"Isn't it, like nepotism, or something?" Cass asked, leaning against the shuttle door.
"Cass, I don't know if-"
"Well I guess it might be a little hypocritical for you to answer-"
"Hey." Shepard warned, giving her daughter a pointed look.
"Sorry," Cass rolled her eyes, "But really, this is the Primarch's son that we're going after, right?"
Garrus coughed uncomfortably. "Yes, but it's not uncommon for children of military parents to follow in their footsteps; but this is a little out of the ordinary."
"Shepard-" Cortez spoke. "I'm going to have to drop you here; there's way to much activity for us to get in there undetected.
"Alright. Garrus, Cass. You ready?" Shepard said; upholstering her weapon.
Cass nodded in reply watching as the doors revealed the war zone beneath them.
"What the fuck is that thing?" Cass gasped; watching the massive, foreign Reaper like creature fly off toward their destination.
"It's a Harvester." Garrus replied whilst firing at some husks climbing through the rubble.
"But what is it?" Cass pushed further, continuing to fire alongside Garrus.
"Are you guys clear over there?" Shepard bellowed over the gunfire.
"Yeah! We're good-" Cass responded as Garrus picked off the remaining reaper slave. "Are we almost there? I'm ready to get out of here and away from that thing."
"Nav point says we're close." Shepard said as they began to scale more rubble.
"Thank god-" Cass faltered as she over stepped, missing her footing, she slipped against her mother. "Sorry."
Shepard frowned helping the girl to a more stable position. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, fine." Cass nodded and continued to move. "What do you think happened here?"
"I'm not sure." Shepard frowned, "Clearly something's gone wrong, I suppose we'll find out when we reach Victus."
"I suppose so."
"Alright men, Shuttles are inbound. Get ready to move out!" Tarquin ordered before turning to Shepard. "Commander, come with is. We're a shell of what we were- we could use the help."
Shepard nodded. "Send me the nav-point. I'll see what I can do."
"Thank you, that'll give us time to do a little recon. See what were up against."
"Victus, you have a second chance here, make their sacrifice count."
"Understood Commander, hope to see you at the rendezvous." Victus stated before walking away.
"Alright." Shepard breathed, "Let's move out; we'll have time to go back to the ship; rest up."
Cass nodded following her mother and Garrus.
"I'm so fucking sick of Cerberus. Planting a bomb on Tuchanka?!" Cass huffed noisily. "Like what the actual-"
"You'll be very sorry if you finish that sentence." Shepard glowered.
"Whatever." Cass rolled her eyes. "We're all thinking it."
"Well, maybe it's best if we keep those thoughts to ourselves."
"Fine." Cass sighed, putting her hands up before crossing them in a pout.
Today was terrible. There were reaper's creatures crawling everywhere and when that giant harvester blew, it nearly knocked her flat on her back; she was tired and sore. She had to send a flare of biotics to unwrap a husk from her shoulders and in doing so, practically blew out her shoulder. And not they had to go out again to disable a bomb. Ridiculous.
"So when are headed back down there?" Cass asked, settling against the desk where her mother was seated.
"Garrus, James and I will be leaving in an hour." Shepard responded simply, letting her head rest in her hands.
"You're kidding." Cass' tone flat.
"Do you really think I'm going to take you down there?" Shepard asked incredulously. "There's a goddamn bomb down there, I am not going to take my baby near a giant-"
"I'm not a baby." Cass growled, turning to face her mother, hair falling in her face.
"That's debatable." Shepard joked halfheartedly.
Cass scowled. "I want to come."
"I know, but it isn't going to happen."
"You do realize that the galaxy is crawling with Reapers, right? And that a bomb is probably not going to be the thing that destroys us all."
"Cass, please." Shepard sighed heavily. "I have enough on my mind without you arguing with me on this. And I can tell you're tired and hurting."
"I'm fine."
"Don't lie to me, Cass." Shepard warned. "I can tell when you're hurting, you've practically be nursing your shoulder since we got on the shuttle. You're lucky I haven't sent you down to Chakwas."
"Mom, come on, I'm fine-"
"Enough Cassandra." Shepard began to rub her temples. "If any other member of this crew were to argue with me like this it would be considered insubordination, so just stop, please."
Cass frowned, watching her mother. It was clear the woman was stressed; and obviously having to go on these missions back to back wasn't easy.
"Okay. Sorry." Cass apologized before walking out of the room.
Shepard sighed once more letting her head fall back into her hands.
"Thanks doc." Cass said, hopping off the medical cot.
"No problem; you should be more careful when using your biotics, that shoulder is going to need some rest and hopefully those deep tissue bruises will go away in a few days." Chakwas replied.
The teen nodded in thanks and watched the doctor leave the med-bay; leaving her and Mordin, who was furiously working, alone.
"How's it going, Mordin?" Cass questioned, glancing over the Salarian's shoulder.
"Cure probable, yet to synthesize. Wrex not fan of needles, yet to receive tissue sample."
"You're kidding? Wrex hasn't come up yet?"
"No. Waiting for female, she went to retrieve."
"Like, retrieve the sample or the, um, Krogan."
"Unsure. Hopefully, Krogan."
Cass laughed. Of course the leader of Clan Urdnot would be afraid of getting poked by a Salarian."
"Do you think she might need help?" The girl giggled.
"Unlikely. Female very persuasive. Will likely lean Krogan into new age; if cure synthesized of course."
"OKAY, I'm going, I'm going!" Wrex's voice boomed from behind the door. The female and clan leader appearing as the doors swished open. "Alright, doc. Let's get this over with."
"Will be quick. Might feel pressure. Don't move." Mordin said, pulling out a large looking needle.
"I'm watching you." Wrex eyes the needle warily, or what could be considered warily for a Krogan.
Cass had to suppress a laugh as Mordin advanced toward the Krogan, Wrex clearly uncomfortable.
"If this is how Wrex handles the war, we are doomed." The female Krogan spoke, settling on the cot next to the amused girl.
"I'm sure he'll be fine- it is a big needle." Cass laughed, her head leaning to the side to get a better look.
"Okay. Done. You may go. Will be done soon." Mordin held the needle up, examining it's contents.
"Good." Wrex coughed awkwardly. "Let me know when you're done."
As the Krogan warlord left, Cass did nothing to suppress a smile.
"The Primarch's son died?" Cass frowned, watching her mother from the bed.
"Yes." Shepard's expression grim. "He sacrificed himself, it- it was incredibly brave."
Cass nodded solemnly. "I can't believe the Turians would place a bomb, well, not that I can't believe it, but it is kind of a bitch move."
Shepard glared at her daughter, sending her an obvious warning.
"So, Mordin's almost done." Cass stated, ignoring her mother's look.
"I know." Shepard replied, "I spoke with him when we got back-"
"So, how're we going to do it?"
"I don't know." Shepard frowned. "I believe Mordin has an idea, but we'll be meeting about it once everything is done."
"It's kind of crazy, you know?" Cass smiled slightly. "That we're going to do this. Curing the genophage, it's insane."
"I know." Shepard smiled back. "If anything good will come from this war, it will be this." Standing, the mother placed a hand on the girl's shoulder.
"Ow- hey." Cass grumbled, pulling away.
"What's wrong?" Shepard frowned, immediately falling into mom mode.
"Oh, it's nothing. Just a bruise."
"Oh." Shepard lowered, clearly not quite believing.
"Yeah, it's nothing."
"Are you sure?" Shepard questioned, stepping toward the girl.
"Yeah, I'm fine." The teen replied backing away.
"I'm not so sure-" The mother lunged toward her daughter, grabbing the girl's wrist, pulling her close.
"Hey! What the hell?!" Cass struggled to pull away as her mother grabbed the neck of her tshirt, pulling it to the side, revealing the purple and black bruises along the girl's shoulder and collar bone.
"Oh my god!" Shepard explained. "Did this happen today?"
"Yeah." Cass shrugged, pushing away her mother's probing fingers. "I may have over-exerted my biotics and there was a lot of pressure and a husk and um, yeah…"
"Okay, you need to go see Chakwas right now."
"I already did."
"Right now-" Shepard paused. "Wait? You already did?"
"Yup."
"So If I go and talk to Chakwas, she'll corroborate?"
"Yes." The girl rolled her eyes.
"I- okay. Good girl." The mother praised sincerely.
Blushing, the girl sauntered out of the room before her mother could embarrass her further.
"Mom is being so weird, or weirder than normal." Cass stated seriously, draping herself over Liara's bed.
"Why's that?" The Asari asked, not bothering to look away from her screen.
"She just is."
"There has to be a reason."
"She went all, like, mom-mode-"
"Well, she is a mother." Liara interrupted.
"Don't be lame."
"I am not-"
"You are." Cass stated, "Pretty sure we've already had this conversation."
"I am not lame-"
"Anyways." Cass rolled her eyes. "I got a bruise on my shoulder and she flipped her shit. Like mom-mode but way worse."
"Cass." Liara warned.
"I think she's like, super stressed." Cass continued, ignoring Liara. "I think she needs, like, lady time."
"Lady time?"
"You know what I'm talking about. There's usually a bed involved- or perhaps a desk, in your case."
"Cassandra-"
"I'm serious, though. I think you guys need to get together for a bit, we've all been so busy, but my mom said to take it day by day and, well, I don't think she's following her own advice, but maybe she should and I think you could help." Cass explained.
Liara smiled slightly, moving to sit with the girl on the bed. "I'll talk to her."
"Great, but please, like, lock the door when you talk."
"Cass, we don't just have-"
"No- no way. I'm gonna stop you there." Cass threw her hands up and nearly fell off the bed in her haste to run out. "I do not want to hear about your nightlife; Just like I won't let you hear about mine. Or do you want to relive-"
"No. No, I'm fine. I'll talk to your mother, I think we all need to take a time out."
Cass waved on her way out the door. "Thanks, Liara! Talk to you later."
AN: Sorry! I know, I suck and I haven't updated in a while and this chapter is short haha. I'm back in school and have been writing so many papers that I'm pretty sure I'm going to get carpal-tunnel, so clearly I haven't been especially motivated to be writing this. So, my updates are probably going to be pretty erratic for the time being, but I will absolutely try to update more frequently. Please review! Thanks!