Chapter 14

Tali was a little girl again, on the Rayya and in the first enviro-suit she was ever given. She looked around to confirm her surroundings and then walked through the market, past a crowd of quarian crewmembers trading their goods and into a tiny little room hidden away from the market. As soon as she walked in her body and enviro-suit had changed back to the adult form she was more used to. In front of her was another woman, wearing a white enviro-suit decorated by a green cloth, standing upright.

"Tali, you're back," she called on warmly with her arms open. Tali recognized her soft voice immediately.

"Mother," Tali squeaked out surprised as she instantly leapt into her arms to return the embrace. It had been so long since she had last seen her mother and now she finally got to see her again after all these years. It didn't make sense to her but then again neither had her life for the past two years; this would be the one strange event she would put up with.

"I missed you mom," Tali whispered while her voice was slightly teary.

"I missed you too dear." Tali released the embrace to look into the lights shining out through her visor. It had been so long since that fateful day onboard the Rayya where her mother had died from an infection after an air filter had malfunctioned and now she finally got to see her here once more.

"I have so much to tell you."

"I'm sure your life has been interesting, you must've passed your pilgrimage by now."

"And wasting her time with a human," another harsh voice came from a corner. When Tali turned around there was a small flash of light that temporally made her vision fuzzy. When it materialized her father walked up to his wife and daughter in strides, his shoulders hunched back and Tali took a step back out of reflex. She could already feel her father's disappointment steaming from out of his suit.

"You are meant to be on the Neema, gathering research that will help the Migrant Fleet Tali." Tali suddenly became extremely captivated by her toes.

"I'm just -"

"What are you doing parading around on a human ship? With a human?" her father interrupted, "our people are preparing for war with the Geth and all you can do is leave the fleet to have fun elsewhere? Do our people mean nothing to you?"

"You're being too hard on her husband," Tali's mother intervened, "what she is doing is much more important than shooting Geth beyond the Perseus Veil."

"She can't just abandon our people. Tali, whatever sort of childish fancy you have with this man you have to abandon it and find a man back on the fleet. Not someone who will keep you away from your duty and take away your opportunity to raise a child for the fleet. Do you not see the selfishness of this fling you have going on with this man?"

Tali couldn't deny whatever truth there was in her father's words. Being with Shepard did mean that Tali was going to be away from the fleet and miss out on the chance of ever having a child of her own to continue the existence of the Quarians, and being away from the fleet did pose the possibility that whatever she achieved in the future might never aid the Quarians specifically. Worse, her weak immune system didn't allow Shepard to looks upon her face or make love to her whenever either of them wanted, which in the end felt like she was making him deal with a lot more baggage than he really needed to for any relationship, plus it wasn't like he was trying to save an entire galaxy from being destroyed by seemingly indestructible machines right? Ultimately, what she had for Shepard was selfish, something that he and her people might end up having to pay for.

But calling her love for Shepard, and his love for her childish? That it was a fling? No one gets away with that, not even her own Father.

"I'm about to rip a plate off your suit with my knife and watch all the foreign matter send you into the nearest emergency room for a week you bosh'tet!"

"How dare y-"

"I love Shepard, and he cares about me in a way no one else ever has before. This part of my life isn't up for discussion, not even with you!" Since Tali had already gone so far talking back to her Father the way she did she decided to go all the way.

"You have never been part of my life. As a child, after Mother died, during my pilgrimage. Even when I came back all you could do was send me more orders. 'Tali find me a Geth memory core. Tali bring me back a pulse rifle. Tali please bring me back enough parts to make a live Geth because I'm too fucking lazy to get the parts myself and want to get you exiled for not being good enough to be my daughter!' I'm through with listening to you. From here on out I'm thinking for myself, with or without your consent."

Defeated, Tali's father just collapsed on the ground against and his phantom, along with her shocked mother were starting to fade. Her mother's death was one she got over a long time ago. Her Father didn't matter as much; he pissed her off. Once the phantoms had faded the room, Rayya and even herself began to fade away with them.

And that's when she woke up in the real world. She lay on the floor back on Omega with the upper half of her body resting in Shepard's arms and her bright eyes were staring straight into his. She let out a deep breath, steadying her core as a slight sense of nausea struck her gut.

"Where... where are we?" Tali slurred out, holding her faceplate steady with her left hand as if it were about to slip off. For a moment there was no response, no sound at all on the station. Shepard just stared back, stroking the right side of her visor while Tali lightly stroked his hand with her free one. Then the words came.

"I thought I lost you," was all he could bear to say before he pulled her in for a deep embrace. Tali gasped from the suddenness of the act but it didn't take her very long for her to wrap her arms around him and sink into the warmth of his armour. For what seemed like a century time just stood still. Tali was calm, serene, and at peace. Then Garrus's cough ruined the moment.

"Um… I was wondering if we could save the romance for later and pursue Zaeed and Styx Company? You know, just a friendly suggestion." Shepard just quietly chuckled to himself as he helped Tali stand back up. There was only one more eyeful gaze between the lovers before weapons were drawn and Shepard took charge once again to pursue the traitor.

They will die painfully for what they did to her, he thought to himself.

Zaeed paced through his hidden lab, away from Omega's prying eyes, uneasy as the Styx Company scientists worked tirelessly on their experiments. The bounty hunter knew he had abandoned his men to the fires of Shepard's wrath because he needed his own strange condition treated. The lab's security must've known this for their morale was extremely low. Commander Shepard, humanity's greatest known biotic, was coming for them, and the only person who was meant to be able to drive him away was a medical abomination who treats his own men as cannon fodder to protect himself.

"Done yet?" Zaeed asked impatiently to the scientists behind him.

"Almost sir," one of them replied, "we just have a bit more information to analyze and then we will be able to recreate this specimen at HQ."

"Well move it!" Zaeed ordered, "we don't have all goddamn day. Shepard is - "

A loud blue explosion destroyed the rear wall of the laboratory, killing two guards and injuring one. Bullets emerged from the smoke which struck flesh and science equipment alike. The scientists fled to safety in fear of the firefight while the guards deployed cover and returned fire. Thane ran around the enemy fire by using his team, the biotic smoke and his foe's lack of concentration to flank the enemy with grace and launched multiply warp fields to stagger them. Combined with the last few shots Garrus had with his avenger the enemy fell dead. The rest of the squad rushed in to acquire the thermal clips of the dead before placing themselves behind whatever science equipment they could as more Styx Company members came into the room, ready to eliminate the Normandy team. The mercs were able to pin them in cover but Tali noticed a large mechanical arm behind the enemy formation, made for picking up large objects too heavy for the humans in the lab. Without a second thought she pointed her omni-tool at it and the arm came alive, extending and retracting uncontrollably for a moment before reaching out to the mercenaries. Sanguine water leveled the floor as four the mercenaries were lifted to the air by the arm, their innards and lifeblood draining as their consciousness slipped away to an empty void; there was barely anything left of them.

Shepard smiled to his love behind his mask. Even in the thick of combat, when everyone's life was in danger, when both the Reapers and Cerberus were threatening to end the galaxy for the way it was there was always that benevolent light at the end of this dark tunnel.

He always had Tali, and whatever happened, she would always have him.

But then a scared mercenary's scream broke his happy thoughts after he had seen what had happened to his allies in so short a time. There they were, hung up by an ugly machine, and the corpses of his friends were impaled and suspended in the air, blood dripping grotesquely. It must have been the most terrifying sight he had ever seen for his mental state seemed to have completely degraded to the point where only the most ruthless murderer wouldn't take pity on him.

Unfortunately for him, Shepard was the ruthless murderer when he fought with xenophobic bigots, and neither Tali, Thane nor Garrus were going to complain about him draining his life force dry with reave.

"I see subtly is no longer a viable option," Thane informed.

"Then we'll rip them apart for the everyone to see," Shepard declared as he walked forward to take point. Garrus followed him, then Thane and then Tali in single file checking every room they could find. Most were mostly empty save for a few thermal clips, supplies and credits that the squad took for themselves but the last room stood out particularly. The team formed around it, careful to make sure none of themselves were exposed to the door with Shepard switching to his tempest for the close quarters fighting he was expecting.

"Stay vigilant," he ordered, "Zaeed must be in this room."

"I'm with you Shepard," Tali replied.

"As am I," Thane added.

"Let's rip the bastard to shreds," Garrus declared. After hearing that Shepard focused his biotic might to blow the door clean off its hinges, sending it flying into the enemy formation behind it and scattering them. They reformed quickly and tried to shoot back but Tali had already deployed Chatika right in the centre of their rebuilt formation, Shepard blew it up with his vindicator, wiping out their shields and killing one while the rest were finished off by Garrus and Thane's automatic fire. When the enemy appeared neutralized Shepard stepped in with his tempest drawn and walked towards the only mercenary who was still alive after the assault: Zaeed Massani. As soon as Zaeed looked up he had the barrel of an SMG pressed right between his eyes.

"Why did you do it Massani?" Shepard asked solemnly. He had acted ruthless before but everyone in the room knew the emotions a quiet, grim voice highlighted. He was hurt by his betrayal.

"I'm a mercenary, Shepard. I work for however gives me a large enough paycheck, and Cerberus has them and bonuses in spades," Zaeed admitted shamelessly.

"Bonuses?" Shepard asked. Zaeed gripped in head in pain as blue energy flared from his body. Shepard knew the feeling of it; it was a weak mass effect field.

"My god, what did they do to you Zaeed?!"

"So even Cerberus wasn't able to prevent this goddamn hunk of junk from going out of control," Zaeed admitted to himself a little disappointed. "Shepard, you know of their plans to turn humanity into an all biotic species don't you?"

"I do," Shepard replied.

"Well this fuck up was another one of their barbaric methods. Look over there." Zaeed pointed right behind Shepard and the rest of his team turned their heads in the same direction and their eyes fell upon another experiment.

"Is… is that skeleton made out of eezo?" Garrus asked the team.

"Keelah, it's exactly the same as the one we saw with Reegar," Tali informed. Zaeed's flares were becoming brighter and he started to scratch his amour in agony.

"I'm sorry Shepard," Zaeed managed to mumble out in pain, "you kicked arse. I wish I could fight by you one last time." That was the last sentence spoken by the toughest human Shepard had ever met, the one bounty hunter in the galaxy that he would never compare to another mercenary.

"At least, they were the last words spoken by the real Zaeed. Soon he awoke with his eyes burning blue, his voice had become grotesquely high pitched and his next set of words scared Shepard more than anything else that day ever had.

"THE MACHINE GODS EAT YOUR FLESH!"