he told Traynor, he had not been having much luck.

"I'm sorry Captain." Traynor said.

"It's okay. What's up?"

"You asked me to call you at this time to remind you to get ready for your dinner date with Commander Williams."

Shepard checked the time and saw that Traynor was right. He and his fiancée, Lieutenant Commander Ashley Williams, were getting married in one week and she was running some final wedding errands with her family. She agreed to meet Shepard for a dinner date after they were done. Shepard thanked Traynor for the call and left the office.

After heading upstairs to his bedroom, Shepard pulled out his formal wear from his closet. It was the same outfit that was given to him by his old squadmate Kasumi Goto for an operation to retrieve her deceased partner's graybox. Shepard later wore the same outfit when he infiltrated a casino on the Citadel to find an arms dealer with a connection to a plot to steal Shepard's identity. Shepard felt good knowing that now he finally had a reason to wear his formal wear that wasn't connected to a mission.

As Shepard finished putting on his outfit, he took one last look around the apartment. The apartment hadn't changed much since Shepard's late mentor Admiral David Anderson gave it to him during the Reaper War. The only major difference right now was that there were boxes lying around. With their marriage imminent, Ashley had started moving some of her things into the apartment. There were still a few things left to unpack but Shepard was certain that they would get it done before the wedding. Once he was dressed and freshened up, Shepard walked out of the apartment, got in his skycar and headed to the restaurant.

The restaurant Shepard and Ashley had chosen to have their date was not a high class one. Their reputations would have allowed them to jump the line at any of the finest restaurants on the Citadel but they weren't looking for that tonight. They wanted a place that would allow them a nice quiet evening of great food and quality time together. It was something they hadn't had for a while. Between the Reaper War, Spectre missions and the wedding prep, they were lucky to get a few minutes of alone time a day.

A few minutes after Shepard was seated at a table, Ashley walked into the restaurant. Just as Shepard was wearing his formal wear from the casino mission, Ashley was wearing the blue dress she wore that day. In Shepard's eyes, she still looked as beautiful in that dress now as she did then. Ashley smiled when she saw Shepard waving her over to their table. Shepard got up from his chair and gave Ashley a hug and a kiss. He then pulled Ashley's chair out for her.

"Madame," Shepard said attempting a French accent, "your table is ready."

"Thank you monsieur," Ashley said as she sat down.

Once the two of them were settled, they ordered the restaurant's best bottle of wine to start their meal. The waitress poured some in each of their glasses and left the two alone to decide what to order. Before they picked up their menus, Shepard and Ashley picked up their glasses and clanked them together.

"I'm really glad we could do this," said Ashley.

"Me too," Shepard replied, "it's nice to get away from the wedding prep and enjoy some alone time."

"Oh come on the wedding prep hasn't been that bad."

"When we were looking at tablecloth samples for the reception, all I could think was 'how many different colors could there be?' One time I think they showed us two samples that were the same color."

"Ok maybe there were some times where the planning got carried away. Look at it this way. In less than a week, it will all be over and you and I can just focus on living the rest of our lives together."

"I'll drink to that."

The two of them took a sip of their wine after making the toast. A couple of minutes went by and their waitress hadn't returned to take their order. Shepard thought about getting up to look for her but Ashley shook her head when she figured out what he was thinking. Shepard realized she was right. There was no point in making a fuss over it. The important thing was to enjoy the evening. Ashley decided to change the subject to get their minds off the wait.

"Traynor told me that you've been trying to identify Balak's financial backer again."

Shepard knew this was coming. Ashley fully supported him working on the case but with the wedding getting closer, she had hoped that he would leave work alone until after the honeymoon. She couldn't complain though. It was the kind of person Shepard was. He couldn't let loose ends stand.

"Yeah I thought I would take one more try at it before the wedding. All I got for it was wasted time. I couldn't find any new leads."

Ashley reached across the table and took Shepard's hand, "you will. I know it. After we get back from our honeymoon, we'll figure it out together. For now, let's not think about work."

"You're right. Thanks Ash."

The moment was interrupted when they heard a voice. Thinking it was their waitress, they looked up towards the voice to order their food. To their surprise, it wasn't the waitress. It was Councilor Tevos, the asari representative on the Citadel Council. Tevos was the only incumbent councilor who was also in office during the Reaper War. The other councilors from that time had either passed away or retired. Shepard's history with Tevos was checkered at best. Despite that, Shepard respectfully shook her hand.

"Madame Councilor," he said, "what brings you to this part of the Citadel?"

"Can we take a walk Captain?" Tevos replied, "I have an assignment for you and I would like to discuss the details with you in private."

"With all due respect Madame Councilor we're kind of busy here," said Ashley.

Shepard almost cringed when Ashley made her comment. She knew better than to mouth off to politicians but he also knew that whenever she said "with all due respect," she actually meant "kiss my ass". True a part of him was thinking the same thing but he would never say anything that might let it on. There was also a part of him that was curious. Normally the human councilor, Councilor Hackett, would be talking to him if the council had an assignment for him and usually over a comm. Why would Tevos be giving him the assignment and in person?

"It's all right Williams," said Shepard, "I'm sure I can spare a few minutes."

Ashley turned to Shepard and gave him a mean glare. He had called her by her last name. It was a subtle way of saying that he was officially on the clock. This meant that their date was coming to a premature end. Realizing that protesting was pointless, she gave a wave indicating that he could go. Shepard got up from the table and followed Tevos out of the restaurant. Once they were outside, Shepard spoke first.

"If I may, why isn't Councilor Hackett discussing this assignment with me?"

"Because this isn't a council assignment I'm sending you on," replied Tevos, "your help has been requested by Aria T'Loak."

Shepard knew the name all too well. Aria T'Loak was a crime boss and unofficial ruler of the space station Omega. Shepard had reluctantly helped her on a few jobs in the past. One time he even helped her retake Omega when the pro-human group Cerberus occupied it. Aria may have been a criminal leader on a crime infested station but Shepard knew that Aria needed to be in charge to keep the station from becoming completely out of control. Now it sounded like she needed his help again.

It also explained why Tevos was giving this assignment to him. Shepard always had a hunch Aria had a hold on the councilor. When he met with Aria on the Citadel during the Reaper War, he saw her ask Tevos to help her circumvent the immigration process and Tevos did it without hesitation. Now Aria was using her pull on Tevos to get Shepard to help her. Shepard never brought this up when he talked to Tevos because he didn't want to cause any more tension between them. All he could do now was find out what Aria wanted.

Tevos continued, "You remember how you helped unite the mercenary groups under Aria's rule to fight against the Reapers? When the war was over, Aria's control over the gangs remained…until now."

"What happened?" Shepard asked.

"Aria said that recently the Blue Suns group broke away from her rule. They didn't say why, they just up and left. Normally I would call that a case of criminals betraying each other. However Aria believes that the Blue Suns might have accepted a contract from someone powerful and whoever it is they may have a sinister agenda."

"It must be something really sinister if even Aria is concerned about it."

"She said she'll give you the details if you meet her on Omega, you and you alone."

"Why am I not surprised that she would ask me to come alone? Tell her that I will be on Omega within a day."

Shepard turned to walk back into the restaurant when Tevos called out to him.

"I get the feeling that Commander Williams is not going to be happy about this. Do you think she's going to withdraw my invitation to the wedding?"

Shepard smiled, "I think once I explain it to her she'll understand. If Aria wants to come to the wedding however, I don't think Ashley will be as forgiving."