The Citadel

"Mass relay jump successful, Commander Lawson. The Normandy is on her way"said Joker via his intercom.

Richard went down to Joker, to see if everything is alright.

"Hey Joker, wait, who's this?"

"This? Oh that's EDI. She's the Ship, basically"

"The Ship?"

"Major Armstrong, I'm the Enhanced Defensive Intelligence of this ship, the crew calls me EDI. I'm a fully developed Artificial Intelligence. This body makes me able to aid your squad with limited ground fire support. Basically I am both this unit and the ship."

"So who's piloting the Normandy? You or Joker?"

"Although you could see this ship as my body, I leave the control of the Normandy to Joker."

"Rich, go to the crew deck man, bet you could get a nice view on the Citadel."

Nearly the entire crew met up at the windows of the Normandy to see the Citadel, before they would land in the Alliance dock. After being repaired and moved back into the Serpent Nebula, the Citadel looked greater and better than ever before. Richard and Miranda joined them.

"It's beautiful, isn't it? I've been so many times to the Citadel now, but it's still a sight to see for me" she said to Richard.

"I've seen the Citadel only two or three times in my life. The last time was shortly before the Reaper war started. Come on, Joker will dock the ship soon, let's get to the shuttle."

The two walked to the elevator

"Can I ask you a few questions, Miranda?"

"Sure"

"I've heard you were part of Shepards squad."

"Yes, I actually was. with him since the first Normandy was destroyed until we've destroyed the Collector Base together. You should know that I've used to be an operative for the Illusive Man"

"You worked for Cerberus?"

"Don't worry, I've never had anything to do with what Cerberus did during the War, or the sick tests and experiments they did. I've led the Lazarus Project, my only goal was to bring back Commander Shepard."

"So what made you leave Cerberus?"

"When we arrived the Collector-Base, we found out what the Collectors have done to the abducted colonists. Today it's common knowledge why they tried to built a Reaper, but I was deeply in shock about it when I saw this. Shepard decided to blow the whole Station up, but the Illusive Man wanted me to stop him from doing so. I realised how perverted and sick this man really was. Every sane person would want this place to be gone, but he wanted to use the station and its technology for his own goals. Up to this point, I believed in Cerberus and what it stood for, but this place couldn't offer anything for anyone that would justify to spare this base."

"How did you ended up as an agent for the alliance?."

"I've earned their trust, I guess. I gave them data about the Cerberus Cells I've been involved with. That helped them to completely destroy what's left of Cerberus."

The two entered the Shuttle, flying over to the Zakera Ward and took a skycar to the Presidium, where they would meet the Ashley and the Council.

"We will meet up with Lt. Commander Williams and Councillor Robinson and prepare everything for your introduction to the Council."

Robinson was the new Councillor, elected by the Alliance after Councillor Udina got shot and killed for his attempt to overthrow the Council together with Cerberus.

"Welcome to the Citadel Embassies, Major. Agent Lawson it's good to see you too, I'm very pleased to see that you both could came here so quickly" the Councillor welcomed them. "Ashley will soon be here too, I believe it's the traffic"

The Councillor was a tall, grey haired man, who looked kind of like Udina, before he dyed his hair black, and spoke with a strong British accent.

"Could you explain me something, Councillor? The supreme command of the Alliance wants me to represent mankind as a spectre and find out why the Reapers break free of Shepards will. But why does Ashley need to give up her status as a spectre?"

"Even though we've defeated the Reapers together with the other Council races, we've lost a lot of their trust with Udinas failed coup attempt. And with Commander Shepard controlling the entire Reaper race, the Council has decided that we can only have one active spectre at one time. Spectres are elite soldiers who operate above the law, I assume they don't wanna see more than one human with those rights. I know its unfair and I've already started a petition against this, but it's the law and right know we can't do anything about it."

Ashley arrived in a skycar

"Good day Councillor. Lawson, Armstrong. Now let's get this over with"

"I assume you know why we're here Ms. Williams?" Miranda asked her.

"Aye, and I guess you three here know that I don't have to do this. Spectres are above the law and I don't have to do what the Alliance wants me to do."

Miranda and Richard looked at each other.

"But if this is what my race wants, I'll do it. Not that I would love that spectre thing that much."

"Excellent, now I want you all to stay at the Citadel, tomorrow I will summon a meeting of the Council, where we will nominate Major Armstrong to be the next human spectre." the Councillor answered

"Do you want anything else from us Councillor?" Miranda asked.

"No, you can take the rest of your day off."

"Then we'll see you tomorrow, Ashley" Richard said.

As they arrived in the Zakera Ward, they both decided to get something to eat. As they walked through the Ward, they came across a new restaurant, the Maude. It's located where the Zakera Café used to be, unfortunately the Cafe didn't reopen after the Reaper war.

"Wait Miranda, let's get something to eat, I'm starving."

"Zakera is full of bars and restaurants, any idea where we should go?"

"Think I'm in the mood for some Asari food, if that isn't a problem for you"

"Okay, sure"

The two entered the restaurant. It was bascially a kitchen with a bar and some stools in front of it. As the cook turned around to take their order, both the cook and Miranda where surprised to see each other.

"Mess Sergeant Gardner, what are you doing here?

"Well, after we've bombed the Collectors back to the Stone Age, I quit my Job at Cerberus. And after I didn't know what do with my life, I've decided to stick with what I can do best and opened my own restaurant here on the Citadel.

"Please tell me that you now wash your hands before you cook, I could hear the conversation you had with Shepard. "

"Don't worry Ms. Lawson, I do it, I do it, sometimes atleast hehe. And the good thing about having my restaurant here on the Citadel is that I don't have to do the plumbing anymore"

"Wait a second, so the man cleaning the toilets also prepared the meals on the Normandy? Miranda please tell me that the cook and the plumber are now two different guys."

"It wasn't that bad" Gardner said "as you will see it's all about the right ingredients and not so much about where you had your hands on five minutes before you cooked the meal. Luckily you can buy some really good stuff here at the Citadel. Oh, your Calamari are ready"

Gardner could tell that the two were enjoying the food he has cooked, which made him smile.

Richard was surprised how insanely fast Miranda inhaled her portion and ordered even more food.

"Wow I'm not even done with the my first portion, and you've already eaten 4 of them."

"I'm a biotic. You know that biotics need to consume many calories."

"Didn't know you were a biotic, Miranda"

The two spend the rest of their day visiting the different shops and stores of the Zakera Ward. They could swear that they've heard "I'm Commander Shepard and this is my favorite store on the Citadel" in more than one shop, but that may be because they were dead tired after an entire day of travelling around the Citadel. Richard got a little bit angered, because he didn't get a discount in any of the shops they've visited.

On the next day they've walked up the stairs up to Council together with Ashley.

"Councillor Robinson informed us that the Alliance would like you to become the new human spectre, but I don't see why we should let you decide who's our first line of defence. I don't need to remind you that the Alliance has agreed that there can be only one human spectre at a time" said the Asari Councillor

"With all due respect, I'm allowed to retire from my duties, and as a Member of the Council, there must always be a human spectre. This man right here is the one I want to recommend you as my successor."

"Well then, Major Armstrong step forward. Will you serve the Council and the people of every world in the Citadel space? You will be able break our laws to defend them, you will have to kill people to safe lives and you will only obey our orders.

"It's an honor, Councillor."

"Major Armstrong, you are now a spectre. This meeting of the Council is adjourned"

Miranda and Richard walked away from the Council

"Congrats Richard. Now let's go back to the Normandy, we have to plan our next steps."

Back at the Normandy they were informed that a Sovereign-Class Reaper ship attacked Nos Astra, the capital of the Asari colony Illium.

"Commander, we've got incoming reports that Nos Astra is being attacked by a Reaper Capital ship, the Asari garrison fleet protecting Illium got destroyed, any orders?"

"Joker set course for Illium. I hope we'll be able to stop this. Atleast I want to find out what makes them attack us."

They travelled to Illium as fast as they could, trying to stop the Reaper from killing thousands.